The Signal Vol. 86 No. 15

QUEERPHOBIA?

CONFLICT AT HOME

WELCOME WEED

SIMONDS SAVES DAY

Showcase of black talent attended by performers’ friends and families — and protesters.

To the objection of many, 24 students traveled to Israel over break. I was one of them.

This popular recreational drug may be pushing drinking out of its No. 1 position.

SBC Preseason P.O.Y. Simonds makes game-winning basket with .9 seconds left.

NEWS

PAGE 5

OPINIONS

PAGE 8

A&L

PAGE 9

SPORTS PAGE 18

VOL. 86 | NO. 15

JAN. 15 - JAN. 22, 2019

Secure the Perimeter NEWS | PAGE 3 Can a campus be considered "very safe" with almost no surveillance cameras visible?

GSUPD thinks so. Students and SGA disagree.

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NEWS

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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

BLOTTER JAN. 7

Hot on the case

A Georgia State staff member notified GSUPD of a theft of $1,500 or less from Sparks Hall at 9:42 a.m. The case is still active.

Protecting the Perimeter

A Georgia State student was issued a trespass warning at the Dunwoody campus parking lot at 12:34 p.m.

JAN. 8

Taking advantage of the new alcohol laws

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Daniel Varitek

JAN. 9

editor@georgiastatesignal.com

How many times do we have to tell you?

executive editor (atlanta) Vacant executive editor (perimeter) Vacant

A person was arrested for trespassing after already receiving prior notice in the Urban Life Building at 10:42 a.m.

Editorial NEWS EDITOR Will Solomons news@georgiastatesignal.com

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Vacant

I thought it was decriminalized?

news2@georgiastatesignal.com OPINIONS EDITOR Vacant opinions@georgiastatesignal.com

A person was arrested as an agency assist by GSUPD at Barbara Asher Square at 11:33 a.m. The person was also was in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

ASSOCIATE OPINIONS EDITOR Vacant

opinions2@georgiastatesignal.com ARTS & LIVING EDITOR Sydney Bloeme living@georgiastatesignal.com

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A person was arrested for selling alcohol without a license at Barbara Asher Square at 9:32 a.m.

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Production PRODUCTION EDITOR Devin Phillips productions@georgiastatesignal.com

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PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Georgia State students move into the University Commons in preparation for the spring semester.

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PHOTO BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL

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NEWS TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

www.georgiastatesignal.com/news

Georgia State invests $2 million into security camera tech

SGA questions campus security; GSUPD responds ADA WOOD

Associate News Editor

O

ne thing many students, SGA and GSUPD can all agree on is the abounding need for a secure campus, specifically through the enhancement of surveillance camera technology.

SGA executive vice president on the Newton Campus Aarjavi Patel brought forward the issue of campus security when a friend of hers had her car damaged in the parking lot.

Her friend reached out to GSUPD for footage of the incident but was told the proof could not be provided.

Following this, Patel said she began to inquire into the security system on all Perimeter Campuses and found that many of the cameras were nonfunctional, and in some parking lots, there were no cameras at all. Patel corresponded with the GSUPD captain on this issue.

“Providing a safe learning and working environment for the students, faculty, and staff of GSU is your police department’s primary mission,” the captain said. “The officers at your campus have excelled in this mission; the Newton County Campus is very safe.”

He provided proof of this success in the Newton campus’ very low crime rate and recommended using the services provided by GSUPD for additional safety, such as police escorts or the LiveSafe App. According to the Georgia State Safety and Security statistical reports, the Newton campus has not had a single criminal incident across a variety of categories for the 2015, 2016 and 2017 years.

In 2017, the Alpharetta and Dunwoody campus also had no incidents, and the Decatur campus had two incidents. The Clarkston campus had the most incidents of the perimeter campuses at eight in total.

However, the main Atlanta campus vastly suprasses all campuses with 59 criminal incidents in 2017.

Despite the safety of Newton campus, Patel responded to the email, saying that there is still a need for more security cameras.

“There are areas that need some just to be safe because you never know what can happen at any time of the day or night,” she said.

Patel continued to investigate solutions by reaching out to further sources and said she received a call from the captain where she was told that the solution was already given and they did not have the proper budget for installing cameras.

“I am not letting this go since this is an issue that needs to be solved before an tragedy occurs and there are no suspects to be caught or punished,” she said.

However, when The Signal contacted GSUPD Chief of Police Joseph Spillane, he said the issue was first addressed six months ago.

The department began to study the system and found many outdated cameras, but more importantly a variety of disparate systems, resulting in a lack of unity and communication between them. Following this discovery, Georgia State put together the Video Surveillance System Committee, which met every month in working toward a solution.

In November and December, a temporary hold was put in place on installing any new cameras until the best solution and way to manage it was found. In December, the committee brought forward a proposal for $2 million in funding that received approval.

“We got a purchase order to move forward with a program that over the next couple of years will replace a majority of the cameras on campus but will also integrate all the

ILLUSTRATION AND PAGE DESIGN BY DIANA TAVERA | THE SIGNAL

cameras into one system,” Spillane said.

Funding came from a variety of Georgia State departments, including police, facilities, housing, PantherDining and finance.

“All of us got together and agreed that we all need to integrate our cameras together and put money into this system,” he said.

The project applies to all campuses, replacing old cameras, adding new cameras and shifting all to one system.

Under the platform Genetec, the new system will be able to communicate with the City of Atlanta’s Operation Shield Integration Center so that APD will also have access to camera surveillance under one system.

The new system will enhance a variety of features. This includes the ability to store recordings for 30 days as opposed to the current 5 or 6 day maximum, a 7 day cloud backup, a system put in place to determine when a camera is inoperable and licensing for 2,500 cameras.

Spillane said this project takes time because many of the buildings the university inherits already have old systems in place.

“For example, the Ted Turner Stadium has a video surveillance system that was installed in 1996 for the olympics, and that system is still operating,” he said.

Spillane expects the majority of cameras and the new system to be in place by the end of 2019 with the stadium fully operational by football season in August. However, the project will continue with further funding requests each year, to maintain the system and keep cameras up to date.

“It’s multi-year, because every year, there is a camera that gets another year older. Every six years or so, you should be rotating these

cameras and replacing them with the latest and greatest technology,” he said.

This new initiative will be further enhanced by the completion last week of a $1.8 billion project, a new communication center for GSUPD in the basement of 100 Auburn Ave. where the new system will be featured on the video wall.

“To answer the question that SGA brings up, there are places where we would like to install cameras and that’s part of this funding that we just got approval for,” Spillane said.

SGA President Franklin Patterson is looking forward to seeing the development of these solutions.

“I am happy to hear that the school is looking out for its students and happy that funding has been approved to ensure that students are safe on campus,” Patterson said.

NEWS

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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

Where are the associate professors?

Georgia State’s growing size could harm associate professor retention ZACH SALLING Staff Reporter

G

eorgia State houses both associate and full professors, but some departments weigh heavier on full professor hires than associate professor hires.

This lack of associate professors could possibly result in a faculty management crisis at Georgia State.

“Across different departments, the ratio of associate professors to senior faculty differs widely,” Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation Dr. Mary Beth Walker said. “Some departments no doubt consider themselves ‘topheavy’ meaning few to none associate professors.”

Associate professors follow both tenure and non-tenure tracks. Tenure tracks allow associate professors a permanent post, while non-tenure tracks do not. Non-tenure tracks allow associate professors to boost their credentials and experience.

“We hire every associate professor with the fervent hope that we can work with the new faculty member to retain them, help them build their profile in teaching and research and advance them to higher faculty rates,” Dean of College of Arts and Sciences Sara Rosen said of the college practices.

Yet, tenure track options, in addition to student enrollments, are to supposed to help offset the associate professor to full professor ratio.

“Rapid growth or decline in student enrollments in a discipline or special hiring priorities can affect the balance of ranks within a department, particularly in the short term.

Balance of faculty appointments and ranks is one factor when hiring decisions are made in the college,” Rosen said of the CAS.

Tenure incentivizes associate professors to root their career at Georgia State. The university awards associate professors tenure when their department recognizes the “individual faculty member’s demonstrated accomplishments in research, scholarship and/or creative activities,” per Georgia State’s Promotion and Tenure Manual.

However, the Promotion and Tenure Manual does not account for the balance of faculty appointments and ranks when awarding associate professors’ tenure. According to the Promotion and Tenure Manual, an associate professor will “apply for promotion to the rank of associate professor in the fifth year of service and be considered for promotion during the sixth year of service.”

Factoring in the balance of faculty appointments and ranks could render associate professors’ “achievements in research, scholarship and/or creative activities” obsolete due to Georgia State’s needs.

Georgia State’s balancing act within departments could deter — or flat-out deny — associate professors’ aspirations for tenure.

According to the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents Policy Manual, “promotion to the rank of associate or full professor requires the terminal degree in appropriate discipline or its equivalent in training, ability, or experience.

Neither the possession of a doctorate nor longevity of service is a guarantee of promotion.”

Despite the lack of “guarantee of promotion,” Walker stated for full-time faculty, both tenure and non-tenure track, “somewhere between 2/3 and ¾ of tenure track associate professors achieve promotion and tenure. Of those leaving, some leave early in the six-year cycle and some leave later on.

Reasons for leaving include spouses finding jobs elsewhere, getting attractive offers from other institutions, and concern about not achieving tenure.” Walker also noted that Georgia State does not have a centralized data system to track this, so the estimates “are by no means exact.”

Georgia State’s lack of data regarding associate professor leave and department needs suggests an uncertain relationship between associate professors and Georgia State.

Michael Eriksen, Dean of Georgia State’s School of Public Health, said that they hired “7 new faculty, and 6 were associate Professors, and one full professor with tenure.”

According to Eriksen, for the School of Public Health, their hiring is based on “open

rank,” which narrows down the “best candidate” and provides “the appropriate academic rank (Associate or Full) based on the individual’s qualifications.”

The School of Public Health differs from the CAS on associate professor hires in that they focus on open rank rather than counteracting the balance of said rank.

Associate professor hires in the CAS can take years and requires strategic budgeting.

“We make hiring decisions based upon a number of factors, including budgets, and research and teaching needs within a particular field,” Rosen said. “Every faculty search requires us to identify funding, and reach out to the academic community across the nation and around the world to attract the top talent across diverse populations, so each search can sometimes take a year of more, involving many faculty and administrators.”

