Montana Kaimin 2/8/17

FEB. 8-14, 2017 | MONTANAKAIMIN.COM | THE LAST BEST COLLEGE NEWS | @montanakaimin | facebook.com/montanakaimin

MONTANA

KAIMIN

Montanans react to travel ban

State VA struggles to provide

Legislature to address higher education funding

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Politics in the Big Sky: Montana reacts to national changes

OPINION

BIG UPS & BACKHANDS

In response to Trump’s Muslim ban, iraq and iran plan to reciprocate with an american ban.

The Kaimin’s take on this week’s winners and losers. Have a big up or backhand to contribute?

Tweet us at @montanakaimin!

Breaking news: America

Finally, they’re doing something about those terrorists.

Week of 2/13/17 - 2/19/17

Big Ups to the survivors of the Bowling Green Massacre, aka all of us.

Backhands to UC, Berkeley students for protesting Milo Yiannopoulos. Don’t you know free speech entitles anyone to say anything ever without being challenged?

Big Ups to up-and-comer Frederick Douglass.

We see great things in your future, kid.

By Delaney Cummins

Backhands to the Atlanta Falcons. Sincerely, everyone who isn’t a Patriots fan.

SUDOKU

Difficulty: Medium

1 9 7

HOW TO SOLVE:

4 8 2 9

1 3

4

5 4

YOUR AD could go HERE!!

Edited by Margie E. Burke

1 7

Each row must contain the numbers 1 to 9; each column must contain the numbers 1 to 9; and each set of 3 by 3 boxes must contain the numbers 1 to 9.

Answers to Last Week’s Sudoku:

7 2

5 6 3

2 3 4 5 Copyright 2017 by The Puzzle Syndicate

8

5 7 1 6 3 4 8 2 9

4 6 8 2 9 5 1 7 3

9 2 3 8 1 7 4 6 5

3 9 6 5 4 8 2 1 7

1 8 4 9 7 2 3 5 6

7 5 2 1 6 3 9 4 8

8 1 5 7 2 9 6 3 4

2 3 7 4 8 6 5 9 1

6 4 9 3 5 1 7 8 2

Call 406-243-6541 to speak with an ad rep and sponsor a puzzle TODAY!

ON THE COVER Cover illustration by Zoie Koostra / @zoiekoostra Cover story continues on page 7.

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PERSONALS

Looking for love in all the wrong places? The Kaimin is here to help! Post your personal ads or missed connections here! Special pricing all month for our February Love and Sex issue, ONLY $5. To place your ad call 406243-6541, e-mail ads@montanakaimin.com, or stop by and see us in Don Anderson Hall, Room 207 Monday-Thursday 10-2

SERVICES

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The Montana Kaimin is a weekly independent student newspaper at the University of Montana.

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2 February 8-14, 2017

NEWSROOM STAFF Editor-in-Chief Kate Shea Web Managing Editor Jackson Wagner Print Managing Editor Margaret Grayson News Editors Meg Giddings, Kasey Bubnash Arts & Culture Editor Bowen West

montanakaimin.com

Sports Editor Nick Puckett Photo Editor Olivia Vanni Video Editor Reed Klass Deputy Photo Editor Will McKnight Design Editor Kayla Robertson Copy Chief Anna Reid

Opinion Editor Darian Dovgan News Reporters Lydia Mercier Rick Rowan Matt Neuman LJ Dawson Mollie Lemm Lucy Tompkins David Atkinson Cassidy Alexander

Arts & Culture Reporters Brooke Beighle Kathleen Stone Drew Novak Melissa Loveridge Sports Reporters Zachary Flickinger Isaiah Dunk Taylor Featherman Zac Allen

Multimedia Isabella Grannis Tailyr Irvine Sydney MacDonald John Hooks Quinn Corcoran Hope Freier Tate Samata Riley Horigan

Designers Rene Sanchez Zoie Koostra Kelsey Johnson David Rollins

Copy Editors Taylor Crews Tate Samata Ashleigh Bailey Abby Lynes

Columnists Silas Miller Sam Tolman

Claire Chandler

Cartoonist Delaney Cummins

Office Manager Ruth Johnson

Advertising Representatives Sue Tarpey BUSINESS STAFF Wayne Stevenson Zoie Koostra Business Manager Marketing Director Cree Lehrman

Office Assistants Jesse Kipp Yvonne Bunch

OPINION KA IMI N ED I TO R I A L

Truth, journalism and the American way

By Editorial staff editor@montanakaimin.com

Less than two weeks ago, newly sworn in president, Donald Trump, was quoted saying, “I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth.”

Of course, Trump’s hatred of journalists and the media is by no means a new development.

It was back in May that he tweeted, “Don’t believe the biased and phony media quoting people who work for my campaign,” gleefully adding, “The only quote that matters is a quote from me!”

His campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, known more recently for her divisive phrase “alternative facts,” said of the fact-checkers during the debates, “I really don’t appreciate campaigns thinking it is the job of the media to go and be these virtual fact-checkers.”

Ignoring the obvious absurdity of this statement, it has become blindingly apparent that the White House has a new definition of objectivity and a different idea of what the media’s purpose actually is. For example, to report on when our president is blatantly lying supported by empirical fact is now viewed as “partisan” or “biased” news, and while not all share this opinion, the highest leaders of our government are deeply invested in discrediting and silencing any dissenters.

In a time like this, a news source with integrity has an obligation to report on the news that is now considered to be “fake” by our government. The foundation of good journalism is based on honesty, truth, the facts and the accurate numbers. Even if one tries to change the meaning of these words, it cannot and will not alter the intrinsic spirit of what they signify. We will not allow these manipulative “definitions” to transmute the news into a Donald Trump propaganda machine.

So when Press Secretary Sean Spicer says that Trump’s inauguration had the biggest crowd in history despite all available evidence, or when White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon tells the media to “keep its mouth shut,” journalists everywhere, including here at the Kaimin, must fire back by continuing to espouse the facts and by keeping our dirty mouths wide open.

And as Americans, every single one of us has a distinct responsibility to support and defend our news sources from these kinds of attacks. This vilification of the press poses a real threat to our freedom of speech everywhere. And while this might not affect the things you choose to say today, it could tomorrow, and that is a distinctly frightening possibility straight from the Kaimin’s unapologetically open mouth.

Cutting $25 million from MT universities is bad for students, bad for state The $25 million in Montana University System (MUS) funding cuts that the Legislature has currently slated are bad news for our state’s students and economy. In the effort to balance the state budget with revenues down, cutting higher education at an already-tenuous moment is the wrong place if we seek to protect the long-term prosperity of our state.

As legislators in Helena grapple with declining state revenues, campuses from Missoula to Billings continue to do the same. With enrollment down over the past half-decade, our campuses are at a moment where cuts this deep would quite simply be catastrophic.

Current budget struggles aside, the loss of $25 million in state funding could mean raising tuition by up to 2 percent. At UM, that could mean a jump from $6,000 per year for resident students to $7,500, a barrier to access that many students simply can’t afford. A $25-million cut would mean cuts to faculty and staff, larger class sizes and longer lines.

Funding public higher education is imperative for a prosperous economy, and indispensable to maintaining opportunity for every Montanan to advance and stay in our state. When we fund higher education, we follow through on the principle that education is for everyone. With the average Montana student graduating with $27,000 in debt, that principle is a work in progress in our state, and the $25 million of cuts from Helena would put that ideal even further from reach.

UM students have a chance to deliver this message directly by coming to Helena for a statewide Student Lobby Day with transportation and lunch provided by ASUM, and a Student Lobby Training this Thursday, Feb. 9, in the Davidson Honors College lobby to get students informed and prepared.

–Sam Forstag President, Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM) President, Montana Associated Students (MAS)

Week of 2/13/17 — 2/19/17

The Weekly Crossword

by Margie E. Burke

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 ACROSS 1 Impact sound 14 15 16 6 Allowed 17 18 19 11 ___ welder 14 Yellowstone 20 21 22 23 grazer 24 25 15 Be sweet on 16 Card game for 26 27 28 29 two 17 Prevention 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 measure?

