The Reveille 2-8-24

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Mardi G ra s Speci al Edition T hu r s d ay, Fe b r u a r y 8 , 2 02 4

LAISSEZ LES BONS TEMPS ROULER The rise, fall and rebirth of French in Louisiana

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MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

A krewe member tries to decide who to throw the ball to on Feb. 18, 2023 during Endymion in New Orleans, La.

Discrimination once dampened Louisiana French. Now, its coming back.

BY SARAH WALTON @sarahrosewalton Dressed in beads, feathers and masks, Mardi Gras will visit the state Tuesday, Louisiana’s long-held tradition born from French roots.

The French first laid claim in 1682 to the territory that would become Louisiana. The land changed hands, but French traditions and the French language remained. In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, Frenchspeakers in Louisiana were persecuted for their difference from other Americans, but a resurgence in the last 50 years saw the rise, once again, of the French language.

A fundamental part of Louisiana’s long and colorful history is its relationship with France and the French language—from religion to tradition, all the way down to the name Louisiana.

The state’s name, in fact, is a reference to the French monarch, King Louis XIV, who contracted the colonization of the area in the 1700s. At the time, Louisiana was part of a large territory known as New France.

France, like other European countries of the time, saw an opportunity in what they considered the New World, and they wanted to make money off it. France focused on the fur trade, but as time went on, they began to create colonies, and they continued to make money from the land.

Over the years, a unique mix of people gathered in Louisiana.

Between the medley of Native Americans, enslaved people of

African descent, French settlers and other European settlers, new mixtures of culture arose.

In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, then first consul of France, sold the territory to the U.S. The land changed hands politically, but the region’s unique communities thrived.

Creole and Cajun cultures grew. Today, these two groups are the largest French-originating communities in the state.

France is everywhere in Louisiana culture. But from the traditions to the food, the through line is language.

Mardi Gras, in name and spirit, is another good example of the influence France has had on the region. It means Fat Tuesday and celebrates the last day before Lent, the Catholic tradition of prayer and fasting.

Mardi Gras originated in France but has come to be synonymous with the culture of Louisiana, especially New Orleans.

The use of the French language in Louisiana doesn’t stop at tradition, however. Living in the state long enough, people will see the word geaux on everything. Eaux is the word for water in French, but eaux sounds like go and the two words are often put together to make geaux.

Louisiana French, commonly referred to as Cajun French, is a catch-all term “for a collection of varieties of French that was first spoken in the region by francophone groups such as colonial French settlers, Canadians, Haitian Creoles, and Acadians,” according to Louisiana based, multi-lingual media plat-

form Télé-Louisiane.

Even though a strong part of Louisiana’s history is linked to the diverse cultures that reside within its borders, the people belonging to those groups haven’t always been treated well.

There was a time in the notso-far past when many in Louisiana were discriminated against for speaking French, rather than English.

Andre St. Romain, director of education at the West Baton Rouge Museum and a French speaker, has family who witnessed the rejection of Creole by its home state.

“The French language was heavily stigmatized starting in the late 1800s,” St. Romain said in an email to the Reveille.

“Speaking French (or Creole) in Louisiana was associated with poverty, a lack of education, and a lack of social class. As such, French and Creole speakers were often discriminated against.”

French schools were essentially banned by Louisiana lawmakers beginning in 1921.

“The general exercises in the public schools shall be conducted in the English language,” reads the Louisiana Constitution of 1912.

The banning done by these schools would not only disenfranchise French-speaking Louisianians but also go on to marginalize French-speaking communities in the state.

“I have met and spoke to many, many people of the generation that learned English as a second language,” St. Romain

said. “Almost all of them have a horror story about brutal punishments for speaking French or Creole in school.”

Corporal punishment was still common practice in schools in the early 1900s, St. Romain said, and teachers in public schools who didn’t speak French would often physically discipline students for using the language.

“The already violent methods of discipline in the classroom, anti-French laws and the stigmatization of the French language in Louisiana combined meant that teachers could enforce antiFrench rules however they saw fit,” St. Romain said.

In the LSU Library catalog, a number of recorded interviews from Cajun and other Louisiana residents put this past on display. These interviews come from the Bayou Lafourche Oral History Series and include around 20, separate, recorded interviews from Louisianians.

In his oral history interview, Loyman Melancon, a native of Cut Off, Louisiana, tells the wide story of his life, including the role French played in his early memories. “[I] grew up speaking French, but if you spoke in school they hit your fingers with a ruler,” reads the transcript of Melancon’s words. “Second offense put you on knees with rice or corn, thirty minutes or hour; next time sent to professor [principal?] with a big paddle; next time you were kicked out of school.”

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

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

ABOUT THE REVEILLE The Reveille is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication.

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

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What does Louisiana’s congressional redistricting mean for LSU?

BY MADDIE SCOTT & JACOB MATTHEWS @madscottyy The conclusion of Louisiana’s redistricting session in late January not only added a new majority-Black district but also moved LSU and much of East Baton Rouge Parish into a new district.

The 6th Congressional District, which is now the second majority-minority district in Louisiana, includes most of East Baton Rouge and spans from the center of Louisiana to Caddo Parish. That means Baton Rouge will not only be the biggest city in its district unlike before when most had to share with New Orleans, but it will also most likely be represented by a Democrat.

Sen. Cleo Fields is expected to run for the new majorityBlack district, which is currently represented by Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican from Baton Rouge.

Although part of Baton Rouge no longer has to deal with big brother New Orleans in its district, LSU political science professor Belinda Davis

Graduate research shines at conference

BY CONNOR REINWALD @conur16

said.

Formerly in District 6, LSU now lies in District 5, represent-

The English Graduate Student Association on Feb. 1 kicked off its 34th Annual Mardi Gras Conference, a three-day event for graduate and undergraduate students to show off their research in front of peers, scholars and spectators.

Held at the LSU Women’s Center, anything displayed during the conference had to fall under this year’s theme: “Legacies of Power and Power of Legacies.” Presenters were sectioned off into panels with similar research to allow each presenter to receive more productive feedback and the ability to network with people in their field.

