The Reveille 1-23-23

‘NEVER STOP FIGHTING’

Abortion-rights activists march on the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

LSUReveille.com @lsureveille

ABORTION ACCESS

Baton Rouge residents protest Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN & GABBY JIMENEZ @suliclaire & @gvjimenezz

Lifelong Baton Rouge resident Nancy Davis and her fiancé were overjoyed when they saw her positive pregnancy test in the summer.

Then she found out at her first doctor’s appointment that her baby would be born without a skull and wouldn’t survive. Just a week earlier, a trigger law had gone into effect in Louisiana, banning abortions except in cases where the pregnant person’s life is in danger or the baby won’t survive.

After first saying they could perform an abortion, Davis’ doctors changed their minds. So she went to New York instead.

“I was being forced to carry my baby to bury my baby,” Davis said.

Davis led a march of about 150 abortion rights protesters Sunday, on the 50-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade, from Galvez Plaza on North Boulevard to the Capitol steps. Living in a state with a neartotal abortion ban, they looked to the anniversary as a reminder of what they’ve lost.

The energetic crowd roared through downtown’s quiet streets with chants and hand-made protest signs. A drummer marched among the crowd, filling moments between words with beats.

A dozen volunteers wore reflective vests, guiding protesters through crosswalks as silent cars sat stalled at lights. Two of them were LSU Feminists in Action officers Myrissa Eisworth and Annie Sheehan-Dean.

“Abortion is…” Sheehan-Dean, a history, political science and gender studies junior, yelled to the crowd through a bullhorn.

“Healthcare!” the protesters called back.

Speakers at the Capitol advocated for abortion rights and encouraged attendees to continue

fighting despite the Supreme Court’s ruling. Among the speakers was Kaitlyn Joshua, a Baton Rouge native and community organizer who was denied care at two ERs as she suffered a miscarriage, according to NPR.

“Louisiana, this is our moment. This is our chance, a chance women of Louisiana – from the piney woods of Shreveport to the bayous of Houma across the river to Port Allen down to the Mississippi and New Orleans – vote. Demand change. Never stop fighting for what is just and for what is right,” Joshua said.

Stacey Howard, who helped Davis organize the march, traveled from her home in New York City to protest in Baton Rouge. She said she had her own abortion when she was 27.

“Every state deserves to have

the same access that New York has,” Howard said. “If I hadn’t had that access, my life would have been extremely different. I would have been an unwilling and unprepared mother.”

Howard said she is curating a book of women’s abortion stories to emphasize the importance of reproductive healthcare and break the stigma tied to abortion.

State Sen. Royce Duplessis spoke to the crowd about his own great-grandmother, who he said died after she performed a “coat hanger abortion” on herself around 125 years ago.

“That’s inhumane, unacceptable – not in 2023,” Duplessis said. “I will not stand for it. We will not stand for it. Together, however long it takes to restore the rights of women, we’re going to do it right here in this statehouse.”

Abortion came under a neartotal ban in Louisiana in June when a trigger law went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the ruling that had largely protected abortion access across the country since 1973.

Louisiana’s abortion law doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest.

Lack of guidance from the Louisiana Health Department and threats from Attorney General Jeff Landry have left doctors, faced with up to 15 years in prison for performing an abortion, nervous to treat patients who fit the stated exceptions or are experiencing miscarriages, according to local and national media reports.

Two days before the Baton Rouge rally, thousands of antiabortion rights protesters gathered at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., rallying to end the practice nationwide. Among the protestors was Steve Scalise, the U.S. House majority leader from Louisiana’s first district.

“Boy, did we get a huge victory just a few months ago when Roe was overturned, but as you all know, that’s only the end of the first phase of this battle,” he said to the crowd in a video posted to his YouTube channel.

Meanwhile, Duplessis called for Louisiana’s abortion law to be repealed in his Sunday speech, where he was met with applause from the crowd.

To Davis, the fight is personal.

“Today, which should have been the 50th anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade, I am reminded of what was stolen from me last June – the power to make my own personal decisions about my body, my family and my future,” Davis said.

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MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Protestors chant on Jan. 22 by the Capitol steps in Baton Rouge, La.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

A woman carries multiple signs on Jan. 22 during an abortion march to the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La.

FOUND FAMILY

Dance Marathon at LSU hosts fourth annual gala for children’s hospital

BY GABBY JIMENEZ & CLAIRE SULLIVAN @gvjimenezz & @sulliclaire

Single mom Ashly Addison has taken her son to more hospital visits than she can remember.

Her son, Bryson, a patient at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital, has told her he doesn’t feel normal because of his medical condition. That feeling fades when he’s with students from Dance Marathon at LSU, a student organization that raises money for children and families at the hospital.

He talks, dances and does homework with the LSU students and the other “miracle kids” who they’ve come to see as a second family, his mother said.

“To have somebody that he could connect with on this level, it means a lot to me,” she said.

Dance Marathon hosted its fourth annual Winter Wonderland Gala Saturday night at the Baton Rouge Marriott for donors, the organization’s alumni and families from the hospital. Sarah Galli, a digital advertising senior and the president of Dance Marathon at LSU, said they’ve been planning the event since August.

GREEK LIFE

“The main point is to celebrate…what the people in this room have done for Dance Marathon,” Galli said.

CLIMATE Protection against climate change

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN @sulliclaire

Some of the casualties of Louisiana’s sinking coast could include the shelters of its history and culture — libraries, museums and galleries.

