March 30, 2022

The Emory Wheel Since 1919

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Volume 103, Issue 6

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

‘No confidence,’ Nakash win in runoff elections

By Madi Olivier News Editor “No confidence” won the Student Government Association (SGA) presidential runoff election, beating Alyssa Stegall (21Ox, 23C), according to a March 29 email from the Elections Board.

Noah Marchuck (24C), who was Stegall’s running mate, won the SGA vice presidential election on March 25, garnering 53.89% of votes. Due to the “no confidence” victory, Marchuck will become SGA president and appoint a new vice president, according to Elections Board Attorney General Stewart Zelnick (20Ox, 22C).

This is the first time “no confidence” has won an SGA presidential election at Emory University, Elections Board Chair Mild Trakarnsakdikul (19Ox, 22B) said.

The results were emailed to the student body Tuesday evening after the voting period ended at 12 p.m. that day. “No confidence” received 656 (51.37%) votes, while Stegall garnered 621 (48.62%) votes. A total of 1,277 votes were cast in the race, a decrease from the 1,681 votes cast in the initial race.

The March 29 email also announced that Dani Nakash (23B) won the BBA Council presidential runoff election.

Nakash received 197 (62.53%) votes, while Natalie Spitzer (23B) earned 118 (37.46%) votes. A total of 315 votes were cast in the election.

Nakash earned 159 (49.22%) of the 323 votes cast in the initial election, while Spitzer received 123 (38.08%) votes. “No confidence” received 41 (12.69%) votes.

The SGA presidential election advanced to a runoff after neither Stegall nor “no confidence” received over 50% of the vote, according to a March 25 email from the elections board. “No confidence” received a plurality of the votes in the initial election, earning 785 (46.69%) votes.

Stegall received 551 (32.77%) votes while Eleanor Liu (21Ox, 23B) finished last, securing 345 (20.52%) votes.

Elisabet Ortiz (24C) spearheaded the “no confidence” campaign after she was disqualified from the SGA presidential

race due to her status as a gap year student. She encouraged students to vote “no confidence” in a March 19 Instagram post, stating that while the policy was intended to prevent non-Emory students, future students or abroad students from running, it discriminated against “disenfranchised students such as [herself] who are in legal limbo, on medical leaves of absence, or taking time off for mental health.”

Ortiz later announced that she withdrew from the race on March 21, but still campaigned for “no confidence” to “show SGA the necessity of changing its constitution to include marginalized voices.”

Nathan Rubin (25C) voted “no confidence” in both the initial and runoff elections, noting it was the only choice that “symbolized real change.”

“Years go around and I feel like nothing really changes structurally,” Rubin said. “Little things can change and people can say stuff in their speeches and campaigns, but I feel like ‘no confidence’ has the traction to maybe actually get some of those things done.”

Kevin Wu (23C), who endorsed Stegall and voted for her in both the initial and runoff elections, said he has known Stegall since high school and “knows the passion she has to make changes to the student body.”

“She actually did reach out to a lot of cultural clubs and asked them for their opinions on how to make the campus better, how to make it more inclusive and how to bridge the connections between different cultural groups,” Wu said. “That’s a really important thing, especially in a really diverse community.”

Marchuck, Nakash, Stegall and Ortiz did not respond by press time.

Marchuck and Nakash will be joining the other election winners, announced March 25, in office. Akshat Toshniwal (23C) won the College Council presidential election and Neha Murthy (24C) won the College Council vice presidential election.

— Contact Madi Olivier at madi.olivier@emory.edu

Printed Every Other Wednesday

Hired but not promoted: The struggles of women in academia

A ngel Li/Staff Illustrator

By Matthew Chupack Executive Editor When Carol Allen (74C) attended Emory University in the early 1970s, she recalled having only four female professors: two teaching English and two teaching French.

While the number of female professors employed by the University has increased from 50 years ago, female professors still make up significantly less of the University’s staff than their male counterparts.

According to the latest available data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Emory employed 501 tenured male professors, across ranks, but only 241 tenured female professors, in 2020-21. So, in a room of 100 tenured professors at Emory, on average, about 68 would be men and 32 would be women.

Women of color would comprise a very minimal portion of this room. While as of the 241 tenured female professors, just 34 are Asian, 17 are Black or African American and five are Hispanic or Latina.

“Those numbers are not based on people’s inability,” Chief Diversity Officer Carol Henderson said. “It’s based on a

system that does not recognize their gifts and their talents.”

Women’s representation in academia “starts with the rules of engagement in the classroom,” Henderson said. “Think of how a second grade young lady is treated in a science class. Is she called on? Do people say she’s smart? If she makes a mistake, is she ridiculed?”

Women are increasingly finding other industries to work in, especially in labs and pharmaceutical groups, as there are expanding employment options outside of academia for “talented individuals who have that particular skill set,” Henderson said.

Paralleling women’s underrepresentation in tenured positions at Emory, women are also paid less than their male counterparts. Not controlling for rank or tenure status, the average salary for male professors at Emory in the 2020-21 academic year was $143,738 but $117,872 for female professors, NCES reports. That equates to women earning 82 cents to the men’s dollar.

When asked whether she is aware of the persisting gender wage gap at Emory and in academia, Henderson — who previously served as a professor of English and Black

African studies as well as the vice provost for diversity at the University of Delaware — replied: “Having been a female professor, and I did that for over two decades before I came into this role, yes.”

Like professors, Emory administration is not blind to the wage gap, and they are working to resolve it, Executive Associate Dean Carla Freeman said.

“Every level at Emory, starting from the president, the provost, across every single dean, our leadership is intent to address … the issue of gender disparities in salaries,” Freeman said.

Moving up the ranks Being a tenured professor is considered the highest position a faculty member could have in terms of tenure status and professor rank. NCES data also uses this standard.

According to Emory’s Gray Book, which governs faculty relations, only professors, associate professors, assistant professors or instructors can be on the tenure track, while there are many more titles that cannot

See GENDER, Page 5

Since 1980: Emory’s growing female-to-male student body ratio Dominic Fike, Bryce Vine, Taylor Bennett to B N K students, a trend that is representative of higher education institutions has hovered perform at 2022 Dooley’s Week concert Senior Editor an increase in women attending higher around 37%. By contrast, roughly 44% y

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While one of Emory University’s first female graduates enrolled in the Lamar School of Law in 1917, it was not until 1968 — over 50 years later — that Emory College hired its first full female professor, Lore Metzger, a professor of English and comparative literature. It was another 12 years until the number of women entering Emory College was on par to the number of men in 1980, after quotas on female acceptances were abolished by College faculty in 1971.

This male/female ratio has since continued to increase for women, with the number of women eventually exceeding that of men. Since 2016, Emory has consistently seen over 57% of its undergraduate student body made up of female

W NEWS Through The Side Door: A History of Women at PAGE 4 Emory ...

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education in the United States.

In 1978, women comprised 49.9% of the total number of students attending post-secondary institutions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In the decades since, that figure has grown to 57.4% in 2019, with projections at least holding at those levels until 2029.

“It’s deep cultural and economic forces in the country,” Dean of Admissions John Latting said. “Emory is in the marketplace, [we] can’t exempt ourselves from those forces.”

However, a plateau in male enrollment in higher education is also a question worth pursuing, Latting said. From 2015 to 2019, the percentage of 18 to 24 year old males in the United States enrolled in

of the female population in the same age group in the United States is enrolled in higher education institutions.

Director the Center for Women at Emory (CWE) Chanel Tanner said that the changing ratio didn’t represent more women attending college, but rather that men are enrolling at slower rates.

Emory’s gender enrollment gap could be attributed to a number of reasons, including variations by academic discipline, Latting said. For instance, the University does not have an engineering school,adisciplinethatismale-dominated.

In 2018, 622,502 students were enrolled full-time in undergraduate engineering programs with 131,937 degrees awarded, according to the American

See UNIVERSITY, Page 5

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Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Bryce Vine (left) and Dominic Fike (right) are set to perform at the 2022 Dooley’s Week concert on April 1.

By Matthew Chupack Executive Editor Rappers Taylor Bennett and Bryce Vine will open for headliner Dominic Fike, an alternative hip-hop singer-songwriter, at the April 1 Dooley’s Week concert, Student Programming Council (SPC) announced March 29. The performances will take place on McDonough Field and doors will open at 6 p.m. The show will

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close a week of music genre-themed food, giveaways and activities. A midnight breakfast will be held after the concert.

Planning the concert Rohan Rajan (22C), an SPC band party co-chair, added that SPC wanted to create a “festival-like environment”

See SPC, Page 3

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Mental Health Research at Emory

The Mental Health and Development Program at Emory is enrolling participants, between the ages of 12 and 30, for an NIMH project on factors that contribute to risk for mental illness.

Individuals who are experiencing a decline in functioning and other symptoms (e g., social isolation, unusual thoughts/ perceptions, suspiciousness) may be eligible for an assessment that includes diagnostic and neuropsychological evaluations, all conducted at Emory.

Participants are compensated for their time and, if requested, test results can be provided to treatment providers.

For further information, contact the Mental Health and Development Program at mentalhealth.research@emory.edu or (404) 727-7547 or Elaine Walker, Ph.D. at psyefw@emory.edu.

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SPC to host first in-person spring concert in 3 years Continued from Page 1 by including lounge seating and concessions like cotton candy and snow cones.

Given that only one class of SPC has experienced a full year of inperson programming, Incoming SPC President Ria Puri (23B) said that SPC encountered “a few obstacles” while preparing for this year’s concert, but worked to improve student experience through working with older members.

“After collecting feedback from the student body following the fall concert, SPC decided to put together a concert with artists that represent a wider taste of music and genres that excite a larger population of students,” SPC Band Party Co-Chair Sam Weinstein (23C) said.

The concert will be the first inperson Dooley’s Week performance in three years. Previous headliners include indie-pop band AJR in 2019, rappers Desiigner and Lil Yachty in 2018 and rapper Ty Dolla $ign in 2017.

SPC will also make the concert more accessible to Oxford students by adding more Oxford College shuttles to and from the Atlanta campus, SPC President Thomas Heagy (22B) said.

The first shuttle is scheduled to leave Oxford at 1 p.m. and the last shuttle is scheduled to leave Atlanta at 2 a.m.

Saturday morning.

The artists Fike released his debut studio album, “What Could Possibly Go Wrong,” in July 2020, which peaked at No. 41 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and No. 4 on both Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart and Top Rock Albums chart. The album featured the single “Chicken Tenders,” which achieved the No. 22 spot on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. He is also known for “3 Nights,” which is platinum-certified by RIAA. Most recently, Fike released “Elliot’s

Song,” with Zendaya from the season two soundtrack of “Euphoria” on March 4. The track is Fike’s best performing song on U.S. charts, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart.

Dipping his toes into acting, Fike is also a part of Euphoria’s second season cast, where he plays Elliot.

“We are really excited for this concert’s unique atmosphere, and we hope the undergraduate population will too,” Rajan said. “We are extremely excited to have Dominic Fike headline the show.

As a rising superstar with this recent success on ‘Euphoria’, as well as his fantastic discography, we feel as though this was the perfect storm to have him headline the concert.”

Vine is best known for his songs “Drew Barrymore,” “La La Land” and “I’m Not Alright” from his 2019 debut album “Carnival.” The 2018 single “Drew Barrymore” is Vine’s best performing track, hitting at No. 46 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. His only other single to land on this chart was the 2019 single “La La Land,” which reached No. 75. “Carnival” ranked No. 99 on the U.S. Billboard 200.

The younger brother of Chance the Rapper, some of Bennett’s most known songs involve his older brother. This includes the title track off of his debut album “Broad Shoulders,” which features Chance the Rapper, and “Roo,” a track off Chance the Rapper’s debut album “The Big Day,” which spotlights Bennett.

“With the last Dooley’s Week concert being when the current seniors were freshman with AJR, it will be a full circle experience for them as well as setting an exciting precedent for spirit and morale for concerts and programs for years to come,” Incoming SPC Vice President Anna Sotirescu (24C) said.

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

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Former students, faculty reflect on changing dynamics of women’s, gender and sexuality studies

By Eva Roytburg News Editor The first official Ph.D. program in women’s studies in the nation was established at Emory University 32 years ago. Since then, the University has awarded over 40 Ph.Ds. through the program amidst changing dynamics around the inclusion of race, class and gender analysis in feminism.

The women’s, gender and sexuality studies (WGSS) department has been working on hiring more faculty who are situated in feminist theories of race, post-colonial studies and other disciplines, according to some WGSS faculty members.

Associate Professor of Political Science and WGSS Beth Reingold said that “we have more work to do in that respect, but that’s been one of the areas where we’ve added breadth and depth to what we have to offer.”

Reingold has been at Emory’s WGSS department since 1991, one year after the Ph.D. program was established.

She remembers when WGSS was the Institute for Women’s Studies (IWS), which began by offering a minor in women’s studies in 1986-87, and then a major and a graduate certificate in 1988-89. These programs were under the Emory Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA).

IWS only became a department in fall 2003, which was when Reingold said she began noticing a shift in the program’s direction as the name changed from the women’s studies department to the women’s, gender and sexuality department.

“That’s when we decided that we were going to do all of the above,” Reingold said. “There are other places where sexuality studies or LGBTQ studies, and women’s studies or gender studies are sort of separated. We decided quite a while ago, that was not our vision.”

Reingold added that while there was potential tension between gender and sexuality studies, members of the

department were “at the center of those in their scholarship in bringing those fields together in conversation with each other.”

Several former Ph.D. students also noted that the program was rigorously intersectional. Aimi Hamarie (13G), an associate professor of medicine, health & society and American studies at Vanderbilt University (Tenn.) explained that the program encouraged them to analyze other disciplines through a feminist lens.

“We were trained in feminist pedagogy for over three years and required to take methodology courses in other departments, alongside with our core feminist theory training,” Hamarie wrote in March 12 email to the Wheel.

“Rejecting the idea of a ‘canon’ of feminist theory, these courses took a broad and intersectional perspective on what could count as feminist scholarship.”

Assistant Professor in WGSS at Wake Forest University (N.C.) Kristina Gupta (13G) agreed, adding that though intersectionality has been part of the field for a long time, there is a greater emphasis on it now.

“When I was at Emory, the program’s strengths were in queer feminist theory and in feminist science studies,” Gupta wrote in a March 15 email to the Wheel. “I don’t know what the current strengths of the Emory program are, but I would imagine the department, like many others, has expanded its offerings in Black and women of color feminism.”

Associate Professor of WGSS Falguni Sheth said that the department has been making an effort to choose faculty that would broaden the lens of feminist theory.

“We’ve invited Dr. Aisha Finch to join, who does a lot of work in Afrodiaspora and Black feminist theory, so she’s bringing a global perspective and a perspective in Black feminist theory, where we haven’t had a strong presence of that until now,” Sheth said. “We’ve also brought in a top-notch trans scholar, Dr. Kadji Amin, who is at the cutting

Courtesy of Emory University

Beth Reingold, associate professor of political science and women’s, gender and sexuality studies edge of trans and feminist literature.”

Despite the consistent presence of intersectionality in the fields of gender and sexuality studies, Associate Professor of WGSS and Philosophy at Agnes Scott College (Ga.) Kelly Ball (14G) noted that discussions around intersectionality have become more common in public discourse in recent years.

“The danger in this is that sometimes people use intersectionality to mean multiple aspects of identity, when really, intersectionality is about the systems of social oppression that shape people’s experiences,” Ball wrote in a March 12 email to the Wheel.

“Despite this risk, I’m glad people are using the language of intersectionality more and more.”

Reingold added that she thought the WGSS field didn’t just respond to changes in public discourse of social movements, but also influenced those discussions.

“For example, the ‘Me Too’ movement has incorporated issues and theories of gender and sexual violence that’s been of primary importance to women’s gender and sexuality studies since the very beginning,” Reingold said. “I’d like to think that we, as an academic field, have influenced new and old movements in many ways.”

— Contact Eva Roytburg at

eva.roytburg@emory.edu

Local businesses manage high prices amid nationwide inflation

By Ashley Zhu Politics Desk When COVID-19 spread across the world during the spring of 2020, oil prices plummeted below zero in April; at almost negative $40 per barrel , crude oil was so worthless that merchants needed to pay their buyers $40 to “sell” their supply.