“The questions that I’ve been asked allowed me to think a little bit more concretely about where I’m going with my research next,” said English

see REDISTRICTING, page 4

see CONFERENCE, page 4

REAGAN COTTEN / The Reveille

Memorial Tower stands tall on Feb. 2 on LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge, La. doesn’t believe that automatically means the entire Baton Rouge area will be better off.

“Dividing Baton Rouge into two separate congressional dis-

tricts makes me worry that we’ll be in the same situation again.

That we don’t have a member of Congress that’s just focused on the Baton Rouge area,” Davis

FACULTY AND STAFF

Some employees left out of LSU’s paid family leave program

BY PIPER HUTCHINSON Louisiana Illuminator LSU leaders said they would provide paid family leave for all employees starting Jan. 1, but some employees who have requested it have been told the policy hasn’t been approved.

The university announced it would offer the benefit to all faculty and staff starting in 2024, following the Louisiana Civil Service Commission’s adoption of paid family leave policy for 39,000 classified employees and former Gov. John Bel Edwards’ executive order that extended the perk to some 32,000 unclassified state workers. But a month into the new year, LSU employees who thought they qualified for the benefit have been told they can’t access it.

LSU’s policy is supposed to provide up to six weeks of paid leave to a parent of any gender within three months of the birth or adoption of a child for anyone employed at the university for at least a year. It was designed to mirror the state civil service policy.

The policy was announced through an email to campus employees and by Niki Norton, LSU assistant vice president for human resource management,

at a Faculty Senate meeting in November.

At the time, Norton said the policy had been worked out, and all that was needed was the final signature of LSU President William F. Tate, which she said she expected imminently.

Tate apparently hasn’t given it.

“The paid parental leave was approved for classified employees,” LSU’s Human Resource Management Office (HRM) wrote to one employee who tried to take leave. The partner of a denied employee provided the email to the Illuminator.

Neither wanted to be identified.

“LSU has not yet approved the paid parental leave for unclassified faculty and staff. Our office will announce any updates as they are made available.”

LSU Staff Senate President Josh Duplechain said he has heard from multiple colleagues who have been refused paid family leave.

Duplechain said he has not been given any explanation from LSU administration as to why the policy hasn’t taken effect for all employees on the promised timeline.

LSU spokesperson Todd Woodward did not respond to a list of email questions or a text

message requesting comment.

Spokesperson Abbi Rocha Laymoun also declined to respond to a list of email questions.

When LSU’s paid family leave policy was announced, it was touted as a major tool to keep and attract valued employees.

“It is a win for recruitment and retention for Louisiana and for LSU,” Norton told faculty senators in November.

But questions arose in late 2023 as to whether the university would retain the policy if the next governor — Jeff Landry, a Republican — decided to undo his Democratic predecessor’s work.

“I can’t speak to the unknown,” Norton said when a faculty senator brought up the concern. “I would hope that it would continue.”

Landry has said he’s undecided on whether he will keep the policy, citing the need to understand its impact on the state budget. The governor can rescind Edwards’ order for unclassified employees, but the Civil Service Commission has authority over classified employees.

Landry will present his first executive budget proposal to the Legislature Feb. 8. The Civil Service Commission has estimated the fiscal impact of extending

paid family leave to classified workers will be minimal.

Former University of Louisiana System President Jim Henderson approved paid family leave for all employees at the system’s nine campuses before moving to a new job in the system, and the Louisiana Community and Technical College

System Board is expected to adopt the same policy in February. Both Henderson and LCTCS President Monty Sullivan have said the fiscal impact to their systems will be minimal.

The Southern University System is studying the feasibility of paid family leave, a spokesperson said.

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

Memorial Tower sits in the distance Jan. 27 on LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge, La.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

page 4 REDISTRICTING, from page 4 ed by Rep. Julia Letlow from Monroe, LA. She is the first woman to represent Louisiana in the House of Representatives in 30 years.

Letlow worked in higher education for about 16 years, according to her LinkedIn employment history. She served in several positions as an administrator and educator at the University of Louisiana at Monroe for about seven years, leaving the job for Congress in April 2021. She has also worked for Tulane University and the University of South Florida.

Letlow’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

A political geographer and LSU doctoral candidate in geography, Adam Dohrenwend, believes Rep. Letlow is more conservative than the former Baton Rouge representative, which can impact what gets funding and what doesn’t, he said.

Dohrenwend said whether you like Graves or not, he’s very involved in Baton Rouge because he lives here and is part of the community. Letlow lives in Richland Parish, he said, about a three-hour drive from

CONFERENCE, from page 4 doctoral candidate Amber Jurgensen.

This year the panel followed a professional format, and was composed of three or four presenters, a moderator and spectators. Each person presented for around 15 to 20 minutes before moving on to the next and concluded with questions from the spectators.

“The EGSA is mostly interested in helping graduate students professionalize and that’s

FRENCH, from page 2 Charles Gaubert, a native of Lockport, Louisiana, also participated in Bayou Lafourche’s Oral History Series. Gaubert shared similar experiences. The transcript of his oral history details that all the family on his mother’s side spoke French but that people in his community often considered those who spoke only French “stupid.”

Gaubert said his father told stories of being hit by nuns at school for speaking his native language rather than English.

“Protestantism and the English language were seen as essential elements of being American,” St. Romain explained, “and as such, the French-speaking (and Creole-speaking) Catholic population was under tremendous pressure to become Americanized.”

Eventually, things began to change. The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana was created in 1968 to “preserve, promote, and develop Louisiana’s French and Creole culture, heritage, and language.”

And in 1980, the federal

LSU’s Baton Rouge campus.

“It’s better if your congressperson lives here,” Dohrenwend said. “...[rather] than living on the other side of the state, but I’m sure Julia Letlow will be in conversation with LSU regularly.”

Critical of the new congressional districts, Dohrendwend said it’s illegal to make race the predominant factor in drawing districts. However, districts can be drawn around party.

