Nov. 20, 2024

The Emory Wheel

Union faces uncertain future after Trump’s win

By Siya Kumar Staff Writer

sWhen asked about how the presidential election would impact unionization efforts, EmoryUnite! co-chair David Meer (27G) spoke for nearly four minutes before he summarized his answer in seven words: “Trump would be a disaster for us.”

Emory University’s graduate student-worker union, EmoryUnite!, has been negotiating with the University to finalize a contract since April, according to Meer, who is a member of the bargaining committee. This is eight years in the making, starting with the union’s initial organization in 2016 and the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) official certification of EmoryUnite! in 2023. Now, some union members are worried that President-elect Donald Trump’s recent victory may stall their progress.

Madelyn Carlson (29G), a bargaining committee member, said she is “scared” that the U.S. presidential election may affect unions nationwide. The president appoints members of the NLRB to five-year terms. The board oversees most U.S. union elections and negotiations, and a change in administration could potentially alter how union elections are held and arbitrated.

During Trump’s first term, the NLRB adopted more pro-business policies, restricting union influence and rolling back pro-labor regulations.

“It was the policy of the Trump administration that graduate students cannot be considered workers,” Meer said. “Biden reversed that decision. Since then, you’ve seen Vanderbilt, [Boston University], Emory, Duke,

so many places strengthen or completely form their unions. If Trump … gets to appoint whoever he wants to the National Labor Relations Board, Emory may feel the power to just stop bargaining with us.”

In a union general body meeting held on Oct. 13, EmoryUnite! bargaining committee member Tasfia Jahangir (23PH, 29G) said that the collective strength of graduate students is now more crucial than ever.

“We cannot allow them to get more emboldened by the new administration’s proposed anti-union measures, and so we need to take this opportunity to protect our rights, to make our voice heard,” Jahangir said.

Meer stated that although negotiations will likely not be completed before Trump takes office, he is optimistic that EmoryUnite! will ultimately be able to finalize a contract with the University.

Oxford student employees face pay delays, overcompensation

By Jerry Sun and richard Zhu Contributing Writers

EStudent workers critical to Oxford College have received overcompensation for their work, putting many into stressful situations. Ignite Pre-Orientation Leader (OL) Soryna McIntire (25Ox), one of the students paid extra, told The Emory Wheel she received twice the expected pay for Ignite workers, which amounted to $1,200.

McIntire wrote in a follow-up email to the Wheel that she thinks she got paid twice the amount she was owed by receiving two checks — one was an accurate payment, and the other was a mistaken payment through a “retroactive check.”

Another Ignite Pre-OL who requested to remain anonymous due to concerns about maintaining employment said he received quadruple the expected pay. He explained that he and another student were only supposed to get one paycheck each but instead received two paychecks, each worth double the stipend. In total, the student received $2,400.

“As far a I know, every single

Orientation Leader [and] every single Ignite leader here in Oxford got paid double,” the student said.

The student expressed that it was “stressful” because he did not know if he could spend the money.

“I’m a little afraid because if they do end up trying to get the money back, it’s definitely possible that someone has already spent it,” the student said. “It’s a weird scenario because we’re all college students. Nobody’s taught us what to do when somebody overpays us. Is that money ours? Is it not?”

Another student, Ella Anderson (25Ox) worked as an OL. According to Anderson, former Assistant Director of Campus Life Stephanie Maddox told her that there have been previous instances of student payment mishaps from Emory Human Resources (HR).

“[Maddox] said that HR had done this before, where they paid people double last year, and they ended up asking for the money back,” Anderson said.

I addition to overpayment, some students’ pay has come months late. This is the case for Anderson, who in addition to working as an OL, worked

See UNIVERISTY, Page 2

“The pessimistic view is by the summer,” Meer said. “If we're super optimistic, which I don't think we are, probably end of January.”

Emory graduate students reignited unionization efforts in summer 2022 in response to inflation after the pandemic, Elijah Ullman (25G), an original co-chair for EmoryUnite!, said. At the time, Laney Graduate School student workers’ average pay of $34,595.63 fell $4,778.77 under Atlanta’s living wage.

“Our stipend was just way too low for how … expensive everything had gotten,” Ullman said.

After organizing and advocacy, 909 of 982 (92.6%) Laney students voted to unionize in November 2023. The NLRB officially recognized the union the next week.

According to Meer, EmoryUnite! has had slow progress in agreeing to

See GRADUATE, Page 2

Q&A: Bellamkonda talks endowment, retention rate, future of Emory

By Spencer Friedland Managing Editor

Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Ravi Bellamkonda assumed his role at Emory University in July 2021, after a five year tenure as dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University (N.C.). In the years since, Bellamkonda has served the University in various crucial roles, hiring seven deans and launching the AI.Humanity and Student Flourishing initiatives. Before Bellamkonda leaves Emory at the end of this semester to join The Ohio State University, he spoke to The Emory Wheel for the final time to discuss the University’s future, the challenges the school faces and the difference he made during his time as provost.

The Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

TEW: We’ve had to hire more deans in recent years. I’d like to get your reasoning on why you think that is and what you think the new leaders have brought to Emory.

Bellamkonda: There’s not one reason why we’ve had that turnover. We’ve had several long-standing deans step down — James Curran in the Rollins School, Jan Love in the Candler School, our graduate dean Lisa Tedesco. So some of them were just serving here for many, many years and just want to step down. Two of them left to become presidents of their alma mater. … While we cel-

ebrate their successes and what they brought, we’ve tried to bring deans in who are best equipped to do the work ahead for those schools. So we’ve used that opportunity to ask, ‘Okay, what does this school need? What does the [Emory University School of Law] need in the dean transition, and how do we find the best dean for that?’ I’m happy to say that in every instance, we’ve landed our top-choice dean, which tells me many things. One, Emory is an attractive place for people to come. Two, the work we have ahead of us — there’s excitement. And so we’ve been able to attract amazing people to these roles from very good places.

TEW: How do you see AI evolving at Emory and in higher education in the next five to 10 years?

Bellamkonda: There's a lot of hype on AI, and I'm an academic and a scientist. Whenever there's hype, I get suspicious. I'm like, ‘What is the thing really here?’ Actually, I do believe that it is a transformative technology. I don't know if you know about the Turing test … if something's behind the screen, are you able to tell if it's a human or not? And for the first time, not that long ago, it failed for the first time in our human history. So something significant is happening in AI. … I'm a biomedical engineer by training. I was a dean of engineering before, and in general, computing and data science and all of these things are playing a profound role, not just in

See PROVOST, Page 3

University discloses bitcoin stake as currency reaches highs

By KimBle Schiller Contributing Writer

Emory University is the first university in the United States to disclose its stake in a cryptocurrency holding. If the University still holds the same shares as it did on Oct. 25, it possesses stakes in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust exchange-traded fund known as BTC worth over $21 million.

According to an Oct. 25 regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Emory holds nearly 2.7 million shares of BTC — which was worth $15.1 million at the time of filing. Due to Bitcoin share prices topping $92,437.42 and hitting all-time highs on Nov. 19, Emory’s possible holdings may have seen a 39% increase since Emory disclosed its stake.

Emory’s investments were originally in a trust, but when the shares changed to an ETF structure, the University was forced to disclose its holdings. This filing drew attention due to its Bitcoin holding, according to Emory Investment Management (EIM) Chief Investment Officer Srinivas Pulavarti.

EIM is responsible for the financial oversight of the University’s endow-

ment, which is worth over $11 billion.

According to EIM, Emory’s portfolio includes a broad range of financial asset classes and strategies to balance the market risk associated with any investment.

Associate Professor of Accounting Matthew Lyle compared holding Bitcoin directly to owning shares of a Bitcoin ETF, saying that the latter is less risky.

“There are some risks with doing it yourself, whereas if you use a company like Grayscale or BlackRock to do it for you, they basically take on the burden of the technical side of things, and it’s unlikely that they’re going to steal your money because they’re well known, and part of their gig is to manage assets and charge fees,” Lyle said. ETFs, such as those managed by Grayscale Investments or BlackRock, are more traditional investment vehicles and generally less risky than individual stocks due to diversification. The emergence of Bitcoin ETFs, such as BTC, earlier this year has helped legitimize Bitcoin as an asset and encouraged institutional investors to buy in.

“Institutions have been somewhat reluctant to invest in digital assets, Bitcoin or [Ethereum] or various other

ones, in part because the regulations … around trading in it and holding it have been quite murky,” Lyle said. “They’re still not resolved, and [institutions are] a little bit worried about getting in trouble. That is starting to change a bit with broader adoption, including the ETFs.”

Emory’s announcement coincides with surges in Bitcoin ETF investments. On Oct. 24, Bitcoin ETFs saw an influx of $188 million. Several funds, including BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF and Bitwise Bitcoin Strategy Optimum Roll ETF, have reported positive inflows, indicating a shift in how institutions are approaching Bitcoin.

Oxford Financial Investment Club co-founder Stratton Young (23Ox, 25B) expressed excitement over Emory’s announcement and noted how ETF structures have facilitated cryptocurrency’s integration into the mainstream financial sector.

“It’s really hard to hold Bitcoin on your own,” Young said. “Putting it in ETF … it institutionalizes [Bitcoin] to your point where a lot of people can invest in it without having to have all the technical knowledge.”

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF

See PROBLEMS, Page 2

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

couRtesy of david MeeR

SGA to implement health-access machines in January

By GeorGe SeGall and catherine nan Staff Writer and Contributing Writer

The Oxford Student Government Association (OxSGA) expects healthaccess vending machines to roll out on Emory University’s Oxford and Atlanta campuses at the beginning of the new year. Student Government Association (SGA) co-Vice Presidents of Well-being Asmita Lehther (24Ox, 26C) and Jean Qian (23Ox, 25C) and SGA Elections Chair Elizabeth Brubaker (24Ox, 26C) proposed the initiative, which Lehther says will make Plan B, condoms, Tylenol and other health products accessible on both campuses.

The proposers of the initiative said the machine will give students privacy and the opportunity to access reproductive health products for free. According to Lehther, this vending machine is a “huge deal,” as it is the first of its kind in Georgia.

The health-access vending machine idea was born after Brubaker, Lehther and Qian surveyed 389 Emory students in fall 2023 about the accessibility of health products on campus. While students on both the Atlanta and Oxford campuses reported financial barriers to health care, students at Oxford were more likely to report physical obstacles, as the closest pharmacy to Oxford is almost two miles away. According to Lehther, the vending machines are geared toward anything that may be a financial burden to students.

“We also looked at different price points, but then because of the funding that we were able to receive from SGA and [the Women of Emory Impact Circle], we were able to subsidize that cost,” Lehther said.

Brubaker added that funding from SGA, Graduate SGA and OxSGA, as well as a grant from the Women of Emory Impact Circle, will cover the

cost of the vending machines for at least two years.

The Atlanta vending machine will be located in the Alumni Memorial University Center, and the Oxford vending machine will be in the lobby of the Jolley Residential Center. SGA and OxSGA chose these two locations after a thorough discussion on which location would be best for accessibility and privacy, according to Lehther.

“Our goal is to be discreet but also accessible,” Lehther said. “You know what products you’re getting. [The packaging is] going to have some medical liability information about the product but still in a way that you don’t want everyone knowing what you’re getting.”

Lehther noted that this project has been slow to implement because of various legal and medical roadblocks, including policy changes in the state of Georgia. She added that Emory’s legal counsel performed a policy evaluation on the “health access machine” as a precaution to ensure that the project did not conflict with existing legislation. The group also collaborated with Planned Parenthood Generation Action and Emory’s Sexual Assault Peer Advocates to ensure a thorough review of the plan.

p emphasized the importance of access to reproductive health care, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to

abortion in the landmark 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision.

“Reproductive health care and health accessibility is really important, especially at a campus like Oxford,” Lehther said. “There’s an expressed need for it, and especially in context of the Dobbs decision, [we want to make] sure that any and every form of products that could be available to students are.”

OxSGA Environmental Sustainability Chair Muram Dafalla (25Ox) expressed agreement with Oxford’s need for increased availability of health care products.

“On Oxford’s campus, we know that sometimes it's not as easy to get off campus, especially if you don’t have a car. … [The vending machines are] going to be in a 24 hour space … any day, any time, any student can access it,” Dafalla said.

Dafalla explained that the health access machines will be easily accessible with a student’s EmoryCard.

“It would be free to students who just scan their EmoryCard,” Dafalla said. “You use it, and then [the machine] would just give you a Plan B or a Tylenol or whatever you want from it for free.”

— Contact George Segall at george.segall@emory.edu and Catherine Nan at catherine.nan@emory.edu

Problems with pay create 'stressful' situation

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for Oxford’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program in May.

Anderson expected to receive a $3,500 stipend at the beginning of May but did not receive the payment until July. Anderson said the delay in payment was a “burden,” forcing students to borrow money from one another to buy groceries, as there was no dining hall service at the time.

The Emory College Pathways Center clarified that the SURE stipend delay was unrelated to the ongoing situation at Oxford.

“During the last iteration of SURE, Oxford student participants experienced a delay in receiving their stipends due to logistical issues,” the Center wrote in an email to the Wheel. “Undergraduate Research Programs is enhancing its customer service and student-centeredness by ensuring that all students who participate in subsequent iterations of SURE receive their stipends by the first day of participation in our program.”

