REPORTER MARCH 2016 reporter.rit.edu
Thank You! Thank you for being outstanding student leaders and role models!
Ashley Adair, Emmanuel Aire-Oaihimire, Vasilios Anton, Marissa Apollonio, Chakeil Armwood Olohirere Aruya, Jeremy Astolfi, Robert Bailey, Reena Banerjee, Rachel Berry, Anthony Bizzarro Karen Blanco, Taylor Blackwell, Hannah Budd, Robert Busch, Jackeline Caceres, Angelica Campa Nathan Castle, Christopher Caulfield, Breana Chandler, Kendell Charles, Robert Newell, Jacqueline Colello Brianna Conrad, Michael Conrad, Jennifer Corbit, Yuwei Qiao, Ian Cullen, Rachel Curtis, Corie Both Charly DeFreitas, Nathan Dileas, Rosemary Carter, Kevin Dolan, Jordan Duffy, Thomas Cenova, Bridgett Emigh Austin Kuzara, Joshua Farrell, Sarah Flowers, Jonathan Fratti, Seth Gottlieb, Andrew Smith Cecilia Grugan, Jenny Han, Kevin Gibson, Ivan Hayes, Joseph Hunt, Wanya Jefferson,Hassan Jehan William Kelly, Samuel Kirschbaum, Derick Kowalczyk, Jonathan Kozak, Sadie Kulhanek, Lauren LaPerle Enri Marini, Andrew Leja, Veronica Lesnar, Richard Loya, Caleb Martin, Joshua Cohen, Shena Marshall Brittany McConnell, Kevin Mead, Terrell Merritt, Hannah Mulford, Bezankeng Njinju, Joseph Scotchmer Yulesh Patel, Ben Pennica, Katherine Perchik, Olivia Pine, Jonathan Pons, Naveena Shanmugam Anna Powers, Adam Pries, Brandon Rall, Adityaa Ravi, Emily Reynolds, Shawn Ribaudo, John Rivera Christopher Robinson, Emma Rogers, Tallon Rood, Jordan Roth, Erica Steele, Alexandra Ryllo Rouble Samanta, Antony Sanisidro, Emily Sanseverino, Simone Sawyers, Britta Schwall, Maura Sepesy Elizabeth Shafer, Kaitlyn Shirey, Laura Silva, Chevelle Sleaford, Tal Cohen, Jordanaé Smith, Ruth Starr David Swerzenski, Kristen Swerzenski, Srikripa Kartik, MacKenzie Thomson, Donald Reinert Kristoffer Van Nostrand Jacob Timmons, Andre Webster, Alexandra Wright, Charles Krouse Trina Ray, Wesley Towstik, Samantha Fucarino, Melissa Perkins, Brittni Cumberland, Christopher Snyder Nicole Howley, Matt Hart, Robert Sulli, Max DeSousa, Ebenezer Baawuah, Saabirah Lallmohamed Brittany Dzugas-Smith, Samuel Echefu, Cassidy Smith, Tristan Cannan, Jessica Schnall, Julia Vitale Brandon Stroud, Marissa Reed, Jaben McCormack, David Goldstein, Andrew Botschagow, Erin McLaen Ila Vaughan, Shannon Lawless, Laura Aldefer, Usama Haq, Amelia Rothfuss, Michael McCarroll Ian Jack, Mitchell Poon, Pauline Dziama, Christina DiSalvo, Eronmonsele Omiyi, Marina Thelen
The Center for Residence Life has 130 Resident Advisors who support over 7100 students living in RIT’s residence halls and apartments. They work tirelessly to build a sense of community, promote student engagement, create safe living and learning environments, and serve as invaluable campus resources.
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REPORTER EDITOR IN CHIEF Alyssa Jackson PRINT MANAGING EDITOR Mandi Moon ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR Alex Jones COPY EDITOR Grace Guadagnino NEWS EDITOR Taylor Derrisaw TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Natasha Amadasun LEISURE EDITOR Claire Fleming FEATURES EDITOR Bryanne McDonough SPORTS EDITOR Liz Peterson VIEWS EDITOR Jake Krajewski WRITERS Taylor Derrisaw, Bryanne McDonough, Bridgett Jackson, Bailey Gribben, Alissa Roy, Kristen Grant, Ian Hampson
ART ART DIRECTOR Dennae Makel ONLINE ART DIRECTOR Max Yeager CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS Annie Wong, Caleb Payne, Emma Fleming, Olivia Konys, Kevin Zampieron, Lauren Mays, Carina Singletary CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS Ryan Kovar, Victoria Savka, Caleb Payne, Unique Fair, Emily Diehl, Alyssa Minko, Max Yeager, Lilly Blum
EDITOR’S NOTE St. Patrick’s Day is nearly here, which means the luck of the Irish is upon us. Or is it? I’ll tell it to you straight - I don’t really believe in luck. At least, I’ve never felt very lucky myself. Not that I’m not grateful; I have a wonderful life and amazing friends and family who surround me and support me. I go to one of the best schools in the country and I have a significant number of achievements from my time here thanks to the people who work here and support me. I just don’t think that necessarily makes me lucky. I’ve never won anything off the radio or in a raffle, which by my definition is the epitome of luck. I’m a pretty firm believer that people make their own luck. As self-righteous as it sounds, that’s what I did. I have amazing friends and family who surround me because I do not discriminate on cutting toxic people out of my life. I go to one of the best schools in the country (at least, in my opinion) because I worked hard during high school and continue to work several jobs to be able to afford such an education. I have worked hard for the opportunities I have received, and I am not bashful about that. Nearly every person I know is in the same boat. The point is, you shouldn’t be bashful about it either. Work hard - seriously, insanely hard - to do what you need to do. Put your all into it. Do it until your body aches and you’re tired, no matter what it is that you need to do. Whether it’s going to the gym, getting out of poverty, improving your mental health, improving your grades or winning a something off the radio (someday I’ll go to a concert for free), give it your all. Consider this your Monday Motivation to do what you have been putting off or ignoring. You become a lot luckier in life when you make the luck yourself.
PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO EDITOR Kristen McNicholas CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Kristen McNicholas, Alexandra Hayes-Rossiter, Robert Rauchwerger, Daniel Vasta, Joseph Ressler
Alyssa Jackson Editor in Chief
BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Jaclyn Bergin AD / PR MANAGER Danielle Sanderson PRODUCTION MANAGER Ryan Walsh ONLINE SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR Nathan J. Lichtenstein WEB MANAGER Joe Jankowiak VIDEO EDITOR Sara Caruso
Letters to the Editor should be sent to rpteic@rit.edu. No letters will be printed unless signed. All letters received become the property of REPORTER.
ADVISOR Rudy Pugliese PRINTING EPi Printing CONTACT 585.475.2212 Reporter Magazine is published monthly during the academic year by a staff comprised of students at Rochester Institute of Technology. Business, Editorial and Design facilities are located in Room A-730, in the lower level of the Campus Center. Our phone number is 1.585.475.2212. The Advertising Department can be reached at 1.585.475.2213. “These are probably the first vegetables I’ve eaten all week.” -J.K. The opinions expressed in Reporter do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute. Reporter is not responsible for materials presented in advertising areas. Reporter takes pride in its membership in the Associated Collegiate Press and American Civil Liberties Union. Copyright © 2014 Reporter Magazine. All rights reserved. No portion of this Magazine may be reproduced without prior written permission.