When Georgia State hires an associate professor, they make an investment. There’s time, there’s work, there’s allocated room

“Reasons for leaving include spouses finding jobs elsewhere, getting attractive offers from other institutions, and concern about not achieving tenure.”

— DR. MARY BETH WALKER Associate Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation for promotion. With resources on the line, Georgia State sets up programs to protect their investments.

“We hire every associate professor with the fervent hope that we can work with the new faculty member to retain them, help them build their profile in teaching and research, and advance them to higher faculty rates,” Rosen said. “We work hard to retain our faculty by providing a vibrant intellectual community and are putting new mentoring programs into place in the CAS to provide academic and professional support for our faculty.”

Though programs have been set in place to retain Georgia State associate professors, emphasis on associate professor retention data pales in comparison to Georgia State’s boasted student graduation rate data — attracting praise from humanitarian mogul, Bill Gates.

Still, Georgia State’s lack of published data regarding associate professor retention overlooks Georgia State’s management of the professors, who help drive Georgia State’s graduation rates.

Recently, the University of Illinois had warned of a “retention crisis” due to stagnating pay and retirement benefits, according to The News-Gazette. Quality was said to erode as faculty numbers lagged and as class sizes grew.

As Georgia State increases in size and student enrollment, the quality of faculty management may be necessary to uphold Georgia State’s upward trajectory in terms of graduation rates and professor retention.

For now, Georgia State asserts solid retention rates for the faculty in the arts and sciences at Georgia State compared to universities such as the University of Illinois.

“Retention of faculty in Arts and Sciences at Georgia State is generally quite good, particularly compared against other research universities of our caliber,” Rosen said.

Yet, with Georgia State reporting record student enrollment, record associate professor retention rates remains to be seen.

ILLUSTRATION BY EVAN STAMPS | THE SIGNAL

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

NEWS

5

HALLWAY HOSTILITY

BY ADA WOOD

ILLUSTRATION BY DEMETRI BURKE | THE SIGNAL

Queerphobia in the black community?

Student org P4BF calls for BSA to meet their demands WILL SOLOMONS News Editor

A

fter several weeks of accusations, apologies and action, a tense situation came to stagnation right before winter break between two Georgia State student organizations.

Panthers for Black Feminism released statements addressing their concerns over what they called a “queerphobic” statement said by Black Student Alliance Communication Outreach Chair Alexis Smith: “Being gay impedes the black family.”

Smith had said the statement privately to BSA President Jamila Bell. Shocked by Smith’s statement, she reached out to Ebony Short, cofounder of P4BF, on Oct. 20. Bell had reached out to Short for informal advice and as a friend on how she should proceed.

Short told Bell that Smith would need to be removed from the e-board and that intersectionality would need to be stressed throughout BSA. Smith was then informed of her removal from the E-board on Nov. 6. Two days later, Nov. 8, Bell told Short of BSA’s plan.

However, nearly three weeks later, Short released a statement on P4BF’s Instagram and Twitter accusing BSA of queerphobia and outlining a list of four demands that BSA were encouraged to complete. The delay in publishing demands was due to Short waiting for BSA to remove Smith.

“I was giving Jamila time to remove Alexis.

From the moment she told me to our last phone convo (when she told me she wouldn’t be removed) was a week. And I was working in [the Office of Black Student Achievement] where BSA … is housed. And I wanted to make sure I wasn’t there before I released the statement for my own sanity because e-board members of BSA are in OBSA a lot,” Short said.

The demands called for BSA’s leadership to implement intersectionality training and workshops for all future board members and to take an oath that they would not allow queerphobic or related statements to occur again.

They also called for Smith’s complete removal from the board.

On Dec. 4, Short and other P4BF members were joined by the International Socialist Organization at the Speaker’s Auditorium at Student Center East. Inside, BSA was hosting an showcase of black talent on campus, with several students unaffiliated with BSA performing. Whenever the first singer went on stage, Short stood up and began to chant “BSA is queerphobic.”

“As soon as the first act got on stage is when they started screaming. For me, I was confused because why not do that at the very beginning of the event? You waited until the first person got on stage and started singing, and I just thought that was so incredibly disrespectful considering the fact that that person is not even in BSA,” Bell said.

Around 10 of the other protesters began to join them, echoing the chant which evolved into “BSA is queerphobic as f---.”

During the first act, the student kept singing while those who came to support the performers gathered around the stage to obstruct the view of the protesters.

Bell said that the protesters were given ample opportunity to cordially announce their demands on stage during the event, but declined to do so by continuously chanting and shouting.

“Ebony protesting BSA is competing valid and I completely understand them wanting to protest us and I have no issue with that,” Bell said. “I invited Ebony and all of them to come on stage and give them a platform to say their grievances and give their demands.”

The protesting escalated when audience members approached the protesters, talking with them and trying to get them to stop so that other students could perform.

Fearing that violence would ensue between the audience members and the protesters, Bell instructed one of her fellow members to contact campus security to de-escalate the issue.

After about fifteen minutes, security arrived and escorted P4BF and ISO members outside, but not before P4BF caught wind that GSUPD was on their way. Leading up to their removal, they chanted, “BSA just called the police on black people.”

A couple performers and audience members confronted Short and the protesters outside,

asking them why they disrupted the performance and stressing the importance of the event to some individuals who may not have had the opportunity to express themselves elsewhere.

Short, in turn, responded to the anger of the performers and audience members by saying that they shouldn’t be supporting BSA at all for the lack of action taken following Smith’s statement.

In response to Short’s statements about GSUPD and how BSA is against black people for calling the police on them, Bell said she was upset that they would make those statements.

“As a black woman, as a leader of Black Student Alliance, I know full and well the history that black people have with the police,” Bell said. “For them to say that was honestly very irritating because they knew exactly what they were saying.”

Contrary to Short’s statements on social media that GSUPD was harassing them and other P4BF and ISO members, Bell said that security handled the situation very well, while also acknowledging that it’s important to hold police accountable when they do actually discriminate or harass black people.

“Campus security was not endangering them in any way. They did not harass them. They were not even yelling at them. They were very relaxed.

They were speaking gentle to them. I think that’s important to say.”

The event went on inside as planned after the protesters were removed.

“The protest was really effective,” Short said.

“It disrupted people’s peace. It disrupted people’s comfortability and that’s what we wanted.”

Short also said that there were a couple critiques of how P4BF and ISO were treated during and following the protest.

“The first critique is that the police were called.

We don’t know who called the police and my critique on that instance is that the president [of BSA] was outside while I … was talking to a cop and the president didn’t try to descale anything,” Short said. “It just really shows how again BSA perpetuates white supremacy by not saying anything to the cops.”

Following the protest, P4BF released a final statement regarding the protest and a relisting of their demands.

Now that winter break is over and the new semester is beginning, P4BF has been silent about BSA.

On Friday, Jan. 11, the Georgia State Student Government Association held a university-wide meeting on the Dunwoody campus, their first assembly of the spring semester.

As the senators discussed, the back wall lined with students holding signs with phrases including, “Trips to stolen Palestinian land say OK to settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide.”

The trip in question was one taken by 24 Georgia State students over the winter break, including members of SGA, Spotlight, and The Signal’s editor-inchief, Daniel Varitek.

The protesters brought their list of demands to the SGA body and represented various campus organizations, including Panthers for Black Feminism and Faces of Feminism.

Following the meeting’s adjournment, the group approached President Franklin Patterson, Atlanta Executive Vice President Ayesha Iqbal and Senator Hamza Rahman in an adjacent hallway. They questioned the status of their demands, to which Patterson replied that a statement would be released by Wednesday of the following week.

The group then questioned Iqbal on her decision to wear a thobe while in Israel, a country they refer to as “stolen land,” according to Amna Ali, co-president of Faces of Feminism.

What followed was a heated altercation between Rahman and Rasha Allaf, who graduated the semester prior and came to the meeting to voice her concerns. According to Rahman, Allaf said, “May s--- be upon you,” in Arabic, to which he replied, “May s--- be upon you too, you child of a donkey.”

“As a leader I should have known better than to use language like that and I apologize for the use of this language,” Rahman said.

Allaf said that Patterson was the most professional in the situation. “[Rahman] started yelling out religious things, which we have mentioned multiple times that the situation has nothing to do with religion, it’s only politics,” Allaf said.

NEWS

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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

Risa Palm says leaving provost role is no demotion After 10 years, she’s returning to a research role studying climate change WILL SOLOMONS News Editor

A

fter 10 years of dedication to her position, Provost Risa Palm is stepping down from her position. The announcement came to students mid-November through a campus broadcast.

Her decision to step down stems from her desire to return to her research. Before she became provost, she had worked on studying the effects of climate change and natural disasters.

“My research is in the area of cities and previously I was looking at natural hazards like earthquake hazards. Another hazard that is very much a human and an environmental one … is climate change,” Palm said. “It’s not like [a demotion].

I will have been a provost for 10 years and so … it’s time to have someone else to be a provost. That’s reasonable and it’s a philosophy I hold about any administrator position.”

Her main role as provost was to handle the overall academic affairs and interests of the student body by executing the academic strategic plan, an initiative that is enacted roughly every 10 years that influences academic progress for the university.

“When I first got here, it was the first year that [Georgia State University President] Mark Becker was president,” she said. “We put together a committee … and I worked with that committee … over the next [year]. The committee did all the work. I just was there as sort of a resource, but I attended all their meetings and provided them with any kind of support they needed and also got them in touch with some academics that I had known that were involved in strategic planning.”

She said that her job as provost prioritized establishing this strategic plan and that it was the basic foundation for which other plans of the university were built on.

“It’s part of the job of the provost … it’s the strategic plan of the academic area of the university. And then the rest of the strategic planning for space follows what the academics are going to do.”

One of her other roles as provost was to facilitate faculty hiring.

“I and my team interview all faculty who would come in with tenure. So in other words more senior faculty. And also we’ve had two programs to hire faculty. One was called the Second Century Initiative. That’s over now. And now we have … the Next Generation Program which is ongoing. I think we’re in year four of that. That is to hire faculty who are interdisciplinary in their interests,” she said.

After 10 years of dedicated work as provost, Risa Palm returns to her faculty research on climate change and natural disasters.

She joined the Georgia State family around six months after Becker did. She said it was a pleasure to work with him throughout the past 10 years.

“It has been great fun and I mean that very sincerely. Part of the fun has been through the strategic plan because we’ve used that as a centerpiece for everything we’ve done,” she said.