But with the help of LSU researchers, information repositories in Louisiana and around the country may be able to better prepare for mounting risks from climate change.

With support of a roughly $473,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., an interdisciplinary team at LSU is developing a risk assessment scale that will help institutions understand their vulnerability to different climate risks like storm winds, flooding and extreme heat.

The team will analyze a group of 92,000 cultural heritage institutions across the country, including art galleries, zoos, children’s museums and more.

LSU Greek Life alumni discuss friendships after graduation

BY EMILY BRACHER @emily_bracher_

Tom Farrar was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon when he was a student at LSU. Farrar graduated from the university in 1970, but he still calls his fraternity brothers around once a month to try and stay in touch as much as possible.

Greek organizations can play a major role in student life at LSU, and for people like Farrar, the friendships formed within Greek Life can go beyond graduation.

The Epsilon Chapter of Kappa Delta was the first sorority at LSU, chartered in 1909. Sigma Alpha Epsilon was the first fraternity on campus when it was established in 1867. According to the LSU Greek Life website, there are now over 6,000 members in the 35 chapters on campus.

Farrar, who now runs a family-owned hearing aid dispensary, decided to join a fraternity after seeing how much his parents enjoyed Greek life when they were in college. He believes that the bond he made with the people in his fraternity was the most beneficial part of his experience.

“What I have gained is primarily lifelong friendships,” Farrar said. “Greek life isn’t for ev-

eryone, but I would advise to be open-minded and experience new things.”

Larry Howard, a construction management alumnus, joined the Acacia fraternity in 1981 to have a small group of people to socialize with.

“I enjoyed the fraternity because it gave me a home on campus, a place to go during the day if I lived off-campus, or a room if I chose to live in the house,” Howard said. “You are not ‘best’ friends with 200 people, but you do develop a close friendship with 15 to 20, and then you are a part of the bigger group.”

Howard said that although the intramural athletics and parties were fun, he really enjoyed meeting everyone for lunch and dinner throughout all four years.

“I think Greek life enabled me to feel comfortable in new environments later in life, such as joining a new company and fitting in at work,” he said.

Now, Howard sees many of his fraternity brothers several times a year. He noted that it did get harder to stay in touch after they separated and left Baton Rouge, but that the effort is worth it.

Delta Gamma alumna Janet Bergeron Vidrine graduated in 1984 with a bachelor’s in market-

ing and a master’s in secondary education. Vidrine, a retired high school math teacher, serves in the office of the Delta Gamma alumnae chapter as an adviser for the LSU chapter.

Vidrine said she wanted to join a sorority in college to make new friends, get involved on campus and make LSU “seem smaller.”

“I believe that the connections I made through Greek life have been very useful later in life,” Vidrine said. “My sorority sisters sponsored me for the Ju-

nior League and encouraged me to get involved in other volunteer organizations in Baton Rouge. Through these volunteer organizations I have made friends with people I may have never crossed paths with.”

Vidrine said her favorite and most memorable parts of being in a sorority were events like the Jambalaya Jamboree, the scavenger hunt during Homecoming, the around-the-clock flag football games on the Parade Ground for the MD Marathon that raised

money for muscular dystrophy and their philanthropy event, Anchor Splash.

Like Farrar and Howard, Vidrine still keeps in touch with her sorority sisters today.

“I think the biggest benefit after college is knowing you have a group of friends who you can count on to be there when you need them,” Vidrine said. “I am fortunate to have very close friends from my sorority who were in the chapter 20 years before me and 40 years after me.”

Community members and families from Our Lady of the Lake enjoyed dinner, games and a silent auction with donated items.

Attendees could bid on jewelry, spa services, New Orleans Peli-

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille (left to right)(top row) Teddi Hessburg, Jared Smith, Allissa Wiggins, Ashly Addison, Lily Ray, Alana Marcello, (bottom row) Sarah Galli, Kaitlyn Perkins, Jennifer Guillory and Delaney Mobley pose for a photo on Jan. 21 at the Dance Marathon Gala inside the Marriott Baton Rouge on Hilton Ave.

COURTESY OF JANET BERGERON VIDRINE

Janet Bergeron Vidrine (right) and her Delta Gamma sorority sister Margaret Cassisa (left) on bid day their sophomore year.

BENEFIT, from page 3

cans basketball tickets and other items to add to Dance Marathon’s fundraising tally.

Dance Marathon partnered with Campus Federal and other companies to put on the event.

“It’s really cool to see how the community is turning out for Dance Marathon and for the hospital and for the miracle kids,” said Delaney Mobley, a political communication sophomore and Dance Marathon’s vice president of marketing.

The LSU chapter has raised over $1.7 million since 2013, according to its website. Galli said the total includes $214,000 last year alone. The organization holds events throughout the year, culminating in a 12-hour dance event in April where students and benefiting families celebrate.

Jennifer Guillory, a single mom of three, has taken her daughter Kelli on 74 hospital stays because of her genetic disorder. But when Kelli’s with the students at Dance Marathon, she doesn’t have to think about that, Guillory said.

“It’s like we’ve gained family—and not just the students, but the other families that are there,”

RESEARCH

Guillory said.

She said LSU students visit her daughter when she’s in the hospital or send a video if they can’t.

“That just melts a single mom’s heart, because we’re alone a lot of the times with raising these kids,” Guillory said.

The donations make a difference to Our Lady of the Lake, which serves at least 100,000 children a year, according to Teddi Hessburg, the senior director of events for Our Lady of the Lake Foundation, who attended the gala.

