The Breeze 9.14.23

The Breeze

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On the cover

This week's front page spotlights the severe drought warning that Harrisonburg is entering for the third week. Wayne Teel, a professor in the Department of Integrated Science and Technology who's done extensive work with water worldwide, said despite this past weekend's heavy rainfall, it would take many months for the Valley to "recharge."

To help Harrisonburg's efforts, JMU is significantly reducing its use of campuswide irrigation such as its sprinkler system, said Mary-Hope Vass, JMU executive director of communications and university spokesperson.

People in the JMU community can take short showers instead of baths, avoid letting the water run while brushing their teeth or washing their face and operate dish and clothes washers only when they are fully loaded.

Stay tuned at breeze.jmu.org for more coverage on the Harrisonburg drought.

Editorial Staff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GRANT JOHNSON breezeeditor@gmail.com

NEWS EDITORS

ELEANOR SHAW & LIZZIE STONE breezenews@gmail.com

COPY EDITORS

EMMA JOHNSON & WILLIAM MORAN breezecopy@gmail.com

EXECUTIVE EDITOR MICHAEL RUSSO breezepress@gmail.com

CULTURE EDITORS MORGAN BLAIR & EVAN MOODY thebreezeculture@gmail.com

AUDIENCE EDITOR ALI MCCALEB thebreezesocials@gmail.com

MANAGING EDITOR AVERY GOODSTINE thebreezeweb@gmail.com

SPORTS EDITORS KAIDEN BRIDGES & JACKSON HEPHNER breezesports@gmail.com

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

CREATIVE DIRECTOR AD DESIGNERS ALEX CANDELIER TRISTAN GAONA & MEGAN GOLINSKY

COVER GRAPHIC BY: BEN MOULSE / THE BREEZE

OPINION EDITOR EVAN WEAVER breezeopinion@gmail.com

ART DIRECTOR BEN MOULSE thebreezeartdirector@gmail.com

LEFT: A referee holds up a yellow card in No. 9 JMU and U.Va.'s men's soccer match Tuesday, one of nine cards given throughout the evening. JMU senior midfielder Rodrigo Robles scored a goal with 16 seconds left to tie the match at 1-1. With the draw, the Dukes (40-2) remain undefeated going into a Saturday night clash with No. 2 Marshall back at Sentara Park.

Kaiden Bridges / The Breeze

For more on JMU's hot start, see page 18, and for more photos from the Dukes' win over U.Va. visit breeze.jmu.org/multimedia.

The Breeze

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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 distributed free of charge. Additional copies are available for 50 cents by contacting our business office. Comments and complaints should be addressed to Grant Johnson, editor.

Eleanor Shaw & Lizzie Stone

‘Not a short-term problem’: Harrisonburg drought warning stage rolls in spite of rainfall

By ELLE HART & FABIO SPINO The Breeze

Harrisonburg is in the third week of a severe drought warning. According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, a federal database that tracks drought levels, the city is experiencing a severe short-term drought, the third level — a “two” — on a five-level scale that uses several indicators including precipitation and moisture. Affected areas include Harrisonburg and some of Rockingham county.

Wayne Teel, a professor in the department of Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT), has done extensive work with water around the world and said water is a major concern in the Shenandoah Valley, where he said it’s common to have shortages of it .

Even with the heavy rainfall this past weekend, Teel said it would take many months for the area to be “recharged.”

“This is not a short-term problem,” Teel said. “It has to be considered a longer-term problem, and we have to continuously monitor our water use until we get the baseline of our water supply back up to normal levels.”

In an email to The Breeze, Mike Parks, director of communications for the city, said Harrisonburg Public Utilities issued a drought warning — a period where fire frequency increases and reservoir levels are low — after the Department of Environmental Quality designated much of the Shenandoah Valley area to be in a drought warning stage.

The city shared an infographic Aug. 31 on X — formerly known as Twitter — Instagram and Facebook outlining steps residents are recommended to take to conserve water, such as taking short showers over baths, avoiding letting water run and not overwatering lawns.

Parks said there are no mandates to save water; the social media post states voluntary actions Harrisonburg residents can take.

In an email to The Breeze on Sept. 12, Mary-Hope Vass, JMU executive director of communications and university spokesperson, said the school will “continue to share the information that comes from the city of Harrisonburg.” Vass said once the city told JMU the area was designated to be in a drought warning, “the university took voluntary steps to significantly

reduce irrigation consumption across campus.” Vass said campuswide irrigation, including sprinkler systems, has had a “significant reduction” in use but did not know specifics at the time.

Vass also said messaging has been shared on social media, to help “encourage those on campus to be mindful of their water usage.” The university reposted the city’s Aug. 31 infographic on X.

According to a poll on The Breeze’s Instagram, 41% of 92

respondents said they had not heard about the drought warning.

Hannah Hill, a senior communication sciences and disorders major, said that she had not heard about the drought warning, but she already had some experience saving water.

“I don’t usually take super long showers, so I think maybe taking shorter showers is a good idea,” she said, adding that some people she knows will sometimes turn off showers between washing their hair.

Because Hill had not heard about the drought beforehand, she suggested the university try “getting the information about the drought out there through other methods such as Potty Mouth, a student newsletter posted in restrooms, or through university emails.

“Sometimes I feel like we do live in a college bubble,” she said, “where we don’t access a lot of media outside of where we immediately are.”

Teel said he encourages people to recognize and limit their water use and to “pay attention to uses that are not always visible.” For example, Teel said sprinklers are left on for hours at a time, blasting water in high volume. Another action Teel recommended was to limit time spent running tap water.

Teel said people who live in more urban and residential areas may “fail to recognize what the most significant uses of water are.”

However, Teel said he believes voluntary water reduction “is sometimes not enough to get through to the leaders who make the decisions about water use.”

For instance, he said, if the people who run the daily operations at facilities management don’t actively tell their staff to conserve water, they will do their job and water the grass. Teel said leaders have to enforce the reduction of water.

Reduction of water use, especially sprinkler usage should take place to help mitigate the effect of the drought, he said.

“You have to look at … how [water is] used, and what are the factors in making sure we keep it healthy,” he said, “and make sure we don’t overuse it at the expense of the environment.”

CONTACT Elle Hart at hart2ej@dukes.jmu.edu and Fabio Spino at spinofp@dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @ BreezeNewsJMU.

A JMU technician inspects sprinklers last spring. JMU has continued to water its lawns while Harrisonburg is under a warning for a severe short-term drought. However, JMU spokesperson Mary-Hope Vass said the school is taking measures to reduce irrigation. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

take short showers

avoid letting water run

do not overwater lawns

What to expect from student rep, faculty senate at first full BoV meeting

By LIZZIE STONE The Breeze

The Board of Visitors (BoV), JMU’s independent governing body, will meet this week. Committee meetings will be held throughout the afternoon on Thursday, and the full board will convene Friday at 8:30 a.m.

Various aspects of university policy are handled by the relevant committees: Academic Excellence, Advancement and Engagement, Athletics, Audit, Executive, Finance and Physical Development, Governance and Student Affairs. Meeting times for each committee are on JMU’s BoV website.

Members of the BoV, referred to as visitors, are appointed by Virginia’s governor and generally include a mix of alums and non-JMU graduates, according to the school’s website. Faculty interests are brought to the BoV by the speaker of the Faculty Senate, who serves as a non-voting faculty representative. Student interests are presented by a non-voting student representative to the BoV (SRBoV), who is elected by the student body each year.

The SRBoV for the 2023-24 school year is Abigail Cannella, elected last spring. Her platform included the goal of connecting with students, something she is trying to achieve with a dedicated SRBoV Instagram account that attempts to make BoV information accessible to students.

Cannella made a post on Tuesday explaining the meeting schedule of the full board and the Student Affairs Committee, as well as her report and recommendations for staying up to date. It also explains her plans to post a summary of the meeting and go into detail in a newsletter for anyone interested.

Cannella’s report, available in full as part of the complete board materials, focuses on connecting with students and communication. She will talk about the President’s Council and her other plans to visit student organizations on Thursday.