She also said that during her time as provost, she was able

PHOTO COURTESY OF GEORGIA STATE PUBLIC RELATIONS & MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

to travel around the nation and world to share ideas on how universities should operate. One of the latest locations she traveled to was South Korea, where she exchanged university operating ideas and said she tried octopus.

Currently, the university has not announced any candidates for the provost position, however a team of faculty and staff is being established to recruit a qualified individual.

GSUPD establishes new dispatch center New terminals, lower cost and better functionality unveiled WILL SOLOMONS News Editor

W

hile Honors students are in class learning, and prospective students are on tour, five dispatchers are answering calls and monitoring the campus in the basement of Centennial Hall.

The GSUPD call center moved from their cramped, narrow home at the base of the University Commons to beneath 100 Auburn Ave. back in December.

The cost of the new facility, which sits at $1.5 million, may seem excessive, but according to Georgia State’s acting Interim 911 Communications Director Angelia Jennings, that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to what the transition would have cost if GSUPD had built a dispatch center from scratch.

“An average 911 center, if you built it out from the ground up would cost you anywhere from $30 [million] to maybe $35 million,” Jennings said.

Although the center is operational now, they’re still not done expanding. GSUPD Chief of Police Joseph Spillane

said that Phase One has been completed and that Phase Two will begin soon.

Phase One involved acquiring new terminals, provided

by Motorola, and outfitting an old data center to meet the standards of a dispatch center.

“We had to work closely with Motorola,” Jennings said.

“That was our sole source contractor who specializes in public safety solutions and radio equipment as well. So they were a big component of us being able to make this project happen for that amount.”

Four monitors, currently unoperational but slated to become functioning in the next few weeks, line a wall in front of the dispatchers. They will be linked to camera feeds around the campus, allowing dispatchers to monitor an area if suspicious or criminal activity is reported.

“They will use the controllers to basically pull up all of the cameras across the campus. So let’s say somebody calls in and they say, ‘Hey I’m at Petit Science and I see something strange happening down in the Waffle House of Petit Science.’ So now we’re able to pull it up on that wall, all of the cameras along Piedmont corridor, also inside of Petit Science, we’d be able to pull that up,” Jennings said.

Once GSUPD finishes Phase Two, the dispatch room will

have biometric scanners to prevent nonessential personnel from entering. The terminals that are in use now will also be replaced and used as training terminals as more dispatchers are hired. It will also house a conference room and dedicated office for the 911 communications director.

The center works with outside agencies such as the FBI to help catch wanted individuals.

One function of the dispatch center is that it allows GSUPD to send information directly to the FBI’s wanted person system so they can see if a suspect is already wanted by the agency.

“We actually ask the FBI, ‘Hey, do a search on this person by name, date of birth, social security number if we have it, and let us know if any agency is looking for that individual.’

And that’s how they respond back to us through the FBI system,” Jennings said.

In addition to the FBI’s systems, the dispatch center is also linked to the Atlanta Police Department’s center.

In case of an outage at either center, they will be able to transfer personnel to the other one to continue to answer emergency calls. Also, if an individual calls 911 within GSUPD’s jurisdiction, instead of 404-413-3333, they will be transferred from APD’s to GSUPD’s center.

OPINIONS TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

www.georgiastatesignal.com/opinions

2018: the year of badass women

Women inching toward a gender equality in local and federal government SHARI CELESTINE Staff Coloumnist

G

eorgia’s General Assembly will look a little different when they are back in session next week. A record number of women will be sworn in and join the ranks of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

About 30.9 percent of the incoming class will be women, a 4.2 percent increase from the year before, a number that been steadily increasing since 2007. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, as of January 2019, 127 women will serve in Congress, being the highest amount it’s ever been.

The newest freshman congresswoman has one of the most unique backgrounds in Georgia’s history: Lucy McBath. In 2012 her 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed

after an altercation at a gas station. It was his senseless death that lead McBath to become an activist and spokeswoman for gun control.

Joining the organization Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was only the beginning. Soon McBath was on the road stumping for Hillary Clinton in her 2016 presidential election and spoke at the Democratic National Convention. But it wasn’t until Georgia House Representative Renitta Shannon convinced McBath she should run that she started her own campaign. Lucy McBath is now a U.S. House of Representative from Georgia’s 6th district. She was sworn into office on Jan. 3.

This progressive change isn’t just happening on a national level or just within the halls of our government, it has spread to the very halls of our own Georiga State University. As of Feb. 1, 2019, Dr. Nancy Kropf will be Perimeter College’s new Dean. Dr. Kropf has been a member of the university since 2006. Most recently, she has helped integrate the nursing

program of Perimeter College and Lewis College. Dr. Kropf holds a plethora of degrees ranging from a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology from Hope College, a master’s degree in social work from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in social work and social policy from Virginia Commonwealth University. With such high praise, Perimeter College can’t be in better hands starting this spring.

There has been an imbalance in politics and other positions for decades. After the 2017 midterm elections, the tables have shifted slightly with more women standing up for equal rights and voting for politicians who don’t have a skewed sexist view on the world. It’s time to stop thinking of women as “lesser” or the “weaker sex.” Women in positions of power are just as capable as their male counterparts.

On the back of Anita Hill’s testimony, 1992 was coined as the “Year of the Woman.” But in the 27 years since, this country has proven that simply supporting women isn’t enough. If that were the case, Brett Kavanaugh wouldn’t be a Supreme Court Justice right now. We’ve had enough of that kind of support.

What women bring to the table are real experiences with a long range of expertise as candidates who represent real people, the voters, the citizens of every city, the American people.

2019 is shaping up to be the “Year of Badass Women,” not just in Georgia but across the United States. Ladies, let’s shake things up a bit.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMBER KIRLEW | THE SIGNAL

Stop! Too many streaming services

Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Amazon Prime... Disney+? When will it end?

ZACHARY VINSON Staff Columnist

“C

able is dying and the internet is the new frontier” is what you have heard from everyone, including your grandmother who can’t use a smartphone, say for the last decade. Indeed, the on-demand video subscription model is seeing unprecedented success. Netflix enjoyed so much success that they have become a household name in less than ten years. That success brings its share of problems, however, as various competitors rise to take the mantel.

Amazon, HBO, ESPN and now Disney all have on-demand video streaming platforms hosting exclusive content.

When Netflix and Hulu were the only players in the game, it was easy to choose one or even both options. You could have access to all the content from basically every network. Now that networks have seen the profitability of streaming platforms,

they want to cut out the middleman and create their own platforms exclusively for their content, which sounds a whole lot like having one TV channel, where exclusive content is available.

There are a few notable differences. For example, now the price is $10-20 per channel, rather than $150 for 100+ channels. Of course, there are positive differences too. I think we can all agree that streaming content is far superior to watching commercials for 20 percent of a one-hour program, or 90 percent of a football game. Producing content for a streaming service rather than television also offers creative freedoms like no time restrictions for each episode and not adhering to a 24-episode season.

The problem is that in the future, new content will only appear on exclusive platforms. It is already happening with Netflix and Disney. Any Disney content from 2019 onward will only be available for streaming on Disney’s platform.

That includes the Disney branded films as well as Lucasfilm, Marvel and Pixar. Disney isn’t alone. Comcast, Fox and Time Warner all plan to pull content from Netflix once they get their

streaming services off the ground.

Netflix is well aware of what is happening and continues to make moves to secure their position. In the past few years, Netflix has made in-roads to the Anime community, buying up streaming rights to popular Anime like Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell. Netflix Originals such as One Punch Man, Stranger Things and Orange is the New Black have helped solidify Netflix as both a platform and content producer.

On-demand video streaming may be the future, but is it really a replacement for cable? Despite its many flaws, cable offers one price for access to all the channels. The additional premium for access is exposure to advertising. Streaming on the other hand charges an additional premium for one or a few channels but offers it on-demand with no ads. If you do the math, 10 subscriptions at $15 each is the same price as 100+ channels for $150.

Right now, everyone is trying to cut the cord, but soon the question will be which subscription service to cut. In ten years, we will look back nostalgically at cable television and realize that despite the flaws, cable was in some ways superior.

OPINIONS

8

GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

letter from the editor For a free trip abroad, conflict at home Journalistic reflections from a controversial trip to Israel

A

n international political debate has landed on Georgia State’s campus, just in time for the first week of school.

Twenty four campus leaders traveled to Israel on a “fact finders” tour from Dec. 13 to Dec. 23, much to the objection of several political groups on campus. I was one of those leaders.

“FREE Trip to Students,” the subject read.

It arrived in my inbox on a Friday as I walked down the streets of Louisville, Kentucky, blocks away from the National College Media Convention.

“We have been fortunate enough to receive a grant from the national organization, Maccabee Task Force, allowing us to take a group of non-Jewish students to Israel this winter on a Fact Finders tour, visiting Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious sites as well as political sites,” the email stated. It was addressed from GSU Hillel, the on-campus affiliate of the national Hillel organization.

My first reaction was intrigue. I was well aware of the university’s longstanding ties to Israel, namely with the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, though this trip — and the involvement of the Maccabee Task Force — was different.

What fascinated me most was the collaboration between two staunchly proIsrael groups in the coordination of this trip.

As described by its website, the national Hillel group’s goal is to “inspire every Jewish college student to develop a meaningful and enduring relationship to Israel and to Israelis.”

Furthermore, the Maccabee Task Force, which was founded by Sheldon Adelson, the American casino magnate, has publicly stated that it exists to stifle the growing anti-Israel sentiment on college campuses across the nation.

As I learned more, I came to discover that this trip’s purpose was clear: to leverage campus influencers in supporting Israel, or at least in rejecting the growing anti-Israel college movement.

“The only criteria Maccabee Task Force sets is that the participants are leaders in a campus group and in their junior year or earlier, allowing the student time to counter antiIsrael activity,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in 2017.

These criteria weren’t strictly enforced on Georgia State’s trip — some attendees were seniors entering their final semester of school.

But the two dozen campus leaders who attended represented more than 10 incredibly influential organizations on campus: Student Government Association, Spotlight, College Republicans, Baptist Collegiate Ministries, Latin American Student Association, The Signal and more.

I agreed to attend. This trip offered two things to me as representative of our college’s independent newspaper: 1. An opportunity to learn more about the institutional ties that Georgia State appears to have with Israel

2. An up-close opportunity to understand what experiences and education these 23 other campus leaders would take back to campus with them Yet given my direct involvement in this trip, it is challenging to analyze my experiences through the lens of journalistic objectivity. That is why this is a column, not a news article.