“It’s not something you usually get to do with other charities… You don’t get to see the people behind the curtain that you’re raising money for…And [these events] make one part of their life just a little bit better,” Galli said.

Guillory said the support from the LSU students has been a blessing.

“My kids absolutely adore each and every one of them,” she said.

Dance Marathon plans to host other fundraising events throughout the semester, including Together Today from Feb 2. to Feb. 3 and Battle of the Bars later in the semester. The culminating dance event will be April 15.

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This will be done using geographic systems analysis, which means “instead of looking at physical maps, you’re overlaying data on top of maps so that you can see how things interact,” explained Edward Benoit III, one of the researchers and an associate professor in the LSU School of Library and Information Science.

The research will be made publicly available, which means that even if an institution isn’t on the list, it can look to a neighbor for risks, said Benoit, who is the coordinator of LSU’s cultural heritage resource management program.

This project combines expertise from information science, geography, climatology and more—an interdisciplinary approach in which its researchers take pride. It will also involve 25 undergraduate and graduate students from across fields.

“The world of today asks for scientists to answer some of the most difficult questions the human race has ever been faced with,” said Jill Trepanier, one of the researchers and an associate professor in the LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology. “The only way to do this is with teams of people from different backgrounds answering questions with different approaches and ideas.”

Trepanier, who is an extreme weather expert, said Louisiana is especially impacted by threats like land subsidence, rising seas and hurricanes. Areas along the coast and the Mississippi River are particularly vulnerable, she said.

Louisiana has lost about onequarter of its wetlands since the 1930s, a landmass equal to

the size of Delaware, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This puts cultural heritage institutions in coastal parishes at heightened risk.

And the state has already dealt with major archival losses from extreme storms. About 1.5 million books and manuscripts at Tulane University were submerged in floodwater when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, according to the university’s library.

“[Louisiana’s] culture and the resources to support that culture are being threatened by these major events, so we want to

identify the areas that are most ‘at risk’ and help them understand if resources actually need to be moved,” Trepanier said.

Moisture was the most commonly cited source of damage for cultural heritage collections, according to 2014 data from the Heritage Health Information Survey.

Humidity is an often overlooked risk to archives, according to Jennifer Vanos, a collaborator on the climate risk research and an associate professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability. Even low humidity can have detrimental ef-

fects on repositories over long periods of time, she said.

“This is especially relevant for locations with already high humidity that lack proper air conditioning, or in the face of long-term power outages wherein the archives could get ruined without proper air conditioning,” Vanos said.

For Louisiana institutions, these challenges are familiar. Being able to quantify the climate risks they face, though, will help them come up with plans and fight for the funding to see them through, Benoit and Trepanier said.

“Many times, people are unable to clearly articulate the risks…we want to help provide them with the explanation so they can advocate for themselves with more back-up,” Trepanier said.

Institutions along Louisiana’s coast have disappeared in recent years, but this research could help, Benoit said.

“These cultural heritage institutions hold our history, and there’s a much more important societal potential loss there,” Benoit said. “Once things are damaged and destroyed, they don’t come back.”

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Gala attendees enjoy a meal on Jan. 21 at the Dance Marathon Gala inside the Marriott Baton Rouge on Hilton Ave.

THE REVEILLE ARCHIVES

Historical books, important letters and QR codes are strategically placed in a glass case at the Water and Louisiana Consequences with Coastal Land exhibit at Hill Memorial Library on Field House Drive in Baton Rouge, La, on Oct. 11.

ENTERTAINMENT

Rev Rank: ‘Ginny & Georgia’ is no longer a guilty pleasure

BY MOLLY TERRELL @keenryanti

When the first season of the Netflix original “Ginny & Georgia” aired, it was called a less enjoyable copycat of “Gilmore Girls.”

It was expected to fade away into obscurity the way most Netflix shows seem to do after one season. The show most likely would have remained relatively unknown and been canceled if not for Taylor Swift’s controversial tweet about it.

The singer posted a screen grab where the teenage character, Ginny, is arguing with her mother, Georgia, and tells her that she goes through men “faster than Taylor Swift.”

Swift was upset about the line and called out the series and Netflix for being sexist. This tweet backfired on Swift, however, as her tweet seemingly caused the show to jump in viewership, with the show listed on Netflix’s top 10 list in the weeks following the tweet.

Despite a lot of these views likely being the result of people “hate-watching” the comedy-drama, also referred to as a “dark comedy” by one of the lead stars, the show managed to gain enough viewership for a second season.

While the first season of the hit show was hailed as a guilty pleasure due to its cringeworthy dialogue, the second season is

COURTESY OF NETFLIX

being praised for its execution of heavy topics such as mental health and the external struggles faced because of it.

Despite the more serious tone of the sophomore season, there is still a lot of humor and romance to latch onto, making the 10-episode stretch a well-rounded watching experience.

Ginny (Antonia Gentry) and Marcus (Felix Mallard) have pal-

pable chemistry and stand out in the season, even with Brianne Howey’s show-stealing performance as Georgia Miller, a single mom with a tragic upbringing.

The show’s central dynamic, Ginny and her mom, Georgia, has grown increasingly complex throughout the show. Ginny and Georgia lived most of Ginny’s childhood in poverty, as Georgia ran from her home at 14 and was 15-years-old when she had Ginny.

Despite never fully understanding her, Ginny always loved her mother and thought of her as a best friend. Her childhood was positive because Georgia could make anything sound like an adventure.

