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LSU classes aim to revitalize Louisiana’s French roots.
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BY GABBY JIMENEZ @gvjimenezz
The number of Louisiana French speakers has been on the decline for decades. LSU classes are trying to change that.
Erin Segura, the director of Louisiana French Studies at LSU, began studying French in high school. She started going to French tables – a weekly gathering where people come together to speak French –where she learned from the native speakers who were excited to see a young person take interest in the language.
Segura has been teaching Louisiana French at LSU since 2018.
The exact term for the language spoken in Louisiana will depend on who you ask, Segura said. Historically, people in Louisiana have identified with just “French.” It wasn’t until around the 1950s and 1960s that Segura said people started identifying with “Cajun French.”
LSU’s classes are labeled as Cajun French; however there has been a recent effort to get the name changed to Louisiana French, which Segura said is more inclusive to a wider variety of ethnicities and cultures throughout the state.
The language is mainly spoken in Acadiana, a 22-parish region with a large French population that encompasses Lafayette and Opelousas.
There are some major differences between Louisiana French and International French, Segura said, notably the accent. Often, speakers in both languages can still communicate with each other despite the grammatical differences.
While there is not an exact number on how many Cajun French speakers there are in the state, there have been estimates. Sixty years ago, there were around 1 million French speakers in Louisiana. Today, there are only 120,000 French speakers, according to a 2023 article by The Advocate written by Segura’s father, and around 20,000 speak Cajun French.
There are many reasons for the decrease in French speakers
throughout the state, Segura said. The decline is correlated to a 1916 Louisiana law mandating children go to school, which was Englishonly. The effects are still felt over a century later.
“People who spoke French in Louisiana became stigmatized for speaking French – it meant that you were poor, and that you were uneducated,” Segura said. “And so people have a lot of trauma from that, and they didn’t want to pass that trauma on to their children.”
LSU offers four Louisiana French classes, which are structured so students can be conversational in the language in preparation for their final project – interviewing a native speaker.
When the classes first started at LSU in the late 1990s, many students had a parent or grandparent who could speak the language fluently, Segura said. However, that’s often not the case anymore.
“It’s more and more difficult these days for students to find someone,” Segura said. “But that
just shows me how much more important it is that we do this, because they are disappearing.”
Segura said the course offers students the unique opportunity to play an active role in preserving the language.
The Dictionary of Louisiana French, an in-depth book on the language published in 2009, took many sentences straight from LSU students’ final project interviews to use as examples within the definitions, Segura said.
“The woman who taught these classes, Amanda LaFleur, she taught these classes for about 16 years,” Segura said. She said that the dictionary of Louisiana French would not have been possible if it weren’t for LSU students.
Communication disorders sophomore Tommie Wilkins has taken all four Louisiana French classes offered by the university, all taught by Segura.
Wilkins is half Cajun, and decided to take Louisiana French as a way to connect with her mother.
“It was just kind of a way to get back to my roots, because my mom’s deceased, and I miss her very much,” Wilkins said. “And even though I’m only half Cajun, I grew up in the Cajun culture … And one of the things I have to say about [the classes] is it’s not just about the language. It has a lot about the culture. So it makes it very enriching.”
Wilkins said she wasn’t raised speaking Louisiana French, so she knew very little when she started the class. Her mom grew up in a time period where she wasn’t allowed to speak French in school, which caused her to lose knowledge of the language. The only French Wilkins said she was exposed to was through her grandparents and other family members.
“That was another good thing about the class – it kind of teaches
the history of why that language started being lost in Louisiana … We should have that language here, it should be more prevalent, but it’s not, because of the history of what people like my mom were put through if they tried to speak it,” Wilkins said.
For her final project, Wilkins interviewed Shelton Leleux, a native speaker her family met at a Cajun supper club. Wilkins said the classes taught at LSU are important to encourage fluent speakers like Leleaux to continue speaking the language.
“It meant so much to him that LSU is interested in our native language … it caused him to want to speak it even more and just get back to his roots,” Wilkins said.
Like Wilkins, kinesiology senior Ali Smith has also taken every Louisiana French classes offered.
Smith, who is also Cajun, grew up living next door to her greatgrandparents, who she said “almost exclusively” spoke Louisiana French. She heard and sometimes spoke the language throughout her childhood and wanted to become fluent.
For her final project, Smith interviewed her great aunt, who she said is the last one in her family that can speak the language.
“She is somebody that kind of fueled my love for the language and the culture itself,” Smith said.
Now, Smith said she is fluent in the language, and has been working to pass the language on by teaching it to her sisters and nieces.
Smith said classes like the ones taught by Segura are important for keeping the language alive.
