3-3-2022 Digital Edition

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VIDEO: SRSGA adds six senators

NEWS

A sense of discrimination

By Mac Bell Assistant News Editor

A Pe n n s y l v a n i a Supreme Court ruling regarding how the scent of marijuana is handled during traffic stops is expected to have farre a c h i n g e f f e c t s f o r Pennsylvanians, including people of color.

The Dec. 29 ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stems from a 2018 traffic stop that involved medical marijuana, which was legalized in April 2016.

Timothy Oliver Barr was pulled over for making a U-turn on Nov. 7, 2018, by two state troopers near an apartment complex in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The troopers both smelled burnt marijuana and told Barr and his wife they were going to search the vehicle on the basis of probable cause based on the scent.

A three-judge panel of the state Superior Court had ruled that police could no longer easily assume legal wrongdoing just based on the smell of an occupant’s vehicle. The ruling was later upheld by the state Supreme Court.

This new ruling does come with many questions regarding who benefits from the change in law, or if anyone benefits at all. Cheryl Kerchis, an associate professor in the political science department at Slippery Rock University, believes that this is a big first step for furthering racial equity and fairness across the state of Pennsylvania.

“If [the ruling] is followed to the letter of the law, I think it could have a big impact on all races, you know, because there are all kinds of people that get caught up in this criminal justice system,” Kerchis said. “In general, I'm a person that thinks that any people that we can divert from the criminal justice system - that's a good thing.”

According to the U S C e n s u s Bu re a u , Pennsylvania’s population is about 13 million people, with 1.4 million residents identifying as Black. Although Black Pennsylvanians only make up approximately 12% of the state’s population,

they account for 32% of marijuana related arrests.

White Pennsylvanians account for about 66% of marijuana arrests, yet make up 81% of the state’s overall population.

As well as helping to lessen the commonality of marijuana related arrests for all races in Pennsylvania, Kerchis also believes that this new ruling could specifically help with racial equity.

“I think it's going to help racial equity, reason being, we know from statistical data that Black people are more likely to be pulled over in the first place,” Kerchis said. “And they are more likely to have their cars searched.”

According to a national study by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on average a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana

"If [the ruling] is followed to the letter of the law, I think it could have a big impact on all races, you know, because there are all kinds of people that get caught up in this criminal justice system."

– Cheryl Kerchis, associate professor of political science

JOE WELLS / THE ROCKET

Troopers with the Pennsylvania State Police conduct a traffic stop during Slippery Rock University's 2021 Homecoming Weekend. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that the scent of marijuana alone can no longer justify a search of a person's vehicle.

possession than a white person, even though both use marijuana at identical rates.

More specifically in Pennsylvania, state and local police have made about 20,000 marijuana related arrests in 2020 alone, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Although smell can no longer be the sole determining factor regarding vehicular searches, the state Supreme Court ruling does allow for the scent to be a factor for officers to consider during a police stop.

Police must have more proof of wrongdoing aside from marijuana odor before they conduct a search such as seeing the drugs or paraphernalia, statements made by the vehicle’s occupants, or the officer’s education and experience.

With this new ruling put into place, many police departments around Pennsylvania, including the Slippery Rock University Police Department, will soon be implementing changes regarding how to deal with traffic stops involving

marijuana and ensure the proper implementation of this ruling.

“We do updates on classes through our MPOETC [Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission] certifications,” University Po l i c e C h i e f K e v i n Sharkey said. “So, that will probably be one of our legal updates coming up, they might add it this year to the curriculum, but if not, it'll be in the following year.”

About two months after the ruling, MPOETC published guidance and instr uctions for law enforcement officers to ensure their practices are in line with the new ruling.

Since its passing, the applications of the new ruling have some people looking at its effects beyond traffic stops.

At SRU, police officers are regularly called out to student housing to investigate marijuana possession based on scent alone. When students are caught with marijuana, they are typically charged with disorderly conduct, a summary offense. This ruling will have bearing on those investigations, according to Sharkey.

“[At SRU], you're not allowed to have [marijuana] unless you do have that medical marijuana card,” Sharkey said. “It has to be packaged correctly with the manufacturing and stuff with the card and packaged and with their name on it.

“That's totally legal but having the marijuana and smoking it and not having the card, that is still illegal.”

Still, at SRU, consumption of legal medical marijuana by a student is an offense that can be recommended to the Office of Student Conduct and can result in punishment ranging from disciplinary probation to expulsion.

Chief Student Affairs Officer David Wilmes told The Rocket back in October that those rules are in place due to federal statutes.

“Slippery Rock University is subject to the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act,” Wilmes said. “A federal law which requires colleges and universities to establish policies that address unlawful possession, use or distribution of illicit drugs.

"Marijuana is still considered an illicit drug

under the federal schedule and therefore is not allowed on college property per the Drug-Free Schools Act.” Data collected by the ACLU shows states that have legalized marijuana have significantly lower rates of racial disparities in regard to marijuana possession related arrests than states that have not legalized. In legal states these arrests are about 1.7 times more likely to happen to Black people, whereas states that still uphold the prohibition of marijuana have about 3.2 times the likelihood of racial disparities towards Black people.

Moving forward, Kerchis believes that if this ruling is implemented properly across the state, we could notice a difference on the road.

“One of the things you should see if the police are following this to the letter of the law, is you should see a lot fewer searches - I would think,” Kerchis said. “So, one thing they could do is keep track of [vehicular searches].

“This is one of the things we have to do after we put a law or policy in place is try to track how it's being implemented.”

GRAPHIC BY: RAYNI SHIRING

NEWS

March 4, 2022

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President Behre to retire

By Joe Wells News Editor

Slippery Rock Un i v e r s i t y Pr e s i d e n t William Behre announced he will retire next year after serving the university since 2018.

His retirement, set for June 30, 2023, will conclude his fifth year as SRU’s 17th president. “ It h a s t r u l y b e e n an honor to ser ve as the president of this institution,” said Behre in his Feb. 15 email to the campus community. “ Fr o m t h e m o m e n t my wife, Leah, and I stepped on campus the community greeted us warmly and welcomed us in as one of their own. That feeling of family and belonging is something we will carry with us well beyond our days at The Rock.”

Behre said he believes the university has made great progress fulfilling the “ambitious agenda” he laid out back in 2018, despite the unprecedented time SRU found itself w i t h t h e C OV I D - 1 9 pandemic. The fallout of the pandemic lead to an extended spring break in 2020 and a majority of learning taking place remotely through fall 2020 and spring 2021.

To make sure students who were away on spring b re a k we re p re p a re d t o m ov e t o r e m o t e instruction, Behre started an initiative called “Connectivity” that loaned 30 laptop computers to students and provided a dozen more with technical and

"It has truly been an honor to serve as the president of this institution."

– William Behre, SRU president on his pending retirement financial assistance for internet.

“The pandemic has been the greatest single disruption to higher education, and life in general, in my lifetime,” Behre said. “I imagine that the Great Depression or World War II would be the closest relatively recent comparators to the level of disruption that we experienced.

“A n d , j u s t a s o u r campus community came together during those crises, we came together during this one.

Our faculty and staff worked to make sure that our students got what they needed to advance their education, albeit in a manner that we never anticipated.”

Behre also established efforts to donate personal protective equipment from university laboratories and classrooms to local first responders.

“ T h a t w a s a g re a t example of SRU helping to address an important community challenge,” Behre said. “We were fortunate to have these supplies and to be able put them to good use by delivering them to local health care providers.”

With the intent that SRU must plan for a postpandemic world, Behre said he wanted to give the council of trustees and Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) plenty of time to select a new president and allow for a “smooth transition.”

Fo r t h e n e x t 1 6 months, Behre plans to stay focused on setting the next president up for success and has set three goals for the rest of his time on campus, including: - Stabilizing the nearterm budgetary outlook for the university with a focus on emerging from the pandemic on strong financial footing.

Continuing to build the physical and organizational infrastructure to meet the commitments that the university has made, including continuing to invest in the work of its recently hired chief diversity officer.

- Completing the strategic plan.

“Continuing to focus on these three key areas will help us to recapture our pre-pandemic momentum, which will serve the university, and its next president, very well,” Behre said After retirement, Behre and his wife will move to Kennebunk, Maine in order to be closer to family.

ADAM ZOOK / THE ROCKET

Slippery Rock University President William Behre announced he will retire at the end of June 2023. With a year left at SRU, Behre said he will continue to finish the work he has done for the campus.

SRU will begin searching for its 18th president in the next few weeks, according to the email.

The university’s last presidential search that selected Behre was overshadowed by controversy when the council of trustees failed to send candidates to the PASSHE Board of

Governors during its first selection round.

Two years after that vote and the subsequent hiring of Behre, Amir Mohammadi, then vice president of finance for SRU, sued the university, PA S S H E a n d S R U trustee Robert Taylor for discrimination.

Mohammadi, who now ser ves as SRU’s

vice president for administration, global engagement and economic development, claimed he was discriminated against because he is Iranian and Muslim, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court.

Mohammadi’s lawsuit was settled through mediation in June 2019.

$200 million for PA education

By Matt Glover Rocket Contributor

G o v. To m Wo l f ’s proposed multi-billion spending bill allocates $75 million to Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) schools, preventing tuition increases.

“We proposed a 2% tuition increase,” Slippery Rock University President William Behre said. “If the $75 million comes through, we don’t have a tuition increase.”

The total investment into higher education is $125 million. Penn State University would receive $12.1 million.

PASSHE director of media relations Kevin Hensil called this a “historic investment in the state system and its students.”

Hensil previously served as Wolf ’s deputy press secretary just a few weeks ago.

However, a $75 million allocation does not mean SRU is out of hot water.

The PASSHE Board of Governors sets tuition costs and is redesigning the formula on which they allocate money to the universities. The board can also designate part of that money for certain projects.

“If we don’t get a reasonable increase in the allocation, we’ll start next year in a modest deficit if we did nothing,” Behre said. “We won’t do nothing.”

If the university receives the funding they need, they will still decide on where they can save money but under much less pressure to provide an immediate solution.

H o w e v e r, i f t h e proposed bill is not passed and PASSHE schools do not receive $75 million, the board of governors will likely

vote on a tuition increase, which would force the SRU administration to reexamine what it means to be Slipper y Rock University.

“Of the things we do today, what could we stop doing and still be Slippery Rock?” Behre said.

It adds a sense of urgency when you are trying to balance the budget, he said.

This is not the outcome the chancellor’s office is looking for though. They want “all Pennsylvanians to have an affordable

path to a degree and credentials,” Hensil said.

“The budget recognizes the importance of SRU and the other state system universities continuing to provide the most affordable fouryear education option in Pennsylvania,” he said.

T h e p ro p o s e d b i l l also provides relief to university students by funding various programs and scholarships.

It outlines a $200 million investment in the Nellie Bly Tuition Program which financially assists PASSHE and community

college students in the healthcare, education and public service sectors.

The scholarship is open to students who pledge to stay in Pennsylvania after graduation for an equal number of years they received scholarship funds.

The bill also establishes a grant program to invest $1 million in the HungerFree Campus Initiative to combat food insecurity and invests an additional $500,000 each in the Adult Education and Family Literacy program and the It’s On Us PA

initiative which protects students from sexual violence.

Other notable p ro p o s i t i o n s o u t s i d e the higher education system include investing $1.2 billion into Early Intervention tracking to add postpartum depression as an early identification category and investing $77.7 million to make childcare more accessible and affordable by reducing co-payments.

The bill also includes a n i n c re a s e o f t h e minimum teacher’s salary to $45,000, a policy that

was previously struck down.

The Board of Governors will next meet March 2 at 4:30 p.m., but the agenda does not show any discussion about the governor’s proposed budget or statewide tuition rates.

“We are grateful to the governor for proposing this budget, and look forward to talking with the general assembly about the life-changing difference this investment would mean for students and our commonwealth," Hensil said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR TOM WOLF'S FLICKR

Gov. Tom Wolf (right) talks with Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Chancellor Dan Greenstein (left) after his announcement on Feb. 16,2022 to invest $200 million in education throughout the state. In the proposed budget, PASSHE would receive $75 million of the budgeted amount.

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NEWS

March 4, 2022 March 1 - An individual filed a hit-andrun report that occurred at the West Lake Commuter Lot. The individual states that they parked their car in the lot at 7:50 a.m. until 3:13 p.m. Once they returned, they noticed damage to the driver side bumper. The case is under investigation, and security footage is going to be reviewed.

March 1 - Police received a call from a CA at Watson Hall to report an alarm activation in the entryway of the building. Officers on scene could not silence the alarm and contacted the alarm company. A blown fuse breaker was deemed the cause of the alarm, the system was reset, and power was restored.