Still, the rose-tinted glasses Ginny had about her mother were shattered by the revelation that her mother had killed multiple of her husbands. But, only one of the deaths had been intentional. Georgia, to her core, is a survivor and did anything she could to get herself and her kids out of a bad situation.

Austin Miller, the youngest child of Georgia played by Diesel La Torraca, also shines this season as he adjusts to his father getting

out of prison and how his reintroduction into Austin’s life unearths some problematic memories for Georgia.

While the familial and romantic storylines are well executed, Ginny’s friend group dynamic leaves much to be desired. While two of her friends, Abby and Bracia, are likable and realistic, Maxine is obnoxious, and Nora’s character might as well have been left on the cutting room floor for the lack of impact she has on the plot.

If the show gets a third season, it would be beneficial to lessen the scenes involving Ginny’s friends. The show should continue focusing Ginny’s storylines on her therapy journey and delving into her identity as a biracial young woman who has spent most of her adolescence raised by her white mom, who has a tendency to murder.

However, the most criminal thing about season two of “Ginny & Georgia” is that despite the audiences asking for more Joe after season one, he managed to be in season two even less.

Come on Netflix, we are all rooting for him to end up with Georgia.

AG Jeff Landry’s tip line flooded with meme entries

BY WILL NICKEL @WilNickel

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s “protecting minors” tip line was filled with the script to “Bee Movie,” not-so-nice tales about the AG’s mother and many, many, many references to male genitalia.

Landry created the tip line in November 2022 for people to report library books that they found inappropriate. The goal of the tip line was to stop “taxpayer-subsided sexualization of children.”

The tip line was quickly filled with less serious replies than Landry had likely hoped.

We made a list of the funniest responses to the tip line:

“This isn’t about a book but my child saw a rainbow in September after that storm and now he’s gay. If it had not have stormed so intensely then there would have been no rainbow. What are you doing to decrease the intensity of storms? They seem to be getting worse and worse every year, how do you expect a good christian mother to have a chance against nature??”

“The woman who is the library attendant at my son’s primary school has six fully functioning pairs of legs. You need to do something about this. I’m not racist, I just don’t think spiders should be part of the school system. How long before she wraps someone up in a web, liquifies them then slurps up their insides like a child-flavoured capri sun?”

“Greetings

to know that there are only 2 sexes.

The sex I have with your dad. And the sex I have with your mom.”

“The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who’s relationship is inappropriate. Textbook groom- ing. Please pull all ‘Grinch who stole Christmas’”

“The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues.

The 20-meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start.

The running speed starts slowly but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal. A single lap should be completed each time you hear this sound.

Remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over. The test will begin on the word start.

On your mark, get ready, start.”

“Hi my name is Jeff Landry and I love BIG THICK round PIZZAS in my MOUTH. I am also a disgusting human being and I hate my life.”

“Ted Cruz ate my son :(”

“Them librarians gave my kids a copy of the hungry caterpillar and that bug sexy as hell. Can you help me get a copy? Can you link me to any good rule34 of it? Thanks in advance!”

“In the animated film The Land Before Time, none of the dinosaurs who are minors are wearing pants, which is indecent and encourages deviant behavior. This must stop. Add pants to Land Before Time I - VI.”

“my wife left me :(”

AG, I would just like to talk about the issues I have with all these snowflake, liberal, beta male, low testosterone books about sex and gender. Its all too much. People need

LSU VS. TENNESSEE

LSU loses its sixth straight game on Jan. 21, inside the Pete Maravich Assemby Center.

Photos by Matthew Perschall

Mike the Tiger shows off his jersey.

LSU men’s basketball freshman forward Jalen Reed (13) shoots a free throw.

LSU men’s basketball freshman forward Jalen Reed (13) slams into an opponent.

LSU men’s basketball head coach

Matt McMahon talks with the assistant coaches.

LSU men’s basketball 5th-year senior forward KJ Williams puts the ball up.

LSU men’s basketball senior guard Trae Hannibal (0) drives toward the goal.

LSU men’s basketball senior guard Trae Hannibal (0) tries to shoot.

Sweat rolls down the cheek of LSU men’s basketball redshirt sophomore guard Adam Miller (44).

LSU MEN’S HOOPS

Tigers lose sixth game in a row, look to find positives amidst slump

BY PETER RAUTERKUS @peter_rauterkus

When Matt McMahon was announced as LSU’s men’s basketball coach, it seemed like the program had a rebuild on its hands.

Its coach had just been fired for cause after receiving multiple Level I violations from the NCAA and the team was left without any scholarship players. However, McMahon recognized those challenges and embraced them, agreeing to a seven-year contract at LSU.

Fast forward to the start of the season, and McMahon had already made an impressive amount of progress. He rebuilt the roster almost from scratch, fielding a team with experience and some young talent.

McMahon led LSU to a 12-1 record through its first 13 games, capped off by a home win over then No. 9 Arkansas. It seemed the rebuild was ahead of schedule, and momentum was on LSU’s side.

But that momentum quickly ran out.

Since the win over Arkansas, LSU has lost its last six in a row, capped off by a 21-point loss at home to Tennessee. Like many of the recent losses, the problems were rooted in offensive execution and ball security.

Against Tennessee, LSU turned the ball over 19 times, leading to 33 Tennessee points. Though LSU shot the ball better in the Tennessee game at 48%, the points off turnovers created an insurmount-

MEN’S BASKETBALL

able deficit in the second half.

“When you’re playing a top five team, they make you pay for every mistake,” McMahon said. “Every single mistake, and that’s what they did today. Both points off turnovers, missed a switch, you miss a coverage on a flare

screen, they make you pay every time so credit to them.”

