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March 22, 2022
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Virginia Tech and Blacksburg hold town-gown meeting on housing Students expressed concern about the lack of affordable housing for low-income residents and those with parental assistance.
JANE PARK assistant news editor
On Thursday, March 17, the university hosted a meeting between the town of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech students, faculty and staff on “the affordable housing puzzle.” Matt Hanratty, assistant to the town manager of Blacksburg, presented the town’s strategies to expand affordable rentals and home ownership. The presentation also included increasing the availability of homes for non-student residents and allocating locations specifically for students’ off-campus housing. One concern among the Virginia Tech audience was the difficulty for students to afford off-campus housing both on low
income or with parental assistance. “For graduate students on stipends or student loans, affordable housing is becoming harder to find. The University has no immediate plans for building new graduate housing on any of the campuses,” said Phil Miskovic, a Ph.D. student with the Center for Public Administration and Public Affairs and the current graduate student representative to the Board of Visitors. “It is necessary for stakeholders to collaborate to find solutions to affordable graduate housing for each campus.” Alice Fox, a student in the Science and Technology Studies Ph.D. program and the vice president of the Graduate and P rofessional Student Senate, expressed her frustrations on the lack of inexpensive quality off-campus housing for Virginia Tech students.
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In-person town-gown meeting, April 19, 2018.
“Students shouldn’t be seen as a supply and demand problem. They’re human beings, and we need to look at them as people in vulnerable positions, especially as we start to get more community members who are from marginalized or low income backgrounds,” Fox said. “We can have nice things like full kitchens and good amenities without having
ANTHONY WU / COLLEGIATE TIMES
to pay a thousand dollars per room.” Hanratty concluded the meeting by stating his sympathy with Fox’s concerns, and that the town of Blacksburg was working to solve these issues. @CollegiateTimes
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March 22, 2022 PAGE 3
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Graphic nudity in media is overdone
atching a sex scene in a movie or TV show with family members is probably one of the more uncomfortable things we are subjected to as consumers of media. There is no greater dread than the anticipation of a sex scene in a movie; sometimes it’s easy to predict when the scene will take place, but more often they catch us completely off guard, and neither scenario is better than the other. While there may be families who openly talk about sex and rarely feel discomfort around the subject at all, it is generally not the easiest topic to discuss. In an ideal world, the movies and television we watch would be more mindful of this fact. Lahari Bucchammolla, a psychology major and senior at Virginia Tech, explained why these scenes can be so uncomfortable for her and her family. “I do feel uncomfortable watching sex scenes with family,” Bucchammolla said. “I think this may be due to how stigmatized sex is in my family. We don’t really talk about it because we think the others don’t have it, which is obviously not true.” Americans as a whole undoubtedly tend to shy away from the topic of sex, and this is a habit that has endless unhealthy implications: Young people grow up scared to ask questions about sex and can start to view the act as a scary, forbidden thing that should only take place for procreation, and might feel shame if they choose to have sex for pleasure as a result. If the general feeling is that the topic of sex is not open to conversation, then people who engage in sex might be ill-prepared to protect themselves from STIs, pregnancy or even from the complicated feelings that can accompany the act. It’s important that we become more open to sex as a society, but we have a long way to go. And since we struggle to talk about sex, it’s baffling that it’s portrayed so graphically and frequently in the media we consume. Of course, there are ratings attached to all media that indicate what we should expect before we sit down and watch. The PG rating is guaranteed to be devoid of graphic sex scenes, but once people get to a certain age, we gravitate toward these movies less
Sex and intimacy need to be depicted more carefully in the media. and less, and frankly, most movies worth watching these days are PG-13 and above. However, during family movie nights, I am guilty of selecting a PG movie over a more tempting R simply to avoid the discomfort felt during one of their inevitable sex scenes. To be clear, I am not coming from a conservative standpoint, and in many cases,
