THE GATEPOST Framingham State’s independent student newspaper February 22, 2018
Volume 87 • Issue 16
FSUgatepost.com
Ashley Wall / THE GATEPOST
Sophomore Carlos Barbosa speaks to the crowd gathered for a CELTSS dialogue about race on Tuesday, Feb. 19.
News SGA pg. 4 CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CENTER pg. 5
Opinions RESPOND WITH DILIGENCE pg. 7 THE COST OF CRISIS pg. 8
Arts & Features MARC COTE pg. 10 ROBBIE’S COMIC CORNER pg. 15
“Somebody knows”
Administrators discuss hate crime at forum By Jillian Poland Associate Editor FSUPD Chief Brad Medeiros updated students about the hate crime investigation during the Administrators’ Forum hosted by SGA on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Eleven administrators sat on a panel to answer student questions, including President F. Javier Cevallos and representatives from Academic Affairs, Facilities, Dining Services, Residence Life, and the Dean’s office. Approximately eight
students attended the forum. During the meeting, students raised concerns about resident parking, RamTram scheduling, noise complaints in the residence halls, the quality of dining hall food, and the GPA system. Prompted by questions from the audience, Cevallos asked Medeiros to share more information about the hate crime investigation. The hate crime was reported on Feb. 1, when a student discovered racially biased graffiti in a bathroom in Horace Mann Hall.
Medeiros said he could not release the particulars of the investigation until the case was officially closed because it could introduce bias into the investigation and impact the legal process. However, he was able to discuss the general timeline. He told the audience it took officers several days to identify the people who were caught on surveillance video entering the bathroom during the time frame in which the
See ADMIN FORUM page 3
“About-face”
Local artists reverse the social constructs of identity By Tessa Jillson Arts & Features Editor Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST
Sports MEN’S BASKETBALL pg. 17 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL pg. 18
Curator Beth Kantrowitz created bkprojects as a versatile platform for independent curating. Her newest show, “about-face,” exhibited in the Mazmanian Art Gallery from Feb. 19 to March 22, displays a wide range of portraitures - recognizing the importance of diversity in a climate full of racism, sexism, and
misogyny, according to Kantrowitz. Dating back to the late 19th century, “about-face” was a sailing and military term meaning to turn in the opposite direction. “That meaning remains, but about-face is now more commonly used figuratively to mean a complete, sudden change in position, action, principle, or attitude,” Kantrowitz wrote in her statement. The exhibition featured a wide
range of artists and art styles. Artists Robert Da Vies, Maya Erdelyi, Elisa Hamilton, Pronzy, Kate True, Chad Joiner, Sue McNally, Kathleen O’Hara, and Roberta Paul all displayed work focusing on identity and connectivity. Charla Jones, art enthusiast, said, “This is a great show. For me what’s great is it has so many different compositions of the face and you’re
See MAZGAL page 12
INSIDE: OP/ED 7 • ARTS & FEATURES 11 • SPORTS 17
2 | NEWS
THE GATEPOST
Gatepost Interview
Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Bailey Morrison Associate Editors Corey McFeeley Jillian Poland News Editor Nadira Wicaksana Arts & Features Editor Tessa Jillson Asst. Arts & Features Editor Brennan Atkins Robert Johnson Jr. Entertainment Correspondent Noah Barnes Opinions Editor Lizzy Stocks Sports Editor Matt Ferris Asst. Sports Editor Liam Gambon Design Editor Cara McCarthy Asst. Design Editor Kathleen Moore Photos Editor Ashley Wall Asst. Photos Editor Donald Halsing Interim Copy Editor Gordon Rupert Staff Writers Mikael Brown Evan Lee Jon Lee Tom Maye Kayla Otten Lauren Paolini Patrick Peterson Carlos Silva Julian Vazquez Caeley Whalen Staff Copy Editors Jordan Bacci Jared Graf Caroline Lee Staff Photographers Ryan Feinblatt Margaret Richardson Advisor Dr. Desmond McCarthy Assistant Advisor Elizabeth Banks Administrative Assistant Gwenyth Swain 100 State Street McCarthy Center Room 410 Framingham, MA 01701-9101 Phone: (508) 626-4605 Fax: (508) 626-4097 gatepost@framingham.edu
Colleen Previte
Special collections librarian and University archivist By Nadira Wicaksana News Editor What is your educational and professional background? I have a bachelor’s in business administration from Worcester State - university now, but it was “college” at the time - and a master’s in library and information studies from the University of Rhode Island. How did you become interested in your profession? As you can see, I got a business degree, so I try to tell students that my path wasn’t quite as straight as I thought it would be. I did get a bachelor’s in business administration, but I personally got stuck in secretarial positions, which is wonderful if you want to be a secretary, but it wasn’t really for me. ... So, I went through some career-planning books, and I read about archives and how you could preserve things. You do a lot of research and you do a lot of reading and you’re preserving things for future generations, and that really hit home with me. I feel like that’s what I’m passionate about, trying to get students excited about using the materials, but also for me to preserve them. And 100 years from now, hopefully someone is using these things because we’re following the proper standards. How do you get students interested in the archives? I work with a lot of different departments. I can match my collections with an academic department and have some collaborative efforts. Our materials, because we were the first state publicly funded normal school, can fit perfectly into the Education in American Society [class]. They have a certain history that they teach, so it fits perfectly. I worked with Kelly Kolodny, and we created a booklet of six different people, and we’ve picked various resources from our collections and then the students get to look at them. ... I also work with the English department, the history department, the museum studies program. So, in those fields, I give them an introduction to the archives. We have a variety of primary source materials, like an index, or photos, or the newspaper, or maps, or whatever might fit. If they’re history students, they’re probably going to use the archives at some point. I try to get them familiar, because it’s
Police Logs Sunday, February 17 05:27 Medical Towers Hall Transport to Hospital
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FEBRUARY 22, 2018
Donald Halsing / THE GATEPOST
kind of daunting at first. We have a lot of rules - you can’t bring your bag with you, you have to have a pencil, you can’t pull the materials - they have to be pulled for you. There’s a lot of rules, so I don’t know if that would throw some people off. ... So, I just like to get them used to the atmosphere. I try to give a broad perspective of what we have, and they really love it. It’s like playing in the sandbox! They get to actually touch the materials, and I think there’s something to that, in this digital age, to be able to actually touch something - like something one of the students in the first class had written. We have the journal of Cyrus Peirce - he was our first principal, and we have his writing about the first day of the school starting and such. So, hopefully, those types of things excite them. How has your field changed since you first started? Everything is becoming more digital or computer-based. The whole quandary for archivists has always been the changing of medium - you know, I have in my collection some floppy disks and disk drives. We have u-matic tapes, which was the kind of film before VHS. We have this challenge of making it so that they’re available to people and sort of transfer it down the line. So, I think databases and other resources will hopefully make it a little bit easier for us. We have our digital repository now, so we scan things and that’s another way of getting materials out there - to the world, really. The change is that it’s not just paper anymore - we’ve gone computer - and when I graduated in ’98 from grad school, we were just learning how to work with web design and things like that. But I still
Tuesday, February 19 08:06 Alarm (Fire/Smoke) Towers Hall False Alarm
like working with the actual physical materials. And now, because we have limited space, we have to find other ways of storing the materials and what we’re going to do with them and how that will be going forward. How is the archive space at Framingham State changing? We added some complex shelving about five - or seven - years ago. We have some room for growth in the back. You can go up to six [shelves] safely, and the back is at three levels, so you can go up some more. We’re constantly getting materials in, but the majority of the archives is in here [the archives room]. We do have some materials in the special collections room, which is down the hall. Some of our manuscripts and journals are in there. We’re always trying to get more - we have some collections that are coming our way. When administrators or faculty are cleaning out their offices, sometimes they’re like, “Oh, I have a drawer full of this - here you go!” So, we’re always getting more we’re always growing. We definitely weed out what’s not worth saving, though. What is your favorite item in the collections? I guess I would say the journal of Cyrus Peirce, because it is historically one of our oldest items that we have, and the fact that Cyrus Peirce was the first principal. As far as value goes, everybody loves the photos and such - mostly the historic ones, and they love the modern ones, too. What advice would you give to FSU students? When I was teaching the Foundations course, I would tell students that my path wasn’t a straight line. You might have to make some changes or do some zigzagging around. So, you have to figure out what you want to do, and sometimes it doesn’t always work out the way you planned. I mean, I was going to work in business or human resources or something like that, and I ended up here, as an archivist. I never thought I’d be dealing with things for Christa McAuliffe and talking to astronauts! I never thought I’d meet an astronaut! Some of the news shows have come here to use our materials. ... I just think it’s really neat to be able to do this. CONNECT WITH NADIRA WICAKSANA nwicaksana@student.framingham.edu
Tuesday, February 19 12:03 Elevator Entrapment Larned Hall Services Rendered
Tuesday, February 19 14:14 Suspicious Activity FSU Police Dept. Report Filed
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE GATEPOST
NEWS | 3
Admin forum Continued from pg. 1 hate crime was thought to have occurred. He added, “What came as a surprise to me, through the investigation, is how many people don’t know each other on this campus or who didn’t want to let us know who someone was in the video.” Medeiros said their information “developed along the way,” which led officers to review other time frames during which the crime might have occurred. This required reviewing the videos again and another round of interviews to help identify more people who entered the restroom. He said the first interview process did not yield any suspects, so FSUPD completed “a more indepth forensic review” of the video. This review led to additional questions, and FSUPD is now re-interviewing people “to identify who is credible and who isn’t,” he added. According to Medeiros, FSUPD has also communicated “at length” with “experienced” detectives from the Framingham Police Department to check the quality of their investigation and to ensure they are asking the right questions, interviewing the right people, and treating everyone fairly. FSUPD has also been in contact with the Middlesex District Attorney’s office and “sought a resource from the Mass State Police with some equipment they are going to be lending us, if it gets to that point,” Medeiros added. “These situations are very difficult to investigate. You have no witness that saw this being done. Whether it’s a note that’s being slipped under a door or whether it’s writing on a wall, you cannot force a confession out of anybody, no matter how you try. It’s definitely not TV,” he said. Medeiros added they are working “super diligently” to “resolve” the situation. “When we close our investigation, we will take our
findings to the district attorney’s office. Ultimately, the charges - if there are any at the time - will be determined in conjunction with the DA’s office.” He added, “I would stress this: we really need some input from the community. Somebody knows. Somebody knows. Somebody knows who wrote it. It may not be one of the 14 people that went into that bathroom, but somebody knows who wrote it.” Sophomore Carlos Barbosa said during the forum, “Every time the hate crimes come up, people tend to say - even I’ve said it myself in the past - that campus police isn’t doing anything, stuff like that, which I obviously know isn’t true because the amount of work that goes into an investigation is a lot. The student body is very hostile toward campus police, I’ll say that out flat.” Barbosa said he would like FSUPD officers to participate in conversations and open forums with students, even for a few minutes, so students could hear officers’ perspectives and officers could hear students’ perspectives. Medeiros said it’s “not an excuse,” but the FSUPD staff is small relative to the number of buildings and parking lots they need to patrol, so it can be hard to be as “proactive” as they would like. He added, “We definitely would like to participate more with different programs on campus. It doesn’t always fit into the schedule, but you can always send me an email and say, ‘Hey Chief, I want to give you a heads up on this. This is coming up - is anybody around this day?’” With regards to the forum’s low attendance, both Cevallos and SGA President Ben Carrington said “complicated” scheduling made the event difficult to advertise, and they hope SGA and the administrators can work together next time to more effectively advertise the forum. Millie González, interim chief officer of diversity, inclusion, and
Monday Art Club, 1:30 pm, May Hall 407 Education Club, 1:30 pm, MC 413 Nutrition Club, 1:30 pm, HH 219 Wildlife Club, 1:30 pm, HA 325 Gatepost, 6:30 pm, MC 410 Dance Team, 6:30 pm, Aerobics Room MISS, 7 pm, CIE, O’Connor 120A Math Club (every other week), 4:30 pm, HH 402 Tuesday Equestrian Club, 4:30 pm, MC 413 Hilltop Players, 6:30 pm, HA 136 Pride Alliance, 6:30 pm, MC 413 Black Student Union, 7 pm, CIE, O’Connor 120A SGA, 7:30 pm, Alumni Room Young Democrats Association, 7 pm, MC 520 Wednesday History Club, 1:30 pm, May Hall 111B
Ashley Wall / THE GATEPOST University administrators gathered to address student concerns.