“[The President’s Council] is a monthly meeting that everybody at JMU is welcome to, but it’s targeted and promoted to the presidents of student organizations,” Cannella said. “They’re able to bring any concerns that the members of their organizations have to myself, and then I can bring that to the board and to members of the administration.”

Cannella said she also plans to present her social media and newsletter strategies to the board. She wants to go in depth with her plans for the year and how she will prioritize connecting with the student body.

“They have a voice, and it may not be directly their voice, but through me they do have a voice,” Cannella said. “Knowing that and knowing that I can speak for them — I will very gladly speak for them — is really, really important for me.”

Katherine Ott Walter will serve as the faculty representative to the BoV. Her report is also available as part of the full board materials.

Walter will present on the recent actions of the Faculty Senate, including its most-recent motion on Sept. 7 calling on the administration to develop a plan to serve JMU’s asset-limited, income-constrained, employed (ALICE) population.

Walter will also mention a fundraiser that was held in support of The Pantry at JMU, which helps students facing food insecurity, and the Faculty Senate’s statement supporting human rights in Iran.

Walter’s report states that the Senate is focusing on passing policy recommendations rather than motions and will “work to ensure good communication between the senate and administration.”

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

TOP: JMU’s Board of Visitors will meet separately in its committees on Thursday and together as a full board on Friday. Screengrab from JMU News. BOTTOM: Full board meetings have limited in-person capacity but are livestreamed to the public The board will hear about recent actions across the university, including reports from President Jonathan Alger, Vice President for Student Affairs Tim Miller, student representative Abigail Cannella and faculty representative Katherine Ott Walter. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

SGA approves first contingency fund request of year, hears from African American sorority

By HANNAH KENNEDY & ELEANOR SHAW The Breeze

The Student Government Association (SGA) Senate approved its first contingency fund request of the year and welcomed a presentation from Alpha Kappa Alpha at its second meeting of the semester on Tuesday.

Modeling org gets over $2,500

The SGA unanimously approved a $2,520 contingency fund request from Esteem Models, an on-campus student-run organization intended to showcase and enhance the talents of its 20 members. Senior Kyana Jones, Esteem Models’ vice president, represented the organization.

“Our motto is to slay, serve and succeed,” Jones said.

The funding will go toward the organization’s Era of Esteem Show, which will take place Sept. 30 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Festival Grand Ballroom. Jones said the show — showcasing its members as models strutting a catwalk — is one of many events sponsored by Esteem Models, which will also support two to three other modeling shows, bake sales, and self-care and confidence workshops, Jones said, in addition to collaborations with offcampus organizations at Virginia Tech and in Washington, D.C., respectively.

“We want to get our name out there, and we want to collaborate with anyone who wants to get to know us as a team,” Jones said.

Jones said Esteem Models will use the money to fund catering, photography, makeup artists and other supplies needed to make Era of Esteem a reality.

“We are sure that we’ll be raising money for our organization,” Jones said. “But just to

get us off the ground, we need the help of contingency.”

The funds will supplement the organization’s $15 member dues and $273 fundraised from its bake sale last semester, Jones said.

“I think that they represent the school well and are definitely involved in a lot of other things,” said senator Zach Fox, a junior and member of the SGA’s finance committee.

Alpha Kappa Alpha: empowerment and engagement

Senior Kianna Butts, president of the Lambda Chi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, advertised the predominantly African American sorority’s upcoming events, which include Black Girls Rock, an awards ceremony and celebration of women of color previously financed by the SGA.

To this end, Butts said she hoped to spread awareness of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s mission statement of empowering women in both education and society during her presentation to the SGA.

The organization is composed of just five members but aims to service JMU and the Harrisonburg community in an effort to uphold their 45-year legacy as the oldest African American Greek letter sorority.

“We may be small, but we are mighty,” Butts said.

The sorority can be seen participating in mobile clothing drives sponsored by Vertical Connections, packaging meals for families on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and at Skyline Middle School aiding in English-learning classes.

“Service to all mankind is one of the biggest pillars that we like to live by,” Butts said.

Junior Takiyah Monrose-Richardson, the SGA’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice and Accessibility (DEIJA) chair, spoke to the character of the club and its leadership, stating, “Kianna, the president, she’s my close friend.” Their relationship is what initially drew Monrose-Richarson to spotlight the sorority during SGA meetings in order to open doors to contingency funding and exposure to the community.

Additionally, Monrose-Richardson emphasized the importance of club engagement with the SGA to earn funding, an ongoing responsibility of theirs.

“I feel like being DEIJA chair is a very special space,” Monrose-Richardson said. “It’s one of the newer positions, and I feel like I get the rare opportunity to, like, really go out to these places … I am here for you, I want to help you with whatever you want to do in your [organizations].”

CONTACT Hannah Kennedy at kennedhj@ dukes.jmu.edu and Eleanor Shaw at breezenews@gmail.com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

The SGA welcomed presentations from Esteem Models and Alpha Kappa Alpha during its second meeting of the year. Daria Ausen / The Breeze

Former Virginia secretary urges students to embrace differing ideals during JMU visit

By ABBY ALLARD contributing Writer

Former Secretary of Virginia Kay Coles James (R) encouraged listeners to embrace people regardless of party affiliation in spite of increasing political turmoil nationwide during her visit to JMU on Sept. 6.

The event kickstarted The Office of Strategic Initiatives and Global Affairs’ Inclusive Community Series, which looks to make strides toward “inclusive excellence,” as JMU’s website says.

Before her appointment to JMU’s Board of Visitors by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) in 2022, James was the director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in former President George W. Bush’s administration. In this position, James advised Bush in “matters of personnel administration,” according to her speaker biography. After her time as OPM director, James worked as the secretary of Virginia’s Department of Health and Human Resources during the administration of former Gov. George Allen (R) in the mid-1990s.

During the lecture, James discussed her personal evolution and said she is not the same person she was at the beginning of her career — something she’s grateful for. James said she learned an inclusive environment will help bring people together across many political spectrums.

“It’s important that we have time to grow and learn and to change,” James said.

One of the biggest factors that inspired this change, she said, was when she found out her son was gay. She said it took time for her and her husband to accept this. With her conservative background, she said it was a “wake-up call.”

James said she yearns for a time when people of different ideological backgrounds can come

together to create solutions rather than butt heads and create more problems.

“I have never seen a political environment that is more toxic and worse than it is right now,” James said.

James gave the example of how political leaders such as George W. Bush and Michelle Obama had a great relationship, even though they were on different sides of the political spectrum. Toward the end of her lecture, she said everyone should seek a consensus and a common ground to help create balance.

A Q&A took place after James addressed the audience, hosted by Dean of the Graduate School Linda Thomas and senior Mya Wilcox. During the Q&A, James said some people will want to stay divided and not come up with solutions alongside people with different ideologies to help political leaders come together.

One audience member asked James for advice on getting people to listen and engage in constructive and meaningful dialogue. In response, James said that individuals sometimes have to ignore others who don’t want to engage in civil discourse.

Additionally in the Q&A, James said social media is not an ideal setting for political discourse or having genuine conversations, but rather it’s for building a fun community.

James said young people should want to know why they believe in certain ideologies. She said people attending events for “entertainment” means they are only there to make a mockery out of people for having different beliefs, not to listen and learn from others.

CONTACT Abby Allard at allardag@dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

Kay Coles James (R), who’s worked in national and state government throughout her multiple decades in politics, addressed an audience of JMU community members during the first of the school’s Inclusive Community Series on Sept. 6, during which she reflected on her professional and personal experiences and their applicability to listeners. Photos by Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

After she spoke, James answered listeners’ questions and offered them advice. James encouraged audience members to approach differences constructively and avoid social media discourse.

As a conservative, James said hearing her son come out as gay was hard to accept for her and her husband. She called it a “wake-up call,” as she learned to be accepting of differing beliefs.