dangerous because it fails to acknowledge the ways in which people move at different paces. It’s especially troubling when sex is portrayed so explicitly among minors, as it is in the show “Euphoria” and others. “Teenage dramas are oversexualized by having older actors and sex scenes,” Bucchammolla said. “Sex is not necessary
“So, if Americans are unable to talk about sex to begin with, and filming nude sex scenes can be traumatic for actors, then why is it that they are so common in media? An argument can be made that it’s less about realistic depictions of sex and more about objectifying women’s bodies.” neither are the countless others who would prefer less graphic nudity and sex in films and shows. It’s true that these moments have their place in the media: Sex is integral to human life, and it’s nice that we have the option to see it depicted artfully and sensually, which pornography monumentally fails to do. But plenty of today’s sex scenes border on pornographic, which is problematic. There’s no reason why a bare back or a dimly lit allusion to the act can’t replace entirely nude, baring-it-all sex in media. Sex scenes might not even be the best way to suggest emotional intimacy. TikTok users have started a trend showcasing this fact by posting montages of media clips where the main love interests embrace one another with captions like, “Proof that hug scenes hit 100 times harder than kiss scenes.” Intense make out scenes are not necessarily more romantic than a passionate embrace, and a close shot of a stretched hand might be more sensual than a real hookup. Just because a movie is rated R for violence and language does not mean graphic sex is necessary to round out the mature nature of the film. If there is romance in the movie, then its culmination can be a tender hug, a fiery kiss or just mutual loving words. Promoting the idea that sex is how people show their interest in one another can be
in teenage-focused TV shows or movies or advertisements, especially if it’s not promoting safe sex.” The frequency with which high school students are having casual sex in “Euphoria” is hardly reflective of reality, and can lead younger people to stress about the rate at which they are moving with a partner. This pressure to conform to a perceived reality is harmful for young people, and the nudity of actors who have long put their teenage years behind them can cause young people to compare themselves and their bodies to those of grown adults. That being said, high school sexual relationships can have a place in media, but they should be done thoughtfully. Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays Marianne in the show “Normal People,” highlighted in an interview with Nylon how the show did a good job of showcasing healthy sex. “It shows a depiction of sex that is very real in all its forms,” Edgar-Jones said. “And I think particularly in their first time scene, the fact that Connell was very concerned about consent and they use protection — it’s very rare that you see a scene that is both beautiful and tender and sexy, but also has those elements in it.” Edgar-Jones, whose role in Normal People was her first major role, felt comfortable with the nudity in these scenes, despite
being a younger actress with a lot to prove. It goes without saying that many actors do not feel this way, and are considerably more uncomfortable filming these scenes than the audience viewing them could ever be. “You can’t help but feel exploited,” said Claire Foy, an actress who spoke of her experience shooting several intimate scenes while filming the series “A Very British Scandal.” “It’s grim — it’s the grimmest thing you can do. You feel exposed. Everyone can make you try to not feel that way but it’s, unfortunately, the reality.” Because sex has become so commonplace in shows and movies, it has become increasingly harder for female actresses to get hired for roles that don’t require nudity. While some actresses may feel comfortable with nudity, there are plenty of others who are anxious about taking off their clothes for not only directors and various on-set personnel to see, but also the millions of people watching these scenes on screen. “It’s hard to have a sex scene, period,” said Mila Kunis to reporters about her intimate scene in “Black Swan” with coworker and friend Natalie Portman. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend, a male, a female. You’re with 100-something crew members, lighting you, repositioning you, there’s no comfort whatsoever.” It’s especially troubling, too, that female actresses are expected to be nude at higher rates than male actors. Research conducted by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative proved this disparity: In 2016, only 9.2% of male actors were nude or partially nude on camera compared to a whopping 25.6% of female actresses (these statistics were obtained by looking at the year’s 100 top-grossing movies). So, if Americans are unable to talk about sex to begin with, and filming nude sex scenes can be traumatic for actors, then why is it that they are so common in media? Perhaps it’s less about realistic depictions of sex and more about objectifying women’s bodies. continued on page 4