Furthermore, given the exceptionally personal nature of this trip, all of the conversations I had with the other campus leaders were all off the record.

That being said, allow me to illuminate as best I can what transpired on this trip, and why I believe it can be perceived as valuable — or worrisome — to our campus.

From the beginning, the trip was steeped in discord. It originally drew the ire of one student, Zainab Khan, in November when an executive board member of the Muslim Student Association at Georgia State agreed to attend. In a public Facebook post, Khan called for her friends to email the MSA board and request either their rejection of the trip or their resignations.

The MSA issued a statement on Facebook, clarifying that only one executive board member had agreed to attend and that as a result of this, they were questioning his continued participation on the board.

That board member, Hamza Rahman, is also a senator for the Student Government Association.

The primary concern from Khan appeared to be the optics of the trip. For a student organization that so closely aligns itself with a pro-Palestine mindset, it seemed off-key to send an MSA representative to Israel, a state that Palestinians have called an “enemy.”

In a statement of his own, Rahman rebutted, saying he feared other SGA members who were also going would receive an “unchallenged perspective” on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and that he wanted to ensure his colleagues received “a nuanced and truthful perspective on issues related to Palestine.”

This was, of course, a very legitimate concern for Rahman. With the collaboration of two proIsrael groups on this trip came the potential for a pro-Israel slant on any experiences or education.

In our general group discussions leading up to the trip, it was billed as an opportunity to explore religious and political sites, both from an Israeli and Palestinian perspective. But as Rahman feared, the trip did tilt toward the Israeli perspective.

We heard from a vice president for the Taglit-Israel Birthright program. We received a geopolitical tour from a former Israeli intelligence analyst. We spoke to a former Israeli consulate general. In total, our time speaking to Palestinians encompassed no more than three hours of a 10-day trip.

The most non-partisan speaker we encountered was an advisor within the U.S. Embassy. Everyone else — both Israeli and

Palestinian — brought unique, albeit political, perspectives to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It goes without saying that it is not a bad thing to encounter partisan politics in such a political region. In fact, it was expected. And in my observation, I don’t believe any of the leaders entering this trip were blind to that fact.

Where the worry lies for some is how the mostly pro-Israel slant will affect our campus — notably, SGA. As The Signal reported, on Friday, Jan. 11, about 10 protesters spoke out against SGA representatives’ attendance on the trip. They called for the resignations of President Franklin Patterson and Atlanta Executive Vice President Ayesha Iqbal.

Also, to her confusion, the protesters called for Communications Director Kalisha-Lourdy Lazare’s resignation, despite her not attending the trip. They made no mention of the other two SGA senators who attended.

The protesters also called for the passage of pro-BDS legislation, which is the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement that is growing across American campuses and urges student councils to boycott any businesses or organizations that support the Israeli government.

It’s understandable why people would question this level of influence over executive and legislative affairs in student government.

However, any legislation — pro-Israel or proPalestine — would likely do little to affect the university’s standing relationship with Israel. At most, any legislation would simply put SGA’s stance in the public record, which would run the risk of breaching SGA’s apolitical attitude.

If nothing else, this trip provided 24 campus leaders with critical cultural intelligence from a Middle Eastern country that is soaked in cultural, political and religious history. It provided a learning opportunity, even if mostly from one side. And it provided an opportunity to forge much-needed connections with a campus that is often seen as fragmented and disinterested in collaboration.

All of that can be very valuable to a diverse campus of 53,000 students.

Again, it is challenging to write this objectively. And it is even more challenging to summarize the events of two months into one column. But moving forward, I hope this piece helps our campus discussion more than hurts it.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? I invite you to submit a letter to the editor if you find it helpful. You can find more information on georgiastatesignal.com/about.

Until next time, Daniel Varitek Editor-in-Chief

ARTS & LIVING TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

www.georgiastatesignal.com/artsandliving

ILLUSTRATIONS BY EVAN STAMPS | THE SIGNAL

Marijuana growing like weeds

Weed on campus is in first place for most popular recreational drug MARY PITTS & SYDNEY BLOEME Staff Reporter & Arts & Living Editor

S

ensationalized in movie montages of over-crowded frat houses littered with red Solo cups and spilt beer, reckless drinking is what most people visualize when they think of college partying. But at Georgia State, most students stray from traditional drinking.

“On this particular campus, we see more marijuana than illegal alcohol,” GSUPD Chief of Police Joseph Spillane said about his time working in Downtown Atlanta.

In the fall of 2017, Atlanta’s city council voted unanimously to decriminalize marijuana. According to Dr. Konrad Bresin, post-doctoral fellow at Georgia State’s department of psychology, this could play an impactful role in societal trends surrounding the use of weed.

“I think any changes around marijuana have to do with the increasing acceptability of marijuana use,” Bresin said. “As some states have legalized recreational use, the idea of who a marijuana smoker is has changed. They aren’t just hippies or

stoners, they are seen more as normal people, which may make it more acceptable to use.”

Other than the societal norms of smoking marijuana shifting, many reasons for its prominence in the public view remain practical. Because most students on campus are commuters, the only chance GSPD has to become aware of marijuana use is in the dorms. With marijuana, the smell is often the giveaway, but the same can’t be said for alcohol use.

“We get calls from RAs for the smell of marijuana in hallways and in rooms. With alcohol use, you can’t smell it. So if they’re drinking alcohol and not causing any problems, we aren’t going to see it,” Spillane said.

But when students do get caught for underaged drinking, it’s because they’re intoxicated somewhere public.

“Whenever I see somebody get in trouble for alcohol, it’s normally because they’re probably passed out in the lobby,” RA Jamison Tanksley said.

Bresin delved into psychedelic use among college students for his doctoral dissertation. He thinks there are lots of reasons that people in college turn to drugs.

“I think the big ones for college students are perceived peer norms, cultural norms, expectancies, and increased freedom,”

Bresin said.

And while most college students experiment with drugs, the location can play a vital role in which is their drug of choice.

“Drugs like crystal meth, or fentanyl, those types of drugs that we see in the rural areas, we just don’t see that on our campus, we see primarily marijuana,” Spillane said.

But just because alternative drugs such as marijuana are slowly becoming more normalized doesn’t mean they used in the same way as alcohol. Many people who use marijuana tend to do so more regularly than someone who uses alcohol recreationally would drink.

“I think this has to do with the culture of smoking multiple times a day, which is very different from alcohol, which is more of a weekend thing, and psychedelics, which are more of a few times a year thing,” Dr. Bresin said.

And while drugs such as marijuana are often seen as safer, Dr. Bresin thinks that marijuana weed can be just as dangerous.

“In my experiences, marijuana has the highest likelihood for an addiction, which I’m defining as tolerance and withdrawal paired with some problems in social and occupational functioning,” Dr. Bresin said.

JOSH WINSTON Staff Reporter

R

oommates, overbearing RA’s and strict housing policies can make dorm living feel like an extended stay in an stuffy hotel. No matter the reality of your living situation, it can always be improved with the right smart home devices.

Essentially, all of these smart home devices function in much the same way, offering only slight differences in functionality.

This means that question of which one is right for you comes down to the minute details of what you want out of a device, what devices you already have and how much money you’re willing to spend. This lack of meaningful difference also thankfully means you can’t really go wrong with what you choose. Thanks to the maturity and development of the smart home market, most of the products are equally capable of providing a functional user experience. And controlling your house with your voice is just cool.

Here are some of the most useful smart home appliances for students:

Which smart dorm devices are right for you?

The best smart devices for students based on affortability and functionality

Connected speakers offer a wealth knowledge and functionality, and are even more accessible than your phone by allowing you to only use your voice to control them. Instead of typing queries into your phone or computer, using natural language to access the internet is much easier.

APPLE: SERIOUS ABOUT SIRI Rounding out the list of connected speakers is Apple’s Homepod. If you have any iOS devices, this speaker will play nice with all of them. The Apple Homepod has superior audio quality thanks to the artificially intelligent sensors built into it that analyze the acoustics of the room its in and adjusts the playback of music accordingly. For better or for worse, it also has Siri. If you like how Siri works on the iPhone, then you’ll like it here. If you don’t, well, there’s always the Amazon Echo.

Finding the right speaker for you

SMART LIGHTS:

CONNECTED SPEAKERS:

CONTROL WITH JUST YOUR VOICE

Choosing the right smart speaker depends on a lot of factors such as budget, operating system preference, and intended use.

Here’s a run down of what makes each one unique:

Google: Attractive and affordable What makes Google’s smart speakers stand out is the wealth of internet information that they have access to. These devices are able to access all of Google’s search functionality.

This makes them very good at answering questions that you would normally have to Google. They‘re also very well designed with a mix of fabric and bright plastic that makes them look good in a home environment without being gaudy or distracting.

Google currently offers several smart speakers covering a range of price points. Its cheapest is the Google Home Mini, which is about the size of a hockey puck and retails for about $50. It does all the same things that its more expensive models do, but because of its size, offers a lower sound quality. However, it makes up for it by being able to connect to other speakers via bluetooth.

The Google Home is bigger than the Google Home Mini and consequently offers better sound, while the Google Home Max is even bigger and offers the sound of a premium dedicated bluetooth speaker.

AMAZON: BUYING SOCKS FT. ABBA Alternatives to the Google Home lineup include Amazon’s Echo connected speakers with Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa. While Alexa is not as good as Google at answering questions, it’s still a decent and capable alternative that works well with both Android and iOS devices and offers access to Amazon’s streaming services.

TRANSFORM YOUR DORM WITH THE PRESS OF A BUTTON Dorm rooms are notoriously poorly lit, but thankfully today, that can easily be fixed with a few smart lights. The smart light market was one of the first smart home device categories to really take off and as a result, has turned into a truly robust, mature device category.

PHILLIPS HUE: EXPENSIVE, BUT CONNECTED TO YOUR IPHONE One of the most well known brands of smart lights is Phillips Hue. The smart lights come in a dizzying variety including colored lights, plain white, colored light strips and portable lights as well. And all these lights can be connected to both Android and iOS devices and can be controlled wirelessly from phones or smart speakers.

Hue lights also have the ability to work in tandem with each other to create lighted environments that feature a variety of different colors and styles of lighting. For example, the Philips Hue app allows users to upload a picture of their choice and it will then analyze that picture and create a light scene from it. Depending on the amount of lights in your set up, each one will assume a color from the photo to recreate the feel of it in your dorm.

One downside of Hue lights is that they can be expensive, especially if you want more than one. But the smart light market offers many more affordable alternatives that offer similar functionality.