“Now, what’s tricky about this is that partisanship and race are highly related in the United States, in some places more than others, and it’s most related in the Deep South,” Dohrenwend said.

Packing as many Black voters into as few districts as possible means those majority-Black districts will likely be uncompetitive, according to Dohrenwend.

This creates those wacky-looking districts because they’re not defined by geography or counties, he said; they’re defined by picking up very specific people.

Dohrenwend said these lines minimize the voices of Black Louisianans.

Good district lines should be compact and shouldn’t meander, he said.

Louisiana’s total population is just under 4.66 million people, 1.46 million of those people being Black, according to the 2020 Louisiana Census, which is roughly a third of the state’s population. When districts are gerrymandered, it limits the ability of the public to hold representatives accountable, Dohrenwend said.

“It is gerrymandering,” Dohrenwend said. “Gerrymandering perverts the will of the people—perverts their representation.”

Dohrenwend believes that while it’s great news that there’s a second district where Black Louisianians have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, there’s still racial gerrymandering in the new district map.

The other issue is that still none of the six districts are competitive, he said, because whoever the Democratic candidate is in the two majority-Black districts, is, in his view, guaranteed to win. Whoever the Republican candidates are in the other four districts are guaranteed to win as well, he said.

“If the Congressman representing a Black district is guar-

anteed to win, no matter what, then like, what incentives do they have to really listen to their constituents?”

Dohrenwend said.

When voters feel like the election is already decided, they’re less likely to vote, Dohrenwend said.

That sentiment is shared by Savannah Harrison, president of the nonprofit conservative organization Turning Point at LSU. She believes Democratic leaders will jump on this district, leaving Republicans in the same position many Democrats are in for conservative districts.

Harrison also agrees with Davis’ sentiment that the new districts should be challenged for splitting up Baton Rouge but for a different reason.

“You cannot have East Baton Rouge with the top of Louisiana,” Harrison said of the new District 5 covering half of the parish. “It just doesn’t work. It’s representing two very different parts of the state.”

Political science and international studies junior Lailah Williams is the vice president of LSU Geaux Vote and is the political outreach chair for the Black Student Union. While

there’s much joy and celebration in the inclusion of Black voters in the conversation of state politics, nothing is perfect, Williams said.

“The fact that there was even a fight to be had about whether or not a population as large as the African American population in the state of Louisiana, [needed] to be represented electorally is ridiculous,” Williams said.

Williams believes Rep. Letlow has a responsibility to engage with young people more than ever before now that she’s representing the flagship. Neglecting the opinions of young voters can be a huge slap in the face, Williams said.

The new districts are a win because, in a state like Louisiana, people still get up and fight, especially Black women who are at the forefront of initiating change, Williams said.

“The win comes out of a very frustrating and honestly very devastating reality, that despite the overwhelming presence of Black Americans in the state of Louisiana,” Williams said, “there is still a concerted and concentrated effort in disenfranchising their votes and their voices.”

a big function of what the conference does for us,” said English graduate Byron Miller.

For LSU students, the Mardi Gras Conference is a great way to practice presenting on their home turf. The conference also enables students who cannot afford to travel the ability to collect input on their projects.

“It’s really exciting, because this is one of the few opportunities I get to learn more detail about what my colleagues are doing and get to see work from folks who are in other

universities across the world,” Jurgensen said. “I appreciate what the Mardi Gras conference is able to do for LSU’s graduate students and for its undergraduates who also come to learn about what research looks like at the academic level.”

Undergraduate students are allowed to present their own research; however, the conference is geared more toward graduate students who are working on larger dissertations. Scholars already in their respective fields are also allowed at the conven-

tion. Their unique ability to give constructive criticism from an expert’s perspective makes their participation extremely valuable.

Jurgensen is an officer in the EGSA and during the “Poison, Gender, and Sexuality” segment of the conference discussed her topic of “Poison, Affect, and the Queered Female Body.”

Another graduate student, Elizabeth Robertson, talked about her latest research paper during the conference.

“I was looking at how you

see influences of patriarchal values and violence and the queer depictions of sexuality and sexual acts,” Robertson said.

She used the book “Ryder”

by Djuna Barnes to give examples on her topic.

The conference concluded the afternoon of Feb. 3, its flexible schedule allowing a wide variety of presentations on a multitude of topics. EGSA hopes to hold the 35th conference around the same time next year.

government recognized Cajuns as a distinct ethnic group after the Roach v. Dresser Industrial Valve and Instrument Division trial.

The case’s plaintiff, Calvin Roach, alleged his employer, Dresser Industries, fired him because he was Cajun. The courts ruled in Roach’s favor, citing the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

The case set precedent for the Cajun people to be protected under the Civil Rights Act. Public perceptions of Louisiana French have changed drastically since that time, St. Romain wrote to the Reveille.

Still, the decades-long campaign to stymie French in Louisiana had taken its toll on the language’s presence in the state and the community’s expression of culture.

“Obviously, the laws have changed such that the French and Creole languages are no longer legally suppressed,” St. Romain said. “But the damage has been done. Since French (and Creole) have been almost totally removed from daily life

in Louisiana, many people are simply unaware that these languages ever existed or were ever significant.”

Today, French culture is seen as valuable, culturally rich and interesting, rather than lowclass, St. Romain added: an ironic twist.

But French culture’s comeback is well underway in Louisiana. Throughout the state, French speakers and French immersion schools are on the rise, and residents like St. Romain are learning, practicing and preserving Louisiana French.

According to the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, there are currently around 100,000 students in French immersion schools in the state. The organization is determined to make more.

CODOFIL President William Arceneaux spoke to the Reveille about his own experience with French.

Arceneaux learned the language at home, he said. All the adults in his family knew French, but he said his parents would never speak it to him and his siblings. Arceneaux said his family’s reasoning for not teach-

ing him was that they wanted to make sure that he could succeed in America. Even so, he listened and learned the language.

When talking about the laws put in place to stop the language, Arceneaux said it was “a result of a very nativistic movement that occurred in the United States in the teens and the twenties.”