The bond of Blue Ridge music group almost two decades strong

By LILLYANNE DAY The Breeze

Driving on winding back roads of Rockingham County and no cell service are key elements when one is attending The Steel Wheels concert in Orkney Springs, Virginia.

Having consisted of different members and monikers since 2005, The Steel Wheels band has been playing in some form since then. Now, the band consists of five members: lead singer, songwriter and banjo player Trent Wagler; fiddle player and vocalist Eric Brubaker; guitarist, vocalist and mandolin player Jay Lapp, percussionist, drummer and keyboardist Kevin Garcia; and bassist Jeremy Darrow.

The first iteration of The Steel Wheels consisted of Lapp, Brubaker, Wagler and Brian Dickel on bass. Dickel stepped back from the band during the pandemic when he decided to build guitars as a full-time job. This allowed for Darrow to step in.

“I live in Nashville, and when the band would come through, I would go to the shows,” Darrow said. “By the time these guys

called me and asked if I wanted to play bass with the band, we all were pretty familiar with each other, but we hadn’t really played music together.”

The band sprouted in Harrisonburg. Wagler said there were no plans at the time to tour as a group — just to simply make music.

“I was writing songs and I wanted to play those songs with a band, and these were guys that I really respected as musicians and knew them as friends,” Wagler said. “It was just, ‘Let’s see if we can put these songs together.’”

As the band grew into different sounds, this affected their musical needs. Wagler said after the band had been playing for about 10 years, they recorded an album that had more keys and percussion in it. The band wanted to represent those sounds on stage, so it reached out to Garcia, and he started touring with The Steel Wheels and later joined the band full time.

The Steel Wheels’ members attribute the band’s longevity to the friendship each member has with one another and their evolving music.

“The fact that we can still enjoy each other’s company through the many years we’ve been doing it is probably one of the most

rewarding things,” Wagler said. “I think that without that, we wouldn’t have stayed together as a band this long.”

Lapp said the shared love for music and strong friendships each member has with one another makes being on the road and performing day in and day out more enjoyable.

“I mean, they really are like my best friends, that’s the best part. Plus, all the music rocks,” Garcia said.

Wagler said the band is constantly trying to discover new sounds and music because it interests them.

The Steel Wheels’ highest performing songs include “Scrape Me Off The Ceiling” and “Mountains Quake,” according to their Spotify page. These songs span across the life of The Steel Wheels and use the various instruments played and vocal ranges sung by each member, in addition to representing the evolution of the band’s sound.

“Scrape Me Off The Ceiling” was released in 2017 as a part of The Steel Wheels album “Wild as We Came Here” and has received over 2 million streams on Spotify.

“Mountains Quake” was featured on the album “Leave Some Things Behind,” which was released in 2015, and has over 1.5

The Steel Wheels began in Harrisonburg without the intention of becoming a touring group. In the 2010s, however, it made regular apparences at folk and roots festivals. Photos by LillyAnne Day / The Breeze

Morgan Blair & Evan Moody

million streams on the music app.

In 2013, The Steel Wheels put on the firstever Red Wing Music Festival at Natural Chimneys Park and Campground in western Virginia. This summer will mark the 11th consecutive Red Wing that The Steel Wheels have hosted.

“We’d get really stale and bored if we were like, ‘Oh, people like that song “Red Wing,” let’s see if we can write another “Red Wing,”’ Wagler said. “I think that is such a path to failure as a band.”

The Steel Wheels had the idea to start a festival in the Shenandoah Valley as a way to give locals a taste of what the band experiences on tour.

“We got to play a lot of great festivals ourselves,” Wagler said. “We kept coming back to the Shenandoah Valley, and said, ‘What if there was something here, especially for our own kids and the community?’”

The three-day music festival allows patrons to camp on site and attend any of the performances selected for that year. As the host band, The Steel Wheels perform multiple times throughout the festival in addition to being involved in the planning of it each year.

“There’s something that happens when you play, when you gather people to listen to any sort of art really,” Brubaker said. “Having people gathering shoulder to shoulder to listen to something and have an experience together is very different than just listening to a record at home. We’ve sort of taken that to another level at the festival.”

Brubaker said during Red Wing, the band has walked past a campfire and overheard a Steel Wheels song being sung. He said such experiences are proof that people have taken what The Steel Wheels have done and made it a part of their own experience.

“I love it when the audience is leaving and you can tell there’s a buzz,” Garcia said. “Especially at the festival, you can just tell that you’re leaving them with a kind of positivity.”

CONTACT LillyAnne Day at daymillm@ 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.

“ALL THE MUSIC ROCKS”

KEVIN GARCIA - PERCUSSIONIST, DRUMMER AND KEYBOARDIST

Fans could be heard singing The Steel Wheel’s songs around campfires at Red Wing Music Festival in Orkney Springs, Virginia.

2023 marks the 11th year of the Redwing Music Festival, an event organized and hosted annually by The Steel Wheels.

Student band to pursue music full time in Georgia

By K. Mauser The Breeze

It all started at UREC.

In August 2022, when he was leaving the University Recreation Center (UREC), Jeremiah Wilcox was approached by vocalist Rheese Crutcher and the former bassist, who were asking random JMU students if they played drums.

“They were just running around asking people if they played drums,” Wilcox said. “And they were like, ‘Do you wanna be in a band?’”

Ever since, Wilcox has been the drummer for Cartwheels, a Harrisonburg-based band that plays in locations throughout Virginia.

Just getting started

Cartwheels is composed of four members: Crutcher, the lead singer and guitarist; Wilcox, who plays drums; Ian Lassetter, who plays keyboard; and Evan Sposato, the bassist. Crutcher is a senior philosophy major at JMU, and Lassetter just graduated from the school this past May with a double major in Spanish and international affairs.

The band released its first single, “Palace of Wonder,” in July. The song encompasses an indie take on a classic rock song, with a light, upbeat melody. The lyrics, however, suggest a darker tone.

“I’m scared of going under / This palace of wonder,” Crutcher sings brightly. The somewhat-heavy lyrics seem to contradict the generally positive tune, creating a deeper meaning to the song itself.

Lassetter said the song has over 2,100 streams on Spotify, and Crutcher said Cartwheels has around 1,200-1,300 monthly listeners on the music app.

Lassetter said the band collaborates to write each song and

that the band looks forward to writing more together. Cartwheels plans to release its next song Sept. 29, Sposato said, adding that he defines the band’s sound as a “funkrock fusion.”

“I think the [single] that’s coming out next, “Circles,” is definitely a phenomenal song that I’m very excited about,” the band’s producer Elie Bashkow said.

Bashkow also said he hopes that people hear the song and connect with it.

“They have some very beautiful imagery in their music,” said Hannah Bashkow, Elie’s sister who created the cover art for Cartwheels’ two singles. “[Their imagery] has been fun to work with, to make art around.”

Plans to go south

Cartwheels members all live in Harrisonburg, but the band plans to wait for Crutcher to graduate in the spring before moving to Athens, Georgia, to pursue music full time, he said.

“[Athens is] a really cool up-and-coming music center, but it’s not quite as saturated as somewhere like Nashville or New York City,” Crutcher said. “We’re building our portfolio now so that we have a whole bunch of music to our name and, hopefully, a decent following by the time we get down there.”

The band plans to move there because there’s more potential to be able to do music full time, Sposato added.

Most of the band’s following, Crutcher said, is based in Charlottesville, where Cartwheels plays the majority of its shows. Elie said the band is building on its own musical identity as it releases more music.

Cartwheels in Harrisonburg

The music scene in Harrisonburg is fairly small, Crutcher said, and therefore pursuing full-time music is like “fighting an uphill battle” with such limited opportunities.

Chass Huff, bassist for Doghouse Band, said Harrisonburgbased bands can find local success through connections. For commercial success, however, an online presence is needed to grow beyond locality. As of now, Cartwheels has 502 followers on their Instagram page.