Now, crude oil is almost $100 per barrel.

According to Professor of Economics Caroline Fohlin, the pent-up demand from not being able to go places during the pandemic is finally catching up to the national market. With prices rebounding since the two-year crisis, she said that prices will likely continue to rise.

Increased oil prices are just one example of the nation’s high inflation rates.

Prices rose by 7.9% in February, marking an all-time high since January 1982.

The broader Emory University community is no exception to the trend. Local businesses near campus, including Wagaya Japanese Restaurant in Emory Village, are working to bear the effects of rising prices.

“As far as inflation, pretty much everything went up compared to past years,” Wagaya Owner Takashi Otsuka said.

Otsuka currently purchases yellowfin tuna at $19.99 per pound, compared to its $15.99 per pound price in previous years.

Additionally, bok choy used to be $35 per box, but the cost has inflated to $55 per

The Emory Wheel Volume 103, Issue 6 © 2022 The Emory Wheel Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322 Business (404) 727-6178 Editors-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 Wheel is printed every Wednesday during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions. A single copy of the Wheel is free of charge. To purchase additional copies, please call (404) 727-6178.

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.

box. Otsuka noted that his vendors do not tell him the prices ahead of time — he has no choice but to place an order and review the invoiced costs.

Additionally, there are certain items that he is completely unable to source, such as hamachi yellowtail. According to Otsuka, large cities like Los Angeles, New York and Miami are geographically prioritized over Atlanta for both transportation convenience and overall profitability.

However, Otsuka said his current business model allows Wagaya to “eat up the costs” and still remain profitable without having to increase menu prices.

Dragon Bowl, located across the street from Wagaya in Emory Village, has also experienced significant struggles due to inflation. Restaurant owner Rich Chey said that Dragon Bowl’s food costs have risen by 25%.

“General inflation has increased food cost, energy and employee wages,” Chey said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to increase our menu prices as quickly as our expenses are increasing. The result is shrinking margins in terms of profitability.”

Chey mentioned that, in addition to rising prices, dealing with the pandemic has also adversely impacted his business.

Because students and faculty make up such a significant portion of their customer base, sales were down 35% to 40% in the past couple years.

Chey also noted that a few businesses that have already closed in Emory Village and around Emory Point due to cost pressures. For example, Tin Lizzy’s Cantina in Emory Point and Lucky’s Burger and Brew in Emory Village permanently closed in May 2020, and Rise-n-Dine in Emory

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/K eizers

Wagaya Japanese Restaurant and Dragon Bowl, which are both located in Emory Village, have been impacted by inflated prices.

Village closed in October 2020.

Students have also felt the effect of rising costs. Daniel Ren (24C), who owns a lawn care business in Minnesota during the summer, noted that gas prices are almost $4 per gallon in his hometown. He said this is “way more expensive than it’s ever been,” especially because he has to use premium gas for his lawn mower. In 2021, gas prices were only around $2.80 per gallon in Minnesota, Ren added.

“I promised my returning customers that I would not be raising prices, which is a move that I wholeheartedly regret now,” Ren said. “I’m not sure how that’s going to cut into my profit margins.”

He said that these new burdens are forcing him to think about how he will make up for the decrease in profit. Ren has considered raising his rates or charging $5 more than his usual prices for new customers.

Outside of his business, Ren mentioned that both of his parents’ companies could

not afford to give them a raise. Their income has stayed the same, but their purchasing power has decreased significantly over the past two years.

“We can afford things still, but it’s really concerning, because I know a lot of other families who may not be as fortunate as ours and are struggling even more than we are right now,” Ren said.

Despite the hardships faced by students and local businesses, Fohlin said that current oil prices are almost inconsequential compared to the oil crisis of the 1970s. Additionally, oil prices skyrocketed during the Russian invasion of Georgia and Crimea during the early 2010s, but they eventually came back down.

“Oil prices are not in any sort of unprecedented territory,” Fohlin said. “I would look at the bigger and longer term picture.”

— Contact Ashley Zhu at ashley.zhu@emory.edu

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Through the side door: 138 years of women’s history at Emory

By Madi Olivier News Editor Emory University’s first Chancellor and tenth President Warren A. Candler made it known that he believed women were not fit to be medical or law students at the 1919 Commencement.

Men and women sitting side by side during anatomy lectures or hunched over the same dissection experiment would create an “indelicate and injurious situation,” he said. Female lawyers would “not promote justice in the courts,” so allowing them into the law school would be a waste.

However, in March 1953, former University President Goodrich C. White announced that the Emory College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business Administration were going to admit women starting fall 1953, making the entire University coeducational.

Yet, women had already been attending Emory for years, despite Candler’s earlier grievances. More than 1,500 women received degrees from the University before it was officially coed, as reported in an April 1953 issue of Emory Magazine, formerly known as the Emory Alumnus.

Hundreds of other women attended the University without graduating.

“It was a hodgepodge,” Assistant Director and University Archivist John Bence said. “You had to advocate for yourself, you had to convince an administrator.

So there were multiple ways in, but the official policy created that resistance as well.”

Women’s resistance to a male-dominated Emory was successful, Bence said.

Out of the 4,282 students enrolled at the University in the year before the College and the School of Business became coed, 1,095 — more than a quarter — were women, University Historian Emeritus Gary Hauk wrote in a March 25 email to the Wheel. That number included students from the nursing, graduate and library schools, which were all coed prior to 1953.

Several women were also in majoritymale schools, such as the College, medical and law schools — but these women had to fight their way in, Bence explained.

Before 1953 While male students gathered in the dining hall to eat their lunches together, women like Sarah Watson Emery (33C) ate her peanut butter sandwich alone.

Emery ate in a small lounge on the second floor of the library every afternoon. The room — which only had one window overlooking the quadrangle — and its adjoining bathroom were the only places on campus dedicated to women, and Emery did not feel like she could eat her lunch elsewhere, according to an October 1989 issue of Emory Magazine.

“Even if I had the money, I never would have ventured into the cafeteria which the University ran for male students,” Emery said. “None of the women students ever went there, to my knowledge.”

While Emery attended the college before it went coed, the history of women at Emory began 69 years earlier when Mary Haygood Ardis (1888ex), the daugh-

Courtesy of Emory University

Early coeducational female students practice archery. Although Emory University was officially made coed in 1953, women’s history at Emory begins in 1884. ter of former University President Atticus G. Haygood, was permitted to take classes at Emory in 1884. She later transferred to Wesleyan College (Ga.), an all-women’s school, to complete her degree. Ardis is now considered an 1888 graduate, Bence explained, because students who spend a few years at Emory are still listed as alumni with the “ex” code in directories.

The 1953 issue of Emory Magazine states that N.S. McIntosh, who is believed to have been a close relative of a professor, was also listed as a student at the time, but she did not graduate.

Although it is believed a few female relatives attended the University in the following years, women did not officially graduate from the University until Eleonore Raoul (1920L), who enrolled at the School of Law in 1917. Raoul’s historic attendance was a special case. According to Bence, she quickly enrolled the day Candler was out of town, a move that was vital to her education, as Candler was starkly anti-coeducation.

Her graduation in 1920, which was the first for women at Emory, created a path for other women to follow, despite the limit on female enrollment at the time.

Cecilia B. Branham (1920G) received her master’s degree the same year from the newly established Graduate School.

The Candler School of Theology began accepting women in 1922 to “prepare them for Christian service in home and foreign mission fields,” the Emory Magazine reported in 1989. The Wesley Memorial Hospital, where many female students trained as nurses, relocated to the Emory campus in 1922, and the Library School of the Carnegie Library of Atlanta did the same in 1930. The Library School awarded women with degrees before the move, and previous female graduates were given retroactive membership into the Emory Alumni Association.

In May 1926, the Emory Magazine reported that former University Registrar J. Gordon Stipe announced that a limited number of “mature” women were eligible to attend the College of Liberal Arts to study education — a largely femaledominated field — following “insistent demands from the schools and teachers of the entire South.”

Ultimately, Bence said, most of the women who graduated before the official coed decision studied subjects typically

seen as “women’s work,” such as nursing and teaching.

“As they opened professional training programs, and then as those sort of became part of Emory, they were certainly from the beginning conceived of as admitting women,” Bence said.

The surge of women attending Emory ended in 1938, when the University signed a contract with Agnes Scott College (Ga.), an all-women’s school, agreeing to no longer accept female undergraduates and instead registering them through Agnes Scott, Bence added.

The women could take courses at Emory if they were not offered at Agnes Scott.

The contract ended in 1952, according to the 1989 issue of Emory Magazine.

By 1953, only three women graduated from the business school, while about 40 women graduated from the dentistry and law schools. Only 17 women were permitted to attend the medical school, the first of whom was W. Elizabeth Gambrell (31G, 46M, 49MR), who was admitted in 1943. Just 200-300 women graduated from the College.

The women also faced unequal facilities on campus, Bence said. Most female students were from the Atlanta area, as Emory did not offer female housing.

Female students were also all white, and it stayed that way until Verdelle Bellamy (63N) and Allie Saxon (63N) — both of whom were Black — graduated from the nursing school in 1963.

“Most of them were middle class white women who had time and resources,” Bence said.

The different avenues for female graduates creates a confusing history, and the 1953 issue of Emory Magazine reports that even Stipe was often “uncertain what the current policy was.”

Once women fought their way onto campus, however, Bence said that they were met with no female clubs or dorms, except for Harris Hall, which housed nursing students. The female college experience mimicked a job — most seemed to come to campus, attend class and then immediately leave.

Female students also experienced sexism on campus. The 1989 issue of Emory Magazine states that a faculty member told Emery not to apply for an English scholarship to pursue a master’s degree because women don’t “have pro-

fessional academic careers. They just get married and have babies.”

After 1953 The decision to make Emory coed was partially made out of necessity, Bence said. Student enrollment at Emory plummeted as men joined the military after the United States entered the Korean War in 1950. Tuition had to be raised to meet the University’s budget.

“As a result, they were sort of like, ‘Oh, there’s this dip happening, and we need more money,’” Bence said. “‘So why would we refuse people who are willing to pay and are qualified?’”

White’s decision to admit women was also influenced by the new Faculty Dean Ernest C. Colwell, who wanted to promote the humanities departments and figured women would be more likely to study the humanities than men, Bence added.

But the University’s decision to go coed did not translate to housing. An article announcing Emory’s decision to move coed in the March 26, 1953 issue of the Wheel quotes White, who said “We do not plan to build any new dormitories, add any new courses or change our educational structure because of this decision.”

Even with the lack of housing on campus, University administration was worried about women living off campus unsupervised, Bence said. He explained that a woman from Arlington, Va. wanted to attend Emory and rent out an apartment, but the administrators would not allow her to enroll because they were “so nervous” about her not living with her parents or in a dorm.

“That just shows you the strength of the sexual politics at the time about women’s autonomy and paternalism,” Bence said.

The lack of housing affected women until 1958, when three dormitories were built. Sororities were established on campus the next year, following sorority alumni from other institutions reaching out to former Dean of Students E. Hebert Rece. The 1989 issue of Emory Magazine reports that Rece once wrote he was being “educated rapidly and painfully” about having female students.

“They are all over the place and in everybody’s hair now,” Rece wrote. “We are facing the question of sororities or no sororities. We keep trying to put it off,

but it keeps pressing in on us.”

However, even after they received their own lodging, female students needed their parents to sign a permission card for “the late-leave privileges,” indicating that they approved the hours their daughters might leave their dorms unsupervised, according to the 1989 issue of Emory Magazine. Male students did not have to do the same.

The University also lacked women’s locker rooms, so they had to change into gym clothes in their dorms and wear long coats to walk to the physical education building. Women’s facilities were not built until almost 25 years later.

The 1989 issue of Emory Magazine noted that male students generally saw the decision to admit women as “favorable,” while few were far more “enthusiastic.”

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” Clyde Wilkes (56C, 58D) said. “I’ll go hog wild. I think it’s the greatest thing in the world — WOMEN!” However, some men were reported to be dreading the arrival of their female classmates.

“It will have a definite debilitating effect on the intellectual standard of achievement,” Wallace C. Clopton (53G) said.

However, the women proved Clopton wrong. Almost 25% of the female students had B averages or higher, while the women as a whole had a B-minus average, which was “considerably above all-school and all-male marks.”

Mary Brooke DeLoache (55C), an early coed student who transferred from Vanderbilt University (Tenn.), told Emory Magazine she was motivated by professors’ and male students’ doubt.

“One of the things we did was make all A’s the first two semesters and prove them wrong,” DeLoache said.

Sexism was common on campus, and it was reflected in some 1953 University publications. The November 1953 issue of Emory Magazine described a female student’s appearance in detail, saying “her features, figure and charm make her a standout in any company. … Complexion: perfect.” The student, who also was also featured in a seven-page photo layout, was engaged, and the editors wrote that “Satan tempted” them to keep her wedding a secret, but they had “horrible dreams of unknowing young bachelor alumni in distant places quitting their jobs and rushing back to Atlanta to pay court.”

Clubs also selected a girl to claim as their own, giving them titles such as “SGA Girl” and hosting beauty pageants, Bence explained.

However, both DeLoache and Mary Welch McConaughey (56C) told Emory Magazine they found the University to be small and homey, fostering the “golden age” of their lives. DeLoache was senior class president and McConaughey performed in the women’s chorale. They ate lunch in the dining hall with other women instead of being isolated in one room.

“Emory was where I developed, where I found out what I wanted to be and who I was,” McConaughey said.

— Contact Madi Olivier at

madi.olivier@emory.edu

Students opt for online classes in future semesters, Emory College survey reveals

By Lauren Baydeline Asst. Multimedia Editor In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck and classes were forced to go online due to public safety measures.

Remote school and Zoom classes became the norm. Two years later, the pandemic is now seemingly under control. However, the question on many students’ minds is — will Emory University still offer online classes in a post-pandemic world?

In February, Emory College issued a survey to students on whether they would like to take online courses in future semesters. According to the survey, around 62% of students would favor taking one or more online classes per academic year.

“We will be planning to offer online classes post-pandemic,” College Dean Michael Elliott said.

He added that it will take more infrastructure and time for faculty to create online classes, and expects the process to be finalized in 2024.

Emory College sent the survey to 5,599 enrolled undergraduate students.

Only 760 students responded, illustrating a 13.6% response rate.

Survey results revealed that students want the option to take online classes that fulfill general education requirements outside of their major, Elliott said. About 47.97% of respondents said they are the most interested in such courses. 20.85% of respondents expressed an interest in taking foreign language courses online, and 23.15% of respondents said they are interested in taking introductory-level major or minor courses online.

The survey whether students believe online classes would make it easier for them

to engage in activities or experiences outside of school. About 23.84% said internships, 22.44% said work, 18.84% said research, 6.28% said athletics and 15.67% said educational opportunities abroad.

Elliott highlighted that online classes could also allow Oxford College students to take classes offered by Emory College that are not offered at Oxford. This will likely be a strategy in approaching which classes are candidates for an online format, he noted.

Large class sizes could also determine which courses are offered online as well as courses featuring guest lecturers from around the world. Elliott added that having online classes available in the future would make learning easier and more accessible for students, as it can strengthen existing lessons.

Elliott said that online courses

will benefit more than just students.

Professors have remarked that teaching online has helped them better teach material in person, he said.

“We’ve learned a lot about what online instruction is and isn’t and we want to use that in a way that benefits our students moving forward, post-pandemic,” Elliott said.

Being on campus and having in-person classes is what many students missed the most when it came to the pandemic, and Elliott recognized that some students may not want to learn virtually.

“I felt myself becoming more distant from my classmates,” Avery Bishop (20Ox, 23C) said. “Most of my friends as well, even those who originally liked it, felt like it was a double-edged sword.”

However, students will not be required to take online classes in upcoming semesters if they do not wish to. “We are not

trying to make it mandatory that any student has to take online classes in order to pursue a major or a degree,” Elliott said.

Elliot noted that the residential experiences Emory offers are a quintessential part of the Emory experience.