International Student Welcome (ISW) iMentor Julian Salazar (25Ox) is still awaiting payment he expected earlier, as Oxford paid iMentors in August last year.

“According to the contract, we never got a date that we were going to get paid,” Salazar said. “We were supposed to get paid, according to the iMentors last year, around after [when] ISW was done.”

Salazar said it has been two

months since the program ended. He added that while OLs and Ignite Leadership Mentors (ILMs) were paid double, iMentors have not been paid yet.

Salazar noted that while the payment delay has not personally impacted him, many of his peers’ plans have been.

“ know some iMentors — they were looking forward to buying tickets for fall break and Thanksgiving,” Salazar said. “They were counting on this money to do it.”

iMentor Sarah Sinhal (25Ox) wrote an email on behalf of the iMentor team to Assistant Director of International Student Programs Christine Richardson regarding their delayed payment. Sinhal wrote that after learning that both OLs and ILMs were paid double, the iMentors would like to be “compensated similarly for the delay.”

Richardson responded in an Oct. 4 email that she has reached out to HR and Student Employment and will let iMentors know when she receives a response. Richardson clarified that the overpayment was not compensation for late pay but a mistake.

“I’ve spoken with the leaders of the OL and iLm regarding the payment amount and payment delays,” Richardson wrote. “They confirmed that some students were double-paid. The double payments were a mistake; they are working with the compensation department to rectify it.”

Senior Director of Global Oxford Daphne Orr explained that Oxford implemented a new process for

Graduate student union says negotiations are 'slow' with University

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a contract with the University. Emory has yet to respond to the union’s economic proposals, which include stipend increases, improved health insurance, transportation and housing support, among other benefits. The group submitted a full proposal in August, Meer said.

Carlson said the University has been vague when responding to economic plans. She noted that at meetings, Emory brings counterproposals for proposals on other topics but not economic recommendations, telling the union that they are “coming soon.”

“We haven’t gotten any sort of response from Emory about items related to economics, and once they do start responding, there’s going to be a lot of back and forth between Emory and the union in negotiating,” Carlson said. “By Emory not responding to any of those, they’re delaying progress and making our timeline for negotiations slower.”

Meer suggested that Emory’s slow response to economic proposals may relate to Trump’s successful presidential run.

“I’m sure September, October, they're realizing, ‘Wait a minute, like Trump has a decent chance of winning. We shouldn't agree on a contract before October,’” Meer said. “They had no incentive to be quick. … I think if we were in a Trump presidency and they thought that a blue person might win, that they would try to speed up the negotiations, but then we'd be trying to stall. So it's all a game.”

In addition to economic delays, Meer and Carlson said that Emory removed several proposed articles entirely, including proposals focused on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), policing and protest, and systems to resolve advisor-student disputes.

“We had included items on DEI and inclusivity training on gender equity

student employment, and said she believes it has to do with the delays.

“Oxford transitioned to a different process for student employment this year,” Orr said. “Student employment is working collaboratively with Human Resources on processing all student employment.”

Associate Director of University Communications Rachel Smith confirmed that Oxford implemented a new process between student employment and HR this year in a Nov. 19 email to the Wheel.

“To clarify, Oxford said the overpayments for OLs and Ignite leaders was a mistake and it is being corrected,” Smith said. “Oxford is unaware of delays but as noted in our previous statement, all students must complete the necessary paperwork before they can be paid.”

In a previous Oct. 28 statement to the Wheel, Assistant Vice President of University Communications Laura Diamond added that if students are having payment issues, they should reach out to HR.

“Oxford is not aware of any current systemic delays in processing student payments for those who have completed the necessary paperwork and are correctly logging their hours,” Diamond wrote. “Human Resources sent another reminder to students last week to complete this step."

— Contact Jerry Sun at jerry.sun@emory.edu and Richard Zhu at richard.zhu@emory.edu

and protections for Ph.D.s with disabilities, among other items,” Carlson said. “Emory responded by deleting the entire article. And by doing that, what that communicates to me is the other group saying, ‘No, we’re not even going to negotiate on this.’”

Assistant Vice President of University Communications Laura Diamond wrote in an email to The Emory Wheel that Emory’s legal team is working on reviewing and responding to union proposals and remains committed to being timely and transparent about their progress.

“Our aim is to reach an agreement that underscores our commitment to a supportive and equitable environment for all members of the Emory community,” Diamond wrote.

According to Meer and Carlson, the University is arguing that the union can only protect students performing non-academic work. Carlson explained that Emory insists Ph.D. students alternate between two distinct roles: students and employees. The University believes graduate students can only access protection from the union when they serve as employees, which would not include work required to secure a Ph.D., such as teaching and working on their thesis.

Meer added that the ongoing organization of the bargaining unit could increase pressure on Emory to address critical issues. As negotiations continue, the union said its demands remain clear.

“We’re asking for raises to keep up with the cost of living,” Jahangir said. “We’re asking for housing protections. We’re asking for health care benefits that don’t leave us in the dust. These aren’t just nice-to-have items. These are the bare minimum that we need to live and to work and to survive here.”

— Contact Siya Kumar at siya.kumar@emory.edu

University is the first university in the United States to disclose a stake in Bitcoin.

Continued from Page 1

launched in 2013 but was initially only available to institutional and accredited investors. This changed in 2020, it was first listed as an SEC reporting company and became the first digital currency investment vehicle to register its shares and gain this status.

Jack Yang (26Ox), who has a background in retail cryptocurrency trading and intends to double major in finance and computer science, said his first reaction to hearing the news about Emory’s portfolio was one of pride in his school for pioneering this progressive investment strategy.

Yang suspects that there will “be a lot of backlash” from Emory’s stake in cryptocurrency.

“People from older generations may not necessarily understand … they just see cryptocurrency, and they think it’s sort of a gimmick,” Yang said.

He also speculated that more traditional ETFs will start including cryptocurrency in their portfolios.

Teaching Professor of Economics Melvin Ayogu said that only time can tell if the investment will benefit Emory’s endowment but that he has faith in the University’s wealth managers.

“They consider the risk, but they also think that the benefit is worth it,” Ayogu said.

— Contact Kimble Schiller at kimble.schiller@emory.edu

Provost discusses AI.Humanity, Student Flourishing, General Education Requirements

Continued from Page 1

technology, not just in smartphones, [but] in our politics, in our marketing, in how we make friends, in all facets of life. Manufacturing is being impacted by data, AI and technology working together in some synergy, [and so is] health. So the goal was, well, we don't have an engineering school, we don't have a computing school, but what we do have is amazing faculty and programs that work on things that are important in the world, from social justice to law to medicine to literature. And so what we decided to do was, well, ‘in the service of’ is a good model, and let's put AI as a tool in the service of the things that we care about. That was the philosophy behind AI.Humanity. The whole idea was, we don't want to be a Georgia Tech or an MIT or a Carnegie Mellon making new algorithms. What we want to do is that for AI to be really impactful, it has to be in the service of something that the world cares about. And we are very good at that.

TEW: At the last University Senate meeting, you mentioned Emory fighting with an arm tied behind its back regarding college endowments. Can you elaborate on why Emory has a smaller endowment, how it fell behind and the work that's being done to close the gap?

Bellamkonda: Emory is not thought of as a poor school, generally, because people say it's a Coca-Cola university, you have a large endowment, all these things. But practically what happens is, if you're a dean, your sources of income are fourfold right? So you have your endowment and whatever it spins off. You have tuition income, like undergraduate or graduate tuition. If you have a research portfolio, you have some direct costs, and then you have philanthropy. The largest expenses that typically a school has — I'm sorry if I'm being an administrator here — but the largest expenses typically a school has is faculty salaries and student financial aid. And those are both important for us. The University is the quality of our faculty, and having access and being able to get the brightest minds to come here is a core value for us. So the challenge we have is, if you look across our enterprise, our schools do have smaller endowments than their peers that we're competing against. ECAS's endowment is about $650 million. Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilt — all these places have larger endowments for the arts and sciences. Law school endowment is about $80 million. Duke law, all these places, again, have larger [endowments]. Same with Goizueta Business

School compared to other business schools that we compete with. … I think President Fenves is very aware of that, and I'm very grateful that he's made a push to have more endowments for faculty, which will offset some salary costs, and also for scholarships. So that's what's happened. Just historically, we have not made it a priority, maybe, or we haven't cultivated the donors we need to cultivate to give back to Emory, for whatever reason, but we need to have larger endowments because that's what allows us, in the portfolio of resources, to invest in students or faculty.

TEW: Improving retention rates has been a recent central focus of Emory. What progress has been made, and what initiatives are Emory still looking at to further improve this number?

Bellamkonda: We’ve made a lot of progress. The president, in one of his first addresses, set a goal of 97% firstyear retention, and we are now hovering between 95-point-something to 96-point-something. So we’re not that far off. Just to give you context, one percentage in these terms is like 16 students. So it’s not like hundreds of students are leaving, and we are very high — a lot of schools would like to be where we are. The reason we care about first-year retention is twofold. One is that I would like every student that comes to Emory to feel like this is the best place for them, and I take it personally when people leave …I would like us to have a commitment at Emory … [to have every student who walks in the door] to graduate from Emory. That should be our orientation, and [we should] do everything we can to make sure that that’s the case and deal with whatever the issues are. And under President Fenves and me, we’ve tried to make it central. On the other side, if we don’t have first-year retention, they also won’t graduate from here. So our graduation rate at four years is lower than many of our peers. Our six-year graduation rates are lower, and that matters. Not only do we want to keep them, we want them to graduate [and] graduate on time. There are cost implications, other implications. So we just haven’t built, in the past, the apparatus to sort of monitor what’s happening with this and then have interventions to make sure our students can graduate on time. And so now we have a lot of that, … We’ve got dashboards using data tracking every student, where we are putting in measures like midterm grades for first-year students being mandatory, so a student knows how they’re doing, so if they're falling behind academically, before it is too late, we can intervene. We’re putting

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a new software system to have better records of a student, so an advisor putting in notes can be seen by a faculty member who’s putting in notes can be seen by athletics that’s putting in notes, so the registrar can see it.

TEW: With the shift from the Gold to the Blue plan, another big focus has been changing general education requirements (GERs). What was the reasoning behind the switch, and what feedback have you and the University received?

Bellamkonda: I’m very proud of Emory making that switch. I came here from Duke that worked on a similar plan, and it failed. The faculty didn’t work for it. I really credit our faculty, especially in [Emory College], for coming up with it. I think the idea was to give more flexibility to our students and to recognize the importance of experiential learning in our education. And both of those are wonderful because in a place like Emory, like you said yourself, you’re majoring in something, minoring in something, maybe double majoring, and getting a certificate. To do that, you need to have flexibility. And that’s the central goal of the GERs, the philosophy. … The beauty of [experiential learning] is that the world is messy. It doesn’t neatly fall into formulas like at the back of a textbook. And the beauty of experiential learning is you get to reconcile the theoretical concepts you’re learning with the real world, and you get to experience that interface. And I’m a big believer in experiential learning, whether it’s deep research or travel abroad or working in the community or project-based learning — whatever it is, it’s a wonderful pedagogical tool to learn better whatever it is that we’re interested in learning.

TEW: Another change to GERs has extended the time Oxford College students need to complete their requirements, frustrating students who hoped to graduate a semester early. What was the reasoning behind this decision?

Bellamkonda: Oxford is a very special, tight-knit, small, intimate community. … And it’s different from Atlanta. It’s not better or worse, it’s just different. And people going to Oxford with the orientation that they’d get out of there as quickly as possible and come [to the Atlanta campus] was not the right spirit to fully benefit from the wonders of Oxford: close faculty interactions, faculty advising, just living in the community and being part of taking advantage of the farm and all of these things that Oxford has to offer.

So the idea was to make it such that it’s possible that students do give Oxford the four semesters. We still know a lot of students come here after three, still, but [we wanted] to make it more likely that they experience the four semesters at Oxford because that’s what it has to offer. I also happen to know that students who started at Oxford do very very well when they come here. They do very very well after they graduate. Many of our trustees are Oxford people. Many very successful people in business are from Oxford that came to Emory and then graduated. So there is something special there. And we just wanted people to choose up front. Do you want that? Do you want this? But not try to use that as a transitory step to come here. … And we have some work to do. It’s not students’ fault. We have to clarify who should pick Oxford. Who is it for? And indeed, Dean [Badia] Ahad is now working on a clear statement with [Vice President of Communications and Marketing] Luke [Anderson] and his team about ‘When I’m trying to decide, what do I need to know so that I intentionally pick that experience? So I’m not thinking about it as ‘How can I get out of [Oxford] and come to Atlanta,’ not realizing what [Oxford] has to offer?’ That is a challenge. We have work to do, and indeed, Dean Ahad and Luke and others are doing that work, but that was the intention.

TEW: The Respect for Open Expression Policy has been under scrutiny lately, and the University Senate is working on a new proposal. What would an effective open expression policy look like to you?

