The Breeze 2.16.23

The Breeze

JMU experts uncover racist history of college yearbooks

By MORGAN BLAIR The Breeze

JMU sociology professor Stephen Poulson has taken it upon himself to shed light onto dark history in Virginia colleges, and he said he’s using the schools’ own yearbooks to do so.

Poulson went through the old yearbooks of multiple Virginia colleges and said he looked for examples of racism and racist imagery in them. In some of JMU’s old yearbooks, he found many examples of blackface and racial slurs, as well as some glorification of racist acts. These can be seen in JMU Libraries’ Special Collections archives.

“I’d say if the scrapbook we receive is pre-1950, I’m more surprised if I don’t find something problematic than if I do,” Tiffany Cole, an archivist at JMU’s Office of Special Collections, said.

Poulson said he first became interested in finding examples of racist acts depicted in yearbooks, particularly of white students in blackface, after it was reported by The New York Times in 2019 that former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam appeared in blackface in his own college yearbook at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

“There was the picture of someone [later revealed to be Northam] dressed in blackface beside another man dressed as a member of the KKK,” Poulson said. “That kind of precipitated this investigation.”

Poulson’s book, “Racism on Campus: A Visual History of Prominent Virginia Colleges and Howard University,” explores examples of blackface and other racist depictions in college yearbooks. He studied the old yearbooks of Virginia colleges like Old Dominion University, University of Virginia (U.Va.), Longwood, Washington and Lee, as well as JMU, and compared them to that of Howard University, a historically Black college (HBCU).

see YEARBOOKS, page 10

JMU’s award-winning newspaper since 1922

The Breeze celebrates 100 years of publication

By SHIRIN ZIA FAQIRI & SAVANNAH REGER The Breeze

On Dec. 2, 2022, The Breeze officially turned 100 years old.

Suffice to say, this organization has reached heights likely unthinkable for the first staff in 1922. The current staff of The Breeze has created a special edition inside the weekly paper to commemorate this milestone — The Breeze’s official centennial special edition, inserted in this week’s paper.

The Breeze has evolved from a bi-weekly newspaper into a multimedia enterprise composed of over 100 staffers,available online, in print and now, in recent years, a weekly live broadcast. The organization has covered women’s rights, world wars, terrorist attacks, changing cultures and pandemics, along with the ins and outs of daily life

at JMU. Although at one time financially supported by JMU itself, The Breeze has become its own entity — it’s independent from the university and cover events in suit.

As the current staff looks back on the last 100 years, we honor those who came before us. We keep investigative and in-depth news at the forefront to this day — we’ve covered COVID-19, mental health, sexual assault, diversity issues and more, and we’re the most robust news source for JMU’s student body. But this edition is about remembering the past: What made The Breeze The Breeze, and in turn, looking at the history of JMU itself, because this organization serves to inform and document the experiences of JMU.

Over the course of the past few months, The Breeze has worked to compress 100 years of history into the paper you hold in your hands right now. We made the special edition in broadsheet style as an

ode to how newspapers were traditionally printed. Learn about the school, the history, notable alumni and how JMU’s education has evolved. Learn about JMU’s first-ever national championship in sports and the fashion trends through the years. Be a part of JMU basketball’s “electric zoo” and read old Darts & Pats.

Digging through old editions of the paper, appreciating the past and learning about the trials and triumphs of the past 100 years, you’ll see the current staff have put their hearts into making this paper one to remember.

Thank you to the JMU and Harrisonburg communities for 100 years of support.

CONTACT The Breeze staff at breezeeditor@ gmail.com. For more coverage, follow The Breeze on Twitter @TheBreezeJMU.

With Early Action on the rise, JMU sees increased first-generation, minority applications

By ABI MIDDLETON

The

Breeze

JMU Early Action acceptance decisions have officially gone out for the class of 2027, revealing yet another drastic increase in applicants and a rise in the diversity of those applying.

JMU received a total of 24,156 applicants this year, setting a 30% increase in Early Action applicants within the last academic year and an 83% increase

within the last two years, according to a Dec. 14 JMU press release. This is in comparison to the 2021 pool of 18,533 applicants and the 2020 pool of 13,190 applicants.

Melinda Wood, associate vice president for access and enrollment management and director of admissions, said in the same press release that JMU’s positive national exposure is contributing to this increase, citing JMU’s top 75 Public National University ranking from US News & World Report,

rise to R2 and an athletics program.

Wood spoke to The Breeze on the probable cause for this increase, explaining that JMU joined the Common App, a single online application form used by hundreds of colleges, just last year, leading to an expected increase.

“Naturally, we’ve seen it increase in applications because students today prefer the Common App,” Wood said. “It’s the way that they can seamlessly manage their applications.”

Not only is the Common App platform preferred by students, it’s more accessible for minority applicants, Wood said, leading to an increase in firstgeneration college applicants, applicants of color, out-of-state applicants and international applicants.

“The Common App is designed to reduce barriers for students,” Wood said, “and now that we’re in that platform, students can apply to JMU.”

see EARLY ACTION, page 4

This week, The Breeze is publishing a special edition inside this paper to commemorate 100 years of school and organization history.

Photo by Abi Middleton / The Breeze. Graphic by Ben Moulse / The Breeze

'BROADWAY

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Kailey Garner / The Breeze Savannah Reger / The Breeze

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JMU, ODU BASKETBALL SET FOR RIVALRY-FILLED WEEKEND

Editorial Staff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHARLOTTE MATHERLY breezeeditor@gmail.com

NEWS EDITOR KASEY TRAPUZZANO breezenews@gmail.com

COPY EDITORS

EMMA JOHNSON & HALEY THOMAS breezecopy@gmail.com

EXECUTIVE EDITOR SHIRIN ZIA FAQIRI breezepress@gmail.com

SPORTS EDITORS MADISON HRICIK & GRANT JOHNSON breezesports@gmail.com

AUDIENCE EDITOR ALI MCCALEB thebreezesocials@gmail.com

DID YOU KNOW?

ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR SAVANNAH REGER thebreezeweb@gmail.com

CULTURE EDITORS MICHAEL RUSSO & AVERY GOODSTINE thebreezeculture@gmail.com

PHOTO EDITORS ABI MIDDLETON & RYAN SAUER breezephotography@gmail.com

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MISSION

The Breeze, the student-run newspaper of James Madison University, serves student, faculty and staff readership by reporting news involving the campus and local community. The Breeze strives to be impartial and fair in its reporting and firmly believes in First Amendment rights.

Published on Thursday mornings, The Breeze is distributed throughout James Madison University and the local Harrisonburg community. Single copies of The Breeze are

Branch Manager Bill Welch is a JMU Alum and member of the JMU Alumni Pep Band.

Check out Bill and the JMU Alumni Pep Band at the Men’s Basketball Game on Saturday, February 18, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @jmucommonwealthone for other fun facts about Bill and a chance to win $100!

Remember, you can also nd Bill at our JMU Branch if you need assistance with your account or have general ques ons about credit and other nancial matters.

What's inside...

Kailey Garner / The Breeze

SPORTS OPINION

Decisions, decisions

C lass of 2027 Early Action applications reach record high

from EARLY ACTION, page 1

A ccording to a Jan. 14 press release, JMU reported a 56% increase in first-generation applicants in the Early Action pool this year, a total of 4,106 compared to last year’s 2,644 firstgeneration applicants. The minority applicant pool saw an increase of 42%, with 6,764 applicants this year as compared to last year’s 4,786 minority applicants.

“By sheer volume of applications, JMU has admitted more students of color,” Wood say. “What cannot be predicted today is the number of students who will choose to enroll at JMU in the fall.”

Regarding the Early Action versus Regular Decision application process, an increase in students applying early has been a noticeable pattern within the last 3-4 years, according to Wood. She said a preference for the Early Action application process at JMU has been an “emerging trend” and that students have been applying Early Action increasingly over the years in order to have more time to explore opportunities of other colleges before commitment deadlines in May.

“That comes back to the students who want to know,” Wood said. “They want their decision. They want to be able to visit campus. They want to be able to look at scholarships and financial aid offers and make their decision by May 1, so it’s not a surprise that we’re seeing more students applying early.”

Several incoming students who spoke to The Breeze said JMU was their top pick and they wanted to know whether they

got into JMU before going through the trouble of applying to other schools.

Emily Orabona, an incoming JMU freshman from northern Virginia, said she applied to JMU during the Early Action process and didn’t apply to any other schools. She only planned to apply during the regular decision process for her safety schools if she didn’t get accepted into JMU. She said JMU felt very homey and described it as her “spot.”

Madisson Fraysier, another incoming JMU freshman from Virginia Beach, Virginia, said JMU was the first school she toured in summer 2021 and again in spring 2022 — she immediately knew it was the school for her. She said JMU “feels like home,” and emphasized a comforting feeling of Harrisonburg and campus and the actions professors take to show they really care about the students’ success, including making an effort to keep students interested in the course content rather than just “talking, talking, talking.”

Fraysier, who said she plans to major in psychology, also emphasized the hands-on learning style JMU encourages in its classrooms works well for her. While touring other schools, she said the feeling she had each time was “good” but that “it wasn’t JMU,” which led her to submit her application in September — over a month before the Nov. 1 deadline — knowing she’d attend JMU if accepted.

Incoming freshman Tyler Chinn from Berryville, Virginia, said JMU felt like home to him as well. Originally having

planned on attending college out of state, Chinn said the first time he drove onto campus last year to attend a basketball game with a friend, it felt like a place he wanted to be.

Chinn, who said he plans to major in media arts and design (SMAD) with a concentration in journalism, said his meeting with SMAD assistant professor Ryan Alessi made him feel like JMU could offer him all the resources he needed to become the person he wanted to be, like having the ability to be involved in different student media. Chinn said he only applied to one other school, the University of Alabama, but knew he wouldn’t consider attending if he got accepted into JMU.

Faced with the growing increase of applicants, Melinda Wood said JMU is staying consistent in its acceptance qualifications, and the decision “comes down to academic preparation” and how well students have done in high school.

“Every applicant pool is different,” Wood said. “It’s hard to say what our admission rate will be from year to year because it depends on the applicant pool. What’s most important to us is that we’re really consistent in our decisions ... We really know who can be successful here.”