37 38 39 40 41 18 Brought forth 19 Ruckus 44 45 46 42 43 20 Chinese restau47 48 49 50 rant offering 22 Like some 54 51 52 53 escapes 55 56 57 58 59 24 Execute perfectly 60 61 62 63 25 Subtraction 64 65 66 figure 26 Excavating 67 68 69 machine Copyright 2017 by The Puzzle Syndicate 29 Concentrate 30 First ___ 31 Kind of down 66 Informal 29 Malodorous 51 European gold 33 Guitar farewell 32 Chunk of coin attachment 67 Hamilton's bill fairway 52 Become accus37 Word with 68 Mars or 34 ___ canal tomed (to) crazy or fry Neptune 35 Jemima, for one 53 Colorado resort 39 Fertilizer 69 Cut into 36 Target 54 Hardly ruddy ingredient 38 Moscow money 56 Let out 41 Part of BYOB DOWN 40 Turn red, 57 Fascinated by 42 Distressed 1 E.P.A. concern perhaps 58 No longer mint 44 Call upon 2 Come down 43 Delighted 59 Insignificant 46 Title word of a hard 45 Potter's pedal 62 Hawaiian soap set in 3 Individual 48 Organ stop wreath Llanview 4 Move upward 50 Make beloved 47 Hospital supply 5 Adolescent 49 Comely 6 Categorize Answers to Last Week’s Crossword: 51 Specific 7 Brain wave S T A R S T O A T S A N G vocabulary 8 Minor player A R C H A R I S E O B O E 54 Hammerhead 9 Like some S I L K S C R E E N N I C E part humor S M O O T H L Y T U R T L E 55 Oust 10 Lockjaw U S U A L T A P E 56 Metallic element 11 Sentient P A N T R Y C O T L O O P used in making 12 Colorless gas T O D O S C U E A L T A R steel alloys 13 Three, they say S T A T E D E P A R T M E N T 60 Target on the 21 Promotional item T I P S Y R E A C T T E N green 23 Out of practice A R T S S E E K I D N E Y 61 Pie-in-the-face 25 Conventions M E T E C I V I L comic of old 26 Recipe amount L I N E A R S O L E C I S M 63 Doltish 27 Ceremonial act A D U L T E R A N T A N T E 64 "___ you sure?" 28 Do some cutS I N G E T E A M M O L L 65 Affair ting, maybe A L L Y S P E A R E R G O

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February 8-14, 2017 3

OPINION KA IM IN CO LUMN

Channeling your inner asshole with powerful results

Opinions are like assholes: everyone has one, and chances are, your beliefs have made you an asshole at some point.

The truth remains that, within reason, every time you establish or express a belief, someone in the world will think you’re an asshole for it. For example, when I state that I loathe people who cherry-pick Trump ideals for their argument, it serves to confirm my outlook that they’re xenophobic, racist assholes. But to them, I’m an overly sensitive, P.C., bleeding-heart liberal. We despise each other because our views are so different, and therein lies the beauty of allowing ourselves to butt heads.

Being an asshole isn’t always necessarily a bad thing — in fact, it is sometimes essential. It often means that you’re standing your ground by expressing a thought or feeling you truly believe in to someone who sees otherwise. In turn, this challenges yourself or others to reconsider their perspective, having them acknowledge internal flaws that may need to be corrected.

“People need to be exposed to the oth-

er side,” said Christian Grant, a rightwing comedian of the Zootown Improv Group. “There are people who need their safe spaces, their safety pins and they break down at the sound of someone disagreeing with their opinions. The only way to stop them from this hysteria is for them to be exposed to the other side many, many times to the point that they get used to it.”

It’s important to understand that being an asshole isn’t an all-or-nothing state, but a spectrum. If people were completely awful individuals, they would either have no con(for your own good) tact with the outside world or be the

president of the United States.

For instance, you could have a co-worker who loves making jokes about starving kids in Africa, but in his spare time he volunteers in a program helping high schoolers create art that expresses their teenage angst. At best, this person has asshole tendencies, but they also have redeeming qualities, so it just makes them a multifaceted person.

However, you can be the asshole that everyone truly despises. If you constantly find yourself rationalizing your terrible actions of say, cheating on your partner or stealing money from work, you may be in the danger zone. This only externalizes the problem and is counterproductive to confronting the internal flaws that disagreements help bring to light.

The only time someone will be universally considered as a

Self serving asshole

t be erirgeh h

too nice

good person is when their adopted beliefs are so bland and middle-ground that they create no controversy, and those who hold noncommittal centrist views simply for the sake of being liked are, arguably, the least enriching kind of people to be around.

So, whether you’re a hardcore liberal or a staunch conservative, you’re going to look like an asshole in someone’s perspective, so just relish it. Be prepared to be called an asshole, a dick or a bitch. Rather than seeing it as negative insult, see it as proof that you have something important to say — whether people want to hear it or not.

But then again, what would I know? I’m just an asshole.

Sam Tolman is a Kaimin opinion columnist. Email him at samuel.tolman@umontana.edu

KAIM IN COLUM N

Trump’s travel ban is counterproductive On Jan. 27, President Trump signed an executive order to ban travel into the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The order claims that increases to immigration security following the Sept.

11 attacks have failed to prevent foreigners from carrying out attacks on U.S. soil.

However, no attacks by migrants from any of the seven banned nations are specified in the order’s text, for none have occurred, as reported by The New York Times.

That no stateside terrorist attack can be directly attributed to a migrant from any of the newly banned countries displays the incomprehensibility of the administration’s order. Aiming to “protect Americans,” the president is barring entry to war-torn refugees, students and faculty currently studying within the U.S. and even Iraqi war-time translators who served our country at high risk.

While the executive order does not call for an exclusive ban on Muslims in an ex-

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February 8-14, 2017

plicit fashion, it does aim to “prioritize” refugee claims from those who practice religious faiths “persecuted” within their country of origin. It is sly language that favors admittance to Christian minority populations within majority Muslim countries.

Combatting terrorism with a sweeping travel ban that imposes faith-based tests does not change any anti-Western ideals harbored by a terrorist. If anything, such resentment is inflamed. That the U.S. is now turning away war-affected refugees, some of whose countries have been directly affected by U.S. military intervention, digs us deeper into the us-versus-them rut we currently find ourselves in.

The ban is rooted in President Trump’s campaign, when he called for a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the country” following the December 2015 terrorist shootings in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14 Americans. The contro-

montanakaimin.com

versial statement left Trump’s Republican primary opponents aghast and spawned globe-spanning outcry over what then seemed like bombastic campaign rhetoric.

The 2015 San Bernardino attack was perpetrated by a U.S.-born citizen and a migrant from Pakistan, a country not included in the recent travel ban. That this attack was partly homegrown calls into question the ideology fueling the attackers. A war against terrorism is not over something tangible, such as land, resources, weapons of mass destruction, etc., but over an idea fixated in one’s mind.

It is imperative to establish moral superiority in an ideological war. The imposed travel ban contrasts the Obama administration’s conscious efforts to change external perceptions of the U.S., such as their refusal, amid fierce criticism from Republicans, to recite the phrase “radical Islam.”

In a town hall meeting hosted by CNN last September, Obama said his decision

not to use the phrase was “to make sure that we do not lump these murders into the billion Muslims that exist around the world, including in this country.”

What’s worse, is that these newly banned migrants, many of whom have already contributed to the U.S., are seeking a better life in a land which supposedly disregards one’s ethnic, racial and religious background. Trump’s travel ban does away with this already fragile notion while also fueling extremist religious ideology.

Silas Miller is a Kaimin opinion columnist. Email him at silas.miller@umontana.edu

NEWS

Sydney MacDonald / @sydneysmacdo "I am now proudly a U.S. citizen. I’ve been a citizen since 1986, and I love this country with all my heart, and I’ve given everything that I could. But I have to tell you, I feel attacked again.

