February 2nd, 2022

The Emory Wheel 100 Years of

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Volume 103, Issue 2

Emory to eliminate need-based loans this fall

By Matthew Chupack & Madi Olivier News Editor & Asst. News Editor Emory University announced on Monday that undergraduate students’ need-based loans will be replaced by institutional grants and scholarships beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.

An expansion of the Emory Advantage program, this change will automatically apply to every undergraduate student who is eligible for institutional needbased aid.

Under the expanded plan, Emory estimates that about 3,300 undergraduates’ need-based loans will be replaced by grants, doubling the current number.

“For Emory to fulfill our mission of serving humanity in all that we do, we are continuing to invest in making an Emory education affordable to talented students of all financial backgrounds,” University President Gregory L. Fenves wrote in the Jan. 31 announcement.

“By eliminating need-based loans for undergraduates, our students have the opportunity to earn their Emory degrees with less debt as they embark on their extraordinary journeys after graduation.”

Emory currently awards undergraduates about $143 million annually in need-based aid. Under the expanded program, the University expects to award $151 million.

In a message to the Wheel, Alumnus Maureen Kimani (08C) wrote that she is “extremely proud” of the advancements the University has made in the 18 years since she graduated. “[I’m] very excited to hear Emory has made it a priority to ensure talented students of all socioeconomic backgrounds are able to attend despite the cost of tuition,” Kimani said. “I think it will help… diversify the college as historically, students from more privileged backgrounds made up the

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majority of the student body.”

Each year, Emory provides around $353 million in institutional grants and scholarships for undergraduate, graduate and professional students.

Students are also awarded $9.7 million in federal grants and scholarship aid, $8 million of which are Pell grants, as well as $6 million in state grants.

Emory Advantage, which was started in 2007, is intended to help families with annual total incomes of $100,000 or less who demonstrate a need for financial aid. The program’s goal is to help students graduate with little or no debt.

Alumnus Sarah Lynne DiFranco (99B) wrote to the Wheel that she finds the change “wonderful,” as it will help students afford to attend Emory without being “saddled with debt.”

While in college, DiFranco had work study jobs and waited tables but still graduated with loans totalling more than her annual salary at her first job. She had to attend law school at a cheaper state institution and take out additional loans, all of which she paid off by 2021.

“It will allow those who would otherwise not afford an Emory education get one without starting their careers with significant debt and monthly payments that may be unworkable on a young professional’s salary,” DiFranco said.

To be considered for the Emory Advantage Program, new students must fill out the College Scholarship Service Profile and Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Iliyah Bruffett (22C) said she is hopeful for the opportunity to graduate with little to no debt. She also said the announcement provided her some “relief,” as she is considering taking a gap year before continuing her education to manage the upcoming loans.

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Rollins receives largest donation in school history

Courtesy of Emory University

University President Gregory L. Fenves stands outside the Rollins School of Public Health with school leaders in celebration of the largest donation in the school’s history.

By Madi Olivier Asst. News Editor The O. Wayne Rollins Foundation committed $100 million to the Rollins School of Public Health, University President Gregory Fenves announced Monday at an event celebrating the largest donation in the school’s history.

Fenves’ speech was cut off as the auditorium — which was full of public health students and Rollins administrators — erupted into applause for 20 seconds straight.

The money will go towards establishing two endowment funds for students and faculty, Fenves said.

The Rollins Fund for Student Success will be used to double the number of merit scholarships given to public health students. The school will also provide students with career-enhancing experiences through the Rollins Earn and Learn work-study and global field experience funds.

“The Rollins endowment will also allow us to tap into the recent explosion in interest among students in the field of public health that has occurred, of course, because we are still in the middle of a global pandemic,” Fenves said.

The second fund, called the Rollins Fund for Faculty Excellence, will be

Emory Law Journal drops ‘hurtful’ article denying systemic racism

dedicated to “recruiting and retaining exceptional senior faculty” by nearly doubling the number of the school’s endowed faculty positions and providing early career support for junior faculty.

“Not only will this fund empower our outstanding public health experts in addressing the most pressing public health challenges through their research, fieldwork and teaching,” Fenves explained.

“It will fuel development, allowing us to attract and retain brilliant professors and researchers: key priorities within the Rollins school so the school can reach even greater heights of excellence and impact.”

Fenves said the donation will open the door to a new phase of the public health school.

The Rollins family has a long history of philanthropy at the school. Since 1992, they have given Emory $125 million to construct buildings for the school, including the Grace Crum Rollins Building, the Claudia Nance Rollins Building and the R. Randall Rollins Building, which is currently under construction.

They have also gifted the school $100,000 to establish the O. Wayne and Grace Crum Rollins Endowment Fund, which is now worth over $30 million, and $10 million to establish the James W.

By Matthew Chupack & Madi Olivier News Editor & Asst. News Editor

Following a semester marked by a reinvigorated debate about academic freedom and the use of slurs in classrooms, the Emory University School of Law began the spring semester under a national spotlight.

The Emory Law Journal faced scrutiny from law professors nationwide after editors refused to publish an article by a California law professor that they determined to be “hurtful and unnecessarily divisive.”

Larry Alexander, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, submitted an article to the publication in which he asserted that systemic racism does not exist.

After Alexander refused to remove parts of the piece that denied the existence of systemic racism the journal retracted its offer to publish the article.

The article, titled “Michael Perry and Disproportionate Racial Impact,” was supposed to be part of a collection

honoring retiring Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law Michael Perry, who specializes in constitutional law and human rights theory.

As is common for symposiums honoring a scholar, the publication invited legal scholars to submit articles that reflect on the scholar’s work, the law school told the Wheel. The process did not follow the journal’s typical selection process, which involves individuals submitting articles as

Last November, the Student Bar Association (SBA), Emory Law School’s student government, rejected a charter request by the Emory Free Speech Forum (EFSF), a nonpartisan student group committed to providing a platform for different perspectives on various issues.

Now, the governing body is under fire from national free speech organizations accusing the group — and by extension, Emory University — of infringing on their rights to free speech and academic freedom.

SBA, composed of around 30 students, held two chartering hearings for the forum, on Oct. 20 and Nov. 3, both times voting against the charter request. In a letter to the free speech group, SBA wrote that it denied the charter because the group’s goals overlapped with other established clubs. SBA also said it was also concerned with the lack of safeguards, such as moderators, to facilitate discussions.

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SBA denies charter for free speech club

By Matthew Chupack & Madi Olivier News Editor & Asst. News Editor

opposed to being asked.

Alexander’s article argued against Perry’s renowned legal theory, Disproportionate Racial Impact, which is a framework to test if laws disproportionately benefit or harm one race even if they do not directly utilize race as a selection factor.

In refuting this theory, Alexander argued against the case for reparations

Curran Scholarship Fund.

“This partnership has been critical in making the Rollins School of Public Health one of the top public health schools in America,” Goddard said.

Both Curran and the Rollins family received standing ovations during their introductions.

Chairman of the Woodruff Health Science Committee John Rice, who is also a cabinet member for Emory’s latest fundraising campaign, 2036, said the donation is a “pacesetter” to strengthen the individual schools’ endowments and shift the University’s focus on investing in “our people, our students and our faculty.”

“This is just the next step in the commitment that the Rollins family has made to Emory and the School of Public Health,” Rice said. “This endowment will change the lives of students and faculty forever, and it’s the wonderful thing about building the endowment. It’s the gift that keeps giving.”

Rice also credited the school’s success to Dean of Rollins School of Public Health James Curran, who has been the dean for over 25 years and is retiring soon. He will be replaced by the incoming dean, Dani Fallin, on July 1. She is currently the chair of the Department of Mental Health at

Having a charter would mean that the organization could receive University funding, use University spaces and advertise at the school’s activity fair.

After leaving the first hearing, the forum’s president, Michael Reed-Price (24L), said he was concerned that SBA members were not as enthused about free speech as he expected.

“SBA doesn’t have to agree with us, they just have to appreciate our ability to have these conversations,” ReedPrice said.

The group’s vice president MacKinnon Westraad (24L) said the forum’s purpose was to allow students “to hear the minority opinion, hear the opposing side, be enlightened on all sides of the story.”

Some First Amendment scholars have sided with the forum, arguing that SBA’s actions violated free expression principles because SBA functions as a governing body for the University.

Though the forum is not chartered, the organization still plans to hold meetings off campus.

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Free speech experts argue against SBA’s chartering decision

A ngel Li/Illustrator

Continued from Page 1 SBA’s concerns SBA, which unanimously rejected EFSF’s charter request in the first hearing, argued that certain debates about identity cannot occur in a safe way, as proposed by the forum.

“It is disingenuous to suggest that certain topics of discussion you considered, such as race and gender, can be pondered and debated in a relaxed atmosphere when these issues directly affect and harm your peers’ lives in demonstrable and quantitative ways,” SBA wrote in the letter.

The Wheel reached out to SBA President Jadyn Taylor (23L) and three other board members for interviews, all of whom denied to comment or did not respond.

Anticipating this concern, ReedPrice said the forum “made it very clear that our goal is not to inflame [but] to be bridge builders, be unifying, by letting different voices and perspectives be heard.”

Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law David Partlett, the forum’s faculty sponsor and former dean of the law school, said SBA’s decision was disappointing.

“I’m not at all a supporter of rightwing agendas, or any other agenda, but a support of people engaging in free speech and intelligent, cogent arguments around the issues of the day,” Partlett said. “If law students aren’t encouraged to do this, there is something wrong with legal education.”

Reed-Price said SBA’s indication that these topics shouldn’t be talked about is “a shame to the idea of a University where you examine ideas critically.” He also viewed SBA’s

suggestion to implement mediators as “condescending.”

“A mediator is going to tell us how we can say things and what we can say, which is antithetical to the whole idea,” Reed-Price said. “We would just want … to be treated like adults who can handle ourselves having academic, intellectual conversations.”

SBA also wrote that the forum “overlap[s] considerably” with several other organizations at the law school, which came as a surprise to Reed-Price, who said there was no nonpartisan discourse, free speech or First Amendment organization at the activity fair.

He also believes the forum does not overlap with clubs like the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society because it is nonpartisan.

Involvement of free speech experts The forum took SBA’s critiques and edited its proposal, presenting it at a second hearing on Nov. 3. Westraad said the group was denied a charter shortly after without an explanation from the SBA. Confused by the rationale behind SBA’s issues, the forum subsequently communicated concerns to law school administrators. The group’s leaders scheduled a meeting with Law School Dean Mary Anne Bobinski which was canceled at the last minute without explanation, according to Reed-Price and Westraad. They said they have not heard from the administration since.

Bobinski did not respond to the Wheel’s request for comment.

The forum then contacted free speech organizations, the Foundation

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Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), for assistance in communicating with administrators.

Managing Director of the Legal Network at FAIR Letitia Kim wrote a letter to Taylor on Jan. 18, urging the board to reverse their decision to reject the free speech forum’s charter proposal.

“Over its history, the SBA has approved student organizations with a broad range of focuses, including aviation, LGBTQ+ issues, banking and finance, entertainment, national security and many others,” Kim wrote in the letter. “Noticeably absent is a group whose purpose is to share diverse perspectives, participate in civil dialogue despite those differences, and learn from each other. The EFSF would fill that space.”

On Nov. 1, FIRE Senior Program Officer Zach Greenberg wrote a letter addressed to Taylor and the rest of SBA explaining why he believes the governing body violated EFSF’s rights.

Greenberg said he believes the SBA violated Emory’s Respect for Open Expression Policy and Law Student Handbook by denying a charter on the basis of the group’s goals.

While Emory does not have to enforce the First Amendment as a private institution, Greenberg said the school’s open expression policies mean Emory is “morally and legally obligated to provide students free speech rights” through groups like EFSF. “Student governments through the university cannot deny groups, cannot reject their recognition, because of the viewpoints or the mission statement of the group, which is good because

groups should be recognized in a viewpoint-neutral manner,” Greenberg said. After FIRE did not receive a response from SBA, Greenberg sent the letter to Bobinski but did not hear back.

In a statement to the Wheel, the law school said the University announced a pandemic-related moratorium on the chartering of new student groups, which is in effect until at earliest March 15.

The law school’s statement did not address last fall’s developments, when the initial hearings took place.

Value of free speech on campus John Wilson, a former fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, also said denying a charter to EFSF violates the principles of free expression. While he said that individuals like professors have power within their individual realms like classrooms, he said this power does not extend to institutions like SBA that have purview over organizations as a whole.

“What a free University has to stand for is giving people the freedom to do things that some people may think are hurtful or insensitive,” Wilson said.

“The freedom of expression belongs to those individuals of the student groups, of those organizations and not to the institution.”

Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles Eugene Volokh said that SBA operates on an institutional level since it exercises governance power within the University. Therefore, he said that SBA’s denial to recognize EFSF violated academic freedom, given the

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government’s hesitancy to see race and gender be freely debated.

Volokh continued that free speech at a law school is vital for students to become effective lawyers because an attorney needs to understand the other side’s arguments to best argue their own position.

“I’m afraid that the law school student government is promoting an attitude that is going to ultimately be more harmful to people’s abilities as lawyers and to those people’s clients precisely because it leads them to think that the right thing to do is to shield themselves and to shield others from views they find offensive,” Volokh said.

Students could also be reluctant to engage in challenging discourse out of fear that they will be boycotted or alienated by their peers, Volokh added.

Therefore, he argued that free speech originating from a neutral body like EFSF is necessary to broaden the scope of campus discussions.

Beyond the material importance of difficult conversations and the vitality of upholding the First Amendment on college campuses, Reed-Price emphasized free speech as a quintessential mechanism to unite individuals.

“Free speech can be unifying and can be a real bridge builder because when you have these conversations you learn that people are more than their beliefs,” Reed-Price said. “Learning where people come from — standing in their shoes — is a great way to increase tolerance and understanding of other people.”

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu and Madi Olivier at madi.olivier@emory.edu

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‘Hurtful and unnecessarily divisive’: Law school sides with journal Continued from Page 1 and stated that wealth and educational gaps for Black people were not due to historic discrimination and segregation.

“Blacks as a group are doing better than ever before materially. And for those who are not doing well, the cause is not the effects of slavery or Jim Crow,” Alexander wrote in the article.

“Nor is the cause racist bigotry, which, though some undoubtedly exists, is not a significant obstacle in blacks’ lives.

Nor is it the vague culprit of ‘systemic racism.’”

In an interview with the Wheel, Alexander said he believes there is no “such thing as systemic racism,” and “challenged anyone to show exactly which system is racist.”

Perry declined to comment, indicating that it would not be constructive for him to comment on controversy that is supposed to be celebrating his career. Neither the journal’s Editor-in-Chief Danielle Goldstein (22B, 22L) nor Executive Articles Editor Shawn Ren (22L) responded to the Wheel’s requests for comment.

After the editors of the journal flagged Alexander’s piece to the executive board, Executive Symposium Editor Sami Harrell (22L) said they sent the piece back to Alexander with significant edits, altering language like his referral to Black people as “blacks.”

The largest edit removed the final section of Alexander’s three-part paper, which included his views on systemic racism.

“It was very inflammatory language and language that can’t be supported academically,” Harrell said. “I found the article to be racist. I know that we had previously put out a statement of anti-racism, so I took issue with that.”

The journal’s board also criticized the lack of citations and scholarly merit, Harrell said.

Alexander said after he submitted the article, he received a memo from the editors stating that he could ignore suggested changes, so he did not acknowledge the edits.

But when Alexander sent his article back without changes, he received an email from the journal stating the executive board “unanimously stated they do not feel comfortable publishing this piece as written.”

They said that while they believed there were “fair points of intellectual disagreement,” the piece would need to be revised heavily.

“We take issue with your conversation on systemic racism, finding your words hurtful and unnecessarily divisive,” the journal stated in the email to Alexander.

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The Emory Law Journal faced academic and public criticism after the publication refused to publish a piece challenging the idea of systemic racism. The journal’s editors said that the decision was made because the author refused to make changes necessary for publication.

“Additionally, there are various instances of insensitive language use throughout the essay … And, crucially, the discussion on racism is not strongly connected to your commentary on Professor Perry’s work.”

Alexander responded to the email reiterating his disagreement before communication ceased. His article will not be included in the publication, according to Harrell.

He believes members of the law review who did not support his argument and wanted to “censor” it.

