February 16, 2023

Stress less with Mavs Diversity Institute Workshop

By AMALIA SHARAF Staff Writer

The Maverick Diversity Institute has started a series of workshops aiming to help students adjust to college life. The first talk was held Feb. and covered topics such as types of stress and test anxiety.

The hosts started the workshop by defining what stress is and what types of stress students can experience.

“Stress is your body’s emotional or physical reaction to challenge or demand. Some stress types can be good and some can be bad. Some stress might push you to complete your assignments on time while other types of stress might push you over the limit and deplete your health,” said Sherona Stewart, the speaker for the workshop.

For student Kaylee Foley, defining what stress is was very helpful for her studying experience.

“I and my friend were not able to concentrate on the material. And so just being able to come to a workshop that has defined something like this is helpful. Because I have had this feeling before and I didn’t know it was just anxiety. And so it was very nice to learn more about it,” said Foley.

The series of workshops is focusing on student success and developing academic skills. Abdurrahman Guantai, Recruitment and Retention Coordinator of the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, said the workshop series was launched initially for students in their program, and was later expanded.

“We already did some workshops for some of our students in programs within Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. And we saw that there was a need for those workshops, so we decided to advertise to more people and welcome more students to come in and attend,” said Guantai.

“Sometimes we go based on what we see that students

Africa Night

Food, friends and performances for one memorable night

Africa Night, a popular yearly tradition, will be taking on the theme “Afro-Royale”

By EMMA JOHNSON News Director

Back and ready to perform, Africa Night is making its way to the CSU Ballroom.

A yearly tradition, Africa Night allows students to highlight and showcase African culture through a variety of mediums. This year, students can expect to see poetry, performances and a plethora of food.

Promotions coordinator and ASA treasure Zoe Gorah said the traditional night is completely student-run.

“Besides the committee members, we have volunteers who perform, model and cook at the event. We want to include a lot of people,” said Gorah.

Gorah explained this year’s theme, Afro-Royale, was inspired by the royalty shown in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

“We wanted to show the luxurious, beautiful side of Africa. While there’s many beautiful, rural resources, we want to showcase just how fancy it can be to be African,” said Gorah.

Vice president of the African Student Association Joel Tchouke said Africa Night creates community at Minnesota State by bringing in a variety of perspectives.

“We want people to know what African culture is by cre-

ating an environment for people that isn’t like the movies,” said Tchouke.

Gorah added Africa Night lets international students connect with others through the culture created at the event.

“I’m from South Africa, but I don’t know much about the rest of Africa. Being able to come together with other students and learn what’s going on in other countries helps me understand

Study abroad program returns to pre-COVID numbers

By CARLY BAHR Staff Writer

Each year more than 200 Minnesota State students study abroad. On Tuesday the Center for Global Engagement held a fair in Mav Ave to share the many options available to students.

The Center for Global Engagement works with students wanting to travel as part of their university experience.

MSU history and creative writing sophomore Brooke Van Gelderen is preparing to travel to Hachioji, Japan for MSU’s summer term.

She said these summer courses are structured differently than

MSU’s. They will meet once a week at two credits each. She is enrolled in courses in religion history, constitutional history, poetry, American literature and Japanese language.

“I’ve been wanting to go to Japan for years, since I was very little,” Van Gelderen said. “I was pretty much dead set on Japan. I always thought it would be interesting going to other places, it’s just that Japan is the place I always wanted to go so I didn’t really see the point in going anywhere else.”

The fair had faculty and student representatives for the Center for Global Engagement who invited agencies they partner

File photo

inspired by the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

LILLY ANDERSON • The Reporter With the study abroad program being highly sought-after, numbers are boosted after being diminished due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Michigan State urges: ‘Run, Hide, Fight’

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and JOEY CAPPELLETTI The Associated Press

They broke out windows to escape, barricaded doors and hid under blankets. They silenced their phones — afraid to make even the slightest sound for hours as police searched for a gunman who had already killed three students and critically wounded five others on the Michigan State University campus.

The terror felt by thousands of students — some experiencing their second mass shooting — was evident in texts to parents, posts on social media and in 911 calls.

It started around 8:30 p.m. Monday when Anthony McRae, a 43-year-old with a previous gun violation, opened fire inside an academic building and the student union.

Alerts sent out to students urged them to “run, hide, fight,” and video showed them fleeing as police swarmed toward the chaos. The massive search that ensued ended roughly three hours later when McRae fatally shot himself in a confrontation with police miles from campus, officials said Tuesday.

McRae was neither a student nor an employee of the university. The motive is a mystery.

Jaqueline Matthews, a member of the Michigan State rowing team, remembers crouching inside her school when gunfire erupted at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary. Now a decade later, the 21-year-old international law major was watching chaos

outside her campus window, stunned to find herself here yet again.

“The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible,” she said in a TikTok video that she recorded in the

early morning hours, demanding legislative action. “We can no longer allow this to happen. We can no longer be complacent.” She wasn’t the only one experiencing her second mass shooting. Jennifer Mancini told

the Detroit Free Press that her daughter also had survived the November 2021 shooting that left four students dead at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. Now a freshman at Michigan State, her daughter was traumatized anew.

“I can’t believe this is happening again,” said Mancini, who didn’t want her daughter’s name used.

Others across campus experienced the terror for the first time.

Ted Zimbo, a 26-year-old astrophysics major, said he was heading back to his residence hall after an off-campus meeting when he saw police cars everywhere and a blood-covered woman hiding behind a car. She told him that someone came into her classroom and started shooting.

“Her hands were completely covered in blood. It was on her pants and her shoes,” he told The Associated Press. “She said, ‘It’s my friend’s blood.’”

That, he said, is when it hit him: “There was a real shooting, a mass shooting.”

The woman picked up her phone and started crying, unsure of what happened to her friend. Zimbo spent the next three hours hunkered down in his Toyota SUV, a blanket tossed over him.

REPORTING ACCESS BARRIERS

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TO REPORT AN URGENT NEED OR SAFETY CONCERN:

Facilities - Physical Plant: Phone: 507-389-2071

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AL GOLDIS • The Associated Press

First responders stage outside Berkey Hall following shootings on the campus of Michigan State University, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023, in East Lansing, Mich. Students were urged to run, hide, or fight Monday night.

China threatens US entities over downing of balloon

White supremacist gets life in prison for Buffalo massacre

China said Wednesday it will take measures against U.S. entities related to the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the American East Coast.

At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details and did not identify the targets of the measures.

China says the balloon was a unmanned weather airship that was accidentally blown

off course and accuses the U.S. of overreacting in bringing it down with a missile fired from an F-22 fighter jet.

Since the Feb. 4 downing of the balloon, the United States has sanctioned six Chinese entities it said are linked to Beijing’s aerospace programs.

The U.S. House of Representatives subsequently voted unanimously to condemn China for a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international com-

munity through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also canceled a visit to Beijing that many hoped would stabilize ties that have cratered amid disputes over trade, human rights, Taiwan and China’s claim to the South China Sea.

While China denies the balloon was a military asset, it has yet to say what government department or company was responsible.

Love Wh er e Yo u Li

By CAROLYN THOMPSON and JENNIFER PELTZ The Associated Press

A white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after relatives of his victims confronted him with pain and rage caused by his racist attack.

Anger briefly turned physical at Payton Gendron’s sentencing when a man in the audience rushed at him.

The man was quickly restrained; prosecutors later said he wouldn’t be charged.

The proceeding then resumed with more emotional outpouring from people who lost loved ones or were themselves wounded in the attack.

Gendron, whose hatred was fueled by racist conspiracy theories he encountered online, cried during some of the testimony and apologized to victims and their families in a brief statement.

Some angrily condemned him; others quoted from the Bible or said they were praying for him.

Several pointed out that he deliberately attacked a Black community far from his nearly all-white hometown.

“You’ve been brainwashed,” Wayne Jones Sr., the only child of victim Celestine Chaney, said as sobs rose from the audience.

“You don’t even know Black people that much to hate them. You learned this on the internet, and it was a big mistake.”

CHAD FISH • The Associated Press

DEREK GEE • The Associated Press

A missile fired on Feb. 5 by a U.S. F-22 off the Carolina coast ended the days-long flight of what the Biden administration says was a surveillance operation that took the Chinese balloon near U.S. military sites.

Payton Gendron is whisked out of the courtroom after a man charged at Gendron during his sentencing for murder charges.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Retail sales jump as Americans defy inflation and rate hikes

Reporter arrested during news event

A reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio.

NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested Wednesday in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident. Lambert was held for about five hours before being released from jail, NewsNation reported.

“I’m doing fine right now. It’s been an extremely long day,” Lambert said after his release.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER The Associated Press

America’s consumers rebounded last month from a weak holiday shopping season by boosting their spending at stores and restaurants at the fastest pace in nearly two years, underscoring the economy’s resilience in the face of higher prices and multiple interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

The government said

 AFRICA from page 1

Wednesday that retail sales jumped 3% in January, after having sunk the previous two months. It was the largest onemonth increase since March 2021.

Driving the gain was a jump in car sales, along with healthy spending at restaurants, electronics stores and furniture outlets. Some of the supply shortages that had slowed auto production have eased, and more cars are gradually moving onto dealer lots.

“No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”

At the end of his news conference, DeWine said he didn’t authorize the arrest and reporters have “every right” to report during briefings.

“If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong,” DeWine said.

A following statement from the governor’s office said DeWine didn’t see the incident because a bank of cameras

blocked his view but he did hear a “disagreement toward the back of the gymnasium.”

DeWine “has always respected the media’s right to report live before, during, and after his press briefings” the statement said.

Mike Viqueira, NewsNation’s Washington Bureau chief, called the arrest an infuriating violation of the First Amendment.

The Washington, D.C.based Lambert could still face charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, NewsNation said. The Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office administration said the arrest

was made by officers from the East Palestine Police Department. A message seeking comment from the department was not immediately returned.

About 50 train cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday night on the edge of East Palestine.

Federal investigators say a mechanical issue with a rail car axle caused the derailment.

Nearby residents in Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania were ordered to evacuate when authorities decided on Monday to release and burn chemicals from five tankers filled with vinyl chloride.

WORKSHOP from page 1 their struggles,” said Gorah. “We experience the same things even though the continent is big.”

Despite the event’s name, ASA is wanting to include as many students as possible. Tchouke mentioned how ASA carefully planned food surrounding Africa Night to ensure students could all share in the experience.

“We thought about Muslim students because Ramadan is during the same month. We thought of providing boxes of food for students to take with them,” said Tchouke.

As long as students pres-

ent African culture, they are allowed to participate in the Africa Night, whether it’s performing, cooking or volunteering.

Gorah said she hopes students come to Africa Night to make memories and have fun.

“I want students to come together and witness the amazing talents and African spirit that sometimes gets missed in the media on this side of the world,” said Gorah.

Africa Night takes place March 25 from 4:30-9 p.m. Tickets are $15 for MSU students and general public and $8 for children. Tickets will be available at the door for $20.

require. For example, they have issues with studying or they’re anxious about stuff and sometimes they can’t manage the responsibility of the school. So we break it down into smaller categories to discuss, so they can have a more fulfilling career and life, both academic and personal,” added Stewart. Future topics for the workshops will mainly consist of

skills that students will need while attending college and managing their daily routines.

“We’ll talk about studying in the future. We might talk about budgeting or professionalism. College students will need to have a good grasp on it to be successful,” said Guantai.

However, the list of workshop topics is broader.

“Of course, it’s a popular topic but we will cover time

management in more specific detail. Also, the expectation of college experience is an important topic because most of them come for their first semester and they expect it to be like high school,” said Stewart.

Students can join the sessions and develop their skills anytime workshops are available. For more information, email abdurrahman.guantai.2@mnsu.com.

DAVID GOLDMAN • The Associated Press

NEWNATION TMX • The Associated Press On Wednesday, the Commerce Department releases U.S. retail sales data for January, despite Americans defying inflation.

NewsNation posted video of their correspondent being arrested in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine.

Post-Roe, Native Americans face abortion hurdles

By LAURA UNGAR and HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH The Associated Press

A few months after South Dakota banned abortion last year, April Matson drove more than nine hours to take a friend to a Colorado clinic to get the procedure.

The trip brought back difficult memories of Matson’s own abortion at the same clinic in 2016. The former grocery store worker and parent of two couldn’t afford a hotel and slept in a tent near a horse pasture — bleeding and in pain.

Getting an abortion has long been extremely difficult for Native Americans like Matson. It has become even tougher since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

New, restrictive state laws add to existing hurdles: a decades-old ban on most abortions at clinics and hospitals run by the federal Indian Health Service, fewer nearby health centers offering abortions, vast rural expanses for many to travel, and poverty afflicting more than a quarter of the Native population.

“That’s a lot of barriers,” said Matson, who lives in Sioux Falls and is Sicangu Lakota. “We’re already an oppressed community, and then we have

this oppression on top of that oppression.”

Among the six states with the highest proportion of Native American and Alaska Native residents, four – South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana and North Dakota – have moved

or are poised to further restrict abortion. South Dakota and Oklahoma ban it with few exceptions.

In some communities, the distance to the nearest abortion provider has increased by hundreds of miles, said Lauren

van Schilfgaarde, a member of Cochiti Pueblo in New Mexico who directs the tribal legal development clinic at the University of California-Los Angeles.

“Native people are having to cross massive, massive distances and absorb all of the travel costs

and child care,” she said.

Experts say the issue should be seen within the larger context of the tortured history between Indigenous people and white society that began with the taking of Native lands and includes coerced sterilization of Native women lasting into the 1970s. Native Americans on both sides of the abortion debate invoke this history — some arguing the procedure reduces the number of potential citizens in a population that has been threatened for centuries, and others saying new restrictions are another attack on Native women’s rights.

Many advocates worry that reduced abortion access will make things even worse for women already facing maternal death rates twice as high as their white peers, teen birth rates more than twice as high as whites, and the worst rates of sexual violence.

“Indigenous women don’t have access to reproductive justice in any form, and that includes abortion,” said Natalie Stites Means, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe who serves on the board of the Justice Empowerment Network, an abortion fund. “Any limitation on our health care and any limitation on abortion is going to impact our health and well-being.”

JOSH JURGENS • The Associated Press

A few months after South Dakota banned abortion in 2022, April Matson drove more than nine hours to take a friend to a Colorado clinic to get the procedure. The trip brought back difficult memories.

The reality of missing home is hard

Julia Lin Editor In Chief Emma Johnson News Director Joey Erickson Variety Editor

Alicia Reed Sports Editor Dylan Engel Photo Editor

Gun reform needs to be taken seriously

Two days ago, a man walked freely onto Michigan State University’s campus and went on a shooting spree, walking around campus with a loaded automatic rifle. He shot and injured five students. For three of the students, these gunshots were fatal.

They died a slow and agonizing death, terrified and alone on a college campus that was meant to be a safe haven, miles away from loved ones.

The victims weren’t even spared the post-mortem mercy of having their killer be locked up.

The culprit, identified as 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before the police could track him down and arrest him.

Although 2023 just began, this was far from the first mass shooting of the year. The tragedy that befell MSU days ago marked the 71st mass shooting in 2023 — and the seventh school shooting — in just two and a half months.

If past years’ data is predictive, we’ll have a lot more mass shootings this year, a daunting thought. According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, there were 114 school shootings in 2020, 250 in 2021, and 300 in 2022.

As college students, we shouldn’t have to come to school everyday with our wills written in our back pockets. We shouldn’t have to worry about whether our first day of classes for the semester will also be our last. We shouldn’t have to learn how to turn our classrooms into a survival bunker, and how to turn our textbooks into bullet shields.

School shootings are a problem that plagues the United States almost exclusively. In most countries, the process of buying and owning a gun requires extensive background checks, classes, home inspections and police interviews.

The whole process can take weeks, or even months. In America, you can buy a gun in under an hour.

America also boasts a distinct lack of background checks when it comes to purchasing a firearm, a problem that has proved deadly for many.

In Michigan State’s case, McRae had an extensive criminal history of gun violence. He was arrested in 2019 for carrying a gun without a permit, and had a history of serious mental health issues.

Despite this, he never had his gun formally taken away from him.

How many more shootings have to take place for gun reform to be taken seriously?

What prominent figure has to be killed for people to realize that this is a real problem with dire effects?

By ANDREA SCHOENECKER Staff Writer

Going abroad is so fun, but there is something that I think needs to be talked about: missing home,missing the people, missing the places and the things that I am used to.