March 2 - Police responded to a vehicular accident on Stadium Drive. No one was injured, both vehicles were drivable and both parties exchanged their information.

February 22 – Police received a call from a CA at Watson Hall regarding the smell of marijuana coming from a dorm room. Officers on scene could not detect the odor and the case was referred to Student Conduct.

February 23 – Police responded to an Ephone activation at the Harrisville Building. The alarm was set off by an individual who thought the button was to summon the front desk secretary.

The alarm system was reset.

February 24 - Police received a complaint from Old Main regarding a case of possible fraud from Richmond Hill, Georgia. The case is currently under investigation.

February 24 - Police received a complaint from the Robert N. Aebersold Recreation Center (ARC) about a disorderly individual who was yelling and cursing at employees. The case is currently under investigation.

February 25 - Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) requested assistance at Rebecca Lane due to an alarm activation. The person on scene provided identification.

February 25 - A parent contacted University Police and asked them to check on their child.

Police contacted the student at Building A and was told to call his parents.

accident caused by an ice patch. Both drivers were okay, as well as their vehicles. Both parties exchanged information.

February 25 - Police were called to the Union Commuter Lot about a vehicle that slid into a mailbox. The vehicle was drivable, and the post office was notified to fix the mailbox.

February 26 - Police were contacted by a CA at Building B regarding an individual smoking marijuana in their dorm room. The items were seized, and charges are pending for the student.

February 26 - Police were called to Building A for medical assistance. Police and EMTs assisted, and the individual was transported to the hospital.

February 27 - Police were asked to assist Borough Police with a fight that broke out at Sheetz. University Police assisted in breaking up the fight, and Borough Police are now handling the incident.

February 27 - Butler 911 requested University Police to respond to a noise complaint on Cornish Drive. Officers arrived and knocked on the door, but nobody answered and no noise was coming from inside. Officers cleared the scene and advised Butler 911.

February 27 - Police received a call regarding a large container by the Founders Lower Commuter Lot. The case is under investigation.

February 25 - An individual reported to police that a plow accidentally pushed snow onto their vehicle at the Physical Therapy Lot. The owner was contacted to check for damages and a report February 27 - Police were called regarding was filed with the police department. an alarm that went off at North Hall. It was determined to be a pump alarm and February 25 - Police were called to an accident maintenance was notified. at the Founders Upper Lot due to a vehicular

March 2 - Police received a complaint of individuals honking and screaming at someone outside of the Boozel Staff Parking Lot. The complainant believed the individuals followed them into the building. The individuals were identified from video surveillance and contact was made. The individuals said they were not yelling at the complainant, but just messing around. No further action was taken.

March 2 - Police received a complaint of someone’s vehicle being struck by another vehicle while parked in a 15-minute parking spot at Patterson Hall Lot. While at the police station filing a complaint, the person that struck the vehicle arrived. Information was exchanged and no further action was taken.

March 2 - Police received a call of an individual falling in and out of consciousness at the Harrisville Building. EMS and police were on scene and the individual was transported to Butler Memorial Hospital.

March 2 - An individual came to the station to file a report of a hit-and-run at the Founders Lower Commuter Lot. The individual reported finding damage to the driver side panel and the tail light. The case is under investigation.

March 2 - Police were dispatched for an alarm activation at the Jack C. Dinger Building that was disturbing a neighboring classroom. The officer on scene determined that noise was coming from a laptop. The officer turned off the unit.

March 2 - Police responded to a harassment complaint at the Ski Lodge. Upon interviewing the individual, it was discovered that the incident occurred at The Heights apartments.

The case was referred to the PSP. COMPILED BY MAC BELL

NEWS Six more senators join SRSGA

March 4, 2022

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By Joe Wells News Editor

The Slipper y Rock St u d e n t G ov e r n m e n t Association (SRSGA) was at its busiest Feb. 21 after taking vote on 17 motions, including the addition of six new senators.

The new senators will fill mainly specialized seats for specific colleges and student status.

Both Sydney Kaecher and Helena Townsend were unanimously approved as graduate senators.

Sydney Mo n t a n a w i l l s e r v e as a freshman senator and Earnest Zilka will take the last commuter senator seat.

Deryke Ramsey was the only senator confirmed that will sit in a college

"I hope to accomplish closing the gap between student athletes and even adding an Army cadet into SGA." – Sydney Montana, freshman senator and homeland security major

HALLE ANGELO / THE ROCKET

Slippery Rock Student Government Association's newest senators swear in on the gavel on Feb. 21, while SRSGA President Mia Graziani administers the oath. Many of the new senators are also student-athletes hoping to bridge the gap betweeen athletics and government.

s e n a t e s e a t . He w a s confirmed as a college of business senator.

Gabriella Delcoco was the only at-large senator added Monday.

The addition of six new senators leaves the body with 12 vacant seats going into election s e a s o n . Pa c k e t s f o r the 2022-2023 Senate opened last week.

Montana is just one of a few senators confirmed who are studentathletes. Along with volleyball, the homeland

security major is also an Army Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) cadet and hopes to bring her unique experience to the Senate.

“I am a military kid, so I grew up moving around,” Montana said.

B o t h o f Mo n t a n a’s parents ser ved in the m i l i t a r y. A l o n g w i t h being a stepping stone in her own college career, Montana hopes to “bridge the gap” between student government and athletics.

With the College of Health breaking from the current College of Health, Education and Science in the fall, the senate body is planning to change its structure accordingly.

The senate debated an amendment that will add four college of health senate seats while shrinking the number of at-large senate seats from 12 to eight.

The senate has 43 senate seats and eight executive board

members.

Those numbers will not change if the amendment passes.

In a procedural error, the senate initially passed the amendment but was informed by Pa r l i a m e n t a r i a n N i c Condon that the body must reconsider the motion, then table i t , p e r t h e b o d y ’s constitution.

SRSGA President Mia Graziani was asked why the Senate would not expand with the college split. The decision was made to keep the number of seats the same since atlarge seats are hard to fill throughout the year, Graziani said.

The Senate also approved a shuffle of funding from reser ves to new initiatives after receiving nearly $30,000 in new requests for consideration. The requests are spread over five organizations.

Club Baseball and M e n’s R u g b y w e r e approved to receive $1,375 and $2,265 for transportation to games. Funding for Men’s Rugby will cover the cost of hiring medical personnel during games.

To c o v e r t h e c o s t of powerlifting meets and transportation, Rock Powerlifting was approved for $4,000.

SRU Winter Guard is looking to compete in the Winter Guard I n t e r n a t i o n a l Wo r l d Championships at Dayton, Ohio. The club was approved for $10,250 to pay for bussing, hotels and practice space.

Black Action Society was approved for $10,000 to help pay for the transportation, meals and fees for their upcoming cultural inversion trip.

Both the American Marketing Association and Clarinet Choir at SRU received $500 in conference grants.

The SRSGA also approved the u n i v e r s i t y ’s n e w e s t student organization, Rock Racing. The cl u b, w hi ch ha d been w o rki ng over t he p a s t two years to become reco gni zed, w i l l bu i l d race cars and put them to the test on the t ra ck.

The program had gone out of its way to make sure it operates in a safe m a n n e r, Condon said. They added the c l u b w i l l b e “a n a s s e t to the engineering d e p a r t m e n t .”

Before heading out for spring break, the SRSGA will meet in t h e M a r c h 7 a t 5 p. m . i n t h e Sm i t h St u d e n t C e n t e r.

SRSGA Election Packets are now available.

Fill out your application on CORE.

Working our way back

By Joe Wells News Editor

Slippery Rock University has begun to see a return to normalcy and what a postpandemic world looks like as it followed most of the nation Tuesday in removing the campus’s indoor mask mandate.

The move follows new guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that have allowed more than 75% of the country to forego mask-wearing, specifically indoors.

The guidelines are based on the CDC’s understanding that the virus in a specific area is not as high of a risk based on infection and vaccination rates alone. Other factors such as testing and monitoring systems, along with hospital capacity, must now be considered as well.

The new mask policy on campus comes as the university and nation see a sharp decline in the number of COVID-19 cases. The university made the decision based on the latest data and consultation with the university’s health partner, Allegheny Health Network, Behre said in his email statement Monday.

The university has said in the past it would follow the guidance that is best for the university and in line with recommendations from the CDC. Removing the masking requirement is making good on that promise, Behre said.

While students will not be required to wear a mask while in class or eating at Rocky’s in the Robert M. Smith Student Center (SSC), masks will still be required in a limited number of areas.

Students must wear a mask if they are going to the Mass Testing Center in the University Union and while inside the Student Health Center.

Mask will also be required while riding the Happy Bus or any other mass transit. That policy follows federal guidelines for public transportation.

Almost two years since the beginning of the pandemic, many, including Kristina Benkeser, have worked to get the university to a place where things could get back to how they were.

As the Director of Student Health and Wellness, Benkeser has been crunching the data that tracks COVID-19 cases within the student population. At the beginning of the semester, she had some concerns on how far the omicron variant would spread throughout SRU. “Our campus-wide rates while they have been lower than [Butler] County in general, they still have that wide fluctuation which has been a thing with omicron,” Benkeser said.

Since the start of the year, SRU has had 625 positive cases reported through either the mass testing center or Student Health Center. Many of those cases came from January and early February when the omicron variant was spreading quickly throughout the state and country.

That spread led to incidence rates in the area being nearly 200 cases per 100,000 people. But just a fast as the new mutation spread from person to person, the number of cases began to drop over the course of a few weeks.

On the day before the CDC updated its mask guidance,

SRU’s incidence rate was just under 30 per 100,000.

Still, no matter how people feel, the pandemic is far from over, Benkeser said. She said people need to understand that the pandemic is not over in the United States until it is over in the world.

“We are way too mobile,” Benkeser said. “This isn’t like the plague.”

Benkeser said COVID-19 will have to continue to be in the back of our minds as the world works to contain pockets of the virus in the future.

Still, there has been progress in getting back to normal and the key to maintaining this momentum is making sure people are getting vaccinated and boosted, she said.

“For an industrialized, wealthy nation, we have really poor vaccination rates,” Benkeser said.

“This is why we have had a bigger death problem, why we have had a bigger hospitalization problem than some European countries.

“Even though they have equally high incidences, their vaccination rate is protecting from death and hospitalization.”

Once vaccines became available, the university asked students to upload their vaccine cards to help make decisions whether to mask or not.

As of Feb. 22, 54% of the student population that attends at least one class in person have uploaded their initial vaccination record.

Where it gets tricky is tracking the number of students who have received their booster, Benkeser said.

HALLE ANGELO / THE ROCKET

For the first time in nearly two years, the mass testing center at Slippery Rock University is seeing a slow down of patients after the Omicron variant swept through back in January. With the low case count, SRU has followed CDC guidance and dropped its indoor mask policy on March 1, 2022.

Only 12% of those students have uploaded their booster vaccination records, according t o B e n k e s e r. M a n y times, when the health center staff contacts a student through their COVID-19 protocols, the student tells them they are vaccinated and b o o s t e d b u t t h e re i s nothing in their records showing that.

The university has continued to hold COVID-19 vaccine clinics on campus. During the latest one, held Feb. 18, 63 students received either a

shot for their first series or a booster shot.

Despite watching the rate of COVID-19 infection rise and fall throughout the past two years, Benkeser remains optimistic.

“I’m hopeful that as the semester goes on that the rates continue to stay down,” Benkeser said.

“Then maybe we can come out the other side of this.

“It’s really not the time to let our guard down.”

Throughout campus, many students and professors are getting to see entire faces in their

classrooms for the first time. But some still choose to wear a mask either for themselves or others. Behre hopes the community can learn to respect everyone’s position going forward.

“What I hope is that people take to hear t the notion that we are a community that cares for each other,” Behre said. “And if they’re in a situation where there is a particularly vulnerable person, that they have the human decency to put their mask on.

“It’s really not that hard.”

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OPINION

Our View

The role of student publications during social issues

OPINION

Volume 105, Issue Number 7

220 220Eisenberg EisenbergClassroom ClassroomBuilding Building Slippery SlipperyRock RockUniversity University Slippery SlipperyRock, Rock,Pennsylvania Pennsylvania16057 16057 Phone: Phone: (724) (724)738-4438 738-4438 Fax: Fax: (724) (724)738-4896 738-4896 E-mail: E-mail: therocketnewspapersru@gmail.com therocketnewspapersru@gmail.com

EDITORIAL BOARD Nina Cipriani

Editor-in-Chief

Joe Wells

News Editor

Tyler Howe

Sports Editor

Sarah Anderson

Campus Life Editor

Kaitlyn Myers

Copy/Web Editor

Rayni Shiring

Photo Editor

Brandon Pierce

Multimedia Editor

Mac Bell

Assistant News Editor

Joe Skillicorn

Assistant Sports Editor

Megan John

Assistant Campus Life Editor

Marissa Mastrangelo Halle Angelo

Assistant Copy/Web Editor Assistant Photo Editor

Dr. Brittany Fleming

Faculty Adviser

ADVERTISING STAFF Bailey Carden

Advertising Manager

Kaitlyn Shope

Assistant Advertising Manager

ABOUT US The Rocket is published by the students of Slippery Rock University five times per academic semester. Total weekly circulation is 1,000 (for fall 2021 semester only).