I feel humiliated. I feel insulted. As Muslim Americans we've all been labeled as terrorists, fanatics, zealots and the result is this," said Mehrdad Kia, UM director of Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center, about the current travel ban on Feb. 1.

Those from the seven Thoughts on Trump’s travel ban

By Lucy Tompkins lucy.tompkins@umontana.edu

They came here from different places, at different times, but for the same reason: education.

In the final semester of her bachelor’s degree in accounting, Sahar Muthna, 21, has two options. She is mere months from graduation, which her parents, two Yemeni citizens, had planned to attend. Muthna will be their third daughter to graduate from the University of Montana, and their two younger sons also expected to earn degrees in the United States.

That had always been the plan.

But after President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 27, suspending the entry of all citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia for 90 days, Muthna’s parents became barred from attending their daughter’s graduation ceremony. And Muthna, who hoped to stay another year to earn her master’s, must consider continuing her studies in a different country.

“It’s very sad, actually,” Muthna said. “I was very disappointed. I didn’t expect this to happen at all.”

The ban is intended to protect the U.S. from foreign terrorists, though the order does not include any countries from which radical-

ized Muslims have killed Americans in the U.S. from 1975 to 2015, according to a report by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Protests erupted around the country in response to the ban, especially outside major airports, where citizens from the seven countries were detained, despite having permanent U.S. residency cards. In Missoula, Standing Alongside America’s Muslims held a march in solidarity with immigrants and in protest of the ban on Jan. 29, drawing over 700 people.

Within 24 hours of Trump’s announcement, federal Judge Ann Donnelly issued an emergency stay that allowed people who had landed in the U.S. with a valid visa to remain in the country, protecting those detained in airports and in transit when the ban was issued. On Feb. 3, federal Judge James Robart issued a temporary restraining order that allows citizens of the seven banned countries to enter the U.S. and lifts restrictions on accepting refugees. Trump already appealed the decision, and the case is expected to reach the Supreme Court.

Critics argue the ban violates the religious clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Although the executive order never explicitly mentions Muslims, it does grant priority to refugees who are a religious

minority in their countries, thus excluding Muslims.

Muthna is a Yemeni citizen, but she and her family live in Saudi Arabia on residence cards that must be renewed annually. For the past three years, Muthna has returned home

“I can see people that I can tell have no Arabian roots and they are standing in the cold protesting for Muslims or Arabs to come. It was amazing.”

-Sahar Muthna from Missoula every summer to visit her family and renew residency. Her two sisters did the same during their studies, without issue.

Following Trump’s travel ban, the American embassy in Saudi Arabia halted all pro-

cessing of Yemeni student visas. Muthna knows if she returns home over the summer, she may not be able to re-enter the U.S., and if she stays here, she will lose her Saudi Arabian residency, forcing her to return to the active war zone in Yemen.

“It’s not safe,” she said. “I don’t want to go back to Yemen.”

Since she was a kid, Muthna knew she would attend a university in the U.S. She was drawn to the quality education, opportunity to learn English and American culture. After three years in Missoula, she’s come to feel at home here. The cultural differences and little details make it a special place, she said.

“The way people respect each other,” Muthna said. “The first thing I noticed is people holding the door for others to come in.”

She learned to ski and has hiked in the nearby mountains. Outside of school, Muthna volunteers for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, a program that offers free tax help to low-income people.

“Trying to help the community,” she said, smiling.

After the ban was issued, Muthna said her professors were upset. Some offered to write her a recommendation for the embassy, anything that might help her

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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February 8-14, 2017

5

NEWS FROM PREVIOUS PAGE continue her studies. Muthna was grateful for the offer, but unless the order is reversed, she said, nothing will help.

She watched in awe as thousands of people gathered around the country, especially outside major airports, to protest.

“Oh my gosh, it made me … I was teary eyed,” Muthna said, placing her hands against her cheeks. “I can see people that I can tell have no Arabian roots that are standing in the cold, protesting for Muslims or Arabs to come. It was amazing. I really love Americans.”

Muthna is one of 11 students at UM who are citizens of one of the seven banned countries, according to Global Engagement Director Effie Koehn. No professors or students were left stranded overseas when the ban was issued, but their educations and lives have been interrupted. Muthna is grateful she will graduate this spring. Otherwise, she said, coming here would have been a waste of time and money.

She has yet to decide whether to stay and lose her Saudi Arabian residency or to leave UM and find a new school. Her hesitation is a testament to her attachment to Missoula and its people.

Mehrdad Kia left Iran at 17. He cried for the first two hours of the 11-hour plane ride to New York City, grieving for the people, the cuisine and the home he left behind. But his uncles and brother awaited him in the U.S., as did an education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He studied hard during the year but always flew home as soon as the semester ended. Summers in Iran replenished him and he missed it, he said, “like a hole inside of me.”

But in 1979, as uprisings broke out against the Islamic government in Iran, something happened that changed the course of Kia’s life. Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Iran, taking 52 people hostage after the U.S. refused to return Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the former Shah of Iran who was overthrown in the Iranian Revolution, to face trial in Iran.

“And Iranians became the enemy overnight,” Kia said.

Kia had two options.

“You either have to get out, or do something about your legal status,” immigration officials told him.

Political turmoil in Iran made it impossible to return home. Kia chose to become a U.S. citizen, though his plan hadn’t always been to stay in the U.S. He received a doctorate in history at the University of Wisconsin, and now he is the director of the Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center and teaches history at UM. His brother, Ardeshir Kia, 6

February 8-14, 2017

works in the office beside him, also a professor.

Kia’s parents remained in Iran. As academics and professors, their lives were increasingly at risk. Kia’s father published dozens of books and articles that countered the regime. He was arrested and told to say his final prayers, his face pushed against a wall.

Because he couldn’t be charged with any real crime, this pattern of arrest, mock-execution and freedom repeated itself — an attempt to intimidate and silence him.

Kia and his brother knew they had to get their parents out of Iran, but it would be 13 years before they could reunite. The two brothers began teaching at UM, and over time, Kia convinced himself he would never see his parents again.

But finally, in 1991, they boarded a plane holding American visas.

“I’ll never forget,” Kia said. “It was Christmas Eve, and I’m all alone in the Missoula airport, and here they come. And I have to tell you, we just stared at each other for about 30 seconds. Because I think we could never believe that we would ever see each other again. It was an amazing moment.”

The first hours of their reunion were mostly silent, Kia said. They were in a state of disbelief. His parents enjoyed their freedom to write and walk and live safely, after so many years at war.

Kia’s father has since passed away, but his mother still lives in Missoula.

Banning all citizens from these seven countries indiscriminately is a flawed policy, Kia said, and it only injures the American reputation abroad. Students and businesspeople, even those with permanent residency, are being punished by this ban. They are, Kia said, “the best bridge we have to Iran.”

“Part of our greatness has been what I call soft diplomacy,” Kia said. “That instead of always using tanks and jet fighters, you actually use your universities, your research institutions, your educational system, to attract the best and the brightest from all over the world.”

This ban, combined with the anti-Islamic sentiment brewing in the country, reminds Kia of 1979, when he watched on TV as a sports broadcaster set fire to an Iranian flag at an Ohio State football game. He saw his Iranian neighbor try to scrub hate speech off her door with a bucket of water and a sponge. For the first time since then, Kia said he feels the same threat.

“I am now proudly a U.S. citizen. I’ve been a citizen since 1986, and I love this country with all my heart, and I’ve given everything that I could. But I have to tell you, I feel attacked again. I feel humiliated. I feel insulted.” •

montanakaimin.com

Photo courtesy of Todd Goodrich

Goodbye ‘Mama Margo’

Margo Kratz retires from Food Zoo after years of making students smile

By Cassidy Alexander cassidy.alexander@umontana.edu

Margo Kratz, commonly known as “Mama Margo,” has retired as the Food Zoo’s lead cashier because of health reasons, after 10 years at the University of Montana.

She added tremendous value to UM Dining both as a person and an employee, according to UM Dining Director Mark LoParco.

