The Reveille 1-30-23

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A NEW WAY TO CHEAT?

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‘A BIT TERRIFYING’

Is ChatGPT just

BY GABBY JIMENEZ @gvjimenezz

Imagine you have an art history essay on Baroque era paintings due at midnight. It’s 11:30 p.m., and the deadline is quickly approaching. What if you could get your computer to write the essay for you in seconds?

With ChatGPT, that’s now a reality.

ChatGPT, which stands for chat generative pre-trained transformer, is an artificial intelligence chatbot created by the company OpenAI that, provided with a short prompt, can write and produce images at will. The program was launched in late November 2022, and, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, had one million users within five days of its release.

New York City’s Department of Education banned ChatGPT from school devices and networks at the beginning of the year due to fears of cheating, NBC reported. Several schools and universities around the world have followed suit, while others are actively embracing the new technology.

LSU cybersecurity professor Golden Richard said he uses ChatGPT in class to demonstrate how far AI has come, but he doesn’t have any interest in incorporating it into his curriculum.

“I don’t think things like ChatGPT are going to push Stephen King aside, because it’s not clear that they have the depth of creativity that humans have…But in terms of like, you know, English composition… they’re generally accurate, and it’s something that students can simply just turn in,” Richard said. “And that’s a little bit terrifying.”

Richard said ChatGPT works by “scraping the internet” for data and looking for patterns that enables them to create text and images that mimic human

a tool for cheating? LSU professors express concern

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work. He worries that codewriting AI like ChatGPT will have negative consequences for computer coding.

Richard thinks of Tesla’s selfdriving car. Based on the articles he’s read, the car works well most of the time, but some critical coding errors have caused “pretty horrific accidents,” he said.

Richard said it’d be harder for students to use ChatGPT to cheat in his advanced coding classes, but it might be usable in other subjects.

“It’s always distressing to me when people sort of misuse the resources at their disposal at a university just to get through… and they don’t care about the fact that they’ve actually learned something or not,” Richard said. “There’s potential for [ChatGPT] to be an educational tool, but if you’re using it to circumvent learning processes at a university, then it’s just crazy.”

Mass communication professor Will Mari uses different types of AI for his classes. He

calls Packback, a discussionbased AI, his “robot TA” because it helps him detect if AI was used in student responses.

Even without Packback, Mari said it’s still obvious if a student used AI to write their work.

“I can tell if a student has suddenly become really good at writing a B or B+ essay, because their human tone will be way off from the robot tone that often ChatGPT has, which is pretty monotone…So for now, at least, a fairly experienced human instructor can detect AI without another AI,” Mari said.

While Mari finds Packback useful for some things, he said his class mostly consists of projects, presentations and exams, which would be difficult to use AI for.

Mari also studies the history of technology and said people are reacting to ChatGPT in similar ways to how they’ve reacted to past technologies. For example, he said people were worried they’d forget how to spell with the invention of spell

checker in the 70s.

Right now, Mari said we’re in the “panic” phase of ChatGPT.

“There’s often a panic cycle, followed by a gradual acceptance, followed by it becoming pretty mundane…I suspect that eventually this will become just another tool to use, and they’ll be less scary over time,” Mari said.

“I think my only concern really…is if students use [ChatGPT] to do the work that I think helps them become better writers…For my journalism students, my main worry will be they couldn’t handle sophisticated stories like news features or in-depth profiles and that kind of thing,” Mari said. “So I think it would have hurt them more than it would hurt me.”

Lance Porter, a professor of social media branding and emerging media, said ChatGPT passes the Turing test “with flying colors.” The Turing test is used to determine a machine’s intelligence and the ability to differentiate its responses from human responses.

“You can’t tell that it’s written by a computer whereas in the past…there’s something off about it,” Porter said.

It’s important to remember, Porter said, that just because it’s an AI doesn’t mean it’s unbiased.

“It’s hard to tell where [ChatGPT’s] information comes from, how it’s sourced, how accurate it is,” Porter said. “It looks accurate when you read it, and that’s kind of a frightening thing… I think there’ll be people that say, ‘Oh, this has got to be the most accurate thing because it doesn’t have any bias when it’s written.’ But guess what, all the information it pulls from has bias. So there’s always those issues.”

For better or worse, Porter said ChatGPT “is here to stay.”

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LSU students sit on their laptops on Jan. 18, in the Student Union in Baton Rouge, La.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

LSU students take notes on their laptops on Oct. 12, 2021, in the Business Education Complex Auditorium on South Quad Drive in Baton Rouge, La.

GROWING CHANGE

Community comes out for Arbor Day to fight against hurricane tree loss

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN & GABBY JIMENEZ @sulliclaire & @gvjimenezz

The Burden Forest, a 440-acre natural world off the side of Interstate 10, hasn’t been the same since Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

The Category 4 storm devastated its tree population, costing about $9.2 million in timber and forest damage statewide, according to the LSU AgCenter, which owns the sun-splotchy forest.

But for more than 15 years, Baton Rouge residents have helped replant the forest plot by plot. Hundreds celebrated Arbor Day at the AgCenter Botanic Gardens Saturday by planting a tree in the Burden Forest or taking one home to reforest their own area.