Sposato said the Friendly City’s music scene can be improved if more bands like Cartwheels continue to play there. He also said the band plays a mix of cover and original songs for now, but it hopes to include more original material in future shows. He added that many of Cartwheels’ shows are around Charlottesville, but it often plays in Harrisonburg.

Two weeks ago, the Cartwheels opened for touring band Zeta at the Golden Pony on N. Main Street. The crowd shouted and cheered as Crutcher and Wilcox took turns soloing in one of the first songs they played. The audience was packed close to the stage, listening intently to Cartwheels play some of its catalog. The resounding cheers after every song helped to bridge the band into each of its next songs.

“I feel like they have a very distinctive sound and voice,” Elie said.

The band also played at Taylor Down Under in the basement of The Union for an event this past May, Lassetter said, and Sposato added that the Cartwheels won an iHeartRadio contest at the Rockingham County Fair in August as well.

As for the future and an eventual move to the Peach State, Cartwheels is dialed in on what’s right in front of it for now.

“I think we’re just focused on doing as much great sh*t as we can here ... and then see,” Elie said.

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.

Jeremiah Wilcox with his drumset. Cartwheels released its first single, “Place of Wonder,” in July, which has over 2,100 streams on Spotify. Beyond opening for the band Zeta on Aug. 31, Cartwheels has performed in Taylor Down Unider and the Rockingham County Fair.

Evan Sposato plays his guitar at the Golden Pony in late August. Members of Cartwheels have described the Harrisonburg music scene as small with limited opportunities; therefore, the band is planning to seek chances in the Peach State. Photos by K. Mauser / The Breeze

Review | Olivia Rodrigo spills her ‘GUTS’ on latest album

By JAKE DODOHARA The Breeze

“I’m a perfect all-American b*tch / With perfect all-American lips / And perfect allAmerican hips / I know my place and this is it, ” Olivia Rodrigo screams between crunchy, distorted guitars on the opening track of her sophomore album “GUTS.” Rodrigo’s sarcastic eye-roll on “all-american bitch” is a fitting proclamation for the rest of her album, filled with blithe tracks about the confusion and contractions that arise in your early 20s.

Rodrigo’s debut album “SOUR” was an undeniable success during its release in 2021. Her musings about first love and heartbreak soundtracked the pandemic with songs such as “driver’s license,” “traitor” and “good 4 u” all becoming staples on nearly every “sad girl” Spotify playlist.

While a strong debut for Rodrigo, the lyrical material on “SOUR” — with youthful nonsequiturs about “that blonde girl” and how Rodrigo “can’t even parallel park” — feels admittedly teenage in retrospect. There’s also been the constant comparison between Rodrigo and Taylor Swift. “SOUR” positioned Rodrigo as Swift’s protege, with the two sharing a fondness for diaristic lyrics and tabloid romances. While the comparison is ultimately flattering, it stifled Rodrigo’s ability to carve out a singular identity in the music industry.

Thankfully, on “GUTS,” Rodrigo displays how much she’s matured in the past two years and proves she has truly made a lane for herself in pop music beyond being labeled Swift’s mini-me.

“I’d say it’s a little more rocky than the last one,” Rodrigo said to SiriusXM on Sept. 8

about her artistic growth between albums. “I went on my first tour, [and] I quickly learned how much I loved playing upbeat songs for a big crowd and how fun that was. And so I think I wrote this album informed by those feelings.”

Rodrigo leans into the rock genre throughout the entirety of the album. Sonically, the album sounds like a mix CD you stole from your older sister’s car in 2007 in the best way possible. Throughout the album, Rodrigo channels the sounds of ’90s and 2000s artists like The White Stripes, Avril Lavigne and Le Tigre, filtering them through a punky, pop lens. Rodrigo proves she has a real, genuine edge and isn’t afraid to experiment in her work.

“Vampire” showcases Rodrigo’s growth, combining her signature confessional piano balladry with off-kilter Fiona Apple-like tempo changes between the chorus and verses. Using “vampire” as the first single from “GUTS” is a wise decision on Rodrigo’s part, as it bridges the gap between the sentimental “SOUR” and the head-banging “GUTS.”

Thematically, the album explores Rodrigo’s introduction into young adulthood. The opening track, “all-american bitch,” depicts Rodrigo juxtaposing the expectations people have for young women with the inner rage she feels inside about said expectations. “Lacy” is a Black Swan-esque track about the thin line between jealousy and infatuation. The garage rock-inspired “bad idea right?” is the catchiest song in recent history about hooking up with your ex.

Rodrigo’s lyrics are endearing and relatable, but they’re also surprisingly funny as well.

Many songs feature Rodrigo rapping— something that could’ve been disastrous,

but Rodrigo manages to pull it off. “Get him back!,” a Linkin Park-type rap-rock song, has Rodrigo lamenting about how her former lover, rapping “he had an ego and a temper and a wandering eye / he said he’s 6’2” and I’m like ‘dude, nice try.’” “Ballad of a homeschooled girl” includes a speedy rap verse featuring all of Rodrigo’s party faux pas, like calling someone the “same name nice” and thinking that their “mom was [their] wife.”

Rodrigo and her producer, Dan Nigro, play

with different musical production on “GUTS,” using tones and textures that differ from the straightforward pop-rock instrumentals on “SOUR.”

Read the full story at breezejmu.org.

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.

“GUTS” is Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album. Photo from Pitchfork

Review | In ‘Rustin’ in the Rain,’ Tyler Childers smooths over political uproar with his voice, creativity

When it comes to country/folk music, Tyler Childers has always been a prominent figure. On Sept. 8, Childers released his sixth album, “Rustin’ in the Rain.”

I’ve always been a fan of Childers’ music. Personally, “Country Squire” has been my favorite album of his, but “Rustin in the Rain” is a pleasing listening experience. My favorite song on the album is “In Your Love.” This song has garnered quite a bit of attention, not for its lyrics, but for the music video.

The “In Your Love” music video is focused on a developing love story between two gay coal miners in the ’50s. Because Childers’ audience has split political views, some were for and some were against the content of the video. It’s important to mention Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” music video was released weeks before Childers’. Aldean was accused of portraying racism through both the lyrics and video of his controversial single, which has fostered a conversation between the two productions.

Regardless, Childers was able to calm the storm with his new studio album, which features seven tracks that highlight Childers’ classic gritty voice. Throughout Childers’

musical career, his appreciation for the working class shows through his lyrics. For example, “Percheron Mules” includes lyrics such as “Give me the big ole Mammoth Jacks” and “Throwing mules the size of tanks.”

The song’s subject seems to follow a farmer who doesn’t need people or machines to do his work, but rather Percheron mares and Mammoth Jack donkeys. I enjoyed the up-tempo nature of this song with a host of instruments plugging away in the background.

I was reminded of line dancing when I heard this song, and I think it does a fantastic job of breaking the album up from its slower and more emotional tracks.

Read the full story at breezejmu.org/culture

CONTACT Grayson Banning at banningj@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.

By MATEO CSERNECKY

Chinese-Icelandic artist Laufey (pronounced lay-vay) dropped her third album, “Bewitched,” on Friday. The 14 tracks build upon the soft, romantic jazz style of Laufey’s previous albums while also innovating into a more pop-like sound that appeals to a larger audience without straying too far away from the jazz genre. The album features themes of romance, love and growth, as well as a collaboration with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

The album starts out incredibly strong with the first track “Dreamer” serving as a brilliant display of Laufey’s vocals. This being,by far, Laufey’s greatest strength in the album as each song sounds as if it were sung by a Disney princess. Laufey’s calm and soothing voice comes in and out, carrying each song with a beautiful and romantic tone that immediately captures the listener and entraps them into the song’s themes.

“Bewitched” serves as a beautiful love letter to the romantic jazz genre, from its subtle yet intricate melodies to the intensity and beauty of Laufey’s voice, to the emotional and romantic lyrics that tug on the heartstrings of

the listener. The artist has introduced the genre to a new generation of fans, in an era when jazz is not as recognized as it once was. While there may be some who compare her to artists such as Beabadobee, Mitski or Faye Webster, Laufey breaks the mold and establishes that she is like none of them — owning all aspects of the romantic jazz genre from her voice to the composition of her songs. The album’s strengths in vocals and instrumentals make up for its sometimes-mediocre lyricism to produce a beautifully sounding album that everyone who has a love for soft romantic music should listen to.

