The Reveille 2-13-19

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We d ne s d ay, Fe b r u a r y 13, 2 019 PHOTOS BY MITCHELL SCAGLIONE MITCHELL SCAGLIONE / The Reveille

BUCKET UP LSU looks to Naz Reid and Tremont Waters in crunch time, page 2

NEWS

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Aerial silks class exposes students to acrobatic dancing.

SPORTS

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Shortstop Josh Smith returns to the LSU lineup after missing all of 2018 with an injury.

ENTERTAINMENT

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Baton Rouge resident spends her 103rd birthday planting cherry trees around the city.

OPINION

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“Despite how useful technology is in the classroom, it’s still demonized by many college professors.”

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

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L SU Re ve i l le.co m

COVER STORY

Waters to Reid: LSU’s go-to offense in the clutch

BY BRANDON ADAM @badam___ LSU went with what works against No. 5 Kentucky in crunch time. In one of the biggest moments of the game on Feb. 12, sophomore point guard Tremont Waters found freshman forward Naz Reid for a three to take a 65-62 lead on the Wildcats’ home floor with 3:44 to go.

The go-ahead three began a stretch where Reid and Waters combined for LSU’s last nine points before senior center Kavell Bigby-Williams’ tip-in at the buzzer to win 73-71, making it LSU’s second win all-time (2-35) on the road against a top-five team – the previous win coming against Kentucky in Jan. 1980.

It’s become set in stone almost – Waters to Reid with the game on the line.

Up one with 15 seconds left in overtime against Mississippi State, Waters made the easiest play he can make – a simple pass to Reid.

It came four days after Waters went for broke against Arkansas by throwing a difficult alleyhoop to junior forward Marlon Taylor in an exact situation as the one they found themselves in against Mississippi State on Feb. 6.

This time, the simple play worked. Reid had a clean look from three. His shot bounced high off the front of the rim, and after floating in the air on the cloud of tension in the arena, the ball dropped straight through the net.

“I just had the shooters’ touch at the moment, and also I’m pretty sure Wayde [Sims] played a big part in that,” Reid said on Feb. 8 of his game-clinching three against Mississippi State.

There was nothing fancy drawn up by LSU coach Will Wade. The play was just a simple on-ball screen by Reid on Waters’ man – a simple play that wreaked havoc on Mississippi State’s defense and other opposing Southeastern Conference teams since the beginning of January. The big guarding Reid on the perimeter had his eyes glued to Waters, who sucked the defender in by driving to the top of the key, leaving Reid wide open. The freshman from New Jersey finished with a careerhigh 29 points along with nine rebounds. Meanwhile, Waters chipped in 26 points and five assists.

“I don’t know if any big man in the country can guard Naz at the three-point line,” Waters said on Feb. 8. “As long as we have playmakers on the court – me, Ja’vonte [Smart], [Skylar Mays], pretty much everyone on our team now, including Naz in crunch time – I don’t think any team is going to be able to figure out what we’re trying to

do. It’s just a matter of instinct and making plays with the ball.

“To have Naz in the pickand-roll late in the game—it just causes confusion for the other team.”

The two-man game between Waters and Reid has devastated opposing defenses in conference play. They combine to average 34.7 points per game on 47 percent shooting from the field and 41 percent from three. Either Waters or Reid have led the team in scoring in nine of LSU’s 11 conference games so far, and both have two double-doubles.

When Reid has stepped out to the perimeter, it’s been Waters who has set him up. Waters has assisted on eight of Reid’s 12 made threes in conference play.

Reid says he hasn’t noticed many changes in the way teams are trying to guard on-ball

screens involving him, but one thing that does stand out is when teams try to trap Waters, leaving Reid without a defender near him.

“It’s wide open,” Reid said.

“If the next defender comes over, I know the next guy will be wide open. I’m ready to shoot it and I’m ready to kick it, whichever one is there.”

Being able to see the court from the perimeter on a pickand-pop is something Reid likes, but don’t think he’ll abandon hard rolls to the basket or anything in between.

“Coach [Wade] puts it in place, puts it in practice,” Reid said. “We work on pick-andpop, pick-and-roll, short roll, stuff like that. We work on it in practice and try to display it in the game as much as we can, and it’s been working so far.”

The two-man game between Waters and Reid is something

LSU has turned to late in crunch time of close games, and it is an area where the team is starting to excel. After starting out 1-2 in games decided by two scores or less, the Tigers are 6-1 since and have picked up three overtime wins on the road in the SEC. “Being comfortable in uncomfortable situations helps us a lot – coach [Bill] Armstong told me that one day,” Waters said. “I didn’t understand it, but now I’m starting to understand it a lot more. Obviously, we’re going to have those late game situations so we have to be comfortable in those situations and be able to execute.

“I feel like that is where we’re most dangerous because no team can pinpoint who is going to shoot the last shoot,” he continued. “As long as we have faith in each other were going to be really good.”

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CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS An opinion column titled, “LSU should prioritize student safety following recent events” published in the Feb. 6 print edition has been edited online to reflect updated details from LSUPD.

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MITCHELL SCAGLIONE / The Reveille

Guard Tremont Waters and forward Naz Reid consistently lead LSU comebacks as the Tigers advance to 10-1 in the SEC following a win over Kentucky.

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NEWS

page 3 ACADEMICS

Honor societies: to join or not to join?

BY BAILEY CHAUVIN @BaileyChauvin

and outreach coordinator for APA, said study abroad programs are beneficial to students because they are great opportunities for safe travel.

“It just kind of expands your worldview,” Vernon said. “You get to see different people from different walks of life.”

Mass communication senior Julieta Barreto studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, last spring. She

If you have at least a 3.0 GPA and have checked your email this semester, you’ve likely seen an invitation to join at least one honor society.

Many honor societies send mass emails at the beginning of the spring semester to qualifying students in the hopes of recruiting new members. A quick glance at these emails may not reveal any major differences between the honor societies, so how should students decide which, if any, honor societies to join?

Ogden Honors College Director of Fellowship Advising Drew Lamonica Arms said students should weigh the membership benefits of each honor society they are invited to join.

“Something you definitely need to do when you are deciding whether to join is to be honest about what you will get out of it,” Arms said. “That’s a great way to be discerning because you can generally tell what they’re offering when they ask you to join.”

Students should be interested in more than a membership certificate and lapel pin when considering whether to join an honor society.

Becoming a member of an honor society is certainly a great networking tool and addition to a resume,

see ABROAD, page 6

see HONORS, page 6

Study abroad programs affordable, beneficial according to students

BY RAYMOND CONSTANTINO @r_dog_3 The cost of study abroad programs can often be challenging for cash-strapped students, but a scholarship opportunity at the University allows interested students to build scholarship funds by buddying up with an international student on campus.

The LSU Office of International Programs runs the LSU Study

Abroad Scholarship. The office assigns domestic students an international student to engage with for the semester. Students earn points, which translate into scholarship funds. Each point is worth $10.

Marissa Baham, program manager at Academic Programs Abroad, said the opportunity is a great way for students to learn about other cultures and lifestyles.

“Students are assigned

an international partner, and throughout the semester, they’re like a conversation buddy for someone, or a Louisiana ambassador, a roommate,” Baham said.

In addition to the Study Abroad Scholarship, there are several other scholarships available to apply for on APA’s website. If students want to go during the fall or spring semesters, they can use TOPS funding to pay their tuition.

Jordan Vernon, marketing

ADMINISTRATION

Former LSU president worked to keep black students out of University

BY TAYLOR BOURGEOIS @tbourge_ Former LSU president and World War I veteran Troy H. Middleton, known by students today as the namesake of the LSU Middleton Library, fought to keep a segregated campus during his presidential tenure.

In 1956, Middleton presented a formal report titled “LSU and Segregation” to the Board of Supervisors, six years after the first black student was admitted to the University. Middleton wanted to review “the Negro situation” the University was in. “[The University] has [admitted black students] reluctantly, under court order,” Middleton said in the report. “While there are some 117 Negroes enrolled at LSU, the historic policy of the University is not to admit Negroes. It is

unlikely that there will be any change in this policy.”

The Supreme Court’s Gaines v. Canada verdict in 1938 ordered black people to have the same rights as white people on a separate-but-equal basis. But the University managed to keep black students out until a court order forced them to admit black students in 1950.

Middleton became University president in 1951. Although he had no part in enforcing the Gaines v. Canada verdict, he recalled that in the formal report before his time as University president, the University had been continuously losing court battles about school segregation, despite hiring “the state’s best legal minds” since 1946.

The University tried to make strides in offering black students an equal education in a document

written to the public in 1945.

“There is no dodging the fact that so long as the state of Louisiana makes no provision [whatsoever] for Negro education beyond the bachelor’s degree, Negro students who wish to pursue their studies further are legally entitled as American citizens to utilize the facilities of Louisiana State University,” the document stated.

Next year, in 1946, the University helped kickstart a law school at Southern University for black students after the concern of the impending fallout of segregation. The University would provide professors and resources for several semesters as Southern got on its feet.

Even when LSU was ordered to admit black students, it is debatable whether the University provided equal resources to these students. Of the 633 black

ALYSSA BERRY/ The Reveille

Troy H. Middleton Library operates during regular business hours on Aug. 16, 2017. students enrolled in 1950, only

see MIDDLETON, page 6

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 4 ACADEMICS

LSU law students win national criminal trial competition

BY BAILEY CHAUVIN @BaileyChauvin A team of LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center students won first place at the John L. Costello National Criminal Trial Competition.

The competition took place from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3 and was hosted by George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

The team competed against 32 teams from law schools around the country and is the first team from LSU to win the competition.

Team members include second-year (2L) student Elise Benezech and 3L students Brooke Delaune and Allena McCain.

The team was coached by Lindsay Blouin and Joshua Newville, who both graduated from the LSU Law Center in 2012. Participating in trial advocacy is a way for the team to ensure that they are prepared to appear in court as future attorneys.

“There’s only so much that a classroom setting can teach me about how to be a trial attorney,” Delaune said. “I really wanted to do this to make sure that when I graduate and step into a courtroom, I know what I’m doing.”

Each trial advocacy team consists of three members, with two members acting as attorneys and one member acting as a witness. At the competition, the teams conduct criminal trials and act as either the prosecution or defense.

This competition was designed to provide competitors with a realistic experience as participants

in a criminal trial. Instead of preparing cases as both prosecution and defense, each team was designated as a prosecution team or a defense team when the case materials were distributed and only received information regarding their side of the case.