Bellamkonda: I think for large measure, we actually have a fantastic open expression [policy]. When I speak to my colleagues, their envy is that we don’t just make a statement like the [University of] Chicago statement, this and that. We actually clearly spelled out ways to operationalize that, right? With our Open Expression Observer[s] Program. And increasingly, and in general, I think for large measure, there are very serious protections for open expression on our campus explicitly laid out. There were some areas which had ambiguity with it, and I’m glad that we will try to resolve those ambiguities. And the president issued — on the safety-related things — issued … a statement on that, but we will see where this lands. So I would say that we actually have a pretty good open expression policy. Like any policy, it can be improved. We have a process to improve it that’s inclusive and all parties are at the table, and I’m optimistic that we’ll strengthen it based on what they come up with.

TEW: The administration has also faced criticism regarding the open expression policy. How have you personally handled it?

Bellamkonda: It’s always painful when internally, we have issues that cause tensions amongst ourselves. It’s very important to me that we are one family and one community, and that’s how I think of us, but like any family, there are disagreements. But disagreements shouldn’t be read as that we don’t care about each other and things like this. So the way I think about this is that ultimately, it is good. A university is a place where different voices, by design, come in, and this is the place where we debate, [and] we

think about what’s the right way to do things. That’s what we do. And we need to model to the world how to do that work. And that’s why I’m optimistic that there’s a collaborative process with the senate to look at those issues. … It pains me personally whenever we amongst ourselves have issues where it’s personal, or somebody doesn’t feel safe, and we will do everything we can for that not to be the case. For it to be a case where there are real issues in the world where we can have disagreements. Let’s figure out a way to productively make progress there. Nobody’s perfect.

So the way I think about it is, the world is the way it is. It is messy, it is complicated. There are difficult issues. There are issues where we disagree, and we have to find a way to make progress constructively. Do we always get it right? Maybe not, … but that’s the work. That’s the work, and we shouldn’t shy away from that work. … A great place is not necessarily [where] everything is harmonious. A great place is a place that learns and grows when it’s challenged, and we have had a challenge, and we will learn and grow. That is my hope.

TEW: Last question, what is the biggest problem or challenge Emory is facing, and what is the biggest opportunity Emory has?

Bellamkonda: I’ll give you an administrative answer. The challenge we have is that Emory has been on a very steep trajectory of becoming a really fantastic university. … We came into the [Association of American Universities], the top research universities, in the ’90s. Relative to Ohio State, [which] in 1916 was a part of the AAU, it’s relatively young in its research journey. James Laney, an amazing president, got us there with the Woodruff gift and all that. So what we have not spent as much time doing, just as a part of that growing pain, is build systems, data and IT and just housekeeping things that makes our operational things more efficient. So we just haven’t had time to do that. We are beginning that work. It began in my time, and the hospital is helping us do that. But that’s our biggest challenge. … The student system I alluded to, many places have already done it, and we’re just doing it. So we really need to work on our data, IT system, so that when you are planning your four-year plan to major and minor, you can map that out so you know which courses will be taught when, typically, and can you make that work? Can you not? Those kinds of things we just haven’t spent time doing, and we need to do that work. And in some ways, it holds us back a little bit, but we recognize this, and so that’s our challenge.

The opportunity really is that we have incredible assets in terms of being in Atlanta, being a really special university, being in demand, a great reputation in the world and in the nation. Do we step into that opportunity and say we will lead? We will lead the country, and we will lead in this space? And what does that look like? Do we have the confidence, in some ways, the swagger to say that? I hope the opportunity will be that Emory will truly take its place and lead and lend its voice that’s very important in higher ed, and do its own unique contribution to what leadership in higher ed looks like.

— Contact Spencer Friedland at spencer.friedland@emory.edu

couRtesy of eMoRy uNiveR sity

Provost Ravi Bellamkonda will join The Ohio State University starting next year.

Opinion

EDITORIAL

Trump chooses contrarianism over competence in cabinet

In a bold escalation of the clash between MAGA movement members of the Republican Party and the traditional political guard, President-elect Donald Trump has drawn a wave of scrutiny over his nominees for top cabinet positions in his incoming administration.

While the U.S. Senate must confirm many of these picks, Trump’s cabinet selections make his coming administration’s priorities apparent: absolute loyalty over qualifications. The striking lack of qualifications of his appointees evidence that for Trump, expertise is a liability. Paradoxically, Trump intends for our most critical governmental institutions to be overseen by their fiercest critics, many of whom are nowhere near qualified.

These appointments are the latest manifestation of a years-long antiintellectual movement in the GOP — a movement characterized by a misidentification of conspiracy as critical reasoning and an insatiable skepticism of government institutions.

The election of Trump will likely bring the degradation of government agencies such as the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services. These plans represent a perversion of the politically salient outsider identity that catapulted Trump to power and has transformed experience and expertise into a scarlet letter.Trump’s nomination for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), reflects this trend of prioritizing contrarianism over competence. Following his nomination, Gaetz resigned from his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. His resignation came just days before the House Ethics Committee was set to release its findings concerning allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use against Gaetz. In addition, Gaetz has been at the center of a criminal investigation involving sex trafficking by the Justice

Department since 2021. Further, Trump seemingly selected Gaetz lastminute, with Politico reporting that the plan came together within a few hours.

“Everyone else looked at [attorney general] as if they were applying for a judicial appointment,” said one Trump advisor. “They talked about their vaunted legal theories and constitutional bullshit. Gaetz was the only one who said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go over there and start cuttin’ f*ckin’ heads.’”

Clearly, Gaetz’s lack of regard for legal knowledge actually served as an advantage, despite other drawbacks of him as a nominee, such as his inexperience in the federal justice system. Without the guardrails of expertise and experience, Trump’s ideal cabinet demonstrates the incoming administration’s impatience with traditional thoughtful governance. The upcoming Trump administration’s incompetency is further evidenced by his selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, a notorious vaccine skeptic who has no formal public health training or experience, has pledged to institute a policy agenda that will “Make America Healthy Again.” Perhaps most problematically, Kennedy espouses the medical conspiracy that early childhood vaccinations are linked to an increase in rates of autism, despite plentiful research denouncing that theory.

“They get the shot, that night they have a fever of 103, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone,” Kennedy said after the premiere of an anti-vax film in 2015. Kennedy’s appointment signals Trump and his cohort’s complete disregard for the importance of the specialized expertise and scientific principles underlying the public health field.

This most recent wave of antiintellectualism is rooted in decades of growing skepticism among republicans toward formal education.

Former President Ronald Reagan’s administration famously called for the deconstruction of the Department of Education only years after former President Jimmy Carter established it — not unlike Trump’s similar declarations.

Reagan’s descriptions of “common sense” conservative ideas framed leftleaning academic proposals as elitist and overly theoretical. Former President George H.W. Bush even shied away from discussing his years at Yale University (Conn.) and Harvard Business School (Mass.), preferring to practice “country-boy politics” that prioritized charm and relatability over education.

This trend deepened with the rise of the Tea Party movement in the late 2000s, which injected a populist, antiestablishment message into the GOP party platform. Phrases such as “fake news” and “alternative facts” became mainstream terms used to dismiss critical reporting and foster a sense of mistrust in credible news sources.

The Tea Party’s anti-establishment sentiment evolved into Trumpian politics, which provides an even stronger platform for championing the values of average Americans against a supposedly out-of-touch intellectual elite. Now, alt-right influencers like Charlie Kirk directly target higher education in viral videos that characterize universities as indoctrination centers promoting liberal propaganda that is apparently antithetical to traditional American values.

The strategy of denigrating academic institutions is a blatant attempt to disarm Americans in the face of manipulative political messaging and pave the way for policy initiatives that conflict with their interests. With Trump, this sentiment will infiltrate the White House.

While these Trump picks may seem comical to some, if the nominees are confirmed, Americans will grapple with serious ramifications over the

coming years. When the next disaster strikes, whether it be a public health emergency or political scandal, our nation will be forced to look to Kennedy and Gaetz for leadership — figures whose appointments were not driven by expertise but by their loyalty to the Trumpian brand of intellectual defiance. In all likelihood, their loyalty will not be enough to implement effective public health policy or a steady, unbiased legal hand.

The anti-intellectual movement is not merely a rejection of credentialed experts, but an ideological crusade against the fundamental principles of our government: accountability, competence and a knowledge-based pursuit of public wellbeing.

This movement may uniquely affect all university students to some extent

by devaluing the formal education we pursue and the qualifications we aspire to attain.

However, we can still push back through a continued commitment to evidence-based reasoning and the value of formal education. We must continue to engage in good faith with educational institutions like Emory University and trust that our generation can revive a system in which expertise and insight have been devalued.

In the meantime, we must continue to support political candidates who base their positions in science, legality and precedent, as well as expert opinions. We need leaders who see their roles in government as interpreters and communicators of truth, not unilateral authors of it.

Editor

Alex Gerson A&L Editor

Catherine Goodman A&L Editor

Will Peck Sports Editor

Haley Huh Copy Chief

Angela Chan Copy Editor

Disha Kumar Copy Editor

The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is composed of Editor Marc Goedemans, Carly Aikens, Hunter Buchheit, Allie Guo, Ethan Jacobs, Carson Kindred, Justin Leach, Eliana Liporace, Niki Rajani, Josh Rosenblut, Ilka Tona and Crystal Zhang.

Courtesy of GaGe skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

President-elect Donald Trump raises his fist during Turning Point Action’s Believers Summit in July.

Oxford’s AP credit policy hurts students

By cayDen Xia ContriButing Writer

Content Warning: This article contains references to suicide.

As Emory University students busily log in to their Online Pathway to University Students accounts for course selection, they evaluate their academic goals and timeline. However, for myself and dozens of other Oxford College students applying to graduate early and move to the Atlanta campus, we must assess our choices more carefully. Oxford students with enough credits are often able to graduate in three semesters rather than four, but this process has recently become more difficult.

The Office of the University Registrar recently implemented a policy reducing the number of Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) credits a student can apply toward their Associate of Arts degree from 12 to eight, effectively making the process of early graduation more difficult. The new limit creates an unsustainable burden on students hoping to graduate early, forcing them to overload their schedules to meet credit requirements. To support student success, Oxford should reinstate the previous credit allowance or develop a more flexible early-graduation pathway that aligns with students’ well-being and academic goals.

To earn an associate’s degree from Oxford, students must complete 65 credit hours, including nine general education requirements. Historically, Oxford students have relied on AP and IB credits to graduate early — when transferring the previously allowed 12 credits, students would only need to take 17 to 18 credit hours per semester to graduate early as opposed to taking 21 to 22 credit hours had they not transferred any credits. Utilizing AP and IB credits for a reduced course load allows students to balance academic work, meaningful extracurriculars and personal wellness. Now, graduating early requires students to take an average of 19 credits each semester if they bring in all eight AP credits, presenting a direct contradiction to what Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Valerie Molyneaux has recommended in emails to students: Taking no more than 17 credits during a student’s first semester.

Indirectly forcing students to enroll over the recommendation exacerbates academic burnout, a widespread issue across the country. Nationally, burnout rates have surged in recent years, with 68% of students citing academic workload as the largest contributor to stress in their lives. This trend often correlates with worse educational achievement and high rates of depression and suicide. Given the current mental health crisis plaguing young adults, especially individuals on Oxford’s campus, the credit limit results in far more than a few extra classes. With this new policy, administrators risk intensifying significant mental and physical health issues. Beyond the risks this policy exacerbates, it also harms students’ future plans. For those pursuing careers in medicine, academia or graduate-level sciences or humanities, early research experience is essential. Research not only builds technical skills and necessary knowledge required for many careers but also strengthens graduate and medical school applications.

Almost 60% of medical school applicants engage in research experience in their collegiate career, and 99% of matriculants to competitive medical schools have prior research experience. Furthermore, those who complete 10 or more hours of research per week have increased chances of being accepted to a graduate school. For pre-medical students at Emory, the chance to conduct early innovative research on the Atlanta campus is crucial, as it provides a competitive advantage when applying to highly selective graduate programs. While there are opportunities to engage in research at Oxford, the advisors, resources and technology are more limited due to the smaller campus size and greater focus on teaching, making it more advantageous to access the larger research infrastructure available in Atlanta. If Oxford students increase their course loads, they may not have as much time, if any, to dedi-

With limited AP credit acceptance, these students may have delayed graduations, and a prolonged time in college only adds to their financial burden. Oxford administrators are turning a blind eye to the realities for low-income students with this policy, calling into question their concern for these communities on campus. Compared to Oxford, peer institutions outside of Emory have more generous AP credit allowances: Vanderbilt University (Tenn.) and Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) accept 18 and 15 credits, respectively, while others such as Georgetown University (D.C.) and Rice University (Texas) have no cap at all.

As prospective college students choose which university to attend, those wishing to maximize academic opportunities and minimize expenses may select these institutions with more lenient AP policies. It is high-

cate to research. Given the necessity of graduating early to pursue research and academics, the new credit cap puts Oxford students at an unfair disadvantage and may harm their graduate school applications.

Oxford’s limit on AP credit use not only impacts current students but also deters prospective applicants. Limiting AP credit use reduces students’ flexibility in pursuing opportunities such as internships or extracurricular activities during college, creating a potential disadvantage when attracting incoming high schoolers. The College Board, which is responsible for AP testing, has a tool that allows students to see universities’ AP credit policies, indicating that transferring AP credits is a significant consideration in the college selection process. Given that prospective applicants to Emory have the option to apply to both the Emory College of Arts of Sciences and Oxford, those who value transferring credits may prefer the Atlanta campus over Oxford — compounding the issue in which those perceive Oxford as inferior to Emory.

