Mace & Crown Spring 2023

MACE & CROWN

EDITORIAL BOARD 2023

Editor in Chief

Sydney Haulenbeek

Managing Editor

Leyda RosarioRivera

Copy Editor

Kat Monnin

News Editor

Justice Menzel

Sports Editor

Benjamin Draper

Technology Editor

Gabriel Cabello Torres

Photography Editor

Elena Harris

Social Media Editor

Gwyneth Heseltine

Graphic Designer

Noelle Jessup

Assistants

Art Neal

Summer Markham

Cover Photo

Soren Johnson

Contributors

Kahliah Ross

Peter Wales

Hind Al Saffar

Marjorie Cenese

Advisors

Jen Cohen

Jeremy Saks

Mace & Crown is ODU’s student news organization. Every semester we produce a magazine written by and for the students of ODU. Originally founded as the High Hat in 1930, the paper became the Mace & Crown in 1961. In 2017 the Mace & Crown moved from a weekly newspaper to a magazine. You can find more from us at maceandcrown.com

Mace & Crown maintains journalistic independence from the university. All views expressed in this collegiate magazine are those of the author, not of the university, Mace & Crown, or the editors.

CONTENTS

SPRING 2023

News

6-7 From Donda Dove to ODU Monarch: Bryce Baker’s Court Career

8-13 Blake Bailey: The Past, the Present, and the Book about #MeToo

14-15 Campus Accessibility: ODU’s Complex Response to Disability Accommodations

Arts & Entertainment

16-19 The Bookbinder

20-21 Eight Blocks From ODU, a Community Center is Being Built

Sports

22-23 A Refurbished Ballpark to Call Home in the Near-Future for ODU Baseball

24-25 History Making Season for Jason Henderson & ODU Football

26-27 Early Success for Up-And-Coming ODU Esports Program Technology

28-29 When Brushstrokes Are Traded for Keystrokes, Is It Still Art?

30-31 Right to Repair: The Growing Movement for Consumer Autonomy

EDITOR’S NOTE

This is my fifth magazine that I’ve worked on with the Mace & Crown, and my last. During my time with the Mace I’ve seen lots of people come and go, and watched the magazine and website blossom as we learn and grow together. I’m so thankful for the experience and all the awesome people I’ve gotten to work with over the past three years. I’ve learned so much and had a great time researching, factchecking, and writing with you. I’m so proud of what we have accomplished, and what the Mace’s future looks like.

May each magazine be better than the last!

Sydney Haulenbeek, Editor in Chief

Justice Menzel News Editor

Gabriel Cabello Torres Technology Editor

Benjamin Draper Sports Editor

Elena Harris Photography Editor

Gwyneth Heseltine Social Media Editor

Noelle Jessup Graphic Designer

Summer Markham Assistant Graphic Designer

Art Neal Assistant Sports Editor

Sydney Haulenbeek Editor in Chief

Leyda RosarioRivera Managing Editor

Kat Monnin Copy Editor

2023

FROM DONDA DOVE TO ODU MONARCH:

BRYCE BAKER’S COURT CAREER

Justice Menzel

Monarchs might know Bryce Baker as the 6-foot-5, 190 pound freshman guard they’ve seen scoring in Chartway Arena. They also might know him as #12 from the 2021-2022 Donda Doves roster of Kanye West’s Donda Academy.

Baker grew up in Mooresville, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, which he described as “a growing town.” He conjured a relatively average childhood, saying, “I grew up with my mom, and she [worked] a lot. I went to school, played a lot of different sports, and hung out with friends.” He started playing basketball at the YMCA at a young age, but “never started taking it seriously until [he] got to high school.”

Baker began playing on the high school circuit at Davidson Day High School for the 20182019 season. Davidson Day, a private school in Davidson, North Carolina, has long had a strong athletic reputation, and is no stranger to victory in basketball. In 2019, Baker and the Davidson Day Patriots won a state championship title.

In his sophomore year, Phenom Hoop Report

called Baker “the ultimate glue guy. Very much a winning player who makes winning plays on both ends. He’ll catch college coaches’ eyes immediately after they first see him.”

From there, Baker transferred to Combine Academy in Lincolntown, North Carolina, which describes itself as an “international boarding school” with “students and clients from 50+ countries and 50 states.” Playing for the aptly named Combine Goats, Baker won himself another state title in 2020.

While enrolled in Combine, Baker played for Amateur Athletic Union’s Team Charlotte, which played on the 17U Under Armor Association (UAA) Circuit. He was the highest ranked isolation defender in his league and was named the most efficient player on the Under Armor circuit.

Baker’s close friend and teammate at Combine, sophomore Robert Dillingham, was approached by Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, to begin the roster of Donda Academy’s new basketball team. About a month later, Donda’s administration reached out to offer Baker his own

position. He recalled making the tough decision to leave, stating, “I was eighteen, moving across the country by myself. I knew it’d be hard being away from my mom, too. I’ve been close to her my whole life and we have a special relationship, but I felt it was the best thing for me.”

So, he moved west to Simi Valley, California to end his high school career with national coverage. After its initial roster announcement, the team went on to make national headlines for months with their Balenciaga-produced uniforms, Ye’s frequent appearances at away games, and the overall mystique surrounding the Academy.

According to some reports, Donda Academy was officially announced as open during September of 2022, but according to The Season Ticket, the Doves’ first game was a year earlier, on Nov. 6, 2021.

Donda Academy is a K-12 Christian private school, whose thesis statement is helping students “to be a reflection of God’s glory in the world.” The school was founded by Ye in memoriam of his late mother, Donda West, who was a

Professor of English at Chicago State University. Its tuition is $15,000 per year, but scholarships are offered. Parents of Donda students have been encouraged to sign NDAs regarding the branches of teaching offered.

Describing the average day at Donda, Baker said, “We’d really just get up, not too early, not too late. Then, we’d all go do our classwork for a few hours. Once everybody had gotten a certain amount of work done, then we’d have practice. After practice, we’d either lift weights or do some stretching, and after all that, the rest of the day is yours. A lot of people just worked out more, some hung out with friends–really just normal high school stuff.”

The private school is unaccredited, meaning that it does not have the power to issue its own diplomas or class credits, but Baker said that this is made up for with an online-learning partnership. He received his diploma just a few weeks after graduation.

Towards the beginning of the season, Baker and his teammates resided mostly near Donda’s California campus in luxury apartments the players shared. However, as the season grew longer, they traveled for away games. The season lasted from Nov. 6, 2021, to Mar. 12, 2022 and ended with an 11-9 ratio for the Doves.

In October of 2022, following a string of antisemitic remarks from Ye’s Twitter account, Donda Academy announced an indefinite closure, only to be reopened a few hours later.

The fallout of Ye’s spiral left the Doves fractured from the inside. Robert Dillingham, the team’s only five-star recruit, transferred to play out his season for Overtime Elite, a pro-league for talented prospects. Players A.J. Johnson, Jacob Bannarbie, Javonte Taylor and Chuck Bailey Jr. also transferred out to other basketball programs across the nation.

Baker opted not to comment on the current state of Donda and the team.

The Academy remains open and is currently accepting applications for the 2023-2024 school year at a new, undisclosed location somewhere north of Los Angeles. A basketball roster has yet

to be announced for the year.

Baker remains friends with many of his Donda teammates; he said, “We’re all close still. I still talk to all the people there–all the coaches, the academic advisors, all of them.”

He was offered a position as a Monarch defender just before the start of the season at Donda. He committed to ODU early to “have [his] senior year just to play.” Although he had received multiple other offers at that point, he’s since “forgot[ten] about them.”

“I liked the [ODU] coaches a lot. I felt really comfortable and it wasn’t too far from my mom. I just liked the overall vibe when I visited campus.”