LSU showed some early promise. The Tigers started the game 3-3 from the field, knocking down shots on consecutive possessions to start the game. However, Tennessee had answers, and

when LSU eventually hit a scoring drought, Tennessee took advantage. The Volunteers opened up a 39-22 lead at halftime, which sucked the energy out of both the team and the Pete Maravich As -

LSU vs. Alabama hoops preview

BY TYLER HARDEN @ttjharden8

While it doesn’t carry the same weight that an LSU-Alabama football matchup would, the women’s basketball matchup Monday night still holds major significance in the SEC.

The Tigers take on the Crimson Tide on Monday at 6 p.m. for their chance to keep the undefeated season alive through another game.

The Crimson Tide will present another challenge to LSU, as they sit with a 15-4 overall record, and 4-2 in the SEC. Their in-conference losses come from Missouri by one point, and a 13-point loss to Tennessee.

Brittany Davis is the player to watch for Alabama. She leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 17.6 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game.

The senior guard has had no problem getting the ball in the basket thus far, scoring double figures in every single game since November, including tying her season high of 26 points in their loss to Missouri. So regardless of how fast of a start LSU gets off to, Davis will always present a challenge.

But she’s had help around her. Megan Abrams, Aaliyah Nye and

Starting lineup shuffling holding back LSU men’s hoops

BY JASON WILLIS @JasonWillis4

For Matt McMahon and LSU, the starting lineup was always going to be fluid to start the season.

That’s the nature of a team with extremely little continuity, one that was patched together in the transfer portal. However, as McMahon and the team continue to tinker with the starting group, LSU may run out of time to find the right five players.

To date, LSU has used seven different starting lineups in its 18 games. More concerningly, the Tigers have used four different combinations in their last six games. Adam Miller and KJ Williams, the team’s two most consistent offensive players, are the only two members of the team to have started every game.

The team’s starting lineup in its opener, consisting of Miller, Williams, Mwani Wilkinson, Jalen Reed and Justice Hill, was always

likely to undergo change as a very new team got a better idea of what players worked best together.

Though the Tigers were 7-1 when starting that group, that

record came against a soft early season schedule where several games were closer than expected given the quality of LSU’s opponent.

In December, Wilkinson and Reed were moved to the bench in favor of Cam Hayes and Derek Fountain, creating a new lineup that produced good results. That

five-man starting group led LSU to an exciting win over a top-ten Arkansas team and narrowly lost in a close battle against Kentucky in Rupp Arena.

However, that loss to Kentucky was the first of a still-ongoing losing streak that currently stands at five. In that stretch, LSU has gone back to the drawing board. The Tigers have tried subbing Trae Hannibal and Justice Williams in the starting lineup at different points, as Hill was benched and Hayes briefly dealt with an ankle injury.

LSU’s problems during this time seem to be less with personnel and more with general inconsistency across the board. As a whole, the team has struggled at times with its ball movement, shooting and finishing at the rim.

That’s been the case regardless of who’s been on the court for the last few games. As impor-

REAGAN COTTEN / The Reveille

LSU men’s basketball junior forward Derek Fountain (20) drives towards the basket on Jan. 18 during LSU’s 4967 loss against Auburn in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL/ The Reveille

LSU men’s basketball sophomore guard Justice Williams (11) waits to return to the court on Jan. 21, during LSU’s 56-77 loss to Tennessee at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

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Hannah Barber all average eight points per game and above for the Crimson Tide. Sarah Ashlee Barker is also a threat, as she led the team in points in their win over Ole Miss with 16 last Sunday.

This goes to say that Alabama

will be a similar threat to what Arkansas was. While they don’t shoot quite as many three-pointers as the Razorbacks do, their guard play is certainly where their scoring comes from.

That being said, their guardheavy offense could be good for Angel Reese and LaDazhia Wil-

liams. They could be presented with many opportunities to get rebounds on defense, and even second-chance shots on offense. For the Crimson Tide, Jada Rice leads the post with 7.3 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game.

On the other hand, the guards for LSU will have to be consistent

throughout the whole game. If the Crimson Tide contains the paint early, the guards will have to pick up the slack. They certainly did against Arkansas, but the points came primarily from down low; Angel Reese and LaDazhia Williams combined for 15 of LSU’s 29 field goals. The guard play would

thus have to make up for those lack of shots.

This matchup will be a game where LSU truly shows that they are strong on all cylinders. Tiger fans have seen Angel Reese shine all season so far, but this will be a game where the team can show they’re truly a threat in the SEC.

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sembly Center crowd.

Though LSU did show some positives in the second half, the game never left Tennessee’s control. The Volunteers eventually finished the game off with a 77-56 win, further erasing the momentum that LSU was once building.

“Unfortunately, this is part of the process that we signed up for. So I think you have to try to find some positives,” McMahon said. “Obviously everyone wants to win, but we have to figure out a way to take some positives, from practices, from games and try to build a program.”

One of those positives in the second half was freshman Jalen Reed. Reed struggled through the early part of his freshman year, but put up nine points and four rebounds in the second half against Tennessee.

“I thought just his aggressiveness, as I talked about earlier, he’s kind of a unique player at 6-foot-10 can put the ball on the floor, crafty driver can get to the rim and finish with either hand around the basket,” McMahon

said of Reed. “So you hope you take some confidence from the plays that he was able to make.”