“She epitomizes what you want in a first contact for any business,” LoParco said. “She’s a genuine person, and people can tell when people care for them. She was able to energize students, and she was energized by students.”

Kratz said she is sad to retire but that it was necessary for her own well-being.

“Due to health issues, I just can’t do it anymore,” Kratz said. “It broke my heart to have to leave there.”

Kratz, who was born in Missoula and graduated from Sentinel High School in 1972, said that just as she has made an impression on every person who’s swiped their Griz Card into the Food Zoo, they have impacted her in ways she will never forget.

“I’ve had so many people come back and tell me what a difference I’ve made in their lives,” Kratz said. “If I made a difference in one person’s life just coming through there, that means so much to me.”

Kratz said she “could see through kids who were having trouble in their lives and [she’d] give them a hug.”

She remembered instances where she ran into students who didn’t expect her to

remember their brief interactions. “[The students] made me so young at heart. I’ll never forget the kids I’ve watched grow up from freshmen to seniors,” Kratz said.

When asked if there was anything she would like to say to all the students she has met over the years, Kratz said, “I want to thank all the kids for being there for me too. They gave back to me their love and their kindness and made me smile. And I want to wish them all well in their futures.”

There will be a farewell celebration at 2 p.m. on Feb. 9, at the Food Zoo in the Emma B. Lommasson Center. Kratz said she hopes students will attend so she can find closure in her leaving.

“I’m hoping a lot of kids hear about this somehow and come and say goodbye,” Kratz said. “I want to give them one last hug.”

Many students, such as freshman Rhys McKinstry, felt a personal connection with Kratz.

“She was super nice to me and asked about my day and remembered things about me, which is crazy since she sees like a thousand people every day,” McKinstry said.

For others who might not have felt as close to “Mama Margo,” Kratz will likely still be remembered for her efforts to get to know everyone, as sophomore Cole Geschwind said.

“I never knew her past saying ‘Hi, Margo’ at the Food Zoo when I swiped my Griz Card, but she’d always say, ‘Hi, Cole,’ back and remember everybody’s names, which is far beyond the expectations of a UM Dining employee,” Geschwind said. •

Lost in inconsistency: How the Montana VA is failing both veterans and providers Design by Zoie Koostra

Story by Taylor Crews

Photos by Riley Horigan

Editor’s note: Due to the private nature of medical care, some names in this article have been replaced with initials.

For veterans who have mental health issues like post-traumatic stress Finding a negative story about the U.S. Department of Veterans Afdisorder, depression or are having suicidal thoughts, the time it takes fairs is as easy as opening a newspaper or asking a few friends. The for them to see a provider can make all the difference. much-maligned $182-billion government department is According to a 2014 report by The Journal of the charged with serving members of the United States miliAmerican Medical Association, veterans are 15 times tary after they’ve returned home. But both veterans and more likely to have PTSD and five times more likely to care providers in Montana often feel that the department is develop depression. letting them down.

Without proper treatment, these mental illnesses have Nearly 10 percent of Montana’s population is made up serious consequences for veterans, a group that already of veterans, giving it one of the largest state veteran pophas a 21 percent higher suicide rate than the general populations per capita, according to a 2015 survey by the U.S. ulation, according to a 2016 VA report.

Department of Veterans Affairs. Of the estimated 99,000 But it’s not just patients feeling the strain of the VA veterans in the state, 50,178 are enrolled in the VA health system. Many health care providers find themselves care system in Montana. overworked and under-rewarded.

There are 16 VA facilities in Montana, located across the J.H. worked as a physician assistant for the Montana state, two of which are actual VA medical centers with hosVeterans Affairs in Missoula for seven years before the pital service. stressors of the job became too much. She endured an President Donald Trump has called the national VA “a increasing workload and was asked to see patients with broken system” and pledged to reform it during his cammedical issues she had no training for. Eventually, conpaign. For some veterans, a promise of improvement from cerns about her own mental health and the well-being of the very top brings them hope for the next four years. her patients made her leave.

“The VA is riddled with corruption,” said Tony Lin, a “In the end, I left the VA because I couldn’t work for former Marine and University of Montana student. “It them and stay healthy myself,” she said. seems like Trump might drastically change it.”

J.H.’s story is not unique, and problems within the Lin has experienced problems with the VA ever since veterans’ health care administration are pushing medhe moved to Missoula in 2013. Lin used to travel to the VA ical providers across Montana out of the VA, leaving medical center — Fort Harrison — several times a week for veterans in the state without the proper health care they appointments and often felt like the providers were overneed. whelmed and unprepared.

“My workload had tripled,” J.H. said. “I spent some “I’d show up for an appointment and it was like they weeks working 20 to 30 hours overtime that I wasn’t getdidn’t even know I had one,” Lin said.

Fort Harrison, in Helena, ranked 118th out of ting paid for.”

Lin eventually stopped going to his appointments be128 VA facilities in the country in employee As a physician assistant employed by the VA, J.H. cause he felt medication wasn’t treating his health issues, turnover rates in a 2014 study conducted by would see some patients on her own, and help physicians but the VA kept prescribing him different medicines. the inspector general. with their own caseloads. She said in 2010 her caseload “I have a drawer in my kitchen with eight different botwent from 600 patients to 800, without proper preparation tles with weird prescription names,” Lin said. and training.

Sometimes Lin would call to schedule an appointment and be told he “I got the same patients doctors were getting, but they had five years wouldn’t be able to see anyone until two months later. of medical school while I only had 15 months of basic medical training,” According to a national report by the VA in 2016, the average wait J.H. said. time for an established patient appointment with primary care is six Mike Garcia, the public affairs officer for the VA Montana Health days.

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Care System at Fort Harrison, said there have been changes in the VA in the past few years that have caused providers’ patient group sizes to increase, but that those changes aren’t beyond capacity. He said they use a thousand patients as a rule of thumb.

According to Garcia, this number is developed based on an industry standard, and VA caseloads are actually smaller than the number of patients a private practice doctor would have, because many veterans have complex health issues.

Some of those complex patients need care that VA providers don’t feel they are qualified to give. As a physician assistant, J.H. said she had to see patients who would have normally been seen by doctors and had medical problems that were beyond her knowledge base.

The VA administration was supposed to have a system for removing complex patients from a physician assistant’s caseload and transferring them to a physician, but J.H. had little success with it.

“I tried for 10 months to get 10 veterans removed from my panel,” she said. “It didn’t happen.”

Garcia said that while he had never heard of a situation in which a provider had to care for a veteran above their knowledge base, he acknowledged that it could happen.

“The pressure that was put on me as a provider — that I had to care for patients I didn’t know how to take care of — it was tremendous,” J.H. said.

VA regulations also force providers to get patients in and out of the office as quickly as possible. Regardless of the patient’s medical issue, J.H. said she had to limit all of her appointments to 30 minutes.

With over 800 patients and 40 hours a week to see them, J.H. had more patients than she could physically manage to see in a year.

“I was sleeping two to three hours a night, but I was convinced that I could figure out a way to benefit my patients,” J.H. said.

Eventually, however, it became too much and J.H. had to leave a job she loved.

“I’ve never found a group of patients that I’ve worked harder for, or enjoyed more, than working with veterans,” J.H. said. “Leaving the VA was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Garcia said that nursing and housekeeping positions within the medical field have a high turnover rate by nature and that it is difficult to keep certain types of medical providers in the state. He said it’s difficult to recruit specialty care providers to serve Montana’s small population, not just for the VA, but for private practices in Montana and other rural states.

“We’re asking our clinicians to do more than they’ve ever historically done in the past, but no more than is needed to serve our veterans,” Garcia said.

Most providers who leave the VA continue to worry about the veterans they have cared for over the years, but are unable to contact their patients to explain their absence once they leave the VA. This can leave a veteran without an advocate that knows their background and often without consistent medical care in general.

Sergej Michaud, a veteran and student at the University of Montana, experienced this when his primary care provider quit the VA, and there was no one immediately available to see him. When Michaud went to the VA clinic in Missoula earlier this semester after he’d had severe cold symptoms for several weeks, he was told he’d have to wait 43 days for an appointment.

