1/16/20 Full Edition

News: In Memoriam of Lemon White Page 6

Opinion: Soleimani assassination Sports: Jamie Newman transfers to UGA reflects imperial policies Page 9 Page 7

Life: Uncut Gems is a chaotic film starring Adam Sandler Page 14

Old Gold&Black

WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VOL. 106, NO. 14

T H U R S DAY, JA N UA RY 16 , 2 0 2 0 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”

Deacons fall to Michigan State After an impressive season, the football team pulled up short in the Pinstripe Bowl, losing 27-21

Photo courtesy of Michael Noble Jr for the Winston-Salem Journal Graphic by Lillian Johnson/Old Gold & Black

BY RAFAEL LIMA Staff Writer limara17@wfu.edu At the legendary Yankee Stadium, Wake Forest’s (8-5) three-straight bowl game winning streak came to an end after the Deacs lost 27 – 21 to the Michigan State Spartans (76) in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 27.

In a game that had everything from a Spartan defensive lineman pick-six to a one-handed, 16-yard touchdown catch by Wake Forest true freshman receiver Donavon Greene, the Deacs ultimately came up short on a few plays.

The Spartans were powered by an outstanding performance from senior quarterback Brian Lewerke on his final game leading the Michigan State offense. He threw for 320 yards and a touchdown while completing 70.27% of his 37 passes. Lewerke, and the Michigan State offense as a whole, continuously frustrated Wake Forest’s comeback attempts with timely, big plays down the stretch.

All Wake Forest touchdown drives were subsequently matched by a Michigan State field goal or touchdown.

Despite Michigan State’s big plays, the Demon Deacons still found themselves in multiple positions that would allow them to win the game. Ultimately, they were incapable of capitalizing on those opportunities.

No sequence of play exemplifies this better than late in the fourth quarter when Lewerke had a 24-yard run on second and 17 to Wake Forest’s 16-yard line with 3:50 left on the clock. The run would set up an easy field goal to put the Spartans up two scores and effectively end the game.

Instead, junior kicker Matt Coghlin missed the 28-yard field goal attempt, giving the ball back to the Demon

Deacons with 2:57 left in the game and down by six.

What followed was an incomplete pass by junior quarterback Jamie Newman, a sack that knocked him out of the game for the last two plays and two slightly-off throws by sophomore backup quarterback Sam Hartman that sealed Wake Forest’s fate. After being handed a chance to win the game with a last-minute touchdown, the Deacs failed to muster a single first down.

In what was a rather remarkable campaign by the football team in 2019, the loss to Michigan State will mark a sour end to the season for many Wake Forest fans. Reaching its fourth-straight bowl game under Head Coach Dave Clawson (a school record), winning the North Carolina Big Four championship and cracking the College Football Playoff Top 25 for the first time in school history are all accomplishments to be proud of.

See Deacons, Page 9

wfuogb.com

Managing an endowment requires eco-consciousness In the era of climate change advocacy, universities like Wake Forest must invest responsibly

BY ISABELLA KORNITSKY Contributing Writer kornik16@wfu.edu When it comes to a university’s endowment, a large increase in capital comes with an increase in visibility and responsibility in managing that money.

Launched in 2013, the Wake Will Lead campaign promised opportunity in education by attempting to raise $600 million. In October, the campaign surpassed its $1 billion fundraising milestone. With this elevated endowment, the university now has the financial backing to better address current challenges.

In the age of climate change, this means aligning the endowment with the values of climate action leadership already visible on campus.

Higher education communities across the country push for climate leadership in managing university endowments.

Although the university’s endowment does not maintain any fossil fuel investments, fossil fuel divestment campaigns are prominent at many universities, such as Harvard, which still invests despite criticism.

In 2013, the then-president of Harvard University, Drew Faust, announced that Harvard’s $33 billion endowment “is a resource, not an instrument to propel social or political change.”

At Wake Forest, a campus with a highly visible Office of Sustainability and other sustainability initiatives, the endowment is managed by Verger Capital Management, an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). While Verger seeks to align its mission with that of the university, specifically when it comes to sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, the question remains whether it is enough. Sustainability advocates argue that, in light of the current climate crisis, the influence provided by a large endowment gives a prestigious university like Wake Forest an opportune platform to lead.

Verger’s Chief Executive and Investment Officer Jim Dunn formerly managed Wake Forest’s endowment internally as the vice president and chief investment officer. In 2014, driven by efforts to cut expenses through sharing operational costs with other endowments, the Board of Trustees voted to engage Verger as an OCIO.

See Climate, Page 4

OGB

“ New OGB leadership prepares for the year This column represents the views of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board.

We look forward to continuing to provide fair and unbiased news to the university community ..."

As we transition into a new decade, the Editorial Board of the Old Gold & Black is looking forward to a year filled with growth, innovation and a continued dedication to reporting on the events of our campus.

Junior Olivia Field, who previously served as News and Life Editor, will succeed senior Lillian Johnson as Editor-in-Chief. She will be joined on the executive editorial staff by junior Emily Beauchamp, who will serve as Print Managing Editor following her role as Life Editor for four semesters and junior Elizabeth Maline, who will begin her role as Online Managing Editor after working as News Editor.

Sophomore Caroline Walker will lead the News section after three se-

mesters as Assistant News Editor, joined by senior Lillian Johnson as Senior News Adviser. In the Sports section, Amanda Wilcox will take over as editor with the aid of freshmen Ben Conroy and Will Zimmerman, who will be Assistant Sports Editors. After semesters abroad, Juniors Jack Portman and Catherine Regen will take on the Opinion and Life sections, respectively.

A primary goal for this upcoming year is to expand the content of our

Old Gold &Black

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSIT Y SINCE 1916 OLIVIA FIELD

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF fielor17@wfu.edu

CHARLIE BENEDICT

BUSINESS MANAGER

benecc19@wfu.edu

EMILY BEAUCHAMP

ELIZABETH MALINE

PRINT MANAGING EDITOR

ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR

beauea17@wfu.edu

>> NEWS Caroline Walker, walkct18@wfu.edu Senior News Advisor: Lillian Johnson, johnlg16@wfu.edu

>> SPORTS Amanda Wilcox, wilcaf16@wfu.edu Assistant: Ben Conroy, conrbd19@wfu.edu Will Zimmerman, zimmwj19@wfu.edu

>> OPINION Jack Portman, portjt17@wfu.edu

>> LIFE Catherine Regen, regecl17@wfu.edu Assistant: Andy Killebrew, killae17@wfu.edu

>> ADVISER Phoebe Zerwick, zerwicp@wfu.edu

malied17@wfu.edu

>> POLICIES

The Old Gold & Black is published Thursdays during the school year, except during examinations, summer and holiday periods, by Triangle Printing of Durham. © 2014 WFU Media Board. All rights reserved. The views expressed in all editorials and advertisements contained within this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the OGB. As part of our commitment to reporting news fairly and accurately, we will not remove any previously published content. If an error in either our online or print content is brought to our attention, we will revise the originally published article with an appended correction. In order to facilitate thoughtful and appropriate debate, profane, vulgar, or inflammatory comments on our website are not allowed and will be deleted. For more information on our commenting policy, please see our website. We reserve the right to reject advertisements deemed inappropriate. Our full policy, and how to advertise with the OGB, can be found on our website.

>> SUBMISSIONS

The OGB welcomes submissions in the form of story tips, columns and letters to the editor. Letters to the editor should be fewer than 500 words, and columns should be around 500 words. Send yours via e-mail to fielor17@wfu.edu the Monday before publication. We reserve the right to edit all letters for length and clarity. No anonymous letters will be printed.

>> ONLINE MEDIA

Web: wfuogb.com Facebook: facebook.com/ogb1916 Twitter: @wfu_ogb Instagram: @wfu_ogb Snapchat: @wfu_ogb

website to more than a repository for our print articles. As many publications have already done, we are working to launch a multimedia section that we hope will feature content from podcasts to filmed interviews and recurring series. As we look forward to continuing to provide fair and unbiased news to the university community, we are also eager to take the Old Gold & Black website in a new direction as we adapt to the changing world of journalism.

The Old Gold & Black is also unique in that we are still able to publish a weekly print edition. To make the most of this privilege, the Editorial Board plans to continue reimaging our approach to layouts and graphics

— incorporating color, art and imagery whenever possible.

While our office is somewhat hidden on the fifth floor of Benson University Center, it has become the epicenter of many of our lives. As we focus in on our upcoming year, the staff of the Old Gold & Black is looking forward to welcoming more of our peers into our beloved organization. To do so, we are working to increase our recruitment and outreach efforts. If writing for the student newspaper has ever interested you, be on the look out for information on getting involved on our social media and around campus. Deciding to come up to the office changed many of our lives, and it might just change yours too.

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News | Old Gold & Black

BY SAYLOR HART Contributing Writer hartsg18@wfu.edu

Thursday, January 16, 2020 | Page 3

Deacon Profile: Olivia Thonson

are pretty open to the idea of intersectional feminism on campus. However, I don’t think the student body is like that at all. I think they mostly perceive it as a group of “feminazis” or “manhaters.”

Sophomore Olivia Thonson is a dedicated spokesperson for women’s rights. Thonson is a Women and Gender Studies and Politics and International Relations double major whose passions include improving sexual education, raising awareness on the concept of intersectionality and fighting to protect women’s reproductive rights. She is president of the Intersectional Feminist Collective on campus, the creator of the “Sex Ed Done Right” speaker series and a Sexual Wellness intern in the Women’s Center. Her reputation as one of the most passionate feminists on campus has led her to speak at multiple Planned Parenthood events and made her a popular guest speaker in university classrooms.

Why do you think that is?

I think it’s mostly where they were raised. A big factor is who they hung out with in high school and who their parents are. Another part of it is media — most media only portrays really extreme feminists, and I think that always seeing that could influence people’s perception.

If you could change or implement one policy in the United States, what would it be and why?

What would you say you’re most passionate about right now and how is that reflected in your involvements at the university?

I’m most passionate about sex education, just because I think most people here haven’t had a proper one yet, and if they did, it was abstinence-based. To address that, we’ve been holding the “Sex Ed Done Right” speaker series, a series of talks that are geared towards college students. For example, two of our speeches were “The Female Orgasm” and “Destigmatizing Sex Work.” I’m also developing a sex ed curriculum right now for new students during orientation, which would cover general sex ed — STIs, contraception methods, etc.

What sparked your interest in these issues?

I really became passionate in high school when my friends and I started an organization called “This Means War,” which was for women who were victims of assault and rape. Through the organization, we provided free self-defense classes after school. We also tried to revamp our sex-ed curriculum within our school district. That was the first time I became passionate about sex-ed reform. When I came to Wake Forest, one of the orientation seminars involved putting a condom on a banana. I immediately thought to myself, “everyone knows how to do that — we learned all that in high school.” Then I started talking to peo-

Photo courtesy of Saylor Hart

Olivia Thonson is a passionate feminist and dedicated advocate for women's rights on campus. ple who were saying, “oh, we didn’t have sex ed.” That was really shocking for me, and it made me passionate about making a difference here, too.

How has being a student at the university changed your perspective on these topics?

I’m from Los Angeles, which is a very progressive community. My high school was very open about sex education, so coming to Wake Forest made me realize that people come from all different backgrounds — not everyone had access to the same knowledge I have about sex. A lot of people didn’t get that education from their parents or guardians, either. The experience kind of broadened my horizons in a way, as cheesy as that sounds.