No material appearing in The Rocket may be reprinted without the written consent of the Editor-in-Chief.

The Rocket receives funding from the SGA Student Activity fee paid each semester by students. All other income is provided through the sale of advertising.

Advertising inquiries may be made by calling (724) 7382643 or by emailing rocket.ads@sru.edu.

CORRECTIONS If we make a substantial error, we want to correct it.

If you believe an error has been made, call The Rocket newsroom at (724) 738-4438. If a correction is warranted it will be printed in the opinion section.

GRAPHIC BY: HALLE ANGELO

"BREAKING: Sorority's virtual poetry event barraged by racist cyber attack."

SRU stakeholders read this headline as it was posted to our website on Feb. 17, 2021. The Rocket reported breaking news about a virtual sorority event being zoom-bombed during Black History Month.

This was one of the many stories that promoted important conversations within The Rocket staff about equal, diverse news coverage.

Student media has covered so many monumental social issues in just the past two years, such as the Black Lives Matter protests, school shootings, all the way to covering the coronavirus pandemic. Media holds the power to be the place for impor tant conversations. We, as The Rocket, understand that we are a place for these conversations.

Even though Black History Month (BHM) has concluded, it's still important to amplify Black voices outside of BHM and highlight the importance of equal representation in media. This doesn't, h owe ve r, t a k e a w a y from the importance of other social issues. Equal coverage of topics should

be a goal for all news organizations.

With The Rocket being one of the main news sources for Slippery Rock, this makes our coverage of social issues, social change and social movements that much more important.

Our audience extends beyond the university alone. With a broad target audience, The Rocket strives to cover matters of campus as well as the local community.

The Rocket is aware that we lack diversity within our own staff , as all 14 staff members identify as white. Our lack of diversity is what makes it even more important for us to promote and listen to the voices of people of color and tell stories that are newsworthy as well as inclusive for varying communities. We must listen to these communities and implement changes to better our reporting.

We know that we are reporting and writing about these experiences, not living them.

We acknowledge the power in what we do as Rocket reporters and the privilege that comes with our identities within student media.

We a re d i l i g e n t l y working toward complete equity and inclusion in

our own reporting, as well as diversifying our coverage. We actively seek out new topics to cover, as well as talk to people within the community to see what they want us to talk about.

We want to amplify the voices of our peers, which is one of the reasons w h y we c o n t i n u a l l y emphasize the importance of the interview process within our staff. We also encourage our readers to write opinion pieces to get their own voices and thoughts out there.

We actively reach out to organizations on campus to voice their truths in our opinion section. We want to highlight all voices of this university.

The Rocket has the privilege of having connections and relationships with people across campus and in the community. While we do have the ability to speak for our peers, The Rocket has another level of reporting that interacts with those in positions of power, from organization leaders and official campus personnel, to local law enforcement officers.

The general public doesn't often have access to these individuals regularly, giving The Rocket a unique opportunity to present

In the Quad

opinions on the behalf of these people. This is a privilege that comes with being a part of student media and one that The Rocket staff holds with immense respect.

The Rocket may be one of the main sources of news for Slippery Rock, but it's important to recognize that many other forms of media exist. The various forms of media surrounding us offer different perspectives, ideals and voices that provide further ideas and opinions. In any aspect of life, it's crucial to do your own research and form your own opinions.

We're not perfect, but we strive for professionalism and giving voice to those who are often silenced.

We are committed to covering topics of bias and discrimination, not as "token projects," but as thoughtful and respectful pieces for whom the stories are about.

Even though we have won awards in the past and received praise from our peers for our coverage of these issues, they mean very little if the students of Slippery Rock do not feel ownership in our newspaper. The Rocket is not the newspaper of the staff, but each and every student.

Question: How do you think news outlets should cover social issues?

By: Brandon Pierce

SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscriptions to The Rocket are available.

Subscriptions are $20 per academic semester and $35 for the full academic year. Inquiries should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief at the address listed here.

EDITORIAL POLICY The Rocket strives to present a diverse range of opinions that are both fair and accurate in its editorials and columns appearing on the Opinion pages. “Our View” is the opinion of the Editorial Board and is written

by Rocket editorial board members. It reflects the majority opinion of The Rocket Editorial Board.

“Our View” does not necessarily reflect the views of Slippery Rock University, its employees or its student body. Columns and cartoons are drafted by various individuals and only reflect the opinions of the columnists.

LETTERS POLICY The Rocket welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication.

The Rocket retains the right to edit or reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes the property of The Rocket and cannot be returned.

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Submit all material by noon Wednesday to: The Rocket, 220 ECB, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pa. 16057. Or send it via e-mail to: rocket.letters@sru.edu.

Sequoiah Rhoades Freshman Park and Resource Management Indiana, PA "I think social situations in the media really depend upon the person involved. I feel news outlets should focus more on the good."

Sebastian Leis Fifth year Communication Bethel Park, PA

Brody Powell Freshman Safety Management Thompsontown, PA

"News outlets should look at it from an unbiased perspective and talk to people from both sides of the story. Media shouldn't editorialize social matters. They should report it as is and avoid personal bias."

"I think news outlets should not be biased but get lots of perspectives and views from many people."

OPINION

March 4, 2022

B-2

Why, how am I privileged?

Marissa Mastrangelo Marissa is a senior communication digital media major with a concentration in TV field production and a minor in film and media studies. She is WSRUFM’s PR director, assistant copy/web editor and a producer for SRU’s public affairs office.

CONTENT WARNING: This article contains mentions of racial issues, such as police brutality. This article also contains certain language that may be offensive to some readers. Please use caution before reading.

In light of Black Histor y Month, I thought there was no better way for me to contribute my first opinion piece to The Rocket and the Slippery Rock community than to talk about antiracism, white privilege and advocating for different people of color.

T h i s i s a re m i n d e r for anyone reading this, as well as myself, that this is an opinion piece. It doesn't make this information less than, but I am not trying to argue a point.

Rather, I'm presenting topics of interest about racism, and I want to use my voice to bring awareness to people of color.

I w a n t t o b e g i n by clarifying a couple of important factors due to the culturally sensitive

nature throughout this writing. Firstly, I am aware of the efforts and responsibilities that would coincide with identifying as an ally, and by no means do I take it lightly.

Wr i t i n g t h i s p i e c e is significant to me b e c a u s e o f m y d e s i re to bring further awareness to our community about racerelated issues, privilege and to use my voice alongside others so that I can provide fur ther amplification.

Language and rhetoric are also very important when writing about topics encompassing diversity, social injustices and intersectional i n t e r c u l t u r a l communication. I want to emphasize that using the term 'people of color' will be my only generalized term throughout this piece.

This is because I realize how damaging this term and others alike could be to group different races, ethnicities and cultures of people together as one.

Fur thermore, I will be referring to "white" as a descriptive. I do see how it can also be another term that is sensitive or damaging.

One example I've learned is that the utilization of this term allows for a continuing reflection of racial hierarchy and can be seen as a separation from people of color as the "majority."

The term "white" can also represent negative historical contexts and cause uneasiness in different ways. One of these ways is due to some preferring the usage of the term caucasian.

For my readers: Understand that I want to use this term solely t o g e n e r a l i ze b e c a u s e of different points of interest throughout this piece that it is significant in. I want to further describe why t h e t e r m " wh i t e " h as become normalized and cemented in modern American vernacular.

However, despite its damaging connotation, using the term to describe and group people for being white or having a white identity can also be ideologically charged in good or bad ways.

I plan to use culturespecific terminology when I am talking about individual cultures or specific instances. I will also utilize "people of color" when necessary

by educating myself as much as possible and acknowledging the existence of white privilege, and how it affects those around me.

I feel that these three main topics of antiracism, white privilege and advocating for people of color are easily attainable gateways for any person to begin understanding how to get out of their

"My education while growing up failed to help me recognize a clear definition of racism by almost refusing to talk about it when it was necessary. I feel they tiptoed around subjects involving privilege by teaching at a level of 'normality' and making it seem nonexistent. By not teaching the discrepancies of those with privilege and those without, privileged people will continue to benefit, while others will have to heal with oppression as their normal." to communicate the connections throughout topics related to social justice, civil rights and human rights.

About Me and My Views I am an ItalianAmerican woman with an immigrant father and a mother having a lineage of multiple different ethnicities from Europe and Asia.

As a white woman, I have begun to learn the first steps into fighting for equality o f a l l r a c e s . St a r t i n g

zone of comfortability when it comes to racism-related topics.

Ed u c a t i n g yo u r s e l f i s a starting line on how you may unknowingly be benefitting from racism, as well as recognizing it as a current issue in any aspect of society.

Coming to SRU has provided me with more than just education.

The communities that exist here, the variety of classes and especially the people have given me insights into experiences and

s o c i e t a l t o p i c s t h a t either flying under the I've never even thought radar or mostly going about exploring. This unnoticed. Everyone is is mainly due to lacking b e i n g p i n n e d a g a i n s t k n o w l e d g e o f t h e i r each other in different overall existence. ways as to what is right I am originally from and what is wrong to a very non-diverse city talk about. in Ohio called Medina.

As I have been Ev e n t h o u g h S RU i s dissecting this topic, I a l s o a l a r g e l y w h i t e have been overwhelmed population, coming to w i t h different Pennsylvania was still emotions, most of them a h u g e c u l t u re s h o c k having to do with anger for me. and frustration.

If you were to In high school, I believe l o o k u p M e d i n a ' s that little to no racismd e m o g r a p h i c s , y o u ' d re l a t e d t o p i c s we re f i n d t h a t e v e n w i t h implemented into my a p o p u l a t i o n a b o v e K-12 education. When 25,000 as of 2022, less it comes to teaching the than 7% identified as histories of Black people, a different race other too, I remember briefly than white. being taught subjects Not only was college s u r ro u n d i n g s l a ve r y, a c u l t u r e s h o c k , b u t segregation and their i t a l s o e n l i g h t e n e d existence throughout the m e t o s o c i e t a l i s s u e s development of the United that I wasn't aware of. States before the 1900s.

I already know about I also had a single class t h e d i s a d v a n t a g e s in high school that taught t h a t p e o p l e o f c o l o r history about different communities deal with. decades through a variety W h a t I d i d n ' t k n ow, of sports and athletes, with however, is the severity an emphasis on the lives of of systemic racism and only famous Black sports t h e u n w i l l i n g n e s s o f players. white people to change My high school diploma or be educated. did leave me with quite a Pe r s o n a l l y, w h e n I lot to be knowledgeable a t t e m p t t o b r i n g u p about. However, when it t h e s e t o p i c s t o o t h e r came to major topics, such people, I am met with as the United States and h o s t i l i t y. I a m m o s t its involvement in World o f t e n s u r r o u n d e d b y War I, World War II, the a w h i t e c o m m u n i t y Vietnam War or even or people who would definitions behind what s e e m t o f a l l u n d e r racism is to all people of the category of white, color, my education before and either in casual or college missed that mark. f o r m a l c o n v e r s a t i o n , These would be just a few the hostility is paired of the major topics that w i t h c o m b a t i v e a n d were taught to me either by defensive responses. myself or in my collegiate T h i s m a k e s m e years. wonder: Why is that?

My education while Why do race-related growing up failed to help me c o n v e r s a t i o n s g e t recognize a clear definition a u t o m a t i c a l l y s h u t of racism by almost down by people that are refusing to talk about it white but it is heavily when it was necessary. I the opposite for people feel they tiptoed around of color? I understand subjects involving privilege the ideas that promote by teaching at a level of not seeing each other "normality" and making it by c o l o r o r r a c e a n d seem nonexistent. treating ever yone the By not teaching the s a m e b e c a u s e " we a l l discrepancies of those are going to be dead with privilege and those one day." without, privileged people B u t w h a t I d o n ' t will continue to benefit, u n d e r s t a n d , t h o u g h , while others will have to i s w h y t h e r e a r e deal with oppression as c o n t i n u i n g f o r m s o f their normal. race-related oppression for people of color currently and why it is SEE INTERSECTIONALITY PAGE B-3

Why has racial discrimination lasted so long?

Madeline Bundy Madeline is a junior converged journalism major. She is also a content creator for WSRU-TV News and a member of Jumpstart.

