Oct. 4, 2023

The Emory Wheel

Students lead climate strike for

By AmeliA DAsAri Staff Writer

Goizueta Business School recently implemented a new policy that requires clubs to accept all interested students as general body members starting this semester. This policy primarily affects first-year students and those not enrolled in the business school.

Additionally, first-year students cannot initially apply to hold executive board positions under the new policy. Instead, these students now must join clubs as general body members before they can undergo any training or promotional process.

By elA moDy

Contributing Writer

Approximately 60 students gathered at the edge of Asbury Circle with cardboard signs for Emory University’s fifth annual Climate Strike on Sept. 29. The students ended their march at the Administration Building, demanding for University administration to review and approve Emory’s Climate Action Plan.

A group of students, faculty, administrators and community professionals called the Climate Action Task Force have spent about a year drafting this plan, which closed for public comment on Sept. 13. The next draft is expected to be published on Oct. 13, 2023.

Emory Climate Reality Project President Emery Hill (25C), who was part of the Climate Action Task Force, said that Emory’s new plan

is “comprehensive.” She said the plan addresses nine sections such as emissions reductions and carbon management, equity and justice and food, waste and procurement.

However, student climate activists are concerned that the plan does not include provisions for implementing the changes it describes.

Emory Climate Reality Project coVice President and participant in the strike Matthew Veerasammy (26C) said students want to ensure there are no loopholes in the plan.

“We want to make sure we strengthen the plan to ensure that not only the students are accommodated, but also to ensure that everything that we want to pursue for the environment is actually happening on campus,” Veerasammy said.

Students are also calling for the plan to include a timeline for completing each initiative, as well as require administration to delegate

parts of the plan to different offices and set aside monetary resources for new climate-friendly infrastructure. Enhancing these sustainability initiatives, including the University becoming net-zero by 2025, will reflect the “imminent danger” of the climate emergency, the Emory Climate Coalition wrote in a public statement regarding the strike. Protestors discussed these concerns during the Climate Strike, which is a collaboration between the Emory Climate Coalition and the Emory Climate Reality Project. Hill said the coalition is composed of the “most involved climate leaders on campus,” including the Climate Reality Project, Emory Climate Analysis Team and the Emory Climate Organization, and its members work directly with administration and faculty to represent the student groups’ sustainability demands.

The strike began with speeches before students began their march to the Administration Building, chanting slogans such as, “Whose streets? Our streets! Whose school? Our school! Whose future? Our future!”

Hill said that the Emory Climate Action Task Force would rather have “hard tangible change” and implementable initiatives rather than “lofty goals” that will they are unsure Emory could meet.

Some of the speakers included Hill, Climate Research Initiative Project Assistant Bryn Davis and Jaanaki Radhakrishnan (26C), who is an organizer involved with the “Stop Cop City” movement. The movement seeks to stop the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, citing environmental, civil rights and other concerns. Emory students involved

Along with the policy, the University also established the new Goizueta PreBBA Association, which is dedicated to introducing first-year students to bachelor of business administration (BBA) opportunities and clubs, this semester, according to Goizueta Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Andrea Hershatter.

“Then clubs that aren't ready to onboard all freshmen can use that entity as a vehicle for communication, for programming, for outreach, for all of the things they might want freshmen involved in,” Hershatter said.

The change aims to foster inclusion among business school clubs, Hershatter said. She explained that the new policy will attempt to alleviate concerns from last year’s recruitment process, when an “extraordinary number” of first--year students applied to — and were rejected from — as many as 15 clubs.

Barring first--year students from holding executive positions will allow

By Ashley Zhu Senior Staff Writer

For most of her life, Mamie Hillman never thought to look on the other side of the brick wall that had long enclosed part of the Penfield Cemetery, and she lived believing that it was a white-only graveyard.

But in summer 2019, Hillman and her friend decided to use a ladder to climb over to the other side. They discovered about 1,000 to 1,500 gravestones marking the final resting place of enslaved and freed African American people, as well as their descendants and other community members.

“People had put dirt in the path of the entrance to the Black cemetery and they could not go back and take care of their loved ones’ graves,” Hillman said. “So the graveyard became overgrown and you couldn't get to it.”

This marked the beginning of Hillman’s journey in identifying and clearing the African American gravestones in the cemetery in Penfield,

Ga., about 85 miles away from Emory University’s Atlanta campus. Her work would open access to the African American cemetery behind the wall, allowing descendents to visit the graves of their loved ones. Head of Digital Initiatives and Technologies at Pitts Theology Library Spencer Roberts began collaborating with Hillman on the project in summer 2022. They also partner with the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia, a nonprofit that aims to preserve the history of rural churches, Mercer University (Ga.)’s Spencer B. King, Jr. Center for Southern Studies, the Georgia State University Department of Anthropology and the Greene County African American Museum, which Hillman founded and directs.

“I’m grateful that there are those that see the need to assist in cleaning it up because it needs to be celebrated,” Hillman said. “Those people were human beings, and they were denied so much in life.”

As the director of the Spencer B. King, Jr. Center for Southern Studies, Mercer Professor of History Douglas

Thompson is responsible for all programming related to the Universities Studying Slavery initiative, a collaboration of more than 100 institutions, including Emory and Mercer,

dedicated to sharing best practices and guiding principles about truthtelling projects addressing human bondage and racism in institutional histories.

Part of that research focus is to tell the history of Mercer and Penfield “as they relate to the economies of

Students hold signs as they listen to a speech in front of the Administration Building during the fifth annual Climate Strike.

A wall encloses the Penfield Cemetery, which blocked access to African American graves.

Emory ramps up AI initiatives, establishes AIAI

By spencer FrieDlAnD News Editor

Winship Distinguished Research Professor of English and Quantitative Methods Lauren Klein will officially inaugurate the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI (AIAI) network today, continuing Emory University’s expanding artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.

The Mellon Foundation granted Emory $1.3 million to form AIAI in a joint venture with Clark Atlanta University, Georgia Institute of Technology and the DataedX Group.

Klein, who is hosting a kickoff event today for the new program, said that each of these universities brings something important to the table for AIAI, such as Emory’s liberal arts foundation, Georgia’s Tech’s engineering expertise and Clark Atlanta’s knowledge as a historically Black university.

“We're hoping to create opportunities for our courses to cross-pollinate,” Klein said.

As a three-year project, Klein said AIAI is only in its beginning stages. The network is interested in how AI can help combat racial and civil justice issues. With a “rich history” of social justice and one of the highest populations of Black people in the country, Klein said Atlanta is “well-positioned” to counteract the biases that come out of AI, such as how AI is used more frequently to police minority neighborhoods than in predominately-white residential areas or how facial recognition software typically recognizes lighter skin more accurately.

AI.Humanity, Center for Artificial Intelligence Learning

The Center for Artificial Intelligence Learning held its opening ceremony on Sept. 19 and is at the forefront of the University’s AI.Humanity initiative, according to Center for AI Learning Senior Program Coordinator Tommy Ottolin.

Ottolin, who graduated from Georgia Tech with a master’s degree in human computer interaction last May before joining the Emory community, is in charge of helping students and faculty integrate AI into their research projects.

“The University is starting to feel a little bit more intrigued as to what we're doing over here in the Woodruff Library,” Ottolin said.

Ottin said that the AI Center for Learning will help fulfill the center’s goal of promoting AI education. He hopes students taking AI courses will help work on projects facilitated through the center.

“Anybody can start to dabble with

these things in this kind of protected educational environment before y’all really graduate and enter into this real world where everyone's talking about AI,” Ottolin said. “If you get to say, ‘I worked on these two AI projects firsthand at Emory,’ you’ll already kind of be ahead of the pack, since I think everyone recruiter-wise is interested in those who have AI experience right now.”

Department Chair Clifford Carrubba believes the center will attract members from across the Emory community and create new learning and research methods.

“You need a space that's going to build community, that's going to help the people in biomedical informatics talk to the people in quantitative theory and methods and to talk to the people in computer science and talk to the people in business law,” Carubba said. “The center is providing a venue that's bringing these people together, starting to build community, in order to start creating some really generative new research that brings our expertise across campus together and in novel ways.”

Odin plans to improve AI literacy with workshops and different lectures at the center. Carruba added that he hopes introducing AI to Emory will improve institutional operations, from the way basic memos are distributed to how professors teach students.

“Developing that literacy will both help us take advantage of all the opportunities this technology is going to provide and also help us

avoid pitfalls that might otherwise arise if we aren't aware and actively engaged with the new technology,” Carrubba said.

Carrubba also stressed that the University’s AI initiative is further along than most of the Emory community is aware of due to investments that have been made across campus in the past, specifically in the development of the biomedical informatics department in the Emory School of Medicine, as well as the computer science and quantitative theory and methods departments.

Emory is also attempting to integrate AI into other departments through AI.Humanity, according to Klein.

“One of the things we're trying to do is facilitate truly interdisciplinary … research teams where you have people from all of these disciplines coming together as equal partners,” Klein said.

Emory is making one of the most “aggressive” and “significant” investments in AI, through the center across all of academia, according to Carrubba.

“The AI.Humanity initiative … is really about bringing this technology and infusing it throughout the University in a way that will help us achieve important societal goals,” Carrubba said. “We're looking to use this technology to answer and develop next-generation medical tools and the ability to answer and provide guidance in important public health questions.”

Lance Waller, a professor in the Rollins School of Public Health

Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and a member of the AI.Humanity Advisory Group, sees AI as a way to improve medical technologies. Waller the example of AI can utilizing data from different medical devices to help doctors and nurses decide on treatments.

In the future, Waller sees AI and medicine being more interconnected at all levels of medical treatment.

“Whether it's just cleaning up the text of a report or if it's recommending doses for a treatment, I think we'll see more and more of it,” Waller said. “But one of the things we're starting to recognize is that it's not just yes AI or no AI. There's AI embedded in little pieces along the way and trying to make sure those all work well together is sort of a systems approach that is important to take.”

According to Waller, AI.Humanity allows for a lot of collaboration between different departments and ensures that AI at Emory is not “siloed” off.

Waller said that the goal of AI.Humanity is figuring out how to apply AI to all aspects of life. This is why the AI.Humanity seems so broad, according to Waller. The initiative is attempting to help all different fields utilize AI at some level. Waller said that it is important that experts, in their own fields, use AI “Rather than an AI person saying, ‘Hey, I can do your field.’”

“The beauty of the AI.Humanity aspect is it’s placing that expertise and that kind of thinking all around the campus rather than putting it all in one place,” Waller said.

AI Minor

As of Aug. 1 Students were able to declare a minor in AI, and Department of Computer Science Chair Vaidy Sunderam believes that Emory’s future may hold an even larger AI curriculum. He explained that the University is now “contemplating” creating a major or joint major in AI.