March 3
TABLE OF cover and TOC illustration by Kristen McNicholas
TECH
NEWS 7
RIT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FOOD WASTE The Sustainability Committee and SEAL work toward composting on campus
8
THE NEW IOU Payback’s a bitch... or is it?
LEISURE 10
Crikey! Remembering the Crocodile Hunter
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@reportermag 4 March
THE CROCODILE HUNTER: A LEGACY OF CONSERVATION
THE ODD SCIENCE OF SUPERSTITION The meaning behind your lucky sock
AYL Leap Day word search
CONTENTS F E AT U R E S 16
THE CONTINUING CONVERSATION OF RACE AT RIT Past and present of race at RIT
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RANKING RIT College rankings don’t always reflect reality
STUDENTS AND FINANCIAL LITERACY How well do you know your finances?
SPORTS 24
RIT CHEERLEADING: COMING INTO THE SPOTLIGHT
VIEWS 26
THE SURPRISING MATURITY OF CHILDREN’S ANIMATION Just because a cartoon is for kids doesn’t mean it’s childish
Proud athletes who have been ignored for too long
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WORD ON THE STREET What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you?
RINGS Text or Call (585) 672-4840
March 5
RIT’S FIGHT AGAINST FOOD WASTE
by Taylor Derrisaw | photography by Alexandra Hayes-Rossita | design by Olivia Konys
Of all the food produced for human consumption, approximately one-third, or 1.3 billion tons, ends up as food waste, according to the Food and Agriculture Association. The volume of that amount of food is immense and almost unimaginable. This issue has been debated many times before and solutions and remedies have been suggested and tried. Now, RIT will step up to the plate to combat rising food waste.
T
he Student Environment Action League (SEAL), in conjunction with the Senate’s Sustainability Committee, is implementing a pilot study to determine the feasibility of composting on campus. SEAL has been an active force in the RIT community in recent years. The group hosts multiple events aimed at educating the RIT community and beyond on environmental issues. Composting is the act of bringing nutrients back to soil by breaking down organic waste. This helps to ensure that nutrients are cycling through the ecosystem efficiently and not being wasted. The study will involve the participation of specific residential areas and will attempt to educate students on the benefits of disposing of food waste properly. An initiative like this is especially important on a community scale. RIT influences much of the area around Henrietta and Rochester. When its graduates expand back out into Rochester, they’ll be able to take this information and lifestyle with them and promote healthier and more environmentally friendly habits in their communities. This new wave of environmentally conscious individuals, cultivated on RIT’s campus, can be part of a change we see in the future of reduced food waste. Leading the initiative is the Sustainability Committee’s chair and former SEAL president, fourth year Public Policy student Cassidy Putney, who believes the pilot will help determine whether something like this can be brought into a wider scale in the future. “Right now, we’re just going to test its feasibility,” Putney said, “It’s hard to see the purpose of the investment at first ... I believe the numbers will prove it.” The pilot study will observe the costs of composting in specially selected University Commons (UC) buildings. The buildings chosen will be those where a collection tote can be easily reached by students. The residents are not required to participate, but must attend a meeting on composting if they choose to participate.
The meeting will go into detail about what kinds of materials are allowed and what kinds of materials must still be considered ordinary waste. The meeting will also answer any questions students may have, and Putney believes students will gain a lot of knowledge through it. “They need to have the right info,” Putney said. She believes students will then take this knowledge and apply it once they leave RIT and move into other communities. Once the students have the knowledge they need, they will receive a bucket they can place under the sink and use to collect any compostable materials when they make their food. As some compost might be “contaminated” due to ordinary waste materials being present in the mix, volunteers will sift through the mix to remove any items such as paper, which Putney says the collection agency “already has a surplus of.” The goal of this project is to increase environmental awareness of food waste and the sort of impact individuals can make. Putney said that all it takes is for students and community members to educate themselves and get involved. She pointed to Stanford and New York City, which have implemented extremely successful composting programs in recent years; Putney was involved with the latter when she lived there. The worst thing is to be “uninformed” about the issue and solutions available to remedy it. If the pilot is successful in its economic feasibility, the initiative will be implemented on a campus-wide scale. “This is to incur change and we really want people to be educated,” Putney said. We as a society all have an obligation to take care of our resources and watch what we consume. With the help of advocates like Putney and organizations like SEAL, we can make a difference in the environment and carry these lessons forward to other communities. If any student wishes to get involved in SEAL, Putney encourages them to come to their meetings on Mondays from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Campus Center.
News 7
O THE NEW
by Ian Hampson | illustration by Dennae Makel | design by Olivia Konys
8 Leisure
wing someone money happens to almost every college student at one point or another, whether it’s for the pizza they split last night or the drinks purchased for them by a friend. In the past, we had to repay our IOUs in the form of cash or a check, but digital services like Paypal, Venmo and even Facebook strive to simplify that exchange and offer more convenient ways to make sure everyone is paid what they are due as soon as possible. Now, Paypal is likely a name that everyone is familiar with. It is a money transferring website that also allows people to pay online through a single, secure profile with the included convenience of freeing people from inputting their card information for every purchase they wish to make. Paypal also aims to assist the digital entrepreneur by offering payment handling services to small businesses ranging from online payment all the way to including in-store payment options like a mobile card reader or other point of sale solutions. Venmo is a more mobile and feature-focused service currently owned by Paypal that strives to bring peer-topeer transfers to the palm of people ’s hands. It is hailed as the premier mobile app for convenience and speed. It allows many of the same payment methods as Paypal, debit/credit cards and many bank accounts and brings that access to iOS and Android phones to enable users to transfer funds as soon as the need arises. Even Facebook has begun reaching into the peer-topeer market when refining their standalone Messenger app to include Facebook Payments. It allows for simple transfers from one debit account to another for either Visa or Mastercard cardholders, thus trying to keep users on one site where most of Facebook’s revenue is generated. An informal poll of 10 students at RIT showed that they all knew about Paypal regardless of whether they used it frequently or not, but many people had either forgotten or never heard about Facebook Payments as an option. Also, most people who used Venmo used it frequently and had been doing so for longer than six months. Venmo has been recognized by Paypal as a gateway for millennials to access Paypal services and generate revenue for the company at the same rate as the full feature Paypal site. That line of thinking was reflected among the RIT students polled, since most of them had Venmo installed on their phones either for frequent access or just a convenient option to pay a friend back for gas or meals. Paypal seems to be commonly used for more business transactions than either Facebook or Venmo and most people polled had a Paypal account along with using either of the other services. Paypal seems to hold the broadest reach in the student population because of its digital integration across the web. All of these services come with their pros and cons. Many students wonder whether they come with hefty security risks, especially those who do not necessarily know the ins and outs of digital security. According to Chaim Sanders, a lecturer from the Department of Computing Security, security isn’t generally an issue.
THE NE W MOBILE PAYMENT METHODS PAYPAL
179 MILLION USERS takes a cut of the money being transferred
VENMO
15.9 BILLION USERS
$1 BILLION IN PAYMENTS
in-site revenue from credit and debit cardholders
immediate phone-to-phone pay transfers
“It’s much easier for students and faculty, literally everyone in the world, to just pick their favorite,”he said. He then clarified that people should choose “known services,” as those services generally hold sufficient encryption and normally would require a nation or state level of computing power to crack. One of the largest factors in the comparison of security levels is where a service is generally accessed. Venmo is a largely mobile service where phone-tophone transfers are actually the norm. This can easily lead to serious concerns if your phone is lost and your Venmo or Facebook account is signed in. That is why phone producers always suggest passcodes or other locks in order to help avoid these issues.