Nativism is the practice of favoring citizens born to a country over those who’ve immigrated and been naturalized.

“I love all things French,” Arceneaux said. “I do it to honor my family, my parents, my grandparents, all who did the same. They loved it, and they spoke it fluently. More importantly, I am involved in this so that my children, of whom I have four and grandchildren, know that we are the descendants of French-speaking Acadians. We are the descendants of a people of great courage and great determination and in the face of very difficult circumstances worked to maintain their French language and their French culture.”

Arceneaux also mentioned the programs CODOFIL has in

place to keep French alive in Louisiana, touching on the project that’s currently exciting him the most: a new French immersion program at a magnet elementary school in Shreveport.

In addition to his work at CODOFIL, Arceneaux is the chair of a nonprofit called La Fondation Louisiane, which he helped create. Arceneaux said when he and others made the foundation they realized, “the real future of French in Louisiana came from young people who are actively involved in the promotion and speaking of French.”

The foundation arose at a time when CODOFIL didn’t have much funding, so La Fondation became a way to make tangible Arceneaux’s desire to see French language succeed in the state.

To encourage a new generation of French-speaking Louisianians, they created scholarships.

“We are a very unique state among the 50 states of our great country,” Arceneaux said. “Every state is a little different, but ours is quite unique. I am pleased to see something of a Renaissance, the realization of how much it means to Louisiana.”

ENTERTAINMENT

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KING

CAKE

ROUNDTABLE

BY ENTERTAINMENT STAFF While some people are king cake traditionalists, others want theirs filled up with delicious goodness. Some people prefer Gambino’s Bakery or Manny Randazzo’s; others don’t mind taking home a Walmart king cake and eating it on the couch.

Some people even dare to, as scary as it may sound, not like king cake at all.

For all the king cake lovers and haters alike, here are some of our king cake opinions and traditions.

dazzo’s in Metairie. Sorry to my Baton Rouge natives, but Randazzo’s has yet to be beat by my standards. With their cake-like dough and amazing icing, the cakes are well worth the money.

They also have several different fillings. However, one obviously stands out above the rest: apple.

If you don’t like apple filling, please seek help. Randazzo’s offers a number of options including strawberry, cream cheese and pecan praline. So if you plan on traveling to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, make sure you stop by and thank me later.”

Claire Theriot:

Aris Williams:

“The best king cake is from Gambino’s Bakery. Being raised

by New Orleans natives in Virginia, my parents knew that our family should never skip a good king cake during Mardi Gras.

They went as far as to ship their favorite bakery’s king cake to Virginia every year. Although it doesn’t taste as fresh and it doesn’t come already decorated, it was fun to ice the cake and add the sprinkles with my family. It’s been a tradition in my family to eat king cake every day for breakfast until it’s gone.

Now that I’m in college in Louisiana, it’s much easier for me to have king cake during Mardi Gras season. I made sure to get Gambino’s because, in my opinion, the grocery store king cakes taste dry. And of course, I ate it for breakfast. There is something so special about the flavor of Gambino’s king cake. It’s super moist, while not being too overwhelming. It’s sweet, but not enough to give you a toothache.

I also genuinely think they make their cakes with love and that is the key reason why they taste so good. My favorite flavor is cream cheese, but you can never go wrong with the original as well. I think anyone, native to Louisiana or not, needs to try Gambino’s king cake in their life.”

“I personally believe in filled king cake supremacy. King cakes have a very dry texture, and the filling options provide a bit of balance. It should be a fruit-based filling though; filling a king cake with cream cheese is just crazy. However, what is most important is where you are purchasing your king cake from.

Rule number one: King cakes should be purchased from local bakeries, not grocery chains.

Walmart and Rouses just want to garner a profit from the Mardi Gras festivities. There is no heart in those mass-produced king cakes. The baker at your local Gambino’s took their time with each king cake and made them all completely from scratch. As a Louisiana native, I firmly believe that you can taste the difference.

And yes, you do have to buy the king cake next year if you get the slice with the plastic baby in it.

Now that I think about it, that tradition is definitely a choking hazard. Not exactly sure how it became a thing. My advice is to chew slowly.”

Torey Bovie: “If you’re anything like me, then you take your king cake options very seriously. My favorite king cake place is Manny Ran-

bite of king cake from The 5, I thought maybe king cake just was not for me. The next time I had it was when it was filled with cream cheese. After that, my faith in the tradition was restored. So far cream cheese is by far my favorite. That is probably also because I am a very passionate fan of cheesecake.”

Camille Milligan:

“Even though I have grown up in Baton Rouge trying different kinds of king cake my whole life, I have never acquired a taste for it. More often than not, it tastes like a less flavorful, slightly stale cinnamon roll with way too much icing. I also feel very strongly that most fillings (especially cream cheese) clash with the cinnamon and give the cake an undesirable, soggy texture. Although the best piece I have ever had was filled with chocolate and drizzled with caramel, I am not convinced it actually qualified as king cake at that point. Despite my critiques, I love the cake’s vibrant colors,

nostalgic smell and suspenseful gamble of who will end up with the baby.”

back in my mom’s home state, and enjoying king cake on the regular, I can say it was completely their loss.”

Tilly Sipp: Emily Bracher: “As a native New Yorker with a born-and-raised Louisiana momma who often missed home, of course I grew up with king cake during Mardi Gras. In high school, my mom would always insist on ordering some king cakes for my French class (that I was on the brink of failing).