During each semester, Emory offers a wide array of events and activities for students to partake in while living on campus. Whether it be the weekly farmers market, live concerts on campus or clubs tabling in the quad, students have many on campus experiences.

“Emory will not be an online university,” Elliot said. “The residential experience is essential to the Emory undergraduate student experience and that is not about to change.”

— Contact Lauren Baydeline at lauren.baydeline@emory.edu

NEWS

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

5

University female leadership increases along with female student enrollment

Continued from Page 1 Society for Engineering Education.

Women earned 21.9% of these degrees, with similar rates of 26.7% and 23.6% for master’s and doctoral degrees respectively.

“If you excluded the school of engineering for Duke, Penn, WashU or Hopkins, I think you’d get a picture that looks a lot like Emory,” Latting said. “The challenges before Emory are different than our peers who are working with schools of engineering — traditionally they’ve been trying to be more attractive to women, and it’s important that they do that.”

Faculty makeup can also play a factor, according to Tanner, who stated the importance of looking beyond just aggregate enrollment breakdowns and the progression from “diversity to inclusion”.

“I think that as more women get degrees and they’re entering into the labor force and areas not traditionally held by women, there is that shift that

has to happen,” Tanner said. “This is where diversity is first, and then inclusion is the natural next step.”

Female enrollment in graduate school programs in particular is tied to economic downturns, according to Chief Diversity Officer at Laney Graduate School Amanda James.

“That is really essential to why graduate education seems to fluctuate at times, but it’s even more important when the economy is lower,” James said.

“Women in general value education, and so they have a tendency to go to graduate school when the economy’s bad, they feel like more experience for the career or job they want will be better for them.”

Implementing changes in processes and policy across programs cannot be done across programs in a single step, however. Admissions at the graduate level are decentralized at the University, with each school and program choosing from

their own sets of applicants. This makes the process more customized to finding scholars whose backgrounds align with work done in their prospective programs.

“So in theory, we have 47 admissions officers, one for every program give or take,” James said. “It’s essential to think about what the grad school can do to make the pool bigger, but how the grad school can do to help programs take a holistic look at applicants once they come into the pool.”

Given the slow-moving changes for gender equity amongst university leadership, Tanner said that she was pleased by the amount of female leaders at Emory.

Assistant Vice President of Campus Life Dona Yarbrough, who was a former director of CWE, echoed these sentiments in a March 28 email to the Wheel.

“Increasing numbers of women students have paved the way for Emory’s gains in our numbers of women fac-

Ninad Kulkarni/Senior Editor

ulty, trustees, and executive leaders, although these gains are occurring at a much slower rate,” Yabrough wrote.

“I’ve seen Emory appoint its first woman president, first woman dean of the law

school, first woman dean of the business school, and so on.”

— Contact Ninad Kulkarni at ninad.kulkarni@emory.edu

Gender pay gap persists at Emory, especially among tenured professors Continued from Page 1 qualify for tenure track status.

In order to achieve the status of an associate professor or full professor, one must be appointed or promoted. The Gray Book defines an associate professor as someone who has shown “meritorious scholarship, creative inquiry, and outstanding teaching.”

A professor must be a nationally or internationally established scholar who is “among the most distinctive and recognized voices in their disciplines, consistently examining and addressing their fields’ most pressing questions.”

Although NCES data shows that women are equally represented among tenure track faculty, women at Emory remain underrepresented among those holding tenured associate professor rank, and even more starkly among those holding the rank of full tenured professor.

Of the 240 tenured associate professors at Emory in the 2020-21 academic year, 136 (56.67%) were men and 104 (43.33%) were women, according to the NCES data.

Notably, Emory employed 365 (72.71%) tenured male full professors and 137 (27.29%) tenured female full professors in the 2020-21 academic year. While there would be 32 women in a room of 100 tenured faculty members across all ranks at Emory, if the room was just composed of 100 tenured full professors, there would be about 27 women present.

Again, women of color would be represented in this room as 105 of Emory’s tenured female full professors are white, but just 20 are Asian, nine are Black or African American and one is Hispanic or Latina.

According to Henderson, higher education was formed with one group in mind — white males — and that has not changed.

“Just because we have diversity initiatives does not mean the structure is making room willingly for that change,” Henderson said. “I see great advantages that have occurred based on different movements … and the academy, whether it wants to or not, has yielded, if only so slightly, to those demands.”

The tendency for the gender gap in academic positions to be greater as one goes up the ranks from assistant to associate to full professor is not specific to Emory or academia as an industry, Associate Professor of Organization & Management Melissa Williams said. Academia is unique because professors are expected to help the University run, aside from their teaching and research responsibilities. This includes services responsibilities, like Williams’ term serving on the Honor Council, or serving on the hiring committee for a new faculty member.

Williams noted that service responsibilities are mostly offered at “the middle level of the academic hierarchy — the associate level — after a professor gets tenure,” which is

normally six or seven years into their career.

“The data suggests that women end up being asked to do more of the service responsibilities, or they are more likely to accept it,” Williams said.

Joya Misra (94G), professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst echoed these sentiments. She stated that while the promotion from assistant professor to associate professor, and the likely accompanying tenure status, happens on a timeline, the move between associate professor and full professor is where women really get stuck as that promotion is not bounded by a timeline. She added that research indicates that these service requests don’t just come from their supervisors, but also their colleagues and students.

“Women get something like 3.5 times more requests for doing things,” Misra said. “Even if they say no at the same rate that men do, because they’re getting so many more requests, they’re still trapped into doing more of this work that doesn’t count for promotion.”

These expectations relate to gendered assumptions that women are supposed to be taking care of other people while male professors in the same position are perceived as preoccupied with “real work,” Misra explained.

“It’s very depressing that it’s this year and yet we’re still fighting these barrial fights,” Misra said.

connections between employees. They’re good for helping an office or a University run, but they may not be so great for the individual in terms of helping their own career move along.”

Ultimately, women get hired, but not necessarily promoted, Misra said.

Falling behind in salary parity Just as women face systemic struggles in moving up the professorship ranks, female professors also confront obstacles in earning equitable compensation.

Salary gaps are most distinct at the higher professorship levels. In 2020-21, the average equated nine months salary of a nonmedical school full male professor at Emory was $191,276 while the female average was $173,635, representing a 4.84 percentage point difference in compensation. Similarly, the average male associate professor salary was $125,392 while the average associate professor female salary was $116,976, a 3.48 percentage point difference.

NCES does not provide a race-based salary breakdown for professors at Emory.

However, a 2017 article from the Harvard Kennedy School’s (Mass.) “The Journalist’s Resource” reports that white and male faculty members at public universities tend to be compensated more than their female and minority counterparts. However, the gender-based wage disparity is greater than the race-based wage gap.

Matthew Chupack/Executive Editor

Although service tasks are important, Williams said these responsibilities are time-consuming and “may not be the most valued” when it comes to the next level of promotion — full professorship — resulting in women staying at the associate rank for longer than their male counterparts. This phenomenon aligns with a broader notion where women are “assumed to be more helpful” and therefore tasked with housekeeping tasks like planning an office birthday party.

“These tend not to be the things that get you promoted or the things that get you a raise,” Williams said. “They’re good for morale. They’re good for the social

Male and female assistant professor compensation averages were more equitable, with men earning an average of $99,243 and women an average of $97,944, producing just a 0.66 percentage point difference.

Given female underrepresentation in higher professorship ranks, however, there is a larger gulf between the average male and female salary when combining all ranks.

The average male earnings were $143,738 while females were compensated $117,872, a 9.88 percentage point difference in average earnings.

“I think people want to find sinister reasons for it,” Henderson said. “I don’t

operate that way to think that someone deliberately pays someone less based on their gender, but they may. But I don’t know. I’m not at the bargaining table.”

As this data does not control for field and rank, Misra explained that this chasm could stem from a combination of men being more likely to work in higher paying field, men being more likely to hold higher ranks or discrimination within departments and ranks.

While there is still a gender wage disparity, the average female salary across all ranks has increased at a greater rate over the past five years than the rate of the male average. The average male compensation at Emory grew from $134,584 in 2016-17 to $143,738 in 2020-21, a 6.8% increase. On the other hand, the average female compensation increased by 12.44%, from $104,824 in 2016-17 to $117,872 in 2020-21.

Some universities, such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst, do not have a gender pay gap in wages when controlling for field and rank. The equal pay is attributable to unionized faculty members as well as a Massachuesetts law mandating all workplaces explain any gender wage gaps, Misra noted. Consequently, UMass “has gotten very interested in making sure we don’t develop any gender gaps,” Misra said.

However, there are still avenues at the institutional level that allow for a greater proportion of men to receive higher compensation.

Fields that tend to be male-dominated, such as computer science or business management, often pay better, Misra said.

As fields become more gender-integrated, however, the average wages in the field go down. Misra explained this phenomenon as like walking up a downward escalator.

“Women know that the positions men are in pay better,” Misra said. “As they move into the occupations in order for them to be paid better, the wages go down for women … and for men.”

Though in cases where female professors do experience lesser compensation than their male counterparts, such as at Emory, Misra and Williams explained that this could originate during the contract negotiation phase.

Williams noted that research suggests that there are social penalties for women who push hard in negotiations, including whether they’re seen as a team player or are liked by others. As a result, women don’t request a higher salary as much as men and are less aggressive in their initial salary request when they start a new position to avoid social consequences.

Henderson added that gender-based discrepancies in negotiation expectations have a harmful long-term impact. When a professor does not negotiate when they join a university’s staff as an assistant professor, every pay raise they get throughout

their time at that university will thereby be impacted.

“The historical legacy of gender disparities in salaries cuts across every industry, including the academy, and is rooted in several patterns — really objectionable patterns — from the outdated notion that women are not ‘breadwinners’ to different styles and experience in salary negotiation,” Freeman said.

Although not specific to Emory, Williams explained that a common way to get a salary increase as a professor is to get an offer with a higher salary from another university. The faculty member can then go back to university leadership and request them to match that offer. But women often face a hindered ability to take advantage of this technique.

More so than other industries, taking a new job in academia often requires a geographic move, but men have historically been in a better position to relocate than women. This is attributable to female professors being more likely to be married to fellow male academics who would find moving difficult, Williams said.

“Men may have a wife who is more flexible in terms of her employment or who isn’t working at the moment, and that leaves them the eligibility to say, ‘I’m going to keep my options open and look around for other possibilities,” Williams said.

Women also tend to compare themselves to other women when they’re considering whether an offer they receive is good or competitive, Williams said.

“Our natural instinct is to compare our offers with colleagues that we know, and those tend to be same gender colleagues,” Williams said. “It would be easy to never find out that you’re being offered less than somebody else who’s a different gender than you are.”

While Williams added that the increased rate of women becoming CEOs and politicians and may cause general society to think that the nation’s gender wage gap has improved in recent years, Williams noted that when looking at it as a whole, the gender wage gap is not decreasing very much.

Understanding this history, as a feminist scholar and academic leader, Freeman said she’s committed to remedying unfair wage disparities where they exist. Recently, Emory administration has done “thorough salary reviews to try to adjust for sometimes long-standing patterns of … inequity.”

Henderson agreed with Freeman’s sentiment.

“Just like the nation where women are paid less, pay equity is something we are working on and keeping our eye on here at Emory,” Henderson said.

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

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W��������, M���� 30, 2022 | Opinion Editors: Sophia Peyser (speyser@emory.edu) and Chaya Tong (ctong9@emory.edu)

FLOURISHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Reimagine cities to be walkable Rachel Broun Most nights of the week, you can find two or three of my closest friends and I sitting in my apartment, gossiping and eating dinner. While we sit together, we recount our days, think toward the future and enjoy the closeness of Clairmont. I savor these moments, knowing that when we graduate, we will be scattered to different cities across the country, unable to participate in our nightly communion. After we leave Emory, we will no longer live in a community as close and walkable.

As we start our post-graduation life, there are few cities that will be as walkable as our Emory community.

Instead of focusing on sprawling acres of land, cities and towns worldwide should focus on creating highly walkable and pedestrian-focused communities.

In recent years, there has been an influx in conversations surrounding the creation of walkable neighborhoods. A walkable city prioritizes residents’ ability to conduct errands and other business matters on foot.

Walk Score, a website promoting walkable cities, scores cities across the country based on residents’ abilities to run errands on foot. Residents who live in walkable cities can better support their local economies, reduce their environmental impact and have closer relationships with community members.

Fostering a tight-knit community is close to my heart, as creating a strong community and communal care is essential to living a sustainable and happy life. As we look to the future, we should create more human-scale cities which prioritize walkability.

Human-scale towns and cities have numerous economic benefits such as increasing the foot traffic around business districts and promoting tourism which helps both local businesses and other residents of the city. In my hometown of Carrboro, N.C., there is a biweekly farmer’s market at the town hall. Every Wednesday and Sunday, I can walk to the town hall and buy products from local farms and vendors.

The mile-and-a-half long walk is spent on nicely maintained sidewalks and I

can enjoy the market without worrying about transportation. As a result, residents in walkable communities can run their errands closer to their homes, promoting their local economy. People who spend less money on transportation costs may invest more money into other areas of their lives, including groceries, local artists and other community-centered events.

Currently, cities in the U.S. spend less than 2% of transportation funds on roads and sidewalks, whereas 80% is used on roads and highways. Our current road-based community planning redirects resources for walking in favor of roads and parking.

When civil engineers and city planners prioritize automobile-oriented travel, accessibility is decreased due to the increase in travel time and distance. Cities and towns direct land usage toward large roads and parking lots that city management could use for other initiatives like improving sidewalks and maintaining bike lanes, which benefit the entirety of the community.

Large parking lots and roads across cities and towns are not accessible to every citizen. Not everyone can afford a car, and our automobile-oriented model of cities privileges those with cars. Beyond decreasing barriers to community engagement, walkable cities are generally more affluent and have higher levels of social equity.

These residents also do not have to worry about how to gain access to basic needs in our car-centered reality. Our default spending on transportation costs should prioritize methods of transportation that are accessible to a large number of people throughout the community.

While New York City has a high walkability score, other cities with more urban sprawl, as defined as the expansion of urban developments close to the countryside, do not fare as well.

For instance, living in many places in Atlanta requires some form of transportation.

Walking outside the Emory bubble, even a few feet, you are immediately confronted with a less walkable area.

Walking to the Kroger on Briarcliff Rd., a mere 1.3 miles involves trekking up an impossible large hill and walking without sidewalks for half the journey.

In numerous neighborhoods across the city, most errands done by the average person cannot be completed by walking. Instead, citizens must spend time and money driving around the city, wasting gas, to conduct necessary business. The majority of transportation in the U.S. relies on fossil fuels, propelling us closer to environmental disaster. For example, automobiles that are crafted with more plastic materials become more difficult to recycle. Instead of reusing steel materials, plastic sits in landfills for decades.

Electric cars' environmental impact, sitting in landfills for potentially centuries, lasts far longer than their initial fossil fuel output.

Electric cars have often been touted as a clean alternative to our current fossil fuel-based gasoline cars, but, as much as I want a silver Prius, even electric cars bear a hefty cost to the environment. The manufacturing and recycling of electric cars still have significant environmental costs while they utilize electricity, which is not fossil fuel-free.

Car companies use significant energy to create electric cars, which is derived from fossil fuels. These cars merely circumvent traditional fossil fuel usage, while consumers believe they are helping the environment.

Using electric cars is not the gateway to a cleaner environment; rather, decreasing the number of cars and how frequently they are being driven across the world would decrease fossil fuel usage by lowering the number of emissions during travel.

Building and reimagining cities to be walkable is our path toward flourishing. I want to live in a walkable community when looking toward the future. I want to support my local community by walking down the street to a coffee shop, walking to pick up my groceries and supporting local businesses in a neighborhood.

Without investing in walkable cities, we are failing to invest in ourselves and our cities. For my last year at Emory, I will cherish the closeness I have with my friends. When I leave, I will look for a city where I can create the same intimacy I have found at Emory.

Rachel Broun (23C) is from Carrboro, North Carolina

The myth of college Chaya Tong I spent most of my first semester at Emory questioning if I was doing freshman year right. Were the friends I was making really lifelong connections? Was I going off campus enough?