The computer science department created three new classes for the AI minor, this semester saw the addition of “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” (CS 211) and CS: 312 “Computing, AI, Ethics and Society” (CS 312), while the university will off “Machine Learning Applications” (CS 323) next semester .

Currently, Sunderam said that seven students have enrolled in the AI minor with another half-dozen inquiries — a number he expects to increase next semester, when firstyear students can declare majors and minors. Sunderam said he anticipates to see hundreds of students enroll in the minor in the next few years.

Suderam stressed that the AI minor is for all students, regardless of their interests or majors.

“Most people have this apprehension, ‘Oh, this is a technical field, it’s math and science, I'm not really doing that,’” Suderam said. “That's exactly what we want to overcome.”

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

couRteSy of emoRy univeRSity

The AI Center for Learning, which is located in the Robert W. Woodruff Library, hosts a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 19.

First year students barred from applying to business club executive boards

Continued from Page 1

them to learn more about business clubs before taking on high-commitment roles, Hershatter added.

This policy has been in the works since 2018 when students created the BBA creed, which highlights diversity and community, as well as valuing every member of the BBA community. Two years later, Goizueta implemented a policy that BBA students had access to all clubs in the business school, which is now being extended to all students.

“There's this idea of one Emory and the sense that all resources of the University should be available to all students,” Hershatter said.

The change sparked mixed emotions among students. Goizueta Investment Management Group (GIMG) Vice President Sean Walsh (26C) expressed his disagreement with the new policy.

“We are managing $350,000 of Emory's endowment,” Walsh said. “Not having our absolute top students investing for us with the most experience and research in the field just seems silly to me.”

However, Cate Navarrete (26B), who is a team lead for 180 Degrees Consulting and programming chair for Emory Women In Business, said the new policy makes joining clubs more equitable. She explained that the process of getting into one consulting group was “incredibly lengthy.” Navarrete was denied from several groups, sometimes never receiving an

interview even after applying multiple times.

“It's a very difficult process, especially when you come to a school as competitive as Emory and then there's this other layer of competitiveness in terms of just getting involved,” Navarette said.

However, this competition for involvement is not unique to Emory University. Hershatter noted that the increase in exclusivity for business school clubs is a nationwide trend.

Protestors push for climate reform

Continued from Page 1

in this movement have called on University President Gregory Fenves to condemn the project and step down from his seat on the Atlanta Committee for Progress, which gave initial approval for the training center’s construction in 2021.

Last year, students leading the strike on Sept. 23 called for transparency from the Emory Administration and hoped that their frustrations would be taken seriously. Student climate activists said that they are still open to working with the administration. The students have three specific demands they want to add to the plan: accountability, urgency and funding.

The strike was made possible by student involvement, Emory Climate Reality Project Treasurer Alekhya Pidugu (24C) said. She explained that the Emory Climate Coalition has grown during her four years at Emory.

“I'm really honored and privileged to be a part of a group that has so much passion for the climate, num-

ber one, and also willing to speak up with their voices and see actual change happen and not be afraid to put themselves out there amongst an administration, which is quite scary, to actually fight for what they believe in and to hold the school accountable for being climate forward or wanting climate policies to be changed,” Pidugu said.

Pidugu added that she was excited to see new faces, such as Viola Holmes (27C), at the protest. Holmes decided to attend after reading about the Climate Strike on the signs outside her dorm and believed the event was “pretty cool.”

Additionally, Pidugu said the strike helps students voice their opinions and hold the University accountable.

“If we become complacent, we're never going to change and you need critical stances such as strikes and demonstrations like these to hold people accountable,” Pidugu said.

— Contact Ela Mody at ela.mody@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Volume 104, Issue 10

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

Business (404) 727-6178

Editors-in-Chief Matthew Chupack and Sarah Davis matthew.chupack@emory.edu

sarah.davis@emory.edu

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

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

“This is really bad for how students feel about Emory,” Hershatter said. “It is not who we want it to be as a business school.”

However, Walsh added that while the policy seeks to reduce the competitive nature of clubs, he believes that the rigor is good preparation for the job recruitment process after graduation.

“It gives you a good taste of how the actual job market will be,” Walsh said. “It's going to be tough.”

Navarrete added that the poli-

cy has required a lot of work from the executive members of clubs, like 180 Degrees, as they have to create resources for new members who may not be as dedicated if they do not go through a recruitment process.

“You have to weigh the pros and cons a little bit,” Navarette said. “We're creating these resources and these programs and expending a lot of energy and resources to do so, and we don't necessarily know if people are going to put their all into these programs.”

Both Walsh and Navarette added that blocking first-year students from joining certain groups could also be detrimental. Navarette said joining her club and getting involved with Goizueta before entering the school was an “invaluable experience.”

“I find it really unfortunate that freshmen can't get involved with business clubs,” Navarette said. “Joining it was probably the most pivotal experience of my freshman year.”

BBA Council President Michael Chan (22Ox, 24B) and Vice President Liam O'Sullivan (24B) acknowledged the mixed opinions on the new policy for first-year students.

“As it relates to the promotional policy, in particular, we've heard mixed feedback from students: it could affect club resources, it could affect the club culture negatively and also is the policy being implemented effectively,” Chan said.

O’Sullivan explained that the BBA Council is dedicated to serving students’ “best interest.” Chan added that the council is open to hearing the opinions of students and plans to get feedback throughout the year. The BBA Council plans to make decisions based on the student input.

“There's a handful of students at least who kind of feel adversity to the policy,” O’Sullivan said. “Having those conversations is important.”

— Contact Amelia Dasari at amelia.dasari@emory.edu

Project unearths story of African American cemetery

Continued from Page 1

slavery that institution participated in,” according to Thompson. Mercer owns the white part of the cemetery. Although the African American section of the cemetery is on private property and not part of Mercer, the institution played a role in building the wall, Thompson wrote in an email to the Wheel.

Mercer is currently working closely with Hillman and the African American Greene County Museum to make a detailed scan of the cemetery using ground penetrating radar, a technique commonly used to locate unknown burial locations without disturbing the soil.

“We have just begun to find grave markers that have been buried under inches of leaves and topsoil,” Thompson wrote. “While many of the field stones will not reveal who lays below them, the markers have been incredible in the level of detail they have revealed.”

The team hopes that the Greene County African American Museum will have a record of the graves and a way to mark them in the future, according to Thompson.

A local Black family owned the graveyard for “eons,” Hillman said, before passing it down to the first owner’s niece and nephew, who currently oversee the site. Still, Hillman said she was “saddened” from the overarching trend of the unearthed graves: the inaccessibility of African American historical narratives.

Hillman currently facilitates connections between the descendents of enslaved people and their family member’s grave. She also aims to assist families who are “seeking answers to where their loved ones are.”

“All of us desire to know who we are regarding narratives that have occurred in these little small towns,” Hillman said. “My role is just to be actively engaged in doing that.”

Cemetery history

When the cemetery was founded, the front half was reserved for white graves and the rear half was for African American graves, according to Roberts. The sections were segregated, but not blocked off, until the late ’40s, when a wall was constructed around the front of the cemetery and enclosed the section for white graves.

The wall made it difficult to access the area for Black graves, so the space was “largely abandoned” after the most-recent burial in 1953, Roberts said. However, the white section of the cemetery is still in use, with the most recent burial in 2022.

Over time, the area that once contained low-growing grass turned into a forest, home to large trees that would eventually fall over people’s family plots and graves.

Roberts said that their team has gone to the site around eight or nine times already, spending five to six hours each time removing overgrown trees. Noting that it is a very “labor intensive process,” Roberts said that they are careful not to drag the trees over the graves, which could dislodge headstones from their original locations. Instead, the team cuts the larger trees into moveable chunks.

Thompson noted that he is often out on site assisting Roberts cut up fallen trees and remove debris.

The team also organized a Facebook group where various community members and small businesses partake in the project.

“We’ve finished off a very large portion of the cemetery now,” Roberts added. “We're sort of on the tail end of the whole project.”

Roberts noted that Mercer and the museum have done some historical research and suspect the earliest graves belong to enslaved people who died on one of the local plantations in 1820. Many of those headstones,

Roberts added, do not have dates.

Mercer gave the team permission to cut out a section of the brick wall to allow family members to easily cross to the African American cemetery. The team began restoring gravestones on the weekend of Sept. 9, cleaning them off and planting heritage flowers and plants.

The next couple of cleanup dates will be held on Oct. 28 and Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Doing this work to unearth the story of the people buried behind the wall of the Penfield Cemetery will help the team craft parts of a larger narrative, Roberts added.

“The stories about local plantations and the effect that they had on people enslaved there, where they ended up being buried, the sort of post Civil War use of the cemetery that continues and the effects that building the wall had — these are all interesting race relation topics that the cemetery can help us unpack,” Roberts said.

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

Jack RutheR foR d/contR ibuting PhotogR a PheR

Students attend an Emory Women in Business professional development workshop on Oct. 2.

couRteSy of geoRge m a Son univeRSity ( va.) Head of Digital Initiatives and Technologies at Pitts Theology Library Spencer Roberts is helping identify the graves.

Escape history’s failings, separate beauty from morality

Alexandra Kaufman

Seemingly harmless remarks across social media reveal an implicit bias latent in modern American culture: beauty equals moral goodness. Look up the phrases “problematic” and “ugly” and marvel at the overlap, at how users liken someone’s moral character to their appearance. If a person is “problematic” or morally corrupt, they will be considered ugly. Conversely, a person’s good health and beauty can be attributed to their internal goodness. These axioms have been uncritically accepted by social media users en masse.

nal looks reflected internal virtue.

Aristocrats commissioned artwork of themselves to fit an ideal of beauty, portraying men as athletic and youthful and women as demure, virginal ingénues. The “archaic smile” characteristic of early Greek sculpture famously demonstrated the propagandized pleasantness of the aristocracy, with a subtle tilt of the lips illustrating the eternal happiness of the eternally beautiful.

Aristocrats portrayed themselves as beautiful to assert their supremacy as a ruling class deserving of power, as their moral righteousness was so clearly indicated by superior aesthetics. This artwork sent, and continues to send, a political message.

This sparks a trend across history, in which thinness, youthfulness and other markers of attractiveness are used to elevate the reigning classes of society while humiliating those below them. The values of the elite stemming from ancient Greece rippled across Europe and across time. The Nazis used beauty to affirm the supremacy of the Aryan race through nostalgic references to ancient Greek ideals.

ally predatory oafs. The stereotypes of the oppressed ensured the German public would not empathize with these people. The portrayal of socially-unacceptable ugliness caused Jewish and Black people to be seen as unrelatable, unsightly and subsequently inhuman.

Christianity subverted the norms of

pious Christians.

“Beauty is a pathway to God,” X user culture_critic posted, receiving 10,000 likes.