GOOGLE HOME $89.90

AMAZON ECHO $99.99

APPLE HOMEPOD $349.99

PHILLIPS HUE $49.99

Finding cheaper alternatives One such affordable brand is VOCOlinc which offers colored smart light bulbs for $25 as opposed to Phillips Hue bulbs which double that price. There also plenty of other cheaper alternatives that you can find on Amazon.

VOCOLINK $25.00 PAGE DESIGN BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY DEMETRI BURKE | THE SIGNAL

DORM SURVEILLANCE While feeling safe in a dorm is ideal, the reality of collegiate living situations means this isn’t always the case. If roommates can’t be trusted or dorm room intruders are a concern, smart cameras may be a solution. Smart cameras offer surveillance that will alert you the second someone enters your space unauthorized. Because these devices are connected to the internet, they have the ability to notify you, often with a live video feed, of anyone who’s in your space without permission.

NEST: A SECOND SET OF EYES FOR WHEN YOU’RE AWAY One of the most developed smart home cameras on the market is Nest’s security camera. These cameras function like regular security cameras, monitoring whatever you point them at and recording the footage, but will also send a notification to your phone if they detect movement. Their video feeds can also be accessed remotely from your phone or tablet at any time you’re away.

SURVEILLANCE EVEN IN THE DARK Nest is joined by other connected cameras such as those offered by Canary and Wyze which offer features such as night vision, 2-way audio and Alexa connectivity. These cameras offer the peace of mind that the security guard posted at the front door of your building watching Netflix on his phone cannot.

SMART TV BOXES Arguably, one of the most important smart devices is the streaming box which turns your old TV into a streaming machine capable of bringing you all the world’s content at the

press of a button. These streaming boxes allow internet content to be streamed to your TV without the hassle of hooking up a laptop.

GOOGLE CHROMECAST: STREAMING CONVENIENCE NO MATTER THE DEVICE The most accessible platform by far is Google’s Chromecast.

Instead of having a remote, the Chromecast works by having you access the content on your phone and then casting it to the TV via Google’s streaming protocol. This makes streaming simple and straightforward, negating the necessity of flipping through thousands of options with a remote control.

Chromecast is also operating system agnostic. This means that whatever device you have, it should be able to cast content to the Chromecast. The Chromecast works in tandem with the Google Home Mini allowing you to essentially control your TV with your voice. You can start things off by saying “Hey Google, play Grey’s Anatomy on the TV” and it will turn on your TV and play the show from where you left off. This also works with Spotify and other streaming services.

APPLE TV: 4K FOR EVERYONE The next best streaming box is the Apple TV. While the newer versions of both devices offer 4k TV output and enhanced audio, Apple’s streaming platform works best with Apple devices. This is perfectly fine if you only intend to use it as a streaming box, but if you’re planning on integrating into your smart home set-up than that means you must have only Apple devices.

The Apple TV is a much more self-contained platform, instead of communicating with outside devices, it does its best to use only what it as at its disposal. This means that it comes with Siri installed and will operate any connected device that works with Apple’s Home smart home connection standard.

NEST

CANARY

WYZE

APPLE TV

CHROMECAST

$164.00

$99.99

$19.99

$199.00

$30.00

ARTS & LIVING

12

GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

Rainy with a chance of SoundCloud

Your future kids may ask you about your favorite clout chasers

ecades die, but music lives on and extends a decade’s longevity — something that our current generation is fulfilling through an unorthodox outlet.

To the dismay of many, music distribution website SoundCloud may have peeled the saran wrap off what the current generation is capable of musically. Infectiously catchy melodies offset formulaic artist names, and the result is a brand-new genre often dubbed “SoundCloud rap.” The genre is often memed, but its legion of loyal content creators is branching modern music in another direction.

often mumbled lyrics; nihilistic lyrics about abusing prescription drugs and mental health issues tend to be the general theme of these songs, but can also pertain to the materialistic and the narcissistic,” Blouinartoinfo media owner and arts journalist Louise Blouin said.

Older artists are not limited to using guitars or synthesizers — they simply introduced them into the industry as a novel concept. Now, the responsibility of discovering a new sound rests on millennial shoulders, and the breeding ground for such a sound may be subject to many music enthusiast’s scrutiny.

“Whether you perceive it as the hottest sound around, or just simply cultural trash, one cannot deny the impact this genre has had on music over the past few years,” Blouin said

FROM GARAGEBAND TO BILLBOARD HOT 100 CHART

LONG GONE ARE THE DAYS OF HANDING OUT MIXTAPES

EUGENE RUBINCHIK Staff Reporter

D

Punk rock, like SoundCloud music, began as an opportunity for anyone with an instrument to get together with others and create their own music. Creation is pivotal for a generation to construct a defining sound, and SoundCloud alongside music production software such as FL Studio, Ableton, or Reason currently render the public capable of producing their own thoughts.

Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert and Post Malone, regardless of their reputations on the internet, began on this free program, and are credited for selling out the biggest venues around the country and affecting mainstream culture. While they may not resemble your typical punk rocker, these artists have become so wellknown, they gather attention of other well-established artists.

SoundCloud powerhouse Lil Uzi Vert received artistic praise from rock singer Marilyn Manson. “[With Uzi’s first album Luv is Rage, as opposed to Luv is Rage 2], I saw the potential in him because he had this attitude that reminded me of me when I was his age. I don’t want to sound aged by saying that, it just sounded like what needed to happen. But it wasn’t fully formed,” Marilyn Manson said in an interview with Zane Lowe.

FORWARD IN TIME, BACKWARD IN STYLE

Yes, today’s artists’ methods are unconventional, but the future is beginning to sound a lot like the past.

“As a rock critic, I’ve been anxious about music for a long while. I find very retro, overtly nostalgic music, like what you see coming from Jack White, Lana Del Rey, or Fleet Foxes, to be, well, retrograde. I’m into innovation and moving forward,” Oxford graduate and music journalist Simon Reynolds said.

NEW INSTRUMENTS BRING A NEW SOUND

In previous decades, a guitar was a weapon against authority and confirmation. Nowadays, those who embrace the authentic sound of a guitar find themselves washed away in a sea of numerous other acoustic artists who have yet to reinvent the genre. The guitar has also faced dramatically less use than ever before with guitar production titan Gibson now in debt.

Technology provides another facet to musical recording.

Synthesizers in the ‘80s were used tastefully to form impressionable sounds. Recent artists who attempt to emulate this sound, like those who attempt to use primarily acoustic sounds, drown in an ocean of repetition or merely emulate what those have done before them. Synthesizers have also met face to face with digitization, making them available and easily accessible on the internet.

“The online audio sharing platform has helped define an entire genre with an assault of 808 beats, triplet hi-hats and simple,

ILLUSTRATIONS AND PAGE DESIGN BY SHANCHEZE JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL

Clicking away at SoundCloud’s impressive database has now replaced sifting through miscellaneous vinyl records at your local music store — what was once an integral process to the discovery of new music. Initially designed to allow artists a platform to share music with one another, SoundCloud is now a virtual playground for artists to grow their audience, replacing the physical work done by budding new artists in neighborhood communities.

“Jazz and blues burst out of the Harlem Renaissance, while Seattle was home to the grunge scene before it broke into mainstream with Nirvana. So, this makes SoundCloud the home of a new wave of rap, much like Harlem and Seattle were the home to their native music scenes,” Blouin said.

SoundCloud’s purpose has long since been simply a sharing platform between artists playing the role of a virtual venue.

“Ipso facto, the major and only difference between SoundCloud rap and geographical scenes is the modus operandi through which the music is initially distributed, with the former being accessible online for free, and the latter being in small, local venues,” Blouin said.

THE ONCE GUARDED ART OF MUSIC PRODUCTION NOW UNRESTRICTED

Being the open source platform as it is, SoundCloud allows anyone to post whatever they choose. Naturally, many songs may be quite distasteful, although those who perfect SoundCloud rap’s formula are able to produce novel musical concepts. Unlike guitars, computer production of music offers endless options of sound.

Given its DIY nature and loose posting restrictions, SoundCloud offers anyone with a computer the opportunity to explore their creativity. As it stands, schools around the world offer musical production as a course. It provides anyone an opportunity to express themselves.

“Aphex Twin was literally just a kid from Cornwall. I don’t even really know where that is, but look how international he has become. He just heard sounds in his head and decided to put them out there, and they’re like nothing that nobody has ever heard,” DJ and local house artist Primativebanana said.

With SoundCloud nearing death on a couple occasions and carrying a sort of childish and casual air about it, many have and will critique its existence. The Swedish website certainly has flaws and has (lil) pumped some questionable music into existence, but its role as a medium to contact a new style of music has left a dent on the current decade.

A RT I S T S W H O B E G A N O N

SOUNDCLOUD:

DENZEL CURRY

JUICE WRLD

21 SAVAGE

SKI MASK THE SLUMP GOD

LIL PEEP

TRAVIS SCOTT

KODAK BLACK

LIL UZI VERT

LIL YACHTY

POST MALONE

PLAYBOI CARTI

TRIPPIE REDD

RICH THE KID

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

ARTS & LIVING

13

Erasing Squishiepuss from Atlanta’s landscape Artist’s work removed after sexual harassment and abuse allegations JOHN PRESTON CORBIN Staff Reporter

R

ay Geier’s life is over.

Better known as Squishiepuss, the Atlanta-based artist who made a name for himself through his paintings of a bizarre, pink octopus-dog, Geier has had great influence in the Atlanta art scene for years.

“He was kind of a powerhouse when it came to getting work here,” Kate Logan, an illustrator and former friend of Geier, said. “He definitely helped give my art career a boost.”

Logan was among the many people who were shocked when screenshots of Ray Geier’s misogynistic Twitter account, @ Rayspitsongirls, were posted to Instagram. The screenshots were posted only days before Geier’s gallery, Squishieland, was set to open. Not long afterward, multiple women began to come forward with testimonies against Geier, with accusations ranging from sexual harassment to revenge porn.

GEIER’S FRIENDS LEFT FEELING BETRAYED

“In the years that I’ve known [Geier], he was never disrespectful and never treated me as anything more than a friend and a fellow artist,” Logan said. “I actually met several other strong female artists through him that he also worked closely with. None of us ever saw that side of him. This is why we’ve been completely blindsided by what we have learned about him.

“When the news broke the other day it was like a kick to the gut for me and all of the women who stood by him for so long.