In your opinion, how are issues such as feminism perceived by other students and faculty?

We have a very progressive faculty, and most of them are very open to the idea of having a feminist club. I’m a Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Political Science double major, and both of those departments

I think it would just be mandatory sex education in all high schools, but not just focused on the biology and anatomy. I think it should be a comprehensive sex education that includes sexual pleasure and consent, as well. I know a lot of Northern European countries start teaching students about consent at a really young age. Beginning consent education in kindergarten is much more effective than beginning it in college.

How do you plan on incorporating these passions into your life after college? Do you think your career will reflect your current interests?

I actually want to write sex education curriculum for a living. Actually, not a living — I couldn’t make enough money from that. But I really want to work with nonprofits that work with school districts to help develop sexual education curriculum.

Out of all of your experiences concerning female empowerment, does one particular moment stand out to you as the most rewarding?

I think it would be last year when I was doing the “Sex Ed Done Right” speaker series for the first time.

One of the speeches I organized was “The Female Orgasm,” and I was shot down by a lot of people on that, especially by the administration. In the end, over 120 people showed up. We completely filled the auditorium we were in, which just proved to me that the topic holds more interest than people think.

SG GENERAL ASSEMBLY

BY JESS SCHMIDT Student Government Beat Reporter schmja19@wfu.edu I. Executive Reports President Mellie Mesfin began the meeting by sharing her initiatives for the year. Her plans include working with the admissions office to target high schoolers and highlight the university experience truthfully. She also wants to continue to work on the Code of Conduct to clarify the ambiguous language used and connect more with the Winston-Salem community through service and social engagement.

Speaker of the House Miles Middleton welcomed the juniors back from abroad and introduced two new committee co-

chairs, Senior Christian Ricci of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Sophomore Rory Britt of the Student Organizations Council Committee.

Treasurer Andrew Wilson encouraged clubs and organizations to prepare their annual budget plans for the presentations beginning in February.

Secretary Laura Horton is continuing to work with the Office of Student Financial Aid to reduce the price of parking tickets from $50 to $25.

She also shared information about the textbook pilot program the university is experimenting with, including textbook costs into tuition or other funds. She also introduced the Safe Sex Express Initiative and the idea of having condoms in residence halls. Staff Advisor Tim Wilkinson

confirmed the switch from Sakai to Canvas and highlighted its many benefits, which include user friendliness, function as a mobile application and better functionality than the previous platform of Sakai.

He also shared that the Student Involvement Fair will be held on Jan. 26 from 1 to 3 p.m. and that more information about extracurricular organizations can be found and managed through the various functions of The Link website.

II. Committee Reports The Academic Committee shared that the resolution to make the university a polling location for the upcoming presidential election will be released shortly.

The Campus Life Committee confirmed their work with Greek life to prevent hazing on campus and presented the schedule for Mental Health Week.

The Diversity and Inclusion Committee is continuing their work regarding freshman demographics in residence halls and also with affordability of textbooks.

The Physical Planning Committee is excited to begin working with the Office of Sustainability for Earth Month, as well as addressing safety issues around campus.

III. Announcements Following the passing of Deacon Dining worker Lemonydue White over winter break, the Senate is seeking to hold a memorial service to honor his life and service to the university.

Page 4 |Thursday, January 16, 2020

Old Gold & Black | News

Climate: Endowment entails ethical management Continued from Page 1

Today, Verger manages eight clients’ endowments, including hospitals, museums and other higher education institutions.

Verger is a manager of managers, engaging a total of 80 managers across the globe for their clients’ portfolios.

“The mission for Verger is to invest in the lives of others,” Dunn said, “so to not think about things like ESG and climate change would be a dereliction of our duties as a fiduciary.”

Historically, the perception of responsible investing within the investment community has been that there is a financial tradeoff in balancing ESG and financial responsibilities to deliver returns as a fiduciary.

“I think that misperception is still very widely held,” said Georges Dyer, cofounder and executive director of the Intentional Endowments Network (IEN), “But ESG strategies can perform just as well or better than any other strategy both in the short and long term.”

IEN, a network of 160 leaders from higher education and other endowed institutions, works to lead endowments in demonstrating what investment looks like given today’s sustainability challenges and to connect endowment managers with peers and experts on sustainable investing.

“All investments have impact,” Dyer said. “Investors can be more or less intentional about what those impacts are. For a mission driven-institution, it’s particularly important to consider that.”

Wake Forest Student Intern Propels Change In the fall of 2017, Emily Claire Mackey, then-senior at the university, joined the Verger team as an ESG intern. Mackey evaluated and interviewed all 65 fund managers at the time, according to ESG criteria.

“We learned that a lot of our managers had bad policies,” said Dunn. “We took a more active approach to help managers have a view on these things to match our [Verger’s] values and we now put that in our due diligence.”

Mackey’s deep dive into the social element of ESG paid off. Today, every manager Verger hires must demonstrate policies on ESG, gender equity and gender diversity. Verger also looks for managers to follow UN Sustainable Development Goals and to be a UN PRI signatory.

“It seemed to just make sense and that these were questions we should’ve been asking all along,” Mackey said.

Verger takes pride in its positive, active approach to investments, focusing on “being part of the solution, not the problem,” said Dunn.

“These endowments have capital and can really make change,” Dunn said.

“They have a responsibility to make this part of their value, part of their story.

So if our model here is Pro Humanitate, we’ve got to be able to live that through the endowment.”

Heightened Responsibilities Ahead

The Wake Will Campaign has changed the trajectory of the endowment, allowing Verger to make more strategic investments that embrace ESG and provide superior financial returns. The university now has the luxury to live up to its ideals through the better alignment of its endowment to make highly visible leaps in sustainability consistent with its campus practices.

Though Mackey created Verger’s due diligence report by incorporating principles for responsible investments, UN Sustainable Development Goals, Institutional Shareholder Services and ESG reporting standards, there is still no firm ESG investment policy coming from the university’s Board of Trustees, who have final oversight of the university’s financial health and serve to direct Verger’s management of the endowment.

“If we want the person who is responsible for daily operational decisions of the endowment to have firm lines on what we will not invest in then, yes, we need to have a clear statement,” said Dedee DeLongpre Johnston, the university’s chief sustainability officer.

Universities like Middlebury, Hampshire College, San Francisco State and Lewis and Clark have already demonstrated climate leadership in managing university endowments through ESG investment policy statements approved by their board of trustees. The question remains whether Wake Forest will follow suit.

“I would love for them to have an ESG person full time,” said Johnston, “And I would love for them, to the degree that the trustees would sign off on it, to have some stated ESG guidelines.”

While Verger and the Office of Sustainability have a working relationship, there is still room to further align the university’s endowment with its mission through official guidance from the Board of Trustees.

“Right now, no endowments are doing enough,” Dyer said. “But having proactive steps like an ESG intern and engaging with the managers, having a positive investment strategy, those put Wake Forest in the forefront broadly speaking of university endowments.”

As a leader in the ESG investment space, Dyer insists that university endowments can lead a more mainstream push

and shift in intentional investing. Students can push for adoption of studentmanaged investment funds, connecting the student body to the endowment and the Board of Trustees.

Looking Forward

In understanding the correct ways to place pressure on the university and the hierarchical relationship between Verger and the board of trustees, the university community can establish next steps on climate leadership.

“This is the challenge of our time and it’s going to take a mobilization of all aspects of our society,” said Stan Meiburg, the university’s director of Graduate Sustainability Programs and former acting deputy director for the Environmental Protection Agency. “The good news is that I think sound investors will see that they can do things that are right for building up a resilient portfolio and making money by taking advantage of these new opportunities, new technologies and new practices, things that will move us in the right direction in terms of reducing the carbon trajectory of the planet.”

Photo courtesy of Isabella Kronitsky

Verger Capital Management’s office currently resides on the Reynolda Campus at Wake Forest University, with plans to relocate in the future.

POLICE BEAT Underage Consumption/Intoxication • Offenders consumed alcohol and were issued citations in Lot Q. The report was filed on Dec. 10 at 11:21 a.m.

Larceny • Unknown suspect removed unsecured items from Joel Coliseum. The report was filed on Dec. 9 at 9:27 a.m.

• Unknown suspect damaged a student’s vehicle located in the sophomore parking lot. The report was filed on Dec. 9 at 2:52 p.m.

• Unknown suspect removed a bike located outside of Babcock Hall. The report was filed on Dec. 10 at 6:23 p.m.

• Unknown suspect removed white boards from a classroom in Tribble. The report was filed on Dec. 12 at 1:37 p.m.

• Unknown suspect removed an unsecured phone from an auditorium in Carswell Hall. The report was filed on Jan. 7 at 4:45 p.m.

Miscellaneous • Student reported roommate for smoking marijuana on the back patio of their residence on Polo Rd. The report was filed on Jan. 14 at 10:12 a.m.

• Drug paraphernalia was found in a Deacon Place apartment. The report was filed on Dec. 15 at 3:48 p.m.

• Deacon Place RA reported five students for smoking marijuana in the apartment.

Police seized marijuana, grinder and bong upon their arrival at the party. The report was filed on Jan. 11 at 5:28 p.m.

News | Old Gold & Black

Thursday, January 16, 2020|Page 5

The Demon Deacons take New York City The Pinstripe Bowl provided a unique and exciting experience for the Wake Forest football team and fans alike

BY SAM WEXLER Staff Writer wexlsn17@wfu.edu While going to a bowl game is an athletic feat every year, it is also a great experience for the players and fans alike.

This year was especially unique, as the New Era Pinstripe Bowl brought the team to Manhattan to go up against the Michigan State Spartans — giving over half of the team an opportunity to visit New York City for the first time.

The players get an all-expenses paid trip to their bowl locale, complete with new experiences in that location leading up to the game. In addition to two bowl practices at Columbia University, the team visited the World Trade Center & 9/11 Memorial, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, the New York Stock Exchange and more throughout their time in the Big Apple.

Of course, the game itself was an experience due to its location in historic Yankee Stadium. However, the game also marked the end of many influential seniors’ football careers at the university.

Seniors Justin Herron, Nate Gilliam and Jake Benzinger wrapped up their careers as the original members of the ‘Beef Boys’ — the nickname of the offensive line. Other senior leaders and stars of the team playing in their last career game for the Deacons at Yankee Stadium were Essang Bassey, Amari Henderson, Justin Strand, Dom Maggio, Cade Carney, Kendall Hinton, Scotty Washington and Jack Freudenthal. The graduating class came in to a 3-9 squad and ended their careers with four-straight bowl trips to Annapolis, Charlotte, Birmingham and New York, coming away with wins in three of the four.

“The bowl sponsored activities like a comedy show, [visiting the] 9/11 memorial, and the Radio City Rockettes were some of the best experiences in all of the bowls we’ve made it to,” Jake Benzinger said. “Being a Red Sox fan, the

Pinstripe Bowl and Yankee Stadium were always close to the top of my bowl wish list, just knowing how many great players and games were played there.”

The dance team, cheerleaders and band were all present in New York City to cheer on the Demon Deacons in their last game of the 2019 season. Nearly two-thirds of the group left together from Winston-Salem late Christmas night, with the remainder coming in from various places across the United States and internationally. They also made the most of the trip to New York, visiting the Empire State building and getting to mingle with the much-larger Michigan State spirit squad.

“Being able to walk around New York City representing Wake Forest was a heartwarming treat during the holiday season,” senior dance team member Alyssa Lloret said.