There have been so many amazing opportunities, I have met and made friends and I have fallen in love with Wyoming. I had not experienced a longing for home until this past week when my car broke down and I was limited to what was within walking distance of campus. This inability to go far left me in the mental space of realizing the reality that I am now without a lot of the things that I love so dearly. It was a weird feeling to have. Not quite sadness — more of

a longing for the things that I don’t have, which to me feels silly.

I am not unhappy here in any way, which also makes it feel all the more silly as I know that I get to go home, nor I am not here forever. Many warned me this could occur, but because it has been almost two months already I thought I might have jumped over this part.

In a way, I am feeling more torn between two places. I want to be here in Wyoming exploring everything that is new to me and experiencing the excitement that comes with it, but I also want to be in Minnesota with my family and friends.

My friend group back in Minnesota has lunch every Tuesday, my parents and siblings play board games, and my roommates are watching

our kitten grow into an adult cat. These were the things that made me realize I was missing out on simple things that I wasn’t aware I would feel left out of.

I am coping with this in a few ways. I have started a podcast to talk about the things that I am doing, feeling, and going through, talking with my roommate, Sophia, as well as setting aside time to talk with all of the people that I love.

By giving myself an outlet, although it is very new, to talk about my journey abroad has made me feel more comfortable addressing my more challenging emotions as well as giving myself a space for sharing the fun parts of my experience. It makes me feel much less isolated internally.

Talking to Sophia, as well

SWOYAM BISTA, SOPHOMORE

NEIL HURNER, FRESHMAN

ERIN ROEMELING, FRESHMAN “Homey.”

DEJA HANG, SOPHOMORE “Hard worker.”

SYEDA HAFSA PEERZADA, SENIOR “I

Photo courtesy of Andrea Schoenecker

I started a podcast to help feel more comfortable addressing my more challenging emotions as well as giving myself a space for sharing the fun parts of my experience.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Reporter editorial board. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the college, university or student body.

Messages: Officer often fed information to Proud Boys leader

Study shows ‘striking’ number who believe news misinforms

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN The Associated Press

A police officer frequently provided Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio with internal information about law enforcement operations in the weeks before other members of his far-right extremist group stormed the U.S. Capitol, according to messages shown Wednesday at the trial of Tarrio and four associates.

A federal prosecutor showed jurors a string of messages that Metropolitan Police Lt. Shane Lamond and Tarrio privately exchanged in the run-up to a mob’s attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Lamond, an intelligence officer for the city’s police department, was respon-

with for logistical support, such as Academic Programs International, and other universities in the Minnesota State system, such as St. Cloud State University, which offers a temporary transfer program for study abroad students.

Tina Kirk is a representative from API who spent a year in England during college before spending time in Russia with the peace corps.

“I absolutely loved it,” Kirk said. “I’m a huge proponent of students having the opportunity, not just to travel through a place, but to live somewhere and study and actually become part of the local community. You really get a sense of how people live, what’s important to them, what they value, what we have in common with each other.

Graduate student Sammi Siggelkow and senior James Henry work with the Center for Global Engagement after

sible for monitoring groups like the Proud Boys when they came to Washington for protests.

Less than three weeks before the Jan. 6 riot, Lamond warned Tarrio that the FBI and U.S. Secret Service were “all spun up” over talk on an Infowars internet show that the Proud Boys planned to dress up as supporters of President Joe Biden on the Democrat’s inauguration day.

Justice Department prosecutor Conor Mulroe asked a government witness, FBI Special Agent Peter Dubrowski, how common it is for law enforcement to disclose internal information in that fashion.

“I’ve never heard of it,” Dubrowski said.

Tarrio was arrested in

both studied abroad in different countries.

Henry spent a semester in Barcelona, Spain learning about international business and the Spanish language.

“My Spanish is ‘poquito,’ it is very little. But that was one of the exciting factors for me, going over there and learning Spanish and immersing myself in the culture. I will always be extremely grateful for that.”

Henry said another important aspect of studying abroad was seeing supply chain issues stemming from the war in Ukraine from a different lens.

“It was kinda cool to learn how it’s not just affecting the United States, it’s affecting the whole world,” Henry said.

Siggelkow had a different experience. What was supposed to be a six-month trip to Australia beginning in March 2020 ended up being 10 days before she needed return home due to the first COVID lockdown.

Washington two days before the Capitol attack and charged with burning a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. He was released from jail before the riot and wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6.

In a message to Tarrio on Dec. 25, 2020, Lamond said Metropolitan Police Department investigators had asked him to identify Tarrio from a photograph. He warned Tarrio that police may be seeking a warrant for his arrest.

Later, on the day of his arrest, Tarrio posted a message to other Proud Boys leaders that said, “The warrant was just signed.”

“The whole experience of planning this made me more independent as a person who travels,” she said. “Now I will never not have travel insurance.”

Erica Johnson, the director of the Center for Global Engagement, said traveling to other countries “changes you.”

“You’ll find yourself maybe thinking in a different language, missing your community you had there,” Johnson said. “You’ll find that you’ll be faced with challenges and because you’ve learned to believe in yourself and you can handle those difficulties or whatever life throws at you, you become adaptable. You become more culturally aware, more empathetic, you really immerse yourself as a global citizen.”

The Center for Global Engagement can be reached through MavConnect. Study abroad scholarships are open for application on Scholarship Finder, which closes Feb. 28.

By DAVID BAUDER The Associated Press

Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.

The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.

Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found.

Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement that disseminators of national news “care about the best interests of their readers, viewers and listeners,” the study found. It said 23% of respondents believed the journalists were acting in the public’s best interests.

“That was pretty striking for us,” said Sarah Fioroni, a consultant for Gallup. The findings showed a depth of distrust and bad feeling that go beyond the foundations and processes of journalism, she said.

Journalists need to go beyond emphasizing transparency and accuracy to show the impact of their reporting on the public, the study said.

In one small consolation, in both cases Americans had more trust in local news.

ALLISON DINNER • The Associated Press

MARY ALTAFFER • The Associated Press

A jury has heard testimony about Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio’s private communications with a police officer who provided him with internal information about law enforcement operations.

A new survey released Wednesday shows fully half of Americans indicate they believe national news organizations intend to mislead.

TRAVEL from page 1

Teachers inviting AI amid ChatGPT outcry

By JOCELYN GECKER The Associated Press

Under the fluorescent lights of a fifth grade classroom in Lexington, Kentucky, Donnie Piercey instructed his 23 students to try and outwit the “robot” that was churning out writing assignments.

The robot was the new artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, which can generate everything from essays and haikus to term papers within seconds. The technology has panicked teachers and prompted school districts to block access to the site. But Piercey has taken another approach by embracing it as a teaching tool, saying his job is to prepare students for a world where knowledge of AI will be required.

“This is the future,” said Piercey, who describes ChatGPT as just the latest technology in his 17 years of teaching that prompted concerns about the potential for cheating. The calculator, spellcheck, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube. Now all his students have Chromebooks on their desks. “As educators, we haven’t figured out the best way to use artificial intelligence yet. But it’s coming, whether we want it to or not.”

One exercise in his class pitted students against the machine in a lively, interactive writing game. Piercey asked students to

 COLUMN from page 6

as some of the other exchange students, has brought me a lot of comfort. I have enjoyed hearing from them what they love about home and connecting with them

“Find the Bot:” Each student summarized a text about boxing champion and Kentucky icon Muhammad Ali, then tried to figure out which was written by the chatbot.

At the elementary school level, Piercey is less worried about cheating and plagiarism than

about things they miss.

Setting aside time to call my loved ones has been the biggest help to me when it comes to missing them. This has been the biggest way to help curve my

high school teachers. His district has blocked students from ChatGPT while allowing teacher access.

Many educators around the country say districts need time to evaluate and figure out the chatbot but also acknowledge the futility of a ban that today’s

longing for home. Although I cannot be there with them, this has made me feel much closer to them.

I wanted to address missing home because it is a part of my

tech-savvy students can work around.

“To be perfectly honest, do I wish it could be uninvented? Yes. But it happened,” said Steve Darlow, the technology trainer at Florida’s Santa Rosa County District Schools, which has blocked the application on

journey. It may not be my favorite part, but it is a part nonetheless. It is a reality of doing an abroad program. I am having a great time and I hope that once I have my car back, adventuring

school-issued devices and networks.

He sees the advent of AI platforms as both “revolutionary and disruptive” to education. He envisions teachers asking ChatGPT to make “amazing lesson plans for a substitute” or even for help grading papers.

“I know it’s lofty talk, but this is a real game changer. You are going to have an advantage in life and business and education from using it.”

