OPINIONS

Tuesday, sepTeMber 6, 2022

The MarqueTTe Tribune OpiniOns

Andrew Amouzou, Executive Director Megan Woolard, Managing Editor of The Marquette Tribune Kimberly Cook, Managing Editor of The Marquette Journal

ediTorial board

Grace Cady, Executive Opinions Editor Laura Niezgoda, Assistant Opinions Editor

Julia Abuzzahab, News Executive John Leuzzi, Sports Executive Izzy Fonfara Drewel, A&E Executive Skyler Chun, Investigative Executive Emily Reinherdt, Copy Chief RJ Siano, Design Chief Izzy Bonebrake, Chief Photographer Nancy Flaherty, Social Media Executive Sarah Richardson, General Manager of MUTV Emily Bittman, General Manager of MURadio Hope Moses, Editor of Diversity and Inclusion

STAFF EDITORIAL MU needs to provide support for student organizations

There are roughly 300 student organizations at Marquette University. There is plenty for students to get involved with at the university, but the support they have in sustaining these organizations is selective and limited.

All recognized student organizations at Marquette have the opportunity to apply for funding through Marquette University Student Government using the Student Organization Funding process, but there is no assurance that these requests will be granted. If organizations are selected to have funding support, this will occur on primarily a reimbursement basis rather than upfront coverage.

The process to apply for funding is not extensive, but there is also little upside. The SOF website explicitly says that there are little funds to go around and that funding is never guaranteed. Once students fill out the required forms to apply for funding, they must wait and see if their organization will be provided with anything.

There is also a modest list of what is qualified to be funded for each student organization. For instance, a very specific requirement to meet for event funding for a student organization is that the event must be “open to all undergraduate students and must enhance the greater Marquette community.”

The SOF website notes that they anticipate having $140,000 to provide support for student organizations – and that roughly half of that will go to club sports, the other half to non-club sports. This leaves very little money left over to provide funding for any non-sports related student organizations. It gives students the right to question why only sports related clubs are being prioritized when there are a plethora of other notable organizations that need and deserve funding.

One of the most important assets student organizations provide is helping give people a place on campus. Entering college can be intimidating, and without outlets for students to seek support from their peers, they can be left to struggle.

Marquette often recognizes the growing diversity of their student body. As they have noted, this school year will be the “most diverse incoming class” that the university has ever seen before. Although this is positive and a step in the right direction, Marquette needs to consider how their student organizations contribute to bringing in and retaining a diverse student body.

Some of the inclusive organizations at Marquette University include the Black Student Union, Arabic Culture & Language Club, Bangladesh Student Association, Black Mindz, Chinese Culture and Charity Club, and the African Students Association. All of these organizations provide safe spaces for students of color and provide them with a place to connect and create. They are essential to the retention of students of color at Marquette – not only that, but essential to providing a quality experience at the university for students of color.

The issue that students face is the lack of university support for their organizations. Although students have the opportunity to apply for funding, the chances of them receiving anything s ubstantial or even sufficient are slim.

The implications of student organizations being left without

any university funding cover a broad spectrum. Organizations that do not receive funding and support have less opportunity to host speakers, travel for events, cover operating expenses, purchase equipment and more. This leaves the student organizations with far less resources and can lead to a lack of motivation to continue. The consequence of this is that the organization is dismantled and where students once found solace, found opportunity and found fun is gone. Marquette University needs to prioritize their student organizations. Much of what keeps student body motivation alive is involvement, and without organizations that can support students’ interests, make them feel safe and secure on campus and promote collaboration, students and the university will suffer. Cosmetic plastic surgery blurs individuality

As humans, we live in a world that is far from aesthetically perfect, and yet we go against nature in an effort to become perfect. People undergo surgeries such as breast augmentation, facelifts and liposuction to appear more youthful, appealing and beautiful. But these procedures fail to understand the impact that these beauty standards have on individuality.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons defines cosmetic plastic surgery as “surgical and nonsurgical procedures that enhance and reshape structures of the body to improve appearance and confidence.” An aspect that it fails to mention is that it erases features of the human body that are just as beautiful and unique in their individuality should they not have undergone that procedure.

In 2020, 15.2 million cosmetic procedures were conducted in the United States. This number dropped from the previous year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the number is still substantial. Nose reshaping, otherwise known as rhinoplasty, and breast augmentation ranked in the top five most performed procedures. Cue my first experience with plastic surgery.

I was eighteen years old the first and last time I went to a plastic surgeon. I have to confess my reason for this visit: I have a strong and pointy nose that I have always referred to as my “big Polish nose.” So my big Polish nose and I walk into the office, meet with the doctor regarding rhinoplasty and the doctor takes one look at me, before stating that there was nothing wrong with my nose.

Except that I had a bump. A bump that could use a little filler. A bump that I had not noticed before, creating insecurity that I was previously unaware of before that day.

