The Miami Student | April 20, 2021

ESTABLISHED 1826 — OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES

Volume 149 No. 22

Miami university — Oxford, Ohio

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

Miami grad students

OXFORD COMMUNITY SEAN SCOTT ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Each year, two doctoral candidates in Miami University’s psychology department spend 20 hours a week providing counseling and education about mental health to students in the Talawanda School District.

Jennifer Green is a clinical professor and the coordinator of the clinical traineeship, a program which operates within Miami’s Center for School-Based Mental Health Programs. She said the psychology department’s partnership with Talawanda began 20 years ago and is funded by a grant from the Oxford Community Foundation.

Green said the participating doctoral candidates are selected to participate through an application proOne student each year focuses on elementary school students, and the other is assigned to Talawanda High School. “[The trainees] are supported every day by the school counselors and the school psychologists,” Green said.

“We also make it very collaborative …

We try to be very respectful that the school setting has its own culture and rules and the way that it does things.”

Katelyn Wargel is a graduate student in clinical psychology and the clinical trainee at Bogan Elementary School. She said she decided to pursue the program because of how it aligns with her professional goals.

“My interest in doing research and work is through school-based mental health,” Wargel said. “Every year, the clinical psychology program has two students who work in local schools providing mental health services, so through that connection I was able to work in that role this year.”

Wargel meets with students oneon-one every week to talk through

.

DESIGN EDITOR OWEN BERG

MARIJUANA SEAN SCOTT ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR The state of Ohio legalized medical marijuana in 2016. Since then, residents 18 years or older have been able to use marijuana products to treat medical issues from AIDS to epilepsy.

Most residents, that is.

Federal law still prohibits the use of marijuana for any reason. Because Miami University receives federal funding, it’s obligated to enforce federal policies.

Kimberly Moore, dean of students, wrote in an email to The Miami Student that the university’s ofits use in any form on campus policy

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

students with medical cards aren’t exempt, though she wrote the university can make accommodations.

“Students who are legally permitted to use medical marijuana can apply for an exemption from the residence life and dining requirement, second year students,” Moore said.

Regardless of university policy, students still use marijuana on their own terms.

“It takes me out of that headspace” tive treatment for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and anxiety.

“I have PTSD, and the pandemic able,” he said. “I couldn’t wake up without experiencing it. I couldn’t eat because that was tied into it.”

The student had used marijuana to self-medicate in the past, but

during the pandemic, he got his doctor’s approval to use it legally. He received his card in an email and uses it to purchase products at Bloom Medicinals, a nearby dispensary in Seven Mile, 15 minutes from Oxford.

“For me, it just immediately takes me out of that headspace,” he said.

“I don’t usually get to a point where I’m high. It just clears my head up enough that the traumatic thoughts will step aside so I can focus on the things I need to do for my day.”

Depending on the symptoms the student wants to treat, he gets of cannabis compounds like THC, CBD and delta-8. Some products are or chronic pain, some help people stay calm through the workday and some help users fall asleep.

Even though he uses marijuana legally, the student said he feels marijuana use is stigmatized at Miami.

marijuana than people will for underage drinking, even though what I’m doing is technically more legal,” he said. “I have a couple friends who will tell me, ‘I drink, but I never smoke,’ and it’s just annoying for me because … me smoking isn’t like, ‘We’re out smoking a joint.’ It’s medicine.”

“It’s more like a mom and pop store” One student attended Ohio State University (OSU) last year before transferring to Miami. He said the culture surrounding marijuana at Miami is less intense.

“There was a very widespread drug market [at OSU],” the transfer student said. “Here, I feel like it’s more like a mom and pop store …

You will meet someone inevitably freshman year somehow, and you’ll CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Who’s furry all over and also knows his Laws of Physics? Newton Crawford! where [Ivy’s] just like, ‘You know what Newton? Give me a break.’”

But don’t be mistaken – Ivy does love having a new playmate around.

Having a playmate is part of the reason why Newton found his forever home with the Crawfords. Ivy was in need of a sibling, and the Crawfords wanted another dog, but the timing never seemed right.

“Under normal circumstances, we probably had 7-10 events a week, so there wouldn’t be a lot of time to take care of another dog,” Crawford said, “and then all of the sudden the world

PETS OF OXFORD IZZY OWEN THE MIAMI STUDENT On a breezy April afternoon, six and a half-month-old golden retriever Newton sat next to his big sister, 4-year-old Ivy, in the backyard of his new home at Lewis Place, also known as Miami University’s presidential residence.

He casually leans over to Ivy and tugs on the Miami bandana around her neck, only to be met with his mom,

"I really think that his favorite activity is playing with Ivy. She really is his best friend, even if he's her little brother."

- Renate Crawford Miami Ambassador and Adjunct Professor of physics Renate Crawford, reprimanding him and reminding him that he’s wearing the exact same bandana.

“He is like a little brother,” Crawford said. “Sometimes there’s times

This Issue

changed a little bit.”

Since COVID-19 put a hold on most events, the Crawfords decided the time was right to get a second dog.

And then along came Newton.

Both Renate and University President Greg Crawford are physicists.

Renate teaches physics to pre-healthcare majors, and the class is called Newtonian

Mechanics – named after Sir Issac Newton. So, naturally, they decided to name their new puppy Newton.

“We have a Miami dog, Ivy, and a physics dog, Newton,” Crawford said.

Crawford said Newton and Ivy get along really well and love doing activities together. She says they’re the best of friends.

“It’s really phenomenal to have a playmate for Ivy when we’re not here,” Crawford said.

Ivy enjoys sleeping next to Newton, playing with him and getting lots of pets from Miami students during their walks. Newton is also working to be a therapy dog, like Ivy is. He has passed puppy school and is working on passing his obedience class right now.

However, Newton is already like a therapy dog in a sense. Crawford said that right now, he helps students who are missing their pets at home.

“We’re freelancing right now,” she py sessions with students.

Newton also enjoys walking around Oxford, especially now that spring has brought out more students as well as prospective students. Crawford said that students’ faces light up when they see the pair, and they typically ask if they can pet them.

“Having dogs around campus realNewton has already made a difference in his short time at Miami by bringing joy to students’ days, and he’s already made a best friend in his older sister.

“I really think that his favorite activity is playing with Ivy. She really is his best friend, even if he’s her little brother.” owenip@miamioh.edu

PRESIDENT AND DR. CRAWFORD ADOPTED A NEW GOLDEN RETRIEVER, NEWTON. PHOTO EDITOR ZACH REICHMAN

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY

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This Week

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TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021 Named the Best College Newspaper (Non-daily) in Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists.

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Faculty Adviser

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Cannabis use on campus:

The Life of Neil A. Armstrong Virtual Event Learn about the triumphs and challenges of Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission.

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Virtual Libraries Game Night Virtual Event Join Miami University Libraries for a night of virtual board games.

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Miami to increase student education of Miami Tribe with new positions

it’s louder than you think CONTINUED FROM FRONT

be like, ‘Yo, that was the dude who was smoking. That was the dude who was high. That was the dude who was always mugging around his dorm.’”

The student uses marijuana recreationally. in a residence hall he wouldn’t be concerned

smoking. the conversation that was like, ‘Oh no, no way we’re gonna get caught. It’s just another stu dent, don’t worry about it.’”

resident assistants (RAs).

PHOTO EDITOR

“So let’s say a student comes in and is inter ested in environmental science, which is some thing that we’re very much interested in,” Strass

went away. dangerous than alcohol. While there are no re In middle school, she said her teachers made

THE MIAMI STUDENT Miami University is introducing three new changes to the Myaamia Center to increase stu dent awareness.

100 thousand deaths each year in the U.S.

consequences.

ronmental issues.”

Andrew Sawyer has joined the Myaamia borne. Sawyer will serve in the Myaamia Cen

“People don’t hide from the fact that they smoke marijuana”

Miami than just weed” One student who started smoking marijuana

Faculty Fellow will go to Sandra Garner, associ In her new role, Garner will serve as a mediator ter to the classroom and educating the universi ty.

For him, marijuana is more social than any

ing is something that 98% is okay with. I would

munity.

“We really wanted somebody who under

won’t necessarily join.”

knew that she would bring that to the table. And immediately when we were thinking about this

not to smoke.

“His role is really going to be that relation would want this content,” Strass said.

Osborne wrote in an email to The Miami Stu university and the Miami Tribe.

“The Myaamia Center is an international

unique,” Osborne wrote. “We want to make sure we are celebrating these unique resources and

toward addiction services.

At Miami, he said there are students who edge about the Miami Tribe to all Miami stu dents.

said. “We’ll ask them, ‘Hey, do you want to hit mental.

Americans more broadly in this country, may

“No way we’re gonna get caught” One student said she started smoking mar ijuana when she was 14. In high school, she

that can be inserted and used in classes,” Garner

ration on research between the university and ami.” scottsr2@miamioh.edu

Myaamia Center and conducting research on the tribe.

giaquiln@miamioh.edu

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY 3 TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

health services at Talawanda CONTINUED FROM FRONT their current struggles or emotions.

When school started in the fall, the students were all remote, so she got to experience the transition to in-person learning with them.

“Kids were just really needing that in-person [format] to be with their friends or see more structure or just not sit in front of a screen for six hours of the day,” Wargel said. “But that being said, some

Not every change brought on by virtual counseling was negative. Wargel said it was sometimes helpful to have parents involved with her sessions on the other side of the screen.

Now that Bogan is offering in-person instruction, Wargel holds a small group session with some kids to help them navigate social situations.

“I also run just one small group of kids that works on social skills and kind of helping them become more integrated in

“I am also seeing a lot of resilience within this age group ... kids bounce back oftentimes quicker than a lot of adults do.”

- Laura Packert kids, especially depending on the mesreally anxious and worried about coming back to school.” on activities like drawing or using figures.

Wargel said it was hard at first to adapt these practices to an online environment, but she eventually got used to using shared screens to get her clients to engage.

the classroom and in the school,” Wargel said. “They eat lunch with me once a week, so that’s really fun.”

Laura Packert is a school counselor at Bogan Elementary School. She wrote in an email to The Miami Student that while the pandemic has made mental health a priority for many families, the young students she works with are handling the stress well.

“I am also seeing a lot of resilience

within this age group,” Packert wrote.

“Kids bounce back oftentimes, quicker than a lot of adults do. The pandemic has proven this to be true.”

Packert said the partnership with Miami has been able to provide services to families that Talawanda wouldn’t be able to provide on its own. Even though the program has had to adapt to the pandemic, she said families love being able to connect with young mental health professionals on an individual level.

The partnership also helps offset students’ costs for mental health services. munity Foundation provides funding for the mental health trainee program, they are able to offer their services free of charge and without insurance.

“There’s just no barriers to that treatment,” Green said. “And we do know that there’s a lot of families where parents are working … and the ability to take their child to a therapist or to an appointment every week is just too much. They just can’t do it, and so having something right there is really beneficial.”

Packert said she hopes the program continues to teach students necessary topics in mental health and wellness.

“We are all teachers of social emotional learning, and we teach simply in our living,” Packert wrote. “How I live, how I interact with my peers, how I respond to a student … kids are watching. They are learning. They are modeling. Teaching empathy and social skills is pivotal.” scottsr2@miamioh.edu

Miami and Oxford to install new electric vehicle charging stations META HOGE THE MIAMI STUDENT Miami University and Oxford have received grants from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) to install new electric car charging stations.

The grants came from the OEPA’s share of the Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund, which was created as a settlement after Volkswagen’s emissions scandal.

The electric vehicle charging stations for both Miami and Oxford are set to be installed during the summer or fall of this year, said Adam Sizemore, Miami’s director of sustain-

STUDENT GOVERNMENT MADELINE PHABY CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Miami University’s Associated Student Government (ASG) held elections for four cabinet positions at its April 13 meeting. It at its April 20 meeting.

This meeting, ASG held elections for secsecretary for diversity and inclusion, and secretary for governmental relations. The elections for secretary for infrastructure and sustainability and secretary for safety were also scheduled to occur at the April 13 meeting, but they were tabled until April 20 due to time constraints.

Sophomore quantitative economics major Heervansh Keswani and incumbent Secretary of Finance Ben Waugh ran for secreKeswani said his experience leading committees for other organizations and his position. He also said he would work on increasing transparency in ASG’s funding system if elected.

Waugh said he would work to incorporate feedback from student organizations into the funding process and make the treasurer training system more accessible and engaging if re-elected.

Waugh was re-elected to the position.

For the position of secretary of the treasury, junior accountancy major Vathsa Yarramsetty ran against incumbent Dan Bosworth.

Yarramsetty said he would increase transparency and empathy between the funding and audit committee and student organizations if elected.