In general, there are some key things that users should be looking for if they decide to try out a new vendor. One of the largest is two-factor authentication, which is an option or even required for most of the larger banks and services that store your banking information. Two-factor authentication covers two of the three factors of “something you know, something you have or something you are,” that Sanders says most security professionals aim to include. These factors can range from knowing a password and having a separate email to having a thumb print scanner on your phone and knowing the password to your account. “The be-all, end-all advice right now would be to go with well established
vendors. Don’t go with someone that you’ve never heard of, be extremely cautious of who you’re entering personalized information about your bank account and your lives to in terms of money, especially,” Sanders emphasized. This will ensure that people do not fall into bad situations where they lose control of sensitive information. These questions of technological security will likely continue to grow as more and more pieces of our life are connected in the digital age, but it seems that when people exercise good internet security practices, they rest assured knowing that sending money for groceries or nights out through Paypal, Venmo and Facebook Payments will not expose them, or their bank account, to any additional risk.
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by Bryanne McDonough | illustration by Ryan Kovar design by Kevin Zampieron
“Crikey!� This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. A television icon and wildlife conservation enthusiast, Irwin left behind two children, Bindi and Robert Irwin, and his wife, Terri Irwin. The Irwins are like the Kardashians of Australia, if the Kardashians were authentic and dedicated their lives to conservation. Bindi and Robert have both hosted successful television shows and co-authored multiple books, while Terri runs the Australia Zoo.
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AUSTRALIA HAS ONE OF THE WORST MAMMALIAN EXCTINCTION RATES IN THE WORLD The Australia Zoo began as the Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park in 1970, owned and operated by Lyn and Bob Irwin, Steve Irwin’s parents. Growing up in a zoo meant that Irwin was always close with animals. According to his biography on The Crocodile Hunter website, at the age of six he caught his first venomous snake, a Common Brown. He started helping his father catch crocodiles at age nine by wrestling them in the water. In the 1980s, Irwin spent his time in the remote area of North Queensland, developing techniques now utilized across Australia to capture and manage crocodiles. Irwin met his wife, then Terri Rains, when she visited his family zoo. In 1992, they got married in Oregon where Terri grew up. Instead of a honeymoon, they filmed a wildlife documentary which later turned into the popular series “The Crocodile Hunter.” Despite his television fame, Irwin still owned and managed his family’s zoo, which he had renamed to the Australia Zoo. In July 2006, he launched a 10-year business plan to make the zoo one of the best in the world and a beacon for conservation enthusiasts everywhere. Little could Irwin have known that just a few months later he would die in a tragic accident. He was filming a new documentary near the Great Barrier Reef when he was stung by a stingray’s toxic barb. Although it is unusual for a stingray injury to be lethal, paramedics say it was likely that he died instantly, according to ABC News. At only 44 years old, the Crocodile Hunter’s death was a tragedy felt worldwide by many who had enjoyed his show. Now, his family has turned its grief into a passion for conservation efforts around the world. The Australia Zoo’s Wildlife Warriors was originally founded by Steve and Terri and aims “to be the most effective wildlife conservation organization in the world through the delivery of outstanding outcome-based programs and projects, inclusive of humanity,” according to their mission statement. The family has many other
pursuits as well, but they always come back to their core mission: conservation. Bindi Irwin was born into the spotlight and had appeared on numerous talk shows before the age of nine. Bindi, now 17, has gone on to be very successful in many pursuits. In 2007 she launched a clothing line called Bindi Wear International and started “Bindi the Jungle Girl,” a nature documentary show. She has acted in several movies and shows, including “Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove,” in which Robert Irwin also starred. In 2013, she launched two more shows: “Bindi’s Bootcamp,” a children’s game show, and “Steve Irwin’s Wildlife Warriors,” featuring the conservation group’s efforts. Recently, Bindi Irwin won the mirror ball trophy on the 21st season of “Dancing with the Stars.” When Bindi was 10, she was quoted by Access Hollywood on what she wanted for her birthday: “If there’s one thing I really want for my birthday, that is for the mining company not to mine my daddy’s reserve.” Her wish was granted in Nov. 2013 when the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve was declared safe from mining by the Australian government. Although only 12-years-old, Robert Irwin has been just as successful as his sister. He has starred in “Robert’s Real Life Adventures,” a television program that follows the Irwin family’s everyday life running the zoo and aiding conservation efforts around the world. He is also the co-creator of the book series “Robert Irwin: Dinosaur Hunter,” which he did illustrations for. The Irwins understand that wildlife conservation is an increasingly prevalent issue worldwide; the extinction of species is at a much greater rate than nature intended. “Wildlife populations of vertebrate species — mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish — have declined by 52 percent over the last 40 years,” according to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), one of the biggest conservation groups in the world.
Protecting animal species is more than just keeping adorable animals alive. Ecosystems rely on animals for many different functions. Broken ecosystems mean less of the comforts humanity has grown to enjoy. The Irwin’s fame and love of animals make them perfect advocates for the animal kingdom, and conservation efforts are especially important in Australia. “Australia has one of the worst mammalian extinction rates in the world,” Irwin said in his book “The Crocodile Hunter: The Incredible Life and Adventures of Steve and Terri Irwin.” One out of three mammalian extinctions of the last 400 years occurred in Australia, according to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). This is partially due to Australia’s unique ecosystem: the AWC also reported that 87 percent of mammalian species in Australia are only found there. In addition, 94 percent of frogs, 93 percent of reptiles and 45 percent of bird species are unique to the continent. Using the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve and the Australia Zoo, the Irwin family continues to educate people about wildlife and conservation efforts, urging them to help the cause. The Crocodile Hunter was a television hero to many, but a personal hero to his children and those who knew him. It depicted Steve Irwin as a fun-loving, easy-going animal lover. In reality, he was all that and more. “He really was an expert in the field. The guy was incredible. His knowledge was incredible,” said zoologist Jack Hanna, a good friend of Irwin, to ABC News. In his book, Steve Irwin wrote:
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THE
ODDITIES OF
SUPERSTITION by Bridgett Jackson | illustration by Victoria Savka | design by Lauren Mays
H
ear a sneeze and there are five people who will immediately say “bless you.” From childhood, we are trained that it is our duty to “bless” someone when they sneeze. Will they die if you don’t? Probably not, but many wouldn’t even think of chancing it in the fear of somehow getting bad luck. Merriam-Webster Dictionary has defined superstition as “a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of
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causation.” Quite a mouthful, but superstition can be found in all aspects of religion, society and culture.
FRIDAY THE 13TH Everyone has a superstition and most people don’t realize it. Some of the most famous superstitions have even spilled into media and become popular to all of us. Let’s start with one of the most famous: Friday the 13th. There are many theories as to why so
many people view this day as being unlucky, but the main idea is that many people equate the number 13 to severe bad luck. Some people have become so afraid of the day that they refuse to do anything from going outside or getting married to even cleaning their own homes. This supposedly unlucky day has almost become a holiday based on the level of attention it receives. The famous “Friday the 13th” movie franchise, which has 12 movies under its belt, is recognized worldwide by name and the popular Jason hockey goalie mask.