CONTACT Abi Middleton at middleah@dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

Following Holocaust Remembrance event boycott, JMU looks to move forward ‘Action makes the difference’

By CHARLOTTE MATHERLY & ASHLYN CAMPBELL The Breeze

Last month, 24 Jewish faculty, faculty emeriti and staff signed a letter to JMU President Jonathan Alger stating their intent to boycott the university’s Holocaust Remembrance event, citing concerns that the planning of the event “disrespected and disparaged Jewish individuals, dismissed Jewish participation and failed to reflect the inclusive values that JMU purports to foster,” according to the letter.

The letter brought forward several concerns from the Jewish faculty. Among them were a lack of Jewish representation on the planning committee and the tone of the event. One Jewish member of the planning committee and two other Jewish people who were involved but not officially on the committee resigned following concerns about the planning process, several sources told The Breeze.

The Jan. 26 lecture series included poetry and musical selections alongside expert speakers Alan Berger from Florida Atlantic University and Phyllis Leffler from the University of Virginia, who discussed the legacies of the Holocaust and how people can combat antisemitism and white supremacy and be “ambassadors of the truth,” Berger said.

The event that ultimately occurred was slightly altered from the planned version, according to earlier programs sent to The Breeze on Jan. 25. Heather Coltman, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, was slated to play piano at the event, but according to a statement sent to The Forward, a Jewish news site, she decided not to participate in the performance out of respect for the concerns raised. The full story about the event is available on The Breeze’s website.

Now following the event and the aftermath, The Breeze spoke with faculty members and JMU administration about how they plan to move forward.

In a Feb. 1 interview, Rachelle Dorne, the occupational therapy program director and a member of the planning committee who resigned, said those who resigned met with members of the provost’s office Jan. 25 to discuss the concerns raised in the letter.

“Personally, I felt as though, you know, concerns were heard,” Dorne said. “We were listened to, I think I came away with thinking — I’m looking for action now … Words are good. Words are helpful. Action makes the difference.”

Josh Shulruff, who advises JMU Hillel, a Jewish student organization, was one of those involved with the planning who resigned, though he wasn’t officially on the committee. In a Feb. 1 interview with The Breeze, he said he felt those in the meeting — he named Sparkman-Key; David Kirkpatrick, interim executive director of the Madison Center for Civic Engagement; and Malika Carter-Hoyt, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and JMU’s chief diversity officer — were sincere in their effort to listen to their concerns and move forward.

Dorne said in the Jan. 25 meeting, the members that resigned didn’t provide a “specific roadmap” but more general suggestions on how to move forward, focusing on outreach.

“We want the university to be a partner in that roadmap and not give them a checklist in the sense that if we do just these things, you should be happy,” Dorne said. “I am not a spokesperson for all the Jewish faculty and staff and/or students who are on campus and feeling disenfranchised. So I

think there needs to be overall outreach, listening and then talking with the community about what the next steps would be.”

As for Shulruff, he said he’s focused on helping connect JMU with the Harrisonburg Jewish community and student leaders and hopes these conversations will happen.

“I think that would go a long way to showing a lot of people that this is taken seriously and that people are serious about moving forward to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Shulruff said.

Abe Goldberg, associate professor of political science and former director of the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement at JMU, helped plan last year’s Holocaust Remembrance event, which he explained in detail in a Feb. 1 article from The Harrisonburg Citizen. He wasn’t involved in the 2023 planning committee but said in an interview with The Breeze that he believes JMU’s response could’ve been more “productive.”

“I don’t know that a defensive response would be as productive as one that brings people into conversations to listen, to learn, and to collaborate and to reconcile,” Goldberg said.

The Breeze requested interviews with Sparkman-Key, Kirkpatrick, Coltman and Carter-Hoyt. JMU’s executive director of communications and university spokesperson, Mary-Hope Vass, said JMU would “not be conducting interviews on the Holocaust Remembrance event.” After further requests from The Breeze, Vass arranged an interview with Carter-Hoyt.

Carter-Hoyt said in a Feb. 13 interview with The Breeze that she’s had conversations with “several individuals” and has reached out to another to discuss concerns and moving forward. She declined to say who exactly she’s talking to, saying she hadn’t heard back from them after asking for permission to talk about their conversations.

“There is an accord between myself and entities and/or individuals to make sure that we are seamless in our conversation with each other before we speak to media,” Carter-Hoyt said. She added that she’s invited “a consortium of individuals that are most directly related to this matter” to an in-person private meeting intended to be a safe and secure place to discuss concerns and has blocked off time to meet with them, but she said she hasn’t received a response as of the time of her Feb. 13 interview with The Breeze.

“I’ll just keep earmarking time until I hear back because I think it’s important to make sure that we’re continually discovering knowledge about each other,” Carter-Hoyt said.

When asked whether there are any other plans to move forward outside of these conversations and for next year, Carter-Hoyt said JMU plans to continue to “stick to process” to make sure people feel included, like allowing people an opportunity to “self-select,” to offer up their services to committees and other projects. Even if someone doesn’t have time to serve on a committee but has expressed interest, Carter-Hoyt said, they’ll be invited to connect with someone on a committee.

As for the Holocaust Remembrance event, in a statement sent to The Breeze by Vass on Jan. 25, Carter-Hoyt said people weren’t “included or excluded explicitly based on a particular protected characteristic,” referring to the selection process for the planning committee.

“Committee members were selected based on substantive expertise and commitment to the creation of an event that properly marks the occasion,” she said in the statement.

She said in her Feb. 13 interview JMU allows self-selection based on substantive expertise partly

because federal law, specifically Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

The other reason for it is to encourage an “interdisciplinary model” at JMU, she said.

“You may be a chemist, but you may like to read Walt Whitman, and you may really like prose and poetry. If you do, if you have an inclination for that, there are spaces that should be inviting you in because of your interest and not disallowing you because you are a chemist,” Carter-Hoyt said. “What we should be doing is inviting people not only on their expertise, because obviously people study certain things, right? But we also should be making sure that we are bringing people with a commitment to making sure that something is properly marked or properly identified, and so I think both is important.”

JMU history department head Maura Hametz, who wasn’t involved with the planning of this year’s event but specializes in Jewish studies and was involved in writing the letter, said she hoped conversations moving forward can help create representation for Jewish culture.

“I hope that the conversation would lead to better understanding to avoid misunderstandings in the future,” Hametz said, “and to move forward with a way for all voices to be heard on campus.”

As the university and community move forward, Goldberg said he believes JMU has the opportunity to collaborate and connect with Jewish faculty who care about working with others to create educational inclusive programming.

“I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that something really positive can come from all of this,” Goldberg said. “But I know that there are people who are eager, and we’re about the opportunity to do some good, important work here surrounding remembrance of the Holocaust, both for our campus community and also for our broader Harrisonburg Rockingham Community.”

CONTACT Charlotte Matherly at breezeeditor@ gmail.com and Ashlyn Campbell at breezeinvestigations@gmail.com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

JMU announces temporary library in preparation for Carrier renovations

By NEWS DESK The Breeze

JMU Libraries unveiled its new temporary library location Tuesday, which will be at 1050 S. Main Street once Carrier Library closes for renovations in May.

At the temporary location, students can pick up and check out books, interlibrary loan and course reserve items; return books and other library items; use equipment to watch a DVD, Blu-ray or VHS; use the microform machine; print and scan documents; use a computer workstation; and ask the library staff general questions about the libraries, according to the website.

JMU Libraries is asking for student input on the name of the new location. Potential options

include JMU Libraries Express, JMU Libraries on South Main and Carrier Satellite. Students can vote on their favorite name on a poll on the JMU Libraries website.

In addition to the new temporary location, Rose Library on East Campus, the Music Library on the Quad and the Educational Technology and Media Center (ETMC) in Memorial Hall will continue to be available for student use while Carrier is under renovation.

Carrier renovations begin this summer, with an anticipated reopen date in fall 2026.

CONTACT the news desk at breezenews@ gmail.com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter at @BreezeNewsJMU.

The temporary library location will be located at 1050 S. Main Street next to K-Lot. Courtesy of JMU Libraries

Save the date

JMU financial aid calls for students to complete FAFSA before priority filing ends

By SARAH ECCLESTON The Breeze

As the priority filing date for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) nears, the JMU Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships Brad Barnett urges students who are returning for the 2023-24 school year to apply on the Federal Student Aid website before the March 1 deadline.

“I would suggest they [students] do that as soon as possible just so they don’t run into any problems,” Barnett said.

Barnett recommends students file early so they have a chance to be awarded more grants and loans — FAFSA works on a first-come, firstserve basis. However, students are still able to fill out the application throughout the school year, he said. This is especially important for in-state students, who are eligible for more aid than outof-state students.

“Meeting that March 1 deadline means you have ample time to get all your financial aid set up before your return next fall,” Barnett said.

Barnett added that if students are worried about the length of time it’ll take to fill out the form, they can connect the FAFSA to their IRS information so all of their tax and income information can be dropped into the application. However, W2s from two years prior to the filing

year — in this case 2021 — are needed to fill out the FAFSA in addition to the IRS information.

In the 2024-25 school year, a student can enter their social security number, name and birthday for their IRS information to be automatically uploaded to the application. However, according to the Federal Student Aid website, it should take less than an hour to fill out either way.

When filling out the application, students can use the built-in tools and tutorials. While filling out the FAFSA, Barnett said students can visit JMU’s financial aid website or reach out to FAFSA itself or contact the university directly by phone.

Without filling out the FAFSA, Barnett said students hoping to get need-based scholarships on the JMU Scholarship hub can’t be considered.

Barnett said the most common reason he’s seen for students not filling out the FASFA is that they forget. For this reason, he said, JMU financial aid sends reminders to students and parents by email and text so it won’t be easy for them to forget.

“Sometimes it’s very easy to let something slip that you only do on an annual basis,” Barnett said. “We’re trying to get the word out as much as we can so people will just remember to do it.”