Bosworth said his experience working with ASG’s million-dollar budget made him He also said he would implement an emergency fund that organizations could request funding from without a hearing if re-elected. so another election will be held at a later date.

Vada Stephens ran for secretary for diversity and inclusion.

Wu said he would work on ensuring all

city manager. charging station, located at Miami’s North two connectors with up to ten kilowatts.

Sizemore wrote in an email to The Miami Student that seven new level 2 dual port locations on campus. There will be two stathe Ditmer Lot, two at Millett Hall and one at “Level 2 charging stations take roughly 4-5 hours to charge a vehicle, which is why we’re installing them in remote/commuter lots,” Sizemore wrote.

Two Level 2 charging stations will also be installed at the Uptown Parking Garage.

Greene said the city hopes to install more chargers with faster charging times.

“We, in the future, would like to apply for additional grants for what’s called a level 3 charging station, which is a faster charging station,” Greene said. “Our goal, if awarded, would be to install those on our surface parking lot, so the one where the farmers market is.” tive for the environmental commission, said Oxford having more electric car charging stations will help the city become more environmentally friendly.

ASG holds second round of cabinet elections

-

step in the right direction as far as from a sustainability standpoint.” more popular in the future as the Earth’s fossil fuel supply continues to diminish.

“Fossil fuel companies know that there’s only so much fossil fuels and oil and gas on our planet, and they know that we’re kind of reaching a point where, even though they’re fracking and they’re getting a lot more oil out with new said. “The costs and the technology for electric cars is just going to increasingly get lower and ban and regional planning and sustainability having more charging stations is important because it creates opportunities for people to

use electric cars.

“Our current transportation networks are designed for cars, so a lot of students and faculty use cars as a general mode of transportatiple charging stations allows more students and faculty to potentially use electric or plug-in hybrid cars.”

Sizemore wrote the chance to install more charging stations gives Miami the opportunity to continue its goal of being more sustainable.

“We were able to take advantage of this opportunity to build up our campus electric vehicle charging infrastructure as electric vehicles become more accessible and available,” Sizemore wrote. “Installing this infrastructure helps pursue our institutional carbon neutrality goal.” @meta__hoge hogemh@miamioh.edu

addressing predatory loan practices if elected.

Bracely said his experience as a queer person of color on Miami’s campus would allow him to advocate for students with a variety of identities. He also said he would work on getting Miami students free sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing.

Stephens said he would implement diversity-related workshops for members of ASG and expand gender inclusive restrooms on campus.

ASG elected Stephens to the position.

Sophomores Gillian Brown and Austin Tyree ran for secretary for governmental relations.

Brown said she would work on increasing voter turnout for the 2022 midterm elections and fostering more civic engagement among international students if elected.

Tyree, a member of the governmental relations network, said he’d work with other students on campus were registered to vote.

Tyree was elected to the position.

ASG will hold elections for secretary for infrastructure and sustainability, secretary for safety, speaker pro tempore and parliamentarian at its next meeting at 6 p.m. on April 20. @madphabes phabymr@miamioh.edu

4 CAMPUS & COMMUNITY

BAMMERAJ@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

Tour guides adjust to COVID restrictions CAMPUS TOURS HANNAH HORSINGTON ASST. MAGAZINE EDITOR Every Monday morning at 9 a.m., junior speech pathology and audiology major Grace Payne walks the same route.

She starts at Shriver Center and makes her way past the sundial and across Spring Street toward King Library. She takes a right and walks between Stoddard and Elliott Halls before walking past the seal, careful not to to step on it. Cutting through Bishop Woods, she passes Armstrong Student Center before crossing the street again and arriving back at Shriver.

As a tour guide, Payne walks this route with her group, often stopping to share a few fun facts about Miami or answer questions from prospective students and their parents.

Payne only leads a few families. Associate Director of Admissions Andrew Boehm said tours are limited to 10 people at most.

She said things are improving from last semester when tour guides were still learning new routes and making sure they could safely follow COVID restrictions.

Payne started working as a tour guide this year, and while she’s picked up on things quickly, she knows that it’s not quite the same as training before the COVID-19 pandemic. For tour guides who worked before the pandemic, The whole tour now only takes about 45 minutes, which is half the time a campus tour would take before the COVID-19 pandemic retions on tour group sizes and routes, said tour guide Manager Andrew Peachman.

“I think that for old guides it’s been some-

cause it’s a new route, and now you’re trying to cram this amount of information into a much smaller amount of time,” Peachman said.

In addition to routes being shortened, tour groups are no longer allowed to enter any campus buildings. Prospective students and parents can enter campus buildings on their own time, its.

Payne said the inability to see a residence hall has been the one complaint she’s experienced most on her tours.

“I have to admit, I do feel a little bit bad for some of the students because a lot of people really look forward to the residence hall tours speAlthough this is one common disappointment among tour members, Payne said overall, many parents and prospective students seem happy just to be on the tour at all. They now have a unique opportunity to have more one-on-one experiences with their tour guides, something that wasn’t as easy before the pandemic. “[The tours] can be very personalized, so that you can really share exactly what it is that that student is interested in [and] really cater it to them,” Peachman said. “So [now] it’s all designed for them.”

If visitors are unable to attend an actual tour, they can take a self-guided tour instead. After itors follow the map and can watch information-

On top of all the restrictions that tour guides and members now face, Miami has seen a drastic decrease in visitors overall. In a normal year, Boehm said. Miami usually hosts around 50,000 visitors.

This year, that number has dropped to around 10,000.

While the number of visitors has gone down,

Student organizations enjoy the outdoors one

TOURS FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS ARE STILL AFFECTED BY COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS. PHOTO EDITOR ZACH REICHMAN

Boehm said that the number of no-shows for tours has also been very low, which is a good sign.

“People that are willing to come are coming,” Boehm said. “And we’ve been getting some very good feedback about just having the ability to have them come on campus and explore.”

Both Boehm and Peachman contributed much of the new tours’ successes to the tour guides, praising their ability to adapt to new situations and make the most of what they can do.

“They have such a great positive attitude and

they come to work with so much passion for this job and for the university that it makes it really Boehm said. “They’re adapting to these spur of the moment changes, which is never easy, especially when you have to be working with complete strangers … and they just do an amazing job.” @hannahorsington horsinhp@miamioh.edu

‘Sexual Citizens’ comes to Miami LECTURE LEXI WHITEHEAD ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR

AFTER AYEAR OF BEING CONFINED TO REMOTE MEETINGS, MIAMI’S OUTDOOR ORGANIZATIONS ARE FINALLY BACK OUTSIDE. COURTESY OF ANDREW SLAWSON

er got in the water before COVID happened in

ALICE MOMANY THE MIAMI STUDENT The sun is shining, the weather is warming up and Miami University student organizations are slowly beginning to meet in-person.

One year ago, student clubs had to stop meeting directly, and instead, many groups held events virtually. Some organizations relied on outdoor vicinities for their events and had to cancel activities for the remainder of the 2020 school year. ent due to COVID-19 restrictions, members of student organizations are excited to have the chance to get out and enjoy the warm weather. is the men’s captain of the rowing club at Miami. After being sent home last spring and not having a fall season this year, Slawson looked forward to some normalcy this semester, but club sporting events at Miami are on hold due to COVID-19.

“Through club sports at Miami, we have a travel ban against us per se, so we can’t host or compete in any competitions or regattas until May 15, so through the end of the semester,”

“It’s basically a normal season just without the competition,” - Jenna Prahst Slawson said.

However, he isn’t letting the lack of competitions deter his senior year.

“What is exciting, though, is the last time that we were on the water prior to mid-March was November of 2019,” Slawson said. “We nev-

that a lot of people have rowed in over a year.”

Jenna Prahst, a senior information systems and analytics major, is the women’s captain of the rowing club. She said while this isn’t how she expected her senior season to end, she is happy to be back out on the water at Hueston Woods.

“It’s basically like a normal season just without the competition, which is still nice because that’s more than we had last season or the season before, so it’s slowly getting back to normal,” Prahst said.

Similarly, Whitney Lai, a junior architecture and environmental science double major, was frustrated Miami prohibited clubs from traveling.

Lai, president of the climbing club, said though the club can’t travel to Red River Gorge, Kentucky or Joshua Tree National Park, California, like it has previously, she is trying to create fun activities that members can do on their own.

“We’re trying to keep people engaged with each other,” Lai said. “With our group chat, people have made their own groups that they feel comfortable going outside with, and I’ve been releasing videos on how to climb safely outdoors since I can’t be there to show them how.”

Audrey Carr, a senior kinesiology major, is the vice president of the Outdoor Adventure Club (OAC). In a normal semester, OAC would be camping, white water rafting and backpacking. pus perimeters. Carr said although the club members haven’t been able to do some of their favorite spring activities, they are making the most of the scenic spots on campus. as a club, we’ve been hanging out here on the nice days,” Carr said. “We have our hammock hangouts where we just set up in Central Quad, and we grab a frisbee or something, and we all mask up and just hang out in our hammocks together.”

As the semester ends, many club leaders like Carr are looking forward to getting one step closer to normalcy. plan is, and hopefully what the fall looks like, we’ll be back to normal.”

Additional reporting by Multimedia Editor Maggie Peña @alicemomany momanyaj@miamioh.edu

Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan, authors of “Sexual Citizens,” a book about sexual assault on college campuses, spoke to about 160 Miami Univeristy students, faculty and staff members on Thursday, April 15.

The book draws on ethnographic research from the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, which examined sexual assault and sexual health among undergraduates. Hirsch co-directed SHIFT, and Hirsch and Khan co-directed SHIFT’s ethnographic component.

Hirsch and Khan cover three concepts in the book: sexual projects, sexual geographies and sexual citizenship and how they relate to college students.

Their talk focused on the content of their book, which some audience members had previously read. “Sexual Citizens” looks at the social roots of sexual assault rather than individual perpetrators. This new lens of looking at sexual assault mirrors that of a public health approach.

“So much of campus sexual assault [prevention] is about what do we do after it happens,” Khan said, “and the approach to our project was, ‘What if we thought about this differently, and what if we thought about how we can design communities that prevented it from happening in the first place?’”

Hirsch and Khan wanted to write a book accessible to everyone, including college students, high school students going into college, their parents and legislators who make decisions about sexual assault prevention.

“Jennifer and I didn’t want to just communicate with the academic community,” Khan said. “We also wanted to communicate with a much broader community … because we think this is such a massive problem, and there’s a lot of unnecessary suffering that is going on.”

The fall 2019 semester at Miami saw 40 reports of sexual assault, a steep increase from the 2018-2019 school year.

Hirsch said the main message she hopes readers take away from “Sexual Citizens” is sexual assaults on college campuses are preventable, but it will require work.

“We can prevent campus sexual assault if we take a new approach,” Hirsch said, “But it’s not going to be one intervention.”

During the Q&A portion of their lecture, Hirsch and Khan discussed what some of these prevention methods might look like, including comprehensive sex education and distributing power and control over spaces on campuses.

Currently, incoming first-years are required to complete an online module about sexual assault before coming to campus. Students also receive presentations on sexual assault at orientation and another presentation during their first semester.

Sam Shellenberg, a senior psychology major, attended the lecture for her Family Life and Sexual Education class. She hadn’t read the book beforehand but still enjoyed listening to the authors speak.

“Even though I didn’t read the book, I’m glad [the issues they were talking about] could still be applicable to me.”

Shellenberg said. “I thought the issues

AUTHORS HIRSCH AND KHAN COVERED THEIR LANDMARK BOOK IN A RECENT LECTURE. SENIOR CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY EDITOR DAVID KWIATKOWSKI

they were talking about are things that need to be talked about more in general, but ... specifically I think it needs to be talked about with college students.”

Leora Bernard, a senior public administration and film studies double major, first heard Hirsch speak in her AMS 310 class last semester, titled “#MeToo: A Cultural History.” The class chronicled the #MeToo movement against rape and sexual assault throughout American history.

Bernard decided to read “Sexual Citizens” and was excited for the talk.

“I joked that it was like my bible for two months,” Bernard said. “I gained a lot from the book from thinking about the book and conversations I was having with people because of it. I convinced like 10 of my friends to buy it and start reading it.”

During the talk, Hirsch and Khan spoke about their research and key concepts in their book. The last thirty minutes were reserved for audience questions.

“I thought the talk reflected the quality of the book,” Bernard said. “The talk also acknowledged the shortcomings of the text where they probably could have spent more time or devoted things or answered certain things that they just didn’t have the time for. It was really amazing to see that reflection.”

Hirsch and Khan were pleased when students asked questions they couldn’t necessarily answer based on their research.