BREAKING A MIRROR
Next is the cringe-worthy breaking of a mirror, which is thought to bring about a devastating seven years of bad luck. Alan Refkin reported on Thornhill Capital’s website that this superstition goes all the way back to ancient times. People believed that a person could lose a piece of their soul inside a mirror, especially by breaking it. At the time that the mirror is thought to have been first created, the Roman’s also believed that the body would completely regenerate every seven years. Breaking a mirror would result in the soul being stuck until the seven years was up. After multiple eras, the superstition has evolved so that a person would just be unlucky until seven years had passed after breaking the mirror.
SPILLED SALT
It is curious that it is so popular that people throw salt over their left shoulder when they spill it. Like many others, this superstition also has to do with bad luck. A relatively famous salt spilling incident is included in the painting of the Last Supper where Judas is unaware that he knocked salt over with his wrist. Refkin stated that the salt should be thrown over the left shoulder because there is a belief that the Devil looks over the left shoulder. When the salt is spilled, the Devil is given an opening to attach himself and cause chaos. Grabbing the same salt and throwing it over the left shoulder would immediately blind the Devil and ultimately prevent the opportunity to create havoc.
KNOCK ON WOOD
A more positive idea of a superstition is the practice of knocking on wood. The superstition is that knocking on wood or even touching it could ultimately bring about some good luck after someone has said something potentially bad. Many people have adopted
PEOPLE BELIEVED THAT A PERSON COULD LOSE A PIECE OF THEIR SOUL INSIDE OF A MIRROR.
this custom, and Refkin traces this back to ancient times again. The theory is that there were deities that lived in trees and when a bad event occurred a person would knock on the wood to get their acknowledgment and protection from any misfortune that may come.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT OF SUPERSTITION
Superstition is largely based in psychology. RIT’s Adjunct Psychology Professor Elise Banfield stressed the importance of your own truth on your real experiences. “It is not the reality that matters, it’s the belief about the reality that matters,” she said. Superstitions can be explained by classical conditioning, which is a learned process that connects a neutral stimuli to an unconditioned stimuli to form an unconditioned response. Repeating this multiple times creates a conditioned response. Essentially, classical conditioning is like if you were wearing a certain shirt while you win money in poker. Then you start to wear that shirt every time you play poker because of the positive feeling of “luck” you attach to it. People associate strong, positive feelings to
objects or rituals if the outcome feels positive to them, even if it is not guaranteed. Banfield also stressed the use of statedependent retrieval in superstitious and ritualistic acts. State-dependent retrieval means that people are best able to retrieve information when they are in the same sense of consciousness as when they first formed the memory. Context cues and emotions are absorbed when learning new material and help you to remember it later. “For example, it can be tough on students to take their final exam in a different room at a different time on a different day because they are used to experiencing the material, for instance, Wednesday nights in Brown 1150,” Banfield explained. “If I remove them and I have them take the test in the morning in a different building in a whole different room, it will hurt their ability to recall information.” Even objects like pens, signs and clothing from their normal classroom experience can help retrieve the things they learned. State-dependent retrieval is general and used widely but can also be seen as superstitious if rituals and objects are constantly being used as if they are lucky. This means that the things we perceive as lucky charms are actually just context clues and superstition is just the result of our brain’s desire to figure out what’s going on.
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Ninth
by Caleb Payne 14 Leisure
MCC Summer Sessions S TA R T I N G
MAY 31 + JULY 2 ON-CAMPUS AND ONLINE
www.monroecc.edu/go/summer
RACE
at RIT
The Continuing Conversation of
by Claire Fleming
illustration by Unique Fair design by Emma Fleming
16 Features
L
et’s go back to spring quarter, 1969 to the same RIT campus that stands in Henrietta in 2016. The Henrietta campus has only been home to the Tigers for less than a year, but what it lacks in age, it makes up for in stories. Spirit, the beloved Bengal tiger mascot, is not yet forgotten, typewriters are on sale at the bookstore, NTID is planning a large expansion and WITR is holding a pizza eating contest. But not everything else is going quite as smoothly. The Rochester Race Riots took place five years ago, but the topics of race and segregation are still as relevant as they ever were. The conversation is still going on. Black students are scarce among the yearbook pages, but their voices are fighting to be heard. Martin Luther King, Jr. is being remembered, but not without disruption. Posters have been put up by the Black Awareness Coordinating Committee (BACC) in his memory only to be torn down and replaced with racist slurs supporting white supremacy. In an attempt to help the situation, three white students, Christopher Cushman, Jean Papert and Richard Schaeffer, write chalk messages on the walls to remind people of Martin Luther King’s legacy. These messages are subsequently referred to as “graffiti,” “hieroglyphics,” “vandalism” and a “nonintelligent action” by Richard J. McElwain in the April 11, 1969 issue of Reporter. McElwain writes a letter to the editor in which he immediately assumes that black students wrote the messages on the walls and reprimands them for these actions. McElwain even goes on to encourage resistance to giving black students “their due” (equal rights), because through actions of “vandalism,” they do not deserve these “dues.” This sparks outrage. In the following April 18 issue of Reporter, three letters to the editor reprimand McElwain for his insensitivity and wrongful assumptions.
The first is written by the three white students (Cushman, Papert and Schaeffer) who wrote the message. They express their intent to “remind the RIT population that they were ignoring the anniversary of the death of Dr. King,” and confess that they are indeed not black. The second, from the BACC, spits fire at McElwain. They point out that he falsely accused black students because he is “a racist or a fool.” They then remind McElwain that if he doesn’t have hard evidence, he should not make racist assumptions. The third letter is from an angry member of the BACC, James G. Hamilton. In it, he defends his rights as an American and as a human being: “We black Americans seek only the ‘equality’ that is rightfully ours. We do not ask anyone to ‘give’ us anything, rather we insist upon our ‘Due,’” Hamilton says. “Being human, regardless of our black skins, makes us deserving; by the same token, not being animals, we have earned it.” Hamilton goes on to tell McElwain and the community that both the posters and the chalk messages were in beloved remembrance, and not acts of “vandalism” as they were called. He writes “We ‘colored’ people are striving, along with our TRUE white brothers, to awaken the white conscious of America to man’s injustice to man,” informing McElwain that he is acting as the problem and not the solution. This is the conversation inked in the early pages of Reporter. The conversation still continues today, almost half a century later. At RIT this year, it is surprising to find that even though some things have changed, racism is just as relevant an issue as ever. What happened in 1969, however, is not tolerated by the leaders of RIT. We sat down with Jonathan Ntheketha, senior assistant director of the Multicultural Center for Academic Success (MCAS), to talk about
RIT’s intolerance for racism as well as areas the RIT community and the world in general should work work to improve. If there were actions such as the racist graffiti on the walls in 1969, RIT would promptly remove the messages, but the intolerance for racism does not stop there. Ntheketha told us that now RIT would not just clean up the messages, but get out the idea to the students that “as a university, we need to be better than this.” “[RIT] wants to be that university that celebrates greatness through difference,” said Ntheketha. MCAS is also home to the Rochester City Scholars Program, which helps students from Rochester city schools that can get into RIT afford and attend the university. Without programs like these, students that make amazing contributions to the community through their smile, their art and their knowledge would not be able to contribute, and the school would be suffering a great loss without them. “Diversity is who we are,” Ntheketha said. “And to make that start to be part of the strategic plan at RIT in the next five or ten years moving forward is a great testament to our long-range vision for the university.” This all sounds great, but there is always room for improvement. “The more we ignore [race] and pretend it doesn’t exist, we might marginalize a colleague or a student,” Ntheketha said. Ntheketha reminded all of us that the way to acceptance is within each and every one of us and to think critically when we come across someone we think we don’t like. Instead of condemning them for what we don’t like, we should celebrate them for the things that they contribute. The conversation of race is a conversation that we need to continue having, whether it be here, in the pages of Reporter or with chalk on a wall.