“This is such an important way to preserve our heritage and culture and language … [Segura is] so passionate about teaching and about preserving the language itself, and she’s been a huge influence on my carrying it on,” Smith said.
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BY CROSS HARRIS @thecrossharris
In the John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum, a bazaar sprung from the red dirt floor.
The stands were empty, but the pit was full. Tens of thousands of books lined banquet tables, arranged into rows, organized into sections like mystery, medicine and west. Among the spiral bounds, staple bounds, leather bounds and paperbacks, collections of people sifted through unknown volumes, searching for—exactly what they couldn’t tell you—though often finding something of themselves in the sea of pages.
This is the Book Bazaar: a fundraiser held each spring for the benefit of LSU’s libraries.
Organized by non-profit “Friends of the LSU Libraries,” this year the bazaar opened its doors from April 13-16, seeing hundreds of visitors, raising tens of thousands of dollars and selling upwards of 60,000 volumes— all of which were donated by the community.
“It’s pretty amazing because every year we think we won’t be able to find any more books,” said Bazaar Chairman Anita Adams on the fundraiser’s second day. Yet each year, the donations come en masse.
“It’s avid readers who just
have a whole lot of books that they need to clear out. It’s professors who retired, and we get their entire libraries from their offices at LSU. It’s generational book collectors who’ve kept them through the decades, and years and years, and then something happens and they have to downsize,” Adams said.
The community donates its books. Then it returns for them. Avid readers, professors and col-
lectors give to The Friends, then The Friends give the same books back, this time to new readers, professors and collectors. It’s a cycle.
And this year, the cycle out was bigger than usual.
“We had people lined up at the front door, all the way around the building, before 9 o’clock,” Adams said. A video on her phone showed the crowd on Thursday morning. They waved
at the camera, hooting and smiling in anticipation.
Each year, the bazaar connects books with people and often in serendipitous fashion.
“You don’t know what’s on that table,” Adams said. “I had a man bring this book to me—very nondescript—he said, ‘I have been looking for this book for 15 years’. . .He was so happy.”
BY GABBY JIMENEZ & CLAIRE SULLIVAN LSU MANSHIP NEWS SEVICEBATON ROUGE–The House Civil Law and Procedure Committee moved forward a bill that would allow mothers to recuperate half of out-of-pocket, pregnancyrelated medical expenses from the father of their child.
After the baby is born, the mother would have two years to recover these expenses, which would not include costs covered by insurance. Under present law, women have no avenue for this action.
“I think this is a very good bill to really help the pregnant women in our state who have no way to recover these medical expenses,” said Rep. Lawrence “Larry” Frieman, R-Abita Springs, the bill’s author.
The bill requires that paternity be proved by clear and convincing evidence, with the burden of proof requiring paternity to be more likely true than untrue.
The proposed law, House Bill 5, garnered support from both anti-abortion and abortion rights groups, including Louisiana Right
The Faculty Senate on Tuesday held elections for the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, FSEC, which leads the Faculty Senate and negotiates with the administration.
Five positions on FSEC were up for election: president, vice president, secretary and two members-at-large.
The candidates for president, vice president and secretary all ran unopposed, securing the position by default the moment nominations concluded.
There were four candidates for the two members-at-large spots up for election, but the incumbents prevailed by a wide margin.
Here’s the breakdown of the election: President
Inessa Bazayev of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts will continue in her role as president of FSEC after running unopposed.
The election comes as Bazayev is coming off of her first year
as president, in which she oversaw the Faculty Senate return to normalcy after the tumult of the previous year’s sessions where then-President Mandi Lopez of the School of Veterinary Medicine was called on to resign for failing to alert the Faculty Senate of the Board of Supervisors plan to abolish the Faculty Council, the body comprising all of LSU’s faculty.
Bazayev previously served as a member-at-large, where she openly opposed President Lopez.
“I will continue to better share governance and further strengthen faculty voices. We are always stronger together,” Bazayev said moments before her re-election was assured.
Vice President
Daniel Tirone of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences also ran unopposed and will continue serving in his role as vice president of the FSEC. Tirone was another major component of changing the previous leadership and is also finishing his first year
BAZAAR, from page 3
The bazaar’s rare and collectible section also drew considerable attention.
“There was a huge crowd of 20 dealers here picking as fast as they could,” said volunteer Luis Interiano of the first day. Interiano, who works as a reference librarian for the West Baton Rouge Library, wore a mesh pith helmet with a battery powered fan as he stood at the collectibles section, pointing out interesting titles and delving into the finer points of valuation.
Most notable among the rare books was a mint condition, multi-volume set of English writer Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels.