“I would say the dream of a researcher like me and Jennifer is that students look at this and they’re like, ‘This is helpful, but it doesn’t go far enough,’” Khan said. “And what you’ll do then is you’ll build upon it.”

Hirsch and Khan encouraged Miami students to think about sexual assault in a different way in order to take action on prevention methods and also to think about what still needs to be done.

“In ‘Sexual Citizens,’ we write about the stories that students told us, holding them, not just with empathy and compassion,” Hirsch said, “but ultimately … with a great deal of hope that this broader way of thinking about the social roots of sexual assault can help us finally make progress on what’s been such an intractable problem.” @nwlexi whitehan@miamioh.edu

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY 5

PHABYMR@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

“I think both me and the students were running out of steam”:

Burnout felt across campus

Oxford residents show mixed feelings regarding the term “townie” OXFORD COMMUNITY TAJ SIMMONS ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR

DESIGNER ALESSANDRA MANUKIAN

STUDENT WELLNESS COSETTE GUNTER LAURA GIAQUINTO THE MIAMI STUDENT After two and a half semesters of college via computer screen, some students are feeling the spring semester.

Micaela Anders, a sophomore political science and history double major, said she feels burnt out at this point in the semester.

“It’s a lot harder to wake up every day and do my homework,” Anders said. “I’m just kind of chugging through, [and I] drink a lot of caffeine.”

Anders said the university’s decision to remove spring break contributed to her fatigue, and the replacement of the break with wellness days did not help.

“I still feel like I did more work, [and] I feel like I spent the whole [wellness] day using it as a day to catch up or get ahead on assignments,” Anders said. “I think having a spring break would have been really helpful, especially since we’ve been, what feels like, non stop online for over a year now.”

Jason Abbitt, associate professor of educational psychology, said normally, spring break allows faculty to regroup and get ready for the away from work.

“I have not noticed a wellness day [that] felt like a day where I could fully disengage from things because it’s just a day and it happens in the middle of the week, and I’m not used to taksaid.

Ronald Becker, a professor in the departchronous Zoom meetings.

“For me, my energy was lagging as the semester was dragging on,” Becker said. “The amount of energy you have to bring to a Zoom where, when you’re in-person, you gain some energy from the classroom. I think both me and

the students were running out of steam.”

Becker said the accumulation of the year has drained everyone.

“It’s a year of this stress, just being [and] living in a pandemic, trying to operate around with masks and social distancing, it’s just sort of micro-stress every day,” Becker said. “So having a year of that was tough, and I think that just takes its toll.”

Keith Hohn, professor of engineering, said one of the biggest challenges about working during COVID-19 has been missing out on in-person conversations and building relationships with students.

“I think we’re missing a lot of the things that we like about being faculty,” Hohn said. “Working with students closely, seeing them in person, having those conversations. We just don’t have those. So that’s a challenge. And I think it was just the workload has gone up for everybody, everything becomes harder, just because now you’re having to deal with the online environments.”

John Ward, director of Student Counseling Service (SCS), said this part of the semester is traditionally most stressful for students and demic and recent social and cultural events in the country.

“I think all these things are sort of weighing on our minds, collectively, and we haven’t had a reprieve, we haven’t had a break in all this,” Ward said. “I think that’s what’s contributing to so many people saying, ‘I’m tired. I’m just burnt out right now.’”

Melanie Uy, a psychologist at SCS, said she has heard concerns from students about feeling like they have not had a break this semester.

“I think the semester wellness days are great,” Uy said. “I love the idea behind it, [but] it I’ve had a lot of people share [that] it’s just like, that’s just piling, I think.”

Claire Schoenfeld, a sophomore professional writing and media and culture double major, said she feels like her professors are assigning more work to make up for less class time.

“I feel like the workload, at least mine, has dramatically increased this year from last year,”

Schoenfeld said. “So I feel like some of the professors just kind of need to ease up and understand that more work isn’t necessarily equal to learning more.”

Schoenfeld said another online semester along with the loss of spring break has contributed to her semester exhaustion. a computer and doing the same thing over and over again,” Schoenfeld said. “I think a spring a break. But I honestly don’t dislike the wellness days that much, I kind of appreciate them. But spring break would have still been better.”

Ward said one of the things he advises students to do to combat semester fatigue is to do work in advance.

“There is the reality that things are just going to be stressful because things are due,” Ward said, “and there’s not a great way around that level of stress. That’s just the reality of being a college student, but sometimes that can be eased if things aren’t done last minute, and one is taking time [to] work on things and give them time and not just let that pressure build.”

Uy said she reminds students that structure and routine is important, but said remembering to take a minute to breathe helps too.

“Overall I tell people to take a breath for a moment,” Uy said. “Take a few, if possible. Make them deep, and you can open your eyes and see, it’s like, ‘Okay, now I’m coming back with a little bit de-stress or a little bit of a clear mind’ and not as frantic or chaotic a feeling. Simple, but we do forget about it.”

Anders said she is excited for the fall semesthe last three.

“I just felt like I was more energized to do [things] throughout the day [before the pandemic],” Anders said. “On top of going to classes and club meetings and hanging out with friends in person and all of that I think it [was] a lot easier to do college when you weren’t just sitting at your laptop all day.” @cosettegunter guntercr@miamioh.edu giaquiln@miamioh.edu

Academic dishonesty reports haven’t increased, but are students still cheating?

ACADEMICS LEXI WHITEHEAD ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR Despite classes at Miami University being mostly online for the entire academic school year, Miami’s Office of Academic Integrity has not seen an increase in academic dishonesty cases due to the pandemic.

Brenda Quaye, assistant director for academic integrity, said there was a slight increase in cases when students went remote last spring, but also that cases increased last year overall because of the new reporting process.

“We were already seeing a slight increase in our caseload,” Quaye said, “which I think came from making it easier for faculty members to submit reports, and we did a lot of education for faculty members about how to submit and why to submit.”

Instead of reporting academic dishonesty to department chairs, professors now complete a central reporting form that goes to Quaye’s office.

During the 2017-18 school year, 496 cases of academic dishonesty were reported.

During the 2018-19 school year, 480 were reported. This number increased to about 700 in the 2019-20 school year, though not all cases are settled yet.

This academic year has seen about 500 cases of academic dishonesty so far, and Quaye said her office typically gets 100 or more cases in the last few weeks of the semester.

“It’s a perception that more academic dishonesty happens in online classes because nobody really knows what’s going on,” Quaye said, “but that’s not true.”

Nationally, however, many universities have seen increases in academic dishonesty

with the advent of online classes.

Although the amount of reported cases hasn’t increased at Miami, the type of cheating reported has changed.

The most common type of cheating in previous years has been unauthorized collaboration — students working together on assignments that are supposed to be done independently. Now, students are more likely to use outside resources, like class notes or the internet, on exams or quizzes.

Quaye said some students have always used outside resources on exams and quizzes, but it’s easier to do so remotely.

“Sitting in a physical classroom taking an exam, it’s harder to pull out a phone or a computer and look stuff up,” Quaye said.

Reza Akhtar, professor of mathematics, agreed it’s easier for students to cheat online. He said he has personally seen an increase in cheating within the mathematics department, and he helps the department chair with hearing cases because there are so many within his department.

“When it comes to cheating in [person], it’s usually cheat sheets because those are the easiest to sneak in,” Akhtar said.

“There’s less of that and more looking up solutions on Chegg.com or the internet.

Chegg is kind of the curse of faculty.”

One sophomore, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said she rarely cheated before being a remote student in the fall semester but frequently double-checked her answers on unproctored exams.

“If I don’t know the answer or I’m not 100% sure I’m right, I’ll just look it up,” she said.

She said cheating, for her, was usually the result of being overworked and having to prioritize certain classes and assignments over others. She most often cheats in classes she sees as having no value to her

career path.

“I have a lot of other work, and I focus on the work that I know I have to focus on to get the good grade,” she said. “Whereas if I know I can double check something if I’m not 100% sure … it’s a lot easier to push that stuff off. It’s not much of a priority because it’s not as much of a risk.”

Although Quaye hasn’t seen an increase in cases, she thinks the pandemic has created new stressors that can lead students to cheat.

“We absolutely recognize that the situation is stressful and difficult for everybody and that people are dealing with not being here, being somewhere else, might be technology issues, there might be concerns about health and wellness within families, people have other obligations,” Quaye said.

“Some of those things that then put a student in a situation where they think their only option is to cheat.”

Akhtar thinks the online setting offers more outlets to cheat, and because of this, some students may be more likely to cheat.

“There are plenty of opportunities to cheat, and I think for people who don’t have any compunction about it, there’s maybe a greater temptation to yield to the opportunity to cheat,” he said.

For the sophomore, cheating was mainly a result of time management, as well as ease of access. Whatever the reason is for students cheating, she said many of her friends have also been academically dishonest.

“I would say that the majority of people that I know have cheated on at least something,” she said. “Where they’ve double checked something or they’ve looked up something.” @nwlexi whitehan@miamioh.edu

Former Oxford resident Matt Johnson said he was having a mundane day looking for housing in Mount Pleasant, Mich. for his new assistant professor job at Central Michigan University (CMU).

That is, until his real estate agent told him he would fit right in with the rest of the townies.

“I heard the term when a real estate agent said it [in Mount Pleasant] to describe locals, and I gasped,” Johnson said. “When I lived in Oxford, I didn’t go two days without hearing it as a pejorative word. [It was] not used affectionately.”

From his time in Oxford, Johnson said he remembers some students using the term to seemingly label locals as “uneducated or unsophisticated.” In Mount Pleasant, however, he said locals used the term more positively there.

“I think there’s a different tone and flavor on the word here,” Johnson said.

“There doesn’t seem to have that reaction [that Oxford has]. People introduce themselves as a townie – we take a lot of pride in the word.”

Johnson said he believes that the culture of Miami University students and their socioeconomic status played a part in the word townie being used negatively and why it is used so positively at Mount Pleasant.

“I think the bigger the gap of institutional selectivity of students between the school and the local community, the more likely that term carries a negative charge,” Johnson said. “The contrast of being on campus and a mile away seem so stark at Miami, there are certainly different demographics.”

Johnson said the situation inspired him to reach out via Twitter to see if others felt the same way. Johnson’s Twitter poll asked users whether they felt the term townie was derogatory.

Three options were given. “Yes”, “No” and “just show me the results.” Yes won with 36.4% of the vote. while “no” was a close second with 35.5%. 231 total votes were recorded as of April 16.

The Miami Student posed a similar question in the Oxford talk (OHIO) Facebook group, which as of April 16, received 90 responses and more than 230 comments in a little under two days.

Reactions were mixed.

Some Oxford residents, like Tim Pegg, felt that students use the word in a negative sense.

“I think many students use it in a derogatory sense [targeting] ‘the provincial, backward locals,’” Pegg wrote. “It’s a viewpoint I’ve encountered on campus, though I’d estimate most students don’t feel that way.”

Ben Evan, another Oxford resident, expressed similar thoughts.

“Many Miami students used the name in a derogatory/arrogant manner, and very few Miami students used it jokingly based on my experience,” Evan wrote. “I noticed that a lot of Miami students use that term as a primary label on those who are from Oxford, and not try to know much about them beyond that term.”

Ted Wong, another Oxford resident, shared an experience with being called a townie.

“A few years ago I was driving a beater pickup truck a couple of blocks outside of Uptown and I had to park in a tight spot on the street. A lot of backing up and inching into the spot,” Wong wrote. “The truck had a bad muffler and made a lot of noise. I wear a lot of flannel shirts and ragged jeans because of the work I do and as I got out of the truck a bunch of assholes in an adjacent house were jeering at me and yelling, ‘Townie,’ laughing and drinking their beers.”

Other residents, such as Molly Farler, wrote she heard the term used in a positive way.

“I’ve mostly heard it used in a positive way, to describe folks who were born & raised here or went to Talwanda,” Farler wrote. “I am sure some students use it in a derogatory manner, as an insult. But I don’t think that’s the prevailing usage.”

Tana Richards, Oxford local, suggested the name is a badge of honor.

“Townies take their name seriously,” Richards wrote. “For many, it is like a badge of honor.”

Dennis Dudley, another Oxford resident, suggested students and locals could get to know each other a little more to help improve relations.

“I wonder how many students go out of the mile square, how many students have been invited to an [Oxford resident’s] home,” Dudley wrote. “Stereotypes are only broken down when people make an effort to get to know others.” simmontp@miamioh.edu

6 CAMPUS & COMMUNITY

BAMMERAJ@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2021

most courses and extracurriculars happening online, and in-person socializing not exactly being encouraged.

For students like Stephen Kopcho, the year has been something of a false start.