“Dancing on grounds that world-famous and talented athletes have stepped on was an experience like no other.

Representing the Deacons in NYC was a wonderful experience that I will never forget and cherish — a great cherry on top of my four years dancing for the Deacons.”

Additionally, the location of the Pinstripe Bowl allowed for the Demon Deacon fan base to come out and support the team. With a large percentage of the student body hailing from the New York metro area, as well as the North East, many students and their families were able to attend this year’s bowl game.

Furthermore, a large number of the university’s alumni live in the surrounding region and multiple large airports allowed for an influx of black and gold into NYC. The transformation of the baseball diamond into a football field definitely created some logistic challenges in the layout and sightlines, but the ability to play a football game in such a historic locale was extremely memorable.

“I absolutely loved the stadium,” alumnus Cameron Debro, who graduated in 2018, said. “The angle I had in section 203 was interesting. I felt I had a decent enough seat to analyze what I was watching and then could turn to the screen if I felt I was going to miss something. The way everyone was sectioned — I think a big thing for me was that security was rough and finding 203 was very poorly marked but otherwise the atmosphere was great and I’d be back.”

Overall, while the result of the game was evidently not what the Demon Deacons were looking for in New York, it was a monumental occasion for everyone involved. It was a huge turnout for the university, topping the fanbase of Michigan State handily with a much larger student and alumni base to start. There’s almost 500,000 living alumni from Michigan State compared to around 60,000 Demon Deacons. So, it was a large feat to outnumber the Spartans — something that the team and coaching appreciated in the last game of the year.

“I really want to thank all the Deacs that made it up to New York,” Head Coach Dave Clawson said in his post game press conference. “All the students, our fans, our alumni. I mean, it’s that type of support that we get at bowl games is amazing. To come up two days after Christmas to New York, we are grateful for our fan base.”

Photo courtesy of the Wake Forest Football Twitter account

The team went sightseeing around the city, even ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Free tuition seems unlikely for most medical schools Though plans for free tuition have been adopted at some medical schools, it has not become a norm

BY WILL MAY Senior Writer mayws16@wfu.edu The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates that 53,000 students across the United States applied to medical schools for the 2016-17 academic year. When the year started, only an approximate 40% of those students were enrolled.

These statistics should be unsurprising, as American medical schools are famous for their rigor and exclusivity. But another factor has provoked some consternation — tuition.

The AAMC estimates the average cost of attendance for private medical schools to be about $60,000 a year, while the cost for in-state students at public medical schools can be as low as $35,000. Students tend to graduate with a median debt of $200,000.

According to a national survey of 349 pre-med students conducted annually by Kaplan Test Prep, 47% opine that medical schools should offer free tuition to everyone they admit, in a manner resembling what New York University (NYU) announced for its students in 2018. Nineteen percent

are in favor of a selective need-based free tuition scheme, while a mere 34% think the medical school financial aid system should remain the same. Eighty percent of the interviewed students characterized the cost of medical school as a “major prohibitive factor.”

“This number is troubling for a couple of reasons,” Jeff Koetje, Kaplan’s director of pre-health programs, said. “It suggests that a large number of qualified prospective applicants might decide to opt out of the premed trajectory simply because of the cost.”

Koetje also said that prohibitive costs exclude students with less financial resources from medical school, an impact that is at odds with the schools’ goals to increase the overall diversity of those they admit.

Despite the recent free-tuition direction that some schools have taken, surveys conducted by Kaplan on medical school admissions officers suggest that this will be far from the norm. A mere 4% of the submitted responses indicated plans for free tuition for all admitted over the next five to 10 years. Another 4% said they would adopt free tuition for students under a certain level of income, akin to a plan devised for Cornell’s financial aid students.

“Student tuition is part of a complex mix of finances that support the medical school effort,” Koetje said. “Some of that

other funding is coming through federal or state grants. If we begin to talk about medical school tuition being free for students, it means a significant change for how medical schools support themselves and are financially sustainable.”

NYU’s ability to dole out free tuition largely stems from a donation of $100 million from Ken Langone, co-founder of Home Depot and chair of NYU Langone Health’s board of trustees.

As such, many applicants have gotten used to the idea of imminent debt.

“I was already kind of resigned to the fact that I was going to end up shelling out around a quarter of a million dollars,” said Nathan Fischer, an applicant from Marquette University.

Fischer acknowledged that the medical field is generally considered to provide sufficient financial returns to those who make their way through it, but he reiterated the importance of costs in his decision. He is primarily considering schools in his home state of Wisconsin, as well as certain private schools.

“NYU’s programs are great, so they were always on my radar,” he said. “Now it’s like I have nothing to lose. Even if I had no chance of getting in I’d still apply, because if you get in, it’s free.”

Other students shared Fischer’s sentiments.

“I think that’s why applications to NYU have skyrocketed,” said Kendall Derry, an applicant from Vanderbilt University. “It’s such a big deal and so unusual.”

Derry has already been accepted to NYU, and is waiting for other responses before making her decision. She said cost was significant in determining where to apply, as she is funding her own medical education.

“I think as long as [medical schools] have the infrastructure in place they should consider free tuition,” Derry said. “I think it’ll just take a long time for that to happen.”

Koetje recommends that pre-med students be proactive in ensuring that they are the most competitive candidates for admissions and for earning merit-based aid or scholarships.

“Pre-med students should think carefully about how they will pay for their medical education well in advance of applying,” Koetje said. “keeping in mind that it is still an excellent investment, despite the upfront costs.”

But, for the moment, they are working on the essentials and aren’t thinking far off in the future. “[We] can’t anticipate too much,” Alkafi said. “[We] just have to make adjustments as things happen.”

Old Gold & Black | News

Page 6 | Thursday, January 16, 2020

In Memoriam: Lemont White

The Wake Forest community deeply mourns the loss of beloved Deacon Dining employee Lemont White. White passed away on Dec. 19. He is still remembered fondly by his co-workers, friends, family members and many other community members with whom he shared his smile and positive attitude as he worked at the Pit with dedication and enthusiasm.

BY ELIZABETH MALINE Online Managing Editor malied17@wfu.edu

Beloved Deacon Dining employee Lemonydue White, affectionately known as Lemont by the university community, passed away on Dec. 19. He was 49 years old when he passed.

Many students received word of White’s death via a Deacon Dining Instagram post with the caption, “In loving memory of Lemont White — Wake Forest University.”

According to his official obituary on the Harrison Funeral Chapel website, White moved to WinstonSalem in 1991 to pursue a career in the culinary arts and has served as an employee for Deacon Dining since August 2013. He started his career as a food supervisor, but he was promoted to Food Service Manager of the Fresh Food Company (Pit) in July of 2015.

Tim VanderMeersch, District Manager for Harvest Table Culinary Group, said, “Lemont had a personality that cared for everyone. He was a kind soul and made everyone smile. His memory and spirit will live forever in the Pit.” Every day, students and faculty looked forward to going to the Pit in hopes of seeing White. He was a source of positivity and comfort for many students who were eager to share their fond memories of White.

Junior Anne van Hoof said, “Lemont truly made Wake feel like home and was family to all of us. He always had time to chat and was very involved in students’ lives. He was such a happy soul that brightened up my whole day.”

Senior Yassmin Shaltout was struck by White’s ability to remember her after only meeting once and said he always acknowledged her presence regardless of how busy he might have been on any given day.

She met White while eating at the Pit with a friend who already had developed a close relationship with him.

Shaltout said, “From that day on, regardless of whether I was accompanied by this particular friend, Lemont would always say hello, wave to me or spark up a conversation. I’m sure the hundreds of students he did so for also appreciated this small token of care and that his actions made the Pit feel like a home rather than just a college dining hall.”

He took pride in working at the Pit, which is the preferred dining option for many student athletes.

White developed close relationships with the athletes and was a dedicated supporter of the university’s athletics, shown by his regular attendance at both football and basketball games.

Junior football player Loic Nya said, “In my three years here, I’ve never encountered somebody like him. He took time out of his day to ensure that all of the football players had not just what they needed to eat, but what they wanted to eat. He wanted to make the Pit better on a daily basis.”

White’s passion for sports and desire to support the university’s athletics stemmed from his own

athletic background. He went to college on a track scholarship at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., his home state, and was a fervent supporter of his favorite football team, the Chicago Bears. He also loved playing weekly pick-up basketball games with his fellow co-managers.

One of his fellow employees, Director of Associate Relations for Harvest Table Culinary Group, Martine Cherry, described White as having a positive working relationship with his entire team.

“You could see the impact that he had on his staff,” Cherry said. “They knew that they could go to them.”

Cherry noted that White was firm in communicating what he expected from his associated and comanagers, but was always willing to help and able to lighten the mood with a good joke.

“He had a certain way of bringing people together and was a really funny guy,” Nya said. “He didn’t just do his job for the money, but he actually enjoyed doing it. We lost somebody really important to this community.”

White’s passion for food was also demonstrated outside of the university’s community, as he regularly volunteered for organizations that help to feed underprivileged families in Winston-Salem. He had a profound impact on everyone he met in the communities to which he belonged.

He was loved by his colleagues, as well as by many students, who will remember him as a kind, funny and attentive friend. His loss is being felt across the entire community.

“We’re already missing you Lemont,” van Hoof said. “You will always be remembered.”

Photo courtesy of Martine Cherry

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“ DNC calendar stifles representation Democratic Primaries

Bloomberg’s promise of calendric reform elucidates systematic issues within the selection process Amanda Wilcox Staff Columnist wilcaf16@wfu.edu

This week, I was surprised to find some common ground with Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg.The multibillionaire and former mayor of New York City is far from my top choice for this year’s Democratic ticket, but I must give him credit where credit is due: thus far, he is the only candidate that has called for one reform to the workings of the Democratic Party itself that I have long believed is overdue.

In a CNN op-ed on Monday, Bloomberg promised that if he is elected, he would ensure that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) works to reform the order in which

Candidates who may better represent the opinions of Democrats across the country may not perform as well in Iowa ...” states hold primary elections and caucuses that choose the party’s standard-bearer in the general election. The current calendar is dependent on an unnecessary expectation that the first contests are held in Iowa and New Hampshire — two of the smallest, whitest, most rural states in the country. However, as a result of their first-in-the-nation status, they have a singular ability to make or break White House hopes. As I wrote in a column last February, the winner of the early contests is often annointed as the frontrunner with all of the electoral benefits that the title conveys — media coverage, attention from prominent donors and the DNC and the imprecisely defined but existentially crucial “momentum.” Because candidates who fail to accrue delegates in Iowa or New Hampshire often suspend their campaigns soon after, the two states ipso facto exercise outsize influence on who the rest of us see on the ballot in later primaries.

Moreover, when all of the candidates face off in Iowa in a few weeks, the winner, as you might reasonably expect, will reflect the concerns of Iowans. However, because the Hawkeye State reflects the demographics of the larger Democratic Party so poorly, its priorities likely don’t reflect those of the electorate.

Meanwhile, other candidates who may better represent the opinions of Democrats across the country may not perform as well in Iowa and subsequently be weeded out — even if they could have done well later on down the road and been stronger candidates nationally.

Furthermore, due to the artificial importance conveyed to Iowa and New Hampshire, most Democratic campaigns have devoted vast sums of money and robust ground operations to two states that only have six votes and four votes, respectively, in the Electoral College.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has spent its time in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina — all battleground states that Democrats lost by razor-thin margins in 2016. In 2020, Democrats need to reverse at least some of those results to secure an Electoral College victory, but every minute they spend in Iowa and New Hampshire while Trump campaigns full speed ahead in battleground states will put

them at a disadvantage.