ChatGPT quickly became a global phenomenon after its November launch, and rival companies including Google are racing to release their own versions of AI-powered chatbots.

The topic of AI platforms and how schools should respond drew hundreds of educators to conference rooms at the Future of Education Technology Conference in New Orleans last month, where Texas math teacher Heather Brantley gave an enthusiastic talk on the “Magic of Writing with AI for all Subjects.”

Brantley said she was amazed at ChatGPT’s ability to make her sixth grade math lessons more creative and applicable to everyday life.

“I’m using ChatGPT to enhance all my lessons,” she said in an interview. The platform is blocked for students but open to teachers at her school, White Oak Intermediate.

will help curb my homesickness and jumpstart some of my exploration bliss that has made my experience here so wonderful thus far.

TIMOTHY D. EASLEY • The Associated Press

The chatbot, utilized in the classroom above, was the new artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT, which can generate everything from essays and haikus to term papers in a matter of seconds.

It was ‘haunting’: Ballard recalls video mission to Titanic site

Skinny robot documents forces eroding Doomsday Glacier

By RODRIQUE NGOWI and MARK PRATT The Associated Press

The sheer size of the vessel and the shoes were what struck Robert Ballard when he descended to the wreckage of the RMS Titanic in 1986, the year after he and his crew from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution helped find the ocean liner that struck an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic in 1912.

“The first thing I saw com-

ing out of the gloom at 30 feet was this wall, this giant wall of riveted steel that rose over 100 and some feet above us,” he said in an interview from Connecticut on Wednesday, the same day the WHOI was releasing on YouTube 80 minutes of never before publicly seen underwater video of the expedition to the wreckage.

“I never looked down at the Titanic. I looked up at the Titanic. Nothing was small,” he said.

The crew of Alvin, the three-person submersible he

was in, headed to the surface when it started taking water into its batteries, and as it rose Ballard saw the Titanic’s portholes.

“It was like people looking back at us. It was pretty haunting actually,” he said. There were no human flesh or bones left, but he saw shoes, including the footwear of what appeared to be a mother and a baby, that looked like tombstones marking the spot where some of the roughly 1,500 people who perished came to rest on the ocean floor.

By SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press

Scientists got their first up-close look at what’s eating away part of Antarctica’s Thwaites ice shelf, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier because of its massive melt and sea rise potential, and it’s both good and bad news.

Using a 13-foot pencil-shaped robot that swam under the grounding line where ice first juts over the sea, scientists saw a shimmery critical point in Thwaites’ chaotic breakup, “where it’s melting so quickly there, there’s just material streaming out of the glacier,” said robot creator and polar scientist Britney Schmidt of Cornell University.

Before, scientists had no

observations from this critical but hard-to-reach point on Thwaites. But with the robot named Icefin lowered down a slender 1,925-foot (587-meter) hole, they saw how important crevasses are in the fracturing of the ice, which takes the heaviest toll on the glacier, even more than melting. “That’s how the glacier is falling apart. It’s not thinning and going away. It shatters,” said Schmidt, lead author of one of two studies in Wednesday’s journal Nature.

That fracturing “potentially accelerates the overall demise of that ice shelf,” said Paul Cutler, the Thwaites program director for the National Science Foundation who returned from the ice last week. “It’s eventual mode of failure may be through falling apart.”

WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION • The Associated Press

SCHMIDT/LAWERENCE • The Associated Press

Rare and in some cases never before publicly seen video of the Titanic dive was released on Wednesday.

The pencil-shaped robot nicknamed Icefin is giving scientists their first look at the forces eating away at the Thwaites glacier.

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SPORTS S

Swimming laps around the competition

By ALI REED Staff Writer

After dominating almost the entire season, it is no surprise that Minnesota State’s Swimming and Diving team showed up at last week’s NSIC Championship meet.

Throughout the four-day event, MSU compiled a total of 969 points, placing second overall. The Mavericks came in behind Augustana University, who had 979.5 points, while St. Cloud State followed the Mavs with 793 points.

“The team title came down to the very last event so it was a very exciting four-day meet. We were projected to come in 2nd place by almost 200-300 points before the meet started. Coming in 2nd by only 10 points was amazing and I think that we all were extremely happy with how we performed as a team and how we came together to try to chase down our competition,” said senior swimmer, Nicole Beckman.

The Mavericks came into the championships hot on day one, tallying 212 points, placing them in second from the jump. Day one was also the team’s first gold medal of the meet, in the 200 medley relay.

The foursome of freshman Megan Schultz, sophomore Abby Gronholz, junior Elise Mishmash and senior Nicole Beckman made it to the top of the podium with a final time of 1:43.47. The four girls were joined by three other Mavericks that day, earning All-NSIC

honors for placing in the top three of their respective events.

“Being on top of the podium is the greatest feeling especially with a relay when you do it with your teammates,” said Beckman.

“The energy in the facility was unmatched and celebrating with the rest of our team on the side was something that I’ll remember forever.”

Day two was not much different for MSU as the team still sat in second, now with 459 points, and piled on four more All-NSIC honors. Most notably, Beckman and Mishmash both led the team with three honors each.

On the third day of competition, the Mavs finally saw their first win in a singles event. This was thanks to Gronholz’s perfor-

How does this affect LeBron’s legacy?

By HAYDEN LEE Staff Writer

Feb. 7, 2023. Los Angeles Lakers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder. The day the King, The Chosen One, LeGM, LeYabadabadodontknowOldNavy became the NBA’s all time leading scorer, passing the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The compulsive liar James has a resume rivaled by only one other player, Michael Jordan. The LeBron vs. Michael Jordan debate has been a conversation for years now, but did LeBron finally cement himself as the greatest basketball player ever?

Yes.

mance in the 100 backstroke event, putting up a provisional qualifying time of 54.05. MSU’s point total moved up to 639 points, still remaining behind Augustana with 684.

Gronholz proved to be on a roll during the championships, winning her second individual event and third event overall on the

LAPS on page 13 u

No. 13 Mavericks looking for critical playoff points

By KARSON BUELOW Staff Writer

After a brief, week-long hiatus, the No. 13 Minnesota State Men’s Hockey team will return to action this weekend against their longtime CCHA rivals, the unranked Bemidji State Beavers. As we near the end of the regular season, each series becomes more critical for the Mavericks who sit two points behind Michigan Tech for first place in the CCHA.

“It’s been a productive off-week for us,” said Minnesota State Head Coach, Mike Hastings. “The guys came back with a lot of energy and now we’re gonna go play one of our rivals in a building that’s tough to play at.”

The Sanford Center, home of Beavers, has historically been an issue for the Mavericks with an alltime away record of 25-25-5.

However, it has been a while since the Mavericks made the nearly five-hour drive to Bemidji, with their last road series coming in early December 2021.

The latest official series against Bemidji State was in mid-December this season, with the Beavers earning the series sweep on the

Mavericks’ home ice. Sophomore BSU forward Jakub Lewandowski was the most consistent player on the ice between both teams during that series as he tallied crucial goals in both games to help propel his Beavers to the series sweep.

A key difference that we may see in this weekend’s series compared to December’s rests between the pipes for Minnesota State. During the majority of the first half of the regular season, the Mavericks were searching for a consistent, starting netminder after the loss of Dryden McKay.

The last series between the two teams saw freshman Alex Tracy get the nod in net for the Mavericks.

Over the last several series, Hastings has gotten comfortable relying on sophomore Keenan Rancier as a starter, which is likely to happen again this weekend.

One Maverick who Hastings has relied on for years is fifth-year senior, Andy Carroll. Carroll was recently honored by the CCHA as Defenseman of the Week after Minnesota State’s series split with St. Thomas.

Priding himself in being a mobile defenseman, Carroll has patrolled the blue line for several

years and becomes more aware of his dwindling time in Mankato.

“This is the time of the year when it gets extra exciting to be at the rink,” said Carroll. “You love going out and competing with your brothers and hopefully bring another championship to Mankato.”

If the Mavericks are going to have a chance at a possible full six points this weekend against Bem-

idji State, they are going to have to limit the offensive power of the Beavers’ top two point scorers this season.

Freshman forward Lleyton Roed and senior defenseman Elias Rosen lead the Beavers in points this season with 24.

Sophomore goaltender Mattias Sholl has been the most consistent goaltender for the Beavers this

There will never be a player that everyone believes is the best player of all time, but LeBron has made his case to be considered the G.O.A.T. and I would like to stick my neck out and say that LeBron James is the greatest player in NBA history. (Please follow me back on Instagram @ kingjames.)