Baker is currently a freshman in his second semester at ODU. Despite covering a bench position earlier into the season, he’s begun to play longer, accumulating a total of 188 minutes on the court since November. The season also showed that Baker is a force to be reckoned with, scoring a total of 45 points for ODU with a few more games left to increase that number.

One of his “main goals right now” is to play for the NBA, and he’s planning on staying in college “for however long it has to take to make that happen.” The last draft pick from Old Dominion was in 2012 with Kent Bazemore, making a total of 10 Monarchs who’ve gone pro since 1983.

Baker is a criminal justice major, and hopes to pursue a career in a related field after his retirement from basketball. He plans to stay in the North Carolina area following graduation to be close to his mother.

“I’m taking care of my mom and my people back home in North Carolina–and just playing basketball. I’m locked in right now.”

Photography by Kaito

BLAKE

The Past, the Present, and the Book about #MeToo

By Sydney Haulenbeek

ODU Barry Art’s and Letters building, which houses the English department offices and the majority of the English classes. Taken in 1987.

Photo courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, Old Dominion University Perry Library

BAILEY

In 2010, Blake Bailey was a superstar – and he was coming to ODU. Thirteen years later, faculty and students are still reeling from the impact of his time as a visiting assistant professor.

When Bailey started at ODU as a writer-in-residence in spring of 2010, he was touted as the “top of his field,” a “genius” and as one of the United State’s most important biographers. He had written two biographies, one about Richard Yates, and one about John Cheever. He was a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, a Francis Parkman Prize winner, and in spring of 2010 he was named a Pulitizer prize finalist and received an Academy Award in Literature. A semester later, in fall of 2010, Bailey became the English department Chair of Creative Writing. He would go on to spend seven years at ODU, staying through the spring of 2016.

Bailey’s first semester appeared to begin smoothly. Then, in April of 2010, reports say Bailey sexually assaulted a linguistics professor in a hot tub during a creative writing retreat.

His behavior continued to escalate, and in October of 2011, witnesses reported that Bailey harassed a graduate student in a bar near ODU campus, forcing her to dance with him and holding her arms so that she couldn’t walk away. Witnesses say that when she escaped to the bathroom, Bailey followed her and tried to keep her from leaving the bar.

Other accounts of his behavior present a picture that, nearly a decade later, can’t be entirely substantiated, as records have been destroyed and many of the women involved have declined to participate in recent investigations.

These include reports of Bailey’s behavior towards a visiting writer in residence during a literary festival party at Bailey’s house in October of 2011. When the visiting writer left, witnesses saw Bailey take her hand and lead her down the road. The visiting writer later told the witnesses that Bailey had kissed her without her consent.

A graduate student who was advised by Bailey in 2014 also reported sexual misconduct. She told The Virginian-Pilot that Bailey had encouraged her to “write more about [her] sex life” for class. She said that she began to avoid him after a meeting in his office during which Bailey propped his leg

up on the desk, presenting her with a view of his crotch.

Dr. Bridget Anderson, the professor whom Bailey assaulted in the hot tub, reported to the Virginian-Pilot that a year after the hot tub incident, at a creative writing retreat in the spring of 2011, Bailey threatened to rape her. She felt stalked by Bailey, as he would sit next to her in meetings, follow her when she moved, and attempted to put his hand on her leg. When she left, Bailey cornered her in the mailroom, where, Anderson said, she pulled a knife on him and told him to leave her alone. After that, she said, Bailey’s behavior towards her stopped.

Between 2010 and 2012, Anderson and several graduate students reported Bailey’s misconduct to multiple ODU faculty members and administrators. Anderson reported inappropriate behavior by Bailey to several administrators in her direct chain of command, but nothing was done and Bailey’s visiting professorship continued to be renewed.

ODU was aware of Blake Bailey’s actions, but other than one meeting with administrators where Bailey was chastised about his behavior towards women, there were no consequences for his actions.

A review of the situation conducted by an independent law firm in November of 2021 found that while ODU did not violate any laws in their response to the situation, “best practices dictate that ODU should have done more” at the time.

“It was a well known fact that he was doing what he was doing,” said Dr. Kevin Moberly, an associate professor in the English department. “I remember thinking [when Bailey’s departure was announced] ‘I wonder what he’s finally done.’”

Bailey remained at ODU as a writer-in-residence until spring of 2016. No one has served as the Chair of Creative Writing for as long as Bailey did.

THE ACCUSATIONS

In April of 2021, Blake Bailey’s world started crashing down around him. The year started on a high note: at the end of March, The New York Times published a profile of Bailey’s life in advance of his upcoming book; the book also received promotion in The New Yorker. “Philip Roth: The Biography” was released on April 6, 2021 and made The New York Times Best Seller list.

Then, on April 20, 2021, The New Orleans Advocate/Times-Picayune (NOLA) reported accounts of students who claimed that Bailey groomed them and pursued sexual relationships with them early in their adulthood.

WE AS A DEPARTMENT CAN’T FIX THESE PROBLEMS BECAUSE THIS IS A UNIVERSITY CULTURE PROBLEM. THIS IS A LEADERSHIP PROBLEM.”

In 1993, Bailey accepted a teaching position at Luster Middle School in New Orleans, Louisiana, as an eighth grade English teacher. He was beloved by his students; he would assign the novel “Lolita” - about a literature professor who rapes his underage step-daughter - which made students feel that he viewed them as mature enough to handle adult content.

Bailey assigned weekly journals that encouraged students to write about crushes, kisses, and scribble down secrets. He would add commentary and doodles in the margins. He maintained a relationship with the students as they aged out of his class, mentoring them into adulthood.

Eve Crawford Peyton was in the first eighth grade class Bailey ever taught at Luster. He called her “Eveness” and kept in contact with her through college, sending letters signed “Love, B” and asking if she had punched her v-card. When Peyton was 22, engaged and traveling through New Orleans, she met up with Bailey for drinks and went with him to his hotel room. Peyton wrote that Bailey kissed her, raped her, and then drove her to her father’s house. Several days later, she said, he emailed her, begging her not to tell anyone.

Many other former students have come forward with stories of misconduct, with one writing that Bailey groomed his 12- and 13-year old students.

“We cannot deny that he waited until we were no longer his students to cajole, coerce and rape us, and we also cannot deny the deep and lasting betrayal of trust that his actions ignited,” wrote a classmate of Peyton in a comment published by NOLA.

Within 48 hours of the NOLA article being published, W.W. Norton & Company had stopped producing, shipping, and promoting “Philip Roth: The Biography.”

The Story Factory, Bailey’s literary agent, dropped him. W.W. Norton & Company took the biography out of print entirely on April 27, 2021, as well as ceased publishing Bailey’s 2014 memoir “The Splendid Things We Planned.”

Former students took to Twitter to share their stories.

Blake Bailey had encountered the #MeToo movement.

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

On June 10, 2021, The Virginian-Pilot released their article about Bailey’s assault of Dr. Anderson in a hot tub, the harassment of a visiting writer, and the stories of two graduate students in Bailey’s classes.

Prior to publication, The Virginian-Pilot had reached out to ODU for comment regarding the allegations. ODU hired outside legal counsel, Kaufman & Canoles, who conducted a six-day internal investigation in which Anderson was

tub incident was “sought-after” and reiterating claims that “no one ever voiced a word to ODU about any occurrence of the type of assaultive non-consensual conduct for which he has been indicted in the press.”

Two weeks before The Virginian-Pilot published the article, they informed ODU of their intention to publish the statement. ODU did nothing to prevent them from doing so.

THE CHASM

When The Virginian-Pilot article was published on June 10, 2021, chaos broke out in the ODU English department and creative writing program.

“There was outrage. People wanted people to apologize. And that became [a] chasm,” said Dr. Kevin Moberly, an associate professor of English who has been employed with the university since before Blake Bailey.