Another significant factor in college selection for incoming students is the cost of attendance. By transferring a substantial number of credits, students can graduate a semester or year early, saving on tuition, housing and other college expenses. This is especially relevant for low-income students who must work while attending school to pay for their education.

Digital age sets Gen Alpha up for failure in classrooms

By Kristen seo ContriButing Writer

“The bar is the floor,” an elementary school teacher prefaced in a TikTok on key skills children need to know to be successful in fifth grade. I was astounded when he listed his first point: Students must know how to write their names. A handful of his students were unable to properly spell their own names when they first entered his classroom. I reflected on my own experience in elementary school — I could have never imagined my 11-year-old peers struggling to spell a simple word, much less their own names. I soon fell into a rabbit hole of teacher content on the internet: A multitude of fed-up elementary and middle school teachers has taken social media by storm, expressing concern after concern. Generation Alpha, which includes children born from 2010 to present, is underperforming and misbehaving in school at an unprecedented level — a majority of teachers have reported that misbehavior and morale have gotten worse after the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a post-COVID-19 world, it is increasingly clear what has caused this decline in Gen Alpha’s performance and behavior in schools: the inescapable digital era, perpetuated by online schooling and a lack of socialization. Americans must break free from the pandemic trance and act fast to implement appropriate technology guidelines, ensuring that the younger generation — and other generations to come — have a chance to succeed in the classroom and the future. While many continue to solely blame COVID-19 for these failings, the education system must acknowledge that the pandemic intensified — rather than created — Gen Alpha’s struggles and must prioritize counteracting its continued damage.

iris X ia/ContriButing illustrator

ly likely that Oxford, and perhaps Emory College by extension, will not make it to the top of their lists with this new policy.

To better support students’ career plans, low-income students and wellness on campus, Oxford’s administration should reinstate the original 12-credit policy. This change would not only support students, like me, in achieving our goals but would also reaffirm Emory’s commitment to enable “all persons to strive toward their highest potential.” Reverting to the old cap would be beneficial to both students, allowing more time to explore opportunities beyond the classroom, and to the administration, by remaining competitive when attracting the brightest students to join the Oxford student body. Keep in mind, then, administrators, that when Oxford students selected courses last week, your new policy exerted unnecessary stress and difficulty on students only trying to achieve “their highest potential.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you can call Student Intervention Services at (404) 430-1120 or reach Emory’s Counseling and Psychological Services at (404) 727-7450. You can reach the Georgia Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24/7 at (800) 273-TALK (8255) and the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24/7 at 988.

— Contact Cayden Xia at cayden.xia@emory.edu

the internet for fast, stimulating entertainment. Once in-person instruction resumed, children were unprepared to pick up where they had left off. Slowerpaced classroom environments could not engage students as well as their beloved iPads, causing many students to struggle academically or frequently act out.

However, Gen Alpha’s reliance on technology was present even before the pandemic swept the globe and certainly has not stopped even years after life returned to normalcy. This brings a rude awakening: Society cannot keep blaming COVID-19 for Gen Alpha’s educational shortcomings.

When used appropriately, technology in the classroom is a helpful tool to provide engaging lessons to students who are already accustomed to screens in their everyday lives. However, lessons on Chromebooks and smart boards reduce the time students spend on paper-andpencil activities. In an era in which students struggle with writing their own names, increased hands-on learning is crucial to accustoming Gen Alpha to engagement outside of a touch screen and developing fine motor skills that will set them up for success in their educational journey.

In 2022, only 33% of fourth graders in the United States scored at or above proficiency in reading. The result follows a continued decline in proficiency rates since its peak in 2017. Gen Alpha is currently undergoing a crucial stage of their cognitive and social development. If their educational performance does not improve, there will be significant setbacks for future societal progress. Children will struggle to keep up with more difficult learning concepts as years go on, and an entire generation risks falling behind the complex world that preceding generations built. The root of the issue is clear: Gen Alpha’s overuse of technology puts their fundamental educational development at stake.

The increased difficulties in educating Gen Alpha have resulted in teacher job satisfaction rates plummeting and more teachers leaving the profession than ever before. While many institutional reasons factor into this result, there is no doubt that the negative shift in student behavior contributes to this issue. Increased screen time has made Gen Alpha more susceptible to behavioral issues and symptoms of ADHD, depression and anxiety, which inevitably manifest in classrooms, disrupting the learning environment. As a result, Gen Alpha has an increasingly difficult time focusing, resulting in educational delays. If this pattern continues, schools will be left with a dwindling, unsatisfied teacher force and an out-of-control student population.

During the pandemic, apathy-inducing Zoom lessons that failed to grasp students’ interests robbed them of an interactive and social learning environment during a critical learning period. Stuck at home and unable to interact with their peers, Gen Alpha overly relied on

The education system should delay heavy technology use in early elementary education until the majority of students are comfortable with writing simple sentences. As for older Gen Alpha students who may be bringing their devices into the classroom, schools must introduce ways to reward them for shortened screen time and introduce other engaging activities such as outdoor learning. In light of increased concerns, eight states have recently passed policies to restrict cell phone use in school. These policies are not yet perfect, but they are a step in the right direction to curb technology dependency. Many schools that have implemented no-cell phone policies have seen improvements in student engagement. Although these measures may be difficult and slow to implement on a mass scale, they are worth the effort — ultimately, Gen Alpha will be able to develop healthy relationships with technology and improve their attention spans.

As Gen Alpha become teenagers in the coming years and face greater academic challenges, the choice to pursue higher education will inevitably be on students’ minds. If the academic decline of Gen Alpha is not curbed, students risk being unprepared for the level of rigor that educational institutions — such as Emory University — provide. Fighting technology dependence early on will improve future students’ focus and social abilities, preparing them for the independent environment of college.

It is inevitable that Gen Alpha and future generations will be surrounded by technology. From subpar educational performance to brutal behavior leading to teachers quitting their professions, there is more than enough evidence that children cannot control themselves with technology on their own. It is time for internet users to take a break from ridiculing these “iPad Kids” and realize it is not the children’s fault for falling behind. Gen Alpha is in dire need of increased support from their parents, local school districts and administration to guide them toward proper digital use. If the educational system is not restructured, society risks a future that cannot function without a Subway Surfers gameplay constantly running in the background of everyday life.

Dear Doolino, I’m locked in — and not in a good way!

By DooLino CaMpus overlord

Dear

Doolino,

I’m currently stuck in an elevator on campus. What is the best way to pass the time?

From,

Stuck Sally

Dear Stuck Sally,

What a surprise! Many elevators — and people — on this dreaded campus are simply incapable of carrying out basic, minor tasks. Be honest with me — is the faulty elevator in question located within a certain freshman dorm? I can only assume that you are a first-year student and do not yet know which elevators on campus to avoid, as anyone with a brain knows that Eleonore Raoul Hall’s modes of transportation are nearly always stationary. You will learn eventually, my dear admirer, to not trust metal death traps blindly. Personally, these are the times when I am grateful that I am already dead because when the robot uprising inevitably occurs, machines everywhere are likely to wreak havoc upon the world of the living. Who knows — your isolated elevator incident could be a sign of more technological horrors to come. Luckily for me and my other afterlife friends, we are safe from all this nonsense. And, now that I think about it, you may be as well: There is no way to know what kind of deals Emory University is making with the artificial intelligence (AI) devils in The Center for AI Learning.

But there is no need to worry about any machine uprisings now, as worrying will not remove you from your suspension within the demonic metal shaft (which is definitely not located in Raoul … wink wink). Instead, I will provide you with a helpful list of activities to pass the time.

The first solution should be obvious: Do your homework. Although I am aware that it is a pastime of many Emory students to complain about the amount of work that they have, in all my hundreds of years, I have yet to see someone sit down and complete it. You may lose know-it-all points if you catch up on the work from all 30 credit hours you are enrolled in (cry, cry), but you will gain something much better once you escape from the elevator: free time. This might be a foreign concept to you, but finishing your homework gives you the freedom to go to sleep at an ordinary hour, touch grass and — prepare yourself — speak to other human beings outside your weekly Lost Dog Tavern trip. So, do that Quantitative Theory and Methods 100 coding assignment. Refresh yourself on how to use the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority for your ECS 101 class. If you are a business major, fill out your coloring books and update your LinkedIn. Imagine your quality of life skyrocketing against others’, and you will have all the distraction you need to pass the time in the vessel of horror that is your frozen elevator. I am well-acquainted with vessels of horror — mine was a casket, but I have long since upgraded my living situation.

The next solution, Sally, is one that will fill the men in finance among us with glee — network. As Emory makes

sure to remind its students, there is never a bad time to make connections even if you are completely and utterly alone. Try pressing different buttons on the elevator wall, mimicking typing in a phone number and making a call. Speak with confidence and precision as you make just the right amount of small talk to the air. This is the true elevator pitch. Shake hands with yourself, ensuring that you are always “web to web” and providing just the right amount of firmness, a tricky feat that few can master. If you have it with you, pull out your laptop and update your LinkedIn status, sharing that you have been stuck inside an elevator alone for an exorbitant number of hours. Future employers will observe this and admire your tenacity, remarking that a lesser human being would have gone insane from such circumstances (and you are asking me for advice, so clearly, you are far from being a lunatic).

But if waiting around for help is not your forte, there is a way to free yourself from the clutches of the elevator. As is clear to anyone who lays eyes upon my skeletal countenance, I am bestowed with powers beyond human comprehension. While I do not normally offer up favors to mortals such as yourself, I would be willing to make an exception — for a price. Prepare me an offering, Sally, one that is worthy of a distinguished and unending entity of misrule such as myself — I will let you out with the proper sacrifice. While you may not have many valuables on your person at the moment, I am sure that you can figure out a solution.

For example, rather than sacrificing a human or a goat, as is customary, you could sacrifice your dignity. Do

you have your jacket with you? Simply dig through the pockets and find the scrap of paper containing the phone number of that frat boy that you met at the Georgia Institute of Technology on Halloweekend and, as you mortals like to phrase it, “call him up.” Witnessing such humiliation and desperation would fill me with much-needed glee, and I would be happy to provide my services to you and facilitate a timely removal, using my magical powers to transport you from the elevator to a relative haven: Raoul’s fourth floor, complete with the muggy scent of marijuana. Teleportation does tend to make one a little nauseous, but I am sure that it will not be as bad as the disgust you will feel when the frat boy that you have called asks you “where his hug is at.”

Maybe being stuck is a good thing, Sally. The painful slowness of the time ticking will demonstrate to you how I feel when conversing with you dreadfully simple souls every single day.

If I can survive seemingly unending monotony, so can you. Or, perhaps not — most people are not as remarkable as I.

Regardless, push on, Sally. A future of relative freedom in which you roam blissfully free throughout your suburban bubble surely awaits you. If it makes you feel any better, the boredom that you feel is likely nothing compared to that of those slogging through their general education requirements, searching for a lively Friday night activity on campus or attempting to sit through an Emory athletic competition. It is always amusing to watch people try to exhibit “school spirit” at these events — I am the only school spirit haunting Emory’s hallowed grounds. I’ll be keeping an eye out for that sacrifice. Good luck, and never forget that Doolino knows best.

— Contact Doolino six feet under the Quadrangle

Stop blaming third-party voters for Harris’ loss

By crystaL Zhang editorial Board MeMBer

Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in the 2024 presidential election, disgruntled Democrats are starting to point fingers at groups that they believe are responsible for the loss. Among their targets are third-party voters, who Democrats accuse of spoiling the election by siphoning votes away from the Democratic ticket. This scapegoating has become a reflex for major party loyalists after each close election cycle, but it is an entirely unproductive endeavor because third-party voters were not the deciding factor in Harris’ defeat.

Blaming third-party voters is an oversimplification of why Harris lost and a distraction from genuine issues within the Democratic Party. This finger-pointing habit perpetuates the broken U.S. two-party system that fails to serve the needs of the electorate. Even if every single third-party voter in key swing states had strategically cast their vote for Harris, it is unlikely to have affected the outcome of the election — I did the math myself. The margins of defeat, particularly in battleground states, cannot be explained solely by the mere fraction of voters who opted for third-party candidates. Instead, factors such as unsuccessful party messaging, the rightward shift in the party’s policies and loss of support from long-time Democrats who chose to vote Republican likely had a larger impact on the outcome of the election.

For instance, in Georgia, Harris received a total of 2,548,014 votes, while President-elect Donald Trump received 2,663,110 votes. That is a difference of 115,096 votes. The two most popular

third-party candidates running in this election, Chase Oliver, a Libertarian, and Jill Stein from the Green Party, only received 20,684 and 18,229 votes, respectively, totaling 38,913 votes cast for third-party candidates in Georgia, not counting write-in candidates. These numbers demonstrate that even if Harris had received every single third-party vote — an unlikely scenario given the Libertarian Party’s ideological alignment is closer to the Republican Party — she still would not have won Georgia. Swing states Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona show similar patterns. Even when factoring in independent and write-in candidates, this would not have been sufficient to close the gap between Harris and Trump.