CONTACT Sarah Eccleston at ecclessk@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

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CHICKEN SANDWICH™ COMBO

Graphic by Ben Moulse / The Breeze

Sustainable learning

Food garden program helps young students, JMU have positive community impact

By LIZZIE STONE The Breeze

Seen at schools throughout Harrisonburg are small plots of land that’ve been turned into gardens by contributors across the city assisting students in learning about sustainable garden practices and building connections with the environment and healthy food.

Kathy Yoder, educational outreach director at Vine & Fig, explained her nonprofit group supports educational gardens like the ones at Harrisonburg schools. Local elementary school students are able to hear about healthy food and where it comes from, she said, and the lessons are reinforced by how often they can interact with the garden.

“It just makes sense to have them in the school gardens,” Yoder said. “I think the school gardens are really taking off and the schools see the need for getting kids outside.”

Students get excited about vegetables and green spaces in the gardens which makes the values of healthy foods stick, Yoder said, and they’re able to identify the plants in their school gardens and feel involved in the growing process.

“Research shows when kids have access to green space, then they’re going to care for the environment as an adult,” Yoder said. “It’s when they’re young that we need to teach that.”

Harrisonburg educators are attempting to give the students connections to the garden that’ll stick with them, Yoder said. At Waterman Elementary, students planted a pizza garden where they grew all the separate components of the meal.

“They were like, ‘Oh my god, I can still smell the pizza’,” Yoder said. “When they came into the garden a week later, it was just so sweet for them to be so excited about their pizza.”

Many student groups at JMU take part in volunteer work at the school gardens, including service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega (APO). Aidan Love, service chair of several volunteer programs for APO, said the group has been volunteering at the gardens for years. The group does physical labor to build and support the gardens and assists with some teaching.

“[The project] is both about actively having environmental impact, and then also moving it forward to future generations in a fun, creative way,” Love said.

JMU geography professor Amy Goodall has been involved in turning the gardens into a space that brings in pollinators. The gardens are part of a network of study sites within the city where students have been studying pollinators for over a decade.

Goodall brings her classes to the gardens to do research when possible, she said. Elementary students benefit from the work they do in the gardens as well, Goodall said. She and her students have the opportunity to talk to the students about the animals and plants they find.

“They’re excited about pollinators,” Goodall said. “They’re excited about everything that moves in the garden.”

Volunteers and coordinators are still working on improving the spaces, Goodall said, such as new composting bin systems, adding more garden beds and sign painting. More work is required every year to keep everything healthy, to till the soil, to replant everything, to expand the areas and to improve and make repairs on equipment and structures, she said.

“I feel so enriched by being involved in the community,” Love said. “I’m not just ... not doing anything for the community that I’m living in for a temporary amount of time. I’m giving back. I think that’s so important for students to do.”

The program will continue to expand within Harrisonburg schools, and students will continue to use the gardens. Those involved with the project said they strongly believe in its value and will continue to work to support it.

“I just think giving people new skills, giving people new knowledge that they otherwise wouldn’t, from the school system … will be something really beneficial for the community, and hopefully for the world,” Love said.

CONTACT Lizzie Stone at stone3em@dukes. jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

Students at Waterman Elementary planted a pizza garden and grew different ingredients for the meal.

The Waterman Elementary food garden has different bins for food scraps, decomposers and compost.

Food gardens are enabling Harrisonburg elementary school students to learn about healthy foods and where they come from. Photos courtesy of Kathy Yoder

Controversial development City council postpones final vote on Bluestone Town Center proposal

By GRETCHEN NAGLE contributing writer

A vote on the Bluestone Town Center (BTC) — a proposed development that would be a mix of multi-family buildings, townhouses, single-family detached housing, shops and businesses — has been postponed by Harrisonburg City Council until its next meeting on Feb. 28 following an almost eight-hour meeting and public comment section.

Harrisonburg community members voiced their concerns about the development, an 84-acre site in the vicinity of Harrisonburg’s intersection of Garbers Church Road and Erickson Avenue, the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority plans to construct nearly 900 mixedincome manufactured housing units. Attorney Jordan Bowman wrote on behalf of the proposal that the development would feature apartments and a variety of energy-efficient homes, as well as mixed-use development and amenities such as pocket parks, playgrounds, bus stops and walking trails.

The idea of the town center has been contested for months by local residents, who said at the meeting that they were hopeful city council would reject the proposal.

Residents have even started petitions opposing the town center. One petition on change.org that was started by JMU health professor Jeremy Akers in hopes of preventing the development currently has 931 signatures out of its goal of 1,000.

“Friendly city residents and surrounding communities, you have a voice,” the petition states. “With your help, we can protect our beautiful landscape from ‘big city-like’

complexes that threaten our roadways, schools, health and taxes.”

Council member Monica Robinson said she sees there may be some problems with the proposal, particularly the manufactured homes, but she also sees some of the pros.

“If we ever need to move toward the type of development that’s needed here in this city, then we have to start somewhere and we can’t have perfection,” Robinson said. “At this particular time, we are so in desperate need of a change in how we develop and we have to begin thinking beyond what we have done in the past.”

After the public opinion began, numerous individuals from organizations in the community including Mercy House, United Way and Our Community Place spoke out in support of the plan, arguing that it would benefit the community and residents as a

whole rather than negatively affect it.

On the contrary, many of the residents who were hesitant about the proposal voiced their concerns about the surrounding area of the building site, stating that there are health implications due to the close vicinity to a commercial poultry farm, excessive new traffic income and school density, tax increase, sinkholes and flooding on the property and whether or not these homes will meet building standards.

Donna Crompton, a Harrisonburg resident, went before the council and said research is still being done in the longevity of these houses.

“Is this what we need in our community?” Crompton asked.

Mike Roads, another resident of the community and insurance counselor, voiced his concern that these manufactured homes come in on a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)

title, meaning that the homes will always be a “trailer” in the eyes of an insurance carrier. He also said the houses aren’t built to modular home standards.

The Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority paired up with the company, EquityPlus — a company that’s developed housing in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. using the LowIncome Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program — in proposing the project. The Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority stepped in during the meeting and presented the plan to the council with hopes to authorize aspects of the proposal, asserting that Harrisonburg is in “dire need” for more housing. Michael Wong, executive director of the Redevelopment and Housing Authority, acknowledged that certain aspects of the proposals didn’t align with Harrisonburg’s ideas but were willing to hear the voiced concerns of Harrisonburg residents.

Mayor Deanna Reed ended the meeting by asking to table the proposal.

“The biggest thing is that we wanted to hear you, and we did that until 2:41 a.m.,” Reed said. “We owe it to our people to have a clear mind when we make this decision.”

The next formal meeting to discuss the Bluestone Town Center proposal at city council is scheduled for Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.

“Is this what we need in our community?”

Donna Crompton Harrisonburg resident

This week’s key takeaways from SGA Senate

By ELEANOR SHAW The Breeze

The Student Government Association (SGA) Senate amended members’ activity requirements and allotted funds to Sigma Gamma Rho and Alpha Phi Alpha during Tuesday’s meeting.

SGA approves DEIJA+ amendment

The Senate approved an amendment requiring all members to participate in one activity per semester that promotes diversity.

“I think this amendment is really helpful,” sophomore SGA Senator Takiyah MonroseRichardson said. “This would help people be more aware of other [equality] groups on campus.”

According to the amendment, the Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Justice and Accessibility (DEIJA+) committee will notify members of what events will meet the service qualifications and will keep track of each members’ service hours.

“We represent all students of JMU, not just students that look like us,” sophomore SGA Senator Lexi Alston said.

SGA approves funds for Greek life events

The Senate unanimously approved $2,968 in contingency funds to Sigma Gamma Rho and $3,000 to Alpha Phi Alpha.

Sigma Gamma Rho was represented by senior Constance Patterson, the sorority’s president, and senior Kamryn Haynesworth, the sorority’s vice president. Haynesworth said the funds will go toward their prom dress drive on April 14, which aims to serve those in the Harrisonburg community who can’t afford formal wear to attend their high school’s prom.

Junior Mahek Shroff, SGA’s finance liaison, said the money will go toward purchasing dresses.

“Prom is definitely a luxury,” Patterson said. “Getting your makeup done, your clothes, the food, these are all things everyone wants to experience when in high school.”

Patterson said this event is part of the sorority’s intake program: teaching, obligations, rights, characteristics and history (TORCH). Patterson said TORCH exemplifies the sorority’s goals and all new members must participate in it.

The TORCH program’s efforts — separate from the funds — will go toward hosting a prom event on JMU’s campus in addition to the prom dress fundraiser.

“With [COVID-19] in the past few years, a lot of our students didn’t get the chance to have a prom,” Patterson said. “We want to be able to raise morale on campus and give people the chance to have that opportunity.”

Alpha Phi Alpha was represented by senior David Figueroa, the fraternity’s treasurer. Figueroa said the funds will finance the organization’s two conventions — the Eastern Region and General Conventions.

These conventions are regional, Figueroa said, and will provide a place for Alpha Phi Alpha brothers to be with one another. The Eastern Region Convention, which will take place in Hampton, Virginia, invites all brothers within the Eastern U.S. The General Convention, which will take place in Dallas, Texas, is open to all brothers nationwide.

Figueroa said the funds will be used for food, conference fees, transportation and other miscellaneous supplies.

“Most of their fundraising and the money they have goes to charity,” Shroff said. “I think these contingency funds will be useful to them for both of their conventions.”

CONTACT Eleanor Shaw at shaweo@dukes. jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

SGA's Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Justice and Accessibility (DEIJA+) committee will now be requiring all members to participate in one activity per semester that promotes diversity. Abi Middleton / The Breeze

‘The good, the bad and the ugly’

from YEARBOOKS, page 1

Poulson said he found examples of racist caricatures and language in the yearbooks of all of the Virginia college yearbooks he examined. The research started for him as a project for his Sociological Inquiry (SOCI 300) class.

“It started as a student project about ongoing events,” Poulson said, like Northam’s blackface scandal. “I think everyone in that class was shocked at the content we found.”

Poulson said he looked for things such as white students in blackface, groups named for former confederate officials and glorification of the antebellum South and its

JMU staff uses yearbooks, scrapbooks to uncover dark parts of school history

slave-run plantation society.