Was every course I took worth the years of hard work and 3,000 miles I’d spent to get here? At Waffle House, riding late night Ubers and gagging at the DCT’s latest creation, I tried to milk the most out of my first year experience.

But as much as I loved college, I also questioned it.

Like so many others, I had been brainwashed by the expectation that college would be “the best four years of my life.” When I hopped on a plane to Atlanta in August, I genuinely believed I was leaving the last of my problems at home. College would fix everything.

Spoiler alert: it didn't. But it shouldn’t have to. Our glorification of higher education creates unattainable expectations and ignores the stress and chaos of transition. Of course, college failed in some ways to live up to the idealized place I had in mind.

The very things that made college amazing, such as new friends, new places and new freedom, were also what made it exhausting and stressful.

COVID-19 worsened mental health amongst students as 53% of 2021 college freshmen report an increase in mental exhaustion, and 1 in 3 college freshmen experience depression and anxiety. I can’t help but wonder if these freshmen felt somewhat let down by the expectation of “the best four years” as I did. Many of the things I didn’t like about home disappeared once I got to Emory, but new problems quickly arose to fill their place.

When I first got to campus, I realized I didn’t know anyone. Why I had expected to meet lifelong friends during orientation, I still don’t know.

COVID-19 had not disappeared, though the people in my dorm did as they contracted COVID-19 and were booted off to the Emory Conference Center Hotel.

There were times when I just wanted to go home. I was ashamed of it.

Scrolling through social media, I watched my friends laughing on the beach. Across the country from them, I

couldn’t have felt more disconnected. I felt an endless need to prove that I, too, was having the time of my life. And though I was loving college overall, the moments I didn’t felt like something I needed to hide.

On FaceTime, my friends from home and I would compare college experiences, each of us trying to outdo the other with amazing people we had met or amazing things we’d done. It was a contest of colleges and experiences, but it was mostly a contest of happiness. When we dug deeper, the imperfections of freshman year would reveal themselves. We always reached the same conclusion. Parts of freshman year are absolutely, completely and truly awful. But if that’s part of the best four years of my life, then so be it.

There were probably a million ways that I “messed up” the perfect freshman year I had envisioned, and a million more I will continue to mess up.

After all, I still have three more months to go. But the truth is, I love Emory. I am loving freshman year and I am having the time of my life. Just not every second of every day, and that’s okay. We can’t expect college to wash away every problem or be devoid of new ones. No place can do that.

Calling our college years the “best” leads to an experience that will inevitably fall short of that But maybe the fix is as simple as how we talk about college. So instead of calling them “the best four years,” we should, perhaps, call them “the most formative four years.” Because addressing change will capture actual college life in a way that “the best four years” never will.

For everyone reading this, when college doesn't live up to the unfairly high standard society has placed on it, don’t worry.

There will be times you love college and times when you hate it. Times when you’re glad you came, and times when you just want to go home. College might not always be the best four years you’ve ever spent, but why should it be?

Maybe the golden moments of college life are what you remember when you look back. Maybe the best years are still to come.

Chaya Tong (25C) is from the Bay Area, California.

The Emory Wheel Volume 103 | Number 6

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The Emory Wheel

Ben Thomas Valerie is a junior at Emory, and she excels across the board. She set herself a lot of big goals as a first year, but all of the pieces have fallen into place. She aced her MCAT early, secured a lucrative gap-year job in San Francisco, maintains a GPA of 3.9 out of 4, has six very close friends and even kept off the so-called Freshman Fifteen.

Let’s say that she also finds her classes, clubs and prospective career fulfilling and that she sleeps eight hours every night — she’s just that good. But every night, Valerie feels her breaking point coming closer and closer. Her life seems to her incomplete, even wasted, and she’s burned out and miserable. How could this be true? Is she just wrong?

Valerie may not be a real Emory student, but if you are, I’m willing to bet that her story resonates with you at least a little. It certainly does with me, because she’s not flourishing.

By that, I mean that she’s not living a life that a rational, informed person would want above all else.

Pleasure and a few good days here and there have nothing to do with this; to flourish is to live a life you would deeply want after reflecting on it with accurate information about yourself.

But why do neither Valerie nor so many of the rest of us have this? Any satisfying answer to that has to consider our environment. In the 21st century, that environment is shaped by data. Communication technology, information and numbers dominate, even suffocate, our daily lives. Look at yourself and your friends at Emory.

What do you worry about? Your GPA, MCAT scores, weight, Instagram followers, height and prospective

OPINION

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

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Dequantify your life About the project:

salary?

Odds are that at least one of these consumes you some of the time.

However, all of them point to one enormous obstacle to flourishing in the 21st century: the excessive quantification of our lives. By and large, numbers control and dehumanize us.

But, if you use them to figure out what you should value in life and how rather than locating value in them, they can also help you flourish.

Numerical standards hurt us in many ways. Some, like salary and athletic performance, are moving targets, “enoughs” that will never be enough.

But what really distinguishes numerical standards is their reduction of a person’s life narrative to a number devoid of emotion and history. By and large, we don’t reason our views into existence using hard, impersonal data; we feel them, and that irrationality

distance I ran in a week, these and so many numbers seemed like ends in themselves. What a joke.

If valuing this way made me so miserable, why did I and so many others do it? The short answer: people use easy numbers to define our goals and ends for us. Grades, test scores, a good medical school, a tight-knit friend group of a particular size and so on are all common goals that many people simply adopt because their families, schools and cultures instill them as such.

Without good self-knowledge, a critical orientation and a willingness to use them on your own terms, it’s very easy to treat huge periods of life as means to a few distant ends that might not even be satisfying.

This problem is neither rare nor surprising, because we have access to more data about ourselves than at any time in human history. Too often, we use it to set standards for ourselves without really thinking about why we value those standards or the end goals to which we think they’ll lead us. The rise of health-tracking apps is a useful example.

They provide us data on everything from weight to stress, but many people use it to set standards for activANUSHA KURAPATI / CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR ity, such as steps per day, to reach grounds us in our humanity. Basing goal weights without criticizing their your success or failure on a number choice of standards or the value they doesn’t leave room for irrational place on their goals. human worth.

But that wealth of data is also key to So much for what we value. What how we can escape the quantification about how we value it? For starters, trap. Turning a critical eye on ourselves most of these numbers are means to a requires accurate information, and static end. I was guilty of this in high well-measured data is ideal for that. In school — staying below a certain other words, flourishing in the Inforweight, I thought, would tamp down mation Age should begin with radical, feelings of inferiority and prevent autonomous and informed skepticism people from looking down on me. of what we value.

A perfect ACT score was going to get Quantitative information about me into a great college where people ourselves can help us make that would finally be like me. Like the happen and live up to our values and

The two of us are coworkers, but we are also friends and chaotic roommates.

Whether over morning coffee or late at night, we regale each other with absurd Instagram videos as often as we talk about how our days went.

One January morning, though, a banner for the Carlos Museum’s new exhibit — “And I Must Scream! The Monstrous Expression of Our Global Crises” — pushed us to think bigger. The world is changing quickly, and not always for the better; technology is permeating our homes, COVID-19 is still dominating community life, populism is reshaping politics, and climate change threatens to destroy the world as we know it. Postmodernity is painful, and many of us aren’t dealing with it well. If you ask an Emory student how they’re doing, odds are that they’ll tell you they’re stressed, burned out or worried.

What, we wondered, would a good life even look like amid the crisis and change of our time?

To find out, we asked the Emory Wheel’s Editorial Board. In this project, you’ll find a wide range of perspectives on well-being and how we can achieve it, from Associate Editor Rachel Broun’s call for more walkable cities to Editorial Board Member Dani Parra del Riego’s defense of mindfulness. You may disagree with all of us, or you may find a few ideas worth using in your own life. But at its heart, this project is simply here to help you start interrogating what it means to live well as a human being, as a member of your community, or just as yourself. If we accomplish that, we will have succeeded.

So, what do you think? What is flourishing in the 21st century?

Demetrios Mammas (23C) and Ben Thomas (23C) are the Editorial Board Editor and the Chair of the Editorial Board, respectively.

treat them as provisional. This semester, I used my watch’s sleep tracker to find and hold myself to a sleep goal in order to feel rested and keep my mind sharp. When I failed, I didn’t just regret my errors or question my worth.

Instead, I used what I learned to make a new plan on my own terms.

What might this look like for you?

Maybe you value physical fitness. If so, you might ask yourself what is truly important to you there and find that, rather than being below a certain Body Mass Index (BMI), you value a confident disposition and feelings of vitality.

How might you get there? If you know that you’ve felt a little better on both counts after walking 10,000 steps each day in the past, you might plan to act in accordance with those two values by walking that much every day.

If you fail to meet that standard, use a calendar, your memory and the health data from your phone to learn why. If you do meet it but don’t feel much better, use that data to pick a better standard or reflect on what might make more sense for you to value.

If BMI and physical vitality doesn’t work for you, think about it in terms of volunteer hours and meaningful activity, grades and achievement, Instagram followers and social interaction or anything else. This is a method of thinking, a way to live as an autonomous human being in internal harmony. It’s flourishing.

Don’t work for the numbers in your life; make them work for you. Once you stop treating numerical standards as means to static ends that other people have given you, you can ground yourself in reality and think independently.

With all this in mind, you can use the numbers in your life to learn what you should value and how you can get there.

Your life is too important for you to fritter it away in a miserable, numerical fantasyland planned by other people.

Your four years at Emory don’t have to be a way station for you to check some quantitative boxes; they can be four of the freest, most formative years of your life. Don’t waste them.

Ben Thomas (23C) is from Dayton, Ohio.

Remember the abolish greek life movement? Act now.

Ben Levitt Two years ago, the brutal murders of Black and Indigenous people around the world prompted important and long overdue discussions at many universities, including Emory University. Inspired by the global racial justice movement, Emory students mobilized remotely to examine our campus and seek solutions to address various forms of structural inequality. One campaign sought to advance racial and social justice within the Emory social scene through a radical goal: abolishing EPC& IFC-affiliated Greek organizations at Emory.

Abolish Emory Greek Life, an Instagram account with personal stories from students sharing their negative experiences with Emory Greek life, drew hundreds of followers at its peak.

This campaign helped Emory students see fraternities and sororities in the context of global social and racial justice issues. In particular, students began to understand how Greek life on our campus perpetuates various forms of inequity. With increased scrutiny on Emory Greek life, many members chose to disaffiliate from their organizations, and some sororities like Kappa Kappa Gamma even considered disbanding entirely. During the spring

2021 recruitment cycle, prospective membership declined by more than 20%, reflecting both the pandemic and its economic toll, as well as greater student understanding of the inequities that Emory Greek life exacerbates.

Though the Emory community began reevaluating its toxic relationship with fraternities and sororities in 2020, Emory Greek life still exists largely as it did before the pandemic.

Despite laudable efforts at internal reforms and harm reduction efforts within some sororities and fraternities, the apple of Greek life is — and will always be — rotten to its core.

Of course, there will always be space on Emory’s campus for organizations that build valuable community. Multicultural and identity-based Greek organizations offer important communities for marginalized students. These organizations should absolutely continue to exist even if other social fraternities and sororities are disbanded. Additionally, service and pre-professional fraternities can provide engagement opportunities around shared interests and values. But the hegemony of Emory Greek life – the predominantly white, elitist social groups – will continue to perpetuate inequities on our campus regardless of efforts to mitigate harm.

To be clear, I believe it is deeply unfair and wrong to blame individual

students for their involvement in Greek institutions. This form of targeting deflects from the larger systemic issues like racial injustice, classism and toxic masculinity and can amount to bullying. Individuals cannot reasonably be expected to solve large systemic issues, and I do not judge my friends for their continued membership in Greek organizations. Yet Emory Greek organizations are actively causing harm on campus by creating a predominantly white, heteronormative social culture that excludes many communities who do not see themselves sufficiently represented within these institutions.

Individuals bear the responsibility to critically evaluate the institutions to which they belong. And at Emory, the harm is real.

Consider international students, who represent nearly 20% of students in the College, but are generally less visible within Greek organizations.

International students often come from countries that do not have Greek life, and thus, they are less aware of these institutions and less likely to join them after coming to the U.S. Greek institutions can be unwelcoming to international students, and in extreme cases, even discriminatory. As an international student myself, I see how Greek life exacerbates the social schism by creating artificial social boundaries between Greek-affiliated domestic

students and international students.

Further, Greek life functions as a form of socioeconomic segregation on our campus. First-generation/low-income (FGLI) students typically cannot afford the many hidden expenses (Uber rides, themed merchandise, restaurants, etc.) that Greek life expects of active, socially involved members.

Greek institutions are also largely affluent at Emory, making FGLI students feel isolated.

Additionally, consider LGBTQ+ students who don’t see a place for themselves within the rigid gender and sexuality norms of Greek life. In particular, the toxic masculinity and homophobia in fraternities do not provide a safe venue for all students, especially male students, to explore their identities without judgment.

Beyond the campus inequities, Emory Greek life also has negative impacts on a national scale. For instance, the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee (FSPAC) is a super PAC that has historically donated more to Republican candidates than Democratic ones including the campaigns of former senators Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) in 2020.

This year, FSPAC is actively donating to multiple congressional candidates who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Although membership dues cannot directly go to

funding political candidates, there are indirect channels with which members of Emory Greek institutions fund and support FSPAC’s goals; in particular, Emory chapters contribute to the ongoing vitality and influence of national Greek organizations within U.S. society. Indirectly, Emory students are funding politicians who want to restrict reproductive rights, voting rights and discussions of race and gender in schools. No matter how much a specific Emory organization attempts to promote equity and justice, Greek life —and its political action committee — are antithetical to these values. Despite the social justice movement that grew in the summer of 2020, we are no closer to abolishing Emory Greek life. This year has produced many of the same systemic issues.

Simply put, Emory Greek life cannot continue to exist as it does today, and instead, a student movement must reemerge to call for radical changes.

Although many of the students who were active in the Abolish Emory Greek Life movement will graduate in May, one can hope that a new generation of Emory student activists will realize the dream: to make the Emory social scene a more inclusive and welcoming place for all members of the community.

Ben Levitt (22C) is from Toronto, Canada.

The Emory Wheel

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What you can do to help Ukraine Sam Shafiro Reading the news can make you feel powerless. It is great to be able to know what is happening halfway across the planet, but being so physically distant from the problems in our news feeds also makes them intangible. The constant flood of far away problems results in doom scrolling and burnout.

My family is from Odessa, the third largest city in Ukraine. Over the last two months, we have found ourselves glued to the news coming from Ukraine. My parents have been in contact with friends and family across Europe. Still, we too have felt overwhelmed, as if there is little we can do to help.

But there are real people in Ukraine. People facing immediate problems. Online guides can point to reliable non governmental organizations (NGOs) doing necessary work. Yet they only address one part of a larger set of questions.

What can you do to help?

What agency can you have?

What should you understand about the crisis? Based on my experience and conversations with others close to the issue, here are four things to consider:

start by checking in to see how they are doing. You can then ask them how to help, but make sure to give them space if they seem overwhelmed.

Beyond interpersonal connections, here are some projects connected to the diaspora locally which you can check out. My family and I are raising funds to get medical supplies to Ukraine through volunteers in Poland. This is necessary because of a supply chain crisis even in relatively peaceful areas

countries in the region have manipulated access to information in order to support ideological ends. The escalation of the war in Ukraine has therefore come with a crackdown on media outlets in Russia.