Every single one of us feels manipulated and betrayed. It has definitely been a rough couple of days for everyone who was friends with him, but all of us stand by the women who have come forward.”

At one point, Squishiepuss’ artwork dotted the Atlanta cityscape with murals decorating the walls of local businesses.

In light of the recent accusations, artists have taken to the streets to paint over this artwork and erase Squishiepuss from

the art scene.

Courtney Hicks, a local illustrator, was one such artist.

“I painted over the Squishiepuss mural located on the outside wall of a house on Glen Iris Boulevard,” Hicks said. “I wouldn’t say it was a happy experience; this whole situation is very sickening. It was, however, grimly satisfying to know I was helping to remove his work from the city. Painting over Ray’s pieces is not simply about punishing him. The more important point of the act is letting his victims know that we believe them, are unequivocally on their side, and will not tolerate a sexual predator holding a place in our community.”

Hicks has known Geier since she moved to Atlanta six years ago. Having taken part in gallery shows with him and even appearing as a guest on his podcast, she was unaware of Geier’s history of abuse before the story broke on Instagram.

BUSINESSES BEGIN REMOVING SQUISHIEPUSS

Businesses like Hodgepodge Coffeehouse and Gallery on Moreland Ave. have also taken it upon themselves to remove Squishiepuss’ artwork from their establishment. Krystal Alavarez, the owner of Hodgepodge, spoke to The Signal about her decision to remove the Squishiepuss mural from her shop.

“January 3rd I saw the messages from brave women who came forward to talk about their interactions with Ray and realized it was worse than I could have imagined and that I needed to publicly address it,” Alvarez said. “I could have quietly covered [the mural], but I wanted there to be no uncertain terms where we fall on this, we believe and support women. If I had heard a whisper of this earlier his piece would have been covered then.”

For Alvarez, the decision to remove Geier’s art was not difficult.

“The twitter handle “Rayspitsongirls” was enough for me to decide he wasn’t someone I wanted associated with our business,” Alvarez said. “It was a simple decision, honestly.

Personally as a woman, I don’t do misogyny. As a business, we have always been a safe space for our community and having anyone who would find that even slightly humorous did not fall in line with our values. That evening I made the decision to replace his work with something by Kayleen [Scott].”

Caroline Hicks, a local illustrator, covered a Squishiepuss mural on a home located at Glen Iris Boulevard in response to the discovery of Ray Grier’s misogynistic Twitter and allegations of sexual harassment.

Kayleen Scott is another local artist who was asked to paint over the Squishiepuss mural by Hodgepodge Coffeehouse.

SEPARATING ART FROM THE ARTIST

Separating art from the artist is not really possible in the case Squishiepuss and Geier.

“Unfortunately in situations like these where the community is relatively small, there really isn’t an easy way to separate the art from the artist,” Logan said. “It’s a constant reminder of the pain he has caused. I think businesses like Hodgepodge having female artists covering his murals are sending a strong message to anyone else who tries to pull the same b-------. They’re standing by their community and their women. The way the Atlanta art community has rallied together has been amazing.”

Hicks agreed with Logan’s statement.

“I do not think, especially in situations like these, that the artwork can be separated from the artist because it is impossible for Ray’s victims to separate themselves from the trauma he’s caused them,” Hicks said. “He has managed to spread his art all over the city, both through public murals and within many Atlanta establishments. It would be very difficult for someone living in the city to go a day without seeing some form of Ray’s work. I imagine, for the victims, seeing his paintings throughout Atlanta would be a constant reminder of the suffering he’s caused them, and they deserve freedom from that.”

Alavarez echoed Hick’s sentiments.

“Anyone who ‘separates the art from the artist’ in these instances is just perpetuating the power imbalance that most victims face with their abusers,” Alavarez said. “Not only do victims relive their traumas every time they see/hear their work, but they’re also implicitly/explicitly being told that their traumas aren’t as important as their abusers aesthetics.”

Once a prominent artist, Squishiepuss must now face the consequences of his actions as his career comes to an end and his legacy is erased, painted over by many women artists.

The Signal reached out to Geier via the Squishiepuss website but did not receive a response.

PHOTO BY VANESSA JOHNSON | THE SIGNAL

ARTS & LIVING

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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

things you don’t want to miss

More events and info at georgiastatesignal.com

thursday

wednesday

tuesday

saturday

friday

monday

sunday

Calling all juggalos!

Read to cats!

the 2019 Atlanta Biennial

Learn emotions with emojis!

Free downtown tour

Join the Harlem Globetrotters!

MLK march and rally

January 15

January 16

January 17

January 18

January 19

January 20

January 21

Join the Insane Clown Posse’s Shaggy 2 Dope for guest performances OUIJA MACC, HATCHETHEAD and Big Muk at the Masquerade. Don’t forget your face paint and bring enough Faygo to share.

Ages six to 14, who need a little more practice reading, can join Good Mews Animal Company in reading to shelter cats.

Careful: You might just come home with a new friend.

Spend a night drinking cocktails and viewing new art from 20 artists from various mediums including visual arts, television, fiber arts, music and sound at Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center. The event is free admission with free parking.

This interactive program held at the Children’s Museum of Atlanta includes interactive song and dance as well as arts and crafts aimed to teach children how to identify their emotions and those from the world around them.

Learn Downtown’s rich history through a free guided tour.

This tour will cover Woodruff Park, the civil rights movement and the Coca-cola Company. Learn about the past and present buildings and the events that created them.

Participants will have 20 opportunities to interact with their favorite Harlem Globetrotter players on and off the court during the all-new Fan Powered World Tour. You might just get dunked on.

March for social change with the Martin Luther King, Jr. March and Rally.

The rally begins at 1 p.m. at Peachtree Street and Baker Street. Admissions are free and children are welcome.

games

SuD0KU medium

easy

games

HARD

crossword 1

2

3 4

5 7

6

8

9

10 11

12 13 14

this week’s theme:

15

16 17

18

19

Firsts Since this is the first issue of 2019, here’s a crossword that highlights other big “firsts.” We hope you enjoy!

20 21 22

To suggest a topic, email us: signalprod@gmail.com

across

1. The first person in space was ___ Gagarin.

4. The first black U.S. president was Barack ___.

11. Lewis G. ___ played the first Batman in 1943.

13. Jennifer Lawrence won her first Golden Globe for the movie “Silver ___ Playbook.”

14. Georgia State’s first university president was Wayne S. ___.

17. The first trailer to earn 230 million views in its first 24 hours.

18. ___ University of Pennsylvania was the first HBCU.

20. Moses ___ was the first mayor of Atlanta.

21. What was the first shopping website?

22. Walt Disney’s first character was a rabbit named ___.

DOWN

2. What was the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series?

3. He was the first member to leave One Direction.

4. The ___ Brothers are considered to be the first boy band.

5. The first U.S. colony was in ___, Virginia.

6. Madame ___ was the first female millionaire.

7. Who was the first Disney princess?

8. Georgia State’s first university newspaper was called The ___.

9. Who was the first solo rapper to win a Grammy?

10. In the first line of “Thank U, Next,” Ariana Grande states that she thought she’d end up with this rapper.

12. The first U.S. president was George ___.

15. In the “Hokey Pokey”, the first step is to put this body part in.

16. Numbah ___ was the first Kids Next Door operative.

19. This singer’s first solo album was titled “Dangerous in Love.”

SPORTS TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

www.georgiastatesignal.com/sports

CALENDAR

GSU hoops and its new schedule format

No more doubleheaders for basketball: attendance and warm-up changes for programs TAJ STRICKLAND Staff Reporter

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he new Sun Belt Conference basketball scheduling format has removed doubleheaders starting this season.

Instead of both the men’s and women’s teams playing the same school in the same arena on the same day, they will now have one team play at home and the other team will play away against the same school on the same day.

This is all part of the Sun Belt Conference’s “20-game smart schedule” for the 2019-2020 season for men’s basketball. They will split it into two divisions: east and west. Each team will have five home and away games against their division rivals and three home and away games against their non-division teams.

Women’s basketball teams in the Sun Belt will continue to play an 18-game conference schedule like they did last season.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT GEORGIA STATE BASKETBALL?

Questions have been asked on whether this could be good or bad for various reasons that include attendance, routines and other types of preparation before the games. These questions became valid after a shortage of attendance for women’s basketball this season.

Third year assistant coach for men’s basketball Ray McCallum believes that it has its advantages and disadvantages for how the team prepares before playing their opponent.

“We know on a Thursday night game, we will have a routine,” McCallum said. “It puts the guys in the preparation routine that helps with it being consistent.”

Upon talking about the routine, McCallum explained things that could possibly go wrong now that the doubleheaders are no more.

“The disadvantage is you got to do some stuff a little bit earlier or a little bit later,” McCallum said. “The warm-up can be a little late because the game could have gone over, could of been a lot of fouls or it could have gone to overtime.”

While some believe there are ups and downs to this new scheduling system, senior guard Devin Mitchell isn’t affected much.

“I do not think it makes much of a difference,” Mitchell said. “We get a little bit more time to shoot and stretch and I will take advantage of that, but it is not really too much of a difference.”

Mitchell also agreed, partially, that it may have some effect on the women’s games attendance during the season now that there are no more doubleheaders.

“A lot of people used to stay over from the women’s games and watch our games,” Mitchell said.

Head coach Ron Hunter, who has been coach for the Panthers for seven seasons, believes that whether it is men’s or women’s basketball, people will come out and support winning programs.

“People talk about winning and our program is winning, so you need to come out and support the programs,” Hunter said.

“I hope it does not affect the women’s attendance because that would be too bad, but I hope would come support not only the men’s team, but the women’s.”

So, with the men’s team having more time for preparation before tip-off, it seems that everything is a bit better for them since they can start earlier. But how do these changes affect the women’s team?

Coach Gene Hill believes it may have affected attendance at other schools, but not here at Georgia State.

“I’ve loved the support our fans have given us at home this season,” Hill said. “We will continue to improve the gameday experience at the Sports Arena so that fans will keep coming out and helping us to wins by being loud and supportive.”

Senior forward, KK Williams, agreed with coach Hill about the support of the fans being helpful.

“Our home games this year have been a lot of fun,” Williams said. “We’re 5-2 at home and a big part of that is because of the fans that come and cheer for us.”

Last season, they had an average home attendance record of 427 people against conference opponents. The Panthers had nine home games against Sun Belt Conference teams. Their 7156 win against Georgia Southern was the game with the most people in attendance.