Furthermore, blaming third-party voters for the Democrats’ loss ignores other factors behind their underperformance this election season. In the 2020 presidential election, President Joe Biden received a whopping 81.2

million votes compared to Harris’ 73.8 million votes in 2024. The difference in the number of Democratic Party votes is startling and should be a wake-up call to party leaders about the number of voters, especially in key swing states, that felt disengaged, alienated or unmoved by the Harris-Walz ticket. Sweeping important platform and policy issues under the rug and blaming third parties is a dangerous distraction from the changes that actually need to be made. If Democrats want to win elections, they need to earn votes — not demand them.

This attitude toward third-party candidates and voters highlights a fundamental problem with the U.S. electoral system: It stifles the expression of diverse viewpoints and discourages voters from choosing the candidate they truly believe in. The United States operates on a first-past-the-post system, meaning that the candidate with the most electoral votes wins, even if they do not secure a majority. This system

often traps voters in a cycle of fearbased strategic voting. If voters favor an unpopular third party candidate, they may opt to support a major party candidate with whom they somewhat align instead of their true preference in hopes of avoiding a wasted vote or inadvertently helping their least-preferred candidate win. The Electoral College amplifies this issue, as most states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote there, even if the margin is slim. This winner-takesall dynamic reinforces the dominance of two major parties and leaves little room for third-party candidates.

With growing dissatisfaction in the two-party system, it is more important than ever that third parties gain traction so all voter interests can be properly represented in government. A promising reform that addresses this is ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins an outright majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed based on second-choice preferences. The process continues until one candidate secures a majority. Ranked choice voting ensures that votes cast for third-party candidates are not wasted — they simply transfer to voters’ next preferred choice. This system empowers citizens to support the candidate that best represents their interests. Through ranked choice voting, voters can express their support for third-party candidates and help grow those candidates’ platforms without being blamed for causing a major party to lose, as many Democrats are doing following the 2024 election.

Several cities and states, such as Alaska, Maine and New York City, have

already adopted ranked choice voting with promising results, and it is time to expand this reform nationwide. However, ranked choice voting is still facing significant pushback from the two major parties and voters who fear upending the status quo — while election reforms like ranked choice voting were on four state ballots in 2024, it failed to pass everywhere. This is a clear signal that we must advocate for ranked choice voting. By voting in favor of ranked choice voting and other alternative ballots, starting at the local level, and educating others on its benefits, we can begin to reshape the electoral process. When voters are freed from being forced to choose the “lesser of two evils,” the political landscape can become more reflective of the interests of the people, not just major parties. Reforming the electoral process to include ranked choice voting or other alternative ballot systems is not a radical idea — it is a necessary step to bring American democracy in line with its ideals of representation and plurality. Instead of condemning third-party voters who sought alternatives to an uninspiring status quo in 2024, the Democratic Party and its supporters should focus on why third-party voters felt excluded from their vision. More importantly, Democrats should advocate for systemic reforms that would allow all voters to have their voices heard. Until such changes are made, blaming third-party voters will remain a hollow exercise. It is time to stop blaming and start building a system in which every vote — for any candidate — truly counts.

— Contact Crystal Zhang at crzhan2@emory.edu

sasha emmeriCh/staff illustrator

saba faisal/staff illustrator

The Emory Wheel Arts Life&

Emory dance choreographers discuss fall performance

working into the year.”

Chinese Culture Night shares food, music, art with Emory community

B y C atherine n an C ontributing W riter

Strings of fairy lights at each table and three large screens projecting “welcome” in Chinese — illuminated the Emory Student Center’s multipurpose rooms at Chinese Culture Night (CCN) on Nov. 16. A long line of students entered the venue, chatting as they picked up refreshments and painted traditional Chinese fans.

Emory University’s Chinese Undergraduate Student Organization (CUSO) and Emory Chinese Student Association (CSA) hosted the annual event.

cial” to her and she likes the community-building the event fosters.

“We try to make it as accessible as possible like it’s a free event, anyone can show up, they just have to RSVP,” Lai said.

At the beginning of the event, a shimmering, golden dragon appeared in front of the crowd, brought to life by a group of students who made it leap and twist to the rhythm of beating drums and clanging cymbals.

The Emory Dance Company’s performances each semester act as a vehicle for empathy and understanding, as the medium of dance is inherently vulnerable and intimate. The artform can also be collaborative; at the annual Emory Dance Company Fall Concert, Emory University community members participate in a dialogue between dancers and viewers. The annual event, which community members can attend at Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, showcases the work of Emory’s dance faculty, who choreograph works featuring Emory student performers. The event will run from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23 and includes the works of two guest artists and three

Lori Teague, associate professor in the dance and movement studies program, is one of the faculty choreographers featured at the fall dance concert. Teague has been choreographing at Emory for 30 years, and her chosen style of dance is contact improvisation, which emphasizes the exchange of touch and weight as the artistic focus. Teague said that her central research question is: “How do we live in our own bodies?” Her upcoming performance at the concert, “Conversation Piece,” delves into this question and explores the struggle of “when a body feels they’re not heard.”

“I wanted to do a piece about very, very difficult conversations,” Teague said. “It really wasn’t political, but it became more political as we kept

The dance consists of three sets of dancers performing in duets. Choreography was centered on the dancer pairs, and Teague gave each pair a prompt or question and asked the dancers to improvise a series of movements, also called a “phrase.”

“I said, ‘I’m going to ask you to create a resilient phrase yourself,’” Teague said. “What does that mean to you, to be resilient in the body, to rebound, to have suspension, to be flexible?”

The choreographing process is collaborative, as Teague organizes the dance spatially and temporally using the movement created by the dancers. This piece demands vulnerability from the dancers, and in turn, open engage-

See CONCERT, Page 9

CCN, which required three months of planning and six and a half hours of setup, featured an elaborate dinner including zha jiang mian noodles, mapo tofu and cumin lamb, as well as dance performances, games and musical entertainment.

At this year’s event, CUSO greatly increased its audience and reach.

CUSO VP of Internal Development Evan Bian (22Ox, 25C) noted the event’s growth over the past three years.

“We used to do it in the Cox Ballroom, last year we used only half the [multipurpose rooms], this year we’re using all six,” Bian said. “That’s really what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to grow the event to be able to host more attendees and share culture with more people.”

CCN had 360 seats available for this year’s event, up from 200 in previous years, according to CUSO Co-President Darlene Lai (26C). Lai said that CCN has been “really spe -

Soon after, performers dressed in flowing silk robes twirled and fluttered their fans to the elegant melody of a flute. The audience erupted in cheers and applause after every performance.

The event featured performances from Georgia Tech’s Dragon Dance, +86 Chinese Acappella, Emory Mulan Dance, dance team BlaeZ and a group of Chinese traditional musicians playing the erhu, pipa and yangqin.

From elegant traditional dances to energetic hip-hop choreography, the program showcased both historical and modern elements of Chinese culture.

Spandana Amirneni (26C) attended CCN this year after enjoying last year’s event. Coming from an IndianAmerican background, Amireni liked savoring the cuisine, attending the event with her friends and seeing the different cultural performances.

“They had a lot of good food and I’m also on a dance team here, so I like seeing the performances,” Amirnemi said.

See CULTURAL, Page 9

Going on hiatus: 8 One Direction songs to keep you company

B

y C atherine G oodman

A rts & L ife e ditor

It is with a heavy heart that I declare this my final Cat’s Collection of the 2024-25 academic year. I know my four devoted fans (hello Dede and Poppy) will be absolutely devastated, but the time has come.

As I embark on my semester abroad, leaving the lush pines of Emory University behind, I will not be continuing my column until next fall. I heard Sweden has, like, super bad internet or something.

Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that this is goodbye for now, not forever.

While I will miss watching students in the Dobbs Common Table skim Cat’s Collection in hot pursuit of the crossword, I know another writer anxiously awaits my departure. In the words of Gabriella in “High School Musical 2” (2007), “I’ve gotta go my own way.”

But what kind of person would I be to leave without a proper parting gift?

As always, this gift takes the form of a curated playlist, this time including only One Direction tracks. While the tragic passing of former bandmate Liam Payne imbues their music with a steady sorrow, the band’s legacy persists.

So without further ado, I offer eight of my favorite One Direction songs — one for every month of my column missed. If anyone knows about taking a quick hiatus, it’s them.

1. ‘Diana’ (2013)

Although presented under a deceptively peppy accompaniment, “Diana” speaks directly to young girls struggling with mental health.

The band recognizes that “Diana” — a stand-in title for all women — isn’t herself and offers their aid. In the chorus, the group implores, “Diana, let me be the one to / Light a fire inside those eyes.” While this track is primarily in the service of “Diana,” the boy band falls into the familiar as romance bubbles beneath the surface.

“We all need somethin’ / This can’t be over now / If I could hold ya / Swear I’d never put you down,” Harry Styles belts in the bridge, promising more than a shoulder to cry on.

While this may be a cliché move for the 2010s heartthrobs, it doesn’t detract from the empathetic energy of the track. Due to its loving lyrics and sonic power, “Diana” is the perfect pick-me-

up for a not-so-perfect day.

2. ‘Right Now’ (2013)

One of my favorite One Direction deep-cuts, “Right Now” is an exemplary display of male vulnerability. On the chorus, vocal powerhouse Zayn Malik admits, “Right now I wish you were here with me (Ooh) / ‘Cause right now, everything is new to me (Ooh).

The lyrics oscillate between depictions of bright lights and rambunctious crows to moments of silence, contemplation and desire for those held most dearly.

But even as the sounds of solitude persist, the group pushes positivity. “And we won’t be going home / For so long, for so long, but I know,” Styles sings.

“Right Now” is a refreshing break from the slew of confident, quippy and flirtatious tracks released by the boy band. In this brief glimpse behind the curtain, One Direction truly shines.

3. ‘Change Your Ticket’ (2014)

While One Direction never shied away from teasing or amorous innuendos, “Change Your Ticket” is a full-throttle steam show. The track starts with a bang as Styles sings, “Watchin’ you get dressed messes with my head / Take that bag off your shoulder.” The lyrics leave absolutely nothing up for interpretation while leaving plenty to the imagination. Although the term was not yet invented, “Change

Your Ticket” illustrates the playful pining of a sultry “situationship” — a relationship that is never defined, but all-encompassing. “And you say, ‘It’s hard to keep a secret’ / Girl, don’t leave me all alone in this hotel,” Niall Horan sings, further enhancing the seductive track with nods toward secrecy. The pleading culminates in the chorus as the group sings, “You should probably stay, probably stay a couple more days / Come on, let me change your ticket home, oh-oh.”

While this song was slightly more enjoyable when I was 14 and blissfully unaware of the action at hand, it nonetheless remains one of my favorite One Direction hits.

4. ‘If I Could Fly’ (2015)

“If I Could Fly” is One Direction’s standout ballad. It is both soft and powerful, candid and coy, intimate and expansive. Styles opens the song with a desperate admission, “If I could fly / I’d be coming right back home to you.” Payne follows with a command, “Pay attention, I hope that you listen / ‘Cause I let my guard down.” The vulnerability intensifies with a melodic chorus, culminating in a forceful bridge. “I can feel your heart inside of mine (I feel it, I feel it) / I’ve been going out of my mind (I feel it, I feel it) /

B y a lexandra K auffman s enior s t A ff W riter

Emory faculty.

Photos Courtesy of george stA ib, JuLio MedinA A nd eMory university

Timelessness of ‘American Beauty,’ ‘Workingman’s Dead’

B y a ri s e G al s enior s t A ff W riter

With the recent passing of legendary Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, I have begun to dive back into my self-espoused Deadhead tendencies and the band’s spellbinding discography. Two twin albums in particular — “Workingman’s Dead” (1970) and “American Beauty” (1970) — will be the focus of this retrospective installment of my column.

As the revolutionary spirit of the ’60s rolled into the acquiescence of the ’70s, very few would have bet that the Grateful Dead, the freewheeling psychedelic champions of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, would put out twin LPs that would become standards of the Americana and country-rock canon.

“It was a surprise to us — as it was to everybody else,” said Robert Hunter, lyricist and one of the creative partners of the Grateful Dead, speaking of the band’s success on the DVD “Classic Albums: Grateful Dead — Anthem to Beauty” (1999). “This machine-eating, monster-psychedelic band is suddenly putting out sweet, listenable material.”

As Hunter indicated, they suddenly stepped on their musical breaks, slowed down the tempo of their psychedelic space jams and decided to come into orbit with fully fleshed-out tunes. The results of their labor were “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty,” two complementary albums released within a few months of each other. The twin albums are an anomaly in their discography and the natural gateway for most “Deadheads,” a self-appointed term to describe the Grateful Dead’s intergenerational fan-

POP CULTURE

base. The classification of “Deadhead” later expanded to include anyone who is a fan of their music and their associated free-loving stance on life, even including folks who were not even alive before the group officially disbanded after lead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995. The Grateful Dead, by all accounts, defy categorization and logic, always skirting off the edge of reality for what is possible for a rock ‘n’ roll band. An analysis of the band inevitably feels like a sociological research paper, as the band’s perennial appeal and impact warrant social, economic, political and regional explanations.Over the years, more than their music seeped into the collective consciousness. Their iconography, the 13-Point Lightning Bolt with blue and red hues, the dancing bears and the “Steal Your Face” skull remain an integral aspect of the group’s legacy.