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Female actresses are often pressured into roles that require nudity by male directors, which points to the power structure that exists when newer actresses want to get their foot in the door of the industry but feel uncomfortable with nudity: They worry that if they don’t accept the role and all that it entails, they’ll be blacklisted, labeled a prude or uncooperative, and won’t get another similar opportunity to start their career. Benita Robledo, an actress and director, spoke about her horrific experience with director Michael David Lynch in an interview with the Washington Post. When Robledo informed Lynch that she felt uncomfortable with full-frontal nudity, he allegedly assured her that they would shoot the particular scene with nudity and without, and that during final cuts, Robledo would be able to “give her approval on the final version.” Despite Robledo’s clear opposal to the nudity in that scene, Lynch moved forward with the nude version for the film’s initial screening. “Once you are on set, the only thing that’s precious is the director’s vision,” Robledo
said on the mentalities of directors on set. “It’s all that matters. Everyone is hustling to make that work; grips, wardrobe, everyone. If you’re not playing along, then you’re the a--hole.” Robledo’s experience is one of countless others, and this coercion and lack of consent in the industry is a dark side to on-screen nudity that consumers often fail to consider. When we watch these sex scenes on screen, we might enjoy them, or we might rather wish we were anywhere but in front of that TV. We think about the artistry and sensuality of these scenes and not the awful behind-the-scenes of filming them. We think about the discomfort we feel watching on-screen sex in the company of others and not the profound discomfort of the actors involved. Intimate movie and TV scenes, however, can offer a natural segue for healthy and necessary conversations around sex to take place among families, which is certainly a benefit. “I think for people who are more sheltered and don’t have parents that talk to them about sex, especially safe sex, there can be a positive effect of the prevalence of sex in
Lifestyles
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media,” Bucchammolla said. It can be argued that sex has a place in media in the same way violence, language and drugs do. For many of us, seeing violence, explicit language and drugs in media allows us to understand parts of the world that are unfamiliar; for many others, they’re topics that really resonate and can help us understand our own minds and the people around us. However, when actors as well as viewers experience awkwardness, and possibly darker emotions as well, it’s hard to rationalize the pervasiveness of graphic sex and nudity in the industry. To ensure more comfortable family movie nights, less male power in the film industry, and more agency for actors, particularly those just starting out in the industry, it’s important that nudity and graphic sex have a substantially smaller place in today’s media. For everyone’s sake, it’d be nice to scale back, at least just a little bit.
JULIANNE JOYCE • senior • psychology
Welcome to the Market: The free grocery store fighting food insecurity The new food initiative program works to reduce food insecurity among students. DAVID VU lifestyles staff writer
The Market of Virginia Tech, a brand-new food initiative program, opened up its first physical location at Virginia Tech’s University Mall last semester. Kas Church, assistant director of food access initiatives, manages the day-to-day activities of the Market, making sure there is enough food stocked and super vising st udent employees and volunteers. Calling it a “free grocery store,” Chu rch expla i ned t hat st udents enrolled in the Market can visit every week and shop for a variety of items that
would provide five to seven meals for the week. To be enrolled in the program, students fill out an interest form from the Dean of Students. Participants must be enrolled as a part-time or full-time student at Virginia Tech. “I think something that is really unique is that we provide access to a lot of healthy … produce options (and) a lot of meat options,” Church said. “Unlike a traditional pantry where you might be limited to shelf-stable items, I am really proud that we can offer so much variety and fresh products to our participants.” Food insecurity is considered a problem for a number of groups across the countr y, pa r ticula rly college
students. According to Church, one of the reasons that college students are affected by food insecurity is because college is becoming more expensive to attend. Students not only have to pay for tuition but also have to deal with getting regular groceries and paying rent if they live off-campus. With colleges accepting a more diverse range of applicants from all socioeconomic backgrounds, students who don’t come from families with vast financial resources may be impacted by food insecurity. “I think there are quite a few things that are making school more expensive, which is of course a financial burden to students,” Church said.