community engagement, said, “Specifically regarding the recent hate crime, but also what happened in the fall of 2017, I think when something like this happens, the campus is traumatized. And I don’t expect we’re ever, even in a venue like this, to assume that the people who are not showing up don’t care. If anything, it is my job to go where they are.” She said, “Because the hurt of these crimes takes a toll on our student population, we have to make extraordinary measures to make sure the way we feel is communicated. This is full-court press: we are extremely upset about this and we want to make sure we do everything in our power to support campus police in solving this issue.” González added all the administrators want to build trust with students so they will feel comfortable approaching administrators to have important conversations, but also so students will feel comfortable welcoming them into their spaces - be it the Center for Inclusive Excellence, classrooms, or residence halls. Lorretta Holloway, vice president for enrollment and student
development, encouraged students to approach her during her “Ask a VP” lunch dates. She said she takes a table in the dining hall where any student can approach her to ask questions. She posts the dates on her Twitter account @SAEnrollFSU. “We tend to only hear from certain pockets of students,” but those students don’t always represent the entire campus, Holloway said. She hopes through events like the forum and Ask a VP meals, administrators can reach a wider range of students. Patricia Whitney, assistant vice president of facilities, said she’s worked at four other colleges and universities, but she has never seen “a situation like this, where administrators come at the invite of student government and open themselves up for whatever questions come their way - and some haven’t been easy.” She added, “I hope people take advantage, and you should recognize that it is something that isn’t available on all campuses.”
CONNECT WITH JILLIAN POLAND jpoland@student.framingham.edu
Club Meeting Times Wednesday, continued SUAB, (2nd & 4th Wednesday of each month), 6:30 pm, Club Room 1, MC 413 Fashion Club, 7 pm , HH 218 LUNA, 7 pm, CIE, O’Connor 120A IGNITE (every other week), 7:30 pm, MC 520 Thursday Gatepost, 6:30 pm, MC 410 Onyx, 6:30 pm, May Hall 213 African Student Association, 7 pm, North Commons Afro Carribean Dance Group, 7 pm, Aerobics Room Anime Club, 7:45 pm, WL 221 & 222 Brother 2 Brother Meetings, 8pm, CIE, O’Connor 120A Friday E-Sports, 6 pm, HA 534 Gaming Club, 12 pm, MC 413 Medical Awareness (every other week), 2:30 pm, MC 520 Sunday Symphonic Band, 6 pm, DPAC
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4 | NEWS
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE GATEPOST
Senators face tough decisions as funds run low
By Donald Halsing Editorial Staff
Student organizations faced pushback while requesting funds from SGA during its weekly senate meeting on Feb. 19. During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, senators voted multiple times before allocating funds for Fashion Club’s upcoming fashion show slated for April 26. After four votes to bring the motion to the floor, with the final standing being five for and three against, the club was allocated $11,097.43 for the event. Initially, senators asked if the show was mandatory for students in the fashion major. If that were the case, the fashion department
there are “avenues for grants or funding” from industry professionals, to which Parker responded, “It’s really just not an option.” Bennet also asked why the club waited until now to submit their request, despite the show occurring annually. Parker answered, “We usually wait until after … November because we have a couple things going on, like the Trashion Show.” She added funding requests have “never been an issue” and the club does not receive any donations for events. “Whatever you guys give us is what we take in and appreciate.” SGA President Ben Carrington asked why the club included $1,625 Kathleen Moore / THE GATEPOST for chairs instead of using chairs SGA eBoard (from left): Adam Scanlon, Ben Carrington, Alex Backer, and Matt O’Sullivan provided by Campus Events. peruse the organization’s finances.
“We cannot have a fashion show without those chairs!” - Ali Gallo, Fashion Club treasurer should provide funding, not SGA. Fashion Club publicist Rebecca Parker told the senate, “The [fashion] department doesn’t have anything to do with our club. … We are the ones that run the show. “It’s not a mandatory show. It’s the senior portfolio showcase that is mandatory,” Parker added. Fashion Club Vice President Lauren Paolini said, “When you come to this school, the fashion show is something you look forward to.” Participation in the show is not limited to fashion majors, either. Parliamentarian Adam Scanlon said, “They’ve been putting out applications. … You can apply to be a model” or enter something in the show. Parker said “around 30 percent” of the participants are not fashion majors. Senator Abigail Salvucci asked if the club had done any fundraising for the show. Parker answered, “We never really had to in the past. … At this point, we don’t have time.” Senator Matty Bennet asked if
Parker said stage provider Immedia brings white chairs. “That’s so that we can have industry partners sit front row.” Parker added, “We don’t want to … budge with the white chairs.” The club reached out to Campus Events to acquire white chairs, but the request was “shut down.” While Fashion Club is trying to “trim” the budget as much as possible, Parker said the chairs remain vital to the show and the quote provided by Immedia is non-negotiable. However, the senate discussed removing certain line items, particularly the white chairs. Senators deliberated over the funding request multiple times. Bennet said, “Given SGA’s current balance sheet … this would be an extremely huge hit.” When Bennet motioned to fund half the cost of the event, Student Trustee Ayanna Ferguson said, “Funding them half the cost would mean that there is no fashion show.” Parker responded, “This is the
Kathleen Moore / THE GATEPOST Fashion Club presents its funding requests for their annual fashion show.
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most bare minimum fashion show I have ever seen.” Fashion Club Treasurer Ali Gallo added, “We cannot have a fashion show without those chairs!” Vice President Alex Backer said, “If we do not fund this, we are doing a disservice to this campus community.” He added, “That’s our mission: to be advocates for the student body and to bring people together on this campus - that’s what a club is for.” Scanlon asked, “Why weren’t we concerned about [money] five months ago?”
The senate also approved Fashion Club’s third request for $642.50 for an event called, “Make It Work.” The competitive fashion design event will be held on March 30. Also at the meeting, SGA approved Anime Club’s request for $2,895 for tickets and transportation to Anime Boston 2019 on April 19 and 20. This is less than the club’s initial request of $5,145, since the number of funded tickets was halved and transportation was limited to one day. SGA allocated $150.64 for Nutrition Club’s Career Symposium. However, the club initially request-
“If we do not fund this, we are doing a disservice to the campus community.” - Alex Backer, SGA vice president Bennet said, “It breaks my heart that we’re at this point right now, that we do not have money.” Carrington said, “This debate, in terms of, ‘Should this be coming from Academic Affairs or Student Affairs?’ should not be falling on the students.” He added, “If we think this is a good event, I think senate should vote in favor.” After a recess, SGA approved Fashion Club’s next funding request, which would provide a DJ and photographer for the fashion show. The amount allocated was $3,100, removing programs and promotional items. The photographer is a “professor on campus,” according to Parker, although the club has yet to negotiate a price. Parker assured the senate the cost would be under the $1,850 proposal. Salvucci said, regarding the printing of programs, “If you guys start printing now, using the five prints a day from the SGA office, that could be free printing.”