“People don’t like to hear the kind of argument I was making,” Alexander said. “Sometimes when you say something that’s true, people don’t like to hear it.”

Harrell, however, said that while she does not agree with the points made in Alexander’s piece, she does not believe this is a free speech issue.

Harrell also said that it is important for all members of the journal to feel comfortable with the content it publishes, stating, “It is the name of the ELJ ultimately attached to it.”

The law school, meanwhile, supported the journal’s decision.

“The editorial board’s requested changes were not intended to censor the author, but rather to ask that the author address concerns regarding the degree to which the submission met the quality and sourcing standards of the Journal and properly focused on the impact of Professor Perry’s scholarship,” the law school wrote to the Wheel. “The students carried out their responsibilities to ensure the high quality of the work published in the

The Emory Wheel Volume 103, Number 2 © 2022 The Emory Wheel Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322 Business (404) 727-6178 Editors-in-Chief Isaiah Poritz iporitz@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.

Journal in a professional manner.”

Criticisms of the Emory Law Journal Shortly after the journal dropped Alexander’s article, two additional invitees — law professors Andrew Koppelman from Northwestern University (Ill.) and Steven Smith from the University of San Diego — retracted their articles from the journal in protest of the publication’s decision.

Two additional authors requested statements of protest to be attached to their submissions, which Harrell said will be included.

Smith, a colleague of Alexander who is also politically conservative, was the first to withdraw.

“This kind of censorship is becoming more common and is a very unfortunate development, so I didn’t really want to be part of something that was exercising that sort of censorship,” Smith said.

Koppelman, who is politically liberal, followed soon after. He said he initially hoped emailing the journal about his decision to rescind the article would cause the editors to “anticipate a cascade of protest and withdrawal and scandal” and change their minds. When that did not happen, Koppelman withdrew entirely.

“If nobody else pulled their article, then it would only be two conservative professors at San Diego who pulled their articles, and that would lead to this inaccurately being portrayed as a left-right conflict, which it shouldn’t be,” Koppelman said. “For that reason, I thought that it would help to have somebody on the left who was joining them.”

Koppelman has disagreed with Alexander on several past occasions, and he disagreed with many arguments Alexander made in his article, such as his claim that people should oppose reparations for slavery. However, Koppelman said the issue was not political, as he was standing up for free speech and discourse.

“The view of the [journal] is that if something is hurtful, you ought not to say it, even if it’s true, and even if knowing about it is important to address a pressing social problem.”

Koppelman said. “I don’t want law review editors who think like that. It mutilates our thought processes.”

Alexander said that while seeing

Smith and Koppelman retract their articles in protest was “gratifying,” he believes they were supporting something much bigger than him — a principle of free academic inquiry and exchange.

“I hope I would do the same thing if the situation were reversed,” Alexander said.

Alexander, Smith and Koppelman’s articles will instead be published in the Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues at the University of San Diego.

Harrell said losing the articles written by the trio has not affected the journal’s publication time, and they are not seeking replacements.

While Harrell disagrees with their sentiments, she said it was ultimately their decision to make.

“A decision to not publish is in itself a statement, an act of speech,” Harrell said.

Alexander said confronting uncomfortable arguments through free academic exchange is bigger than the journal.

“The sense of self righteousness and the refusal to confront alternative positions, I think that disease has spread far and wide,” Alexander said.

“I don’t know that this incident is going to be a cure for that.”

Supporting the Emory Law Journal John Wilson, a 2019-20 fellow at the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, also explained that while the student editors could have handled the situation a little better, their actions did not violate free speech.

“The obligation of an editor is to not just print anything they receive, but to engage in a process of editing,” Wilson said. “What the editors were doing was a pretty reasonable approach to what I thought was a very flawed article.”

Wilson contended that much of the critiques on the law journal focused less on editors’ actions than on the editors’ language — particularly critiquing Alexander’s article as “hurtful and unnecessarily divisive” about systemic racism not being real and containing “insensitive language” such as “blacks.”

“It did, I think, spark a lot of the suspicion that they had ulterior motives, that they were doing this for political reasons rather than for editorial reasons,” Wilson said.

However, Wilson added that the

editors should not have told Alexander that he did not need to accept their revisions.

“There is no scholarly journal that should ever say, ‘Oh, you don’t have to change anything in an article, you can just print whatever you want,’” Wilson said.

Although Wilson understands why Alexander may have been frustrated in response to this incident, he noted that most professors who write for academic journals generally accept the majority of the edits they receive, especially “basic” requests such as more evidence and citations. Alexander, however, did not.

He also pointed out many flaws with the article itself, including a lack of scholarly language and writing mechanisms.

For instance, Alexander compared his opponents to Nazi Germany, which Wilson viewed as inappropriate for scholarly arguments. Alexander also neglected to use citations for his assertions that systemic racism no longer exists.

Alongside the journal’s editors, Wilson further contended that Alexander’s piece strayed too far from Perry’s body of work, presenting a major problem for a symposium on Perry.

“Professor Alexander had, in essence, taken a blog post he wrote earlier in 2021, attacking arguments for reparations, and threw it into this article meant to honor Professor Perry, even though Professor Perry never written about reparations, but simply because he had written about disparate racial impact theory 45 years ago,” Wilson said. “You don’t have to agree with the professor or praise the professor, but you do have to stay on the topic of the professor.”

Because Alexander went off topic and provided “a very weak transition,” as well as the scholarly flaws to his piece, Wilson found it legitimate for the editors to refuse the piece.

“I don’t think the Emory Law Journal restricted anyone’s freedom to express themselves,” Wilson said.

“They simply tried to do reasonable efforts at editing his work to improve his own essay, and he refused.”

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu and Madi Olivier at madi.olivier@emory.edu

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The Emory Wheel

EPD Chief aims to continue ‘victim-centered’ approach to policing

By Matthew Chupack and Sarah Davis News Editors A member of Emory Police Department (EPD) for 23 years, EPD Chief Cheryl Elliott has long committed to Emory University law enforcement. Even after her retirement from deputy chief in 2017, Elliott took on a consulting role from 2017-2019, during which she developed EPD’s Policy Manual.

Two years later, Elliott rejoined the department as police chief following former Emory Police Chief Rus Drew’s abrupt resignation last May. Elliott told the Wheel in a Jan. 20 interview that she didn’t have hesitations about assuming chief of police, having spent 33 total years in higher education policing.

“There wasn’t much that they needed to do to convince me to come back as much as it was wanting to make sure they needed somebody like me,” Elliott said. “I took the job thinking [it was] kind of an interim position, but it never got there. By the time I got to the last interview, they asked me to take the job.”

One of Elliott’s commitments to the University community when she accepted her position in August 2021 was to increase communication between the police department and students, faculty and staff. While stunted by COVID-19 gathering restrictions, Elliott said a partnership with Justice & Sustainability Associates (JSA) has helped Elliott jumpstart these conversations.

Acknowledging her position as a Black woman in law enforcement, Elliott has addressed the historic oppression of Black people by the police.

“As a native of Atlanta, Georgia, I have personal experiences of being followed in retail establishments and on public transportation,” Elliott wrote in her public appointment announcement on Aug. 31, 2021.

“I have lived through legalized segregation and have had guns fired at me in the 1970s when trying to use a public bathroom outside of Dublin,

Georgia, due to the color of my skin.

These experiences have shaped my life and have reinforced my commitment to redefining public safety.”

Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020, the Coalition of Black Organizations and Clubs released a list of university demands in June 2020.

One of the demands called to disarm and defund EPD. The group indicated that funds could be reallocated to “better equipped crises-prepared professionals.”

While Elliott was not involved in EPD in a formal capacity during the nationwide calls to defund police in the summer of 2020, she said she was still impacted by the philosophy of the movement.

“Do I believe in the process of Black Lives Matter? Of course I do,” Elliot said.

“I come from a granddaughter of slaves.

It’s not pleasant to understand racism.”

Elliot’s own son participated in a Black Lives Matter march in New York.

The chief said that she was an early supporter of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s method of nonviolent protest and previously marched in protests at Indiana University.

“We must respect that space, allow people to be in that space and to be able to be heard,” Elliot said. “It’s important that you have a way to express yourself on campus and to let you know, as a group, to get that group identity and it makes you stronger.”

While Elliott has acknowledged calls to defund the police, she raised skepticism about the potential impact of this request.

“Training requires dollars; we have to have a well trained police department,” Elliott said. “So, to defund me for cutting some particular program that you want, we have to sit down and discuss what program is it that needs to come out of the budgets of the entire University, not just the police.”

After the coalition drafted their demands, EPD commissioned JSA to provide feedback on the department’s policing standards. JSA found that EPD could clarify a few of its policies,

Elliott said. These policies included EPD not using chokeholds, having a mediation process and not shooting moving vehicles.

“There can’t be a situation where you say never, but that’s not our policy,” Elliott said. “We don’t shoot in vehicles that are moving away, but the language of our prior policy left some questions as to whether or not that was possible.”

Since 2016, EPD reported 35 uses of force by an Emory police officer.

Use of force includes a firearm being fired or drawn; a taser being fired, pressed or pointed; pepper spray being sprayed or pointed; a baton being used to strike or brandished; and several physical restraining methods. In 2021, there was one incident of a brandished firearm, one “takedown” and one restraint using hands.

With help from EPD Communications Director Morieka Johnson (94C), Elliott emphasized the importance of an accessible and genuine mediation process that goes beyond sending an apology letter to a constituent.

“A student, staff, faculty, visitor ought to be able to have a concern about something that’s occurred in the police department and ought to be able to have a way to address that concern,” Elliott said.

Mediation works by having a person with a concern meet with the officer or an EPD policy representative with the goal of both parties reaching a state of agreement, Elliott explained, crediting JSA for the idea. Johnson acts as a mediator in these instances, and Elliott said a few mediations have taken place since she became chief.

EPD is also currently working with JSA to establish the Citizens Advisory Board for the chief of police, which Elliott expects will roll out within the next 90 days. Additionally, EPD will send a sergeant to a Criminology and Data Management course at the University of North Carolina to get information on how the department can improve its practices.

Elliott said she is optimistic about these changes, as she found some policies needed clarification when she developed Emory’s police manual

Continued from Page 1

Courtesy of Emory University

EPD Chief Cheryl Elliott has served in law enforcement for more than 35 years. in her former position. Manuals should be a “living document that is constantly being refined so that it can reflect best practices,” Elliott stated.

She also stated that she has worked toward greater campus communication and transparency by being active with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as faculty and staff. While she has not engaged with the Black Student Union yet, although they are “on a list” of student groups to interact with, Elliott said she has conversed with members of historically Black Greek organizations on campus.

While EPD had reformed their policing standards over the past couple of years, Elliott noted that the department has tended to be progressive, especially when compared to other police departments.

“The emphasis here is that we do evidence-based policing,” Elliott said.

“Probably 20% of an officer’s time is spent reactively. … The rest of the time is spent in some form of patrol or follow up. I’m looking to take some of that time and make certain that we’re addressing problems so that we become problemoriented in our approach.”

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu and Sarah Davis at sarah.davis@emory.edu

SGA postpones discussion on SPC elections, supports $15 minimum wage

By Ashley Zhu Politics Desk An open forum discussion regarding a bill to mandate the election of the Student Programming Council (SPC) president was tabled to next week’s Student Government Association (SGA) meeting, due to time constraints. However, College Council President Akash Kurupassery (22C) emphasized the importance of implementing a “much-needed change” to ensure that SPC leadership is “held directly accountable to the students of Emory.”

According to a Jan. 30 email from Kurupassery, holding SPC elections rather than internal appointments would also allow for increased diversity and student trust in the organization.

“Currently, SPC has $462,700, and there is no student accountability in terms of their operations,” Kurupassery said. “SGA doesn’t regulate them at all, and they’re currently functioning autonomously.”

Kurupassery is also motivated to pass the bill to enhance Oxford representation and inclusivity.

He also said SPC had more than enough funds to rent shuttles to transport Oxford students to the Atlanta campus for the Homecoming concert, but Oxford students were instead required to pay for transportation themselves.

“Elections are important because Oxford students can hold SPC accountable when they vote,” Kurupassery said. “They can ask, ‘How are you serving me? Why should I vote for you as a candidate?’”

The proposition is not new. SPC was required to elect their president and vice president in the past, and it was a “hard fought battle” to make the change to internal appointment, Kurupassery said.

Kurupassery said that any anticipated backlash to the bill would come from SPC. Current SPC President Thomas Heagy (22B) stated in an email that “without consulting the President or Vice President of the Student Programming Council for feedback, the authors [of the bill] only target SPC with this duplicitous attempt to improve transparency among executive agencies.”

According to Heagy, the bill’s attempt to use the Oxford concert shuttles as justification is “disingenuous,” because he personally worked with both staff and Oxford student leaders to ensure extra shuttles were available before and after the concert.

“The authors lean on the idea of an SPC leader from seven years ago that ‘it [is] proper for the SPC president to be chosen via a University-wide election, since SPC makes use of the student body’s money,’” Heagy wrote.

“This notion unintentionally implies that no hard-working student leader can be entrusted to make fiscal decisions without a school wide vote.”

Heagy said that while he agrees that SPC must play a greater role to build community at Emory, they have listened to the needs of the students through surveys, which influence their decisions both on regularly scheduled programming and larger events such as artist selection and the concert experience.

“SPC thinks that their procedures are working,” Kurupassery said. “But students as a whole want to have control over their student activities. The more students find out about it, the more support I’ll get.”

Resolution to support $15 minimum wage The SGA passed a resolution on Jan 31 with unanimous consent in favor of supporting an increased minimum wage for students, with an amendment that stated the current Federal Work-Study structure would remain unchanged.

Founder of Emory Students for Students Elisabet Ortiz (24C) appealed to SGA for support of an open letter addressed to Emory University advocating for a $15 minimum wage for all student workers on campus.

Ortiz originally founded Students for Students as a fund to provide immediate needs for students, but it has since evolved into an advocacy organization for low-income students.

“The reason we’re advocating for a $15 minimum wage is because it affects so many intersections,” Ortiz said. “For me, it would have meant stability and helping with health care costs. When we talk about helping low-income and minority students, we have to talk about the tangible resources that we can provide.”

Over 20% of the student body is comprised of undergraduate workers, according to Ortiz, so having SGA’s approval on the open letter would have a far-reaching impact on student life.

“The resources and platform SGA

Rollins family donates $100M

has would be invaluable to our mission,” Ortiz added. “At the end of the day, the student government exists to represent the needs of students and to be a direct line between the student body and Emory administration.”

Ortiz emphasized that she is advocating for campus student workers in general, regardless of whether or not they participate in work-study. There is currently a $2,500 limit on earnings for work-study students.

“It would be up to the provost to raise the budget for increased wages in different departments,” Ortiz said.

Students for Students has had conversations with various administrators, including the faculty senate president, all of whom have been open to an increase in minimum wage, Ortiz said.

“We think it’s effective to make it in the format of an open letter so the University has more accountability,” Ortiz said.

“A big part of our mission is actually changing policies of the University — something really transparent so that students can get involved at a grassroots level — so this is going to be a step in doing that.”

The University has been aware of the wage issue for almost a year, and they have seen little to no change, Claire Garcia (22C) stated.

“There’s already been so much inaction,” Garcia said. “The reason why this letter is happening is because we need to take a stronger stance.

Maybe this feels fast, but it’s really not — it’s been going on for a long time.”

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

the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Md.) and also works as the director of the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities.

Appointed as dean in 1995, only five years after the school was founded, Curran said in a speech at the event that he had plenty of public health knowledge and experience when he began his career with the University. Academia and philanthropy, however, were different stories — Curran’s only experience, he said, was when he failed at selling Boy Scout cookies as a kid.

However, Curran said he learned everything he could from the Rollins family, especially Randall Rollins, who died on Aug. 17, 2020.

“We all miss him,” Curran said. “I wish he was alive to see the R. Randall walls go up. He would have been very proud of it, I think.”

Curran still has a coin with adages inscribed on it that Randall Rollins gave him, and he pulled it out to read during his speech. One side reminds Curran to “do what’s right. Everyone knows what’s right. If it is indeed, it’s up to me.” The other side reminds him to keep an “evercan-do attitude. Do not lie. Do not steal.