“The public is helping Mother Nature along,” said Jeff Kuehny, director of the botanic gardens.

Baton Rouge Green, a local non-profit organization that works to maintain the city’s tree canopy, hosted the tree giveaway, with 16 types of trees for attendees to choose from. The infant plants lined the forest floor, some carried away by children who hugged the pots to them as they stumbled back toward the hayride parking transport with their parents.

GPS coordinates were given to people who planted trees to keep track of their tree over the next few years.

INFRASTRUCTURE

National Arbor Day is celebrated annually on April 28, though the date can vary for different states depending on climate and planting season. Louisiana Arbor Day is held the third Friday of every January.

Attendees weren’t afraid to get dirty. Thick mud — the remnants of the rain that postponed the event from the week earlier — coated their shoes and pant

bottoms as they hiked through the Burden Forest to this year’s replanting plot.

Piper Dixon, 3, helped her mom Eva Dixon dig a hole for their tree. The mother-daughter planting pair came from Gonzales to participate in Saturday’s free event. Eva Dixon said she felt it was important for her daughter to get involved in events like these.

“I had seen some of the [tree]

Louisiana inmates held past release

BY KEVIN MCGILL Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s prison system routinely holds people beyond their release dates, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday in a report concluding that the state has failed for years to develop solutions to “systemic overdetentions” that violate inmates’ rights and are costly to taxpayers.

The federal department said the state could face a possible lawsuit in mid-March if it doesn’t fix the problems, according to a letter to state officials.

damage, not so much in the forest area, but just around town,” Dixon said. This year was their first at Arbor Day, and they plan to come back.

The sun shined down on the Dixons and others in the planting plot, only sparse trees standing to shade them.

Kuehny said Burden lost 75%

see TREES, page 4

Corrections officials have been cooperating in the investigation but are “deliberately indifferent” to the situation despite having been put on notice about it more than 10 years ago, according to the justice department’s 27-page report.

“Between January and April 2022 alone, 26.8% of the people released from LDOC’s custody were held past their release dates. Of those overdetained people, 24% were held over for at least 90 days,” the federal department’s news release said.

In that four-month period, the

see INMATES, page 4

LSU to build nine more electric vehicle charging stations

BY CORBIN ROSS @CorbinRoss5

LSU will be adding nine new electric charging stations to campus, according to Tammy Millican, the executive director of facility services. The additions come as the electric vehicle market is projected to skyrocket in coming years.

“As we’re beginning to see the number of electric vehicle drivers increase, we are increasing the number of charging stations to meet that demand,” Millican said.

Six stations will be placed near the Howe-Russel parking lot by the Art and Design Building. Three stations, funded through a grant from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, don’t have a decided location yet.

Millican said there are currently 35 drivers signed on to Chargepoint, the company that runs the charging stations. She said students use the Chargepoint app to access the stations. That number of users has been steadily increasing over the last six months, she

said.

Millican said there are currently four charging stations on campus. Each station has two ports, so there are eight ports available. The additional nine stations will add 18 ports.

Millican said that in 2011, when LSU installed the first charging station, there were no electric vehicle drivers on campus. Millican believes the number of electric vehicle owners will keep increasing.

Geography graduate student

Alicia Cerquone, a senator for the graduate school in Student Government, authored a resolution that passed last semester calling for the electric charging stations without decided locations to be made accessible to students with disabilities, which the current stations aren’t.

“None of the chargers that exist currently on LSU’s campus are in places that are accessible to students with disabilities or faculty and staff with disabilities for that matter. People with disabilities cannot access these spaces,”

Cerquone said.

According to the U.S. Access Board, for an electric vehicle charging station to be disability accessible, the charging space must be at least 11 feet wide and 20 feet long and must have an adjoining access aisle that’s 5 feet wide.

Millican said three of the new charging stations will be accessible to students with disabilities.

Cerquone said she’s run into some issues charging her vehicle on campus, saying that one of the lots was so busy that she could almost never charge her car there. She said last semester, one of the handles on a charging station broke. Depending on the type of electric vehicle students drive, they weren’t able to use that station, she said.

Millican said they’ve had electrical issues with some of the chargers in the past but that those issues have been resolved. Cerquone said the new chargers are supposed to be more effective and efficient.

Biochemistry junior Rami Ab -

dalla said he’s ran into issues in the past with chargers being damaged or not running as well as they should. He said that only two of the chargers are easily accessible to students.

Abdalla said there’s also high traffic through these stations, so

it’s hard to find a charger. He said he’s had difficulty getting the charger to pair with his phone, which is required to access the charger.

“There’s been a couple times

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Two men shovel away dirt to plant a tree on Jan. 28, during Arbor Day at the LSU AgCenter Burden Museum and Gardens in Baton Rouge, La.

MORGAN COOK / The Reveille

An electric vehicle charger sits Jan. 28, in South Stadium East Lot on LSU’s Campus in Baton Rouge, La.

TREES, from page 3 of its tree canopy during Gustav in 2008. That shade has crept back as the public helped plant over 3,000 trees since the storm hit.