Those king cakes were my saving grace. When I brought them to class on Fat Tuesday, I was no longer the girl failing French, I was just the girl with the king cake hook up. I’ve always loved traditional king cakes for breakfast, but I’m not one to turn down some cream cheese filling with chocolate chips. It turns out that not as many New Yorkers like king cake. Once I made one for my Girl Scout troop and gave a presentation about Mardi Gras, beaming with pride. When all those little Staten Island girls bit into the cake, they complained it was too sweet to eat. I cried in the car ride home. Now that I’m

“I was around 13 or 14 the first time I had king cake. My neighbors had just moved to Florida from Baton Rouge and invited my family over to make it with them. Years later, I can still see the green, yellow and purple sprinkles on top of the sweet homemade treat. In all honestly, I was not quite sold on them at first because I had never really been a fan of that cinnamon roll taste. During my freshman year of college at LSU, some parents of the women in my sorority brought us dozens and dozens of king cakes. I don’t know if it was the years in between, or just a change in taste, but I could not get enough of them. Now after waiting for the season to return, king cakes are finally here, and I could not be more excited. I’m not usually a picky eater, but I’d rather have an unfilled king cake than a filled one. Sorry, Aris.”

Cate Emma Warren: “My first time having king cake was in the dining hall two weeks ago. I know that sounds wild, but I swear it’s true. Coming from Texas, I knew what king cake was, but I had never had a real reason to try it. Being here in Louisiana, I’ve come to realize Mardi Gras is on a whole different level than what I expected.

The moment after I had that first

GRAPHIC BY JACOB CHASTANT

Thursday, February 8, 2024

page 6

A group of students pose at the photo booth.

A mask balloon sits among decorations.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

page 7

A Mardi Gras Indian poses.

A sign spelling out “Mambo” sits on Tower Drive.

A Mardi Gras Indian sings into the microphone.

LSU Campus Life put on Mardi Gras Mambo Feb. 6 to help students get into the spirit of the holiday with food, music and fun.

Photos by Matthew Perschall & Franics Dinh

A worker slices up a king cake.

A decoration tiger appears to roar.

Students gather on Tower Drive.

A jester on stilts waves “Hi.”

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THE Daily Commuter Puzzle by Stella Zawistowski ACROSS 1 Wearing footwear 5 Inquires 9 Baseball field covers 14 Imitate 15 Political survey 16 Simply the best 17 Tot’s bump or bruise 18 Detective’s lead 19 Radio and TV, e.g.

20 Tinkling outdoor decorations 23 Animal that kids can ride 24 “Semi-Homemade” star Sandra 25 “I wish __ listen to me” 26 Annoying person 28 Goal 29 Beat, as wings 30 Surface for gloss 33 Surface for a dandruff treatment 36 Happening too soon 38 Sound in a live feed 39 “__ Misérables” 40 David Blaine’s forte 41 What some have thrust upon them, according to Shakespeare 43 Make holy 44 Cory Booker’s title: Abbr.

45 Rachel’s Biblical sister 46 Female deer 47 Skirt bottoms 48 “And yet...”

49 Genre with rhymes 52 __ puffs (natural Black hairstyle) 55 NASA’s purview 58 Enormous 60 Part to play 61 Reverberation 62 Omit in speech 63 Slaughter of baseball 64 Observed 65 Roughage-filled dish 66 Bastes, perhaps 67 “What are the __?”

DOWN 1 Frowny face

Created by Stella Zawistowski

2 “Deal or No Deal” host Mandel 3 Put in one’s two cents 4 Artificially colored 5 High school sci. class for college credit 6 State of matter 7 Supermodel Heidi 8 Suffering from insomnia 9 Apple CEO Cook 10 Highly skilled 11 Mulligan 12 What analgesics relieve 13 Do in 21 Chain named for a smoked chili pepper 22 Line of stitches 27 Inbox-filling programs 28 Et ___ (and others) 29 Not preserved 30 Olympian’s sled 31 Colored eye part 32 Bench muscles, for short

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33 Droops 34 Restore to health 35 Yemeni port 36 Joys of life 37 Story 42 Pixar clownfish 46 Pressure 47 CR-V maker 48 Underneath 49 Ran a 5-K, say

2/7/24

50 Felt sore 51 Lowly workers 52 Gets older 53 Sportswear brand 54 Bus alternative 56 Voicemail signal 57 Mexican currency 59 Baseball legend Williams

SPORTS STACKING UP

page 9 GYMNASTICS

How does No. 13 ranked LSU women’s basketball compare to the top 12?

BY TYLER HARDEN @ttjharden8 LSU’s AP Top 25 ranking went down four spots after losing to Mississippi State last Monday. It’s now ranked No. 13, its lowest ranking all season.

Things were bound to get more difficult when Southeastern Conferance play rolled around.

With better teams and better competition, the Tigers were going to get any team’s best in conference play. And so far, they have. In fact, the Tigers have lost three of their last six games.

Most of the time, LSU’s worst enemy has been itself. Defense, especially on the perimeter, and lack of depth have been two of the primary issues with the Tigers.

The 12 teams ranked ahead of LSU are as follows: 1. South Carolina 2. Iowa 3. North Carolina State 4. Colorado 5. Ohio State 6. Stanford 7. Texas 8. Kansas State 9. UCLA 10. USC 11. Connecticut 12. Notre Dame Of these 12 teams, LSU has played two of them: No. 1 ranked

Too many perfect 10s?

BY ETHAN STENGER @allthingsethan

points per game.

Offense: Field goal percentage LSU ranks 11th in the country for field goal percentage at 48.4%. Angel Reese and Mikaylah Williams both lead the Tigers with a 50% field goal percentage each.

UConn leads the country in field goal percentage at 51.7%.

Aaliyah Edwards leads the Huskies with a 59.5% field goal percentage. Right behind UConn is

Is there such a thing as perfection? In the world of sports, athletes everywhere have grown up learning that perfection is an unachievable facade and that there’s always something to improve.

So, how is there such a thing as a perfect routine in gymnastics?

The NCAA has been under fire recently from analysts and fans alike about the frequency of the perfect 10, the highest score a routine can receive.

Week 3 of the 2024 college gymnastics season saw a jawdropping eight perfect 10s, the most ever seen in a single week in NCAA history.

Have the NCAA’s judges been too lenient to start the 2024 season?