Do not cheat. Do not be afraid, and of course, work hard.”

“He did that until his very last days,” Curran said.

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

Students hopeful, relieved Continued from Page 1 “For low-income students like me, need-based loans are necessary for survival, but the payments are daunting, especially knowing that our families may not be able to help us manage these payments,” Bruffett said. Bruffett, however, is graduating this year, and the changes will not occur until the 202223 academic year.

“Currently, there are low-income students who have had to take out loans to make it through their time at Emory, so I think it’s important to also advocate for the need-based loans of current Emory students to be forgiven,” Bruffett said.

The move follows a trend of colleges removing need-based loans in response to economic uncertainty during the COVID19 pandemic. Smith College and Colgate Univrsity, for example, removed loans from need-based packages in 2021.

Princeton was the first university in the nation to remove need-based loans in 2001. Other prestigious universities, including Harvard and Yale, eliminated loans in following years.

In the announcement to the University, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Ravi V. Bellamkonda said expanding the program will help make Emory more affordable for students from low and middle-income families.

“I am proud of this investment, as it is consistent with our desire to have our students flourish academically and personally here at Emory and beyond,” Bellamkonda stated. “This is just one way Emory is striving for the special Emory experience to be accessible to all students, independent of their socioeconomic status.”

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu and Madi Olivier at madi.olivier@emory.edu

NEWS

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

5

Q&A: Atlanta Council President discusses Atlanta’s future, strong ties to Emory

By Emma Estroff Contributing Writer As the newly-elected Atlanta City Council President, Doug Shipman (95C) said he is positioned to meld Atlanta’s past and present to usher in an era of rebuilding, refurbishing, affordability and inclusivity at a pivotal moment in the city’s history.

Shipman, who was elected in November and will wrap up his first month in office on Feb. 3, is determined to change the trajectory of the way Atlanta is growing.

“We will continue to grow, but I think without a real change of approach, we will continue to grow in a way that leaves a bunch of people out,” Shipman told the Wheel in a Jan. 28 interview.

A former Emory student, Shipman credits Emory for sparking his passion for positive change and putting him on the course that led him to his current leadership role in Atlanta.

Shipman’s commitment to ensuring equity across economic and racial divides has defined his post-Emory career. He has served as CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Woodruff Arts Center and BrightHouse Consulting and been a board member for The Carter Presidential Center and the AntiDefamation League, among other organizations.

The Wheel sat down with Shipman to discuss the Emory experiences and beyond that paved his path as well as his plans and vision for his term ahead.

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Emory Wheel: What was it like being a preacher’s child and did that have any influence on your involvement in civil rights?

Doug Shipman: My mom was a Sunday school teacher, my dad had been a preacher before I was born

and I grew up in a small town in Arkansas, so I was always interested in religion. When I got to Emory, I was very interested in the diversity of Atlanta and the civil rights legacy here.

I used to go to services at Old Ebenezer and the songs they sang at Ebenezer were the same songs we sang at my church in Arkansas, so immediately, I felt a kinship. Then, while I was at Emory, I studied religion, race and the Constitution, and all these different identity courses; I was really trying to soak up Atlanta! This combination led me to Robert Franklin’s class on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as theologians which brought everything together; it had a religious and social movement aspect, and history.

EW: A substantial part of your career was dedicated to helping develop and lead the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Can you explain when you decided to shift your focus from the nonprofit world to the political world?

DS: Actually, it’s the reverse! I did my graduate studies in public policy and theology. While at Harvard [for graduate school], I worked on a presidential campaign in New Hampshire. I was a staffer on Capitol Hill for a summer, and I was around public servants, politicians and policies all the time, so I had a lot of experience in the public world.

Then, I went to the private sector for a while. I wasn’t planning on building a museum, but that part just sort of came along. I decided to run for office because I felt like a lot of the ways that Atlanta had grown over the years were under pressure: the lines of race and religion, and the notion of how the business world, the civic world and the political world could work together. I wanted to try to bring my knowledge and experience around history and having worked across all

new because we may have a better affordability strategy if we use more refurbishments.

Courtesy of Doug Shipman

Doug Shipman (95C) (second to right) at his graduation from the Emory College of Arts and Sciences in 1995.

these different communities into the public space.

EW: Did former Council President Felicia Moore pass along any advice before you took office?

DS: Outgoing Council President, Moore, was incredibly generous — we met many times. She had incredible advice, from very tactical things to much broader things. One of the things that Council President Moore did really well, that I want to continue, was bring a lot of transparency. In this day and age, people don’t trust institutions and the government in a lot of ways, so I think it is incumbent on anyone who is in a position of public service and political leadership to push for transparency.

EW: What is your perspective on the Buckhead seccesion and how do you plan to address this growing issue?

DS: I do not think Buckhead City solves Buckhead’s problem. The problems that have been raised in Buckhead are best solved as a whole city, and the problems are the same as the problems I hear all over the city.

Crossword

By Aidan Vick, Miranda Wilson and Eythen Anthony

People want to feel safe and have good city services and sustainability.

Buckhead leaving would have huge financial implications and impacts on bonds not only in Atlanta, but throughout the state. We give up a lot of our unique, national standing [by seceding], and other cities that we compete against for investments will use this against us. A unified city is the best way to address what people are concerned about.

EW: One part of your campaign emphasized Atlanta’s growing issue of affordability.

How can you make sure there remains affordable housing in parts of Atlanta where the market is increasing drastically?

DS: Affordability has two aspects. One is to have a robust, antidisplacement policy intact. The other is to develop enough housing overall.

We need to be thoughtful about where we are developing affordable units and that we are developing units across the entire price spectrum. Atlanta is very good at knocking things down and building things up, but I want to make sure we aren’t only incentivizing folks to knock things down and build things Across 1. Old-school Ubers 5. Protag. of Joyce’s “Ulysses” 10. Old-school Harley Davidson 13. Farming unit 14. Largest artery 15. College abbreviation 16. Cobbler-like dessert 18. 17th century Chinese military commander 19. Charged molecule 20. White paint binder 21. “Go out with ___ ___” 22. Iowan Christian college 23. Special ed online curriculum 24. Chinese food additive 26. Legal ID 27. Owl type 29. “It ___ ___ to tango” 31. Subject code for Emory’s “Biblical Literature” class 33. Gastric bypass surgery (acronym) 34. University of Florida art museum 35. Fruity ice cream treat 38. Cut or gash 40. Turkic title for a chieftain 41. Electric sea critter 42. Profitable farm animals?

44. ___at the mouth 48. Common enzyme suffix 49. Chicago airport code 50. Staple sandwich 52. Bovine 53. Implied 55. Key signature with three flats 57. Owl lady from “The Owl House” 58. Home of “Love It or List It” 59. Permit frequently 61. Boston Celtics player Freedom 62. ___ ‘n’ Bake 63. Urgent 64. Known for bad puns 65. Cats have nine 66. Trouble for many teens

EW: The Beltline has transformed Atlanta entirely and is especially popular among Emory students. Do you have any future plans for expanding the Beltline?

DS: The funding is now in place to complete the entire loop from a paved perspective. You will see what we see on the Eastside trail become the entire loop in eight to nine years.

The real question is: how do we get transit on the Beltline? Transit was a part of the original vision and was promised in the 2016 tax vote. You have to have transit on the Beltline, otherwise the Beltline doesn’t become a corridor for life, it becomes more of an amenity and “cool” thing. How do we fund transit on the Beltline? There are a lot of infrastructure dollars flowing from the federal government and local money that has already been allocated. I think there is a window here to push to execute transit because that is the piece that we have to get done.

EW: Is there anything else you would like to share about your story?

DS: Emory has continued to be a huge part of my life. My wife was an Emory undergraduate, and this is where I met her. I was the president of the Alumni Board, so I gave back in that way and now I serve on The Carter Center board, appointed by the president of Emory. At the provost’s request, I led as co-chair of the task force on the future of the arts a couple of years ago at Emory. I always feel like Emory was the launching pad for all else that has happened in my life — it will always hold a special place for me.

— Contact Emma Estroff at emma.estroff@emory.edu Down 1. Cozy homes 2. “You should see me in _ _____” Billie Eilish lyric 3. O.J.’s car 4. Stitch 5. Tower built to reach heaven 6. Sediment deposit 7. Scraps of food 8. Ruled by Suleitan the Magnificent 9. Taurus/gemini month 10. Number put up by Candace Parker, Sue Bird, or Jonquel Jones 11. Team and position of NFLer Calvin Johnson 12. City of Picasso’s Demoiselles 17. “Bojack Horseman’s” Diane 21. Blink-182, “What’s My ___ Again?”

25. Zoom predecessor 28. One of seven deadly sins 29. School lunch carriers 30. Neil Diamond hit 32. Proletariat production 35. Cut in half 36. Capital of India 37. ___ ___ one’s own devices 38. Harmed 39. Garfield’s favorite food 43. Economical bed 45. the component acid of vinegar 46. NY’s Museum of ___ Art 47. “____ River” by Chuck Berry 50. British fellow 51. Classical composer William ___ 54. Medical tubes 56. Public Enemy’s Flavor ___ 59. Nonverbal communication form 60. Organization founded by Teddy Roosevelt

Scan for answers!

The Emory Wheel

O������ W��������, F������� 2 2022 | Opinion Editor: Sophia Ling (sophia.ling@emory.edu) | Asst. Opinion Editors: Sophia Peyser (speyser@emory.edu) & Chaya Tong (ctong9@emory.edu)

EDITORIAL

Slur usage in the law school demands scrutiny A group of Emory School of Law students staged a walk-out early in September after Associate Professor of Law Alexander Volokh said a homophobic slur in referencing a slogan of the Westboro Baptist Church during a torts class. That incident is not the first time an Emory Law professor’s use of a slur in the classroom has prompted a fiery, campus-wide debate about the boundaries of academic freedom.

To provide greater clarity to the Emory community, the University should create a council composed of students and faculty that will provide guidance to professors when they plan to verbalize a slur in the classroom. The council, using the classroom and academic context, will recommend whether the professor should or should not proceed with using the slur and place clear guidelines on its verbalization.

The council should guide professors on teaching sensitive topics in a holistic yet respectful way and University administrators should work closely with professors on strategies to mitigate misuse of slurs.

Some will likely scoff at this council’s recommendations as an assault on academic freedom for the potential chilling effect it’ll have on classroom discourse and freedom of expression. That criticism is misguided. The goal of the council will be to grapple with verbalized slurs only.

Content that is otherwise controversial or politically incorrect for the sake of education will not require purview.

Emory must balance its professors’ freedom to teach how they please with a safe learning environment for its students. A council composed of key stakeholders, such as students and other faculty members, will be best suited to grapple

with the debate over slurs in the classroom.

It is important to define “slur'' to capture the emotional and traumatic weight associated with their usage, as well as in what sense they are permissible for pedagogical purposes. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines the term as “an unfair remark about somebody or something that may damage other people’s opinion of them.” While slurs used in classrooms are highly unlikely to be directed at a student, saying them in any sense can be degrading to those who consider the term a target of their identity. Any terms demeaning to someone based on status in or affiliation with a certain group, be it in regards to race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, gender, mental or physical ability or any other relevant social category, should be subject to preemptive review by the council.

Federal court precedent renders the outright elimination of slurs within an academic context to be antithetical to academic discourse.

However, as demonstrated in Bonnell v. Lorenzo, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that though professors’ rights to both academic freedom and freedom of expression must be protected in classrooms, their rights are not rigid to the point of harming a student’s safe learning environment.

As a private university, Emory has more leeway in determining speech that can result in disciplinary actions on campus. Much of the debate around speech used in the classroom comes back to the University’s “Equal Opportunity and Discrimina-

tory Harassment Policy.” The polcy was designed to protect those affiliated with Emory from harassment on the basis of identity. Despite this, the unregulated use of slurs in the classroom undermines the commitment to equality expressed in the policy by exposing marginalized groups to unnecessary stressors.

In a 1995 op-ed from the Emory Report, sociology professor Frank Lechner criticized the University’s discriminatory harassment policy and argued in favor of revising the policy that he claimed infringed the right to freedom of speech we hold outside the classroom. Since Lechner’s article, the policy has undergone numerous revisions, now not-

ing found that Professor of Law Kamina Pinder speaks the N-word to her class when reading Martin Luther King. Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Unlike Volokh and other law professors who have received condemnation for their use of a slur in the classroom, Pinder’s case has never been a topic of controversy. Pinder, who is Black, distinguishes her use of the slur by explaining that the N-word contributes to the emotional power of the letter. Pinder’s use of the slur has a clear pedagogical purpose and provides her students a clear warning beforehand, permitting students to exit if they would be uncomfortable.

In contrast, Volokh’s use of a slur in class seems less thoughtful or reasonable. While he argued that students must be prepared to encounter slurs with “clinical detachment” while practicing law, his method was less than tactful.

Unlike Pinder, he did not warn students he would be using a homophobic slur and did not explain the history of the slur.

The council, while imperfect, would help mitigate potential harm to students by offering counsel to professors who wish to utilize slurs and offer suggestions to minimize the harm of the slur.

Yet, sensitivity to harmful language used in classrooms, no matter the context, does not have to compromise academic freedom. To ensure that there is a fair justification for professors using slurs in the classroom, the University should create an elected council composed of student leaders and faculty to determine whether the verbalization of a controversial slur is permissible

Emory must balance its professors’ freedom to teach how they please with a safe learning environment for its students. ing that discriminatory harassment does not refer to the use of slurs for scholarly purposes appropriate to the academic context. As Lechner claims, justifications for using slurs in a classroom exist in some cases and other professors have upheld that philosophy. Even then, we should continue to question the extent to which a slur is necessary. Does pedagogy weigh above discomfort?

For instance, the Wheel’s report-

prior to class. Recognizing the usage of the slur can serve as a safeguard against the shortcomings of loose procedures and unclear precedent in dealing with these situations.

Accordingly, the group will not serve a disciplinary function or serve to monitor the content that is otherwise controversial or politically incorrect.

Rather, it will preemptively evaluate cases of slurs used in classrooms and provide recommendations.

When there is no clear pedagogical purpose, refraining from using slurs – words that students or professors claim are offensive, such as any racial, ethnic, homophobic, misogynistic or other epithets – should be rejected by the council. If professors can utilize references rather than explicit terms in the classroom setting when possible, students may also feel more comfortable and willing to discuss problematic words.

This way, students may remain aware of the realities of the legal field and engage in difficult conversations on race, gender and inequality.

Outside of a council vetting slur usage and investigating unapproved mentions, professors should work with their students to preempt any such controversy. A couple of potential steps could include clarifying syllabi when course content includes the reading or discussion of slurs and a clear explanation on its purpose.

While the council will not solve all of the nuances of utilizing slurs in classroom contexts, it will help mitigate the damage done to students when slurs are inconsiderately used. If the University wishes to stand as a bastion of academic expression while upholding its commitment to protecting student well-being, they must prove it by enacting this council.

The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board.

The Editorial Board is composed of Rachel Broun, Kyle Chan-Shue, Sophia Ling, Demetrios Mammas, Daniel Matin, Daniela Parra del Riego Valencia, Sara Perez, Sophia Peyser, Ben Thomas, Chaya Tong and Leah Woldai.

The Emory Wheel

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Volume 103 | Number 2

ISAIAH PORITZ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ANJALI HUYNH EXECUTIVE EDITOR BRAMMHI BALARAJAN MANAGING EDITOR JESSICA SOLOMON MANAGING EDITOR SARU GARG MANAGING EDITOR CAILEN CHINN CHIEF OF DIGITAL OPERATIONS PHYLLIS GUO Copy Chief

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The Emory Wheel welcomes letters and op-ed submissions from the Emory community. Letters should be limited to 300 words and op-eds should be at least 500. Those selected may be shortened to fit allotted space or edited for grammar, punctuation and libelous content. Submissions reflect the opinions of individual writers and not of the Wheel’s Editorial Board or Emory University. Send emails to emorywheelexec@gmail.com or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322.

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The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

7

The Midwest is not a cultureless monolith Sophia Ling To the pretentious coastlines, we’re boring. We’re nothing more than cornfields, dirt roads and farmers. We live in the place where culture comes to a standstill, where there’s nothing to do and nothing to see.