To anyone wondering what the effects of an increasingly secular world would be, then the pseudo-religion of the Grateful Dead canon is surely a great place to start.

These two LPs are the most concise

and effective studio statements the Grateful Dead made throughout their decades-long career. For me, those opening guitar strums and jangling percussive notes on opener “Box of Rain,” Lesh’s original composition, set the tone perfectly for their album “American Beauty.” Written with the assistance of Hunter about the untimely death of Lesh’s father, the song is strikingly somber yet still performed at a swift pace. “And it’s just a box of rain / Or a ribbon for your hair,” Lesh sings in the song’s outro. “Such a long long time to be gone / And a short time to be there.”

“Box of Rain” also feels prophetically placed. It is the opener for their landmark album, but the song was the very last song the original group would ever perform live, capping off their final performance on July 9, 1995, at Soldier Field in Chicago.The jamming did not end in 1995, though. Dead & Company, the current mix of past Grateful Dead members alongside John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, played the last notes of their ominously titled “The Final Tour” on July 15, 2023, in

2025 Grammy predictions: Pop-princesses dominate

B y C atherine G oodman and C olin f eren C e A rts & L ife e ditor A nd M usi C & C on C ert d esk

If you’re in the market for a conniption, just watch the 67th Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 2, 2025. We’re only kidding, sort of. After years of disappointment, we’ve gotten better at managing my expectations of which artists should win.On Nov. 8, 2024, Harvey Mason Jr. announced the nominations for the ever-divisive ceremony. Below are our predictions for the general field categories: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

Grammy Award for Album of the Year

Nominees: “New Blue Sun” by André 3000 | “COWBOY CARTER” by Beyoncé | “HIT ME HARD AND SOFT” by Billie Eilish | “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” by Chappell Roan | “BRAT” by Charli xcx | “Djesse Vol. 4” by Jacob Collier | “Short n’ Sweet” by Sabrina Carpenter | “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT” by Taylor Swift

Will win: “BRAT”

Should win: “BRAT”

Snubbed: “eternal sunshine” by Ariana Grande

Charli xcx has not been up for Grammy gold since her feature on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (2014). It’s no secret that “BRAT” dominated 2024, culminating in seven nominations. However, it wasn’t until my 82-year-old grandmother asked me “what is ‘Brat’?” that

I truly understood the magnitude of its reach. A win would be highly deserved and long overdue.While Swift’s “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT” is an impressive project, its close proximity to incumbent “Midnights” (2022) could render her victory redundant. As for Beyoncé, if the Recording Academy cared about properly honoring Queen B in this category, they would have done so when “Lemonade” (2016) was in contention.However, Grande’s exclusion from the list of nominees cannot be ignored. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Grande reflected on how recording “eternal sunshine” renewed her love for music, disentangling it from industry optics. Fans and critics alike celebrated “eternal sunshine,” which generated two Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles and earned a rare five-star review from Rolling Stone. Therefore, Grande’s absence here is just insulting, especially when one spot went to André 3000’s 90-minute, non-vocal flute solo, “New Blue Sun.”

Grammy Award for Best New Artist

Nominees: Benson Boone; Doechii; Chappell Roan; Khruangbin; RAYE; Sabrina Carpenter; Shaboozey; Teddy Swims

Will win: Sabrina Carpenter Should win: Chappell Roan

Snubbed: Beabadoobee

Ironically, the two frontrunners for Best New Artist — Carpenter and Roan — have been toiling away in the music industry since 2013 and 2017, respectively. However, 2024 was the year they both broke into the main-

San Francisco. This time, past members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart joined Mayer, Burbridge and Chimenti in a nationwide tour that demonstrated the band’s timeless appeal. Yet again, their final show was not their last as they graced the legendary stage of the Sphere in Paradise, Nev. as part of their residency in August 2024.On “Workingman’s Dead,” the counterpart to “American Beauty,” the band is also a well-oiled musical machine.

Take the opener “Uncle John’s Band,” for example, a sweet and homespun guitar ballad full of rich vocal harmony. The bluegrass-inspired track alludes to bygone tales of past Americana. One performance of this song that sticks out decades later was during their late ’80s stadium rock era, a result of the band’s surprise Top 40 hit “Touch of Grey” (1987). In the 1987 version, new pianist Brent Mydland joined the band, adding much-needed vitality and husky backup vocals.“Well, the first days are the hardest days / Don’t you worry anymore,” the group sings with tastefully layered harmony. “‘Cause when life looks like Easy Street/ There is danger at your door.”The final track “Casey Jones,” a song loosely based on the railroad engineer of the same name, is also one of the band’s most recognizable tracks. Over a bluesy rock beat, Garcia delivers a humorous plea for a railroad conductor to watch his “speed,” a double entendre that refers both to the acceleration of the train as well as his cocaine use. “Driving that train, high on cocaine / Casey Jones you better, watch your speed,” Garcia humorously sings. “Trouble ahead, trouble behind / And you know that notion just crossed my mind.”

Then there is the eternal GarciaHunter collaboration on “Ripple,” their most iconic and striking acoustic ballad. Nothing quite crystalizes the simplicity and charm of Americana quite like this short-and-sweet track. Although only played 42 times (compare this to the Grateful Dead’s most played song, “Me and My Uncle,” which was performed 616 times over their storied career), my favorite is the stripped-back version performed in New York City on Oct. 31, 1980 — the audience’s clapping and hollering, coupled with the laid back acoustic feel of this performance, truly put me at ease. A close second might be the rendition Bob Weir & Wolf Bros performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk back in 2020. “You who choose to lead must follow / But if you fall you fall alone,” Garcia tells the listener over sparse acoustics and a light drum shuffle. “If you should stand then who’s to guide you?/ If I knew the way I would take you home.” I often return to these twin albums when I yearn for a simpler time than our own. The Grateful Dead sings of a quaint and quiet life that I could only dream of. This charming stillness, like the landscapes of the splendid and lazy “Eyes of the World” (1973), is from a bygone era, one I can visit but never truly inhabit. With charming guitar ballads, shffling bluegrass boogies and folksy American landscapes, “American Beauty” and “Workingman’s Dead” warm the soul when the world needs it most. I cannot think of a soundtrack more antithetical to the times we live in, and yet, that reality underscores its necessity.

– Contact Ari Segal at pine.segal@emory.edu

Mini Crossword

stream, making them new in that regard. Nevertheless, Carpenter did enter the entertainment industry at only 15 years old, gaining a leading role in the Disney Channel Original “Girl Meets World” (2014). Roan’s delay in entering the spotlight should ensure her spot as Best New Artist, but it won’t. Considering Carpenter has not complained about this uptick in stardom or the prospect of winning a Grammy, I think the Recording Academy will be more inclined to give her the trophy.Released on Aug. 16, “This Is How Tomorrow Moves” just barely made the Aug. 30 deadline for Grammy considerations. Like her fellow female stars, Beabadoobee has trudged through the music industry since 2017. However, her recent project stands out as a definitive declaration of confidence, style and maturity. Although “This Is How Tomorrow Moves” did not achieve commercial success akin to Roan and Carpenter’s projects, Beabadoobee nonetheless deserves a nomination.

Find the complete article online.

– Contact Catherine Goodman at catherine.goodman@emory.edu Colin Ference at colin.ference@emory.edu

Concert faculty contemplate empathy, resilience

Continued from Page 7

ment from the audience. Avoidance, Teague believes, keeps people from truly understanding one another.

“Something I keep investigating over and over in my work is how to listen through the body, being more quiet, really reading someone, really listening,” Teague said. “Dance is a very dynamic thing. Listening is more quiet.”

Teague isn’t the only choreographer who worked collaboratively with dancers ahead of the concert. George Staib, professor of practice in the dance and movement studies program, structures rehearsals around dancers improvising in response to a prompt. Staib has choreographed at Emory for 23 years, and his current style is contemporary ballet, spliced with what he calls “gritty” and “grounded” movements. He pushes dancers to think creatively, helping them shape their ideas during rehearsal.

“Thematically speaking, I don’t get too hung up on what the movements in particular are,” Staib said. “I find

I’m more interested in what the frame around the work might be.”

The frame of “Underbloom,” his upcoming work at the concert, investigates the idea of liminality, transition and what happens when ideas don’t quite come to fruition.

“It’s when one thing ends and a new thing is about to begin,” Staib said.

“It’s that middle space. What do you do with that middle space?”

Staib described how the dancers emphasized their thematic ideas by incorporating their “robustly moving” physicality to explore the cycles of effort and depletion.

“They’re allowing themselves to be torn up inside the work,” Staib said.

The set design further represents the themes, as seen in the seven large flower stalks of varying heights. Staib explained that the flowers are meant to be moved back and forth by the dancers on stage, representing resilience and the ability to bounce back.

Furthermore, the image of the flower represents potential, as a rosebud exists in a liminal state between action

— blooming — and inaction.

“The potential is perfect, and it’s so elusive,” Staib said.

Julio Medina (13C), an assistant professor in the dance and movement studies program, is also interested in the combination of physical movement and abstract themes. His work utilizes hip-hop, contemporary and non-traditional forms of dance to explore both abstract, cosmic and grounded political themes.

“I’m approaching dance-making now with a lens on how dance can be metaphysical, or how dance can connect us with the universe in an abstract way, but also in a very intentional way,” Medina said.

As a choreographer, Medina pieces a dance together by focusing on its energetic structure and arc, or how energy shifts throughout a piece. He considers the beginning and final images, and the journey that unfolds between those two points.

Medina’s upcoming work at the fall dance concert, “Four Sages,” travels through four phases in its energetic

Cultural organizations host celebration

Continued from Page 7

Bian shared a similar sentiment, highlighting the cultural significance of dancers performing at CCN.

“These are fellow students, and a lot of them have similar missions to CUSO,” Bian said. “And [CCN] is a great way for [the performers] to express their passions and their art in a cultural context that’s meaningful for them.”

Katie Park (26C) came to CCN to support her friends in CUSO. Having attended the event last year, she is happy to see Asian culture represented on campus every year.

“Personally, I grew up in a really white town, so I didn’t really celebrate any Asian culture at all,” Park, who is Korean-American, said. “Coming to Emory, I’m happy to embrace that part of my identity

and be able to do it with my friends as well.”

During the intermission, hundreds of students lined up to receive dinner. A mouthwatering aroma wafted through the air as servers opened the dishes.

Highlights included sichuan spicy chicken and twice-cooked pork belly, which were served alongside noodles and tofu. After finishing their first plate, some students got back in line for seconds.

Lai noted the importance of the event for Chinese students and non-Chinese students alike. He emphasized how food and performances can cultivate community.

“[The mission] is to be able to showcase Chinese culture on the Emory campus and be able to spread that kind of culture while also pro -

structure. This first phase is a reflection on political ideas such as immigration, capitalism and racism, incorporating a reading of a text by scholar Angela Davis.

The second phase explores the shedding of those oppressive ideals through physicality, transitioning into the third phase, which represents freedom.

The final section returns to the themes explored in the first, utilizing the song “Sage Up” (2018) by activist-artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Through these phases, the work investigates pressing political matters, such as immigration and capitalism, as well as questions of universality greater than any individual

“Just getting back to our humanity — I think that’s what I want to do with putting these two ideas together in the same dance,” Medina said.

Ultimately, Medina wants this dance to be left up to interpretation, but he nonetheless hopes the audience views it as an invitation to consider their own beliefs and foster new

empathy.

“I’m hoping that after that whole journey the audience can feel like maybe they saw or considered humans as more than immigrants, or even considered the origin of the word immigrant, how that can really affect people’s day to day lives,” Medina said.

Teague, Staib and Medina engage audiences through their own styles in the dynamic medium of dance. Their works contemplate distinct questions, yet the pieces overlap thematically. The choreographers are concerned with questions of empathy, connection and understanding, and how these questions are simultaneously expressed in the tangible world and the abstract sense.

The upcoming performance — and by extension, dance as a medium — offers audiences, performers and choreographers an opportunity to find new truths in themselves and the world around them.

– Contact Alexandra Kauffman at alexandra.kauffman@emory.edu

Bittersweet bops to end the semester

Continued from Page 7

Know that I’m just wasting time (And I) / Hope that you don’t run from me,” the group implores. While this track is lyrically poignant, the harmonies are the dagger. As the band members sing of desperation, loneliness and dissatisfaction, they are accompanied by the voices of their companions, echoing their sentiments. “If I Could Fly” is a testament to the appeal of One Direction not as a pretty boy band, but as a powerful musical group capable of evoking emotional connection.

5. ‘Why Don’t We Go There’ (2013)

Starting with evocative electric guitar strumming, “Why Don’t We Go There” sets a fiery tone from the get-go. Although the song never truly defines what “there” is and I don’t want to make assumptions, this track is nothing short of seductive in its unapologetic positive energy. The verses make various allusions to the destination, but it’s more about the journey.