CONTENT WARNING: This article contains mention of racial issues, like instances of racial discrimination. Please use caution before reading.

The topic of racial discrimination has b e e n a r o u n d f o r e v e r.

The smallest thing can happen on either side of the topic to get people talking a b o u t i t . No m a t t e r

the nature of the incident and how it is handled by those involved, it can easily get turned into a bigger thing that gets the attention of the media and the general public.

But that part if t h e i s s u e i s n’t w h a t I want to talk about.

The part I want to talk about it is the “w h y.” W h y h a s r a c i a l discrimination lasted so long?

Before getting into why it’s lasted so long, let’s take a look at some incidents of racial discrimination and where can take place.

According to the Robert Wood Johnson Fo u n d a t i o n , r a c i a l discrimination can happen when trying to find somewhere to live, when tr ying to get medical attention, applying for jobs and getting promotions or raises. One of the more common is it happens when interacting with the police. These are just some of them, but they can happen in everyday life as well, like walking

d ow n t h e s t re e t o r hanging out with people in public.

You may hear parents always say that they want their kids to grow up in a better world than they did, but they don’t do anything to put a stop to racial discrimination within their family or friend circle that they raise their kids in.

Racial discrimination is a learned behavior.

Kids “don’t see color” until they are taught it by someone who has i n f l u e n c e ov e r t h e m to get them to see the world in a certain way without letting them experience the world for themselves.

But some people don’t understand that doing this it can hurt their kids in the long run. Since it’s a learned behavior, sometimes it can be hard for kids to unlearn it later in life.

Also, the world is constantly changing. The people who are letting racial discrimination last so long are the people who refuse to grow and see that the world has changed from when they

were kids. Just like kids learn from their parents, parents can learn from their kids.

Kids are more open to new ideas and ways of doing things that parents may not b e re c e p t i ve t o. Ne w d o e s n’t a l w a y s m e a n bad and wrong, new can mean good and better.

People who are still participating in racial d i s c r i m i n a t i o n d o n’t understand that you a re n’t re a l l y h e l p i n g your kid achieve anything like you think you are. You are hurting them and can be hurting yourself by passing on that trait.

Maybe, without re a l i z i n g i t , yo u a re doing the following things: Not letting your kids learn about other cultures and traditions, n o t l e t t i n g yo u r k i d make friends with people who would be able to help them grow in unimaginable ways.

They will feel like they aren’t able to talk to you about cer tain topics, thus your relationship with them won’t be as

strong. They may end up bullying certain people based on what is passed onto them.

It s eems l i ke p a rent s a re s t i l l t ea chi ng t hei r kids the golden r ule of “t rea t o t hers t he w a y t h a t yo u w o u l d w a n t to be treated” but d o n’t w a n t t o a l w a y s l i ve by i t o r p i ck a nd cho o s e w hen t o f o l l ow it and when not to f o l l ow i t .

Bu t s o m e t h i n g e l s e that people don’t realize is you can’t teach kids one thing and then not follow it or ignore it completely. Not only is this teaching them something wrong, but it can also confuse them as to what they are supposed to do or how they are supposed to act.

Racial discrimination happens because some parents don’t want to grow and set a better example than what for their kids. They would rather do what was taught and shown to them as they grew up.

Bu t i t a l s o ha p p ens because sometimes p e o p l e a r e n’t a l w a y s

accepting of those who are different than them. They would ra t her s t i ck w i t h w ha t they know and what they are comfortable w i t h.

To help put a stop to racial discrimination when I see it happening around me, I decided to learn from different clubs and events that my high school held and from events that are h e l d h e re a t Sl i p p e r y Ro c k Un i v e r s i t y.

I also learn from past social events that have happened that have been captured by the media. When I see it happening, I try to talk with the person and explain to them why what they are doing is wrong and try to give them a v e n u e s t o l e a r n m o re about how to be open to learning new things. I am not an expert on this. But, to put a stop to racial discrimination, it will take effort from all of us, not just one person. But it can s t a r t t h a t w a y.

OPINION

March 4, 2022

B-3

Intersectionality explains uniqueness even further CONTINUED FROM PAGE B-2

White Privilege and Intersectionality For this section, I thought it would be significant to input and display some of the privileges that I consider myself to have daily for being white. I got this idea from a paper written by an author named Peggy McIntosh. I will refer to her later on.

I do not have to worry about being deemed financially inept or unstable when buying a home, or for any reason, due to the color of my skin.

Police brutality is not a factor to consider in my life because of the color of my skin.

I will be able to find any shampoo that would suit my hair type in the hair care section.

I will not be a victim that is targeted for committing a crime I didn't commit because of my race.

I will not be stereotyped in any situation due to the color of my skin.

I don't have to worry about being stereotyped when I am in an airport trying to catch a flight.

My race will not be the leading factor as to why I was interrogated, followed, killed or deemed suspicious by police.

I do not worry about where I could live because I won't be alienated in any community, classroom or group setting because of my race.

I have the privilege of endless protection and escaping violent acts of racism because of the color of my skin.

I could live in ignorance of racist acts and the state of racism today if I wanted to because I am white.

When I am explaining the two-word term of white privilege, I understand the controversies that come with it, as well as the discomforts that it can create. I think it is a very important topic to talk about, despite how uncomfortable anyone feels about it.

"White privilege" is commonly described in a variety of different ways.

One thing that all of the definitions will have in common conceptually are the advantages that have been provided to white people in society at a systemic and legal level. According to an article called "What is White Privilege Really?" on learningforjustice.org, "Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “white privilege” was less commonly used but generally referred to legal and systemic advantages given to white people by the United States, such as citizenship, the right to vote or the right to buy a house in the neighborhood of their choice."

I've learned that the term is further derived from the histories and involvement of racism and racial bias.

It is easier to start defining it by dismantling the term as to what it is not meant as. I cannot speak for everyone in society and as to what the most correct way to go about this is. When it comes to the word "privilege," some readers may feel misled by their involvement with the term. They may think they have never experienced privilege for whatever the reason is. This can include originating from a rural town, a poor family or really any reason. Understand that is not what is being implied though.

For those that are not used to being grouped together and described as their race, this term is not suggesting that since you are deemed as a white person, you have never experienced struggles in life at all because of your race. That is not what I am not trying to imply and that is not what the term means.

This also does not mean that due to your race your level of success and accomplishments are less deserving. It is also not under any assumption that you

GRAPHIC BY: HALLE ANGELO

would have had to work less to get there.

But if I am talking indepth on defining white privilege, I have to include the topic of intersectionality.

To e l a b o r a t e o n intersectionality in white privilege, I have to define what intersectionality is. Intersectionality is an analytical term often defined to assist in connecting other forms of self-identification. It can be understood as an intertwining framework of overlapping social discriminations and oppression from anything that can marginalize people.

The Oxford Dictionary defines intersectionality as, "The theory that various forms of discrimination centered on race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, and other forms of identity, do not work independently but interact to produce particularized forms of social oppression."

The importance of intersectionality when referring to white privilege is that every individual person experiences privilege in different ways. For example, someone that is white but also is gay and has a disability may have different privileged experiences. That is why intersectionality is important.

Despite multiple forms of oppression, a person's experience of privilege may be affected because of how their identities overlap.

Intersectionality also provides a representation of how individual identities are affected in various ways because of their unique experiences of oppression.

This doesn't necessarily mean that intersectionality cancels out other privileges or, in this case, white privilege. I decided to look for examples to explain this better and I found a very eye-opening article by author and professor Anne Sisson Runyan. It's called "What Is Intersectionality and Why Is It Important?"

Two quotes from the piece stood out to me the most about how intersectionality can further explain racism, sexism and stereotypes.

"But theorists of intersectionality stress that forms of oppression are not just additive, as if they were wholly separate layers of domination. Rather, women of color actually experience a different form of racism from men of color, just as they experience a different form of sexism from white women.

In this sense, gender is always “raced” and race is always gendered," Runyon said.

"Thus, how women are simultaneously and differently racialized and sexualized (and classed) depends upon cultural and material legacies and contemporary cultural and material forces."

I believe everyone deserves equality in society. I actively pursue the belief that everyone should deserves

equal political, social, economic, and human rights and opportunities. At times throughout society that reality can seem bleak. However, to combat this, there are social justice organizations in effect working towards better realities surrounding social issues.

These coalition groups often assist people affected by different areas of injustice and oppression by fighting for change and equality. When it comes to intersectionality, oftentimes these social justice groups will implement and practice the ideologies to improve their flexibility to further represent individuals and their identities. This is done so to promote further inclusion and unionization among oppressed individuals that are still shadowed by the continuation of issues involving inequality and injustice.

Understand that those that feel oppressed because of their race are living in a society that was carefully constructed to give white people advantages. Many people could disagree about the idea of white privilege not being factual. I also agree this country has, at times, equally disadvantaged populations despite their personal identities or race. Unless the past can be rewritten, I think disagreeing about white privilege will only continue to hurt people of color.

White privilege is embedded like a parasite throughout our history as a country. To understand it and dissect the problems it has created, it needs to be talked about more. And because I am white, I have never and will never feel the damaging effects that has been imposed on people of color, especially by our government.

"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh The phrase "white privilege" was originated from a written piece called "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" created in 1989 by scholar and antibias activist Peggy McIntosh.

In an Intro to Gender Studies course at SRU, I learned how this article talks about the obliviousness that occurs because of the lack of education about racism and white populations' effects on racism.

McIntosh also emphasizes throughout that the "invisible knapsack" is a deeper term to describe how being white has offered protection to people in the same racial group as me to be confident, comfortable and oblivious. Yet this "invisible knapsack" for white people is nonexistent for people of color.

"White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks and describing white privilege makes one newly

accountable." McIntosh said.

Previously, I listed 10 examples of daily privileges that I thought were more associated to being white. She had inspired me to think of my own reasonings for privilege while she gave 26 completely different examples. Her reasons for the conditions were because she knew that people of color surrounding her in life would not have the same experiences.

Possessing privilege is unavoidable yes, and oftentimes it is something that has been attached to you since the moment you were born. While it is not consciously at the front of our minds at all times or something that is able to be obtained, it does come in many forms. When I am speaking about it relating to race, however, despite its inevitability, I am talking about how being a white person has advantageous qualities in society, whether you agree or not.

Also, this is a reminder that I am by no means an expert on any topics throughout this piece. I am simply hoping to create more awareness on these topics that I feel are significant in striving for racial equality and to open up the necessary discussions that go along with it despite any amount of discomfort and defensiveness.

Advantages of Whiteness When I mention that people of color has been disadvantaged in society, I want to specifically talk about it here in the United States. I have learned that not only have they been dealt a radically different hand than white people, but they have also had to experience life being dictated almost entirely by white people, too.

The United States' education system is simply not incorporating thorough teachings of ethnic studies and culture into its curriculum. This is a major topic of interest for people of color and can be researched very extensively, too.

Now, this will vary depending on many different factors, including location and the level of schooling. It seems like you'll learn more about different cultures and people of color communities depending on if you are taking a foreign language course.

Nationally, I believe curriculums throughout K-12 fall short with their tone and quality of people of color teachings. I wish there had been better representation in media and literature for people of color.

All my race-related books either had pictures of white children or were about white people. As a white person, you are learning about history in America and the history of how it became to be as a core curriculum. Yet for people of color, it would be most likely an elective or left out entirely. When I was taught

about slavery and how white people treated Black people, I was taught about how white people "back then" would treat Black people like property and heathens.

An article called "Why our schools aren’t doing justice to the complexities of Black history" explained my perspective in a similar way: "Historical contentiousness reminds educators that Black history has its own timelines, perspectives, voices and people — allowing educators to understand that what is historically important to white people may not be historically important to Black people."

But there were never perspectives from Black people, only through. I feel like teaching in this way could also be extremely insensitive and harmful to people of color. My educators in high school, who were all white, were often worried about causing discomfort or unsettling us as children because of the curriculum's racially sensitive nature.

Another advantage for white people is their schools themselves: The location of them, the teachers teaching in them, the students that are going there and how wellfunded they are.

The unequal opportunities for people of color are clearer than for white people. States often won't fund a school that is in the inner city, or in an area that has more minorities, than a suburban city. There will also be less diversity and people of color teachers in schools outside of these areas. You can read more about these topics on two articles I found very illuminating. They are "Schools are still segregated, and black children are paying a price" on www.epi. org and "Fighting Systemic Racism in K-12 Education: Helping Allies Move From the Keyboard to the School Board" from www. americanprogress.org.

These advantages for white communities in education can also be traced back to how minority groups were spread out and disadvantaged in their living situations.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was implemented in 1934 to help with the effects of the Great Depression. They provided federal loans for mortgages.