Birds, raccoons and other creatures that lived in the Burden trees were left displaced by the hurricane.

“They didn’t have much of a place to go,” Kuehny said of the local wildlife. “There was no food…Their shelter was disrupted out here.”

Gustav is far from the only storm that’s threatened Louisi-

INMATES, from page 3

state paid an estimated $850,000 to parish jails holding state inmates beyond their release dates, according to the report.

The Department of Corrections issued a statement saying the Department of Justice report was being reviewed. “Without a full review of the report’s findings and documentation supporting said findings, it would be a challenge to provide a comprehensive response at this time,” the emailed statement said. “The Department of Corrections has been cooperative for the entire duration of the investigation, and we will continue to work with DOJ throughout this process.”

ana’s wildlife.

Hurricane Katrina killed more than 320 million trees, according to a 2007 analysis. A biologist with the U.S. Geological survey saw the decline of 10 Louisiana bird species after Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which struck within a month of each other.

The 2020 hurricane season was the most active Atlantic season on record. It caused unprecedented damage to forests throughout Louisiana, totaling around $1.5 billion in timber damage, according to the AgCenter.

Hurricane Laura, a Category

Wednesday’s report included “minimal” remedial measures.

Among the recommendations, it said the corrections department needs to develop a system to share documents and information electronically among courts, parish jails and prison officials to better communicate when an incarcerated person’s release date is set and any changes that might result in eligibility for earlier release.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the state by people incarcerated past their release dates. Last year, a panel of three 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges refused, in a 2-1 ruling, to dismiss corrections Secretary James LeBlanc and two other state prison system officials from one

4 storm that struck that year, destroyed nearly 800,000 acres of timber in Louisiana and cost $1.2 billion in timber damage, according to the AgCenter. Hurricane Delta, striking in the same season, cost around $297 million.

Forestry is the state’s most lucrative agricultural output, the Shreveport Times reported in 2018. The sector accounts for approximately $13 billion in annual output.

Though the event sought to restore the forest, attendees did more than plant. Smokey Bear wandered the crowd for pictures and fist bumps, and cables were

such lawsuit filed by attorneys with the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center. The corrections officials have asked for a rehearing by the full 5th Circuit, currently with 16 judges.

Other such lawsuits are being handled by another advocacy group, the Promise of Justice Initiative. “We have known for a long time that the Louisiana DOC is deliberately indifferent to the systemic overdetention of people in its custody,” Mercedes Montagnes, Executive Director of the organization, said in a news release.

“We are grateful that the DOJ investigated this matter and we’re hopeful that DOC will finally take its constitutional obligations seriously.”

set up for the adventurous to scale a tall tree.

Visitors could also try their hand at timbersports.

Meredith Owens, a natural resources ecology and management senior and president of LSU’s forestry club, stood across a log from another student, crouching down as they pulled a cross saw back and forth.

Two young boys took over the task, eventually freeing a slice of wood with a purple LSU symbol spray painted on, earning the cheers of a small crowd of families and other members of Timber Tigers, LSU’s timbersports club.

EV, from page 3 where I’ve had very pleasant experiences,” Abdalla said. “It’s a very mixed amount, but I will say my experiences have been more negative than positive.”

Over the next five years, Louisiana will receive approximately $73 million for electric vehicle infrastructure through the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. The department plans to administer the development of more charging stations across the state.

The electric vehicle market size is expected to cross $980 billion by 2028, according to Facts

The club also had knife throwing set up for attendees, giving each person three blades to aim at a bullseye a few feet away.

The forestry club has participated in cleaning up damaged trees following past hurricanes, Owens said.

“I think Arbor Day is an extremely important day…I’m very pro-conservation, pro-environmentalism, and having people actually take a stake, knowing that they can come back and say ‘that’s a tree we planted, look how big it is,’ it’s a long-lasting effect that will leave impacts on families for a long time,” Owens said.

and Factors, a market research company.

Cerquone provided a list of the number of electric vehicle charging stations at other Southeastern Conference schools:

• Texas A&M: 30

• University of Tennessee: 22

• Vanderbilt University: 19

• Auburn: 17

• Bama: 11

• University of Florida: 11

• University of Georgia: 6

• LSU: 4

• University of Mississippi: 3

• Arkansas: 2

• Mississippi State: 0

• University of Kentucky: 0

• University of Missouri: 0

• University of South Carolina: 0

ENTERTAINMENT

LSU alumna appears in the new season of “Swamp People”

BY ALISON AGENA @alison_hana

Many Louisianians are familiar with the History Channel show “Swamp People.” The reality series is set in Louisiana on the Atchafalaya River and follows alligator hunters around during their hunting season.

Many may not know that bowwielding LSU alumna and Louisiana-native, Anna Ribbeck, is one of the newest faces on the hit show’s cast list.

Ribbeck is originally from Mandeville, Louisiana, where she attended Fontainebleau High School. She graduated from LSU in 2016 with a degree in horticulture and is currently the social media strategist for the LSU AgCenter.