“I know you want, know you wanna take it slow / Think about all the places we could go,” Styles sings. With constant guitar riffs and dominant percussion, this track never falters. But the clear highlight of “Why Don’t We Go There” is Horan’s performance on the bridge. “Hey, I don’t want you to be the one that got away / I wanna get addicted to you, yeah,” he belts, almost growling in his desperation. Above all else, “Why Don’t We Go There” is harmless fun. It’s the perfect track for a sunny day with the windows down and the speakers 12 notches too loud.

moting a sense of belonging,” Lai said. “There is a big Chinese community here, whether you’re international or whether you’re an American-born Chinese student. Even if you’re not Chinese at all, it’s just fun to come.”

While CUSO will not be hosting any more big events this semester, Lai advised the Emory community to be “on the lookout” for the Asian Night Market in the spring.

He underscored CCN’s main purpose of bringing Chinese culture to the wider Emory population.

“CUSO’s mission is always to share Chinese culture — our culture — with the greater Emory community,” Bian said.

– Contact Catherine Nan at catherine.nan@emory.edu

6. ‘She’s Not Afraid’ (2012)

Perhaps my ultimate favorite One Direction song, “She’s Not Afraid” stands out for many reasons. First, I appreciate how each member gets space to shine on this song — even the often left-behind voices of Louis Tomlinson and Horan. “She walks in and the room just lights up / But she don’t want anyone to know / That I’m the only one that gets to take her home, oh-woah,” Tomlinson sings in the first verse. The second stand-out feature of this track is its narrative. While the Wattpad fanfictions that ran rampant in 2014 no longer retain their popularity, this song is like a time capsule, embodying the essence of the untouchable Y/N. The love interest isn’t like other girls — she doesn’t want to be loved. In fact, she’s afraid of it. “She’s not afraid of running wild / How come she’s so afraid of falling in love?” Malik mus-

es. The final fascinating feature of this track is the quintessential One Direction energy. The song is rambunctious, enlivened by the infectious electric guitar, drumming and the boy band’s harmonies. When I’m feeling down and crave a walk with nostalgia, I always turn to “She’s Not Afraid.”

7. ‘Night Changes’ (2014) As one of One Direction’s most popular songs, “Night Changes” has withstood the test of time. Reflecting on the inevitability of growth and change, this track resonated during the turbulent years of puberty and continues to resonate just as powerfully in my early 20s. After Payne’s passing, this track spiked on the Billboard Global 200 chart, still comforting fans 10 years after its release. “(Ooh) We’re only gettin’ older, baby / (Ooh) And I’ve been thinkin’ about it lately,” Styles sings in the chorus. Throughout the track, the group laments the passage of time and the inevitable loss of innocence, reckoning with the unchangeable ephemerality of life. Nevertheless, the group retains positivity, encouraging listeners to look toward what they have, not what they’ve lost. “(Ooh) But there’s nothin’ to be afraid of / (Ah-ah-ah) Even when the night changes / (Ooh) It will never change me and you,” Styles sings. In an ever-changing, often tumultuous world, “Night Changes” remains a timeless anthem of resilience and connection.

8. ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ (2014)

In returning to the true subject of this installation — me — I must finish this playlist with an ode to my future home in Sweden. Nevertheless, I am not including “Stockholm Syndrome” solely due to its timely title. It really is a banger. “Who’s that shadow holding me hostage? I’ve been here for days / Who’s this whisper telling me that I’m never gonna get away?” Styles begins. With an interesting adaptation of the psychological phenomenon in which hostages form emotional bonds with their captors, One Direction bemoans the trappings of an all-encompassing lover. “Oh, baby, you got me tied down / Oh, baby, I’ll never leave if you keep holding me this way (Oh-oh-oh),” the group sings. So, here’s to Sweden, “Stockholm Syndrome” and returning to the loving arms of Cat’s Collection — assuming all goes according to plan.

– Contact Catherine Goodman at catherine.goodman@emory.edu

Courtesy of edith Wu

Students line up to recieve Chinese cuisine at Chinese Culture Night, held in the Emory Student Center.

Team confident following UAA championship

Continued from Back Page

the Eagles at one point. Fighting the fatigue of a long tournament, Emory brought the score back to even at 21. The Eagles showed tremendous focus, taking four out of five points to win the third set 25-22 and claim the UAA championship.

Hong, LaRocco and Cail were all named to the All-UAA First Team, while Rabinowitz and senior rightside hitter Alana Dawson earned Second Team nods. Sophomore right-side hitter Sophia Luo received an honorable mention distinction and head coach Brianna Jones and her staff were recognized as the UAA Coaching Staff of the Year.

Following the conference championship victory, the team’s focus will now shift to the NCAA Division III (DIII) Women’s Volleyball Championship, where Emory will host Covenant College (Ga.) in the first round on Nov. 21. This marks the team’s 28th consecutive appearance in the national tournament, which is the second-longest current streak in DIII women’s volleyball.

Looking ahead, Hong said she believes this team has everything it takes to make a deep postseason run.

“No team can stand in our way as long as we believe and trust in ourselves,” Hong said.

When asked about her playoff outlook, Zerrouki’s answer was straightforward.

“We can win the national championship,” Zerrouki said.

— Contact Justin Guo at justin.guo@emory.edu

Men’s team closes out successful season

key to their defensive efforts.

“Midfield was just really locked in today,” Davidson said. “They kept the fort down. They’re always super solid.”

The No. 23 Eagles’ next game against No. 21 Pacific Lutheran was far from easy. The team relied on their defense to keep Pacific Lutheran’s shot attempts at bay. In the first half, junior goalkeeper Sophia Garcia stepped in with two big saves as the Eagles worked to gain an advantage. While it was a tough game, Nimmer said ball movement was the key to gaining the upper hand.

“Definitely a much more competitive game today, so we just had to make sure that we kept the ball and kept it moving,” Nimmer said. “Once we did that, we were able to get control of the game.”

The Eagles showcased their strong defense again in the second half, not allowing a single Pacific Lutheran shot. In the 72nd minute, Nimmer scored the game-winning goal that Emory needed. She had the help of sophomore forward Emily Woodall, who took advantage of a defensive mistake by Pacific Lutheran’s goalkeeper.

“She wins the ball from the keeper, she just doesn’t stop,” Nimmer said. “She gets the ball, gets into the box, deflection and I was just there to clean it up. Relentless energy from myself and the team and it paid off.”

The Eagles were able to hold onto the lead during the remaining minutes of the game to secure the win and move onto the Sweet 16, where they

will face Loras College (Iowa) on Nov. 23.

Men’s soccer struggles in first round exit

The men’s team faced the Lynchburg Hornets earlier this season when they scored two late goals to secure a 2-1 win. Heading into their second matchup against the Hornets, junior midfielder Josh Grand said the Eagles had a determined mindset.

“It was the same mindset we’ve had the whole season, which was that adversity was never going to stop us,” Grand said.

The Eagles faced that adversity throughout the entire game. They attempted just one shot in the first half, and the Hornets scored a goal in the 38th minute to put the Eagles

down 1-0. After falling behind in the game, Grand said the team knew they had to attack harder.

“Once they scored their first goal, we all took a step back and tried to put ourselves in the same position we were in last time we played them, which was an early goal, which set up a comeback,” Grand said.

In the second half, the Eagles increased their intensity with four shot attempts. Senior winger Sebastian Rincon and freshman defender Phillip Head each took one shot, and graduate forward Ryan Winkler attempted his third shot of the game. However, the Lynchburg goalkeeper blocked all attempts.

The game ended with two more goals by Lynchburg, setting the final score of 3-0. However, the Eagles did not hand Lynchburg the win. Grand

said the team never faltered in their attitude and battled until the final whistle.

“Throughout the whole 90 minutes, everyone was under the impression that we were going to win that game no matter what was thrown at us,” Grand said. “That wasn’t the case, but it does feel a lot better to be surrounded by 10 other guys who won’t just give up at the first sign of adversity. It’s a testament to the culture of our team and how we’ve learned to adapt to our circumstances.”

The men’s team ended their season with a University Athletic Association (UAA) title and three players — Winkler, Grand and sophomore forward Lorenzo Avalos — made the AllUAA First Team. Winkler also took home the UAA Offensive Player of the Year award. Graduate defender Jake Atallah and sophomore winger Julian Hee earned spots on the AllUAA Second Team, while sophomore defender Michael Constant gained an honorable mention.

Grand reflected positively on what the team accomplished this year, noting that their ability to bounce back after struggles made their season more meaningful.

“I’m extremely proud of the team,” Grand said. “The fact that we did face adversity this year — we were handed some tough losses — and were still able to come back from those and find success later on in the season really made it even more satisfying than last year.”

— Contact Chloe Nam at chloe.nam@emory.edu

Why Guardian Caps should be required in the NFL

By Jerry He Contributing Writer

If you have watched an NFL game this season, you may have noticed some players sporting bulky, spongylike helmets that differ greatly from the sleek and traditional helmets of the past. At first glance, you might think the players are wearing a temporary helmet fix and wonder, “What the heck is that?” When I first noticed them during the second week of the 2024-25 NFL season, I thought the same.

These soft-shell coverings on helmets — known as Guardian Caps — are actually a new accessory intended to decrease concussion risks. These caps make the game safer, reducing the force of impact by 10 to 15% per player involved in each collision. I expect more and more players to adopt this added layer of protection in the future, and for good reason.

The NFL and its players have continually grappled with the impacts of hard hits, with concussion and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) as common consequences. Players diagnosed with a concussion must overcome a barrier called the “concussion protocol,” a process where they are evaluated for any “no-go” symptoms such as loss of consciousness or confusion. If any “no-go” symptoms are detected, the player is prohibited from returning to the game until the symptoms abate. As the frequency of concussions continues to rise, with players like Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa facing his third diagnosed concussion in the NFL, the league has accelerated efforts to enhance head protection for its players.

Guardian Caps are one of these new protection efforts. The strangelooking helmets did not pop out of nowhere. Invented in 2010 by Erin and Lee Hanson, owners of a material science business called The Hanson Group LLC, these caps gained recognition in the summer of 2013 when the University of South Carolina football team became the first to adopt them for their summer practices. Other teams soon followed, and in 2020, Guardian Caps made their debut onto the NFL field during practices. After testing the caps with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL approved the use of these protections in practice for offensive and defensive linemen on all teams in 2021. Soon after this approval,

players were permitted to use them on a voluntary basis in practice, and 23 teams began training camps with the caps experimentally.

Encouraged by a significant 50% reduction in concussions in practice compared to the league’s three-year average, the NFL quickly adjusted its protocols to allow players to wear them in regular season games for the 2024-25 NFL season. Dolphins running back De’Von Achane, Buffalo Bills safety Taylor Rapp and Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah OwusuKoramoah have all embraced them following their approval. Such support from players is essential and marks only the beginning of Guardian Caps’ takeover of the game, as players are not merely promoting this new culture

but also enhancing safety within a high-risk sport.

In addition to decreasing concussions, Dr. Steve Rowson, the director of Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab, said that Guardian Caps can reduce the force of linear acceleration by up to 14%, which means they help reduce the force of contact and potentially limit the risk of head injuries. Tests have also indicated concussion risk decreases by 15 to 35% if both players involved in the collision are wearing them. The last thing any team wants is for a player to suffer a severe injury during practice, sidelining them before the game even starts. By mandating extra protection in practice, players can train at full intensity with decreased injury fears. This will enable teams to develop consistent game plans and give fans the opportunity to enjoy more entertaining games with fewer injury-related roster gaps.

This new helmet design will not entirely eliminate concussions in the NFL, however. No helmet can fully prevent them. Nevertheless, the league’s responsibility is to equip players with the safest gear to reduce injury risk as much as possible. As NFL Chief Medical Officer Allen Sills explained to Forbes in September, “It’s like your car. You want to have airbags and all the protection, but your best protection is to stay out of a collision in the first place.”

The equipment is ready, the rigorous testing has shown the benefits and Guardian Caps are set to roll out, but will players choose to wear them? Opinions are mixed in the locker room. Kylen Granson, a tight end

for the Indianapolis Colts, supported them in an interview with The Athletic in August, stating, “Why wouldn’t I [wear it]? Just because it looks silly? I feel like health and safety is more important than aesthetics.” On the other hand, Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed told Sports Illustrated in July, “I understand the safety for them, but I’ve been playing for a long time. It just looks crazy to me. I don’t like them. I’m ready to take them off.”

It is completely understandable that requiring new gear for players who have long played football with traditional helmets could cause them some inconvenience. This is why they are mandatory in training camps: to aid players in transitioning toward a future where all players might wear them.

Regarding critiques of the cap’s appearance, it may initially seem strange to fans to see their favorite players in unfamiliar, bulky helmets. However, football itself matters more. Guardian Caps will not impact the entertainment value or the passion football enthusiasts share for the game.

Fans should look forward to the day when the NFL announces that Guardian Caps are required for the entire game, especially with promising research underway to design the most comfortable and safest helmet possible. Our days of watching even more entertaining football with players facing fewer safety concerns grow closer each day. — Contact

C ourtesy of erik Drost/WikimeDia C ommons

Cleveland Browns linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah wears a Guardian Cap during training camp in 2022.

natalie sanDloW/Visual eDitor

Freshman forward Finn Jacobson avoids a slide tackle during a game against Oglethorpe University (Ga.) on Sept. 2.