Herein lies the one way in which I believe that Bloomberg has his finger on the pulse of the Democratic Party more accurately than the DNC does. In his op-ed, he wrote that his campaign has basically decided to skip the first four early contests and take its message nationwide. In swing states across the country, the Bloomberg campaign is registering voters, funding anti-Trump digital ads and building field operations, and it will fund those field offices through the November general election no matter who the party nominates.

Although such radical campaign choices will likely reduce Bloomberg’s chances of being the nominee to virtually nil, I admire his boldness, and I hope that other Democratic leaders will join him in speaking up. If diverse battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida were first to hold primary contests, as Bloomberg 2020 campaign manager Kevin Sheekey suggested in a recent episode of the Campaign HQ podcast, the primary process could both better reflect the diverse Democratic Party and better allocate precious campaign resources. And, perhaps Hillary Clinton would have spent a little more time in Waukesha County.

citizens, most of whom have done nothing but mind their business? Imperialism.

Killing Iranian leaders in a top–down approach to de-stabilizing their ability to defend themselves against meddling Western societies? Yep, you guessed it, imperialism.

There would be less room for speculation if the government would give us clear reasons as to why they assassinated Soleimani.

Unfortunately, they won’t. We keep being told that he posed an “imminent threat,” yet Trump has been buddied up with Vladimir Putin, a man with a violent history whose country, supported by evidence from the Mueller investigation, meddled in the 2016 presidential election. Putin poses an imminent threat to our country, yet he is alive and well, and can comfortably sit in the same conference room as Trump.

Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office reported that $718 billion has been requested for military spending. Who exactly will foot the bill for these threats of war? It certainly won’t be rich people since they now contribute practically nothing.

Forget about the middle−class since it’s quickly disappearing. Poor people can’t afford to support a war effort because they can barely support themselves.

In comparison, the president has requested $64 billion for the Department of Education, a 10% decrease from last year.

Conservatives have pushed back on numerous proposed investments to ben-

efit the country in terms of education,

“ Soleimani assasination reflects imperial policies Foreign Policy

Iranian escalation underscores Trump’s incoherent foreign policy Kasy Heath

Staff Columnist heatka15@wfu.edu

It will never cease to amaze me how blatantly hypocritical, irresponsible and dangerous this administration is, with so little intervention. The latest perilous move by our current commander-in-chief is his military action against Iran following the assassination of their military leader, Qassem Soleimani.

To begin, it’s important to note that the military move instructed by Trump directly contradicts one of his campaign promises to return troops to America and minimize foreign military intervention. Instead, he’s now deploying more troops to the dangerous frontline that Trump himself controversially avoided when he was summoned to a similar position. Not only are they risking the lives of more American troops, the government already does a piss poor job of taking care of the many disabled, unem-

Sending military troops to police other countries does not help American citizens. It does not make us safer.” ployed and impoverished troops from past unnecessary foreign military intervention and wars. He’s doing so out of unclear, yet clear reasons.

I use this phrase, “unclear, yet clear” to demonstrate that although the administration will only give ambiguous answers to pressing questions on the potentially warcausing move, critical thinkers who pay attention to history can clearly see some of the dark motivations behind it.

A look at history will show that this is a classic act of imperialism. Imperialism is a complex topic with a simple formula: a power and money‒driven country or organization invests their resources in expanding their military to become a large enough powerhouse to take over smaller nations and deplete them of their resources for economic gain. It’s essentially international bullying. Trump is fulfilling this role right now in front of our eyes, and rational logic alone can show that.

Threatening to destroy cultural sites that are sacred to Iranians to prove a point that the U.S. military is stronger than theirs?

Imperialism. Placing economic sanctions, crippling their economy, and starving their

healthcare, infrastructure and other pertinent sectors to our country’s functionality. The arguments have primarily been that the government couldn’t afford it.

Yet, a war triggered by unnecessary action and inciting rhetoric may end up on the table if tensions rise further. Where does the stupidity and hypocrisy end?

Sending military troops to police other countries does not help American citizens. It does not make us safer. It does not improve our lives. It doesn’t make the water in Flint, Mich. cleaner, or public schools more effective, or solve the student debt crisis, or address our healthcare crisis, or save low−income minority communities from gentrification or anything else that desperately needs the attention of our government. All it does is result in an unnecessary loss of life and de−stabilizes other countries and ours from using money we supposedly don’t have.

I respect all religions, but enough of the #PrayforThis or #PrayforThat. Prayer has not and does not stop political leaders from making terrible decisions. Holding them accountable does. Until Trump is held accountable for his dangerous rhetoric and erratic decision−making, our country is headed down a negative path that may take generations to undo.

Opinion | Old Gold & Black

Thursday, January 16, 2020 | Page 8

“ Fiction explores political implications Literary Criticism

Literature serves as a vehicle for social and political criticism Jack Portman

Staff Columnist portjt17@wfu.edu

Politics exist essentially as the natural state of our living together; we exist, and must exist, in a society organized by laws and regulations in order that something approximating a just distribution of labor, resources and capital is established. Obviously our efforts towards justness, in this sense tend to falter. However our society, nevertheless, is one of mandates, codes, ordinances and restrictions which affect people’s quotidian experiences in countless disparate ways depending on factors such as race, gender, and class.

Politics, being as inexorably prevalent as water in a fish bowl, necessarily permeate the language and literature we consume. Every narrative unfolds in an environment formed by ideological thought, and every character is guided by the politics of

A reader should consider the foci elucidates important aspects of political and historical con- fiction which may be lost without a texts in which a work was political approach to analysis.

The mid-twentieth century saw litwritten.” their time and place. As critic Rex Gibson suggests, “Political perspectives assert that every aspect of human life is rooted in politics and power.”

Any plausible framework for literary criticism should therefore maintain a highly political focus, emphasizing the historical and political contexts which underlay narrative, as well as prevailing social conditions and economic factors.

Language is fundamentally a democratic mode. With anyone free to write or say nearly anything — to create phrases and order words however they please — reality can be distorted to reveal social and political conditions or to imagine an emergent utopia. Because we create as political beings contained within a political climate, the politics of our language are inseparable from the stories we tell.

Isolating a narrative within an apolitical vacuum for the purposes of critical analysis inherently strips the story of a crucial aspect of its character.

Maintaining gender, class and race — as well as historical and political context — as separate but interrelated

erary and poetic works detached from their pertinent political contexts and analyzed as fully self-referential objects in an effort to advance a supposedly objective critical methodology. This school, termed New Criticism by critic and essayist John Crowe Ransom, perpetuated a predominantly white male literary canon. Such a program divorces language of its socio-political function and undermines its capacity to reflect, advocate and criticize. Just as an archaeologist relays on spacial context when addressing an object’s function, provenance and value, a reader should consider the political and historical contexts in which a work was written in order to fully appreciate its implications.

The apolitical concept can only be realized theoretically; it is impossible to form in a tangible sense because politics permeate everything we touch and inform everything we say. The narrative form enables literature to reconcile with political thought in a digestible, familiar way. It frames political ideas in terms of life experiences that we recognize and understand. Just as dialogues in introductory philosophy courses introduce complicated philosophical

theories by way of easily digested casual conversation, fiction grapples with intricately nuanced political thought in a conventional, understandable way.

A political understanding of a text can be arrived at by examining religious, economic and social aspects of a work.

Furthermore, tensions arising from issues of class and power often drive fictive narratives and are crucial facets of a text’s political character. Considering the role of prevailing modes of political thought and historical circumstances, both in a novel’s own milieu and its fictive premise, further drive a political understanding of a work.

The political philosopher who so strongly championed the socio-political approach to literary and artistic criticism happens to be Karl Marx. Marxist aesthetics frequently consider the roles, forms and implications of ideology.

Conceptions of family, work-ethics, religious life and morality often comprise a kind of “political unconscious” which characterizes our ideological perceptions of the world. By grappling with the interpolated ideas we hold about the world, literature serves as a means of social critique and as a form for envisioning an idyllic utopia. Accordingly, an awareness of the social and cultural implications of a work are necessary if one is to consider the full political value of literature.

come accustomed to that feeling, and translate it into “personal taste.” This is where my complaining comes in: prolonged exposure’s infecting our artistic expectations.

Edward Norton, on the WTF podcast with Marc Maron, cited Chinatown as the epitome of the inscrutable film. Heralded as one of the best films ever, Chinatown is confounding, but it’s also delightful. The first time anyone sees it, for about 80% of the film, one hasn’t a clue as to what is happening. It’s cloudy, with a chance of corruption, though an even littler chance of knowing what exactly that corruption is. It’s inexplicable. But Chinatown actor Jack Nicholson’s own confusion morphs into the pleasurable, perplexing visual pageantry of character and atmosphere, animated by ethos and flavored intensity. The film suspends us in a mixture of its elements, with barely any dashes of plot to distract us. Through the denial our conventional appetites, Chinatown can work on critical and aesthetic perception, can envelop us in the medium of film, and, so says the record, we’re ok with it.

So, Shakespeare. Nixed presumably because students claim they don’t like the stuff, find his style and composition too difficult to follow, can barely extract any plot, etc. But, like Chinatown, Shakespeare does other

notable things. Again, I, too, have those conventional frustrations. But even if I only receive a thin minimum of the basic elements I want from a Raymond Chandler novel in Hamlet (Margreta de Grazia, among others, calls Hamlet “plot-resistant”), the other gleanings – human insight, linguistic experiment, word invention, scheme, et. al. – are warrant enough to keep reading. Plus, I have a professor to ask about the rest!

Ben Johnson said Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time!” Why? Well, let’s defer to the voluble Polonius, who thinks a play that disregards classical unities (Hamlet) becomes a “poem unlimited.” Precisely. Timelessness and irreducibility characterize Shakespeare’s work, just as our own soul’s irreducible dimensions characterize us as beasts of becoming.

Shakespeare dissolves our preoccupation with straightforward virtue (and, I think, by extension, the inherited “virtues” of a comprehensible work of art) and complicates our relationship to art and the self by allowing us an occasional peek inside. Reading Shakespeare becomes an act of endless interpretation instead of a verbpredicate trail of knowledge. Which is a good thing! Our attempt to understand Shakespeare in any banal sense can be met with one of cinema’s most quoted lines: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”

Shakspearean“ aesthetics warrant renewed focus Canon and Curricula

English playwrite’s transcendent style should be reintroduced to academic Kyle Ferrer

Staff Columnist ferrka16@wfu.edu While others chatted about the changes that should be made to the English major at a curriculum review committee meeting last semester, I couldn’t help but think of one change (or rather, one re-institution) of a requirement that had been recently expunged: Shakespeare.

Perhaps this was because I had just read Hamlet for the first time, and was so rapt by its dense beauty and irreducible implications, that I was vociferously in favor of reinstituting the Shakespeare requirement. But upon further thought, I don’t think I was blinded by fever, just guided by an intense belief, an infectious, aesthetic fervor for the West’s greatest writer.