Of course, reactionary political thinkers vainly clinging to Christian conservative tradition in order to give their ideology a modicum of valid-

This ideal of beauty leaves out huge demographics of people, including, but not limited to, disabled people, non-white people, Jewish people and the poor. Black women, existing at the intersections of discriminated demographics, are especially vulnerable.

While some may say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, history reveals beauty is in the eyes of the white elite. The overlap between historically oppressed demographics and demographics considered unbeautiful is huge. The trend becomes clear: Beauty standards operate as a means of political oppression.

The ruling class secured their status by monopolizing beauty. Consequently, the definition of beauty necessarily excludes the oppressed underclasses so that their constructed aesthetic inferiority indicates their lacking value as human beings.

Beauty holds cultural import beyond the squabbles of social media users. Conventional attractiveness, defined by societal standards and normative traits, gives beautiful people unfair advantages, allowing them to live easier lives. Attractive college students may receive better grades compared to their less conventionally attractive counterparts, according to a 2022 study by Lund University, Sweden.

Additionally, a 2021 study from Wiley Periodicals found that beautiful job applicants are more likely to be hired and receive better salaries. Because of these benefits, pretty people generally lead easier lives with greater privileges. “Pretty privilege” is a tangible socio-political force that unfairly affects people’s lives and well-being.

The association of beauty with moral goodness dates back to the ancient Greeks, who believed exter-

Being Aryan entails light skin, blonde hair, light eyes and physical fitness. Aryanism is constructed so that being beautiful is definitionally inextricable from being Aryan. “Olympia” (1938) documents the 1936 Nazi Olympics in Berlin, utilizing imagery reminiscent of Classical sculpture to assert the prowess and supremacy of the German competitors. The link between racial purity and aesthetics is clear, as the subtitle of “Olympia 2” is “Festival of Beauty.”

The rhetoric of genetic purity proclaimed that Aryans were not only the most intelligent and strong but also the most beautiful. Political propaganda also took shape in cartoons that portrayed Jewish and Black people as hideous, a shorthand to demonstrate their moral evil. Aesthetic motifs emerged: Jews were depicted as big-nosed, bizarrely-dressed, serpentine and vulture-like conspirators and Black people were characterized as ape-like, mentally inferior and sexu-

The Emory Wheel

elite-constructed morality by claiming blessed are the weak, the sick and the poor; nonetheless, they asserted the divine righteousness of beauty. Psalms

27:4 says: “One thing I ask from the Lord / this only do I seek… to gaze on the beauty of the Lord / and to seek him in his temple.” God is beautiful, and God is good; therefore, beauty is goodness mandated by God.

In modern America, this religiosity of beauty takes on a distinctly rightwing flavor, echoing the conservative idea of rejecting modernity and embracing tradition.

The conservative Christian narrative tells of leftist blasphemers making irreverent, meaningless, ugly modern artwork, ensuring the moral responsibility of truth and beauty to the devout,

sarah Davis editor-in-Chief

Spencer Friedland News Editor

Shruti Nemala Editorial Board Editor

Ellie Fivas Opinion Editor

Saanvi Nayar Opinion Editor

Nathan Rubin A&E Editor

Ari Segal A&E Editor

Alexandra Kaufman Emory Life Editor

Amiee Zhao Emory Life Editor

Clement Lee Sports Editor

Madeline Shapiro Sports Editor

Jenny Zha Copy Chief

Sandy Ge Copy Editor

Haley Huh Copy Editor

Tifany Namkung Social Editor

Ha-tien Nguyen Podcast Editor

Hayley Powers Visual Editor

Emma Kingwell DEI Editor

Eva Roytburg Editor-at-Large

writers and not of the Wheel’s Editorial Board or Emory University. Send emails to matthew.chupack@emory.edu or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322.

h a-tien nguyen/PodCast editor

ity is reminiscent of Nazi nostalgia for Greek artwork. Justifying hateful ideas by pointing to a history of hate is cowardly, even pertaining to something considered frivolous, such as beauty.

The beauty-morality association began as the self-affirming values of the elite then took root as a religious idea in Christianity. In modern discourse, if beauty equates to moral and divine goodness, then what does that mean for those not considered beautiful?

“Eurocentric” beauty standards have varied moderately among region and time period, but the broad strokes of what is considered beautiful remains the same: thinness, strength, long hair, small noses and light skin.

Ideals of beauty transcend mere aesthetics and personal taste. Beauty standards have long operated as an enforcement of hierarchy and the definition of morality. Modern ideals of “Eurocentric” beauty are entrenched in modes of oppression such as classism, racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism and ableism. Beauty is a political tool used to enforce the agenda of white supremacy by affirming the value of the white, the elite and the Christian.

The only way to escape the failings of historically Eurocentric ideals is to disassociate morality with beauty. This huge cultural project would take generations to fully seep into the minds of the masses.

However, the first step is awareness of the fact that aesthetics are not apolitical. Beauty is not and never has been an objective truth; rather, it is a political tool used to direct people’s sympathies and spin propagandized narratives.

Who is and isn’t considered beautiful determines if certain people are seen as morally good, as righteous and as human.

Alexandra Kauffman (26C) is from Phoenix, Arizona.

While some may say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, history reveals beauty is in the eyes of the white elite.

Emory, stop reducing diversity to an orientation skit

Content Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault.

“We welcome a diversity of gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, and disabilities, as well as racial, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, religious, national, and international backgrounds, believing that the academic and social energy that results from such diversity is essential to advancing knowledge, addressing society’s most pressing issues, and attending to the full spectrum of human needs in service to the common good.”

The above clause is Emory University’s Institutional Statement on Diversity. It guides all departments, faculty, staff and students on what Emory expects of its community; however, it is unclear what steps the University is taking to ensure everyone on Emory’s campus is practicing these ideals. Well, nearly all first-year students are required to complete mandatory first-year orientation. During this orientation, Orientation Leaders (OLs) were previously instructed to participate in a diversity skit. This skit emphasized differences between students by having the OLs say the line “I knew I was different when __.” Students would say fill-in-theblanks like “people made fun of the food I ate,” “others were shocked that I was able to speak ‘proper English,’” “I was raped” and “I was gay.” At the end of the skit, the group of students spoke about how they were able to find community at Emory despite these “differences.” It was a very kumbaya moment.

This skit was the last of a queue of different skits, which included limericks about doing work while in college or navigating roommate troubles. Following these jokes with a very serious thematic skit was a jarring change.

In fact, it fails to teach incoming students to be curious about their peers’ diversity. If the skit was teaching students, then it would instruct them to ask questions in an appropriate way by providing resources and exposure. It would also accentuate the beauty of what makes people diverse instead of having them ostracize themselves on a stage.

Faith Mason (26C) was the first to tell the Orientation Experience staff about her issues with the skit.

Mason was surprised that the diversity skit was a part of Emory’s orientation program. She believes that first-year orientation needs to discuss diversity and inclusion, but a “spectacle was being made” with the current curriculum.

The Student Involvement, Leadership, and Transitions (SILT) office instructed OLs to perform the skit as part of the diversity curriculum for orientation training. However, it only alienates and otherizes essential characteristics and experiences of people’s identities. By having OLs tokenize their identities, they objectify themselves. This is not to say that OLs should not take pride in these identities or acknowledge their past, but emphasizing diversity through a skit makes people’s unique characteristics seem performative. Tokenizing identities is not truly acknowledging the uniqueness of an individual, and it certainly is not valuing them for the qualities they possess. It is only putting OLs on a pedestal, temporarily, in an attempt to further another

agenda. In this case, OLs were asked to identify the things that make them “unique” in an attempt to advance the University’s bragging point of diversity. Even worse, the conclusion of the skit was that once you arrived at Emory, none of these alienations happened anymore, and if they did — on rare occasions — the University would completely reprimand the abuser. This is far from the case. Those of us who have been on campus know this is simply an idealized reality, not the truth. The way to model an inclusive environment is not to make a skit about transgressions people face every day.

from this year’s group of students with all student life departments.

First, other Emory departments should note how quickly SILT staff addressed the situation, and they should model their own actions based on this. Second, departments should teach students how to be curious about the diversity of the people around them.

While it is encouraging to know that the University knows that diversity should be discussed, skits are not the right way to do so. Mason noted that there “needs to be wider variation and diversity within the rooms where these decisions are being made.”

According to Banks, there may be official changes to the diversity curriculum for the 2024 orientation training year.

The SILT staff meets throughout the late fall and early spring to review orientation content and curriculum. SILT is currently unable to comment on what new ideas they are discussing, but they are open to having student leaders, such as Student Coordinators, in the room for these conversations to help craft the diversity curriculum from a student perspective.

ferent from them, how to ask questions in a respectful manner, how to be compassionate to those who have different life experiences, how to use inclusive language and how to speak up when someone is being offensive.

From my experiences, not all incoming students know the best way to engage in sensitive conversations. In fact, I am still learning how to be compassionately curious. It is safe to assume that the majority of first-years do not want to be offensive to their newfound peers.

However, without proper exposure and practice, it is reasonable to assume offensive behavior will transpire.

It is the University’s job to make sure it is giving students the skills to ask questions about those who are different from themselves in an appropriate manner. Emory should encourage students to be lifelong learners, especially when it comes to the diverse variety of people they are going to be surrounded by for the remainder of their lives.

The inclusivity of diverse communities is not a skit, and it does not deserve to be treated as one.

Thankfully, the SILT staff listened to the concerns of the OLs and immediately cut the skit from the orientation schedule before the students came. Associate Director of Orientation and Transition Programs Carson Banks said he was “proud of our students for providing feedback and suggestions regarding orientation skits related to Emory’s community standards.”

I speak on behalf of the other OLs when I say we are profusely thankful that the SILT staff listened and changed the curriculum based on the voices of students. I hope the SILT staff shares what they have learned

“[The SILT Staff] truly did hear me out,” Mason said. Rather than skits, some OLs suggested having an open panel with club leaders or a conversation with administration on diversity and inclusion. By having campus leaders show what behavior first-years should mirror in everyday interactions, they will understand what Emory expects of them.

The goal of the diversity curriculum should not be to have the University pat itself on the back for admitting students from diverse backgrounds. It should be teaching first-year students how to interact with those who are dif-

Lola McGuire (26C) is from Nashville, TN.

If you or someone you know experienced sexual assault, you can access Emory’s Department of Title IX at 404-727-0541 and the Office of Respect’s hotline 24/7 at (470) 270-5360. You can reach the RAINN National Sexual Assault hotline 24/7 at (800) 656-4673. You can reach the Atlanta Grady Rape Crisis Center crisis hotline 24/7 at (404) 616-4861 and the Decatur Day League Sexual Assault Care and Prevention crisis hotline 24/7 at (404) 377-1428.

The wellness industry is commodifng your health

Carson Kindred

Self-improvement has become a trillion-dollar industry. Wellness gurus preach a lifestyle of mindfulness, diet fads, vitamins and other buzzword chemical concoctions that provide you an outlet for your struggles.