According to Church, food insecurity is generally viewed on a spectrum from low food insecurity to very high food insecurity. For some college students, food insecurity can be a short-term situation where they might have to cut corners, such as stretching meals further apart or not eating as many fruits and vegetables while waiting for their next paycheck. On the other side of the spectrum, students with very high food insecurity may have to frequently skip meals because they do not have the economic means to purchase groceries and meals. “Given how diverse our campus continued on page 5
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ANISHA KOHLI / COLLEGIATE TIMES
The Market on University City Boulevard, Feb. 17, 2022. continued from page 4
community is, it could also mean that for some of our students, they might not be able to find the foods that are most culturally or religiously appropriate for them,” Church said. “For a lot of our students at Virginia Tech, it’s more than not finding foods that are appropriate; maybe (it’s) not being able to eat as much fruits and vegetables as they like because they are very expensive, and also for a lot of our students, it’s having to skip meals because school schedules are so busy and it’s hard to really find time to eat.” According to a 2019 study by Virginia Tech, 29% of undergraduate students and 35% of graduate students were classified as having low or very low food security. The study found that certain demographics on campus were more likely to have a low food security status, including Black/African American and Hispanic/ Latino students, students receiving Pell Grants and students with lower GPAs. In response to this study, Virginia Tech convened a group of individuals
around campus to talk about options addressing food insecurity among students. Hema and Mehul Sanghani, a married couple and alumni of Virginia Tech, were inspired by the 2019 food insecurity study to make a $1.5 million donation to start and maintain the Market for the next few years. “Virginia Tech knew there was a need and then the donation definitely helped get things started,” Church said. With the Sanghanis’ donation, the Market team started piloting and experimenting with what the program would look like during the summer of 2020. Just before fall 2021, the Market officially opened and moved into a physical space in August 2021, albeit with the slight obstacle of being fully set up in time for the school year. “We moved into a new physical location and so that was certainly very challenging as we wanted to be there for students the first week of class,” Church said. “There were some delays in our physical set-up, but thankfully it’s set up now so we are physically ready to go.” Another big challenge the Market
March 22, 2022 PAGE 5
faces is that there are many students in need of its services; Church and the Market’s employees are trying to determine how to fundraise and adapt the program so that they can support more students. “If it is 30% of graduate students, that is a whole lot of students, and so our current model of the Market is probably not going to accommodate thousands and thousands of students,” Church said. “I think the greatest challenge for me is it’s amazing that we can support the hundreds of students we have by providing weekly groceries, but I think we have to develop other strategies to support a more broad audience because we are physically and financially a little constrained on how many students we can serve in our current model.” With Church being a part of Virginia Tech Student Affairs, she handles the Market’s high-level fundraising efforts, such as contacting and planning with professionals from Virginia Tech’s Advancement Division to create giving campaigns for the Market. “They are the ones who have the
mass emailing list of people who have donated,” Church said. “They are also the ones networking directly with folks who might have some money to give and really trying to entice them to give their money to the Market.” In addition to those fundraisers, the Market also accepts food drives from many groups and organizations across campus and accepts volunteers who donate their time to help the Market’s initiatives. Thinking about the future of the Market, Church hopes that it can continue to be a source of support to students and serve as many students as it possibly can. “I really hope that we can continue to grow and that more people are interested in giving to the Market, which would really allow us to expand our reach and to our Hokie community,” Church said.
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From lush landscapes to thrilling duels: Elden Ring is a fantastical masterpiece The highly anticipated open world fantasy epic blows fans away with its story and gameplay. JAKE WALSH lifestyles staff writer
It almost doesn’t feel real that Elden Ring has finally been released. When video game company FromSoftware revealed it was planning to make an open-world fantasy epic with George R.R. Martin helping to write the story, it quickly became one of the most anticipated games of the modern era. Now that the game is finally here, users might wonder how this game stacks up to others and whether it meets all the lofty expectations it has garnered over the years.