ed $820.47. Jensen Allie, Nutrition Club secretary, said they have “never [been] turned down from budgeting before.” M.I.S.S. requested $7,453.78 for their annual carnival. However, Bennet motioned to remove food and merchandise from the request, making the total allocation $5,873.20. M.I.S.S. President Ewnie Fedna responded, “The reason we have [the merchandise] is because that’s something people expect to have.” Treasurer Liraniz Colon said at the carnival, “you expect to have carnival food.” Out of the seven funding requests seen by SGA, one was approved without conflict. Symphonic Band was allocated $875 to fulfill the contract that pays the band director. [Editor’s note: Lauren Paolini is a member of The Gatepost staff]. CONNECT WITH DONALD HALSING dhalsing@student.framingham.edu
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
THE GATEPOST
NEWS | 5
FSU launches center for civic engagement By Nadira Wicaksana News Editor
Framingham State launched the Civic Engagement and Service Learning Center in December 2018 to “enhance student learning and foster a culture of civic responsibility at the University,” according to a Dec. 7 email from Linda VadenGoad, provost and vice president of academic affairs. In the email, Vaden-Goad stated the center “will facilitate the development of academically oriented and co-curricular programs and provide resources” supporting FSU community “engagement in mutually beneficial partnerships with our local, national, and international community partners to address significant public issues.” The center is headed by faculty coordinator and political science professor Christopher McCarthy-Latimer and housed by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, though it does not yet have a permanent physical location. It will roll out programs “to support civic engagement and service-learning opportunities in the classroom during the spring semester,” said Vaden-Goad. According to McCarthy-Latimer, in the fall 2018 semester, the center received $10,000 from the budget of
Sue Dargan, the dean of social and behavioral sciences and the interim dean of business. “Dean Dargan was extremely nice,” McCarthy-Latimer said. This semester, he is directing the preliminary funds as “mini-grants” of $1,000 each toward supplement-
profit Giving class “will take field trips to local organizations under consideration for funding,” Dargan said. Additionally, added Dargan, McCarthy-Latimer and the center are partnered with the MetroWest Nonprofit Network, which is “assisting
“I think it’s time, and I’m glad that they are taking this so seriously.” - Christoper McCarthy-Latimer, political science professor ing faculty initiatives in their classes, as well as co-curricular activities. Professors can use the funds to cover costs such as transportation. There are currently 10 recipients students and faculty alike - of minigrants from the center, said Dargan in an email. Among the recipients is nursing professor Ruth Remington, whose class is collaborating with the Latino Health Insurance Program, an organization that provides health education and screenings for Framingham’s low-income Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking populations. Another grant recipient is sociology professor Ira Silver, whose Non-
FSU faculty as they make connections with local nonprofits to work on course service projects and establish internships.” McCarthy-Latimer is “researching grants so that we can have a physical space for the center and add staff, increase the mini-grant program, work toward a Carnegie classification, and interface more with the community,” Dargan wrote. According to Campus Compact, a coalition of more than 1,000 United States colleges and universities, a Carnegie classification marks an institution for higher education as committed to community engagement.
McCarthy-Latimer said his motivation to start the center came from his involvement in a similar program at his former institution, the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland. He said this institution and many others across the United States have strong legacies of civic engagement and service learning, and he wanted to see this replicated at Framingham State. He also said he hopes to see greater collaboration between different departments of the University, which he said he believes currently operates in “silos. “There was a lot of collaboration between Res Life and other departments,” he said of SUNY Cortland. “Here, it seems completely separate.” McCarthy-Latimer added he hopes the continued development of the center will lead to increased student engagement and involvement with the greater Framingham community. “We literally are starting from scratch, but better to start from scratch than not at all. I think it will be a very positive experience for students,” McCarthy-Latimer said. He added, “I think it’s time, and I’m glad that they are taking this so seriously.” CONNECT WITH NADIRA WICAKSANA nwicaksana@student.framingham.edu
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THE GATEPOST
6 | OP/ED
OP/ED Online support groups could be making your mental illness worse By Thomas Maye Staff Writer On Feb. 15, Elizabeth Anne Brown, writing for The Atlantic, claimed that “Suicide Memes Might Actually Be Therapeutic.” She paints a glowing image of online mental illness communities, seeing them as a refuge for the mentally ill to speak their truth, unfiltered and unashamed. I want to believe you, Brown. I really don’t want to be the keyboard warrior here. But as a once religious attendant of online mental illness communities, I know that suggestions like this aren’t not just generalizations - they can be outright misleading for people at risk of harming themselves. Self-selecting internet forums are inevitably prone to becoming echo chambers. And while Brown touches upon it herself in her interviews, I need to reiterate that communities of entirely mentally ill users could end up reinforcing, rather than challenging, depressive and suicidal thoughts. There may be supportive comments, here and there, and communities like this do give a voice to the taboo. But the act of commiseration, apart from what Brown suggests, is not the same as the act of healing. This isn’t a generational misunderstanding of online communities, as she argues. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how these communities impact many of its users. At least twice a day, scrolling through depression-oriented communities on Reddit, someone posts that they’re planning to go through with plans of suicide. The descriptions are often painstaking, too, going into excruciating details about what pills they’re planning on taking, how they’ll tie the rope, what they’ll tell their parents before they go. The user comments largely encourage them to call a hotline, or possibly message them for support, but there’s only so many times you can read online suicide notes in rapid succession before they start to feel strangely normal. It’s irresponsible to treat unhealthy communities such as these as an afterthought. Perhaps Brown’s focus was more on image-based posts - but messages like these are only a click away, and, more often than not, frequented by the same users. In the throes of depression and social anxiety, it was hard for me to accept that, while comfortable in my illness, many of my coping mechanisms weren’t actually helping me. Blasting Lana Del Rey and Sufjan Stevens only further numbed me. Quarantining myself to my room, replaying my monologue of self-hatred over and
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over again, just perpetuated my insecurities. And I came to realize that my many long rants on various support groups, once genuinely looking for help, gradually morphed into an excuse to stew in my own misery. As my sense of self withered, the users, though well-intentioned, would often parrot the same destructive thought patterns. I wanted people to agree with me, and I got that in scores - but what I really needed was for someone to sit down with me and tell me I was wrong, that I was being too cruel to myself, that it wasn’t normal to read about fatal car accidents with a twisted sense of jealousy. I always got several links to mental health hotlines, a few brief messages of kindness copied-and-pasted from other threads. But as a depressed person, I had an inherent cognitive bias towards negativity. I’d always latch on to comments that reaffirmed my dismal worldview. It’s naive, then, to assume that this wouldn’t be a common reaction - that pessimistic responses, no matter how scattered, wouldn’t have serious impacts on the people reading them. I’m well aware that a column in your school newspaper isn’t going to cure you of your mental illness. But neither, then, is a faceless profile who doesn’t know you, doesn’t know your struggles, and doesn’t know how to help themselves, let alone someone potentially thousands of miles away. If they help you, by all means, continue frequenting these communities. If you’ve found success, it’s not my place to discourage you. But if it’s just reinforcing the thought patterns you’re trying to get rid of, you owe it to yourself to honestly reflect. I’m not going to run through the “therapy, exercise, support group” laundry list everyone with depression has heard verbatim. But I will say this - if mental illnesses are formed by unhealthy thoughts, treating yourself means constantly challenging and reevaluating them. And it’s almost impossible to change your thoughts when almost everyone around you thinks the same. Take care of yourself. Take a serious look at the ways you cope, and if they’re really helping you develop as a person. You deserve to be understood, at your current state, but just as well, you deserve the opportunity to grow, to move on from the past. And, as painful as it is to admit, if people are tethering you to your pain, it may be time to move on without them.
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
THE GATEPOST EDITORIAL
Looking the wrong way If you’ve turned on the TV, gone on Twitter, or read the news in the last week, you most likely will have read the rollercoaster coverage surrounding Jussie Smollett. The details of the Jan. 29 assault were sickening. But now, the police allege he fabricated the entire story. The news coverage of his alleged lies has touched every corner of the media, from the near-hourly CNN coverage to a trending Twitter “moment,” and has outshined any other news. Eddie Johnson, superintendent of the Chicago police, said of this phenomenon, “I just wish that the families of gun violence in this city got this much attention.” This sentiment rings true even on a national level. While the attention has been on this one case, it’s true that incidents of hate and virulent violence are on the rise. On Feb. 15, a Coast Guard lieutenant was charged with allegedly planning a domestic terror attack “on a scale rarely seen in this country,” according to court documents. NPR reported the accused was a “a self-described white nationalist,” who intended to target primarily Democratic and liberal lawmakers. This story has been featured in a smattering of publications in print and online, but has not been part of a larger discourse about the safety of our country. President Donald J. Trump tweeted at Jussie Smollett, saying, “What about MAGA and the tens of millions of people you insulted with your racist and dangerous comments!?” But his favorite platform is glaringly missing any mention of the suspect who dreamed of murdering Trump’s fellow lawmakers - a move that should easily be condemned by everyone, regardless of political affiliation. The politicization of the Smollett case has prevented people on both sides of the aisle from seeing clearly. Democrats are too busy retracting their support from Smollett, and Republicans have been quick to jump down the throats of anyone who voiced their disgust over the first reported attack. In his alleged greed, Smollett has caused irreparable damage to the lives of the people who will doubtless be the victims of hate crimes in the future, and whose reports will be met with, “Is this just another Jussie Smollett situation?” Americans have been hyper-focused on this rare occurance of a falsely reported hate crime because it is easier to believe instances of racism are fabricated. As the country sets its eyes on Chicago, perhaps it’s time to look at how the city has been plagued by the same violence the alleged domestic terrorist threatened - gun violence. According to data from The Chicago Tribune, of the 28 people killed by gun violence in Chicago by Feb. 9, half were black. The remainder were Asian, Hispanic, or unknown. None were identified as white. We should be focusing our resources on this crisis, as Johnson said during his press release. But, to put it plainly, it doesn’t appear as though Americans take violence against people of color seriously. And when people around the country do, conservatives are gleefully happy to prove their rare empathy wrong. The depth and breadth of the Smollett coverage, in relation to the sparse conversations around gun violence in Chicago and domestic terrorism, reveal that Americans are truly concerned with upholding a system that values whiteness over people of color and their experiences of systematic, racialized violence. Smollett’s actions shouldn’t be minimized, but with the overexposure of this case, our attentions should not waver from the long-standing tradition of institutionalized American racism.
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THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
Respond with diligence By Lizzy Stocks Opinions Editor Actor Jussie Smollett allegedly staged a violent hate crime in which he was the victim of a brutal assault at the hands of two masked assailants who attributed their attack to “MAGA country,” on Jan. 29. Inconsistencies in the investigation led to rising suspicions as Chicago police could not corroborate Smollett’s story through eyewitness testimony or surveillance footage from where the alleged crime took place. On Feb. 14, Smollett appeared on “Good Morning America” to maintain his victimhood and said, “You do such a disservice when you lie about things like this.” As it turns out, Smollett’s claims were likely hollow as he allegedly paid two men $3,500 help him stage an attack in which he claimed they wrapped a rope around his neck and poured a chemical similar to bleach on him, while also shouting racist and homophobic slurs, according to Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. Smollett was arrested Thursday morning after turning himself into the Chicago Police Department. He is being charged with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false report and faces up to three years in prison. Many claim Smollett’s disgraceful actions have undermined actual hate crimes and will negatively affect future victims, and I’m not here to argue those people are wrong. However, I believe people should acknowledge that Smollett’s case
teaches us hate crimes must not be met firmly with conviction, nor skepticism - but they must be met with diligence. According to the Washington Post, “Johnson lamented the many resources Chicago police used on an investigation that lasted weeks,” as detectives interviewed over 100 individuals and used both public and private cameras to construct a timeline of the alleged assault. Police resources were exhausted in order to reveal the truth. Those resources could have definitely been utilized in legitimate crimes, but regardless of the legitimacy of Smollet’s assault, the diligence of the responding officers combats Smollet’s disservice by lying. Though Johnson and many others are ashamed those resources could have been used elsewhere, I applaud the Chicago Police Department’s response to this alleged crime as it demonstrates hate crimes must be thoroughly investigated in order to uncover the truth - even if the allegation is revealed to be unfounded or fabricated. By selfishly reporting a false hate crime in hopes of enhancing his acting career, Smollett certainly did a disservice to the black community, LGBT community, and hate crime victims past and present - but it’s this very disservice that teaches us all reported crimes must be met with complete and utter diligence.
Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but chains and whips make me nervous By Kay Ann Staff Writer
I’m going to open with this: BURN your copy of Fifty Shades. It is not BDSM, and anything you “learned” from it is crap. Now we have that out of the way, let’s talk about BDSM and what it actually is. BDSM stands for bondage, domination, submission, and masochism. I know those words sound super intense and scary, but BDSM is a spectrum, and you have probably participated in some form of it without even noticing. Have you ever been spanked or handcuffed? Though these actions seem pretty tame, they are still considered BDSM. The BDSM spectrum covers everything from sensation play, involving satin ropes and feathers, to device bondage, including metal shackles and intense sex toys, such as huge vibrators and ball gags. No matter what sexy adventure you’re planning on taking, you need to know the two main principles of the BDSM community. Safety and consent. Let’s tackle safety first. In BDSM, lots of “accessories” can be used, and the operators need to be educated about how to uses them. For example, suspension BDSM requires the use of ropes that must be tied around the participant as they are suspended. This type of BDSM can be dangerous if the person tying the ropes isn’t trained. It can cause pain and bruising by obstructing blood flow if the ropes are too tight. There are many workshops and BDSM clubs that teach proper techniques to people who are interested in suspension. Safety also means taking care of the equipment used for sex, both toys and restraints. Before you put handcuffs on someone be sure to do a quick visual inspection to make sure there are no sharp edges or areas that could snag the skin, always make sure that sex swings are securely fastened to the ceiling, and double check any and all toys you will be using are clean and free of debris. No matter what kind of roleplay you’re doing, you want a responsible “Dungeon Master.” Next let’s talk about consent, which is a facet of safety, but is so essential that it deserves its own category. Without consent, BDSM is assault - like any other unwanted sexual advances. The whole point of BDSM is for both parties to have a pleasurable experience, and if one partner is uncomfortable during the act, it’s not BDSM. Before engaging in any BDSM-type activities with your partner you need to establish boundaries. Go through everything you are planning to include in your “scene,” no matter if it’s light slapping or anal fisting - check with your partner beforehand and ask them if these acts are OK. Next, choose a safe word. A safe word is exactly what it sounds like - words that are used to let your partner know to stop or slow down. These are especially important in roleplaying scenes where there is a power dynamic being presented. A few popular options for safe words include “yellow” for “slow down” and “red” for “stop.” You can also make your own safe words, like “pineapple” or “ice cream.” Whatever you choose to be your safe word, make sure that it’s easy to remember and won’t come up naturally in sex. Don’t make “harder” your safe word. Let’s end with some pro-tips: 1) When restraining someone, do not use duct tape. The adhesive is a skin irritant. Plan ahead - buy some “bondage tape” online. It’s adhesive free, hypo-allergenic, and my personal favorite brand is only $3.29 a roll on Amazon. If you didn’t plan ahead, use a tie or a piece of fabric. 2) Don’t be afraid to experiment. BDSM is a spectrum, and I’m sure there are a few practices you and your partner will enjoy. Personally, I suggest light spanking during penetration. It’s a real nice sensation. 3) Adjustable nipple clamps are a wondrous investment. Stop ignoring your nipples. I promise you won’t regret it. Now, go explore. [Editor’s note: Due to the unfortunate stigma surrounding women discussing sex, the author of this column has requested to use the pseudonym “Kay Ann.”]
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8 | OP/ED
THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
The cost of crisis By Evan Lee Staff Writer In the wake of the longest U.S. government shutdown in history, President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Congress - either reach a deal on his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a southern border wall by Feb. 15, or face the consequences. “If we don’t get a fair deal from Congress, the government will either shut down, again, or I will use the powers afforded to me under the laws of the Constitution of the United States to address this emergency,” Trump announced on Jan. 25. Fortunately, congressional negotiators on both sides were able to strike a deal. Their compromise budget bill passed through both houses and received the presidential signature on the very last day before funding ran out again. Second shutdown averted. Unfortunately, that deal did not include an end to the battle over the southern border, which was at the crux of the record-breaking 35day shutdown that preceded this all. The final budget for the year falls well short of Trump’s original border funding demand, allocating just $1.375 billion for his wall. It’s enough to raise about 55
miles of fencing, according to the Wall Street Journal, but that’s not nearly enough to appease Trump’s loyal base. Conservative talk show host Sean Hannity slammed the agreement as a “garbage new compromise” that is “typical of the D.C. sewer” during his Fox News program. He went on to encourage Trump to proceed with his earlier threat to “address this emergency” by diverting more money toward the wall. “This is the time, that is the necessity,” Hannity argued. And Trump agreed. On the same day that he signed the bipartisan approved budget into law, Trump declared a national emergency over border security. It’s an act that has received instantaneous bipartisan disapproval. Congressional Democrats are furious at Trump’s emergency declaration, which they deem as an unconstitutional use of force, though this is to be expected from his opposition. What’s more interesting is that many Congressional Republicans have come to share the same opinion. “Declaring a national emergency is unnecessary, unwise, and inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution,” said Republican Sen. Lamar Alex-
ander. Yet, despite numerous concerns and criticisms from members of his own party, Trump remains determined to build the wall at all costs. Unfortunately for him - the cost may be 2020. Six out of 10 Americans believe that Trump’s national emergency is unnecessary and that it’s a misuse of his executive power, according to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/ Marist opinion poll. Republican approval still remains high in said poll, as does Democratic disapproval - these are both givens - but what’s most important is where nonpartisan voters stand. According to the poll, only 33 percent of independents approve of Trump’s national emergency, compared to 63 percent who disapprove of it.
And as the lawsuits begin to pile up against him - a coalition of 16 states have already filed one - it is unlikely that such a constitutional controversy will sway many independents in Trump’s favor. “He’s maintaining his base and little else,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of Marist Institute. In 2016, president elect Trump gave thanks to the “silent majority,” a mass of unspoken voters whom he said had become disenchanted with the games played by the Washington establishment. That silent majority, he proudly proclaimed during numerous rallies, had helped him win the presidential election. But now, after having played political games of his own, will he still be able to count on the silent majority’s vote in 2020? We shall see.
Not everything is cultural appropriation By Gordon Rupert Interim Editorial Staff
In a recent issue of The Gatepost, there was an op/ed written about Ariana Grande’s use of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean calligraphy on her album covers, and a tattoo “ 七輪” which in Japanese translates to “charcoal grill.” The op/ed accused Grande of cultural appropriation largely because she doesn’t know these languages and seemed to use the lettering for stylistic purposes to appeal to a certain demographic without respect for original meanings, rather than using it as a chance to be inclusive to these cultures. I have one objection to this accusation, and it’s that I literally cannot see how this is cultural appropriation. Using different languages to express ideas is not cultural appropriation. Using lettering of a foreign alphabet or writing system to create a stylized approach to art is not appropriation. And finally, while the argument could realistically be made that getting a tattoo in a language you don’t know is cultural appropriation, the motive for Grande to get the tattoo was because it held meaning and importance to her - not just because it
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looked pretty. It seems like there is too much eagerness these days to point out any flaw or point in time where someone could be using a piece of culture incorrectly. There isn’t just one agreed-upon definition as to what is and when it begins or ends, and the overlap among appropriation, assimilation, and exchange seems to be endless. A common example of when foreign alphabets are used with no respect to their original meaning is in something ubiquitously common in American media, faux Cyrillic. Faux Cyrillic is when letters are taken from the Cyrillic alphabet, commonly Я, И, and Д, and used to replace ones in the Roman alphabet, commonly R, N, and A, to give a Russian or Soviet feel to media. The only problem with this is that the letters “Я, И, and Д” are pronounced “ya, i, and d” respectively. There is a mad embrace of people who wear leprechaun hats, drink green beer, and scream about kissing the Irish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day - and I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a single accusation of appropriation when it comes to the way the fantasy genre depicts Western European mythology. And finally, looking back to
Grande, getting a mistranslated tattoo in a language you don’t understand is a universally bad idea, but by themselves “七” means seven, and “輪” can translate to rings. It was a dumb decision, and while she was ignorant to the possible meanings, she still tried to keep the meaning of the language intact, rather than pick a few good-looking symbols.
I’m starting to get sick of the way these events are constantly framed as malicious or stupid people trying to use things they don’t understand to look a certain way. It devalues the occasions when people actually do maliciously appropriate. It has a bad way of making us forget that not everything is cultural appropriation.
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THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
Letter to the Editor
Dear Gatepost, We are grateful for Jillian Poland’s clear reporting of this two-year contract struggle in your recent, excellent news article covering the MSCA Council of Presidents (COP) bargaining. On Feb. 20 we went back to bargaining; it has been 780 days since we have had a raise, and 599 days without a funded contract. The COP, including FSU President Javier Cevallos, didn’t honor the contract they signed with faculty and librarians last year. We were forced to return to bargaining. This time, we elected open bargaining so that members can see for themselves what happens in the process described last week by The Gatepost. FSU Chemistry Professor Steve Cok was an observer from FSU at our six-hour bargaining session at Worcester State. Because we, as union officers on the bargaining team, have spent more hours than we can count in bargaining, we asked Dr. Cok to share what he saw. He said: “I noticed that it doesn’t seem like [the COP’s representatives] have the author-
ity to make the decisions. I didn’t expect that each little dialogue [about each side’s proposals] would be so short: the COP had 11 people led by an attorney, and the union had 12 people led by a professor from Salem State. Most of the time, the teams were away from the negotiating table.” He added, “When the COP went away to discuss proposals, they came back after the caucus but just had the same response they had before it. It was ‘no’ to compromises offered by the MSCA about pay for work we do. ‘Oh, but here’s a one-time $250 to make up for it.’” Cok said, “I saw our [faculty] side come up with multiple pieces to work with. True, some of the bargaining issues are difficult to work with because of how different the nine campuses under the contract are. And yet, the COP had a one-line equation to calculate the cost as they attempted to make claims about their denials of our compromise positions.” …and the meeting ended without agreement. We meet again on March 4. Anyone who wants
more updates can visit www.mscaunion.org. Sincerely, Robert Donohue / Professor of Psychology and vice president of the MSCA Virginia Rutter / Professor of Sociology and FSU chapter president of MSCA
Have an opinion? Feel free to email it to: gatepost@framingham.edu Opinions should be about 500 words. Anyone can submit. We look forward to hearing from you!