Read the full story at breezejmu.org/culture.

CONTACT Mateo Csernecky at csernems@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.

The Breeze

By GRAYSON BANNING The Breeze

“Rustin’ in the Rain” was released Friday, Sept. 8. Photo from Amazon

Laufey’s “Bewitched” mixes a pop and jazz sound. Photo from Pitchfork

36 — 35 35 36

JMU defeated U.Va. for the first time in 41 years on Sept. 9, 2023, in Scott Stadium after an 11-point comeback in the final 12:06 of the fourth quarter that followed a more than 70-minute weather delay.

No. 9 JMU heads into conference play undefeated

Men's soccer prepares to compete against tough Sun Belt slate, starting with No. 2 Marshall

By HAYDEN HUNDLEY The Breeze

The start of JMU men’s soccer’s season has been memorable. On Aug. 29 at Sentara Park, the then-unranked Dukes skyrocketed up to No. 17 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll after defeating UCLA 1-0 in the second game of the year. JMU followed up the noticed performance with another convincing 4-0 win over Radford.

With wins over Duquesne, the Bruins and the Highlanders, JMU sprinted out to its first 3-0 start since 2004, when it finished the year 15-3-1. The hot start jumped JMU to No. 8 in the nation, its highest ranking since it was No. 7 the week of Sept. 22, 1997.

The poll, however, came out just hours before JMU’s match against Gardner-Webb on Sept. 5. Gardner-Webb was coming off its first Power 5 win in 14 years, raking in a 2-0 win over JMU’s men’s-soccer-only Sun Belt foe South Carolina. The Bulldogs didn’t quite knock off the Dukes, but the match was a dogfight, ending in a 2-2 draw.

The Dukes didn't have their worst performance, but they made two mistakes playing out of their own back end that turned both into Gardner-Webb goals. JMU head coach Paul Zazenski said “a team like Gardner-Webb surrounds their whole season trying to pick off a ranked opponent,” and the Dukes felt it out of the gate when the Bulldogs scored 10 minutes into the match.

“I think with the rankings that came out just before the game, I think some guys maybe got a little worked up,” sophomore goalkeeper Sebastian Conlon said on Saturday.

Conlon didn't call it a meeting, but following their historic 3-0 start and subsequent tough draw, graduate midfielder Clay Obara said JMU didn't feel like it played up to its standards. The Dukes’ team captains, redshirt senior midfielder Rodrigo Robles, junior midfielder Alex Krakowiak, Obara and junior midfielder Chay Strine met as a group to help the team “hit the reset button.”

“The main thing was to not panic," Obara said about the meeting. "We are still undefeated, you still know how to play, and we can't let this one blip change the way we think about ourselves when we play our next game. And so we wanted to come out here and show ourselves as well as the rest of the country that JMU is really here to play, and that one game was just a one-off.”

The meeting seemed to pay dividends: JMU bounced back four days after its draw, convincingly beating Mount St. Mary’s 6-0. Junior forward Evan Southern, who scored two goals in the match, said afterward that the Dukes wanted to “punish” the Mountaineers. The 6-0 win was the Dukes’ largest margin of victory since defeating Elon by the same score in 2019.

Just three days later, the Dukes were faced with a much steeper mountain to climb — a matchup against in-state foe U.Va. The game was the 28th time the teams have faced each other, with the Cavaliers leading the all-time series 21-5-3 heading in.

Rain soaked into the grass field at Sentara as the two sides prepared to kick off for the in-state clash. A crowd of 1,464, the second highest-ever attendance recorded at Sentara, vibrated the venue’s bleachers as the two groups of fans cheered on their programs located just 55 miles away from each other.

The match did not start off in JMU’s favor, as U.Va. freshman forward Stephen Annor Gyamfi slipped past JMU junior defender Davide Materazzi, headed the ball over Conlon into the net in the fifth minute.

Conlon stressed “it takes time” for him and his back line to get their communication on point, as it features three new starters: freshman Luca Nikolai, Materazzi and junior Enrique Garcia Barelles.

“That was a miscommunication between me and my defender,” Conlon said about the opening goal.

EDITORS Kaiden Bridges & Jackson Hephner

FROM TOP, CLOCKWISE: No. 9 JMU men's soccer (4-02) stayed undefeated Tuesday night after redshirt senior midfielder Rodrigo Robles' goal with 16 seconds remaining tied the Dukes' match with U.Va. 1-1. JMU graduate midfielder Clay Obara was named to the Week 3 Top Drawer Soccer's National Team of the Week on Tuesday and the United Soccer Coaches National Player of the Week on Wednesday.

Photos by Kaiden Bridges / The Breeze

“I was going to come out for [the ball], and then I thought it was going to bounce and just pick it up, but the player got out there. You know, it’s something I’ve got to work on. We’ve had a couple of situations where crosses have been a little bit of an issue, but we’re working on it.”

Similar to the Gardner-Webb match, which saw 30 total fouls, 10 yellow cards and two reds, the U.Va. contest started off feisty with six yellow cards given in the first half.

Despite the plucky environment, the Dukes were not short on shot attempts. By the end of the match, they doubled the Cavaliers in shots, 12-6, and edged them out 8-3 in corner kicks. However, they still found themselves down 1-0 with time ticking away.

With 9:45 to go, U.Va. sophomore defender Parker Sloan received his second yellow card, gifting the Dukes a golden opportunity to get themselves back in the game. A cross from Obara found Robles’ left foot and then the back of the net as the Dukes tied the Cavaliers with just 16 seconds to play.

“It’s like a dream to score a goal in a derby like this with a lot of people in the crowd,” Robles said. “I think the crowd and the team deserve moments like this. It’s very good to see Sentara full of students and full of fans.”

The game featured 900 more attendees than JMU’s last matchup against U.Va. at Sentara, and this Saturday at 7 p.m., the Dukes have yet another high-octane opponent coming to Harrisonburg: No. 2 Marshall.

Last season, the Dukes upset the thenNo. 5 Thundering Herd 1-0 in the Sun Belt tournament quarterfinals. The Thundering Herd are only the first giant JMU has to slay out of the Sun Belt this season, which features five ranked programs this week, including four in the top 10.

“Having [Kentucky] be the No. 1 overall seed in last year's tournament, that's a big deal,” Zazenski said. “Marshall being ranked second

in the country, I mean, these are big, big, things for our conference. But what I would say is it's still early, and we are, I think, one of the best, if not the best, conferences in all of America, and some of that is showing true. But we got a long, long season to go, and that's not just JMU, that's everyone.”

Conlon praised the rest of JMU’s conference opponents, calling them “fantastic possessionbased teams” and comparing them to professional clubs such as Manchester City, Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona.

Even though JMU doesn't have the personnel or highly touted recruits that Marshall, UCF or Kentucky might have, Conlon said the rest of the Sun Belt is missing something JMU does have: an “underdog mentality.”

“If we're going to really take advantage of the hype that’s kind of surrounded us, we have to make a decision as a group,” Conlon said. “Are we going to be afraid? Are we going to go out there and show the people what we're about? That's where that mentality comes in. You know, it takes the whole 29-, 30-man roster. Every single day … we're going to be those dogs that go out there and challenge the best of the best. This is what we wanted.”

And this go-around versus the Thundering Herd, with JMU expecting them to come in looking to avenge its upset defeat in the Sun Belt tournament, JMU is not one to back down from the task.

“We're playing against a very good side, but we took them down in the quarterfinals last year. Nothing is impossible, and I think this team is one of the best in the country,” Robles said. “We are going to face one of the best teams in the country, so we are confident that we are going to be up for the challenge and we have to believe in this thing.”

CONTACT Hayden Hundley at hundlehf@dukes. jmu.edu. For more men’s soccer coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter at @TheBreezeSports.