Story (9/10)
The story of Elden Ring is one that the creators left up to players regarding how to approach and experience it. Other than an introductory cutscene that briefly introduces the world and a few of the characters, players have the choice to experience the story however they please. There are countless tidbits of information and lore about the fantasy world of Elden Ring scattered throughout all the different sections of the “Lands Between.” You can start by exploring new areas, talking to different non playable characters (NPCs) and reading every item description. All of these paths are optional, but if players choose to interact with and learn about the environment they are playing in, they are greeted with one of the most interesting and complex fantasy worlds I’ve seen in a video game. Even if you don’t feel like talking to everyone or reading about every item, there are still moments to love in the few story cutscenes that are scattered throughout the game. The story gives all players a gripping and immersive experience from start to finish, regardless of playstyle. I’m giving the game one point off because most of that great story is optional, and the majority of people won’t choose to experience all of it.
Open world (10/10)
It has become a trend in gaming that almost all new Triple-A games made by the biggest gaming studios in the world need to come packaged with an open world. An open world gives you freedom to explore almost anywhere on the map at any given time. This has led to many developers creating empty and poorly implemented open worlds simply for the sake of having one. Users have had good reason to be skeptical of FromSoftware, because the
company has never made an open world to the scale of Elden Ring before, but FromSoftware absolutely knocked it out of the park. When users complete the tutorial and set off into the free world, they are greeted with a beautiful, lush universe filled to the brim with structures to explore and enemies to fight. The game has a very loose guide to help you progress through the main story, but it does not force you to follow a specific path. Oftentimes, you’ll think you’ve seen it all only to find a secret elevator or a cave that leads you to an entire new area you never knew existed. The amount of content in this world blows most other games out of the water; not only is it just huge, but there are various different biomes and different enemy types that never make the experience boring. The game rewards exploration by giving players new items to use, lore to see and runes which are used to level up players’ characters and buy equipment. Exploring becomes simple and fun, and it’s never a slog to traverse longer distances. Elden Ring truly sets the bar for what games in the future should do for their open worlds.
Gameplay (9/10)
Similar to other FromSoftware games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, this game is hard. As soon as you finish the tutorial, the game immediately warns you how difficult defeating some of the enemies and bosses can be. The first boss most players are greeted with is the Tree Sentinel, a knight covered head to toe in golden armor, riding a horse and wielding the Golden Halberd. This boss will almost certainly be too difficult to beat at this point in the game and teaches you your first lesson. However, the genius of this game lies in the fact that even with your starting equipment and attributes, every enemy is beatable with proper strategy. The game is challenging, but every fight remains fair and rewarding if you take your time and learn from each death. The game also allows many different strategies while fighting, emphasizing that there are so many different ways to play the game, all equally valid. Elden Ring has mechanics like “Ashes of War” and multiplayer summons for those who want more variety and need extra assistance. “Ashes of War” acts to summon an NPC like a group of wolves or a knight to help you out in a tough situation, while the multiplayer version lets you have a real player from anywhere across the world come into your
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game to help you with a boss. With all of these mechanics at your disposal, creators add even more variety in terms of how users want to play the game. With enough time, every boss can be beatable, and it feels great when you finally beat the enemy that acted as a roadblock for a long time. It is an amazing feeling to have a game that was as anticipated as Elden Ring actually live up to the hype. This game is definitely not for everyone, with its polarizing difficulty and lack of many basic tutorials. If you are a fan of previous games like the Dark Souls trilogy or Bloodborne, however, this game is a must-play. Elden Ring does everything it sets out to achieve almost perfectly and has one of the most gorgeous and vast open worlds ever created. Elden Ring has set a new standard for Triple-A single-player games. I think this game
will be remembered as one of the best games of this generation. I give Elden Ring a 10/10.
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Sports
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March 22, 2022 PAGE 7
Women’s basketball stunned in first round of March Madness, 81–84 Kitley’s 42 points were not enough to push the Hokies past FGCU.