Due to segregation, this meant it was extremely unlikely for people of color to receive a loan because it was deemed "risky" to the FHA. This began a concept that lasted decades: redlining.

Maps were created and outlined by red lines to show the separation of people of color communities and white communities.

I know adding all these quotes feels a little less authentic as to my opinion. I am glad that there are sources and people that are interested in these topics too and have worded exactly what I would want to say better than I ever could.

A flawless example from www.Brookings.edu was in an article written by Andre M. Perry and David Harshberger in "America’s formerly redlined neighborhoods have changed, and so must solutions to rectify them."

"The practice of redlining was explicit in its targeting of Black Americans. While Latino or Hispanic residents, low-income white residents, noncitizens, communists, and other populations the federal government deemed “risky” were often included in redlining, they were not targeted in the same manner as Black residents. Today, neighborhoods that fall within once-redlined areas are more likely to have a higher concentration of Black residents, as well as lower incomes, lower home values, and other negative economic characteristics relative to the rest of their cities."

The effects of redlining are still felt today, with their communities in a position being economically disadvantaged for decades.

The disparities in wealth and homeownership between people of color and white people are still widespread, and one of the reasons is traced back to redlining.

The last example of an advantage that white people experience that has at times disadvantaged people of color is the topic of stereotypes. I think stereotypes that are in existence for people of color are extremely harmful and I don't think we will ever be at a level of equality and be able to disintegrate racism without acknowledging their harmfulness first. Stereotypes for people are embedded, sometimes subconsciously, into our minds. For example, some associate Asian people with being really smart and good at math.

These stereotypes seem positive but are much more harmful in actuality. They are also nonsensical because they are habitually associated with race or a specific culture. Circling back to white privilege, stereotyping can often be seen as a racist micro-aggression.

A well-known example of the negative effects that occur from stereotyping can be seen in the Central Park Five case. Where five people of color teenagers were accused of assaulting and raping a white female jogger in 1989.

Due to the media coverage on the unfolding story, they depicted these boys in very negative, stereotypical ways.

Portraying them as threats and inequitable. Examples can be found in "When They See Us: Thirty Years Since the Central Park Five Case," on opportunityagenda.org.

The use of harmful stereotypes in the media led to the wrongful arrests, convictions and incarceration of innocent teens. And after spending between six and 13 years in prison for the crime, another man confessed to it in 2002, exonerating the five men.

Stereotypes and racial bias in the media determined these teens' future by leading to their wrongful arrests, convictions and incarceration.

All of these topics can be further researched at your own free will. I encourage you to educate yourself in areas related to racism.

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S

Jon Kozarian returns for senior season At theonlinerocket.com

SPORTS

Ready to swing for the fences

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The Rock returns to action after missing out on playoffs in the 2021 season, which was interrupted at points due to COVID-19 issues. They were picked to finish second in the PSAC this season, but they have their aims on a PSAC title with the veteran core that they return for this season.

By Tyler Howe Sports Editor

Baseball may not be starting on time at the Major League Baseball (MLB) level, but luckily for baseball fans, college baseball is. Among the teams that will start playing is Slippery Rock’s own team. The team who opens their season this Saturday has a lot of hype around them already.

After a 23-14 season last year, The Rock was picked to finish second in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) west this season. Something that coach Jeffery Messer doesn’t want to go to their heads, and doesn’t think will.

“I don’t think any recognition or honors are spearheading our efforts right now, because our guys think that they’re number one in the conference, but they’ve just got to go out and play,” Messer said.

“They think they’ve got a lot of unfinished business, because we didn’t feel we were able to really finish our season last year."

The team has been practicing inside since they got back to

school in their indoor facility, the barn. The weather usually doesn’t permit for the players to go on the field, but this spring semester so far has been a lot nicer than winters of the past. Messer has also had players use the parking lot outside of the stadium to throw.

Messer felt there was still a lot to work on when they got back, but he feels that they’ve made strides.

“We’ve been practicing since we got back to school, and we’ve been progressing very well,” Messer said. “Biggest thing this time of year is getting our pitchers arms ready to go and keeping our position players healthy.”

The Rock has a veteran core returning with over 20 players coming back from last year, and to Messer that sets them up well.

That experience is one of many reasons that a late run could be in the cards.

“This is one of our stronger teams on paper going into the year that we’ve had, and a lot of that is just experience,” Messer said. “They’re still hungry and for some of them it’s their last year.”

The team also brings back the duo of Jon Kozarian and Connor

Hamilton. The duo brings explosiveness to the lineup. Both of them started every game last season and made up a large part of The Rock offense. The duo combined for 10 home runs and 56 RBI’s.

“Both Hamilton and Kozarian are two of the better players in our region, and Kozarian led the PSAC in hitting last year,” Messer said. “We’re moving him from second base to shortstop, and he’ll continue to be a mainstay in our offense as well, and Hamilton just brings an edge behind the plate.”

Hamilton quickly became someone that pitchers loved throwing to. Messer talked about how they could throw a two-strike breaking ball and not worry about it getting past him. A trait that is extremely useful when it comes to making the pitchers comfortable.

Kozarian and Hamilton will return to The Rock lineup and give them a good one, two punch. Not only that, they bring leadership to the squad that is going to be crucial when it comes to team chemistry.

Both are looking to make a trip to the PSAC playoffs this season

and go even further than that.

Kozarian feels that everything has led up to this year.

After a disappointing year in 2019, The Rock had their year cut short in 2020 and then in 2021 experienced COVID-19 problems. The Rock got out to a record of 7-3 before the entire sports world was stopped in its track. Last year, the season also had problems that cut some games off the schedule. Now with COVID-19 slowing down, The Rock is hoping that this is the year that everything comes together.

“We got cut short a little bit last year with COVID-19, so the guys are hungry,” Messer said. “We’re still a little bit away, but right now we’re healthy and we’re ready to go for opening weekend against Davis & Elkins College (D&E).”

The team has already been taking precautions to avoid any health problems when it comes to COVID-19. But Messer said that the biggest concerns of COVID-19 come off the field when the players are interacting with people. So far, they haven’t run into any problems, but with the mask mandate dropped across

campus, it’ll be something to keep an eye on.

“Knock on wood, we’ve been fortunate thus far, and we’ve had our cases, but I think going into the season we feel a little bit more confident,” Messer said.

“Hopefully it’s on the downslide and we don’t lose anybody.”

The fear of losing a player is one that many teams have had to go through this year. If you look at women’s basketball, they went into many games shorthanded.

But the hope is that with games being outside and COVID-19 cases dropping that no players will miss time. But of course, Messer feels that they’re prepared for if or when it does happen.

“We’ve got a lot of depth with the guys that we have returning and it’ll be the next man up, but hopefully that’s behind us and we can play a full season of baseball,” Messer said.

The Rock has four allregion players coming into this season, but once again they don’t pay attention to it very much. They just want to play ball.

“It’s a nice honor, but there’s so many polls out there now from sports writers to the coaches, there’s multiple different ones to be recognized by,” Messer said. “But it is nice to be recognized for basically what you did last year, and that’s what it’s coming off of, but every year they’re looking to have a better year.”

The team finally hits the field on March 5, when they’ll have a home series with D&E. For Messer, he feels that he’s ready to rock and roll in his 37th season as head coach and he also feels that his team is too.

“Honestly I think we’re probably pretty close to being ready right now, biggest thing right now is our pitchers getting some live work against live hitters and they’ve been doing that,” Messer said. “Game one is going to be new because we haven’t played anybody, but we’re going to be ready and there won’t be any excuses.”

A season cut short ! ! "

By Tyler Howe Sports Editor

Things don’t always go as planned. If you’re looking for any proof of that, coach Robert McGraw will give you some. All you need to do is look at his team from this season. Before a twoweek hiatus, the women's basketball team sat at 10-3 and were receiving votes to be ranked. After their twoweek COVID-19 break, they went 2-13.

Things started out better than they have in a long time for The Rock. After splitting their first two games, they went on a five-game winning streak. The streak included t w o Pe n n s y l va n i a St a t e Athletic Conference (PSAC) wins, something that was very hard to come by in 2019.

But just when things seemed good, The Rock got a taste of injuries, which is something that would plague them for the rest of the season.

“When we got to 10-3, we were receiving votes in the Atlantic region for the first time in 20 years and we’re going to have some national

statistic award winners in Daeja Quick and Jamiyah Johnson, so the year overall was tremendous,” McGraw said. “There were just a lot of things that happened this year from injuries to COVID-19, and things fell apart.”

Coach McGraw noted that any time they lost in the early stretch was when one of their key players wasn’t available.

One of those key times was against Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, when they were without Isabellah Middleton.

After a two-game losing streak, The Rock once again jumped out to a four-game winning streak. Three of which were PSAC wins and set The Rock at 10-3 (5-2).

That was when trouble hit.

COVID-19 was in the midst of one it’s largest spikes since 2020.

That COVID-19 break lasted 14 days. In those two weeks, they weren’t able to meet, practice or play games in person. For any team that would disrupt chemistry, but from there, The Rock was never able to find their footing again.

SEE THE PAGE C-2 RAYNI SHIRING / THE ROCKET

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March 4, 2022

Going, going, gone

ways, y , he feels it made him a better player.

“I was really fortunate to redshirt behind a lot of really good infielders and a lot of really good players my freshman year, and I was able to learn and develop a little bit more,”

IV

ER

SI

TY

Kozarian said. “The coaches came to me at the beginning of the year and let me know that that was what they wanted me to do, I was all there for it, and it’s worked out so far.”

It wasn’t until 2019 that Kozarian would finally step foot on the field. Since then he’s started every single game he’s played in during his collegiate career.

He was one of only four players to start all 43 games in 2019. That season, things didn’t pan out the way anyone expected though. The team posted a record of 15-28 and missed playoffs. The hunger grew in Kozarian.

UN CK RO RY PE IP SL OF SY UR TE

CO

made t o redshirt Kozarian.

In most cases, redshirting can be difficult. When redshirting, a player gives up an entire year of play to learn.

Kozarian was there for it though, and in a lot of O

There’s a slight breeze in the air, clouds in the sky but the sun is peaking through.

More importantly though, baseball is being played. Next up to bat is number twelve, Jon Kozarian, shortstop for Slippery Rock University.

Kozarian has done it a million times before. This was no different. Well, maybe it was a little different. This time Kozarian was a senior and playing his final season for the school he had long wanted to go to.

When he started playing baseball at Baldwin High School in Pittsburgh, he started to crave stability.

Having three different coaches in a matter of only a few years was less than ideal, but it didn’t bug him too much. He was just content to be out on the field.

“I started on the varsity baseball team for three years, overall it was great experience, but we switched coaches about three times, so I never really got comfortable with the coaches,” Kozarian said.

When in high school, Kozarian only looked a few schools, and of those schools was Slippery Rock. It was one that stood out to him, and then the offer came.

“I didn’t really look at many places to go after high school, Slippery Rock was one of my main schools that I was looking at, so the fact that I got an opportunity to come here was a dream,” Kozarian said.

In any sport, a coaching change is hard. It often brings new

OT

Sports Editor

p philosophies p and ideas. It’s also usually due to poor play, but with a player like Kozarian there was always hope. When it came time to look for a school, stability was something that played a little bit of a factor. With stability at the coaching position, no one does it quite like Slippery Rock Head C o a c h Je f f e r y Messer. Messer is now in his 37th season as head coach of The Rock baseball team.

“Coach Messer has been here for I don’t even know how long, 35 plus years, so to know that I was coming into a program that has been so stable and had a winning atmosphere around it was great,” Kozarian said.

In his first year here though, t h e decision w a s

PH

By Tyler Howe

2020 would be longg anticipated but gone in the blink of an eye.

The Rock played just 10 games in 2020 before COVID-19 hit and everything shutdown.

The spring

sports were the only sports t h a t w e r e n’t played fully at The Rock in 2020, and with baseball being one of those, things were put into perspective.

“It was weird, b e c a u s e we j u s t g o t back from outrspring trip and we played Kutztown [University of Pennsylvania] and after the game we couldn’t even shake hands because they said COVID-19,” Kozarian said. “We didn’t even know what was going on, and that year we thought we were going to be really good, so to have that season just end abruptly was kind of a shock.”

Kozarian still wanted to play though. Luckily, he was able to that summer in a league close to home, but the competition was nothing like college. Still, it was baseball and he wanted to play like never before.

“There was local league that was put together real quick for like a month and a half in Greentree, Pennsylvania, close to home, that I was able to play 25 to 28 games in,”

Kozarian said.

The even weirder part was that as things continued to progress, Kozarian had no clue whether or not he’d back out on the field for the 2021 season.

Both fall a n d

winter sports had been canceled, so playing in the spring seemed like it wasn’t going to happen. But he still trained like he always would.