A statement with dozens of signatures was released by faculty in support of the survivors, only days after the article was released. Professors demanded a statement from the chair of the English department, and a group called Concerned Citizens of English formed to demand an apology for the victims.

not contacted. Kaufman & Canoles drafted a response, which was reviewed and edited by several members of ODU administration, including former President John Brodrick, who was directly involved and who approved the statement to be sent.

The statement, which was intended to deter the Pilot from printing the article, claimed that ODU never “received any complaint, formal or informal, from any student, regarding inappropriate touching by Blake Bailey, much less any complaint of sexual assault,” a claim which was shown to be false in the internal investigation conducted by Nixon Peabody in 2021.

The statement was widely seen as victim-blaming and aggressive, saying that the “salacious” hot

“Most of the people in the department signed this statement from the faculty and staff. There .. was an underground movement of what I would call a ‘loyalty test’ by senior faculty members who started on the down-low contacting other people in the department, other faculty who had been outspoken about it,” said Moberly.

ODU administration responded to The Virginian-Pilot article, with then-president Broderick emailing an apology to staff, faculty, and students on June 14, 2021. In it, Broderick said that the work of the legal party who drafted the statement to the Pilot “had to be independent” [from the university], but that he saw how it appeared that “the victims were being blamed.”

“#METOO IS SUPPOSED TO CENTER THE STORIES OF SURVIVORS. AND I THINK IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT HIS CHARACTER THAT [THIS IS] HIS RESPONSE TO ALL OF THIS.”

Dr. Bridget Anderson

Despite numerous requests, the creative writing program didn’t issue an apology to the victims. The chair of the English department, Sheri Reynolds, left ODU and moved to Wofford University.

Issues only escalated in December of 2021 when the Nixon Peabody report was published.

The Nixon Peabody report was an investigation of ODU’s response to complaints about Bailey’s behavior, the university’s reactions to the complaints, and an examination of the drafting and approval of the statement sent to the Virginian Pilot. Unlike the six-day internal investigation conducted by ODU, this investigation was extensive, culminating in a report spanning 92 pages. It was conducted by an outside law firm, Nixon Peabody LLP.

Nixon Peabody found that reports of Bailey’s behavior were made to multiple ODU administrators - including the Title IX coordinator - and that several were substantiated. Many could not be substantiated “due to a lack of documentation and physical evidence, the significant passage of time, and divergent recollections.”

“ODU was at least constructively aware of alleged improper conduct by Bailey during a significant period of his employment at the University,” the investigation reads. “Even if the alleged conduct did not constitute unlawful harassment or sex-based discrimination, we conclude that such concerns warranted responsive action by the University to address them and prevent harassment or sex-based discrimination.”

The investigation also uncovered that former President Broderick reviewed the statement and approved it before it was sent to The Pilot. He also likely edited it.

“The Statement to The Pilot was ill-conceived,

IT SHOULD STILL BE A THAT THE ADMINISTRATION TO ALL THIS [TROUBLE] COVER-UP OF WHAT

insensitive to complainants and witnesses, and inaccurate regarding certain facts, causing harm to the University and its community,” the 92 page report states.

The report worsened the division between faculty that believed Anderson and faculty that didn’t, spurring angry “reply all” emails that circulated the entire department. Declarations of support were made towards Anderson, and others defended Reynolds’ decision not to apologize. Committees on civility, equity, inclusion, and harassment were created to heal the division. The English department brought in a mediator and encouraged faculty to attend mediation meetings, as well as complete mandatory sexual harassment training.

“The session [with the mediator] was all about ‘How can we as a department fix these problems?’ And I remember saying and thinking that we as a department can’t fix these problems because this is a university culture problem,” said Moberly. “This is a leadership problem.”

Even after two years, tensions are still present.

“It’s just like an appalling lack of empathy from the creative writing program, from people in the English department who were here at the time,” said Anderson. “It’s just not an emotionally safe environment for survivors. And I know from the students who were involved, that it hurts them that they have not had ... an acknowledgement [of harm] from the department.”

For Anderson, healing requires overcoming that division, and receiving an acknowledgment of harm from the English department and creative writing program.

“The fact that we know all this wrongdoing took place and the English department and the creative

writing [program] have never issued a statement to the victims... To me, that is an embarrassment to the university, a slap in the face of all survivors of sexual violence, and there’s no excuse for it.”

Anderson wants ODU to acknowledge Broderick’s participation in the statement sent to The Virginian-Pilot, which he told investigators that he never saw.

“ODU needs to have Broderick’s name removed from the [Broderick Dining Commons] building,” said Anderson.

ODU’s Broderick Dining Commons are named after former president Broderick and his wife, Kate. There are also multiple scholarships named after Broderick.

“It is documented by an independent investigation that he maliciously attacked and victimblamed survivors of sexual violence in the press,” she said. “We still have a building named after John Broderick, who got caught in the Nixon Peabody investigation … being the architect of the attack in the press, lying to the public saying that he didn’t have anything to do with it when he did, trying to obstruct the investigation by saying he couldn’t remember any of the [events] they were asking him about.

“To me, it’s shocking. And it should still be a

“ALL OF THIS STOPPED WHEN SOMEBODY HAD WHAT PEOPLE

A SCANDAL ADMINISTRATION WENT [TROUBLE]

scandal that the administration went to all this [trouble] to do a cover-up of what happened.”

THE BOOK

On the front page of Skyhorse Publishing’s website is Blake Bailey’s “Philip Roth: The Biography,” which W.W. Norton & Company pulled from production in April of 2021. Skyhorse announced that they would be publishing the biography in May of 2021, within weeks of W. W. Norton & Company dropping it. Since then, they have also published Bailey’s memoir “The Splendid Things We Planned.” Skyhorse, a Manhattan-based publishing company founded in 2006 by Tony Lyons - who has been labeled “the last radical publisher” - is distributed by Simon & Schuster.

Skyhorse describes themself on their website as “dedicated to publishing books that make people’s lives better, whether that means teaching them a hobby, bringing them a unique and important story, or encouraging them to fight against injustices, conspiracies, or abuses of power. The company maintains a firm stance against censorship and aims to provide a full spectrum of political, theological, cultural, and philosophical viewpoints to counter the increasingly biased environment in mainstream media.”

Positive reviews of their publishing process include names such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tucker Carlson. Skyhorse is notorious for publishing highly controversial content. Authors include Alex Jones, a Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist who Skyhorse describes as the “most controversial man on earth” and reviews label as “the most misunderstood guy on the planet.” His book, “The Great Reset: And the War for the World,” is about “the global elite’s international conspiracy to enslave humanity and all life on the planet.”

Skyhorse has also published Woody Allen, JFK conspiracy theories, anti-vaccination accounts, and on January 10, 2023, an account of the January 6 insurrection. The book has a foreword written by Darren Beattie, who previously was a speechwriter for Trump, and who was fired for participating in a panel in a conference popular with white nationalists. He also created a conspiracy that PolitiFact named as its 2021 Lie of the Year.

In June, Skyhorse announced that they would be publishing another book by Bailey: his upcoming memoir titled “Repellent: Philip Roth, #MeToo, and Me” which will be released on April 18, 2023.

“In the era of cancel culture, get a behind the scenes look at the journey to the critically acclaimed Philip Roth: The Biography and its “canceled” subject and author,” reads the heading.

In the description, Bailey describes the sexual harassment and rape allegations as “rumors… about Bailey’s own private life.” It also says that the book will look back on Bailey’s work with Phillip Roth and the time shortly after the release of the biography, during which “ominous forces were afoot.”

The description also advertises that “Bailey …

frankly describes his own wayward behavior, and reflects on the extent to which writers’ personal lives should affect the perception of their work.”

It also includes a “clear-eyed examination of the perils courted by any writer or artist—fallible human beings, after all—in the era of cancel culture.”

The book, which is only available in hardback, is already on sale for $25.10.