Michaud served in the army for nine years and was deployed three times, but returned to Montana after an improvised explosive device in Baghdad hit him in 2007.

He was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury at a clinic in Germany while still serving and went to the VA in Montana to receive treat-

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Riley Horigan / @rileyhorigan_ Sergej Michaud poses for a portrait Feb. 3. Michaud served in the army for nine years and is currently attending UM, despite his Veterans Affairs doctor's recommendation.

ment. During his initial comprehension exams, he told his VA doctor that he was looking into going to college to study mathematics and economics. The doctor told him that wasn’t a good idea because his test scores weren’t up to par.

“They made me feel like I’m dumb and my life is screwed from now on,” he said. “That upset me so much that I said ‘alright,’ so I got into the University and went full time right away.”

Michaud passed all of his classes that semester — and the semester after that, and the semester after that. In fact, he made it on the dean’s list every semester. He also serves as the commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart chapter at UM, and volunteers with veterans of all ages during his spare time.

In some cases, veterans and their families have taken up their issues with VA care with the national administration.

Ariana Del Negro went all the way to the state licensing board in 2011 when her husband was misdiagnosed by a psychologist at Fort Harrison, the VA medical center in Helena. The psychologist was

banned from evaluating veterans in areas he wasn’t qualified, and the ruling established the precedent that veterans can take action against providers if they are misdiagnosed, which Del Negro said increases accountability.

“If they’re practicing outside of their scope, they could lose their licenses,” Del Negro said.

Del Negro attributes many errors to the inconsistency and infrastructure within the VA rather than the providers themselves.

Fort Harrison has seen 10 different directors since 2008, according to Mike Garcia. Fort Harrison ranked 118th out of 128 VA facilities in the country in employee turnover rates in a 2014 study conducted by the inspector general.

In the same inspector general’s report, Fort Harrison also ranked 126th in employee satisfaction, which could be due to the increase in workload in the last several years.

“There are a lot of good people who are incredibly overworked,” Del Negro said. “And overworked leads to mistakes.”

The people frustrated by VA services point to different root causes of these problems based on personal experiences and interactions with the VA health care administration in Montana.

Providers like J.H. put a heavy burden on VA administration and the way the system is organized. Del Negro and Michaud both said they think veterans also need to be held accountable for their health care by confronting the VA about mistakes and taking initiative when it comes to their health.

Del Negro broke the problem down into two categories: things veterans and their families can do to improve their own health care, and things the system can do to help veterans and employees.

She said veterans could show up and follow through with their providers and treatments and bring an advocate or family member with them to their appointments to help them keep track of records and medical history.

Michaud agreed that veterans need to take charge of their health and work hard to get back up and going.

“The more time you sit around not doing anything, the harder it is to get up off your feet,” he said.

Del Negro said if the VA concentrated on educating veterans on preventative measures like diet, exercise and basic self-care, it could lessen the number of patients coming in with issues like heart disease or obesity and help veterans keep a more well-informed eye on their own mental health.

In 2015, Montana VA spent over 50 percent of its budget on medical care and only 5 percent on education and vocational rehab for veterans, according to a state summary by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The remaining 45 percent went to employee compensation, pension and operating expenses.

As a veteran, Michaud said these educational programs would be most effective if other veterans who understand the military experience taught the classes.

“They need more veterans working in the VA because they know how to communicate with veterans and motivate them,” he said. “Veterans need to be pushed in a different way, they need to be pushed hard.”

By addressing problems before they arrive, the VA becomes proactive rather than reactive, according to Del Negro.

For J.H., who left her job overwhelmed but still cares, the end goal is to fulfill the mission statement of the VA — a promise by Abraham Lincoln to serve the people who had borne the cost of war.

“Veterans are people who have seen the way other people live and they get it,” J.H. said. “In my eyes, they are the cream of the crop.” •

Percentage of VA health care users in Montana Total n

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ts

Montana residents Vets using VA health care

VA Budget Breakdown Employee compensation, pensions and operating costs

Preventative Care

Health care

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MONDAY

Old School in the New Journalism Era Speaker: Susan Carey Aviation Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, at 7 p.m.

UM Law School 101 Susan Carey is a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter whose career has taken her around the world. She joined the paper at age 25 to cover coal mining, steel, labor unions and Appalachia. She later covered airlines, aerospace, and tourism in Europe, where she witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. From there, she reported for the Asian WSJ in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. In 1993, she returned to the United States and has been covering airlines and aviation for the Journal’s Chicago bureau ever since. Her work has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize.

While in Asia, Carey first met Jeff Cole, the Journal’s aerospace “guru,” whom she describes as “a wonderful friend and an inspiration.”

The Annual Jeff Cole Distinguished Lecture was established to recognize and remember Cole, the Journal’s aerospace editor and a 1980 graduate of the UM School of Journalism. He died in 2001 on assignment.

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$

NEWS

Legislative session includes proposals affecting UM

By Mollie Lemm mollie.lemm@umontana.edu

Hope Freier / @freier_hope Zach Deputy opens for Iration at The Wilma Feb. 2.

UM lacks plan to handle Trump’s effect on enrollment

By Matt Neuman matthew.neuman@umontana.edu

President Donald Trump’s recent restrictions on refugees, immigrants and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries have directly affected students at the University of Montana and students across the world.

While foreign students have grappled with the prospect of studying in Trump’s America, UM’s foreign outreach team has been fumbling with restructuring and uncertainty, rather than establishing a cohesive plan to deal with effects of the new president’s foreign policy.

In an email to UM faculty on Jan. 24, Interim Provost Beverly Edmond outlined a series of position changes that cascaded from the decision to cut Paulo Zagalo-Melo from his role as associate provost for Global Century Education.

“We’re very concerned with what is happening at the national level,” Edmond said. “Clearly we know from an international perspective that there are potential concerns for students coming into any institution in this seemingly uncertain period. We have not done any direct analysis on whether or not these policies will affect our international recruitment.”

Tom Crady, UM’s vice president of en-

rollment management and student affairs, has overseen a reboot of the University’s failing enrollment strategy since his hiring in June of last year. He will now take on the international outreach tactics previously under the control of Zagalo-Melo’s Global Engagement Office.

Citing an increased workload of international recruitment duties, Crady’s office was not available for comment on any changes that may or may not be happening in the wake of President Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

Effie Koehn, previously UM’s director of international students and scholars, has taken over the director role at the Global Engagement Office. She said, at this point, her office is focusing on the safety and comfort of current students directly affected by the travel ban.

The Global Engagement Office held a closed-door meeting on Feb. 2, with UM’s students from the seven countries targeted in Trump’s ban. Koehn said at this time, her office is advising students from the affected countries not to travel outside the United States.

“We are monitoring our outreach at foreign students,” Koehn said. “Right now, the best way to approach this issue is through a conscientious effort to listen to students’ concerns.” •

During this legislative session in Helena, which began in January, University of Montana students will be directly impacted by decisions legislators make on funding to the Montana University System, including a proposed $25 million cut to higher education.

The Appropriation Finance and Claim Joint Subcommittee on Education proposed about $25 million in cuts to higher education in Montana. If the MUS decides to combat this by increasing tuition alone, it would translate into roughly a 25 percent increase for in-state tuition, raising it by $1,000 to $1,500 per student, according to Kenzie Lombardi, the student political action director for the Associated Students of The University of Montana.

Lombardi said while ASUM is looking into other ways to mitigate the cost, such as an increased income tax and cigarette tax, the reality for UM is “not pretty.”

ASUM President Sam Forstag said if the $25 million in cuts passes, the money could only come from raising in-state tuition or cutting programs and faculty, or both, which would decrease course availability and could delay graduation.

Montana Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian previously said that the Board of Regents would consider an across-the-board tuition increase.

“We’re not looking to be the bargain price,” Christian said.

Funding to the MUS is one of four ASUM priorities. The second priority is supporting sexual assault legislation, including Senate Bill 29, which would remove the current requirement for evidence of physical force to prosecute sexual assault.