While these products often appear harmless, they have the troublesome effect of making us treat our problems as issues with ourselves.

“Your insecurities are not the result of poor health care or your uncertain material reality but rather a failure to support yourself,” proclaims the twisted logic of wellness. The industry has manufactured exclusivity over a healthy lifestyle and expects us all to buy into it — a cost we should refuse to accept.

Take Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand, goop. What started as a newsletter that shared muffin recipes has transformed into a $250 million company that hosts “wellness retreats” with thousand-dollar price tags.

What has accounted for this meteoric rise? First, goop has led the way in cementing the wellness industry into the cultural canon by building a customer base that will buy into its imagefocused products without question.

Second, Paltrow has a knack for profiting off of controversy. In 2015, she attempted the “food stamp challenge,” a celebrity trend to live off of the $29 a week given to families on

the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. She quickly failed the challenge and had dinner that same day at a high-end restaurant in Los Angeles.

While living on food stamps is a near impossible feat that millions of families face every day, the challenge turns their real struggles into a game played by the elite, who act like tourists in the lives of the poor.

But goop is merely indicative of broader trends within the health and wellness industry.

Where ancient preachers of self-

focused healing, reflection and betterment centered their practices around accessibility and universality, modern wellness influencers have manufactured scarcity over health itself.

The wellness industry has positioned itself to be a source of healing due to the American health care system’s failure to adequately support people.

However, instead of communitarian practices around meditation and recovery, such as 12-step programs, the industry has turned self-improve-

ment into a commodity and made it an individual act.

Not only has wellness become individualized, meaning its products and preachings are entirely self-focused, it has turned the fulfillment of health into a class question. By charging high prices for specialized goods and associating health with the image of luxury

— toned celebrities, perfect skin, unattainable diets — the industry has successfully twisted the idea of health into an aspiration, reserved for the elite. Some would dismiss this argument,

claiming that those who fall for the snake-oil style marketing that the “goops” of the world employ are simply misguided, and being healthy does not require subscribing to the modern ideal of wellness.

What this argument fails to grasp is that despite the perceived ridiculousness that commercialized wellness embodies, it nevertheless represents the ability for our collective condition to be exploited. Americans are insecure — we lack support, and the majority of us are dissatisfied with our class position given increasing inequality and stratification.

The wellness industry is symptomatic of this reality and is perfectly positioned to exploit it for profit.Its senseless products, questionable beauty practices and image-focused culture are simply dog whistles for its true product: class itself.

Emulating Gwyneth Paltrow, Khloé Kardashian or Matthew McConaughey is not a matter of will but wealth. A $100 lotion or $50 supplement won’t magically heal you, and the majority of its consumers are aware of this.

What they are really buying is the image — the feeling of being slightly closer to the unattainable. The wellness industry and its apostles have manufactured a scarcity of life and reserved it only for those with the power to pay.

Carson Kindred (25C) is from Minneapolis, MN.

Lola McGuire

ivana Chen/ContriButing illustrator

CARSON’S CLASS NOTES

The skit only alienates and otherizes essential characteristics and experiences of people’s identities. By having OLs tokenize their identities, they objectify themselves.

Every side is wrong about the United Auto Workers strike

Pierce McDade

Presidential election politics have started in the United States, with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump making separate visits to Michigan last week in light of the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike. The strike, which started on Sept. 13 with 13,000 workers walking out of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis plants, has expanded to include over 25,000 workers across 20 states.

Biden, the self-proclaimed “most pro-union President in history,” walked the picket line with UAW workers on Sept. 26, endorsed a UAW pay increase and voiced his support for the strike.

Workers have four main demands: a 40% pay raise (automakers are offering 20%), reinstating cost of living protections, significantly shortening the wage progression scheme and adding protections to ensure job security in light of the electric vehicle (EV) transition. In short, these demands aim to raise wages, protect those wages against inflation and equalize wages across experience levels.

Auto workers have apt reasons to strike. In 2007 and 2008, workers gave up significant protections, including a freeze in base wages and automatic cost of living adjustments, to keep automakers in business. This stunted auto workers’ wage growth and protections.

Adjusted for inflation, their wages dropped over 20% in the past 20 years, while automakers have seen record profits following COVID-19. Additionally, the closure of a Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Ill. has stoked fears of similar closures across the country.

Despite these conditions’ merits, UAW is asking for too much and for wrong concessions, and Biden is making a mistake by fully embracing the workers’ demands.

Despite these conditions’ merits, UAW is asking for too much and for wrong concessions, and Biden is making a mistake by fully embracing the workers’ demands. Instead, the UAW must compromise and focus on future issues, and Biden needs to recognize and address the intersectionality between the strike and the EV transition.

I am neither anti-workers’ rights nor anti-union.

There is simply too much nuance involved in this strike to take Biden’s stance in equating a pro-union position with only supporting workers’ demands. Rather, a pro-union position is recognizing the automakers’ precarious position and understanding that asking automakers for too much could cost workers their jobs.

The world and the auto industry do not look like they did in 2007 and 2008. The transition to EVs is happening, and facilitating that transition costs money for automakers — especially if they intend to make EVs accessible to a large consumer base. If Biden truly is “the most pro-union president in history,” then he needs to

use federal support to help facilitate a unionized EV transition, not facilitate an EV transition and force automakers to unionize it.

While automakers’ profits are at record highs, corporations and their profits are being squeezed on all sides due to state policies and federal goals driving the EV transition, growing domestic and international competition in the EV industry and needing to increase workers’ pay.

For example, Ford recently paused construction of a new EV battery plant in Michigan, citing uncertain labor costs.

While you may not be inclined to feel sorrow for the automakers’ conundrum, remember that they are facing a choice between advancing the climate effort, bolstering the U.S. economy and supporting their workers.

These are three issues Biden pressured automakers about, yet he fails to recognize the nuance in how these factors interact. Continuing to fully embrace workers’ demands would not only be a detriment to our climate effort and economy in favor of auto workers, but more importantly, it would prevent Biden from advancing not just one but three goals.

To take the unprecedented step of joining the picket line and fully supporting workers’ demands is a mere political move. However, the Biden administration does have tools at its disposal to actually help unions while also supporting automakers.

One of auto workers’ central concerns is auto manufacturing factories closing in favor of new EV plants. In an effort to keep current plants open, Biden has offered $15.5 billion in funding for transitioning current factories to EV production. This funding, which companies can apply for, specifies that high-paying companies with unionized labor will be favored in the application process.

However, just $2 billion dollars of this funding is grants, with $10 billion in loans. This means automakers will be on the hook for all but $2 billion dollars of federal funding.

Considering that companies announced more than $73 billion in spending for planned EV and battery plants in 2022, $2 billion in grant funding is nowhere near enough to keep unionized automakers competitive. If Biden is going to put unprecedented pressure on automakers, he needs to take unprecedented steps in supporting unions by significantly funding union protection through a

transition that he is facilitating. The Biden administration is not the only short-sighted party in this conversation. UAW is falling victim to a trend that has plagued the labor movement for decades: Strike demands based on the problems of today neglect how major industry transitions will affect workers. UAW leaders point to a recent Teamsters union deal, which raised United Parcel Service (UPS) workers’ wages, as a blueprint for their strike. However, this deal fails to protect workers as UPS transitions to a selfdriving fleet. It does not matter if UPS

drivers are paid more when there won’t be UPS drivers in the coming decades. The same is true with UAW. In an effort to protect workers during the EV transition, UAW wants the guaranteed right to strike and compensation in the event of a plant closure.

This adversarial perspective is the wrong approach for the union. It takes fewer workers to make electric vehicles, meaning job transitions are inevitable. Rather than actively fighting against plant closures or job losses, the union needs to understand that worker transitions are unavoidable as

well as work with companies to secure the best future for their workers. To do this, UAW should ensure guaranteed job offers at EV battery plants for displaced workers. UAW should also fight for guaranteed retraining programs and relocation assistance for workers who need to move. This strike could be the best way for them to set up an optimal future for their workers — but that is only possible if they cease their unrealistic approach.

This is not to say that UAW should not focus on wages: Workers deserve to get paid their fair share. But a 40% wage increase, elimination of the tiered wage system and an increase in benefits is simply too much for workers to ask, especially without more federal support. A combination of compromise and federal funding could give workers what they deserve without putting auto manufacturers out of business.

The UAW should be on strike and Biden might be the most pro-union president in recent history, but both sides need to change their strategies in order to get the most out of their demands in this strike.

Given the national attention they currently have, addressing the issues of the future needs to be UAW’s priority. If successful, it could represent a major turning point in the future for unions and our EV transition. Otherwise, it will only pinch automakers, hurting workers and every one of us.

PAID RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY:

The Emory Mental Health & Development Program is seeking individuals worried about recent changes in their thoughts and perceptions.

Individuals aged 12 -34 may be eligible if experiencing one or more of the following:

 Unusual thoughts

 Questioning if things are real or imaginary

 Suspiciousness or paranoia

 A sense of having special powers or unrealistic plans for the future

 Unusual experiences with seeing or hearin g things that are not there

The purpose of this study is to see how unusual thoughts, suspiciousness or paranoia, and unusual experiences with seeing or hearing things that are not really there can be used to predict risk of psychosis through computerized tasks. The study will be conducted online through Emory University.

An initial screening will be done. Then, if the study is found to be a good fit, you will be invited to participate in the main study. Participants will be compensated $30 per hour.

Contact us or visit our website for more information:

Phone number: 404 -727-7547

Email: mentalhealth.research@emory.e du Website: https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/mhdp/ or scan the QR code:

STU00211351: CAPR

Principal investigator: Elaine Walker

Pierce McDade (25Ox) is from Bloomington, IL.

h ayley Powers/ visual editor

Arts Entertainment

&

Theater Emory’s ‘Lost Girl’ takes audiences to Neverland

By EllEn Choi Contributing Writer

When we think of “Peter Pan,” we think of the magical enchantment of the lovely flying little boy and his fairy friend Tinker Bell who sprinkles glitter pixie dust. But Assistant Professor of Dramatic Writing Kimberly Belflower’s “Lost Girl,” thought more of Wendy Darling, the girl who went on adventures with Peter Pan.

From Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, a little bit of magic and an overwhelming amount of life lessons filled Schwartz Center for Performing Arts’ Theater Lab as Theater Emory put on “Lost Girl” for four consecutive days. Belflower wrote and directed the story, which follows Wendy’s (Emory MacLaughlin, 24C) coming-of-age journey of moving on from her picturesque times with Peter (Sam Hanson, 25C) and learning how to let go of the past in the process.

The Theater Lab welcomed the audience with a dreamy set of Wendy’s nursery, decorated with a projected pink back wall, foggy lights, purple window curtains and soft animal plushies on her bed, where Wendy sat reading a book. A hanging star from the ceiling stood out as the audience anticipated the show to start while listening to Olivia Rodrigo’s newest heartbreak album “GUTS.”