The Mace & Crown reached out to Skyhorse Publishing for comment, and for an advance copy of Bailey’s “Repellent.” We received no response despite repeated requests.

“It seems desperate,” said Anderson. “I’m not going to read it, and I don’t really care about what he has to say. #MeToo is supposed to center the stories of survivors. And I think it says a lot about his character that [this is] his response to all of this.”

Despite the numerous sexual assault and harassment allegations leading to Bailey’s fall from stardom, Bailey’s “cancelation” doesn’t seem to have stuck. With all of his books republished through Skyhorse and another on the way, the students and professors he impacted have been left scrambling for closure while Bailey continues to write.

“[Blake Bailey’s book] is going to open up all these wounds again,” said Moberly. “All of this could have been stopped when he was here if somebody had just listened to what people were saying. And somebody had taken action about it. All of it could have been stopped.”

TO DO A HAPPENED.”

THIS COULD HAVE BEEN WHEN HE WAS HERE IF HAD JUST LISTENED TO PEOPLE WERE SAYING

“Kaufman and MGB [Mills Godwin Building] Elevators Out of Service Beginning 11/14/2022” reads the student announcement email that has been sent daily to over 23,000 students for the past several months.

The elevator in the Mills Godwin Building is expected to return to operation in late March 2023, and the elevator in Kaufman Hall is expected to be back in service towards the end of May.

The email highlights a persistent issue at ODU: accessibility.

Last October, in a public forum held by President Brian Hemphill, student Mya Godwin pointed out that many handicap ramps on campus are inoperable, and the handicap lift in the Batten Arts and Letters Building had been unusable for weeks.

CAMPUS ACCESSIBILITY

ODU’s Complex Response To Disability Accommodations

By Sydney Haulenbeek

Months later, problems remain, with many automatic doors across campus regularly breaking down and some ramps continuing to be inaccessible.

Allie Metzger, ODU freshman, has ADA accommodations for her learning disability and autism. She had a 504 plan in high school and was easily able to transfer her learning plan and get additional help from the Office of Educational Accessibility.

She wishes that ODU placed more of a priority on disability awareness, so that more people were aware of the resources they could use.

“I feel like the resources that the accessibility office has or even the accessibility center, they’re not really talked about that much. It could be as simple as sending out an email listing resources, or having fliers… The

resources for disabled people aren’t readily available, in my opinion, for people to commonly stumble across them.”

Eugneya Guinn-Bailey, ODU junior, said that she feels that ODU is “pretty responsive” when it comes to applying for accommodations. She has several disabilities which stem from having brain cancer; a balance disability that requires her to use a wheelchair, and vocal disabilities.

Despite how responsive ODU is, she also has issues with sidewalk accessibility on campus.

“Re-evaluate all ramps and sidewalk access,” Guinn-Bailey said. “There were way too many things and places I [have] to avoid. Start with the sidewalk access at the monorail on the side opposite of the dorms and/or any ramp at the Webb.”

She feels that while ODU is hands-on in accessibility plans, improvements could be made on campus, by placing the priorities and needs of

people with disabilities first and designing with accessibility in mind.

“The automatic doors that are an issue that seem widespread, or the fact that the elevators keep going out,” said Metzger.

“ODU does a very poor job of managing physical disabilities,” she said.

“A lot of the automatic doors will just not work on occasion, especially the one at the Pod Market on the Quad. If you push the button it does not open. ... It’s a very heavy door. So if you’re in a wheelchair and you have to open the door it’s pretty much impossible to get in there because of the amount of force it takes. And of course the Pod is on kind of a slight incline. And also the Diehn Music Building, on the front entrance there is no automatic door, the side door does have one, but not all of the entrances do. And the ramps that we do have [like at the Webb Center], some of the bricks around the ramp area itself are kind of uneven. ... It’s hard for wheelchairs to go up those ramps.”

ODU has a tumultuous past with following ADA guidelines accommodating people with disabilities.

In 2021, ODU settled a lawsuit filed by a graduate student claiming ODU discriminated and

ongoing participation in research, and withdrew her participation in a professional conference. She had to change her course of study and find a new advisor.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), individuals with disabilities cannot be excluded or denied access to services, programs, and the activities of a public institution.

“Students should never have to choose between their right to request reasonable modifications of policy for their disabilities and their academic success,” said Gregory Friel, deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“This agreement reflects the critical role colleges and universities — and their faculty and staff — play in delivering on the promise of the ADA and Section 504. By working in good faith with students to provide reasonable modifications of policy, colleges and universities can ensure that students with disabilities have full and equal access to educational opportunities at the highest levels of academic achievement.”

The terms of the settlement agreement required ODU to create and disseminate an anti-retaliation policy that explains ADA obligations to staff and faculty, and also required ADA training for all administrators, faculty, and staff. The graduate student was awarded $40,000.

retaliated against her based on a reasonable accommodation request.

After the student requested reasonable accommodations for her disability, the United States Justice Department found that ODU ended the working relationship that the student had with her professor and advisor, separated her from

“I tell my friends this: I didn’t come [to ODU] for the administration, I came for the teachers,” said Metzger. “On an individual level, ODU is very accommodating, … on a teacher to teacher basis, I would say teachers are very accommodating. But as a whole, the ODU campus and ODU administration isn’t necessarily disabled-friendly.”

“I tell my friends this: I didn’t come [to ODU] for the administration, I came for the teachers.”

– Allie Metzger, ODU freshman

JUSTICE MENZEL

THE BOOKBINDER

REWRITING THE HISTORY OF A COMMUNITY

“We never expected to be bookbinders. Did you expect to be a journalist?”

On Monticello Avenue, just across from the zoo and only a few minutes away from the ODU campus, sits a white-bricked square storefront with a bright and welcoming sign that reads “Roullet Bookbinders, inc.” When you pass the front entrance, you’re greeted with glued puzzles dotting the walls and hanging from the ceiling, rows of old-ish books for sale, repurposed church pews in the back corner, and a table of free bibles above a display case of finely re-bound tomes.

Going further in and taking a right brings you to the workshop, where hundreds of coverless books are sorted by order number and spread out across many thousands of dollars worth of machinery. Turning back towards the entrance and veering to the left, you’ll find the owner’s office. It’s adorned with two opposite facing desks, one-too-many filing cabinets, and two framed “Thank You” letters from former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter hanging from a front-facing wall.

When first opened in 1975, the bindery was known as “Long’s Bookbinders

and Religious Supply” after its founder, William H. Long Jr.. Long originally moved to Norfolk in 1941, only to be drafted into the Navy to fight on the Pacific Front. Well-known and appreciated in the Norfolk community, Long ran in 1979 for the Virginia House of Delegates as a Republican and acted for many years as the President of the Christian Booksellers Association (now the Christian Trade Association).

Due to their shared connections with local librarian and religious circles, Long and his associate Alain Roullet were able to conceive and build a bindery that would last decades, even exceeding its founder’s life. William H. Long Jr. died at the age of 91 in 2012, but sold his shares of the bindery to Roullet, who now runs the shop with his wife, Eileen.

Born in 1945 in Paris, Roullet spent his childhood in France, and at fifteen years old, embarked on a five-year sightseeing journey around the world. Following his trip, he was drafted into the French Navy for multiple years. After retiring, he successfully immigrated to the United States in 1967. He was not granted full US citizenship until about 1980.

After being fired from his second job at a restaurant for eating customers’ shrimp, Roullet was able to find a job as a document sorter on the lower floors of the United Nations in New York City. His future wife, Eileen, worked thirty floors above him “for several foreign attaches,” and the two met for the first time in the building’s lobby. After marrying in late 1968, they shifted between the east and west coasts before finally settling on Norfolk.

Roullet wasn’t sure why they moved to Virginia in the first place. “Maybe [it was] an act of God, if you believe in that, but you cannot ever ask why,” he said. “Life moves on, wherever you are, you deal with that. There’s too many ‘whys,’ so that’s just it. It is what it is. America has the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I am fortunate to have always been with the good.”