Now, I don’t want to pretend I’m an anytime Shakespeare reader. Often, my mind either feels inadequate to the task, or only feebly plumbs Shakespeare’s bottomless genius. But I think

Reading Shakespeare becomes an act of endless interpretation instead of a verb-predicate trail of knowledge.” even on a bad day Shakespeare gives us irreproachable greatness. Apologies for bringing in film, but the comparison is apt. Critics often kvetch about the debasement of popular taste, how blockbusters choreograph action and explosion in a bang-bang, CGI circus of violence and vengeance. “Good action,” as a term, has been sucked of nuance and doled out as a catchall for production value that looks pretty but has little substance. Popular films are selling tickets to see a kind of warring Cirque du Soleil on the screen, engrossing audiences with balletic bloodlust that most of the time simply echoes some previous banality.

But the notion that audiences dislike difficult art, or that they can only enjoy hedonistic, simple-minded movies can be proven ridiculous (contrary to what I’ve complained about in these pages before). Once we, as viewers, readers and listeners can anticipate a plot-point, message or even incoming melody, we become passive.

Boredom blooms from a legible future. Any whiff of complacency lays a film over our eyes and permits our brain to half-listen. We can then be-

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Deacons: Bowl game ends in disappointment Continued from Page 1

Yet, key injuries and inconsistent play in losses to Louisville, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and now Michigan State, will leave them feeling like they left a lot on the table in 2019. They finished the year losing four out of their last five games after starting the season 7-1. "[Against Michigan State] we didn't make enough plays. I'm proud of the way our players competed. We got really thin. That was a little bit the story of our season. I think when we were a healthy football team, we could play with pretty much anybody in the country," Clawson said after the loss, as reported by Les Johns for 247Sports. “I think the telltale sign of our program is we're not happy. We're disappointed we didn't get double-digit wins, that we didn't win our fourth bowl game in

a year. I think we're past the point of just being happy to get to a bowl."

On the brighter side, both of the Demon Deacon's First-Team All-ACC players in wide receiver Sage Surratt and defensive end Boogie Basham have decided to return for a senior season in 2020 amid NFL Draft speculations.

Surratt led the ACC in receiving yards and touchdowns up to his season-ending injury at Virginia Tech. He still finished with 1,001 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns in nine games. Basham led all of the team's players and finished third in the ACC with 10 sacks in 2019. He also registered 17 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles in his best season thus far.

Photo courtesy of Winston-Salem Journal Moving forward, Clawson and the Wake Forest's Jack Freudenthal runs away from Michigan State's Demon Deacons should hope that the David Dowell for a touchdown at the Pinstripe Bowl in December. return of key starters, coupled with 2019 narrative toward a special season proaching, the Demon Deacons have the emergence of new contributors like Greene, will help them change the in 2020. With the new year quickly ap- some resolutions to make.

Newman announces transfer to UGA After a breakout season, the starting quarterback will compete in the powerhouse-filled SEC conference

BY WILL ZIMMERMAN Asst. Sports Editor zimmwj19@wfu.edu On Jan. 11, the university's starting quarterback Jamie Newman announced that he would be transferring to the University of Georgia (UGA). Newman, who ranked second in the entire ACC in 2019 in terms of total offense with 287 yards per game, will compete for the starting job at UGA. The position was left vacant by Jake Fromm, who declared for the 2020 NFL draft earlier this year.

“As I look ahead, I am excited about joining such a great football program under the leadership of Coach [Kirby] Smart and offensive coordinator [James] Coley," Newman said in the statement he released. "I believe in UGA’s amazing staff, great football program and the passionate fans supporting the team. Most importantly, I am ready to get to work, ready to make new friendships and committed to contributing to this great program. UGA and Coach Smart, thank you for this amazing opportunity.”

There is a lot of hype surrounding the transfer, in large part due to Newman’s tremendously impressive 2019 campaign. Newman commanded the offense to a 7-1 record before injuries began to stack up and the team lost key players. During the season, Newman completed over 60% of his passes and racked up over 2,800 yards passing and 570 yards rushing. Newman accounted for 36 total touchdowns and finished the season with a passer rating over 145.

Newman, who will be playing under his last year of NCAA eligibility, has a good chance to win the starting job under Smart. He is 6’4 and 230 pounds, has a great arm and plays a physical game. The quintessential dualthreat quarterback, Newman rushed for over 70 yards six times over the past two seasons and had two 100+ yard rushing games in 2019. Smart will certainly take note of Newman’s ability as a ball carrier as he assembles his prostyle offense for the Bulldogs 2020 season.

"Newman has all the physical and mental tools needed to compete at the highest level, but also has a winning

mentality that enables him to deliver in clutch moments," Les Johns, the publisher at Demon Deacon Digest, per 247sports.com, said. "He’s big, physical, intelligent and decisive, with a strong arm and the ability to deliver a crisp pass into a tight window. He led three game-winning two-minute drills in his first five starts for Wake Forest, delivering thrills Demon Deacon fans will remember for a lifetime."

Ample praise regarding Newman’s physical nature also comes from those who have competed against him during his time at Wake Forest.

“I think (Newman) is great. He’s a hard-nosed physical runner and then he can pass the ball,” Tanner Muse, a safety for the Clemson Tigers, per Mike Griffith via DawgNation, said. “When you get a dual threat guy like that, it’s very tough. I think Georgia got a good pickup.”

In Athens, Newman will be competing with several other quarterbacks for the starting job. Among the candidates are former walk-on Stetson Bennett IV, D’Wan Mathis and the recent four-star signee Carson Beck.

Newman leaves large shoes to fill in the university's football program. The most likely successor will be rising junior Sam Hartman.

Hartman already has some experience calling plays for the Deacons. During the 2018 season, he earned the starting job during preseason and was one of only five Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) freshmen quarterbacks to start their team’s season opener. That season, Hartman set records for true freshmen quarterbacks at Wake Forest including most wins in a season (4), most total offensive yards in a game (442), and most touchdown passes in a season (16). In 2019, Hartman attempted 97 passes, completed 55 and scored five total touchdowns.

Photo courtesy of Winston-Salem Journal

Newman, who accounted for 36 total touchdowns over the 2019 season, leaves behind an impressive legacy at Wake Forest. Rising junior Sam Hartman is likely to step into his shoes.

Old Gold & Black | Sports

Page 10 | Thursday, January 16, 2020

LSU rolls, Burrow shines in championship The College Football National Champsionship saw LSU hand Clemson their season's only loss

BY BEN CONROY Asst. Sports Editor conrbd19@wfu.edu The 2019-2020 college football season reached its zenith on Monday night as The No. 1 LSU Tigers (15-0) battled the No. 3 Clemson Tigers (14-1) in the New Orleans Superdome on the biggest stage the sport has to offer. The matchup between two prolific offenses with weapons at nearly every position had college football fans everywhere on the edges of their seats; the contest did not disappoint.

The squads were captained by two dynamic quarterbacks in fifth-year LSU senior Joe Burrow and Clemson sophomore Trevor Lawrence, both of whom were riding the momentum from excellent regular season campaigns. The venue provided a significant advantage for LSU, as the Superdome sits a mere stone’s throw from the Tigers’ home stadium in Baton Rouge. The Clemson faithful, however, were out in droves as well, invading the sea of yellow and purple in the stands with a smattering of orange.

Both offenses stalled to begin the contest, until Clemson broke the initial

scoring drought on a Lawrence scrambling touchdown late in the first quarter. Momentum shifted several times throughout the first half, as Burrow and Lawrence continuously exchanged blows. The scoreboard read 28-17 in favor of LSU at the half after the Tigers ripped off 21 unanswered points in the second quarter.

Clemson’s offense roared to life to open the second half, as standout halfback Travis Etienne found the endzone four minutes into the third quarter. The rest of the game, however, was surprisingly lopsided, as Burrow threw for another pair of touchdowns to remove any doubt from the contest’s final result.

The game ended 42-25, with LSU lifting the championship trophy.

Unsurprisingly, Burrow stole the show, throwing for 463 yards and a whopping five touchdowns in a performance that will undoubtedly enshrine his name in college football’s history books forever. His draft stock climbed even higher (if such a thing is possible) as he showed the nation what it truly means to elevate one’s game with everything on the line. Burrow’s supporting cast performed admirably as well, with running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire scampering for 116 yards and receiver JaMarr Chase finishing with 221 receiving yards and a pair of crucial touchdowns. Trevor Lawrence finished without a passing touchdown, completing

fewer than 50% of his passes for a meager 237 yards. Halfback Travis Etienne finished with 78 rushing yards and a single touchdown in the loss.

With the victory, LSU caps off one of the most dominant campaigns in college football history. With resounding victories over the likes of Alabama, Oklahoma, Auburn and Florida, the Tigers passed every single test with flying colors. Burrow leaves Baton Rouge a hero, headed for what will likely be a

long and storied professional career.

Clemson returns home with their tails between their legs, force to endure an unfortunate ending to an otherwise superb season. Lawrence (per ESPN. com) vowed to return next season with the intent of finishing what was started during the 2019-2020 campaign. The Clemson Tigers end their season with only one loss, falling just short of their ultimate goal of becoming repeat na-

Chris Graythen/Getty Images/TNS

LSU quarterback Joe Burrow talks with Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence after LSU's 42-25 victory over Clemson at the New Orleans Superdome.

Demon Deacons fall at home to Hokies Men's basketball continued to struggle with turnovers; Chaundee Brown left on the sidelines for lower-leg injury

BY CHRISTIAN ODJAKJIAN Staff Writer odjact18@wfu.edu

Coming off of back-to-back losses to top 10 teams, Wake Forest’s Men’s Basketball (8-8, 1-5) lost at home 80-70 on Tuesday night to Virginia Tech (13-4, 4-2).

The center video board was black the entire game because of technical issues. However, it wasn’t the only thing the team was missing.

Junior Chaundee Brown was sidelined due to a lower leg injury for the third straight game. His averages of 13.3 PTS and 6.5 REB were surely missed, as well as his overall veteran presence on the floor.

“We’re missing a piece,” Head Coach Danny Manning said. “There’s no question about that …We have to find a way to absorb his production, because nobody is going to come in and do what he does.”

Both teams got off to a hot start offensively, only for the Deacs to go cold after seven minutes went by without them scoring a single point. Ten points in just over four minutes from junior Olivier Sarr helped the Deacs answer with an impressive stretch, building a 31-25 lead off of a 21-5 run. But the Hokies came back with a counterpunch of their own, using an 8-0 burst to take a 33-31 lead into halftime.

Things really started to go downhill defensively for the Deacs in the second half. Virginia Tech was very comfortable on offense, taking care of the ball and getting good looks consistently. They shot 15-25 from the field in the second half, and also made 13 free throws to total 47 points.

Speaking of taking care of the ball, turnovers continue to be a huge issue for the Deacs. 18 turnovers for the game marked a third straight game of 17-plus giveaways. Most of them were the result of sloppy, careless passes.

Sarr has a clear height advantage over the post players that Tech has, but wasn’t able to get as many touches as he probably should have due to his teammates' inability to get him the ball. The Hokies were able to take advantage of the poor passing by the Deacs, as help side defenders came away with deflections and interceptions time after time.

Sarr put up a very good line of eighteen points and nine rebounds, but probably could’ve had even more.

“Man, I like his game,” Virginia Tech Head Coach Mike Young said about Sarr. “Gosh, he’s a good player.”

The Hokies redshirt freshman standout Landers Nolley II scored 21, making many tough shots and drawing a handful of fouls. Freshman guard Tyrece Radford matched Nolley’s scoring output, setting a new career high. He shot an efficient 7-9 from the field, and was able to convert on 7-12 free throws.

