The Reveille Special Edition: Graduation 2022

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G ra du ation Speci al Edition

WE DID IT

HANNAH MICHEL HANKS / The Reveille

Reveille graduating editors pose in their caps and gowns on the Journalism Building Terrace on May 4.

Fr id ay, M ay 2 0, 2 022

The Reveille reviews the best stories from the year, and the editor-in-chief offers a parting letter.

Read on

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L SU Re ve i l le.co m @l s u r e ve i l le

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DEAR GRADS

B-16 Hodges Hall Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, La. 70803

After four long years and a pandemic, the Class of 2022 finally graduates

NEWSROOM (225) 578-4811

BY LARA NICHOLSON @Laranicholson_ I walked onto LSU’s campus scared, lost and confused four years ago as I navigated through crowds of students in the hot August heat, just like any other LSU student. And now, after 120 hours of coursework, a handful of jobs and some articles in this newspaper later, I get to proudly join thousands of students in graduating from LSU with a bachelor’s degree.

Though I’m not the only member of the Class of 2022 who should be proud – getting a degree, regardless of your major, isn’t as easy as it looks.

How many all-nighters did you pull to finish a seemingly pointless assignment worth a quarter of your final grade?

How many dollars have you spent studying at Highland Coffees? Do your eyes burn from all the hours under the LSU Library’s fluorescent lighting yet?

Sure, about one in every three Americans have gone through this same process, and maybe that makes you feel like having a college degree isn’t unique. Maybe everyone in your family has a college degree, so it felt like a no-brainer for you to get one.

But only members of the Class of 2022 can say they finished just one year of school before being hit by the global COVID-19 pandemic and forced to coop up in their dingy apartments with their roommates for the foreseeable future. We are the only ones left who tasted pre-COVID college freedom – and before we could even legally drink.

The pandemic affected us all in some way, whether you applied for unemployment, fought with family over vaccines, contracted the virus yourself or lost a loved one to COVID-19. But you still went to Zoom class after Zoom class and completed assignment after assignment.

And if you had a job or student leadership role on the side, all I can say is kudos, and I hope you’ve been catching up on the sleep you didn’t get these last four years.

All of that work has led up to this moment, these few minutes in the spotlight while you walk across the stage and grab your piece of paper. And you should soak in every second of it. That’s right – you can leave those class GroupMe’s now. You won’t be needing them.

I won’t fill this letter with compliments and brags about how great we are, because truthfully, this was the easy part.

Now comes unemployment, graduate school or working nine to five – all scary options to say the least.

Looking at the news won’t comfort your anxieties much either – we are entering the workforce when 46 million Americans have crippling student loan debt, natural disasters are ramping up due to climate change and the political sphere – is something I won’t even bother touching.

But I think if there’s one way to describe my fellow graduates, it would be resilient. With all this bad shit happening all the time, we can still enjoy a good tailgate on an LSU Gameday, a night out at Tigerland (or Splash Nightclub, or whatever bar you frequent), or organize a hurricane party in the face of frightening weather forecasts.

We’re friendly when others ask for help, and have no problems sharing our beer or crawfish with lonely-looking strangers. Our kindness is undeniable, and while I’m trying to avoid using cliches, the world needs more of that kindness right now.

As skeptical as I can be about LSU and this state, at the end of the day I can say I’m proud to be graduating with the Class of 2022, I’m happy to have attended LSU, and I hope you share the kindness Louisiana has shown you to everyone else in your life as you move to bigger things.

Geaux Tigers, and congratulations to all of us.

P.S., to Eli Alfred, the student who would play the ocarina in the Quad, I want you to know that you single handedly improved my college experience. Thank you.

Editor-in-Chief LARA NICHOLSON Managing Editor ENJANAE’ TAYLOR Digital Editor JAYDEN NGUYEN News Editor JOSH ARCHOTE Deputy News Editor BELLA DARDANO Sports Editor JOE KEHRLI Deputy Sports Editor PETER RAUTERKUS Entertainment Editor GIDEON FORTUNE Opinion Editor CLAIRE SULLIVAN Multimedia Editor SAVANNA ORGERON Production Editor HANNAH MICHEL HANKS Chief Designer SARAH LAWRENCE

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS The Reveille holds accuracy and objectivity at the highest priority and wants to reassure its readers the reporting and content of the paper meets these standards. This space is reserved to recognize and correct any mistakes that may have been printed in The Daily Reveille.

If you would like something corrected or clarified, please contact the editor at (225) 578-4811 or email editor@lsu.edu.

ABOUT THE REVEILLE

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The Reveille 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.

A single issue of The Reveille is free from multiple sites on campus and about 25 sites off campus. To obtain additional copies, please visit the Office of Student Media in B-39 Hodges Hall or email studentmedia@ lsu.edu. The Reveille is published biweekly during the fall, spring and summer semesters, except during holidays and final exams. The Reveille is funded through LSU students’ payments of the Student Media fee.

NEWS ‘SAFE NOT SILENCED’ Students protest LSU’s handling of former student accused of rape

BY MADDIE SCOTT & DOMENIC PURDY @madscottyy & @tigerdom16 This article was originally published Oct. 20, 2021.

About 100 students marched on LSU’s campus Monday in protest of the university’s handling of a former French graduate student accused of raping multiple women, fleeing to France and avoiding trial for the third degree rape of a former UL Lafayette student.

The “March in Action” was organized by student organizations Feminists in Action with Le Cercle Français, where students chanted and hoisted signs in anger.

Among the speakers included Le Cercle Français president Miranda Albarez, who recounted to the crowd her years of work in student organizations with the 31-year-old graduate student Edouard d’Espalungue d’Arros. She said she felt threatened by him, calling him a “manipulative monster” in an Instagram post earlier this month.

“That is the culture that LSU

page 3 WEATHER

‘Tired of Living Through Historical Events’

BY DOMENIC PURDY @tigerdom16

awaited trial for the third degree rape of a woman after an arrest in 2018. The French graduate student participated in Student Government and started a French

This article was originally published Sept. 8, 2021.

Lauren Leonard is no stranger to hurricanes. The Houma native’s memories of hurricanes date back to 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated Southeast Louisiana.

Leonard, a digital advertising senior, still never comprehended the destruction a hurricane could cause – until Hurricane Ida. Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 29 – the 16-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina – with sustained winds of 150 mph. It was the fifth-strongest storm to strike the continental United States, wreaking havoc

see PROTEST, page 4

see HURRICANE, page 5

CHYNNA MCCLINTON / The Reveille

A group of protestors gather around political science and history sophomore Annie Sheehan-Dean Oct. 18, as she speaks during the Feminists in Action protest on the Parade Ground at LSU’s campus. has created—a rape culture where predators are victimized and survivors are villainized,” Albarez, a music, French and digital art senior, said at the march.

Students demanded the university do a better job of priori-

tizing safety on campus following an Oct. 5 article by The Advocate detailing d’Espalungue’s alleged crimes.

The article recounts d’Espalungue’s prominent participation at the university as he

FACULTY

LSU Faculty Senate kicks non-members out of public meetings

BY PIPER HUTCHINSON @PiperHutchBR This article was originally published Nov. 17, 2021.

LSU Faculty Senate leadership kicked out non-members of a public meeting Nov. 15, including a Reveille reporter, without following proper protocols to go into executive session, which allows public bodies to speak in private under certain circumstances.

Following public comments and a short speech from LSU Board of Supervisors Chair Remy Starns, math professor Charles Delzell motioned for the Senate to go into executive session to discuss a resolution that involved “personnel matters.”

LSU Faculty Senate is a public body subject to Louisiana’s open meetings law, which states plainly: “A public body may hold executive sessions upon an affirmative vote, taken at an open meeting for which notice has been given pursuant to R.S. 42:19, of two-thirds of its constituent members present. An executive session shall be limited to matters allowed to be exempted from discussion at open meetings by R.S. 42:17; however, no final or binding action shall be taken during an executive session.”

Those protocols weren’t followed. After Delzell’s motion, Faculty Senate President Mandi

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Members of the LSU Faculty Senate Executive Committee listen to the speaker on Nov. 15, during the LSU Faculty Senate meeting in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex in Baton Rouge, La. Lopez asked if there was opposition to moving into executive session, not an affirmative public vote, and asked non-members to leave.

“Going into executive session without taking a vote is illegal,” said attorney Scott Sternberg.

Non-members, including parents and students, waited outside the meeting room for 25 minutes.

Mass communication professor Bob Mann told faculty leadership they were acting illegally and waited outside with non-members

in protest.

“There’s no question in my mind that we’re breaking the law,” Mann said in an audio recording he took after the session closed.

“Because we’re not debating any personnel, there’s no personnel that’s on this resolution. We are debating no confidence in an officer, so there’s no personnel to discuss here. I’m leaving. I’m not staying. I’m not breaking the law.

This meeting is illegal.”

The resolution in question, which called for the resignation

of Faculty Senate President Mandi Lopez, Vice President Joan King and Past President Ken McMillin, was due for its second reading. It was discussed in public during the Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 28.

Emails circulated at that meeting showing the three knew about the LSU Board of Supervisors’ plans to abolish one of the faculty’s governing bodies, but did not alert the rest of the faculty.

“The LSU Faculty Senate is certainly a public body within

the meaning of Louisiana’s Open Meetings Law,” said Denver Nicks, a student attorney at Tulane University’s First Amendment Law Clinic. “In order to go into executive session, they must be in an open meeting, with a quorum, and take a public vote on going into executive session in which the vote of each member is recorded and the reason for going into executive session is publicly stated.”

Lopez only asked if anyone attending the meeting objected. She counted six people’s hands in the room and then asked non-members to leave.