JMU redshirt senior midfielder Rodrigo Robles said he believes JMU is “one of the best in the country,” and that it’s confident heading into its match against No. 2 Marshall on Saturday at Sentara Park. After the Dukes’ tie against the unranked Gardner-Webb on Sept. 5, sophomore goalkeeper Sebastian Conlon said the team captains, junior midfielder Chay Strine, graduate midfielder Clay Obara, junior midfielder Alex Krakowiak and Robles met in attempt to “hit the reset button” for the team.

Preview | JMU looking to avoid attention lapse as it heads to Troy

By KAIDEN BRIDGES The Breeze

JMU football had a historic Week 2 against U.Va. after a more than 70-minute rain delay allowed it to hit the “reset button” and recuperate before completing an 11-point comeback to defeat the Cavaliers 36-35.

The Dukes’ difficult road slate continues this week as it travels to Alabama, to face Troy, the defending Sun Belt Champions.

This will be the first time the two teams have played since Nov. 27, 1999. If the Dukes had been allowed to participate in postseason action last year, the Dukes and Trojans would have faced in the Sun Belt Championship after the JMU defeated Coastal Carolina 47-7 to cap off the regular season.

When the schedule came out back in January, redshirt senior safety Francis Meehan said there was talk among the locker room of how the two teams would’ve met in the postseason if it wasn’t for NCAA transition rules.

“Troy, year by year, is one of the top teams out of the West,” Meehan said. “So regardless of what was supposed to happen last year, you know that this game will especially be physical and one of the games that can really define you as a team.”

Redshirt senior quarterback Jordan McCloud said Saturday that JMU had to celebrate the win over the Cavaliers and then get right back to work for its first conference game of the season — just seven days away at the time.

“We just got to get back out for Troy and just build off what we did today,” McCloud said. “Just keep playing game by game.”

The Trojans are a three-point favorite over the Dukes as of Wednesday. Head coach Curt Cignetti said the team can’t be “average” while coming off an emotional Power 5 win.

“You know, normal would be average, and the average person would have a letdown this week against a really good football team on the road who is favored,” Cignetti said. “You have to have a special discipline, work ethic and focused mindset to separate yourself from average.”

With what felt like a slow Tuesday practice for the Dukes, as Cignetti said, there had to be major changes between their Tuesday performance and when they hit the field Wednesday.

Cignetti graded the team’s performance from Saturday as a “C+” because, despite the win, he still wants to see the offense “fly around” more and see the team dial down from the seven penalties it committed Saturday.

Not only does JMU have to prepare for a tough game on the field but a week of heavy travel as well. Troy is about 749 miles from Harrisonburg, and this is the Dukes’ second week on the road.

“You have to bring your own juice when you know the house is against you,” junior offensive lineman Tyshawn Wyatt said. “We’ve played in hostile environments before … We’re on their home court, you know, going down south, and it should be fun. Our guys look forward to that. We don’t mind being the villain, we don’t mind being booed, heckled like that in its own right gives us our own energy.”

On Monday’s Sun Belt Coaches call, Troy head coach Jon Sumrall said he’s been “impressed” with JMU’s football program over the last decade, calling the Dukes a “quality opponent.”

Sumrall highlighted McCloud, saying how he’s good on his feet. McCloud finished with 224 passing yards, 33 rushing yards and a touchdown against the Cavaliers. Sumrall also recognized the Dukes’ running back depth, including redshirt sophomore Kaelon Black, redshirt senior Ty Son Lawton and senior Latrele Palmer, who collectively ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns last Saturday.

“Coach Cignetti’s been there since 2019, they’re 43-8, that’s pretty good,” Sumrall said. “We’re in for a really tough football game. A well coached team, I have a lot of respect for them. It’ll be a good venue here at home, a good crowd. I’m excited about the opportunity, our guys got to bounce back.”

The Trojans are coming off a 42-13 loss to No. 15 Kansas State. Cignetti praised the Wildcats, saying they’re a very good football team, and acknowledged how Troy kept the game to a one-score deficit until the last 20 seconds of the first half.

“They’re a darn good football team,” Cignetti said. “And I know one thing, Jon Sumrall’s got their attention this week. I promise you that he’s got their attention. I don’t have my team’s attention right now.”

CONTACT Kaiden Bridges at breezesports@ gmail.com. For more football coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

Head coach Curt Cignetti is hoping to avoid a “letdown“ this week against Troy, the defending Sun Belt Champions. Photos by Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

Redshirt senior quarterback Jordan McCloud said after JMU’s 36-35 win over U.Va. on Saturday that the team needed to celebrate, then get right back to work.

Junior offensive lineman Tyshawn Wyatt said that the team will have to bring its “own juice“ to Troy this week.

HOOS HUNGRY?

Jackson Hephner Sports Editor Colby Reece BTV Sports Director

William Moran Copy Editor

Avery Goodstine Managing Editor Grant Johnson Editor-in-Chief

Kaiden Bridges Sports Editor

Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

Analysis | Three lessons from JMU’s historic win over U.Va.

By JACKSON HEPHNER The Breeze

After 40 years of waiting and four-and-ahalf hours after kickoff, JMU football made history on Saturday.

In their first matchup since 1983, the Dukes defeated U.Va. 36-35 in dramatic comeback fashion. JMU trailed by 11 points when the weather delayed the game for more than 70 minutes with 12:06 left in the fourth quarter. When play resumed, JMU scored two touchdowns and made a pair of crucial defensive stops to secure the win.

It was a monumental win for JMU, but it’s now in the rearview mirror. Now, the Dukes prepare to face Troy, the reigning Sun Belt champions, on Saturday.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the Dukes’ Week 2 win:

JMU is still resilient

Before JMU faced the Cavaliers, head coach Curt Cignetti talked about how he wanted his players to not get “too emotional” during the game. He said the Dukes did a good job of that when they traveled down to play Appalachian State last season, when the Mountaineers took a 28-3 lead in the second quarter before JMU stormed back to win 32-28.

“I never saw anyone doubt or show frustration in that game,” Cignetti said about the App State contest after practice last Tuesday on Sept. 12.

One year later, and this year’s JMU team, which returns 13 starters on offense and defense, passed its big early-season test — just like the crew that came before it. Cignetti praised his team’s composure after the U.Va. win.

“That was sort of what we talked about going into this game: No matter what they throw at us, they can’t throw anything at us that we can’t overcome and that we won’t overcome,” Cignetti said.

Secondary needs to improve

Yes, JMU beating U.Va. — an in-state, Power 5 opponent — is impressive, but it wasn’t a perfect performance.

“We really didn’t play our A game,” Cignetti said during the weekly Sun Belt Coaches’ Call on Monday. “Pass defense was awful. We’ve got to tighten that up.”

Cignetti said pass defense wasn’t the only area that needs correcting, but it’s definitely a noticeable one. The Dukes allowed U.Va., led by freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea, to pass for 377 yards, the most JMU has allowed since it gave up 578 in its 45-38 loss to Georgia Southern last October.

Cignetti mentioned that game in Statesboro, Georgia, on Monday, saying the excitement — “hoopla,” as he put it — that surrounded the Dukes going into that matchup off its first-ever ranking in the AP Top 25 and 5-0 start needs to be channeled better this time after Saturday’s emotional win.

“This week cannot be a repeat of the Georgia Southern week, and we control that,” Cignetti said, “and we have to take control of the things that we can control.”

Slate only gets harder

JMU may have conquered its one Power 5 opponent on the schedule, but the Hoos finished 3-7 last season. The Dukes’ next opponent, Troy, finished 12-2 and won the Sun Belt.

The Trojans are coming off a 42-13 loss to No. 15 Kansas State, last year’s Big 12 champions. While the Trojans fell to the Wildcats, their roster features 19 returning starters from last year’s team that went 7-1 in conference play.

Cignetti said after watching Troy’s game against Kansas State, he noted that while the Trojans couldn’t get momentum back in the second half — with the Wildcats outscoring them 21-3 — he was still impressed with Troy.