Peter’s entrance onto the stage, accompanied by a sparkling sound effect, marked the opening scene of the show, which introduced the audience to Wendy’s sweet adventures with Peter. Narrating that she allows herself eight

minutes a day to think about Peter, Wendy soon introduced the audience to her sadness after Peter did not come back to meet her in the real world.

Various characters attempted to break Wendy out of her sorrow, including her mother (Maya Nair, 25C) and the Lost Boys: Slightly (Rehema Karuri, 26C), Toodles (Noah Lian, 23Ox, 25C), Nibs (Zachary Gunter, 24C) and Curly (Sofia Freedman, 25C). The Lost Boys’ frequent humorous commentary on Wendy’s conflicting opinions brought laughter to the audience, especially with each of their distinct characters. Lian’s portrayal of Toodles’ playful and carefree personality stood out as he played with Wendy’s plushies on her bed while listening to her weighty troubles.

Wendy took the audience through a relatable journey of emotions. In a heightened quarrel with her mother, Wendy questioned the concept of happiness that everybody tells her to achieve. Her turmoil concerning the fragility of happiness — as opposed to sadness that she called “steady and strong” — represents many of the fundamental questions that we all have faced in life. Through Wendy’s voice, “Lost Girl” addresses the pressure to sustain happiness, the fear of growing up and the pain of moving on from a bygone relationship.

Belflower and the cast made several notable creative choices in delivering the play’s plot and message. One was the use of body movements to accompany the dramatic script. When the people in Wendy’s town aggressively pointed

at her as an immature, helpless victim of kidnapping, the rumors surrounding the girl built up dramatically as actors scattered and moved across the stage in choreographed movements.

Leading up to the climax of the performance, Wendy broke out of her shell

her very first time meeting Peter, finally gained the courage to say at last that she “won’t wait anymore.” In an exceptional performance, MacLaughlin delivered this line with the utmost sincere tone. She displayed powerful contrasting emotions in these scenes, conveying

Unlike the rest of the cast who went through numerous costume changes throughout the play to suit their various roles and scenes, Wendy stayed in her misty blue nightgown, designed by costume designer Jen Madison. Her costume change out of her sparkly nightgown and into a more dull and casual outfit signaled Wendy’s change and growth during that moment.

The tense lack of lines exchanged between Wendy and Peter in their final encounter scene emphasized the distance between the two characters. However, this final encounter did not change the fact that Wendy and Peter were special to each other in their journeys to becoming mature adults.

As the ex-adventure pair were about to share a kiss, a dramatic lighting change descended upon the two characters. At long last, when Wendy finally closed her windows, the theater was soaked in silence and focused on MacLaughlin’s bittersweet facial expressions.

to reevaluate her relationship and memories with Peter, describing them to the other girls (Erin Devine, 25C; Makalee Cooper, 23Ox, 25C; Emi Fernandez, 24C) he took out to adventures. The girls, whose pronounced performances caught both Wendy and the audience’s attention in this crucial turning point, broke to Wendy that Peter had already grown up.

With their help, Wendy, whose face still lights up whenever she thinks of

Maren Morris exits country music

By MatthEw ChupaCk Editor in Chief

EPs are meant to be short, often lacking enough play time to be memorable.

Yet Maren Morris’ two-song EP “The Bridge” released on Sept. 15 is among the most significant country music releases in recent years. Through its two songs — “The Tree” and “Get The Hell Out Of Here” — “The Bridge” is Morris’ exit route from the country music genre.

Jason Aldean, who recently released what many deem a “modern lynching song” with his No. 1 single “Try That In A Small Town,” few other country artists are as politically transparent as Morris, especially on the left.

“After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display,” Morris recently told the Los Angeles Times. “It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic.” Despite sexism and misogyny within the industry, Morris boasts a high-ranking discography, making her departure from country music all the more significant. Her album “HERO” (2016) and “GIRL” (2019) ranked No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, while “Humble Quest” (2022) reached No. 2. Additionally, “HERO” and “GIRL” broke into the top five of the Billboard 200.

and morally corrupt United States. The music video, which encouraged viewers to vote in the 2020 election, features real stories of individuals whose relatives fell victim to police brutality, families whom U.S. immigration policy harmed and adolescents participating in the Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ rights activism. Reflecting on contemporary social and political maladies, Morris sings, “When time turns this moment to dust / I just hope my son’s proud of the woman I was / When lines of tomorrow are drawn / Can I live with the side that I chose to be on?”

Wendy’s character development. No scenes of the play were predictable, but the script especially surprised the audience with Peter’s sudden appearance from the corner of the theater right after that moment of Wendy’s determination to move on. The audience gasped and frowned at Peter’s seemingly grown-up and unpleasantly changed attitude toward Wendy. It was as if they were all rooting for her to make the justified choice to move on.

“Lost Girl” took us through the imagined story beyond the horizon of the well-known “Peter Pan” tale, powerfully telling the story of the girl who not only had to grow up but also to move on from her first love. Over a focused set and placid stage effects, profound dialogues between characters and the cast’s emotional delivery struck the room, “Lost Girl” took the audience through Wendy’s journey of growing up and learning to embrace a farewell.

— Contact Ellen Choi at ellen.choi@emory.edu

‘Unplugged’ in an interconnected world

By ari SEgal Arts & Entertainment Editor

There has always been something captivating about your favorite artists unplugging their instruments and going acoustic. Maybe the appeal is a response to being inundated with stimulation, or maybe it is just impressive in its own right. The unplugged album succeeds by nature of not being flashy: If the artist triumphs, it is all the more impressive and a testament to their craft. Music does not get any more raw or vulnerable than this.

have achieved unparalleled peaks and the dozens who have given quite lackluster performances — and analyze in chronological order why some have stood the test of time.

Paul McCartney | ‘Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)’ (1991)

Morris is not merely leaving country to pursue a new sound: She is stepping away from the genre due to its current unwavering anti-progressive ideals. Over the past five years, Morris became increasingly outspoken on social and political issues. Aside from

Morris’ success is a consequential feat considering the institutional sexism in the industry. A recent study using data from 2022 found that female country artists were only played back-to-back on country radio 0.5% of the time, on average. When two songs by female country artists were played in a row, they were most often played between midnight and 6 a.m. which are times of low listenership.

Morris’ shift toward taking public political stances first gained notoriety ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

In October 2020, she released “Better Than We Found It,” an ode to a socially

Morris also made national headlines last year after she criticized Brittany Aldean for making a transphobic comment on Instagram. Tucker Carlson subsequently denounced Morris on Fox News, which displayed a chyron calling Morris a “lunatic country music person” during the segment. Morris used this as an opportunity to further her social activism, selling shirts with the phrase to raise over $150,000 for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). In fact, Morris announced on Sept. 20 that she will donate some proceeds from her upcoming show in Chicago to GLAAD.

Her timeline of being outspoken on social issues is crucial to appreciating “The Bridge.” Morris seems to be acting on her reflections in “Better Than We Found It” by leaving the country music genre. For the past few years, Morris

See MORRIS, Page 8

No other mainstream media productions have been able to encapsulate this vulnerability better than “MTV Unplugged,” a staple of the entertainment mammoth MTV. Before MTV devolved into vapid reality series and viewer-submission shows a la “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” the channel was, as the name suggests, a medium for music television.

In addition to the Video Music Awards and their now defunct music exposure program “120 Minutes,” they would — and occasionally still do — host acoustic series where the world’s biggest artists would perform stripped-back performances of their hits for an intimate audience.

The mood of “MTV Unplugged” has ebbed and flowed since its first season aired in 1989. Because of the lasting impact of the program, I want to examine the highs and lows of past artists who have graced their stage — the dozens who

Paul McCartney’s acoustic and bluesy set rejuvenated “MTV Unplugged” and brought many listeners into the fold. Producer Alex Coletti would later credit McCartney’s performance as being the one that solidified “MTV Unplugged” as a cult show. The former “Fab Four” member covered many old The Beatles songs, including “Blackbird” (1968) and “Here, There And Everywhere” (1966). McCartney also covered many blues and rockabilly standards on the live album, including Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” (1971) and Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-ALula” (2007). Originally covered on The Beatles’ third studio album “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964), “And I Love Her” (1964) is the standout performance of the record: Its sparse instrumentation, disarming vocal harmonies and light piano keys feel like a weighted blanket.

LL Cool J, MC Lyte, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul | ‘Yo! MTV Raps Unplugged’ (1991) “Yo! MTV Raps Unplugged” (1991) brought together a star-studded hip-hop

See WHY, Page 8

Courtesy of Casey ford Photogra Phy

“Lost Girl,” Kimberly Belflower’s reimagined world beyond “Peter Pan,” extends the story of Peter Pan and Wendy.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/glenn franCis Morris cited institutional issues in the country music industry as the reason for her departure.

COLUMN: AN EARFUL WITH ARI SEGAL

Morris shifts musical focus, citing bigotry

Continued from Page 7

chose to remain in country music. Sure, she advocated against racism, misogyny and homophobia, but by remaining in a genre that rewards people who espouse hatred, Morris was complicit in such bigotry. However, Morris has “said everything [she] can say,” so when her initial activism had no avail, she felt discontent with the genre and recognized that her next step was to leave country music, Morris told the Los Angeles Times.

Morris’ experience being an ally within the country music industry parallels the imagery in her song “The Tree.” She has her grounding in country music, yet as time goes on Morris grows in both celebrity and the ability to see the industry from different vantage points. As Morris continues her country music career, she continues to confront stigma against her gender, like when one radio host said female country singers should be like tomatoes on a salad, not the abundant lettuce.

In the modern-day country genre, a white artist can say the N-word and his digital album sales increase by 1,220% within one day of the media publicizing the racist video and a so-called “modern lynching song” can reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Morris told the Los Angeles Times that she can no longer unsee this prejudice, claiming that such racism and misogyny is fixed in the genre itself. Since this is an ongoing issue in her roots, and she cannot take such rot anymore, Morris is now choosing to disaffiliate herself from what she views as a problematic genre.

“I’m takin’ an axe to the tree / The rot at the roots is the root of the problem / But you wanna blame it on me,” Morris prudently sings. “I hung around longer than anyone should / You’ve broken my heart more than anyone could.” The accompanying music video to “The Tree” depicts how Morris views the country music genre through imagery of a small town. Located among lush greenery, bright blue skies and sturdy mountains, Morris peruses dollhouse-like neighborhood props. Cameras cut to a “don’t tread on me” lawn sign, which has

problematic connotations, and a placard stating “go woke go broke.” These sentiments are exactly what Morris evades by leaving country music. The latter sign is likely reflecting an internal dilemma Morris faces — if she maintains her “woke” behavior by calling out racism, sexism and homophobia, she will not have a successful country music career. Another lawn sign includes the phrase

“I believe in God & guns,” reminiscent of stereotypical, yet real, priorities in “small town” America. The town is in shambles. Stores are closing, plants latch onto Morris’ leg as she tries to garden and wind gusts cause leaves, litter and dirt to fly around the street. It is time for Morris to leave. She strikes a match but notices that a tree is already engulfed in flames, symbolic of the country music genre already destroying itself. As flames roar behind her, Morris slowly strolls across a bridge, “[getting] the hell out of” the small town she once viewed as idyllic.