Reed was a four-star recruit when he signed with LSU, but has yet to live up to the lofty expectations. His nine-point performance is a new career and season high

that McMahon hopes can help get him going down the stretch this season

The opening stretch of the SEC schedule has done LSU no favors. LSU’s six consecutive losses have come against Kentucky, Texas A&M, Florida, Alabama, Auburn

and now Tennessee, all projected

ly

doesn’t ease up much as they prepare

tant as it is to find the best fiveman group, the search to do so may be contributing to the team’s inconsistencies. With the lineup constantly shuffling, it’s harder for players to build chemistry and for them to fix the issues that have continued to pop up, which suggests that LSU’s best course of action may be to pick a lineup and stick with it.

Still, that’s easier said than done for McMahon and company. As long as LSU continues to struggle, the urge will naturally be to try something in an attempt to fix it. The patience to stick with a lineup and allow it to work out its own kinks is something a team that’s 1-5 in conference play and fighting to stay in the March Madness conversation may not be able to afford.

With only 13 games left in the regular season, time is running out for the Tigers to settle on a starting lineup they trust. The challenge for McMahon is to act decisively and quickly find the group that will steer his Tigers back to their winning ways.

NCAA Tournament teams aside from Florida. And unfortunate

for the Tigers, that schedule

to travel to Fayetteville for a rematch with Arkansas in their next game.

TARUN KAKARALA/ The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball 5th-year senior guard Alexis Morris (45) celebrates a win on Jan. 19, during LSU’s 79-76 win against Arkansas in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on N. Stadium Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

REAGAN COTTEN/ The Reveille

LSU men’s basketball head coach Matt McMahon looks to the court on Jan. 18 during LSU’s 49-67 loss against Auburn in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

It’s about time for Louisiana to raise its minimum wage

BESKE’S BUZZ

KATE BESKE @KateBeske

Louisiana’s trivial minimum wage has remained stagnant, not budging from the federal minimum for 14 years. The federal minimum is no longer a living wage, especially for fulltime college students who can only work part-time.

Students have to pay for rent, groceries, bills and school supplies, and they are forced to take out loans or get financial help elsewhere on minimum wage.

Ben Zipperer, an economist specializing in the minimum wage and low-wage labor markets at the Economic Policy Institute, told Insider, “There is literally no county in the country where you can live, even as a single adult with no kids, earning less than $15 an hour and still be able to afford basic expenses like rent, commuting costs, food and so forth.”

When discussing minimum wage, it’s important to mention the consumer price index and inflation, as they are intricately laced with the issue of living wages.

The consumer price index, CPI, is an index that measures how prices paid by consumers change per month. This index is a popular way to measure inflation and deflation.

Inflation is defined by a rise

in prices and a decline in purchasing power over time. A rise in prices means that a unit of currency buys less than it did in prior periods.

The minimum wage is deeply affected by inflation because when inflation occurs and the minimum wage remains the same, workers are now receiving even less money because the amount of money is no longer worth the same amount, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

According to an article by the Louisiana Budget Project, “Approximately 37 percent of all workers (745,000) and 86 of workers living below the poverty line (159,000) in Louisiana would get a pay raise if the federal minimum wage were raised to $15 an hour.”

With the number of people who would benefit from raising the minimum wage, poverty levels could decrease, which was nearly 20% as of 2021 in Louisiana.

Scott Abrahams, assistant professor of the department of economics at LSU, says the debate surrounding minimum wage usually focuses on how much it could raise the income of low-wage workers and reduce poverty versus how it could impose cost increases on firms affecting employment or ability to keep businesses open.

“Mathematically, keeping the minimum wage fixed at the federal minimum wage of $7.25

actually means lowering what we call the real minimum wage over time,” Abrahams says.

He says that $7.25 in 2008 is worth $9.85 today, meaning the purchasing power of minimum wage has decreased over time.

With a minimum wage that has decreased in value, it should be raised to at least match the worth of what it used to be.

Abraham’s says with a minimum wage raised to $10.75, 60% of the local median hourly wage, researchers say it suggests room to increase minimum wage without causing a significant impact on employment.

“For a modest minimum wage increase, we would be unlikely to notice any change in the state’s unemployment rate,” he says.

With such an unnoticeable change to unemployment, one reason raising the minimum wage is seen as bad is ruled out.

Abraham says people directly harmed by raising the minimum wage would be workers who can’t find a job due to decreased employment and business owners whose margins are squeezed, but research shows that this effect is small.

“For the economy as a whole, we would have a very difficult time detecting anything close to inflation in the sense of the word as we see it in the news lately,” Abraham says.

With all of this information, raising the minimum wage in Louisiana would be beneficial to

workers while having minimal effects on the economy.

One group that suffers largely from a low minimum wage is tipped workers, especially servers and bartenders. Since Louisiana has no tip and wage laws, Louisiana employers follow the federal tip credit rules.

“Servers can be paid as little as $2.13 an hour, as long as the employee earns enough in tips to add up to the federal minimum, $7.25,” according to an article by NOLA.

By giving tipped workers the same minimum wage as other workers, servers and bartenders would make significantly more money, but even by raising

the state minimum wage, they would be making more money if their tips did not reach that amount.

Louisiana’s minimum wage is long overdue for a raise. Thirtyone states have raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum wage, and it’s time for Louisiana to do the same.

Increasing Louisiana’s minimum wage will lead to higher pay for workers, allowing them closer to a living wage while causing a minuscule effect on the state’s economy.

Kate Beske is a 19-year-old journalism sophomore from Destrehan.

