Vol 90, No. 3

Antisemitism Strikes Campus

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Local restaurant vandalized with antisemitic message.

Pi Kappa Alpha and AEPi involved in incident at Sensational Subs

TONI ODEJIMI Staff Reporter

Eight numbers. Eight numbers scribbled down on the chalkboard of Sensational Subs sent fraternities Pi Kap pa Alpha, Alpha Epsilon Pi and the school’s adminis tration into a frenzy.

On September 28th, members of AEPi were alerted to a mes sage written on the sandwich shop’s board. It had most likely been written the prior day at a time when dozens of greek life members meet at the establishment. When members of the Jewish fraternity went to the restaurant to see it for themselves, the message was still there. The chalk that clung to the board read the letters of Pi Kap pa Alpha and the years “1933-1945”, referencing the years when six million Jewish people were killed.

The photos began spreading everywhere. It went online, float ing around the social media accounts of students. By Thursday af ternoon, the information of the antisemitic message trickled to the first Jewish executive vice president of SGA Ira Livnat’s phone.

He wished he was more outraged. His experiences with antisemitism almost desensitized him to the eight numbers that stared back at him on the phone screen. In his five years at Geor gia State, he’s seen worse. Swastikas scratched out on the bathroom walls, loogies launched at him. Livnat wasn’t surprised at this dis play of bigotry on campus.

Sammy Weinburg, the president of AEPi, commented on the event. He and his fraternity brothers were still upset, but he said the situation was “very menial.”

He didn’t place blame on the university.

“I’m not gonna say it’s Georgia State’s fault,” Weinberg said.

In his view, it was just some student who did something stupid, and that decision isn’t representative of Pike as a whole. In fact, he commended the leadership of Pike, stating that they were “moving mountains” with their investigation.

Something that Weinburg and Livnat shared was that they haven’t felt discriminated against by Pike’s executive board. They’re both keeping tabs on the investigation. They didn’t share many details on what exactly Pike was doing to find and punish the perpetrator. Pike didn’t respond to the Signal’s inquiries, but Pike and the university issued statements.

Pike’s statement on Instagram read that the message was not endorsed by the fraternity. They were “appalled by this message” and “disturbed that someone would write this and include our Greek letters.”

Itai Shefler, a member of AEPi and one of the first people to see the message on the 27th, called out Pike, finding it hard to believe that none of the fraternity brothers saw the numbers. His comment got 40 likes.

In a comment to the Signal, Shefler had this to say, “When we got to (Sensational Subs), I was first off all really upset to see that it was still up there and that no one had noticed. - I personally was really upset with GSU’s response to this whole incident.” The university released an official statement on October 2nd, condemning the incident. “This behavior does not reflect our institutional values,” said the university.

The university also offered support to Jewish students in the statement. Livnat said they didn’t. “They hadn’t yet offered their support to the entire Jewish community,” said Livnat. Livnat was frustrat ed with the letter, calling it “below the bare minimum.” Shefler was also unsatisfied by the university response. Shefler also took issue with the first statement, stating,

“I feel like it took them way too long to make any form of response and even now, over two weeks since it happened, still very little has been done. The school issued another statement about the situation on October 4, penned by Georgia State president Brian Blake. This statement started with Blake want ing to express his support for the Jewish community. He condemned the message and said that the Cul

tures, Communities and Inclusion team will be doing more to support communities of faith. Though this was one incident, Livnat felt the recent incident is part of a troubling trend nationwide.

In September, the AMCHA Initiative, an organization that documents antisemitism in college, re ported 42 instances of antisemitic behavior happening on campuses. To note, the AMCHA does con sider anti-Zionist statements as antisemitism. Weinburg would agree.

“With the rise of anti-Zionism comes the rise of antisemitism,” said Weinburg. In fact, the An ti-Defamation League found that there was a 34% increase in antisemitic incidents across the country last year. Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, attributed the rise to people in authority making claims attacking the Jewish state.