Being born in 2003 has definitely affected my stance on this debate, and coincidentally, LeBron was drafted into the NBA in 2003. Weird right? It’s a question that crosses my mind every once in a while, but I’ll just put it out there now for everyone to think about. Where would LeBron James be if not for Hayden Lee? I guess we’ll never know.

When I first started watching basketball, there was one player that got all of the attention: LeBron James. At the time, he played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and had not yet won an NBA Finals. But the very next year, he joined the Miami Heat along with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, forming a team I would grow to hate because they were so good.

Those next four years would be torture, as I had to watch LeBron and the Heat play in four straight NBA Finals and win back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013 as he began to build his case for the greatest player of all time. I was rooting against him for “what he did to the NBA.”

I was still an inexperienced basketball fan at the time, but I knew something was up with this “LeBron” guy. Seriously, can you imagine if he was working somewhere like Jo-Ann Fabrics with that name? LeBron is a name that was always meant to stick out.

It was not until he returned home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers again that I started to seriously consider him to have a chance to become better than Jordan. In his second stint with the Cavaliers, LeBron did not

File photo

MSU Women’s Swimming & Diving team brought home 2nd place in the NSIC Championships over the weekend. The Mavericks next meet is Saturday, Feb. 18 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

DYLAN ENGEL • The Reporter

The MSU Men’s Hockey team returns to the ice this weekend after a week break. The Mavericks play an away series against Bemidji State Feb. 17 and Feb. 18.

Women’s NSIC playoff seed on the line

Last Dance for the Seniors

By LUKE JACKSON Staff Writer

The Minnesota State Women’s Basketball team looks ahead to their last two regular season games. The Mavs host Winona State Thursday and go on the road to take on Upper Iowa Saturday, for the last game before the postseason.

Both Winona State and Upper Iowa are toward the bottom of the NSIC. Winona State is currently on a five-game losing streak with a record of 10-16. They will be heavy underdogs as they have to travel to Mankato to play at the Taylor Center.

Winona has a single road win on the season, losing their other 10. On the other hand, Mankato is stellar at home, in which they have only dropped one game at the Taylor Center with a home record of 10-1.

Upper Iowa is now 10-15 after their Saturday win versus Sioux

Falls. This was an overtime thriller where they got their first roadgame win in the NSIC since Jan. 2017. That is 62 games lost on the road. Expect Upper Iowa to ride off that high and show up with something to prove for their last home game versus Mankato.

Regardless of these teams’ records, Mankato will need to play their hardest. With Augustana just one game behind in the playoff race, they have their NSIC playoff seed on the line. They will also be playing for home court and two wins this weekend would secure that. They play with a “one game at a time” mindset according to Coach Emiliee Thiesse. They make sure to never overlook their opponents.

“I’m feeling very good about our team,” said Thiesse. “Our strength of schedule makes us feel great, we are healthy and playing very well. That’s just about all you can ask for.”

The Mavs are coming off a

road sweep versus Wayne State and Augustana. Their current record is 21-3 with a winning streak of seven games. These wins helped them climb the national ranks ever so slightly, as they moved from No.14 to No.13 among all other division two teams.

MSU is one of two ranked teams in the NSIC. The other is Minnesota Duluth who gave the Mavericks their second-season loss. Minnesota Duluth is No.11 with a record of 22-3. There is a good chance that these two teams will come up with the No.1 seed in their divisions for the conference playoffs and have the potential to see each other in the championship.

The Mavs are hosting Winona Thursday at 7:30 at the Taylor Center, in what could be their last home game of the season. After this weekend, the NSIC tournament schedule will be decided based on what top teams win and lose this weekend.

By CHARLIE GROEBNER Staff Writer

With the Championship tournaments only a week away, Minnesota State prepares for their final home dual of the 22’-23’ season. Four months of trekking through the frigid weather across the Midwest has led to a Friday night clash at home with fellow NSIC opponent Upper Iowa to close out the regular season.

Coming off last weekend’s shutout against the University of Wisconsin Parkside, the Mavs are hungry to get a win. Currently riding a three-match losing streak, they are looking to finish this season on a positive note. Head Coach, Jim Makovsky, noted that while last week is a distant memory, it’s time that his group starts taking it to the next level.

“Same thing our guys are, which is a better performance

and better week of preparation. We have another great and quality team coming in and we need to be ready to take the next step. These guys have been taking tests all season and now sit in the B or C range. Now it is time for them to take their final exam and we need an A-worthy performance,” said Makovsky.

It will certainly need to be an A-worthy performance against the Peacocks. Last year, the Mavs got rag dolled by them in a 36-8 blowout loss. While this year the Peacocks have had a strong start, they have slipped in the past few weeks. Currently riding their own three-game losing streak, they are also desperate for a win as the season comes to an end.

Even for the struggles, 157 Ibs senior Chase Luensman has not been an issue whatsoever. The All-American from Monticello,

final day. By the end of the fourday meet, the Mavericks saw 12 members of their team earning All-NSIC Honors.

The Mavericks had hopes of placing first at the NSIC Championships, though realized second

 CRITICAL from page 12

 LAPS from page 12 season.

The Hermosa Beach, California native owns a .912 save

place is nothing to overlook.

“Immediately after we found out that we finished 2nd, we were a little down but with time we realized we all did our best and overachieved by making it such a close meet,” said Beckman.

Next up for MSU Swimming

percentage on the year and 2.12 goals-against average.

The Mavericks and Beavers face off for the last time during the

and Diving is the NCAA Championships, beginning March 8 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Gronholz is one of the few who will be featured at Nationals. However, a number of swimmers who didn’t qualify are headed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota Saturday for one last chance to qualify.

regular season this weekend at the Sanford Center in Bemidji. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. Friday and 6:07 p.m. Saturday.

DYLAN ENGEL • The Reporter

The MSU Wrestling team concludes their regular season with their final home dual against Upper Iowa Friday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Taylor Center.

DYLAN LONG • The Reporter

MSU Women’s Basketball team aims for their eighth straight win as they play their final home game of the regular season against Winona State, today, Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

SENIORS on page 14 u

Rollercoaster regular season ending

By HAYDEN LEE Staff Writer

It’s simple, a Mavs win Thursday guarantees them a spot in the NSIC Tournament.

A Thursday night home matchup against Winona State carries heavy playoff implications for a Mavs team that has cooled off significantly since their 9-0 start. Luckily, the Mavs will get a day of rest before they hit the road to take on Upper Iowa Saturday night.

“It’s do or die,” said Mavs’ coach Matthew Margenthaler. “We are basically approaching this week like it’s playoffs.”

Not a bad idea, as just like the playoffs, the Mavs could be knocked out of contention if they lose both games this weekend. However, the Mavs should be relieved to have Friday as a rest day, as they have not put together a 2-0 weekend since early December.

“We’ve just been very inconsistent, and we’ve been that way since Christmas, and it really just comes down to our shooting,” said Margenthaler.

The Mavs are 2-2 in their last four, and when they shoot well, they win, as they did against Sioux Falls and Wayne State. They won while shooting above 42% from the field and beyond the arc in both games.

In their two losses against SMSU and Augustana, they shot 33% from the field and under 25% from three.

“We have guys who have proven they can make shots, but we just have to take more high quality shots,” said Margenthaler.

 LEBRON from page 12

miss a beat, going to the finals for another four straight years to make it eight straight years that LeBron took his LeTeam to LeFinals.

I don’t think I need to do an entire LeBron career summary, because if you’re reading this, you know who LeBron is, and if you want to know what his career looks like, Google him.

My point is, it doesn’t matter. LeBron’s legacy is built on longevity, and every year, he has inched closer to being considered the G.O.A.T.

Even I was on the Jordan G.O.A.T. train for a while, but as time passed, I got to a point where I can’t deny it anymore.

People talk about how Jordan has a better finals record (6-0)

No. 15 Mavericks to face No. 12 Huskies

 SENIORS from page 13

Iowa currently holds a record of 23-2 this season and is arguably the best wrestler on their roster. However, before his last visit to the Super Regions Tournament, he will have to warm up against the young and hungry Mavs lineup. With all the tension as the season finale has finally arrived, it will be a night of emotions. MSU seniors Dylan Butts, Gavin Chris-

In their matchup earlier in the season, the Mavs shot 44% from the field and 44% from three on their way to a 74-71 win on the road. This time, the Mavs will have the home crowd behind them as they take the court at Taylor Center.