Daniel Tirone, a political science professor, was present for the closed-door portion of the meeting. He said that most of the time was spent arguing about whether the decision to expel the public was appropriate.

“After everyone left, there was discussion about whether we had executed that appropriately,” Tirone said. “And also whether it was appropriate for us, even if the vote had been conducted in the right manner, about whether this was a sufficient reason to enter into executive session.”

Tirone said that the Senate decided to hold off the discussion on the no confidence resolution until they determined the appropriateness of the executive session.

see SENATE, page 5

Friday, May 20, 2022

page 4 FACILITIES

Faulty elevators, cracked sidewalks and lack of accessibility

BY MADDIE SCOTT @madscottyy This article was originally published Feb. 3, 2022. It is part of a string of stories looking at LSU’s infrastructure. This was the fourth story in the series.

Linda Bui stood next to the opening of the elevator in the Dalrymple building, home to her office and lab. She measured the doorway, which was 27 inches wide – nine inches short of what the American Disability Association requires of openings so people in wheelchairs can enter and exit safely.

If a wheelchair did fit in the elevator, there would not be enough room for the person to turn around and exit without blindly reversing out. Even then, they likely would not want to enter the elevator, which Bui, an environmental science professor, nicknamed the “Tower of Terror.”

On the elevator door, a sign reads, “CAUTION! Elevator old and cranky! Please CLOSE gate!

Check floor level; enter cautiously! Relevel by running once!”

Bui dreads the day she has a disabled student who will not be able to access her lab on the second floor. She reluctantly tells her students that if they have mobility devices, permanent or temporary, they cannot do work in the lab, a vital part of any science class on campus.

PROTEST, from page 3 journal funded by the university.

He was no longer allowed to teach freshman-level courses, but he stayed in touch with students.

LSU gave him little to no punishments until he was given a one-year suspension in 2020 for allegedly raping another student. Eventually a Rapides Parish judge granted him permission last year to return to France for Christmas—and he hasn’t returned since. Since his indictment, six women have accused d’Espalungue of rape.

Flyers distributed at the Parade Ground prior to the protestors’ march read “We want to feel #SafeNotSilenced.”

As the protest began in front of Memorial Tower at the Parade Ground, professor of history and women’s gender and sexuality studies Catherine Jacquet expressed her support for the students organizing the protest. She has participated in similar protests herself for decades, she said.

“It’s hard to be surprised because this has happened so often at LSU. We expect this but it’s still every time absolutely infuriating,” Jacquet said. “It makes my head want to explode.”

Protestors wielded a sea of colorful signs displaying messages like “protect survivors, not rapists” and “Blanchard knew, Russo knew,” referring to administrators in the French Department. When the marching started, students roared chants throughout the trek

“It’s embarrassing and horrifying that it’s 2022 and we’re still having to discuss disabilities for everyone,” Bui said. “We shouldn’t be having to complain about accessibility for all students.”

Bui said a janitor got stuck on

handicapped bathrooms and difficulty obtaining disability recognition through the university’s Disability Services Office.

Blind LSU students have complained about incorrectly marked braille signage around campus

under contract, the manufacturer will create the signs, which will take a few weeks, with installation soon to follow.”

Both public and private colleges and universities must provide equal access to postsecondary education for students with disabilities, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

the elevator once and had to be rescued by the Baton Rouge Fire Department. Students have been stuck too, Bui said, and they now avoid the contraption.

Several LSU students have complained of poor disability access on campus, like faulty elevators, broken “push to open” buttons, cracked sidewalks, non-

and the difficulties they face at LSU. Jennie Stewart, LSU’s ADA coordinator, said those issues are in the process of being resolved.

“The issue of wayfinding related to braille is a project underway through Facility Services,” Stewart said. “The project should be out to contractors for pricing. Once

‘We Feel Isolated’ When social work junior Kate Pendry broke her foot freshman year, she required a scooter or crutches to get around LSU’s campus. Pendry lived in McVoy Hall at the time, where she says there was no handicap bathroom. Unable to take a shower, Pendry traveled on her scooter to her friend’s separate dorm.

On top of that, LSU’s bumpy and cracked sidewalks made the journeys painful.

“There were so many cracks in all of the concrete and so many bumpy areas that it was impossible to go through without hurting my foot really bad,” Pendry said.

While most LSU buildings have disabled-accessible entrances, Pendry experienced difficulty finding them, as the entrances are often poorly marked or nonexistent.

“The testing center [Himes Hall]—they have a huge staircase to go down,” Pendry said. “I had to throw my scooter down there to take a test. Just those few months

to Hodges Hall and turned the heads of bypassers.

“Hey hey, ho, ho, Dr. Russo has got to go,” protestors chanted.

“Shame on you LSU, victims we believe you.”

French Department Chair Adelaide Russo was removed from her position Oct. 13 after six women filed a lawsuit accusing LSU of failing to conduct a proper investigation into d’Espalungue. Russo reportedly defended d’Espalungue on several occasions following his multiple rape accusations.

Students unaffiliated with the protest stopped dead in their tracks on their way to class to watch the stream of protestors as they chanted.

“Stop the violence. We want to be safe, not silent,” they repeated.

Kayla Meyers, political science and psychology senior and FIA secretary, came with a list of demands. Chief among these was to support and believe survivors.

“I was at the [Title IX] protest last year in 2020, and we are having these issues still,” Meyers said.

“Nothing has really changed.”

Upon hearing of the protest, Civil Rights and Title IX Interim Vice President Jane Cassidy expressed her support for the protestors and their mission.

“This protest is a reminder of our accountability to the students and employees at LSU and provides yet another opportunity for us to reflect and improve upon past practices,” Cassidy said.

However, students still feel LSU has not lived up to its prom-

ise of a safer campus, even after the recent reorganization of the Title IX office.

International trade finance sophomore and political director of LSU College Democrats Cooper Ferguson not only believes the Title IX office isn’t properly funded but that it hasn’t accomplished its promise of hiring 18 new Title IX investigators.

ed to abdicate himself in an email sent to the LSU community by saying he was not serving when the allegations occurred. Ferguson believes Tate and the Title IX office are directly responsible for the continued sexual assaults on campus. “[LSU’s Title IX office] needs to hire more staff, and they need to be serious about addressing alle-

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

The “Push to Open” button shines in the sun on Jan. 24, at the entrance to Camellia Hall on Campus Lake Road in Baton Rouge, La.

CHYNNA MCCLINTON / The Reveille

LSU students hold up signs in protest on Oct. 18, during the Feminists in Action protest following reports of LSU mishandling sexual assualt cases on the Parade Ground at LSU’s campus.

“They’re more concerned about protecting their pocketbooks than actually protecting LSU students,” Ferguson said.

Even though President William Tate IV has only served at LSU for three months, Ferguson was furious at his response to the allegations against d’Espalungue.

He said the president attempt-

gations against the university, not just covering their asses,” Ferguson said.

Social work senior and FIA vice president Gabriella Turner repeatedly announced her irritation for having to protest something that should not be happening in the first place.

“When we make our voices

were so hard for me around campus. I can’t imagine doing this full time.”

Just getting recognition of a disability is not a seamless process.

Social work junior Allie Moore broke her ankle and has been fighting for recognition of her temporary disability by the university. Pointing to her cast, Moore said she is “obviously broken” and has to travel on campus with a scooter.

“My doctor has to fill out pages long of information when all they need to know is that I have a broken ankle and can’t walk,” Moore said. “They want an overdetailed description, and it’s so annoying that you’re having to go through this because I’m just trying to get to class, and they’re not even helping me a little.”

Only able to walk for more than 10-15 minutes on crutches each outing, Moore requested to move her classes to Zoom. The university denied that request.

‘It Feels Like a Punishment’ Mass communication and political science junior Kimsey Stewart has a disability affecting her digestion. After meeting with an adviser with LSU’s Disability Services and providing documentation, she was given accommodations that allow excused absences,

see ACCESSIBILITY, page 5 heard, that’s when we get change done,” Turner said.

Upon reaching Hodges Hall, the final destination of the march, the floor was opened up to protesters who wanted to share their thoughts and feelings.

Emotional students echoed Ferguson’s frustrations that LSU has not done enough. One speaker directly addressed Tate, saying his efforts of creating advocacy groups is not enough.

“None of that matters if you don’t do the hard work of actually enacting the legislation that is there to protect us,” one protestor said.

Student after student came up to the microphone and announced their experiences with sexual assault as busses whizzed by on the street and protestors freed space on the sidewalk for people walking past.

Campus continued its daily routine as students recounted their stories of sexual assault in front of the crowd of protestors.

“I came here to learn,” one protestor said. “I did not come here to be retraumatized continuously.

All I wanted to do was practice French, and instead, I had another run-in with a rapist.”

The microphone waited to be held by a line of survivors wishing to tell their experience. It shook in the hands of passionate speakers and reverberated the vehement fervor of students sick of silence.

“LSU, you need to look in the mirror, find the problems and fix them. We are done asking,” Al-

Friday, May 20, 2022 HURRICANE, from page 3 from Louisiana to New York.

“When you see these news stories about tragedies that happen to people, you think, ‘that’ll never happen to me,’” Leonard said. “But when it’s you it’s almost hard to fully understand. I’m seeing pictures on the news of buildings I would go to every day or streets I would drive down and I’m like, ‘oh, that’s what they went through.’”

LSU students from across Southeast Louisiana expressed difficulty in comprehending Hurricane Ida’s destruction. As power outages persist in the hardest-hit areas, like Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish and the River Parishes, students and their families are left unsure about the future while they begin to rebuild.

University classes resumed after about a week-long hiatus to allow students to return from evacuation sites and assess damages in their homes. Many students, though, said returning to campus wasn’t their top priority.