In response to previous periods of turmoil, Russia has developed a strong dissident journalist community. Prominent dissident media include Novaya Gazeta (whose editor in chief recently won the Nobel Prize), Meduza, The

1. Look to the Diaspora Part of the disorienting power Protesting the invasion of Ukraine in Tel Aviv of news and social media is that there are so many forces asking for your money, time and attention. The best place to focus your energy may seem elusive. of Ukraine. Adam Meller (22C) has Insider and student newspaper DOXA. To help you navigate this barrage, been working with his family to help This community has proven resilient in you should look to the diasporas most fund a place to live for children from an the face of increased persecution, with affected by the conflict. orphanage in Ukraine. Members of the several publications continuing operaThis includes not just Ukranians, Ukrainian community in Atlanta are tions from bases outside of Russia. At a but also Russians, Poles and other organizing drives to gather materials time of increasing state control over Eastern Europeans. Many of us in the such as backpacks, tents and medical Russian news, it is important to diaspora have friends and family who supplies for Ukrainians. support independent Russian media, are experiencing the crisis on a perby reading (when it is available in sonal level, forcing us to become 2. Understand The Power of English), sharing and donating. educated about the needs of those Media affected by the conflict and how to best Meticulously controlling the media 3. Recognize Cultural Nuance address them. has long been central to Russian Russian and Ukrainian cultural At the same time, many diaspora political strategy. Emory Professor identity is a notoriously tricky issue. members are dealing with a lot right Nikolay Koposov has written about the Russian President Vladimir Putin has now. If you know a diaspora member, ways in which Russia and other argued that Ukranians are nationally

subsumed by Russians in a now infamous article. While this is obviously wrong, it is true that the relationship between Russian and Ukrainian identity is complex.

Though a Ukrainian identity has existed for centuries, its modern iteration only solidified after the country’s independence in 1991. As a result, my parents, who spent a good portion of their lives in Ukraine, only began to fully identify with some of the national

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/OREN ROZEN

symbols that have come to represent it in the last few months. Of course, this does not temper their support for Ukranian’s fight against Russian invasion.

At the forefront of these nuances are fields where culture, people and politics intersect, such as music, film and education. Many institutions have rightfully cut ties with Russian statesponsored enterprises and Russian celebrities who have refused to condemn Putin. Others reactions have been less reasonable, such as Rep. Eric Swalwell’s proposal to consider expelling Russian students from the

U.S. Similarly, while many pundits are doing important work analyzing the nuances of Russian and Ukrainian society, some are eager to mint articles that flatten complicated cultural intersections. You should avoid such articles, and be suspicious of boycotts of Russian filmmakers, musicians and other artists that don’t have ties to the Russian government or oligarchy.

4. Know the Strengths and Weaknesses of Action Not everything you can do is the same. Going to a protest demonstrates support for Ukranians, but is unlikely to change U.S. government policy. Donating to a fundraising campaign is the most direct way to help Ukranians, but can be smaller in scope than other projects. NGOs have immense capabilities, but are also impersonal.

Whatever you do, walk the fine line between trying to do everything and nothing. Avoid the temptation to do too many things at once, which can result in burnout, but also work to overcome the immobilizing hopelessness that an endless deluge of news creates. Focus on your strengths and resources. Be aware that different strategies have different results Last year, I wrote one of my college application essays about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. I wrote about coming home from school and seeing my mom sitting at the dining room table crying. I wrote how that moment pushed me to become interested in international politics.

When I came home for spring break this year, my mother was not crying.

She was making yellow and blue ribbons for her coworkers to wear. She was trying to spread awareness, keep herself busy and keep the torrent of news at bay.

What Ukranians need right now is action. They need you to remain committed to helping them, regardless of the ebbs and flows of media attention. Ukranians need your help, however you can give it.

Samuel Shafiro (25C) is from Oak Park, Illinois.

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A��� E������������ W��������, M���� 30, 2022 | Arts & Entertainment Editors: Jackson Schneider (jdschn3@emory.edu) & Eythen Anthony (eaantho@emory.edu)

‘The Buddhist Bug’ explores displacement and identity

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars on March 27.

REUTERS / Brian Snyder

The most memorable moments of the 94th Academy Awards

BY MARIA MENDOZA Contributing Writer

Once again, the artistic community and audiences united to celebrate the cinematic work of the past year at the Oscars Sunday, March 27. Hosted by Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes, the night was full of laughter and moments that will go down in Academy Award history. The evening featured tributes to iconic movies, inclusive milestones in the art industry and an unexpected smack to the face that left everyone speechless.

In celebration for the 28th anniversary of “Pulp Fiction”(1994), John Travolta, Samuel Jackson and Uma Thurman presented Will Smith with the Oscar for best leading actor. The “King Richard” actor burst into tears as he was overcome with emotion for the great significance and meaning behind this film. Smith reflected upon the challenges that come with protecting one’s family and the struggle of pretending to be ok despite the disrespect actors constantly face in their line of work.

Smith also apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees for what is undoubtedly the most memorable moment of the 94th Oscars. Earlier in the night, the actor unexpectedly smacked Chris Rock on stage and later yelled: “Leave my wife's name out of your f***ing mouth!” The outburst was triggered when the comedian made a joke while presenting the award for best original documentary about Jada Pinkett Smith’s lack of hair due to her alopecia.

Chris Rock and Will Smith have both been criticized for their actions that night; Rock for making an unnecessary joke regarding the physical appearance caused by a health condition of an actress who was not even nominated, and Smith for resorting to physical violence and cursing on live TV. Regardless of this, the most memorable moment of the night showed audiences the heavy pressure that comes with being a public figure and how even great performers can easily snap in a matter of seconds.

Apart from the slap broadcasted around the world, the ceremony was a celebration of the diverse cinematic industry and artists that are responsible

for bringing our favorite stories to life.

The ceremony started strong as Venus and Serena Williams introduced Beyonce, who performed “Be Alive” from “King Richard,” which was nominated for best original song. Beyonce dazzled in a neon green dress that matched the Compton tennis courts, hometown for the Williams sisters, where she live broadcasted from.

Other musical performances were featured that night, including two songs from the best animated film of the year, “Encanto.” Sebastián Yatra delighted audiences with a simple, yet emotional, performance of “Dos Oruguitas” and Megan Thee Stallion, Luis Fonsi and Becky G surprised audiences with a remix of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

Along with some thrilling performances, the ceremony contained milestones for artists from groups historically underrepresented in the American cinema industry. Among those was one of the night’s first winners, Ariana DeBose, for best supporting actress.

DeBose appeared on the red carpet accompanied by Rita Moreno, the EGOT winning legend that preceded her as Anita in the original “West Side Story” (1961).

This role led Moreno to become the first Hispanic actress to win an Oscar; and sixty years later, DeBose also made history by becoming the first openly queer woman of color and the first Afro Latina to win an Oscar. Her acceptance speech carried powerful words of inspiration, and she stated that "even in this weary world we live in, dreams do come true!"

“CODA” star Troy Kotsur became the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar. In his emotional acceptance speech, Kotsur declared that his award "is dedicated to the deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community. This is our moment!"

The film later received the Academy Awards for best writing and best picture, winning the three categories it was nominated for. Since the film was released by Apple TV+, “CODA” also made history as the first best picture winner to come from a streaming network.

Political messages are often common at the Oscars, like Sacheen Littlefeather's speech about the mistreatment of Native Americans in 1973 and Leonardo DiCaprio’s plea for action against climate change in 2016. This year was not an exception, as concern regarding the current conflict in Ukraine was present throughout the ceremony.

Many celebrities wore pins and ribbons with the country’s flag and the audience united in a moment of silence for the lives lost in Ukraine.

A moment of silence was also taken for the “In Memoriam,” which highlighted some of the Academy members, previous nominees and winners that passed away since last year’s ceremony.

Among them were director Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Poitier and Betty White. As clips of their works played, grief transformed into a celebration for their revolutionary contributions. The “In Memoriam” was considered insufficient by some viewers since it excluded notable figures like Bob Saget and Ed Asner, who both died in the past year.

Additionally, the award ceremony received some flack for choosing not to broadcast certain award categories, including documentary short, film editing, makeup and hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live action short and sound. These awards were pre-taped an hour before the ceremony and edited into the regular broadcast.

This year’s Oscars were more entertaining and memorable than the past few years. The musical performances were engaging, involving dynamic collaborations instead of repeating the same old presentations. Even though some wins were questionable, the awards were better distributed among the nominees, keeping audiences guessing until the very end. Above all, it was refreshing to see new artists get recognition for their hard work, especially those who performed in movies that transmitted meaningful themes of social relevance.

Contact María Mendoza at maria.mendozacontreras@emory.edu

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Roll Call, The Buddhist Bug Series, Digital C print, 2014

BY MITALI SINGH Contributing Writer

Curving and spiraling around the room, the 100-foot-long performance art piece holds a powerful presence in the Carlos Museum's "And I Must Scream" exhibition.

As you begin to walk through the gallery, the works themed around global crises urge you to introspect. Suddenly, you are enveloped in a vision of saffron.

On one end of the massive tube, which doubles as a costume, artist Anida Yoeu Ali is seated with just her head visible through the fabric.

Ali performed “The Buddhist Bug” at the museum March 20 over the course of an hour and a half. Her Bug persona is a displaced, insect-like creature that aims to engage and connect with different communities and environments. The artwork combines installation, photography and video to spark conversations about religious identity and belonging.

Ali, whose work explores themes like otherness and identity, has performed “The Buddhist Bug” across the world and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. The costume is inspired by her experience as a refugee, with the saffron color symbolizing Buddhism and the hijab representing Islam. Together, these symbols visually depict her struggle to synthesize her upbringing as a Khmer Muslim woman with her interest in Buddhism.

Ali’s performance is not a choreographed presentation but instead develops organically through interactions with viewers. Some sit or kneel in front of her in silence, returning her calm gaze or offering words of gratitude and reflection. Others mirror her movements as she sways gently and tilts her head. A few make offerings through their art; one audience member plays the ocarina while Ali moves to its rhythm.

See PERFORMANCE, Page 15

Incoming ASO director stuns in emotional concert

BY SAMUEL SHAFIRO

Contributing Writer In a famous scene from Milos Forman’s film dramatizing the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the tortured musician picks the notes of his “Requiem in D Minor” out of the air with his dying breaths. At the Woodruff Arts Center March 17, conductor and incoming Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) music director Nathalie Stutzmann also seemed to summon notes from the air with just as much drama, though with slightly less success.

As the buzzing audience filed into the crowded theater, it was clear that the night would be saturated with emotion.

This feeling was due as much to the dark theme of the program as to the excitement of the concertgoers. Stutzmann seemed an epicenter for this excitement, if the booming applause upon her entrance is any indication.

Stutzmann was recently announced as the new music director for ASO, beginning in the 2022 to 2023 season. When she assumes the position, she will not

only be the first female music director in the ASO’s history but also the only female music director among the top 25 American orchestras. Stutzmann brings an impressive resume; she got her start as a concert singer before eventually founding the chamber orchestra Orfeo 55, where she served as both soloist and conductor. The ensemble was later shut down due to lack of funding. Her warm reception at the concert displayed the crowd’s anticipation to see her take over the Atlanta podium in the long term.

The emotional potency of the night’s beginning carried over into the first piece the orchestra performed, perhaps too much so. In their rendition of Richard Strauss’ “Tod und Verklarung,” the musicians eloquently raced from the loud punching highs to the soft subtle lows that represent the death of an artist.

But occasionally, the sections would lapse in dynamic coordination, and the eager brass would blast over the strings and woodwinds. The solos that circulated through the woodwind section were a piercing display of emotional depth.

See ATLANTA, Page 15

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Performance art comes to the Carlos Continued from Page 13

In some cases, touch guides the interaction. A woman strokes Ali’s head then gently runs her fingers around her face. In response, Ali rests her cheek against her palm.

The exchanges are reciprocal: a two-way transmission of appreciation. A little boy, shy at first, grows gradually more comfortable with engaging with her as he approaches her in intervals.

A group of visitors ask for a picture with her and she rests her head on one of their shoulders, posing playfully. Ali matches the actions and energy of these interactions, keeping with her persona’s ability to change shape to fit different environments.

Ali’s performance brings the audience together; the room buzzes with light conversation. When I meet Ali, I instantly feel peaceful. I tell her this, and she smiles.

Leaning forward, she gently nods a welcome as I sit in front of her. We observe each other, and she follows my gaze as I look at the waves of fabric around us. She looks at me knowingly, and I feel a wave of inexplicable joy.

While Ali kneels in the main room, another performer lays in the adjoining room, hidden in the saffron except for the feet peeking out, inviting viewers to interact with them.

While the great distance between Ali’s face and the feet is slightly disconcerting at first, I am drawn to the absurdity and creativity behind the work. Hearing footsteps, the toes wiggle out a friendly hello. They flex outward, inviting viewers to come closer. Some bend down and tickle the feet, while others press their own feet against them. The scene is childlike in its innocence.

Although “The Buddhist Bug” symbolizes Ali’s experience with conflict, it also represents freedom, with both the performer and the audience presenting their natural reactions. On her website, Ali writes, “I believe performing narratives is an act of social engagement that contributes to collective healing.”

A video artwork behind the installa-

BY SOPHIA LING

tion plays a scene in a bustling marketplace where Ali, as the Bug, watches calmly over the shoulders of shopkeepers as they sort through fish. It is surreal but somehow did not seem out of place.

Photographs, the third medium used in the artwork, line the walls. They depict Ali in different locations, such as an outdoor marketplace or a classroom. In the images, the installation takes the shape of the space it occupies.

Courtesy of The Carlos Museum

“Having this type of interactive exchange with her, and to exchange emotion and spirit, was beautiful and stunning.”

The work weaves in humor while also capturing the weight of the topic. “The Buddhist Bug” is a constant presence, watchful in the background, just like in the performance photography. It serves as a reminder that struggles with identity and displacement are continuous.

The length of the performance creates a comfortable space where visitors can come and go as they choose. Because

you are constantly in and out of the space, it makes you part of it, rather than just a mere observer — the progression of emotions apparent, as they expand from the initial awe and intrigue, to more reflective joy or even pain.

Because you are constantly in and out of the space, you are made part of the work’s journey rather than just a mere observer— the progression of emotions apparent, as they expand from the initial awe and intrigue, to more reflective joy or even pain.

The performance invites viewers to be childlike and curious. This urges selftransformation, however minor. For me, this meant learning to converse and connect without words.

About halfway through the performance, a woman approached Ali, kneeled and began to dance. Her movement was free-flowing as she tilted her head backward and outstretched her hands. She leaned in close to Ali, and they rested their heads against each other.

Moved by the performance, I approached the audience member afterward and discovered her to be Cristal Sabbagh, a visual and multidisciplinary performance artist and an educator who attended undergraduate school with Ali. “I remember the inception — where it started and where it’s gone — all the iterations and different spaces,” Sabbagh said. “Having this type of interactive exchange with her, and to exchange emotion and spirit, was beautiful and stunning.”

The artwork plaque described “The Buddhist Bug” as an “invasion of personal space.” This statement holds true. You become one with the Bug, the viewers and the space, if only for a few moments.

If you allow yourself to fill up with questions, you’ll find that you’re prodded to look inward for the answers.

Contact Mitali Singh at mitali.singh@emory.edu

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

15

Atlanta symphony concert enthralls Continued from Page 13 But at the same time, the woodwinds felt overpowering in their execution of the gentle pulses that conclude the work.

After a brief intermission, the ASO chorus took to the rafters to join the instrumental musicians for the first time since the pandemic began. However, before the program could proceed, Stutzmann turned to the audience with an unanticipated announcement.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken the classical music world, and many musicians have taken to the platforms available to them to speak out against it. This includes both international artists, especially those from Russia, and artists here in Atlanta, such as the Atlanta Opera’s general and artistic director Tomer Zvulun. Zvulun dedicated the opera company’s recent production of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” to Ukraine. Along these lines, Stutzmann announced that the night’s performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” would be dedicated to those who have lost their lives in the war.

The orchestra and chorus then launched into a heart-wrenching rendition of the Ukrainian national anthem.

The performance was especially personal for ASO’s first violinist Olga Shpitko, who comes from Ukraine. A solemn air hung over the audience, which had risen from their seats, and though the night’s performance of the “Requiem” was planned long in advance, the program now took on a haunting new dimension.

Unfortunately, ASO found itself on unsteady footing as it transitioned into the “Requiem,” perhaps owing to the weight of the piece’s new meaning. The trumpets felt unsure as they took over from the penetrating winds at the beginning of the “Introitus.” When the chorus finally entered, it brought with it immense power. But it was unclear if the voices lifted over the orchestra or trampled it.