Poulson said JMU’s yearbooks had some problematic content, but yearbooks at universities like U.Va. were more extreme.

“In [the yearbooks of] the University of Virginia for example, we really found some extraordinary content as it relates to caricatures,” Poulson said. “There were some really dramatic representations of violence being perpetrated by the KKK, for example.”

After the class ended, Poulson said, he still felt drawn to the project. He said he continued his work, finding himself unable to turn away from the old yearbooks.

Cole spends a lot of her time doing the same thing in her work as an archivist, except

with documents that have a connection to JMU and the wider Rockingham County area, including the school’s old yearbooks and scrapbooks donated by alumni from various student organizations.

“At Special Collections, we document local history in addition to the history of the university,” Cole said. “We do our very best to document the history of the university, and this history is very complicated. There are troubling parts of the university’s history. We do not want to whitewash any parts of the history — it is what it is.”

Cole said she feels it’s part of Special Collections’ job to explore all sides of the university’s history, even the delicate parts, using the immense collection of records at their disposal.

“The documentary record can help us to kind of flush out some of these more

problematic parts of our history,” Cole said. “It is our job to tell the good, the bad and the ugly — everything: the triumphs of all student experiences, but also the troubling parts as well.”

Among the old yearbooks and scrapbooks in Special Collections, Cole said there are examples of racist caricatures and racist language, such as racial slurs, to the point where she has a list just for the yearbooks that contain blackface. She also said there are countless scrapbooks donated by alumni that contain similar racist caricatures.

“I’m surprised if I don’t see a confederate flag,” Cole said, “or if the student wasn’t a member of the Lee Literary Society or if there isn’t some kind of reference to a minstrel show” — a performance often containing stereotypes about Black people performed by white actors in blackface, according to Britannica.

Literary societies like the Lee Literary Society, which took its namesake from Confederate general Robert E. Lee, are some of the groups, Poulson said, that help teach what he called the “racialized ordering” of the world at that time, referring to the segregation and the general ideas of racial superiority that were prominent in the South during that period.

Sociology professor Stephen Poulson began researching racist depictions in Virginia college yearbooks — including JMU, U.Va. and ODU — as part of a project in his Sociological Inquiry class. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

“At Special Collections ... we do our very best to document the history of the university, and this history is very complicated. There are troubling parts of the university’s history [and] we do not want to whitewash any parts of the history — it is what it is.”

Tiffany Cole

Archivist, JMU Office of Special Collections

Meg Mulrooney, the vice provost for academic programs and equity, chair of JMU’s Campus History Committee and a professor of history, said the school’s old literary societies were social clubs that students had to be approved to get into and served as exclusionary and elite groups for students at the school.

“They functioned very similarly [to Greek life organizations] in creating, sort of, cliques,” Mulrooney said. “They had hazing rituals and they had bids, so you had to be accepted.”

A more direct connection to this time exists in the school’s buildings, like the dorm Garber Hall, for example, which was named after Dorothy Spooner Garber.

Garber, who once served as Madison College’s Dean of Women, is mentioned in the Special Collections’ copy of the first volume of “The Virginia Teacher.” In the educationfocused periodical’s school activities section, Garber’s listed as being part of the minstrel show “A Dark Night at the Normal” while she was a student at the former State Normal School for Women, which was later renamed James Madison University.

Cole said while there are no pictures of Garber doing blackface herself, there are pictures of previous stagings of this exact show, all featuring blackface.

One major impact of these depictions, Poulson said, is that many of the students in Garber’s graduating class were training to be teachers and therefore took these ideas they learned and brought them “back out into the world” and into their own classrooms.

The Breeze itself participated in these depictions at one time. In 1954, three white students in blackface were featured on The Breeze’s front page, and two articles, one from 1953 and the other from 1979, both featured students in blackface as well. This, Mulrooney said, was a reflection not of one individual’s problematic views, but of a culture as a whole and the people — both staff and students — who let this culture continue.

“The Breeze was reflecting culture the same way that the yearbooks were,” Mulrooney said. “Both publications had to be approved by the faculty and staff. It didn’t have the independence it does now. Really, from its founding in the ’20s through the 1960s and ’70s, it was considered an organ of the institution.”

Poulson said one of the things that make these representations troublesome is the fact that they were coming from a teacher’s college, because teachers often influence the world around them.

“You have a culture that normalized racism, and these institutions of higher education reinforcing those ideas,” Poulson said. “That was what was unnerving. While these places might have been progressive in terms of the way people think about the education of women, for example, they were some of the worst places in the country in terms of the maintenance of ideas that supported segregation.”

Mulrooney said JMU has taken steps toward rectifying the troubling parts of its past. Since 2017, JMU has had its Task Force on Racial Equity that makes recommendations to the university for how to better accommodate marginalized students. In addition, Mulrooney said JMU switching from its own application website to the Common App is another big step because it makes it much easier for potential students who may come from varying backgrounds and levels of internet access or financial status to apply to the university. The transition to the Common App also requires prospective students to make just one application that can be submitted to multiple different schools, therefore expediting the process, Mulrooney said.

Mulrooney also cited Paul Jennings Hall, named after an enslaved man who was owned by James Madison, and Taylor Hall, named for the first African American member of JMU’s Board of Visitors, as other steps the university has taken to account for the darker parts of its history. Something important to note, Mulrooney said, is in the late 1970s, JMU became not just a school for all races but also a school for all genders.

“JMU’s still evolving from a place for only white women,” Mulrooney said. “It’s important we educate ourselves, that we actually study the history of this institution as a way of understanding why it is the way it is and how we can make it better.”

CONTACT Morgan Blair at blairml@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.

Graphic by Ben Moulse / The Breeze

‘Fighting for a space’

Deanna Reed and Monica Robinson reflect on hardships and accomplishments as first Black female leaders of Harrisonburg

By K. MAUSER contributing writer

Ten years ago, there had never been a Black woman on Harrisonburg City Council. Now, out of Harrisonburg’s five city council representatives, two of them are Black women: Deanna Reed and Monica Robinson.

Reed, mayor of Harrisonburg, became the first Black woman to be elected into the city council in 2016. She won with a margin of over 9,000 votes — the highest number in the city council’s history, according to Virginia Changemakers.

As for why she won, Reed puts it simply.

“Harrisonburg was ready for me,” she said.

A reflection of the city

Shortly after she was elected to city council, Reed was appointed mayor in 2017. Although Harrisonburg was composed mostly of Democrats, Reed said, both Independents and Republicans voted for her in order to win by such a margin.

“I was able to touch beyond the blue circle,”

Reed said. “And by me doing that, I was able to open the door for others.”

And so she has. The city council is both majority female — herself, Laura Dent and Monica Robinson — as well as majority African-American — herself, Chris Jones and Robinson.

“Now the council reflects the city,” Reed said. According to the United States Census Bureau, the African-American population in Harrisonburg is the second highest after white.

Upon graduating Harrisonburg High School back in 1984, Reed said she was one of only 11 Black students in her senior class, which totaled 150.

“The leadership reflected the community,” Reed said. “So when you would go to city council meetings … it was still white men that were running Harrisonburg when I was growing up.”

One of the reasons she decided to run for council, Reed said, was to create change within the predominantly white and male leadership.

Following her appointment as mayor,

Reed hired the first Black city manager, Eric Campbell; the first Black police chief, Eric English; and the first female police chief, Kelly Warner.

Reed has also overseen substantial changes to the local community, such as starting the construction of a new high school and renovation of an old church to provide a permanent space for a homeless shelter.

Rocktown High School, Harrisonburg’s second high school, is currently under construction now after being approved by city council. “

The high school and homeless shelter are probably my biggest triumphs,” Reed said. “I'm from Harrisonburg. I knew we needed a new high school.”

Reed said the high school would cost about $104 million to build, but that it was a necessity for the community.

“We were able to really take care of the more prominent issues,” Reed said. “And we were able to put that money all across the board and take care of people the way they should be taken care of.”

However, being mayor has its challenges, Reed said.

“If you asked me what my biggest challenges [were],” Reed said, “it was definitely being mayor during the time of a pandemic.”

During this time, Reed said homelessness was a prominent issue. She said to keep these people safe, Harrisonburg partnered with JMU in 2020 as well as May through August of 2022 when Open Doors, a local homeless shelter, was temporarily located in JMU’s D-Hub.

“I don't want anybody living out on the street,” Reed said.

Reed said her vision’s “bigger than just a building,” and she hopes to implement various programs for the homeless like education and rehab to be both successful and independent.

see CITY COUNCIL , page 15

Graphic by Ben Moulse / The Breeze

from CITY COUNCIL, page 13

Breaking down walls

Robinson is among the most recently elected councilmembers, coming into office Jan. 2. She became the second African-American woman to serve on Harrisonburg’s city council after Reed, Robinson said.

Robinson said she moved to Harrisonburg when she was 10 years old and attended Harrisonburg High School, where she said there was a very distinct divide between the white and Black communities.

“I think one of the biggest victories for me is being alive to see the change from the community as I saw it way back in the day, [the] change into this new community of people,” Robinson said. “Full of color, full of life, full of differences.”

Robinson’s also a JMU alumna. In 2003, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history, and in 2004, she got her Master of Arts degree in Special Education.

In addition to serving on city council, Robinson said she also helps run the Shenandoah Valley Black Heritage Project and serves as the president of the NAACP chapter in Harrisonburg, which she helped bring to the city in 2002.

“I've always been into social justice,” Robinson said. “I remember, as a younger child, [my grandfather told] us different things about how important it was for us to fight for what was right — for our community and for our people.”

Since moving to Harrisonburg in the ’70s, Robinson said she’s watched Harrisonburg morph from its “not so inclusive

A WEALTH OF HEALTH A WEALTH OF HEALTH

Animal-assisted therapy’s impact on JMU community

By HANNAH LIFRIERI The Breeze

Francis Tennyson starts his mornings with a hearty breakfast before heading to work. When arriving at the JMU Counseling Center, he’s ready to provide company to JMU’s community.

Francis was the first therapy dog brought to the JMU Counseling Center; Colleen Tennyson, a psychiatrist at the center, is his handler. The idea of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) was first introduced to the center in February 2011.