“School is the last thing on my mind right now,” Jonah Brock, a Prairieville native, said. “I have a million other issues we have to go through with my whole family [besides] work or school.”

Though the town neighbors Baton Rouge, last-minute shifts in Hurricane Ida’s direction made the storm more devastating than expected for Prairieville, with the first hurricane-related death reported there after a tree fell on a house, according to the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Sleeping during the storm was a test of patience for Brock, who evacuated to his aunt’s house only a few miles away from his house.

He was kept up by thoughts of debris slamming into his room – right next to where a fallen tree ended up destroying his front pa-

ACCESSIBILITY, from page 4 permission to consume food and water in class and access to the bathroom whenever needed.

She sends her disability papers to her professors at the beginning of every semester so they all understand her accommodations.

When emailing one professor at 4 a.m. that she could not attend that day’s class due to her disability, her professor suggested she drop out of school.

“It might be better to sit out this semester in order to recover from your illness,” the email read.

“You could retake the class in the spring when you might be better able to concentrate. This is a sug-

SENATE, from page 3 Lopez declined to comment on the appropriateness of the executive session, and said that she would be seeking legal counsel on the subject.

Charles Delzell, who sponsored the motion, said he did not do a good job of explaining his reasoning at the meeting.

“I did a poor job due to lack of preparation of explaining my mo-

page 5 tio and a large portion of the roof at his family’s home.

The earliest estimate for the house to be livable is four months, he said.

“It’s gonna be a while until we get back on our feet and are able to move back into our own house,” the history sophomore said. “This whole semester I will be dislocated.”

Within a day of Hurricane Ida leaving the state, the university

know are coming,” Castellon said.

Castellon had originally planned to stay in his Baton Rouge apartment, waiting out the storm by doing laundry and napping. Calls from family asking to change his plans soon flooded his phone.

Castellon’s family always treated evacuation as a last-resort, even during Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav – though as he put it, “this storm was different.”

hurricane.

Mass communication junior Tyler Johnson was surprised to see his childhood home in Houma only sustained minor damage in comparison to the rest of the city, where roads are “untouchable” due to downed power lines. Half his roof was damaged, with only a few trees scraping the exterior.

“I’ve seen pictures of buildings completely torn in half,” he said.

“My friend’s neighbor, his house

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Roofing from the LSU School of Music sits on the ground on Aug. 30, near a side entrance on Infirmary Road.

covery will be the main source of their worry.

Castellon said he’ll likely have to become accustomed to his parents living out of state instead of only an hour drive away in New Orleans – something that he said will add to his anxiety in helping with recovery despite his apartment near campus remaining unharmed.

“There’s a sort of doubled anxiety in living in two places that are both directly in the path of the storm,” he said. “It passed through New Orleans and [then I had to] worry about my apartment in Baton Rouge.”

As power shut off across Southeast Louisiana, the gas stations that people rushed to keep their generators running – the places Castellon called “the epicenter of anxiety” – became emblematic of the anxiety people were feeling during the hurricane. Wait times at some gas stations grew as long as four hours, according to recounts from students.

Despite weeks of uncertainty behind them and more to come, students from across Southeast Louisiana said they see the best of humanity in their hometowns, even as lights remain dim from dwindling generator power and trees continue to lie in roads and on roofs.

Leonard said her grandfather’s friends have been cooking all day for their neighbors and strangers in need. When fixing his roof, her father was met with helping hands from complete strangers passing by.

“Seeing the humanity that has come out of my own community and the other communities in Louisiana, that’s what makes me love Louisiana so much,” Leonard said.

announced make-up days for the week of missed classes, either on Saturdays or during fall break.

New Orleans native and political communication sophomore Ryan Castellon heard the news days later, while he and his family stayed in Mississippi. He said he understands why the university made the decision to announce make-up days but wishes the university budgeted for more weather-related cancelations in the future.

“Sometimes there are actions taken to prepare for severe weather, but it doesn’t really seem like the university prepares for the inevitable weather closures that happen every year and we all

“All of the sudden, I’m driving back to New Orleans, only to leave the next morning for a random place in Mississippi until [Sept. 1],” Castellon said.

He said damage to his home was minor compared to that of Katrina: some water puddled on the floor and shingles here and there flew off the roof. Their shutters were ripped to shreds by the winds.

Though students from Terrebonne Parish had less fortunate experiences returning to their homes, where power isn’t expected to be restored for the majority of residents until Sept. 29, Houma, its largest city, experienced some of the worst destruction from the

was completely cut in half. It’s like a dollhouse you can open up.”

For Johnson, the scariest part of the storm was the cellular and Wi-Fi outages that disconnected him from his loved ones for days.

“It was mainly just worry because I would talk to them for five minutes and then not talk to them for two days,” he said. “It freaked me out because for days I wouldn’t know if [my girlfriend or parents were] okay, if anything happened because there was no service.”

Though students may not have to deal with as bad of damage to their Baton Rouge residences, the toll of repairing their childhood homes and assisting family in re-

gestion rather than a command: only you know your exact physical and mental state.”

A few days later, the professor again suggested Kimsey not attempt to finish the semester.

“I ask once more: are you sure finishing the semester is a good idea?” the second email read. “20 years from now, when you are settled down comfortably somewhere, you will hardly remember that you took an additional four months to finish college because of a health issue.”

“I don’t think a professor should be encouraging a student to drop out of school for any reason,” Kimsey said.

Kimsey, a member of the Kap-

pa Alpha Theta sorority, notices illegal parking in the nearby handicapped parking spots next to the sorority house, even though there are at least four girls in her area that require handicap parking.

She says none of the sorority houses are wheelchair accessible and is trying to bring awareness to the issue.

“I have to call them [LSU Parking and Transportation] every single time someone is parked there,” Kimsey said.

Kimsey said that LSU Parking and Transportation has never taken action to any of her reports.

“It’s not difficult to walk around campus and see problems,” Kimsey said.

A truck sits parked in a handicap space on Sept. 27, outside of the East Campus Apartments on Veterans Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

tion to go into executive session,” he said.

Delzell is not an elected member of the Faculty Senate. He was acting as an alternate for Scott Baldridge, who was not available for the meeting. Delzell said Baldridge will retake his place in the senate at the next meeting on Dec. 7.

Inessa Bazayev, a music professor and an at-large member of the Faculty Senate Executive

Committee, expressed her disappointment in the decision to go into executive session.

“I value academic freedom and transparency, and I don’t think that it was appropriate for us to go into an executive session on a no-confidence resolution,” Bazayev said. “I was also concerned that the vote to go into an executive session wasn’t properly recorded.”

LSU journalism faculty con-

demned the Faculty Senate’s actions in a letter signed by 13 faculty members, including Mann and two former Manship deans.

“We the journalism faculty of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication condemn the Faculty Senate’s expulsion of a student reporter and members of the public from a crucial Senate meeting Monday,” the letter read.

“The reporter, from The Reveille student newspaper, was the

Corbin Ross contributed to this report.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

only journalist present. The Senate failed its ethical obligation to set a good example for students when it endorsed doing the public’s business secretly.”

The letter continued, saying, “Despite the Senate’s blatant move to avoid transparency, we will continue to teach future journalists that they, as representatives of the public, deserve access when state-funded institutions make important decisions.”

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page 7

Country singer Garth Brooks’ stadium concert causes earthquake

BY CONNOR MCLAUGHLIN @connor_mcla This article was originally published May 1, 2022.

Tens of thousands of Louisianans flocked to Baton Rouge to see famous country singer Garth Brooks perform in Tiger Stadium, a concert so groundbreaking that it will likely go down as one of the greatest nights in Death Valley’s history — after all, it already made history as the second earthquake recorded by local seismographs just from the yelling and cheering of fans in the stadium.

Louisiana natives and LSU students alike are no stranger to his acclaimed music or cultural impact on the Red Stick capital city. So when he announced his performance in Tiger Stadium as part of his stadium tour last December, over 100,000 tickets sold out in mere minutes, causing attendance to rival even the most competitive football games of the legendary 2019 season.

The concert was the biggest in the nation since the start of COVID-19 and the second-largest stadium concert in North American history, behind George Strait’s 2014 farewell concert at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, according to Brooks.

In layman’s terms, the hype for Brooks’ first performance in Tiger Stadium was unreal.

“Paint your face, bring your helmet, and bring your cup,”

Brooks told reporters at a press conference Friday, predicting the concert would be the “largest honky tonk.”

Brooks said his favorite thing about Baton Rouge was “getting to be home to see those faces… those familiar faces made you kind of settle down and play.”

April 30 was a busy day for LSU’s campus before Brooks’ arrival — the university also hosted a baseball game, track meet and softball game, all at the same time. Within hours of the concert’s start, roads leading to campus were plagued with bumperto-bumper traffic as the masses migrated. Brooks undoubtedly shut down South Baton Rouge for the day.

By the concert’s start, the massive crowd’s enthusiasm was sky high.

“I had never seen Tiger Stadium so packed or so loud. My ears were ringing,” said graphic design senior Gillian Reeves.

After opener Mitch Rossell performed, the lights dimmed until an Amazon Music logo appeared on the massive projectors above the center stage, where the audience heard a voice announce, “Alexa, play Garth Brooks in Baton Rouge.”

Moments later, the drum set in the center slowly rose up, and Brooks shot out from underneath. The stadium immediately erupted into ear-splitting applause as he opened with “All

SAVANNA ORGERON / The Reveille

Country music star Garth Brooks performs “Amarillo by Morning” with fiddle player Dave Gant during his stadium tour concert April 30.

Day Long.”