SB29 has passed successfully through the Senate committee and is moving smoothly through the Senate, according to Forstag.

This would put Montana law in line with U.S. military standards.

The third priority is supporting the practice of net-metering in Montana.

Net-metering is a technology that allows people to put unused energy from renewable sources like solar panels back into the grid rather than letting it go to waste. In return, people would be rewarded with

lower energy bills.

ASUM Student Political Action Director Lombardi said Montana heavily regulates this practice, and large energy companies are seeking to increase regulation and limit the energy individuals can sell back, making it extremely difficult for large institutions like UM to use sustainable energy efficiently.

For UM, which spends $5.5 million annually on electricity, according to Lombardi, net-metering could turn money spent into money to spend. The government currently caps the amount of net-metering at 50 kilowatts.

“Unfortunately, NorthWestern Energy has a hell of a lot more money for lobbying than young people do,” ASUM President Forstag said.

The last priority is amending Title 49 to add gender identity and sexual orientation

“This isn’t an issue you can suppress and push under the rug anymore.”

Sam Forstag to the existing list of illegal discriminations. The current list includes race, creed, religion, sex, marital status, color, age, physical disability and national origin, according to the Montana Code Annotated 2015.

This issue has been brought up during every legislative session in the last 20 years, and it has never reached the floor.

Forstag said he has told hesitant legislators that, this year, it at least deserves a full debate.

“This isn’t an issue you can suppress and push under the rug anymore,” Forstag said.

There will be a student lobby day on Feb. 14. Forstag said ASUM has rented a bus to take students to Helena, where they will be able to listen to different speakers and get a chance to tell legislators why higher education matters. More information can be found on the Facebook page “Montana <3s Higher Education.” • montanakaimin.com

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NEWS

Missoula cyclists brave 40-year record snowfall

By Rick Rowan richard.rowan@umontana.edu

Despite frigid temperatures and slick streets, University of Montana student Gill Wiggin and a small-but-dedicated group of cyclists layer up and commute through Missoula’s unforgiving winters.

Wiggin, 27, said he was surprised by the size of the winter biking community in Missoula when he moved here from Oregon in 2012. Without a driver’s license, Wiggin said he has no choice but to tough out the cold on his bike.

“The -20 degree day isn’t the most dangerous,” Wiggin said. “It’s the 28 degree day where some of the stuff on the ground is loose and some is still hard.”

Because of the extreme winter weather conditions in Montana, Wiggin said there are special considerations to make while riding. Although falling is inevitable, Wiggin said the trick is to recognize where wipeouts are most likely — while making turns, for example.

Wiggin rides what he calls a “Frankenstein” of a mountain bike. Built from spare parts at Free Cycles and affectionately named “Moose,” the bike has knobby tires and a rear fender to block spray from rooster tailing off his back tire.

Winter riding in Missoula differs significantly from the rest of the year. As snow falls, cars pack it down, sometimes creating ice before road crews can plow.

“I definitely go much slower,” Wiggin said.

Missoula has a policy that states plowing bike lanes is just as high a priority as plowing the roads, according to the City of Missoula’s Bicycle/Pedestrian Program Manager, Ben Weiss.

Still, despite best efforts, snowfall this year is at a 40-year high in Missoula Valley, according to the National Weather Service, and much of that snow has found its way to bike lanes.

Weiss said the bike trails are often plowed before the streets, and if those trails are on your commute, it can be easier to bike than it is to drive.

Some cities with similar biking communities, such as Burlington, Vermont, impose city-wide parking bans during snowstorms.

The bans allow plows to clear the roads right up to the sidewalk without plowing in parked cars.

Missoulas Street Maintenance Superintendent, Brian Hensel, said new parking ordinances are considered each year that would ban on-street parking during snowstorms, but they never go anywhere. The

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Photo Illustration Quinn Corcoran / @ridiculous_quinn Check out the full winter biking video at montanakaimin.com.

parking bans imposed during leaf collection in the fall are often hard to enforce, and Hensel said snow bans wouldn’t be any different.

“So many people in the older neighborhoods in Missoula don’t have anywhere to park but the streets,” Hensel said.

When the bike lanes fill with snow each winter, they become about half their normal width. Cars and bikes need to be more cautious around each other, Hensel said, because some bikers choose to occupy a full lane, forcing drivers to slow or stop on slick ice.

Laura Weingartner commutes by bike year-round. She said drivers get mad when she uses the full car lane.

“Keep in mind that [drivers] could easily kill a cyclist,” Weingartner said. “Just because we’re not in a car does not mean we don’t need space.”

Weingartner said her commute time doubles in the winter, and rushing only leads to falling.

“You go slower, so you see more,” Weingartner said. “Every time I ride downtown, I see someone I know, or someone smiles.” •

ARTS+CULTURE

‘Resistance’ shows activism with art

By Brooke Beighle brooke.beighle@umontana.edu

What is art, if not an expression of humanity, a form of activism, images amongst rhetoric? For Seattle-based artist RYAN! Feddersen, art is all of these things and more. “Resistance,” her current exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum, integrates elements of humor and brightly-colored felt into artistic narratives about Molotov cocktails and gentrification while lending a voice to Native peoples in contemporary American culture.

Feddersen, a mixed media installation artist and enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, is more than aware of the absurdities and duplicities woven into society. With protests continuing at Standing Rock, this exhibit speaks to a trajectory, as a history of genocide and colonialism has continued through the ongoing efforts to destroy, convert, gentrify, and expand, Feddersen said.

The first in a series of exhibits at the MAM dedicated to showcasing work by indigenous artists, “Resistance” speaks powerfully to issues that are typically anger-inducing and difficult to talk about.

“By pairing superficially light hearted activities with underlying challenges to the status quo, the participants are enabled to have a non-threatening experience that invites personal introspection,” Feddersen explained.

“Coyote, Now!,” Feddersen’s interactive coloring installation that narrates the adventures of Coyote, a boisterous and curious character that traditionally symbolizes the trickster in Native stories. The character of Coyote also serves as a vehicle of knowledge that reinforces the importance of maintaining cultural identity in future

generations. Crayons in the shape of coyote bones sit next to the installation.

“I was surprised by how many adults were standing there coloring. I think it gives people a little extra time to take in what she is trying to show them,” said Bethany O’Connell, MAM Marketing and Communications Coordinator.

The largest installation in the exhibit, “Unveiling the Romantic West,” is Feddersen’s reproduction of Edgar Paxson’s idealistic images of the Old West. Done in a way that is new for both the artist and the museum, these pieces were created using thermochromatic ink which becomes transparent when touched.

“This is an experimental process that the artist is trying for the first time at MAM,” O’Connell said. “Kids are just drawn right in. They want to figure it out and are really into the hidden messages and want to find each one.”

For Feddersen, these hidden messages represent the inaccuracies that Paxson inadvertently left out of his work. Intricate Salish bead designs and images representing the diseased blankets given to Native Americans are among the hidden messages in these pieces.

“It’s called romanticizing the West,” said Education Curator, Renee Taaffe.

Representing reality in this romanticized way was the paradigm of his time Taffe added.

“Disconnected Towers,” the third in the series of four installations, represents the disintegration of diverse neighborhoods in Seattle where gentrification has disconnected people from their homes and communities. Echoing the displacement of Native peoples from their land, this piece represents the artist’s experience of seeing new towers constructed next to older homes.

Horror comes home ‘Resident Evil 7” is a return to form

By Drew Novak drew.novak@montanakaimin.com

Horror is more than just chopped off limbs and fountains of blood. More than anything, horror is the unknown. It’s the nagging feeling that something horrible lies at the end of a dark hallway, just beyond your line of sight. It’s the awful anticipation that comes with sensing something bad is going to happen, though what and when aren’t yet understood.

Capcom’s “Resident Evil” video games have tapped into that primal fear since its very first installment. The 1996 release masterfully pulled inspiration from George A. Romero’s “Living Dead” franchise and elements of Japanese psychological horror films, creating the gold standard to which

Photo courtesy of Capcom

all other “survival horror” games are compared.