Since this is an ongoing issue in her roots, and she cannot take such rot anymore, Morris is now choosing to disafliate herself from what she views as a problematic genre.

Crossing the bridge, Morris sings, “Heart lettin’ go of the weight it’s been holdin’ / I’ve made miracles in the shadows / But now that I’m out in the sun / I’ll never stop growin’, wherever I’m goin’ / Hope I’m not the only one.”

Morris is ready to start anew. Akin to Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” she was kept in the dark by being constrained to the country music genre. Not only does she not see a future for the genre based on its current politics, she doesn’t want to be complicit with the prejudicial message the industry espouses to society. Morris has crossed the bridge out of country music — she

has escaped the shackles of the cave — and while the sunlight in the horizon may be burning her eyes, she can now have political and social autonomy.

“The Tree” music video aptly crosses into the “Get The Hell Out Of Here” music video, which opens with a view of a dull-looking small town with flames raging in the back.

Ashes now cover the same town as in “The Tree.” Morris sings, “I’ve gone against the grain and good advice / I drank my weight to dehydrate the thoughts that flood my mind / So to all my grand apologies I know are insincere / Go on, get the hell out of here.”

It is unclear where Morris will find heaven, whether just leaving the country music industry is good enough, or if she will need to take a further step by continuing to pursue her crucial advocacy in a different context. I think it is the latter, specifically with Morris transitioning into the pop or alt-pop realm. She already had experience releasing pop-friendly music like “The Middle” (2018) with Zedd and Grey, “Seeing Blind” (2017) with Niall Horan and “The Bones” (2019), which has a version featuring Hozier.

Moreover, Jack Antonoff, who Morris collaborated with for “Get The Hell Out Of Here,” is also working with Morris on her next album. Antonoff is known for producing pop and alt-pop tracks for artists like Taylor Swift, Lorde and Lana Del Rey. Regardless of what is to come, I am glad Morris has the confidence to leave a genre she finds harmful — to find a new way to try to make the country better than she found it.

While I think Morris “[getting] the hell out of” country music is more symbolic than useful in engendering an accepting industry, clearly the fire she started is still burning. Morris sparked conversation within the industry, and celebrities are continuing to discuss the biggest country star to leave the genre since Swift.

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

Why‘MTV Unplugged’ still matters

Continued from Page 7

ensemble for a one-of-a-kind live performance, the first of its kind to grace the stages of the “MTV Unplugged” series. The show opened with an acoustic rendition of A Tribe Called Quest’s classic chill anthem “Can I Kick It?” (1990), which features plenty of charming audience participation. Next, MC Lyte took the stage to rap the commanding “Cappucino” (2009) alongside a groovy backing band. Later, rap forefather LL Cool J and hip-hop group De La Soul exemplified the highs of jazz rap.

The live performance was also one of the cornerstone moments of the golden age of hip-hop, that sweet spot between the late ’80s and early ’90s when hiphop started to gain mainstream credibility as a valid and potent art form. Though often mistaken as a fad by the music press, hip-hop would continue to pick up steam throughout the ’90s and eventually become the unmistakable zeitgeist years later. This low-key performance from 1991 is just one of the many reminders of the budding genre’s growing cross-generational appeal.

Eric Clapton | ‘Unplugged’ (1992)

Eric Clapton joined the “MTV Unplugged” canon with his legendary acoustic set recorded in early 1992 and released in August of the same year. The standout tracks are the emotional ballad “Tears In Heaven” (1992) and Derek & The Dominos’ “Layla” (1970), both of which have become some of the most common and admired acoustic

renditions of all time. The performance holds even more emotional weight due to the recent grief the singer-songwriter was facing after his four-year-old son’s untimely death. Clapton’s “Unplugged” would become his best-selling album, reaching a not-too-shabby 26 million copies sold internationally.

It would also become the best-selling live album of all time — a record the album still holds — setting a new gold standard for live albums.

Mariah Carey | ‘MTV Unplugged’ (1992)

On her way to achieving world domination, Mariah Carey made a pit stop at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York to prove to her detractors and reaffirm to her fans that she could simply let her music speak for itself and that would still be enough.

“MTV Unplugged” (1992), released via Columbia Records in June 1992, exhibited Carey’s vocal dexterity and impressive range — notably her whistle register — on stripped-back renditions of her hit songs at the time, such as “Emotions” (1991).

While mostly composed of her top songs, Carey’s management chose her angelic cover of “I’ll Be There” (1970) by The Jackson 5 as the lead single for her “Unplugged” EP.

Read the full article online.

— Contact Ari Segal at asegal7@emory.edu

Music, flm, photography to push students through midterms

By alExandra kauffMan Emory Life Editor

With midterm season over the horizon yet out of reach, many of us may feel bogged down with classes and mounting homework. Emory University’s art scene is nonetheless in full swing, bustling with concerts, lectures and more. Be sure to step back from studying to take time for yourself by appreciating campus arts.

All events are free and open to the public unless specified otherwise.

Chanticleer Concert: Music of a Silent World

Date: Oct. 5, 8 p.m.

Location: Cherry Logan Emerson

Concert Hall

Cost: $10 (Emory students) | $50 (non-Emory-affiliated)

Chanticleer, a Grammy-Awardwinning male chorus, is bringing classical jazz and pop music to the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. This concert centers around the natural beauty of the Sierra Nevada as ren-

dered by Majel Connery’s song cycle “The Rivers Are Our Brothers” (2022). The Chanticleer concert will also include arrangements from Hoagy Carmichael, Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell and more.

Constructing an Image: A Conversation with Atlanta Latinx

Photographers

Date: Oct. 12, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Location: Michael C. Carlos Museum | Ackerman Hall

Join Atlanta-based photographers

Victoria García and José Ibarra Rizo for a conversation about Latinx photography and creativity in the United States South at the end of Hispanic Heritage Month. Iliana Yamileth Rodriguez, assistant history professor and Latinx historian, will moderate the conversation. From 6 to 7:30 p.m., the Carlos Museum galleries, including “You Belong Here: Place, People and Purpose in Latinx Photography,” will be open for viewing. Registration is required prior to the event.

Atlanta Master Chorale: The Sky’s the Limit

Date: Oct. 13- 8 p.m.

Location: Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall

Cost: $10 (Emory students) | $38 (Non-Emory-affiliated)

The Atlanta Master Chorale, a diverse array of singers from metropolitan Atlanta, will perform their new program “The Sky’s the Limit” here at Emory.

This program draws on childlike wonder to create a whimsical performance inspired by all the world has to offer. It aims to remind audiences that “the sky’s the limit” in chasing our dreams, according to the digital event flier.

Talk: Hip Hop Heresies, Queer Aesthetics in New York City

Date: Oct. 16, 12 - 1:30 p.m.

Location: Robert W. Woodruff Library | Joseph W. Jones Room

This entry in the Race and Difference Colloquium Series features Shanté Paradigm Smalls, associate professor of Black studies at St. John’s University (N.Y.). In this talk, Smalls will explore New York City as a site of “vibrant” queer culture and how products of hip-hop culture from the 1970s to the modern day reflect queer ideas of race, gender and sexuality.

“WINN” film screening, Q&A

Date: Oct. 16, 7 - 8 p.m.

Location: Humanities Hall | Oxford College

“WINN” (2022) explores Pamela Winn’s traumatic experience of pregnancy during incarceration and later anti-incarceration activism. Atlantabased filmmaker Joseph East collaborated with director Erica Tanamachi to create a powerful, short documentary that went on to win the Reel South SHORT award. This event will include a screening of “WINN” followed by a Q&A with the film’s titular subject.

Timothy Miller recital

Date: Oct. 17, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Location: Williams Hall Auditorium | Oxford College

Assistant Professor of Voice and Music at Morehouse College (Ga.)

Timothy Miller will give a tenor vocal performance at this event, which is hosted by the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. Miller has an extensive history of both international and local vocal performance, including Operas, symphonies and the Atlanta Braves games. Join him for an evening of classical music on the Oxford campus.

— Contact Alexandra Kauffman at amkauff@emory.edu

COLUMN: ARTS APLENTY

Emory Life The Emory Wheel

Students celebrate Latinx, Hispanic heritage at Noche de Fiesta

By Lauren Katz

Contributing Writer

Food trucks, music and dancing filled McDonough Field for Noche de Fiesta, a celebration of Hispanic and Latinx heritage, on the evening of Sept. 30.

The event’s flyer advertised the celebration as “the biggest Latinx collab of the year,” with representation from a total of eight different organizations: Association of Caribbean Educators and Students (ACES), Alas de un Mismo Pájaro (Alas), Afro-Latinx Student Association (ALSA), Centro Latinx, Dooley After Dark (DAD), Latinx Student Organization (LSO), Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity (LSU) and Vibez.

The groups held the celebration during Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated every year in the United States from Sept. 15 to Oct.

15.

Events during the month of celebration honor the history, contributions and cultures of Latin Americans in the United States and beyond. This year, Emory Latinx students celebrated their Hispanic and Latinx identities through Noche de Fiesta, which provided food, music and performances representative of the variety of Latinx communities on Emory’s

campus.

Students came together to share conversation over Mexican-Southern fusion and Caribbean street foods provided by local Atlanta food trucks The Blaxican and Negril. The trucks offered a variety of tacos, including blackened fish, buffalo chicken, al pastor pork and Jamaican style chicken, plus sides of rice and peas or macaroni and cheese.

“It’s really important Afro-Latinx students and people in general to have representation at these kinds of events.”

Attendees could also grab churros and glowsticks when they entered the event.

While some students bonded over food and good company, other students paired up and danced to the music provided by DJ Vitillaz.

The tunes consisted of a variety of Latin and Afro-Latin pop and dance music.

Later in the evening, performances rocked the stage when student dance groups Alas de un Mismo Pájaro and Vibez performed different types of Afro-Latinx and Caribbean dance.

The performances also included a drag performance by a Latina drag queen.

Each performance brought a unique element of Latinx and AfroLatinx culture that left the crowds cheering for more. Emory’s first Afro-Latinx club, Alas, performed both traditional and contemporary forms of Afro-Latinx dance. President and co-captain of the team, Alisha Morejon (25C), explained the significance of their performance at Noche de Fiesta.

“It means sharing my culture, sharing my experiences, my love for my culture through music and dance,” Morejon said. “It’s really important for Afro-Latinx students and people in general to have representation at these kinds of events.”