He also made the play of the night: with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second half, the 6’ 2” Radford drove along the baseline and threw down an emphatic slam over the 7’0” Sarr. The dunk sent shock waves throughout the entire Coliseum and gave the Hokies a 60-46 lead. Tech was able to build their lead up to as much as 20, and kept a cushion of at least 10 until the final buzzer sounded.

Freshman guard Jalen Cone also played well for the Hokies. Cone knocked down four threes en route to 15 points in his return home. Cone was an ESPN top 100-recruit from nearby Walkertown who went on his first college visit to Wake Forest, but was ultimately signed by Virginia Tech.

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications

Junior center Olivier Sarr led the Demon Deacons with an impressive 18 points and nine rebounds.

Graduate guard Andrien White shot the ball well for the Deacs, hitting four three-pointers and scoring 14, but was limited to 25 minutes of action because of foul trouble.

Childress reached his season average of 16, but hardly impacted the game. Eleven of his points came in the final four and a half minutes, when the game was all but over.

Watching Virginia Tech excel is definitely a tough pill to swallow for Demon Deacon fans, considering they didn’t return a single one of their top five scorers from last season. They also have a first-year coach, while Danny Manning continues to not give fans much to get excited about.

Even in a down year for the ACC, things don’t get any easier for the Deacs. Boston College is coming to Winston-Salem for a duel on Sunday to see if they can complete the season sweep on the Deacs. Wake Forest will then travel to Clemson on Tuesday to face a team that just beat #3 Duke.

Thursday, January 16, 2020 | Page 11

Sports | Old Gold & Black

Deacon Spotlight: Ona Udoh

BY AMANDA WILCOX Sports Editor wilcaf16@wfu.edu

Hailing from Fayetteville, N.C. is Ona Udoh, a star forward on the Wake Forest Women’s Basketball team. Last year, in her junior season, she started 23 of 27 games, averaging 8.4 points and 24.3 minutes per game. She ranked fourth in the ACC in field goal percentage at 0.587 and sixth in blocked shots at 1.5 per game. Udoh also led the team in total rebounds and blocks. She is currently beginning her fourth and final season on the court as a Demon Deacon.

Amanda Wilcox: Most people probably know that you’re an athlete, but what is one thing that most people don’t know about you?

Ona Udoh: Whenever I get asked this question, I usually [talk about my] family, but I feel like now I can’t say family because in so many interviews I [talked about] family. Let me think … I guess before I started playing basketball, I took dancing seriously. I was a dancer when I was a kid — the years before I started playing basketball, I did jazz, ballet, hip-hop and tap. I can’t really remember if I was good or not, but I know my mom loved it. As I started to grow taller and taller, my friends were like, “You should try basketball,” and I was like, “Yeah, sure, whatever,” and here I am.

locker room before the game so I just play the music I like to hear and dance around. I guess you can call it a ritual because I listen to intense hip-hop songs and it’s so much fun. I try to get my teammates to dance with me. Sometimes they don’t because they’re more focused than I am, but I just have to get loose. I can’t be so serious and uptight.

AW: How are you feeling about the 2020 season?

OU: Honestly, we’re doing amazing. Going out as a senior, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. We’re [10-6] right now, so we’re doing really good. I’m very excited for the future. I only have 14 games more if we keep doing as well, and I’m so happy it’s going this way.

AW: Any one team you really want to beat?

OU: I think NC State for sure. I just want to beat all of the North Carolina schools. We beat Duke already, and so we just have NC State and UNC left, so if we can beat all three we’ll be state champs and that’d be awesome.

AW: It’s your fourth season — what do you hope to accomplish?

OU: I hope we get to the NCAA tournament because it would be the first time in so long … the last time was 1988 when my head coach was playing. If we could do that, it would be a huge accomplishment, and it would be a great thing to go off of and leave Wake Forest with.

AW: What has been your favorite or proudest moment on the court as a Demon Deacon?

OU: It’s between the Duke game we just played recently where Gina [Conti], my teammate, hit the game-winning shot and we won, or another very close game that we had last year where we won off of a free throw. Even though the kids were cheering the whole time, they went crazy when we won and it was an amazing time.

We won by one or two points and I remember my teammate who hit the free throw was in tears and I was like, “Yes!”

AW: You basically already answered my question about how you found your passion for basketball, but is there anything you want to add?

OU: Honestly, once I started playing and I realized I could play at a higher level, like in college, I was like, “Oh, that’d be awesome.” Although I know my parents probably could pay for my college tuition, it was something where I thought, “If I could help my parents in any way…”

I started actually really playing late compared to my teammates, who all started when they were kids. I started in sixth or seventh grade. No matter when you start, I feel like I can show that you can still have passion for something and pursue it fully.

AW: Was your talent evident from early on?

OU: No, not at all. Honestly, I didn’t start flourishing until about high school when I started playing travel ball and putting more time in it and I realized I could play at the next level. I took time out of my day and practiced by myself, or with coaches, or with my brothers. My brothers, if you ever saw them, they’re all huge. There’s four of us, so we’d play two on two and it was fun. From all of that, I started to slowly develop and be the player I am now.

AW: Any interesting pre-game rituals?

OU: Pre-game for me, I just have to have good music. I’m usually in charge of what music we play in the

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications

DEAC NOTES Freshman Christina Morra posts career- high in rebounds en route to double-double

Offensive lineman Terrence Davis transfers to Wake Forest in advance of 2020 season

Canadian freshman Christina Morra had another impressive showing against No. 7 Louisville in Wake Forest's loss on Sunday.

Morra posted a career-high 13 rebounds and went 6-for-9 from the field, scoring 13 points. It was the freshman's second career double-double. Despite out-rebounding Louisville, Wake Forest lost, 61-75. Sophomore forward Ivana Raca led the team with 16 points.

After spending four years at the University of Maryland, Terrence Davis has transferred to Wake Forest. The lineman, who spent most of his time at right guard appeared in 37 games during his time with the Terrapins. The threetime academic All-Big 10 selection will look to stay healthy in order to further strengthen the offensive line during the team's 2020 campaign.

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications

Photo courtesy of WinstonSalem Journal

Page 12 | Thursday, January 16, 2020

Old Gold & Black | Sports

Reflecting on surprises of the NBA season The Eastern Conference rebalances power with the West and the Bucks stand out of the crowd

BY NICK LALLI Staff Writer lalldp18@wfu.edu

As the NBA season reaches its midpoint, now seems an appropriate time to reflect on what this season has brought us. Some things remain the same from past years; LeBron James is carrying his team toward the NBA Finals, three-point shooting rates continue to increase and the majority of rookies have struggled mightily thus far (save for Ja Morant). But some things have changed, and rather drastically at that. Here are the three biggest surprises of the NBA season so far.

The Eastern Conference has rebalanced the power dynamic between the two conferences. The West’s utter dominance over the East has been well documented in the past, as the West won 56.7% of inter-conference matchups from 1999-2018. While the West still holds a good record in head to head matchups compared to the East this season, there are arguably the same number of playoff contenders in each conference.

For years, the Western Conference playoffs have been notoriously more difficult to qualify for than their Eastern counterparts. Even as recently as last year, 48 wins were needed to qualify for the eighth seed in the West, whereas the Pistons squeaked into the playoffs in the East with 41 wins.

This season, both current eighth seeds have won only 18 games (Magic and Grizzlies) while playing sub-.500 basketball. Meanwhile, six teams in

each conference have won at least 60% of their games, a significant divergence from last season when only three Eastern squads accomplished this feat compared to five Western conferences.

Another standout quality of this season has contributed to the East’s ascension; the lack of multi-star teams. The 2010s were dominated by teams featuring multiple future hall-of-famers. From LeBron’s Heat to Tim Duncan’s Spurs to Steph Curry’s Warriors, it seemed that at least two future hall-of-famers were required to win the NBA Finals. This season, multiple teams have excelled while featuring only one bona fide superstar, and a few appear to be serious championship contenders.

The Bucks stand out among the crowd. Reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is having another historically dominant season, leading his team to a league-best 35-6 record. But he is the only true star on his team, and while a case can be made for Khris Middleton, none of his teammates are locks for the All-Star Game.

Instead, Bucks General Manager Jon Horst has surrounded Giannis with talented veterans who perfectly complement his game, from excellent ballhandlers Eric Bledsoe and George Hill, sweet-shooting forwards Ersan Ilyasova, Wesley Matthews, and Kyle Korver, and stout rim protectors Brook and Robin Lopez. This formula has been replicated across the league, as teams like the Heat (Jimmy Butler), Raptors (Pascal Siakam), Pacers (Domantas Sabonis), Jazz (Donovan Mitchell) and Mavericks (Luka Dončić) have surrounded their respective stars with deep, versatile casts of role players to achieve success.

Finally, the biggest surprise team in the league thus far has been the Oklahoma City Thunder. After swinging the

Camille Fine/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago Bulls forward Thaddeus Young attempts a shot against Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo at the United Center on Nov. 18, 2019.

two biggest trades of the offseason in only a few days, expectations were low.

And understandably so, as the Thunder swapped in-their-prime superstars Paul George and Russell Westbrook for an aging Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and seven (not a typo) first round picks. Rather than sink into oblivion while shipping off their veterans for draft picks, the Thunder exceeded all expectations and transformed into a legitimate playoff team.

The Thunder’s 22-17 record can largely be attributed to its three-headed monster of guards Paul, GilgeousAlexander and Dennis Schroder. Paul has continued to be the Point God, exhibiting elite shooting splits and as-

sist-to-turnover ratio while being the most clutch scorer in the league during crunch time. Gilgeous-Alexander, one of the frontrunners for the Most Improved Player award, has nearly doubled his scoring output from last season (10.8-19.9) on a slight drop in efficiency while playing excellent defense.

Finally, Schroder leads the discussion for Sixth Man of the Year, scoring 18.3 points per game with 52.5/35.2/81.7 splits, easily his most efficient year as a pro. These three, with contributions from Gallinari, Steven Adams and others have turned the Thunder into a team that nobody wants to face in the playoffs.

Two Demon Deacons selected in 2020 MLS draft Right back Alistair Johnston and midfielder Joey DeZart were picked in the first two rounds

BY SAM WEXLER Staff Writer wexlsn17@wfu.edu

In five years under Head Coach Bobby Muuss, the university’s men’s soccer team has sent 17 players to the MLS. Joey Dezart and Alistair Johnston were the two newest Demon Deacons sent to the league through their selection on day one of the 2020 MLS Draft.

Johnston was first off the board for the university when he was selected at No. 11 overall in the first round by Nashville, SC. The team is primed for its first MLS season this year after playing in the USL championship the last two seasons.

A team captain, Johnston moved from midfield to right back this year. He transferred in from St. John’s and totaled six goals and 10 assists through his two years at the university. A native of Aurora, Ontario, he has also been selected for various camps with Canada Soccer.

DeZart was the fifth selection of the second round. He was taken at No. 31 overall to Orlando City SC. It is the club’s sixth year of the MLS and DeZart is the first player taken from the university in that span.

A three-year starter in the defensive midfield, DeZart played in 65 matches and had 53 starts. He recorded two goals and four assists for a total of eight points.

Hailing from Jackson, N.J., Dezart has also spent time on the Jamaican U20 national team.