I want to preface this by saying I am not against plastic surgery, but widespread use and nondisclosure have become an exceptional issue starting with Hollywood and social media.

With famous figures that have a massive following on social media, such as Kim Kardashian, a 21st-century sex icon and Dove Cameron, a former Disney star, the acknowledgment of their procedures should be disclosed to the public. The before and after pictures of Kardashian and Cameron show their transformations over the years that cannot be written off as just make-up tricks or Facetune.

From not acknowledging their use of cosmetic plastic surgery to downright denying filler, these actions mislead millions into thinking that transformations like this are natural and easily attainable without thousands of dollars and a good doctor.

In a 2020 Girl’s Attitude Survey, 80% of girls aged 11-21 have thought about changing their appearance, with 32% saying they would do so in order to fit in. This is an issue as internet users aged 16-24 prefer Instagram to all other social media, a main stage for these undisclosed cosmetic procedures.

Cosmetic plastic surgery is a gendered issue, as 92% of cosmetic plastic surgery are women and as of 2020, 13 to 19-year-olds had 229,000 cosmetic procedures.

Despite these issues, cosmetic plastic surgery is not completely malicious. The history of modern plastic surgery dates back to World War II, when soldiers had facial deformities from war complications, like a missing nose or bodily burns. Techniques like skin grafting helped soldiers feel more acclimated to society without a bodily trace of war. Even today, studies have shown that cosmetic plastic surgery has the ability to improve a person’s confidence after surgery.

However, cosmetic plastic surgery is known to promote multiple procedures. Once a person gets a tummy tuck, which improves their confidence, they go in for another procedure that alters their normal and perfectly imperfect face and body. This cycle cannot and should not continue.

I propose that we take a more holistic approach toward the standard of beauty. There is no one standard for perfection, especially when it comes to us as humans. There is perfection among differences because we can appreciate the perfection embedded in individuality. There is no one mold for the human face, so each face is perfect due to the inability to compare.

We do not go into nature looking for a perfectly straight tree or a completely round pond, but we can still appreciate the individuality that we find. We need to begin to appreciate the differences between individual features and move away from attempting to emulate an unachievable standard of beauty.

Every year, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes women athletes for these important aspects of their lives: academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their college careers.

This past year’s winner was Lia Thomas, a Division I swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania. While she exuded every aspect of a winner in the category, there was one part of her that many people did not agree with: She was transgender, assigned male at birth.

Lia Thomas first came out as transgender to her family in the summer of 2018 after her freshman year of college. Toward the end of her sophomore year, she began hormone treatment. During her junior year, she officially came out as transgender to her coach and teammates. For the first three years of college, Lia competed on the men’s swimming team, but following her senior year, she was on the women’s team.

While on the men’s team, she managed to win awards and various records and placed among the national top 100 her first year. She ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle, 65th in the 500 freestyle and 32nd in the 1650 freestyle during her sophomore year. When she competed as a transitioned female, those ranks would were fifth in the 200 freestyle, first in the 500 freestyle and eighth in the 1650 freestyle.

Thomas had to report levels of testosterone throughout her training to qualify for competition in the female category. After starting her hormone replacement therapy, Thomas’ testosterone levels would decrease and therefore she would lose muscle and strength. As a result, her swim times would increase.

Testosterone is a hormone that biological males have an increase of. It causes puberty and changes in males. When males transition to females, as Thomas did, they take hormones to suppress testosterone and will experience physiologic changes including loss of male puberty characteristics.

Despite Thomas meeting all the guidelines the NCAA had required of her to compete as a transgender woman, she was still met with a lot of backlash, especially when she was nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year. People took to social media to make offensive and transphobic statements about Thomas.

Some of her teammates were also affected by this nomination as well. A female teammate of Thomas’ attacked the University of Pennsylvania for allowing Thomas to compete stating that it was “unfair” and how Thomas had the advantage.

What people fail to recognize is Thomas’ talent rather than her gender. She had placed in the top 100 when she competed in both the male and female competitions.

After this controversy, FINA, the International Swimming Federation, voted to ban transgender women from participating in women’s swimming competitions after a 71.5% approval. In order to be eligible to compete, the women must show that that they didn’t go through male puberty by the age of 12 or beyond Tanner Stage 2, a scaling system to measure stages of puberty.

To truly respect transgender athletes and their talents, competitions need to stop separating competitions by just male and female genders. A better option is to have two separate transgender competitions — one for male to female transgender people and the other for female to male transgender people.

In total, there would be four separate competitions, but this would overall ensure that transgender people get the chance to compete and display their talent with similar people with the same strength.

Despite all of this controversy, it was Thomas’ talent that ultimately got overlooked. Had she not been transgender, people would’ve focused more on her talent as a swimmer.

Thomas does not deserve the hate she received for competing.