Howell says team focused on ‘short-term’

Continued from Back Page

the team’s continual success is their eager mindset, and she noted that the team stays ready to compete regardless of the circumstances.

“The nature of our team is that we always attack every opportunity, every lane is a chance to race,” Jungers said. “The situation doesn’t matter. … Every race is a chance to go fast and practice doing that, and I think that’s led to a lot of our success over the past years.”

After the men’s team’s only diver Alex York graduated last spring, they added one diver this season in freshman Solly Berkenwald. Berkenwald opened up his season in a meet against the Georgia Institute of Technology on Sept. 28 with a win in the 3-meter dive. He said the meet was a great experience to kick off his college career.

“The meet against Georgia Tech was surreal,” Berkenwald said. “I had the meet of my life on 3-meter and I was able to win against Georgia Tech. … I had my first ever college meet

COACH CONVERSATIONS

against a D1 program which was amazing, and the team was super supportive.”

After a successful season last season on both the men’s and women’s side, Howell said the team’s current focus is on short-term goals and consistently improving.

“We’re just really trying to get a bit

better every day and every week and see if we can make some progress,” Howell said. “That’s how we’ve always built success as a team is this development, so that’s really what we’re focused on right now.”

— Contact Charles Segal at charles.segal@emory.edu

Meet Emory baseball’s new head coach ahead of the upcoming season

By SaSHa MelaMud Sports Feature Desk

This is the first installment in the Emory Wheel’s new series, Coach Conversations, which is dedicated to getting to know the people behind Emory’s sports teams. Former Emory University baseball head coach Mike Twardoski retired in May after leading the team for a quarter of a century. Bobby Perez, who has been part of the team’s coaching staff since 2008, officially became the next head coach on Aug. 1. The Emory Wheel sat down with Perez prior to his first season at the helm of Emory baseball to learn more about his journey as a coach and his connection to the University.

The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

The Emory Wheel: When did you first get involved with baseball?

Bobby Perez: Five years old. I started playing in Little League at a very young age. My father was a high school baseball coach, so it’s been in our family for a very long time. I’ve been involved with baseball for as long as I can remember.

TEW: Was this in Florida?

Perez: It was. Yes, I grew up just outside of Tampa.

TEW: I did too! Did they teach you how to run away from a gator in elementary school too?

Perez: I mean, zigzagging?

TEW: Yes! No one believes me!

Perez: Whether it’s a wives’ tale or not, everybody knows, so I guess it’s true. I’ve never had to run away. I’ve seen plenty of them, but I’ve never had one chase me.

TEW: Did you play any other sports before baseball or simultaneously before you decided

that was your sport?

Perez: I played some junior high football and basketball, but not once I got to high school. I only played baseball.

TEW: What was your position?

Perez: I played mostly infield, but once I got to high school, it was mostly third base.

TEW: I saw that you played for two colleges.

Perez: I did. I went to junior college first in Florida, South Florida Community College, and then the University of Louisville (Ky.).

TEW: What was it like playing for two teams?

Perez: It was just the opportunities I had to play. I wanted to continue playing in college, and South Florida Community College was the best opportunity for me at that time. … It was about an hour from home. I had a great experience there, and then had the opportunity to go to Louisville and enjoyed that as well.

TEW: How does it feel to be on the other side now from being a baseball player to being a coach?

Perez: I’ve probably coached longer than I’ve played or almost as long as I’ve played at this point now. Everybody misses playing. I’m 43 so I don’t do the things that I could do when I was 23, obviously. In some ways you miss playing, but getting to be around it and be out there all the time, … it’s probably a big reason why people stay in coaching. Obviously getting to help teach and mentor kids, that’s part of it. Being around the game and around that camaraderie with a team atmosphere is a big reason for it as well. I don’t miss playing. Maybe I did at first, … but at the same time, you fill a lot of those athletic desires, passions, drives through coaching.

TEW: How did you wind up at Emory?

Perez: After I got done at the University of Louisville, I got my master’s. I went to work in the summer of 2005 down at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. The gentleman I was working for down there, a guy named Ken Bullock, we had a conversation,

“What are you gonna do after the summer?” I said, “I think I’m moving to Atlanta,” and he asked me what I wanted to do. I said, “I hoped that I could stay in coaching. I don’t know if I am.” He had coached the previous head coach, Mike Twardowski, in pro ball so he knew Mike. … But he’s like, “Well, if you’d like to continue to coach, I’ll make a call and see if he has a spot for you or at least the opportunity.” So that’s what happened. I worked at Emory for one year, and then I went to Georgia State as their volunteer for two years, and then the full-time assistant’s job came open here in the summer of 2008. Coach T. called me back and asked if I’d like to come back, and I did, and I’ve been here ever since.

TEW: What’s your favorite part about being a coach?

Perez: The interaction with the student-athletes. You hang out with a bunch of 18 to 22-year-olds, it kind of keeps you young at heart a little bit, and that’s pretty cool. That and getting to go to the baseball field most days of the week.

TEW: How did you know coaching was the path for you?

Perez: Some of it was being around the game at a young age and being brought up a certain way. I liked being at the ballpark. My dad, like I said, was a coach and a high school teacher. … I was around somebody who taught the game really well and taught people very well so I hope some of that’s rubbed off.

TEW: What has baseball taught you that you bring into your coaching career?

Perez: Every day is kind of a new day. It’s very cliche to say, “You just gotta work hard every day and it sort of accumulates,” but it’s very true, right? You go out and give your best effort every day, and things start to stack up, and then good things happen. Baseball is sort of a grind that way.

TEW: What do you think makes a great coach?

Perez: The ability to listen to people. You have to be able to handle multiple personalities on the team. Everybody’s a little bit different. Obviously, having a knowledge of the game is a baseline thing. … You’re always learning. I certainly don’t consider myself a really good coach. I’m still learning, and being a head coach is different than being an assistant coach. There’s different responsibilities and I’m learning that all the time now, and I still haven’t actually coached my first game as a head coach yet. Coaching is a lot about learning how people learn so that you can give them the information that they need to help them be successful.

TEW: What’s the hardest thing to master as a coach?

Perez: Probably understanding that you’re never going to master it. That’s all there is to it. There’s different challenges and there’s different stuff every day ... It’s always an everevolving thing. thing.

Emory University’s baseball team named Bobby Perez was named the head coach on Aug. 1 following the retirement of the previous head coach Mike Twardoski.

Justin Whitening/staff Photogra Pher

The Emory University Eagles compete during an Oct. 11 meet.

Volleyball claims 11th UAA title Sports The Emory Wheel

Women’s soccer moves to Sweet 16

By CHloe NaM Contributing Writer

Over the weekend, both the Emory University women’s and men’s soccer teams played in the opening rounds of the 2024 NCAA Division III Soccer Championships. The women’s team won 6-0 against Methodist University (N.C.) and then beat Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.) 1-0 in the round of 32. The men’s team battled through a tough game against the University of Lynchburg (Va.) but lost 3-0.

Women’s soccer advances to Sweet 16 with two home wins

The women’s team matched up against Methodist at home for their opening national tournament game. From the first half, the Eagles dominated the game on both offense and defense.

Sophomore midfielder and defender Madison Teng scored the first of three

first-half goals, assisted by sophomore forward Kaitlyn Nimmer. In the 24th minute, freshman forward Mikayla Camp scored with a long distance strike, which was followed up just two minutes later with a goal from junior defender Michelle Davidson.

The Eagles maintained their offensive momentum in the second half, with freshman forward Alexandra Burtis-Wyant scoring the Eagles’ fourth goal in the 70th minute off of Nimmer’s third assist of the day. The team struck quickly again with freshman midfielder and defender Laina Denys scoring the team’s fifth goal, followed just six minutes later with a penalty kick goal from sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Carr. Davidson said that Carr’s goal was one of the most memorable moments of the game.

The game ended with zero shots on goal from Methodist, a testimony to the strong Emory defense. Davidson said that the midfield group was the

See MEN’S, Page 10

VOLLEYBALL

By JuStiN Guo Contributing Writer

The Emory University volleyball team was unrelenting in their win at the 2024 United Athletic Association (UAA) Championship, losing only one set in the three-match tournament en route to a conference title. On the path to the championship game, No. 1-seeded Emory defeated the University of Rochester (N.Y.) 3-0 and the University of Chicago (UChicago) 3-1 on Nov. 15. The Eagles earned a 3-0 victory over Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) (Mo.) on Nov. 16 to clinch their 11th UAA title in program history.

Senior defensive specialist and libero Deborah Hong said that while it was “such a blessing” to be the No. 1 seed at UAAs, the team emphasized the importance of staying present going into the weekend.

“Our team is so competitive that if the other team gets a point, we tend to get down on ourselves a little bit,” Hong said. “The biggest thing that we wanted to emphasize this weekend was just … to keep playing our game no matter what and to keep pushing through and fighting for every point.”

Junior middle hitter Sophie Zerrouki knew Emory would be seen as the team to beat as the No. 1 seed, but she said the Eagles embraced the winning expectations that came with the ranking.

“There’s always a target on our back, but we went in wanting to win, and that’s exactly what we did,” Zerrouki said.

In their quarterfinal matchup against Rochester, which hosted the tournament, junior outside hitter and defensive specialist Kate LaRocco led Emory with 14 kills. Hong was also strong defensively in the match, piling up 18 digs. Importantly, the Eagles only committed eight errors to Rochester’s 17, allowing Emory to

keep their opponents at bay throughout the three sets. The final set was the closest of the three, but the Eagles ultimately prevailed 25-23.

Emory’s semifinal bout against UChicago began a couple of hours after their quarterfinal victory. The Eagles took the first set but dropped the second after UChicago pulled out a strong set that included a 9-2 run. Emory nudged out a 25-23 third set win and then coasted to a 25-19 fourth set win, sending them to the championship match. Senior middle hitter Madison Cail’s 13 kills led the team, and Hong collected a staggering 40 digs across the four sets. Tenacious defense was the theme of the semifinals, with the Eagles finishing with 91 digs total.

While a dominant 3-0 scoreline does not accurately depict how close

the UAA championship match was, the Eagles were able to weather the WashU storms and bring home hardware. Offensively, LaRocco built on her strong tournament with 15 kills, while junior setter Olivia Rabinowitz dished out 22 assists. In the first set, WashU led 23-22, but Emory stayed within reach of their opponent, making their move with three straight points to take the set 25-23. The second set followed a similar back-and-forth pattern before the Eagles scored four straight points to establish a 17-15 lead. After going ahead in the set, Emory did not look back, holding a multiple-point lead to win 25-21. In the title-clinching third set, WashU jumped out to a 16-13 lead, taking six straight points off

Emory swim and dive races into 2024-25 season

By CHarleS SeGal Contributing Writer

Excellence has been the recent standard for Emory University’s men’s and women’s swim and dive teams. Last March, the men’s team defeated 43 teams to secure their third consecutive NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship and the women’s team placed sixth overall. Both teams also captured their 25th consecutive University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship. This year, both teams will be looking to add to their success.

Head coach Jon Howell, who is coming off two College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Men’s Coach of the Year awards in the past three years, noted that while the team has had a lot of previous success, this year they are highly focused on the future and making sure each swimmer and diver reaches their potential.

“Our goal is not really to maintain success, but rather to reinvent every year and really take the group that

we have and make the most of them,”

Howell said. “We try not to look at the past as much as looking forward to what we can do in the future.”

Howell also said their large senior class as well as their two fifth-year swimmers have helped significantly in leading the freshman class in their first year of collegiate swimming.

“The freshman class has done really well so far, in part because of their leadership and their mentorship,”

Howell said. “Our best members year in and year out are our seniors and this group is a large and impressive group.”

Graduate swimmer Megan Jungers was a part of the fifth-place 200-yard freestyle relay team last season at nationals and finished fourth place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.80. Jungers said she feels the freshmen on the team will have a very positive impact on the team dynamic and overall results this season.

“They’re an exciting group,” Jungers said. “They have already brought so much to the table, and they’re doing a great job coming off the bat excited for what they can accomplish here, and it’s just encouraging everyone else to push

their potential.”

Senior swimmer Crow Thorsen, a CSCAA All-America First Team in the 400-yard individual medley (IM), 800-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly, also said the freshman class has added to the team spirit so far this season.

“We already are a high-energy bunch, but the freshmen brought in a lot more energy and just a lot more excitement,” Thorsen said. “That’s really made me realize why I love this team so much. They remind me of me when I was a freshman, just super eager and excited to race and also just immerse myself in the team.”

As the current 400-yard IM champion in Division III, Thorsen said he is not only looking to defend his 400yard IM title but is also extremely motivated to win the 800-yard freestyle relay, where the Eagles finished second to Williams College (Mass.) by 0.58 seconds at nationals last season.

Jungers said that one of the keys to

Chloe nam/C ontributing Writer

The Emory women’s soccer team huddles during their game against Methodist University (N.C.) on Nov. 16.

Justin Whitening/staff Photogra Pher Emory swimmers line up on the blocks at the Blue-Gold meet on Oct. 11.

natalie sanDloW/Visual & Web eDitor Sophomore right-side hitter Sophia Luo tips the ball over the net in a game against Berry College (Ga.) on Oct. 19.