The Warriors come into Thursday’s matchup 14-11 and in seventh place in the South Division. They are led by leading scorer Connor Dillon, who averages 18.3 points per game, but has a weakness from beyond the arc, where he is shooting 29% on the year.

Connor Drew and Luke Martens are good second and third options offensively, both averaging close to 12 ppg. Dillon and Martens combined for 40 points when the teams met before.

“We need to win these games to stay alive,” said Margenthaler. “But we can’t play tight, we just

than LeBron, (4-6) but he doesn’t have the longevity that LeBron has. Personally, I would rather watch my G.O.A.T. lose in the NBA Finals than to BILL LAIMBEER in three straight years.

That’s like saying Eli Manning is the greatest NFL player ever because he has never lost in the Super Bowl.

We all know that Eli Manning is a derp and would be crushed if he had to face off against Kirk Cousins in the Super Bowl.

Watching LeBron on the Lakers has been sad in a way, because I did not appreciate him while he was still at the top of his game.

2018 LeBron is the greatest NBA player to ever touch grass, he beat the greatest team ever, and he has won a championship with three different teams.

need to get on a roll as we head into the conference tournament.”

After Friday’s rest day, the Mavs will conclude their regular season in Iowa as they take on the Upper Iowa Peacocks.

Earlier in the season, the Mavs took care of business 97-68 at home. The Mavs’ defensive pressure led the way, and the Peacocks saw their three-point percentage dip into single digits in the loss.

The Peacocks sit at 14-12 on the season and are coming off of a win over Sioux Falls where Jake Hilmer dropped 42 points.

Hilmer is averaging 22 points per game on the year, followed by Lucas Duax who is up to 17.1 points per game.

Inconsistencies and injuries have plagued the Mavs since their 9-0 start, but as soon as Saturday’s game concludes, a new season begins.

LeBron is a talent we have never seen before and likely won’t see again.

Becoming the NBA’s all-time leading scorer has just begun to put things into perspective for me, so I understand why some people may think Michael Jordan is the G.O.A.T. But for me, I just can’t call a player I have literally never seen play basketball in real time the G.O.A.T.

Sitting at 38,390 points, LeBron now stands alone at the top of the NBA’s all time leading scorers list, while Jordan was “only” able to score 32,292 points.

That’s over 6,000 reasons why you should stop pretending like you were born in the 80s or 90s and appreciate the greatness that is right in front of you, it might not be on display for that much longer. Skol.

By KOLE BUELOW Staff Writer

Tied at 30 points in conference action, the 15th-ranked Minnesota State and No. 12-ranked St. Cloud State women’s hockey teams face off this weekend in a WCHA two-game series..

For the first time since Dec. 20, 2005, the women’s hockey team is ranked in the USA Hockey Poll. The program’s current state has arguably never been better, and the Mavericks will look to continue that narrative when traveling north to St. Cloud this weekend.

The Huskies and the Mavericks have played each other twice already this season, with the Mavs coming out on top in both contests by scores of 3-1 and 4-1. Minnesota State won both games at home when St. Cloud State was ranked No. 14 in the USCHO and USA Hockey polls.

Since then, the Mavericks have been a consistent reserve in both polls, and after their sweep over Bemidji State this past weekend, they finally cracked the rankings.

“After beating St. Cloud the first time, sweeping them, we for sure thought that we were gonna crack it so it was devastating when we did not,” explained senior goaltender Alexa Berg. “It definitely set a fire underneath us, wanting to be ranked. When we found out yesterday, we were all in the locker room and we were so excited. We know we’re a team that deserves to be in that spot.”

It has been a long time coming for Minnesota State to receive recognition nationally, not only this year but also in years past. When current head coach John Harrington took over in 2015, he was put in a position to build

toffersen, Brock Luthens, Darell Mason, Brody Nielsen and Max Villnow will possibly suit up one final time for the fans at the Taylor Center.

All six men have given a lot to the program through some of the hardest periods in collegiate sports. Coach Makovsky said that he could not be more pleased with what his guys have gone through.

“I am most proud of my guys

who have stuck with the program. Whether they were starters or not doesn’t matter. This group is full of incredible men who are going to really go places which is the thing that really makes me proud. While it wasn’t ideal considering the last two or three years, we still tried to make the most of it. That would be the only thing that really put a pit in my stomach,” said Makovsky.

DYLAN ENGEL • The Reporter

The MSU Men’s Basketball team plays their final home game of the regular season against Winona State today, Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m.

LILLY ANDERSON • The Reporter MSU Women’s Hockey team wraps up their regular season with a two-game away series against St. Cloud State this weekend.

HUSKIES on page 15 u

What’s a legal slap?

By MARK ANDERSON The Associated PRess

The state commission that regulates slap fighting — in which opponents take turns striking each other in the face — attempted Wednesday to address a critical question for the budding sport: What constitutes a legal slap?

Competitors in the Power Slap League must deliver only open-handed blows and must not hit opponents below the chin, according to amended rules approved by the Nevada Athletic Commission that seek to make the matches safer.

The commission originally voted in October to sanction slap fighting, asserting it wanted to prevent unregulated matches and ensure competitors are safe. “So, these guys want to get serious about the sport and it sounds like.”

 HUSKIES from page 14

MSU’s program from the bottom up.

Harrington and the Mavs finished just 3-29-4 in his first year as head coach, but steady growth in the team’s performance has now found the team at 15-16-1 with just two games remaining in the regular season. With two wins this weekend, the Mavericks will reach the 17-win mark, which would be a new school record for the women and a giant step in the right direction for the women’s hockey program.

A lot is on the line this weekend, not only from a program standpoint but also in the eyes of the WCHA standings where the Mavericks are currently tied for fifth with none other than this weekend’s matchup: the St. Cloud State Huskies.

“When we found out we were

ranked yesterday, seeing Brooke Bryant, who’s a fifth year, so excited to finally get ranked. How excited she was, screaming up and down, makes you realize how hard they’ve worked for this moment,” said Berg. “I believe it’s only going to go up from here.”

Berg also did not forget to mention, “Being tied with St. Cloud is definitely keeping us on our heels. We gotta focus on taking it one period at a time this weekend.”

St. Cloud State has been a tough team to beat this year, going step-for-step with some of college hockey’s best. The Huskies have taken down currently ranked No. 4 Minnesota and No. 6 Wisconsin, while also giving No. 8 Minnesota Duluth a run for their money as well.

With St. Cloud in a position where it can protect home ice while also fending off Minnesota State in the WCHA standings,

Berg expects the Huskies will make it difficult on the Mavericks this weekend.

“We expect that they’re not going to give up at all,” said Berg. “They’re a really hard working team, an aggressive team that likes to block shots. We want to make sure we’re getting pucks through. “

Despite this, the Mavericks are more confident than ever going into the weekend.

“After taking Duluth into overtime twice and beating Bemidji during senior weekend, everyone is feeling good,” explained Berg. “Everyone is comfortable and confident, and we’re super excited to get on the ice on Friday.”

The series begins this upcoming weekend on Feb. 17 and Feb. 18, where the two will battle for the WCHA’s fifth seed at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m. and 3 p.m.

NASCAR

75: Car evolution includes stock, wings, safety. EV?

By MARK LONG The Associated Press

NASCAR’s next 75 years almost certainly will include at least a partially electric vehicle turning laps at Daytona International Speedway.

It’s unfathomable to some, unconscionable to others.

It’s unlikely the sanctioning body would make the transition without at least trying to keep the heart-pounding sound of a throaty engine and the permeating smell of exhaust fumes – as much garage staples as sponsorship logos and haulers.

“Do I see us racing EVs down the road? Probably,” former NASCAR crew chief and longtime Fox Sports commentator Larry McReynolds said. “But I’m going to be very honest and very candid. I hope it’s after I’ve left the

sport. I like what we’ve got.”

Even though the Next Gen car is entering its second NASCAR season – a nd already has been tweaked in hopes of preventing more head injuries like the one that sidelined 2004 champion Kurt Busch indefinitely – the evolution of the car has been an integral part of the sport since its debut in 1948.

The car has gone from “Strictly Stock” in its inaugural season to high-tech platforms distinguished solely by manufacturer stickers in the 1980s to something in between these days. What’s next will be debated, but most believe a new engine will be introduced sooner rather than later.