“We didn’t know until right before we were back in the fall exactly how the season was going to run,”

"I feel like we lost a lot of close ballgames, and our defense could've been there in a lot of spots."

– Jon Kozarian SRU baseball player

Kozarian said. “But I jjust stuck to my plan, if we weren’t going to play, I was just still going to train at the barn and wherever I could find a field to hit.”

They did play and it’s a good thing they did. In 37 games, Kozarian hit .421 with six home runs and 28 RBI’s. He also received a lot of honors, which he doesn’t like to think about. To him, it’s just business as usual and he wants to focus on team play.

“I feel like we lost a lot of close ballgames, and our defense could’ve been there in a lot of spots,” Kozarian said.

The team ended with a 23-14 record and once again missed the playoffs.

But now, Kozarian has switched to shortstop for this season and feels that this will be his best year.

“I grew up playing shortstop my entire life, so I’m really comfortable there and I came here as a second baseman and played two years there,” Kozarian said. “Then this summer I was in Massachusetts in the New England league, and the coach needed me to play shortstop and I felt really good there and my arm felt good, so coach Messer made the switch here too.”

The team's been projected to place second in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) this year, and Kozarian is happy that they’re finally getting the respect that they’ve earned among the top teams. Kozarian thinks that defense is going to be the reason for a long run.

Although he’ll be touching home plate for The Rock for the final time, he has hopes to go out with a bang.

“This teams been close together for a long time, and this year I think our pitching

The clock expires on The Rock

RAYNI SHIRING / THE ROCKET

CONTINUED FROM PAGE C-1

In their first game back from the COVID-19 layoff, the team was without Jamiyah Johnson and as a result lost to Edinboro University by 16 points. The next two games they were without Daeja Quick due to a ruling by the university. In those two games, they lost by a combined 31 points.

Even getting those two back couldn’t help fix things. They went on to lose their next seven games.

Two of those losses were to rival Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), but in the second matchup they lost a heartbreaker.

“I felt awful for the girls, the bus sounded like a morgue on the way home after losing to them in double overtime on the road,” McGraw said.

“They’re our arch-rival and a school we hadn’t beat in 28 straight, so it hurt.”

The Rock followed that game up with a big win over Mercyhurst University in overtime. The 75-73 win marked The Rock’s first win in a month and eight days.

The win offered some hope that they could possibly sneak into the playoffs, but a few days later Gannon University came to town and put The Rock right back into a losing slump.

This time the slump would cost them any shot at postseason contention. The nine-game losing streak had a team that once sat at 10-3, at 10-12. Back to under .500 and it seemed that as more things changed, the more they had stayed the same.

The Rock dropped two more games before making their final trip of the season to Mercyhurst. To Coach McGraw, that game meant a lot.

“I told those guys in their final practice that Friday,

because of our unique position in the PSAC where not every team makes the conference tournament, that it’s rare that you can end your career with a victory and not be a national champion,” McGraw said. “Because every other team that doesn’t win the tournament is ending with a loss, and our seniors are walking away with a W.” Those seniors were Quick and Johnson. Quick has been with the program for a long time. This team was her team.

It was always supposed to be that way. After the departure of Brooke Hinderliter, Quick was in charge of the team.

Then COVID-19 hit, and McGraw didn’t know if she would come back. In the end, loyalty brought Quick back. McGraw notes that she could’ve transferred almost anywhere she wanted to, but she stuck with him.

“She could’ve went anywhere she wanted this

"[In this locker room], it's not poor us, we know we left money on the table."

– Robert McGraw Women's basketball coach year, she could’ve went to Cal-U [California University of Pennsylvania] and been the starting point guard and won a PSAC title,” McGraw said.

“They might have even win a

national title, I don’t know, but she was committed to this place, and we love her for that.”

Johnson came in, and also contributed a lot to this team.

She broke the record for most rebounds in a season at The Rock. Her play changed the way that McGraw sees the center position. Now Kelley McKnight will step into the position after a year under her, and McGraw expects her to be more than ready.

Regardless, McGraw says he can’t say enough about Quick and Johnson.

“We can’t thank them enough for their effort, leadership and ability to bring this team together this year,” McGraw said. “Even though we didn’t finish the way we wanted to record wise, I’ve never had more fun with a team, I’ve never been in more exciting games and I’m proud with how we finished the year out.”

The Middleton twins will also play a key role in the future of The Rock. Isabellah had her season cut short by an injury, but when she was on the court with her sister, Kennedy, McGraw felt that they dominated.

This year wasn’t only riddled with injuries and COVID-19, but also with missed opportunities. The Rock was in a lot of games this season, but second half droughts and the lack of ability to finish games also hurt.

That’s something the entire team acknowledges, and it’s something that will drive their hunger even more according to McGraw. But the story of the season comes a close earlier than expected, and they aren’t blaming anyone or anything but themselves. “[In this locker room] it’s not poor us, we know we left money on the table,” McGraw said.

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March 4, 2022

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Track prepares for Papa's last run

HALLE ANGELLO / THE ROCKET

Coach John Papa announced that this would be his final season as head coach of The Rock Track & Field team, and after already bringing home a few trophies for the indoor season, the outdoor season is set to start. The season kicks off on March 11 in South Carolina.

relay. Having entered the final

5,002. John Eakin was also

The Rock needed to gain three points in order to move above the Vulcans. Madison Olsen, Lorna Speigle, Rachel Veneziano and Morgan Donatelli succeeded in their quest, as The Rock moved clear of their opponents to tie in second place in the final standings.

Slippery Rock were up against it from the start, with Edinboro coming out fiercely, scoring ninety-six points, with eighty-five of those points coming in the distance races alone. Slippery Rock and Cal-U ended in a joint second place with seventy-six points with Millersville University of Pennsylvania and Kutztown University of Pennsylvania finishing up with sixty-three and sixty points respectively.

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania finished sixth in the standings with fifty-seven points.

In the men’s events, Jason Goodman was the star of the show as he secured his third PSAC title, winning the heptathlon and taking his career points tally to a total of

title in the shot put, with a throw of 16.65 meters. Joshua Gose also recorded a personal best.

There were no members of the men’s track team that qualified for the national championships. Instead, their attention now turns to the outdoor season which will start later this month.

Elsewhere in the men’s indoor track, Shippensburg won it’s eleventh indoor championship, totaling a staggering two hundred and ten points. Slippery Rock finished up second in the table scoring an impressive ninety points with East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania not far behind in third with seventy-six points. Seton Hill University concluded the day with sixty-six points with Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania finishing in fifth with fifty points.

Papa, who is in his 35th year of coaching at Slippery Rock, will step down from his position in the summer of 2022. Under his tenure, twenty-five PSAC team

By Joseph Skillicorn event trailing to California, able to secure his first PSAC Assistant Sports Editor

The Slippery Rock University indoor track teams rounded out their indoor season placing second at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championships.

Both the men’s and women’s programs finished as runners up in Edinboro University, in what wrapped up a demanding indoor campaign.

Cecily Greggs won her third career title in the women’s high jump after recording a new personal best of 1.74 meters.

Coach John Papa waxed lyrically about the senior from Stoneboro.

“She’s been a great leader for us," Papa said. "She’s a great competitor and she completely stole the show."

Greggs will now take part in the Track and Field National Championships in Pittsburg, Kansas on March 11.

The women’s team was also able to beat California University of Pennsylvania (Cal-U) in the final event of the day, the 4x400 meter

championships have been won along with a number of personal accolades to his name, which include being named PSAC coach of the year twenty-one times and regional coach of the year sixteen times.

However, Papa was keen to make sure there was no room for any emotion on a personal note in what was his final indoor championships.

“It’s an emotional event for all of us," Papa remarked. ‘It’s the culminating activity to all the hard work done over the fall [2021]."

“Myself, the other coaches and athletes put a lot of heart and effort into our sport," Papa continued. “When it comes to getting evaluated at a championship, we put it all out there.

"Our intent was to finish in the top three and we met that goal."

Following the closing of the indoor season, both the men’s and women’s programs commence their outdoor season at the Myrtle Beach Collegiate Challenge in South Carolina on March 11.

The Rock will be one of thirty-nine teams to

participate in the Palmetto State as they look to build on their impressive indoor season.

Coach John Papa believes the competition will be an important one for the teams moving forward. “It’s a great team bonding event," Papa said. "It’s good to get outside with some of the events we don’t have indoors such as the discus and the javelin."

The Rock will compete in a number of different events, but Papa believes there is strength in depth throughout the ranks. “We scored everywhere [in relation to indoor]," Papa commented. "That’s a big strength of ours, we’re not just a one event type team."

Junior women’s distance runner Marianne Abdalah has recorded a formidable start to her season, finishing second and third in the indoor championships’ five- thousand and three-thousand-meter races respectively. Papa believes she can carry on that form outside.

"She'll be our top distance lady," Papa said.

Dalton Anderson, a graduate transfer from Westminster College and one

of ten seniors on the men’s track team, will be looking to score highly in multiple events following on from the indoor championships.

Anderson, who was unable to clear a height in the pole vault in the sixth event at the indoor championships, was able to rise up the leaderboard after winning the final event of the day, securing sixth place. He will now take on the challenge of carrying his momentum into the outdoor season, which will be no easy feat.

Having announced his retirement, Papa cuts a relaxed figure when quizzed on what the future holds for him. “I’ll take the summer and just relax," Papa said. "I’ve been going at it all year long for decades now.

"Maybe it’s time to see what else is going on, but I’ve got no definite plans.”

Both the men’s and women’s Slippery Rock's outdoor track teams will compete on home turf for the first time outdoors this season at the Dave Labor Invitational on April 2 at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium.

A day in the life

By Tyler Howe Sports Editor

In life, everyone’s experience differs in some way, shape or form. For some, things are a lot easier, and they come from really good situations. For others, they’ve had to work and scrape for everything they got.

But historically, we’ve seen that no matter how they were set up, Black students have had a tougher time than their white counterparts when it comes to inclusion and equality.

Jamiyah Johnson is a Black student athlete, who found her way to The Rock. Every experience differs, especially in towns like Slippery Rock, but the experience of each Black student athlete differs.

Johnson started her college career at Davis & Elkins College (D&E) and, according to her, the school was not very diverse. Located in Elkins, West Virginia, D&E is in an area where there is a predominately white population, but the student population is not very white.

“It was not very diverse [at D&E], but there were a lot Black student athletes, so like the town, once they got to know you, they were very welcoming,” Johnson said. “Elkins itself, there’s not a lot of Black people there.”

The biggest challenge that Johnson faced was in town.

When she’d go to places in Elkins, people gave her a bit of a weird feeling. The town isn’t big and there wasn’t a lot there,

but wherever she went, she would make sure that somehow, someway people knew that she was from D&E. “Coming in, people didn’t know we were student athletes, or a part of Davis & Elkins in general, so I felt like I had to wear Davis & Elkins apparel anytime I went out,” Johnson said. “People would just stare at us and be like who are these people and what not, so I did face a lot of challenges just going to Walmart there.”

Her experience there really wasn’t too different from how she grew up though. She went to a predominantly white institution (PWI) in high school. So, in a way she was prepared for going to D&E and it wasn’t too much of a shock for her to be there.

“I went to PWI, so it wasn’t a difference at D&E, I mean it was in a way, but I felt comfortable there,” Johnson said.

She feels that after the town got to know her, they embraced her. She got comfortable during that time that she was there.

“Overall, after [the town] got to know me, they were just like ‘Oh that’s Jamiyah,’” Johnson said.

When she decided to transfer, diversity was something she took into account. Slippery Rock University in general is another predominately white town in a rural area. The difference is that the college campus was much more diverse than D&E. It was something she discussed with coach Robert McGraw, and he reassured her.

“Coach McGraw actually told me that [Slippery Rock] was going to be a little bit

more diverse [than D&E], and diversity was the main thing for me because I didn’t want to come to another place where it would be like ‘Oh another Black girl,’” Johnson said. “I just wanted to be here and make my presence known but not because I’m African American.”

The Rock women’s basketball team was different to Johnson as well. The team had seven Black players on the team, which made up almost half the team.

She wasn’t used to that. She also wasn’t used to people caring about Black students as much as Slippery Rock does.

“A lot of places say they care, but they don’t really care about it,” Johnson said. “They had different things going on for Black History Month, but I think it’s really important for everyone, not just African American students to come out and learn.”

SRU celebrated Black History Month with many different events all throughout February.

That meant a lot to Johnson.

Here on campus, she’s felt seen and those events celebrating Black history were important to her. She made it a point to go to as many as she could.

Johnson’s story is her own, but a lot of Black student athlete’s on campus share similar experiences. But The Rock has always made her feel welcomed, comfortable and, most importantly, at home.