Ribbeck has been ecstatic about this opportunity to be on the show and is excited for everyone to see the new season.

After getting cast right before gator season, Ribbeck jumped right in and got to filming.

She was assigned to work on a new boat with returning cast

COURTESY OF ANNA RIBBECK

member Ashley Jones, whom she has known for years. Together the two worked diligently to support their team.

They went out every day from sunrise until around 2 p.m. Then, they would sell the gators they caught that day until four or five in the evening.

They did this six days a week. However, Ribbeck said she would “love to be back and helping Ashley on the boat again.”

Not only did she enjoy working with Jones, but she also said that the overall experience was “really positive.”

“It’s pretty incredible what you learn from everybody out there,” Ribbeck said.

When asked what she was most excited for audiences to see, Ribbeck shared that she hunts gators with a bow.

Ribbeck didn’t always hunt with a bow and arrow. She started out in competitive archery, but when she got to college she bought a bow and learned to hunt with it.

“It’s the first time it’s ever been done on the show,” Ribbeck said.

Why do streaming services cancel our favorite shows?

BY MOLLY TERRELL @keenryanti

Netflix has infamously canceled many shows within the last few years, and it’s increasingly surprising to see that it still has anything original left on the platform.

The streaming service canceled around 20 shows in 2022, and a lot of the shows canceled had massive media presence but apparently did not have the views necessary to keep them afloat. A lot of these shows had garnered critical acclaim and audience appreciation, despite the lack of promotion they often received.

Netflix has a very inconsistent marketing strategy with most of its shows. It doesn’t promote its shows equally and will cancel a show for not getting enough views, despite the fact that the platform didn’t bother doling out a marketing budget for the project in the first place.

Award-winning shows like “Julie and the Phantoms” and “Anne with an E” got canceled after scoring high ratings outside of their target demographics. Shows with “low ratings” were the ones getting the boot despite fan petitions starting minutes after the shows’ cancellations were announced.

Many people have noticed a pattern between the shows Netflix renews and the ones it cancels. Netflix seems to like canceling shows like “First Kill” and “Warrior Nun,” which have sapphic leads, while renewing shows like “Heartstopper,” which underperformed compared to “First

Kill” but was led by teenage boys instead.

“First Kill” and “Warrior Nun” both have had petitions and trending hashtags following their cancelations. Fans would mention other streaming services by name trying to get another service to pick one of their beloved shows to produce on their platform.

“First Kill” was allegedly canceled due to not having enough viewership to combat with the budget, but the budget for “First Kill” did not seem outstanding

to begin with. The show had terrible CGI that hurt to watch. That, combined with the fact that the show stayed in the top 10 list for weeks, makes the “no budget” reasoning a little hard to believe.

The stream (which is slowly becoming a river) of canceled shows has not done Netflix any favors. The streaming service lost millions of subscribers in the last few months because it canceled so many shows but simultaneously increased the price of the service.

When pondering what the most undeserved cancellation in Netflix’s history was, the dystopian teen show, “The Society,” was what came to mind. A show about a couple hundred teenagers coming back after a field trip to find their hometown deserted. It was an incredibly popular show that had a compelling plot and is missed by the fan base.

“I think about it every day,” said LSU sophomore, Sawyer Temple.

Sawyer was a huge fan of the

show and loved how unique it felt. She felt “outraged” when Netflix canceled the show and said having no ending was extremely dissatisfying.

The show was originally renewed for season two following the popularity of the first season, but was eventually canceled- allegedly because the costs of filming the series in Toronto were too high due to the production happening during the peak of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Still, a delayed season would have been preferred to canceling a show that millions of people flocked to. The show had unique plots and character dynamics, with the first and only season ending with a massive cliffhanger.

Another show “1899” was canceled after one season when the show was originally intended to have three seasons. The show trended in the top 10 list on Netflix and garnered over 79.27 million hours of viewership. Despite the viewership, Netflix claims to have never canceled a show unfairly.

“We have never canceled a successful show,” Netflix CEO, Ted Sarandos, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget.”

Many shows like “The Society” and “1899” will never be given satisfying conclusions, and it’s Netflix’s fault for canceling them.

Or maybe the streaming service is right, and it’s all our fault for not streaming its shows enough.

COURTESY OF THE PROWLER NEWS

YEAR OF THE RABBIT

PROSPERITY ARRIVES AT BAO’S KITCHEN

Photos by Francis Dinh

An audience member interacts with a lion.

Southern Lotus Lion Dance Association instrument members perform a traditional cadence.

A lion flies through the air.

Southern Lotus Lion Dance Association instrument members perform.

Lions greet the crowd.

Southern Lotus Lion Dance Association instrument member Randy Vu beats the drum.

A lion throws an orange to the audience.

A pair of lions take a picture with Bao’s Vietnamese Kitchen owner Tam Nguyen and his daughters.

Southern Lotus Lion Dance performs at Bao Vietnamese Kitchen on Jan. 28.

PROGRESS MADE

Three improvements made in Saturday’s loss to Texas Tech amid losses

BY HENRY HUBER @HenryHuber_

Talking positives when a team just suffered its eighth straight loss is not a normality by any means, but they are worth noting for a few reasons.