“As a librarian,” said Interiano, “I like people to use their books and read their books, but I was excited to see a set that had probably never been touched in 130 years because it was in such perfect shape.”
The volumes sold for $270, in all.
The priciest title at the book bazaar, however, was a signed copy of Jerry Tompkins’s, “DDays at Dayton: reflections on the Scopes trial”—which, at $200, hadn’t yet sold by the second day.
This year’s strangest title was likely an early edition of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”—which a historian snagged early on.
“I wasn’t sure if it would sell because some people might not want to be walking around with Hitler’s book, you know?” Interiano lifted the fan-hat from his head and wiped his brow. “Of course, we have Mein Kampf on the shelves at my library, and sometimes people say, ‘Why do you have this? It’s not a good book.’ My view, as a librarian, is that we have to teach the mistakes of the past.”
The bazaar has a way of drawing out surprising conversations. There is, after all, a wealth of source material to be found
BILL, from page 3
to Life and 10,000 Women Louisiana.
The bill comes on the heels of a near-total abortion ban in Louisiana after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which has raised questions for lawmakers about supporting mothers.
The bill was amended to outline which pregnancy-related medical expenses could be recovered from the biological father by the biological mother.
among the tables.
On the last day, LSU senior Lacy Wendell managed to fill a whole box with titles—nearly every one of them in French. When she graduates in May, Wendell, who majored in the language, will be traveling abroad to work as an au pair in a French-speaking household.
“I don’t know what any of them are about,” she said, eyeing the books, “but I’ll find out once I start reading.” On one cover, a white horse ran across the title. Another glowed red in the Coliseum lights.
Arabi resident Joshua Anderson also came for the bazaar’s last day. And though by that time
costs incurred for prenatal care, including hospital visits, pharmaceutical expenses and travel. Additional expenses incurred during the pregnancy, determined to be “reasonable and necessary” under a judge’s discretion, may also be eligible for reimbursement.
There was discussion about what counted as a reasonable medical expense.
the tens of thousands of books had dwindled to just a few, Anderson managed to fill a box too.
“My wife and I are here because we love to read,” he said, smiling. His beard bobbled when he spoke, “It’s our first time here.”
Among the picks in his box, Anderson was most excited about a book called, “Answers to Distractions.”
“It’s co-written by an author who’s written another book we’ve read,” Anderson said, gesturing to his wife, who was searching intently at a table nearby. “It’s about ADD, and the reason I chose it is because I have ADD. Undiagnosed.”
otherwise.”
Rep. Gregory A. Miller, R-Norco, asked if Lamaze classes fell under the bill. Catalanotto said those classes would ultimately be up to a judge.
Anderson scanned the rest of the titles in his box. A few history books. Two or three works of fiction. “All of the other ones seem interesting in their own ways,” he said, returning to the hunt.
At the end of the day, Half a dozen people shuffled between the last few tables in the coliseum. From the crackle of a megaphone, a volunteer alerted the hangers-on that the bazaar would be closing in twenty minutes.
Once again, the community had come back for their books, absorbed them, leaving only a handful of dusty reads, the skeletal remains of the banquet tables, and the piles of boxes in which the vast majority of the books,
now gone, had been transported to the coliseum.
Over the next year, The Friends of the LSU Libraries will receive donations at their warehouse on River Road. The community will give books until it’s time for the next bazaar, where they’ll be absorbed once more, starting the cycle anew as so many cycles begin: with the spring.
For those who like to read, who enjoy the search, who want to be surprised: keep in mind the Book Bazaar. Whether you know it or not, something likely waits for you among the tables. Go and see.
The bill would accept actual medical expenses,”which include
Rachael Catalanotto, a St. Tammany Parish lawyer, said mothers could submit prenatal vitamins and other “[types] of expenses that mothers take on during the pregnancy that they would not have
Morgan Lamandre, the chief executive and president of Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response, raised concerns that the two-year period to recover the expenses was not enough.
Lamandre also argued the bill should extend to miscarriages and stillbirths because women still incur pregnancy costs in these scenarios.
ELECTIONS, from page 3
Secretary Parampreet Singh of the College of Science was the final candidate to run unopposed. He previously served as a memberat-large and was first elected after the end of Lopez’s presidency, similar to Bazayev and Tirone.
The previous secretary, Meredith Veldman from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, opted not to run and is instead taking a sabbatical.
Members-at-Large
Incumbents Kyla Kazuchyck of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts and Kevin Ringelman of the College of Agriculture faced a challenge from Scott Bal-
dridge and James Madden, both from the College of Science.
that would give mothers an avenue to recuperate some pregnancy-related medical expenses from the father of their child. as vice president.
Kazuchyck and Ringelman easily fended off the challengers with 28 votes each to Madden’s eight and Baldridge’s six.