As of the moment of publication, the perpetrator has still not been identified. It remains to be seen if the investigation will bear the name of the culprit. It remains to be seen if the administration will put its money where its mouth is and deliver on protecting its Jewish community. Livnat remains hopeful.

“There’s hope because there’s action,” said Livnat. And Livnat’s a part of that action. Last year, Livnat worked with the Vice President of Student Engagement Dr. Micheal Sanseviro to honor Holocaust Re memberance Day at Georgia State. He also proposed that the two fraternities and university officials tour the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, an event organized by Livnat.

While the investigation is still underway, Livnat tells students to listen. Listen to what the Jewish community is saying. Educate. Read up about of the antisemitic atrocities that Jewish people suffered through the ages.

PHOTO BY: TRENT LEGASPI | THE SIGNAL

And it’s time that it’s addressed. Racism at Georgia State is alive

KENNETH LOCKETT III Former Managing Editor

Georgia State has an issue, and no, it’s not a lack of parking. Georgia State has a racism problem, and it’s time that the university addresses it.

Recently, a Georgia State staple, Sensational Subs, was vandalized. Not by graffiti, but by sickening antisemitic references that seemed to leave the university conversation as quickly as it came.

Generally, that has been the way of the student body for years; when an injustice happens, it’s rightfully posted and spread. The students rant and rave about how such a sickening thing could happen at Georgia State. Then the students move on as if nothing happened. For example, the pro-life activists that utilize the university’s public speaking areas re main despite continuous outrage

Every few months, a man protests with a big sign reminding all the girls and gays that they are going to hell. The students band together ev ery time and tell him to take his bigotry elsewhere.. He leaves, and it’s back to the status quo. Those who’ve been at Georgia State for a while al ready know the routine. They already get the process, and the university body is content with that.

But it’s not just the small events that get swiped under the rug; back in 2019 myself, Former Editor in Cheif Daniel Varitek, Former Manag ing Editor Will Soloman and Former News Editor Ada Wood took on racism in the city with our Editorial asking Former Atlanta Mayor Kei sha Lance Bottoms to address the statue of Henry Grady on Marrietta Street next to the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. That editorial garnered national attention overnight.

Not once did the university release any statement. Back in 2018, when a star soccer player was caught using slurs on social media, the university quietly suspended her from the university while calls for her expulsion grew. In 2021, an assistant professor at Perimeter College was called out for white supremacist blogs and social media posts; again, the university skated by doing the bare minimum.

But as you trove through Georgia State’s social media posts, it’s been very… lackluster on every issue. Take this most recent event at SenSubs; the first response from Georgia State was this;

“The university is aware of an off-campus incident where an antise mitic message was posted on a business chalkboard.

This behavior does not reflect our institutional values and we are committed to the highest standards of diversity, equity, and inclusion for all members of our community.

We are looking into the matter and have offered our support to af fected students. We encourage all members of our community to report all potential violations of our Code of Conduct to the Office of the Dean of Students using the online incident reporting form.”

Georgia State posted its response on October 2, 2022, on the news. gsu.edu site. Nearly a full week after the event took place. By then, The Signal at Georgia State, the Student Government Association, Pan ther Report News and even the Epsilon Nu Chapter of Pi Kappa Al pha, whose letters were with the antisemitic statements, had all released statements with much tone-setting language.

Each organization called out the bigotry on its face. PKA stated, “The rise in antisemitism is disturbing, dangerous and should not be tol erated whatsoever,” just days after the news broke. But what did Georgia State post on Instagram during this time? Two posts regarding incom ing and future students, a post celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month and a post about our win over Army. Over on Twitter, more of the same. Not one outward-facing public statement address any sort of negative emotion.

But of course, the university is “committed to the highest standards of diversity, equity and inclu sion for all members of our community.” To add insult to injury, at the time of the writing of this article, it wasn’t even on the main page of the Georgia State News Website. You had to look for the university’s response, and even then, it was hardly a response.