While a tournament run isn’t likely, picking up a few wins towards the end of the season could provide the team with momentum heading into the next one and seeing head coach Matt McMahon make strong adjustments would be a good sign.

Texas Tech hasn’t been an amazing team but it also bore the brunt of an eight-game stretch where six of its opponents were and still are ranked, most of which are ranked inside the top 15. It did so with varying degrees of success, with close losses to No. 9 Kansas, No. 11 TCU and No. 10 Texas being overshadowed by bad ones to No. 12 Iowa State and unranked West Virginia.

It was missing two key players in guard Pop Isaacs and forward Fardaws Aimaq, but it was still going to be a challenge for the Tigers no matter what. And though they didn’t play amazingly, especially towards the end of the game, there were still improvements made that are worth discussing.

Fast Start

The biggest talking point regarding LSU men’s basketball has been its lack of scoring since starting SEC play. Between its 71-point showing against Kentucky, where

FOOTBALL

it put up a solid 38 points in the first half, and its game versus Texas Tech, the team averaged less than 54 points per game.

One of the main reasons for that was sluggish starts in the

first half. That’s a problem that began popping up even before conference play, particularly in its Power 6 matchup against Wake Forest, where the Demon Deacons went up by 20 early due to a

lack of urgency on both sides of the ball. And those sluggish starts have been a staple of this losing streak.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Women’s hoops to face Tennessee

BY TYLER HARDEN @ttjharden8

LSU women’s basketball has been perfect to this point, sitting with a 20-0 record and 8-0 in SEC play. But the Tigers will be faced with their toughest challenge of the season Monday night in the Tennessee Volunteers. Tip-off will be at 6 p.m. Monday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The timing of this matchup works heavily in LSU’s favor.

Thursday night, Tennessee faced off with the fifth-ranked University of Connecticut Huskies, and the Huskies took care of business with an 84-67 win.

Tennessee holds a 16-7 overall record but is undefeated at 8-0 in SEC play. The Volunteers played as tough of an out-ofconference schedule as a team could play. Of their seven losses, they all came to teams who, at the time of the matchup, were ranked inside the top 20.

Tiger fans may look at the seven losses and think they have the guaranteed win, but that’s far from the case. Tennessee is one of the most historic women’s basketball programs in the country, so regardless of record, they will always be a threat. In addition, they’re un-

LSU football recruiting: Get to know signee Kyle Parker

BY TYLER HARDEN @ttjharden8

LSU early-enrollee freshman, Kyle Parker, put up stats his senior season that the high school football world isn’t used to seeing. In one game this past September, Parker hauled in 23 catches for 341 yards and three touchdowns.

Parker is a 5-foot-10, 175-pound wide receiver from Lovejoy High School in Lucas, Texas. According to 247sports, he is ranked as No. 48 wide receiver in the country, No. 59 recruit in Texas and No. 350 overall recruit in the country.

Parker came into his senior season knowing he had to back up all the expectations and hype people gave him in the summer before the season.

“I feel like the season went pretty good. I came into the season knowing that I had to produce numbers,” Parker said. “I think I played pretty good this

year. I did some things that were like a dream come true to me.”

He finished his senior season with 72 catches for 1,091 receiving yards and 19 total touchdowns.

But for Parker, LSU was intriguing to him regardless of his performance. His love for LSU comes from his family and has been within him for as long as he could remember.

“I’ve watched LSU since I was a little kid…LSU was kind of put in me since I was born,” Parker said. “So me getting that offer in the summer, it was like ‘wow.’ But after I got it, you still have to make the right decision for yourself. I still had to go through the recruitment process and see how everything is.”

While he still considered other schools such as Oklahoma State and Louisville, Parker was sold on LSU when he stepped on campus

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

LSU men’s basketball head coach Matt McMahon talks with the assistant coaches on Jan. 21, during LSU’s 5677 loss to Tennessee at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

FRANCIS DINH / The Reveille

LSU football head coach Brian Kelly taps sophomore wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (11)’s helmet after he comes off injured Dec. 3, during LSU’s 30-50 defeat to Georgia at the Southeastern Conference Championship in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

MEN’S HOOPS, from page 9

Until today, the Tigers had failed to score more than 30 points in the first half since that game against the Wildcats about a month ago. Before SEC play began, they were in the top 50 in first-half scoring. They’ve since dropped out of the Top 200, averaging just 32.2 points per first half after previously averaging 37.7.

But on Saturday, the Tigers entered the break with 33 points, which correlated with the resurgence of Adam Miller. After missing his first two three-pointers, he’d make four in a row, which played a large role in the team keeping up with Texas Tech’s offensive onslaught.

“I think I was less tense and more confident, and I just let it kind of come to me,” Miller said. “When I have a bad shooting game, it’s like ‘Okay, I got to get going for us to win, I’ve got to do this for us to win,’ when neces-

PARKER, from page 9 for his official visit.

“I took my official visit, I think it was like the second week of June, the official visit just wowed me,” Parker said. “Education wise, football wise, definitely me picking a school that I feel I can better myself at in the football aspect and the school aspect.”