The concert could have lasted all night long and nobody would have been disappointed in the slightest. Song after song, Tiger Stadium was electric with the audience singing, dancing and having the absolute time of their life while Brooks ran around the stage like a madman, singing his

SAVANNA ORGERON / The Reveille

Country music star Garth Brooks speaks during a media availability April 28, ahead of his sold-out show Saturday night in Baton Rouge, La.

heart out.

“Oh, this is crazy. Are you kidding me?” Brooks asked the biggest party in all of Louisiana on that Saturday night.

Early in the show, he jokingly had bet the audience if they could beat him in loudness, to which they gladly accepted. He commented on how much he loved that everyone was “nuts in this house.”

Calling the 102,321 audience members nuts was an understatement by the time Garth Brooks asked, much to the audience’s delight, “Is it time?”

Then, the 1993 cover that forever changed the city began.

“Callin’ Baton Rouge” was by far the landmark moment of the concert, causing fans to scream at the top of their lungs and stomp their cowboy boots on the ground.

Brooks’ guitar fiddling soon caused the second earthquake in Tiger Stadium’s history, which was recorded by a nearby seismograph in Nicholson Hall. The first earthquake was recorded in October 1988 during an LSU football game against Auburn, when LSU scored a game-winning touchdown with less than two points left in the game and 79,000 fans cheered until the ground shook.

Garth ecstatically cried out “L-S-U” at the conclusion of the song, and he, along with the stadium crowd, pumped his fist into the air. Brooks, out of breath, explained why singing “Callin’ Baton Rouge” at LSU meant so much to him.

“That was better than I could have ever dreamed it’d be,”

Brooks said. “Thanks for letting us be a small piece of thread in the family and the fabric of LSU Tigers’ Death Valley.”

Though the Baton Rouge anthem wasn’t the final song of the night. Afterward, he offered phenomenal performances of “Friends in Low Places” and “The Dance” before the band departed and the country singer took song requests for solo performances.

“I understand why you guys are national champions at everything,” Brooks said in appreciation of the audience.

The band later returned, and Garth performed a show-stopping duet of “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” with his wife, Trish Yearwood. Yearwood sang solo before leaving with the rest of the band, but Garth decided to stick around and sing a bit more with just his guitar.

The audience seemed intoxicated from the music by the final song of the night, a cover of “American Pie” by Don McLean.

He stooped down to the front row and embraced a young fan holding a sign saying, “six more rounds of chemo to go, thank you for everything your music has done.”

“I have seen him in concert seven times, and this was definitely the best concert of his I’ve been to,” chemical engineering senior Carson McBroom said.

As the concert wrapped up and the never-ending Baton Rouge traffic commenced once again, Brooks tweeted that his LSU concert was “better than [his] wildest dreams.”

Friday, May 20, 2022

page 8

NEW ACQUISITION

LSU wins competitive race for $600,000 African-American poetry collection

BY KATY-ANN MCDONALD @Katyyann0 This article was originally published March 27, 2022.

For 70 years, Wyatt Houston Day – who, modestly, considers himself “top of the heap” for his craft – has been collecting books.

Before the new year, he sold his beloved collection of AfricanAmerican poetry to LSU. The Day collection, now available for public viewing at the Hill Memorial Library Special Collections, is one of the most important collections of African-American poetry in the country, appraised at $612,940.

“Building this collection was like a challenge with a huge pot of gold at the end,” Day said. “I owed it to the collection to find it a good home.”

The breadth of the material is extensive. Spanning the early 18th century, the Harlem Renaissance, post-Renaissance poetry and the 1960s and 1970s Black Arts movement, the collection features first editions and original manuscripts from hundreds of poets, includ-

COURTESY OF KATHERINE SEGHERS

The Day collection is displayed at the Hill Memorial Library Special Collections. enthusiasts formed a bond, Miles was surprised when Day offered him and LSU the entire collection.

Several other private buyers and institutions, including Duke University, showed interest in the collection, but Day “took a liking” toward Miles.

COURTESY OF WYATT HOUSTON DAY COLLECTION CATALOG

A page from the Wyatt Houston Day Collection Catalog, which is now housed in the Hill Memorial Library Special Collections ingPhyllis Wheatly, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes and Sonia Sanchez.

John Miles, the curator of books at LSU Special Collections, said he initially reached out to Day searching for one particular book.

But when one conversation led to another, and the two literature-

“John showed such interest and enthusiasm, and I knew the collection would be in good hands with him,” Day said.

LSU Libraries paid $380,000 for the collection, and Day gifted the rest.

Stanley Wilder, dean of LSU Libraries, said that the purchase was

not a difficult decision. It is part of LSU Library’s effort to acquire collections that reflect under-represented communities.

“This was a special opportunity that presented itself,” Wilder said. “It’s given us a basis, and we can now continue building on this collection systematically.”

Day, now 81 years old, recalls collecting his first book when he was only nine. Raised on the lower east side of Manhattan, New York, he spent his younger years “book hunting” with his father at local book stores on and around Eigth Street. He said the search is what he still loves the most about book collecting.

“A lot of the time, a great Black writer who worked in isolation often died in isolation,” Day said.

“Those poets could have made some of the best work but had no one to read it. I wanted to read it.”

Day keeps his book collections in his home in the small, artistic village of Nyack, New York, where he and his wife moved to 27 years ago.

Day’s reasoning for selling this remarkable collection was partially financial reasons, but more so to find them a good home as he got older.

The collection includes over 800 books by hundreds of authors, some prestigious and others more obscure. Narcissa Haskins, African American Studies librarian, was amazed, but not surprised by the diversity of poets that made up the collection.

“There was a lot of self-promotion during the Black Arts Movement, so there will be diversity and a lot of collaboration happening,” Haskins said. “It’s pretty typical to see diverse materials in collections such as this.”

Day confirms that this range was no fluke and is a reflection of African American poetry being inextricably linked to the experiences of Black people. Because

of this, he said, the collection includes both highly sought-after materials and rare books with “no words on the spine.”

“Black poets were a part of what was going on politically and socially, not isolated in some special room in the house. Everything

“Ask Your Mama,” inscribed by Hughes to poet Amiri Baraka.

Like Miles, he values this collection as more than just a symbolic win for diversity.

“This a crucial step toward the safety of Black students on campus and making them feel wanted, not just pulling them to the school for diversity numbers or to claim some DEI victory,” Marquis-Morris said. “The collection gives Black students an opportunity to spark so much Black innovation, genius, creativity and radicality.”

According to Marcela Reyes Ayalas, the LSU Library director of communications, the LSU Library is entering the second phase of acquiring this new collection. Phase one was the initial announcement.

Next, Ayalas wants to integrate the works into the curriculum and the community by hosting workshops, speaker series and group readings.

“We are planning to have a poetry reading event walk-through of the collection,” Haskins said.

“It’s not going to be modern poetry slam or spoken word. It’s going to be a bit more traditional.”

COURTESY OF LSU LIBRARY

LSU President William Tate IV looks at the Day Collection at the Hill Memorial Library Special Collections. and everyone was connected.” Day said. “This collection is a voice of the community. It’s a lot of voices that came together as one voice.”

Miles hopes that current and prospective LSU poets and creative writers will find inspiration in these voices of the past. He emphasizes the importance of archival collections like this to narrate the experiences of enslaved people, specifically in their own voices.

Kalvin Marquis-Morris, a communication studies and English senior, said that his favorite part of the collection was the original manuscript of the music cues for Langston Hughes’ 12-part poem

Miles emphasizes his commitment to expanding this historical collection while embracing the contemporary poetry scene. Even though modern poetry is not what was written during the Harlem Renaissance, it still responds to similar political implications.

He also sees this collection as a prospective pull factor for potential LSU graduate students and professors.

“One thing I want, that I think is a possibility, is that this collection will attract students, particularly creative writing MFA students, but also professors,” Miles said. “This is us signaling a commitment to the university.”

Friday, May 20, 2022

page 9

A YEAR IN REVIEWS

The Reveille entertainment staff has been busy reviewing the biggest albums, movies and shows released this academic year. See some of their takes below.

Blue Bayou September 2021

Squid Game October 2021

Euphoria January 2022

The Batman March 2022

BY EDDY HAGE @hage_eddy

BY CONNOR MCLAUGHLIN @connor_mcla

BY CONNOR MCLAUGHLIN @connor_mcla

BY DOMENIC PURDY @tigerdom16

“Blue Bayou” has beautiful cinematography. The grainy aesthetic calls back to ‘70s films while adding to the realistic aspect of Leblanc’s story. Most of this film is shot with close-ups of the characters’ faces which creates more intimacy while beckoning the audience to be empathetic and compassionate, both for the characters and for the real victims that inspired the story.

“Blue Bayou,” while being a distinctly Louisiana film, is about America as a whole, and that universality is what makes this movie a great watch.

In essence, “Squid Game” is serialized lightning in a bottle. While the first two episodes may test the patience of some viewers, the show excels at balancing an addicting narrative, dynamic characters and a cutthroat criticism of capitalist society. I finished the show in less than two days because once the games begin, it is impossible to not know what happens next.

It’s riveting to watch these characters go through the games, but the true power of “Squid Game” lies in its humanity and how people are corrupted by capitalism, the series’ true antagonist.

Since the end of summer 2019, fans of the acclaimed HBO drama “Euphoria” have been in a drought.

“Euphoria” season two has not lost any of the style, intoxicating cinematography, jaw-dropping montages or any of its panache. Shot entirely on film, the sex and drug-soaked series remains as euphoric as ever with the highs being high and lows being very low.

This show is quite tricky to predict, but with the third episode coming up, there are many storylines that will keep the fans engaged as season two progresses.

More so than any Batman film before, this film is tactile.

Both hero and villain take a beating in this movie, and it is felt with ferocity. The action here is something out of the “Batman: Arkham” video game series and is visceral in all the nice ways. But at the same time, it doesn’t forget the two rules of Batman: no guns and no killing.