Not only did the teams not know what information their opponents were given, but they were also given new pieces of evidence right before the start of each trial. While this practice makes the competition more challenging, the team agreed that it was good experience for their future careers.

“Both sides would get a new piece of evidence and we wouldn’t find out what they had until five minutes before the trial started,” Delaune said. “In real trials, you’re going to get evidence last minute and you have to adjust.”

For each trial, the teams were also assigned a student from the host university who volunteered to act as a second witness, referred to as a woodshed witness. The teams had 15 minutes to explain to the students the roles they should assume as witnesses and how they should respond during direct and cross examinations.

McCain had the responsibility of “woodshedding the witness” for her team, which was categorized as a defense team.

For defense teams, the woodshed witness was an expert witness who had to explain technical information about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). McCain said training a stranger to assume such a role in 15 minutes

is no easy feat and involved a lot of preparation.

“It was really hard because as part of getting an expert witness on the stand, we had to teach them the proper methodology for diagnosing PTSD,” McCain said. “They don’t know that and it wasn’t in the case materials, so we had to go research.”

Benezech was the team’s witness and acted as the defendant in the case. She not only had to prepare for direct and cross examinations as her witness, but also had to remember information from each new piece of evidence the team was given. Delaune, who questioned Benezech during direct examination, said Benezech’s quick understanding of the new pieces of evidence was crucial.

“Every time we would get our new piece of evidence, it was completely on Elise to make sure she gave the right answer,” Delaune said. “We got to a point where Elise and I were telepathically communicating. She was so instrumental.”

Delaune was also an integral part of the team. McCain said during the competition, two judges told Delaune she had given the best closing argument they had ever seen.

To prepare for the competition, the team practiced at least twice a week. Their coaches instilled in them the importance of knowing the rules of evidence and standing by their case theory.

Blouin and Newville, who both work at the East Baton Rouge Office of the Public Defender, asked attorneys who work there to assist in training the team

courtesy of BROOKE DELAUNE

LSU Law Center alumni Lindsay Blouin and Joshua Newville coached law students Allena McCain, Elise Benezech and Brooke Delaune for their criminal trial competition. for competition.

The team presented their case numerous times alongside attorneys from the Office of Public Defenders, who acted as the prosecution. The attorneys created their own prosecution and new pieces of evidence for each trial so the team would not be phased by the opposing team during the actual competition. While their practices were difficult, the team agreed they improved performance.

“Our coaches really did prep us to have the worst practices, so we would have better performances,” Benezech said.

In the end, the team’s hard

work and grueling practices put them ahead of their competition. Delaune said earning the championship was particularly empowering because their team consisted of only women. The team agreed that being named champions was an indescribable experience and reassured them of their skills as future attorneys.

“It was so validating that the skills that I have are good enough to be a champion,” McCain said.

“We went against some of the best trial advocacy programs in the nation and to say that our skills carried us to the very end is very validating.”

STUDENT LIFE

LSU student enters Top 100 globally in Smash Bros. Melee

BY TAYLOR BOURGEOIS @tbourge_ Brandon Sullivan, a 19-year old sociology sophomore, has joined the ranks of the Top 100 Super Smash Bros. Melee players in the world, ranking 97th as a Falco main.

Sullivan started playing Melee in January 2014 after getting hooked from The Smash Brothers on YouTube. Since watching, Sullivan picked up the name “Magi” for tournaments and reached the Top 100 after five years of grinding and hard work.

“I’d been anxious about the rankings ever since the season ended, and just being able to see all the hard work pay off and be recognized nationally was such a great feeling,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan picked up the name Magi from when he played competitive Yu-Gi-Oh before he entered the Melee community. He would say “magi” when he placed down a certain card, and it stuck with him when he needed a name when joining SmashBoards, a fo-

rum many Melee players used to use.

Sullivan recently attended Genesis 6, where he upset the fifth-ranked player in the world, Mang0. He’s gotten a “huge surge” of popularity since the upset on Feb. 2. He even caught the attention of popular Melee player Leffen with a congratulatory message on Twitter for his big win.

“It was easily the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me in my Melee career and will probably always stand out regardless of whatever I will accomplish from this point onward,” Sullivan said.

Mang0 happens to also be one of Sullivan’s biggest role models in the Melee community. Sullivan has looked up to him his entire career and has major respect for him.

“He’s basically the hero in the community,” Sullivan said. “It’s honestly a dream of mine to ever have the hearts of the crowd like Mang0 does.”

Historically, Melee players from Louisiana have not

performed well once they start competing outside the state. It was a nice change when Sullivan went to Dreamhack Austin in June 2018 and received $500 for placing fifth among high-profile Melee players.

Sullivan has really appreciated the camaraderie amongst players not just in the Melee community, but the esports community as a whole.

“It’s honestly just nice to be a part of a community that collectively understands the beauty and difficulty of a lot of these video games,” Sullivan said. “I think there are still a lot of people that scoff at the idea of video games being genuine forms of competition, so having a community that does get it and appreciates it is really nice.”

Sullivan encourages anybody who is interested in joining the scene to not be scared to jump in or think it is too late. The University’s Melee players meet for a weekly practice session at Tureaud Hall on Tuesdays, and are more than happy to bring in more players.

ALYSSA BERRY / The Reveille

Two LSU students play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Feb. 11, in Hodges Hall.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

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TECHNOLOGY

LSU professors develop technology to determine natural hazards

BY SOPHIE LIBERTO @LibertoSophie LSU assistant professors of civil and environmental engineering Navid Jafari, Chao Sun and Hongliang Zhang are collaborating with other University professors to make it easier to determine where big storms go and what impact they will have in terms of wind, rain, storm surge and flooding.

They are working on different projects within the Hurricane Resilience Research Institute (HuRRI).

The process of collecting information for these projects includes driving to the wetlands, finding a boat and boat ramp, going into the windy and choppy water, placing sensors and returning to wetlands and collecting data. With fresh bodies of water, snakes and alligators may be present.

“There is a lot of effort that goes into that,” Jafari said.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if robots could do that for us?”

Jafari’s project is in collaboration with Aaron Becker, a robotics engineer at the University of Houston. One of the areas that interested both Becker and Jafari was collecting data before, during and after natural hazards like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, landslides and other similar events.

The project aims to deploy sensors using drones or unmanned aerial vehicles to stay stationary during a hurricane.

The team is developing prototypes to drop sensors, make sure the sensors land stably and collect correct data. They are going to the wetlands in March to test these prototypes, which will help model hurricanes and see how they pass through wetlands.

Meanwhile, Sun is working on a project to help protect power transmission and distribution systems during severe storms. Storm surges cause damage that leads to power outages, which can hurt the economy and hinder recovery after a hurricane.

Sun’s team focuses on the me-

chanics behavior of the power distribution systems. The team aims to understand the complex behavior of the systems and to propose some protection devices that can mitigate the response system during hurricanes.

“After Hurricane Harvey, we went there and we saw a lot of damages occur to the power systems, and the idea came to my mind [to conduct this research],” Sun said.

Zhang aims to create a new coupled model, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model Hydrological modeling system.

The project aims to predict precipitation of hurricanes as well as flood conditions globally. It can also track the size, intensity and location of hurricanes.

The team tries to better predict future natural hazards by looking at historical records of precipitation.

Zhang’s team’s new coupled model allows them to see change and patterns of natural hazards. It also shows flooding levels and air

THE REVEILLE ARCHIVES

Debris remains on the side of the road on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, on Chaumont Avenue in Greenwell Springs, Louisiana. pollution because studies show that aerosols can have an effect on hurricanes, Zhang said. The Baton Rouge Floods in 2016 and

Hurricane Harvey in 2017 are two cases the team mainly looks at and collect the data to see the patterns.

ACADEMICS

LSU Aerial silks class offers students course in acrobatic art

BY LARA NICHOLSON @laranicholson_ While students often spend class time in lecture, taking notes and writing essays, Associate Professor of Movement Nick Erickson’s students spend class performing acrobatic stunts while suspended as high as 27 feet in the air.

Aerial silks is a type of performance art using fabric hung from the ceiling. Since its invention in 1995, the art is used mainly in circus performances, with aerialists climbing, dropping and contorting their bodies on the silks. Erickson began teaching aerial silks in 2003 and now receives the help of Dance Professional-in-Residence Claudio Ribiero da Salva, a Brazilian dancer who co-instructs using his personal background in acrobatics.

Erickson was inspired to bring acrobatic dance to the University following his career as a founding member of Diavolo Dance Company, in which he toured nationally in venues like the Joyce Theater in New York City.

In 2002, Erickson left the company to be head of movement for the MFA acting program at the University.

“I found that the undergrads were sometimes even more exciting to work with because of their raw enthusiasm, eagerness to learn and willingness to try crazy things,” Erickson said. “People were breaking bones in my class, and I was trying to find ways to minimize that.”

Erickson created the aerial silks class after meeting an aerial silks artist who taught him five moves. Erickson said he

immediately bought his own silks and began teaching the art to any student who was interested.

Since then, he has created the courses Aerial Silks Practice I and II, and now has a studio in the Music and Dramatic Arts Building dedicated to acrobatic art. Erickson also has the help of Ribiero.

Ribiero first started as a dancer at 16 years old in Rio De Janeiro. His involvement in world-renowned dance companies such as the Deborah Colker Dance Company and the Ana Vitória Contemporary Company led to his work in trapeze art and aerial silks. He came to the U.S. after falling in love with his husband, who he has been with for 16 years.

Ribiero followed his husband to Baton Rouge and began teaching dance classes at the University. He has co-instructed the aerial silks class with Erickson for two years.

“He’s a brother I didn’t know I had,” Ribiero said. “We have the same key chain, we worked in similar dance companies [and] have the same wallet. We also have a similar way to look at movement.”

Spanish senior Andrew Levie, a second-semester student of Aerial Silks Practice I, believes the two instructors complement each other well.

“They both have different backgrounds, so they both give you specific, unique advice,” Levie said. “Together it just makes them amazing. They’re the best. I couldn’t love them any more.”

Levie said that the class itself provides an experience that is unique to each student.

“The moves are given to you, but your expression through

those moves is up to you,” Levie said.

Levie said the class is split into groups based on their number of semesters in the class, and each group learns different moves based on their experience level.