And frankly, that’s because the student body still isn’t holding Georgia State accountable. And it’s not as if the university isn’t uniquely aware of the racial situation rampant on its campuses. In 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, the university started the Task Force For Racial Equali ty, a task housed in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion department at Georgia State. I had the pleasure of speaking and sitting with this Task Force, especially to advocate for the university to have its first Black

President, a hard-fought decision I am glad the University System went with.

The Task Force issued an action plan to tackle the institutional diversity problem at Georgia State. There hasn’t been a progress report since early 2021, nearly two years ago. The Steering Committee, which is supposed to focus on diversifying the facility, hasn’t updated its website since August 5, 2021. The website was created in June of that same year.

And yet the student body isn’t in an uproar. As the university continues to chug along the student body chugs with it. We have to do better; we have to show the University Senate and Dr. Blake that we will no longer sit idly by. Or yet another example of bigotry will be swept under the rug and forgotten.

PHOTO BY: HUNTER LASERNA | THE SIGNAL

PHOTO BY: TRENT LEGASPI | THE SIGNAL

ARTS & LIVING

BeReal and Social Media Authenticity

How the app has created a new sense of online community

KAWTHAR ALASAAD Staff Reporter

The pandemic has had an impact on everyone, demand ing an adjustment to a remote life of school, work and socialization.

Many people have expressed concerns about lacking a social life and basic human interaction.

However, when BeReal was introduced to the mainstream me dia, it changed many people’s lives and friendships. The application was created to provide a sense of community in the most authentic form and a new way of building friendships from a distance.

BeReal, a recent application developed by Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau in 2020, has recently become a viral app many users enjoy and frequently use. It first started to appear on college cam puses, as many college students were fond of connecting to friends and family that were long distance. But now, the app’s usage seems universal for many individuals.

BeReal asks users once a day, opening a two-minute time peri od, to capture a photo using the front and the back camera simulta neously at the same time. This way of connecting provides a unique and genuine connection, especially in the online world.

Although BeReal can be perceived as a fun casual way of con necting with others, its impact is so much more than that. The af ter-effect this app has brought into its loyal users’ lives is quite im pressive.

BeReal brings a combination of social media usage and human interaction. Social media has developed a reputation for photoshop ping and heavy photo editing; BeReal is a refreshingly honest way of self-expression. As our whole world is increasingly online, the lack of genuineness of social media interaction has only brought harm to

people’s mental health as well as self-identity.

Remote socialization can sometimes be tacky; there’s only so much people can do to interact with fellow internet users genuine ly. After the covid lockdown, this isolation has only grown.. Peo ple are meeting and building friendships, partnerships and families through the internet.

The impact of this application goes beyond the usage of col lege students; a diverse number of individuals have been seen using BeReal. Everyone seems to enjoy the new mainstream applications, from authors to rappers.

Just recently, Rapper Brent Faiyaz posted an Instagram post of

Overwatch 2: New Dog, Old Tricks

The sequel leaves some room to grow

DESMOND LEAKE Arts & Living Editor

“Overwatch 2” the semi sequel to Blizzard’s hit first-person shooter finally released for the public a few days ago. After two years of no new Overwatch content, final ly something happens. But, while the game is filled with new life, it feels in some degrees to have lost some of its charm. While it’s still fundamentally a lot of the same fast paced action players have come to know and love, it’s hard to say whether this was worth the content drought that plagued the game for so long.

The biggest change to Overwatch 2 gameplay wise is the changing the game to a 5v5 rather than a 6v6, which allows for an ostensibly faster paced game. This change accompanies a fair number of chang es for the Tank role as well, as many of the tanks have been reworked to accommodate the 5v5 format. And to the game’s credit, the game does play much faster. Every game feels much faster paced and chaot ic, with player awareness being far more required than previously. 5v5 despite being an incredibly risky thing to do, pays off spectacularly gameplay wise and is one of the unambiguously good things about “Overwatch 2” currently.