Matt Reeves, thank you for reigniting my love for Batman. Thank you for creating a perfectly flawed Gotham City. Thank you for making my new favorite Batman movie.

Bridgerton, Season two April 2022

BY EMMA JACKIMOWICZ @emmajackimowicz This season not only taps into one of the most popular tropes of “enemies to lovers” with the love triangle between Anthony, Kate and an assuming Edwina, as well as the series-long mystery question asked by every character.

“Who is Lady Whistledown?”

The two-year wait excited fans and viewers, as many are pleasantly surprised with the way series creators were able to keep the show enticing and pick up with the same fervor that Daphne and Simon left off at the end of their love story in season one.

JOIN OUR TEAM STUDENT IT MANAGER GET PAID BUILD YOUR RESUME FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE

Email resume and brief statement regarding your interest in the position to studentmedia@lsu.edu.

Friday, May 20, 2022 PETER NGUYEN / The Reveille

page 11

DYLAN BOREL / The Reveille

LSU Student Government President Lizzie Shaw and Vice President Nick St. Mary react to student government election results April 4, in the Live Oak Lounge on the first floor of the LSU Student Union in Baton Rouge, La.

ABBY KIBLER / The Reveille

LSU football junior wide receiver Jaray Jenkins (10) holds the football Oct. 16, after being tackled during LSU’s 49-42 win against Florida at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

SAVANNA ORGERON / The Reveille

LSU gymnastics junior all-around Kiya Johnson performs a perfect 10.00 floor routine Feb. 5, during LSU’s 197.975-197.750 win over Auburn in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on N. Stadium Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

PETER NGUYEN / The Reveille

The LSU 2019 NCAAF national champions and NFL offensive superstars, Joe Burrow, Justin Jefferson and Clyde Edwards-Helaire make a cameo April 23, during LSU football’s annual spring football game in Tiger Stadium.

BEST OF LSU Check out some of the best moments captured by Reveille photographers throughout the 2021-2022 academic year.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Al me ion t pe mbe hrow Blv rform r Feb s a o r d. . in ance 5, d ange FR Ba u a ton t Vi ring to a ANCIS n e Ro t G the au DINH ug ard an die / T h e, La en o nual nce e Rev . eil n 1 lio le 19 n d 90 a n Flo ce rid a

Memorial Tower reflects in a puddle Memorial Tower rises into the sky on March 22, on Tower Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

JULIAN COOPER / The Reveille

Tank and the Bangas continue their performace Feb. 4, at Chelsea’s Live Cafe on Nicholson Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

CHYNNA MCCLINTON / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball graduate student center Faustine Aifuwa (24) embraces senior guard Alexis Morris (45) Jan. 13, after LSU’s 87-85 overtime win against Missouri in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on North Stadium Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

LSU football head coach Brian Kelly, men’s basketball head coach Matt McMahon, head baseball coach Jay Johnson and LSU monuments replace the Migos to recreate the album “Culture.”

Friday, May 20, 2022

page 10

SPORTS BOYS OF THE BALCONY

page 13

Six students revitalized the LSU Basketball Student Section: ‘It’s like we’ve got an army’

BY JOE KEHRLI @joekehrli9 This article was originally published Jan. 19, 2022.

A group of six LSU students has united to take on the historical task of bringing the cheers and hype back to LSU sporting events, an effort noticed and supported. They are the Balcony Bengals.

It’s more than a balcony. It’s a movement.

What was once mere patio gatherings with friends during football season have brought the Balcony Bengals a recent bout of fandom; ironically the self-proclaimed superfans have a following of their own, so much so that men’s basketball Head Coach Will Wade knows them and acknowledges their support.

The apartment balcony where they gather is like a lighthouse, cast in the busy city port that is LSU; its light shines from the closest southern gate of campus and overlooks the traffic of High-

CHYNNA MCCLINTON / The Reveille

The Balcony Bengals pose for a photo Jan. 15, during LSU’s 65-58 loss against Arkansas in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on North Stadium Drive in Baton Rouge, La. land Road. Passersby can see the intrinsic fandom this particular balcony has on any given day−not just game days.

The balcony is draped with a massive white banner reading: “@BalconyBengals” with two notable local brands, Fred’s bar and

One Team One Podcast, on its peripherals.

Brandon Barrient, a sports administration junior, always has

been a fan of LSU, and now he has taken it into his hands to ensure LSU fans continue to possess the same sense of pride that he was indoctrinated with. Barrient is accompanied on his mission with five other students: Gant Gautreaux, Eli Coleman, Myles Diez, Dean Compton and ‘Goat Man,’ who all share the same passion.

“We all love LSU sports and know what our fans are capable of, but it is really on us to strengthen the student section,” Barrient said.

One particular member of the group, going by the pseudonym ‘Goat Man,’ has been draping a goat’s head mask over his face for the duration of the basketball season, and has no plans to remove it. He says that when he puts on the goat mask, with its dual horns, it is almost like becoming a different person, and that ‘Goat Man’ is instrumental to bringing the hype to the student section at sporting events.

see BALCONY, page 15

FOOTBALL

The man behind the eye black: inside Jack Bech’s journey

BY MACKAY SUIRE & HENRY HUBER @macthetiger & @HenryHuber_ This article was originally published Nov. 4, 2021.

It was another Saturday. Jack Bech was with his high school teammates, watching film. He was hanging on to every play that ran across the screen before him, and absorbed every word his coaches spoke. Then an abrupt phone vibration distracted his focus, and then another buzz.

Walker Howard, Bech’s childhood friend and highly sought after collegiate prospect, eagerly followed him out of the room and listened intensely as to what the notification was about. This was the call that would change the whole course of Bech’s next four years. This of course, was LSU Head Coach Ed Orgeron offering Bech a place on his roster.

This was a dream the duo of Bech and Howard had been working on together, and the pieces had finally started to fall in place. Now around a year later, Howard has committed to LSU and Bech has quickly proven that his place at LSU has been earned.

Bech quickly became a leading face of LSU football. The true freshman from Lafayette has made a name for himself on the field, striving to follow in the footsteps of two of his uncles: Brett and Blain Bech, both exceptional wide receivers for the Tigers in

GRAPHIC BY CAILIN TRAN

the early ‘90s and 2000s, respectively. The new wave of media attention on Bech have made fans wonder more about what kind of person he is, outside of the No. 80 displayed across his chest.

Foundation in Faith Bech graduated high school in 2021 from St. Thomas More, a private Catholic school. This type of environment was a building block of Bech’s character, as many of his personal truths are rooted in the strong foundation that was built upon in his four

years at STM. As different obstacles, as well as success, have presented themselves, he has always relied on his faith to proceed him.

Time after time this season, he has consistently proved that he can be a pivotal play maker.

Although, Bech only has accounted for one touchdown, the wide-receiver has accumulated 333 yards on 28 receptions. With Kayshon Boutte out for the season, Bech is Max Johnson’s No. 1 target.

While Bech relies on his faith

to lead him in his everyday routine, it is the way that he performs on the field that has made his leadership qualities apparent to others.

Confident Leader James Hightower, head football coach at STM, was quick to explain that Bech’s mindset and drive have been the groundwork of his success. In his four years at STM, Bech garnered 35 touchdowns, along with an impressive total of 2,827 receiving yards from his junior and senior year

alone. “[Bech] was a natural leader by his performance, work habits, and demeanor. People respected Jack for his on the field and off the field example,” Hightower said. “That is probably the most outstanding characteristic that Jack has always had: a focus on what he wanted to achieve.”

While Bech rocked the blue and maroon for STM, he earned every aspect of the adjective, confident. The 6 foot 2 inch dual threat has performed to the best of his ability on every occasion.

Hightower attested to this as he reminisced on the years of coaching Bech in high school.

“This confidence that [Bech] competes with now was earned by always preparing harder than anyone else. [Bech] was always the last guy to leave the practice field,” Hightower said.

In his blood Bech charges out onto the field of Death Valley on the side of his teammates. They all proudly wear their colors and deeply understand that they represent something so much bigger than the name on their backs. Decked out in sleeves, custom cleats, and the iconic purple and gold helmet, Bech still found a way to incorporate another part of what has created the person he is now

see BECH, page 15

Friday, May 20, 2022

page 14

FALLS FROM GRACE

Column: Ed Orgeron’s Caniac collapse JARED BRODTMANN @_therealjarbear

This column was originally published Nov. 3, 2021.

The Raising Cane’s on Lee Drive was plastered with Ed Orgeron’s face. Cardboard cutouts of him in different poses guarded the rooftop of the fast-food restaurant, and the bright yellow “Coach O-Mobile” watched customers yearnfully outside the dining room as they came and went out of the parking lot. Purchasing a combo meal would award one with a cup with his smiling face on it. Just below the company’s distinct logo, the letter board cheered on the national championship-winning football coach with “Geaux Coach O!” Then, Scott Woodward announced the sixth-year head coach would not be returning at the end of the season, after obtaining a record of 9-9 since the triumphant lift of the national championship trophy in New Orleans. As quickly as Orgeron rose to power and fell from grace, so too did his imagery throughout the Raising Cane’s.

The cutouts left their posts on the roof, and the Coach-O Mobile drove on to a new pasture. There is no better microcosm to explain the shift from the most popular man in Louisiana to an ousted one-hit-wonder.

It seems not too long ago Ed Orgeron was cruising down I-10 early in the morning with the windows down blaring Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Born on the Bayou,” en route to accept his dream job, LSU’s head football coach. Shaking Joe Alleva’s hand and signing the dotted line after taking over the team in the wake of Les Miles’s firing midseason had to be his proudest moment to date.