Kazuchyck characterized her candidacy as one intent on working on infrastructure issues, while Ringelman, an associate professor in the School of Renewable
Natural Resources, advocated for LSU to make a greater effort to become more environmentally sustainable.
A third and final member-atlarge position will be elected in the fall, as it’s designated for incoming faculty senators only.
After the elections, the Faculty Senate proceeded with business as usual by considering amend-
ments to their constitution, an endorsement for a prospective pay raise for instructors in the humanities and a presentation by IT services regarding oversight.
The meeting on Tuesday marked the final of the 2022-2023 academic year, and the Faculty Senate will likely meet again in late August.
BY MADISON HEYDARI & OLIVIA TOMLINSON @madisonheydari & @OliviaMersade
Taylor Swift and actor Joe Alwyn reportedly split after six years together, according to Entertainment Tonight. This news was heartbreaking to many Swifties, especially since Swift’s songs about Alwyn inspired some of her best and most vulnerable masterpieces on her past few albums.
In honor of the end of the Alwyn era, here are some of our favorite songs about Joe Alwyn.
This song has always carried this heavy feeling. In her lyrics, Swift sings about the reality of fame and how her relationships suffer.
She deals with vicious tabloid rumors and paparazzi or even fans taking pictures of her while she’s out. She acknowledges that her partner will have to deal with these things too.
When she sings, “the devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me,” she’s saying it may seem simple at large, but her fame and lifestyle are actually complicated and troublesome, but she’ll be there for him through it all.
She asks Alwyn in the chorus if their love would be enough even if they couldn’t have that sense of normalcy that they both want.
This song is about the journey to meeting Alwyn, and even though they lived two separate lives, she sings about this force, or an invisible string, that pulled them closer and closer together their whole lives.
She sings about how her song “Bad Blood” played in Alwyn’s cab the first time he went to Los Angeles and how he ate at her favorite restaurant. It’s a captivating song of little details about their separate lives coming together and how they were always destined to meet.
Sometimes we tie our memories to the places where we made them. That’s what Cornelia Street in NYC is for Swift. It’s also the street where she was renting an apartment around the time she started dating Alwyn.
The lyrics take you through the early stages of her relationship in the NYC apartment, where she lived when she started falling in love with Alwyn.
The saddest part about the song is that she sings, “I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends / I’d never walk Cornelia Street again.” She says that losing him would leave her so heartbroken that she wouldn’t be able to return to Cornelia Street again because of the memories tied to it.
“Lavender Haze” was a phrase used in the 1950s to describe being in love, and when Swift learned that she was immediately inspired.
Again, she writes about how fame affects her life and relationships. She sings about the weird rumors her and Alwyn have faced when she sings, “All they keep asking me is if I’m gonna be your bride / the only kinda girl they see is a one-night or a wife.”
She says that even though the media was talking about her, Alwyn wasn’t paying much attention to it.
This song is about ignoring all the fake stuff about their relationship to protect what is real and to stay in the “lavender haze.”
This song was written during a time in Swift’s life when she was falling in love with someone, while her reputation was falling apart.
Alwyn’s appearance is a big theme in this song. In most paparazzi pictures of Swift and Alwyn, he can be seen wearing his staple outfit, “dark jeans and Nikes,” which was mentioned in “Delicate.”
Fans can assume his bright, blue eyes also shocked Taylor when she sings “Oh damn, never seen that color blue.”
Also from “reputation,” this song refers to Swift’s past lovers as well as her new ones. Swift claims she is his “American queen,” which references Alwyn’s English roots. She also hints at her ex-boyfriends, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston, not treating her as well as Alwyn when she sings about their vehicles: “Cause all the boys and their expensive cars / With their Range Rovers and their Jaguars / Never took me quite where you do.”
Her commitment to Alwyn is seen throughout the entire “Lover” album, but especially in “Paper Rings.”
In the line “I like shiny things, but I’d marry you with paper rings,” Swift is explaining her crave for marriage with Alwyn is so strong that wearing a paper ring is okay with her.
Swift even claims this song is the heart of Lover.
Swift’s need for an escape from the media and spending time with her “muse” has shown fans why they kept their relationship private.
In the line, “I don’t belong, and my beloved, neither do you” she sings about their time away from the public eye, unlike most of her past relationships. Keeping these spheres of her life separate, “with no one to tweet it” made their relationship even more special.
This love letter to Alwyn was a way to explain to the Swifties that the couple’s alone time made their relationship stronger and was beneficial to their mental health.
Project Innovate Studios, a creative collective of LSU Students, recently had a solo exhibit in the LSU Student Union Art Gallery.