I used to think the Midwest was lifeless too. Luckily I lived in Shanghai for long enough to be able to say with a clear conscience: I’m not from Indiana.

I’m from Shanghai. Yet over time, I’ve come to love the Midwest, except for the square states, and the flurry of misconceptions that accompany it.

Though we might be able to drive 20 minutes to the nearest field, the Midwest is still a nuanced place to grow up and deserves our irrevocable pride.

To be clear, Midwestern nice is different from Southern hospitality, so don’t equate the two. We invite you into our home not just because we really want you to get out of the snow in the middle of March, but because we really want you to be safe. When we first moved back to Indiana after spending six years in China, one of our trees fell down during a particularly nasty storm.

The next day, my mom and I drove to Lowe’s to buy a saw to cut it down.

Though we made progress, the tree trunk was still far from removed. But when we woke up the next day, our neighbors had taken an electric saw to it, finished the job and thrown the trunk in their trash can.

Niceness also should not be defined by hours of volunteerism per capita.

Congeniality is more than just perceived altruistic behavior; it’s waving at strangers on the street, in your car or from one of the windows in your house, when they pass by. It’s apologizing profusely, almost as frequently as Canadians (they fit right into Midwestern life), and gauging distance not by miles but by the time it takes to drive to a particular place.

Twenty-mile drives and hour-long travel times are considered the norm.

Unlike the sprawling metropolises of New York and Los Angeles, we don’t sit through insufferable traffic stops. You can cut people off, by pure accident or because you’re running late, and no one will honk or swear at you. Some of my friends at Emory have told me they hate roundabouts, but that’s because they haven’t yet experienced the ergonomic roundabouts of Carmel. Instead of trapping people in a circle, we have clearly marked exits and drivers who actually know how to drive in a circular motion.

And at least when we say we’re improving the environment, it’s not just talk.

Admittedly, there really isn’t much to do in Indiana. In fact, when you live long enough in the Midwest, you realize that one of our quintessential hobbies is driving. Driving in the summer, with the windows rolled down and music blasting so loud it’s vibrating the entire car, is revitalizing and exhilarating. I

major social event. When we get bored, we pile in someone’s car, drive to the nearest Kroger, buy two one-liter bottles of soda and mentos and watch our friends get showered with Coke in the parking lot.

Instead of bar hopping and other drunken festivities, Midwesterners have an unmistakable talent for small talk about the weather. In fact, unpredictable weather is a staple of Midwestern solidarity. The first snow often hits in late October, and on occasion, it’ll snow in March or April. The Midwest runs on a bi-seasonal calendar, where fall is five days and spring is at most one week. One day you’re wearing a thin jacket and the next day you’re arriving at school in a parka.

While I’m not in a position to claim that I know the locations of all 50 states, the extent of geographical ignorance across the U.S. concerns me. I’ve done some research: walking from McDonough field to Asbury Circle, I stop as many random strangers as possible, and ask two questions: could you point out Indiana on a map? And do you know the card game Euchre? With some exceptions,

As cheesy as it sounds, I’m proud of being from Indiana. I take pride in being unnecessarily nice and driving 20 over the speed limit. I take pride in a landscape that inte-

grates both the modern and the agriculture. A city that hasn’t been taken over by skyscraper hubris, smog and homogenous chain restaurants. meet my friends in empty church parking lots at 7 p.m. and eat sushi and talk with them until 1 a.m. on the top of my car. On Friday nights, we gather in someone’s basement and play way too much Euchre, a 4-person card game. At Asian parties, we play Euchre tournaments with as much intensity as old ladies shuffling Mahjong tiles. Window shopping through grocery stores is a

people could not find Indiana, and no one knew Euchre. Disappointing as this is, I’m not surprised. People brush us off as “flyover” states and never bother to give us a chance.

Since coming to Emory, I’ve made “from Indiana” part of my personality.

After trying to get away from it for so long, abashedly muttering “I’m from Indiana” and qualifying it with “but I grew up in Shanghai” just to make myself sound cool. The more people who told me that the Midwest was nothing more than cows and cornfields, the more I wanted to argue with them and defend my city.

As cheesy as it sounds, I’m proud of being from Indiana. I take pride in being unnecessarily nice and driving 20 over the speed limit. I take pride in a landscape that integrates both the modern and the agriculture.

A city that hasn’t been taken over by skyscraper hubris, smog and homogenous chain restaurants. In my city, I can see the 49-floor Salesforce tower and the soaring buildings surrounding Monument Circle, and I can also look out my window and see more than 10 miles of clear visibility ahead of me.

I used to be ashamed of the illusionary backwardness of Indiana, but now I’m only disappointed that we don’t have more Midwestern pride. If I don’t defend my city, who will?

Sophia Ling (24C) is from Carmel, Indiana.

Emory must educate students about its Confederate past Editorial Board Last week, the Wheel published a story recounting the physical reminders of the Confederacy on Emory’s Oxford campus and the school’s failure to educate students about its problematic history with racism and slavery.

In recent years, Emory has wrestled with its unsettling ties to the Confederacy and white supremacists, whose names dot buildings around campus. And yet, neither Emory nor Oxford administrators have begun to substantively reckon with the Confederate legacy on both campuses. Instead, they have opted for largely symbolic measures, such as renaming Longstreet-Means Hall to Eagle Hall and acknowledging both campuses’ construction on stolen Muscogee (Creek) land.

These changes matter, of course, and the importance of making changes to reflect Emory’s current values of equity and inclusion cannot be overstated. Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) spent years pushing for these changes for good reason.

A true reckoning with Emory’s history needs more — an in-depth education for the Oxford community about the school’s ties to slavery and Confederacy. Only through active effort can we increase student awareness of institutionalized racism and reduce the voyeurism that denigrates the painful history ingrained in our country.

Oxford should also implore the adjacent town of Covington, Georgia,

to remove a Confederate monument in the town square, which stands as a representation of hatred and intolerance undermining the mental health and well-being of the student body.

Casual reminders of the Confederacy are embedded throughout Oxford’s campus, intertwined as inescapable components of the student experience.

A cemetery and obelisk honoring at least 32 Confederate soldiers sits a short walk from the Oxford gym.

Moreover, a nature trail on campus sets off on a path to Kitty’s Cottage, the home of Catherine “Kitty” Andrew Boyd, who was enslaved at 12 years old.

Boyd was enslaved by James Osgood Andrew, who served as the initial chair of the Emory Board of Trustees, and who advocated the creation of the cottage since he argued under Georgia law he was unable to free her.

On top of that, both Tarbutton Hall and Phi Gamma Hall were constructed with slave labor and do not bear plaques explaining their history on campus.

Indisputably, Oxford’s campus maintains deep roots in the Confederacy’s legacy, serving as a profoundly abhorrent reminder of our University’s racism.

But the relics to the Confederacy remain largely unknown and disrespected by faculty and students alike.

For instance, students have reportedly taken voyeuristic photos at the Confederate cemetery and professors have allegedly taken their

classes on uncritical visits. Visiting the sites of past injustice and hearing a few stories is not enough.

We call the rhetoric fruitless because hearing the right words is rarely enough.

Students need extended, critical engagement with the related institutional history to understand the gravity of Oxford’s legacies of racism and slavery.

Such an initiative would have ample precedent. For example, the pre-orientation program Ignite Leadership, an early-arrival program for some Atlanta and Oxford campus first-years, took all of its students to the Oxford campus to learn about and discuss its historical involvement with slavery and racism.

However, Ignite Leadership is a paid and voluntary program with a limited enrollment capacity.

Though a few hours at Oxford neither atoned for the College’s legacy nor ended its complacency, it did help first-years begin to grasp their institution’s dark past.

To serve all of its first-years, Oxford’s administration should incorporate one or more modules into their first-year seminar on their college’s legacy of racism and the built environment in which it still inherits.

The history of Oxford and its relationship with the Confederacy is largely unknown. It’s disrespected as nothing more than a passing comment or another mindless email from the University to stress a supposed commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Emory’s progress in rectifying

these injustices has been piecemeal.

Renaming buildings and providing land recognition to Native American tribes has vastly improved Emory from a PR standpoint, but administrators have done little in the way of programming or policy.

The new Race & Ethnicity General Education Requirement is one important exception, as it requires students to explore and value new cultures and experiences.

Though Oxford tour guides are starting to implement training to discuss locations like Phi Gamma Hall, Tarbutton Hall and the cemetery on campus tours as a part of the University’s early history, the University shouldn’t just stop there. It should change the way it educates students on its legacy and gets them to engage with it.

The aforementioned solutions are feeble, and barely scratch the surface to solving many of the problems that the Wheel’s reporting identified.

At the very least, professors should only take their students to the Confederate cemetery when directly relevant to their teaching.

Oxford administrators should also implement the ideas of the Oxford Black Students Association (BSA) for better acknowledging their school’s history.

Along with their proposal to incorporate discussion of Emory’s slavery-related history into first-year programming, the Oxford BSA also advocates for the University to place plaques on Phi Gamma Hall house and near the cemetery to explain this history.

Oxford should also foster greater

engagement with its history throughout its students’ tenures. Virtual tours could include information about Oxford’s past involvement with slavery.

Given Oxford’s economic and cultural weight in Covington, the school should lobby the city government to remove its monument to the Confederacy.

As some Oxford students have proposed, Student symposia on local slavery should promote long-term consciousness of the school’s troubled past in the interest of a brighter future.

Matriculating to Oxford means inheriting centuries of traditions worth celebrating and centuries of debts long overdue.

As Emory students, we have a moral responsibility to confront and remember our institution’s problematic past.

Oxford administrators, it is your duty to give your students the chance to fulfill a collective responsibility to push forward on measures that aid in rectifying past transgressions.

Almost 157 years after the Civil War and 188 years after Kitty Andrew Boyd’s enslavement, it’s long past time.

The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is composed of Rachel Broun, Jake Busch, Kyle Chan-Shue, Sophia Ling, Demetrios Mammas, Daniel Matin, Daniela Parra del Riego Valencia, Sara Perez, Sophia Peyser, Ben Thomas, Chaya Tong and Leah Woldai.

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

8

Places of worship should be safe, not life threatening Maya Rezak For most kids, Saturday mornings involved sleeping in, watching TV and doing homework. But that wasn’t the case for me. I got up early, put on a nice dress and went to synagogue.

While my routine may have been different, it never crossed my mind that simply practicing my religion risked my life.

In the Jewish faith, Shabbat, which begins Friday at sunset and lasts until sundown on Saturday, is a holy day of rest. For my family, this meant eating dinner together on Friday night, and often going to synagogue for Shabbat morning services. It is meant to be a joyous and peaceful day where we set aside time to spend with family and celebrate our faith.

Yet, this is now prohibited by the climate of growing antisemitism. In 2020, despite making up less than 2% of the population, Jews were the subjects of almost 55% of religious hate crimes. As long as antisemitic violence continues, synagogues will be a primary target. In 2018, 11 people were murdered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Six months later, another shooting occurred at a synagogue in Poway, Calif.

After these tragedies, security became an ever looming presence in

my life. In both my Jewish day school threw a chair at the gunman, allowing and at my synagogue, the sight of him and the other hostages to escape. multiple armed guards became com- What should have been a typical monplace. Often, the local police would Shabbat morning, like every week, come by, just to serve as a visible instead became another day rememdeterrent. I also could no longer enter bered for an antisemitic terror attack either building on my own, as someone and hate crime. had to check the identity of every person coming in.

While I suddenly had to buzz into the building, walk past armed guards and see parked police cars on a daily basis, I still felt relatively safe, naively thinking we learned from those two tragedies what security measures were necessary and Violence continues to ravage religious spaces. that it was unlikely to happen again.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. On Jan. Many thoughts raced through my 15, four people were held hostage for 11 mind when I saw the news about the hours at a synagogue in Colleyville, synagogue in Texas. But the one Texas. The hostage taker had a gun, sticking out the most to me is the and claimed to have bombs as well. The horrific idea that my loved ones or my very security training implemented community could be next. Other than after past attacks proved life-saving, as being Jewish institutions, there was all four hostages made it out alive. nothing special about the synagogues Using knowledge from training ses- in Colleyville, Poway or Pittsburgh that sions with the Secure Community made them targets.

Network, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker The FBI initially claimed that the

hostage situation was not an act of antisemitism. However, this characterization was ignorant, as the hostage taker made blatantly antisemitic statements during the incident. If we can’t count on the FBI to even identify antisemitism, how are we supposed to trust them to protect us from it?

Violence affecting places of worship is not exclusive to Jewish people. In 2019, 51 people were murdered in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. But unlike the U.S., New Zealand’s government took action to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening A H /E W again. Within weeks, the country’s parliament passed gun control laws and New Zealanders created a movement to curb extremism online hate. Despite launching an initiative directed at online hate, New Zealand has still not passed legislation that supports it. However, by targeting both weapons and the source of hate, New Zealand’s government showed its commitment to preventing a similar tragedy from occurring. On the other hand, in the U.S., leaders do little more LLY

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MORY

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than vowing to stand against hate, without outlining any clear plan of action.

The issue of violence in places of worship is inherently tied to both the physical tools and the digital platforms that threaten people’s lives. As long as there are people in this world who hate others and are willing to use lethal weapons, it is incumbent upon our leaders to step up and protect innocent people. The U.S. cannot continue to allow hate to spread online, while making weapons easily accessible to those who would carry out violence in the name of hate. While the City of Pittsburgh tried to enact stricter gun control after the shooting in 2018, the state and federal government did nothing.

The often used phrase “thoughts and prayers” cannot be the only response to tragedies that could have been prevented. We should take cues from countries such as New Zealand that have taken action on both the source of the hate and guns in the wake of similar tragedies, and do the same in the U.S. Everyone should feel safe to openly practice their faith in this country, and my typical childhood Saturday morning should not have been more dangerous than anyone else’s.

Maya Rezak (25C) is from Plainview, New York

Abolish the SAT, don’t move it online Sophia Peyser The College Board announced on Tuesday that starting in 2024, the SAT will be shortened, revised and moved online. The test will be reduced from three to two hours, reading passages will be shortened and made more relevant, and a calculator will be permitted on the entire math section.

This change comes in response to a widespread shift away from college admissions testing since the start of the pandemic.

More than 1,800 colleges and universities did not require standardized test scores for the 2022 admissions year. SAT subject tests were suspended and the California State University (CSU) system, the largest four-year public university system in the nation, moved to drop the SAT and ACT requirement entirely.

The SAT and ACT are quickly losing relevance and the College Board is struggling to modernize its tests.

Unfortunately, the move to digital testing is only a band-aid solution to deeply ingrained inequity and accessibility issues in college admissions. The SAT is an outdated practice and universities should continue to abolish the testing requirement rather than accept the College Board’s attempts at modernization.

Moving the SAT online does not turn it into an accurate tool for assessing college readiness. Shortening the test, moving it online, permitting calculators and abbreviating reading passages does nothing to change the reality that test performance is often not indicative of intelligence or success.

Despite the SAT’s new digital status, it is the same test.

College admissions testing is a

broken and biased practice. Online testing is a particularly poignant test scores heavily in the admissions testing will still occur at testing centers, example. process. This core bias in the test will perpetuating many issues like test The College Board is fighting for not be fixed by moving it online. cancellations and COVID-19 capacity relevance in a world that is quickly The College Board continues to issues, which drove the test-optional realizing that testing is neither a fair argue that the SAT and ACT are useful movement in the first place. Family nor accurate way to quantify a stu- ways to predict college success, stating members at high-risk of COVID-19 dent’s intelligence and college readi- that the new test will be “easier to take, illness might deter students from ness. The SAT was created as an easier to give, and more relevant.” The taking a test in a crowded testing intelligence test in the 1900s and College Board’s spokesman, Zach center. Independent from the pan- intended to sort new non-white immi- Goldberg, defended the SAT, blaming demic, the process for disabled stu- grant arrivals to the U.S. Beyond its “the system” rather than tests for dents to receive accommodations for roots in eugenics, the SAT has a long inequalities in education. But this lie is in-person testing is long and history of favoring white, wealthy rooted in greed. The College Board, a complicated.