As members of Special Tactics and Rescue Service, players explored a sprawling mansion with zombies and other monstrosities creeping about.

“Resident Evil” revolutionized the horror game. It showed the world that electronic entertainment could be mature, gory and truly scary.

The sequels that followed added more characters, enemies and elaborate plot points to varying success. The 2005 release of the action-oriented “Resident Evil 4” is generally considered a series high point, but signaled a shift away from tense horror to an action oriented shooter. Capcom’s promise

Photo courtesy of Missoula Art Museum "Resistance" exhibit attendees participate RYAN! Feddersen’s interactive coloring installation that narrates the adventures of Coyote at the exhibit opening on Dec. 16, 2016.

“I approach these subjects through a historical, cultural and urban lens,” Feddersen said.

“Seeing work that falls outside the expected canon of native art is validating for young native artists with complex and often urban backgrounds.”

The most colorful installation in this exhibit is “Martha Stewart Cocktail.” Glass bottles and brightly-colored felt create a slow-motion sequence of bursting Molotov cocktails while shadows dance in the background.

“This exhibit is symbolic of revolution,” said Taaffe. “As a piece of art, I just find it really wonderful.”

Feddersen’s use of these mediums sets the stage for contemplation and introspection.

“The more artists I meet like myself, mixed race tribal members who struggle with authen-

ticity, self-representation and the perceived value of their voice, the more important I feel that it is for people to keep pushing the boundaries, to keep honoring the legacy of innovation in our culture,” said Feddersen.

RYAN! Feddersen: “Resistance” will be at the Missoula Art Museum until April 22. The official opening will take place during First Friday in March. Julie Cajune, a Salish Native American scholar, will join Feddersen at the opening and provide a deeper historical context for the exhibit.

Students and artists are encouraged to attend.

“Nothing feeds creative problem solving skills the way that art does,” Feddersen said.

“Considering the state we are leaving the world in, that’s about the last skill we need our future generations to lose.” •

to return to their roots for the seventh chapter had fans hoping for the best.

The good news is that “Resident Evil 7” is a new and inventive experience for fans of the franchise, but one that also feels truest to the spirit of the original game. Shades of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and related backwoods thrillers add new atmospheric elements to the series.

It’s 2017, and Ethan Winter’s wife, Mia, has been missing for three years. A mysterious message leads him to a decrepit plantation in Louisiana belonging to the Baker family, who supposedly disappeared years before. Needless to say, things do not go as planned, and Ethan fights to escape with his life. In doing so, he discovers what connects the Bakers to Mia. The designers’ choice to move the player’s perspective from third person to first is a canny one. That seemingly simple change amps up the fear factor by limiting visibility and forcing the player to view the world as Ethan sees it. Try keeping your heart rate down while winding your way through the plantation’s labyrinthine corridors, the psychotic ax-wielding Baker patriarch hot on your heels.

Visually, “Resident Evil 7” is a disgusting treat. Character and environment design are executed wonderfully. Monsters and murderers move with realistic weight, while the plantation itself is a grimy nightmare. Bugs crawl on dirty walls, lights flicker menacingly and a dank atmosphere pervades. Gore aficionados will appreciate the game’s dramatic flair for death scenes, some of which are so over the top as to be genuinely funny.

The Xbox One version features tight controls, though character movement feels a little sluggish.

Most players will find little to complain about technically. PlayStation 4 owners even have the option to use a virtual reality headset as if the game wasn’t terrifying enough. To top things off, Capcom has stated they intend to release downloadable content in the near future, expanding on characters’ backstories and providing players with more levels to explore.

It’s all a bit “gilding the gory lily” though when “Resident Evil 7” is already such an achievement.

Survival-horror’s original champion still reigns supreme. •

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ARTS+CULTURE

Highlights from the 2017 Sundance Film Festival

By Kathleen Stone kathleen.stone@umontana.edu

I’ve been going to Sundance since I was 10 years old. I’ve grown up with this film festival, and as I’ve grown I’ve come to understand Sundance’s significance. It has introduced comedy classics like “Napoleon Dynamite” and policy-changing documentaries like “The Hunting Ground.”

Whenever a film I’ve seen at Sundance is released on a large scale, I feel an irrational sense of motherly pride, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the films’ creation. Here are four highlight films from the festival.

‘THE BIG SICK’ 5/5 stars “The Big Sick” manages to have universal appeal in its comedy. It’s based on the true love story of writers Kumail Nanjiani (from HBO’s “Silicon Valley”) and his now wife, Emily V. Gordon.

Nanjiani is a comedian from Pakistan and Gordon is an aspiring therapist. They fall in love. Gordon’s character gets sick. The plot is about the interaction between Nanjiani’s Pakistani background and Gordon’s time in the hospital, and the emotions that come from both. The film explores cultural differences and the highs and lows of having a sick loved one. It breaks down these complicated experiences into raw emotions that anyone can relate to.

It’s also incredibly funny. Partially between bantering comedians, including Bo Burnham and Amy Bryant, “The Big Sick” has dry humor that will catch you off guard.

For example, Nanjiani confronts the racism and stereotypes that he faces with great humor. The result? Prior to seeing this film, I would have said there’s no such thing as a perfectly timed 9/11 joke. But I stand corrected.

Nanjiani and Gordon have offered up an incredibly intimate glimpse into their own love story. This vulnerability makes for a refreshingly honest film.

‘I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE’ 4/5 stars

If you loved Elijah Wood in “Lord of the Rings” but wished Frodo had a braided mullet and ninja stars, you are in luck.

When Ruth’s (Melanie Lynskey) home is robbed, she decides to track the robbers down herself. She enlists Tony (Wood), a neighbor with a heart of gold and surpris-

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Photo courtesy Sundance Film Festival

ingly good martial arts skills. This quest starts off as harmless, but it devolves into a series of increasingly ridiculous misfortunes for Ruth and Tony. This doesn’t stop until the end credits start to roll.

“I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” is unique in that every character in the film has some lovable trait. Macon Blair, the film’s writer and director, explained at the Q&A after the screening that he did this intentionally. Even the antagonists had redeeming qualities and relatable moments.

In the midst of the film’s light-speed pace it’s hard to see the more complex themes, but the film boils down to Ruth’s life outside of this whirlwind. She doesn’t feel at home in her hometown and is seemingly unable to connect with others around her. This journey, although traumatic, brings her back to her community and helps her learn to love the mundane. It’s not the most compelling personal journey, but it ties the film together nicely.

“Chasing Coral” chronicles coral bleaching across the globe, which is caused by the slightest increase in ocean temperature. The documentary also tells the story of the people behind the camera. There is an unexpected star in Zackery Rago, a camera engineer with a lifelong love of coral.

We see his uncontained excitement as he becomes more involved with the coral bleaching documentation project. Then, we see his despair as he realizes just how much trouble his beloved coral is in. It’s impossible not to get attached to Rago’s passion on the subject.

I always love documentaries that clearly lay out how we, as viewers, can change whatever issue the documentary talks about.

“Chasing Coral” focuses on the power of education, particularly for young children. It’s working with Google to show a virtual-reality “dive” where kids can explore the ocean, and the coral themselves. This leaves the audience feeling motivated to enact change.

‘CHASING CORAL’

‘PLASTIC CHINA’

5/5 stars

2.5/5 stars

The documentaries at Sundance are always eye opening, beautiful, tragic, inspiring or hopeful. But they’re rarely all of these.

“Chasing Coral” was.

“Plastic China” is a documentary that tells the story of two families living in a recycling processing plant outside of Beijing. The families are desperately poor, but have no

other skills besides recycling plant processing. The Sundance film guide described this movie as being about a little girl, 11-year-old Yi-Jie, and the recycling plant owner, Kun, who decides to teach her what she can’t learn in school.

Unfortunately, this description wasn’t accurate. The film guide made this film sound like a hopeful story of a little girl getting an education from an unexpected mentor, but it was so much darker.

“Plastic China” tells the story of the effects of global consumerism. Much of America’s waste ends up in places like Kun’s plant.