In the two home conference games they have played this season, they have an average of 363 people in attendance. The game with the most spectators in attendance is the first home game of the season, when Georgia State lost 78-81 to Georgia Tech.

The cancellation of doubleheaders for Georgia State basketball seems to have little to no effect on the women’s basketball attendance. It appears that the attendance will stay consistent this season for the next seven home games they have.

However, that does not mean attendance looks good for the women’s basketball team. It also does not mean that the same amount of people coming to the men’s team games at the GSU Sports Arena will come to the women’s team games.

Last season, the Panthers had a home attendance record of 1,792 people against conference opponents. Their most attended game was also against Georgia Southern – a sellout game of 3864 people in which Georgia State would win 83-66.

In the two home conference games it played thus far, an average of 1,389 fans were in attendance, a 12 percent drop from last season, excluding the Georgia Southern game.

With the Sun Belt Conference moving the schedules around for men’s basketball, it looks like attendance for both women’s and men’s will not be touched.

Winning is a huge part of attendance and the men’s basketball team has been winning a lot in the past two seasons.

They have had the highest winning percentage of any Division 1 college basketball team in the state of Georgia for the past two seasons.

As the women’s basketball team rebuilds with a new coaching staff and system, the winning has just begun for them this season. Expect them to have a lot more support and a higher attendance record in the seasons to come.

ILLUSTRATION BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL

SPORTS

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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

The growth of soccer in the Peach State Examining the trajectory of soccer’s popularity in Georgia JULIAN HARDEN Staff Reporter

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n 2017, Atlanta United took Major League Soccer by storm with its record breaking crowds, new stadium and South American style of play. While many saw this support of a soccer team in Georgia as a shock, it has been a long time in the making. The success of Atlanta United highlighted the growth of the soccer in the state and how it can prosper in the future.

Atlanta United radio commentator Jason Longshore was born in the 80’s, a time where soccer had little to no following, not just in Georgia but in the United States.

“Honestly, because [Atlanta United] made it cool, and it was big especially for youth viewing the games,” Longshore said.

Longshore grew up at a time where the only soccer in the state was the Atlanta Chiefs. Created in 1967, they were members of the National Premier Soccer League and North American Soccer League. The Chiefs were the first soccer team in Georgia and also owned by the Braves. However, the team went through many name changes such as the Atlanta Attack, Atlanta Ruckus and back to Chiefs before finally becoming the Silverbacks. While the teams were in lower leagues it allowed Georgians greater access to professional soccer. In 2013, fans packed Silverback Stadium with 7,500 fans, nearly overflowing the stadium with a record-setting attendance in the NASL. More local teams were formed and youth participation started to steadily increase. These local teams were formed all over the state such as the the AFC Lightning in Peachtree, Alpharetta Ambush and Athens United, which were formed after the Atlanta Chiefs.

However, for soccer to grow in Georgia it faces an uphill battle as other sports such as football, basketball and baseball are

still the dominant sports with the current youth. Longshore remains optimistic about soccer’s chance to grab the youth’s attention.

“Baseball [has a fanbase that] is struggling to attract a young base and [in] football the numbers [are] declining with parents worried about concussions,” Longshore said.

The closest comparison Longshore used for soccer’s popularity was basketball, which is also pushed by younger fans. He stated how big NBA stars, such as LeBron James, are often socializing with huge stars such as Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. and many others. This is huge for the growth of soccer as the most popular athletes in the country such as James associating themselves with soccer gets more youth interested in the sport.

Another reason for the soccer popularity boom is due to Atlanta being a natural hub and unofficial capital of the South.

Atlanta hosts a variety of sporting events, and soccer is no longer the exception as it hosted the 2018 MLS All-Star Game.

The Atlanta Braves have fans throughout the Southeast and other regions of the country. For soccer to grow in Georgia, it must be a magnet for talent from other southern states to come play. ”Now we have United fans all over the South we get people listening in from South Carolina, Alabama, Macon and Columbus,” Longshore said.

Just like the Braves have embraced “Braves Country,” soccer fans in the South are drawn to Georgia as the capital of soccer in the South. One of Atlanta United’s goals was to partner up with Atlanta Public Schools near the West End. This was to ensure that the sport is accessible to inner city youth.

The major issue that has hindered soccer’s growth in Georgia, and in the country, is the lack of access for children in the inner cities. The United States has a “pay to play” system where people of low income areas are financially barred from competing unlike those in suburban communities.

Soccer in the Streets was established to give more access to the sport to children in the inner city. One of the board members, Sanjay Patel, makes it his mission to grow the popularity of the sport in the state. Sanjay, who grew up in the U.K,, was taken back by how discriminated the sport was in the U.S.

“When I came here [to the United States] I was surprised how segregated it was, in that it was a very white, middle-class sport,” Sanjay said.

One of the goals for Sanjay and Soccer in the Streets is “to encourage more grassroots teams like how kids form local basketball teams, we want kids to form local soccer teams.”

Soccer in Streets also created Station Soccer, a program to create soccer fields near MARTA stations. There are currently soccer fields at the West End station and Five Points station, the busiest stop.

“One of the biggest issues facing kids in the city from playing is transportation and cost ... Our soccer fields are free and are open to everyone,” Sanjay said.

When he came to Georgia in 2010 there was little excitement about the game with exception of the suburban areas. However, as there was more exposure in the city, more people began to take interest in the sport.

Georgia Soccer, the authorized state youth and adult soccer association established in 1968 has seen a major growth in the game. The director of coaching at Georgia Soccer Jacob Daniel began his tenure at Georgia Soccer in 1993, and in his early years there wasn’t much interest from residents.

He said he saw tremendous growth as he saw youth signing numbers skyrocket.

“We saw our numbers go from 35,000 to 90,000 currently,” Daniels said.

Soccer has become more intriguing and active in parts of Georgia that soccer would’ve never touched twenty years ago.

“We had maybe had one or two paid coaches when I started.

Now we have hundreds of paid coaches and administrators,” Daniels said.

While soccer may not be at the same level of popularity in football in Georgia, the growth of the game is undeniable. The traction is shown with soccer in the state growing from the Atlanta Chiefs in the 1960s to Atlanta United, the champions of MLS. Organizations such as Soccer in the Streets in Atlanta continue to break down socioeconomic baring those in the inner city from playing the game competitively.

ILLUSTRATION BY DEVIN PHILLIPS | THE SIGNAL

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

SPORTS

17

Hart leaves school to pursue NFL dreams

Georgia State star will forgo his senior season to test NFL waters CHRISTIAN CRITTENDEN Staff Reporter

P

enny Hart is pound-for-pound one of the best players to have worn a Georgia State football jersey. The redshirt junior decided to forgo his redshirt senior season and enter the NFL draft.

Hart is looking to become the third panther receiver in the NFL along with Albert Wilson and Robert Davis.

After what was a down year for his standards, Hart will test the NFL waters. He doesn’t know what will happen, but is confident in his abilities.

“The biggest thing was that I’m a faithful man, and I believe what I believe, following Christ,” Hart said. “He told me that it was time, so I felt like it was time to go.”

Football is a very physical game, and it can have many effects on the body. The career of a football player can be shortened because of the beating that players take.

“But also, with the fact that if I’m going to do it, it’s gotta be now at the peak of my game,” Hart said. “I’m gonna be 23 coming next July, so time is more valuable than anything. I felt like at this point I had to do what I had to do.”

“More than any other decision, it was Christ telling me to move on and do other things,” Hart said. “I’m graduating this December as well, so I felt like that time to make that next step.”

This season Hart caught 49 passes for 669 yards and two touchdowns. That is a strong contrast from the 2017 season when he caught 74 passes for 1121 yards and eight touchdowns.

There are several reasons for the drop in numbers, the primary one being that he was clear and away the Panthers’ best players, so teams were game planning for him and taking him away. Additionally, Hart was working in the second year of the offense with a new quarterback, so there was some adjustment there as well.

Despite the drop in numbers, it’s not stopping the receiver from taking his shot at the league.

“If somebody is asking me a question like that, they pretty much already know what the answer is going to be,” Hart said. “On the other half, they just want to see how I’m gonna respond to it.”

He believes that this season was even better than when he was putting up the high numbers because every other part of his game grew leaps and bounds.

“Honestly, if they turn on the film from any year before, and they turn on the film and watch this year, they’ll see that I’m a better receiver than I’ve ever been in my career, a better player,” Hart said. “From a receiver standpoint, this is the best year because these are the best routes I’ve ever run, most I’ve caught the ball with my hands, being fundamentally sound in everything I do across the board.”

Hart was recently added to the Reese’s Senior Bowl roster so he will have an entire week of drills and a game to show his skills to NFL scouts. If teams do have questions about his down statistical numbers, he will have a chance to prove that they were just a fluke.

Georgia State has had the benefit of several players going through the draft process, even having Davis being selected in the sixth round by Washington. Hart has many options to discuss the process with and get the perspective of what it’s like going through the process as a small school player.

“I got a lot of people that are in the league right now that I’m able to speak with, Rob [Robert Davis] of course, and explain the process,” Hart said. “ Albert [Wilson] consistently talks to me, making sure that he’s pouring back into me, helping me with the process.”

Since the season ended, Hart has hired an agent and began

One of Georgia State’s most beloved football players, Penny Hart will forgo his redshirt senior season to enter the NFL draft.

working towards his goal of playing in the NFL. He knows that it is a long the process is, but he knows what’s ahead and he is prepared.

“I’m in grind mode right now,” Hart said. “ I never get out of it; it’s just different intensity levels that I try to get to. I’m making sure my body is aligned, and everything is straight so that when things get underway, like training, I can be 100 percent mentally and physically.”

Being from a small school, and being a smaller receiver could hurt his draft stock. Hart is listed on the Georgia State roster at 5-feet- 8 inches tall and 180 pounds. This is not discoursing him, but he is prepared if he is not drafted and has to sign as an undrafted free agent.

“I feel like, with everything that I’ve done up until this point

PHOTO SUBMITTED BY GEORGIA STATE ATHLETICS

with this game, I would be satisfied,” Hart said. “If that’s the turn that it decided to take then I’m okay with that.”

“Obviously, I wouldn’t be ecstatic about it or necessarily happy, but I would understand that if that’s the plan that God has for me and I need to do something else and take my purpose and continue to move throughout my life and do something else, then that’s what I have to do, and I’m okay with that,” Hart said.

Hart finished his Georgia State career having won Sun Belt conference freshman of the year, an Autonation Cure Bowl championship, a member of the most accomplished Georgia State football team ever and one of the best players in program history.