Kopcho, an Emerging Technology in Business and Design (ETBD) major and neuroscience co-major, chose to transfer from Zane State College in Zanesville, Ohio, because he didn’t like the information technology curriculum

DESIGN EDITOR OWEN BERG (PHOTOS FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

JAKE RUFFER ASST. MAGAZINE EDITOR When the University of San Diego (USD) announced its 2020-2021 school year would happen entirely online, Andrew Schneider decided it was time to move.

Schneider had been taking classes

at USD and training for Paralympic table tennis at a local recreation center.

With his training facility likely headed out of business, Schneider could see he faced an academic year holed up in his expensive apartment.

In July 2020, he packed his things into the car with his parents to drive home to the heart of the country.

“That was quite an experience,” Schneider said.

And it was just the beginning.

Four days in the car brought Schneider back home to Columbus, Ohio, where he had the rest of the summer to prepare for his start at Miami University.

Schneider, part of Miami’s class of 2022, is one of many students who transferred to Miami in the middle of the pandemic, which added new layers Transfer students have been trying to make the transition to Miami with

He said he visited Miami and ended up loving it, but the move set him back academically when only one of his classes transferred for credit.

“This will be my second year in college, but after transferring here, I’m basically a freshman,” Kopcho said.

Things were complicated further when Miami delayed the in-person start of the fall 2020 semester by a month.

“I was pretty upset about that,” ed to be doing all-online from home, especially since I was so excited to be going to Miami.”

Part of what Kopcho liked about Miami was living away from home for thirds the typical student presence on campus, Miami’s living experience isn’t the same.

The on-campus population dwindled largely because COVID-19 kept many students remote, but also because of Miami’s exception to sophomores’ on-campus housing requirement, which came in response to the pandemic.

That exception has worked well for some transfer students like Sam Crisalli, an Akron native who started at Miami in the spring 2021 semester, having been drawn by friends looking for pus house.

Crisalli withdrew from the University of Kentucky in fall 2020. She said it didn’t feel like her ideal college experience, and Miami has been an improvement.

“I feel like it’s an authentic college campus here,” she said.

A public health major and business mester. She knows that she hasn’t fully transitioned to Miami yet, though.

“I’m having a good time, and my classes are good and everything, but I know that everything is going to change again next semester, so it’ll be more adjusting,” Crisalli said.

Schneider said his transition has been smooth. He kept his political science major from the West Coast and got involved in the university debate team as well as the honors student advisory board.

Schneider knows he left a lot behind, though. He no longer trains for table tennis, and the sun doesn’t shine quite as often in Oxford as in San Diego.

But he said he’s grateful for what he’s found at Miami this year.

“You just kind of have to accept it and move on,” Schneider said. “I’m quite honestly glad that I’m here now.”

Gaming and comic store slated to open Uptown

geons and Dragons.”

“Oxford doesn’t really have anything you can do in it, and [the store] adds something else other than just walking around Walmart,” he said.

“I’m excited for it.”

SHR-HUA MOORE STAFF WRITER The main room is almost empty — the only signs of life are some scattered planks and tools. The interior walls are a vibrant blue, shining with a luster that only recently painted surfaces have.

Walking further, there are some empty rooms and lifeless alcoves among more signs of construction and painting. It’s almost impossible to tell that this place used to be a hair salon, save for the occasional poster or framed picture left behind in the empty building.

It’s hard to imagine that, by May, has had in years – but that’s exactly the case.

Future Great Comics, a comic book and gaming store currently located in Hamilton, is moving to Oxford’s Uptown business district this spring. The store sells products ranging from comic books, to card and board games to Dungeons and Dragons products. It is expected to open May 1.

Bryan LeVick, owner of Future Great Comics, explained the move was due to customers he already had at the store and available space in Oxford. “[At the Hamilton store], there were a lot of good customers from Oxford, including professors and students,” LeVick said. “So when I saw this ‘for rent’ sign in Oxford, it looked like the right deal, and I decided I had to jump on it.”

The shop is replacing the Madison

more than just students, however.

Glenn Ellerbe is on Oxford’s City Council and serves on multiple commissions focused on student–community relations and community improvement. He is a former competitive “Magic: the Gathering” (a collectible card game) player and believes the store will help both the town and the university.

“Coming from the viewpoint of just economic development in Oxford, I FUTURE GREAT COMICS WILL BE OPENING A NEW STORE IN OXFORD’S UPTOWN BUSINESS DIESTRICT ON MAY 1.

ASST. MAGAZINE EDITOR JAKE RUFFER

Lee Hair Salon, a business that closed last year in the midst of the pandemic.

LeVick said the shop could bring many “[When the Hamilton store opened], Hamilton had never had a comic store, so it was nice to give people interested in gaming and comics another outlet,” LeVick said. “Oxford hasn’t really had a store like this either, so I’m hoping to give residents another outlet as well. The shop lets people get away from the norm of their everyday lives.”

JS Bragg is the assistant director of Student Activities at Miami University and an advisor to the League of Geeks, a collection of student organizations devoted to gaming, comics and roleplaying games. As a board game and comic enthusiast, he said he’s excited to see

another gaming store open in Oxford.

“There was [one other gaming store] in the past ten years — the location wasn’t great, and it wasn’t really an easily accessible or known place to students,” Bragg said. “[Future Great Comics] has a great location that’s really accessible for students — I’m thrilled for both the Oxford and Miami community and the people that like this type of thing.”

Bragg also said the shop will give students interested in ‘geeky’ things a place in town to pursue their interests.

“The community has a desire for a place like this,” Bragg said. “Anything that can help build community amongst a group of people who histormunity or have been treated poorly is a

welcome addition to Oxford.”

Junior computer science major Isaac Nelson, president of Miami’s Strategy Gaming Club and president-elect of the League of Geeks, is one of the students who will be frequenting the store in the future. The Warhammer fan is looking forward to having something new to do in Oxford.

“I really wanted a gaming store ever since I moved here — I’m from Florida, so I don’t have a way to drive to other gaming stores in the area,” Nelson said.

“There’s nothing in Oxford, so it’s nice to have an actual store for something like this.”

Students from Talawanda High School (THS) are excited as well. Nathan Hall is a senior at THS and frequently reads comics and plays “Dun-

as a resident or visitor of Oxford can have,” Ellerbe said. “One of those big holes is board games, graphic novel type things, card games or role-playing games. Most of the time in other college towns, there’s going to be a store that caters to that crowd, so I think [Future Great Comics] would do quite well here.”

Ellerbe said the store could create a sense of community for one that can sometimes not have one.

“The [gaming/comic] population is sorely underrepresented in town – the store might foster a community because Oxford can be a cliquey place,” he said. “Overall, it’s a good thing that a hole in Oxford’s community can be

Hanging out with the hammocking club HANNAH HORSINGTON ASST. MAGAZINE EDITOR Through the pandemic and poor weather, Miami University’s Hammocking Club is persevering.

The club was founded by a group of friends back in 2017, and although they’ve all since graduated, current club members have kept their community alive.

On any given sunny day, hammocks can be spotted all around Miami’s campus, with students doing homework, talking with friends or even taking a nap in the sun.

“I can always tell what the weather is like just by looking outside [my window] because there will be four to five different hammocks set up,” said Hammocking Club President Keresa Murray.

Murray, a senior education major, said the Hammocking Club aims to provide a community for students who like hammocking, as well as information on prime hammocking spots around campus.

While the club had a tough year, Murray said members have still been able to find people to hammock with through the friendships they’ve made in the club.

“It’s very much more of a community for people to connect ... and [have] that shared experience,” Murray said. “You can just

say something in the chat and someone might show up.”

Recent meetings have been held over Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions or rain, but members have stayed in touch with each other and planned outings through a group chat.

Murray said that oftentimes, a member will send a message in the group chat with the location they plan to hammock and invite other members. These informal meetups have become a key part of the club’s activities.

The club also has an Instagram page, @muhammocks, where students can reach out for information about the club. Murray said they recently even received a message from a first-year student asking about the best spots to hammock on campus.

While students can use The Hub or Instagram to get information about the club, Murray has also taken a more simple approach to recruiting new members.

“Last semester, I [would] walk up to people that were hammocking and just ask them if they were a part of the club,” Murray said. “I think a lot of people don’t know much about it or don’t know that it exists.”

When she’s not out recruiting members, Murray is planning future events for the group, including a possible hammock movie night or a camping trip. She also wants to partner with Miami

EcoReps to plan a trash clean-up next semester.

“I [want to] extend just beyond hammocking,” Murray said. “Just take care of the environment and space that [we] are hammocking in, as well as just being socially conscious and aware of nature and the world around [us].”

Brenna Kernan, a senior marketing major and Hammocking Club social chair, said that she thinks part of what makes hammocks so popular at Miami is the campus itself.

“I don’t think it would be as enjoyable if the campus didn’t look the way it does,” Kernan said. “The environment is really conducive to having a good time while being in a hammock, and I just kind of think it’s a good way to be outside.

I think that’s something that we’re all looking for, especially once the weather’s nice, because Ohio is so unpredictable.”

Kernan said her hammock has become one of her favorite places to do schoolwork.

“I always feel like I’m more productive and I actually enjoy doing work when I’m in a hammock,” Kernan said. “It just feels better.”

Senior microbiology major Justin Klatt isn’t part of the Hammocking Club, but he still finds time to hammock by himself or with the Outdoor Adventure Club (OAC). Like the Hammocking Club, OAC also hosts meetups for its members to get together and

MIAMI UNIVERSITY’S HAMMOCKING CLUB IS MAKING USE OF SPRING WEATHER, THOUGH THEIR OUTINGS ARE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR DUE THE PANDEMIC. PHOTOGRAPHER CAROLINE BARTOSZEK

hammock.

Klatt’s favorite spots to hammock on campus are Western Campus and Academic Quad, particularly near Upham Hall. He doesn’t often do homework in his hammock and instead uses it as a place to relax and de-stress.

“Typically I’m either reading or I’m taking a nap, and I think I’m more just [there] for the peacefulness of it,” Klatt said.

Like Kernan, Klatt said that he

thinks the campus itself encourages people to hammock, as does seeing others hammocking.

“Our campus has a couple of pretty good natural spots, like Central Quad, [and] a lot of really good spots for hammocks,” Klatt said. “So people can walk by and just notice [people hammocking] and then pick it up themselves.”

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY 7

PHABYMR@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

Lane Library

a rejuvenating ride

Library program

THE OXFORD LANE LIBRARY STARTED A SEED LIBRARY TO ENCOURAGE COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO GARDEN AND ENJOY NATURE. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR ABBY BAMMERLIN

CAROLINE HAUBENSTRICKER STAFF WRITER

THE OUTDOOR PURSUITS CENTER HAD STUDENTS “PADDLING AND PEDALING” ON THEIR MOST RECENT WELLNESS DAY. COURTESY OF JENNIFER SILIKO

MAGGIE PEÑA MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Combine duckies (inflatable kayaks), blue herons, marsh marigolds and no classes, and what do you get?

The perfect setup for a beautiful outdoor wellness day.

The Miami University Outdoor Pursuits Center (OPC) hosted an event on Monday, April 12, aptly called the “Wellness Day Paddle & Pedal.”

The day started at 10 a.m. at the DeWitt Log Homestead off Route 73, just past Miami’s Equestrian Center. Because of COVID-19 restrictions on university-sanctioned transportation, students walked, drove, biked and even skateboarded to the parking lot.

Following a short orientation on life jackets, paddling and communication on the water, nine students, one student leader and one staff leader embarked on a three-mile journey down (ironically) Four-Mile Creek.

Cameron Cox, a sophomore finance major and student leader for the trip, helped organize and promote the event around campus. Other than the cold weather and having to pull the kayaks through chilly water past shallow spots and “strainers” (fallen trees in the path), Cox said the event was a success.

As an OPC employee, Cox said he enjoyed helping people get out of their comfort zone.

“There [were] a lot of people who had never done it before,” Cox said, “so it was an opportunity for people to try something new and something they’re unfamiliar with, which is what I really enjoyed about the trip.”

Jennifer Siliko, director of OPC and staff trip leader, led the band of boats down the river.

While she paddled, she noticed blue herons, wood ducks, muskrats and marsh marigolds.

For her, nature is a way to relax from the stresses of life.

“Just getting to rejuvenate by experiencing all those natural things [is nice],” Siliko said.

Scott Graumlich, a sophomore economics and entrepreneurship co-major, brought his girlfriend

with him as his “quarantine buddy” for the tandem boat ride. He said the event was a great way to get out of bed on the wellness day.

“Otherwise I probably would have woken up at one o’clock, half the day would have been gone,” Gramulich said, “but it got me up early, got me outside, got me doing some physical activity.

