An independent student newspaper serving Iowa State since 1890
49 34
10.16.2019 Vol. 220 No. 037
WEDNESDAY
Esports emerge Iowa State students, staff show support for movement
CLAIRE CORBIN/ IOWA STATE DAILY The University Compost Facility, just four miles south of campus, is made up of various hoop barns covering piles of compost.
BY DANIEL.JOHNSON @iowastatedaily.com
Composting on campus demonstrates sustainability
For the past year, students and faculty at Iowa State have been working to get a new program off the ground. This program supports students wishing to play their favorite video games at a competitive level. This scene is a growing global phenomenon called esports, which takes popular games and gives exceptional players a platform to compete and show off their skills. Games such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive, DOTA 2, Rocket League, League of Legends and Overwatch currently dominate esports viewership, with many more behind them. Every year, countless stages are set for players and audiences all over the world to come and cheer on their favorite teams, whether it be live in person or on a screen at home. The scene doesn’t just stop at the professional level. Over the past few years many universities across the country have been giving more support to this new esports phenomenon. Universities such as Miami University of Ohio, Boise State University and Georgia Southern University are only a few of the top tier schools seeing support for esports as important. These schools provide money for travel, spaces for students to play, resources to grow their skills and even scholarships for players to be on their teams. Much of this collegiate esports expansion is due to the popularity esports has gained worldwide. Global viewership for esports events has passed popular national sports networks in the United States like the NFL and NBA. The 2018 League of Legends World Championships reached a top viewership of more
BY AMBER.FRIEDRICHSEN @iowastatedaily.com When people visit Iowa State, they might notice the many trees that line the sidewalks and cover central campus. In the fall, all the trees begin the process of losing their leaves. What most people don’t know is where all of the leaves go. The collection of the leaves is a process most students aren’t aware takes place, but the process does not stop there. Iowa State takes fallen leaves as well as other materials and turns them into compost. Just four miles south of campus is the University Compost Facility. At the composting facility, large piles of compost are stored under hoop barns and maintained by Steve Jonas, agricultural specialist in the Iowa State research farms department. Jonas is the manager of the University Compost Facility and is in charge of making compost out of all the resources collected from campus. Compost is made of decaying organic material and can be used as a plant fertilizer. “It’s the taking of organic material — lawn clippings and animal waste, yard waste, food waste, that kind of stuff — and allowing the microbes that exist naturally to break it down into the organic matter of soil component,” Jonas said. When making compost, a variety of materials can be used.The compost Jonas makes is mostly made up of organic material collected directly from Iowa State. “Manure from the horse barns, food waste from all the dining centers, leaves from campus in the fall, grass clippings, greenhouse waste [...] animal science will bring maybe old feed or something like that,” Jonas said. Barbara Steiner, supervisor of plant services in the facilities planning and management department, oversees the campus employees part of the planting crew, which includes tree-trimmers, arborists, pest control and more. Steiner said leaves account for a lot of the material collected on campus and used for compost, especially this time of year. In addition to leaves, the material from the greenhouses are also used. Merry Rankin, program manager in the facilities planning and management department, is in charge of sustainability on Iowa State’s campus. “All the pre-consumer food waste goes to the composting facility,” Rankin said. “Then all post-consumer food
COMPOSTING
PG4
ESPORTS
PG4
DESIGN BY MARIA ALBERS Esports is on the rise around the globe and Iowa State has taken notice. As gaming continues to gain traction on campus with the ISU Gaming and Esports Club, staff at Iowa State have looked into plans for building an esports space in Beyer Hall.
Tony winner to speak on being a woman in the arts BY ARABELLA.HAU @iowastatedaily.com A 2019 Tony award-winning set designer, Rachel Hauck, will give a presentation on navigating the world of art as a woman at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. The presentation, “Knowing How to Break the Rules: Set Design on Broadway” is part of Iowa State’s Theatre Program’s “HERoic: Gender Equity in the Arts” series. Brad Dell, director of theatre in the music and theatre department, said the HERoic series is focused on all women playwrights and women artists, and serves
as a celebration of the centennial of women’s suffrage. In addition to the presentation, Hauck will discuss creating more opportunities for women and people of color on Broadway. “[Hauck’s] talk is about breaking the rules,” Dell said. “There’s going to be a moderated conversation about how and where she learned the rules of being a scenic designer in professional theatre and what has inspired her to [...] create her own pathway forward.” Dell said the presentation will also discuss what it looks like to be a woman in the male-dominated field of scenic design and what Hauck has learned throughout her career.
“I hope people take away a healthy dose of inspiration and passion for different kinds of possibilities that are out there for all kinds of people in the arts,” Dell said. Hauck received a Tony award for her set work with the 2019 Tony-winning Best Musical, “Hadestown,” which was produced by an all-female team. Hauck also worked as the set designer for the Tonynominated play “What the Constitution Means to Me,” as well as many other award-winning productions. Hauck teaches at Princeton University and is a set designer for plays and musicals both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. Hauck frequently works on world premiere productions as well.