Parker was also excited to join the 2023 class with the relationship they have as a group. Ahead of National Signing Day on Feb. 1, the Tigers hold the fifth-ranked recruiting class according to 247sports.

“The relationship with the

sarily I just have to let the game come to me and everything will fall into place.”

That scoring success carried into the second half and even though they were down by eight points at the beginning of it, the Tigers quickly narrowed the gap. They’ve rarely had that opportunity in recent weeks.

Offensive Rebounding

Another point of improvement McMahon had at the top of his list was rebounding. The battle on the boards is a big reason why LSU lost to Kentucky in early January and it’s another category that the Tigers don’t crack the Top 200 in.

While Texas Tech eventually passed them in total rebounds, winning the battle 36-34, LSU controlled the boards on offense and that success carried over to the scoreboard. It attributed 17 offensive rebounds, which were converted into 20 second chance points, 30% of its total scoring output.

And on top of it creating sec-

other signees is pretty great, we have a group chat where we just get to talk to each other about what’s going on in our lives right now,” Parker said. “Some of them are from up in the cold like Jaxon Howard, he’ll always show us how cold it is, they got snow everywhere. I think it’s just pretty cool how you get to meet people from different parts of the world.”

Parker is currently enrolled on campus, as he was part of the early enrollees that arrived at the beginning of the spring semester. Before he suits up in the purple and gold for the 2023 season, he’ll take part in the spring football season and camp this summer.

ond chances offensively, it also decreases fast break opportunities, a point brought up by Adam Miller.

“In a lot of these games, they’ve been out of reach. People just get our rebounds and run it down the court,” Miller said. “When we get offensive rebounds, it gives us a chance of getting easy layups or easy kick-out threes, and the chance to give everybody a taste of their medicine.”

KJ Williams, Derek Fountain, Justice Williams and Jalen Reed each contributed multiple offensive rebounds, with KJ Williams leading the way with four. Continued overall team success in this category could help the Tigers end their losing streak.

Free throw Shooting

While not having the same level of impact of LSU’s games as the first two, free throws are still an important aspect of the game and another one that the Tigers have struggled with this season. It entered the game shooting just un-

TENNESSEE, from page 9 defeated in conference play, just like LSU.

Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston is the duo to watch for Tennessee. Jackson leads the Vols in scoring with 17.8 points per game along with 5.7 rebounds per game. Horston leads the team in rebounds per game with 6.9 rebounds per game along with 15.7 points per game. They complement each other, and LSU limiting them has to be the first order of business.

LSU and Tennessee are very similar; they rely on their production in the paint, but when

der 70% as a team from the line, placing them in the bottom half of the category in both the SEC and nation.

While the team does have a few good free throw shooters, with KJ Williams, Cam Hayes, Miller and Fountain all shooting at or near 80% from the free throw line, the rest of the team doesn’t have amazing percentages. The Tigers have a clear lineup they would use whenever they’re expected to get fouled but they’re still losing a lot of points from the line in most games.

But on Saturday, they shot well from the stripe, converting on 15 of 19 free throw attempts, with most of that output coming in the second half where they’re most vital. In fact, after Adam Miller missed the team’s first free throw of the half, the team finished the game making 12 straight free throws.

This was a big reason why LSU was able to temporarily stay in the game amidst its late shooting

needed they can hit from the perimeter. In Tennessee’s losses, it came down to them missing shots. LSU’s defense has been great all season, especially in their thrilling win over Arkansas. The Tigers would have to exceed that performance and lock down the Vols from the tip.

Similar to recent matchups, LSU has to be confident with the three-point shot. Any team the Tigers play from this point on will prioritize guarding and limiting Angel Reese. Tiger fans saw it against Alabama; a slow first-quarter start was because the Crimson Tide played extra physical against Angel Reese. If

stretch. After a KJ Williams threepointer put the Tigers up by five with 9:03 left in the game, they failed to convert on a single field goal until there were 24 seconds left in the game.

But they did make eight free throws, which kept the damage at bay for longer than it should have. And after falling behind by nine with under four minutes to go, it went 4 of 4 on free throws in back-to-back possessions to put them in a position to come back again.

While there’s still a vast list of aspects LSU needs to improve on, such as shooting in general, defensive rebounding and threepoint defense, the more they manage to eliminate, the better chance it’ll have at winning games.

LSU will get its next chance to show off improvements on the road at Missouri on Wednesday. Tip off is set for 8 p.m. and will be streaming live on SEC Network.

she is being contained, the shots will have to come from somewhere, and the perimeter shots will have to be where that is.

In other big games, since coach Kim Mulkey has been at LSU, the crowd has been a swinging factor in the game. With a sold-out crowd for Monday night’s game, that will be something LSU will take advantage of.

Regardless of gameplay and home-court advantage, the matchup is expected to be one for the history books in LSU women’s basketball and will be the toughest obstacle the Tigers face so far this season.

TARUN KAKARALA / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball 5th-year senior guard Alexis Morris (45) passes the ball 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.