“I’m not on campus as much as I thought I would be, but with the whole basketball perspective, I definitely felt way more welcomed here,” Johnson said.

RAYNI SHIRING / THE ROCKET

Johnson spent just one year with The Rock, but noted that is much different than her previous school, D&E. She finished the year with First team All-PSAC honors.

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March 4, 2022

Rock softball begins season

PHOTO COURTESY OF SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY

SRU softball brings back a veteran core of players, who will look to turn the program around and make it back to the PSAC playoffs for the first time since 2008. They started their season out in the Blue Ridge Battle tournament, where they went 0-4 in action.

By Layla Joseph Senior Rocket Contributor

The SRU softball team started their season at the Blue Bridge Battle tournament in Kentucky, where the team played four non-conference teams and went 0-4 in the weekend.

The weekend series consisted of Division II teams from around the country.

Although the season is off to a rocky start, Head Coach Stacey Rice said that she was grateful for the outdoor practice and opportunity to travel after all of the limitations due to COVID-19 that kept

them from playing last year.

Ac c o rd i n g t o R i c e , the Blue Bridge Battle tournament was the first time the team had gotten out of the gym this year. The unpredictable weather in north western Pennsylvania gives limited opportunity to get their cleats in the dirt.

Rice said she's thankful for the opportunities the team does get to practice, even if it's a game. She said that there has to be an understanding and that these games are supposed to prepare the team for conference appearances.

Bouncing back from the COVID-19 season

last year, which was nearly non-existent, many of the players are first- and second-year students who are new to SRU. Rice described coaching the young team this year as refreshing.

"We have these young kids coming in with a point to prove," Rice said. "They want to be here.

"They are working really hard."

Rice said that the talent of the freshmen and sophomores drives the upperclassmen and, as a coach, it is exciting to watch the competition between positions. Aside from the growing pains of a young team, Rice explained

that the players share the common goal of wanting to succeed.

"This team is special," Rice said. "I am most proud of their character.

"They all want the same thing and they are willing to put their differences aside."

To ensure play-time, the team has two other trips planned for this season: Florida for spring break and West Virginia the weekend before.

This time last year, the team was not allowed to leave the state because of COVID-19, but it seems they may be able to leave the masks at home this year.

The annual trip to Florida may be during spring break, but it will not be a relaxing getaway for the team.

Rock’s softball team will be working hard: playing a total of 12 games over seven days. Most of these games are regional opponents and all of them will count toward the overall record this season. The tournament is highly competitive and demanding, as the players only have one day to rest and recover over the span of the week and will primarily play doubleheaders.

Rice expressed that the goal for the Florida tournament is learning how to work together as a unit and working out the kinks.

The goal for this season, though, is the same as any other year.

"We have to not just be better than we were last year, but we have to reach that goal of the postseason," Rice said. "That is always our expectation [and] that is always our goal."

This weekend, the team will be traveling to Glenville, West Virginia, for a two-day non-conference series. Rock softball will compete in four games against Glenville State University.

The start to SRU's conference season will be at home against Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania on Friday, March 25 at 2 p.m.

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VIDEO: Drag Brunch Bingo

CAMPUS LIFE

The value of all people

By Sarah Anderson Campus Life Editor

By Joe Wells News Editor

Anthony Jones, Slippery Rock University's first Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) received a call from a search firm last fall. He didn't answer the call. Or the calls that followed.

That same number called him while he was on a drive and when he recognized that it was the number that he was ignoring, he finally picked up.

This was the first moment that Jones gave SRU a chance.

Jones admitted that SRU wasn't on his radar very much. He wasn't actively searching for a new job either, necessarily.

At the time, Jones was the associate dean for diversity and inclusion at Thiel College.

He had an intern that worked with him previously that spoke a lot about Slippery Rock, "the good and the bad," Jones said.

From the start of the process, beginning with the search committee and the following interviews, Jones felt comfortable with who he was interacting with. "[The interview] wasn't serious at all. It never lost sight of what we're here for," Jones said. "It was a very eclectic group of individuals [in the interview] . . . which I found very intriguing as well."

Jones was hired to implement SRU's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Strategic Plan, as well as help with overall DEI efforts.

COURTESY OF ANTHONY JONES Jones has held many positions throughout his career, including residence life, admissions, and more. Now, at SRU he is helping with DEI efforts.

But he would have never completed his undergrad, let alone a doctoral degree in educational leadership and policy studies from Eastern Kentucky University if it weren't for the director of multicultural affairs at the University of Mount Union catching him skipping class.

"She laid into me, like actual curse words," Jones said.

"But there was something so familiar about that and it sounds crazy, but just like my mom who cussed me out, so it felt very motherly."

At that moment, Jones promised he would stop by her office the next day. And he did, and the day after as well.

"Next thing I know, I came back the next semester," Jones said. "I'm in organizations, I made friends and graduated."

"I owe that to her."

Arriving to campus, Jones noticed the beauty of SRU almost immediately. He has been quick to notice some of the challenges that the

physical design of the campus can bring.

"The campus, the structure of the campus if difficult to work with and I know a lot of those things aren't fixes that will be easy," Jones said. "I can't imagine what it would be like for a student in a wheelchair on campus. The walks are difficult, let alone having to be on crutches or anything along those lines."

Jo n e s is having conversations across campus to try and ensure that there is a space for students who may need accommodations, visual or non-visual. That awareness, of how others can be disadvantaged in life due to circumstances beyond their control, came to be during a service trip to El Salvador during his senior year.

While there, Jones and others were staying with a family, sleeping in their chicken coop.

"But I met a group of people who had absolutely nothing

and I literally thought that I grew up poor," Jones said.

One night while sitting outside one of the few houses with electricity, Jones swore he could hear Nelly's "Country Grammar" playing somewhere. Despite thinking he was imagining things, he searched for the sound.

Inside, Jones found a teenage boy playing American videos on a DVD player. The boy was using the videos to learn English. Using his little bit of Spanish, Jones and the boy struck up a conversation.

"At one point he was asking me about my comb, and again, we were instructed not to really talk about [things back home]," Jones said.

"Then he asked me about a Playstation."

Jones said he talked about the Playstation 2 he had back home. The one he rarely played and was collecting dust.

"His whole demeanor dropped," Jones said. "He said what the price of a

PlayStation, I can buy a house here.

"And I was just like, 'Oh my goodness,' like, it just shifted everything in me."

For Jones, material things just don't hold the same value for him as people, since waking up from the "fairy tale [he] was living in." While it has helped him succeed academically and professionally, it has caused some tense moments in his personal life.

"Me and my partner go back and forth because I'm like, 'We have too much stuff,' and that bothers me because we're not using it," Jones said.

A large part of Jones' plans in his new role is to work all across campus in a variety of areas. This includes with the President's Commissions, the Office for Inclusive Excellence, and many other organizations to focus on DEI.

Jones said he tries to get out to as many events as his schedule allows, just to show support to the other staff members working to improve the campus.

"I don't want to limit that [support] to Office of Inclusive Excellence, because that support will be across the board," Jones said. "And I think that is a big, distinguishing piece as well as I'm going to be everywhere."

William Behre, SRU president, talked about how Jones will help aid with the president's goals for DEI. "I've asked Dr. Jones to now look at other things he's learned about and see what should percolate to the top." Behre said. "And, and then we're going to basically make a six to eight month goal list, and he'll get started on those while he's still learning more about our community, because he's still new to the community, we have to remember that" Jones has made it clear that he is ready to put in the work to be CDO, and this is where he has eventually wanted to end up in his career. With experience in residential life and housing, admissions, conduct and multicultural affairs, he feels he has an understanding in various spaces.

"In my short time that I've been here, that has been extremely helpful in my conversations in helping me relate to individuals . . . and hopefully will help me with working with these individuals in the near future," Jones said.

Hamilton star talks about impact ! " " # " $ % "

By Brandon Pierce Multimedia Editor

“ H a m i l t o n” star C h r i s t o p h e r Ja c k s o n s p o k e a s t h e Bl a c k History Month keynote speaker on Sunday to provide inspiration and tell his story to students.

The University Program Board, t h e G e n d e r St u d i e s Program, Black Action Society, the Office for Inclusive Excellence and the Frederick Douglass Institute collaborated to host this event in the newly renovated Miller Auditorium.

The event began with J o s h u a Pe t e r s , t h e university program board director of c o n c e r t s , i n t ro d u c i n g Ja c k s o n . Ja c k s o n w a s met with an eruption of applause as he walked onto the stage. Jackson began his speech by speaking of his life story and how he got to where he was now.

He talked about s o m e o f h i s re c e n t accomplishments, such as releasing a new album and working on “Sesame Street.” He talked about how he loved hearing what students love to say. Jackson said that he often uses what he hears at events such as this one to help write music.

Jackson began to talk about his early career on

Broadway and how that led to him being cast as George Washington in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s To n y a w a rd - w i n n i n g m u s i c a l “ Ha m i l t o n .”

Jackson made sure to elaborate upon the importance of following o n e ’s d r e a m s a n d promoting creativity and passion.

Jackson talked about this experience working with Lin-Manuel Miranda. He described Miranda as having one of the greatest creative minds in the modern day of musical theatre.

“When you wake up and meet someone who doesn’t hear the word ‘no,’ and they only hear the word ‘go,’ it really is amazing,” Jackson said.

Jackson spoke of the honor he felt to be playing the first President of the United States as a Black man in “Hamilton.” He said one of his favorite memories of playing the role was when he performed in front of President Barack Obama.

He spoke about the impact that dreaming and love had upon his career and how every single person in the audience deserved to feel that way. “ Whatever you are doing in your life, if there is love, inspiration follows,” Jackson said.

“There is strength in your own thoughts and ideas.”

At the conclusion of his speech, Jackson

RAYNI SHIRING / THE ROCKET Christopher Jackson responds to SRU students with life advice, in response to their many questions. Jackson was hosted as the Black History Month keynote speaker.

participated in a question and answer segment with the audience. This part of the event was hosted

by Anthony Jones, SRU’s chief diversity officer.

Jones asked Jackson about his involvement with Kulture City. Jackson spoke about how he and his wife are involved in the organization, which works to promote acceptance, inclusivity, awareness and engagement for people with disabilities. The organization constructs sensory rooms at different colleges, zoos, stadiums and any other venue where there may be lots of people at one given time

for those who may need a break. The organization has currently reached 4 different continents.

Many students wanted to know about Jackson’s experience with “Hamilton” and how it feels to have played such an impactful role.

“It was wonderful to be able to musicalize those dudes,” Jackson said.

“George Washington lost a lot in his life, and as a Black man, I can really relate to it.”

Many of the students asking questions prefaced their questions by stating that Hamilton inspired them to feel like they belong. Jackson responded

to this by talking about the wonders of musical theatre.

“Show business is not dreams,” he said. “It’s meant to inspire dreams.”

The event concluded with Jackson talking about the importance of perseverance and not listening to people who try to put you down.

“As an artist, you always risk your work not being received,” said Jackson. “Art demands critique. That’s how you know someone is feeling something.”

Ryleigh Hendrickson, a freshman social work major, said seeing Jackson in person was exciting and worth it.

“I’ve been a theatre kid my whole life and have seen the ‘Hamilton’ proshot [pro-shot meaning the professionally recorded video of ‘Hamilton’ on Broadway], so seeing Christopher Jackson is so worth it,” she said.

Hendrickson said it is important to bring speakers like Jackson to campus to discuss issues relating to race.

“It gives people a new and better perspective on the modern-day injustices and e x p e r i e n c e s ,” Hendrickson said. “ T h i n g s a re g e t t i n g better, but it is still important to have these discussions.”

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CAMPUS LIFE

March 4, 2022

Drag Brunch Bingo brings unity

By Megan John Asst. Campus Life Editor

RockOUT hosted Drag Br unch Bingo on Fe b. 2 6 i n t h e Ro b e r t M. Smith Student C e n t e r Ba l l r o o m . T h e event featured bingo games hosted by the drag queens, drag performances and a brunch buffet with mock mimosas.

RockOUT cohosted the event with R o c k t h e We e k e n d , Student Association of A m e r i c a n Ac a d e m y o f

Physician Assistants (SAAAPA) and Healthy Outreach through Peer Education (HOPE). Slippery R o c k U n i v e r s i t y ’s St u d e n t G o v e r n m e n t Association (SGA) was also involved in planning and donating prizes.

F r a n k i e Wa l k e r, president of R o c k O U T, has been a part of the organization since h i s s o p h o m o r e y e a r.

He s a i d p r e v i o u s d r a g shows starred upand-coming queens.

Now, Wa l k e r i s u s i n g connections he made i n Pi t t s b u r g h . A f e w of the queens come back regularly to p e r f o r m a t S RU .