Morejon said that Alas is not just a dance team, but also a “communityoriented” Afro-Latinx affinity space.

“Obviously, we’re super proud to be Latinx, but we’re even prouder to be Afro-Latinx, so it’s great to be able to share that with everyone,” Morejon said.

By Sydney Song

Contributing

Writer

Hungry students lined up on the first floor of Robert W. Woodruff Library at 9:45 p.m. in hopes of grabbing a free Dobbs Common Table (DCT) meal to fuel them through their midterm study sessions. Curious onlookers also joined the small crowd, needing both a small break from their textbooks and a taste of this new event. Slow Food Emory, a chapter of the national Slow Food Movement, aims to advocate for “good, clean and fair” food for Emory students. The club hosted their first surplus food initiative event on Sept. 27, and they will continue this event on every Wednesday this semester from 9:45-11 p.m. on the first floor of Woodruff Library.

Slow Food Emory’s collaboration with Emory University’s main dining hall, the DCT, allows Emory students to grab free DCT meals that would have gone to waste otherwise.

One of Slow Food Emory’s key initiatives is weekly visits to different local farmers markets, where club members collect surplus ingredients to cook healthy meals for cancer patients at Emory hospitals. Slow Food Emory President Sabrina Li (25C) said that the DCT surplus food initiative has been in

the works for months.

“There’s food waste every day,” Li said. “The DCT workers, we’ve talked to them, and they say they have to throw away gallons of soups and various foods, so we wanted a way to address that.”

To bring this goal to life, Slow Food Emory worked alongside DCT staff, making sure to follow food safety regulations. Each container of food has a sticker with an expiration date for students to follow. One challenge Slow Food Emory faced when starting the initiative was sourcing compostable containers. In response, Li said she emailed many big compostable container companies to make sure the containers Slow Food Emory uses are good for the environment. Finally, Eco-Products, a compostable and recycled foodservice packaging company, responded to Li’s email by donating around 2,000 containers for the surplus food initiative.

Li also felt the community support for Slow Food Emory. Community members donated containers to support the DCT surplus food events, too. Divine Taniform (27C) was one of the first students to grab a meal.

He chose a container of pasta with marinara and alfredo sauce. Other meal options included curry over rice, sausage, vegetables and pasta.

“I feel like the flavors just blend well together,” Taniform said after taking a bite. “The texture of the sauce sits well on my tongue. The pasta is not overcooked, cooked just right in my opinion. I would recommend this to one of my best friends.”

Earlier in the evening, student volunteers from Slow Food Emory went to the DCT to help pack meals before bringing the surplus food to Woodruff Library, where they enthusiastically encouraged students to take multiple containers of food. Taniform did not take their friendliness for granted.

“Customer service, by the way, 10 out of 10,” Taniform added.

Marcus Davis (27C), another fan of this new initiative, also tried the marinara pasta.

“Why would you let food go to waste on a campus where students would love to eat it?” Davis said.

Both Taniform and Davis mentioned that the free food motivated them to be more productive and stay focused while studying late at night.

“When I get food, I get energy,” Taniform said. “More energy means I can do more work.”

In the future, Slow Food Emory has a bigger vision for DCT surplus food: a collaboration with the Bread Coffehouse’s Eagle Food Pantry.

“They reached out about wanting to partner so that the food can be stored in their fridge and then distributed over a longer time,” Li said.

Additionally, Li said that she expects Slow Food Emory to reach farther off campus, perhaps expanding to take food off-campus to serve homeless populations in Atlanta. Li reflected on her reason for joining Slow Food Emory in the first place.

“I was always really interested in nutrition, and food is really important to me, like having a good relationship with food,” Li said. “I think I knew that I wanted to do something meaningful.”

– Contact Sydney Song at sydney.song@emory.edu

Vibez, a Caribbean dance group associated with ACES, also performed at the event, with each dancer adorned with flags representing Caribbean and Latin nations.

The performance was met with enthusiastic cheers and applause. Throughout the entire night, attendees danced and sang with those around them.

Emily Perez (27C) especially enjoyed the opportunity to dance at the event.

JaCk rutherford/Staff Photggra Pher

“The dancing right now, I would say it’s the highlight, just because it feels like an at-home party,” Perez said.

As the evening progressed, more and more people came together to dance in a large group on the field, moving together as one.

“Nobody knows each other, but we’re like family,” Perez said.

— Contact Lauren Katz at lauren.katz@emory.edu

By Miranda WiLSon Crossword Desk

ACROSS

1. Upside down sleeper

4. Advice for the side of caution

6. “That’s __ Little Lamb”

7. __ _ hearts (playing card)

8. Gwinnett County airport code

DOWN

Scan

here for the

1. Melee

2. Often served con frijoles

3. Opposite of “from me”

4. Ambulance worker (abbr.)

5. Science and engineering counterpart of the NIH (abbr.)

Latinx student dance group Alas de un Mismo Pájaro gave a passionate performance of traditional dance at Noche de Fiesta.

Slow Food Emory ofers DCT surplus food, combats food waste

— Alisha Morejon (25C)

Sports The Emory Wheel

Emory administration battles school spirit concerns

By Eric JonEs Staff Writer

When Emory University men’s soccer freshman midfielder Nick Carrano began his season this fall, it quickly became clear to him that “school spirit is lacking at Emory” in regards to sporting event attendance.

“You hear very little talk about athletics in general at Emory,” Carrano said. “I think that it’s really hard to get people to come out unless you’re close with [athletes] or fellow athletes who understand the importance of attending games.”

For years, a common concern among Emory’s student body has been a lack of unity and camaraderie, which some have attributed to the University lacking a football team. Emory’s athletic department has introduced new programming around sporting events in recent years, such as tailgates, but athletes and fans want more.

Alex Moss (25C) is not a varsity athlete but enjoys watching sports and said he wishes there was a unified school spirit surrounding these events.

“The school overall just really kind of lacks [school spirit],” Moss said. “I feel that we sometimes make some attempts … with a volleyball game here or a soccer game there, but in general, there’s no real kind of Emory identity.”

Special Activities Committee

Chair of Student Programming Council (SPC) M Egberongbe (26C) said that at first glance, Emory is not known for its school spirit, but organizations like SPC are working to improve an identified lack of united camaraderie on campus. For example, the campus organization partnered with Emory athletics to help sponsor certain tailgates, which have drawn increased crowds.

“I don’t think we have the most

spirit, but I don’t think we’re completely lacking spirit either,” Egberongbe said. “I think in the coming years we’re going to see an increase, because I know SPC in particular has been trying to do our part to increase school spirit with athletics.”

Moss said the tailgates are a “good idea,” but he thinks that Emory “needs to do more of them.” He said that more tailgates during the season for respective Emory sports can be a driver in an increased awareness of Emory athletics.

While Carrano said the tailgates can create a “sense of belonging,” he said that many students come to the tailgates for the food and the giveaways and then do not stay for the duration of the game.

“There isn’t as much involvement and engagement, especially with soccer, as I would have wished,” Carrano said.

More generally, Egberongbe said school spirit expands beyond athletics to events that draw strong crowds, like the semesterly SPC concerts,

Regional tennis titles a ‘small step’ toward big goals

By clEmEnt lEE Sports Editor

The Emory University men’s and women’s tennis teams competed at the 2023 ITA Division III South Regional Championship. Sophomore Emily Kantrovitz defeated senior Ana Cristina Perez for the singles title on Oct. 1, and the pair finished as runners-up for the doubles title. Senior Nolan Shah and sophomore Dean Kamenev won the doubles title, and Kamenev finished as a runner-up for the singles title on Sept. 24.

Kantrovitz takes singles crown at ITA South Regionals

The Emory women’s tennis team built on their strong finish last season, which included a 14-7 overall record and a 2023 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championship semifinals run. Perez attributed the team’s success to their cohesiveness and “care” for each other.

“The main thing for my team’s success [is] the selflessness that we show each other, both on and off the court,” Perez said. “It was really awesome going into this tournament and seeing so many of my teammates train each

other, everyone high fiving each other during changeovers … That respect we show for each other and that support that we give each other, I think that’s our main source of success.”

Although Kantrovitz entered the tournament in the No. 1 seed, her mindset was that anyone on the team was “capable” of winning. She had an impressive start, beating Berry College (Ga.) junior Lacey Craig (6-0, 6-0) in the first round and North Carolina Wesleyan University (NCW) sophomore Cristina Mendoza Romero (6-0, 6-1) in the second round.

Kantrovitz continued her winning momentum with a 6-0, 6-4 victory against Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.) freshman Mariella Congeni and senior Nicole Nowak (6-4, 6-2) to reach the semifinals. Sophomore Alyssa Margolin and senior Ilayda Baykan also reached the semifinals. Kantrovitz noted that it is “difficult” to face teammates, but playing them in later rounds is representative of the team’s success.

“I didn’t run into [my teammates] until later in the tournament and lots of my other teammates played each

and increase campus camaraderie. Egberongbe encouraged students to take advantage of the campus events currently offered.

“There are always certain people on campus who are doing a lot to try and get people to care more and be more involved in school,” Egberongbe said. “There are a lot of ways to show that you love your school without a football team and without it being athletic. Whenever SPC does events, whenever there’s school events in general, a lot of people show up for the show.”

Emory administrators are also formulating possible next steps for improving school spirit. Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Enku Gelaye expressed that Emory students may find school spirit outside the traditional sports-focused ways, like First Day Fest, a carnival event hosted on the first day of classes.

“Our students consistently and creatively express pride and spirit, often telling me how proud they are to be Emory students,” Gelaye wrote

in an email to the Wheel. “We are working together to find small and large ways to express that pride … I’m convinced that every year we find ways to give voice to the spirit and pride of this amazing generation of Emory students.”

Associate Vice President of Campus Life and Clyde Partin Sr. Director of Athletics Keiko Price said there is a high correlation between athletic awareness on campus and school spirit. Price defined school spirit as activities that create “a sense of belonging” and “an affinity for the institution” among Emory community members.

Price also said she is trying to improve attendance at Emory athletic events. Since arriving at Emory in December 2020, Price has expanded the athletic staff, hiring new talent like Deputy Athletics Director for External Operations Devon Hendricks to improve the marketing of Emory’s varsity athletic events.

Despite the University’s lack of a football team, Price said she believes

that there is still room to create “different” experiences in the Emory community, as having a football team does not automatically “equate to” strong school spirit. Emory’s administrators are focused on increasing school spirit so athletic events can make the Emory community “come together.”

“We’ve got a pep band now, the same pep band you’ll see at a football game, but it’s to support our soccer or volleyball … So it’s not football, but it’s still a way to really encourage and promote and to try to create an environment where our community can not only support our athletes but come together,” Price said.