Aside from 5v5, there’s the new Push game mode which replaces the often-reviled assault mode. Push is interesting, it’s essentially the tug of war aspect of the Assault maps and turns it more literal with a robot pushing a wall to the other side, but it’s too early to tell whether it’s better or worse than what was removed. Push games currently have the tendency to drag on for a very long time compared to oth er game modes, and you can only get flanked so many times before one starts to roll their eyes and beg

for it to end.

a BeReal photo at a museum, and author Chloe Gong has also been seen reposting pictures from BeReal at reader panels. As we can see, BeReal captures the behind the scenes of the user’s day..

Applications such as BeReal are more in demand than ever. People are desperate for any form of real human interaction and a feeling of belonging as we dive deeper into remote living. This ap plication has opened the door for many new ideas of authentic con nection and conversation. This is only the beginning of an increas ingly online world, and so far, we’re stepping in the right direction.

The three new heroes are all fun to play. Special mention goes to Junker Queen, a hyper aggressive tank that fights almost exclusively at close range and deals damage over time, and Kiriko the first sup port hero in three years. But at the same time, the game still feels more like Overwatch 1.5 than a full blown sequel.

Overwatch 2 has gone free to play instead of being a one-time purchase like its predecessor. Accom panying this is probably the single most predatory monetization of a free 2 play game in recent years. New heroes must be unlocked via the games battle pass, which in a game that is all about counter pick ing, spells disaster for the players who can’t afford to shill out money every few updates. Furthermore, the PvE campaign that was the original reason that the game was even being made still isn’t even out yet, leaving the player base with what is essentially a glorified patch.

Then there’s minor things, such as the removal of post-game screens, the removal of the on-fire sys tem, the general change in art direction that kind of makes the game feel more streamlined and lose its unique identity. It kind of feels like it was a rush job to get something out the door.

In “Overwatch 2” there’s fun to be had for sure. But it remains too early to see whether this will cap ture the magic that made the original so special in 2016.

PHOTO BY: HUNTER LASERNA | THE SIGNAL

Coming Soon: GSU Basketball

KEENAN RAY Staff Reporter

College basketball season is soon to be underway and nobody is more excited for this highly anticipated season than the Coach Hayes’ squad. The Panthers are en tering this season fresh off an impressive 2021-22 season. The Panthers went 1811 last year with an impressive run in the Sun Belt tournament leading to a confer ence championship. The Panthers secured the16th-seed in NCAA Tournament and faced off against the one-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs. Now the Panthers are coming into the 2022-23 season as the Sun Belt tournament champions and plan to de fending that title with mostly new faces.

The Panthers start the season with quite a few changes this season. To start, the Panthers have a new head man run ning things in former Xavier Musketeers Interim Head Coach, Jonas Hayes. Hayes began last season as an assistant coach helping the Musketeers end the regular season 20-13 including big wins against

No.19 Ohio State and No.24 UConn. He would later be elevated to interim head coach, where he led the Musketeers to an outstanding run in the National Invita tional Tournament. Coach Hayes assisted in Xavier’s four consecutive winning sea sons and two postseason berths. On April 6, 2022, Hayes was officially announced as Georgia State’s new head basketball coach.

“I want to play as fast as we can play well offensively but create an identity on the defensive end.”, said coach Hayes after a first workout of the season. “We want to build a strong identity of being the tough est and the nastiest team in the Sun Belt that’s also committed to getting better dai ly - that is what we’re all about.”

Along with a new head coach, the team has plenty of role players from the last year returning including sophomore’s Ja’Heim Hudson, Kaleb Scott, Jamall Clyce and Danny Stubbs. Other returnees include experienced vets in Collin Moore, Evan Johnson, Joe Jones III and Kalik

Brooks. Last season Johnson averaged 5.3 PPG, 1.2 APG and 1.2 RPG. Hudson av eraged 5.0 PPG and 4.6 RPG.