ASHLYN O’NEILL sports staff writer
The 2021–22 season was one of the best in the history of Virginia Tech women’s basketball, and with the madness of March all around it, the Hokies looked poised to add to such a promising year with an NCAA Tournament run. This season saw the Hokies finish with a 23–10 record, and rose as high as No. 16 in the AP Poll. These efforts led to the Hokies snagging the highest seed in the NCAA Tournament in program history at five. The Hokies were in the Spokane Region and played 12-seed Florida Gulf Coast. FGCU is never an easy out in the NCAA Tournament, as showcased by its 2015 men’s team who made a Sweet 16 run as a 15 seed. Unfortunately for Tech, the Eagles once again flexed their Cinderella muscle and ended the Hokies’ season in the first round of the tournament. The game was relatively back and forth for the first three
quarters, with both teams having leads throughout the contest. Entering the fourth and final frame of the night, the Hokies found themselves still within striking distance down six, 62–56. Virginia Tech battled back and the Hokies found themselves tied at 62: It was anybody’s game. But it would be the free-throw line that decided the game. FGCU shot an approximate, impressive 82% from the line as a team. The Eagles ended up going up 79–74 and with the time running down in regulation, they made their free throws when it mattered to put away the Hokies. Besides the charity stripe, the other killer for the Hokies was FGCU’s blazing hot 3-point shooting with them making a stellar 15 field goals in the game compared to the Hokies’ six. A point could be made to say the 27-plus point margin at the 3-point line was the main determinant leading to the FGCU upset on Friday. However, regardless of the loss, it was still yet another historic night for the Hokies, especially for Elizabeth Kitley.
She accounted for 42 of Tech’s 81 points, and broke the program record for points in a single game, all while choosing the biggest stage to do so. She also set the record for most field goal attempts and makes in an NCAA Tournament game for a Tech player. The women have a lot of returning talent next year and now look ahead to their offseason to
prepare for hopefully another equally historic run in both the regular season and the NCAA Tournament.
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Jones, Texas pull away from Virginia Tech to advance in NCAA Tournament A poor second half led to the Hokies’ loss.
RIDGE WILSON sports staff writer
After a week in which everyone was picking Virginia Tech, Texas showed up to Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, like the team with an edge that was playing with house money. “I think we were super connected down in Brooklyn,” said Hunter Cattoor postgame. “(Friday,) I thought we got off to a good start. Scoreless to the first media (timeout) and then during the game (Texas) was just getting their shots down. Credit to them, they made shots.” Texas guard Andrew Jones scored
21 points, including five first-half 3-pointers, and Texas used a big second half run to pull away from Virginia Tech 81–73 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, snapping a four-game tournament skid and advancing for the first time since 2014. Texas forward Timmy Allen scored 14 points for the sixth-seeded Longhorns (22 –11), and gua rd Ma rcus Ca r r added 15 points of his own, including a banked-in shot from beyond half court at the first-half buzzer, which gave Texas a 34–32 lead at halftime. “I didn’t think we had gotten our feet under us offensively,” said coach Mike
Young. “I thought we were going to be a lot –– but I told them 34 points to Texas in a half is not good enough.” From there, the Longhorns continued to take away the 3-point line and hit shots of their own, which allowed them to pull away in the second half, leading by as many as 17 points. Keve Aluma scored 15 points for the ACC champion and 11th-seeded Hokies (23–13), who lost for just the third time since early February, saw all momentum from their incredible conference tournament run squashed on the March Madness stage. Justyn Mutts scored nine points but had a team-high four turnovers, and Sean Pedulla added a
team-high 19 points off the bench, providing a much needed lift from behind the arc when the starters could get little going against the Texas defense. The Longhorns advance to meet thirdseeded Purdue in the second round, while the Hokies see their season come to an end. With the impending departures of Aluma, Mutts and Storm Murphy, the Hokies will turn to a strong recruiting class for lost production. “Texas was a little bit better,” Young said. “I think it’s a pretty special season.” @CTSportsTalk
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