The film shows places where the kids have trash as their main source of entertainment.

Yi-Jie constantly wants to go back to her rural village, where she could have gone to school but her father could not have earned money.

And after all this, the film presented no solutions. The filmmakers passed out small wooden spoons at the screening, to remind us of our use of plastics, but this felt like a small thing to fight an incredibly huge issue.

During the Q&A, the filmmakers sounded like they might still be working on editing the film, which gives me hope. With more editing, this documentary could be a powerful insight into rural China clashing with big-city consumption, instead of a film that leaves viewers feeling helpless •

SPORTS

Olivia Vanni / @ogvanniphoto Lady Griz forward Kayleigh Valley takes a jump shot during the Idaho State game on Feb. 25, 2016.

Will McKnight / @WillMck_Photo Lady Griz forward Alycia Sims lays the ball up in the second quarter against MSU-Northern at Dahlberg Arena on Nov. 1, 2016.

Valley, Sims work toward next season

By Zac Allen zachary3.allen@umontana.edu

The Montana Lady Griz were hit with two injuries to Kayleigh Valley and Alycia Sims early on in their season. And as the Lady Griz struggle through the season without them (0-11 in the Big Sky Conference), Valley and Sims continue on the road to recovery for the possibility to return next season.

First, Valley tore her ACL in early October.

Valley was coming off a season where she averaged 21.9 points per game and was one of only three players unanimously voted All-Big Sky Conference. Prior to her injury, Valley was voted as the conference’s preseason MVP. A little over a month later on Nov. 15, Sims

suffered a torn ACL on her right knee playing in a game against Great Falls. Sims, a 6 foot 2 inch senior, had already scored 10 points and grabbed three rebounds in 17 minutes that game.

With both of the Lady Griz’s star players out for the season, the team has suffered through a difficult season. Meanwhile, all Sims and Valley can do is work toward recovery.

“It’s going pretty well,” Sims said about her rehabilitation process. “It’s just, no matter how fast or ahead you are in rehab it still feels like a slow process.”

Both players are not yet cleared to run and do not have a definite timetable for when they will make their return.

Sims, who tore her ACL on her left knee as a high school freshman, has been down this road

before, but is noticing differences between the two injuries.

“I think it’s harder this time around being a senior, kind of being my last go at it,” said Sims.

For Valley, who has expressed intent to return next season, the rehab process has progressed quicker as time goes on. The hardest part for her is being a spectator instead of a player.

“The drills you’d think you wouldn’t miss you miss even now,” Valley said. “Just watching these girls grow – but it’s good for them to advance in their skills and get better as a team.”

On the other hand, Sims said, their sudden injuries provided both with perspective about their ability to play the game.

“It’s been a learning experience for sure, and just accepting that I shouldn’t take it for grant-

ed,” Sims said.

Valley said she is able to see things from her coaches’ eyes, the things she normally missed as a player.

“I think that’s good and will help out a lot next year to see what they’re actually talking about from their perspective,” she said.

Next year Valley will return, but Sims is still on the fence. Sims is on pace to graduate this spring and said she has yet to decide whether or not she will return for a fifth year.

Valley said that despite the young team’s struggles without her and Sims, the experience of this season will be valuable for next season.

“I’m excited for our future next year,” said Valley. “I think that they’re all growing in different aspects, and I think next year will be a good year.” • montanakaimin.com

February 8-14, 2017

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SPORTS

Montana ends signing day with 22 signees, 10 Montanans

By Zachary Flickinger zachary.flickinger@umontana.edu

Montana finished national signing day on Feb. 1 with 22 signees committing to play for the Griz The class includes 18 high school seniors and four transfers.

Montana head coach Bob Stitt emphasized the importance of recruiting Montanan high schoolers this off-season, saying the 10 in-state signees are “where we start.”

“In three or four years, our Montana kids will be the best players on our football team,” Stitt said.

The class falls just short of last year’s impressive 32 signees, but there is still a chance the 2017 class could grow.

Behind Montana, Oklahoma yielded the second-most Griz signees of the 2017 class, a result that even surprised Stitt. Arizona had the most representation in last year’s class, followed by California and Washington.

Stitt spoke to the media in Kalispell about this year’s recruiting class.

He credited Montana’s game day atmosphere for helping persuade most of the recruits. The Griz lead the Football Championship Subdivision in attendance for the third consecutive year, beating 46 Football Bowl Subdivision schools.

“We feel like if we can bring a recruit to a game day environment, we’ve got a chance,” said Stitt. “Not too many game days compare to ours.”

The loss of Caleb Kidder and Ryan Johnson plays heavily on how Montana went into recruiting. The Griz signed five defensive ends in this year’s recruiting class, three more than they did in the 2015 and 2016 classes.

Montana signee RJ Nelson came twice to Missoula to watch the Griz play. The defensive end from Hillsboro, Oregon, was offered

Reed Klass / @reedklass Griz Head Coach Bob Stitt speaks to players during the Griz vs. Southern Utah University game on Oct. 1, 2016. Stitt ended signing day on Feb. 1 with with 22 signees committing to play for the Griz.

scholarships from Eastern Washington, Idaho and Portland State, but decided Montana fit best with his passion for the game.

The Montana football camp he visited last summer was the catalyst of committing to the Griz. Last summer, 13 of the 18 high schoolers that signed attended a Montana football camp.

“After they offered me at the summer camp I went to an unofficial visit to the home opener and then my official visit to the Idaho State game,” said Nelson. “I just can’t wait to get to Montana. It will be a great fit for me there.”

Nelson tore his ACL in his second game of his senior year. He underwent surgery three

months ago and has continued rehabing his knee in preparation from his freshman season.

“I think I speak for my whole class when I say I’m looking forward to continuing the tradition at The University of Montana,” Nelson said. •

My Call: Wright, Rorie and a coach’s decision

By Nick Puckett nicholas.puckett@umontana.edu

It was a coach’s decision — that’s what Montana men’s basketball coach Travis DeCuire said after a game in which two of his leading scorers, Walter Wright and Ahmaad Rorie, were benched against Eastern Washington Jan. 26. It was a crucial conference matchup in Missoula, and Montana lost 72-60. Wright and Rorie didn’t play a minute.

They were left out against Eastern, and their off-court antics damaged the team’s ability to gel.

The Griz have lost four of their last five games.

But it wasn’t entirely a “coach’s decision,” as DeCuire said after the game. DeCuire made the

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montanakaimin.com

decision, but it was likely Wright and Rorie’s actions off the court that forced him to make it.

DeCuire wouldn’t sit two of his top players out for no reason when neither were injured nor on academic probation. Wright and Rorie benched themselves.

These two best friends have been the key to Montana’s mid-season success. When one struggled, the other would step up. Against Weber State, the Big Sky Conference’s current leader, the two combined for 47 points in an 84-81 overtime loss. They combined for 22 points and 11 assists in an 81-62 route of San Jose State in December.

The two are not just scorers. They make the others around them better. They lead the team in assists, Wright with 72 and Rorie with 73. Either

player missing time would hurt the team come tournament time.

Montana’s loss to Eastern continued what became a four-game skid that sank the team to sixth place in the Big Sky. Since then, Montana topped Montana State 90-84 Saturday to snap the streak. Rorie scored 26 points in the second half to lead Montana to their biggest scoring game of the season.

While the Griz move toward tournament time, Wright and Rorie need to avoid the possibility of DeCuire benching them again. They can’t do much when they’re wearing khakis and polos instead of maroon and silver.

It is unknown how many more coach’s decisions will keep Wright and Rorie out. A shuffling

starting lineup makes it tough for any team to establish chemistry.

Wright and Rorie may be the best duo in the Big Sky when they are on the court, but it’s what we don’t see that affects the team the most. It’s what makes a coach decide to sit two of his best players. It’s what will keep the Griz quiet in the Big Sky tournament. •

Nick Puckett is the Sports Editor at the Montana Kaimin. Contact him at nicholas.puckett@umontana.edu @NickPuckett8