Erickson said the class is structured this way so that more experienced students not only learn new moves, but also how to teach and assist the newer students.

“I think ever since I’ve been here, I’ve been bending the rules,” Erickson said. “I’m not an academic. I’m all about creating skill. It’s ultimately, for me, to be a mode of expression that is transformative. If it doesn’t do that, I’m not interested.”

Aerial silks courses currently comprise 74 students, with some students having taken over four semesters of aerial silks. Erickson encourages students interested in aerial silks to join the Physical Theatre Club, where they can learn and practice aerial silks

MITCHELL SCAGLIONE / The Reveille

Members of the LSU silks class participate in class on Feb. 1, in the Music and Dramatic Arts building. during open practice hours. Students may also enroll in Aerial

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Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 6 HONORS, from page 3

MIDDLETON, from page 3

ABROAD, from page 3

THE REVEILLE ARCHIVES

THE REVEILLE ARCHIVES

Middleton Library sits in quad on Jan. 5, 2017.

7 percent graduated. Thirty-nine students received a graduate degree, two received a law degree and one received a social welfare degree.

During his tenure, Middleton was popular among staff, donors and some students. A rule was set for a forced retirement once a president turned 70, which would have ended his tenure in 1959. The Alumni Council waived the rule to let him remain as president until he retired in 1962.

Middleton passed away in 1976. The University’s library was named after Middleton in 1978.

For the people aware of Middleton’s history, there have been questions regarding whether he

should have his name on the University’s main library, which is in the works to be torn down.

“If that building was going to stay there in perpetuity, I would say go fight and get his name taken off the building, but everyone on this campus wants to tear it down anyways,” said mass communication professor Robert Mann.

Currently, the only building on campus named after an African American is Tureaud Hall.

Mann said he’s heard that Middleton may have shifted his philosophy and been more open later in his career to accept black students at the University, but no documentation has been found.

A sign marks the location of the Laville Honors House on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017, just off of South Campus Drive. but it can also offer other opportunities for students.

The invitation emails usually list noteworthy membership benefits, which can include access to scholarships and awards, service and leadership opportunities and lectures from visiting scholars. The honor societies’ websites provide a more in-depth look at their offerings.

When considering the benefits of joining an honor society, students should also be wary of invitations from less reputable honor societies. Arms said students should use discretion before accepting an invitation to an honor society that doesn’t offer many membership benefits.

“It’s like any enterprise that’s asking you to be a member,” Arms said. “If they’re simply looking for your money and they don’t offer any kind of group cohesion, scholarships or extra-curricular activities, then you need to look twice.”

Honor societies are not all created equally. After determining if there are benefits they would want to take advantage of, students should visit that honor society’s website to verify its credibility.

Honor societies that are certified by the Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS) are guaranteed to be reputable.

If an honor society’s website doesn’t include information about an ACHS certification, students should research the organization. ACHS recommends honor

societies that are recognized as a non-profit organization, have a chapter on campus and accept members in the top 35 percent of their class, which typically requires a GPA of at least 3.2.

The honor society’s website itself can also reveal how credible the organization is. Students should look for the honor society’s national office staff and contact information, membership criteria and benefits and chapter policies and procedures.

An honor society website that lacks contact information for its national office or chief executive officer, offers an online application that doesn’t require an invitation or contains vague eligibility standards is not a credible organization.

The University’s general catalog includes a list of honor societies with active chapters on campus. The LSU Ogden Honors College website also has a list of recommended honor societies for students in the Honors College.

While the constant barrage of emails may seem overwhelming, Arms encourages students to do their research and select reputable honor societies that fit their needs and interests.

“My concern is that students aren’t looking at the asks anymore, but some are legitimate and are ones you want to have,” Arms said. “My advice would be to take a longer look at each one of them and use the tools that we’ve provided.”

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LSU students prepare to depart for study abroad trip from Louis Armstrong International Airport. said she had wanted to study abroad since seventh grade and that a misconception exists about the cost of studying abroad. She paid about the same rent in Spain as she does in Baton Rouge, and also paid the same tuition for a normal semester.

“The things that you’re paying extra are the extra trips, but in terms of costof-living, it was similar as to what you’d be paying here,” Barreto said.

Barreto had only positive things to say about her time overseas. For instance, she said she had no problem with walking alone at night in Madrid, but said she would not feel safe doing so on campus. She also said her listening abilities improved and she found it easier to be patient when talking to people.

Barreto said at first she had trouble connecting with the other students because many of them had been friends for years, but soon became wellacquainted with them. One of her friends planned on studying abroad in Connecticut, and so they took turns speaking in English and Spanish to help each other improve.

International studies senior and APA peer adviser Courtney Kovacs had similarly positive thoughts on her summer 2018 trip to Granada, Spain.

Her trip was a five-week stay with a local resident. She took two classes at the University of Granada and enjoyed excursions to surrounding areas. She said after just a week she noticed improvement in her Spanish-speaking skills.

“You’re using [Spanish] constantly, in the class, on excursions, at home, anywhere you were walking,” Kovacs said.

“Even if you did mess up, the locals were very understanding.”

Kovacs said studying abroad was one of the best things she’s done while in college.

“Honestly just go. If you have any ounce of your body that wants to go travel, just go,” Kovacs said.

SPORTS

page 7

RETURN OF THE SHORTSTOP Josh Smith looks to lead LSU back to the CWS after missing 2018 season

BY BRENNEN NORMAND @ BrennenNormand_ Feb. 15 will make 257 days since LSU lost to Oregon State in the 2018 NCAA Regional tournament, and 294 days since junior Josh Smith played shortstop for LSU. Senior outfielder Antoine Duplantis, juniors Zach Watson and right-handed pitcher Zack Hess and sophomore right-handed pitcher Eric Walker are just a few who headline the returning stars.

They were all major keys in helping place LSU to become No. 1 preseason team — but Smith might have the most impact on the team. He was a 2017 All American for the Tigers during their charge to the College World Series cham-

pionship game.

LSU coach Paul Mainieri said it’s like the team has three recruiting classes with the traditional freshmen and junior college players, the drafted players returning and the returning injured players.

Smith missed the 2018 season with a back injury, only allowing him to play in six games. During his 2017 freshman season, Smith started 72 games at third base and was a key piece to the team’s College World Series run. He hit for a .281 batting average, seventh on the team with at least 130 at bats, and had a .409 slugging percentage, fifth on the team with at least 130 at bats.

Defensively, Smith played well for a young player at the hot corner. He made nine errors and had

a fielding percentage of .947, right behind then-senior Kramer Robertson’s .963 fielding percentage.

Mainieri said that third base is often overlooked and is a more difficult position to play than many people realize.

Smith’s experience in the College World Series will be a crucial part for their success this year. Understanding what it takes to succeed in the grind of the long season and every tournament leading up to the College World Series is something Smith can relay to the young players who make up important roles to the team, like he did as a freshman.

During the 2018 season, Smith transitioned to shortstop to take over after Robertson graduated. After injuring his back, Hal

OPINION

AAF may serve as catalyst to better professional football CAL’D UP CHRIS CALDARERA @caldarera11

Hughes took over the position playing solid defense, but he struggled at the plate. Hughes hit for a .221 batting average, lowest on the team with at least 140 at bats.

“He kind of got thrown in there, and he handled himself a lot better than more people are going to give him credit for,” Smith said.

Shortstop is a position that needs consistency throughout the season. Producing both offensively and defensively at that position is vital for championship teams. During LSU’s World Series loss to Florida, the Gators junior shortstop Dalton Guthrie hit .273 and had a fielding percentage of

The ivory dice landed on the stiff cardboard with an audible thud. My sister, realizing that her fate had been sealed, gave me an ice cold stare to contrast the smug grin on my face.

The tension in the room was palpable as she moved her token toward my hotel on Atlantic Avenue. My sister rose from her seat without a word, knowing that the move sealed her bankruptcy and allowed me to claim victory.

While our feud surrounding such a trivial game was shortlived, the Monopoly board has been known to place a strain on many relationships. No one enjoys maneuvering through the gauntlets of hotels that appear on the board later in the game, and not many people are fans of reallife monopolies either.

Monopolies seize control of the free market system and destroy beneficial competition along the way.

see SMITH, page 9

see AAF, page 9

GYMNASTICS

Where does LSU gymnastics go following worst loss of season?

BY KENNEDI LANDRY @landryyy14 LSU coach D-D Breaux always says “consistency wins.”

But for the first time in years, the LSU gymnastics team has struggled to put up consistently high scores in 2019. The Tigers scored a season low 196.025 in a loss to Kentucky last week, bringing their season average down from 197.015 to 196.850.

Associate head coach Jay Clark, who was filling in for a sick Breaux, said they see consistency in the gym all the time during practices and nothing alarms the coaching staff. He believes that will translate to competition.

“It’s not about what we’re doing physically, it’s more about where they are mentally,” Clark said. “Are they bought into the

message? If they are, those things are going to take care of themselves. Consistency wins, yes, but that’s an all encompassing statement. It’s not just the part that the public sees. The message and the approach has to be consistent, too.”

Clark knows that it’s nowhere near time to hit the panic button, but the team does need to be on the right footing mentally in order to compete with some of the best in the country. It’s important for them to know that the sky isn’t falling.

The meets that LSU has lost were all to good teams, including No. 2 Florida and No. 11 Auburn.

Clark affirms that the SEC is the toughest conference in the nation, and a few early losses won’t work.

From a personnel standpoint

and on paper, Clark said, the Tigers are nearly identical to last year’s team that finished fourth in the nation. But the team is struggling to find the identity that its held on to and was successful with the last few years.

“I understand how it can appear on the outside, because of how easily things have come the past several years — particularly in the regular season,” Clark said. “If we have to go through a couple of tribulations right now in order to get what we want at the end, I think everybody is going to be much happier at the end.”

Despite more struggles than LSU is used to, senior all-arounders Sarah Finnegan and McKenna Kelley remain confident in this team.

This year’s team is heavy on underclassmen and has dealt with various injuries across the board, making that adjustment period take longer than expected for LSU. “That’s obviously not the result we were looking for,” Kelley said. “But it’s the middle of the season and that’s not an excuse, those are just the facts. We’re still looking forward to the end of the season and taking it meet by meet. We’re going to come in the gym and make those adjustments and commit.”

LSU may have seemed effortlessly successful in the past, going undefeated at home for five years straight with four straight Super Six appearances.