Over the summer, Emory renovated the second floor of the Woodruff Physical Education Center to showcase and honor athletes. Price said that some additions include a touchscreen monitor that will eventually allow users to interact with a database of Emory All-Americans, Academic All-Americans and Hall of Famers. Price said she hopes the renovation will increase recognition for current and past Emory athlete stars while bringing the community together.

The University’s new Dean of Students and Associate Vice President for Belonging, Engagement and Community, Kristina Bethea Odejimi, said she has spoken to many Emory alumni and seen their strong sense of pride in the University.

“[Alumni] have a great affinity and love for Emory University,” Odejimi said. “And to me, that’s a part of the school spirit that we want people to have within them that you would hope to see at these other institutions that are fully invested and maybe have seen the ‘rah-rah’ atmosphere.”

Students can also form connections once they arrive on campus based on their individual interests,

Oxford cross country, soccer start season strong

By clEmEnt lEE Sports Editor

The Oxford College of Emory University men’s soccer, women’s soccer and cross country teams are currently midway through their fall seasons. The men’s soccer team recently beat Spartanburg Methodist College (S.C.) on Oct. 1, and several cross country runners achieved top-50 finishes at the Alexander/Asics Invitational.

Oxford men’s soccer beats Spartanburg Methodist

The Oxford men’s soccer team entered their matchup against Spartanburg Methodist College on Oct. 1 with a 3-4-1- record. Twelve minutes into the first half, sophomore forward Eyob Gebru scored a goal assisted by freshman midfielder Brody Weinfurtner. In the 26th minute, freshman defender Gerard Kong doubled the lead for the Eagles. Methodist freshman midfielder Asael Sterwart scored to cut Oxford’s lead in half, but freshman goalkeeper Chris Do’s seven saves helped ensure the 2-1 win. The team will look to improve their 4-4-1 record heading into their next game against CopiahLincoln Community College (Miss.) on Oct. 7.

Oxford women’s soccer falls to Georgia Military College

The Oxford College women’s soccer team have played five games so far this season. They lost their first three games, but they had a dominant showing against Andrew College (Ga.) on Sept. 9. The Eagles won that match 8-0, improving their record to 1-3.

In their matchup against Georgia Military College (GMC) on Sept. 11, the Eagles went scoreless as Georgia Military College scored five goals. The team had a difficult time finding their groove in the first half. GMC sophomore Tiffany Thomas scored within the first two minutes. GMC freshman Lesly Ortega and GMC sophomore midfielder Lujaine El-Shami added on to their lead before halftime. The match ended as a 5-0 loss for the Eagles. The team will compete next against Southern Union State Community College (Ala.) at home on Oct. 4 at 5:15 p.m.

Oxford cross country has strong showing at Alexander/Asics Invitational

The Emory Oxford men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Alexander/ASICS Invitational, which was held in Fairburn, Ga., on

Sept. 30.

In the men’s 8000-meter race, freshman Oliver Campbell ran a time of 27:16.02, sophomore Timothy Park ran a time of 27:27.60 and sophomore Virat Vishwanadhula ran a time of 27:35.69. Freshmen Joseph Woloszyn and Misha Filippovsky recorded times of 28:34.71 and 31:16.61, respectively. Their strong performances helped propel them to top-50 finishes among more than 100 runners.

Sophomore Madeleine Lepley also competed in the women’s 5000-meter race as the sole runner for Oxford. She finished with a personal best time of 22:17.89. Both teams will race next at the University of Alabama in Huntsville Invitational on Oct. 7.

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

Odejimi prioritizing engagement, connections

Continued from Page 10

according to Odejimi. Odejimi said she is prioritizing efforts to promote students’ connections to the University in her new role.

“Perhaps sports is not their thing: How do we make sure that we are plugging them into other offerings or opportunities where they find their school spirit in those things?” Odejimi said. “What is their level of engagement in those activities? And then, in turn, what is our investment in those particular programs and offerings?”

Odejimi added that it is essential for them that students understand the variety of opportunities Emory offers and how to leverage them.

“We’re trying to just be intentional with making sure that students understand what’s at their fingertips,” Odejimi said. “Sometimes you don’t understand all the resources and you don’t know how to navigate them either, and so if a student is struggling, then we have that

responsibility to make sure that we’re making that process a little easier.”

Junior golfer Prayaag Oruganti, the longest tenured executive board member of the Emory StudentAthlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), said Emory has made “great” progress in promoting athletic events during his three years on SAAC.

“We’ve gotten a lot of new people in the athletic department and administration that are super supportive of us,” Oruganti said.

In particular, Oruganti pointed to the annual freshmen pep rally, which SAAC hosted for the second time this year.

“That’s something that we feel like if we could get the freshmen to get some buy-in when they first get on campus, that’s something that can extend over the next four years,” Oruganti said.

Additionally, Oruganti noted a few other updates to Emory athletics and how those can help cultivate an

increased sense of pride among the University community. For example, a new graphic designer is improving the aesthetics of the Emory University Athletics Instagram page, which Oruganti said has helped increase awareness around athletic events.

Price said she is continuing to prioritize areas for future growth in school spirit surrounding athletic events.

“One of my goals since my arrival has been to create a space for all of our students … to be able to come and use sport as an avenue for memories, a place to gather, a place to celebrate [and] a place to really just support our student athletes,” Price said.

Managing Editor Jenna Daly, who is a member of the Emory StudentAthlete Advisory Committee, did not edit or contribute to this piece.

— Contact Eric Jones at eric.jones2@emory.edu

Kantrovitz, Kamenev and Shah take ITA Regional South crowns

felt like a really close family, and now that they’re gone, it feels really different. [It] feels like I have to step up in certain ways.”

To prepare for the fall tournaments, Shah said he and two other seniors held practices without coaches during the summer. Although a team-wide illness affected how much they were able to practice before the ITA South Regional Championship, Shah said that having an “experienced team” helped get everyone on track.

“[The sophomores have] been through this once before, so they kind of knew what to expect and were on top of things,” Shah said. “We had a great showing at the full regional tournament, all things considered.”

In addition to getting acclimated to competing again, Emory Men’s Tennis Head Coach John Browning said that the fall season is a “developmental period” before the spring season.

Continued from Page 10

other pretty early on,” Kantrovitz said. “[The ITA] tournament’s very unique for us because we’re lucky enough to have such a great team who normally will produce pretty good results and run into each other in the tournament. We all talked about it beforehand, saying we acknowledge that it’s going to be difficult, it’s going to be a challenge, but that’s what we want.”

In the semifinal round, Kantrowitz defeated Margolin (6-3, 6-2) and Perez defeated Baykan (6-4, 6-3) to advance to the finals. As doubles partners, Perez said they both understood how to compete as friends.

“We had a general understanding going in,” Kantrovitz said. “We’re gonna give each other our absolute best effort and push each other out of respect. I really just pinpointed a few things I want to focus on. I just focused on staying

calm and focusing on me, not like I was playing my doubles partner.”

Kantrovitz beat Perez (6-1, 6-4), qualifying for the ITA Cup, which will be held in Rome, Ga., from Oct. 12-15.

Although Kantrovitz defeated her in the finals, Perez praised Kantrovitz’s efforts to win the title.

“I feel like if it would have been another team, maybe I would have put even more pressure,” Perez said. “I know how good of a player Emily is. I know how hard she’s worked for everything. I feel like at the end, I know she’s worked extremely hard for this, and she is very deserving of the title.”

Kamenev, Shah win doubles title, defeat No. 1 Sewanee

Shah and Kamenev held the No. 2 seed in men’s doubles heading into the tournament. They each had strong seasons

last spring. Shah made it to the Round of 16 in the 2023 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championship and received an AllAmerica honor for his efforts. Kamenev had an accomplished freshman year, garnering an All-University Athletic Association (UAA) Second Team honor and the UAA Rookie of the Year award.

Last season, the men’s team rallied with a strong doubles team consisting of senior Ryan Glanville and Charlie James (23B). The pair made it to the quarterfinals in the national tournament and ended with an overall doubles record of 23-9. As a sophomore, Kamenev said that the team misses the outgoing seniors and that he feels “slightly more pressure” to fill their shoes.

“Last year was completely different,” Kamenev said. “I was a freshman and coming in having a lot of great other players and then role models and supporters, it was really nice to have. It

“It’s really important that you get everybody on the same page,” Browning said. “We’re all tactically working on elements. Take doubles, for instance. The more we can give them in terms of stats, in terms of percentages, and also the video analysis of where they’re supposed to be in understanding all the four positions in doubles.”

In the doubles tournament, Shah and Kamenev won 8-0 in the first round against Covenant College (Ga.) seniors Solomon Crouch and Gill Dun, 8-2 in the second round against Oglethorpe University (Ga.) sophomores Zack Raymond and Jefferson Page and 8-4 in the quarterfinals against Sewanee junior Talman Ramsey and sophomore Andre-Remi Jakobi. Shah said that a big factor in his and Kamenev’s success as a doubles pair is their ability to read each other well.

“I would have been happy playing with any of the guys,” Shah said. “But I knew that playing with Dean and him being such a good competitor, doing so well last year … I was confident that when it came to the big moments … when you have confidence that they’re gonna do what’s needed, then, as a

partner, your mind is at ease because there’s nothing that’s going to surprise you.”

Shah and Kamenev faced NCW in the semifinals. NCW sophomore Sean Keane and graduate student Andrea Fanzaga pushed the Emory duo to three sets (7-5, 6-7, 6-3). Shah and Kamenev, who played NCW as a team at the NCAA tournament in the spring, overcame the challenge against the familiar foe. This set the pair up to set up a match against Sewanee in the finals.

“We knew what to expect, and we knew that they were gonna really come for us and that they believed they were going to win,” Shah said. “In terms of overcoming it, I think we had our whole team on the sidelines cheering. It felt more like [a] spring atmosphere where it’s team versus team, so Dean and I didn’t really feel like we were alone out there. We had our team backing us.”

Although they were ranked behind No. 1 seeded Sewanee doubles pair senior Jordan Theron and junior Quinn Wicklund, Shah believed that he and Kamenev would be able to beat them, which they did in three sets (6-4, 1-6, 6-2).

“We’re pretty confident tennis players overall,” Shah said. “We played a little bit last semester together, but the first time playing in a while in a tournament we played the number one seed, but I think honestly, in the back of our heads, we believed we were the best team in the draw at the beginning of the tournament. We hoped that we’d be the last one standing, and we’ve managed to do that.”

Their win qualified them for the ITA Cup. Kamenev said that moving forward, the team’s goal is to “win everything.”

“[The win is] a small step in what we can accomplish this year,” Kamenev said. “There’s a lot more to do. This is just the region, and I think our ambitions are a lot higher.”

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

nata L ie sandL oW/staff PHotogra PHer

Senior Ana Cristina Perez high-fives sophomore Emily Kantrovitz during a match against Sewanee on March 26. Emory won 9-0.