It was good.”

Siliko understands the need for students to get outside during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am a big proponent of just spending time outside even if it’s just getting outside of your dorm,” she said. “I think with so many classes being remote, it’s so important for folks.”

After three miles on the water, the duckies landed ashore and met a second student leader who was waiting for them with bikes to start the “pedal” portion of the trip.

Cox said the bike ride back to campus was a bit more taxing than the “paddle” part of the day.

As a student leader, he took pride in having to keep morale alive, even as they navigated hills and flat tires.

“[It] was pretty cool to have to step up and repair that and finish the trip out and just [make] sure everyone had a good time,” Cox said, “because those hills really killed the morale for a second.”

Despite some hiccups in the trip, Graumlich said he would love to participate in another one of OPC’s events.

And he’s in luck.

Although the OPC has had to shift their approach and get creative with venues and programs, Siliko said they are planning another “Wellness Day Paddle and Pedal”, as well as a “Wellness Day Intro to Kayaking” and “Intro to Bikepacking,” all of which will take place on May 7.

Though wellness days are merely a necessity of COVID-19 college life, Cox said breaking the monotony of 15 straight weeks of classes with paddling and pedaling is valuable.

“Having these events to encourage people to do something actually different than the typical routine,” Cox said, “[and] make it somewhat feel like a spring break — is really cool.” penaml@miamioh.edu

MEGHNA SANTRA STAFF WRITER With summer internships and full-time opportunities after college on the horizon, some education majors have found themselves at a standstill.

The shortfall of teaching opportunities can, like most other events of the past year, be attributed to COVID-19. To prevent spreading the virus, most schools have been forced to shutter in-person teaching, with just less than 93% of households with school-age children reporting some form of distance learning during COVID-19 according to the U.S. Census.

However, for college students who need the teaching hours to gain necessary field experience for job opportunities, distance learning has brought an added layer of stress.

Angela Ferguson, the assistant principal of curriculum and instruction at Ohio Connections Academy (OCA), acknowledges the impact of the pandemic in creating the virtual learning opportunities for students and tutors .

“I honestly believe that partially due to the pandemic, where a lot of the schools were not allowing college students into their buildings at the time, the virtual world then opened up a couple of doors for professors to get field experience for their students,” Ferguson said.

OCA, through its collaboration with Miami University, hopes to provide field experience for college students while simultaneously helping kindergarten and first-grade students.

The collaborative tutoring program is divided into two sections: early childhood education and middle and high school education.

Early childhood education uses Adobe Connect’s Live Lesson format to start tutors off with observation before moving into

The Lane Library in Oxford implemented a “Lane Seed Library” program beginning March 31 to give community members seed packets to plant.

Participants can then harvest their seeds to turn back in to the library and share them in a community exchange program. The program is open to all community members including adults, children and Miami University students.

Community members can take up to of seeds comes with enough to grow at least three to six plants of that type.

This program was established in 2018 at the library’s Hamilton branch

by Tess Catlin, public services librarian at the Hamilton Lane Library. Rebecca Smith, branch Manager of the Oxford Lane Library, wanted to implement the program in Oxford. “[The program] is an extension programs and books about gardening and saving seeds. Providing the seeds was a really natural extension.”

Sara Corbin, a 31-year-old resident of Oxford, participated in the program.

She was at the library printing papers when she saw the seed station. A librarian told her the details of the program, and she got her seeds the same day.

“I recently have tried my hand at gardening … as a beginner gardener,” Corbin said. “People learning how to environmental. This is one small step to help the environment.”

Smith said the program has been very popular. As of April 15, more than 30 individuals have utilized the program.

Lane Library currently receives their seeds from companies that have taken the Safe Seed Pledge, a commitment to not buy or sell genetically-engineered plants. The library receives most of their seeds from High Mowing, Ferry Morse and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. plant types for the community.

CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR ABBY BAMMERLIN

teaching lessons on their own.

The middle and high school education program involves tutors as a part of its synchronous programs with teachers within the live lessons and provides tutoring for students using one-onone breakout rooms.

Hannah Foss, an OCA tutor majoring in Mathematics and Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Education, also joined the program to get her real hours of being a teacher.

“Last semester was full of webinars, and I feel like I wasn’t getting classroom experience, and they [Ohio Connections Academy] were like, ‘We have this tutoring program but you can also observe lessons from a teacher,’” Foss said. “I was like, ‘Sign me up! More student interaction, why not?’”

Like Foss, Calista Flores is an AYA Math Education major, and tutors OCA students in math.

She also joined due to the lack of field experiences for education majors like her.

“I wanted to get involved because there were not many field opportunities this school year,” she wrote in an email to The Miami Student. “As well as to see if online learning could be a permanent option for me. Dr. Todd Edwards reached out to [the AYA Math Cohort], and I put my name

down on a spreadsheet. The rest is history.”

Flores said she has had a very positive experience tutoring for OCA. “I feel like I have made some good connections with OCA!” Flores said. “On my teaching, I feel like I have learned some valuable skills for successfully engaging students online.”

Foss said giving students more time to adjust within the new atmosphere was key.

“Typically, in a tutoring or classroom setting, you have students answering questions and verbally speaking that,” Foss said. “Now they’re going from that to typing it all out.”

Foss described the process as a waiting game, particularly because tutors don’t want to move on with material and leave a student behind.

She has, however, had better luck with finding students as a math tutor.

“This Monday I did work with a student for a full hour, and that depends on how many people are in the waiting room,” Foss said.

While she’s happy to be getting the experience, teaching through a screen creates barriers that can’t be solved by simple explanation.

“It’s kind of complicated working on lessons with them, because half the time it’s hard to

explain the process behind it,” Foss said. “I’ll be talking through the process but also giving them the answer because they won’t initiate. I’ve had students that come and are like, ‘I’m confused on this topic.’ Those are more complicated because I don’t have access to their textbook.”

Sometimes students drop in and don’t know why they are confused or how to get past a particular problem.

“That’s a big process, and I’ve heard some of my peers had to take ten minutes of just figuring out where they were confused before actually being able to go anywhere with them,” she said.

Foss had mixed opinions on whether the program had prepared her to teach virtually.

“I think a lot of us are hoping we’re going back to in person [learning], and we’re trying to work as if we’re in person but taking some of these strategies and keeping them in our back pocket,” Foss said. “The webinars we’ve been able to go to have been a little more helpful in preparing us for potentially staying in that setting. We’re understanding how to do things virtual, but we’re trying to focus more on doing things in person.” @meghnasantra1 santram@miamioh.edu

ilies, and within that there is the plant type and then the variety,” Smith said.

“It’s constantly changing, which is very exciting. It’s similar to the books on our shelves.”

Corbin picked up lavender, mint, romaine, mixed lettuce and basil seeds for her garden.

Corbin has two children, a 5-yearold and a 2-year-old, who have enjoyed helping with her new garden. She said the experience has been a good way to learn new skills and use her hands. “[This program] is a way for community members to give back to the community through sharing seeds and information, and [an] abundance of bounty,” Smith said.

The Des Fleurs Garden Club donated the foundation for the seed library, Smith said. They also donated money to purchase a cabinet where the seeds will be stored. The cabinet is on backorder to June, though, so the packets are currently found in labeled baskets.

The seed library has also helped inspire young gardeners in the Talawanda High School Diversity Club by donating to the new Seeds of Hope program..

Sara Morris, biology teacher at Talawanda High School and advisor of the diversity club, reached out to Smith for seed donations. The club received soil and potting donations from Shade Makers.

“I contacted the library, and Rebecca Smith worked with me to pick out seeds that made the most sense for our program, including plants that didn’t get too big,” Morris said.

Through their program, four students in the diversity club planted 110 pots with seeds.

“The goal is to distribute the plants to elderly folks in the community,” Morris said. “We are giving a shout out to the people that donated the seeds and soil and pots. We want to make people smile in these hard times.” @haubenstrickerc haubence@miamioh.edu

Entertainment

8

KWIATKDM@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

Good golly, Miss Dolly:

What can’t Dolly Parton do?

ONE OF OUR WRITERS TOOK A BREAK FROM THEIR “9 TO 5” TO SHOW LOVE TO DOLLY PARTON. PHOTO FROM @DOLLYPARTON ON INSTAGRAM

CELEBRITIES HANNAH HORSINGTON ASST. MAGAZINE EDITOR Whether you’re a born and raised country music fan like me or haven’t listened to a single country song in your life, you’ve probably heard of Dolly Parton. originally as a duo with country music entertainer Porter Wagoner and later as a solo act. While she’s released both country and pop music, she’s widely regarded as a country artist (and one of the best of all time, at that).

She’s earned 26 number one songs on the Billboard country charts, 11 Grammy awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, to name a few.

Parton’s easily recognizable by her blonde hair and thick southern accent, courtesy of growing up in the small town of Sevierville, Tennessee.

She also starred in several movies including “Steel Magnolias,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in

Texas,” and “9 to 5,” for which she also wrote and recorded the titular song.

But Parton is more than just a country singer and actress, having expanded her talents into songwriting, a variety show, books, and even her own theme park, Dollywood. Heck, she was even on the cover of Playboy.

Oh, and she’s Miley Cyrus’s godmother.

At 75 years old, Parton’s already accomplished more than most people hope to in their lifetime but she isn’t done yet. Here are a few other things that Parton’s accomplished that are not only impressive, but have shown her love for making the world a better place: She started her own literacy program.

Parton launched her literacy program, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, in 1995, and it’s still going strong today.

For every child that signs up, the program will mail them one book a month from birth to 5 years old – for free. The books focus on various topics opted across the U.S., as well as Canada, Australia, the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland.

“In the Heights”:

a revival of contemporary musicals FILM REVIEW MAGGIE PEÑA MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

As a self-proclaimed “Hamilfan,” or fan of the smash-hit musical “Hamilton,” it would be an understatement to say I was excited for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s newest movie musical adaptation, “In the Heights” (ITH).

The story focuses on protagonist Usnavi de la Vega, a small bodega owner in Washington Heights, New York, as he dreams of a better life for himself and his friends.

16 minutes into the show, most of the side characters are introduced: Sonny de la Vega, Usnavi’s cousin and bodega coworker; Benny, Usnavi’s best friend; Vanessa, the girl with big dreams who wants out of the barrio (and Usnavi’s love interest); Nina Rosario, the girl who got out of the barrio to go to Stanford University (Benny’s love interest); and “Abuela” Claudia, the matriarch of the neighborhood. right from the beginning, it’s easy to keep track things: some desperately want to leave Washington Heights, some want to stay forever, and some have left and returned, disappointed in the world beyond their block. platforms until June 11. Because of my involvement in various Latinx college groups, though, I was lucky enough to enjoy an advanced screening (complete with a post-movie panel featuring Miranda and other cast members).

The drought of impressive movie musicals in recent years kept my expectations low.

The musical scene has looked like “Cats,” “The Prom” (don’t even get me started on this one) and various remakes, sequels and biopics (like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman”).

Even movies like “La La Land” and “The Greatest Showman” were disappointing, especially in the way they captured the worst part of musicals: the cheesiness.

But ITH uses its cheesiness to create one of the most authentic musicals I’ve ever seen.

ITH concocts a perfect mixture of realistic and fantastical elements. Unlike “La La Land,” which obnoxiously shoves its beautiful, outlandish scenes down the audience’s throats, ITH unobtrusively invites the audience into an alternate reality.

In one scene, the characters dance and sing materialize into things they can actually hold.

It’s a brilliant scene where the absurdity is obvious and the movie isn’t taking itself too seriously as a musical, something “La La Land” does to a fault.

More than the cinematography, which is stunning, the characters and stories are painfully relatable.

Myself and many college students are Nina Rosario: the girl who got out.

Two lines from her return-to-the-barrio song, “Breathe,” describe the progressively ineration or immigrant students:

“I am the one who made it out.”

“I know that I’m letting you down.”

I am a low-income child of an immigrant father and parents who can only dream of getting more than associate’s degrees. I couldn’t be prouder to be their daughter – they make sure I always have what I need and make education such an important role in my life.

And that’s why I relate so much to Nina.

Like her, “I got every scholarship, saved every dollar” and made all the grades, yet sometimes I feel like “the biggest disappointment.”

Especially at Miami University, a school where the median income of students (from a study done in 2013) is $119,000, it’s easy to feel out of place as a low-income student.

But I’m also a very white-passing Latinx woman, something I do not take for granted.

Claudia, struck a chord in me: “We had to assert our dignity in small ways.”

It’s like a lightbulb clicked in my head. My Colombian father always asks my rural-Ohio mother and myself how to say certain words, asking. But this line really made my privilege show: I’ve never had to worry about an accent.