For nearly fifty years, Roullet has bound manuscripts, bibles, and more for American presidents, universities, government organizations, and individuals — but times change.

The COVID-19 pandemic slowly bled the workshop dry of its employees, eventually leading to Alain and his wife, Eileen, becoming the only two staffed binders. “At our highest, we had [between] twelve [and] fourteen

employees — some were seventeen year, some were twenty-one year. [My employees] were okay, though. It’s not like it happened in one night and ‘boom,’ you close. We saw it coming, and we had time.”

At its height, the shop “probably bound about a thousand books a week,” Roullet stated. “That was good, but our competitors were doing fifteen-thousand, so we were not at the same level. Right now, we can only get to maybe fifty, seventy-five books. It’s just me and my wife, you know.”

Roullet, at age 78, has never been concerned with technology. He continues to use a flip-phone and a very early brick of a Dell computer. “I don’t need a smartphone. Except for my son, nobody calls me,” he said laughing. “‘Pa, how are you doing?’ he says. ‘I’m fine,’ I say. ‘Good,’ he says, and then I get back to work.”

Eileen, who acts as Vice President of the business, is the store’s only bookkeeper through a smartphone and desktop combination. Her financial documents seemed to be both written and typed, and extremely meticulous. “We both do things that the other cannot,” Roullet said. “The business would not work without her, or without me.”

“WE NEVER EXPECTED TO BE BOOKBINDERS. DID YOU EXPECT TO BE A JOURNALIST?”

Most of the revenue generated through binderies comes from annual streams of college textbooks that need to be bound or re-bound. However, many colleges are no longer looking towards printed materials, with many opting to keep some textbooks entirely online. Despite having worked with colleges in smaller numbers, the Norfolk area provides unique opportunities to bind for NATO, the US Air Force, and the US Navy.

Looking around the workshop, it’s easy to notice more than just naval textbooks– although there are many. There’s also a seemingly endless number of family heirloom books that “might not be worth very much, but hold enough sentimental value to want it re-bound.” These heirlooms range from children’s books to two-hundred year old bibles, indicating a level of trust that the bindery has built with clientele over the years. However, Roullet has almost always placed his own trust in the spiritual.

The bindery has always had a faith-based connection, having sold religious supplies during its early years in the neighboring Long’s Religious Supply. Although the Supply is now a permanently-closed, empty storefront, the bindery still holds a few of its residuals.

Roullet is a member of “The Gideons International,” which is the organization largely responsible for the pocket bibles found in hotel desk cabinets. He exercises his membership with free and multi-lingual pocket bibles at the front entrance.

Although religion was not so much a part of his youth, it has become a mainstay of his adult life. “When you start to have things you [can’t explain,] look for God. Look deep down in your heart, because that’s where your soul is. Start to figure out what’s going on — what you are, what you want to be, what you want to do.”

Roullet plans to drop the deed to the shop and the parking lot surrounding it before he dies, but does not plan to retire. “Eventually it’s gonna come — no man in my family [has] passed 80 years old, and I am seventy-eight. I just don’t want to do nothing. Work keeps my mind busy.”

Alain and Eileen Roullet built a life here in Norfolk with children, grandchildren, and a bookbindery that has served a community across generations.

Long’s-Roullet Bookbinders is open six days a week, and closed on Sundays.

“AMERICA HAS THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, BUT I AM FORTUNATE TO HAVE ALWAYS BEEN WITH THE GOOD.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELENA HARRIS

KAHLIAH ROSS

EIGHT BLOCKS FROM ODU, A COMMUNITY

CENTER IS BEING BUILT

Along the ever-bustling traffic of Hampton Blvd. and just a few streets down from Old Dominion University sits a chain link fence cordoning off a construction site. The fence is plastered with posters labeling the site as “The Railyard at Lambert’s Point.” The tops of buildings are just visible from the street. Questions have begun circulating about this fence and what hides behind it at Hampton Blvd. and W 26th St.

The Railyard at Lambert’s Point is to be a historic space repurposed into a community area, akin to a shopping center or town square. Richard “Rich” Meredith, one of the developers for the project, said that his company plans to bring in a “mixture of office, retail, and restaurant tennants, with a healthy mix of national, regional, and local businesses.” The site also features a courtyard with “substantial greenspace that will be leveraged for the community.” Future plans for the courtyard may include a pumpkin patch or a farmer’s market.

The history of the project also reflects the community-centric space. Out of the ten buildings under construction, four are historic buildings. According

to Meredith, this means that the developers will be “utilizing historic tax credits to restore buildings to the original character.” By keeping exposed beams and original brick, the developers intend to maintain elements consistent with 1940’s architecture.

Meredith spoke of the buildings with an intimate knowledge of what they’ve been and how they’ve changed. The Hogshire building was constructed in 1940 and became the home of Hogshire Industries. Originally they produced sails with which sailboats glided across the oceans and bays surrounding Norfolk. Some time after, Hogshire Industries decided to switch gears and began creating awnings for homes and business.

The oldest building in the project, the Mini Storage building, was built in 1925. Meredith said that it is “one of a few ‘mass timber’ buildings left in Norfolk today.” This means that it was built with bonded layers of wood that are exceptionally strong and durable, especially in comparison to light-frame construction. According to Meredith, the building has had a range of uses over the years, including dry storage, laundry, and self-storage.

“I’d like to have a plaque placed on each building noting the history of that building,” said Meredith. “We will begin that process once construction is complete.”

Meredith explained that there exists a “rich history dating back to the Lambert’s Point docks,” which is where ships dock to import and export cargo. This, coupled with the project’s location within Norfolk’s Railroad District, is how the name of the development was conceived.

The developers at Meredith Construction have lived and worked in Norfolk for four generations; one hundred years.

“My great grandfather started his business building homes for GI returning to Hampton Roads from WWII,” said Meredith.

Richard Meredith also spoke of how Meredith Construction has “owned the historic buildings along Hampton Boulevard in the Lambert’s Point neighborhood for many years.” In 2018, the company began collaborating with a developer from Charlotte, North Carolina that became a partner for

the project. The larger developer, listed on the Railyard’s website as CCB Railyard, “shared [Meredith Construction’s] vision of saving the historic structures, converting them to retail space, and building new structures around them.”

CCB Railyard and Meredith Construction have been working on the Railyard for the past five years, though for two of those years the project was on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meredith said that the development has been “stronger post-COVID.”

In July of 2022, the Railyard broke ground. Meredith said that most of the spaces in the construction will be “open and operational around football season of 2023.”

“[I am] excited to get going, revitalize the buildings, and design a space where [I] want to be.”

For more information, visit www.railyardatlambertspoint.com

[I am] excited to get going, revitalize the buildings, and design a space where [I] want to be.

Photography by Elena Harris

A REFURBISHED BALLPARK TO CALL HOME IN THE NEAR-FUTURE FOR ODU BASEBALL

BENJAMIN DRAPER

When it opened in 1983, Bud Metheny Ballpark started off as a state-ofthe-art facility, but has received major renovations throughout the years since. In 2021, the facility’s shortcomings finally caught up with the ODU baseball program after the Monarchs’ victory over Louisiana Tech in the Conference USA Tournament, where they earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. They then had the opportunity to host the NCAA regional, but were unable to do so because the facility did not meet the NCAA minimum standards.

As a result, the NCAA regional was moved to the University of South Carolina, where ODU met their demise. Missing the opportunity to host a baseball regional in Norfolk was a tough pill to swallow, but Old Dominion’s athletic administration and school officials have made strides to ensure that something like this won’t happen again.