Also of note during the draft was 2019 MLS Draft pick Brad Dunwell being traded to Energy FC. The midfielder will head to Oklahoma City after playing the 2019 season with Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the USL Championship. He was selected 56th overall in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft by Houston Dynamo. He was then signed by the Dynamo’s USL Championship affiliate, Rio Grande Valley FC. The university’s soccer program is just one of two programs to have a first-round selection in each of the last five MLS SuperDrafts. There have been six first-round picks over those years and Johnston is now the 17th first-round pick in program history.

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications

Senior midfielder and right back Alistair Johnston is Wake Forest men’s soccer’s 17th first-round pick in program history.

LIFE

T H U R S D AY, J A N U A R Y 1 6 , 2 0 2 0

PAG E 13

Online OLD GOLD & BLACK

at : w w w. w f u o g b . c o m

e d i t o r : C a t h e r i n e R e g e n , r e g e c l 17 @ w f u . e d u

Gerwig revitalizes a classic Little Women showcases the talents of an all-star cast, including Saoirse Ronan’s Golden Globe and Oscar nominated performance as the iconic Jo March.

BY KYLE FERRER Senior Writer ferrka16@wfu.edu Greta Gerwig’s Little Women refreshes us with its depth and devotion. Tender lyricism gathers into a tableau of quivering emotional droplets poised for release — profound, poetic and ambiguous without seeming served-up. Characters collide and combine, jostling, then stumbling into themselves with an emotional honesty that shakes loose trains of genuine, wipe-away tears. Affections are not monotonously realized or naïvely romantic, but drawn-out shivering, like a shy tragedy from the thicket of personality. This makes Little Women a vivid, vibrant film, where the emotions are intense and the machinations an antidote to our modern cynicism. Through a story that feels deliciously archaic and intimately modern, Little Women angles the lovelorn collapses and intricate compromises of Louisa May Alcott’s novel with such delicacy that every second already feels like canon.

“Alone is alone, not a life.” Adam Driver sings at the end of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, and in Little Women, Jo (Saoirse Ronan) ends her famous lines about women’s independent minds and spirits by saying, “But I’m so lonely!” It’s a contextualization as important for our polarized times as any, if only because, like the film itself, it spurns siloed virtue and invites complication. Gerwig’s film is about our connections to each other — convolved in pain and lifted by light — concerned less with political remedies than aesthetic transformation. Sure, Little Women is a film about women (and Tarantino’s latest is a film about men; to quote Chris D’Elia, “It’s about … what it’s about!”), but great art transcends its subject by becoming impacted in it. The bustle of a film can allow the subject’s energy to expand beyond the quotidian and onto that heated stretch of horizon we can call sincere uncertainty. In Little Women, Gerwig has vitalized Al-

cott’s novel through her ability, much like her husband (Baumbach), to root out and rivet with the ambiguous particulars of human experience. The film takes the old binary of heart or head, and parses the illogical space in between, the “or,” where most of life’s uncertainty lives.

Subject, in films, matters less than a novel approach to the subjective, an approach that tilts universal themes into pebbled light. Little Women takes a beloved novel (with a few beloved adaptations) and re-imagines it with authentic energy and visual poetry, weaving language and atmosphere into a seamless tapestry.

As the four March girls come of age in the Civil War and its aftermath, we realize the key to any beloved adaptation is the embodiment of thusfar imagined characters, and so it is no surprise that Little Women grabs us with great performances. Characters are, by turns, jaunty, weighty and often electrifyingly eclectic. Ronan gusts into Jo with a jittery sensitivity and crinkly intelligence, observant and dangerously attractive. The character’s love of labor and liberty, played with Ronan’s own dreamy insurgency and spoken with a voice that’s like steel wool scrubbing out honey, connotes a kind of 19th-century Holly Hunter from Broadcast News.

Timothée Chalamet broods and brightens as Laurie, at once fey and drolly present, statuesque and meltingly emotive. An actor of the eyes, alongside greats like Paul Newman and Joaquin Phoenix, Chalamet’s somber sapphires destabilize the air, first with the goofy embarrassment of being stared at (one feels, when Chalamet raises his lids, like an accordion sounds), then with a transfixion of unprovable poetics. Emma Watson’s performance as Meg grounds itself in supporting-role sweetness, a satisfying re-entrance onto the screen for the charming actor who, though she’s had a few blips, is still known for showing Mr. Potter around the library. Florence Pugh, fresh off the Midsommar disaster she nearly rescued with her clenched control, is flinty and vulnerable as Amy, a girl reluctantly playing second fiddle. Pugh can act, and she emanates strength,

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

whether it be to develop empathy or antipathy. On the elderly side, Meryl Streep plays the peckish Aunt March, ensconced and punching downward with her old-world, girls-should-marry-up morality; Chris Cooper as Mr. Lawrence gently broods in his estate, allaying his own loss with Beth (Eliza Scanlen), the littlest March, and her quiet kindness; and Laura Dern lovingly circumscribes her four girls as Marmee. Dern’s maternal oversoul sews the unit together, both visibly and invisibly. The girls are often splayed in dynamic tumbles, staged by Gerwig in various frames that recall the sprawl of Eugene Delacroix or Théodore Gericault.

Distinct, yet happy to be subsumed, the character details collect with the emphatic weight of their connectedness, a cadre of indelible characters who leave an ineffable residue, too.

Amy March says to Laurie that she thinks one has some power over who they love, that it isn’t something that just happens to a person. “I think the poets might disagree,” Laurie responds, Chalamet’s bluest eyes boring a hole in our cynicism like a cigarette through skin.

One of the film’s many triumphs is its interest in love — its social mutilations, pure reality, painful disavowals, and, occasionally, its spontaneous soul-combusting beauty. All love seems grand to the two who plow its field, and we feel that in Little Women: the contortions of souls as they wail down the cart path, fending off anchors and jadedness to accept their short time in each other’s company. The films asks, among other questions, Shakespeare’s famous one: “Where is fancy bred, or in the heart or in the head?” We see both: heads turned toward wealthy futures, hearts demure, then volcanic. Little Women’s cross-currents of emotional intensity make every character memorable, every moment many-colored and the film a titanic achievement of emotional honesty.

The lost innocence in Little Women has to do with the slow bleed away from childhood, a time where feeling was united with knowledge, and knowledge was ignorant of a social or personal utility. Knowledge was once a delicious pleasure, an end in itself. This sensitive essence, fed by a sincere kind of vision that’s startled by reality in its simplest dimension, we retain but grow to bury. It’s inevitable that we lose our inherent knowledge of life through living. With maturation comes a certain fossilization. Life becomes interpreted, judged.

But love, though it is flayed, diluted and confused with many other things, pokes through as the most powerful pang of childhood. It gags language into tears, and its silent symphonies buffet our bodies to and fro, forcing us to lurch at one another in inarticulate spray of feeling. Love is an impulse away from ego and its courtiers – words – that squirts us toward a deeper embrace. Our developed, jaded reality cedes to an invisible motor, one that is unpredictable, playful and ironic because it has no idea what irony is. Little Women knows all of this and more, presenting its content in warmedover tones and lush landscapes that mirror the tingly, uncharted territories inside us, as if to give them a palatable equivalent. Undoubtedly 2019’s crown jewel, Little Women displays itself for all the soul to see. It is, quite simply, a film to ruminate upon until we croak.

Old Gold & Black | Life

Page 14 | Thursday, January 16, 2020

Movie Review | Uncut Gems

THE HOT Sandler stars in ‘chaotic’ film LIST The latest film from the Safdie brothers stars Sandler in a dramatic role

BY JACK PORTMAN Opinion Editor portjt17@wfu.edu Uncut Gems is chaos — a thrilling, exhausting brand of chaos molded by the jittery urgency of the protagonist’s every decision. The film portrays a selfdestructive bender of entropic personal one-upmanship which constantly seems to be folding in on itself and yet is apparently always on the brink of glorious victory.

The film follows Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler), a high profile — if somewhat washed-up — New York City jeweler and sports gambling addict. The titular stone is an illicitly procured opal specimen extracted from an Ethiopian mine at Ratner’s direction. The stone has a certain cosmic quality which catches the attention of Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett during the 2012 NBA Finals.

Ratner’s efforts to sell the gem for an acceptable price, pay off a debt and win a high-stakes bet centered on Garnett’s performance in game seven of the Finals, while maintaining a suburban family life and an affair with an employee, propel his string of lies, deceits and illadvised deals. Directors Josh and Benny Safdie (Good Time, Heaven Knows What) maximize the impact of Ratner’s manufactured chaos by blending cool, lucid

aesthetics with grating sequences of dialogue featuring more interlocutors than is suitable for comprehension in a series of wild, frenetic confrontations.

The sensation of witnessing the rapid degradation of Ratner’s circumstances and the increasingly high-stakes of his every action is akin to the experience of watching Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary Fyre, which follows entrepreneur and fraudster Billy McFarland’s manic efforts to host a high-profile music festival, even while his preparations crumble. Each film is a race against time — the tension of McFarland’s dire scenario is worsened by the impending arrival of hundreds of influencers, while overlapping deadlines and an NBA game-clock pace Ratner’s turbulent life — and both McFarland and Ratner refuse to be defeated, making progressively chancier gambles until the rug is pulled from beneath them. The true to life events and people at the center of Uncut Gems, including broadcast footage of the NBA Finals and appearances by The Weeknd, ground the action in a kind of liminal reality that lends the film somewhat of a documentary-feel.

Two trippy, etherial sequences that juxtapose long, panning camera movements that navigate the gem’s colorful interior with unsightly gastroscopic imagery ally the cosmic presence of the stone with Ratner’s own mortality. Whether the stone actually possesses any kind of mystical presence is ambiguous; and while initially appraised by Ratner to be worth over one million dollars, it becomes unclear whether the stone is worth anything

near that amount, further obscuring reality and Ratner’s fantasy-chaos.

The film’s emphasis of collapse, misfortune and meaninglessness in the face of an unknowable universe reflect a bleak outlook on a crazy, senseless world. The Safdie brothers, whose previous film Good Time featured a similarly chaotic run of desperation and deceit, breath reckless energy into the enigmatic Ratner, a man who seemingly lives for the adrenaline rush of high stakes decisions and life-or-death scenarios.

Top 10 Reasons I Miss London By: Catherine Regen

Yes, I am a junior. Yes, I was abroad. Yes, I will tell you all about it with no logical segue. Enjoy.

1.

Enjoying a cuppa in an overstuffed leather armchair

3.

5.

BY AMANDA GAGE Staff Writer gageak19@wfu.edu The best time of year is finally upon us, awards season! It’s time to celebrate the movies and TV shows that have made us cry, laugh, love and, most importantly, opened our eyes to new worlds and ideas during the past year. This year gave us some of the best that this industry has to offer. We danced along to Elton John’s classics in Rocketman. We laughed with Phoebe Waller Bridge in Fleabag. We cheered on the March sisters in Little Women. We saw the return of the Italian Mob in The Irishman, with a comeback from Joe Pesci. We roared as Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio stopped the death of Sharon Tate in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. The list could, and does, go on. Not only do the award shows highlight the best of the industry, but they also reflect the current political and social climate. More directors and writers are diversifying their casts, while new people are breaking into the indus-

The skyline view from the top of Primrose Hill All the incredible food from Seven Dials to Dishoom

7.

Sandler stars alongside Idina Menzel and Lakeith Stanfield.

animal agriculture and climate change.

Notably, Awkwafina made Golden Globes history by becoming the first Asian American woman to win best actress in a leading role for her movie, The Farewell.

Although a step towards progress, women seemed to be snubbed again in this year’s nominations, with the entire director’s category made up of male nominees.