ERIN BARKER / The Reveille

LSU head coach Brian Kelly runs into the tunnel before the start of the game against UAB on Nov. 19, in Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

OPINION

Could chatGPT be the end of the college writing standards?

Plagiarism will not be tolerated; anyone caught cheating on essays or writing assignments will be reported to the dean’s office; plagiarism is theft of others’ ideas and is detrimental to your own education.

On the first day of every class, nearly every professor delivers some form of this statement. Maybe you take the warning seriously, and maybe you don’t. Maybe, if you are a plagiarizer, you think you can get away with it.

Before the days of the internet, you probably would. Plagiarism and other forms of intellectual theft were difficult to punish because identifying instances of it was essentially a crapshoot. A professor or teaching assistant grading an essay had to basically remember some obscure encyclopedia entry or book that they had read before, find the book, compare it to a student’s essay and then make a judgment call about whether its resemblances warranted disciplinary action.

These days, plagiarism is much easier to catch, or at least it was. Programs like Turnitin run similarity checks between submitted essays and, more or less, the entirety of the internet.

Assignments that are too similar to others’ work are flagged and sent to the instructor, who then gets to make a much easier decision concerning disciplinary actions than what the ancients of the pre-internet days did. But times are changing. This semester, Turnitin and other plagiarism catchers are being proven obsolete in the wake of the new, rapidly encroaching technology of artificial intelligence. Professors, instructors, and teaching assistants across LSU and other institutions of higher education are being forced to deal with ChatGPT, or Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, which can create fully-fledged essays on just about any topic with just a few simple commands inputted by its user. Soon it seems college students, not exactly known for their resolute morality, will be able to have essays written for them, to cheat without a way for anyone to catch them.

Some critics of the technology, such as Stephen Marche, have predicted that ChatGPT will mark the end of the college essay. Others aren’t so sure. Ian Bogost, for example, thinks that the AI program produces boring, predictable work that is clearly constructed by inhuman lines of code; at its current best, ChatGPT can’t write much more than a simple five-paragraph essay.

The main problem with Bo -

gost’s argument is that a lot of college students, especially freshmen, and especially in Louisiana, aren’t capable of producing even that. In my anecdotal experience as a teaching assistant here at LSU, many young college students aren’t equipped with the requisite writing or literary tools necessary to produce passable writing, a product of a failing secondary education system, rather than an indictment of students’ abilities.

During my three-and-a-half years grading undergraduate work, there have no doubt been a good number of strong writers and good students in the history survey courses I’ve helped teach. With extremely rare exception, just about every class has its own smattering of strong, mediocre and bad students. Each one’s work is more or less synchronous with their dedication to class attendance, preparation and notetaking.

Even the average students struggle at the beginning of the semester to formulate a properly formatted essay: the appearance of a thesis statement, clear paragraph structure and points of argumentation are spotty at best. But by the end of the semester, those students who have read comments, attended review sessions and worked on the craft of writing show a marked improvement over their peers who haven’t.

What these formerly average students have to show for their work are the tools that are earned and inherent in the art of wordsmanship: the ability to form an argument and also the increased capacity to reason, to reflect on a slew of evidence and material and distill it down to its basics, in the process becoming stronger thinkers and potential employees.

For those students who aren’t willing to embark on this difficult process, ChatGPT offers a seductive alternative to less-than-stellar grades or intellectual challenges. If the average original work is worse than what ChatGPT can make, then it might be worth accepting a passing grade in a class in exchange for minimal work, even if that grade isn’t as high as it could be.

This is why one should be skeptical of Bogost’s idea that ChatGPT won’t do much for people and more inclined to believe Marche’s prediction that the program might spell the end of college writing assignments: Subpar colleges students aren’t inclined to care much for the beauty or ingenuity of the style. They tend to care about their grade, and ChatGPT offers that to them in spades.

These problems beg questions for college educators at all levels. Especially here in Louisiana, professors, instructors and

teaching assistants fight a daily uphill battle against a decrepit secondary educational system in which students are failing to receive the necessary literary skills to excel at the next level of learning, and business-minded university administrations that accept students who aren’t truly qualified into their rolls.

What are they to do? For one they shouldn’t give in to the pressure or challenges presented by ChatGPT or up-andcoming AI programs. If writing is an absolutely essential part of a person’s intellectual development, which it undoubtedly is, then educators absolutely cannot give up on forcing students to acquire those skills.

For another, they should find alternative ways to combat computer-generated cheating, such as assigning more in-person writing assignments, so long as they take the setting of writing into consideration while they grade.

And finally, they should be patient. Just as Turnitin was developed to stop plagiarism in the wake of the invention of the internet, there will sure be a new market that will be created to stop cheating robot students from mucking up what is the ultimate goal of writing: to be a better thinker.

Music is a coping mechanism, yet often goes underutilized

BESKE’S BUZZ

KATE BESKE

@KateBeske

Most people can confidently say they have felt stressed at some point in their life. For some, it may be caused by tests and school. For others, it may be the pressures they put on themselves that cause this stress.