“Being human, regardless of our black skins, makes us deserving; by the same token, not being animals, we have earned it.”
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RANKING RIT by Bryanne McDonough | photography by Robert Rauchwerger illustration by Emily Diehl | design by Lauren Mays
“I
t’s important that people look at rankings with a critical eye,” said Edward Lincoln, Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Management and Career Services at RIT. College rankings are a nuanced system that don’t always fully capture the quality of a school. “Attempts to evaluate the quality of colleges and universities should start with the mission of the institution and evaluate the institution’s success in achieving that mission,” said President Bill Destler in an article about college evaluations for the Huffington Post. That is not always how it works, however. Destler argued that forcing dissimilar
institutions to conform to the same standard — which often means that private engineering schools rank best — is an inaccurate means of measuring institutional success. Ranking systems often look at alumni salaries as an indication of a good university, to the benefit of engineering schools. Rankings of worst professors, however, also go to engineering schools because of the course difficulty levels. As many RIT students know, engineering isn’t for everybody. To put that into perspective, according to Destler, only 20 percent of RIT graduates are engineers.
“ATTEMPTS TO EVALUATE THE QUALITY OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES SHOULD START WITH THE MISSION OF THE INSTITUTION AND EVALUATE THE INSTITUTION’S SUCCESS IN ACHIEVING THAT MISSION,” PRESIDENT BILL DESTLER
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VALUE IS MUCH MORE THAN JUST, ‘WHAT’S THE TUITION RATE AND HOW MUCH FINANCIAL AID DOES A STUDENT GET?’” “We need a diverse set of higher education institutions to serve our nation’s needs for an educated citizenry,” Destler asserted. For RIT’s class of 2014, the overall undergraduate outcome rate, which measures job and higher education placement, was 94.1 percent. One of the arguments against these rankings is that engineers will naturally have a higher graduation rate. This may be true for other schools, but the engineers don’t distort RIT’s numbers; RIT’s College of Liberal Arts has a good outcome rate at 91.9 percent, and the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences has a 92.2 percent outcome rate. “The unfortunate thing is that many of these rankings right now don’t even include that,” Lincoln said about these outcome rates. There are many factors that can play into how a college ranks and each ranking system works a little differently. Common things that are considered include quality of academics, cost, financial aid, graduation rates, student debt, alumni salaries and job satisfaction. RIT ranks well in more than just outcomes; it also ranks highly in value. “Value is much more than just, ‘What’s the tuition rate and how much financial aid does a student get?” Lincoln commented. “I think it means ‘for what I’m paying, am I getting an outstanding experience?’” Historically, however, RIT has not ranked well in first-year return rates, although that has been on a steady increase, according to Lincoln. Alumni giving, which factors into some ranking services, also suffers. RIT doesn’t do anything with the explicit intention of raising their ratings. Lincoln believes that good ratings will result from increasing the quality of the school naturally. “We’re doing it because this is what the university should be doing,” Lincoln added. “Because it’s the right thing at the right time for this university.”
Students looking into colleges can see these ratings, but they tend to matter more toward the beginning of the process. Students will use online sources more while trying to decide where they apply, but rankings only fall at number 12 on factors that influence where a student decides to attend, according to U.S. News. “Attempts to rank all colleges and universities using a single set of measures work against the diversification of our colleges and universities to meet these needs, and are therefore a disservice to the public,” concluded Destler. Destler’s dislike for current college ranking systems doesn’t stop RIT from consistently scoring well in them, however. Princeton Review’s book, “Colleges that Pay You Back: 2016 Edition,” featured RIT as one of the 200 best schools that give you the necessary skills to earn a good salary. RIT also ranks number seven among Regional Universities in the North by U.S. News College Compass. There are also light-hearted rankings, like nerdiest college and ugliest campus. RIT ranked number five in nerdiest colleges according to HerCampus, number one in geekiest campuses by ThinkGeek and is ranked among the ugliest campuses. In a ranking of “The Most Technologically Advanced Universities” in the world, RIT ranked number 36. Ranking systems also have different ways of collecting information. Some send out questionnaires to universities to compile self-reported numbers, others collect information from government and online sources while still others collect information from self-reported alumni. Publications like “Colleges that Pay You Back” tend to be more comprehensive in their rating systems. Instead of just assigning numbers to schools based on arbitrary categories, this publication looks at a specific
aspect of a college and then elaborates. Considerations that they use outside of the financial realm include hours students study outside of classrooms, quality of students that apply, student’s assessment of professors, class size, student-teacher ratio, class discussions and resources. “RIT has a great focus on what students will do once they leave the classroom, and all professors have experience in the real world,” Princeton Review reported. They also mention that merit- or need-based aid was granted to 77 percent of undergraduates at an average of $18,500. The annual starting salary with bachelor’s degree from RIT is approximately $61,000. RIT’s many five-year programs can also drag down ratings that take into account how long it takes to receive a degree. According to Lincoln, the majority of ranking systems ask universities to self-report a six-year graduation rate. For most institutions, this is 150 percent of degree time; RIT, however, has many five-year programs, meaning that they tend to under-report 150 percent degree time completion. Nearly two out of three students entering RIT come into a program with co-op requirements that lead to a cumulative five years in university. Unsurprisingly, ranking systems don’t do justice to the diversity of educational institutions. They all attempt to provide information, but fall short in adequately portraying a school in its entirety. The top two reasons students decide to attend a school are academic reputation and good outcome, two things RIT excels in, as ranking systems “confirm.”
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Students and
Financial Literacy by Alissa Roy illustration by Alyssa Minko design by Annie Wong
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t is a truth universally acknowledged that a single college student will not be in possession of a good fortune due to the unequivocally heart-wrenching costs of a higher education. That’s how that Jane Austen quote goes, right? But perhaps even more worrying than the costs of education is the fact that while American students are racking up more debt than ever, they are also falling below average in understanding financial literacy, according to Forbes.
Lack of Financial Literacy “No,” Roberta Klein laughed. “In a word, no.” That is how Klein, a 10-year professor of Personal Financial Management at RIT, responded when asked if students entering her class had prior knowledge of managing their finances. Recently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) run a test to see how 15-year-old students in 13 different countries performed in financial literacy. The test involved students differentiating basic wants and needs, recognizing basic financial documents like an invoice and being able to make simple spending decisions. Almost 18 percent of American students were unable
to perform these basic tasks, leaving our country’s students below average on a global standard, right behind China, Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, New Zealand and Poland, according to Forbes. A survey of 42,000 American students entering college showed that only 34 percent had taken a class on personal finances in high school, leaving the majority unprepared for what is soon to follow. Klein said that most of the students entering her class had never been taught about personal finances and budgeting in any previous class. Every semester, up to 25 students enroll in Klein’s class and there are usually many more on the wait list. As the realization that the real world will be coming soon sets in, students begin to understand that they need to learn as much as they can about their finances.