I’ve never had to worry about being “uncodumented.” I’ve never had to worry that the country I’ve lived in for 30+ years, or the country I was brought to as a child, wouldn’t accept me.

And if you don’t live with those problems eiIt’s also refreshing to see genuine representation of Latino-American people in Hollywood, with no whitewashing (although Anthony Ramos, who plays Dominican Usnavi, is actually Puerto Rican). In contrast, “West Side Story,” people and arguably one of the most famous musicals in cinematic history, has come under cans (and Americans).

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the ob1989 “Do the Right Thing” (DTRT). racially segregated neighborhoods in New York.

In DTRT, the neighborhood is Bedford-Stuyvesant, less than an hour from Manhattan’s Washington Heights.

Both stories also take place in under three days during a heat wave, which results in rising tensions among the characters. DTRT’s heat undoubtedly culminates in a more disturbing tragedy than does ITH’s.

Between eerily similar characters and small show), both movies comment on the way America treats those who are racially or ethnically diverse.

The fast-pace editing, creative cinematography, elaborate and glamorous group dances and twist ending all come together to produce a masterpiece heads above those in the contemporary musical world.

Plus, Anthony Ramos is pretty easy on the eyes.

Rating: 9/10 penaml@miamioh.edu

As of March 2021, Imagination Library had distributed over 155 million books.

She’s a strong LGBTQ+ advocate.

Although there was a 2011 incident at Dollywood where a park goer was asked to turn their “Marriage is so gay” T-shirt inside out, Parton condemned the incident and has always worked to be an ally herself.

Parton’s been outspoken in her support for the LGBTQ+ community since the early 1990s.

She has voiced her support for equal marriage rights, spoken out against transgender bathroom bans and called out fellow Christians for their judgements against members of the LGBTQ+ community.

She single-handedly helped fund a COVID-19 vaccine.

As researchers at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center frantically tried to create a COVID-19 vaccine, Parton took it upon herself to help in any way she could.

Parton donated $1 million dollars towards vaccine research, and encouraged others who could ful, and she is largely credited with helping fund the Moderna vaccine, also commonly referenced as the “Dolly vaccine.”

Parton was later able to “get a taste of her own medicine” when she received the Moderna Vacrate.

She broke a website – over ice cream.

This month, Columbus-based company Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams released a limited collabora-

Pie. Just 10,000 pints of the ice cream were made, and were to be sold in stores and online. Part of the proceeds were set to go towards Parton’s Imagination Library. crashed for hours (I may or may not have waited on the website for 2 and ½ hours in an attempt to get my own pint).

The website crashed so badly that Jeni’s had to push the release date for the ice cream back a -

so high that Jeni’s, who had previously remained agreed to accept pre-orders for another release of

So, I hope you’re now just as in love with Parton as I am. But, in case you’re not, here are a few of my Dolly favorites to get you started on your journey towards Dolly enlightenment.

Favorite Songs “Jolene” – If you’ve never heard this song before, then run to YouTube right now. I truly believe it’s Dolly’s best song, and many of her fans seem to agree.

“9 to 5” – Nothing motivates me to do my homework like this song. Nothing.

“I Will Always Love You” – Although this song gained international fame with Whitney Houston’s 1992 version, very few people know that Parton actually wrote the song back in the 1970s.

Favorite Movies “9 to 5” – Did we watch this in my high school career prep class? Yes. Was it appropriate? No. Did I fall in love with Dolly’s acting skills? Absolutely.

“Dumplin” – Although Dolly isn’t actually in this movie, it still deserves a mention. Featuring a soundtrack composed entirely of Dolly Parton songs, a gang of Dolly drag queens, and centering on a plus-size pageant girl, this movie was truly what high school me needed.

Favorite Quotes “Figure out who you are, and do it on purpose.”

– This is, and always will be, my absolute favorite Dolly quote.

“It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.” – As a teenage pageant girl literally surrounded by girls covered in rhinestones, this quote got me through a lot.

“If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with rain.” – After the past year, I think all of us could use this reminder.

If you only remember one thing from this story for the rest of your life, make sure it’s to always ask life’s most important question – What would Dolly do? @hannahorsington horsinhp@miamioh.edu

April Editors Picks PLAYLIST

STAFF REPORT During quarantine, our editors started to contribute to a monthly playlist where they all Below, all of the contributors posted their favorite song and an explanation of why they chose it.

“MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” – Lil Nas X My song choice this month stirred up some controversy across the country. Lil Nas X came RO (Call Me By Your Name)” depicted several biblical scenes culminating in the rapper pole dancing into Hell, grinding on, and then killing Satan. While these visuals can be seen as grotesque, the video is meant to be a critique of organized Christianity and its historic hatred and exclusion of LGBTQ+ people. At the end of the day, the song is catchy and gay. What more do you need? – Tim Carlin, Editor-in-Chief “CRAZY” – Kelly Rowland Rowland is known to many as a part of the multi-platinum, world-renowned girl group Destiny’s Child, but do not get it twisted. She has consistently delivered in her solo career with an EP, “K,” eight years after her last project. Although known for her R&B-pop hits, Rowland returns to experimenting with electronic dance music (EDM) where arguably, I believe she shines best. See “Commander” and “When Love Takes Over” for further proof. – David Kwiatkowski, Entertainment Editor “PAY YOUR WAY IN PAIN” – St. Vincent “Masseduction” days, and since then I’ve only fallen more in love. “Pay Your Way In Pain” is dy’s Home,” which promises to be a vibrant throwback to the ’70s, in both sound and in aesthetic. It’s a nice break from the oversaturated ’80s nostalgia market. If you can watch her recent SNL performance and come away from it not thinking she’s the coolest person ever, there’s something wrong with you. – Sean Scott, Asst. Campus & Community Editor “MINT CAR” – The Cure The Cure is my favorite band. With 13 studio albums, they’ve crossed over into many their tenth album, “Wild Mood Swings,” with the single “Mint Car.” I didn’t fully appreciate the song until recently, but it’s slowly becoming one of my favorites. “Mint Car” is about being so in love and so happy you could “scream” or “burst.” It has very bright and happy vibes, which is perfect for transitioning into the summer. It’d be a great addition to any “driving with the windows down” playlist. – Lexi Whitehead, Asst. Campus & Community Editor “HAUNTED” – Laura Les Laura Les, one half of the groundbreaking hyperpop duo 100 gecs, dropped “Haunted” on streaming last month. Listening to this song feels like being in a scary old video game, with its glitchy production, reverberated screams, and spooky lyrics about fangs, bugs, “organ chords, and lightning.” – Owen Berg, Design & Style Editor “WALK IN THE PARK” – Jack Harlow I’m not the biggest fan of rap. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, I’m more of an tening to the genre, I’m drawn toward rap with strong R&B elements. For some reason, Jack

Harlow’s music is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Now listen, I am not a “What’s Poppin” girl because that song is entirely played out. mixtape “Confetti” or his entire debut album “That’s What They All Say” has a good mix of R&B and chill party rap that I’ve been looking for. Also, Jack Harlow is , but that’s besides the point. - Briah Lumpkins, Managing Editor “TIME OF THE SEASON” – The Zombies This song is amazing. It was released in 1967, so it totally captures the “Summer of Love” vibe. Especially with summer starting nice to listen to a light and sexy song from a different time. It has a changing tune that switches pace from verse to verse, lyrics that want to make you sing along with a gorgeous man who hasn’t had a hair cut in months and melodic breaks that leave room for you to dance your heart (and hips) out. This is the type of song you’d hear pouring out of a volkswagon van going 45 mph as you pass it on some scenic american highway – and that’s coming from someone who owns one of those beat up VW’s.

“NIGHT SHIFT” – Lucy Dacus Who doesn’t love an alt-indie break up nitely hit harder than most break up songs with Lucy Dacus admitting that she may still have feelings for someone, but she knows she deserves better. The song builds the entire time you’re listening, leaving you wanting more.

You would never guess it was seven minutes long. – Abby Bammerlin, Campus & Community Editor “OLD SOUL” – Bruno Major This song is perfect for recreating a lazy, rainy Sunday vibe. It’s the ultimate chiller song about a soft, lifelong love and I could close my eyes and listen to it forever. Bruno Major brings a celestial mood to the table with a lulling, angelic voice, specializing in the cleanest, lightest runs I’ve ever heard. If you’re deep in love or if you need loveful ear candy, this song, and Bruno Major’s music, is perfect for you. – Cosette Gunter, Asst. Campus & Community Editor “I CAN’T GET HIGH” – Royal & the Serpent The irony of writing about this song on 4/20 is painfully obvious… but I digress. Royal & the Serpent is actually just one woman, and she makes mostly indie pop music (my favorite). This song has the ultimate upbeat, creepy alt vibes, complete with scooped notes and dissonant chords. The chorus packs a punch with the repeated title line, “I can’t get high,” and the theme of lost love and unhealthy coping mechanisms hits home a little more in this time of COVID-19 isolation. – Maggie Peña, Multimedia Editor

KWIATKDM@MIAMIOH.EDU

ENTERTAINMENT 9

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

A defense of “boomer music” slipped into my angsty phase. Pink Floyd became the soundtrack of my life, and I listened to “The Wall” nearly every day of my eighth grade year.

I thought I was really cool because I listened to old music.

As hard as it is to admit, I did have a superiorbut that was mostly a product of being 14 rather than of the music itself. I very much had an ‘I’m not like other girls’ attitude back then, and my “unique” taste in music played into that.

Nowadays, I’m honestly a little insecure about my boomer music. and I usually just opt for a generic “throwback 2000s hits” playlist because I know that’ll please everyone.

I see friend groups making playlists for each other, and it makes me a tiny bit sad that my friends and I can’t do that because most of them have no idea what music I even listen to.

DESIGN EDITOR OWEN BERG

MUSIC MADELINE PHABY CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR I get my love for music from my dad. I’m sure a lot of people can say that.

What most others can’t say, though, is that Though my music taste truly spans all eras and genres, I listen to classic rock more than “boomer music.”

My dad is 51, so not quite a boomer (though I often call him one, just to make him mad), but

my love for older music.

When I was a kid, my dad would quiz me on the songs that came on the radio when we were driving.

“Who’s this?,” he would ask, and he’d beam with pride when I got the answer right. After a while, playing the game became pointless because I knew every song that came on without fail.

As I became more familiarized with the music on the radio, I found there were certain bands and artists I really liked. Led Zeppelin was the ularly (yes, I know that’s basic, but I was 12).

Robert Plant’s high, scratchy vocals and Jimmy After a year of worshipping Zeppelin, I

TV REVIEW SEAN SCOTT ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR On March 7, Oprah Winfrey sat down with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to talk about of which were negative. After years of telling myself I didn’t care about royalty and would nally time to start watching “The Crown.”

Before watching, I knew only a few things about the British royal family: they have a racist past, some of them were Nazi sympathizers and Prince Andrew has an embarrassingly bad track With every episode, I learned something new, though it wasn’t always from the show. I would sit down at my desk, open my laptop and press play, telling myself my mind wouldn’t wander.

Inevitably, I found myself pulling out my phone to Google one thing or another within two minutes of starting each episode. coughing up blood before granting various titles to Philip Mountbatten, Elizabeth’s soon-to-be husband.

Pause.

I have a few questions the internet can hanSpeech?” Second, what was he sick with? Third, is Mountbatten German?

The answers were yes, lung cancer and yes.

But the third only raised more questions. If Philip is German, why does he have a British accent?

And on top of that, why do all the websites I’ve visited so far say he was the prince of Greece and Denmark? How many languages does he speak? Does Queen Elizabeth speak any other languages?

I reluctantly hit play before I spiraled out of

control in an endless cycle of more questions.

By the end of the episode, Elizabeth hadn’t been crowned queen, and that made me sad.

In episode four, a dense smog covers London and causes many to fall ill and die, but Winston Churchill is reluctant to take responsibility or action for the pollution that led to the disaster.

Somewhere between 50 and 500 searches later, I learned that 12,000 people died in the Great Smog of London, and deadly smogs can be called either “pea soupers” or “killer fog.” A pea souper sounds like fun, but maybe that’s just me.

In episode nine, Parliament commissions a painter for a portrait of Winston Churchill for vealed until the last minutes of the episode, but I knew what it looked like before the opening credits ever rolled. I also knew Churchill hated it.

Another bit of cinematic suspense ruined.

When I started season two, I was a tad disappointed. I’d been waiting for Helena Bonham Carter to take over the role of Princess Margaret, but it turns out that isn’t until season three.