“They flew around ... They’ve got a lot of good players in all three phases of the game,” Cignetti said.

In the coaches’ call, Troy’s Jon Sumrall called last week tough for the Trojans but looked forward to facing another “really quality opponent.” The Trojans’ head coach praised Cignetti and his 43-8 record as head coach of JMU, as well as the Dukes’ nine straight winning seasons.

“We’re in for a really tough football game,” he said. “[I’m] excited about the opportunity, and our guys have got to bounce back.”

CONTACT Jackson Hephner at breezesports@ gmail.com. For more football coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter at @TheBreezeSports.

In JMU’s 36-35 win over the Cavaliers, U.Va. freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea passed for 377 yards, causing concern about the Dukes’ pass defense. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

OPINION

Evan Weaver breezeopinion@gmail.com EDITOR EMAIL @Breeze_Opinion

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

The American Dream is no longer attainable for college graduates

A “where-would-I-bewithout-you” pat to JMU PD for rescuing me when I locked my keys in my running car.

From a forgetful person.

A “save-the-bees?” dart to the bees, which have seemed more aggresive lately.

From someone who’s scared of stinging insects.

You’re told to go to school, work hard, then graduate — and you will succeed. But is that true? Is it enough? When you’re a kid, it feels like you have your whole life ahead of you and a world of opportunity. You think about your future with blissful, oblivious optimism. You think the future is bright, and things will only get better.

A “tone-deaf” dart to JMU for continuing to water the grass — and concrete — in the middle of a drought.

From someone who would rather walk on dry sidewalks.

Now here we are, three years after a pandemic. Housing prices are ridiculously high, and social media apps such as TikTok are filled with people lamenting about inflation and financial hardships. Things look bleak and seem like they’ll only get worse. When you think about what you were taught growing up and the hoops of today’s obstacles you’ll have to jump through, it makes you consider if the American

dream was ever a reality.

According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, America experienced an extreme level of inflation during 2021 at 7%. This year, inflation is at 3.2%, which is still higher than before the pandemic in 2018 and 2019, when rates were 1.9% and 2.3%, respectively. In 2021, CNBC reported that housing prices had risen faster than wages as well. The median home price had risen 118% from 1965 to 2021 compared to a 15.5% increase in wages.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows how housing prices have changed over time. In 1970, the median home price was $178,834.73 when adjusted for inflation. It became $247,409.30 in 1980 — a $68,574.57 difference in the 10 years between 1970 and 1980. Later it rose to $315,817.64 in 2010, then reached $503,046.14 by 2022. The issues taking place aren’t just happening in America: The Guardian announced that the U.K. is in a recession alert and also amid a housing crisis. The publication also reported that 40% of renters in some areas need government help to pay their housing bills.

Right now, it seems like the whole world is struggling and falling apart, and college students today are graduating into this difficult era. How prepared are we for the hardships we will face, and how aware are we of the severity of today’s economic crisis?

A “traitor” dart to Zach Bryan for using Ticketmaster for his upcoming tour.

From someone who got a ticket anyways.

Kaleb Nute / The Breeze

JACQUELINE DUA contributing columnist

Failure in education

Many young people in America feel a lack of guidance from the generations that came before them, namely with financial literacy. It’s one of the things we say we need guidance for the most but don’t often receive it for. Many young people don’t know how to responsibly take on and manage debt, which makes the economic issues we face worse. A 2019 report titled “Money Matters on Campus” by EVERFI concluded that out of 30,000 college students at 440 schools across America, only 53% felt prepared to manage their money.

Senior Rudy Mallamas is one student that stands out as an outlier from these statistics. He’s an intelligence analysis major that was taught financial management from his mother, a regional bank manager. The nature of his major and chosen career path also informs him about the state of the economy. Many young people feel like the older generations left the younger ones to fend for themselves. But he believes differently, “The older generations have brought great things,” Mallamas said, "but with great things, they also brought awful things with them. I would say no one's perfect.”

Rudy went on to describe how he sees the burdens put America’s youth's shoulders as their inheritance. “The way I see it, your grandparents had it for a bit and then they gave it to you, kinda like handing off a torch,” Rudy said. He said he thinks a college degree has dropped in value becoming the bare minimum and almost the same as a high school diploma. Mallamas said he believes job experience has more value than a degree and that in this current job market, he will struggle to find employment despite having a STEM degree.

The advice we’re given of putting our faith in education as our path to living successfully is no longer completely valid.

So, the risk that we as young Americans take on in accruing thousands of dollars in debt may yield no benefits.

A 2022 article from the Harvard Business Review described the analysis of 51 million jobs that were posted between 2017 and 2020. The analysis revealed that employers are playing down their degree requirements for available jobs. The change was most apparent when it came to middle-skill jobs, or jobs that require less than four years of education to do efficiently.

Between 2017 and 2019, degree requirements were reduced for 46% of middle-skill positions and 31% of highskill positions, according to the Harvard Business Review. The most affected jobs were IT — information technology — and managerial positions. Employers are now foregoing the use of degrees as markers of competency and aptitude, instead opting for demonstrable skills and experience.

This trend started after the 2008 recession and was compounded by the changes brought by the pandemic. During the pandemic, many employers had a difficult time filling positions. For example, jobs for intensive-care and critical-care nurses dropped from 35% to 23% in the number of postings asking for bachelor’s degrees. The degree requirements for registered nurse positions overall dropped by 5%.

Also, not only are employers doubting the necessity of degrees but so are Americans as a whole. In July, GALLUP reported that America’s confidence in higher education has continued to fall. It’s now at a new low, 36%, compared to 48% in 2018 and 57% in 2015. When broken down, 17% of Americans have a great deal of confidence in education, 19% have a lot of confidence, 40% have some and 22% have little.

Many recent college graduates have taken to social media to express their

struggles in the job market. One 2022 college grad created a YouTube video titled “Why The Job Market Hates Gen Z and Recent College Graduates.” In it, she laments about her experience with the job market she graduated into, describing how she feels like she was sold a dream or fake reality about college and the overall value of school. The rejections she received while job searching led to her to conclude that having only a college degree isn’t as valuable as it once was. She recounts how every rejection letter she received has been due to not having enough experience; unfortunately, her club and volunteer extracurriculars were not enough. She also details the impossibility of the employers' standards and time consuming interview processes. She describes how employers want a candidate that has senior-level work experience but who will want entrylevel pay.

With degrees losing their value and the paradox of needing experience to gain experience, where exactly does this put newly graduated college students? The young people today have been raised on something that has become so hard to obtain, that they might as well have been sold a bill of goods — a lie.

Decline in happiness

Also, the difficulty of accomplishing what life achievement could possibly be one of the reasons that Americans today are statistically less happier than in previous times. The General Social Survey has been asking Americans about their happiness since 1972. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey showed that Americans felt “very happy” more often than “not too happy.” Following the start of the pandemic, however, the survey now shows a drastic change.

In 2022, the response of not too happy

had a record high of 24% compared to a record low of very happy at 19%. In addition, Americans are beginning to lack optimism. A poll by Marist College in 2021 detailed a first-time drop below 50% for Americans who were optimistic about the coming year since the poll was first done in 2009.

I believe that instead of continuing to trust in antiquated ideals from the past, we young Americans should start creating our own version of what we believe the American dream should be. The America that we have grown up aspiring to is long gone. We should start making way for a dream that fits the reality we live in now.

Young Americans are already starting to make that change with a push for better work-life balance by “quiet quitting,” a silent stand against corporation exploitation and entitlement to employee time by fulfilling the bare requirements of one's job also, through advocating for work-from-home jobs and the induction of the four-day work week.

An article published in The Breeze in August details that success isn’t objective and shouldn’t be determined by society. This is a conclusion that I believe all young Americans should hold. Despite the issues we face in trying to navigate our own paths, the old and gray that run our country will someday have their suns set, and the youth of America will be around to bear witness to what they leave behind.