“The past teams I’ve been

see GYMNASTICS, page 9

courtesy of LSU Sports

LSU has been lacking in consistency during the 2019 season.

page 8

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

MEN’S BASKETBALL

An inside perspective on Sports Information Director Kent Lowe be honest with you,” Lowe said.

“I worked at the newspaper writing stories. I was doing high If you have ever followed school football on the radio. the LSU men’s basketball Twit- I did Centenary [College of Louiter and seen tweets that read siana] basketball for a year. I did “new uniform drip” or “Waters [Centenary] baseball for three is raining from three,” chances or four years on the radio. My are LSU Sports Information Di- last six years in Shreveport, I rector Kent Lowe didn’t hit the worked at the [Louisiana Downs] send button on that one. But race track as first the headhe does play an integral role in writer, broadcast director, and the ever-changing landscape of eventually the PR director.”

The term “Sports Informadisseminating sports information Director” tion and the ex“The technology can be pretty panding role of social media. aspect is amazing. vague to people with From working I’ve kind of been drug, unfamiliar the administrawith LSU head coaches that has kicking and screaming tive side of colspanned an era into the 20th century lege athletics. So what exactly does from the days of with it.” an SID do and Dale Brown to how has that role Will Wade and KENT LOWE all the time in- LSU Sports Information Director evolved over time for Lowe? between, Lowe “Sports inhas had to adjust to every aspect that has formation has kind of become gone into being an SID here a term that has faded from view, just because of all the at LSU. Lowe is a native of Shreve- things that are involved in it port and went to LSU-Shreve- now,” Lowe said. “Obviously, port’s campus for a degree you write all the press releases in communications before com- about your team, all the pubing down to Baton Rouge for licity efforts that are going his master’s in journalism — a on, but now it involves social time in the early ‘80s in which media, Twitter, Facebook. The he recollects as, “the dark ages technology aspect is amazing. I’ve kind of been drug, of the journalism school.”

Before becoming a part of kicking and screaming into LSU’s Sports Information Staff the 20th century with it — in August of 1988, Lowe’s road 21st century I guess it would be now. here is an interesting journey.

“You’re as much the media “I did a lot of everything to

BY DAVID LEBLANC @DavidLeBlanc95

as the media now,” Lowe explains. “It used to be you fed everything to the media.

You were hoping you could give them something that they would write, but I’m very oldschool and very adamant about the fact that there is still a media-relations component to our job. We still have to provide the information for the media.”

If Lowe was a preacher, then the media guide would be his scripture.

Stored inside Lowe’s brain is an encyclopedia of LSU men’s basketball stats and facts like the gospel, and he could probably tell you off the top of his head the longest home winning-streaks for “The Cow Palace” [Parker Coliseum] and the PMAC. “You have to have some point of reference for the history of your program,” Lowe adds on the importance having a media guide. “It’s very important. The ones that we printed up ‘til this year, I have a big shelf with copies of every media guide from about the last 50 years.”

Covering and traveling with the LSU men’s basketball team can team can be time-consuming, but Lowe still does find time to pursue his other passion — bowling. He’s not just your regular mid-week after-work league bowler, either.

In fact, Lowe won the Baton Rouge city championship

courtesy of LSU Athletics

Sports information director Kent Lowe attends an LSU basketball game in the PMAC. in bowling last November in the singles division and is a member of both the Baton Rouge and Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame for bowling, not sports information.

“Very lucky.

Just happened to bowl very good one particular Sunday afternoon when it counted,” Lowe said.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be put into the bowling Hall

of Fame, but it’s more for my contributions. I’m not one who bowls one or two 300s of games.”

Lowe is very honored to be a part of each Hall of Fame but he doesn’t bask in the praise or let the city title go to his head. When you ask him about it he puts it in a humble perspective, “I’m a bowler who writes.”

BASEBALL

LSU hopes returners, newcomers can increase home runs senior outfielder Antoine Duplantis and Watson to return and sign the No. 1 recruiting class in LSU baseball was built on the nation, which is filled with the long ball. The term “Go- traditional power hitters. Easier rilla Ball” was coined in Alex said than done for Mainieri, but Box Stadium. Warren Morris’ it happened and it’s why LSU shot to right field to win the is considered the No. 1 team in College World Series is one of the nation.

Sophomore catcher Saul Garthe most iconic moments in za is expected to be one of the college baseball.

So what happened to LSU in biggest difference-makers from 2018 that led to 48 home runs the recruiting class. After hitting 23 home runs in in 66 games — one year after the “The support I got junior college last season, Garza will Tigers hit 69 in from the team — be placed square72 games?

For one, the from the coaching ly in the middle of lineup along team lost slugger staff, doctors — they LSU’s with sophomore Greg Deichmann to the MLB draft, kind of gave me my left fielder Daniel who hit and what LSU did confidence back.” Cabrera, eight home runs return was struck SAUL GARZA as a freshman. down by injuLSU Baseball catcher Garza is set to ries. Junior shortstart off the seastop Josh Smith son as the Tigers missed all but six games while junior center field- DH after suffering a knee injury er Zach Watson struggled with in the fall, but once his leg is an oblique injury and missed fully healthy, he is likely to go back behind the plate as catcher. nine games.

The departures and inju- Garza said he was feeling really ries left LSU with an inexperi- good before the knee injury and enced lineup filled with contact saw the team coming together in hitters, and fix for LSU coach a positive manner.

“Once I went down, I was Paul Mainieri was simple. Have

BY BRANDON ADAM @badam___

obviously pretty hurt,” Garza said at LSU media day on Jan. 25. “I just wanted to be back out there with my team, but the support I got from the team — from the coaching staff, doctors — they kind of gave me my confidence back. They just told me to relax, take it slow, and it was a good thing it happened in the fall and I’m able to play the actual season.”

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound junior was cleared to begin running on Jan. 24, but has been hitting since Dec. 27. Since then, Garza has been shaking off the rust and trying to get back into his routine he developed prior to his injury.

“He’s what [major leaguers] look like,” Mainieri said. “A goodlooking kid, powerful. He’s got the tools. He looks like a future major leaguer to me. He puts on a display in batting practice. That brand new video board out there is in danger when he’s taking batting practice.”

If Garza is as good as he is said to be, LSU will have one of the most dangerous tophalf batting lineups in the country. Duplantis is chasing the all-time hits mark in the Southeasten Conference,

KENNEDI LANDRY / The Reveille

LSU sophomore catcher Saul Garza (13) speaks to the media at Alex Box Stadium.

Smith was a freshman AllAmerican, then Garza is followed up by Cabrera and Watson, who has 16 career home runs.

Even though Gorilla Ball is dead, that doesn’t mean fans in the outfield bleachers shouldn’t keep their gloves ready in 2019.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019 CAL’D UP, from page 7 While the National Football League competes in a saturated global sports market with a myriad of viewing options, one might say the league has monopolized the professional American football market.

Many have tried to compete with the NFL, but none have been able to rival the prestige and following that the league has drawn from markets around the world.

As a result, the NFL and its current commissioner, Roger Goodell, have demonstrated abusive power and faced no repercussions. The league has bungled everything from player suspensions to its national anthem protocol and has levied controversial decisions after launching autonomous investigations into team misconduct and accusations of domestic violence.

Obviously, this list of grievances is limited and does not

courtesy of Wikipedia

The NFL has dominated American TVs for 50 years.

SMITH, from page 7 .960. Oregon State’s 2018 junior shortstop Cadyn Grenier hit for a .319 average and had a .969 fielding percentage.

Smith looks to be the next shortstop to win a College World Series while contributing on both sides of the plate. A back injury is something that lingers and can derail a season. Houston Astros superstar shortstop Carlos Correa experienced that firsthand last year as a recurring back injury prevented him from staying in the

page 9

mention items like a certain missed call in a certain conference championship that ruined a certain team’s season and revealed a level of gross incompetence that is inappropriate for the caliber of football that the NFL claims to promote. But, I digress.

The truth is, the NFL probably doesn’t care about the short-term scrutiny it often faces because the league knows it’s the only game in town. If fans want to continue to enjoy professional football, they must accept the decisions of the NFL’s tyrannical office.

Goodell knows he has hotels from Pacific Avenue to Boardwalk, and the chances of fans “passing go” to collect $200 is slim to none.

Then, the Alliance of American Football was heroically formed. Founded in 2018, the league recently began play in 2019 and is comprised of eight teams divided into two conferences that will compete in a fourteam playoff in April.

I already hear the grumbling.

There’s no way the AAF will compete with the NFL in the longrun, right? Fans should just chalk this league up as another failed attempt to compete with the NFL. While I don’t believe that the AAF will ever near the status of a rival that the NFL has to concern itself with, I am interested to see how the new league will shape the NFL. A 30-second clip of San Antonio Commanders linebacker Shaan Washington delivering an unflagged, bone-crushing hit that knocked the helmet clean off of San Diego Fleet quarterback Mike Bercovici’s head has been circulating around the internet as lineup consistently, resulting in a down year for the young phenom.

Smith looks to bounce back after an entire year off of baseball.

He is healthy and ready to begin the season on Feb. 15 against University of Louisiana Monroe.

“I’ve been feeling good,” Smith said. “I’ve been working pretty hard to get back, and I’m ready to get after it. I haven’t felt it since last year against Ole Miss, so it’s kind of in the past, trying to not let it sink in my head and everything and just kind of play baseball again.”

a testament to the way real football should be played.

The AAF also advertises a bevy of other differences and rule changes like 60 percent fewer “full-screen” commercials than the NFL, no kickoffs, no extra points and a ninth official known as a sky judge who reviews every play and maintains the authority to call or take away penalties missed or made by the officials on the field.

I think I just became an AAF fan.

Though that statement may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, I’m certain that I won’t be the only curious football fan to start watching the AAF’s games this year.

Even if the AAF defies the odds and becomes a long-term football league, it will never be a direct rival to the NFL whose Super Bowl finishes one week before the start of the AAF’s regular season. However, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the NFL will take notes from the AAF’s approach, especially if the league’s popularity begins to grow.

Successful implementations of certain AAF rules will have fans clamoring for similar rule changes in the NFL, thus bettering professional football as a whole and ultimately benefiting the fans.

That is, after all, how competition is intended to work. Consumers and fans need options in order to maintain their position of control, and if Goodell finally starts to give the consumers what they want, maybe they’ll all stop hoping the commissioner picks up a “go to jail” card.