The new online SAT format does not address the greatest inequity in testing: some testers are inherently disadvantaged. Race and family income are directly tied to test performance; in 2018, SAT scores for Asian and white students averaged over 1100 while Black and ANUSHA KURAPATI/CONTRIBUTING Latino students’ The SAT has a long history of favoring white, wealthy students. scores averaged below 1000. This score disparity can be attributed to test students. This disparity was particu- $1.1-billion nonprofit, is implementing preparation: Comprehensive test prep larly evident in the since-discontinued testing changes only to keep money books are expensive, tutoring classes analogies section, which tested associa- flowing. The College Board’s CEO are unaffordable and high income tions such as whether “entomology to earns almost $2 million annually and students have access to advanced insects” is like “pedagogy to education” the salaries of other top executives go classes, good teachers and afterschool — something the average 17 year-old up to $500,000. The federal governprograms. Even taking the test is doesn’t know without the help of a ment endows millions of dollars to the unaffordable. The registration fee is tutor or test prep class. Minority organization. The College Board is $55, and waivers are inaccessible students are more likely to come from pivoting its testing policy to preserve its without the help of a college counselor. poor families, can’t afford prep classes, monopoly on education, not to help Success in the college process is driven score lower and are underrepresented students. As long as the SAT and ACT by wealth rather than intelligence, and at prestigious universities that weigh are integral components of the college

admissions process and the interests of the wealthy are prioritized, equity issues will remain unaddressed.

Universities like Emory should follow the CSU system and abolish the testing requirement entirely. Emory is test-optional for the 2022 admissions season, but it is still unclear whether abstaining from testing disadvantages students. A test-optional policy advantages the same students who have always benefitted from testing and does nothing to counter the inequalities ingrained in standardized testing.

CSU admissions officers instead plan to disregard testing entirely and instead evaluate applicants based on high school GPA in 15 required courses, coursework rigor and extracurricular activities. CSU may implement a minimum GPA requirement to eliminate non-competitive applicants, while still considering high school context, which includes the location of the school and its share of low-income students. Centering GPA in the admission process is more equitable because it accounts for how students succeed in their given situations. A 4.0 at an underfunded public school is equally as impressive as a 4.0 at a private school, as the former showcases the resilience of a student in a less advantageous situation. GPA is even a better predictor of college graduation rate than a test score, because it measures a wider range of skills.

Emory has a duty to rectify decades of unfair admissions policies by abolishing standardized testing once and for all. The SAT and ACT are racist, classist and outdated. The University must ensure that the College Board’s monopoly on education ends now.

Sophia Peyser (25C) from Manhattan, New York.

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Wednesday, February 2, 2022

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The Emory Wheel

INDIGO PRAYERS

A CREAT ION STORY

03.19.22 – 09.10.22

BRINGING THREE ORIGINAL EXHIBITIONS TO EMORY’S CAMPUS THIS SPRING CARLOS. EMORY. E DU

&

The Emory Wheel

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022 | Arts & Entertainment Editors: Eythen Anthony (eaantho@emory.edu) and Jackson Schneider (jdschn3@emory.edu)

STUDIO CHIZU

‘Belle’ is a VRChat ‘Beauty and the Beast’

BY RHETT HIPP Staff Writer

COURTESY OF JANUS FILMS

‘Drive My Car’ confounds and enthralls

BY STEPHEN ALTOBELLI Staff Writer

The two best movies I saw this year were Leos Carax’s “Annette” and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car.” Two cold, overlong intellectual exercises that used the trappings of classic drama plotlines involving dead wives to explore performance and narrativevization challenged and excited me as few other movies did. Where the Brechtian, anti-entertainment “Annette” popped the hood to flash the shiny mechanisms of entertainment at its viewers, “Drive My Car” makes elliptical circuits around a core set of ideas that remain remote and hazy, never resolving into an especially clear or coherent message.

In a year dominated by movies progressing zombie-like through the same old motions and received ideas (Cash-grab adaptations!

Stultifying, overstuffed prestige pictures!), “Drive My Car” and “Annette” opened before me like escape hatches to the future of film.

“Drive My Car” follows Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), an actor directing Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” for a Hiroshima theater festival, and Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), the young woman employed by the festival to drive him. In stereotypical Murakami fashion, Kafuku’s slightly sinister screenwriter wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) dies early on and haunts the movie thereafter. She is a spectral presence who never, even before her death, seems like a real human being.

None of the characters do, really, and it’s a testament to Nishijima and Miura’s excellent acting that their characters have the depth that they do. The two actors’ minute facial movements (Nishijima’s frowning mouth, Miura’s quick glances) form an express contrast to the high melo-

drama of “Uncle Vanya,” and are all the more noticeable, and powerful, for it.

The film quickly abandons cohesion and realism in favor of coincidence, repetition, remove and a kind of slow-burn tension that permeates every second. Kafuku, scheduled to perform in “Vanya” before Oto’s death, listens to Oto’s taped reading of the script in his beloved red Saab. Kafuku casts actor Koji Takatsuki (Masaki Okada), Oto’s lover and the star of her TV shows, as the titular role of “Uncle Vanya,” a role once played

by Kafuku himself. When Kafuku

For almost the entirety of its three-hour run time, “Drive My Car” captivates.

mentions a story of which Oto once told him the beginning, Koji finishes it. The chilling tale, which ends with the words “I killed him” repeated over and over again, is reminiscent of a surreal series of events earlier in the movie. Are these stories any less real than the barely there plot stitching them together?

Stories abound in “Drive My Car.” The many different narratives of the film (Oto’s menacing stories about lampreys and her dead daughter, Misaki’s story about her mother, “Uncle Vanya”) bleed into the main film and wander from character to character.

We hear “Uncle Vanya” in Oto’s voice and Oto’s story in Koji’s. A gunshot from “Uncle Vanya” cracks across a scene of nighttime driving; in the following scene, the shouts and tears and high drama

of Chekhov are interrupted by the police, who calmly escort a murderous cast member out of the theater.

Kafuku’s “Uncle Vanya” production is characterized by the profusion of languages in which it is performed. The cast members say their lines in Korean, Japanese, English, Mandarin and, in the case of the mesmerizing Lee Yoon-a (Yoo-rim Park), Korean sign language. For all of the carefully calibrated performances and blank-faced anguish various characters exude through minute glances and simple phrases, Park is the standout performer of the movie. She silently dominates every single one of her scenes, from her audition for the role of Sonya to her final scene with Kafuku.

For almost the entirety of its three-hour run time, “Drive My Car” captivates. The exception is the cathartic confessions of Mitsaki and Kafuku, which drag. For the first time in a movie filled with “Vanya” rehearsal scenes, I could feel the script behind the actors.

This “real” moment in which the two main characters confess their deep-seated guilt and remorse feels false and contrived, unlike when they do it through Chekhov. ”Drive My Car” is the kind of movie that leaves you guessing if a particular scene is ill-conceived or unnecessary, or if you’re just missing the point. The confession scene feels (intentionally?) rote and extraneous. By the end, the movie’s originating traumas are almost lost in the rearview, replaced by heady meditations on language, speech, silence and time. Watching “Drive My Car,” I kept returning to writer Joy Williams’ description of Don DeLillo: “His work can be a little cold perhaps. And what’s wrong with that? The cold can teach us many things.”

- Contact Stephen Altobelli at stephen.altobelli@emory.edu

COURTESY OF JANUS FILMS

When critiquing films, I am oftentimes put in the position of having to choose between two approaches. I can cut the movie some slack while letting the audience (and perhaps myself) have their fun or apply my genuine critical takes on the film in order to treat the medium with the sincerity that it ought to elicit from its audience.

But there is truth in both approaches. I would be lying if I said I found nothing compelling about Mamoru Hosoda’s new film “Belle.” But I would also be lying if I said I were the target audience for this film. I can’t pretend that I didn’t have criticisms that prevented me from engaging with “Belle” in a very positive way, but I also can’t bash this movie as though no one should see it (nor do I have the desire to do so).

“Belle” is a movie that seems to have disparate ambitions, emulating a Disney fairy tale meant for children while having genuine feelings about more serious and relevant subject matter. These ambitions blur the line as to what level of scrutiny the film expects from its audience. I hope to address the film on its terms to give it the benefit of the doubt and help those who might like it find their way to it. Still, I hope to identify why the film doesn't work for me and why it may not work for others.

“Belle,” or in its proper title, “Ryuu to habakasu no hime,” (The Dragon and the Freckled Princess) is an unabashed retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” as Hosoda has been open about in the ads bombarding my TikTok for-you page. “Belle” centers around a shy, rural high schooler named Suzu (Kaho Nakamura) as she is introduced to the virtual reality space of "U." The film cycles between Suzu's adventure in the U and the mundane, lighthearted dramas of her high school life. Enthralled with the idea of creating another identity in the U, Suzu rediscovers a passion for music instilled in childhood by her now late mother.

With the help of her friend, Hiroka (Lila Ikuta), Suzu's virtual avatar, Belle, quickly goes viral and becomes a face for the U platform.

Soon though, Suzu comes to learn of another notorious figure, voiced by actor Takeru Satou, Ryuu (literally "dragon" but translated here as "the beast"). The beast is a monstrous avatar, covered in a cape of "bruises," known for making trouble and disturbing the peace around the U. Suzu is intrigued by the mystery of the beast's identity and seeks to learn more about him.

At its best, “Belle” is a surprisingly poignant love letter to how the internet can touch people's lives. While plenty of films have used music to explore similar ideas, Hosoda seems to focus on the way that sometimes unpredictably, a song or a video on the internet can reach out to people worldwide and inspire them.

Suzu's fame isn't based on her but

on an avatar, an identity that can be remixed and adopted and spread like wildfire.

While there is room for more thorough character exploration, examining complications in Suzu's relationship with her alter-ego or the music she makes, for example, the film never manages to make that deep dive. But since this is a Disney-styled movie through and through, keeping things simple and relying on tried and true tropes in a new, contemporary setting, might work well enough.

Through these tropes the film attempts to say something positive about a medium that can often seem very scary and isolating. If this kind of storytelling works for you, “Belle” has enough visual spectacle to sell itself as an anime Disney film.

“Belle” at its worst is a film that viewers must work very hard to suspend their disbelief to enjoy.

Much like Hosoda's last film “Mirai” (2018), “Belle” excels at creating individual poignant moments but fails at crafting a compelling narrative. This weak story is especially disappointing given that the film retreads territory from Hosoda's other internet epic, the beloved “Summer Wars” (2009), which succeeds in almost every area where “Belle” fails. While “Summer Wars” took a playful, exaggerated approach to its virtual reality setting, “Belle,” despite its simplistic Disney-esque storytelling, insists on being a serious film, making it hard to invest in when the film barely understands the internet or how it works.

While “Summer Wars” had an instantly recognizable style for its world, “Belle”’s digital world never forms its own unique identity. Its clunky computer animation feels bland, paling in comparison to the more traditional animation used for the real world. While 'Summer Wars' had a delightful and welldeveloped cast of characters, 'Belle' never seems to know which story threads are most important and refuses to develop its central characters beyond their tropes.

This lack of character development becomes detrimental in conjunction with the heavy subject matter the film tries to contend with in its final act.

With the imminent arrival of Facebook's metaverse along with other VR/AR platforms and the rise in popularity of VTubers (digital content creators who use anime-styled avatars as their internet alter-egos) over the pandemic, “Belle” certainly need not be any more topical to be relevant today. So if a film that is about "right now" is good enough, then I suppose this is good enough. But 'Belle' could have gone the extra mile by putting more effort into developing its characters to create a more nuanced vision of our internet landscape - one that doesn't leave itself open to simplified, literalist interpretations of the film as a story of a viral internet singer falling for an edgy troll as he flees from a knockoff-Discord moderator with a magic doxxing laser.

- Contact Rhett Hipp at rhett.hipp@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

A&E

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

11

‘CAPRISONGS’ is a lighthearted, playful look at finding ourselves through friendship

BY NOAH GENTRY Staff Writer

It’s easy to make fun of the astrology kids. Considering all we know from modern science, the position of celestial bodies likely doesn’t have a tangible effect on a person’s day-to-day life. At the same time, I would be lying if I said it isn’t devilishly fun to gather around and compare charts with friends.

Even though I tend to doubt when someone tells me that “I knew you were a Sagittarius Moon from the moment we met,” there is something beautiful and intimate about the idea that we feed off the energy of our friends.

Even if someone reads it off of Co-Star, I can’t help but grin when I find myself sitting on a friend’s bed as they tell me that I can expect a week of good fortune and prosperity.

“CAPRISONGS,” the new mixtape from FKA twigs released on Jan. 14, is essentially an extended chart-reading session. Woven throughout the songs are recordings of phone calls between twigs and her friends, and these brief voice memos are often chockfull of life and personality. Over the phone, they do everything from sharing stories about failed romances to teasing each other over the tone of their voice. A cynic may read the concept as shallow, but there is tangible compassion in these everyday exchanges between

friends.

Artists often use the term “mixtape” to quell expectations with the understanding that a “mixtape” doesn’t carry the same artistic weight as an “album.” This term can sometimes come across as a half-hearted attempt at lowering the stakes, but on “CAPRISONGS” the label reads more like listening instructions. This is a project meant to be played while loudly bantering with the people you love, like you would a collaborative Spotify playlist. The songs here are among the most lighthearted in the FKA twigs canon, so much so that those familiar with her last release, 2019’s “MAGDALENE,” may find the transition to this new sound jarring. To go from the pained wails of “cellophane” to the cheeky, skittering refrain of “really wanna kiss me” in the song “ride the dragon” is a massive leap. That said, it’s a leap that twigs lands with all the grace and ease of an Olympic gymnast.

While one might think that the mixtape format would produce a batch of songs that feel more

thrown together than twigs’ previous releases, there is no such lapse in effort here. On the standout track, “meta angel,” several vocal tracks weave together, their rhythms and manipulated timbres

effects kick in, the listener is so wrapped up in twigs’ playful spell that it’s hard not to roll with every one of her glitter-coated punches.

“CAPRISONGS” is all about friendship, and twigs takes this to heart in her features.

Rarely is a guest shoved off to the side for a quick cameo.

Instead, twigs takes these collaborations as an opportunity to engage with her music industry friends and allow their influence to bleed into her songs. On the trunk-rattling dancehall banger “papi bones,” she goes back and forth with South London rapper Shygirl, trading bars with slick charisma. “careless,” her collaboration with Daniel Caesar, is a sexy slow jam COURTESY OF ATLANTIC RECORDS that culminates in twigs whispering the playing off one another to hyp- song’s hook as Caesar gracefully notic effect. Songs like “lightbeam- riffs in the background. Where ers” refuse to stay in one place. most artists might invite someone One moment twigs is singing to fill in a verse, bridge or hook, a tender, breathy ode to “the hard twigs treats these features as active dreamers,” the next, she’s rapping expressions of friendship. in a machine-gun flow with a vocal It’s on the tape’s final track, filter that makes her sound as if “thank you song,” where twigs she’s been shrunk down to the size makes it clear why this whole celeof an action figure. By the time the bration of friendship was necesgoofy 808s and music box sound sary in the first place. She opens

the song with the words “I wanted to die, I’m just being honest.” For a moment, there is nothing but a gentle piano to distract from this sobering admission.

When the chorus hits, the song explodes with warbling backing vocals and rumbling synths.

Over and over, twigs tells her friends “Thank you, I’m okay ‘cause you care. I made it through today.” The whole affair feels like a cosmic hug, an ultimate expression of gratitude that, despite its massive scale, maintains a quiet, gentle tone to the very end.

“CAPRISONGS” sees FKA twigs offering the listener a spot on the bed as she and her buddies giggle and gas each other up through horoscope readings.

These are songs meant to be played at giddy kickbacks with one’s closest friends.

In an era where human connection has been a vital asset to the simple act of staying sane amid quarantine and isolation, the tape feels like a timely meditation on our ability to get in touch with ourselves through the company we keep. On this new collection of songs, FKA twigs leaves behind the frigid, tortured ballads she built her name on, but by no means is she any less inventive, exciting or eclectic than before.

- Contact Noah Gentry at noah.oliver.gentry@emory.edu

Southern Fried Queer Pride’s variety show is as sweet as tea

BY ZIMRA CHICKERING Staff Writer

“Deep Fried Liberation” is the first phrase on the “about us” page of Atlanta’s Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP) website, and “SWEET TEA: A Queer Variety Show!” lives up to this ideal.