The collective has an extensive resume of projects, from a fashion show to its own editorial magazine.
Zahir Muhammad, a communications junior and founding committee member of Project Innovate Studios, said the group helped spark his creativity and showed him a community he didn’t even realize was at LSU.
“Coming to LSU, it was hard to find the underground creative scene,” said Muhammad. “My best friend Jordan opened the door and introduced me to a world of
creativity that I didn’t know was here.”
Community is an integral aspect of what Project Innovate Studios does, as it was founded upon an innate desire to create the spaces that its committee wanted to see. The collective aims to bring together local artists of all kinds who typically would not have a space to share their work with others.
Its most recent exhibition, a fashion gala hosted in the Student Union Art Gallery, created a sense of intimacy that encouraged attendees to treat the event like a unique but comforting experience.
Guests stood in the dark, packed room as committee members and gala were introduced.
From there, the lights came on, Lil Yachty’s latest album began to
play and you could see fireworks going off in brains as the newness of the experience began to set in.
This was Project Innovate Studios’ goal the entire time. To ignite fires within individuals through art and inspire them to keep the ball rolling.
Muhammad’s own exposure to the arts throughout his formative years, whether it was playing piano or learning to speak Spanish, are a driving force behind his creative endeavors and have shaped his outlook on life.
“All of these things are ingrained in who I am,” said Muhammad. “I’m a visual director, but I also make music, do modeling and lead organizations. All of these things stem back to me being a visualizer and pursuing whatever I’m passionate about.”
Muhammad believes that Project Innovate’s projects tell a story of perseverance. He also cited Tyler the Creator, Saba and his friends as his biggest creative inspirations, as all of these people have influenced his artistry by being unapologetically raw about theirs.
The goal of Project Innovate Studios’ work is to help artists make the impossible possible through hard work and believing in their talents.
The collective will be hosting a free art exhibit, “Faces: Louisiana Through Their Eyes,” at the Capitol Park Museum on Friday, April 28 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. To keep up with future Project Innovate Studios events, people can head to its Instagram, @projectinnovatestudios.
BY HENRY HUBER @HenryHuber_
Prior to Tuesday, it had been over a year since Javen Coleman took the mound in front a crowd at Alex Box Stadium. His last competitive appearance had been on Feb.1, 2022, a game where he posted two strikeouts in just over one inning against Southern.
After experiencing arm soreness 17 pitches into the outing, he’d exit the game. At the time, he had no idea his return to the same mound wouldn’t come for a long time.
“It was abrupt. I didn’t know what really happened,” Coleman said. “It definitely sucked for the time being, but I’m here now. Just taking it one step at a time from here.”
When asked about his time away from the action and what kept him mentally sharp throughout it, Coleman credited his teammates for keeping him positive and elevating his confidence.
“Everybody was always behind me, being positive,” Coleman said. “So just having those guys behind me, telling me ‘You’re going to be great’ and ‘You’re going to come back and do that’, I think that was a big contributing factor to that.”
Following the injury to righthanded reliever Garrett Edwards, Coleman’s name was brought up when discussing who could pos-
sibly step up with the bullpen as depleted as it was. Soon after, head coach Jay Johnson expressed hope of a return in the near future and stated he was throwing again. In games two and three against Kentucky last weekend, he warmed up in the bullpen and had a chance at going in, something he was incredibly excited about.
“I wouldn’t say I was nervous, but I definitely had a little bit of butterflies,” Coleman said. “I definitely feel like nervousness and butterflies, there’s a fine line between those. But I was more just excited to be out there and do what I do and play with my team.”
Regarding his official return, it was only a matter of when. And on Tuesday morning, it was
Despite being new to LSU, Omar Speights’ experience playing college football at Oregon State automatically places him in a leadership role. His journey to Baton Rouge, however, was not a typical one.
Speights was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unlike many college football players, he didn’t grow up playing football. His career took off in the eighth grade and his recruitment started to pick up in his early high school years.
announced he would be starting against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Ten hours later, he stepped up to the mound, took a deep breath and threw his first competitive pitch in over 400 days. Ball.
Coleman’s time back on the mound might not have been perfect and was certainly limited,
“I was born and raised in Philly. I was raised by my mom, me and my brother and my sister,” Speights said. “I didn’t play football too much growing up. I didn’t start playing football until about eighth grade. And once I got to eighth grade then everything just took off from there.”
Speights moved to Oregon during his last year of high school, a place that couldn’t have been more different than Philadelphia.
Speights finished his high school career at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, Oregon. As a recruit, he was a three-star
see RETURN, page 10 see TRANSFER, page 10
In 2022, LSU football finished No. 130 in special teams efficiency according to ESPN’s Power Index. Considering there were 131 teams in the FBS last season, that’s not a fact that makes many Tiger fans ecstatic.