By the time the ASO got to the famous “Sequenz,” a struggle for balance between the chorus and orchestra added to the funerary drama of the work.

This battle reached its climax during an

interestingly rapid “Dies Irae,” but when the ensemble got to the “Confutatis,” they seemed to have found their ground again. As the “Lacrimosa” brought the “Sequenz” to an end, an almost-whispered amen hung in the air like a terrifying question.

Having brought the musicians back in step, Stutzmann laid the ground for a powerful final half of the performance.

Particularly notable were the forceful blasts of the “Sanctus,” with the drum of the orchestra invigorating the booming chorus. Also on display were the exquisite voices of the four soloists: soprano Martina Jankova, mezzo-soprano Sara Mingardo, tenor Kenneth Tarver and bass Burak Bilgili. The soloists’ voices blended dazzlingly with the accompanying orchestra at several points throughout the night.

The final movement of this “Requiem,” the “Communio: Lux aeterna,” was crafted after Mozart’s death by his contemporary Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Süssmayr drew significantly on the earlier sections in composing the closing bars of the work. In the ASO’s rendition of these final notes, it seemed as if Stutzmann was lifting the motifs that opened the piece back from the dead, and a haunting melody floated gently over the orchestra.

Soon, the final words rang out from the chorus with an energy that demanded recognition. The audience was quick to oblige, vigorously applauding the orchestra, chorus, soloists and especially the conductor.

As the crowd stepped out of the Woodruff Arts Center, they were even more abuzz than when the concert began.

Clearly impressed by the performance, they walked away from a cathartic musical confrontation with death enabled by Stutzmann’s unique control of her soon-to-be home ensemble. The power and intrigue of her musical stylings promise to make future ASO concerts a worthwhile experience for any Emory student.

Contact Samuel at sam.shafiro@emory.edu

Fletcher is unfiltered, intimate at Atlanta concert

Executive Editor

I went to my first concert last Sunday.

Concerts have never really appealed to me; the envisioned amalgamation of sweaty, intoxicated bodies was not how I wanted to spend my weekends. But despite all my misgivings, social anxiety and claustrophobia, I still found myself standing in a line winding through the cracked asphalt parking lot desperate to see Fletcher, popular in the queer community as an activist and pop artist from New Jersey.

The Variety Playhouse is not a huge venue, but it’s perfect for the intimacy of Fletcher’s music. The hour-long set made up for the three-year halt in Fletcher’s tour due to the pandemic, and it revived both a musical and personal evolution from the devastating heartbreak anthems in “you ruined new york city for me” to the blurred lines of lovers and exes in “THE S(EX) TAPES.” “THE S(EX) TAPES” was created while Fletcher and her ex, YouTuber Shannon Beveridge, were quarantined together, and all the music videos were shot by Beveridge without any external crew or props. Getting to see and hear their vision alive was somehow both excruciating and breathtaking; the history of the album and the artist is a flawless setup for the nuanced explo-

ration of what it means to love, to be loved and to fall out of love.

Though I didn’t know Amelia Moore, Fletcher’s first opener, the heavy bass notes and alt-pop sound vibrated through the floor and hyped up the crowd. As soon as Moore’s songs ended, the crew rushed to set up for Julia Wolf. Wolf’s music, which incorporated faster beats and rapping, was completely different from my usual music taste, but I still enjoyed the adrenaline rush. Her engagement with the crowd made the performance all the more memorable, inciting and tempting us for Fletcher’s imminent appearance. The wait for Fletcher was almost agonizing. While we stood around, someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a stack of multi-colored paper hearts. On one side there was a small note that said, “Hold this heart up when Fletcher sings ‘Healing,’ the last song in the setlist to show her how proud we are.” Soon after, I heard bass drums and Fletcher’s voice echo in the auditorium. I pocketed the heart and turned toward the stage.

The almost three-minute intro with flashing red lights gave way to Fletcher, who was wearing a white top, jeans and a moss green jacket, standing on top of a concrete structure. The opening notes of “girls girls girls” caused the whole crowd to erupt in an enthusiastic chanting of the

chorus, a riff off of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl.” As soon as the song ended, she quickly jumped into “Forever,” “Cherry,” her recent collaboration with Hayley Kiyoko and “If You’re Gonna Lie.” The energy and noise in the Playhouse were electrifying, and I could barely hear my own voice as it melted into the crowd. For the last six years, my discovery and appreciation of Fletcher had been a solitary one, but listening to her music live and with thousands of fans like myself was a surreal, existential experience altogether.

While I don’t have another concert experience to compare, being less than 30 feet from the stage felt magical.

Fletcher designed the stage to look like the concrete jungle of New York City, where she got her heart broken for the first time, which served as the inspiration for her EP “you ruined new york city for me.” Pillars filled the space onstage; inside each wall was a member of Fletcher’s band, a scene no different from the crowded skyscrapers surrounding New York City, a melting pot of people from around the world. She continued the set with “All Love” and “Undrunk,” one of her first songs I ever listened to. The emotionally charged danceable beats are contrasted with a regretful and longing break up, perhaps mirroring the extreme spectrum of

emotions a person might feel.

Halfway through the set, Fletcher stepped down from the stage to sign boobs: a hallmark of all her concerts on this tour. The entire audience was anticipating this moment, with people in the front holding up signs like “Sign my girlfriend’s tits,” “You’re my girlfriend’s hall pass” and waving Sharpies above their heads. Fletcher’s transition into “S(EX) TAPES” started with more danceable songs like “Silence” and “If I Hated You” before turning to “Feel,” one of the slower songs from the EP. The album follows a complicated breakup, and it isn’t until “Feel” where the realization of the breakup finally sinks into her mind. The pain in her voice is still evident as she croons, “I’ll drink this wine, like it’s medicine for the mind.”

Fletcher turned the microphone back at us, encouraging everyone to shout the lyrics they knew, further connecting us not only with her but also with the melancholic emotions of the song.

Fletcher finished the show with an unreleased song she wrote for herself and her acoustic “Healing,” an ending to a setlist that perhaps symbolizes the transformation of both her music and herself. Immediately, a sea of hearts rose up from the crowd. Fletcher choked up; her voice cracked while she sang as she expressed her gratitude and love for her

fanbase. Though “Healing” is not an upbeat song, it was the perfect ending to her concert: a vulnerable ode to the physical and mental pain that everyone is trying to work through.

If there’s one word to explain Fletcher’s music, it would be unfiltered.

I’ve always admired her honesty and rawness — not just in the topics she chooses to write about, like heartbreak and sex, but also in her unabashed fear of words and language. Her music bares forth uncomfortable emotions and brings up memories for each person that they might be too scared to face. For me, in particular, Fletcher’s music forced me to reckon with telling, admitting and believing the truth not to anyone else but myself. With my Fletcher hoodie closely hugged to my body, I vividly remember walking outside and saying to Brammhi Balarajan (23C), “This is the most amount of gay I’ve ever experienced in my life.” As much as sexuality is a spectrum, so was the queer audience at Fletcher. Driving away from the Playhouse and seeing the rest of the audience shuffling onto the sidewalk, I found myself less alone and more willing to breathe for the sake of myself.

Contact Sophia Ling at sophia.ling@emory.edu

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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

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Duluth Assi Plaza, a suburban dream worth the trip

By Sophia Ling Executive Editor After spending the last two years in the chaos of Atlanta, the fast-paced city life and adjusting to living in the pandemic, I craved suburbia. So, when Brammhi Balarajan (23C) asked me to drive up to Duluth, Georgia with her to see former managing editor Shreya Pabbaraju (21C), I immediately agreed.

Our first stop was Hansel and Gretel, a bakery and cafe, with selfserve pastries and display cabinets filled with layered-desserts and cakes.

The store is tucked into the corner of Assi Plaza, with a big, sans-serif display inviting us in. The layout of the store embodied an open concept, with booths lining the outside and smaller tables in neat rows in the middle.

I beelined toward the self-serve station on the far side of the room, where there was an array of breads, savory pastries like pizza toast and desserts ranging from danishes to cream puffs, lined up for the taking.

Each piece was delicately wrapped in individual plastic bags. We each grabbed a tray, parchment paper and tongs and wandered around, struggling to decide what to get.

The self-serve line reminded me of BreadTalk in Shanghai, an Asian franchise with over 900 stores in 15 different international markets. The smell of fresh bread and cakes took me back to the vanilla scent and the yeasty aroma wafting through the air when I would pull my mom through the grocery store and ask her to stop by BreadTalk on the way home. Similar to Hansel and Gretel, you serve yourself whatever you want and bring it up to

the cashier to pack and take home.

After several minutes of perpetual indecisiveness, I ended up picking up a piece of pizza toast and a hot dog wrapped in brioche bread. A piece of ham was sandwiched between two slices of bread, and on top of it was a melted layer of cheese, green bell peppers, corn and onions, with a drizzle of tomato sauce zig-zagged across the top. The lightly toasted, buttery bread had a crispy crust with a soft interior. The crunchiness of the bell peppers and onions contrasted nicely with the sauce, and the umami flavor of the cheese added to the saltiness and seasoning of the toast.

The moment I bit into the crispy yet moist brioche hot dog, I could tell it was well-proofed and well-fried; the flaky sea salt on the bread added to the flavor. The cross-section of the dough was laminated and soft. My only complaint would be the skewer in the middle, which made it difficult to get a full bite with both bread and hot dog inside.

Beyond that, the hot dog was the perfect balance of savory and sweet, reminiscent of my middle school lunches when my friends and I doused corn dogs in mayo.

After devouring my two treats, we walked across the Plaza into Arte 3, a coffee shop with Korean-inspired desserts and coffee. The layout of Arte 3 was quaint: the walls were lined with green plants and contrasted by whitebrick booths for patrons to sit and chat while still maintaining privacy.

Craving caffeine, I ordered a Korean iced coffee and shared a fruit and chocolate waffle with Pabbaraju and Balarajan.

For five dollars, the iced coffee from Arte 3 offered far better quantity and quality than a Kaldi’s latte. Topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries, mangoes and kiwis and presented with two scoops of vanilla and strawberry ice cream, the waffles were a huge indulgence and a must-try.

The addition of the fruit mellowed out the intense sweetness of the ice cream and chocolate, but the serving size was definitely enough for at least two or three people to share.

Assi Plaza in Duluth is a suburban gem and only a 30-minute drive away.

Though that might seem far, it takes about the same time to get to Midtown during rush hour traffic, and people still shell out Uber money to make that trip.

In the Plaza, the rows of parking spaces are neatly arranged to take up as much space as possible, and two cars can easily pass side by side. In true suburban fashion, the parking lot is the main attraction, and the stores are just side pieces.

The Plaza is a hub for vibrant and authentic Asian cuisine, first opening in 1993 with the mission of offering a

“taste of home” for Asian immigrants.

To see an almost all Asian staff behind the windows of restaurants and grocery stores was comforting.

Perhaps to people like me, whose threeperson family is somehow scattered in three different places halfway across the world, it brought up a sense of food nostalgia — the nonverbal, emotional deja vu that is deeply touching and a profound connection to my identity.

— Contact Sophia Ling at sophia.ling@emory.edu.

Sophia Ling Photo

The waffles were layered with chocolate sauce and an array of fruits like kiwis, mangoes, strawberries and bananas. On the side were two scoops of vanilla and strawberry ice cream.

“Spring Showers”

By Miranda Wilson Across

1. Tri-color flower with winter and summer varieties 6. Gush 10. day b4 tmrrw 14. Disease behind 2013-2016 epidemic which broke out mostly in Africa 15. Polish Lego competitor 16. What you need to row a boat 17. Civil rights organization cofounded by Ida B. Wells 18. Clooney known for her work in human rights 19. Dismissive sound 20. “An exponent is any number to the __ degree.”

21. Folium of a certain red flower 24. Opposite of no 25. Before a specified time 26. A hairball or an antidote 29. Mocking humor 30. Homophone of 69 across 32. Lead singer of Twisted Sister 33. “Stay in your __!”

36. Wiesel that wrote “Night” 38. Corrections 40. Kelly Clarkson was the first to hold this title 41. Speedy hedgehog 43. Forearm bone 44. Sacred flower in Buddhism and Hinduism 46. Type of graphic meant to show data quickly and clearly 47. First words of the US national anthem 48. Marvel Cinematic Universe television show about a superhero agency (abbr.)

49. Small horse 51.Department of Labor information software (abbr.)

53. What saffron comes from 55. Popular US talent competition show (abbr.)

56. sry, but idk __ that 59. Genus of flowering shrubs that belong to the olive family 62. Shortened negative response to, “Are you going?”

63. Biblical mountain 65. What you might do to please?

66. Panama or Suez waterway for boats 68. Opposite of west 69. Pest of pets 70. Fabric often used to make men’s dress pants 71. Lifting weights might make these sore 72. A cow that can’t produce milk, i.e.

73. Turkish milk with cinnamon

Down

1. Coin featuring Lincoln 2. Subside 3. __ Ark 4. Capital of Utah (abbr.)

5. “Shut your __, you’re talking too much!”

6. Type of goat that takes the blame?

7. Vanity or boastfulness 8. Popular bargaining website 9. Repetitive phrase in Doris Day’s song Que Sera Sera 10. November birthstone 11. Flowers with the scientific name Narcissi 12. Bark onomatopoeia 13. Common suffix for positions involving data or science 22. “My answer is maybe, not no _ __.”

23. Squeal of excitement 27. Healthcare company with a purple heart logo 28. To repeat something out loud 29. Famous bowler who won the BPAA seven times

30. Resembling a fish 31. Viking Erikson 33. Purple color or flower 34. Opens when another closes?

35. “Slow down there.”

37. Piece of pork 39. Pairs often described as dynamic 42. Dog breed preferred by the Queen of England 45. Make a decision __ of the moment 50. To turn into a bone 52. Quiet place to study in Emory’s

library 54. Baby horses 55. Arabic name meaning to thank or praise 56. Record from a particular year 57. What a driver might put their right foot on 58. Between your nose and chin?

60. University with the motto “Lux et veritas” 61. City in the Netherlands known for fruit production 63. Shocking sea creature 64. Sound of a sheep

Scan for answers!

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Emory Life

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 | Emory Life Editors: Oli Turner (oli.turner@emory.edu) and Xavier Stevens (xsteven@emory.edu)

Women’s History Month Spotlight Emory Life features the stories of women and their impact on the Emory community in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Emory club works to reduce healthcare disparities in Atlanta

By Sophie Reiss Contributing Writer A visit to the emergency room or doctor’s office can be inherently stressful in itself. But for non-English speakers, the stress is only multiplied by an inability to communicate effectively with healthcare providers.

The stress of language barriers can even deter non-English speakers altogether from accessing health care, according to results from a study released in July 2021 by researchers from Harvard University (Mass.) and Hunter College (N.Y.).

The study showed that Spanish speakers in America receive one-third less care than other residents. In a city where 11% of the metro area population is Hispanic, Emory University club Volunteer Medical Interpretation Services (VMIS) is working to reduce these health care disparities by volunteering their time in clinics across the city to provide medical interpretation services in Spanish and Portuguese. The clinics the club attends, such as Good Samaritan Health Center, serve Atlanta’s lowincome and Latinx populations.

VMIS Director of Finance Laura Paule (22C) said that these services

EGEWU frisbee team strives for equity on, off field

By Alison Barlow Staff Writer

Courtesy of Jamie Villalobos

Student members of Emory’s Volunteer Medical Interpretation Services club translate healthcare communications from English to Spanish or Portuguese. alleviate some of the stress nonEnglish speakers feel when visiting the doctor.

“I go into the room, and when the patient sees me, the person who’s going to be there interpreting, there’s this look of relief in their face,” Paule said. “There’s such a huge Hispanic community [in Atlanta] that are struggling with the communication barrier; that can lead to a lot of miscommunication, even for diagnoses.”

The ability to physically work in clinics and see the impact their volunteering can have on patients is a new experience for many members, as all interpretation up until recently has been conducted over the phone since March 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic.

Even during this time of virtual volunteering, Paule said that it was rewarding.

“The way the patient communicated with me… I could tell they were glad there was somebody there to help,” Paule said.