I like Queen Elizabeth, but the show creators are doing their best to make sure I understand Philip cheats on her, though none of the characters address it in plain terms, and Princess Margaret is rather unhinged. Her character was made for Bonham Carter. made me cry was “Paterfamilias,” an episode centered almost entirely around Prince Philip as a child. To cut an hour-long story down to one sentence, Philip goes to school and builds a gate, and his favorite sister gives birth in a plane before crashing.

I look up his sister. She really did die in a plane crash after going into labor, though the circumstances aren’t what the show implies. In “The Crown,” she only got on the plane as a result of Philip’s actions at school, so both his father and Philp himself hold Philip responsible.

David Bowie song called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” gets old after a while, as it inevitably forces me to suicide (and no, it doesn’t mean I’m suicidal).

And, of course, one of the main drawbacks of listening to old music is that most of my favorite bands are no longer putting out music, and many of my favorite musicians are dead.

I still remember my mom waking me up for school one morning and telling me David Bowie died. I was only 15, and I don’t think I’ll ever be done mourning.

I know people that have been to dozens of The Who twice, Paul McCartney, a Pink Floyd cover band and Big Time Rush, but we don’t need to talk about that one).

It kind of sucks seeing my friends getting hyped over their favorite artists’ new albums,

knowing none of my favorite bands are together anymore. I also fully admit that I tend to listen to the same dozen or so albums over and over and over again.

But, despite the drawbacks, I wouldn’t trade my boomer music for anything – mainly because it’s just so damn good. But also because I love having music in common with my dad.

My top song on Spotify in 2020 was “Peg” by a drive home from Miami. The windows in my dad’s car were all down, and he sang along to the chorus and drummed the steering wheel. The immaculate vibes during that car ride made me obsessed with the song for a couple weeks straight.

When I was 13 or so, I tried teaching myself to play guitar. It didn’t go so hot, but I did learn one song, Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.”

Though it’s one of the easiest guitar songs of all time, I still proudly performed it for my dad. He was proud, too.

In true John Phaby fashion, my dad named our Wheaten Terrier after Iggy Pop, one of his favorite artists. I didn’t listen to Iggy Pop much until recently, but I’ll associate him with my beloved dog forever.

Though he’s proud of my love for older music, my dad has always encouraged me to broaden my horizons beyond a single genre, and I do. comes to today’s music, but I do listen to some don’t regularly listen to it. I just love quality music, regardless of who’s making it.

I’ll always argue, though, that boomer music is some of the best music ever made, and it’s also been in the background of many of my best memories. @madphabes phabymr@miamioh.edu

This isn’t true, but it got the reaction from me I’m sure the show wanted.

Season three opens with a monologue about tion to a new cast easier. With most of the characters, it will take me a few episodes to warm up to their new faces, but not with Princess Margaret. Helena Bonham Carter has arrived, and episodes.

In episode three, I started to go crazy with my searches. “Aberfan” sees a small town in Wales ripped apart by tragedy when a coal tip (basically a mountain of mining waste) collapses, causing a landslide into a school building and wiping out a generation of children.

I looked up pictures from the actual disaster, stand why it’s the highest rated episode of the series, though.

At this point in the show, Prince Charles starts to become a character. I didn’t like him at PHOTO FROM @THECROWNNETFLIX ON INSTAGRAM

Princess Anne also becomes a character in season three. I didn’t realize before starting “The Crown” that Elizabeth had a daughter, but she may be my favorite royal now. She participated in the Olympics and is less classist than the rest of her family, at least in the show. main character of the 1980s: Princess Diana.

She’s 16 when she meets Prince Charles, and he’s 29. I would say Charles should stop pursuhis own age, but he does that on his own.

This is also the point where my second favorite Margaret in British history comes into play.

Thatcher becomes Prime Minister in 1979 and waits three years before starting a war with Argentina over the Falkland islands.

“The Crown” tries to draw parallels between Thatcher’s Falklands War and her son disap-

On April 9, Prince Philip died.

The royal family still has racist members. Its inaction against Prince Andrew and his ties to ana was horrendous and wrong. actions. But my biggest takeaway from “The Crown” was that Elizabeth, Margaret, Anne, Philip and the entire royal family are still people at the end of the day.

A corrupt institution put on a pedestal can be criticized without wishing death upon the peoBefore I watched the show, I thought the that it would be interesting to see how the world reacts. Now, who knows? I might squeeze out a tear or two.

I’m not sure I see the connection.

scottsr2@miamioh.edu

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” As part of her contract, the record them to music manager Scooter Braun, who Swift says has bullied her.

In order to fully own the masters of her own music, Swift decided to pursue rerecording. cording of “Fearless,” which earned the Grammys, I wondered if and how cited to hear new versions of.

.

PHOTO FROM @TAYLORSWIFT ON INSTAGRAM

ALBUM REVIEW LEXI WHITEHEAD ASST. CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR When I was 7 years old, I sat in the back of my mom’s van jamming with my friends to “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift, fantasizing about being a teenager and falling in love.

Last week, at 20 years old, I put “You Belong With Me (Taylor’s Version)” on blast in my dorm room and

danced around, channeling my teenage angst.

I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift for about three-fourths of my short life. There was a period of time when I stopped because I discovered music I thought was “cooler,” but that’s another story.

On April 9, Taylor Swift released her rerecording of her sophomore album, “Fearless.” Titled “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” the album is the Swift signed with Big Machine Records in 2005, when she was 16.

because the amount of times I have listened to that song with an intense amount of nostalgia within the past year has been too high to deem myself mentally stable.

And I have to say, I wasn’t ready for how much “Fifteen (Taylor’s Version)” was going to wreck me, but I was not disappointed.

The “Fearless” album came out when Swift was 18, and the rerecording came out while she is 31, and you can tell, in both the maturity of her voice and the way in which she approaches some of her songs.

A poet I like said editing poems she wrote when she was 16 was like braiding that girl’s hair. The rerecording of “Fifteen” reminds me of that.

When you’re 18, you can look back on your high school self and laugh a little bit. That’s how “Fifteen” feels. On the other hand, 31-year-old Swift can approach the song with more wisdom than her 15-yearold self and the total certainty that “You’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team.”

The other thing I love about “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” is the “From the Vault” songs. Along with rerecordings of all the songs released songs she wrote for the album that never were released.

My favorite “From the Vault” songs are “Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)” and “We Were Happy (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault).” What I like about these, and all of the “From The fectly with the rest of the album.

I’ve been listening to the songs from Fearless since I was seven, and I obviously know them all by heart.

But the songs from the vault felt so less” that they already felt familiar start singing along with the second chorus.

And I wouldn’t say it’s predictability – I think since these are not newly written and they are songs Swift wrote when she was a teenager

along with the rest, the voice of the album maintains itself: the voice of a teenager with a rollercoaster of emotions.

Obviously, as rerecordings, some more mature vocals and changes in and some fans may not like that.

But I think the combination of the old with the new is what makes “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” so perfect.

Like I said, I was seven when “Fearless” was initially released. I was already a huge fan of Swift, but playground. Instead, my best friend and I fantasized about being 15, like in the song.

The familiarity I have with these songs and lyrics make “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” feel like an old friend, but the newness of it makes me feel like it was made for me at this point in my life — having just turned 20 and looking back on my teenage years.

I can’t wait to see how the other rerecordings make me feel (I’ll spare you the details those times).

Review: 9/10 @nwlexi whitehan@miamioh.edu

Sports

10

NELSO156@MIAMIOH.EDU

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

Women’s swimming and diving nets LUKAS NELSON SPORTS EDITOR The Miami University women’s swimming and diving team went to Ypsilanti, Mich., this weekend for the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championships.

The team finished in third place out of eight teams with 436.5 points. University at Buffalo and University of Akron finished in first and second place with 773 and 766 points, respectively.

Freshman Nicole Maier took home the only first-place finish for the RedHawks on day one, setting a conference record in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:39.96.

Maier was the star for Miami, as she set another conference record in the 400 individual medley Friday. Her time of 4:11.30 was enough for a first-place finish.

Although the RedHawks never captured a first-place finish in a relay race, the team came close.

Maier, sophomore Caroline Ethers and first-years Honor Brodie-Foy and Rachel Botting finished third in the 200 freestyle relay Thursday.

Maier was also on the 400 medley relay team, along with senior Kayleigh Cannon and juniors Camilla Lins De Mello and Anna

Martin. The team took home another third-place finish in 3:41.25.

Cannon also finished third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.19.

After two days, Miami was third in the championship standings with 311.5 points, a far cry from Akron and Buffalo, who had 506 and 494 points respectively.

On Saturday, Maier and Cannon both competed in the 200 butterfly. Maier finished second in 1:57.54, and Cannon was fourth in exactly 1:59.

The RedHawks had another strong relay race showing to cap off the meet, as the team of Maier, Lins De Mello, Botting and Brodie-Foy finished third in the 400 freestyle relay.

Miami retained its third-place spot after Saturday’s action, as Buffalo managed to edge out Akron for the first-place finish.

After the meet, the MAC handed out awards and honors. Maier was named MAC Freshman Swimmer of the Year, and earned a spot on the First-Team All-MAC, along with Brodie-Foy. Lins De Mello and Cannon were named Second-Team All-MAC. The third-place finish concludes the team’s season. @LukasTheDream nelso156@miamioh.edu

REDHAWK SWIMMERS CHEER ON THEIR TEAMMATES DURING LAST WEEKEND’S MAC CHAMPIONSHIP. COURTESY OF EASTERN MICHIGAN ATHLETICS

Vierstra almost perfect again as Redhawks sweep Bulls EDWARD ORZECH

THE MIAMI STUDENT The Miami University RedHawks softball team (26-6) swept the Buffalo Bulls (9-24) in a fourgame series last weekend. The Redhawks continue their remarkable season with their twentieth straight victory and move to a perfect 14-0 in conference games.

The wins were highlighted by senior Courtney Vierstra’s dominant performances in games one, two and four.

Coming off a perfect game against Akron last week, Vierstra started out on fire, striking out the first nine Bulls hitters. A weak pop up by senior Anna Aguon stopped the streak in the top of the 4th inning. That didn’t slow her down, though.

She picked up 17 total strikeouts in the game, a career high.

On the other side of the ball, junior infielder Allie Cummins lined a single to right field to drive in freshman Karli Spaid in the first inning. In the bottom of the fourth, junior infielder Adriana Barlow picked up two RBIs with a birthday homerun.

That was all the scoring the RedHawks would manage in this game, but it was all Vierstra needed. She entered the top of the seventh needing just three more outs to complete the perfect game, which would be her second no-hitter in a row and fourth of the season.

She delivered the first pitch Aguon who immediately dumped it into left field, spoiling the perfect game.

Vierstra managed to close out the Bulls, and Miami had themselves a 3-0 win.

In game one of Saturday’s doubleheader, the RedHawk bats went to work in the bottom of the first inning.

Freshman outfielder Karlee Juarez was hit by a pitch, and Spaid singled to set the stage for sophomore outfielder Kate Kobayashi, who roped a double down the third base line, scoring both runners. Senior infielder Mackenzie Moore then drove Kobayashi home on a bloop to left, pushing the score to 3-0.

In the bottom of the second, sloppy play by Buffalo allowed Miami to pick up another run. Buffalo sophomore first baseman Alexis Lucyshyn made an errant throw, which allowed senior outfielder Morgan Lott to score from second.

Buffalo struck back in the top of the third when senior Alicia Peter hammered a homerun off Vierstra to make the score 4-1.

It was the only run allowed by Vierstra in 14 innings of work in the series.

Buffalo prevented Miami from scoring in the bottom of the third when junior Alexis Matheney robbed a would-be homerun off the bat of Lott.

The RedHawks scored six runs in the fourth inning thanks to a two-run shot from Spaid and a single by senior outfielder Lily

Wilmot. A few unearned runs also crossed home plate thanks to poor defensive play by the Bulls. By the time the inning was over, the score was 10-1.

Vierstra closed out the top of the fifth to secure the mercy rule victory.

The second game of the doubleheader offered a similar result.

Junior Brianna Pratt threw a complete game shutout, striking out eight and allowing just three hits.

In the second inning, Kobayashi led off with a line drive base hit to left. Moore picked up the RBI on a single and was later driven herself in by junior catcher Riley Coyne.

The onslaught continued in the third.

Spaid smashed a towering home run into left field to make the score 3-0. Later in the inning, Kobayashi doubled to left field to drive in Cummins.

Miami entered the fifth inning needing three more runs to earn a second mercy rule victory of the series.

Spaid led off the inning and battled hard for nine pitches.

Then, on the tenth pitch, she hammered a moonshot that cleared the centerfield wall.