Roiland accusations are a reminder to separate art from artist

be shunned by society.

“Rick and Morty” star and co-creator Justin Roiland is facing two felony charges related to an alleged domestic violence incident. The charges follow the filing of a criminal complaint in May 2020 by the Orange County District Attorney.

The charges again have rekindled the discussion about separating an artist from their art. Those opposed to separation argue that once a creator has been exposed as morally bankrupt, their work becomes toxic — a reminder of their transgressions that should

That opinion is impossible to hold with logical consistency. However, it’s held by many taking part in the discourse. It’s a fair stance to hold personally, especially for people who have been victimized by the same kind of offense that an artist has engaged in, but from a societal perspective, it’s a difficult rule to follow because art is often produced in some capacity by people who fall short ethically.

Roman Polanski is regarded as a visionary filmmaker. He was also forced to leave the U.S. for France to avoid sentencing for a statutory rape charge that he pleaded guilty to.

Michael Jackson is considered one of the greatest artists of all

time, and in his time he was the subject of multiple sexual abuse accusations and police investigations as well as civil and criminal lawsuits.

Bill Cosby is known as an integral piece of stand-up comedy and television history, but his legacy has been tarnished by the various sexual misconduct allegations, one of which being a rape allegation that landed him in prison before his conviction was overturned based on a broken promise from the prosecution.

In all forms of entertainment, there are less-than-desirable people. Some have committed acts that warrant them being put away forever, but if their art was thrown out with them, there would practically be none left.

In an ideal world, artists that have caused as much harm as those listed previously would be thrown in prison for the rest of their lives and have all future monetary compensation for their work go to their victims. However, this world isn’t ideal.

Successful creators are often able to avoid adequate punishment for their actions because of the money and power their career has brought them. Roiland could escape consequences for his actions despite the damning evidence against him simply because of the popularity of his creations.

Whether he is held accountable or not, the accusations should serve as a reminder many of the things people enjoy are

Editorial Policies and Procedures

problematic in one way or another. Picking art to consume on a moral basis is a high-wire balancing act sure to leave even the best tightrope walkers face down in the dirt of intellectual inconsistency.

Deciding what art is acceptable to consume based on the actions of its creator, the people who worked on it or a production company related to the project is a myopic strategy employed by well-meaning people. However, working towards material changes to a system that allows and perpetuates abuse is a better use of time and energy.

Frank Kidd is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Springfield, Virginia.

Quote of the Week

EDITORIAL BOARD

Josh Archote Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Hannah Michel Hanks

Deputy News Editor Gabby Jimenez Claire Sullivan News Editor Brandon Poulter 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.

Benjamin Franklin Founding father

“Lost time is never found again.”

MADDIE FITZMORRIS / The Reveille

The United States is an individualistic society, to its detriment

JEMIAH’S JUSTIFICATIONS

JEMIAH CLEMONS @Miclemah

In the land of the free and home of the brave, individuality is championed and rallied around. Synonymous with creativity, individualism finds itself in the form of art, entrepreneurship and even exploration. This is a concept that has grown on American soil for centuries, but it has morphed into a social epidemic.

Individualism in general, is a concept that values people as individuals instead of a group. When viewed through an American lens, this philosophy becomes the social norm. While individualism is not exclusive to Americans, it’s prominent throughout the culture.

Spanning back to the 15th

century, colonizers and explorers embarked on their journeys to the New World. Following their arrival, they faced illness, severe weather and many other harsh events. Their ability to fight adversity lasted all the way through the Revolutionary war in the 18th century.

Following the revolution, the new American government drafted the Declaration of Independence. With the main principle being “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” a clear nod to John Locke’s “life, liberty and property,” the government emphasized natural law. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “natural law emphasized duties, natural rights normally emphasized privileges or claims to which an individual was entitled.”

This underlying philosophy of the American experiment in government prioritized the sanc-

tity of the individual, and thus the laws and customs developed in a way that facilitated the success of individuals over family. In today’s political climate, a common critique of the Republican party is that they’re self-serving. While the basis of that argument is a debate for another day, this self-serving behavior can be attributed to individualism and natural law.

The influences of individualism and family structures are tight-knit. Within the nuclear family structure, atomization and the just-world theory are commonly taught to children.

The just-world theory refers to the belief that the world is fair and that personal decisions determine social outcomes. If one’s personal decisions land them in an undesirable situation. This can lead to social atomization. This means they metaphorically fade into the background while

being ignored and mistreated by other members of society.

These ideologies tie into individualism because one’s success and failure are contingent upon oneself. Since the U.S. is a capitalist construct, this widens the margins and creates more space for individualism. In this culture, the social and economic systems can be visualized similarly to a mountain; many people are at the bottom and very few at the top.

Picture this: imagine driving up a steep mountain, and at the top is social and financial success, while misery and poverty wait at the bottom. On the way, you spot someone along the road in need of help. If you stop to help them, you may never reach the American dream, but if you don’t, they’ll continue to suffer.

This social dilemma is common in professional, political and economic facets of life in Ameri-

ca. In pursuit of their best interest, most people would continue their drive up the mountain. This is largely because individuality has been woven into this country since the beginning. The mountain analogy also serves as an unfortunate reminder that a sense of community and compassion is dying in the U.S.

Reaching the American dream is the ultimate goal. So when today’s immigrants come to the U.S. looking for it, they stumble upon something vastly different than what the 15th-century colonizers found. Instead of a land filled with opportunity, they’re met with a society of individuals only looking to benefit themselves. If the American race for individualism continues, it may cause a social avalanche.