As the Oscars approach, I look forward to seeing the winners, the political statements and, obviously, the red carpet outfits. Film and television make up such a large part of our lives. We get emotionally attached to the characters. We cry when they pass away, we root for them and we relate to them. Whether you’re watching the classic love story of Casablanca, the chilling story of The Shawshank Redemption or the modern female-centered story of Ladybird, all of these movies pull us into a new world. That’s why I love watching movies and shows. For just a little bit, you can escape reality and see a different side of life. If you’re heartbroken, you can watch Pretty Woman to make you believe in love again. When you’re bored, you can watch Bohemian Rhapsody to make you dance to Queen.

What we see on the screen truly adds color to life, and that is why America celebrates visual media.

The Christmas market on the second floor of Harrods Visiting art exhibits at the Royal Academy

Photo courtesy of amazon.com

foxes on the walk to 9. Seeing and from Chalk Farm station Family Dinner with Barry and Sandra Maine

It’s time to celebrate film, TV All the brightest stars in Hollywood came out for the Golden Globes

The Worrell House staff Wine and cheese nights with our RA in the kitchen

Awards Season | Golden Globes

try to tell unique stories that more people can relate to and learn from.

The Golden Globes aired on Jan. 5 to kick off the joyous awards season. Ricky Gervais made a bold entrance with his trademark jokes that cross the line, but continue to be absolutely hilarious. He was not afraid to call out the audience for being self-righteous and pompous, so he made it his goal to put them in their rightful place. Some of the big winners of the night included Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, winning best supporting actor, best screenplay and best motion picture in a comedy or musical and 1917, winning best motion picture in a drama and best director. Some of my favorite performances were Taron Egerton’s portrayal of a young Elton John, which won him best actor in a comedy or musical, as well as Soairse Ronan’s Jo March (Little Women), which earned her a nomination for best actress in a drama.

The Globes were a night full of celebration, while also giving actors and actresses a platform to call for change. Climate change dominated the conversation and was the topic of most acceptance speeches. Not only did many celebrities speak about the Australian wildfires, but the Hollywood Foreign Press even made the dinner menu completely plant-based, calling attention to the link between

Living with my best friends

DRINK OF THE WEEK

• • • •

1/2 cup of strawberries 1/2 cup of frozen mango 1/2 banana 1 pkg of coconut dairyfree yogurt • 1/4 cup water Wash all the fruit and slice into small, bite-size pieces. Put all the ingredients in a blender.

Blend until smooth. Add more water if needed.

Enjoy with a twisty straw!

Life | Old Gold & Black

Thursday, January 16, 2020 | Page 15

TV Review | You

You is back with another twist

Viewers know not to get attached to characters on Netflix’s hit show You

BY KHUSHI ARYA Contributing Writer aryak19@wfu.edu

Netflix’s (and my) favorite toxic character Joe (Penn Badgley) came back this holiday season and needless to say, I binge-watched the whole new season of You in two days. If you haven’t seen it yet, beware of spoilers ahead.

This time, Joe moves to Los Angeles and vows to be a better person. As much as I love New York City, I enjoyed the change of scenery and Joe’s thoughts on the lifestyle of Angelenos were hilariously accurate. In typical Joe fashion, he set his eyes on a new girl and found a person to lock inside his box. As the season progressed, he committed more crimes, but this time around he genuinely had no bad intentions. The choice to highlight his childhood trauma served to make the viewers sympathize with Joe and gave them a background of his sociopathic

tendencies. We are made to believe that at the end of the day, he was just a little boy looking for love.

Speaking of Love (Victoria Pedretti), her character seemed mediocre at first, but as we learnt about her husband’s death, dysfunctional family and codependent relationship with her twin brother, different layers of her personality surfaced, making her intriguing.

Then, of course, the main plot twist revealed that she was the one who killed Delilah and went on to kill Candace as well. This revelation made Joe fall out of love with her because, as Love said, his illusion of a “perfectly imperfect girl” was shattered. In a way, Love and Joe are soulmates considering their questionable actions which they justified in the name of love. What makes us root for Joe is his humane side, which is weirdly charismatic. Just like season one, Joe protects a minor, Ellie (Jenna Ortega), highlighting his fatherly instincts. His friendship with Will (Robin Lord Taylor) and Forty (James Scully) also adds warmth to his character.

Forty’s character is multidimensional.

Behind the rich spoiled alcoholic, we see a man with deep emotional trauma,

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

Penn Bagdley plays a seductively ominous protagonist alongside a cast of new, yet dynamic actors in the second season of You. which seems to be a recurring theme in all the characters’ pasts. His intelligence was evident when he figured out the truth behind Beck’s story and I was relieved when Joe chose not to kill Forty, as he was probably my favorite character. Sadly, he died in the last episode and I am still not over it.

In the last few minutes of the season, when Joe was ready to accept a domestic life with Love and his future child,

he found a new “you.” As absurd as it is, Joe will always chase an idea of love that could fill the void his mother created. We were just fooled into thinking that he changed into a better man.

Overall, I enjoyed the complicated plot which often felt like a satire on human relationships. You proves that humanity’s’ insatiable desires drive us all to act mindlessly.

TV Review | Witcher

The Witcher shows promise in first season With loyal fans from many mediums, The Witcher had a lot to live up to

BY REBECCA MARIE GUY Contributing Writer guyrm17@wfu.edu

On Dec. 20 The Witcher premiered on Netflix, the concept based off of Andrezej Sapkowzki’s book series of the same title. The plot follows the adventures of a mutated man, Geralt of Rivia, who hunts monsters for coin. It attempts to fill the Game of Thrones-shaped hole by giving us monsters, morally ambiguous characters, sword fights and, of course, nudity.

Most know the story due to the immensely popular video games that were produced in earlier years.

Players will recognize some characters from the games, but the main plot shies away from that of the video games and instead mimics that of the first book in the series, The Last Wish.

The Witcher begins by following the story lines of Geralt (Henry Cavill), his main love interest Yennefer, and his kind-of-adopted daughter Ciri, in different time periods that come together in the finale but are confusing to follow.

While Yennefer strives to become

a powerful mage, Ciri struggles to hide from an opposing king that sacked her home and Geralt goes about doing what he does best: killing monsters. It’s not made clear initially how the timelines fit together or how they relate but they ultimately provide crucial character development, especially for those viewers unfamiliar with either the books or the games.

The CGI used to create monsters like the Sylvan and Hirrika left something to be desired and the total amount of monsters in the show is dismal. It contains a grand total of two major monster battles, but we can applaud Cavill for making them epic scenes to watch. Cavill is the best actor for Geralt; not only does he have the appearance and gruffness that physically make up Geralt, Cavill is also a huge fan of the games and begged to play Geralt as soon as he heard rumors of the show. He went as far as reading the books in preparation for the role and doing his own stunts. The result was the best portrayal of Geralt that fans could have asked for.

The unexpected highlight of the series is the relationship between Geralt and the bard Jaskier, although many know him as Dandelion. Jaskier is an endearingly pesky bard who follows Geralt across the fictional continent making up

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

Henry Cavill stars in the newest adaptation of Andrezej Sapowski’s book series, and other iterations which include a popular video game.

songs about Geralt’s adventures, like the hit “Toss a Coin to your Witcher” that is still unavailable on Spotify. With his thinly veiled sex jokes and Geralt’s sardonic humor they create a humorous pair providing comic relief to combat the more serious events including, but definitely not limited to, an incestual relationship and the sale of a

deformed girl for a price less than that of a pig.

Overall The Witcher has the makings of being one of the best shows on Netflix, leaving fans greatly satisfied with season one. The next season will not be coming out until 2021, so a wait reminiscent of that for the final season of Game of Thrones is ahead for TheWitcher fans.

Page 16 | Thursday, January 16, 2020

Old Gold & Black | Life

Make your resolutions about others in 2020 Most people use New Year’s resolutions as an opportunity for self improvement.

However, they can also serve as a way to help others.

BY SOPHIA MARCHELI Contributing Writer marcsl19@wfu.edu

It’s a new semester, a new year and a new decade. As per usual, the new year is likely being marked by new year’s resolutions.

Each year, everyone seems to be rotating through a set list of resolutions: exercise more, go on a diet, watch less TV, make more time for yourself or drink less coffee.

As I sit in Dough Joe’s writing this, while coincidentally sipping a coffee, I realize the one thing all of these resolutions have in common. They are all strictly revolved around one’s self and, in the grand scheme of things, seem trivial.

I, too, have started each new year thinking mainly about myself and how I can improve. Each year, my resolutions usually fail in about a month or less and I’m left spending the rest of the year doing the same things without any worry at all.

Since it’s now a new decade and a completely different type of world, I’m suggesting a change.

Everyone around the world, but especially us “radical” youth, have begun to embrace the idea of simply accepting yourself. It no longer seems right to begin a new year with several different resolutions all about fixing yourself. Instead, I propose that each new year starts with resolutions about how you can improve what’s around you.

The political climate is concerning, to say the least. The once stable earth and climate around us seem to be changing and deteriorating everyday. And overall people have become more polarized, not just in regards to politics, but in every idea they have. So, cheesy as it sounds, instead of focusing strictly on fixing yourself, focus on fixing what’s wrong in the world.

I realize that in reality, the task of “fixing the world” seems much more daunting and impossible than simply cutting back on ice cream or hitting the gym not once, but twice a week. However, each person deciding to focus their year on improving the world makes much more of a difference than the one who decides that this year their main goal is to eat healthier.

Of course, each person’s resolution to help the world around them is going to be different, seeing as it might be unreasonable for a college student to make a resolution that this year they will singlehandedly end world hunger. This is clearly unreasonable and impossible. But the resolutions to start volunteering to help children, recycle religiously and stop using plastic water bottles, help individuals become more informed about what’s going on. Enabling them to make better de-

cisions or decide to speak out more often when they’re passionate about something.

These are the resolutions that will start to have a great impact.

The world is in desperate need of more and more people deciding to do their part in order to improve things that are wrong around them. It would be much easier to simply make resolutions that focus just on yourself. You have control over yourself and it’s often easier to enforce those resolutions. Even if you don’t stick to your original resolutions for the year, the only person who is affected is once again you.

Making some type of resolution to impact the world around you is clearly much more challenging and if you don’t stick to it, it’s not just you who would feel the impact.

But in some ways, isn’t that more gratifying? It’s always exciting if by some miracle of strong will, you stick to your resolution and lose those 10 lbs, or are down to only three Grey’s Anatomy episodes a week. But if you managed to completely stop using plastic water bottles, listened to the news every day so you could make more informed decisions or even voiced your opinions about different issues more, the gratification might not be instant but you would know that you had done your part, however big or small, to help make a difference.

Right now, it seems like many people are content to live their own lives and remain disconnected to what is happening around them. More and more people are choosing to sit back and stay out of the issues that fill the headlines, leaving everything to someone else to take care of. But New Year’s resolutions are about taking charge and changing your life. Instead of changing how you eat, choose instead to change how you connect with the world and choose to play an active part in what’s happening.

I will always be one of the many who begin each new year with grand plans of eating healthier, drinking more water, exercising more and spending less time watching TV. I’m always extremely impressed when someone tells me they’ve stuck to their resolutions the entire year, and I hope that people continue to try to stick to their resolutions about bettering themselves. But this year I hope that everyone can take it upon themselves to not only work on just their own life, but on helping the world around them become a little better too.

Catherine Regen / Old Gold & Black