Leslie Gerrard, associate director for training and licensed clinical psychologist at the Counseling Center, adopted her dog Wicket and trained him to become a therapy dog.

According to Healthline, AAT has many mental health benefits including reducing blood pressure and increasing endorphins that can decrease pain and stress and improve psychological well-being overall.

Where to find them

and accepting ideals” to the embraceful town it is today.

“We have been fighting for space at this table for a long time,” Robinson said. “And I think now that the tide has turned in our favor … it lets people know that this is a possibility that can exist. We no longer have to look at boards or commissions that are made up entirely of white males, or white males and one white female.”

Robinson also said it’s important to her to show young girls who “look like me” that having only one Black woman on city council shouldn’t mean that other Black women shouldn’t run.

“Harrisonburg voted for the candidates it wanted for city council, and two of them happened to be Black women,” councilmember Dany Fleming aid. “I think that says something about Harrisonburg. I think we’re making progress towards breaking down those walls that have historically been denied to people of color.”

Fleming said the fight for equality is not something that should only take place during Black History Month, but a fight that takes place “24/7, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.” He also said he feels like the council has made progress for people of color and other marginalized groups.

“Now I see more freedom for my grandchildren,” Robinson said. “More freedom for my son.”

CONTACT K.Mauser at mauserkk@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.

Therapy dogs can often be confused with service animals. While both play important roles in many people’s lives, service animals are trained to aid one person who may have a physical or mental disability, according to the JMU Counseling Center’s website. The way to identify these dogs in most cases is by their vest, according to the site. Service dog vests typically say the dog is working and not to pet them.

JMU’s developed an outreach program that includes workshops surrounding the topic of mental health. The dogs can be brought in by their handlers and engage with the students as long as it’s a safe environment.

‘Good joy’

Gerrard said she encourages her clients to let go and forget about their worries when accompanied by the therapy dogs. She also said the Counseling Center encourages students to work with therapy dogs as it creates a human-animal bond. Gerrard explained in some cases, clients can even use the dog to learn how to set boundaries or learn how to be compassionate.

AAT plays a beneficial role here at JMU. Many dogs are willing to lend a helping hand — or paw — whatever the occurrence may be. These dogs go through countless hours of training to assist those on campus through communication skills, role playing or simply offering moral support. See for yourself by making an appointment to see them on the Counseling Center’s website.

Read the full article at breezejmu.org.

Deanna Reed became the first Black woman to be elected into the city council in 2016. Breeze file photo

Monica Robinson and Chris Jones (left) are two out of three African Americans with Reed being the third. Breeze file photo

Broadway Bailey

'Matilda the Musical' star to headline Forbes Center's 'Chicago'

By JAKE DODOHARA The Breeze

Many people have a specific playground they remember going to while growing up. Junior musical theatre major Bailey Ryon is no different.

Except her childhood playground was in New York City, where she played with her fellow child actors before returning to the Shubert Theater to perform as the titular role in “Matilda the Musical” on Broadway.

“I think they called it the ‘Chuck E. Cheese’ of Broadway that year because it was just swarmed with children,” Ryon said, describing her downtime playing at a specific park with “Broadway kids” like Sadie Sink, Gaten Mazzarato and Caleb McLaughlin, who grew up and went on to star in the Netflix show “Stranger Things.”

Ryon, who is now 20 years old, has over a decade of theatre experience under her belt. Her credits include originating the role of Matilda on Broadway in 2013 and performing as Cindy Lou Who in a national tour of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” in 2011.

Still dedicated to her craft, she’s now studying within the JMU School of Theatre and Dance.

“It’s just what I love … When you have that experience when you're younger, you kind of are like, ‘OK, cool, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life,’” Ryon said, noting that she’s never wavered pursuing a career in entertainment.

Contrary to what one might think, Ryon described herself as a “very shy kid” who rarely spoke while growing up in rural Glen Rock, Pennsylvania. One of five children, Ryon was introduced

to the performance world through her mother — Ciara Driscoll — who went to school for theatre and dance education. When Ryon was a baby, Driscoll said, she would bring her into a dance studio every night, placing Ryon’s carseat on the stage as she worked to choreograph productions like “Grease.”

Years later, after participating in her first-grade play and taking some dance and voice lessons, an 8-year-old Ryon heard an advertisement on the radio about an audition for a cereal commercial in Philadelphia.

“She came home and she kept talking about this thing she heard on the radio … and she remembered the telephone number from the radio at 8 years old without a pen and paper,” Driscoll said. “Finally, after a week, I was like, ‘OK, she’s not letting this go.’ So we sat down and talked about it.”

Driscoll said she explained to Ryon that auditioning for a professional project was “like a job” that required commitment and “not just a fun hobby” that could be easily dropped.

“We talked about ‘as soon as I hear you complain about memorizing lines or going to the audition, we’re done because we’ve got four other kids and there’s a lot going on in our lives,’” Driscoll remembers saying to Ryon before eventually scheduling the audition in Philadelphia.

Upon their arrival at the audition, Driscoll soon realized the casting call was a “scam,” asking for $5,000 from each family for their services. Driscoll allowed her daughter to participate in the day’s activities before leaving. However, a legitimate talent agent at the event saw Ryon and became interested in representing her.

After an official meeting with her agent in New York City, Ryon went on several auditions. Her first weekend in New York, she booked the role of Cindy Lou Who for a national tour of “How

Bailey Ryon rehearses a dance in the studio theatre. Ryon is involved in several dance-heavy numbers. Photos by Kailey Garner / The Breeze

the Grinch Stole Christmas” in 2011 — a rarity, considering the extensive number of auditions actors typically take on before booking their first role.

“Touring, I’ve found, is my favorite,” Ryon said, reminiscing on how close a cast of performers can become while working in a road trip-like environment. Additionally, Ryon found she thrived being around adults. While she enjoyed playing with other child actors in the dressing rooms, she remembers adult actors noting her intensity and professionalism, with them joking that she was “literally [10 years old] and more responsible than” they were.

In 2012, after “Grinch” concluded its seasonal tour, Ryon auditioned for the Broadway production of “Matilda the Musical.” After a total of 11 auditions, she booked the role, rotating performances with three other actors, which included Milly Shapiro, who later starred in the acclaimed 2018 horror film “Hereditary.”

“Being a part of the original cast, you have months and months to get to know these people,” Ryon said, detailing how close she and the other Matilda actresses became.

Although Ryon and the other actresses were deemed ineligible for a Tony Award nomination — due to the four actresses sharing a singular role — they were awarded the prestigious Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater. Ryon and the other actresses also attended the 2014 Grammys, where “Matilda the Musical” was nominated for Best Musical Theatre Album.

“It did register a little, but also I was a very chill kid,” Ryon said when asked if as a child she recognized the magnitude of performing on Broadway and attending prestigious award shows like the Tonys and Grammys. “When you’re a kid, you’re so fearless and there’s no nerves, like I was never nervous … You would think that would stick with me as I got older, but as I get older, I sing in class now and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so nervous.’”

After her run in “Matilda the Musical” concluded, Ryon returned to Pennsylvania,

focusing on attending high school with her peers, while intermittently returning to New York for any big auditions.

“It’s been amazing watching her do what she’s done, especially because she’s done it with such confidence and resilience and grace,” Driscoll said. “I’ve kind of given her the ‘out’ all the time. [I’ve told her], ‘You did this as a kid, you don’t have to keep doing it as an adult’ ... and she’s like ‘Nope. This is my life, this is what I love. It’s all I want to do.’”

Unsure if she wanted to attend a traditional college or train at a dramatic conservatory, she auditioned for JMU’s musical theatre program for “kicks and gigs” to appease her cousin who’s a JMU alum. She said she soon fell in love with the school and felt the musical theatre department actually cared about their students.

“It’s a smattering of different journeys towards a career in [musical theatre],” Kate Lumpkin, a visiting assistant professor of musical theatre, said, describing the diverse backgrounds within JMU’s musical theatre department. “There are things that Bailey knows about contracting and scheduling in the professional world that maybe some of the other students don’t know. But, also, those other students have had life experience that Bailey hasn’t had, so they can continue to learn from each other and become better artists.”

While Ryon said she’s “having a blast” rehearsing for the Forbes Center production of “Chicago” — running Feb. 28 through March 4 — she also enjoys attending football games and being “a normal kid for once.”

“Being a normal college kid isn’t something that I thought I’d enjoy,” Ryon said. “But I’m having a great time at JMU and I love it.”

CONTACT Jake Dodohara at dodohajh@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.

“It’s been amazing watching her do what she’s done, especially because she’s done it with such confidence and resilience and grace.”

Ciara Driscoll

Bailey Ryon’s mother

With over a decade of theatre experience Ryon’s had the original role of Matilda on Broadway and Cindly Lou Who in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Ciara Driscoll, Ryon’s mother, said she’d bring Ryon to her dance studio every night as a baby when she was choreographing productions like “Grease.”

Ryon will be staring in the Forbes Center’s production of “Chicago” that will be running Feb. 28 through March 4.

Runnin' the show

By MADI ALLEY The Breeze

Heading into the 2022-23 season, JMU women’s basketball head coach Sean O’Regan and his team were coming off of a 14-15 record. The Dukes needed a “true point guard,” junior forward Claire Neff said, someone who could run the offense with a high basketball IQ and push the pace.

With graduate transfer Caroline Germond, JMU found it.

“She is a true point guard,” Neff said.

Germond came to JMU from TCU, where she played for two years and averaged 2.5 points and 1.95 assists a game across her career. Now in Harrisonburg, Germond became the “floor general,” O’Regan said, that the Dukes needed to flip the script from last year’s season to this year’s 20-6 (10-4 Sun Belt) start in the new conference.

“The first time we played pick up together I was just like, ‘Wow,’” junior forward Steph Ouderkirk said. “She’s running this and has a big part in running this team and she just got here.”

As of Feb. 13, Germond has the 18th-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation at 2.53 per game. She averaged 4.0 assists per game this season, with a season high of 10 in the Dukes’ pivotal 80-79 win over Troy on Jan. 21 that put them in first place in the Sun Belt at the time.

“Assists have always just kind of been my thing,” Germond said. “It’s just my signature now.”