So, to avoid living in a world created to benefit everyone else but us, our day to make change is now.

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

Evan Weaver / The Breeze

The median home price rose 118% from 1965 to 2021 compared to a 15.5% increase in wages.

According to CNBC

The trend of overruling precedent in the Supreme Court threatens LGBTQ+ rights

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which appeared to many Americans, especially pro-choice individuals, as evidence that the living-document argument’s half-century of progress was starting to reverse. The living document is the idea that the Constitution’s meaning evolves over time as cultural norms change and society becomes more tolerant of certain groups and, beyond that, less puritanical in its standards.

However, Dobbs v. Jackson was only one case. The debate about if abortion is murder has been going on for a while, specifically when it’s performed in the third trimester. Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, and for almost 50 years, conservatives worked to get that decision reversed. The real problem is what the conservative majority could lead.

In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state, concluding that, under the environmental guidelines, Congress

didn’t give the EPA authority to specifically put a cap on emissions based on the laws in place. The dissenting opinion was written by Justice Elena Kagan: “Today, the Court strips the Environmental Protection Agency of the power Congress gave it to respond to ‘the most pressing environmental challenge of our time.’”

Judicial activism has been heralded as possibly eliminating the need for amendments to the Constitution, but now that the archaic tone of traditional conservatism is being amplified by the Supreme Court once again, the living document is no longer living. Rather, it’s stuck back in time. The majority of this Court’s rulings haven’t seriously impacted our way of life when you look at the grand scheme of things. Roe was overturned, but compared to the 1940s, things are still better overall.

The real concern is how far states are willing to go with the rulings and what they could come for next, such as gay marriage. see RIGHTS, page 28

PATRICK HANOVER | contributing columnist

Abigail Paredes / The Breeze

1973

Roe v. Wade is decided prohibiting states from regulating abortions during the first trimester of a pregnancy.

2003

2015

Obergefell v. Hodges is decided abolishing laws banning samesex marriages.

Lawrence v. Texas is decided abolishing laws banning homosexual conduct.

2022

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is decided overruling the precedent established in Roe v. Wade.

Some politicians have expressed concern over the further erosion of rights like those protected in Lawrence and Obergefell.

from RIGHTS, page 26

The right to same-sex marriage is under fire by the right wing. Along with that comes standards on purity, such as restriction of contraception — which is already under attack and considered by some as abortion. Some liberal politicians expressed their concern over the possibility that cases such as Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that struck down same-sex marriage bans, and Lawrence v. Texas — a 2003 case that abolished anti-sodomy laws — could get overturned as well

Judicial activism has been successful in its progress for the past 50 years, but the strict constitutionalist view has returned to the Court, with multiple decisions going 6-3 — which is how the justices are split along ideological lines. Many people on the left have claimed the Supreme Court is acting unconstitutionally. You could try to argue, for example, that overturning Roe violated the implications of a previous case known as Griswold v. Connecticut. This doesn’t necessarily hold as a strong argument, but it’s worth noting that in Dobbs v. Jackson, the Court authorized states to ban abortion before 15 weeks, which is earlier than the proposed 2018 law in Mississippi that banned abortion after 15 weeks. Griswold was deemed to have First-, Third-, Fourth- and Ninth-Amendment implications under the right to privacy, along with the 14th Amendment being argued by three of the seven justices within the majority opinion.

What if I told you that, because the Supreme Court is taking a strict constitutionalist view, the problem isn’t with the Court but rather the Constitution itself. The living-document argument was the way to go in my view, but elections have consequences. That’s what occurred under Trump’s presidency, which saw the appointment of three new justices who flipped the Court to the right.

Now that the living document view seems to have been done away with for the foreseeable

future, certain freedoms must be codified in law by stripping away the age-old order. What essentially needs to occur is the expansion of the 14th Amendment to include LGBTQ+ rights or the addition of a new amendment that protects these freedoms altogether.

I know it’s hard to amend the Constitution; for one, the amendment needs to be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, or two-thirds of the states. If those requirements are satisfied, then three-fourths of the states need to approve the amendment. This means that if only two-thirds initially request an amendment, then they would need to get some extra states on board to approve it. That being said, an effort would be worth undergoing. Of course, if we look at this from a democratic perspective, we know that not everyone in the country supports modernity — as there are still many conservative politicians in office. A solution would be to ensure that those who wish to be freed from age-old sentiments have the right to live life in the new age.

At the same time, in order to allow for civility to remain in place, we need to acknowledge that not everyone thinks alike, and people who don’t want to live like it’s 2023 should be allowed to have their own moral beliefs and traditions without enforcing it on the rest of the population. If they wish independence from a liberal climate, the traditionalists should be allowed to leave. That way, they will not feel the need to enforce their beliefs on us.

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

Following the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which saw the overturn of the precedent established in the landmark case Roe v. Wade, many people protested the decision. Tribune News Service

Gone Greek Gone Greek Gone Greek Gone Greek THIS Week in BREEZE TV

For more photos of bid day 2023, view the full gallery online at breezejmu.org/ multimedia.

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I n-studio interview: this weekend’s Food Truck Fest to raise funds for Open Doors’ low-barrier shelter and support

JMU field hockey seniors reflect on time with head coach Christy Morgan

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After finally opening their bids, new sorority sisters ran home to their houses on Sunday. The annual event took place in Bridgeforth Stadium, a change from its former venue on Hillside Field. Photos by Ella Stotzky / The Breeze

FOR

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Lewis

By Jay Silverman

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.

Lead Custodian

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

Recreation Program Specialist IIYouth & Childcare Programs

Are you seeking a challenging yet rewarding career that allows you to utilize your knowledge/ skills/abilities to oversee recreationally-based programs for children (grades K-5)? If so, consider applying to the Recreation Program Specialist II-Youth & Childcare Programs position with the City of Harrisonburg’s Parks and Recreation Department! Apply: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Athletic Program Coordinator

Do you want to utilize your organizational and administrative skills to plan, organize, coordinate, implement, and supervise all varieties and aspects of the City’s athletic programs and sports activities? If so, consider applying for the Parks and Recreation Department’s Athletic Program Coordinator position! Find out more/apply online: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Assistant Sign Fabricator

Custodian

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

Recreation Program Specialist IIYouth & Childcare Programs

Are you seeking a challenging yet rewarding career that allows you to utilize your knowledge/ skills/abilities to oversee recreationally-based programs for children (grades K-5)? If so, consider applying to the Recreation Program Specialist II-Youth & Childcare Programs position with the City of Harrisonburg’s Parks and Recreation Department! Apply: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Equipment/Automotive Maintenance Specialist I

Are you looking for your next career move with an organization where you can apply your automotive technician experience or vehicle repair/maintenance skills? If so, consider applying for the City of Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation’s Equipment/Automotive Maintenance Specialist I position! Find out more/apply online: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Are you searching for a temporary opportunity that allows you to manufacture a variety of signs, stickers, and banners utilized in traffic control and City facilities? If so, consider applying for the Assistant Sign Fabricator position with the Public Works Department! Find out more/ apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva. gov/employment. EOE.

Construction Program Inspector

Do you want to make a difference in the community by utilizing your construction/ inspection skills to enhance the quality of life for citizens and protect the public interest? If so, the City of Harrisonburg’s Public Works’ Construction Program Inspector position may be right for you! Find out more/apply: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Recreation Facilities Coordinator

Are you looking for a rewarding career to utilize your facility usage coordination, recreation, or customer service experience? If so, the City of Harrisonburg Parks and Recreation Department’s Recreation Facilities Coordinator may be the right position for you! Find out more/apply online: https:// www.harrisonburgva.gov/employment. EOE.

Radio System Administrator (HRECC) Are you searching for a meaningful opportunity that allows you to utilize your radio electronics/radio programming/electrical/ telecommunications work experience to support public safety professionals? If so, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Emergency Communications Center’s (HRECC) Radio System Administrator position may be the right career for you! Find out more/apply online: https://www.harrisonburgva.gov/ employment. EOE.

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