An error allowed Cummins to reach, giving Kobayashi a chance to win the game. She missed the mercy rule walk-off homerun by about ten feet when she ripped a pitch foul.

On the next pitch, she smashed another one and managed to keep it fair for the walk-off.

The RedHawks win, 8-0.

In the final game on Sunday, Buffalo refused to go down so easily.

(TOP): JUNIOR INFIELDER ADRIANA BARLOW BLASTS A HOMERUN DURING LAST WEEKEND’S SERIES VS BUFFALO. PHOTO EDITOR ZACH REICHMAN

Miami struck first, scoring three times in the first inning on a sacrifice fly from Barlow and another Kobayashi homer. Barlow added to the lead in the third inning with a solo shot of her own.

In the top of the fourth, Buffalo finally managed to get back on the board thanks to sloppy Miami defensive play. Both Barlow and Spaid committed errors, and Matheney scored when senior

Jenna Richmond baited the Miami defense into a rundown.

In the bottom of the inning, Miami struck back with a solo shot to left from Coyne. Spaid also picked up an RBI with a single to score freshman infielder Holly Blaska.

Spaid extended the lead to 9-2 with a towering three-run homerun.

A rough inning from senior Taylor Rathe allowed Buffalo to pick up two more runs in the top

of the seventh, but it was too little too late.

Miami completed the sweep with a 9-4 victory.

The RedHawks will play a home doubleheader against the Ball State Cardinals at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 20. The second game will start 30 minutes after the first game’s conclusion. orzeched@miamioh.edu

SPORTS 11

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

NELSO156@MIAMIOH.EDU

“Oh, so you’re a baseball

No. 18 Field Hockey clinches conference title with dominant wins over Appalachian State

cousin’s cat’s name, then?”

MADELINE PHABY CAMPUS & COMMUNITY EDITOR -

When I was 11 years old, I started playing baseball fan.

things.”

was bleary-eyed, breaking record after record

new version of it every year. Over the past eight -

FIELD HOCKEY CLINCHED AN NCAA TOURNAMENT BERTH WITH LAST WEEKEND’S SWEEP VS APPALACHIAN STATE. PHOTO EDITOR ZACH REICHMAN

baseball.

very nerdy.

ASST. SPORTS EDITOR -

had eight penalty corners and again held the

Ken “Hawk” Harrelson. Looking back, he was

“It started in late

that shirt forever.

school. For whatever

-

Joyner threaded a ball to Garcia. The striker

Last May, the MAC got rid of conference

-

-

changed.

a baseball fan.”

-

-

roll.

two. Garcia and Berlie each chipped in two assists.

interest in baseball was that I started caring

-

na Kirby also tallied assists in the win.

-

@jacksmerz schmelj2@miamioh.edu

’Hawks Talk

@madphabes phabymr@miamioh.edu

SCOREBOARD FRIDAY FIELD HOCKEY

SOFTBALL

Appalachian State....... 1 Miami……….……….... 5 SOFTBALL

SOFTBALL

Miami ……….....…...... 3 TENNIS

SUNDAY

Western Michigan ......... 3

SOFTBALL

Miami.…...................... 4

- Redshirt junior guard Mekhi Lairy reacts to forward Precious Ayah using his extra year of eligibility to return to the team next season.

Are you a: • writer • photographer • designer • or illustrator?

Miami……………….... 9

SATURDAY FIELD HOCKEY

TENNIS Miami……………….... 3

Miami…………............ 7

Toledo ……………….. 4

Join the TMS Team!

Opinion The Teacher-Scholar Model is at Risk at Miami MIAMI AAUP ADVOCACY CHAPTER STEERING COMMITTEE Faculty choose Miami University as an academic home for some of the same reasons that students and their families do: because Miami’s faculty are dedicated to research and scholarship both inside and outside of the classroom.

Institutions that value both quality teaching and rigorous scholarship are not as common as you might expect.

Most universities focus on having either a teaching or a research strength.

Universities that retain tenure-line faculty based on performance in the classroom typically have limited scholarship expectations, while others that focus primarily on faculty scholarship have classroom engagement as a secondary concern (in some cases, the “most successful” faculty rarely engage with undergraduates).

Miami, however, attracts faculty researchers, scholars, and creative practitioners that are dedicated to both.

Faculty who excel only in scholarship or only in classroom teaching are unlikely to earn tenure at Miami.

Miami’s teacher-scholar model is an academic balancing act that requires careful management from faculty members to be successful, as well as active support from decision-makers at the institution. But changes in workload have been throwing the teacher-scholar model out of balance, risking loss of the scholarship component.

Having scholars in the classroom matters to the value of a Miami education and degree. Scholars not only read and study the literature of their discipline — they are the creators of the literature, and students at Miami can work alongside them at the very edge of our human understanding.

While faculty at research universities can view working with undergraduate scholars as inefficient (because it takes significant time to mentor students), Miami faculty embrace teaching and scholarship as if they were covalently bonded atoms.

Miami faculty aim to take students on a journey of discovery-motivated scholarship, encouraging students to engage actively in meaningful work that leads to publications and performances and builds student expertise, confidence and resumes. Involving undergraduate and graduate students in

scholarship helps train the next generation of citizens, experts and scholars — and Miami faculty are dedicated to this pursuit.

Faculty are increasingly concerned that expansions of academic workloads resulting from the pandemic are not just emergency measures, but permanent changes. Some faculty’s course loads have doubled. Many have had courses added to already teaching-heavy schedules, and class sizes have grown.

Increased teaching loads and class sizes have necessitated changes to the types of assignments we give, the ways we test and evaluate student knowledge, our opportunity to update and prepare classes that intellectually engage students, and even (honestly) our ability to respond to student emails.

Increases in faculty workloads also affect our capacity to accommodate independent studies, summer scholars, and student researchers, reducing our ability to mentor student-devised projects or foster faculty-student collaborations. These changes are largely dictated by the reality of limited time.

Increased teaching loads reduce time for scholarship and will harm student outcomes, recruitment, retention, and career preparation.

Faculty want to continue to be teacher-scholars. This calling requires an administration that understands, values and prioritizes the centrality of this model to Miami’s quality, supporting faculty scholarship so that faculty in turn can foster student learning and engagement.

There is still time to restore the balance. Miami’s unifying goal is to “promote a vibrant learning and discovery environment that produces extraordinary student and scholarly outcomes.”

Extraordinary outcomes require commitment of both time and resources. We realize that the university is facing significant challenges and is trying to secure a bright future.

Yet if the decisions we make do not ensure and promote the quality of undergraduate and graduate education, we will suffer a Pyrrhic victory.

AMES RADWAN THE MIAMI STUDENT Let’s talk about sexual assault.

It’s a topic that often very few people are comfortable broaching. But nevertheless, one that has shown up over and over again in The Miami Student and in social media lately, particularly the Miami kind.

Among other reasons, this was because Miami’s Lecture Series planned to host a certain creator (who shall not be named due to the entire point of this article), who has a past of sexual misconduct and once engaged in a skit that depicted a rape of a baby doll.

The lecture in question was canceled, and as recently as last week, The Student ran multiple articles on the matter. This included a news story on the cancellation, as well as an editorial on why the creator should never have been invited to Miami isode of The Miami Student’s news podcast, “This Week @ TMS.” I personally read all of these articles, and they got me thinking about how I wanted to write an opinion piece of my own on the matter.

The newly founded student organization, Sexual Assault Survivor Support (SASS), had originally scheduled a protest against the creator’s participation in the Lecture Series. As a member of SASS myself, when the lecture was canceled, I fully expected the protest to end before it had even begun.

However, the protest was still on. As motions chair Taylor Beasley sent in the SASS GroupMe chat, “Although we are happy that the lecture has been canceled, it has been advertised as a scheduling issue rather than response to student advoSeries committee policy reform.”

I couldn’t attend the protest because thinking I could perhaps write an opinion article on my approval towards the protest, I reached out to sophomore psychology major and SASS President Josie Carter to ask her a couple of questions.

Her response shocked me, in a good way. she replied to me. “But I honestly am tired of giving [the creator] continuous attention. We still had the protest because it’s a bigger issue than just a problematic speaker. The protest was to go against the continuous victim blaming narrative and rape culture here at Miami.”

To be honest, I had never thought of it

We must hold ourselves to a REBECCA WOLFF OPINION EDITOR Let’s cut the crap. Weed is fun.

And yes, I do refer to it as weed because I’m from California, and marijuana sounds a little It boosts local economies, creates jobs and it’s recent legalization for medical purposes in 36 states has taken much of the stigma away from it.

But according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 2020 report on Racially Targeted Arrests in the Ear of Maijuana Reform, Black people are 3.4 times more likely to be arrested for possession of the substance than white people.

Even in states that have decriminalized marijuana, the disparity in arrests has not changed.

the amount of dispensaries and weed farms that have popped up over the last decade.

I even interviewed a man who owned a maring, and he told me about his plans to eventually turn it into a retreat, where people could come purchase and enjoy the product.

He was white.

How can it be that Black people are being criminalized for the same thing white people are going on wellness retreats for, and no policy change seems to be making any real impact?

According to that same ACLU report, “Much of this country has yet to start on the road toward equitable, smart reparative marijuana policy.”

With inconsistencies between federal and

“So, yes, weed is fun. But the injustices surrounding it are dangerous and systemically racist.”

the racial injustice Black people continue to face with marijuana.

There is an obvious “weed gap” happening across America, and it seems impossible for any one policy to close it.

Unless that legislation was federal legalization or decriminalization.

This is a racial justice issue.

Even before it was legalized in any form, it has never been a large issue for white people to use it, possess it or even sell it. NYPD reported that 94% of majrijuana related arrests in 2020 were people of color, meaning only 6% of arrested persons were white people throughout Of course there have been arrests on both sides of the color line, but the fact remains that Black people and other people of color are punished and jailed for it at higher rates despite the plant being used at equal rates by each race.

It’s become far more culturally acceptable over the last decade to use marijuana for both recreational and medical purposes, especially where I’m from.

I went to a Catholic high school that was extremely white. I had friends who dealt weed, smoked weed and even kept it in their backpacks.

The most trouble any of them ever got in was a three-day suspension. And that was after getting caught smoking in a bathroom.

But, if they had been Black, and a police it could have drastically changed the course of their lives.

So, if white people can use it and deem it legal and safe enough to open up stores and run

in that manner. Of course I had always focused on the assaulters themselves, rather than their victims — isn’t it important to get these monsters the retribution they deserve?

Isn’t it important to see famous folk such as actors, singers and movie and music producers, originally thought to their previous sexual assaults or harassments? Isn’t that why movements such as #MeToo exist?

All of that is important, of course. But I never thought of it in this way until Josie explained it to me. Essentially, the more we focus on those who committed the sexual assault, the more attention they get.

There’s that old saying that “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” and while I think sexual harassment or assault allegations are probably the worst publicity one could ever get, there’s still the fact that talking about the perpetrator is still giving them attention, even if it’s negative.

Hence why I’m not mentioning the man’s name.

I think it’s admirable that our society so desperately wants to bring justice think we should stop that! But maybe once this justice is served, it would be them.

To stop giving them attention they don’t deserve.

Let them fade away into oblivion, knowing that they did this to themselves.

Instead, let us focus on the survivors.

Theirs are the names we need to talk about, the people we need to uplift.

Megan Ganz, for instance, a former writer on the popular TV sitcom “Community” who was sexually harassed during her time writing for the show by its creator who was invited for the Lecture Series.

One of the biggest issues surrounding sexual and interpersonal violence, especially on social media, is that we are willing to name-drop those who have done bad things but not so willing to elevate the names of survivors. These are the true heroes of the situation — the people who the other side.

It’s the same thing for serial killers and their victims. Think of the most famous serial killer you know … now name three of their victims. You can’t do it, right?

That needs to change. Say their names.

Be there for them.

Megan Ganz.

standard Black people in our society who do far less be criminalized for it?

We live in a country that is systemically racist. This is not new information.

If decriminalizing weed is one small way in which we can take a small step towards equality, then why wouldn’t we do it?

I get some people might have concerns about the fact that it’s considered a drug, and they might think it’s dangerous.

But the fact is if we legalize marijuana, we can regulate it.

Weed is out there, and people are using it — for all sorts of reasons.

But if you look past your own stigma, you can see that a world where weed is legal is a safer and more just future.

So, yes, weed is fun. But the injustices surrounding it are dangerous and systemically racist.

Legalizing marijuana on a federal level would do only good.

But that’s a long term goal.

A shorter term achievement would be releasing those currently imprisoned for possession of marijuana in the states that have since legalized it.

Taking these steps in the right direction will help us do what we need most right now in this country — to hold ourselves to a higher standard.