Behind Brian Polian, the unit placed outside the top 100 in kickoff return defense, punt return defense, blocked kicks and blocked kicks allowed, with the stats by no means telling the full story.
A breakdown on the line allowed Florida State to block a potential game-tying extra point, which followed multiple muffed punts from Malik Nabers. A muffed kickoff against Tennessee immediately turned the tide in the Volunteers’ favor in what quickly spiraled into a demoralizing blowout.
The list goes on. While Polian would remain with the team to help navigate the transfer portal
and manage the roster, his time as the special teams coordinator would come to an end following the 2022-23 season.
Enter John Jancek.
On Feb. 28, the then-senior defensive analyst was promoted to be the team’s next special teams coordinator, along with receiving a second designation as the outside linebackers coach.
Amidst his three-decade career, those marked his seventh and eighth coaching positions in the SEC alone, which have spanned from a defensive quality control coach with Georgia, where he won a national championship, to the defensive coordinator at Tennessee. Considering Jancek’s extensive SEC background and experience, the move made a lot of sense.
With all the coaching jobs he’s had over his career and the fact that Bryan Kelly hired him specifically to take care of the team’s biggest flaw from last season, it may come as a sur-
prise that he has never actually been a special teams coordinator before. However, Jancek doesn’t see it that way.
“I’ve been a part of special teams my entire career as a defensive coach,” Jancek claimed. “Linebackers, safeties, whatever
it may be. All those guys are very involved in special teams.”
SPECIAL TEAMS, page 10
RETURN, from page 9 but it was promising and meaningful.
After delivering three balls through his first four pitches, he finished off the first batter with back-to-back strikes. Then, when faced with a 2-2 count at the second, he caught the Cajun swinging to secure his second strikeout of the contest.
Though there were a few shaky pitches here and there, it seemed like Coleman got more into a groove with every pitch he
TRANSFER, from page 9 prospect in the Class of 2019, according to 247sports. He held offers from schools like Baylor, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. Living in Oregon, however, Speights ultimately chose Oregon State.
The 6-foot-1 linebacker was able to get on the field right away as a freshman, recording 71 total tackles, including 42 solo tackles, 3.5 sacks, a fumble recovery and an interception. He made freshman All-American teams on several publications and was Pac-12 honorable mention freshman defensive player of the year.
Speights received many accolades in the years to come, but his junior season is when he really made a statement. In the 2022 season, Speights recorded 83 total tackles, including39 solo tackles and eight tackles for loss. He received All-Pac-12 first team honors, and Phil Steele All-Pac-12 First Team and he were on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List and the Bednarik Award Watch List, both given to the top defensive player in college football.
In his career at Oregon State, he totaled 308 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, five sacks and seven pass deflections.
In mid-January, however, Speights announced that he planned to enter the transfer portal as a graduate transfer. Shortly after, he signed with LSU.
“I just was ready for the change, and I think I wanted to challenge myself and come play SEC ball,” Speights said. “It [LSU] just felt like the right place.”
Speights finding himself in Baton Rouge was just as big of
On the same topic, he believes that his chemistry with Kelly plays a large role in both his comfort with the position and Kelly’s trust in him getting the job done. They have had multiple coaching stints together, most notably when Jancek was Kelly’s defensive coordinator at Grand Valley State from 1999-2002.
“With me having coached for Kelly in the past, he had a comfort level with me,” Jancek said. “We had great communication and really it was not what we did, but how we did it.”
In terms of special teams and fixing its problems from last sea-
threw. His fastball was effective, with it steadily climbing up to 95 miles per hour by the end of the inning. He credited his time in the weight room for a near-seamless return and improvement throughout the inning.
“My big thing was just getting in the training room, getting healthy and getting stronger,” Coleman said. “Last year and the year before, I think I lacked strength more than anything.”
While he wouldn’t retire the inning with three strikeouts, he would retire it with the help
of right-fielder Brayden Jobert. After pitching two strikes, Louisiana-Lafayette’s Carson Roccaforte nailed one towards right field, and Jobert fielded it to conclude the inning.
That would mark the end of the night for the redshirt sophomore, as the coaching staff would send Thatcher Hurd in to relieve him at the beginning of the second inning. Coleman finished the night with two strikeouts, zero hits given up and a strike rate of 56% on 16 total pitches.
Fans likely looked back on the
performance fondly throughout the night, not just because it was decent but because things got rough right after his departure and remained that way through much of the night.
Hurd would give up two earned runs in a third of an inning before being relieved by Riley Cooper. Then, Cooper gave up four in the third and fourth combined to put the Tigers down 6-3 heading into the fifth.