The Panthers are starting their 202223 campaign in the newly built convo cation center. The Panthers will begin the season against the Coastal Georgia Mariners. Last season, Coastal Georgia would go 8-16 overall with a 3-13 con ference record. Some key players for the 2022-23 opener include Kenny Brown (senior, guard), Anthony Duncan (Junior, forward), and Diamond Smith (Junior, guard). Guard Kenny Brown averaged 11.8 PPG, 2.6 RPG and 1.5 APG. Guard Diamond Smith averaged 7.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG and 0.9 APG. Anthony Duncan last season averaged 8.5 PPG and 4.8 RPG. The Mariners are led by head coach Jes se Watkins who is entering his 9th season leading the program.

A GSU Football Instant Classic Is On The Way!

GSU Heads Down to the Mountains to Face Off Against App State

SKYLER HILL Staff Reporter

The Sun Belt Con ference is far from being the football powerhouse that the SEC is now or what the ACC was in the ear ly 2010’s. Ironically, this is what makes the conference even more exciting to watch. Each week the stakes rise for each team, introducing the unpre dictable aspect college football has to offer.

Speaking of the unimag inable, flashback to week two of the college football season when fellow Sun Belt program Appalachian State went down to College Station, Texas and beat sixth-ranked Texas A&M in their house. The game was an absolute thriller. Legend has it, the mountains shifted a bit after the celebration students had. App State’s campus erupt ed into absolute madness even local neighbors couldn’t be mad about.

But wait, there’s more! Fol lowing the Texas A&M game, App State found themselves in yet another tight contest against the Troy Trojans. It was 28-26. Two seconds remain on the clock and it’s 4th and 10 and the Mountaineers are on their own 42 yard line. With two seconds left, Chase Brice throws a heave of a hail mary that miraclously found the hands of Christian Horn to give the Mountain eers the victory. Safe to say, App State has had a magical season only George R.R. Martin could come up with. App State fans still aren’t sure if the book is fin ished yet however.

So is this an Appalachian State newspaper or The Signal? Right, it’s Georgia State’s offi cial newspaper so let’s act like it. Without further ado, let’s intro duce the Georgia State Panther’s into the mix. Unfortunately, the Panthers sit at 1-4 (change this before App State game**) and it’s not the season Head Coach Shawn Elliot would’ve pre ferred. A couple games could’ve

gone either way, such as the 4241 loss to Charlotte or the 3528 loss to North Carolina. The Panthers could easily be sitting at 2-2 heading into week five. No matter the outcome of their next game, Georgia State has some advantages heading into the Appalachian State game in week six.

Similar to previous years, Georgia State football has al ways had an above average run ning game, especially in the SBC. In 2021, the program was second in overall rushing in the conference. In 2019, they ranked third in rushing offens es in the SBC. As of right now, the team stands third in the rankings in rushing. This could prove to be an advantage as App State ranks ninth in the SBC in rushing defense as they let up about 137.6 ypg in rushing yards to opponents.

On the flipside, it would be naive to think App State couldn’t also put points on the board. They have arguably the second best quarterback in the confer ence in Chase Brice. Through five weeks of football, Brice has thrown 15 touchdowns to only 2 picks and completes about 70% of his passes. The offense is currently ranked fifth in the SBC, but take this ranking with a grain of salt as the top two teams - Georgia Southern and Troy are dominating on the of fensive end as they both average 310-plus ypg. There’s a big drop off with the other teams after that.

Statistics alone prove why this matchup could be a clas sic. Georgia State will be hungry to win despite their record and App State will continue to ride off their high of playing exhila rating football.

The game already has the hype behind it as fans and foot ball lovers will be able to watch the game live on ESPN2 , on Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.

preview into the Panthers opening week against

Georgia

PHOTO BY: GSU ATHLETICS | THE SIGNAL