Atlanta’s longest running queer variety show came back Jan. 27 at eyedrum art gallery. Located in West End, a historically Black neighborhood, eyedrum is a DIY artistic space that has a long history with SFQP. Their Sweet Tea show featured a variety of local queer talent, who performed a range of music, dance, drag and burlesque.

Southern Fried Queer Pride is an Atlanta-based organization devoted to empowering Black and POC queer communities in the South.

The arts are a cornerstone of the organization and its community. SFQP forges spaces for BIPOC queer people in the arts, especially in opposition to oppressive narratives in the South.

In SFQP’s words, “The South is home to the country’s largest population of LGBTQIQAP2+ individuals, yet we’re confined to a narrative of stigma, statistics and struggle.”

The organization’s annual queer variety show counteracts this stigma, focusing on the talent, beauty, diversity and love that courses through the Southern queer community.

This was evident in all aspects of the event down to ticket sales, as no one was turned away due to a lack of funds — SFQP allowed for a sliding scale of payment.

Before the performances, attendees could gather in eyedrum’s industrial arts space, enjoy a drink, catch up with fellow Southern queer icons and appreciate the art lining the walls.

As a visual art enthusiast, I could not help but spend some time checking out the pieces by Atlanta-based artists George Long and Mike Stasny, who both currently have an exhibition at Underground Atlanta.

Long’s works were a fascinating exploration of the human form in time and space, with sketches of bodies sometimes so faint and small, you had to squint to see them in the dimly lit room.

Stasny’s artwork struck me more as creatures rising out of a Rorschach inkblot test, both adorable in their teddy bear-like familiarity and perturbing in their half-finished deadpan faces.

Their art was made all the more otherworldly by the sounds of La DJ Cochino, who blasted bass-heavy electronic tunes that filled the warehouse so that even the old wooden floorboards vibrated to the beat.

The rest of the evening was

Southern Fried Queer Pride is an Atlanta-based organization devoted to empowering Black and POC queer communities in the South spearheaded by host Taylor Alxndr, a vocalist, performer and self-proclaimed “space-maker.”

While Alxndr did not perform any musical numbers, she lit up the stage and kept the energy of the space comfortable, open and energized the entire night, even as the show continued into the early hours of the next day.

With ongoing crowd polls about astrology, alphabet mafia identity and life in Atlanta, Alxndr made everyone feel like they belonged, no matter who they were or where they came from.

That energy continued into the performances of the night, which were kicked off with an un-

abashedly sexy burlesque performance by Evangeline Laveau, one of Atlanta’s premier burlesque talents.

She was followed immediately by the musical performance of singer and fashion designer Brejahnia, who strutted onto the stage in a self-made and designed outfit.

The outfit screamed Afrofuturism, with metallic silver pants and a bra-crop top hybrid accompanied by bulbous silver bands along the ankles and wrists, making Brejahnia float like an otherworldly figure above the rough industrial flooring.

The Black queer magic lighting up the stage was undeniable after just two performances.

The next star of the show, SHI, really does it all.

SHI is a vocalist, songwriter and activist who represents the queer trans Asian community.

SHI shone on the stage, dripping in an ethereal white nightgown with luxurious white silk gloves for their first act and a detailed navy kimono with a highlighter yellow dress for their second.

After their first few songs, SHI announced to the audience that they’re running for office this year.

In their own words, “I am really tired of losing legislative battles to racists.”

To take this into their own hands, they are running to represent Georgia House District 90, a seat previously held by Stacey Abrams and Bee Nguyen, with a fire and passion for transforming and fulfilling that role in office.

This event made the audience feel as though they could change the world, with a celebration of each voice and each identity.

While the first three performers were quite experienced and cemented into the Atlanta queer performance scene, the next artist, Jaykwellyn Douglas, aka Lil Cornpop, is an up and coming trans femme rapper that lives and performs in Atlanta, and this was her official debut in the city.

If that were not a part of her introduction, I would have never guessed she was a newcomer to

ZIMRA CHICKERING / Staff

Boy Blue and the Bandits performing at the Sweet Tea variety show

ZIMRA CHICKERING / Staff

Mike Stasny and George Long’s artworks displayed on the walls of eyedrum

performance, as she embodied equal parts grace and power on stage, even amongst technical difficulties.

Her lyrics hit attendees in the soul and her flow stayed so perfectly on beat; it sounded like a studio-recorded track.

Boy Blue & The Bandits rounded out the evening with songs that were, as they explained, “written from a place of love,” and helped the crowd feel warmer, softer and more relaxed by the end of the night.

The crowd swayed to the beat of the soothing bass guitar and soulful, lilting melodies of Boy

Blue, wrapping up the night with a performance that brought the audience together.

While the evening was long and the performers coped with timing and technical difficulties, the emphasis “SWEET TEA: A Queer Variety Show!” placed on acceptance, diversity, performance and true art brought me unbridled joy.

Southern Fried Queer Pride put the “variety” in queer variety show and the “sweet” in sweet tea.

- Contact Zimra Chickering at zimra.chickering@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Emory Life

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 | Emory Life Editor: Kaitlin Mottley (kmottle@emory.edu)| Asst. Editors: Oli Turner (omturne@emory.edu) and Xavier Stevens (xsteven@emory.edu)

To see or not to see: The ongoing debate of displaying mummies at the Carlos Museum

By Chaya Tong Asst. Opinion Editor If you walk into the Carlos Museum, take a left. Walk through ancient Rome, past the mosaic panels on the wall and classical marble statues.

Follow the map at your feet through the Mediterranean Sea, and wind your way up the ramp through lower Nubia then upper Nubia. Wander along the Nile River to where it forks, turn left and you have arrived.

But maybe you wish I hadn’t directed you here. The location of the museum’s graveyard — the Egyptian mummy exhibit.

The ethical debate over displaying human remains is a long one. Some scholars argue that it contributes to science and education while others say it is morbid and shows the continuation of colonialism — displaying ancient cadavers like painted pots or excavated artifacts.

This all boils down to one simple question: Should you be able to walk into a museum and stare at mummies at all? Some American museums are reconsidering the practice of displaying mummies.

The Rhode Island School of Design Museum in Providence decided to put “Nesmin,” the mummy of a Ptolemaic priest, back in his coffin after rethinking the idea of exhibiting human bodies.

The recent Black Lives Matter movement has only catalyzed the mummy debate by emphasizing ideas of cultural ownership and modern-day impacts of colonialism.

It is a debate the Carlos Museum has recently engaged in, installing warning signs at the entrance to the Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art gallery after lengthy discussions both within the Emory community and at peer museums and national organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums.

“The carefully considered decision to add this signage aims to respect the museum’s diverse audiences and to create a welcoming and comfortable environment for all of our visitors,” said Sarah Jones, director of marketing and communication for the Carlos Museum.

Egyptomania The practice of collecting mummies started long before the Carlos Museum opened on Emory’s campus in 1919. “Egyptomania” dates back to a Renaissance fascination with Egypt,

Kushal Bafna/Contributing

Emory University’s Carlos Museum is home to an Egyptian mummy exhibit, which has sparked a conversation of whether and how to display mummies. and Europeans started importing mummies as early as the 13th century. But the hysteria for Egypt truly skyrocketed in 1798, when Napoleon invaded the country and introduced Europeans to the wonders of the ancient pyramids.

Egypt soon became a highly soughtafter tourist destination. “Mummy unwrappings” became popular spectacles in 19th century Britain, and curiosity shops were filled with the funerary jewels that were unrolled from the bandages. In 1922, Egyptomania seized the world once again with the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. It was around this time that the Carlos Museum acquired its first set of mummies.

William Arthur Shelton, a professor in Emory’s Candler School of Theology, led an excavation through Egypt and the ancient Near East in 1920. His first purchase for the University – The Old Kingdom mummy from Abydos, Egypt — is the oldest mummy in North America and now one of the most prized pieces at the Carlos. A second group of mummies was acquired in 1999 from the Niagara Falls Museum in Canada.

Behind the sign The decision to install warning signs did not start in the Egypt wing of the Carlos Museum. It began with the museum’s newest exhibition, “Each/Other,” created by Indigenous American artists Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger. During dis-

Oxford’s Music for Change combines fundraising with the arts

By Uma Shenai Staff Writer In Oxford College’s Music for Change club, musical performance, social justice and fundraising all intersect.

The club hosts concerts and other fundraising initiatives for Oxford artists, and all proceeds are donated to a variety of charities. Musicians who join or perform with Music for Change enjoy a casual environment and a tight-knit community of fellow artists.

“My favorite thing in the world is music – I love to play the guitar, I collect vinyl records,” said Treasurer

Ashton Fox (23Ox). “I knew that this was a great opportunity for me to gain some leadership experience while doing something that I love.”

Last semester, Music for Change held two major events. One was a fall charity concert, where Oxford musicians performed everything from classical piano pieces to modern songs. No entry fee was required, but donations were encouraged.

“We had a little intermission between the two parts of the concert with cookies,” said co-President Jessica Yoon (22Ox). “We were able to raise over a hundred dollars.”

The club’s second event was a per-

The fact that the conversation about mummies arose from a conversation about Native Americans is no accident.

As it turns out, Native Americans and ancient Egyptians share something in common: a museum market for their dead.

However, the two differ in their exhibition and the regulations surrounding them. You won’t find Native American remains on display in the Carlos Museum and are unlikely to do so at any American museum for that

matter. Peaking in the 19th century, collectors in the United States fixated on Native American skeletons, studying skulls in an attempt to prove that Anglo-Saxons were racially superior.

In the name of science and preservation, white Americans pillaged and plundered Native American graves.

In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, mandating that federal institutions repatriate Native remains in their possession and protect Indigenous human remains on federal and tribal land. But the Act doesn’t cover Egyptian mummies.

Some scholars argue that there is no difference between Egyptian and Native American remains. Europeans collected Egyptian mummies with the same ideas of colonialism and orientalism as they did with Native American skeletons. Others, such as the Carlos Museum, see the two issues as distinct.

“To the ancient Egyptians, mummification transformed a corpse into an eternal, perfect body,” said Melinda Hartwig, curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art for the Carlos Museum. “The mummy in its decorated coffin or cartonnage was intended by the ancient Egyptians to be seen and remembered. Modern Egyptians take pride in their mummies and display them in state-ofthe-art facilities such as the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.”

At the Carlos Museum, the Old Kingdom mummy is displayed alone without a sarcophagus, unlike the

formance by Fox and his friends at Benton House of Covington, a local nursing home. Fox said that the event was a success, and he hopes Music for Change will promote more concerts like this in the future.

“One of the ladies there, she didn’t want us to stop playing,” Fox said, “so we played a little bit extra for her.”

Last year, Music for Change put out a series of dare lists for student artists, filled with challenges from Oxfordrelated activities to Tik Tok dances with the dean. Musicians, usually members of the Oxford community, could fulfill these dares and complete fundraising goals by performing for an audience.

“If you want to see someone dance in the quad, you’d have to have a total of ten dollars of donations from everyone,” said Alexandra Iotzova (22Ox), a former co-President of Music for

Change.

Yoon and Goldberg plan to hold a spring charity concert this semester.

Yoon said the club may publish the list of dares right before the concert, hoping this will “hype up” the performance and bring in even more musicians, students and donations than before.

Music for Change does not support a specific charity.

“We tend to switch it up,” co-President Harrison Goldberg (22Ox) said.

“Last year, Oxford students who had volunteered to do the dares were able to donate everything to a charity of their choosing.”

A community and artistic outlet for talented Oxford students, the club also welcomes those who do not sing or play an instrument.

“There’s people on the board who aren’t really musicians themselves,”

cussions about the exhibit, the Carlos Museum received advice from the Community Advisory Committee, which is made up of both Native American and non-Native faculty, staff, students and community members.

“We wanted to take steps to be inclusive and welcoming for those Native American visitors who do not want to be in the presence of wrapped Egyptian mummies or who want to prepare themselves before entering spaces holding them,” said Megan O’Neil, faculty curator of the art of the Americas for the Carlos Museum.

To address different cultures’ diverse views about death and the dead, the museum worked with the exhibition design team to create and display signs so that visitors would have sufficient warning before entering both the museum and the Egyptian galleries.

Continuing ethical conversations

other mummies.

“We do not place mummies in a coffin other than their own,” Hartwig explained. “The Old Kingdom mummy entered the collection with the remains of its original wooden coffin and is displayed resting on it.”

Indeed, how to display mummies, if they are to be displayed at all, raises many of its own questions. Should mummies be displayed in coffins or out? Should the lid be kept on or off?

For the Old Kingdom mummy, the Carlos Museum based its decision on the specifics of the mummy and its interest to Egyptologists, scientists and museum visitors.

The notion of removing the Carlos Museum’s mummies from display altogether is complex. The museum attracts more than 75,000 visitors each year from around the world, many of whom come to view the mummy collection. The Senusret Collection, featuring approximately 1,500 items, including a mummy and multiple associated funerary objects, is one of the most extensive collections of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern artwork held by a U.S. museum.

“The Carlos Museum continually assesses the respectful display of mummies with the research needs and interests of modern scientists, scholars, students and museum visitors,” Hartwig said. “The museum is committed to the respectful curation of wrapped mummies using the highest standards of ethical and professional practice.”

Although the issue of whether and how to display human remains, and in particular, mummies, is an ongoing conversation at the Carlos Museum, installing signage is one small acknowledgment of the ethical concerns raised by such exhibits.

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

This article is also featured in Wheel Talk, the paper’s news podcast. Scan to listen on all streaming platforms!

Iotzova said. “It’s about wanting to raise money for good causes.”

Fox said Music for Change was an integral part of his first semester at Oxford College.

“It [was] probably my favorite thing in terms of moving to college and getting used to it, and it provided me a way to do what I love and do it for a good cause,” Fox said.

Goldberg agreed, adding that Music for Change not only benefits Oxford students but also has a larger effect on the local community.

“It’s very gratifying and rewarding to know that everything that you’re doing is having an effect on someone else’s life and bettering someone else’s life,” Goldberg said.

— Contact Uma Shenai at uma.shenai@emory.edu

13

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

EMORY LIFE

The Emory Wheel

The family of Josef Quispe (24N) reunited (left) with the older generation in the middle row and the children in the top and bottom rows.

Courtesy of Josef quispe

A student’s homecoming over winter break

By Xavier Stevens Asst. Emory Life Editor When he wanted orange juice for breakfast, Josef Quispe (24N) climbed the orange tree in his front yard.

Quispe reached the top to find the freshest fruit and looked down at the ground. There, his brother held a shirt between his arms to catch the falling oranges like a net to make sure they wouldn’t break from the fall. Oranges rained down, and his brother caught all of them.

Quispe and his brother ate a few as they walked back to the house.

Over winter break, Quispe traveled from Atlanta to visit his family in Huaytú, Bolivia, a small town in the tropical lowlands east of the Andes Mountains.

The closest convenience store is about a 20-minute motorcycle ride from Quispe’s house, and the nearest swimming pool is the currents of el Río Surutú. His family, like most locals, live off the land together by

ranching cattle and picking the fresh fruit in the yard.

Quispe has split his life between Bolivia and the United States. His family spent two years on the ranch in Huaytú and two years in Battle Creek, Michigan.

When he started high school, Quispe decided to live on a more permanent basis in the U.S. and pursue higher education, only visiting Bolivia during breaks.

The Bolivian government enforced strict guidelines at the start of the pandemic in an effort to reduce cases and return to normal soon after.

For over a year, Quispe and his family could not visit his aunts, uncles and cousins, who were only allowed to leave the house for a set time in the week.

Last December, Quispe and his family of 10 returned to Bolivia, but to call his time in Huaytú a “ break” would be untrue.

On weekends, he busied himself with catching up with family, swim-

After helping skin the cow on the ming in the river with his uncle and cousins in the day and preparing chaco, a chaotic scene welcomed meals in the kitchen with his aunts in Quispe back home. It seemed each member of his the evening. extended family, During the weeks, even third cousins, he worked the fam“When everyone got arrived with their ily’s “chaco,” or land, own contribution of with his brothers there, no one was fresh fruit, “yuca” or and father to reesjust sitting down and drinks along with a tablish their cattle relaxing. Everyone willingness to help. business that was “When everyinactive during the was helping. And if pandemic. you werent’t you asked one got there, no Swatting away one was just sitting someone else to help walls of mosquitos, down and relaxing.