“We needed those pitchers to pitch tonight. This is not just a grouping of guys. We need them
to be good,” head coach Jay Johnson said on the bullpen. “You’re letting them do what they want to do, and you can’t do that against that team.”
It isn’t the end of the world that LSU was upset by the Cajuns but a collective performance like this won’t fly in the postseason. A game where the Tigers gave up eight runs and 14 hits in a loss illustrates just how much they need their bullpen to return to form, or as much as it can. With Coleman back, they’re one step closer to doing that.
a change of scenery as when he moved from Philadelphia to Corvallis, Oregon. But as for this spring season, Speights found himself not only having to adjust to a new locker room, but he now finds himself in a leadership role.
The LSU linebacker corps exceeded expectations last season. Harold Perkins Jr. turned many heads alone with a stellar season that earned him freshman AllAmerican honors.
son, Jancek says the focus now is on the present and doing everything they can to make this current unit the best it can be.
They have coaches assigned to different areas of each unit.
For example, graduate assistants Zac Jancek and Nick Coleman are designated to each side of the punt team and Special Teams Analyst Lester Erb is focused on its overall organization.
On the players, the focus is getting multiple guys plenty of reps throughout spring, especially when it comes to fielding punts. The guys currently getting reps include Greg Clayton Jr, Sage Ryan, Noah Cain and freshman receiver Kyle Parker.
“He’s a good guy,” Speights said of Perkins. “Good player, good person.”
With Perkins, a sophomore, and Greg Penn III, a junior, both returning to the linebacker room, the two now have a more experienced linebacker alongside them to watch and learn from.
“It’s an exciting challenge,” Speights said. “You got to develop relationships with guys. When you develop relationships with
Jancek said Aaron Anderson would also be involved once he returns.
“It’s an ongoing evaluation, but we feel good with the guys we have back there,” Jancek said. “There’s a number of guys that are getting work and the amount of reps that they need to get so that we have a comfort level as punt returners and kick returners.”
Regarding his designation as the outside linebackers coach, both Kelly and defensive coordinator Matt House believe having an individual focused on developing their pass rush is something it needs to take that area to the next level. House added that the complexity of the JACK
people, you could tell them the hard stuff that they need to hear.”
While both Perkins and Penn have college experience, the experience Speights has is second to none. Not only has he recorded impressive numbers during his time at Oregon State, but he is a player that has had to adapt to different environments while still trying to perform at his best.
Lessons that are learned in experiences like these aren’t found
linebacker position is often underestimated.
“They can be part of the coverage or be part of the front. They can be an inside rusher or an outside rusher,” House said. “Although it’s not the most difficult position to learn from an assignment standpoint, it’s very important that you drill the technical aspect of that position.”
Like his assignment to special teams, Jancek has never keyed in on the outside linebacker position. But due to his overall experience at coaching defense, he believes he’s more than capable of tackling it.
“I’m pretty well-versed in coverage, I’m pretty well-versed
within many, and it could be experience useful for when Penn and Perkins eventually go onto the NFL draft.
For now, the three look to command an LSU defense that is returning a lot of talent. Speights finding himself as a potential ringleader of that defense is something nobody could have expected. A kid from Philadelphia found himself in Oregon and now in Baton Rouge, and that journey
in pass rush and pretty well versed in the run game,” Jancek said. “I think that’s the outside linebacker position.”
While his experience is a huge talking point, another aspect of his character that’s consistently brought up is his energy. When House and defensive end Ovie Oghoufo were asked about him, each cited his energy and wisdom as reasons they’re high on him.
“He comes in and drops knowledge and expects a lot from us. And it’s fun, he’s a fun coach. Very active, very elusive.” Oghoufo said. “It makes it fun for us at practice, but you know, he’s demanding, which is good too.”
MATTHEW PELLITTIERI @m_pellittieri
Following weeks of anticipation, former President Donald Trump was arraigned April 4 in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
In their Statement of facts, prosecutors argued that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently” falsified records in an attempt to boost his chances in the 2016 presidential election by suppressing information about an alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Along the way, he also allegedly broke election laws and committed tax fraud.
On the surface, the case seems fairly basic. It’s not like some of the other cases involving Trump. Those are about the subversion of democracy itself. This is simply about a person breaking the law. If prosecutors prove their case, a guilty man will be brought to justice. If they don’t, then an innocent man will be vindicated. Either way, the justice system is just going through its normal motions, just with an abnormally prominent defendant.
However, if you listen to
many prominent Republicans, Trump’s legal situation is a travesty.