ACCOLADES 2X FIRST TEAM ALL-SUN BELT CONFERENCE SELECTION

2015 FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICAN

2015 SUN BELT CONFERENCE FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

FOURTH IN RECEIVING YARDS IN SUN BELT CONFERENCE HISTORY WITH 2,950 YARDS

SPORTS

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GEORGIASTATESIGNAL.COM

Simonds hits game-winning layup with .9 to spare Panthers escape Louisiana-Monroe upset after blowing 21-point lead JERELL RUSHIN Sports Editor

D

’Marcus Simonds made a game-winning layup with .9 seconds remaining to lift Georgia State to a 74-73 victory over Louisiana-Monroe, avoiding the Panthers’ first Sun Belt Conference loss.

Georgia State (13-4, 4-0) had a 21-point second half lead and lost it when the Warhawks’ Daishon Smith scored a layup with 5.5 seconds remaining. Simonds’ heroics extended Georgia State’s winning streak to six games.

This loss is the second consecutive for Louisiana-Monroe on a last second shot, the first being a buzzer beater Georgia Southern converted to win 79-78 on Jan. 10.

“I told our guys there are certain teams in the league that may get down 20 points and quit – ULM is not one of those teams,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “When you are wearing a bulls-eye as the best team in the league, you are going to get everyone’s best shot and that was the case once again today. We can’t relax, but I thought when we got up big we did relax and it almost cost us.”

Simonds had a game-high 28 points on 11-of-24 shooting to go along with five rebounds. Devin Mitchell scored 16 points and went 4-of-10 on 3-pointers.

“D’Marcus made a great play,” Hunter said. “I thought he played really well today. He had been struggling and kind of got it going.”

The Panthers shot 9-of-28 from deep and held LouisianaMonroe to an 8-of-31 mark on 3-pointers. But the Warhawks (9-7, 2-2) made 5 of them in the second half in addition to 10 2-pointers. Michael Ertel went 3-of-3 from three in the second half and finished with 18 points.

“We were playing unbelievable defense, and we really had been for a long time, the last five or six games,” Hunter said. “We got the 20-point lead and just relaxed. Ertel did a nice job getting that ball in his left hand and making plays.”

Georgia State entered the second half leading 35-28 and picked up right where it left off in the first. Clicking on both ends of the floor, the Panthers went on a 23-13 run to open the frame, and held their game-high 21-point lead with 12:21 remaining.

The situation quickly changed when the Warhawks cut the lead to eight points with 7:48 left on a pair of free throws by JD Williams, who led them with 19 points and seven rebounds.

Louisiana-Monroe scored 13 unanswered points in the final four minutes and took the lead on Smith’s layup with 5.5

D’Marcus Simonds helps push the men’s basketball team to victory over Louisiana-Monroe with a 74-73 final score.

seconds left. Simonds then caught the inbound pass at half-court and drove to the basket, converting the game-winning layup.

Simonds pushed off and traveled during his gather, but officials didn’t make either call. The Sun Belt suspended the officiating crew for committing the “egregious error.”

“That’s what happens in league play,” Hunter said. “We got a

PHOTO BY UNIQUE RODRIGUEZ | THE SIGNAL

good league, but what we wanted to do is protect home. I told them on Selection Sunday, nobody realizes how you won the game. They just know you won it. It would’ve been a bad loss for us, but we handled it and won the game.”

The Panthers are preparing for a two-game road trip beginning with South Alabama (9-8, 2-2) on Jan. 17 and Troy (9-7, 2-2) on Jan. 19.

Panthers match 2018 win total with 14 games left Women’s basketball torches ULM with 18-0 run in third quarter JERELL RUSHIN Sports Editor

W

ith 14 games remaining, Georgia State tied its eightgame win total from the 2017-2018 season when it defeated Louisiana-Monroe 56-41 thanks to an incredible third quarter on Saturday.

The Panthers (8-7, 2-2) entered halftime tied at 28-26, and then the Warhawks (7-8, 1-3) retook the lead with an early Whitney Goins 3-pointer in the third quarter. What took place next was a domination in a 18-0 run Georgia State put together, putting a win out of reach for Louisiana-Monroe.

Georgia State won the third quarter 20-6 behind a 60 percent field goal percentage and a 9-6 rebounding advantage. Goins scored another 3-pointer in the final minute of the quarter and all six of what the Warhawks scored in the period.

“When you go seven points in the second quarter, six points in the third and nine in the fourth and go single digits three quarters in a row, it’s obviously going to make it tough,” Louisiana-Monroe head coach said.

The +14 point differential was their best of the season since they outscored Florida Atlantic 22-4 during their Nov. 10 win.

Louisiana-Monroe never pulled back within 13 points after the third quarter ended.

The Panthers had a slow start because they made just four field goals had five turnovers in the first quarter. Another fault of theirs in the quarter was allowing Arsula Clark, a Preseason AllSun Belt Third Team selection, to score 10 points on 80 percent shooting and two free throws.

They trailed 19-9 heading into the second quarter but tightened up defensively. The Warhawks turned the ball over 9 times in the second quarter, and the Panthers attempted seven more field goals as a result.

Luckily for the Warhawks, Georgia State made just 5 of those 17 shots it attempted, three of which came from Madison Ervin.

Ervin finished with 12 points and Allison Johnson led the Panthers with 15 points.

Georgia State took one-point leads three times but went into halftime tied 26-26. Without the 17-7 second quarter that Georgia State won, it more than likely wouldn’t have been able to take control during the second half.

Six Panthers scored in the third, including Walnatia Wright, who grabbed 10 rebounds and nine points. The team moved the ball well and dished out four assists on its six third period field goals.

Georgia State head coach Gene Hill said the team wants to be dominant on the defensive end before the season began. His

team recovered after the Warhawks shot 46.7 percent in the first quarter and held them to 21.6 percent the remainder of the game. The Warhawks’ 28.8 shooting percentage (15-of-32) was their worst of the season.

Georgia State plays the Sun Belt’s thriving Alabama teams this week. The Panthers face South Alabama (12-3, 1-3) on Jan. 17 at the GSU Sports Arena on 6 p.m. and conference-leading Troy (13-2, 4-0) at home on Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.

Georgia State won, it more than likely wouldn’t have been able to take control during the second half.

Six Panthers scored in the third, including Walnatia Wright, who grabbed 10 rebounds and nine points. The team moved the ball well and dished out four assists on its six third period field goals.

Georgia State head coach Gene Hill said the team wants to be dominant on the defensive end before the season began. His team recovered after the Warhawks shot 46.7 percent in the first quarter and held them to 21.6 percent the remainder of the game. The Warhawks’ 28.8 shooting percentage (15-of-32) was their worst of the season.

Georgia State plays the Sun Belt’s thriving Alabama teams this week. The Panthers face South Alabama (12-3, 1-3) on Jan. 17 at the GSU Sports Arena on 6 p.m. and conference-leading Troy (13-2, 4-0) at home on Jan. 19 at 2 p.m.

SPORTS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2019

SPORTS BRIEFS men’s basketball •

• •

•

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Remained the lone undefeated team in Sun Belt Conference play with wins over Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe Downed Louisiana with the help of 13-of-25 shooting on 3-pointers D’Marcus Simonds scored 21, Malik Benlevi poured in 15 and Devin Mitchell contributed 13 points Simonds made a layup with .9 seconds to give Georgia State a 74-73 win over Louisiana-Monroe Georgia State had a 21-point second half lead and lost the lead with 5.5 seconds before Simonds made the layup

women’s Basketball • •

• •

•

Moved to 8-7 overall and 2-2 in the Sun Belt Conference Lost on the road to the Louisiana Rajin’ Cajuns despite 20 points from Jada Lewis, 18 of which came in the first half Georgia State never led in the game The Panthers used an 18-0 run in the third quarter to fuel their 56-41 win over Louisiana-Monroe Allison Johnson led the Panthers in scoring in their win over the Warhawks

football • • • • •

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Signed 13 players during the early signing period in December 2018 Six of the 13 players are from Georgia Seven signees are linemen, three offensive and four defensive The Panthers also added three linebackers and two defensive backs The only skill position player Elliott signed is three-star quarterback Cornelious “Quad” Brown IV from Calera, Alabama Brown IV is the No. 5 quarterback in Alabama and No. 37 pro-style signalcaller in the nation Defensive lineman Tahji Gilbert (Northwest Mississippi) is the only junior college signee

19

SPORTS CALENDAR BASKETBALL

TRACK AND FIELD

JAN. 17

JAN. 18-19

women’s basketball SOUTH ALABAMA

6 P.M.

GSU Sports Arena

JAN. 15

SOUTH CAROLINA

TBA

Columbia, South Carolina

JAN. 19 TROY

2 P.M.

GSU Sports Arena

BOSTON

8 P.M.

Mobile, Alabama

10 A.M.

GREENVILLE

FURMAN

4 P.M.

men’s basketball

NOW HIRING PHOTOGRAPHERS WRITERS DESIGNERS WEB DEVELOPERS ILLUSTRATORS VIDEOGRAPHERS

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JAN. 18 Atlanta Swarm

3 P.M.

Troy Alabama

7 P.M.

Greenville, South Carolina

Greenville, South Carolina

TROY

JAN. 18 Atlanta Gladiators

JAN. 21 women’s basketball

JAN. 19

7:30 P.M.

State Farm Arena

CORNELL

SOUTH ALABAMA

7:30 P.M.

Atlanta Hawks

JAN. 19 Fory Myers, Florida

men’s basketball

OKLAHOMA CITY

JAN. 19

women’s tennis

JAN. 17

Atlanta Hawks State Farm Arena

TENNIS

women’s basketball

ATLANTA SPORTS

TORONTO

7:30 P.M.

Toronto, Canada

SUN BELT CONFERENCE FOOTBALL STANDINGS EAST DIVISION school

conf

overall

streak

GEORGIA STATE

4-0

13-4

W6

TEXAS STATE

3-1

14-3

W2

LOUISIANA

2-2

11-6

W1

GEORGIA SOUTHERN

2-2

10-7

L1

TROY

2-2

9-7

W1

ULM

2-2

9-7

L2

SOUTH ALABAMA

2-2

9-8

L2

ARKANSAS STATE

2-2

8-9

L1

LITTLE ROCK

2-2

7-10

W2

UTA

2-2

6-11

W2

COASTAL CAROLINA

1-3

7-9

L3

APPALACHIAN STATE

0-4

5-12

L5