Why We Should Be Worried Students on the brink of leaving the comfort of their homes to come to college are shown to be unprepared for how expensive this endeavor will be. The cost of college has been rising substantially, outpacing inflation, while income has plateaued, according to online college Straighterline. Since 2004, student loan debt has increased by 324 percent, and almost 40 million people carry debt from their student loans, with approximately 15 percent of borrowers defaulting on this debt within the first three
Almost 18 percent of American students were unable to perform these basic tasks, leaving our country’s students below average on a global standard.
years of graduation. Defaulting on debt affects credit scores, making it difficult to buy a house or car later in life. When getting loans now, many college students just assume that they will get a job immediately and be able to pay off their loans while making enough to cover the cost of living. However, over 8 percent of college graduates under 25 are unemployed, and almost 44 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed or working at a job that is much lower than their qualifications, according to Economics 21. “There are large knowledge gaps,” Klein stressed. Many students in her classes ignore income taxes when trying to calculate their budgets, which can be up to 25 to 30 percent of their income. Many students don’t keep track of just how much they owe or the interest on their loans, which can be higher than rent.
College Expenses Of course, the costs of college aren’t going away any time soon. Over the past 35 years, the cost of public colleges has nearly quadrupled even though more people go to college than ever before, according to The New York Times. There are a few reasons that college costs so much. Between 1993 and 2009, there were almost 60 percent more administrative positions created. This may not seem to mean much, but an average of 75 percent of the tuition you spend during your four years at college is spent on employee wages and benefits. According to Straighterline, When there are more employees, tuition will rise to accommodate them. Government plans that are meant to help students afford college can end up hurting the students more in the end. Almost $165 billion of federal government money is spent annually on college grants and student loans, according to Economics 21. However, this causes colleges to increase their costs, hoping to get more of this money, causing a vicious cycle: the college raises costs, causing the student to take out more government loans, which keeps prices superficially low, which then causes colleges to raise their tuition. This is a baffling phenomenon that only detriments students.
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So far, we have established that most American students are not being taught basic finances early in life and that both the college and the government are failing to help the average student, who is about to enter the real world with approximately $40,000 in debt, according to The Simple Dollar. Feeling panicked yet?
Loans Perhaps the best way to deal with this nasty situation is to run at it head-on and try to understand it, rather than curl up blubbering in the fetal position, avoiding the situation until it becomes too late (my own first reaction to reading these depressing numbers). “Students are going to graduate with two important numbers: their GPA and their credit score,” said Klein. “They spend all their time focusing on their GPA, but not their credit score, which will affect their interest rate; and potential employers may even look at their credit score, which will affect jobs. After your first job, your GPA is irrelevant but your credit score will follow you for seven to ten years. ” Being able to understand your loans and how to manage them is key to survival, as simply ignoring them will have an effect on your future. Let us begin with the basics and distinguish between different types of loans. First, there is a need-based aid, which is awarded to students that have shown that they have financial need. You get this annually when you fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) every year. Once you complete your FAFSA, there are different types of aid that you may be qualified for. A subsidized loan will have a fixed interest rate of 4.29 percent, according to the Federal Student Aid website. The government will pay for this interest in college while you are accumulating debt, but once you graduate, it is up to you to pay for your debt as well as the interest. So the more debt you accumulate, the more this interest will affect you.
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An unsubsidized loan is not based on student need and will also have a fixed interest rate of 4.29 percent. However, this interest will begin to accumulate in college and will be added to the outstanding balance earlier, costing you much more in the long run. A Pell Grant may give you up to $5,775, but only if your family will be unable to contribute much to your education. A Federal Perkins loan is similar to a subsidized or unsubsidized loan (generally referred to collectively as a Stafford Loan). However, this is lent directly by Title IV-eligible universities and has an interest rate fixed at 5 percent. The Federal Work-Study Program allows students to work part-time while pursuing their education, with the government paying for half the student’s wage and the school paying the other half. There are also private loans, which are not subsidized by the government. However, you would need someone to cosign on this in case you are unable to repay them. The key is to remember that you are not alone in this situation, but at least understanding the types of debt you are in will help you to prepare now for once you graduate.
Other Kinds of Debt Being a (kind-of) adult means that you probably are also accumulating other kinds of debt to just pay for living expenses, such as credit card debt. College students often make mistakes with the best ways to use credit cards. Being safe with them so you aren’t piling on more and more debt is important to your future. Rather than applying for every credit card for which you get an application in the mail, try sticking to one for a couple of years. This will help teach you how to manage it, help establish credit, manage spending and pay bills without building up any debt if you pay it in full every month. A lot of people don’t pay attention to their spending. It is so easy to swipe a card and get stuff immediately, but you will receive a bill at the end of the month. If you can’t pay that off, then you will end up paying more for the same thing when you account for interest. We also live very hectic lives in college and can forget to pay the bills. As previously established, we may not receive the best paying job immediately out of college, so it is best to not adapt an attitude in which you
The college raises costs, causing the student to take out more government loans, which keeps prices superficially low, which then causes colleges to raise their tuition.
think you will be able to pay this debt later. It is best to only charge what you know that you can afford, never assuming that extra money will magically appear in your bank account at the end of the month. Each credit card is different, so understanding the different terms that go with it is extremely important. Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is the interest that is charged if you carry the balance of debt across several months rather than paying for it within the first 30 days. If you pay the entire bill before the due date then you will pay no more money than you borrowed. If you don’t, interest will be applied and end up costing you more money. If you fail to pay the minimum payment, then you get a mark against your credit score. There may also be certain annual fees that may be applied to your credit card. It is best to apply to cards without annual fees and with good cashback programs.
and minimize just how much it will all cost in the end. Some of the ways to prepare seem basic, but are perhaps not being done effectively. Taking on a part-time job and placing some of that money aside every week is the simplest way to prepare for the debt that will suddenly appear once you graduate. RIT JobZone is a website that helps you find on-campus jobs. Taking a class such as Klein’s would be very helpful as well, as she ensures that students are prioritizing financial goals. “Often, students focus on just getting through the month and don’t have long-term plans. I would like to see more students develop more concrete financial goals to set out a financial map for the future,” Klein said. “I think that would go a long way. We spend so much time teaching our students how to make money, but virtually no time teaching them how to take care of their money.”
The Personal Financial Management course helps students to handle credit, learn to budget for post-graduation, figure out rent and utilities, renters insurance, car payments, emergency funds and even retirement. “If they could put more money into retirement in their 20s, they will have more in their 60s,” Klein said. Making a budget is also very important and embracing the stereotypical “poor college student” life while you can is strategic. Buy used furniture, look at RIT’s Free and For Sale Facebook page, eat ramen and go thrift shopping. Paying your dues now can pay off in the future. It’s OK and even expected to seem like a bum in college, but if you can graduate with a bit of savings and even some part-time employment experiences, you will likely pay off your debt faster. You see, that wasn’t so hard.