Campus Conversations Did you attend the Administrators’ Forum? Why or why not? By Cara McCarthy and Ryan Feinblatt
“No, because I honestly have never heard of it.” -Kyle Bunker, junior
“No, because I don’t know what it is.” -Sarah Parker, sophomore
“No. I don’t know what it is and I don’t care.” -Noah Kahn, sophomore
“No. I’m a commuter, we don’t get notified on anything and I didn’t know it was a thing.” -Alex Tsiounrs, senior
“No. I actually didn’t know that it was going on.” -Josh Clarke, senior
“No. I didn’t even know it was a thing.”
-Johan Preiz, sophomore
Op/Ed submissions reflect the opinions of their authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of The Gatepost or its staff. FRAMINGHAM STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1932 | FSUGATEPOST.COM
10 | ARTS & FEATURES
THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
ARTS & FEATURES
“You’re alive. … and you are ‘A Real Boy!’”
Marc Cote explores identity and three-dimensional form with his woodcuts By Tessa Jillson Arts & Features Editor Marc Cote, dean of Arts and Humanities, said his “first love has always been art.” Before Cote was the dean of Arts and Humanities, he began his career at FSU in 1992 as a faculty member in the art department, after receiving his MFA from the University of Connecticut and a BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Cote said because of his responsibilities as dean, he now doesn’t teach much. Cote teaches an evening class this semester, but didn’t teach any classes last semester. “It’s really something additional I do here and there. I still enjoy it. I miss teaching. So, I’m enjoying the evening class I have this semester,” he said. Along with being a dean and a professor, Cote is also a local acclaimed artist who has had his work in many national and international venues such as The Kingston Gallery in Boston, The International Print Center in New York, The Santa Cruz County Art Museum in California, and the Kyoto Woodprint Association in Japan. His prints are also held in nu-
merous institutions including Harvard University, The Boston Public Library, The Danforth Art Museum, and McNeese State University in Los Angeles. His newest exhibition, “A Real Boy,” a collection of woodblock prints existing in various states with complex narratives intertwined with folktales, fables, historical references, personal biographical history, and religion, was shown at the Factory Mark Gallery in CommCreative, about a 10-minute drive from campus, on Jan. 31. Cote recently moved his private art studio to Saxonville Studios. He said his newest studio houses about 10 artists currently, including two FSU alumni. Because of Cote’s position as dean and his family obligations as a parent, he creates ideas for his woodcuts over a period of months or years, building figures in his mind before placing them into his sketchbook. He said he does most of his artwork from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., sometimes later - going to work and picking up his three kids before he even has time to go to his studio. Cote said when he’s making art, he doesn’t feel exhausted. He said, “I can work until 3 a.m.
Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST Cote’s exhibition, “A Real Boy,” is comprised of 12 woodcuts.
and I pay for it a little bit the next day. With this job as dean of Arts and Humanities, I haven’t been able to balance making art. I haven’t been able to prioritize it as much as I could when I was teaching. So, it happens in spurts - usually when I have an exhibition coming up.” Cote added that making artwork now requires a different “sensibility.” He’s not working and seeing what happens throughout the process. Instead, he has an idea resolved in his head and completes his pieces based on the specific narrative and form he wants to create. His showing, “A Real Boy,” is comprised of 12 woodcuts, sculptures, and prints, ranging from $100 to $1,500. Cote said twothirds of his series is newer pieces, while one-third of his series consists of older pieces he selected specifically for the exhibition, since they connected to the overall theme of identity. While making woodcuts, Cote said he usually starts by carving out birch tree trunks into three-dimensional shapes to create heads or figures. He then uses a roller to Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST print images on the surface of the wood. The uncarved areas will take Cote’s sculpture, “A Real Boy,” displayed in CommCreative. the oil-based ink, while the carved
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areas are usually too shallow to pick up the ink, only allowing the elevated areas to print. He makes his prints by first drawing multiples of a single image on thin, sturdy Japanese paper. For example, Cote said he painted 10 different images of his son’s face with black ink. Once the print dries, he glues it to the surface of the wood, which he then molds onto a three-dimensional form. Cote selects grainy stumps of wood so the viewer can see the “individualistic wood characters,” and how they manipulate the form. In some instances, Cote said, the way he carves the trunk based on the wood grains affects the distance between the eyes, the nose, and the mouth. Cote uses the same print, but each piece comes out differently depending on the wood’s own characteristics. “I’m working a little bit with lineage and ancestry. To me, that was an interesting visual metaphor for how you can talk about ancestry. “You have genes that get transferred on and give characteristics, like the resemblance between father and son. I like the idea of taking the wood block, carving it, and printing it, so there are many steps removed from the real wood, and
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
THE GATEPOST
Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST
Cote’s woodcuts “Two and Two Half Men”displayed in CommCreative. then bringing it back, emphasizing the raw unadulterated wood,” he said. Cote recognizes his work as Figurative Expressionism. He said he likes to approach his work with vigor, moving beyond photographic realism with the presence of mark-making and the visibility of his process in the artwork, fascinated with artists like Edvard Munch and German Expressionists. “Some of the pieces I gravitate toward are done in a similar way where process and content are fighting for attention,” he said. Jennifer Mulkerrin, FSU alumna and art teacher, said she “loved Marc’s use of bold carving marks and directional lines in his prints” and found herself using them in her own work. She added, “They are very reminiscent of German Expressionism with his ability to express raw emotion, but still allow the viewer to read into his pieces and interpret them in their own way.” Mulkerrin, who took Cote’s drawing and woodcut classes almost 17 years ago, said his class was her first experience in printmaking and his teaching style, demos, and pieces made her “fall in love with it.” After graduate school, Mulkerrin said she incorporated printmaking into her classroom right away and has even developed a printmaking course offered to Northbridge High School students starting next year. “It was a medium that I was never exposed to in high school and wanted to ensure that that was an opportunity provided for my students. Some lessons that have been directly inspired by Marc’s teaching are German Expressionist prints in which I ask my students to pair human emotions with human anatomy, and a book-making project given to
upper-level students in which students are asked to retell a historical event in a series of prints,” she said. Cote’s fascination with woodprint sculptures materialized from his interests in the oceanic tribal sculptures, the high ceilings, and carvings in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Oceanic wing. In the “A Real Boy” exhibition, Cote strategically carves out wood to create descriptive elements, fusing stories like folktales and biblical fables with other things he is thinking about and employing aspects of both in his work,
feels lacking or it suggests another direction. It’s fluid,” he said. One of Cote’s woodcut prints in the show, “Experimental Prototype: No Human Being Is Illegal,” displays a black and white image of a roof held up by human legs. Cote said the other underlying theme in his work is the “legitimacy and illegitimacy” of a human being. Motivated by the recent struggles of immigrants, Cote began to consider the tenuous reality of illegal immigrants and how they are only made “legitimate” when they become U.S. citizens.
“I really enjoyed seeing his use of collage and incorporating wood in parts of the final artwork. ... Marc’s use of logs as a basis for the final print to be displayed on, and using wood as an essential part of the artwork, seemed to highlight the importance of wood itself in the printmaking process. - Jennifer Mulkerrin, FSU alumna which he calls the “process of emergence.” His main piece in the exhibition, also titled, “A Real Boy,” is a figurative wooden sculpture of a man-like boy. Loosely based on Pinocchio, “A Real Boy” resembles a marionette doll with movable arms and legs connected with “elementary hinged parts.” Cote said some of his figures aren’t fully rendered. Sometimes, he makes the decision to cover the carved area with prints, but in “The Real Boy” sculpture, the uncarved wood is still visible. “It depends. It’s predetermined by my sketch. Sometimes, I start on something with an idea and it
ARTS & FEATURES | 11
He said, “It’s a lot about any kind of formation of character or identity. ... You’re kind of reliant, when forming your character, on other people’s perceptions and judgments.” “Experimental Prototype: No Human Being Is Illegal,” relates back to the process as a whole. The wood that Cote uses grows naturally with its own characteristics, and despite the fact that Cote manipulates the wood to fit a specific form or image, he also leaves bits and pieces of the bark intact. Mulkerrin said, “In Marc’s latest show, I really enjoyed seeing his use of collage and incorporating wood in parts of the final artwork.
… Marc’s use of logs as a basis for the final print to be displayed on, and using wood as an essential part of the artwork, seemed to highlight the importance of wood itself in the printmaking process. … I like the way the series explored human experience.” Another piece in his series, titled, “Two and Two Half Men” features black, white, red, and yellow printed faces on full and half sized wooden blocks. Cote said the pieces resemble another aspect of emergence centering around family history. While working on the woodcuts, Cote was questioning the things families say and the things families don’t say, the line of royal succession, who’s eligible, and who’s not. He recognized the woodcuts represented the idea of a fullfledged human being and how two halves can make a whole. “About 10 years ago, I found out that I had a half-brother,” Cote said. This discovery inspired “Two and Two Half Men.” As far as Cote’s career goes, he said he feels as if he’s in a place where his artwork feeds into his identity as the dean of Arts and Humanities. Although he recognizes that art is not his full-time career, he finds it helpful when appreciating the faculty, the students, and the work they do. “I enjoy being a visual storyteller. It makes me happy to have an art exhibition and be able to talk to people about how they experienced my art, what kind of reaction it stirs in them, and what kind of related stories they have,” he said. For more information and photos of Cote’s series “A Real Boy,” visit CommCreative, or factorymarkgallery.com/marc-cote.
CONNECT WITH TESSA JILLSON tjillson@student.framingham.edu
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12 | ARTS & FEATURES
THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
MazGal
Students observe Elisa Hamilton’s self-contour self-portraits in her series “Underline.”
Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST
Continued from page 1 seeing the face in lots of different ways working with materials.” Paul’s on-going series, “Naomie and Naima,” are water-based paintings of her two next-door neighbors. In the paintings, Paul has drawn the two sibling girls outlined in black, playing, usually with a red ball, situated on top of an earthy, neutral gold-green background. Paul said the ball symbolizes different things to everybody although, she originally incorporated the ball because it was something Naomie and Naima always played with. The ball is said to symbolize the world, growing up, and the “pulling” together and “pushing” apart dynamics in a relationship. Paul added, the ball raises the questions, “What does it mean to black girls who are discovering their identity and what does it mean to be a sibling?” Senior Rinnie Natanel said the red ball feels like Paul’s official “brand” in her series. Paul said her work is usually very “personal and universal.” She commented on being a white artist who draws black girls, saying she felt a personal connection to her two neighbors and that it wasn’t something superficial. After Naomie and Naima saw the paintings, they exclaimed, “Oh! We’re famous!” Paul said. The four paintings in the gallery, out of the, so far, 20-piece series, range from $4,000 to $5,000 each. Hamilton’s series, “Underline,” explores her own biracial iden-
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tity, using gesso and crayon on paper to create continuous-line, blind-contour self-portraits. She said her self-contour self-portraits are done looking into the mirror at herself and drawing one continuous line, following the outline of her face without looking at the paper. “As a biracial person, how I am seen shifts in the eye of the beholder and depends on social context. Through these explorations, I contemplate my own visual form while relinquishing the ability to control how I look. I embrace a process of discovery that asks me to truly see myself, and ask the viewer to find me within, and beneath, the wandering lines,” she wrote in her statement. Her portraits at first were just black and white but, as Hamilton continued to draw herself, she added color, realizing she was actually a really colorful person. “Through this process, I have discovered that none of us are just one thing - we are all multicolored beings beneath the surface,” she wrote. Hamilton said while creating these portraits, she has learned to let go of perfection and embrace letting herself get used to being OK with not having her work look exactly like it’s imaged. Her four portraits in the gallery are each $700. “A line can tell so much and I feel like these pieces are proof of that because this is a single line but it tells quite a story. Drawing is boundless,” she said. O’Hara’s series, “Pinkie,” is
comprised of four latex, acrylic, and pencil collages on linen. The collages were originally shown installed on a wall with handmade wallpaper behind them, consisting of multiple small holes made from a hole punch, but the gallery showing only involved three of O’Hara’s $1,800 collages, without the wallpaper background. Her work was inspired by her ongoing interest in Sigmund Freud’s “the uncanny,” the illusion that something traditional and homey can be uncomfortable and creepy at the same time. O’Hara compared this to automatons like the Chucky Doll. When O’Hara was a child, she said her mother used to take her to fake rooms, in IKEA for example, to go shopping. “I guess I’m kind of intrigued by this whole narrative about how people relate to their domestic space. Is it safe or is it not?” she said. O’Hara borrowed the idea of the Victorian peep show, a box or exhibit where scenes are viewed through a small hole. She wrote in her artist statement, “These paintings place the viewer inside that peep show box and imagine anonymous voyeurs spying from beyond or whispering within the gallery wall.” After her daughter wrote her thesis on “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, O’Hara said she became captivated with the idea of a woman who became a part of the wallpaper and went mad. O’Hara said even though it’s old
school, she is really interested in the idea of women being observers. Asking questions like, “What does that mean about identity and who they are?” When O’Hara was a student, she had a male teacher who told her that she can’t use the color pink because it’s a “loaded, feminine” color. Now, she emphasizes the color pink in her work, such as her paintings in the “Pinkie” series, creating a background, using rolled stencils, that resembles an ambiguous wooden pattern, a fingerprint, or flesh. The cutouts of eyes and mouths are taken from a bunch of different publications, scanned, then printed digitally. “I like the idea of this sort of surface realm, face realm. Are they going off? Are they coming in? Out? Are they on the surface? It’s this sort of ambiguity about where, which spaces are occupied, why, and what’s their relationship?” she said. Jones said, “You’re looking at not just spaces but, techniques of capturing the face that are quite unique and very different. … It’s not just the traditional portraits you’re used to seeing. … You’re seeing different concepts, expressions, and materiality.” Curator Kantrowitz said, “I always say a curator is only as good as the artist she works with. This show is just another example of that.”
CONNECT WITH TESSA JILLSON tjillson@student.framingham.edu
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
THE GATEPOST
FSU basketball coach presents black contributions to athletics By Gordon Rupert Staff Writer Framingham State University men’s basketball coach Bill Raynor spoke about the impact of black athletes on American society during his talk, “Beyond Sports,” on Feb. 20. He explained his own history with black people in sports, remembering a time when the only black people on his three-channel TV were athletes. He said, “Whoever was watching TV would yell and we would all come running over because you never saw a black person on TV.” Raynor mentioned several prominent black figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, and spoke about their impacts on the world of sports, with MLK’s contributions to minority rights being remembered on Twitter by numerous modern athletes during the week of his remembrance. Raynor said while Mandela was in prison, he recognized the importance of sports bringing people together, and applied the idea with the South Africa rugby team. During the talk, Raynor brought up several black athletes who had a positive impact on society, ranging from Jesse Owens to Muhammad Ali, what they meant to him personally, and how they were able to break new strides in how black people view and are viewed in different sports. He spoke about Tiger Woods. “When I was a kid you never hear of a black man playing golf. Now, you’ve got all these brothers out here playing,” he said. Raynor recalled when he met John Carlos, famous for winning the bronze medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Summer Olympics and infamous for his black power salute with Tommie Smith when standing on the winners’ podium. Raynor talked about how important the meeting was for him, saying
while they only slotted five minutes to talk, they ended up spending over two hours in his office. Raynor looked for his phone while joking to the audience, “I have his number. We should call him and see if he answers.” Raynor discussed his disappointment with the media following Colin Kaepernick’s NFL controversies regarding kneeling during the national anthem. He read several poems, the first about Raynor’s own experiences in the late 1970’s with police shootings of young, unarmed, black men. During the reading of Andrew Freborg’s poem, “I stand so you can kneel,” Raynor had a white man stand in front of the audience and a black Framingham State basketball player who kneeled next to him. Raynor is a published author with two books of poetry - “Poetry In Motion: The meaning of Sports in Everyday Life,’’ and “Reflections.” Raynor spoke about one of his personal heroes, who he called one of his greatest inspirations, Wilma Rudolf. Rudolf was a professional sprinter who became the first woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics game. She broke several records to become, as Raynor put it, “The fastest woman in the world.” While her achievements were legendary, Raynor said the true inspiration from Rudolf was the fact the she had to overcome scarlet fever and polio, which left her in a leg brace until she was 12. Raynor emphasized his personal admiration for each athlete mentioned, and how sports manage to break down the importance of race. Raynor quoted an old military expression: “I don’t see color in my players. You aren’t black. You aren’t white. Everyone’s green.”
CONNECT WITH GORDON RUPERT grupert1@student.framingham.edu
Donald Halsing / THE GATEPOST Bill Raynor talks about the positive impacts black athletes had on American society.
ARTS & FEATURES | 13
“How does one get these things called comics?” By Robert Johnson Jr. Asst. Arts & Features Editor
Over the many weeks of this columns existence, I have written about comics and comic book-oriented TV shows, but I’ve never explicitly told you how to get these magical bundles of paper. Sure, at the end of my reviews, I tell readers where to get the featured comic, with me oftentimes leading you to Amazon’s Comixology service or “your local comic book store.” Suffice to say, the time has come to make myself a little more useful with this column. To begin, I need to mention basic comic book and graphic novel-selling traditions to get you all up to speed. Comic books and graphic novels always come out on Wednesdays, unless stated otherwise by the publisher or the writer/artist team - a day most people, especially on social media, call “NCBD,” or “New Comic Book Day.” This is a day where you go to a comic book store and pick up that comic you’ve been eyeing since December’s solicitations from DC Comics. Now, solicitations is undeniably a long word that not too many people would not associate with comics, but in the industry, it’s basically a monthly release timeline scouting out upcoming releases for two-to-three months in advance or more. Now that you’re caught up with the lingo and norms of the industry, I will start with the MetroWest area’s comic book store offerings. There are three big places, all of them located along Rt. 9 - Bedrock Comics, Newbury Comics, and The Hall of Comics. They all have an almost endless assortment of new comics, but some places have an edge over others. Let’s start with the most popular one, or, at least the one that’s best known by the student body: Newbury Comics. This is one of the easiest places to get comics. They have a great archive of newer comics, as well as a consistent upkeep of new comic books every Wednesday. So, if you really want something, they probably have it. Bedrock Comics and The Hall of Comics have that same variety, but they also have comics from the Golden to the Bronze Age of Comics and beyond. Bedrock is like a mini-Newbury Comics, in a way, for they also sell trading cards, but The Hall is just pure comic books and graphic novels. “OK, Robbie, but I’m an introvert/I want to save gas money/I want to stay in bed and read things on my tablet.” Fret not, dear reader - there are simple solutions to these complex life problems. If you’re like my dad and you like to be conservative with your trips to the gas station, the internet can be your best friend. Allow me to suggest Midtown Comics in New York and digital comic storefronts. Midtown Comics might have three locations in New York - but they don’t call themselves “The Best Online Comic Book Shop” for nothing. You can order physical comics from all eras from Midtown, and it will send it to you fast. The shipping fees are also quite fair. Comixology might be owned by that sketchy fellow at Amazon, but that one might be the best service for your digital comic book needs. There are few alternatives, but comic book publishers such as Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse have their own storefronts you can access. And, remember, there are always webcomics - most are free. No matter how you decide to get comics, make sure you find a way that is comfortable for you.