Most of these were geared towards her identity and talent and it was ultimately the choice of the committee to let her compete and not Thomas. While there need to be more competition categories, Thomas serves as an example to transgender athletes everywhere wanting to compete professionally and not have their identity as a disadvantage but as an inspiration.

The committee needs to do better and let athletes express their gender identity instead of forcing them to compete in a gender category in which they no longer identify with. It is disrespectful and doesn’t draw enough focus to their talent.

Imagine not being able to compete because of how you express yourself. The problem is with the correct competition category and not gender identification. Not being able to compete because of your pronouns is talent wasted. Krisha Patel Krisha Patel is a senior studying nursing and Spanish for the health professions. She can be reached at

krisha.patel@marquette.edu

Trump must answer for classified documents

Aug 8., the FBI executes an extensive search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-aLago property in Palm Beach, Florida. This is where it all began in the public eye, but in reality, this investigation was a long time coming.

A common theme of Trump’s presidency was dishonesty. His campaign was built on it, his supporters demanded it and his identity ensured it.

One fact checker for the Washington Post kept track of Trump’s false or misleading claims made over the course of his presidency – which totaled out to be over 30,000.

Even long after he has been out of office, his deceit and dishonesty outlive his reign as chief of state.

Before there was the raid on Mar-a-Lago, there was a lot of leg work put in by the FBI and Justice Department to recover the classified documents in Trump’s possession. Together, they put in a lot of effort to make it a peaceable and dignified process — as much as it could be.

Dating all the way back to May 2021, there were requests for transparency from the former president. The National Archives and Records Administration discovered that there appeared to be documents missing from the materials they were given as Trump exited office. May 6, 2021, the agency requested the records from Trump and continued to make requests all the way through Dec. 2021.

Jan. 2021, the NARA receives 15 boxes of presidential records which had been kept at the Mara-Lago property. Investigators know now that 14 of those 15 boxes contained classified documents. Of the 184 classified documents found within the confines of those boxes, 67 were marked confidential, 92 marked secret and 25 marked top secret.

One of the most concerning aspects of this discovery is that the documents were found intermixed with a variety of other items such as magazines, photos and personal correspondence – which speaks to a lack of respect for the sensitive documents’ significance.

Agents noted that some of the documents had markings that could suggest they contained information from highly sensitive human sources — which, if discovered by some, could have detrimental consequences. Consequences including the leak of important classified information, endangerment to people involved in government affairs and more.

Investigators continued to work and communicate with the Justice Department expressing their concerns regarding the classified documents and in February a criminal investigation was launched.

June 3, three FBI agents and a DOJ attorney collect material from a Trump attorney as a result of a subpoena. The material being a single Redweld envelope containing only several documents.

Where that leaves us now is in a world of political chaos. The thought that a President and his team could be so reckless — or calculated — to make an extensive effort to hide classified documents that were not intended to be in the confines of the former president’s home is harrowing.

Following last month’s search of Mar–a–Lago, the Justice Department released this statement: “That the FBI, in a matter of hours, recovered twice as many documents with classification markings as the ‘diligent search’ that the former President’s council and other representatives had weeks to perform calls into serious question the representations made in the June 3 certification and casts doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.”

What may even be considered the most appalling aspect of this entire situation is the former president’s response – not shocking, but appalling. “Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar–a–Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see,” Trump responded.

The former president struggled with accountability throughout the duration of and following his time in office. Whether it be for the Jan. 6 insurrection or now for the slew of classified documents found in his possession long after he was meant to return them.

The danger in this is the power that he holds over his supporters and members of Congress.

Donald Trump once said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” This was to reflect on his immense and insatiable support system throughout his 2016 campaign trail, but the frightening part is that he may just be right. Maybe not in a literal sense, but in the overall reflection of his die-hard support system.

Trump’s power is in his “people.” His staff and supporters are willing to follow him to the ends of the earth and the brinks of insanity. There is no denying what Trump did, what he had in his possession and that he is responsible for — at best — the reckless handling of classified documents.

My fear, and what should frighten other American citizens, is how he will spin this. This will become another conspiracy thrown into the political battleground and potentially cause more outbursts similar to the Jan. 6 insurrection we saw after Trump lost the presidency and insisted it was due to voter fraud. Former president Donald Trump must answer for his crimes. He must stop playing the blame game in order to avoid any sense of responsibility. We as American citizens must hold him accountable for his actions and quit this game of hide and seek out of fear of the repercussions.

Grace Cady is a junior studying Journalism. She can be be reached at grace.cady@marquette.edu

Statement of Opinion Policy

The opinions expressed on the Opinions page reflect the opinions of the Opinions staff. The editorials do not represent the opinions of Marquette University nor its administrators, but those of the editorial board.

The Marquette Tribune prints guest submissions at its discretion. The Tribune strives to give all sides of an issue an equal voice over the course of a reasonable time period. An author’s contribution will not be published more than once in a four-week period. Submissions with obvious relevance to the Marquette community will be given priority consideration.

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