How to Prepare
Now that we have an understanding of the different types of debt one may accumulate, it is best to think about how to tackle this debt head-on in order to pay for it right away
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Rachel Beckham (center) and the RIT cheerleading team leave the competition at the Empire Cheer Winter Classic at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY on Feb. 13.
RIT Cheerleading Coming Into the Spotlight by Kristin Grant | photography by Joseph Ressler | design by Carina Singletary
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The RIT cheerleading team practices before the basketball game at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY on Feb. 12. 24 Sports
here is a team of talented RIT athletes who pour hundreds of hours into perfecting their sport. They can accomplish feats with the type of dazzling ease that only comes after years of experience. As you watch them tumble across the floor, fly through the air and dive from astonishing heights, it is impossible not to feel your breath catch in your throat. The only problem? Very few people are aware that this special team even exists. “Whenever we are at an event, the first thing we get is ‘Oh, I didn’t even know we had a cheerleading team,’” said second year Advertising and Public Relations major and flyer Grace Koester. Fourth year Industrial Systems Engineer and flyer Missy Miller echoed the sentiment: “When I first came to RIT, I was actually told that we didn’t even have a cheerleading team. It wasn’t until I saw them at the activities fair that I found out.” Coach Katie Post, an RIT alum currently in her first year as head coach, nodded her head in agreement as she listened to these observations. “This is a huge problem we’ve had to face. I hear these comments constantly
— even in the athletic field, I get ‘Aren’t you just on the sidelines?’ when there is actually this whole world of competitive cheerleading that no one knows about,” she said. Make no mistake, these skillful athletes are experts at what they do. To watch them perform is unlike any other athletic event on campus. Their routines are jammed full of awe-inspiring moments. To hear that the team is getting very little exposure not only feels like robbery, but it also begs the question: why? “I think a lot of that is left over from when I was a student here,” said Post. “When I was on the team, we weren’t very good and we just did sideline cheerleading. But now, I really want to take the team to a competitive level.” And so far, her plan seems to be working. Upon observing a practice under Post’s guidance, two things become predominantly clear: how comfortable the players are with her and how dedicated they are during a routine. In between one run through and the next, there is an aura of joviality as the players joke around and ask questions. But as soon as the routine begins, the athletes assume a laser-like focus that can only be described as professional. “One thing I wish people knew is how committed we are. We practice for two and a half hours, staying here until 10:30 at night,” said Miller. “Not only that, but people should also know how dangerous cheerleading can be. We average about 6 to 10 concussions a year.”
The majority of those head injuries are due to inadequate mats that fail to cushion accidental falls. Nevertheless, the flyers, or cheerleaders who are thrown in the air, show incredible bravery, never flinching as they fall back 20 feet into the waiting arms of the base tumblers in the most elaborate trust exercise ever witnessed. Like a lot of RIT teams, the members have formed remarkable bonds with each other. “My absolute favorite thing about cheerleading is watching people who have never cheered before develop and blossom,” said fifth year student in the School of Individualized Study and base tumbler Dara Moore. “Because when I first cheered, there were a lot of people who had a lot more experience and there was a ton of encouragement for me to grow.” Indeed, that is exactly the type of environment Post endeavors to foster. “I enjoy making the bonds with the athletes, and pushing them to do things they haven’t done yet, to work towards a bigger goal. I strive to make their cheerleading career — if it stops here at RIT — the best it possibly could be,” she said. When you talk to Post’s players, they cannot stop gushing about her direction. “She has so much cheerleading experience and she cares about us a lot,” said Koester. “She brings that experience to us and now we’re much more at the college level.” The team is also looking to increase its numbers in the next couple years. “Any ex-cheerleaders, dancers, gymnasts, we can
mold,” said Post. “We’re a co-ed team, so we’re always looking for guys to join us as well.” Tryouts are usually around the first week of school, and everyone is welcome to give it a shot. Clearly this is a time of astronomical growth for RIT cheerleading, but the struggle to gain recognition is still very much ongoing. Luckily, the team is made up of some very resourceful athletes. “We’re trying to go to more events — not only athletic ones, but we just started our own philanthropy. We’re going to as many events in the Rochester community and on campus as possible,” said Koester. Post has also been working intensely with the athletic department to provide more opportunities for her team. “I have spent this year especially working on exposure,” she said. “Aside from the philanthropy, we’re currently setting a cheer camp for younger kids. Athletics has also finally helped fund some more swag for us, so the girls have their backpacks and they’re wearing their bows to class. Fun stuff like that.” When it comes to competition, Post has lined up several events in the next couple of months that will really push the team to achieve that higher level. In the interim between now and then, the cheerleading team has been performing at basketball games in order to prepare. As they complete their crowd-pleasing routine triumphantly in front of a packed audience, it is clear that this team refuses to be ignored any longer.
The RIT cheerleading team performs at the Empire Cheer Winter Classic competition at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY on Feb. 13.
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THE SURPRISING MATURITY IN CHILDREN’S ANIMATION
[BEING A CARTOON] HELPS MAKE A SHOW WITH:
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SUPERPOWERS FICTIONAL CREATURES AND FANTASY SETTINGS
FEEL SEAMLESS AND BELIVEABLE by Ryan Black illustration by Max Yeager design by Olivia Konys
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C
artoons have long been a tool for creators to tell larger than life stories. For years, studios like Disney and Pixar have seen critical and commercial success embracing traditional 2D animation and later CGI, which refers to 3D computer graphics. Both forms have afforded creators opportunities too ambitious or expensive for most live action affairs. It is a form of storytelling that naturally lends itself to creative and high-concept ideas. Interestingly, several children’s shows in recent years have been the leaders in using animation to tell such stories on television. Like their film counterparts, shows like “The Legend of Korra,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Gravity Falls” work on multiple levels. All three have fun characters, humor and action scenes that resonate with younger audiences, yet they also strive to develop their characters and subtly tackle more adult subject matter. Despite its fantasy trappings and occasional childish joke, “The Legend of Korra” makes a concentrated effort to make its characters’ struggles rooted in believable emotion. When the series’ events pick up, Korra, the title protagonist, is understandably headstrong and longs to escape her sheltered life, but over the course of four seasons Korra
The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of Reporter