In JMU’s 72-54 win over South Alabama on Feb. 2, Germond found junior guard Peyton McDaniel for a pair of 3-pointers in a span of 35 seconds in the third quarter, helping put JMU ahead 54-43.

“I like being super aggressive to get to the basket,” Germond said, “so I attract the defender and then my teammate is just open.”

The graduate transfer doesn’t lead the Dukes in scoring or rebounding; however, Neff said Germond is supportive, energetic and, even though she’ll let teammates know when they’re messing up, she’ll always be there to give teammates a pat on the back. Germond “leads by example,”

Ouderkirk added.

“Every practice, she goes really hard and brings everybody with her,” Ouderkirk said. “When we see her go hard, it makes us want to go hard, too. We need a really good point guard and we need a big team leader, and I think Caroline is perfect for that role.”

Prior to this season, Germond started her journey of college basketball at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, before landing on TCU for her final two seasons of undergrad.

When she arrived at JMU, Germond said the program embraced her with “open arms and made the transition easy.”

“Everyone has been so welcoming,” she said. “Since day one, they have been there for me if I needed something … I really appreciate that.”

Germond experienced some bumps early on at JMU, though — she sprained her ankle Nov. 17 and missed two games — but she returned to action two games later Dec. 1 versus VCU and pushed the Dukes to a narrow 62-60 on the road, racking up eight points, three rebounds and an assist in 28 minutes.

Playing for O’Regan has allowed Germond’s experience and high-level basketball IQ to shine through as she continues honing her skills running the point for the Dukes this season. The veteran point guard said she wants to play overseas professionally — in France — after closing her chapter at JMU.

Germond and the Dukes have four regular season games left and are currently tied for second in the conference at 20-6 (10-4 Sun Belt). First up on the remainder of the slate is a trip to Texas State on Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. After the regular season, the Dukes head to the Sun Belt tournament, looking for an automatic bid to March Madness.

“We have to keep doing what we are doing,” Germond said. “We still have so much to accomplish. We still have something to prove.”

CONTACT Madi Alley at alleyml@dukes. jmu.edu. For more women’s basketball coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

JMU women's basketball junior forward

'True point guard' Germond crucial to Dukes' women's hoops down the stretch

JMU head coach Sean O'Regan calls graduate transfer guard Caroline Germond the Dukes' "floor general." Photos by Charlotte Matherly / The Breeze

Germond said she wants to continue playing basketball professionally in France after this season.

“When we see her go hard, it makes us want to go hard, too. We need a really good point guard and we need a big team leader, and I think Caroline is perfect for that role.”

Steph Ouderkirk

Back at it

JMU baseball seeks revenge vs. Florida State in season-opening series

By MADI ALLEY The Breeze

The wait is finally over. The Diamond Dukes are heading down to Tallahassee, Florida, to kick off their 2023 season with a three-game series against the Seminoles, starting Feb. 17.

Last February, JMU started 0-3 after dropping its opening series against Florida State. From there, JMU finished 27-26 (12-11 CAA) in 2022. The Diamond Dukes are now entering a loaded Sun Belt Conference with Southern Miss leading the pack at No. 18 in D1Baseball’s top 25 preseason poll.

For the Seminoles, their road to Omaha for the College Baseball World Series was cut short last season after falling to UCLA, 5-3, in the Auburn Regional on June 3. They finished 34-25 overall and 15-15 in the ACC.

Under new head coach Link Jarrett, Florida State is looking to make adjustments that will set it up toward another run for the national championship title. The Seminoles’ last trip to Omaha followed their strong showing in 2019, when they were eliminated by Texas Tech, 4-1.

Florida State returns several key players back into its starting lineup, despite losing a few key producers.

Junior Jordan Carrion looks to return to shortstop this weekend for the Seminoles after starting the last 56 games of the 2022 season. Carrion had a .280 batting average as a sophomore and led the Noles with 11 stolen bases in 15 attempts.

The Dukes have to watch out

U.Va. transfer Travis Reifsnider.

Hoping to bridge that gap, JMU picked up graduate transfer Jack Cone from William & Mary. Cone had a batting average of .261 and struck out 74 batters across his career playing for the Tribe from 2019-22.

Earlier this month, head coach Marlin Ikenberry said Cone will likely lead off for the Dukes in

JMU last year and racked up a series of accolades. After hitting his stride in late February, Dabney was named CAA Player of the Week on Feb. 28 last season and the Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week the same day. In four games from Feb 23-27, Dabney went 8-for12, hit three home runs, one double and 10 runs scored and nine RBIs — adding four walks

that they’ll see again later on, he said, as well as a taste of what’s to come in Sun Belt play.

The first pitch of game one is set for 5 p.m. at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium on Feb. 17.

CONTACT Madi Alley at alleyml@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more baseball coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

Valerie Chenault / TheBreeze

SPORTS

Steady Steph

Ouderkirk brings charisma, versatility, local ties to JMU women’s basketball

By MADI ALLEY The Breeze

At first, JMU struggled to knock down shots against Georgia State on Jan. 14. It put up just four first quarter points and shot 2-for-12 from the field, trailing by two at the end of the frame. The Dukes were in need of someone who could break the scoring drought and get shots to fall.

Then came four 3s in three minutes.

JMU junior forward Steph Ouderkirk owned the second quarter in the Dukes’ 62-57 win against Georgia State, the 13th consecutive win for the Dukes at the time. She hit her first of four made 3-pointers just 15 seconds after coming off the bench toward the end of the second quarter — pulling the Dukes within two points, down 16-14, with 3:59 left before halftime.

Ouderkirk wasn’t finished yet. Senior guard Kiki Jefferson found the junior forward for her third and fourth 3s in the span of 29 seconds to help put JMU ahead 28-21 at halftime.

Ouderkirk ended the afternoon with a season-high 13 points, six rebounds and, as junior forward Claire Neff said, her 3-pointers “really got the energy moving for our whole team.”

“Let’s just say that I thought it was, like, it was one of my favorite Steph moments,” JMU head coach Sean O’Regan said after the Georgia State win, talking about Ouderkirk’s second quarter outpouring. “And without that, I don’t know where we are right now. It relaxed us.”

Ouderkirk said seeing the ball go through the net got her going after making just five of 30 attempts from behind the arc in the Dukes’ first 10 games of the season. O’Regan said her start to the year was “just unfair,” praising her shot and work ethic are great.

“I knew I could do it. But like I hadn’t seen it yet,” Ouderkirk said. “So it definitely felt good to see the ball go through the net. That confidence definitely carried over.”

The Georgia State game stands in a vacuum shooting-wise for Ouderkirk, who hasn’t made more than two 3-pointers in a game before or after it, and she’s shot 4-for-17 from 3 in the eight games since. But racking up 12 points in three minutes is small in scale to how she adds to the Dukes .

“On and off the court she is a goofball,” Neff said. “She is really fun to be around and she brings a different kind of energy.”

Jokester may be her title, but Ouderkirk said she works hard to fill whatever role is needed of her to push the Dukes forward.

Whether it’s finding her teammates for three assists against Troy on Jan. 21, putting up 10 points against Coastal Carolina on Jan. 26 or grabbing nine rebounds off the bench Feb. 11 versus Arkansas State, Ouderkirk’s versatility has been vital for the Duke’s this season.

“I try to get good shots and get rebounds when I can,” Ouderkirk said. “My role is just being where I’m needed and doing what I can to help us win.”

Fifteen minutes down the road from JMU at Spotswood High School, Ouderkirk did the same. The 6-foot-1-inch forward garnered a series of accolades before joining the Dukes. While in high school, Ouderkirk was named 3A State Player of the Year twice, was a two-time state champion and a McDonald’s AllAmerican nominee.

While her drive home is only a matter of minutes, the Harrisonburg community continues to make Ouderkirk feel at home, she said.

“It’s really special cause even around here I’ll go to the store and people will ask me — even my professors — like how the game went,” Ouderkirk said. “It’s pretty cool to be a part of a community like that.”

As the Dukes finish up their final four regular season games in Sun Belt play over the next week, Ouderkirk and JMU first travel to San Marcos, Texas, on Thursday to face Texas State.

No matter if she’s hitting shots or not, Ouderkirk has one goal.

e Breeze

When asked about being a jokester, Ouderkirk smiled.

“It’s an important thing that I do, keeping everything not so serious,” Ouderkirk said. “And especially like later in these kinds of months where we’ve been going for a while, it kind of just takes the tension off of everybody’s shoulders.”

“To prove them wrong and win a ‘Fun Belt’ championship,” she said.

CONTACT Madi Alley at alleyml@dukes.jmu.edu. For more women’s basketball coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

'Stoke the fire'

JMU men's and women's basketball face off against ODU in Royal Rivalry

By MADISON HRICIK & GRANT JOHNSON The Breeze

The score is 7.5-2.5, JMU. This week, that will change. JMU and Old Dominion squared off on the hardwood for 2 1/2 decades as rivals in the CAA. Then after a nineyear hiatus as conference foes, the Dukes vs. Monarchs rekindling in the Sun Belt Conference called for a name: the Royal Rivalry, coined in October.

Both JMU basketball teams face Old Dominion this week, with the men hosting the Monarchs on Thursday and the women traveling to Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday. Both JMU squads took down its in-state rival earlier in Sun Belt play, and now, the Monarchs have an opportunity for revenge.

“I’m really glad we have them, and I think we should’ve been playing for years,” JMU women’s basketball head coach Sean O’Regan said. “Whether we win or lose, I think it’s an important rivalry.”

When the JMU men played Old Dominion in Norfolk on Feb. 2, 7,691 fans were in attendance at Chartway Arena — the Monarchs’ highest-attended game this year — which JMU won, 78-73, the latest of the Dukes’ three-game win streak over the Monarchs on the men’s side.

JMU head coach Mark Byington said Chartway Arena was one of the loudest environments his team has faced this season. He also said he expects the fan attendance for Thursday’s rematch to be just as loud.

“We know they are kind of amped up and [there’s] more attention to things on the line,” Byington said, whose Dukes are coming off a four-game road swing. “We need a

tremendous home-court environment.”