In the latter half of January 2023, it was decided that the university would hire Populous and Mosley, two of the world’s premier architectural firms in sports, to design the renovation to Bud Metheny Ballpark. The last time that these two firms collaborated with Old Dominion was back in 2019-2020 when they oversaw the $72 million renovation to ODU’s S.B. Ballard stadium, which is home to the football program. The new and improved S.B. Ballard is one of the finest football facilities among the Group of 5 programs across the nation.

In the last 35 years, Populous has designed more

Rendering by Populous

than 3,000 venues worth $40 billion, including Norfolk’s Harbor Park baseball stadium when Populous was known as HOK Sport. The firm has an entire division devoted to baseball stadium design, whose projects include Yankee Stadium, Oracle Park in San Francisco, Citi Field in Queens, and Truist Field outside of Atlanta.

After selecting who would renovate the ballpark, ODU authorized a feasibility study on replacing the older stadium, where it was determined that it would cost $20 million to renovate. In March of 2022, ODU began to fundraise to help pay for the project. After over a year of campaigning, the school has managed to raise nearly $18 million of the $20 million needed.

One of the most notable donations the Monarchs

received was a generous $2.5 million donation from local businessman Dennis Ellmer and his wife, Jan Ellmer. Thanks to the hefty contribution, the new baseball facility will be known as the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex. The vision for this renovated ballpark includes new locker rooms and offices for the program, improved sightlines, and chairback seating behind home plate. There will be an expansion to the press box, restrooms, and concession stands.

A premium club will be constructed behind home plate, underneath the seats. The club will have large, moveable picture windows looking onto the field and will include luxury seating, big-screen televisions, upscale concessions, and an entrance to a covered outdoor terrace with stand-up tables, chairback seats and patio heaters for the early-season games. The stadium’s back façade, which is the most visible portion of the facility, will be encased in “ODU brick.”

“We want this facility to be one that everyone in the community will be proud of. We want to give our coaches a facility that will help them recruit and our student-athletes a world class training and competition venue,” said Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics. “We already have great fans. Providing a more comfortable place to watch games will help us grow our fan base.”

The Monarchs have already begun the first stages to the ballpark’s renovation with the installation of a new LED lighting system. The new lights were manufactured by Musco Lighting, an industry leader for stadium lighting. They have installed lighting for dozens of NFL, MLB, and college football and baseball venues across the world. Musco installed the lighting system for the “Field of Dreams” field where the MLB hosts a yearly matchup.

The upgrades to the lights were in the works before the campaign to renovate the Bud Metheny

began. This new system was designed specifically for the ODU facility, based on blueprints of the ballpark. The LED system will minimize bleeding from the lights. Because there is no bleeding, each pole will have a light pointed upwards to fully illuminate any fly balls that go beyond the lights. The renovation will also reduce the shining of the lights into the nearby Lambert’s Point neighborhood.

“Our lighting system had long outlived its useful life. To be honest, our lights were terrible. This is such a huge upgrade for us,” head coach Chris Finwood stated. “With the old lights, an outfielder could lose a ball in the lights. That isn’t going to happen with these lights.

“The bottom line is that our players and our fans will be able to see our games so much better,” Finwood said. “Baseball is a visual game.”

The new system will cost $650,000, which is a significant reduction from the $900,000 that was budgeted for the project. These new lights will be far more energy efficient and will save Old Dominion about 50% or more on utility costs and thousands of dollars annually in maintenance costs.

The ODU baseball program is coming off of a 85-33 record in the last two seasons since its defeat in the regional final, and will strive to improve as their facilities prepare for a drastic change in scenery at Bud Metheny Ballpark. Although the $20 million project is in the final stages of its campaign, it is not projected to be completed until the 2025 baseball season.

“We already have great fans. Providing a more comfortable place to watch games will help us grow our fan base.”

- Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics

FOR JASON HENDERSON & ODU FOOTBALL

BY BENJAMIN DRAPER

Finishing the season with a 3-9 (2-6 Sun Belt) record was not the outcome that ODU faithful wanted for the 2022-2023 ODU Football program. There was a lot of buzz throughout the 757 area because the Monarchs had their best home football schedule ever, with multiple in-state foes coming to Norfolk. The Monarchs welcomed the Virginia Tech Hokies to open the season and went on to win the contest 21-17, resulting in thousands of fans flooding the field. ODU met Liberty, James Madison, Georgia Southern, Marshall and Arkansas State at S.B. Ballard field, but the Monarchs finished 2-4 while 1-5 on the road.

Although the team’s performance fell short of expectations, there were still many highlights, such as linebacker Jason Henderson’s historic season. Henderson is a junior at ODU and is majoring in exercise science and physical education. He was a three-star recruit out of Delaware Valley High School who set a school record for 529 tackles in his four years at Delaware. He also tallied 80 carries for 762 yards for ten touchdowns as a senior and was ranked No. 24 in the state of Pennsylvania and No. 60 linebacker across the country. Jason was named Scranton Defensive Player of the Year twice, along with all-league, region and Class 6A all-state accolades. He was also named All-State linebacker for the state of Pennsylvania in all classifications.

Henderson’s individual performance on the field for the Monarchs defense has been pivotal to its success, but this past season, he took it further. He

finished the season with 186 tackles–the most in college football. The No. 2 tackler in the nation, Cedric Gray of North Carolina, was behind Henderson by 49 tackles. Tallying 186 tackles is not something you see often and was the third most in FBS history. Lawrence Flugence’s (Texas Tech) 193 tackles in 2002 and Luke Kuechly’s (Boston College) 191 tackles in 2011 are the top two leaders in tackles. Henderson averaged 15.5 tackles per game this season which was also third most in FBS history behind Keuchly’s 15.9 (Boston College) per game in 2011 and Rick Sherrod’s (West Virginia) 15.6 tackles in 2001.

Henderson recorded double figures in tackles in 11 out of 12 games and is the only player in the country to have multiple 20+ tackle games this season. He led the team with 10 tackles for loss along with a sack and three pass breakups. Along with that, he broke the Monarchs’ single-season record for tackles in the eighth matchup of the season versus Georgia State. In the tenth game of the season, Henderson also broke the Sun Belt Conference record. His extraordinary performance throughout the season has warranted him many accolades.

In December, after the conclusion of the 2022 season, Henderson was named a second-team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). Being selected for this honor earned ODU football its first FBS All-American. Henderson is the tenth player to earn All-American honors for Old Dominion. He joins the list with former FCS All-Americans punter Jonathan Plisco (three-time), long snapper Dustin Phillips, defensive tackle Ronnie Cameron, quarterback Taylor Heinicke, wide receiver Nick Mayers, long snapper Rick Lovato, defensive tackle Chris Burnette and linebacker Craig Wilkins.

Henderson also earned his second All-American honor of the year after being named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press. That was not all; Henderson was named a second-team All-American by Phil Steele and Fox Sports as well. He was selected to four All-American teams.

Henderson has already had a storied career in the blue and silver, and he will be returning to Old Dominion for the upcoming 2023 football season. The Monarchs will be losing tight end Zack Kuntz and offensive lineman Nick Saldiveri as they prepare for the NFL Draft. In early February, both members were invited to the NFL scouting combine that takes place from Feb. 28 to Mar. 6 in Indianapolis. It was the first time that Old Dominion had two players invited to the combine since 2019 when Travis Fulgham and Oshane Ximines participated.

ODU football hopes to shake off last year’s disappointing season as they prepare for ACC powerhouse schools like Virginia Tech and Wake Forest in the first two games of the regular season. The Monarchs travel to Blacksburg on Sept. 2 to take on the Hokies before hosting their home opener at S.B. Ballard Stadium on Sept. 16 against the Demon Deacons. The Monarchs will also welcome Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, the University of Louisiana, Georgia State and Texas A&M-Commerce.