“The electrification of the cars has to be on the horizon. Whether it’s 50 miles on the horizon or 300 miles on the horizon,” NASCAR historian Ken Martin said.

JAMES P. KERLIN • The Associated Press Red Farmer goes airborne after hitting a hole on the four-mile Daytona Beach road course during the 100-mile Modified and Sportsmen type stock car race.

GREGORY PAYAN • The Associated Press UFC President Dana White attends the ceremonial weigh-in for the UFC on ABC 3 mixed martial arts event on July 15, 2022, in Elmont, NY.

No. 10 Tennessee takes down No. 1 Alabama

By AL LESAR The Associated Press

Rocky Top was too much for top-ranked Alabama.

Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi each scored 15 points and No. 10 Tennessee extended the jinx for No. 1 teams, jolting the Crimson Tide 68-59 on Wednesday night.

On Monday, Alabama climbed to the top spot in The Associated Press poll for the first time since the 2002-03 season. But playing for the first time since the new rankings came out, the Crimson Tide (22-4, 12-1 SEC) led just once in the early going and committed 19 turnovers.

Alabama’s loss was the eighth by an AP No. 1 team this season. That ties the most in a regular season with 1993-94 in a stat dating to 1948-49.

“We turned the ball over too much tonight,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. “(Tennessee) got 26 points off the turnovers. Their physicality. ... They got into our guards and we couldn’t handle it.”

Tennessee bounced back from a pair of last-second defeats.

“After those tough losses, we stayed with it,” coach Rick Barnes said. “We didn’t splinter.”

Vols big man Jonas Aidoo added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Volunteers (20-6, 9-5).

“It takes confidence,” he said. “We go through the ups and

downs. We just do what we do and play hard and we’ll be fine.”

Unlike football, when Tennessee fans stormed their home field after beating No. 3 Alabama 5249 in October, this sellout crowd stayed in the seats when it was over.

“Rocky Top” loudly blared as the

Volunteers ended a two-game skid.

Alabama became the last Power 5 men’s team to lose a conference game this season. The Tide’s only lead in this game came at 12-11.

Brandon Miller led Alabama with 15 points along with 10 re-

bounds, Jaden Bradley added 14 points and Nimari Burnett had 11.

“We shot 6 of 20 at the rim,” Oats said. “(Tennessee) was able to finish stuff at the rim.”

Uros Plavsic, who scored 10 points, connected on a three-point

play to give Tennessee a 56-47 lead with just over five minutes left in the game.

Vescovi tossed a lob that Olivier Nkamhoua caught in mid-air and followed with a slam to put Tennessee ahead 19-15 with 7:42 to play in the first half. It was tied at 29 at the break.

“We were down on ourselves a little bit,” Zeigler said. “We were down 17 (in the second half Saturday against Missouri) and we came back. We have to bring that (second-half effort) every night.”

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Alabama: Alabama is 14-13 against Top 25 teams during Oats’ five years.

Tennessee: A pair of buzzer-beating losses only cost the Vols four places in this week’s poll. … Tennessee has won six of its last seven games against Top 10 teams. … Earlier this season, the Vols lost at No. 9 Arizona.

BIG PICTURE

Alabama: Big man Charles Bediako has been hobbled with a “minor knee injury” he sustained in Saturday’s win over Auburn. He was able to play in the game. … Heading into the game, Miller was the only Division I player to score 470 points, grab 200 rebounds and make 75 3-pointers. Zeigler was matched up against Miller’s team in an AAU game a couple years ago when he caught Barnes’ eye.

WADE PAYNE • The Associated Press Tennessee forward Olivier Nkamhoua (13) reacts to dunking the ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Alabama , Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, in Knoxville, Tenn.

VA RI ET Y

Be in love with yourself for Valentine’s Day

By LAUREN VISKA Staff Writer

Some students can get down in the dumps on Valentine’s Day, so the Multicultural Center hosted an event to help students celebrate themselves and have a self-care night.

Fabiola Diaz, the director of Latinx Affairs, came up with the event idea to have people feel good about themselves on this holiday. It is also a collaboration with the other departments in the Multicultural Center.

“We [The Multicultural Center] wanted to make sure that all the students felt the love with themselves first. That way, they can portray love to other people,” said Diaz. “There were a couple of activities like the loving yourself activity which was making cards for other people. Another one was self-love, in which we had a couple of mirrors where students said positive affirmations to themselves looking at their mirror.”

There was also bingo at the event in which students could win prizes. As the event was hosted on Valentine’s Day, there were an assortment of Valentine’s-themed prizes to win, along with regular items useful for any student.

“They were in correlation

with the loving yourself theme. We had some stress items like facial masks, stress bowls and lip balms. We also had massage guns as well,” said Daiz. “The other ones were just general prices like mugs with candy. I

love candy. There was also some MSU gear as well.”

BalenciaSariah Crosby, the interim director of African American Affairs, hopes students got a lot out of this event.

“This is a collaborative effort

across our different offices within the Multicultural Center and diversity at large. There’s like all hands on deck in everyone’s involved in their own way. There were different twists and things that we brought to it,” said

Crosby. “At the end of the day, I think we all understand and recognize that there is a need for affirming oneself and affirming others. It was an opportunity to get the students to look within, look at one another right, appreciate and acknowledge, and so forth, which is critical to mental and emotional well-being.”

Midterms happen next week, and students can get overwhelmed by them. Crosby thinks that this event was a good way for students to destress.

“We’re approaching midterms soon. It is becoming very apparent that the students are under strain, and we wanted to provide these safe and fun opportunities for them to freely expressed and appreciate themselves and just enjoy amid everything that’s happening around us in our communities and beyond,” said Crosby.

Diaz hoped students got a lot out of this event as well.

“I think this is a great reminder for everyone to love themselves because of how we see ourselves sometimes. We judge ourselves or stress and think about other things,” said Diaz. “Sometimes we forget about ourselves, and it’s a good reminder to bring ourselves and our mental health first to give to others.”

Conkling Gallery hosts Minnesota State students’ thesis exhibition

DYLAN LONG • The Reporter

The Multicultural Center put on their “Love Yourself” event on Valentine’s Day to spread the message that even if you’re alone on Valentine’s Day, you can be your own Valentine and your own lover.

Photos by DYLAN ENGEL

The Conkling Gallery hosted the final thesis exhibitions of two current Minnesota State graduate students, Kelly Munson and Kristen Brown. According to Kristen Brown, it makes her happy that there are “so many opportunities to submit my work to shows off and on campus, interact with visiting artists, and learn from my peers as well as instructors.”

Doja Cat, John Travolta, Ben Affleck star in Super Bowl ads

Crafternoon

all afternoon at Women’s Center

By MAE ANDERSON The Associated Press

The big day for marketers has arrived: The Super Bowl is advertising’s biggest, glitziest stage.

Big name advertisers from Netflix to Google paid as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot during the game, seeking to capture the attention of the roughly 100 million viewers who tune in each year.

To get the most out of those millions, many advertisers released their ads days ahead of the big game to maximize publicity. Ram spoofed ads for erectile dysfunction in a commercial for its Ram 1500 REV electric pickup by showing drivers worried about “premature electrification.” In other ads, John Travolta and “Scrubs” stars Donald Faison and Zach Braff sing a T-Mobile themed version of “Summer Nights” from “Grease,” Adam Driver creates multiple versions of himself for Squarespace, and Alicia Silverstone reprises her “Clueless” character for the online shopping site Rakuten.

AVOCADOS FROM MEXICO

Anna Faris stars as Eve, who eats an avocado in the garden of Eden. Flash forward to the present day, when no one is ashamed of nudity and everyone is naked, including the Statue of Liberty.

BOOKING.COM

Actress Melissa McCarthy stars in a musical number for the travel site about her desire to go on a trip “somewhere, anywhere.”

BUD LIGHT

Actor Miles Teller (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and his wife Keleigh Sperry Teller dance to customer service hold music

while drinking a Bud Light.

BUDWEISER

In a regional ad, a diverse group of people share a sixpack of Budweiser — a voiceover by Kevin Bacon showcases the “six degrees of Bud.” Although he’s not shown, the ad is a nod to the “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” meme — the idea that anyone in the entertainment business can be linked to Kevin Bacon in six connections.

BUSCH LIGHT

A mountain man talks about surviving the outdoors in an ad that stars singer Sarah McLachlan spoofing her wellknown and oft mocked animal-advocacy ad that uses her song “Angel.”