I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.

GYMNASTICS, from page 7 a part of, we’ve just been so successful,” Kelley said. “That doesn’t mean we’re anything less than that this year, I just think our team has so much more we need to experience together.”

And while LSU as a team has not been as consistent in competition as they would like, Finnegan has been the picture of consistency. She averages 9.875

on vault, 9.925 on bars, 9.900 on beam, 9.925 on floor and 39.625 in the all-around.

As LSU hits the home stretch of the season, the Tigers will need multiple gymnasts across the board to step up.

“We believe this is a team that is capable of winning the national championship,” Clark said.

“This is not a team that is a fall off from the teams we’ve had in the last three or four years.”

courtesy of LSU Sports

Bailey Ferrer is one of many underclassmen inserted in the 2019 season lineup.

Chance of wait?

F S T W S M T

N E P O ExpressCare The Reveille Archives

LSU sophomore infielder Josh Smith (4) runs to first base during the Tigers’ 8-0 win against Lamar at Alex Box Stadium.

Urgent Care Clinic

TWO CONVENIENT LOCATIONS:

Nicholson Gateway

(across from Tiger Stadium)

Highland Village

(at the South Gates of LSU)

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 10

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 11

RHUBY TART

ST!NK

NICK BEASON

DRIPPIN’ IN DRAG

PHOTOS BY SALVATORE CAMARDA

Local queens of Louisiana drag celebrate the LGBTQ+ culture

ST!NK

“It’s my way of exploring gender and art.”

-St!nk

PURGATORY

CHANELL LA’SHA

ST!NK

CARINA VON TUNA

ST!NK

JACK STALLARD

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 12

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ENTERTAINMENT

page 13 FOOD AND DRINK

Singles Awareness Day spreads Valentine’s Day spirit

BY LIA SALIME @liasalime

of black people as animal racial slurs, so bull, raccoon, gorilla, barracuda, stallion,” Andry said.

“That was to reflect how when there’s a loss of person hood, how that can affect someone’s humanity or the lack of humanity being perpetuated onto them.”

It is similar that the figures

Single and have no desire to mingle, except to drink copious amounts of alcohol and eat all the tacos? The Rum House Caribbean Taqueria’s got your back.

Located on Perkins Road, the restaurant is hosting its first ever Singles Awareness Day (SAD) party on Feb. 15. The event is open to the public and will feature cocktails from 6 to 10 p.m. The event is preceded by a “pre-party” Island Time happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m.

“We have two specialty cocktails that we’re featuring, and we’ll be doing that from 6 to 10 p.m.,” general manager Eric Nicaud said.

“This will be the first year we’re doing it and hopefully we get a decent reception because it is on a Friday so people can come get a few drinks before they go out late night if they do.”

The cocktails include “Dark N’ Stormy Past”, a rum and ginger beer concoction for drinking to forget, and “Lovesick”, a Cruzan 2 Year Rum-based potion that when consumed in large quantities is said to cure any love ailments.

“I guess what inspired the event was just the people that don’t really want to celebrate Val-

see ANDRY, page 16

see SINGLES DAY, page 16

art meets history ‘The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came’ gives light to African-American injustice

BY RICHARD HAYDEL @magnetodorito

courtesy of KATRINA ANDRY

A

rtist Katrina Andry paints a sobering picture of the dehumanization of African-Americans throughout history in her exhibit “The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came.”

The exhibit, on display at the LSU Museum of Art until March 25, comments on the torment surrounding the Middle Passage, the event in which African

slaves were brought to the Americas at the hands of the Europeans. Those who were sick, dying or even newborn were cast over the side of the ships into the water, resulting in inhumane and ridiculing deaths.

For Andry, events of great prejudice and persecution for black people are held in front of a kaleidoscopic lens, incorporating creative elements to bring

these moments in a new light.

With “Rainbow” and her partner series “Depose and Dispose (of),” Andry depicts black people as fantastical half-human, half-animal figures — a sobering callback to prejudice and racial slurs.

“The inspiration for the exhibit, I did another series called ‘Depose and Dispose (of),’ it’s another anthropomorphic series

BATON ROUGE COMMUNITY

Julia Hawkins still planting trees after 50-plus years

BY RACHEL MIPRO @remroc15 Though she’s more than a 100 years old, Julia Hawkins is still going strong.

Baton Rouge residents came together on Feb. 9 to celebrate Julia Hawkins’ 103rd birthday with cake and cherry trees.

Held at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum from 9 a.m. to noon, The Julia Hawkins 103 Cherry Tree Birthday Jubilee had 103 Taiwan Cherry Tree saplings for sale. The guest of honor had pink flowers tucked behind her ear and a scarf with cherry tree patterns on it. It was just another part of her long legacy of spreading cherry trees.

In the 1960s, Hawkins worked with Bill Burbank and a local nurseryman to plant thousands of cherry

trees across Baton Rouge, working with the University South Civic Association to get them in as many areas as possible, including neighborhoods, school areas and parks.

“I was young and vigorous and loved flowers and plants and had the time and the interest,” Hawkins said.

“So we had this drive at that time, and we got hundreds planted.”

Hawkins has also worked with the LSU Hilltop Arboretum since it was created, volunteering and supporting it. Her husband, University professor Buddy Hawkins, was the first president of the LSU Hilltop Arboretum Board of Directors. On Arbor Day 1967, Julia Hawkins received an award for her cherry tree and planting work from the City Beautification Committee.

“We didn’t just do cherries that year but Dogwood, Craig Myrtle and

Redbud and Japanese Magnolia,” Julia Hawkins said. “All kinds of things that bloomed in the spring. We offered all of that and we would go out and plant them with the nurseryman.”

Since the trees don’t have a long lifespan, the trees planted around 50 years ago are dying off. Remembering this project, Julia’s children decided to organize The Julia Hawkins 103 Cherry Tree Birthday Jubilee in an effort to revitalize Taiwan Cherry Trees in Baton Rouge. Besides the saplings for sale, attendees could donate to the Arboretum’s “Julia Hawkins Beautification Project.”

Proceeds from this project will go toward planting more plants at the Hilltop Arboretum and along Highland Road. Peggy Coates, executive director of Hilltop Arboretum, said

see HAWKINS, page 16

NAIF OTHMAN / The Reveille

Julia Hawkins celebrates her 103rd birthday with a cherry tree sale and a beautification project at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum on Feb. 9.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 14 MOVIES & TV

Baton Rouge natives bring Glitter to local TV with new show

BY ENJANAE’ TAYLOR @_queenet_

close friendships and strong bond, which shows throughout each podcast.

Mentel does the popular “Guilty Until Proven Fabulous” segment each week on the show.

The segment itself was created when Hutchinson and Mentel wanted a prime time, current events part of the show that fit the theme.

“It was really just kind of us putting our heads together

The women of “Glitter & Gossip” plan to take their hit podcast and radio show to TV this month, but not before they take a look back on how it all started.

The “Glitter & Gossip Show” was created by Kelli Hutchinson, owner of The Hair Show and host of the podcast. Hutchinson was the 2 017-2 018 Mrs. Louisiana State, which got her into public speaking. A friend of hers started a radio station and asked her if she wanted KELLI HUTCHINSON her own show Podcast Host — the rest is history.

After she accepted, she then and coming up with something asked Kristi Langlois to co-host really fast and it just worked,” the show, and Kelly Mentel to Mentel said. do a gossip column as a segLSU alumna and owner of the ment. online and in-store boutique ArLanglois shared that she felt ticle & Thread, Jennifer Myers, podcasts are much easier to lis- also has a segment on the show ten to when the hosts are cool called “The Haute Minute.” with each other. The women of Myers shared how the hosts “Glitter & Gossip” have fun talks having their businesses helps that listeners enjoy due to their them find fun topics to discuss

each week and new people to interview. The women often ask people who are doing interesting things and that have a cool story to come on the show.

“It’s funny how a lot of these interviews have kind of fallen in our lap,” Myers said. “We’re always on the lookout for cool people doing cool stuff.”

Belinda Davids, a Whitney Houston impersonator known for being on the show “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” was interviewed on the podcast last year. After going to one of her shows, Myers coincidentally ran into her PR manager and planned an interview.

The podcast and the radio show are heard internationally in multiple countries with over 18,000 listeners on the internet, which allows their businesses to get great promotion. The women work together on and off the air, with Langlois managing The Hair Show owned by Hutchinson and Mentel as the assistant manager, lead makeup artist and barber.

Hutchinson has taken many steps in order to make her business ventures a success. One of them was going on TLC’s hit show “Say Yes To The Dress,” where she was able to share her story.

After losing 100 pounds to compete for Mrs. Louisiana State and starting motivational speaking, Hutchinson knew she wanted to find a way to spread a positive message to her younger audience.

The main focus is to spread body positivity and encourage people to love themselves, with their slogan “A little glitter to get you feeling good, and a little gossip we can’t live without.”

“The glitter is us trying to sprinkle a little bit of happiness and share a little bit of motivation to young people because they are our future. And if they’re not getting the attention and the love they need at home, then they’re going to need someone else to look up to and we just want to be that avenue for young girls,” Hutchinson said.

With the success of their podcast, the women are now able to spread this positive message on TV. Hutchinson and Langlois both expressed the importance of having the podcast, and now the TV show, in Baton Rouge.

“There’s really nothing like this in Baton Rouge,” Langlois said. “Louisiana, in general, is kind of known as one of the backwoods states of the U.S. and anytime there is anything done in Louisiana, I feel like it’s always misrepresented as like a ‘Swamp People’ kind of thing and that’s not what

The glitter is us trying to sprinkle a little bit of motivation to young people because they are our future...

NOW OPEN Located at the New Nicolson Gateway, Across from Tiger Stadium.

On the Bus Route!

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Retail Parking Lot – No passes needed. Tigercash: Accepted

courtesy of GLITTER & GOSSIP

Kelly Mentel, Kristi Langlois, Kelli Hutchinson and Jennifer Myers are the hosts of the podcast “Glitter & Gossip.” New episodes air every Thursday at 7 p.m. are really who we are because Louisiana, especially Baton Rouge’, is more than just that.”

Myers feels the show will allow their brands to grow, as well. With two successful businesses, a podcast and now a TV show, the women are becoming successful quickly.

“Basically, I’m on my way to the top and I wanted to bring all my friends with me,” Hutchinson said. “And so I have, and it has been such a blessing,” Hutchinson said.