Photography by Elena Harris

Early Success For Up-And-Coming ODU Esports Program

by Benjamin Draper

Adecade ago, there was no thought of the word “esports” at Old Dominion University. Although video games were important to students in their personal lives, the lack of interest in video games on campus kept the competitive gaming community at ODU on a low-key level. This changed in 2020, when Old Dominion became the first four-year public institution in the Commonwealth to begin a varsity esports program.

Grant Deppen, Assistant Director for Intramural/ Extramural/Club Sports at ODU, was asked to take a look at how esports could be integrated on campus. Deppen is a graduate of Kent State University with a bachelor’s in Sports Administration and a master’s in Sports and Recreation Management. He spent five years at Kent State working as a coordinator and referee for intramural sports. In October of 2014, he moved to Old Dominion and has been assisting with intramural sports. In 2019, former Vice President for Student Engagement and Enrollment, Don

Stansberry, approached Deppen with the opportunity to get students more involved in esports.

“We went into a pretty heavy investigative phase that lasted from January-February 2019 till about September 2019 that went into benchmarking, finding potential locations, looking at cost, and how we build out an arena to be feasible for students on campus,” Deppen said. “At that point, I made a pitch to Stansberry and several other ODU officials that we could do something pretty robust esports-wise, based on what was already happening.”

Due to COVID-19 regulations throughout the later part of the 2020 school year, the program didn’t get an opportunity to properly start until the fall of 2021. While most of the competition was happening remotely, the Monarch Esports Arena was being installed on the second floor of the Webb Center, where it would utilize 1400 square feet for various gaming PCs, a broadcast room for streaming production, and an all-around great space for students to hang out.

“We made all of the final decisions on the drawings

and architecture of the arena the same week that classes were being canceled due to the pandemic. Everything was built in to still occur,” Deppen said. “We didn’t officially open the Monarch Esports Arena until April of 2021. We had teams playing remotely for the first year of this program, but due to the lack of students on campus, we were officially open to the general public in fall 2021.”

Disclaimer: Benjamin Draper, the author of this piece, is a paid member of staff for ODU Esports.

It wasn’t until students returned to campus in the fall of 2021 when the ODU Esports program began to take the next leap in building a name for themselves. The program brought on students to fill positions as staff, coaches, social media members, a production and broadcasting team, and members of the 14 varsity game titles for competition at the regional and national level.

In 2021, among the teams that Old Dominion offers, the Monarchs were ranked No. 2 in the nation in FIFA, while the Super Smash team finished ranked No. 4 in NACE (National Association of Collegiate Esports).

The success for the Smash team carried over into the 2022 school year, when they finished No. 8 in NACE. They also qualified and participated in CECC (Collegiate Esports Commisioners Cup) in Atlanta, Georgia, where members of the team stayed for several days. Another successful ODU Esports team in 2022 was the Valorant squad, who became MAEC Champions at the Shenandoah LAN tournament. The Madden varsity team finished No. 8 in the nation in fall 2022. Among the rest of the teams that ODU Esports offers, many have had several playoff appearances in various game titles. The program was given the privilege of hosting the 2022 VHSL Esports Championships in the Monarch Arena and throughout the Webb Center, where many high school students throughout Virginia came to campus and watched the program compete at the state-level.

Handling a whole esports program as well as directing intramural and club sports requires assistance. Deppen found his right-hand man in Byron Hindson, who is the overall coordinator for ODU Esports. Hinson is a graduate from the Catholic University of America, where he received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. When arriving at ODU in fall 2021, he started off

as a graduate assistant for the upcoming esports program before being given the opportunity to work full-time as the coordinator.

“Having Byron on has been really a savior for me, even though as a graduate assistant, he came in and just kind of owned his role, his position and his level of authority among the program,” Deppen said.

Although the ODU program has had steady success throughout its first years of existence, the goal is to keep growing and achieve more going forward. The main goal for ODU Esports is to be able to offer scholarships, which can help bring in the best players possible. The program also hopes to expand training opportunities for coaching and practice programs and integrate further with academic programs, allowing students to add a new dimension to their college education.

“Overall, I think the very first goal we had was to be as competitive as we can within our resource base. There are schools that seem to offer full scholarships and things like that to attract students from all over the world,” Deppen said. “We have a large program, we have the space that’s able to accommodate a lot of different things, but if we can get to that scholarship position, that’s what is going to take us to the heights we wanna get to.”

Photography by Grant Deppen

By Gabriel Cabello Torres

Artificial intelligence has always been a trending topic in both the tech world and in popular culture. The concept of machines learning to think, perform, and speak like a human–or better–is awe-inspiring and controversial.

Recently, AI has been dominating the market. AI assistants like Amazon Alexa have exploded in popularity, along with AI “friends” such as Replika. Advancements in AI have spread throughout the video game industry. Now, AI is creeping past technological boundaries and into the arts; an infiltration into the world of human creativity that is, for many, a step too far.

The rapid advancement of AI technology in the 21st century has inspired a range of emotional responses, from overwhelmingly optimistic to apocalyptically fearful. Whatever their opinion, no one can deny that AI art has improved by leaps and bounds.

The relationship between visual art and artificial intelligence isn’t new. Using AI to generate images has been a long-time goal for developers involved with improving AI. A milestone in this quest was reached when an AI-generated art piece titled Edmond de Belamy was auctioned off for a jaw-dropping total of $435,000.

What exactly happened over the past year that inspired such a powerful backlash from social media artists and supporters of the arts?

The answer lies in one word: Accessibility. Until 2022, these types of programs were usually private. Anyone who had access to code could run prompts themselves. However, the average person wasn’t technologically savvy enough to do so.

Fast forward to 2022 and the internet exploded with controversy thanks to Dall-E Mini, an AI art generation website. Social media and news outlets showcased how people could input bizarre prompts to produce truly strange images straight out of a fever dream. Emerging alongside DALL-E Mini were two other AI image software that were outstanding for their efficiency: Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.

So why the controversy? The biggest outrage

yet was sparked when an AI-generated art piece won first place in Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition in September of 2022. Understandably, artists were not happy. In their eyes, it seemed ridiculously unfair that an image that only required the simple input of a specific prompt could win the competition.

When brushstrokes are traded for keystrokes, is it still art? Does the so-called artist truly deserve the medal? Should the medal be awarded to the people who developed the technology? Should AI-generated images even be allowed in a competition in the first place? Conversations surged throughout the social media sphere with adamant supporters on both sides.

The argument in favor of AI-generated art highlights the possible positives of technological advancement. The ability to access a custommade painting without having to pay a commission is an attractive idea for many users. AI can produce multiple complex images in a short amount of time, whereas a human artist will take more time to produce a singular image. The harsh reality is that the average person doesn’t always want to shell out at least $20 for a single commission piece unless that person is a staunch supporter of the humanity behind the arts.

One of the main arguments against AI art is that AI art generators collect images and data from artists’ work and reproduce similar pieces without any proper credit. Several AI art generators have sprung up on the internet that imitate different art styles, like “Berserk” creator Kentauro Miura’s or Picasso’s cubism art-style. Not even lesser-known artists are safe from having their work harvested by an AI art generator, as these generators often use artwork taken from social media. Essentially, it’s plagiarism. AI art generators are drawing attention and customers away from artists who are trying to gain a following or make a living.

AI art is challenging conventional views of originality and creativity. Is art really “art” if it’s not from a human’s hands, blood, sweat, tears, and emotional trauma? Is it really a unique piece if the artificial intelligence is merely collecting hundreds of image samples to produce an image?

It all circles back to the discussion about automation. Automation has long been a hot topic when it comes to blue-collar jobs. Amazon Inc.

has already started to increase automation within its fulfillment centers. One of the candidates for the 2020 election, Andrew Yang, was adamant about discussing the future for workers due to automation. Technology is seen as a threat to the jobs of manual workers, and now to artists as well. AI technology is now capable of producing song

Is art really “art” if it’s not from a human’s hands, blood, sweat, tears, and emotional trauma? Is it really a unique piece if the artificial intelligence is merely collecting hundreds of image samples to produce an image?

lyrics, code, pictures, and essays. Is AI going to exterminate honest labor done by human hands?