JMU’s men are fourth in the Sun Belt at 18-9 (9-5 Sun Belt), while Old Dominion is right behind in fifth at 16-10 (8-6); the fourth seed earns an extra bye week in the Sun Belt tournament.

For the women, both programs are in a three-way second-place tie with Texas State, which the Dukes play Thursday. The Monarchs (18-9, 10-4 Sun Belt) are on a five-game win streak and host App State before taking on the Dukes (20-6, 10-4).

O’Regan said having Old Dominion as a conference mate again was one of the reasons he loved the Sun Belt move. O’Regan, a 2003 graduate of JMU, saw many conference basketball games between the two programs, and with the three-way tie in second place, he said the Royal Rivalry carries a bit more weight.

“I think that rivalry has always been one of the best in women's basketball,” O’Regan said. “And I know it's not where it is yet. It's gonna take us a couple battles to really stoke the fire in that rivalry. But for me, it's great.”

The JMU-Old Dominion basketball feud goes back some time. Former Monarchs head coach Wendy Larry (1987-2011) — who led Old Dominion to the 1997 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Championship and won 17 straight CAA titles from 1992-2008 — came into JMU’s Convocation Center to face the Dukes throughout the ’90s with JMU’s “Electric Zoo'' student section flashing some signs that JMU alum Peter Johnson said he couldn’t repeat because of their inappropriate language.

“That rivalry is getting a rebirth,” Johnson, who

attended JMU from 1986-88 and 1994-97, said. “It's our version of Carolina and Duke.”

Byington said JMU’s 58-53 nonconference win over Old Dominion last year at the AUBC felt like a conference game due to the physicality. “There’s going to be some wars coming up with those guys,” he added postgame.

The Monarchs have only led the Royal Rivalry once this season after defeating JMU field hockey 6-1 on Sep. 2. Since then, the Dukes have won seven of the last nine matchups, drawing in men’s soccer, 0-0, Sep. 25, and losing in overtime in the women’s soccer Sun Belt Championship on Nov. 6.

Both basketball teams competing this weekend marks the halfway point of the competition and the start of a month-long pause in competition before the two schools face in lacrosse April 1. The Diamond Dukes wait until May 12-14 for their chance to contribute to the competition, which will end this year’s rendition.

Each head-to-head win in the Royal Rivalry grants one point; ties give .5 to both sides. The winner at season’s end will receive a trophy designed by JMU and Old Dominion art students, according to the October press release.

The rivalry intensifies Thursday.

“I challenge everybody to come out to the men’s home game against Old Dominion," Johnson said. "And, really, I don't think people understand how big a role having that energy all the way through the game plays. It's like y'all are part of the team.”

CONTACT Madison Hricik and Grant Johnson at breezesports@gmail.com. For more basketball coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

Graphic by Ben Moulse / The Breeze

Junior Claire Neff makes her entrance at a women's basketball game. Kailey Garner / The Breeze

Step it up

UREC’s group workout room gives student clubs new options

By ZACH MENDENHALL The Breeze

JMU’s University Recreation Center (UREC) broke ground in 1994 and opened in 1996, offering over 300 non-credit learning programs a year. But now with 278,515 square feet to explore, there are a few easy-to-miss places.

UREC’s group training room — located on the left after checking in beneath the main concourse — has only recently gained popularity. It replaced old and unused racquetball courts in 2020, Kelsey Silverman, a graduate assistant at UREC, said, and has increased in programs and equipment since.

“It’s a very popular fad kind of across all recreation centers right now that racquetball courts are just not as popular as they used to be,” Silverman said. Schools are developing their own “functional training spaces,” completing construction on old or unused areas.

The room is a multipurpose group training room, Charlie Gaylord, sophomore UREC employee said, meaning it “has the equipment in it to work out almost anything you want.”

The room includes turf, wall ball targets and rack sleds used for pushing — which are unique to just the training room, Gaylord said.

Gaylord said he enjoys using the room to improve the club ultimate frisbee team. They do speed and agility workouts in the training room, Gaylord said, but not as many weight-lifting exercises. He said the speed work complements the on-field cardio from frisbee well.

Using the room allows the ultimate frisbee team to build chemistry, Gaylord said. Having

the entire team present in a room together develops “physical chemistry,” ensuring the whole team is on the same strength level, and equally important “social chemistry.”

Gaylord said he also appreciates that the training room offers “less disruptions of flow” in workouts. Waiting at a machine for an extended amount of time can be annoying, he said; but, the room offers “efficiency,” keeping workouts flowing at ease.

The room is also home to programs such as total resistance exercise classes, which relies on suspension training; wellness passports, which are required self-wellness classes for students taking the general education course, Health 100 — such as meditation and time management sessions — “Learn to…” classes that focus on improving a specific skill, and Quick Fit classes, offered five times a day with different set workouts that allow full body exercises in 45 minutes. Club sports teams also select weekly workout times as a team.

Senior health sciences major Julia Shreve, who teaches group training classes at UREC, said she’s noticed more people signing up for classes in the training room this semester compared to last. Her classes also usually receive new attendants each time, she said.

Shreve said she believes openness and variety of equipment in the training room makes it easier to complete workouts more efficiently. With her largest classes only up to eight people, this lets her interact with the participants and focus on their training.

“I can pretty much monitor everybody throughout the entire class,” Shreve said. “I can check over everybody’s form and make sure that they’re getting it and like give them modifications and help them personalize a move to do what’s best for them and their fitness level.”

“It definitely enhances the experience and I hope … that we can keep taking this going into the future because it makes sense .”

Charlie Gaylord Sophomore UREC Employee

UREC’s group training room helps club teams workout through high-intensity exercises, according to Charlie Gaylord. Photos courtesy of UREC

The room has equipment for weightlifting, mobility and other types of full body exercises.

While the room is reserved for specific programs and organizations, the classes are accessible to anybody, Silverman said. She said she takes the classes because she loves the small-group setting, which helps her stay motivated with “accountability buddies” while also allowing her to work at her own pace.

Gaylord said reserving the room for his ultimate frisbee team has encouraged people to show up to workouts. It gives people less of an excuse to say no, he said, because “you know you’re gonna be working out with your friends exclusively.”

Although the ultimate frisbee team has only used the room for about a month, Gaylord said they plan to carry on tradition for many years.

“It definitely enhances the experience and I hope … that we can keep taking this going into the future because it makes sense,” Gaylord said.

Recently, UREC has been promoting the room on Instagram through a segment that publicizes other lesser-known areas in the complex. Silverman said it explains how to sign

up for the classes, too.

“It’s a really cool functional space that’s not offered in many places. It allows for different types of movements and different types of training,” Silverman said.

With students back on campus post-COVID-19 restrictions, the room offers a sense of “community,” Silverman said, as the members of the class continue to meet one another. It creates a setting that is hard to find, she added.

“If you don’t get along with your teammates, you’re not going to play well,” Gaylord said. “So team bonding plays a huge, huge part in all of this.”

Benefits ranging from increased chemistry, timeliness and overall efficiency, the group training room continues to have more and more people recognize it, Shreve said, as it continues to find its mold in the complex.

CONTACT Zach Mendenhall at mendenzl@dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

The group training room allows for group classes, and for club teams to practice together. Photos courtesy of UREC

OPINION

Evan Weaver breezeopinion@gmail.com EDITOR EMAIL @Breeze_Opinion

Find community

Want to praise someone or get something off your chest? Darts & Pats is the place to do it. Submit your own at breezejmu.org.

Students should engage with social media accounts affiliated with JMU clubs and organizations

A “happy-Valentine’sDay” pat to my roommate who got me a gift.

From someone who appreciates their thoughtfulness.

A “what’s-that-smell” dart to my car that broke down.

From someone who has enough anxiety to deal with.

A “what-does-thismean” dart to a vague professor.

From someone who felt stupid when reading their instructions.

New places, new people, new experiences. It’s overwhelming. Finding like-minded people in college might just seem impossible. JMU social media accounts are a great way to find new friends.

People of similar interests tend to follow similar accounts. If people follow accounts on social media they like, it creates a page for people who have similar interests to come together.

For example, if someone’s passion is spending time outdoors, JMU Outdoor Adventure Club’s Instagram page, @jmuoutdooradventure, would be a great place to find other people who like nature. With these accounts, comes community. On these social media pages there are posts, comments, likes and followers that all center around the same thing. Being within these groups makes people feel seen, represented and, at times, safe. Community is important for people. Finding a sense of belonging and engaging in social connection is important to a student’s health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health risk related to substance use, mental health, violence and sexual health is significantly less likely in adulthood when youth feel

connected at school.

According to Wellbeing People, a wellness provider, community allows the sharing of personal relatedness and support for perpetual growth. It also allows for the embrace of vital elements of health like pride, character, image and spirit.

Students can look at any social media account and decide for themselves if it’s for them. If a student identifies with the group, they can join the community by the click of a button: a simple follow.

Following a JMU social media account allows for a student to decide how active they want to be. Each student has their own social limits — social media allows for a safe space for a student to decide how engaged they wish to be. Interactions can be as limited as liking a post or as interactive as attending the events these accounts advertise .

see SOCIAL MEDIA , page 25

An “estoy-feliz” pat to my Spanish professor who cancelled class because he thought we seemed stressed.

From someone who was stressed.

HAILEY RUFFNER contributing columnist

95% of 83 respondents to a poll on The Breeze’s Instagram indicated that they follow JMU social media accounts.

Graphic by Evan Weaver / The Breeze

from SOCIAL MEDIA, page 24

JMU has over 450 clubs and organizations, and there’s a very wide variety of them. A club can be found for any interest, major or sport. Attending club meetings might be intimidating when someones unsure whether a club is the right fit. Looking at a club’s social media presence is a great option t o see the inner workings of a club without the risk of rejection. Students can see the club or organization’s ideals, goals, people and activities before dedicating any of their time or money.

JMU social media accounts are also a great way to find information or things to do around campus. @sydney.lelia said JMU social media accounts “are my main source of info,” in response to a poll posted by The Breeze’s Instagram account.