Quispe killed weeds until we all had it done.” Everyone was helpand planted grass to ing,” Quispe said. prepare his family’s — Josef Quispe (24N) “And if you weren’t, chaco for the new you asked someone animals. else to help until we On New Year’s all had it done.”

Eve, Quispe and his Quispe put his family set out to work. While Quispe hands to good use — setting up the drove to the convenience store to grab lights, mowing the lawn and standing fresh water, his brothers and cousins up tables and chairs for the 40 or more butchered a cow for the family to enjoy guests. later that night.

After two hours of constant work,

the entire family sat down for the meal and ate.

“I love it so much that everyone works together, in common,” Quispe said. “It’s not a very capitalist society.

When [our village] was being built, every family put in the hours they were able to work, and that’s just how it works.”

Quispe said he missed the environment of his family in Huaytú after several years of brief visits.

And after his trip over winter break, Quispe is considering taking a gap year, like he used to during his childhood, to live in Hyautú and work on the family land.

“This last time that I went down to Bolivia just touched me more,” Quispe said. “Maybe it’s just that my Spanish isn’t what it used to be. But I’m older now, and when I remember my childhood, it’s always been in Bolivia. I don’t know; I can’t lose that.”

— Contact Xavier Stevens at x.steven@emory.edu

Emory’s new color guard club aims to boost school spirit through performance

By Oli Turner Asst. Emory Life Editor Jai Barnett (24C) envisions a vibrant campus life, one bursting with color and fluttering fabric. The main contributor: Emory University’s own color guard club.

Color guard, Barnett said, stands alone, separate from a marching band.

A color guard ensemble dances to music, using flags or metal sabers, to perform cohesive choreography.

Barnett said they were motivated to start the club even before arriving at Emory in 2020. COVID-19 stalled color guard operations for nearly two years, but a full return to campus has allowed Barnett to launch the club with the support of their faculty adviser, George Staib, a professor of practice in the Emory Dance & Movement Studies Program.

Staib has been involved with color guard since he was in high school and continues to direct groups in Atlanta and other areas of Georgia. He said Barnett is one of many students who expressed an interest in starting a color guard group at the University, but Barnett was the first to follow through with the initiative.

“I’m just thrilled,” Staib said.

Barnett became involved with color guard in high school in Rossville, Georgia, when they joined the winter guard team, an indoor version of

color guard. During Barnett’s senior stand as another opportunity for the year, they performed for Eunoia University’s community to become Independent Winterguard, which more integrated and close-knit, unitcompeted against well-known groups ing dancers and non-dancers in a in Atlanta. lighthearted, extravagant space, simi“In that group, I learned a lot more lar to that of a circus, they said. techniques in [modern contemporary “I feel like what this is going to do is and jazz] and then was inspired to excite more people to enjoy dance by come to Emory as a dance major,” offering new forms that people are not Barnett said. aware of,” Barnett A color guard club said. at Emory will allow “It really is a beautiful Atlanta is home Barnett to continue to well-established fusion of music exploring dancing, color guard groups teaching and choreo- movement, and what like Reverie, we call it in the field Paramount and graphing, and by startGeorgia State ing the club, they want is pageantry.”

University’s team, to allow others to have yet many seem unfaa similar opportunity to — George Staib, miliar with the art their own.

Professor of Practice in form, Barnett said.

The opportunity is Emory Dance multi-faceted. Barnett Staib is hopeful said the community and for a debut perforculture of color guard mance from the club brings together dance, by the end of the self-expression and individuality to semester to create interest for potenallow people to learn how to flow freely tial performers and community memwith who they are. bers in the fall.

Color guard has also helped them “Even though it’s been around for understand their sexuality and per- 40 plus years, it still flies under the radar for many people,” Staib said. “I sonal identity.

“Wearing makeup and doing a lot love that Jai is interested in showing of extravagant things was very attrac- the ... contemporary version of what tive to me, almost like a kid in a candy we do.”

Looking ahead to campus events, store,” Barnett said. “I just loved all Barnett hopes the club will make of it.”

Barnett believes color guard can appearances in the University’s annu-

al Homecoming Parade this October.

Many color guard teams perform at amusement parks, parades and other community events as well.

Secretary Audrey Lu (24C) believes the club’s collaborative and artistic nature will contribute to the University’s school spirit, which she said is lacking.

“Color guard ... can bridge a lot of different fields of performance art,” Lu said. “You have your dancers, your choreographers, the composers, the people putting the music together, the people who design costumes.”

However, until the color guard club is chartered, necessary supplies and spaces are not available to the team.

“You need tall ceilings, and that’s not so easy to come by,” Staib said.

The club meets once a month until funding is obtained, mastering dance fundamentals and planning for the future with assistance from Staib and Cynthia Church, a costume designer in the Emory Dance program.

The club’s first meeting was attended by about 15 enthusiastic students, and Barnett’s instruction began with basics like flexibility and dance fundamentals to provide all members with the same technical foundation.

“I do think that it’s a comfortable and accessible way to get involved,” said Lu, who is new to color guard and dance herself.

Staib said color guard rehearsals

Courtesy of Jai Barnett

Jai Barnett (24C) is starting a color guard club to provide students with an outlet for artistic self-expression.

are focused and process driven, perfecting a single four-to-six-minute long show over a period of four to five months.

“It is focused attention to one choreographic idea, rather than being frivolous, and it just gets better and stronger with each performance,” Staib said. “It really builds upon one idea.”

Staib views color guard as a unique blend of physicality, musicality and dance.

“It really is a beautiful fusion of music, movement, and what we call it in the field is pageantry,” he said.

— Contact Oli Turner at oli.turner@emory.edu

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

SPORTS

The Emory Wheel

Perez and Yoon a dynamic duo for women’s tennis

By Andrew Feld Staff Writer

Imagine walking onto a tennis court, stepping up to the service line, bouncing the ball a few times, taking a deep breath and preparing to serve. Now also imagine that this is the first round of the NCAA tournament, and you’re playing a doubles match with a partner you have only competed with twice before. For sophomore Ana Cristina Perez and senior Lauren Yoon, this was their reality.

Around the middle of their season last year, the two were paired up to play doubles together. A year that saw COVID-19 almost shut down yet another sports season was also the year when Perez and Yoon emerged as a formidable doubles pair that posted a 4-1 record en route to the women’s team’s eighth national championship.

However, before Perez and Yoon could enjoy any success, they first had to be partnered together.

At the start of the season, head coach Amy Bryant had locked in the team’s first two doubles pairings, but the third and final spot was up for grabs.

Yoon explained that the pandemic positively impacted the search for the third doubles pairing, as the uncertainty that surrounded last year’s season provided the coaches even more freedom to test which players fit well together.

“Everyone’s a good player, but there’s something about doubles that you have to make sure that players click together,” Yoon said. “So at the beginning … we did not have a season, [Coach Bryant] was playing around, and then [Perez and I] played together a lot during practice and just worked.”

Despite being crowned national champions at season’s end, their success as a duo was not immediate.

“It was really tough to become a solid doubles team,” Perez said. “But finally winning and seeing results [showed that] the process paid off. It was very satisfying and enjoyable.”

As they spent more time on the court together during practice, it became clear the duo had good chemistry — both physically and their mental approach to the game. In Perez and Yoon’s case, their distinct playing styles complemented one another.

“You cannot put two people [together] who play the same game because then you will not have that variety that should come with a team,” Perez said.

“Lauren is very aggressive and really good at finishing the points off at the net, and I like to build the point[s] so that she can finish [them].”

A good doubles pair also needs to have compatible mindsets. In singles, a poor mindset is self-contained; but in doubles, one player’s attitude, whether positive or negative, affects the other’s.

From the first time Perez and Yoon started playing together, they felt com-

Basketball teams go 3-1 for the weekend Continued from Back Page the final score up to 69-43. The Eagles capitalized on the Judges’ 20 turnovers, scoring 18 points from them.

While Emory struggled to make threepointers, their field percentage was significantly higher at 40.3%.

Arato attributed the win to her teammates’ energy and control of the game from the first basket.

“They’re willing to do whatever it takes to win the UAA and the NCAA Tournament.”

— Men’s Basketball head coach Jason Zimmerman “I don’t think we were too confident, but I think we’re really good at exploiting other teams weaknesses, especially when we start out really strong,” Arato said. “Then the rest of the game kind of took care of itself.”

This win, and NYU’s loss on Jan. 28, brought Emory to a tie for first place in the UAA conference. Emory’s second game in the weekend was a fight to maintain their now five-game winning streak and to take the first place spot in the conference from NYU. Arato started the game with a swift three-pointer only 35 seconds into the game. This could have set the tone for the game, but NYU recovered quickly and dominated the first quarter. The Eagles had plenty of scoring opportunities, but they failed to capitalize on them and only scored 18.8% of their shots. The Violets led after shooting 66.7% in the first quarter, driving the score up to 25-7. The Eagles seemed to recover slightly in the second half, scoring 11 points, but NYU held them off with 15 points of their own. At the

half, the Eagles still trailed 40-18.

NYU’s ferocity on the court caught Arato and her teammates off guard.

The Eagles struggled to regain their confidence and the fluidity seen in the Brandeis game.

“Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong…I think we came out flat and didn’t really have enough energy to carry us through the first quarter. Then after the first quarter, it was hard to come back after that,” Arato said.

The third quarter did not offer any solace at first, with Emory stuck in a scoreless rut for 12:45 minutes that started in the second quarter.

Unfortunately only the Eagles were plagued by missed baskets, as the Violets went on a 22-point run during this time. Once Emory got on the board, they put up 11 points for the quarter. NYU maintained their large lead at 64-29. The Eagles outscored the Violets 15-13 in the fourth quarter, with freshman forward Erin Martin and freshman guard Daniella Aronsky contributing a three-pointer each. The game ended with NYU winning 77-44 and settling into first place of the UAA standings.

The Eagles will face NYU again on Feb. 6, and Arato is confident that Emory will walk off the court with a win. She wants her team to channel their frustration about the game in a positive direction.

“We can definitely beat them,” Arato said. “We made them look a lot better than they actually are. I know we all want it really badly, we have to learn it by executing and doing everything we’re supposed to do on the court.”

— Contact Jenna Daly at jenna.daly@emory.edu and Claire Fenton at claire.fenton@emory.edu

fortable speaking their mind to each other. This helped them perform better in practice and in eventual matches because each partner can notice when her teammate’s head is not in the right place and remind her to concentrate on the task at hand.

“We help each other keep grounded and focused,” Yoon said. “If I get too angry, Ana’s like, ‘No, let’s get back into it,’ and if Ana is thinking about something else, I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s bring it in.’”

These differing play styles worked well in practice and ultimately led to coaches settling on Perez and Yoon for the third and final doubles pairing. Despite having the traits of a good doubles team, they struggled in their first couple matches. After not being paired up for the team’s first four matches of the season, Perez and Yoon finally competed together on April 16 against Georgia Gwinnett College, the top ranked National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics school in the country — a match in which they suffered a 5-7 defeat. Their next opportunity came exactly two weeks later against the same doubles team they had just lost to. Perez and Yoon played a closer match, but ultimately lost 7-8 (3-7) in a tiebreak.

Although these defeats were certainly challenging for Perez and Yoon, they remained confident in their abilities, and as a result of playing against tough competition, each gained valu-

able knowledge of how the other likes to play.

“At the beginning, it was kind of messy,” Yoon said. “[Our play] was a little all over the place. And then once we started predicting each other’s moves, the puzzle pieces fell into place [right in time for] nationals.”

When the NCAA tournament began, the duo took off. In round one, they logged their first win together by defeating Rhode Island College by a score of 8-0. The domination continued into the second round, where Perez and Yoon won 8-1 before going on to win two of their next three matches, culminating in an impressive 8-4 victory in the championship.

“It was awesome,” Perez said.

“We were in our mode, and we were comfortable. We enjoyed it, and it all pieced together and led to a game where we could have fun and also be focused and win it.”

Now, with a successful last season in the rearview mirror, Perez and Yoon will wait to see if they are paired together once again. Currently, Perez and Yoon are the only duo on the team that competed in each NCAA tournament game in which both partners are returning. Whether they are paired together again or not, Perez and Yoon indicated one way their experience playing together can help their teammates: confidence.

“I think our experience gives us a lot of confidence knowing that we’ve

14

been through a season together,” Yoon said. “If we get paired up with someone else, we will have that confidence to help guide [our] partner because we’ve played through nationals.”

Perez and Yoon share the same perspective on success, expressing that wins and losses are not everything. Perez credited the book “The Champion’s Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive,” which the entire team is currently reading, for changing how she views achievement.

“It talks about different orientations and philosophies athletes have,” Perez said. “We’re discussing a part of the book that talks about a point of view that focuses on success or a point of view that focuses on enjoyment. I feel that my personal success should result from my enjoyment and happiness playing the sport, and those do not come from wins or losses.”

Yoon also said the book has shifted her view of success away from a more goal-oriented mindset that she had her freshman year, and she now wants to soak up every minute of her final season.

“My main goal is to have fun even if I do not make it into the lineup,” Yoon said. “[If I am] training hard, being present in the moment and enjoying practice with my teammates, I cannot lose in that situation.”

— Contact Andrew Feld at andrew.m.feld@emory.edu

NCAA policy disappoints, students say Continued from Back Page cy might affect athletes who don’t want to transition completely.

“There are certain biological advantages that need to be adjusted to make competition fair,” Zamler said. “But I know there are people who don’t necessarily want to fully transition. They deserve to be respected and able to play on the team they identify with too.

It’s a really tough issue.”

The policy change follows recent national debate around the success of Lia Thomas, a transgender woman at the University of Pennslyvania who previously swam on the mens’ team.

She came out to her team in 2019, competing intermittently on the mens’ team while undergoing hormone therapy. She dropped out of Penn for the 2020-2021 school year when the coronavirus canceled her last season to preserve her eligibility, returning this year to swim on the womens’ team.

Thomas has broken multiple records. At the Zippy Invitational in Dec. 2021, she won three events, swimming the fastest time in the country in both the 500 free and the 200 free.

She faced transphobic attacks from anti-trans groups and conservative media following her performances.

Penn swimming parents wrote a letter to the NCAA in protest of Thomas’s participation. Olympic Champion Nancy Hogshead-Makar wrote an edi-

torial citing why Thomas shouldn’t be allowed to compete.

Zamler believes that Thomas’s wins were well earned, explaining that “if she met all requirements for participation, then her records are definitely valid.”

Emory Athletic Director Keiko Price wrote in a Jan. 24 email to the Wheel that “Emory Athletics has and will continue to abide by NCAA guidelines for college sports, including its transgender participation policy.”

Price declined an interview request.

Jones was disappointed by the University’s response.

“Valuing trans people cannot just be someone else’s job or someone else’s decision,” Jones said. “It is the job of all of us to take an active role in allowing trans people to be people, and that includes allowing trans people to participate in sports.”

OxPride Secretary Ayanna Kakar (22Ox) agreed, stating that Emory needs to use its influence to fight the policy.

“Emory needs to prioritize its students, and that includes trans students,” Kakar said. “They have the institutional power to push back, and by sticking to the status quo, they’re failing to support all their students.”

Recent conversation about transgender athlete rights has extended past the NCAA. In his Jan. 14 State of the State speech, Georgia Gov. Brian

Kemp promised to “ensure fairness in school sports,” alluding to state legislation that would force high school athletes to compete in sports according to their birth gender.

The statement concerned some students. Wilhem said she is worried about how this policy might affect high school athletes who want to be recruited.

“New laws could really hurt transgender athletes in high school and their process of getting recruited,” Wilhem said. “If Emory supports its current student athletes, they should also support the high school athletes they’ll be recruiting from. This means lobbying for high school trans athlete participation.”

Jones explained the danger they foresaw in the vagueness of Kemp’s statement.

“The surveillance of trans people’s hormones, chromosomes and bodies for the sake of ‘fairness’ is absolutely transphobic violence,” Jones said.

“Cis people do not need to be protected from trans people, sex is not a valid marker of athletic ability, and reducing people to their sexual characteristics in the way that trans people have long experienced is undeniably dehumanizing.”