Trump ally and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said it was a “shocking and dangerous day for the rule of law in America.” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri called it “beyond absurd.” Even anti-Trump moderate Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said the indictment “sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political
opponents.”
It should come as no surprise that most Republicans are defending Trump against the charges. After all, he’s still a major figure in the party and likely their next presidential nominee. What is somewhat surprising, though, is how they’ve chosen to defend their man.
They could stick to calling the charges weak or even baseless, but many go further and present the arrest as some sort of affront
to the Constitution or a distortion of legal and political norms. Hawley even called it “an assault on the rule of law,” as if charging a prominent figure with a crime is some ghastly abomination that will pound away at the very foundations of the republic.
In reality, charging a politician with a crime is the very definition of the rule of law. Every person, no matter how popular or powerful they are, is accountable for their bad actions.
Lady Justice is blind. This concept is often held up in favor of defendants, but her impartiality is not always to the benefit of the accused.
Put in the context of the Trump case, any supposed, targeted prosecution is wrong but so is withheld, deserved prosecution. If Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has evidence to make a case against an alleged criminal, then he has the right and the imperative to do so. That criminal could be a mob moss, a petty thief or the former president of the United States; it doesn’t matter.
Trump’s legal troubles are evidence that the justice system is working – not that it’s about to fall apart.
It should encourage and fortify our shared trust in our institutions. Instead, some politicians are basically separating their base from those institutions through the mass exploitation of personal loyalty to the former president. They’re turning something that could be good for the country into something that is incredibly bad for it, and they’re doing it at a time when trust in the government is already low.
The stereotypical American diet is undeniably unhealthy and the cause of many health problems. As college students, we need to make the right eating choices today so that we won’t face health problems in the future.
Most people in the United States have an increased risk of chronic illness due to consuming too much sodium, saturated fat, and sugar, according to the CDC.
Heart disease, diabetes and cancer are some of the terrible consequences stemming from a bad diet. For example, a study by The American Diabetes Association indicates that there will likely be a 673% increase in type-2 diabetes cases in people 20-year-
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old and younger by 2060, if the trends observed from 2002 to 2017 continue.
These numbers should be a wake-up call to change our eating habits, but it can be especially hard for college students.
A typical breakfast can include more sugar than is recommended for a whole day. Cereal, doughnuts and even blueberry muffins are high in added sugar, as well as drinks from Starbucks.
Beachbody On Demand interactive recommends no more than 25-36 grams of added sugar be consumed daily, that number seems small compared to the 73.8 grams of sugar in a venti white chocolate mocha with whipped cream from Starbucks.
Protein, found in eggs, meat and cheese provide the nutrients needed to start the day, while fresh fruit and homemade juice are sweet and not as sugary. Of course, it takes longer to prepare
breakfast at home than to stop by your favorite coffee shop, but the health outcomes can be drastically different.
Typical lunches and dinners are full of low-quality carbohydrates and high in saturated fats. Fried foods, processed meats, and canned foods can also pose risks to health. Caffeinated drinks, chips, and other snacks typically consumed throughout the day can be high in sodium, fats and harmful byproducts. While it’s important to develop healthy eating habits, obsessing over calorie intake can lead to stress and eating disorders. On top of that, making healthy choices is typically more expensive and can strain the budget. Unfortunately, most health insurances don’t cover nutritionist access, and sometimes the root of the problem is not resolved with medication.
As an international student
GRAPHIC BY MADDIE FITZMORRISfrom Peru, I’m used to a very different diet. Legumes, vegetable rice and meat stews are typical dishes, while snacks such as plantain chips and toasted corn are some of my favorites. In America, it can be more expensive and harder to find healthy eating options. Yet putting in the time and money is worth it.
Disregard of one’s diet can lead to health problems, and an increase in medication consumption as well. On a related note, the U.S. makes up 40.8% of the global market for the pharmaceutical industry in 2020, according to an article published by Zippia. And a CivicScience article says 70% of Americans take at least one prescription medication a day.
College students are responsible for food choices on our own; it can be hard to navigate through these choices. We usually know what’s best for us in
the long term, it can seem hard or impossible to make those decisions based on the short term.
Becoming aware of what we’re consuming is the first step to achieving change. Prioritizing our health and food choices financially and in other aspects can be the next step. Demanding change in food production regulation or sugar taxes can be seen as possible solutions as well.
We can reject the typical American diet and start making smarter food choices to benefit our health. Our generation can avoid facing so many health problems in the future if we make the right choices today.
It won’t be easy, and that change won’t come overnight, we can regain control of what we eat and what we’ll become.
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.
“It’s about drive, it’s about power, we stay hungry, we devour.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson American
If Americans are what they eat, they’re really unhealthy