He quickly experienced hardship and ecstasy, in the devastating loss to Troy and the miraculous comeback against Auburn in 2017. Yet, the team was capped by the hiring of Matt Canada as the offensive coordinator. Orgeron will admit the choice was not his best, as Canada’s offense didn’t translate with the style of football LSU wanted to play.

The spring of 2018 quickly arrived with the departure of Danny Etling. Orgeron found himself holding a quarterback competition between Myles Brennan, Lowell Narcisse, Justin McMillan, and a late transfer from Ohio State named Joe Burrow. With two years of eligibility left, Burrow won the job and led the team to a successful 10-win season, punctuated by an impressive Fiesta Bowl win over a talented UCF squad. Although the team would lose Butkus Award winner Devin White along with other talented veterans, expectations were high for LSU to break out in 2019.

So began the greatest season in LSU’s and college football’s history. From 3rd and 17 against Texas, to Jacoby Stevens’s leaping one-handed interception against Mississippi State, to Ja’Marr Chase’s earthshaking touchdown to seal the Florida win, to finally triumphing over Alabama in Tuscaloosa after eight-straight losses. To running over Georgia and Oklahoma on their way to beating Trevor Lawrence and Clemson in the Superdome in front of Louisiana’s faithful, it was a gift of a season from above. Burrow won the Heisman, Chase

Will Wade: A legacy blossomed and withered

won the Biletnikoff, Grant Delpit won the Jim Thorpe, and Orgeron won Coach of the Year. His vision of ‘one team, one heartbeat’ manifested into 15 wins and a championship title.

Orgeron landed a massive contract extension. The success was immeasurable. The peak of the mountain had been reached.

The descent began. Orgeron divorced his wife shortly after his team’s victory.

Then the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic hindered everyone’s ability to live their normal lives. The LSU coach experienced difficulty replacing so much of the talent that was now headed to the NFL. Dave Aranda, LSU’s defensive coordinator, and Joe Brady, one of the talented offensive minds on LSU’s staff, left to pursue new job opportunities. Orgeron hired old friends Bo Pelini and Scott Linehan to take their places. The team turnover was too much.

LSU gave up the most passing yards in SEC history: 623 yards to Mississippi State’s KJ Costello and lost their first game of the season. Off the field, stories began to leak of LSU’s Title IX mishandlings, and Orgeron’s dealing of former LSU players Derrius Guice and Drake Davis put him in the spotlight. Injuries and opt-outs started to pile up, and the team scrounged up wins against Florida and Ole Miss to finish 5-5.

LSU then self-imposed a bowl ban. Orgeron promised to correct the staggering mistakes made.

He brought in two first-time coordinators Daronte Jones and Jake Peetz to replace Pelini. Steve Ensminger made an effort to return his entire starting offensive line and replaced offensive line coach James see Cregg with Brad DaORGERON, vis in June. Org-

page 15

BY PETER RAUTERKUS @peter_rauterkus This article was originally published March 20, 2022.

Celebration was rampant in the PMAC. The Tigers celebrated breaking a fivegame losing streak against Alabama and capped off an impressive regular season with a big win. What many fans and people around the LSU men’s basketball program didn’t know, however, was that would be the last time they would see their general, Head Coach Will Wade, on the sidelines in the PMAC. Just three days later LSU received its official Notice of Allegations from the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Resolution Process which cited Wade for five Level I violations. Action did not come immediately from LSU, as Wade held a press conference mere hours before Pat Forde and Sports Illustrated dropped the report of LSU receiving the allegations.

Wade went on to coach LSU in the SEC Tournament against Missouri and Arkansas later in the week in Tampa, Florida.

But just 22 hours after Wade’s Tigers were eliminated by the Razorbacks, LSU President William Tate IV and Athletic Director Scott Woodward announced, in a letter, LSU terminated Coach Wade with cause and Associate Head Coach Bill Armstrong was also terminated, a day before an LSU team led by transfer portal success was to receive its seeding heading into the NCAA Tournament.

“We can no longer subject our University, Department of Athletics, and— most importantly—our student-athletes, to this taxing and already-lengthy process without taking action. Our responsibility to protect and promote the integrity and well-being of our entire institution and our student-athletes will

HANNAH MICHEL HANKS / The Reveille

Former football head coach Ed Orgeron claps as former basketball head coach Will Wade points in an edited photo created May 5.

always be paramount,” said Tate and Woodward On Sunday.

The Wade era at LSU will forever be remembered as one marred by scandal and filled with what-ifs.

Despite all the off-court drama that came during Wade’s time, it was also clear that he had delivered the program to a place it hadn’t experienced in the large part of a decade.

When Wade released the reins of his VCU team and headed south to Baton Rouge in 2017, the program, under Johnny Jones, was coming off its worst season in 20 years, having gone 10-21 and winning just two conference games.

Then tragedy struck.

On September 28, 2018, then LSU forward Wayde Sims was tragically shot and killed after an altercation at a party. The news was devastating for both the program and the entire Baton Rouge community, losing one of its own.

“Everybody on the team loved him,” Wade said of Sims at an ensuing press conference. “He was the team jokester, the team prankster. He always had a smile and was bopping around. He got us going in practice.”

The response that came from LSU on the court was poetic: A star-studded recruiting class including Naz Reid, Javonte Smart and Darius Days helped lead LSU to its first outright SEC Championship in 10 years, raising the stock of LSU men’s basketball to a foreign height it had not seen in some time.

But as soon as the success found Wade in Baton Rouge, so would a four-year saga that now has LSU men’s basketball in one of the most precarious positions it has ever been in.

On March 8, 2019, Wade was suspended by then LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva and President F. King Alexander, after an FBI wiretap was released, in which Wade while recruiting in 2017 was heard conspiring with an aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins about a

potential “strong ass offer” for then LSU recruit Javonte Smart.

This was at the height of a federal investigation into bribery and corruption in college basketball that resulted in the convictions of Dawkins, Adidas executive James Gatto and consultant Merl Code; along with the arrests of 10 Division I assistant coaches.

Wade was reinstated as head coach after the season on April 14, 2019. Despite there being plenty of outside noise surrounding the program, it was clear the foundation had been set.

The 2018-2019 season was LSU’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in four years and first Sweet 16 appearance in 13 years. The momentum continued into the next season with LSU achieving a 21-10 record and second place in the SEC, despite the outside noise still as loud as ever.

This time though, an unprecedented dis-

see WADE, page 15

page 15

Friday, May 20, 2022 BECH, from page 13 into his uniform.

“The messages on my eyeblack say RIP Pop; my grandpa, RIP G; for Garrison, a friend of mine that passed, and RIP Kat; who is [Walker Howard’s] mother, who passed away from cancer,” Bech explained. “With it on my eyes, it constantly reminds me, and it lets other people see it too.

You know, if you are looking at me, you have to look at that too.”

It was his performance at the Central Michigan game, though, that really captured the attention of fans and coaches. Bech scored his first touchdown as a Tiger. He successfully reeled in five passes for 81 yards. It was only the third game of the season and of his emerging college career. Although the relationship between sophomore quarterback Max Johnson and Bech is still new and a work in progress, consistent success from the pair will only strengthen their chemistry as the season and their relationship progresses.

His deep passion for the game

BALCONY, from page 13 Inside Barrient’s two-bedroom apartment, all are welcomed and promptly directed to their bar, which is situated a mere three steps from the loudest balcony in all of Baton Rouge. Throughout their living accommodations, there are several indicators that their movement, which began less than a year ago, has rallied tremendous communal support, as Fred’s Moose flags are hung throughout and Jordy Culotta Show koozies decorate an ever-lit Christmas tree.

It Takes a Village.

Co-owner of Fred’s, Jason Nay, said that the attention garnered from the Balcony Bengals shows that students are energized again for LSU’s basketball program, which has created success for the bar – Fred’s is now open during basketball games, offering an environment for students to continue their excitement during and after games and to create a culture

ORGERON, from page 14 eron admitted that before he did not vet the hires he made before, and swore this team would respond differently because he was the one calling the shots now.

Orgeron walked into the Rose Bowl in his pressed suit and LSU pin, flanked by his security. Looking up, he retorted a heckling UCLA fan, telling him they had something for him “in his sissy blue shirt.” LSU lost 38-27. The team had another chance to redeem itself against Auburn in a packed house under the lights of Death Valley. LSU lost 24-19. By the time the Kentucky game transpired, Woodward was already working on gathering money to pay Orgeron’s $17 million buyout and remove him from his dream position. Despite a win against a ranked Florida the next week,

of football has only grown since watching family members thrive in the sport as well. Along with his uncles, who were successful both in and out of the LSU uniform, Bech’s older brother, Tiger Bech, recently graduated from Princeton as a wide receiver and kick returner.

In respect to the athlete’s success, fans can expect Bech to continue prospering on Saturday nights. For those close to him, his success at LSU has not been surprising.

Because of his size, LSU has Bech play a wide receiver, tight end hybrid player, and he’s classified as a tight end on the depth chart. However, he isn’t asked to do much blocking and is utilized more as a match-up nightmare than anything.

Essentially, he has the skill, speed and hands of a wide receiver with the frame of a tight end.

Fast tight-ends with high target volumes have become more and more prevalent over the years at both the college and professional level, with some examples being George Kittle, Noah Fant and

Kyle Pitts, just to name a few. It seems like Bech is LSU’s attempt to replicate that, as those tight ends have made huge impacts on their respective teams. It seems like it’s working.

Bech is second on the team in both receptions and receiving yards, averaging about 42 yards on 3.5 receptions per game. He was particularly useful in the games against Central Michigan and Auburn, where he went for 80 yards in each and scored his first touchdown in the former.

When asked how it felt to score his first touchdown in purple and gold, his answer was simple: “Surreal.”