— Contact Katie Bartlett at katie.bartlett@emory.edu

Courtesy of Jason Oh

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

The Emory Wheel BASKETBALL

Williams makes history

By Kevin Kim Contributing Writer Emory University’s men’s basketball team etched their name into Emory Athletics’ history books on Jan. 23 when the team sank their 21st three-point shot of the game, the most in a single game since the 2018-19 season, when the team made 19 baskets from behind the arc. The Eagles returned from their road trip with a 94-66 victory against Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) to extend their winning streak to six.

Senior Romin Williams also stamped his name into Emory’s individual records books when he hit his sixth three-pointer of the game, making him the program’s all-time leader in made three pointers at 230.

Hailing from Harvey, Louisiana, Williams is a third-year guard on the team and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) in the Goizueta Business School. He graduated from the school with a Bachelor of Business Administration last spring following a season that was canceled due to the pandemic. With career averages of 14.7 points, 2.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game, Williams’ record-breaking moment supplements an already decorated college career, but nonetheless holds a special meaning.

“I’ve always been known as a threepoint shooter,” Williams said. “So being able to break that record personally was a cool moment for my family.

Overall, it was a great day for me and the team.”

Although his name alone is attached to the record, Williams emphasized that his individual success would not be possible without his teammates.

“From my teammates, to the coaching staff, to the trainers, everybody that I’ve been involved with during my time [at Emory] has played a part in that record and has ownership in that record,” Williams said.

Head coach Jason Zimmerman reiterated the important role Williams’ teammates played in helping reach the achievement.

“Romin’s teammates don’t have as many wins and as many joyful moments without him,” Zimmerman

SWOOP’S SCOOP Opponent

Sport

Natalie Sandlow/Contributing Guard Romin Williams defends a Brandeis player on Jan. 28.

said. “I think that’s a great thing about being on a team: we all need each other. That’s something that all of us strive for; to be part of something that’s bigger than ourselves, and Romin has been a huge part of that for our program and his teammates.”

Williams said he gained maturity and humility as he took on ever evolving responsibilities for the team over the years.

“Freshman year, we had a senior class who was very experienced helping younger guys, and my job was to bring energy, be a good teammate and just play in my role and focus on hooping,” Williams said. “Sophomore year we lost those seniors, and I was playing more minutes and was more responsible for scoring the ball [and] making sure guys are in the right spots. Junior year, I took more of a leadership role in the team along with my class, getting younger guys ready to go.”

Williams’ final season thus far is marked once again by change, and the challenges he faces off the basketball court as a postgraduate are unfamiliar.

“I think this year is Romin’s most challenging for a lot of different reasons,” Zimmerman said. “When you’re an undergrad, you’re with your teammates, you’re in classes with your teammates, you have the same kind of schedule as your teammates. During the first semester [in the MSBA program], Romin was trying to find that routine, having not gone through that yet.”

Despite the new and heavy academic load, Williams sees this time as a unique opportunity to learn and grow.

“This year has definitely been the busiest year of my time [at Emory],” Williams said.

“The master’s program that I’m a part of is data science oriented, something that has got me out of my comfort zone. But I’ve been learning to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Every day is a new challenge in the classroom, and on the court I’ve had to step my game up, like I’ve never had to step it up before.”

Reflecting on Williams’ growth throughout his time coaching him, Zimmerman is proud of the athlete and person Williams has become.

“I watched Romin through this whole process grow as a student and as a basketball player,” Zimmerman said. “He’s done a great job of juggling those [roles], and doing a lot of things doesn’t mean you’re mediocre at a lot of things; it means you have to put everything you got in both avenues.

That’s challenging, but I think Romin is finding his way. We’ve got seven, eight weeks left with Romin, and that’s something I’m going to treasure.”

Williams and the Eagles look to extend their winning streak to six following two home wins as they take on Brandeis University (Mass.) on Feb. 4 at 5:30 PM.

— Contact Kevin Kim at kevin.kim3@emory.edu

15

Time

Thursday Feb. 3

Swim & Dive

Friday Feb. 4

Swim & Dive Track & Field M Basketball W Basketball

@ Auburn First-Chance Inv. All Day @ Camel City Elite All Day @ Brandeis 5:30 p.m. @ Brandeis 7:30 p.m.

Saturday Feb. 5

Swim & Dive Track & Field

@ Auburn First-Chance Inv. @ Camel City Elite

All Day All Day

Sunday Feb. 6

M Basketball W Basketball

@ New York University @ New York University

12 p.m.

2 p.m.

@ Auburn First-Chance Invitational

All Day

*Home Games in Bold

W

Be legendary like Tom Brady.

Courtesy Of Wikimedia Commons/A ll-Pro R eels

Write for sports.

Contact mmariam@emory.edu for more information.

Djokovic’s decision spurs ‘whirlwind’ reactions Continued from Back Page

Basketball League before his season was canceled due to COVID-19.

“I wasn’t super surprised when I heard what they ruled on Novak Djokovic just because I saw what the border restrictions were,” Baitey said.

Baitey also felt comforted that a well-known athlete was treated the same as he was when it came to COVID-19 regulations and immigration restrictions.

The rest of the world also focused on Djokovic’s news, including young players who reflected on their tennis icon’s decisions. Australia’s immigration minister Alex Hawke believed Djokovic would increase anti-vaccination sentiment. Although Emory men’s tennis senior Sahil Raina believes Australia made the right decision in not allowing Djokovic to play, he felt that Djokovic’s status would not deter the tennis community from getting vaccinated.

“I think the behavior of big tennis stars like Novak [Djokovic], Federer or Nadal influences tennis players a little bit, but when it comes to issues like the vaccine, I don’t think that has as much of an effect on young tennis players,” Raina said. “Their views on that subject are probably more centered on what their families believe in.”

Djokovic has said he’s been over-

whelmed by the attention he has received recently and uncomfortable about the discussion over his vaccination and immigration status. To protect his mental health, Djokovic will withdraw from the spotlight before discussing the issue further. Djokovic’s situation is similar to previous cases surrounding the vaccination status of sports stars, such as the controversy around Brooklyn Nets basketball player Kyrie Irving’s refusal to get the vaccine.

Baitey, a fan of Irving’s, commented on the controversy and Irving’s remarks on mental health.

“I’ve loved some of the things that he’s done talking about mental health and just being aware of it and how we have to protect the mental health of athletes and [professional athletes] are disproportionately impacted by it because of the same reasons: there are just so many eyes on them,” Baitey said. “These pundits on the television talk about them every single day, and they are painfully critical of them in a lot of ways that are oftentimes unfair. No one should have the right to infringe on someone else’s personal liberties.”

However, Djokovic’s record of questionable choices and actions off the court — such as his involvement in organizing the Adria Tour amid a pan-

demic shutdown — and on the court raises questions about his influence on the general public.

Djokovic’s hectic experience in Australia has been a whirlwind of broad media coverage, support by fans, immediate court processing and consideration of his case and a warm welcome from Serbian authorities towards his return.

Despite Morrison’s “no special cases” claims, Djokovic’s saga appears to be an exception in the eyes of refugees who have been living for months, and even years, under the same roof of Djokovic’s detention hotel.

Ishmael, a refugee at the hotel, told the Guardian: “We know they want to send a message, with Djokovic’s arrival, that they have a strong border that is fair to everyone. But it hasn’t been fair for nine years. They differentiate between people based on class, some people from developed countries have never been detained.”

After Djokovic’s saga, refugees hope that the Serbian’s experience will spark awareness of their situation.

Meanwhile, the tennis community will have to wait until the French Open, the next Grand Slam tournament, to hopefully see Djokovic in action.

— Contact Martinna Roldan at martinna.roldan@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Sports

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 | Sports Editor: Michael Mariam (mmariam@emory.edu), Asst. Editors: Claire Fenton (claire.fenton@emory.edu) Jenna Daly (jenna.daly@emory.edu)

Men’s basketball takes first, women hold second

By Jenna Daly Claire Fenton Asst. Sports Editors

back to that this weekend on the road if we want to get a win.”

Leaning on the experience of upperclassmen such as Schner, Stuck and Williams has been critical to the Eagles success thus far, and Zimmerman said that their leadership will continue to prepare the underclassmen to play selfless, team-oriented basketball.

“We have really good players who really care about Emory basketball,” Zimmerman said. “They’re willing to do whatever it takes for us to try to win the UAA and get to the NCAA tournament.”

and

The men’s and women’s basketball teams played a University Athletic Association (UAA) doubleheader this weekend, with both teams squaring off against Brandeis University (Mass.) on Jan. 28 before facing New York University (NYU) on Jan. 30. The men’s back-to-back victories helped them secure first place in the UAA standings, while the women remained in the second-place slot after going 1-1.

Men’s Basketball Against Brandeis, the men’s team raced to an 8-0 lead within the first two minutes of the game and forced a Brandeis timeout when they extended the lead to 15-4 at the 15:18 mark. The teams exchanged baskets for a stretch before an Emory scoring lull allowed Brandeis to close the gap to 24-21, with eight and a half minutes left to play.

Five consecutive points from fifth year guard Matthew Schner helped extend the Eagles’ lead to 33-25 with 3:39 left to play. With just under a minute to go in the half, fifth year guard Nick Stuck’s layup put Emory ahead 44-32, but a layup from Brandeis’ sophomore guard Ryan Power and a buzzer-beater three-pointer from his teammate, fifth year guard Collin Sawyer, closed the gap to 44-37 at the end of the half.

Schner poured in nine points in the opening six and a half minutes of the second half en route to an Eagles’ 60-44 advantage. However, Brandeis fought back, outscoring the Eagles 15-5 to bring the tally to 65-59 with 7:46 left to play. Two free throws from Stuck followed by back-to-back threepointers from junior guard Max Fried and Schner put the Eagles up 73-63 at the five-minute mark. Despite 10 straight points from Sawyer, Brandeis couldn’t take the lead and the Eagles

Women’s Basketball

Natalie Sandlow/Contributing

Emory guard Matthew Schner shoots over a Brandeis defender on Jan. 28. walked away with an 83-75 victory. jumper to stretch the Eagles’ lead to both of their contests this weekend.

Schner played the entire game and 57-36 at the half.

However, head coach Jason Zimerman finished with 31 points on 13-20 shootEmory rattled off seven unan- said that he encourages the team not to ing. Fried added 13 points and a team- swered points to kick off the second focus too intently on their ranking, as high three steals, while Stuck chipped half, extending the lead to 64-36 at the they are only halfway through conferin 11 points and eight assists. Although 18:53 mark. Bolstered by nine points ence play and will face plenty of tough the Eagles shot just 29.4% from three- from Schner and eight from Stuck, competition in the remaining weeks of point range, they forced 17 turnovers the Eagles held a commanding 92-68 the regular season. and outscored Brandeis 12-0 in fast- lead with just 6:34 left to play. A three“We don’t really talk much about break points. pointer from Whelton put the Eagles’ [the standings],” Zimmerman said.

In the second match of the weekend tally past the 100 point mark with 3:51 “We watch other games, we’re aware against NYU, the two teams traded remaining, and Emory walked away of what’s going on, but as soon as you baskets for the majority of the first with a resounding 104-82 victory. start thinking about something you half until freshman forward Logan Shanahan shot a perfect 6-6 from the can’t control, then you’re not getting Shanahan came off the bench and floor, including 4-4 from three-point better.” scored 10 points in four minutes to range, en route to an 18-point perforWhile he was pleased with his playspur an Emory run. The Eagles made mance. Schner added 22 points, and ers’ offensive performance this weekup for their poor three-point shooting Stuck accrued his first career double- end, Zimmerman said tightening up against Brandeis, as freshman guard double with 20 points and 10 assists. their defense in the home stretch of Albert Fallas, freshman forward Cale The Eagles forced 17 turnovers, shot UAA play will be the key to remaining Martens, Schner, Shanahan, senior 61.9% from the floor and made 16 on the top of the UAA standings. guard Romin Williams and sopho- three-pointers.

“Our connectedness defensively and more guard Matteo Whelton collecThe Eagles are now in sole pos- our communication has been pretty tively poured in nine three-pointers session of first place since the pre- good,” Zimmerman said. “I don’t think in the first half. Schner capped off vious frontrunner, the University of we’ve guarded quite as well as we had the half with a buzzer-beater foul line Washington in St. Louis (Mo.), dropped in the week past, and we need to get

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Unvaccinated Djokovic misses Australian Open

By Martinna Roldan Contributing Writer

Novak Djokovic had his sights set on a fourth-consecutive win in the Australian Open, but he will not be able to defend his title this year.

Top tennis players occasionally skip important tournaments, such as Roger Federer who had to miss this year’s Australian Open as he recovers from his latest knee surgery, or Rafael Nadal missing the end of the 2021 season due to a foot injury. However, Djokovic’s absence stems from an unusual reason: deportation due to his unvaccinated status.

Early on Jan. 5, Djokovic flew into Australia with a medical exemption issued by the Victorian government and a granted visa from last November, hoping to win his 10th Australian Open men’s singles title.

Shortly after the Serbian’s arrival, the Australian Border Force annulled his visa and directed him to a detention hotel. His visa was restored over the next few days, but this was followed by a week of court deliberation that finally ended in his visa being revoked and deportation.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrisson welcomed the unanimous final decision and reminded the world

about Australia’s strict COVID-19 protocols and rigorous immigration system where “rules are rules, and there are no special cases.” While some Australians agreed with him, dozens of outraged protestors gathered outside the detention hotel demanding Djokovic’s freedom and chanting, “let him play!”

Australia’s strict immigration rules resonated with Emory University men’s basketball assistant coach Gebereal Baitey (19C). After his successful athletic and academic career at Emory, he ventured to Australia in early 2020 to play for the National

See DJOKOVIC, Page 15

Wikimedia Commons/globalite

Novak Djokovic celebrates his championship win over Andy Murray at the 2011 Australian Open.

The Eagles looked strong against Brandeis Judges. The game started with the teams taking turns making baskets until Emory settled into a rhythm, going on a 13-5 run to pull ahead. At the end of the first quarter, the Eagles led 21-15. Junior guard Mariane Auza suffered an ankle injury within the first minute of the second quarter, but she returned with less than three minutes remaining in the half. During her absence the team continued to put up points, bringing the score up to 35-22 before Brandeis called their first timeout. The Eagles led 40-26 going into halftime.

The Judges went into the third quarter with renewed energy and made some key layups in an attempt to chip away at Emory’s growing lead.

Both teams scored 13 points during the third quarter, keeping the score gap even at 53-39. The Eagles dominated the final quarter of the game, pulling away dramatically. Auza and senior forward Anna Arato rounded out the final score with their 12 points and 11 points throughout the game, respectively. Emory only allowed the Judges to score four points in the fourth quarter while putting up 16 points, driving

See BASKETBALL, Page 15

NCAA

NCAA announces new transgender athlete policy

By Katie Bartlett Oxford Campus Desk

The NCAA Board of Governors voted on Jan. 19 in favor of a sportby-sport approach to regulations surrounding transgender athletes, set to start during the 2022 winter sport championships.

The national governing body of each sport will determine the specific regulations for transgender athletes, according to the policy, with the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports making ongoing reviews and recommendations.

The NCAA stated this new approach “preserves opportunity for transgender student-athletes while balancing fairness, inclusion and safety for all who compete.”

Some Emory University students expressed doubts as to if the policy will effectively protect the trans community. Jay Jones (22Ox), who identifies as trans, believes the policy will ultimately have a negative effect on trans athletes. “[The new policy] sends the message that our inclusion, despite inces-

sant attacks on trans humanity, is not worth a stance,” Jones told the Wheel.

“Having access to recreation and athletics should not be up for debate, and giving each sport’s national governing body the option to exclude trans people is unacceptable.”

Jones has contributed to the Wheel’s opinion section.

Emily Wilhem (23Ox), who runs on Oxford’s cross country team, also finds the policy problematic due to “the lack of a clearly outlined plan in some sports for what trans athletes should do.”

Similarly, Emily Freestone (23Ox), who plays varsity tennis at Oxford, said the policy is not sufficiently clear.

“The pro to a sport-by-sport approach is that the people deciding would have the best understanding of that given sport and could best ensure that policy is fair, but there also needs to be an overarching policy from the NCAA to eliminate confusion,” Freestone said.

Ben Zamler (25C), a member of Emory’s varsity track and field team, expressed concern about how the poli-

See NCAA, Page 14