Paule first joined VMIS in 2019 after she saw her Spanish-speaking parents struggling to communicate

with doctors and hospital staff when the family first moved to America.

Paule sits on the executive board with six other women: Sharay Castanon Franco (23C), Solanch Dupeyron (23C), Rebecca Hirata (22B), Jamie Villalobos (23C) and Sofia Sarmiento (23C). Sarmiento, the VMIS director of operations, said that they did not purposefully appoint all women, but that this factor has proven to be extremely successful in creating an empowering space.

“It’s very special because a lot of times in STEM clubs and communities, there’s not a lot of space for women,” Sarmiento said, the club’s Director of Operations.

In the next year, Sarmiento will serve as the club’s president. She said that she hopes to expand the club by recruiting new members and increasing the amount of clinics the club serves.

“In our space, in our exec meetings, we always listen to each other,” Sarmiento said. ‘Everything is democratic … A lot of STEM spaces aren’t always like that.”

According to a study from the American Association of University Women, women make up only 21% of health executives and board members, even though nearly 80% of health care workers are women. The all-women executive board defies these statistics, something new VMIS member Isabela Meza Galarraga (25C) said she finds “really empowering.”

“It makes me want to be an exec member as well,” Meza Galarraga said.

“Just talking to them, they inspire me to also be in a leadership role.”

All new members must go through a 40-hour training course through ALTA Language Services to learn how to interpret in medical settings before beginning their volunteering.

Here, they are taught about things such as medical terminology and the interpreter code of ethics. When members consider the impact they can make on people’s lives, this time commitment is well worth it, according to Sarmiento.

“Everyone here has some sort of connection to the Spanish language, or Hispanic roots,” Sarmiento said.

“Our intention is to give back to a community that has given so much to us [by] helping people who would have no other way of communicating with their doctors.”

— Contact Sophie Reiss at sophie.reiss@emory.edu.

Like many club sports at Emory University, Emory’s Gender Expansive and Women’s Ultimate (EGEWU) experienced setbacks due to the pandemic. EGEWU was unable to complete their spring 2020 season, or play at all during the 2020-2021 school year. Still, EGEWU found a silver lining.

“We have left behind some of the more negative views of competition,” Grace Donahue (22C) said, explaining that the past year has seen a decidedly positive attitude amongst the team members and coaches.

The team was formerly known as Emory Women’s Ultimate (EWU), and Donahue, co-president and captain of the A-team, said that the team made a concerted effort in the past few years to shift their values concerning gender inclusivity.

“We try to foster a place where everyone can come and be themselves,” Donahue said. “We recently changed the name and mentality about gender.”

The gender-inclusive team considered many changes to their team name to welcome more people to the sport. Zoe Moskowitz (22C) described the progression of EWU to a gender-inclusive team as one of multiple iterations. The team included an “X” in their name, the universal “gender-neutral” letter, before finally settling on “EGEWU.” A longtime multi-sport athlete, Moskowitz started ultimate frisbee at Emory and has played all four years.

She said that the club sport is where she first found her sense of athletic community at Emory.

“Ultimate is the first sport where I didn’t feel any pressure,” Moskowitz said. “I never feel stressed going to practice even though we still run a lot.”

EGEWU consists of two teams: LUNA, the A-team, and TUNA, the B-team. During the fall of 2021, EGEWU practiced together as a roughly 50-person group to ensure that everyone had a foundational understanding of the rules and how ultimate frisbee is played. Toward the end of the season, the four coaches observed the players in action and then split them into two groups for the spring season.

Both Donahue and Moskowitz expressed a deep affection for the caring environment found within EGEWU. “The biggest win to me is that in our first spirit circle, so many of our teammates were talking about how much joy they got from playing,” Donahue said.

At the end of each practice, players shout out each other popcorn style, and at tournaments, players take part in a buddy system, checking in on their buddy to make sure that everyone is feeling supported for the entirety of the weekend.

This off-field chemistry has manifested itself on the field. At a recent tournament, LUNA placed

second out of a competitive six teams through their team effort.

“The chemistry and gel that we have on the field is really awesome to see,” Moskowitz said.

Beyond day-to-day actions and the team’s shift to a gender-inclusive space, EGEWU has also turned their focus to opening up the conversation about all forms of equity. EGEWU wants to meet a vision wherein “including equity has been all forms of equity,” Donahue said.

EGEWU’s coaches chose not to charge dues to make the sport more economically accessible for the wider Emory community. The club also hosted a session with Discover/ Diversity’s (D/D) founder, CEO and senior equity consultant Shanye Crawford who focuses on equity consulting in the ultimate frisbee community. D/D offers several types

Courtesy of Gena Lee

The team places emphasis on interpersonal respect and gender inclusivity.

of equity consulting, and Crawford met with EGEWU through a grant from the office of Belonging and Community Justice at Emory.

Donahue explained that there is a lot of work being done in the general ultimate community demographically.

“It has been a historically white space that we are trying to navigate and acknowledge,” Donahue said.

D/D’s consulting was very helpful in opening up EGEWU’s understanding of the future they would like to help shape within the ultimate community, Donahue added.

Both Moskowitz’s and Donahue’s spoke to the level of accountability that is fostered within ultimate frisbee. At the college level, games are self-refereed, requiring that all of the players know the rules and advocate for the right call.

“The teams are generally encouraged to be friendly to each other,” Moskowitz said. “You’re held accountable to being honest and fair and having what we call ‘good spirit.’”

This self-advocacy, accountability and emphasis on the importance of interpersonal respect clearly manifests in the way that EGEWU operates on and off the field, providing a stellar example to the Emory community that playing fields can be made more equitable by taking intentional steps toward inclusivity.

— Contact Alison Barlow at ali.barlow@emory.edu.

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The Emory Wheel

MIRANDA’S BOOKSHELF

Women-owned vegan hot dog Zadie Smith’s ‘On Beauty’ stand serves out mission of care explores femininity, womanhood

By Xavier Stevens Emory Life Editor

Steam billows in Kemi Bennings’ face as she places the carrots on the grill. Her partner, Tishona Miller, is at the front of their tent helping a student choose the perfect option of their delicacy, a vegan version of a classic American hot dog. Bennings serves up her specialty, “The ATL,” a carrot dog topped with mustard, vegan chili and slaw, and the student takes a bite and nods her approval. The dynamic duo comprise Carrot Dog, a Black, womenowned stand at the Emory Farmers Market that is widely popular among students.

Created in 2019, Carrot Dog first came to the Emory Farmers Market in February 2022. Bennings runs her small business with Miller and together they come to campus every Tuesday, often selling out. Outside of work, the two hold day jobs, with Miller working as an actress and Bennings serving as a full-time nurse and caretaker for her mother Shirley.

The stand offers four versions of their “classic dogs” at the Emory Farmers Market. The fan favorites include “The ATL” and “OG Dog,” both served with mustard, ketchup, relish and onions. On Saturdays, they take their stand to MET Atlanta in the West End where they serve up to 14 variations of their hot dogs, such as “Backyard BBQ” and “Southern Santa Fe.” Bennings makes her carrot dogs with organic carrots soaked in a brine of 16 different spices to give them a smoky taste. After leaving the brine, the carrots roast on a grill to produce an outer crunch and soft interior that bites like a hot dog.

After trying one of their “classic dogs” for the first time, a shocked customer coined Carrot Dog’s slogan: “The Best Hot Dog You’ve Never Had!” which is proudly displayed on their tent.

However, Carrot Dog is more than just great food. Bennings said she hopes to use the company’s success to address food insecurity.

“I have an interest in public wellness and how to stay healthy,” Bennings said. “We wanted to bring something as familiar as a hot dog to underserved areas to at least put a stake in changing the food desert.”

Bennings started developing a

recipe for her carrot dog in 2016 after first trying the vegan dish at Peace n’ Loaf Café in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

After a couple years of tampering with types of carrots and combinations of spices in her kitchen, Bennings forgot about her carrot dog experiment completely. That is, until 2019, when Bennings and Miller attended a bonfire where someone boasted about their carrot dog.

“Tishona was like ‘I can’t eat anything like that,’ but I said, ‘No, don’t give up hope! Why don’t you try my carrot dog?’” Bennings said. “And, it was born again.”

Bennings started to make her carrot dogs again for Miller, who fell in love with the concept. Soon after, a farmers market in East Atlanta offered

X avier Stevens/The Emory Wheel

Kemi Bennings and Tishona Miller have created the Carrot Dog, a vegan hot dog, which can be found at the Emory Farmers Market each Tuesday. an opening to Bennings. She brought along her carrot dogs and Miller, and they launched their business.

“It’s always been a huge hit,” Miller said. “Of course, some people come up, and they think it’s a hot dog. When we tell them it’s a carrot, I’ll say, ‘But you got to give it a try.’ They’ll try it, and they fall in love with it. I did.”

Miller helps Bennings operate the business from food preparation to working their booth at the farmers markets that they attend. As a womanowned small business, they said they have found a warm embrace from their communities at MET Atlanta and Emory.

“We’ve been accepted, completely accepted fully,” Miller said. “Everybody

Emory celebrates South Korean culture, tradition during Korea Week

By Krithika Shrinivas Contributing Writer Korean Undergraduate Students Association (KUSA) and Korean International Students at Emory (KISEM) hosted Korea Week, a series of cultural events from March 21 to 25.

The clubs kicked off the week of events on Monday, March 21 with Korean hot dogs, baked goods and a photo booth on Cox Bridge.

Excited by the sound of Korean pop music playing, I headed over at noon to see a bright red tent surrounded by tables. The students in charge were selling an assortment of Korean breads, and also had free snacks such as Korean candies — my favorite being the Apollo straw candy — and yogurt drinks, like Yakult. People were lined up to buy hot dogs, and laughed with their friends as they tried on decorative headbands and bandannas and took pictures in the photo zone.

One of the hosts of the event took

loves the fact that [Carrot Dog is] woman-owned and Black-owned.”

As business booms, Bennings and Miller said that they hope to find a permanent home with a kitchen to operate Carrot Dog as both a storefront and food truck. The couple often turns days of searching for a home for Carrot Dog into lunch dates.

“For me, the best part is just that I do get to work with [Bennings],” Miller said. “I get to be next to her, but we’ve also gotten closer too because we talk about the business. We both have a vision for the business, even though it’s hers, and she asks for my input and values it.”

Owning and operating a small business is grueling, Bennings said, but the couple takes off Tuesdays and

the time to explain what the different breads were to me, and I chose a red bean one. As I left the tent holding my red bean bread, candy and a drink, I was eager to see what the rest of the week would hold.

While the kick off itself was an enjoyable experience, the Korean Cultural Fair on March 23 was probably the most fun and wellorganized event that I have attended during my time at Emory.

Before the event, I was a bit worried that it would be too crowded to properly immerse myself in this cultural experience. This misconception was quickly shattered upon entering the tent, where the Cultural Fair was taking place.

I was immediately greeted by a kind Korean professor who led me over to one of the seven or so tables where two people were playing a traditional Korean board game called “yut nori.”

In the game, players would throw three wooden sticks with Korean letters on

Saturdays to work farmers markets together.

“Attracting spaces like Emory and being part of their program is all motivation to continue to put one foot in front of the other and to bring the mission of care to all,” Bennings said.

The tent is a site of good food and a good cause, and it also serves homage to Bennings’ mother.

In front of Bennings at the Carrot Dog tent, a rock sits on top of bags like a paper weight with a word written on its surface in sharpie: ‘Shirley.’

“She comes with us everywhere we go,” Bennings said.

— Contact Xavier Stevens at xsteven@emory.edu. them that served the purpose of dice, and move up the board based on the outcome of the wooden sticks. After playing a few rounds, I walked over to the “hanbok,” or Korean dress station, where a professor helped me try on my very first hanbok!

I had someone take a few pictures of me in this outfit before I was quickly ushered over to play a game of red light, green light as an homage to the popular South Korean drama, “Squid Game.” Although I was quick to “die” at the hands of a person pretending to be the gigantic baby doll, I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to play this game with others from a drama I raved about just a few months earlier.

This activity wasn’t the only “Squid Game” themed event of the night. I also played a game of “ddakji”, the recruiting game in “Squid Games” where players flip over a paper card by throwing another one on top of it with just the right amount of force and also got to make my own “dalgona” cookie!

My favorite part of the fair was the Korean calligraphy station, where participants had the opportunity to practice Korean letter writing and learn how to write their name in Korean.

One of the professors sat next to me and patiently taught me how to

By Miranda Wilson Staff Writer “It’s easy to confuse a woman for a philosophy.”

These words, penned by Zadie Smith in her book “On Beauty,” surmise the insight Smith provides on how women view themselves and how society views women.

Smith is the 2022 recipient of the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award, which “honors an important writer whose work has drawn a wide audience and who helps us understand the human condition in original and powerful ways,” according to PEN America.

Smith, currently a tenured professor at New York University, has also been listed as one of Granta’s 20 Best Young British Novelists twice, and her books have received a multitude of awards. Aside from these accolades, her 2005 novel, “On Beauty,” is a celebrated study of womanhood, race and politics.

“On Beauty” is intensely character driven. Smith drops the reader into the tumultuous life of the Belsey family, headed by Kiki Belsey, a diligent mother and nurse, as well as Howard Belsey, a professor at the college in their town. The Belseys have three children, one in high school and two in college, each characterized as authentic and relatable adolescents.

Tensions in the family arise from multiple areas: Howard has an affair with a fellow professor and Kiki befriends the wife of Howard’s most hated colleague while each of the children struggle with their own identities.

Levi, the youngest child, grapples with his identity as an upper-class Black man and feels disconnected from less fortunate Black people in his town. The middle child Zora forges an unforgettable path in the world of academia and the eldest child Jerome seeks an escape from the suffocating political beliefs of his family.

Smith also delves into the experiences of a multiracial family, as Howard, who is white, often fails to understand the Blackness his children share with his wife.

In “On Beauty,” Smith’s characters also tackle the different challenges surrounding womanhood. She provides insight into the role women write my name and the name of one of my favorite Korean actors, Hyun Bin. As an outsider to this culture, this gesture meant a lot to me, as everyone at the fair was so welcoming and accommodating to ensure that I gained something valuable out of the experience.

After playing “gonggi,” a Korean marble game, I had finished six of the seven stations on the card sheet they had given out to everyone to keep track

Natalie Sandlow/The Emory Wheel

Students try their hands at making “dalgona” cookies at the Korean Cultural Fair.

courtesy of zadiesmith.com.

Zadie Smith delves into themes of womanhood, race and politics in ‘On Beauty.’

play as mothers, wives, sisters and friends. While different archetypes of women are represented, Smith paints all of them in a positive light, emphasizing the internalized misogyny often surrounding wives of cheating husbands or stay-at-home moms.

The friendship between Kiki Belsey and the wife of Howard’s enemy, Carlene Kipps, is short-lived but revealing. Kiki and Carlene disagree on many fundamental aspects of womanhood. Carlene argues the feminine essence exists in the physical body, and Kiki believes her feminine spirit most strongly exists in her mind.

Nonetheless, the women care for each other in a nurturing and sensitive way, appreciating simply the shared experience of motherhood.

This relationship speaks to a deeper message of female connection and the bonds women create just through the knowledge of the feminine.

Smith adds new meaning to a “slice-of-life” novel, and readers are drawn into the chaotic world of the Belseys. Each character is given their own devastating and enlightening story arc, making Smith an honorable recipient of an award for those who analyze the human condition.

Smith is an integral figure to honor during Women’s History Month, as her writing captures the struggle and beauty of modern-day issues surrounding womanhood.

4 / 5 stars

— Contact Miranda Wilson at miranda.wilson@emory.edu. of their involvement. This qualified me for one of the many prizes at the front desk.

There was a jar filled with post-it notes, of which many post-it notes were left blank. Grabbing a blank sticky note earned students a complimentary prize such as a pair of BTS- themed socks, a sheet face mask and instant noodle cups. However, choosing one of the four sticky notes with a number written on them would reward you with larger prizes such as a Kakao Friends fleece throw, a lamp shaped like toast or a Kakao Friends themed water bottle. It was certainly my lucky day, as I grabbed the former and won myself the coveted Kakao friends fleece throw. I also won a round of applause as a volunteer took a picture of me and my prize.