CONNECT WITH ROBERT JOHNSON JR. rjohnson10@student.framingham.edu
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14 | ARTS & FEATURES
THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
MOVIE REVIEW
“The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” By Brennan Atkins Asst. Arts & Features Editor “The LEGO Movie,” directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, wowed audiences back in 2014 with its top-notch animation, rib-tickling humor, and of course - awesome music. “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part,” directed by Mike Mitchell, is a comedy-musical including Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowski/ Rex Dangervest, Elizabeth Banks as Lucy, Will Arnett as Batman, and Tiffany Haddish as Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi. This film takes place five years after the first, set in a dystopian future where building and having fun in general is seen as foolish, and even downright dangerous. This conflicts with Emmet, as having fun and building are two of his most prominent traits. He feels as if he needs to be tougher in order to fit in. He wants to change for his sake, and more importantly, Lucy’s. The hype for this movie has been building up for a while - let’s see if these bricks come tumbling down. Right off the bat, similar to the first film, the stop motion anima-
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tion, mixed with conventional animation is seamless. There’s a certain charm that comes with seeing the real toys being used, reminiscent of the early days of YouTube, with just a $99 million budget. The soundtrack, while not as memorable as the first, is always welcome. It seems as if this movie has more of a focus on the music than the first, and with “Everything is Awesome” being a hit, it makes sense. The voice acting was appropriate for each character, and the inclusion of Rex Dangervest was a delightful addition to the cast. He has a macho attitude, and Pratt’s voice delivers just that. Some of the most chucklesome moments include Dangervest, as he is just unique compared to the other characters. They even reference other films that Pratt has been in - from having pet raptors, to being a galaxy crusader. The movie is presented as a “hero saves their friends” plot, but it slowly turns into something more, and this is appreciated. Having plot twists and multiple storylines keeps audiences entertained throughout.
Oh, I forgot to mention my personal highlight of the film. Bruce Willis is in the film - he plays Bruce Willis. Nice. Unfortunately, some pieces just don’t fit the larger picture. Or Lego set. The theme of the movie doesn’t relate as well to the Lego franchise as the first. Its predecessor’s film was about creativity, breaking molds and growing as a person. This movie has a bit more of a general theme, and its message isn’t anything special. The live-action scenes of the movie didn’t grip me like the first. The kid from the first film has grown up a bit, and now has to share his Legos with his little sister. Will Ferrell isn’t ever seen on screen, and instead is replaced with the mother, played by Maya Rudolph. While the film isn’t as “awesome” as the first, I feel as if it is on the upper echelon of modern kids’ films. It’s everything a Lego Movie needs - it’s easy to digest, which isn’t a bad thing. “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part” is a fun ride and fitting sequel to the series and if you enjoyed the
first one, you’ll certainly find enjoyable elements in this film. Bruce Willis is in it.
ADMIT ONE
Grade: B The bricks stack neatly, but not that high.
ADMIT ONE
CONNECT WITH BRENNAN ATKINS Batkins@student.framingham.edu
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
THE GATEPOST
ARTS & FEATURES | 15
ALBUM REVIEW
Head above water keeps Avril afloat By Cara McCarthy Editorial Staff Avril Lavigne released her first album in six years, and frankly, she’s no longer the “sk8er” girl people grew up with during the early 2000s. Her new album, “Head Above Water,” tackles a range of issues from her divorce and path to sobriety, to her continued struggle with Lyme disease. Through these struggles, Lavigne has done a complete 180 from her previous albums in the best way possible. In her earlier albums, which skyrocketed her to fame, she was a typical punk teenager. Now, however, you can tell she has matured not only as a woman, but as a singer. Her music has gone from singing about skater boys and not liking your girlfriend, to singing about God and her own personal struggles she has experienced in the last six years. Her voice, overall, has never been better. Lavigne has gone from some-
what annoying yodeling to holding strong and powerful melodies, and through this album, has proven that her voice has come a long way. The pop singer made headway in her comeback toward the end of 2018, with the release of “Head Above Water,” which would later become the title track of her latest album. The tracks, “I Fell In Love With The Devil” and “Tell Me It’s Over,” are about her divorce from Chad Kroeger of Nickelback and the events leading up to it. “I fell in love with the Devil/and now I’m in trouble,” and “I can’t give you up/I know you’re no good for me” emphasizes their marriage was not on the right track. One song on the album left a sour taste in my mouth - “Dumb Blonde.” The track, which features Nicki Minaj, is nothing compared to the rest of the album because of its musical differences compared to the other tracks. While most of her songs are slow-paced, with meaningful lyr-
ics and powerful vocals, this song is not. Minaj may be a good name to put on a track, but it is still a struggle to get through. With the rest of the album being slow and more focused on Lavigne’s lyrics and vocals, “Dumb Blonde” is simply another pop song that will only ever be known as the song that did not fit. Lavigne’s vocals on the track sound like she is screaming into a microphone. The song alone isn’t horrible, but when you compare it to the rest of the album, it is obvious that Lavigne can do better and did not need this song for the album to be a hit. Regardless of whether you haven’t been the biggest fan of Lavigne over the last 10 years, or have been lying in wait anticipating her comeback - it is clear that Lavigne is back and better than ever.
35. *Behind-the-scenes work 38. Not as planned 41. Lend a hand 42. Subject to a tirade 46. “Huh?” 47. Container with feet 48. Walk in step 49. Crafted, as a basket 51. See 22-Across 55. Sort of, informally 57. Perfume holder 58. ___ Maria (coffee liqueur) 59. *Spanish count? 61. Photograph 62. Move, in Realtor-speak 63. “Time ___ all wounds” 64. Hollywood crosser 65. “Victory!” 66. Dreyer’s, in the Midwest 67. Cold War inits.
ACROSS
1. Rain hard? 5. Pub selections 9. Up to the job 13. Oat mask target 14. Replay speed 15. Fidel’s brother 16. Tater tot, once 17. *Intense argument (note each starred answer’s first word[s]!) 19. ___ chocolate 20. “What she said” 21. Got under control 22. *With 51-Across, military honor 25. Horizontal graph line 27. Spanish airmail word 28. Question pronounced like its last letter 30. Noshed 31. Dog warnings 33. Rose garden insect 34. Visa alternative, briefly
Grade: B You’ll be missing out if you don’t get on Lavigne’s wave.
MENU
CONNECT WITH CARA MCCARTHY cmccarthy8@student.framingham.edu
32. “You Are Here” symbol 33. River bottom 34. Record of the year? 36. Parking mishap 37. Egyptian leader Nasser 38. Cute kitty reaction 39. “Isn’t that surprising?” 40. Pasta pockets 43. “To be honest ...” 44. What verbs may represent 45. Improv class site 47. “Go back” PC command 50. Finish by 52. Sun hazard 53. Chemist Bohr 54. Attitude 56. Tennis legend Arthur 59. Ocean State sch. 60. ___ Talks 61. “Law & Order: ___”
Puzzle solutions are now exclusively online.
DOWN
1. Tweet symbol 2. Certain current 3. Not yet born 4. Started the parade 5. Car rental choice 6. Oscar winner Sophia 7. Expressive genre 8. p, in music 9. Coffeehouse smell 10. Test that lets you practice after you pass 11. One opposed to technology 12. Golfer Ernie 14. Move like a hammock 18. Like crayons 20. Shoplifted, say 23. Full of the latest 24. Rams’ partners 26. ___-linked trait 29. Will figure
FRAMINGHAM STATE UNIVERSITY'S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1932 | FSUGATEPOST.COM
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
THE GATEPOST
16 | SPORTS
SPORTS
Hockey’s season comes to an end
Corey McFeeley / THE GATEPOST Rams’ forward Walker Hamilton fights for the puck with a Salem State defender.
By Matt Ferris Sports Editor Framingham State traveled to UMass Dartmouth on Feb. 14 to take on the Corsairs in a MASCAC game. After almost a full period of scoreless play, the Rams finally broke through with three minutes left in the first. Brandon Hamner scored unassisted for Framingham to give the Rams a 1-0 lead. Just over three minutes into the second period, the Corsairs answered with a goal of their own. Cameron Mack scored the goal with assists from Steven Leonard and Eric Bolden to make it 1-1. Midway through the second, the Rams broke through to take a 2-1 lead. Jack Sheehan netted his sixth goal of the season off assists from Ryan Paul and Bryan Whelan. The Corsairs struck back with just over a minute remaining in the second to tie the game at 2-2. Mason Nichols ripped a shot past Rams goalie Adam Calabrese with assists from Leonard and Bolden. Thirty seconds into the third period, Walker Hamilton was called for a penalty, giving the Corsairs an early power-play opportunity. Jonathan Ruiz took advantage of the power play, scoring a goal to put the Corsairs up 3-2, early in the final period. Another Rams’ penalty gave the Corsairs a second power play chance in the first five minutes of the period. This time, Brody McDougal was called for the penalty. Again, the Corsairs took full advantage and scored their second power-play goal of the period. Leonard scored his first goal of the game off an assist from Ruiz to make it 4-2. A third Rams’ penalty in the first five minutes of the third period gave the Corsairs another power-play opportunity. Jeffrey Gratz was called for tripping for the Rams. Bolden scored his first goal of the game on the power play with assists coming from Leonard and Ruiz to put the Corsairs up 5-2. Midway through the third, the Corsairs added an insurance goal to go up 6-2. This time, Nicholas Short scored the goal off assists from Kai Kapossy and Nichols. Just over a minute later, the Rams struck back to cut the deficit to 6-3, as Paul took a pass from Soren Colstrup and fired it into the net. But the comeback effort was too little, too late, as the Corsairs earned a 6-3 victory over the Rams. Paul led the Rams in the loss with a goal and an assist. Nolan Greene and Calabrese split time in net for the Rams. Greene made 13 saves on the 14 shots he faced and Calabrese made 29 stops on 34 shots. The Rams were heavily outshot 48-16 in the loss. Framingham spent more than half the game on the penalty kill,
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spending 37 minutes in the penalty box during the game. With the loss, the Rams fall to 2-20-1 on the season and 0-15-1 in the conference.
UMASS DARTMOUTH FRAMINGHAM STATE
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On Feb. 16, the Rams went on the road to take on the Plymouth State Panthers in a conference game. The Panthers struck first midway through the first period to take an early 1-0 lead. Ryan Stevens took a pass from Matt Volonnino and fired the puck into the net. The rest of the period was quiet. Neither team could connect on any of their chances, sending the game into the first intermission at 1-0. Just over a minute into the second period, the Panthers struck again to take a 2-0 lead. This time, it was Peter Laviolette with the goal off an assist from JR Barone. Two minutes later, while a man down, Plymouth netted another goal to take a 3-0 lead. The shorthanded goal was scored by Volonnino off an assist from Stevens. Framingham finally broke through six minutes into the third period. Michael Gennello scored a power-play goal to make it 3-1 with assists coming from Sheehan and Colstrup. Midway through the period, the Rams struck again to cut their deficit to just one goal. Hamilton ripped a shot into the back of the net off an assist from Brenden Williams to make it 3-2. With just over five minutes remaining in the game, the Panthers answered back to grow their lead to 4-2. Two minutes later, Plymouth added another goal to the lead. Grant Dewitt scored off an assist from Drake Longaker to make it 5-2, the eventual final score. Greg Harney started in net for the Rams and made 40 saves. Framingham was outshot 45-25 in the game. The Rams’ special teams unit was a key factor in the loss, going just 1-for-6 on the power play. With the loss, the Rams drop to 2-21-1 on the season and 0-16-1 in the MASCAC.