“Here at Slippery Rock, the students really are a good audience . . . a lot of what drag queens do is interacting with the crowd, and t h e y’r e r e a l l y g o o d a t interacting back with the queens, giving t h e m a g o o d t i m e ,” Wa l k e r s a i d .

Wa l k e r i s a s u p e r senior majoring in

public relations.

During his time at SRU, he said that LGBT culture on c a m p u s h a s i m p r ov e d and more affirming organizations have been established.

A l t h o u g h Wa l k e r does not know of many local drag queens, he said he k n ow s t h e r e a r e f a n s of drag culture in the Sl i p p e r y Ro c k a r e a .

Dr a g Br u n c h Bi n g o was open to the local community as well as S RU s t u d e n t s . Wa l k e r said he had heard

about many high school students and at least one professor w h o w e re p l a n n i n g o n attending the event. “ It ’s k i n d o f n o v e l and unique, so whenever it does come to Slippery Rock, I feel like people are r e a l l y d r a w n t ow a rd s t h a t a n d t h a t ’s w h y the event that we had last Saturday was as s u c c e s s f u l a s i t w a s ,” Wa l k e r s a i d .

Compared to p r e v i o u s d r a g s h ow s , Wa l k e r s a i d t h i s event was more

of a collaborative effort. He called the participation “ h e a r t w a r m i n g ,” a s RockOUT usually plans events on their ow n .

“Having events like that improves the reach o f o u r c o m m u n i t y, shows that there is a community here, allows people to feel more safe expressing themselves . . . I think it means a lot for us, personally, to have other organizations suppor ting an LGBTcentered event,” Walker said.

GRAPHIC BY: HALLE ANGELO

March 4, 2022

CAMPUS LIFE

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Variety in SRU Dining

By Marissa Mastrangelo Asst. Copy/Web Editor

One of the hardest decisions for people to make while being oncampus for the day is what they are going to eat.

The process of choosing where to dine may be difficult, depending on various circumstances.

There are decisions based on dietary restrictions, personal preference and desire for diverse meals.

Some may pack a lunch and make breakfast at home, while others may skip breakfast entirely and grab lunch on the go.

At Sl i p p e r y Ro c k University, there is a wide range of dining facilities and options that not only provide for students, but also to faculty and guests.

Options have a lot of variety and are spread out across campus. They all serve breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

The four main dining halls on campus are Boozel Dining Hall, Weisenfluh Dining Hall and Rocky's in the Robert M. Smith Student Center (SSC).

Each establishment contains smaller, more individual locations that can be chosen from inside.

Starbucks We Proudly Serve, previously T & B Naturally, is located in Bailey Library. Quaker Steak & Lube, also in the SSC, is contracted through

the university as another dining option on campus.

This past fall was also the first year that SRU began its partnership and new contract for its food vendor service. For the next seven years, SRU will be partnering with Aramark, replacing their old contract with AVI Fresh.

With the new partnership came changes in meal plan options, ways to use their meal swipes and new food concepts within the dining halls. These new food concept changes are being implemented into different recipes and restaurants.

With so much change to the dining services on campus, the diversity of food offered is still a topic of interest for students.

Ma c k e n s i e Ro c c i a , a sophomore civil engineering m a j o r, described her concern with the type of diversity amongst food at SRU. "Culturally I think it is diverse," Roccia said.

"However I think it should be tailored towards other ethnicities than Mexican and Italian, maybe for there to be German or Indian food options."

She also explained having knowledge of diversity throughout campus dining and the food that is offered to accommodate religious beliefs.

"Right now they are catering dining options to Lent by offering seafood nights," Roccia said. "I like that they consider religion and

HALLE ANGELO / THE ROCKET Weisenfluh Hall is the home of many campus-favorite food options. This includes Bento, Butter and Honey, Crafted by Commonplace and more.

religious holidays too when offering food."

A full time cashier that works for the SRU dining services, Tessa Reeseman, adds her knowledge about diversity in the food stations.

"I think the diversity is pretty wide spread, in Rocky's the 'Greens to Go' station will change their menu each month," Reeseman said. "Last month they were offering a type of Asian salad, and at Boozel they have the Twirl station which offers different ethnic pastas."

Despite Aramark being newly contracted, they are motivated to emphasize diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of

the food services as well as incorporating equity for their employees, clients and communities. They rely on the variety of voices to continue their development in global menus being offered by their creative culinary teams.

"We offer a variety of dishes across campus," Aramark's corporate communication department said via email.

"Our weekly menus feature global dishes."

We stress authenticity in ingredients and cooking techniques."

While diversity in food is significant culturally, accommodating to varying dietary needs, allergens

and preferences is also important. A junior social work major, Elizabeth Thomas, provided further insight into the accommodations that are implemented around campus.

"There are so many warning signs visible to us as customers, usually around the registers and definitely within Boozel," Thomas said. "I love that there's lots of options to choose from and accommodating, my sister is vegetarian and she feels better about coming to visit because of how many options are available."

Aramark takes into consideration people with food allergies by even

recommending students with dietary concerns to meet with their registered dietitian or a manager to discuss their needs.

They also accommodate those with food allergies by having an allergen food station in Boozel called True Balance. This station removes the top eight most common food allergens, while continuing to offer diverse menu items. " Tr a d i t i o n a l l y w e see no limitations in providing diverse menus on campus," Aramark's corporate communication department said. "As we fully open more stations we will be expanding out offerings even more."

WEEKLY ORGANIZATION SPOTLIGHT Alpha Kappa QUEENS Org. Alpha Sorority

By Megan John Asst. Campus Life Editor

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated (AKA) is part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) of historically Black fraternities and sororities. The Mighty Mu Omicron chapter of AKA was chartered at SRU in 1978.

Tiara Teague is a senior psychology major at SRU. She has been a part of AKA since spring 2021, and currently serves as AKA’s president, program chairman, Pecunious Grammateus and Ivy Leaf reporter.

Teague is a legacy whose mother is still involved in the organization. She grew up attending events and watching her mother participate in different positions.

“I’ve kind of been in it my whole life,” Teague said.

According to Teague, the lack of Black Greek Life culture in the Slippery Rock area “does

and doesn’t” affect the chapter.

While there are chapters at nearby schools, AKA does not have the same backing that larger schools do.

“We are aware that there are still a whole bunch of chapters and graduate chapters that are having our back and will help in any way that they can,” Teague said. “It feels a little bit isolated in a sense, but we still know we have people in our corner.”

Due to COVID-19, AKA has been less visible on campus for the last couple of years. They are making an effort to put on more events and post flyers on different campus platforms.

As a sorority, they promote community service and bringing awareness to issues surrounding women of color. A crucial tenet of their mission, found on their CORE page and AKA’s website, is “Service to All Mankind.”

The Mighty Mu Omicron chapter is involved with many different service organizations.

These include Soles4Souls, which takes shoe donations and sends them to people in need, and an eyeglasses collection and donation program. They also give baskets of toiletry items to Women in Need, a New Castle initiative that assists pregnant women and mothers.

According to Teague, being part of AKA has brought her closer to both her local community and the Slippery Rock community.

“To me, it really means being an empowered woman,” Teague said. “It means giving back to my community . . . Being an AKA also means presenting myself in the best way that I can, presenting myself in a way that people would look up to.”

Students interested in Alpha Kappa Alpha can find them on CORE, on Instagram @ theofficialmuomicronaka_1908 or contact Teague at tjt1006@ sru.edu.

!" # #

By Megan John Asst. Campus Life Editor

Queens Uniquely Empowering Ever y Notable Sister (QUEENS) Org. at Slipper y Rock University aims to support and empower women of color on campus.

QU E E N S O r g . w a s established at SRU on April 11, 2016. This is their sixth year on campus.

Amber Hamilton, the group’s advisor, has been a part of QUEENS Org. for three and a half years.

Her position involves supporting the students in club operations, including finding rooms, booking speakers and brainstorming. She also signs off on financial decisions.

The club consists of 1015 members, five of whom make up the executive board. They meet once a month for events designed to uplift women and provide a support system for them to confide in.

The latest event, “What is Toxic? Part 2”, came after a successful conversation about toxicity last fall.

“This meeting consisted of conversation on what toxicity looks like in relationships," H a m i l t o n s a i d . " No t necessarily romantic relationships: it could be family relationships or friendships."

Hamilton has noticed the positive effect on students involved in QUEENS Org. According to her, they spend time together outside of school a n d u s e Gro u p Me t o communicate and help each other. “ They feel like they have a voice," Hamilton commented. "Of all spaces, this is a place, when they have meetings or events, that they really share what’s going on in their lives or what they’re experiencing."

During her time as advisor, Hamilton has observed positive effects in her own life as well. She

said that providing support and building leaders has been impactful, especially as a Black woman helping other young Black women.

She enjoys helping others as she has been helped in the past.

Hamilton did not have access to an organization like QUEENS Org. when she was in college.

Most local groups that empowered Black women were associated with sororities, or else they were co-ed organizations.

“I want to pour into it because I didn’t have this particular group as a college student,” Hamilton said.

She encourages people from all walks of life to attend events, share their own perspectives and hear their peers out.

“That way, they can have a deeper understanding and hopefully [an] appreciation to the women of color that we do have on campus,” Hamilton said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIARA TEAGUE PHOTO COURTESY OF AMBER HAMILTON Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority hosts fundraiser events and community service. Their goal is to support QUEENS Org. hosts events that bring women of color together. They encourage various people from all women of color and bring awareness to issues they are experiencing. walks of life to get involved.

March 4, 2022

THE ROCKET

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Film Review: 'The Worst Person in the World'

By Dereck Majors Review Columnist

Julie is confused.

Confused about her life, her relationships, her career everything. But that’s part of growing up, right? Coming of age tales are some of the most relatable and typically occur during the protagonist’s late teens and early twenties. Key word: typically.

“The Worst Person in the World” reinvents the classic coming of age story to adapt to Julie (relative newcomer Renate Reinsve) and her directionless, late twenties life. Like many, she doesn’t quite know who she is yet.

So, she changes her career path, medicine to psychology to photography; hair, long to blonde to short and brown; and relationships, one-night stand to boyfriend to ex, all in the matter of the four-year time span this film covers.

It's admirable to watch as a young woman completely reinvents herself time and time again simply because she can.

Isn’t that what all of us want sometimes? But to Julie, this makes her the worst person in the world. She can never stay committed to one task and those around her feel the consequences of her actions.

In Julie’s most prominent relationship, she dates a man fifteen years her senior whose goal is to start a family with Julie. But how can Julie take on the responsibility of starting a family when she is not even responsible enough to care for herself?

This moral conundrum is exactly where writer Eskil Vogt and director Joachim Trier’s brilliant script explores.

Through each of the film’s twelve chapters, not including a prologue and epilogue, the screenwriters craft a story that reads almost like a novel with chapter titles that help guide the audience to certain life events: such as chapter two, “Cheating.” Even though you have an inkling ahead of time that Julie is going to make an awful mistake, you still wait in anticipation and attempt to cheer her on throughout every scene.

For a character as flawed as Julie, the film never judges her actions. Trier allows for her sequences to play out in real time in order to give the audience control of the story. The film is simply just a slice of Julie’s life and we are allowed to have a totally unbiased view. It’s hard to not see a connection to Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha” and Greta Gerwig’s titular character who struggles to find herself.

With this, we get to really explore Julie and her thoughts. In the film’s most memorable scene, life becomes too complicated for Julie and she decides to change course in order to save herself by literally freezing life around her to concentrate on her own goals and ambitions.

She races through the streets as pedestrians, cars, bikes and patrons at the coffee shop are frozen in time. Julie seems happy in the moment as she makes a rash decision that changes the events of the film.

But she’s given another opportunity to take control of her own life: even when her choice is affecting the lives of those around her.

She leaves her boyfriend for another man even though the pair still clearly love and have a mutual respect for one another. It’s in the actors faces that you can almost feel the tears forming in their eyes, attempting to hide behind the forced smiles they masquerade their faces with.

These tender moments are what makes this film seem so real. We’ve all experienced heartbreak in one way or another. Some have been on both ends of the breakup, either receiving or initiating it. Either way, we understand every character solely because of Trier’s direction and script. “The Worst Person in the World” is so well orchestrated that it feels like a documentary at times.

After watching the film, it’s hard to think that Julie made any bad decisions in her life, instead they were simply lessons. Life is full of lessons and Trier’s film attempts to teach us that we have to deal with these consequences. It’s a tough pill to swallow, sure, but a necessary one.

This film perfectly showcases how moments in life begin and end, only for these moments to repeat and begin once again. Julie’s coming of age tale is one for the ages. It’s smart, delicate, hilarious and easily one of the best films in recent years.