It will be interesting to see how much his impact on the team grows when Walker Howards arrives, a quarterback who Bech says he has a better connection with than Johnson.

“Being a Tiger is a dream come true … [Howard] and I have been through so many of life’s ups and downs together, he is like a brother to me, and that’s a hard connection to recreate with anyone.”

LSU football freshman wide receiver Jack Bech (80) points to the crowd Nov. 27, after LSU’s 27-24 win against Texas A&M at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

around gamedays.

The communal support has expanded since the Balcony Bengal’s initial launch late last year.

The Jordy Culotta Show has also tapped into the student’s movement to capitalize and mobilize the student demographic of LSU to attend sporting events. Culotta said that he believes what the Balcony Bengals are doing with the student section is making a lasting impact on LSU’s culture.

Fellow students have answered the call as well. Senior Evan Fontenot said basketball games are now “as fun as football games,” and that seeing the student’s support in the PMAC has convinced him to attend more games, more regularly.

“Hey, what is it going to take for you to come to basketball games?” and followed with, “We will provide food.”

Going from door to door along Dalrymple Drive, Hernandez would not find immediate success. In 2020, while in a meeting with Basketball 365, an LSU team of marketing and creative workers, their complex theories and late-night thoughts would slowly come to a halt.

The day prior to the meeting, Barrient and his friends attended an open practice hosted by the men’s team, holding a white bed sheet with their message on it in the purple seats of the student section, and they were loud — so loud they caught Hernandez’s attention.

“Who are those kids up there?” and “We need to find those dudes and connect with them” were the two thoughts Hernandez brought to the next Basketball 365 meeting.

Hernandez and his team found them. Now there are seats in the

PMAC reserved for the boisterous group, complete with a large General Wade cutout.

Hernandez served in a similar capacity at VCU under Wade, but he quickly realized that creating a strong student section in Baton Rouge was going to be a challenge. “One of the biggest things that we wanted to accomplish going into this season was to build a student section,” Hernandez said.

“It really is the difference.”

The women’s basketball program has also tapped into the Balcony Bengals’ mission. Under new Head Coach Kim Mulkey, the team is nationally ranked No. 13, with plenty of excitement. After Thursday’s overtime win over Missouri, Joe Schwartz, director of operations for the program, joyfully paraded over to the student section and thanked the Balcony Bengals for bringing the noise and hype.

His message was clear: “I let them know that there’s a high level of appreciation for them, one, for showing interest in our

program and two, for being there.

I definitely appreciate it, and we just love the support. It’s like we’ve got an army.”

The alignment of missions between LSU Basketball, Basketball 365 and the Balcony Bengals has meshed seamlessly with one coherent philosophy: Culture change within the student section at LSU. Schwartz included that support from other teams on campus is a “huge momentum boost” to the program. With both the men’s and women’s teams nationally ranked in the top-15 and finding success so far throughout conference play, expect support for this movement to increase.

“The team and the whole crowd feed off the student section, especially when it’s been rocking like it has been,” Coach Wade said. “Really what the Balcony Bengals and other folks have done is they’ve provided some leadership in the student section, which is really what we’ve needed. Give those guys a lot of credit.”

WADE, from page 14

and the Tigers were accustomed to. A slight dip in overall success would follow for the Tigers this season, but another 20-win season and NCAA Tournament bid once again showed Wade and his group’s ability to win and fight through adversity.

An adversity filled regular season will be followed by an even more adversity filled postseason.

On the eve of Selection Sunday, Wade’s termination was announced, leaving the team without an official head coach and leader going into the most crucial part of the season.

Wade’s absence was seemingly felt in the NCAA Tournament, as the Tigers fell to Iowa State in the first round. It’s hard to say how much Wade’s absence affected the performance, but one can only imagine what the players were feeling playing during the midst

of a situation like this.

LSU’s athletic department now heads into a long period of uncertainty. The Notice of Allegations included three total violations within the football program including a Level I, Level II and Level III. This cites LSU with eight Level I violations in total, causing the NCAA to cite LSU with Lack of Institutional Control.

With heavy sanctions looming, hiring a new coach will be no easy task for Scott Woodward, who’s freshly coming off another major coaching search in football.

The Will Wade era in Baton Rouge will likely be forever remembered by LSU fans. What Wade did for basketball at LSU and in Baton Rouge is hard to measure, but over the next few months and years, time will also tell what kind of damage will be left.

Grassroots to Fruition In 2017, right after Wade was brought into the men’s basketball program, fellow Director of Operations at Virginia Commonwealth University Nelson Hernandez started knocking on doors.

He asked the community, Woodward officially announced the deed had been done the next day. It was curtains for Ed Orgeron.

No one denies the memories made on the climb won’t be cherished. Hopefully, the governing administration can say the lessons they learned afterward will be used in making a better hire in the future. There’s a dispute about what Orgeron’s legacy will be, between the golden 2019 national championship flag waving in the Baton Rouge wind or the piling of negative energy caused by on and off-the-field events that came to light after.

There’s no disputing this: Ed Orgeron’s rise and fall was a sight to behold. That sentiment will park itself in fans’ minds longer than the Coach-O Mobile was outside Baton Rouge’s favorite spot for chicken tenders.

ruption happened: The COVID-19 Pandemic struck right as the SEC Tournament was getting started, canceling the remainder of the postseason.

The outside noise never completely died down going into the 2020-2021 season as Wade brought in another impressive recruiting class headlined by fivestar guard Cameron Thomas. This season was another relatively successful one for LSU, finishing 16-8 in the regular season and making the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In his fourth season, after a suspension and a pandemic, this marked Wade’s first March Madness appearance at LSU. Heading into the 2021-2022 season, it seemed like the noise had started to quiet down, or at least compared to what Wade

ABBY KIBLER / The Reveille

OPINION

page 17

Dilapidated LSU Library inconsistent with ‘scholarship first’ university CHARLIE’S ANGLES CHARLIE STEPHENS

@charliestephns

This column was originally published Sept. 15, 2021.

When asked about the future of the university’s main research library, Dean of Libraries Stanley Wilder said, “There is no hope for this building.”

As LSU President William Tate IV settles into his new role of digging the university out of financial and ethical ditches deeper than Kirby-Smith Hall is tall, he must prioritize the construction of a world-class library facility that meets the needs of the 21st century student.

Students have been promised a renovated library for years, yet all we have received are empty promises and $43,000 worth of new furniture on the first floor. In the COVID-19 era, even our 24-hour access has been revoked to allow time for adequate sanitation.

These conditions persist four years after Gov. John Bel Edwards and leading state legislators toured the building in 2017 to take note of the dismal conditions. Upon seeing the water damage, outdated facilities and dirty floors, the governor stated, “We’ve got to do better.”

Have we done any better?

When I talked to Wilder, he

certainly didn’t feel like we prioritized the library or its collections.

Wilder admitted that while the facility is deplorable, it is the library’s scholarship mission and collection funding that is truly suffering.

“It’s a lot worse. The library is seriously under-resourced when it comes to collections,” he said.

He went on to note that we are behind our peer institutions in the Southeastern Conference, and we only drove farther every passing year.

In Tate’s first report to the university’s Board of Supervisors, he emphasized his goal of supporting the world-class faculty teaching at the state’s flagship university.

Yet, as Dean Wilder observed, the collections that the LSU Library struggles to afford are the same “library collections...that faculty use to do their jobs.”

Even the collections that the library does manage to purchase are in danger of being damaged by the building’s decrepit condition.

Microfilms previously stored in the basement have been moved to the first floor due to persistent flooding. The fourth floor stacks have been covered in plastic wrapping to protect against a perpetually leaking roof, yet some books haven’t escaped irreversible damage.

The faculty is increasingly expected to do more with less be-

cause, as Wilder stated, “We are terribly inadequate in our ability to support the faculty.”

This is the inevitable consequence of years of budget cuts that have severely strained the university’s principal research function.

Despite the library’s dire circumstances, Wilder remains hopeful for the future. He notes that many in campus leadership have expressed support for a new library building, including the Faculty Senate, Student Government and even the governor.

Even with so much support, the $1.5 million initially reserved for planning a new library was removed from the state budget at the last minute.

That’s right—the very same state legislators who condemned LSU Library’s deplorable conditions in 2017 were ultimately unwilling to commit the funds to new facilities.

Why would we expect them to commit the full $140 million needed for a new library?

Hollow promises will not build a new library. Our university’s students and faculty need action—real action—that prioritizes our role as a scholarship first university and ensures an intellectual future for Louisiana.

QUICK TAKES

WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU KNEW BEFORE COMING TO LSU? I wish I knew less before coming to LSU because change is inevitable. There was no way to know I would have to unlearn so much past behavior to become who I am today.

The only thing more valuable than knowledge coming into college would’ve been ignorance and the ability to start from scratch.

Gideon Fortune @gidfortune

Spend more time with your friends and neighbors in the dorm because moving, internships and preparing for graduation will take up way more time than you think. Above all, I’d say don’t miss the chance to make unique memories, whether that’s LSU events and games, one-time opportunities and trips or even silly mistakes.

Drake Brignac @drakebrignac

Spending time on campus is one of the best things you can do to improve your short time here at the flagship.

There are plenty of places and activities that can engage you more deeply with the campus community, which has helped me enjoy my time much more.

Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication junior from Baton Rouge.

Charlie Stephens @CharlieStephns

One of the things I wish I could tell freshman year me is to minimize the cost of college as much as possible. I listened to the advice of faculty from LSU when I should’ve listened to the advice of other students when it came to what I needed freshman year.