The TV talk show that is set to air this month will feature the four girls and will be titled “Glitter & Gossip”, just like their radio show and podcast, and will be broken down into segments like the show.

The group has already recorded their commercials and started filming.

“We’re going to have a lot of cool new things. We’re

going to do all things glam with Kelly and try to get in a bunch of local businesses that we can promote,” Hutchinson said. “It’s really exciting the be the voice of Louisiana, because we have such loud voices.”

Hutchinson praised the group of women and the different inputs they give. She said the show’s content is both honest and tasteful, which makes it appeal to all different kinds of people.

“They couldn’t have picked a better group of people to give opinions and have four people with such different perspectives and different goals,” Hutchinson said. “That’s what I think is so awesome about our show. Everyone is so different, so kind and so real.

They’re going to tell you how they feel for real, but in a way that is kind.”

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

REV R ANKS VELVET BUZZSAW Netflix

The movie also seems like a rebuttal of capitalism and the corrupt art world. Dease was a blue collar worker with a dark past. His wishes are denied and the products of his pain and suffering is exploited by upper class art dealers to make themselves even richer.

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‘My Furry Valentine’ leaves viewers with a taste of season 3

BY PEYTON DAVIS @peytongdavis

Rachel Mipro @remroc15

UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT

Little Stranger, Inc.

I always appreciated how the show managed to add to the conversation on these important issues but not make the viewer feel like they’re being forced to believe a certain opinion. The mood always stayed the same and no matter the topic, every episode brought smiles to the viewers faces and tears only if they were happy ones.

EnJanae’ Taylor @ _queenet_

TEAL ALBUM

Weezer

Lead singer Rivers Cuomo and company kick things off with their smash-hit rendition of Toto’s classic “Africa,” a result of many fans’ petitioning on Twitter and by far their most popular release in a long time. The crunchy guitars and gleaming synths, layered on top of Cuomo’s nerdy vocal pitch, create a welcome transformation to a bona fide ‘80s hallmark.

Richard Haydel @magnetodorito

ABDUCTED IN PLAIN SIGHT

Top Knot Films

It’s hardly surprising that many viewers have expressed more outrage at the parents’ behavior than at the actions of Berchtold, who committed suicide in 2005 in order to avoid serving time. The only thing I can say for certain is that it will leave you wondering what-the-Netflix you’ve just watched.

Lia Salime @liasalime

Read the full reviews online at lsunow.com/entertainment

Fans thought they would have to wait for more tales of puberty from the minds of John Mulaney and Nick Kroll, but alas, their prayers were answered. The popular animated Netflix series “Big Mouth” released a Valentine’s Day special titled “My Furryy Valentine” on Feb. 8. The show released its second season Oct. 5, so this Valentine’s Day episode was a surprise for fans.

Valentine’s Day is usually pretty awkward for adults, but for the impressionable kids of Big Mouth, it can get pretty out of hand. The show perfectly taps into the awkward energy and uses it to bring big laughs throughout the entire episode.

“My Furry Valentine” is different compared to other Big Mouth episodes. First of all, it has a 42 minute run-time compared to the usual 21-22 minute run time for each episode. It also contains several musical numbers that perfectly encapsulate the awkwardness of Valentine’s Day. The episode also has several fourth wall breaks and almost treats the characters as if they are reality TV stars at some points.

Every character on the show has their own little awful situation that they have to deal with on Valentine’s Day. It also picks up where the show ended last season. The episode could almost serve as a premiere for season three if needed. The fact that it picks up where the show left off makes the episode feel organic and not just like a random special created to make more money for Netflix.

The issues the kids have to deal with during the episode are relatable, even to adults who are way past the hormone-filled pubescent part of their lives. The universal moments include anxiety over gift-giving, being alone on Valentine’s Day and having to figure out if someone reciprocates your romantic feelings. There are also some situations that hopefully nobody has ever had to deal with, like creating a fake woman out of products from Walgreen’s and deciding which of your house pillows you

courtesy of DANGER GOLDBERG PRODCUCTIONS

want to have a romantic relationship with.

The episode also allows for each character to shine on their own or in a pairing that hasn’t really been seen before. One of the highlights of the episode is the teaming up of Matthew and Jessi (played by Andrew Rannells and Jessi Glaser, respectively), a pair that has been drastically underused in previous episodes. The main

characters Andrew and Nick (played by Mulaney and Kroll) are also given their own separate arcs that are equally funny and relatable.

Overall, this special episode was a perfect addition to Big Mouth and will give the fans something that will not just tide them over until season three, but will give them something to talk and laugh about for a long time to come.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 16 ANDRY, from page 13 in “Rainbow,” contorted as they fall into the water below, seem almost mythical as they appear to be mixtures of human and eel. To Andry, this is another analogy to the social hardships African-Americans have faced both in the past and into the modern era.

“I chose them turning into eels because eels in Western society, they’re not creatures we would consider beautiful… they’re creatures that might electrify us,” Andry said. “They’re ugly. They look like snakes with teeth.”

She elaborated on how the symbolism of the eel creates a critique on the scorning of racial difference.

“We have disdain for them, and I wanted it to be a sea creature where we have this disdain for them in Western society that also gets perpetuated against black people, so that’s why they were turning into eels and not like a seahorse or a beautiful tropical fish,” Andry said.

In addition to the multiple pieces featuring emotionally distressed figures in a state of animalism, the series is linked together by the promise of the “rainbow,” appearing as multicolored raindrops on each piece and an allusion to the biblical tale of Noah and the Ark.

“So the rainbow for me, and playing off of the story of Noah and the Ark… there was this large destruction, almost mass extinction, and then the rainbow signifying that God would never destroy the world in that manner again,” Andry said.

She continued to bridge the story of Noah to the AfricanAmerican belief in equality, even to this day.

“I’m using that same analogy on how that reflects on black people’s history with contact with Europeans,” Andry said.

“So being destroyed, their bodies being destroyed by water or just their lives being destroyed by being enslaved... and then after the [Emancipation], this sort of promise for people to be equal, for people to be realized as fully human instead of being recognized as subhuman or with animal-like qualities, and the promise of that never being fulfilled.”

And although Andry’s work is a reflection on an event that occurred many years ago in a setting far removed from what society knows, the series allows the viewer to ponder if the general message could apply to a world where racial tension continues to rise and a sense of humanity is all but lost.

“This series is something about the past, but it’s meant to link about the present with the

‘Depose and Dispose (of)’ series, so for sure it’s commentary on when people are treated as if they’re not being fully recognized as human beings, there’s societal consequences to that,” Andry said.

To a viewer of the exhibit, one could even pose this question — Will the promise of the rainbow ever come? Will the waters which damaged the face of an oppressed people throughout history start to recede? Andry is doused in skepticism.

“I don’t know… I don’t want to be really pessimistic but I also think, too, that when you have a group of people that have historically been advantaged and in power, no one wants to give up power,” Andry said. “People tend to feel like if all things are equal, then some things are going to be taken away from them, when in reality, it’s just all things will be equal.”

On her circuit of revealing a scourged face to the masses regarding African-American prejudice, Andry hopes that there will come a day that the rainbow does cast its light.

“I think that another radical movement might have to happen where we might be able to make our own community that can support each other,” Andry said. “That is less reliant on needing someone else to justify our means.”

SINGLES DAY, from page 13 entine’s Day every year,” Nicaud said. “It’s just something kind of fun that we’re going to put on for the public, and people that are single and want to just come have some cocktails, good atmosphere.”

The Rum House joins other venues seeking to stop singleshaming on Valentine’s Day by providing fun activities individuals can partake in without having to have a significant other. In addition to the drink specials and regular-menu taco selections, patrons can bring in photos of their exes to destroy.

photo by MALARIE ZAUNBRECHER

‘The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came’ by artist Katrina Andry is on display at the LSU Museum of Art until March 25.

“They say it’s called a shredyour-ex party,” Nicaud Said. “Basically, you can come in, and if you want to bring a picture of your ex, you can tear it up or do whatever you want with it or just come on in, just show us your Instagram or social media posts and we’ll definitely give you those drink specials for the night. “We should have both bars open inside and outside, weather pending. If it’s not too cold, we’ll have outdoor bar open, as well.”

Commiserate with fellow bachelors and bachelorettes at this “Shred Your Ex” soirée. Who knows? You might meet your next mistake there.

HAWKINS, from page 13 that Hawkins and her husband have been essential to the Arboretum since its beginning.

“Julia is just one of those very special people, and her husband as well, that if they would not have been involved in the arboretum, I don’t think we’d be where we are today,” Coates said. “So they’re really really important and wonderful people.”

At the party, Julia Hawkins talked with friends, family and supporters of the project. One Baton Rouge couple stopped by to thank her and buy a tree for their lawn. Many of them talked about her huge influence on the Baton Rouge community and their approval of the project.

“I’m happy she’s celebrating her 103rd birthday with us,” Coates said.

“And she’s getting these trees in the ground. What a lovely thing she wanted for her birthday.”

335 South Acadian Thruway • 225.367.4189 • www.trudyswaxbar.com

Full Body Waxing 20% off for students

NAIF OTHMAN / The Reveille

“She’s the one your friends are talking about!”

Julia Hawkins celebrates her 103 birthday at the LSU Hilltop Arboretum on Feb.9.

OPINION IN YOUR FACEBOOK SMITT’S TEA JAMES SMITH @itssmitt There are a few reasons I decided to write for the opinion section of The Reveille rather than entertainment or news. Of those, the ability to engage in politics on social media sits at the top of the list. Other sections adhere to strict, necessary journalistic guidelines. Their writers aren’t allowed to engage in politics so that they can remain unbiased in the public eye. The opinion section, however, is unique in that the point of the section is to appear opinionated, which caters well to my social media tendencies.

I post about politics on Facebook and Twitter, probably too much for my own good. It’s something I’m passionate about.

Whether I’m sharing a news article or offering my two cents about that article, I want my friends and followers to be aware of what’s going on in the world and I want to hear what they think of it.

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Facebook useful tool for civil political discourse

I’m hesitant to vocally align myself with any particular ideology or political party. My opinions change as I learn more and, frankly, I need and would like to become more educated on a range of issues involving national and local politics. I also prefer to pick apart individual issues rather than blanket myself with a label. However, for the sake of simplicity, I typically identify as a stereotypical college liberal.