Stress is often described as having “changes affecting nearly every system of the body, influencing how people feel and behave,” according to the American Psychological Association. Music can play a large role in helping to reduce stress, and can potentially mitigate the effects of stress.

EDITORIAL BOARD

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Managing Editor Hannah Michel Hanks

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Many people know how to utilize coping mechanisms to help manage or deal with the stress they face. Common coping mechanisms are breathing exercises, meditation and journaling. These exercises are commonly promoted in therapy or online articles about stress.

Music is an underutilized coping mechanism.

A coping mechanism is defined as “any conscious or nonconscious adjustment or adaptation that decreases tension and anxiety in a stressful experience or situation” by the APA.

Using sound to heal dates back to ancient Greece, according to Healthline. Using music as a coping mechanism should not be confused with music therapy, which includes patient and prac-

titioner listening or performing music together.

There are numerous types of music therapy, including but not limited to guided meditation and neurological music therapy, according to Healthline.

Using music as a coping mechanism differs from this as it’s something easily accessible and able to be done independently without professional help.

There have been many studies showing the effects that listening to music has on the body. A common observation between all studies was that listening to music lowers cortisol levels, according to a 2021 study from the University of Helsinki.

Cortisol can be beneficial in the short term, helping with focus and energy, but long term,

high levels of cortisol can lead to mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, according to Psych Central.

By listening to music and keeping your cortisol levels lower, you can avoid stress and the effects of chronic or long-term stress.

“Recent neuroimaging studies on music and emotion showed that music may strongly influence the amygdala, a part of the limbic system, which is a section of the brain that plays a crucial role in the regulation of emotional processes by releasing endorphins,” according to a 2018 study for Health Psychology Review

With all of this data showing how music helps to alleviate stress and its physical symptoms,

music should be more widely considered and advocated as a coping mechanism.

Coping mechanisms are an important tool for anyone that regularly faces stress. It’s important to be able to deal with and regulate your emotions in a healthy way.

Music is a great coping mechanism as it soothes the mind and body. Lowering heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels show how much impact music has on the body.

So, the next time you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed, put on your favorite song, it might help you more than you think.

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

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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.

Henry Ford American businessman 1863 — 1947

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you’re right.”

Benjamin Haines is a 24-yearold graduate student from Shreveport.

The monetization of youth sports by adults is going too far

The once-innocent world of youth sports has become an insatiable greed machine driven by adults. The new financial aspects of sports create an uneven playing field. When a young athlete makes the game-winning shot, homerun or touchdown, they should have an excitement that lasts for weeks, but athletic feats like these are now seen as just another statistic on a list of many.

Lebron James, Scottie Pippen and other self-made icons experienced what many consider to be the traditional youth sports model. They came from low-income households and found sports as a way to a brighter future. This rags-to-riches fairytale has inspired an industry that will likely be worth nearly $78 billion by 2026. The process of building the perfect athlete is a convoluted and strategic one.

Nearly 60% of American families consider youth sports financially draining according to Lending Tree, while another study from the Aspen Institute shows 78% of children from age 6 to 12 are actively playing team

and/or individual sports in the U.S. These alarming statistics raise two important questions: If the cost is so demanding, why continue to pay it? Also, what are the true intentions behind enrolling children in sports?

It’s no secret that overzealous parents and eager coaches are key components to this change in athletics. “Ultimately parents serve as the ‘gatekeeper’ to physical activity, controlling access to community activity and sports programs. Once youth get into the gate, coaches take on a similar role as parents to motivate youth participation,” per a University of Florida study.

Through the traditional youth sports model, the world has seen those players become very successful. Unfortunately, not every kid has the natural abilities of someone like Lebron James or Rob Gronkowski. So, it’s my working theory that parents and their children make up for this by overcompensating and playing sports year-round. Solely placing blame on the parents would be wrong, considering that every sport is a business and there’s money to be made.

When an athlete wants to go the extra mile, coaches, former professional athletes and recruiters all find a way to get a piece

of the pie. By today’s standards, having a private coach and oneon-one lessons is deemed necessary to be a successful athlete. Playing the season, then resting during the off-season, is a method that’s dead and gone.

Former pro athletes come into the fold by offering private coaching, and the coach with the best stats will likely go to the highest bidder. All of this is done in effort to give the athlete exposure and build their skills. Once they’ve reached a certain point in their athletic career, they’ll likely get the attention of recruiters,

agents and development team coaches.

The constant money flow naturally creates an economic divide between parents and their athletes. Having access to these resources takes a large sum of time and money, so much that 11% will likely go into debt for it, according to lendingtree. Many families can’t comfortably afford private coaches and other privileges, but I believe true talent will prevail. Also, considering that athletics is an ocean of cash flow, there will always be a recruiter, investor or team willing to invest in an ath-

lete to make a profit.

Parents, coaches, recruiters and investors all have a moneydriven goal, but the athlete is usually caught in the crossfire. Youth sports, as we know them, will never be the same and sports industries will grow larger and the demand for high-performing athletes will be higher. So, youth sports will continue to head in this direction unless our sports culture changes.

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

MADDIE FITZMORRIS / The Reveille