If you’re looking for new clubs to join, to talk to new people or sing your heart out, social media is a great way to find the opportunities. To look for special events like concerts, movies, late night breakfast and even more, you could follow the JMU University Program Board @upbjmu on Instagram. If you want to make sure you don’t miss the next crafternoon or tea time, JMU student activities, @jmustudentactivies on Instagram, might be a good account to follow. The JMU social media account for you is out there, now it’s just time to go follow

CONTACT Hailey Ruffner at ruffnehl@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on Instagram and Twitter @Breeze_Opinion.

troubles

ANTHONY ADKINS contributing columnist

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter back in October 2022 shook the social media world to its core, attracting the attention of many of the platform’s users along with those who are purely looking in from the outside. In doing so, the many cracks within the world’s capitalistic and faux-meritocratic societal structure are shown.

According to the New York Times, Twitter’s workforce has reduced almost 50% of its staff, dropping the number of employees from around 7,500 to about 3,700. The vast majority of these layoffs took place within the last three to four months.

“It shows a form of tyranny,” Dr. Mohammed Ala-Uddin, a lecturer within JMU’s School of Communication Studies

(SCOM), said. “The public is helpless to the Big Fish in society.”

Ala-Uddin compared Twitter to a country like the U.S., where those given privileged positions in their lives and careers take on roles of leadership. They assume these roles and become “disruptive factors” within their spaces, he said.

“Any time you have change, it’s going to affect people.” Lindsay Harvell-Bowman, an associate SCOM professor.

According to a report from the New York Post, Musk’s layoffs were extended to Twitter’s global content moderation teams earlier this year. The company’s latest cost-cutting measures resulted in the removal of employee perks such as free meals in the office

see TWITTER , page 26

Elon Musk's leadership at Twitter in the months following acquisition is tyranical

Twitter

Elon Musk, founder of companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal and others, became the owner and CEO of Twitter in October 2022. Photos courtesy of Tribune News Service

Graphic by Ben Moulse / The Breeze

from TWITTER, page 25

“People are aware of how they are being deprived,” Ala-Uddin said. “It’s like we’ve entered a new form of slavery, with workers being happy about being controlled in a not-so-obvious way.”

In the case of Twitter, Musk has no qualms with handling the removal of his engineers in person.

According to The Verge, Musk reportedly fired an employee following a meeting in which they discussed the waning performance of Musk’s tweets on the site. After conducting an investigation into any factors that point to why, the anonymous engineer found that the public had lost interest in what the new CEO had to say.

Upon hearing the reason, Musk fired the engineer immediately without explanation.

While it’s common for most companies in the U.S. to adhere to at-will employment practices — meaning employers can fire anyone for any reason without prior notice or consequence — in the case of mass layoffs, the terms change a bit. Affirmed by the U.S. Department of Labor, to be in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, employers are required to provide staff

with a 60 day notice in the event of a mass layoff of at least 500 employees.

Reuters reported that many of the laidoff employees were terminated upon Musk’s takeover of the company, meaning they could have received little-to-no warning. On top of this, they were promised severance pay after the merger. For many, this pay has been unsatisfactory or unseen. Earlier this year, a judge ruled against a classaction lawsuit filed by ex-employees on these grounds.

“Our pursuit of justice is put second in the way of these corporations,” AlaUddin said. “There’s an inherent flaw in our system of meritocracy and the open market.”

In lieu of Musk’s new-found ownership of Twitter, the lives of the many engineers and staff members that built the platform up to what it is today have been shaken by the hands of one man. Simply put — no one should have that much power or influence over so many others, especially not if the U.S. is considered to be the land of the free

CONTACT Anthony Adkins at adkinsal@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on Instagram and Twitter @Breeze_Opinion.

Measures taken to cut costs at Twitter have resulted in the reduction of employee perks such as free meals among others.

The number of employees at Twitter is about 3,700, down from 7,500. The majority of these layoffs took place within the last 3-4 months since Musk’s ownership.

According to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, employers are required to provide staff with a 60 day notice before laying off 500 employees or more.

Twitter's workforce has diminished by 50% since Elon Musk assumed the role of CEO in 2022. Photos courtesy of Tribune News Service

of Twitter’s workforce has Been Fired since Musk’s acquisition

Graphic by Evan Weaver / The Breeze

This week in JMU history...

On Dec. 2, 1922, The Breeze was born. Since then, it’s been the indispensable source of news for the JMU and Harrisonburg communities for 100 years. The Breeze is celebrating its centennial this week, so we’re traveling back in time.

Each week, The Breeze takes a look back on historic moments in JMU and Breeze history by publishing the cover from the same publication day, just years in the past.

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Lewis

Erik Agard

CITY OF HARRISONBURG JOBS

Job Opportunity - Transit Bus Operator

Do you want a part-time job that has meaning and provides a service that directly impacts the local community? If so, consider applying to the City of Harrisonburg’s Bus Driver - Transit (Transit Bus Operator) position! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva. gov/employment. EOE.

Job Opportunity - Customer Service Specialist (Golf)

Are you looking for a seasonal job that allows you to interact with others in a fun environment at the award-winning Heritage Oaks Golf Course? If so, consider applying for the City of Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation Department’s Customer Service Specialist - Golf position! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Job Opportunity - Custodian (Maintenance Division)

Do you want a job with the City that helps project a friendly image to our citizens, employees, and others? If so, the Custodian position in the City of Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation Department’s Maintenance Division may be the right opportunity for you! Find out more/apply online: https://www. harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Seasonal Job Opportunity - Park Grounds Maintenance Laborer

Are you looking for a seasonal job that allows you to work primarily outdoors and utilize your maintenance skills to upkeep various park grounds? If so, apply to the City of Harrisonburg’s seasonal Park Grounds Maintenance Laborer position! Find out more/apply online: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Job Opportunity - Water Service Technician

Do you want a part-time job that helps provide a meaningful service to the community through in-field customer service and related work? If so, the Public Utilities Department’s Water Service Technician may be the right job for you! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Job Opportunity - Recreation Aide (Youth Services)

Do you want to have fun at work while also providing a safe and engaging environment for youth? If so, the City of Harrisonburg’s Recreation Aide - Youth Services position may be the right job for you! Seasonal & Part-Time Opportunities Available! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

MADISON MARKETPLACE

Madison Marketplace is open for business, and all text-only listings are FREE ! Post job listings, announcements, rentals and more using our online placement tool. Ads run two weeks online and in two print editions.

Job Opportunity - Golf Cart Attendant

Do you want a seasonal position with flexible scheduling that plays a vital role in projecting a friendly image of our golf course facility to citizens/employees/others?

If so, the Parks and Recreation Department’s Golf Cart Attendant position may be the right job for you! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva. gov/employment. EOE.

Job Opportunity - Administrative Assistant

Are you seeking a part-time job that allows you to utilize your administrative support and office operations experience? If so, consider applying to the City of Harrisonburg’s Administrative Assistant position within the Public Works Department! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva. gov/employment. EOE.

Career Opportunity - School Bus Driver

Do you want to utilize your driving skills to help ensure that local students arrive to school in a safe manner? If so, the City of Harrisonburg’s Department of Public Transportation School Bus Driver position may be the right career for you! Find out more/ apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/ employment. EOE.

Career Opportunity - Project Coordinator

Are you seeking a new opportunity in your project coordination/management career? If so, consider the City of Harrisonburg Department of Public Works’ Project Coordinator role, which will provide you with a challenging yet rewarding opportunity to utilize your knowledge, skills, and abilities. Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva. gov/employment. EOE.

Career Opportunity - Crew Supervisor for Traffic Signs & Pavement Markings

Do you want to utilize your leadership skills/related experience to provide a clearly marked and signed public right-of-way for all road users? If so, consider applying to the City of Harrisonburg Public Works Department’s Crew Supervisor for Traffic Signs & Pavement Markings position! Find out more/ apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/ employment. EOE.

Career Opportunity - Technology Support Specialist

Do you want to make a difference in the community by leveraging technology that will effectively serve internal and external customers? If so, the City of Harrisonburg’s Technology Support Specialist position may be a great fit for you! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Career Opportunity - Technician II (Grounds Maintenance)

Do you want to use your technical skills to enhance the public’s quality of life by developing/maintaining open spaces/facilities for the use/enjoyment by the public? If so, the Parks and Recreation Department’s Technician II - Grounds Maintenance position may be the right career for you! Find out more/apply: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Job Opportunity - Customer Service Specialist (Year-Round)

Do you want to utilize your customer service skills/ abilities to make a positive impact on citizens and guests visiting Parks and Recreation facilities? If so, the City of Harrisonburg’s Parks and Recreation Department’s Customer Service Specialist position may be the right career for you! Find out more/apply online: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

UREC is hiring!

Summer positions: TEAM Facilitator, Summer Camp Staff, and Summer Lifeguard. Summer/Fall: Adventure Specialist, Cooking Instructor, Event Operations Specialist, Fitness Assistant, Sports Official, Recreation Assistant, and Swim Instructor. Fall: Adventure Trip Leader, Emergency Responder, Maintenance Assistant, Member Services Assistant, and Wellness Instructor. Apply February 10-24 on JMU JobLink!

COMMUNITY

3 Bedroom Duplex with Garage for Rent

3br/2bth duplex w/garage for rent. 55+ community (at least half of the people renting must be 55 or older). 10 min from JMU.

Windows 13 tutor needed

Needed--tutor in Windows. I need help in learning to wrtite manuscripts and general computer skills i8n Windows 13. Will pay $50.00 per hour or negotiate rate. John Weir 540 421 9537 weircp@live.com

JOBS

Happy Birthday Wyatt, from Bear, DE.

FEB.

DID YOU KNOW...

The Madison Experience requires resources greater than those provided through state appropriations and tuition. Gifts of all sizes are necessary to power JMU.

YOUR GIFT COULD SUPPORT:

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR DUKES

Many students who want to attend JMU can’t afford to without a scholarship. Your gift can help another student overcome their financial constraints so they can come to JMU.

JMU COUNSELING CENTER

The TimelyCare program provides access to virtual mental health and wellbeing services for FREE 24/7, 365 days a year to all JMU students. Students do not need insurance to access TImelyCare. Your gift can support resources like these.

THESE ARE JUST 2 EXAMPLES. YOU CHOOSE WHERE YOUR GIFT GOES.