Like any sport, with human officials, referees, umpires or, in this case, judges, comes human error. Judges are people, too, and with everything moving so fast, it can be hard to catch every little minute mistake in such a short time. Others have suggested that some judges are biased toward

see RANKING, page 10

see PERFECT, page 10

MATTHEW PERSCHALL / The Reveille

LSU women’s basketball freshman guard Mikaylah Williams (12) dribbles the ball on Jan. 25 during LSU’s 76-70 loss against South Carolina in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. South Carolina and No. 4 ranked Colorado.

Here’s a look at what these teams look like offensively, defensively and depth-wise, compared to LSU. Offense: Points per game The one aspect LSU never seemed to have struggled with at any point this season is putting points on the board. The Tigers rank second in the country in points per game at 90.5.

Iowa ranks first in that category at 91.9, which comes to

no surprise as the Hawkeyes are led by Caitilin Clark, who leads the country in points per game at 32.4.

South Carolina is right behind LSU with 89.1 points per game.

This also comes at no surprise with its undefeated record thus far, the only undefeated school left in the top 25.

Of the schools ranked above LSU, Texas ranks eighth at 83.8 points per game, UConn ranks 10th with 83.2 points per game, and Notre Dame is 11th with 83.1

FOOTBALL

Brian Kelly recaps National Signing Day, updates roster

BY PETER RAUTERKUS @peter_rauterkus One of the biggest questions surrounding Brian Kelly when he came to LSU was whether or not he could recruit in the South, more specifically in Louisiana.

He continued to answer that question on Tuesday when LSU football finished with the No. 7 recruiting class in the country, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

It’s Kelly’s second consecutive top-10 recruiting class at LSU and 20 of the 29 signees came from Louisiana. Of the top-10 ranked players in Louisiana for the Class of 2024, nine signed with LSU. “Everybody has to be involved in the state of Louisiana and you can’t take any geographical area for granted,” Kelly said at his signing day news conference.

The emphasis put on recruiting players from Louisiana is evident by this class, but also by how the new coaching staff has been assembled. All of the assis-

tants Kelly hired this offseason have Louisiana ties.

Twenty-eight of LSU’s 29 signees already signed during the December signing period, but LSU signed its highest ranked recruit on Tuesday.

Dominick McKinley, a defensive tackle from Acadiana High School in Lafayette, signed his letter of intent Tuesday morning.

McKinley is a five-star recruit, according to 247 and is the No. 1 ranked player in Louisiana for the 2024 class.

He was originally committed to Texas A&M, but flipped his commitment after former head coach Jimbo Fisher was fired.

McKinley fills a position of need at defensive tackle where LSU lost its three most productive players in 2023.

Kelly also talked about LSU’s incoming transfers at his news conference and said it’s “no coincidence” that four of the six that LSU signed are from Louisiana.

Signing 29 true freshmen compared to just six transfers

see SIGNING DAY, page 10

JOHN BAZEMORE / The Reveille

LSU coach Brian Kelly speaks during an NCAA college football news conference at the SEC Media Days on July 18, 2022, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

page 10

RANKING, from page 9 South Carolina with a 51.6% field goal percentage.

Iowa ranks fifth in this category with a 50.6% field goal percentage and Texas ranks seventh at 49.9%.

Offense: Points differential LSU has had no problem putting points on the board and it has also not had much of a problem gaining separation from opponents this season. The Tigers rank second in the country in point differential at +27.5.

The Tigers are only behind South Carolina, which leads the country winning by an average of 34.8 points. Of the Gamecocks’ 21 games this season, they’ve won 18 of them by double digits.

Their win over LSU is just one of three games this season they didn’t win by more than 10 points, the others coming to North Carolina and Utah.

Texas ranks third in the category with a point differential of +26.2 and Iowa ranks right behind Texas with a +23.3 point

PERFECT, from page 9 certain gymnasts and programs, but there’s no reasonable evidence to back any of these claims.

“I believe that 99% of judges have their heart in the right place and are trying to do the right thing,” Michigan head coach Bev Plocki said.

The influx of perfect 10s comes at a pivotal time in college gymnastics. The sport’s popularity is soaring, and some of the world’s finest gymnasts perform nationwide every weekend.

Have college gymnasts gotten too good at gymnastics?

The top 36 teams in the country attend nationals every year. National qualifying team scores for first and 10th place have increased by over a point since 2010, with the team placing 36th coming closer to a two-point increase.

While the sport’s talent level is at an all-time high, there’s something about the recent increase in perfect 10s that makes it feel less remarkable than it used to be.

But a routine that deserves a 10 should be given a 10, right?

In 2011, only two routines received a perfect 10 all season. In 2023, we saw 80 routines deemed perfect, a 40 times increase, and we will see a lot more in 2024.

January 2023 saw 12 perfect 10s, while this January saw 20.

College gymnastics’ perfect 10 problem is a challenging fix; it’s a balancing act, a scale. Right

SIGNING DAY, from page 9 is a major contrast compared to Kelly’s first two seasons at LSU. “We had a huge need last year. There were issues relative to numbers in our program where we had to go into the transfer portal just to field a roster,” Kelly said. “That’s not sustainable. What’s sustainable is

Thursday, February 8, 2024 differential. UConn ranks sixth at +23.1 and Notre Dame is seventh at +22.7.

Defense: Points allowed Of the top 13 teams in the country, including LSU, no team is ranked in the top 10 for least points allowed per game. This is largely because of strength of schedule; top teams are playing other top teams, and they score almost as much as they allow.

However, South Carolina ranks 11th in least points allowed per game at 54.3. To put this in perspective, South Carolina has played five ranked teams this season, including LSU, and it’s still a leader in the least points allowed per game.

LSU allows an average of 63 points per game, which is about average for not only the entire country, but the SEC as well.

Looking at teams ranked above LSU, Kansas State allows an average of 53.7 points per game, Texas allows an average of 57.5 points per game and Stanford allows an average of 58.4 points per game.

But LSU is comparable to some of these schools as well.

Colorado averages 63 points allowed, Ohio State averages 63.1 points allowed, UCLA averages 63.3 points allowed, and Iowa averages 68.5 points allowed.