PLYMOUTH STATE FRAMINGHAM STATE See HOCKEY page 19
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THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
Ferr or Foul Padres land Manny Machado
SPORTS | 17
Men’s Basketball pulls away from MCLA
By Matt Ferris Sports Editor
By Carlos Silva Staff Writer
With just over a month remaining until Opening Day, MLB superstar Manny Machado has finally found a new home. On Tuesday, Feb. 19, the highly coveted Machado inked an MLB-record 10-year, $300 million contract with the San Diego Padres. This contract overtook Alex Rodriguez’s $275 million contract with the Yankees in 2008 as the largest free agent contract in MLB history. The signing shocked the MLB world, as nobody even knew the Padres were interested in signing Machado. The Padres, who haven’t been relevant in the last 20 years, finished last season with a bottom-five record in the league at 66-96, 25 games out of the playoffs. Being so uncompetitive, many people asked, “Why would Machado sign with such a bad team?” The answer is very simple - potential. The Padres may have the brightest future of any team in the MLB. They are one of the youngest and most up-and-coming teams in the majors. San Diego has the best ranked farm system in the entire MLB, as well as the second-ranked prospect in all of baseball - Fernando Tatis Jr. Tatis is just 20 years old and can already do everything on a baseball field. On top of all this, San Diego already has a young, established star that they signed in free agency last year - Eric Hosmer. Hosmer is considered by many to be one of the best first basemen in the MLB and is also one of the best leaders in the sport. Machado and Hosmer will be a scary duo for opposing pitchers to face in the future. So, while the Padres probably won’t be very competitive this season, their future is extremely bright. The Padres need to take advantage of this season and get all their highly touted prospects extensive experience this year. If San Diego develops their players correctly, there is no reason that the Padres cannot be a powerhouse in the MLB within the next five seasons. The Machado signing will give the Padres a key advantage in the development of their farm system. Machado is one of the best players in the league, and he will be a key factor in the prospects’ development. The star infielder needs to step up like he never has before and be a leader in San Diego’s clubhouse and show the Padres’ youngsters how to be professional baseball players. If Machado is up to the task, then the sky is the limit for the Padres and a World Series title in the near future is not far-fetched at all. Machado needs to be commended for his decision to sign with San Diego. In an era when many superstars are just concerned with winning titles, Machado actually chose to go to a small-market team and help rebuild a struggling franchise. Sure, Machado could have taken the easy way out and signed with the Phillies or the Yankees, both superteams, but he opted for the high road instead. Professional sports needs more people like Machado, who don’t give into the immense pressure the media puts on them to win titles and join these superteams.
On Feb. 16, Framingham hosted MCLA in their final regular season game of the year. The Rams honored their two seniors, Manny Payton and Khaneil Bruce, before the game in their senior night celebration. Payton played in 76 games in his three seasons with the Rams. He averaged 16.5 points per game in his career. Bruce played one full season for Framingham, playing in all 25 games this year. He averaged 7.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. The Rams took a 9-8 lead after an easy lay-in from Payton with just under 15 minutes remaining in the first. The Trailblazers countered with a 14-2 run over the next four minutes to take a 22-11 lead. Antoine Montgomery was the spark during the run with four points for MCLA. The Rams answered with a run of their own and pulled within two points, making the score 26-24 with just 6:50 left until halftime. MCLA countered once again, pushing the lead back to seven points. The Rams were able to answer back with their own run to tie the game at 35-35. The two teams traded buckets down the stretch of the first half and the game went to halftime, tied at 39-39. The Trailblazers pushed their lead to 56-52 just over six minutes into the second. The Rams tied the game at 60-60 with 8:44 on the clock after an athletic finish from Cameren McCloud-Thomas and a jumper from Matthew Roheila. The Rams then rattled off an 11-2 run over the next three minutes, including two 3-point plays from Payton to take a 71-62 lead. The Trailblazers pulled to within four points with a layup from Mike Demartinis with just over three minutes remaining. The Rams went on to seal the victory with four points from the charity stripe from Payton to finish his career-high scoring night with 38 points. The final score was score of 82-74. The Rams are now 5-7 in the MASCAC and 6-19 overall in the season.
FRAMINGHAM STATE MCLA
82 74
CONNECT WITH CARLOS SILVA csilva14@student.framingham.edu
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FEBRUARY 22, 2019
THE GATEPOST
18 | SPORTS
Players of the week
Women’s Basketball advances to the MASCAC Semifinal By Liam Gambon Asst. Sports Editor
fsurams.com
Manny Payton scored 38 points with eight rebounds in Men’s Basketball’s win over MCLA.
fsurams.com
Tiphani Harris went for 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Women’s Basketball’s victory against MCLA.
The Rams went into Saturday’s home game against MCLA riding a four-game losing streak. Framingham needed a win in their last regular season game of the year to gain some momentum heading into the conference tournament. Prior to the game, the Rams honored their one senior on the team - Tiphani Harris. Harris played in 101 games in her career, averaging 8.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Emily Velozo’s career-high 31 points and Harris’ 26 served as the springboard for the Rams in their eventual blowout victory. Framingham dominated the opening quarter, with Velozo supplying multiple 3-pointers and scoring 10 of the team’s 16 first-quarter points as the Rams jumped to a 16-7 lead. The Velozo and Harris duo combined to score 13 points in the second quarter. Harris carried over her scoring into the third, as she supplied the Rams with early buckets to extend Framingham’s lead. MCLA pushed back against Framingham and went on a run at the end of the third to cut their deficit to 49-36. The final quarter was all Rams as they outscored the Trailblazers 20-6 in the final five minutes to run away with the victory. The Rams defeated the Trailblazers 80-52 in the end. Velozo and Harris’ heroics went beyond scoring. Velozo dished out five assists, collected seven rebounds, and swiped two steals. Harris dominated the glass, as she crashed the boards for nine rebounds and had two blocks. With the win, the Rams finish the regular season at 15-9, good for fourth place in the MASCAC.
FRAMINGHAM STATE MCLA
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The fourth-seeded Rams hosted the fifth-seeded Salem State Vikings in the MASCAC Quarterfinals as Velozo and Harris dominated again, leading the Rams in scoring for the second-straight game. The Rams took it to the Vikings toward the end of the first quarter after the two teams started out even. A 14-2 run helped the Rams break free to take a 23-11 lead at the end of the first. Camille Desrochers came off the bench and scored nine points in just five minutes on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting from 3-point range. The Vikings closed the gap to single-digits in the second quarter shortly before Velozo poured in back-to-back triples, stretching the lead to double digits again. Salem cut the lead down to single digits again at the end of the second quarter, after ending the quarter on a small run. With the Rams leading 33-26 at the start of the second half, Harris dumped in 10 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting to help extend Framingham’s lead to 56-38 before the final quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, the Vikings cut the Rams’ lead to 58-43. Framingham dominated the remaining time in the quarter to win the MASCAC Quarterfinals 70-47. Harris led the game in scoring with 23 points, while also grabbing eight rebounds and stealing the ball five times. Velozo followed her with 17 points and a game-high seven assists. Desrochers led both benches in scoring with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from beyond the 3-point line. With the win, the Rams punched their ticket to the MASCAC Semifinals, where they will take on the Worcester State Lancers.
FRAMINGHAM STATE SALEM STATE
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CONNECT WITH LIAM GAMBON lgambon1@student.framingham.edu
Women’s Basketball MASCAC tournament
fsurams.com
Emily Velozo dropped 31 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists in Women’s Basketball’s win over MCLA.
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#1 Worcester State
#1 Westfield State
#4 Framingham State
#3 Bridgewater State
Semifinal #1
Semifinal #2
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FEBRUARY 22, 2019
SPORTS | 19
Hockey Continued from page 16 On Feb. 19, the Rams hosted the Salem State Vikings in their final home game of the season. Prior to the start of action, Framingham honored its two seniors, Ryan McDonough and Calabrese. McDonough played in 88 games, scored 14 goals, and had 16 assists in his career. Calabrese played in 48 games and made 1,243 saves in his career. Just under halfway through the first period, the Vikings struck first. Callum Hofford converted off assists from Derek Scroggins and Brandon Wolfe to make it 1-0. The Vikings scored again just three minutes into the second period. This time, it was Joe Smith off a feed from Bill Hickey to make it 2-0. A minute and a half later, Salem State added another goal to their lead. Matt Yianacopolus fired the puck into the back of the net to make the score 3-0. While on the power play, Framingham finally broke through seven minutes into the second. Brian Kozek ripped a shot past the Vikings’ goalie with an assist from Hamilton to make it 3-1. Just a minute later, the Rams coverted again on another power play. This time, it was McDonough scoring his fifth goal of the season with an assist from Kozek to make it 3-2. Early in the third period, the Rams scored their third unanswered goal to tie the game 3-3. Colstrup scored unassisted for his fourth goal of the
season. After a Vikings’ penalty midway through the period, the Rams found themselves on the power play with a chance to take the lead. Paul capitalized on the man advantage to give the Rams a 4-3 lead. Calabrese assisted the goal, earning his first career collegiate point in his final game. Eight seconds later, the Vikings answered back to tie the game at 4-4. With just two minutes left to play, the Rams were called for an interference penalty, giving the Vikings a power play. The Vikings capitalized with just over a minute left to play, scoring the game-winning goal. Hofford scored his second goal of the game to help the Vikings earn a 5-4 victory. With the loss, the Rams finish the season with a final record of 2-22-1.
SALEM STATE FRAMINGHAM STATE
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CONNECT WITH MATT FERRIS mferris2@student.framingham.edu
Agree to Disagree Matt Ferris
Question
Liam Gambon
Yes
Will the Los Angeles Lakers make the playoffs?
No
Wild
Who won the Bruins-Wild trade?
Bruins
Warriors
What team will finish with the best record in the Western Conference?
Nuggets
FRAMINGHAM STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1932 | FSUGATEPOST.COM
20 | PHOTOS
THE GATEPOST
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
Photographs by Corey McFeeley/The Gatepost FRAMINGHAM STATE UNIVERSITY’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1932 | FSUGATEPOST.COM