CROWN ROYAL

Musician Dave Grohl thanks Canada for a variety of things that come from Canada, including Crown Royal and even football.

DEXCOM

Singer Nick Jonas returns for the second year in an ad that highlight’s Dexcom’s glucose monitoring system.

DOORDASH

Celebrity chef Matty Matheson, Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon The Chef and Nickelodeon’s stop-motion-animated Tiny Chef help a DoorDash shopper find the best products.

DORITOS

Music stars Jack Harlow, Missy Elliott and Elton John team up in an ad for Doritos Sweet & Tangy BBQ that shows Harlow abandoning his rap career to focus on the triangle — a Doritos-shaped musical instrument.

DOWNY UNSTOPABLES

Super Bowl regular Procter & Gamble promotes its Downy Unstopables brand in an ad showing actor Danny

McBride — who wants to go by “Downy McBride.”

DRAFTKINGS

The online betting site shows stars including skateboard mogul Tony Hawk and singer Ludacris discussing DraftKings free bet offer at a party at actor Kevin Hart’s house.

DUNKIN’ DONUTS

Ben Affleck works a drivethrough window at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Medford, Massachusetts, shocking customers. His wife, Jennifer Lopez, surprises him in the car line.

E(asterisk)TRADE

The E(asterisk)Trade babies are back. This time they’re at a wedding to demonstrate E(asterisk)Trade makes you ready for anything, including marriage, kids and college.

FARMER’S DOG

The subscription dog food service goes for the heartstrings with an ad showing a woman going through life’s milestones with her dog.

GENERAL MOTORS

AND NETFLIX

Actor and comedian Will Ferrell drives different GM electric vehicles through different Netflix shows, including “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things,” to announce that Netflix will feature electric vehicles in its original shows.

GOOGLE

Google promotes its Pixel photo editing tools “Magic Eraser” and “Photo Unblur” with a 90 second spot featuring Amy Schumer, Doja Cat and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

HELLMANN’S

The mayo brand shows actors Jon Hamm and Brie Larson in a fridge with a jar of Hellmann’s mayo — to drive home the point that Hellmann’s would go well.

By KENDALL LARSON Staff Writer

Crafternoons is an hourlong event held on Tuesdays by the Women’s Center. It focuses on fun crafts that can help students relax and rejuvenate. You can paint, knit, draw, color and even embroider anything. There is a little something for everyone there.

“One afternoon, we worked on a STEM box you could decorate. We filled it with fidgets, candy, and cards for the counseling and women’s center,” said BriShaun Kearns, a graduate assistant working with the women’s center.

The event is a great way to express yourself. Kearns said they encourage students to make crafts that relate to themselves and connect with others

with similar interests.

Kearns recalls, “We had one student painting mushrooms, and a girl in the corner was embroidering them. They were able to bond over this shared aesthetic of mushrooms.”

Beyond being a great way to connect with peers, Crafternoons offers students a chance to experiment with new hobbies.

“As students, we are all struggling, and new hobbies can be expensive to invest in, so Liz [Steinborn-Gourley, director of the Women’s Center] and I put together Crafternoons. We thought up ideas, planned out what we were going to do, and did it,” said Kearns.

Students are also welcome to drop into the Women’s Cen-

LILLY ANDERSON • The Reporter

The Women’s Center hosted another round of Crafternoons on Tuesday. Any students that are interested are free to come in and join.

CRAFTS on page 19

RAKUTEN REWARDS via THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

This photo provided by Rakuten Rewards shows Alicia Silverstone in a scene from Rakuten Rewards 2023 Super Bowl NFL football spot. Big name advertisers are paying as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot during the big game on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023.

Hollywood sex symbol Raquel Welch dies at 82

By MARK KENNEDY The Associated Press

Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, has died. She was 82.

Welch died early Wednesday after a brief illness, according to her agent, Stephen LaManna of the talent agency Innovative Artists.

Welch’s breakthrough came in 1966’s campy prehistoric flick “One Million Years B.C.,” despite having a grand total of three lines. Clad in a brown doeskin bikini, she successfully evaded pterodactyls but not the notice of the public.

“I just thought it was a goofy dinosaur epic we’d be able to sweep under the carpet one day,” she told The Associated Press in 1981. “Wrong. It turned out that I was the Bo Derek of the season, the lady in

 CRAFTS from page 18

ter at any time to work on crafts as Kearns spends their time connecting with the students. Kearns helps the students with their crafts, finds resources, and even gives them someone to talk to.

“I check in with folks and get to know them. I try to gauge how they feel and see if I can help them.”

Through these connections, Kearns learns about the students around campus and connects the students with resources they could use.

“I help students learn about food assistance programs, schol-

the loin cloth about whom everyone said, ‘My God, what a bod’ and they expected to disappear overnight.”

She did not, playing Lust for the comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their film “Bedazzled” in 1967 and playing a secret agent in the sexy spy spoof “Fathom” that same year.

Her curves and beauty captured pop culture attention, with Playboy crowning her the “most desired woman” of the ‘70s, despite never being completely naked in the magazine.

In 2013, she graced the No. 2 spot on Men’s Health’s “Hottest Women of All Time” list. In the film “The Shawshank Redemption,” a poster of Welch is used to cover an escape tunnel, the last of three women he used images of after Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe.

In addition to acting, Welch was a singer and dancer. She surprised many critics — and won positive reviews — when she starred in the 1981 musi-

arships, emergency funds, and accessibility accommodations.”

Kearns also mentioned that because they make these connections they are able to create lasting bonds with the students.

“It can be hard to make initial connections, but [Crafternoons] provides a bridge for students. There’s a little bit more willingness to trust us with providing resources or emotional support during a hard time.”

Kearns commented that they had struggled and didn’t know about the resources around them until they graduated. They want students to learn about available resources so they don’t face the same struggle.

cal “Woman of the Year” on Broadway, replacing a vacationing Lauren Bacall. She returned to the Great White Way in 1997 in “Victor/Victoria.”

She knew that some people didn’t take her seriously because of her glamorous image. “I’m not Penny Marshall or Barbra Streisand,” she told the AP in 1993. “They’ll say, ‘Raquel Welch wants to direct? Give me a break.”’

Welch was born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago and raised in La Jolla, California. (The Jo in her name was from her mother, Josephine). Welch was a divorced mother when she met ex-actor turned press agent, Patrick Curtis.

“The irony of it all is that even though people thought of me as a sex symbol, in reality I was a single mother of two small children!” she wrote in her autobiography, “Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.”

Curtis became her manager and second husband and helped shape her.

Kearns said, “The Women’s Center invites you to hang out, whether at events or even in our department space.”

To Kearns and the Women’s Center, how you identify does not matter. You are welcome to talk about your issues or just come and study in a safe place.

Kearns said, “I want students to know that, despite the name of the women’s center, here we have a space physically and in our hearts for every student. We want to hear your voices and learn about what is going on. We want students to be part of a community that uplifts and supports them.”

on Valentine’s Day

Brandon Maxwell goes back to basics

By NARDOS HAILE The Associated Press

Brandon Maxwell went back to the basics and hit on the vintage revival trends while challenging silhouettes in his fall/winter collection debut at New York Fashion Week.

Tuesday’s show was held in an industrial building on Valentine’s Day. Heart-shaped chocolate boxes were laid across the benches before the start of the show, setting the loving atmosphere.

Maxwell played with neutrals and ’90s silhouettes, really homing in on comfort and versatility while also elevating classic trends like oversized blazers and coats and textured loungewear.

The opening look was a modern take on suits — the model wore a structured blazer

with a matching pair of baggy shorts that were hemmed above the knee. The look was accentuated with gaudy silver cuff bracelets, long black socks and trappy short black mini heels.

Maxwell stuck with different shades of tan, black, burgundy, brown and white for a subdued but chic ’90s aesthetic that accentuated the tailoring of these effortless clothes.

“While the color palette may suggest that it’s dark and the music was quite bombastic, it’s deeply rooted in joy for me,” Maxwell said in a backstage interview.

One of the best looks from the show was a two-piece cropped suit ensemble with a skinny belt around the waist. Other looks varied from long, slouchy textured knitwear in brown and white, cozy.

CHRIS PIZZELLO • The Associated Press

BEBETO MATTHEWS • The Associated Press

Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film “One Million Years B.C.” would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, died early Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, after a brief illness. She was 82.

Fashion from Brandon Maxwell is modeled during Fashion Week, Tuesday Feb. 14, 2023, in New York.