One of my Facebook friends ardently disagrees with much of what I post. Other friends ask why I don’t block or remove that friend. The answer is simple I like to know what the other side thinks.

That particular friend forces me to assess my bias and consider the argument that I otherwise wouldn’t pay much attention to. If I were to block or remove that friend, I would succumb to confirmation bias, which is the tendency to only pay attention to voices I typically agree with.

We’ve had plenty of fruitful conversations regarding politics in the comment sections of Face-

book. I’m sure you’ve heard the decade-old sentiment that it’s pointless to discuss politics on Facebook. I disagree.

Thanks to social media, we can become connected to billions of different people, world views, ideologies, experiences and creeds across the planet. Why wouldn’t we use the most accessible means of communication to discuss the problems of our day?

There are right and wrong ways to have these conversations, though. An obvious disqualifier is slinging a quick one-liner or insult across the internet. Another might be citing obviously biased sources full of disinformation such as Occupy Democrats or Infowars.

Discussing politics on social media requires respect and humility. A bit of empathy might be necessary, as well. The most important requirement, however, is a desire to either enlighten or be enlightened. Rather than add to the noise, we should sort through the noise and arrive at either a new opinion or a newly reinforced opinion. Sorting through

ALYSSA BERRY / The Reveille

An LSU student scrolls through Facebook on Monday, Feb. 11, 2019. the noise by discussing politics in good faith on social media is 21st century American civil discourse, a principle ingrained via our 1st Amendment.

In regards to respect, first humility and empathy, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

Remember the person disagreeing via the internet is a person just like yourself, with their own life and their own struggles. Keep your comments tasteful and devoid of personal attacks. Remember, you probably don’t know everything. It’s okay to simply admit that you don’t know or that

you may have been wrong.

Lastly, remember you both are engaging in discourse to arrive at a better, more informed conclusion because you both care about the issue in question. While those reasons for caring might be different, none are negligible.

Freedom of speech facilitates civil discourse, so why not practice that form of communication on the most accessible platform known to humanity?

James Smith is a 22-year-old mass communication senior from Grand Coteau, Louisiana.

Technology belongs in classrooms despite recent pushback DROP THE MIC DONALD FOUNTAIN @Official_DFound Welcome to the 21st century.

To most people, this statement is nothing new and is about 19 years late. However, the University seems to need this reminder based on the technology policies currently in place.

The 21st century is meant to be the golden age for technology, but the University still allows professors to ban it from the classroom. The debate over the use of technology in the classroom is meaningless and has gone on for too long. It’s time to put an end to it once and for all.

Technology was created to make certain aspects of life easier. When people got tired of darkness, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. When people got tired of spending months traveling, Matthew Murray created the first steam-powered locomotive. Odds are, the professors who ban technology in their classrooms are from an older generation. There is nothing wrong with that, but I hope they remember the University offers great retirement benefits.

Technology is too phenomenal to be banned from the class-

room. Modern day tablets like the Surface Pro and the iPad Pro have revolutionized note taking and organization. Apps like GoodNotes have a wide array of tools to help students write what the teacher is saying and doing. The app Notability takes it a step further and allows students to record lectures. There are some professors who cite copyrights as their reason for banning recording. I hope those professors will one day realize that more students are focused on making a good grade than making a profit. Despite how useful these pieces of technology are, they’re still demonized by many college professors.

The University needs to reconsider why they still allow teachers to ban technology. Some professors say it’s because technology makes it easier to cheat. In case it’s not obvious, students will always find a way to cheat. Like the old saying goes, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” The professors who feel this way need to realize technology goes both ways. Yes, students can use it to cheat, but teachers can also use it to prevent cheating.

If you ask the University, they will cite study after study saying technology is a distraction for students in the classroom. Technology is certainly a distraction for students who are using it to surf the web and check social

CHRISTA MORAN / The Reveille

Classrooms in Prescott Hall sit empty on Thursday, March 1, 2018. media. There are also studies that show students who write notes perform better academically than those who type notes. Surprise, University! Tablets like the iPad Pro actually let people physically write down notes.

No matter how you look at it, technology is versatile and is able to work in many different formats.

Technology has even changed the way Gloria Thomas, director for the Center of Academic Success at the University, thinks about teaching.

“You should always try find the best tool for the task at hand

and sometimes that tool is a digital tool,” Thomas said. “We should have policies that help the masses, but are flexible for the few.”

Thomas’ viewpoint on technology changed when she had two students who made a D and F, respectively, in her class. Those same two students took her class online and made a B. She asked them what changed, and they said the ability to pause her lecture and comprehend what she was saying was the key.

“You should have multiple means of expression so that student can see it in lots of different

ways,” Thomas said.

At the end of the day, the University’s policy about technology is not completely bad, but it needs restrictions. If a professor wants to ban technology from his or her classroom, they need to provide a valid reason. Blocking technology just for fun is wrong and cruel. Students are already told what to learn, why should we restrict how they choose to learn?

Donald Fountain is a 21-yearold mass communication sophomore from Saint Francisville, Louisiana.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 18

Colorism, skin tone prejudice damaging to black community TEKAY SAYS TE’KAYLA PITTMAN @QueenTekay Colorism, or prejudice based on the relative skin tone, hair texture and facial features among persons of the same race, has played a role in American society since the days of slavery. Lighter skin black people were favored over those with darker skin.

Lighter skin slaves were able to get jobs working in the slave owners’ home, while the darker skin slaves were forced to work in the fields. You may be wondering why this is being brought up when slavery was over a century ago. Slavery may be long gone, but colorism has found a way to stay.

Growing up as a dark skin African—American woman, I have witnessed colorism from family members, friends and of course, on social media. Just like some girls who look like me, I’ve felt insecure because I didn’t look like the light skin girls. For some reason, it just seemed as if the light skin girls were always praised and in certain situations, this was the truth.

Rappers and singers often showcase the light skin or “exotic” women, but it is rare to see them show off a darker skin and natural beauty in any of their music videos. Men just believe that the light skin, “redbone” girls are more beautiful and classy, whereas a chocolate-skin woman is known as being ratchet or ghetto.

Colorism was highlighted with the separation of slaves, and now that slavery is over, the black community still uses it to separate the two. At the end of the day, if we were to go in front of people who are not in the same racial group, they would identify us all as black.

“If you’re black, stay back; If you’re brown, stick around; If you’re yellow, your’e mellow; If you’re white, you’re all right,” Big Bill Broonzy sang about America’s Jim Crow system. This rhyme highlights what we already knowbeing black is synonymous with disapproval.

We should all be able to shout out “My Black is Beautiful” and believe it without feeling disapproval from our own community.

Women being told, “You’re pretty for a dark skin girl,” isn’t a compliment. You’re beautiful because that is who you are.

Just a couple days ago, I was scrolling down my timeline on Twitter when I came across a post.

The post was by an appreciation page for black women. The page was posting darker skin women and showcasing their beauty. In the comments, someone asked “What about the light skin women?” The page responded, saying they choose not to discuss why they post what they do and that they have their reasons.

I don’t see the reason why we all can’t embrace each other’s beauty. We all come in different tones and shapes for a reason. If we all looked the same, the world would be bland. We shouldn’t discriminate against one another just because we look different and because of the way we are treated by people outside of our race, we cannot help that or choose someone’s preference.

So, what is the difference between colorism and racism?

“Colorism-prejudiced attitudes and/or discriminatory acts against people based on the color (shade or tone) of their skin.

Racism- prejudiced attitudes and/ or discriminatory acts against people based on their actual perceived race status. Colorism is a product or symptom of racism,”

cartoon by ETHAN GILBERTI / The Reveille

author Sarah L. Webb said. So, if you’re a colorist, you are basically a racist. Discriminating against those who look different than you or are darker than you is racist.

Colorism takes a toll on people in the black community because people love the lighter skin women, and darker skin women are now starting to bleach their skin to gain acceptance.

We need to put an end to this before we bring our children

into this cruel world. We did not choose the color we are in and we shouldn’t be seen for our color. Our color does not define us. Under our skin, we are built the same, with the same potential, strength and intelligence. We need to embrace our beauty from within, because we are beautiful.

Te’Kayla Pittman is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Atlanta, Georgia.

Louisiana should follow Hawaii’s lead, raise smoking age ACCORDING TO ASHLON ASHLON LUSK @ashlonrose Hawaii passed a new bill that will raise the smoking age from 21 to 100 by the year 2024.

The new bill, HB 1509, would change the smoking age from 21 to 30 in 2020, 40 in 2021, 50 in 2022, 60 in 2023 and 100 in 2024.

Hawaii has historically been more health conscious about smoking than other states.

In 2017, Hawaii and California were the first two states to raise the smoking age to 21. New Jersey, Maine, Massachusetts and Oregon have also raised the age to 21. In most other states the smoking age is either 18 or 19.

Hawaii slowly increasing their smoking age will discourage younger people from smoking. When the age is 18 or 19, there are high schoolers smoking. Almost 23 percent of high schoolers smoke cigarettes. They could be influencing underclassmen to smoke by buying tobacco

products for their younger peers.

The tobacco industry markets to teenagers and younger people to get them addicted at a young age so they will continue to buy tobacco products until they’re old and can’t stop because they’re addicted.

Just when cigarettes were becoming increasingly less popular, e-cigarettes made their debut.

E-cigarettes were marketed as a way to stop smoking, but according to recent studies, JUUL products are even more addictive than cigarettes.

JUULs may be less harmful to your health than cigarettes, but children are smoking them at a younger age and more often than they would smoke a cigarette.

With a cigarette, you have to wait to go outside in an area that permits smoking. With a JUUL, there is no odor and the devices only give off a small amount of smoke. People can vape from a JUUL anytime of day, and it can be used inside or outside.

I hope other states look at how Hawaii is handling tobacco products and will follow in their footsteps. Other drugs that are

known to cause health problems are more regulated than cigarettes.

Marijuana and alcohol are harder to get a hold of than cigarettes, when they do just as much, if not more, damage. The U.S. made cocaine, marijuana and other drugs illegal, but didn’t think to regulate tobacco more strictly.

Drugs that are addictive and harmful to people’s bodies should be illegal. Why aren’t cigarettes illegal? The answer is that tobacco makes money. These companies are profiting off of people’s addictions.

This suggests that the U.S. government cares more about making money than the lives of its people. The government is willing to allow children to develop addictions and health problems to fund the tobacco industry.