Defense: Rebounds LSU’s strength on defense has been in the paint, as it averages the third most rebounds per game in the country at 46.8.

Reese ranks fourth in the country with 12.1 rebounds per game. Aneesah Morrow is tied for 25th with 10 rebounds per game.

South Carolina ranks second in the country for rebounds per game at 47.2. However, it has no player ranked in the top 25 for rebounds per game; 6-foot-7 center, Kamilla Cardoso, is tied for 31st with 9.8 rebounds per game.

Stanford ranks sixth in the country for rebounds per game at 46 rebounds per game. The Cardinals have two of the top rebounders in the country in Cameron Brink, who ranks sixth in the country for rebounds per

game at 11.9, and Kiki Iriafen, who ranks 17th in rebounds per game with 10.6.

Overall: Fouls per game When it comes to being its own worst enemy, LSU may be just that, as it leads the country in fouls per game with 23.3.

No team ranked above LSU ranks within the top 25 of this category except Texas, who ranks 10th with 21.3 team fouls per game.

Overall: Depth comparisons Of the teams ranked inside the top 13, LSU has some of the least depth of any team. Here is a ranking for the average of players to appear in each team’s last two games against a ranked opponent.

• Stanford - 10.5 players • Iowa - 10.5 players • Kansas State - 9.5 players • Colorado - 9.5 players • South Carolina - 9.5 players • USC - 9 players • Ohio State - 9 players • UConn - 8.5 players • UCLA - 8.5 players

• NC State - 8.5 players • Texas - 8 players • Notre Dame - 7 players • LSU - 7 players This may seem like a confusing statistic, but the lack of depth LSU has, especially for important games, could likely be something that holds the Tigers back from exceeding its full potential in the postseason.

Other than Notre Dame, which is in a similar situation to LSU, the other 11 teams ranked above LSU won’t have to worry if a key player gets in foul trouble.

A prime example of this was LSU’s loss to South Carolina.

When Reese fouled out of the game with four minutes left to play, the Tigers had no response in a game where they had control for the majority of the time.

It may be too late to develop players who haven’t always held key roles off the bench, but for the team that averages the most amount of fouls per game in the country, it can’t be comfortable lacking the amount of options other teams have.

now, the perfect 10 is a little less rare than it should be, but when you tip the scale the other way, suddenly, a perfect 10 is unachievable.

“I’m all for the 10,” CaliforniaBerkeley co-head coach Justin Howell said. “I think that it’s good for our sport. I hope we don’t get to a place where it is diluted.”

Too much of a good thing isn’t good, but without the good thing, we lose what makes this sport so special in the first place.

College gymnastics routines are usually shorter and more straightforward, according to many former gymnasts.

Less time to perform means less time for mistakes. For an event like the balance beam, coaches have emphasized to their gymnasts the importance of doing what they need to do and ending their routine as quickly as possible without taking any huge swings.

The risk of possibly singlehandedly losing your squad’s meet isn’t worth the reward.

“It’s like, ‘Don’t do more than you need to, get up there and do a perfect routine because they’re throwing out 10s,’” former twotime Olympic medalist Kathy Johnson Clarke said.

Johnson Clarke wants the judges to pinpoint what they’re looking for and genuinely grade those routine aspects accurately to the best of their ability.

“The code needs to be streamlined, condensed and transparent so everybody is on the same page,” Johnson Clarke

said. “They need to choose.

What’s most important? Technical mastery? Amplitude? Pick five things.”

Some have argued for cutting the number of participants in each event to five to increase the margin of error and put pressure on every routine, knowing the entire meet could come down to a couple of decimal points.

Johnson Clarke isn’t a massive fan of this, either.

“They will get less chances,

do we want that?” Johnson Clark said. “We’ve got to think all of the things that it would trigger, all the things it would change and that makes gymnastics a little bit less exciting.”

Others like Howell say it may only take a slight rule change or two to tip the scale back to even.

Howell suggests restoring the middle line on the vault map so that judges have a better idea of where the gymnast is lying and if they should take off for it, which

would only help the judges be more accurate.

“That should be logical, I think,” Howell said. “The lines are there now to kind of show everybody, ‘That was really crooked, you should take a deduction.’”

Whether it’ll take a significant rule change or a minor fix, the only way the NCAA can fix itsperfect 10 problem is by having the courage to try something different.

player development, retention ,and you do that through building relationships with your players that are here because they wanna be at LSU.” It’s a strategy that Kelly has said in the past he wanted to implement, but issues with roster depth forced LSU into recruiting heavily out of the transfer portal.

Five of the six transfers come to LSU with experience at the major Power Five level, four in the SEC. The other, CJ Daniels, is a wide receiver who spent the last four years at Liberty where he had over 1,000 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns in 2023.

Daniels and Mississippi State transfer Zavion Thomas were

brought in to rejuvenate LSU’s receiving core after departures from top targets Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. The biggest hole that remains on LSU’s roster is in the interior defensive line. With Mekhi Wingo, Jordan Jefferson and Maason Smith all leaving, LSU lacks experience at the position.

The Tigers signed McKinley

and three-star New Iberia native De’Myrion Johnson out of the high school ranks and junior college transfer Shone Washington, but Kelly said it’s a position where they are still looking to add depth.

“We’re still recruiting and we’ll continue to do that,” Kelly said. “We have the spring portal that we’ll address as well.”

MORGAN COOK / The Reveille

A woman holds up a 10 on Feb. 2 during LSU’s 198.475-196.200 win against Arkansas at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La.

OPINION

page 11

Social media content helps glorify toxic behavior on campus AMYRI’S VANTAGE AMYRI JONES @acamelliasssss I’m sure you’ve seen the popular videos of LSU students sharing their thoughts and opinions about an array of topics in short interviews with TikTok hotshot Seth Trotter, but the videos with the most engagement reflect a concerning issue: toxicity, especially as it relates to relationships.

If you watch even one Quad interview video, you’ll be startled by some of the interviewees’ responses. Before I get deep into this topic, I’d like to acknowledge the possibility that some of the students featured in these videos share fictitious experiences or simply say things that they know would warrant a reaction out of the audience.