Maybe, maybe not. In the realm of art, one has to realize what makes art so special. One has to ask if it is truly possible to replicate human emotion, skill, and style. In terms of physical labor, can a machine truly integrate the experience and skill that a human expert has? At the end of the day, machines still fail and break.

Regardless of the answers to these questions, there is still an underlying ethical issue that shouldn’t be disregarded. Artists have reasons to be upset about these new age advancements, while developers have their own reasons to want to further the progress of artificial intelligence.

Not every technological advancement made during the history of humankind has been a positive one. The rise of new technology never goes without consequences.

RIGHT TO REPAIR

The Growing Movement for Consumer Autonomy

BY GABRIEL CABELLO TORRES

In today’s day and age, almost everything high in value comes with a warranty and even insurance. It only makes sense. When you make an expensive purchase, you want to protect it and keep it brand-new for as long as possible. However, with the way technology continues to advance, it has become harder to properly maintain electronics, from phones to hospital equipment.

So what happens when manufacturers purposefully set up barriers that forces you to either pay an outrageous amount for repairs or simply buy another item? Consumers start to push for change and experts that can assist in making the fixing process easier step up. This technological activism has been known as the “Right to Repair” movement and has been on-going since its inception in the 2000s.

The “why” is always as important as the “what” when you’re looking at a group of people banding together to make a change. The first recorded legislative action regarding “Right to Repair” was a proposed bill in 2001 called “Motor Vehicles Right to Repair Act.” Plenty of workers understood that barriers set by manufacturers can

severely impair the diagnostics and solutions for a malfunctioning machine. Eventually, this phenomena crept towards more than just cars. It’s no surprise that more and more people started to grow tired of the monetary abyss that is fixing machinery.

Companies like Apple are infamous for their near dictatorial hold on device repairs. If your Apple device is experiencing issues and you take it to an Apple store, you can expect one of two outcomes: either an absurdly high quote to repair the device or the recommendation to buy a new one. For the average consumer, shelling out well over $1000 on a whim isn’t exactly affordable, prompting people to either give in and buy a new device or find alternatives to fixing their issue.

Repair centers have their own obstacles to face, because companies like Apple purposefully hide device schematics. Pairing this with how Apple punishes consumers for trying to find alternative solutions without unnecessarily breaking the bank makes the situation even more difficult for the consumer.

How can the consumer be punished for doing what they want with a device they purchased?

Apple has a policy that voids a device’s warranty if the consumer gets their device repaired at an unauthorized location. Repair shops can only gain Apple’s authorization to repair their devices if they sell a minimum amount of Apple products. Essentially, they have to sell their way into the “Apple certified” status.

While Apple is one of the bigger culprits of manipulating consumers into indifference towards the idea of “Right to Repair,” they’re not the only ones who do it. The initial “Right to Repair” movement was focused on vehicles, specifically cars. Over the last couple of years, cars have slowly gotten more complicated to fix. Now, vehicle repairs often require specific tools and information that are simply not available to the general public.

This severely impacts a consumer’s freedom of choice by forcing them to pay an inflated price for an otherwise simple fix. The phrase “Knowledge is power” often comes to mind in these situations. You can’t be in control of something you simply don’t know much about. This issue has affected everyone from those with working class backgrounds to the average middle class suburbanite.

In 2022, blue collar workers were growing tired of new John Deere equipment, the repairs for which were both unreliable and unaffordable. How can a farmer work while waiting for essential equipment to be repaired?

One hacker demonstrated how to jailbreak John Deere equipment so farmers could have complete control over newer model machinery. This daring move sparked a lot of conversation regarding the Right to Repair. Sure, there might be outright disapproval for tampering with a “pristine” machine but there’s no reason fixing your expensive equipment should be over complicated.

One of the most popular stories to emerge from this subject is one regarding McDonald’s ice cream machines. It’s widely known that ice cream machines in McDonald’s tend to break, making ice cream, milkshakes, and the signature McFlurry unavailable for purchase.

A tech startup called Kytch made a diagnostics tool that hooked up to the Taylor C602 model ice

cream machine utilized by McDonald’s. Essentially, it sent alerts for any malfunctions and gave a description of the issue. McDonald’s locales used the device since Taylor Co. was restrictive about which technicians could repair their tech. This left workers without access to the machine and impacted sales significantly.

However, McDonald’s forbade use of the device under claims that it was a “safety hazard.” This prompted accusations that McDonald’s and Taylor wanted to steal the idea for the device themselves. The discussion soon led to an FTC investigation of the ever-malfunctioning soft serve machines.

So many of these events have reached federal attention. Has anything been done in recent years to resolve the issue?

Well, yes and no. Biden issued an executive order that prompted the Federal Trade Commission to take “right to repair” into strong consideration. A bill was originally proposed back in 2012 but was only adopted by a few states in a modified form. Massachusetts currently sits as the only state to

your fix should be so much more expensive than buying a brand new device.

This inconvenience isn’t one that only applies to technology geeks or reckless consumers either. As technological advancements are made, countries like the United States are slowly becoming more and more reliant on access to technology. When roadblocks are implemented to properly use or maintain necessary equipment, the situation slowly starts to spiral out of control.

Take healthcare for example. While there are plenty of reasons why healthcare is unreasonably expensive in the US, a case could be made for a lack of “Right to Repair” laws being another cog in the machine. Hospitals don’t have the ability to fix important resources as simple as beds for patients. The financial burden of purchasing new equipment can stretch into the thousands per item.

Regarding healthcare, there has been discourse amongst healthcare professionals whether “Right to Repair” laws would be reliable and safe for the patients in the long run. However, the takeaway is that the idea of “Right to Repair” is something

fully implement “Right to Repair” laws regarding vehicle repair, but the law is currently under threat. Many states have introduced legislation to enact “Right to Repair” laws. Some are strictly for medical technology, others for agricultural technology, and so on. However, if these bills will be passed is a different story altogether.

There’s a danger to preventing access to repair tools when it comes to technology. For one, a problem with electronic and mechanical waste can become severe. Resources get depleted and aren’t always responsibly recycled. Second, making devices practically unusable when even a miniscule issue occurs is a new tactic for making money. There is no logical reason why paying for

that needs to be talked about.

These issues can affect anyone. When it comes to times of financial burden, these hurdles quickly become bear traps. The more and more consumers make demands and take action, the more companies will listen. In fact, companies have already started making moves towards positive change. People like Louis Rossman, a staunch advocate for this movement, have done everything in their power to expose and educate the public about scams and the reality of tech companies’ manipulation of customers. Consumers wield more power with their purchases than tech companies think they do.

“How can the consumer be punished for doing what they want with a device they purchased?”

A Fool in My Reflection

By Marjorie Cenese

Who is this stranger trapped in the files? carving emotions into the memory on screen burning into retinas in a pitch black room. Who is this person? trapped between a rage of sadness and trembles of grief licking the curves of every word so carefully and tenderly, carefully cross stitching their heart into its place. Who is this foolwho shared their heart on paper, expecting to be read aloud?

Grief was meant to be jailed on paper as the ears have diverted away like styrofoam cups. This fool has left the feeling of more to desire, staring upon these white-printed words in a cloud of darkness.

There are no feelings invoked across the screen just simple, happy thoughts and broken memories of what was.

Please let me take a picture

By Marjorie Cenese

I want to remember this momenta single glimpse immortalized in a frame, the beautiful people who remind me I am a part of something worthwhile Pictures cannot hold the same feeling, but sentiment is attached like the details of this patent. By spending time with these strangers I found another reason to be happy.

PHOTO BY: Hind Al Saffar

ART BY: Peter Wales