evolves from a brash teenager to a far more sensible and tempered character genuinely shaped by the events which transpire. Her own development is compounded by the understandable and shockingly realistic nature of the antagonists she and her allies face. It would be especially easy for a kid’s show to have a villain be evil just for the sake of it, but the motivations of each season’s antagonist are actually quite conceivable. Season four’s “The Calling” episode reflected upon the fact that they all were simply the products of varying political ideologies taken to their absolute extreme. Their respective arcs convey what might actually be appealing about hardline “communism, theocracy, anarchism and fascism” to certain people in the right circumstances. It all helps make a show with superpowers, fictional creatures and imaginative fantasy settings feel surprisingly rooted in reality. Being a cartoon helps make the marriage of its nuanced storytelling and creative world feel seamless and believable. Much of the same can be said about “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” While it has the benefit of taking place within one of the most popular and fleshed out universes in all of fiction, it confidently stands on its own merits. It offers a mature look on elements glossed over or not fully explored in the films, most notably the issues and consequences that stem from war. At several points, the show highlights the increasingly morally gray position of the Republic and the Jedi Order, and even portrays villains like Asajj Ventress, Darth Maul and the Separatists in a sympathetic light from time to time. At the very least, it recognizes that each side in a war has their fair share of ambiguity. “The Clone Wars” showed that with compelling enough material, animation can be used to explore and elaborate upon several aspects of the series’ universe and mythos. Without making serious concessions, it would be unfeasible to create a live action series of the same scale that could similarly do the films justice. It’s questionable whether it is accurate to call such shows “children’s cartoons” when there is such a concerted effort to make their stories and characters so deep and well thought out — sometimes even more effort than their counterparts in adult animation. That isn’t to say shows like “Archer,” “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers” are necessarily failing in those regards; they just aren’t the crux of any of their appeals. Whether it’s whatever new animated sitcom Fox cooks up every fall or genuinely funny shows like “Rick and Morty,” the idea that animation for adults has to be a half hour comedy seems to have persisted since “The Simpsons.” You can certainly find a lot of exceptions if you turn toward anime series like “Attack on Titan.” Yet, for western animation, there still seems to be the prevailing thought that if it’s strictly for adults, it can’t be taken too seriously. Even classics that have been rebroadcast for kids (“Looney Tunes,” “Tom and Jerry” and “The Flintstones”) were made initially for older audiences. Way before they were selling vitamins, “The Flintstones” were marketing Winston Cigarettes. There is something innately appealing about re-watching such shows with older eyes in order to pick up on jokes or references that now seem obvious, but still fly over kids’ heads. It speaks to the quality of the writing when the same series can resonate differently but just as well with both older and younger viewers. Shows like “Gravity Falls” capture a similar essence and blend it with a more modern sense of continuity and character development. It certainly has more levity than either “Star Wars”
or “Korra,” but a surprising amount of its humor is tied to its evolving narrative. Every episode is sequential and hints of varying subtlety are placed to foreshadow a series-spanning mystery. WIRED describes it perfectly as a “snowballing conspiracy” not unlike “The X-Files” and “Twin Peaks.” The show’s likable and well-acted cast personify the series’ outlandish charm, but will on occasion also surprise with a few poignant moments. Ultimately, “Gravity Falls” demonstrates that even comedic animation has the potential to create a story with more complex layers. It’s interesting that very few studies have taken the risk to commission animation for mature audiences with more dramatic or intricate narratives in recent years. There have been some notable exceptions, like aforementioned anime shows like “Attack on Titan” and to a lesser degree the latest two seasons of “South Park.” However, they hardly seem to be indicative of a larger trend. Animation seems a natural fit for ideas perhaps too ambitious for all but a few live action productions. Kid’s shows like “The Legend of Korra”, “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, and “Gravity Falls” have proven not only that, but that cartoons can aptly develop their characters and tackle more sophisticated themes. Ironically, “children’s animation” has become the means for creative minds to interweave real substance into cartoons.
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What’s the luckiest thing that’s ever happened to you? Ganapathi Devar
William Marmor Biomedical Sciences Third year “The luckiest thing I think that has happened to me is that I saw a video of a young girl from South America who had cleft lip surgery, and you could just see the difference in her personality change. She was way more outgoing. That kind of led me onto the path of wanting to go into medicine.”
Nikita Prabhu
Alicia Piscitelli
Packaging Science Graduate student “When I got admitted into packaging science at RIT, and I came here, I feel that was the luckiest. Another would be when I got my first co-op here. I got it in October, which is just two months after I came here. So, I find that to be another lucky day for me.”
Julia Manson
Chemical Engineering Fifth year “Coming to RIT I met some of my best friends, Sheila Goodman and Kate Cloutier.”
Metals and Jewelry Graduate student “I’m just lucky to have a family that supports me.”
Angel Rivera
Mechanical Engineering Technology Fifth year “So the luckiest thing that’s happened to me was becoming a Rochester City Scholar. I applied to RIT, and didn’t even think of how I would afford it, and when I was accepted. I also received this scholarship that paid for my tuition. Man, was I ecstatic.”
Packaging Science Graduate student “My luckiest moment, I would say, was the moment I got to come to the states and pursue my masters here, learn the culture here and meet different people. That was quite exciting for me.”
Agape Berakah
Marketing and Management Graduate student “Coming to the U.S., it was very different, and when I got to the U.S. it snowed the day we landed. I mean, we always see it in the movies, but it’s another thing to experience that in real life.”
Raghav Babu Subramanian
Computer Science Graduate student “I love my parents, so I am happy to be their son.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of Reporter 28 Views
Adrian Cruzat
Software Engineering Third year “The luckiest thing that I’ve got going for me is the fact I am here. I’m not from the states, so the whole thing of being able to get accepted into a culture, get a nice scholarship and to be in a good school. Being here, and having all the resources I have, that’s probably the luckiest thing that’s happened to me.”
Xinran Zheng
Industrial Design Fourth year “In middle school a couple of us were selected to go to Germany, and it was free. So, I feel like that was a really lucky thing, because I got to Europe for free basically. Plane tickets are pretty expensive, but we didn’t have to pay anything.”
Megan McNamee
3D Animation Second year “When I was in eigth grade I got randomly put into a graphic arts class. I liked drawing before that, but then I started getting into computer art, and now I’m a 3D animator. So, it was like the most random thing to ever happen, but now here I am.”
Megan Amling
ASL Interpreting First year “I don’t know how much I believe in luck, but I would say, if I did, it would be meeting the person who told me I could make my own choices, and decide the future for myself.”
Daniel Mitchell
Electrical Engineering Third year “I think the luckiest thing to have happened to me is being born to a middle class American family that has the means to take care of me, provide for me what ever I need and every opportunity that I could possibly imagine.”
Stefano Marin
Physics Third year “There is this artist for Marvel Comics, and there was this fair. There were like two hundred people there, and he gave out free drawings to people. He made these drawings live in front of people, and he gave them out. Everyone had a ticket, some had like five tickets, but I only had one, and I won a drawing.”
Christine Van
Graphic Design First year “I got a photo, so I can prove my story, but during winter break I went to New York City. My top celebrity crush, or whatever, is Cole Sprouse - Do you know him? You ever watch “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody?” Yeah, he’s one of them - So, I was at the MET Museum, and out of nowhere, Cole Sprouse walks by, and yeah, that’s basically it. That’s the luckiest moment of my life.”
Diana Rodriguez Alberto
Chemistry Graduate student “I am here pursuing my masters, and one of the luckiest things to have happened to me is going here. I feel that I am becoming the person I am supposed to be, and that I am doing things I like. It feels good to be here.”
Word on the Street photography by Daniel Vasta | design by Emma Fleming
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RINGS compiled by Jake Krajewski | illustration by Lily Blum | design by Kevin Zampieron
February 8th, 7:03 pm
Janurary 4th, 6:48 pm
Nothing cheers me up after a long Monday like seeing someone on a long board fall flat on their face. [text]
I’m not communist, I just really like spies. [text]
Janurary 21st, 12:30 am Just watched Destler walking into the hockey arena. He had no ticket and they didn’t wand him. How do we know he’s not packing? [text]
Janurary 15th, 9:14 pm Bronchitis and men: nobody has time for that. [text]
Janurary 21st, 12:30 am Danny Devito and chill. [text]
The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of Reporter
HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? TEXT US AT
585.672.4840
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NOT HAPPY WITH YOUR HOUSING?
Lock in your space before Spring break! PROUD SUPPORTER OF RIT HOCKEY
WALK TO CLASS
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