Kacey Buercklin @okacey1

I wish that I would have known the importance of my GPA early on. As a freshman, I was less focused on the academic aspect of things. I did not know how drastically a C or even a B could drag my GPA down. If I had to do it all again, I would focus more on my easy electives rather than not taking them seriously and settling for a low grade.

DRAKE BRIGNAC / The Reveille

Molding books sit covered in a layer of plastic Jan. 18, in the LSU Library.

Editorial Policies and Procedures EDITORIAL BOARD Lara Nicholson

Editor in Chief

Enjanae’ Taylor

Managing Editor

Josh Archote

News Editor

Bella Dardano

Deputy News Editor

Claire Sullivan

Opinion 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 editor@lsu.edu 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.

Lura Stabiler @lstabiler3

Quote of the Week “I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education.”

Mark Twain American writer 1835 — 1910

Friday, May 20, 2022

page 18

Reflections from the eye of Hurricane Ida: ‘Eerie reminiscence’ EVAN ON EARTH EVAN LEONHARD @evan_leonhard This column was originally published Sept. 8, 2021.

I was four years old when Hurricane Katrina laid siege to New Orleans, my hometown.

The infamous storm and its immediate aftermath are a bifurcating moment in both the city’s history and the lives of those who inhabit it. Everyone over the age of 30 seems to have a story about how life in the city changed for them after Katrina—homes destroyed, careers rerouted, families separated and iconic cultural institutions closed or altered forever.

For me and my peers, the storm is our creation myth, the primordial mist from which the world around us came to be.

The only New Orleans we know is post-Katrina. I remember the ruins and I grew up in what became of them.

Exactly 16 years later, I cannot help but consider all of this as I once again find myself caught up in the chaos of storm dodging.

However, circumstances were a bit different this time around.

Ida’s projected path seemed impossible to gauge with any remote certainty. In the day leading up to landfall, the areas predicted to bear the brunt of the weather were shifting almost by the hour.

My options for sheltering in place were split between my off-campus apartment in Baton Rouge and my aforementioned childhood home in New Orleans.

I spent the early hours of Aug. 28 tracking the news and frantically deliberating with family about which was the better prospect.

With the latest weather updates and parental reassurance on my side, I hastily made out for the Crescent City just in time for sneaky Ida to swerve eastward.

I had evacuated into the storm.

All I could do at this point was board up the windows and pray for the best.

Within 12 hours, the view from my back window could have been J.M.W. Turner’s “Snow Storm” come to life, a whirling grey blur dotted with a diverse assortment of locally sourced projectiles.

A professor of mine once used the example of being outside during a hurricane to illustrate Kant’s notion of the sublime, a profound experience of beauty that is as incredibly awe-inspiring as it is deeply disturbing.

To say the least, the example proved effective.

I opened the door to a powerful blast of wind, a startling but admittedly refreshing reprieve from the powerless house’s increasing stuffiness.

The madness held strong for hours. We hunkered down in our cave-like living room, quietly listening as the familiar voices of WWL buzzed faintly from a crank

radio on the counter. It spewed increasingly ominous updates as Ida slowly clawed her way across the southeastern edge of the state.

We took each serving of bad news with mouths agape and frenzied exchanges of looks.

A major transmission tower collapses across the river. LaPlace is inundated with ungodly amounts of water. It could be weeks before power is restored.

If the weather itself was not proof that disaster had struck, reports of these other tragedies certainly were.

A neighbor of ours phoned in on–air with the striking assertion that this was the worst weather she had ever experienced firsthand. I certainly shared the sentiment as I had never come close to seeing anything this bad, but she had stayed for Katrina.

This was all followed by the hosts declaring Ida as comparable, if not worse, than its 16-yearold predecessor, another bifurcating moment after which the city may never be the same. Of course, this all seems a bit extreme as the scope of Ida’s aftermath becomes clearer in retrospect; but I think it sincerely reflects the eerie reminiscence experienced as Ida churned overhead that fateful Sunday night.

As the evening wore on, the storm showing no sign of letting up, I read Chris Rose’s “1 Dead in Attic” by candlelight. Sitting back with a book chronicling the devastation of Katrina as another

storm barreled above me exactly 16 years later. This may seem dark—masochistic, even.

However, Rose’s book, while a grim and often pessimistic depiction of the city at its worst, is more fundamentally a story of how New Orleans regained its balance after Katrina. It’s a recounting of how the city met its match and rebuilt.

This set the tone for the next morning. The storm had finally sailed north and we were left to count our losses: the yard was a hellscape, Mimi’s pecan tree was ripped from its roots and took a good chunk of the yard with it, Maw Maw’s water oak was toppled. The roof needed some urgent repairs and, most alarmingly, electricity and running water were nowhere to be found for miles.

We were comparatively lucky, but there was still so much work to do.

Discussions of New Orleans and its hurricane-laden history, especially of Katrina as it’s portrayed in the mainstream media, always hang heavy on an understanding of catastrophe as something isolated, singular and somewhat haphazard. For many large–scale natural disasters and public tragedies, this may be true.

For New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, however, this is most certainly not, especially as the tropics are predicted to ramp up their output in the coming years. There is not, or at least there should

not be, any sense that the worst is behind us, that we have weathered “the storm” once and for all, giving us the green light to reconstruct for posterity with our minds at ease.

The city perseveres and rebuilds even though there will inevitably be many more, probably stronger, storms down the road.

In all likelihood, many of the things we rebuild and repair in the wake of Hurricane Ida will be knocked down again and again so long as the streets can keep their cobblestones above the rising Gulf waters.

That said, it seems reasonable to ask, as many have done so obnoxiously on social media, why stay? Why continue to live in a city that is and will be battered by storms ad infinitum?

The answer to this question deserves an article of its own, perhaps even an entire book.

I think the topic is much more complicated than most people realize.

If the reality we face is truly Sisyphean, and we are destined to an eternity of pushing stones uphill just to have them tumble back down, our prospects might not actually be as bad as they seem.

We must simply roll these stones up together as the tight-knit community we are, led by a brass band and police escort, of course.

Evan Leonhard is a 20-year-old English and philosophy junior from New Orleans.

Coach Ed Orgeron should have been fired for Title IX failures

BY THE REVEILLE EDITORIAL BOARD This was originally published Nov. 4, 2021.

It’s been nearly one year since USA Today released its investigative article detailing years of misconduct in the Title IX office.

Among the exposed mishandlings were Head Football Coach Ed Orgeron’s alleged coverups of numerous Title IX violations from football players, including former running back Derrius Guice.

Despite outcries from the student body in the last year to hold the coach and other athletics officials accountable, no sanctions were placed against him. In fact, it was obscene to entertain firing the coach who led an undefeated season just one season prior, especially after his contract was then renewed for six more years and would cost $17 million to end early.

As it turns out, it only takes a few bad football games for Orgeron to get the boot. Not his clear attempts to shield Guice from accountability in allegedly raping a woman, sexually harassing a 74-year-old and committing numerous other sexual crimes. No, just three dismal losses to lesser football teams and dropping out of the AP rankings.

Orgeron’s predecessor Les Miles wasn’t fired for sexually harassing student workers. His crimes didn’t

SAVANNA ORGERON / The Reveille

Ed Orgeron speaks at a press conference on Nov. 1, 2021 in the Bill Lawton Room in Tiger Stadium. The media availability was the first in-person weekly session LSU held since the COVID-19 pandemic began. even surface until eight years later when the Husch Blackwell report revealed an investigation into his mistreatment of women.

And let’s not forget tennis coaches Julia and Michael Sell, who also saw no punishments after it became public that they ignored complaints of domestic abuse and created a “toxic” environment for players during their years at the university. They continue to coach, and the conversation of their po-

tential firing has fizzled out over time.

This is the pattern of LSU Athletics. Even after its inability to hold sexual predators accountable became the subject of national scrutiny, it continues to prioritize winning games and maximizing profits over holding officials accountable for their compliance, crimes or both.

The decision to fire Orgeron following one bad football run has

made one thing clear to the LSU community: the decision-makers of this university have been willing to fire Orgeron all along for reasons they care about — reasons not associated with sexual assault, sexual harassment and other appalling behavior.

What Orgeron’s dismissal does show is that university leadership obviously doesn’t find cover-ups of sexual crimes to be a fireable offense.

Ultimately, it’s no secret that this decision wasn’t only in the hands of Woodward. The true final say on the matter came from the almighty Board of Supervisors.

This is the same Board that doled out blatantly weak punishments for Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar and Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry after they clearly violated Title IX policies. The Board that has yet to take real action on the former French instructor and alleged rapist Edouard d’Espalungue d’Arros, now escaped back to France. The Board that, just last week, couldn’t discern if the phrase “good morning, dahlin’” constituted sexual harassment during a Title IX training session.

This Board has shown its true colors time and time again this past year, prioritizing football and profit over accountability for perpetrators of sexual crimes on their campus.

You would think that a university and athletic department so fixated on profit would have fired Orgeron for cause while they still could to avoid spending $17 million to buy out his contract, but it looks like they didn’t have a crystal ball to predict the series of unfortunate events that have been the 2021 football season.

Former sports editor Reed Darcey contributed to this editorial.

“

Not one sparrow is forgotten

by God.

”

—Luke 12:6

In a laboratory at Louisiana State University (LSU), Christine Lattin torments some of the most vulnerable of God’s animals in crude experiments. She captures wild sparrows, isolates them in metal cages, injects them with hormone-blocking chemicals, deprives them of food for up to 15 hours, and then exposes them to objects that frighten them. The stress of captivity has caused some birds in her laboratory—where they’re imprisoned for weeks or even months—to lose weight extremely rapidly and even die. Those who survive her experiments are killed.

Please help us protect God’s creation.

Urge LSU to end its cruel experiments on wild birds.

PETALAMBS.com/Sparrows