Regardless of their validity, the fact of the matter remains; toxicity is a social epidemic.

Some of the commonly asked questions in these videos are: “What’s something toxic that you like?” And, “What’s the most toxic thing you’ve done?”

Both questions received responses that would make you clutch your pearls if you heard them.

I mean, who would’ve thought that being choked, having daddy issues, always having to share your location as if you’re a child, aggressiveness, being yelled at and even being manipulative were likable qualities or traits that someone would be attracted to?

It’s important to understand that those answers are signs of trauma in one’s upbringing.

This is why there’s a part of me that feels some form of empathy for these people. However, I can also acknowledge that there’s no overarching justification.

This leads me to my followup questions: Why is toxicity praised? Why do some of us find this kind of content so entertaining? Why not plan a collective field trip to a therapist’s office?

For many people who’ve been traumatized, it’s so easy to become comfortable with suffering since it’s all we know.

So often we confuse love with pain. We think we have to sacrifice ourselves to be deserving of

affection or peace.

Others of us believe that you can’t have love until you’ve suffered. Both perspectives are ridden with misconceptions about what love is. This being paired with people’s need to get attention makes for an awful combination and gives birth to what we see on different social media platforms: hurt and broken people whose inner children are crying out for help.

This is how we should approach interviews like the ones that Trotter produces. We should see each interviewee as someone who’s blinded by the pain and trauma inflicted on them at some point in their lives.

As a collective, we should be producing more content promoting healing rather than celebrating trauma responses. Now, Trotter’s videos didn’t necessarily receive lots of positive reactions, but if you pay attention to the viewers who are a part of Gen Z, they were the main ones to find relatability with the interviewees.

Social media isn’t inherently bad and neither are the students who were featured in those videos. Normalizing toxicity is bad.

REAGAN COTTEN / The Reveille

Seth Trotter smiles to the camera on April 5 in the Quad in Baton Rouge, La. Bonding over trauma is bad.

Being deliberately toxic is bad.

It’d be more ethical to have support groups so that people don’t get trapped in the currents of trauma.

Just because we’ve been hurt

doesn’t mean that we have to let it dictate our lives.

Amyri Jones is a 22-year-old digital advertising and religious studies senior from Baton Rouge.

Conservative hyper-politicization has reached Taylor Swift NATE’S TAKES NATHANIEL DELA PEÑA @NateDerDoner I was never a Swiftie nor a huge Chiefs fan, so I was rooting for Lamar Jackson and the stout Baltimore Ravens defense to trounce them. If not for Zay Flowers’ unlucky fumble at the goalline and Ravens quarterback Jackson’s ill-advised throw during the next drive, the Ravens could have booked a ticket to Super Bowl LVIII. I wish this happened instead of the right-wing pulling a crazy conspiracy out of its ass and trying to shift headlines to its deranged narrative. Taylor Swift has shown her support for liberal causes since 2018 when she endorsed former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen for his unsuccessful Senate campaign in her home state of Tennessee, and she endorsed President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020.

Her credentials as a reliable

supporter of liberal causes is probably what caused this preemptive strike on America’s most popular star by former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

On the morning after the Chiefs won, Ramaswamy made a baseless claim that the Super Bowl would be rigged in favor of them. He said in a post on X, “I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally proppedup couple this fall. Just some wild speculation over here, let’s see how it ages over the next 8 months.”

“Just some wild speculation here” is an understatement, to say the least. It’s not unreasonable for Ramaswamy to speculate that Swift will endorse Biden. But his claim that the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl matters for political purposes is ridiculous.

Even he admits the endorsement will strategically be announced in the fall. But by that

time, no one will care who the Super Bowl winner was. And if Ramaswamy really thinks that the NFL is a liberal tool for the Biden administration, he clearly hasn’t watched football in the past few years.

Enter Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick remains a pariah in the NFL world. Years after his bold protest by kneeling against racial injustice and police brutality, he still wasn’t signed by an NFL team.

There are complex reasons why he was never signed, but it was indubitable that he was a starting NFL quarterback (or at least a capable backup quarterback). The reaction by NFL executives was harsh; they thought Kaepernick was a “traitor” and his kneeling protest during the national anthem was “un-American.”

The NFL isn’t a bastion of liberal thought.

What makes Ramaswamy’s comments and Kaepernick’s treatment in the NFL so relevant is that it shows the right’s descent into the hyper-politization of everything.

Part of the searing Republican response to Swift is her partner’s support for COVID-19 vaccinations. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, or “Mr. Pfizer” as some conservatives dubbed him, starred in commercials for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, encouraging people to get vaccinated. Conspiracy theories and “wild speculations” rule the Republican Party.

Ultimately, conservative hatred of Swift and Kelce is a clear attempt to disparage her fanbase of young people. As Newsmax host Eric Bolling puts it, “she [Swift] is a useful idiot in a political warfare, and that poll [one in five voters will vote for Swift’s endorsed candidate] proves it. Her followers are lemmings who vote not based on issues but based on who their idol likes.”

To cement their fiery conservative base, Republicans are disparaging Swift and an overwhelming horde of young voters. To them, Swift and Kelce are convenient scapegoats who appeal to a group of voters who wouldn’t vote for their vision of America in a mil-

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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.

lion years.

This backlash toward Swift won’t be fruitful in swaying any opinions, but it does confirm that the conservative movement is emboldened enough to politicize anything for its agenda. Joan Donavan, assistant professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University, said this is a play for “capturing and monetizing attention.”

This hyper-politicization of Swift and the NFL reflects an evolved, modern brand of combative conservatism. The fires of conservatism will burn brighter with this hit toward an independent, successful woman in Swift. You can see every conservative commentator with more than three people in their audience going after her.

But, in the long term, monetized hatred will never triumph over a great American cultural icon.

Nathaniel Dela Peña is a 21-yearold political science and history senior from Alexandria.

Quote of the Week “An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.”

Mark Twain American writer 1835 — 1910

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