The tobacco industry was making less money because less and less people were smoking cigarettes, but quickly replaced one addiction with another with e-cigarettes. Hawaii raising their age shows that they care about their citizens.

The Reveille Archives

Hawaii passed a new bill that will raise the smoking age from 21 to 100 by the year 2024.

I hope this is a step in the right direction for the whole country.

Although Louisiana may end up being the last state to raise their age, it is still a positive change for everyone. It may be years before we see any progress in other

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Editor in Chief Managing Editor News Editor Deputy News Editor Opinion Editor Production Editor

The Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. Signed opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, The Reveille or the university. Letters submitted for publication should be sent via e-mail to opinion@lsureveille.com or delivered to B-39 Hodges Hall. They must be 400 words or less. Letters must provide a contact phone number for verification purposes, which will not be printed. The Reveille reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for space consideration while preserving the original intent. The Reveille also reserves the right to reject any letter without notification of the author. Writers must include their full names and phone numbers. The Reveille’s editor in chief, hired every semester by the LSU Student Media Board, has final authority on all editorial decisions.

states, but Hawaii has truly made an admirable stride.

Ashlon Lusk is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Houston, Texas.

Quote of the Week “Never give up , for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe Abolitionist and Author June 14, 1811- July 1, 1896

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

page 19

Pro-life platform extreme, tyrannical over women’s bodies ACCORDING TO ASHLON ASHLON LUSK @ashlonrose “I’m pro-abortion, and I think we should kill all the babies.” That is an aggressive statement, and you’ve likely never heard a pro-choice advocate say such a thing. This, but in reverse, is how pro-lifers sound.

Forcing a woman to do anything to her body that she doesn’t want to is tyranny.

Being pro-life is just as extreme as being “pro-abortion.” If all women were forced to get abortions, there would be outrage.

Pro-choice is not pro-abortion.

It is simply allowing a woman to decide what she wants to do with her body. This idea shouldn’t even be up for debate. A woman deserves the right to choose if she has a baby or not.

I don’t believe abortions should

be used as birth control, but you never know the situation behind the abortion. A woman would never get an abortion without weighing all the other options. No one wants to have an abortion.

Republicans eem to be pro-life until the baby is born, then they don’t care unless the baby is born into a privileged, white family. Republicans focus so much on babies inside women, but once the baby needs education or healthcare, they don’t seem to care anymore.

Republicans say adoption is a better option than abortion, but I’ve never heard a Republican talk about all the money they’re giving toward the foster care system. They don’t “give handouts” to those who are less fortunate, but they want to force a woman to give birth no matter the circumstances.

Republicans seem to want less government control until it comes to a woman’s body. The majority of the people I’ve heard talking about

being pro-life because of the New York law have been men. These men don’t want the government to control them, but they don’t mind it happening to women.

I’m sure there are also women who don’t agree with the Reproductive Health Act, as well as these men. Many people don’t understand the complexities of this act. It’s not just murdering babies whenever you please.

There are some misconceptions about the Reproductive Health Act in New York.

A lot of people think women can just decide to get an abortion whenever they want. That is not the case.

The Reproductive Health Act that was just passed in New York says that a health care practitioner may perform an abortion when, “according to the practitioner’s reasonable and good faith professional judgment based on the facts of the patient’s case: the patient is within 24 weeks from the commencement

courtesy of WIKIMEDIA

The March for Life is an annual rally to protest the legality of abortion. of pregnancy, or there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.”

New York used to only allow abortions after 24 weeks if the patient’s life was threatened.

Now, the law allows abortions after 24 weeks if the patient’s life is threatened or the fetus isn’t viable.

Unless the woman or her baby

are going to die, she shouldn’t get an abortion after 24 weeks. I agree that aborting a child after that point is murder, but that is not what is happening. If a woman wanted to get an abortion, she probably wouldn’t wait until the baby was about to be born.

Ashlon Lusk is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Houston, Texas.

Steve Scalise, ‘King George’ Republicans preserve financial elitism A MODERATE’S PROPOSAL PATRICK GAGEN @PattyGagen A few weeks ago, U.S House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage,” got into a Twitter spat with freshman U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., over raising the marginal tax rate to 70 percent for annual income over $10 million. Scalise defended the ultra-rich with the straw man fallacy that Democrats were going to “take away 70 percent of your income,” even though OcasioCortez had explicitly proposed raising the marginal tax rate only for those whose income exceeds $10 million.

Under Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal, only the millions made after $10 million would be taxed. So if you make $11 million annually, only the one million past $10 million would be taxed at 70 percent.

Hence why it’s called a “marginal” tax rate.

Many Democrats, such as U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., have argued for middle class tax cuts that are just that: for the middleclass. Conversely, the Republican’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in 2017 overwhelming benefited the wealthiest Americans with both the highest income tax dropping from 39.6 percent to 37 percent and the estate tax exemption being doubled to $11 million for singles and $22 million for couples. The wealthy then used the money saved from the tax decrease to invest in companies that used the TCJA’s corporate tax cut to invest a record amount of idle cash into stock buybacks and dividends instead of into capital expenditures or salary increases. In other words, the rich got richer.

This happened in spite of the

insistent rhetoric from the White House that this would never happen. “The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan,” President Donald Trump said in the weeks prior to the TCJA’s formal introduction on the House floor. He and the GOP sold a Trojan horse tax cut for the rich to his undereducated, low- and middle-income base supporters.

The Twitter argument between Scalise and Ocasio-Cortez sparked an intense debate over tax policy — a debate that has now broadened to include not only marginal income taxes, but also the estate taxes for the ultra-rich. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose ideas are often as ridiculous as they are impossible to pass into legislation, recently introduced a sensible estate tax bill that would marginally tax wealth over $1 billion at 77 percent, wealth from $50 million to $1 billion at 55 percent, wealth from $10 million to $50 million at 50 percent and wealth from $3.5 million to $10 million at 45 percent.

Everyone else would be exempt.

As Republicans like Scalise reinforce the party’s deluded support for the elite and supply-side economic theory, derogatively dubbed “trickle down economics,” they seem increasingly outof-touch with the financial duress Americans are facing, which happens to be in spite of the “ample” middle-class tax cuts of the TCJA and the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Real wages have been flat since the 1980s, and in distress Americans have amassed debt, which rose 6.7 percent in November of 2018 to surpass last month’s record of $3.96 trillion.

Republican voters beware: those who you elect aren’t doing a good job of representing your plight. Continuing governance by debunked economic theory will certainly not make America great again because lower income and estate taxes for the top 1

percent don’t fuel economic growth — they fuel debt spending for you and me.

Consumer spending drives GDP growth, but the top 1 percent of Americans can only purchase so many goods and services. The rest of the money is funneled into either savings or hedge funds, which starve the economy of growth. Meanwhile, the poorest don’t have money to spend and the middle-class use debt to

afford anything from basic living expenses to healthcare emergencies — the latter of which sends far too many Americans into bankruptcy. Something’s wrong with this picture.

The average American is not better off after four decades of supply-side tax cuts for the wealthy.

Flat wages and consumer debt is evidence enough that the vast amount of wealth created in this country has not trickled down to

lower and middle-class Americans.

The preservation of the American Dream must be fought for.

As the presidential campaigns for 2020 get underway, Americans need to be reminded of the opportunity they have to change course and right the ship of this American nightmare.

Patrick Gagen is a 21-year-old mass communication and finance senior from Suwanee, Georgia.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21 7-11 p.m.

ROYAL COTILLION BALLROOM LSU STUDENT UNION

MaRDI Gras ball Enjoy dancing, food and fun!

Presented by Student Activities Board

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Wednesday, February 13, 2019

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LSU should devote more resources to mental health FRANKLY SPEAKING MICHAEL FRANK @BigMpfrank96 In the annual report from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health in 2018, 35.8 percent of surveyed students contemplated committing suicide, and 10.3 percent of students attempted to commit suicide. The CCMH survey collected data from 152 schools and 179,964 students.

The University has a long history of student suicide. In 2017, University senior Michael Nickelotte Jr.’s body was found off Nicholson Drive. At that point, Nickelotte had been missing for over a week. His wounds were self-inflicted.

I could delve deeper into the University’s past with student suicide, but I trust the readers agree with me on at least this instance- one case of student suicide is enough to warrant preventative action by the University. Remembrance is best served by fixing the problems that students like Nickelotte face every day. Otherwise, the University fails to see its students as human, and what happened to Nickelotte becomes just another statistical occurrence.

The Student Health Center provides students with free mental health services, including group

therapy, crisis intervention, sexual assault support services, therapy, psychiatry and more. But, as suicides keep happening on campus, questions arise about the programs’ effectiveness, or at least, their accessibility. In 2015, Emilie Hebert reported in The Reveille that other SEC schools had much more accessible mental health services.

It’s clear that other SEC schools hold their students’ mental health in a higher regard. For those who claim the state just doesn’t have the funds to expand the Mental Health Service, these services aren’t funded by the state. Rather, the University’s mental health services are primarily funded by student tuition, specifically the Student Health Fee. Even though the rest of Louisiana is going through its own mental health crisis, the University has the means to protect its students’ well-being.

In 2015, Mental Health America ranked Louisiana 47th in mental health care. “The state has a high prevalence of mental illness and scarce access to care,” Andrea Gallo said in The Advocate. Former Gov. Bobby Jindal cut Louisiana’s mental health care substantially in an effort to fix Louisiana’s other myriad budget problems. While the effects of these mental health cuts have been recognized in the years since Jindal left office, it will take time to recuperate.

ETHAN GILBERTI / The Reveille

As an institution run by a state with such an abysmal mental health ranking, the University needs to step up and raise mental health awareness both for the student body and the citizens of Louisiana. Although mental health is an ongoing struggle and Louisiana’s budget isn’t always conducive to progressive legislation, the University has the ability to fix its own

mental health problems. Since the University’s mental health services rely on student tuition rather than government funding, a slight raise in tuition for each student can boost the effectiveness of the University’s mental health programs.

Barring a raise in student tuition, University students can organize student-run mental health groups focusing on group therapy and

awareness – a system that worked at several universities in California.

With claims of rising suicide rates across the U.S., some are saying that the kids aren’t all right. In reality, the kids are just fine. It’s the institutions that need an overhaul.

Michael Frank is a 22-year-old political science and English senior from New Orleans, Louisiana.