Jemiah Clemons is a 19-year-old kinesiology major from Miami, Florida.

To win culture war, right needs to focus on good education

BENJAMIN HAINES @bphaines

If the American right is losing its war with the American left, it’s because of universities. They are by and large captured by an often left-wing professoriate, from whose pens, mouths and classrooms have come radical new approaches to today’s most controversial issues: race, class and gender.

Indeed the institution of the American university is the birthplace of critical race theory, queer theory, postcolonialism and the like, which have quickly injected themselves into our national discourse, especially after George Floyd’s murder in summer 2020. So far the right has abysmally failed to stop this radical intellectual onslaught at the hands of far-left faculty members.

This is probably due to the fact that there are simply far more liberal professors and administrators than there are conservative ones at just about every college campus across the country. While there are a handful of avowed conservative liberal arts colleges in the U.S., there’s really only one, Hillsdale College in Michigan, that has gained national recognition for its role as a bastion against an otherwise liberal takeover of higher education. But Hillsdale is a small private school with limited resources and is hardly well situated to jolt the American university system back to some semblance of political balance.

As a result, some conservative activists outside universities have taken it upon themselves to fight the “hostile takeover” of academia by the left, doing what conservatives within higher education have thus far failed to do.

At the moment, no right-wing

crusader has contributed more than Christopher Rufo, who is largely responsible for bringing the existence of critical race theory in elementary and secondary schools to national attention. With the help of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Rufo is bringing the fight against “wokeness” to Florida.

On Jan. 6, DeSantis appointed Rufo and five other conservative thinkers, professors and activists, including the dean of Hillsdale’s School of Government Matthew Spalding, to the New College of Florida’s Board of Trustees.

Aside from failing to meet various state expectations, such as reaching recruitment targets, achieving financial stability and improving graduation and dropout rates, New College has gained a reputation as one of the most progressive state-funded schools in the country. The Princeton Review, for instance, ranks New College third among public colleges that are “making an impact” in student engagement with sus-

tainability and environmentalist efforts.

But now DeSantis, according to Rufo, is aiming to reshape the school into one that will offer an education designed to protect “families against captured bureaucracies,” or in other words to fashion New College into a place where conservative students and their families can be comfortable with their own beliefs.

The announcement predictably ruffled the feathers of many progressives, who identify DeSantis’ attempts to fight left-wing social agendas, often disguised as the battle for ill-defined compassion, as a Trumpian attempt to rewrite history and destroy the alleged political neutrality of public universities. The hyper-progressive Daily Beast, for example, describes DeSantis’ announcement of Rufo’s appointment as “what could be the governor’s hate-fueled march to a Republican presidential nomination.”

Histrionics aside, the new

New College appointments do raise important questions concerning the wisdom and rightness of willfully and openly reshaping a state-funded college, even if an underperforming one, into a mouthpiece of conservatism.

The answers to these issues likely lay in a few variables: how one defines conservatism; and whether or not creating an explicitly conservative institution is the right strategy for correcting progressive overreach.

Noticeably what knowing the answers to these problems doesn’t require is answering the question of whether American colleges are by and large liberal or if it even matters that there is an imbalance of political opinions among faculty members and administrators. The data are clear on these issues: there is an enormous imbalance in American colleges that favors the left.

But what does matter in the question of making conservative institutions is what one considers “conservative,” something about which Rufo, DeSantis and others have been quiet.

If by “conservative” one means getting back to the old roots and goals of the university – fostering open discussions about a variety of viewpoints, free of judgment; diving into and studying the great books of the Western tradition closely, devoid of relativistic theoretical lenses; or pursuing the truth, wherever it may be, then DeSantis and Co. seem to be on the right track.

Indeed, if this is the definition of conservative with which the Florida governor is operating, a reversion back to a former, better model of education, then current professors and students at New College, as well as other politically-concerned bystanders should have little to fear. The woke will be able to teach and coexist with non-woke faculty who may have previously felt stifled and cen-

sored by progressive leadership. And if progressives have a problem with such an idea, it might be themselves who are intolerant, not DeSantis or Rufo.

But if by conservative one means deletion of history, especially the history that doesn’t cast the U.S. in a particularly attractive light, much like progressives fear that Trump, DeSantis and other anti-woke, anti-critical race theory advocates are doing, the future of the governor and Rufo’s New College project may be illfated, for faculty members will be sure to revolt or quit, leaving the school, at least temporarily, defunct and inoperable.

What’s more if this latter conception of conservative prevails, DeSantis’ project will prove hypocritical, simply a pragmatic means of producing an ultimately ineffectual “win” in the American culture war that he can tout to supporters as the calendar races towards presidential campaign season.

The few conservatives remaining in mainstream academia may be welcoming the changes coming to New College and might even be hoping that similar ones will come to their own places of employment. But they should remember that as satisfying it is to see liberal tears shed, and as much needed a victory is in the battle for the preservation of American culture, it can’t, and shouldn’t, come at the heavy cost of hypocrisy.

If conservatives are to win the culture war, they need to win it the right way, by conserving tried and true means and models, in this case, preserving what universities were originally built for centuries ago: the acquisition, articulation and passing on of knowledge.

Haines is a 24-year-old graduate student from Shreveport.

Benjamin

DAYTONA BEACH NEWS-JOURNAL VIA AP / David Tucker

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to the crowd gathered on the beach ramp Jan. 18, during a presser where he presented Volusia County officials with a multi million dollar check for beach erosion projects.