As I grabbed my belongings and thanked everyone for the lovely experience, I was left with a sense of appreciation for everything that I had learned that afternoon and was touched by the kindness and hospitality of the students and professors. I would highly recommend that everyone on campus attends the fair next year for a fun experience and wonderful people.

— Contact Krithika Shrinivas at krithika.shrinivas@emory.edu.

SPORTS

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

19

Female athletes continue the fight for equal recognition

Continued from Back Page Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, where she’s played since 2014 pays millions. Diana Taurasi reportedly made $1.5 million playing for the team in 2015. Griner’s detainment in Russia was quickly forgotten by most while she remains in custody with an uncertain future.

This is in stark contrast to when LiAngelo Ball, then a University of California, Los Angeles basketball player and now a current NBA G League player, was detained in China for shoplifting along with two of his teammates. They were bailed out of jail in less than a day and flown home as President Trump took credit for their return to the United States. Ball’s extraction from China took a few days whereas Griner has been left in Russia with accompanying silence from the United States media.

In addition to unequal pay and recognition, unequal conditions are also fairly common in women’s sports. In March 2021, the NCAA was exposed for their unfair treatment of female athletes during the NCAA Tournament. Players posted on social media to share the differences between the men’s and women’s merchandise, weight rooms and meals.

For example, the women’s weight room had a small rack of dumbbells along with a few yoga mats, while the men had a large weight room filled with squat racks. This year, the NCAA made sure to provide equal resources, but it took public pressure to cause this change.

There have been huge advancements in equality for women’s sports

over the years. Title IX was passed in 1972 for equal funding and athletic opportunities. The creation of the Women’s Foundation in 1974 by female tennis icon Billie Jean King was another milestone in supporting women’s participation in sports.

Also, the settlement for the USWNT and equal pay was a huge step for equality.

However, there is still a long way to go for equality. A large pay gap between male and female athletes, unequal conditions and unfair media coverage still persist.

My women’s soccer team assistant coach at Emory University, Catherine Whitehill, is a female athlete legend.

She was a star of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill team, helping them earn NCAA Division I national titles in 2001 and 2003.

Whitehill was a 10-year member of the USWNT, ultimately helping Team USA win the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic games.

“The women of today are entering this whole new realm of possibility to have equal pay, to stand up for themselves,” Whitehill said in an interview with the Wheel. “I want to encourage that because we need more female voices out there.”

Whitehill also discussed that playing professionally was always a dream of hers and her teammates, but that the opportunity was not always there. Whitehill wanted change for future generations and improvements with Title IX, and that was one of the reasons why she spoke in front of Congress with athletes like Billie Jean King, gym-

nast Dominique Dawes and softball player Jennie Finch.

For true change to happen, laws need to be implemented. The Equal Rights Act (ERA) was passed by the Senate in 1972 and sent to Congress, but was never ratified and included in the U.S. Constitution. The ERA was designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. Without the ERA, women are not guaranteed equal rights to men by the U.S. law. Women have had to work so hard to just be able to play sports, but they are not getting the attention, pay or conditions that they deserve.

Being a female athlete, I have been discouraged to see my female athlete role models working so hard, but getting paid a fraction of the men’s salaries. However, there are female athletes that I look up to, such as my coach Catherine Whitehill, that inspire me. The opportunity to lead and be a part of change makes me excited for the future of female sports.

I remember being a kid and getting asked the million-dollar question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Grown-ups would laugh when I would say, “a professional women’s athlete.” Hopefully, there comes a day when a young girl would not get laughed at for wanting this career. I hope my childhood dream of making a career out of my favorite sport will be a viable option for generations to come.

— Contact Grace Reyer at grace.reyer@emory.edu

‘Playing like a girl’ DEI finally becoming a focus for NASCAR something to be proud of Continued from Back Page

Continued from Back Page Felix revealed the pay discrimination she faced during her pregnancy, companies only revised their maternity policies due to immense public outcry.

The swift and unforgiving pay cuts Felix and other Nike-sponsored athletes, many of whom were women of color, received upon becoming mothers unambiguously proclaimed that when female athletes prioritize their womanhood, their worth decreases.

Meanwhile, nonbinary and transgender athletes can struggle to find their place in an industry that seeks to definitively place athletes into one of two gender categories.

Female athletes face an impossible catch-22: their displays of speed and strength aren’t masculine enough to warrant intrigue and media coverage, yet they aren’t allowed to fully explore their femininity. Even when their playing days are behind them, they face undue criticism and scrutiny over how they present themselves, especially women of color. Texas A&M University assistant women’s basketball coach Sydney Carter was branded “unprofessional” for donning pink pants and heels during a game; meanwhile, nobody bats an eye when male coaches pace the sidelines sporting sweatpants.

Being a female athlete can also be degrading and sometimes outright dangerous. Former Vanderbilt University (Tenn.) goalkeeper Sarah Fuller was lampooned online, mostly by men diminishing her accomplishment, after she became the first woman to score in a Power 5 college football game. Male authority figures can abuse young female athletes for years without facing consequences.

The sports community praised NBA forward Kevin Love, a white man,

for coming forward about his mental health struggles, but professional tennis player Naomi Osaka, a Hatian and Japanese woman, faced ridicule and disparagement.

Although male athletes have the upper hand when it comes to physical strength, the emotional and mental fortitude female athletes possess is far more impressive. To constantly be defending your right to equal recognition and protection is an exhausting burden, and it doesn’t get any easier in the male-dominated sports arena. I am continuously disappointed to see the female athletes I idolize not only be relegated to back-page news stories and secondary sports channels, but also dismissed as inherently mediocre.

Certainly, women’s sports are far more visible and celebrated today than they were when I was growing up.

More and more female athletes are proving they can be global icons who transcend athletics, achieve a worklife balance and do what was formerly impossible.

I want my little sister and all young girls to see that female athletes can be more than just successful: they can be the standard, regardless of gender. I want them to see that playing sports as a girl does not deserve ridicule or mockery — it is something worthy of praise. I want them to know that their perseverance in the face of opposition defines their worth, not their ability to keep up with the boys.

After all, of course female athletes throw, hit, run, shoot and play like a girl. That is all that should be asked of them, because that is more than enough.

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

diversity in the sport.

NASCAR, a historically white, Southern sport, has been forced to reckon with its culture that excluded drivers and fans of color. The sport was established in the South in the 1940s with the Confederate flag prominent among audiences, and this culture persisted in the sport for decades.

NASCAR began its diversity program in 2004, but the success was slow with much of the progress taking place only in the last two years. In June of 2020, NASCAR finally moved to ban Confederate flags from all race tracks after Bubba Wallace, the lone black driver in NASCAR, called for its sanction.

“NASCAR has a history. Many people have negative perceptions of it, and a lot of [those negative perceptions] are earned,” Grant said. “But we are doing our best to change that, especially for underrepresented communities.”

As a member of NASCAR’S Diversity and Inclusion team for over five years, Grant spreads awareness about the sport in minority communities through community events, vendor opportunities and internships. The team hopes to create more inclusion within the sport and its audience that was long exclusively white.

“DEI in the NASCAR community has always stood for Dale Earnhardt Incorporated,” Mike Ziegler, Vice President of Corporate Sales at Atlanta Motor Speedway, said. “We need more focus on D[iversity], E[quity], and I[nclusion]. We have to be honest; we have not been really good at it. It starts with the awareness that we serve a broader community.”

In recent years, the Atlanta Motor Speedway has been rebranded as an entertainment venue to bring circuses, fairs, the Atlanta Marathon and more to draw in a broader community. The biggest venture, however, started with the track.

X avier Stevens/Emory Life Editor

Dion Williams, a pioneer for black participation in NASCAR, speaks with journalism students from Morehouse College about the changing audience of the sport.

In 2021, the track of the Atlanta Speedway] 18 years ago, I felt like Motor Speedway received its first chocolate chip in vanilla ice cream.” repavement and facelift since 1996 Williams believes that NASCAR’s when the city hosted the Olympic exposure and fan base increased Games. The banked turns increased among minority communities with from 24 degrees to 28 degrees to force the success of Wallace and Michael the drivers to race closer together at Jordan founding the 23XI Racing faster speeds. team.

“It’s great for people who know and Grant and the NASCAR’s Diversity don’t know racing to see something so and Inclusion team recognize the jourcool,” former NASCAR crew member ney as arduous but dedicated to alloDion Williams said. cating the proper amounts of time Williams is a black pioneer in the and money towards attracting diverse sport, serving on pit crews for over communities to the sport. Their ‘Drive 16 years, including 10 years with for Diversity’ program provides free NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon’s team. extensive training for those in minorAfter playing college football at Wake ity communities to reach the highest Forest University (N.C.), he made an levels of the sport. unexpected career change in 2004.

“We are no different. We like speed In the early 2000s, NASCAR began too,” Erik Moses said. Moses was recruiting athletes of all races to join named the track president of Nashville pit crews, the team that changes the Super Speedway in 2020, and car’s heavy tires at blinding speeds NASCAR’s first Black track president. to gain precious milliseconds on the My conversation with Moses was competition. Williams beamed with a interrupted by the roar of the trucks. smile as he talked to my class about Our heads followed, as they blazed by NASCAR’s increasingly diverse crew. for another lap.

“I see more and more people actually coming from Atlanta,” Williams — Contact Xavier Stevens at said. “When I came to Atlanta [Motor xavier.stevens@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Sports

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 | Sports Editors: Jenna Daly (jenna.daly@emory.edu) & Claire Fenton (claire.fenton@emory.edu)

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

The casual cruelty of the phrase ‘throw like a girl’

By Claire Fenton Sports Editor

“You throw like a girl!”

When I was younger, I learned to anticipate this banter from the boys in my life. I grew up with many uncles and cousins who were former high school and collegiate athletes, and the girls were always expected to keep up with the boys. My dad prioritized teaching me how to catch a football, dribble a basketball and hit a baseball as soon as I was physically capable. My younger brother and I constantly competed in athletic contests, and were evenly matched in all of them.

At family gatherings, it was tradition to organize backyard wiffle ball games. Inevitably, the boys would nonchalantly catch my pop flies and easily beat my throws to first base, at which point one of them would remind me of my inadequacy: “You play like a girl!”

“But I am a girl!” I’d scream back, confused and frustrated by the impossibility of matching the boys’ athleticism. Each passing year only exacerbated the hopelessness I felt as I watched my brothers, cousins and male peers become exponentially taller, stronger and faster than me.

In high school, I played basketball games in nearly empty gymnasiums.

The crowds only began to trickle in during the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, hoping to secure their seats before the boys’ game began.

Ha-tien Nguyen/Staff Illustrator

Even professional athletes struggle to shake the stigma of ‘playing like a girl.’ (Athletes pictured, from left: Sarah Fuller, Allyson Felix and Mo’ne Davis) At home I would scroll through the TV channels in search of broadcasts of women’s college games and rarely found one. “Playing like a girl” had once seemed like a trifling insult, but it proved to be a prophetic warning: female athletes cease to be interesting when they can no longer keep up with the boys.

When Mo’ne Davis burst onto the Little League World Series scene in 2014, I was in awe of her confidence and ability to hold her own in the boys’ club that is baseball. Although

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Imagine the heights female athletes could reach with investment

By Grace Reyer Staff Writer

LeBron James is arguably the best basketball player of all time. James makes $41,180,544 a year just based on his salary alone, making him one of the highest paid NBA players. That’s the equivalent of about $21,000 per hour for a 40-hour workweek.

Diana Taurasi is one of the best female basketball players of all time.

Taurasi makes $228,094 per year making her one of the WNBA’s top paid players. That’s the equivalent of $120 per hour for a 40-hour workweek.

Unequal pay is a key issue in gender discrimination in sports, but women also face unequal recognition for similar accomplishments.

Everyone knows LeBron James, but most people have probably never heard of Diana Taurasi. Women make up 40% of all athletes in the world, yet only receive 4% of sports media coverage. Female role models are crucial for young female athletes, and many girls struggle to see that their dreams are possible with such little media attention.

As a young female athlete, I am very aware of how poorly female athletes are treated compared to male athletes.

My dream was always to become a professional athlete, a dream shared by most athletes when they are young.

But sadly, this dream faded away as I grew up and became aware of the limited opportunities offered to female athletes. Even many of the opportunities that do exist do not offer a feasible career financially.

Jessica McDonald, a professional women’s soccer player on the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT), said that she had to work for Amazon packing boxes for 10 hours a day while training young children and going to her own practices just to earn a sufficient income to raise her son.

Fortunately, McDonald is a part of the group of women on the USWNT that sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for unequal pay which resulted in a $24 million settlement this past February.

However, it has been a long journey for these female athletes to get reparations.

More recently, seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Britney Griner has been detained in Russia for having vape cartridges containing the marijuana concentrate hashish oil in her luggage. Griner had been playing overseas in Russia during her offseason to make extra money, and now she is in custody in a country that is currently at war. In 2021, Griner made a little over $221,000 on the WNBA team Phoenix Mercury, while her

See UNEQUAL, Page 19

I looked up to her, I recognized that following in her footsteps would lead me to a dead end. I knew that the time would come when the athletic gap between Davis and her male teammates would be insurmountable. Eventually, biology would push even a player of her caliber out of baseball and, consequently, she would no longer be noteworthy.

Davis, who now plays softball at Hampton University (Va.), once appeared to be an exception to the rule. But at no fault of her own she

succumbed to a phenomenon common among young female athletes: when you are a girl, you will never be good enough to exist in the male-dominated sports world.

The incessant bombardment of male-dominated primetime television broadcasts, merchandise and commercials teach girls that athletic excellence is unattainable. ESPN’s list of the Top 20 Athletes from 1995-2015 featured just two women, with Serena Williams, the only woman of color, claiming the higher spot at No. 6.

When women are excluded from conversations about the greatest athletes of all time, young girls with dreams of athletic renown feel that the most they can hope to achieve is second-rate status.

There is little infrastructure for women to play professional sports in the United States, which means that the highest competition they can aspire to reach is the collegiate level. Unfortunately, the NCAA has repeatedly treated its female athletes like afterthoughts. Perhaps the most embarrassing display of disrespect is the stark difference between the amenities provided at the College World Series (CWS) and the Women’s College World Series (WCWS).

Baseball players receive complementary golf outings, massages and banquets on their off days. Softball players must weather doubleheaders and play in stadiums without bathrooms or showers.

These disparities persist even though the 2021 WCWS garnered an average of 1.2 million viewers per game compared to the 2021 CWS average of 755,000. Despite evidence to the contrary, the inequitable treatment of female athletes brands women’s sports as inherently lesser to men’s.

Additionally, female athletes who attempt to place their personal desires above their athletic performance risk losing financial support. When seventime Olympin gold medalist Allyson

See PLAYING, Page 19

NASCAR

NASCAR works to rectify checkered past

By Xavier Stevens Emory Life Editor

It was a perfect day for racing at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. Fans spread out in the grandstands under clear skies and in the infield, a crowd made up of family and friends of the drivers, media and pit crews pushed up against the pit lane barrier. Everyone was looking at one thing, but no one said a word. No one could.

A pack of 36 modified-racing trucks launched out of their last turn at

around 150 miles-per-hour and roared in front of the stands. The leaders crossed the finish line to begin another lap, and each head in the crowd turned to follow the trucks’ paths.

On March 19, Atlanta Motor Speedway hosted the Fr8 208, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Corey Heim, a 19-year old Georgia native, recorded the first win of his professional racing career. But for the officials at NASCAR, the race was more than the result. The event marked a revival of racing in Atlanta when NASCAR, and its audience, is

changing more than ever.

Caryn Grant, senior manager of NASCAR Diversity and Inclusion, led my journalism class from Morehouse College (Ga.) around the track to understand the sport from a unique angle.

We toured the broadcast operations, media room and pit lane where we saw and heard the race trucks up close.

My class interviewed the NASCAR Diversity and Inclusion team about their initiatives and met pioneers of

See DEI, Page 19

Courtesy of A ndy Harris/The Maroon Tiger

A pit crew prepares to refeul and repair a car coming in from the track during the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race.