The Gen Z Issue: Vol. 110, Issue 5

P ROFILE

THE HENDRIX COLLEGE

VOLUME 110 ISSUE 5

THE ISSUE

Cover photo by Rebecca Burks

P ROFILE Let’s Talk about Gen Z 4 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

The Ukraine Crisis: A Hendrix Perspective How Late is Too Late?

Professors Have Hobbies Too TikTok: Trials and Tribulations Defining Gen Z Lynn Nottage Comes to Hendrix!

Learning Through Adversity Social Media’s Toxicity A Culture of Violence March Madness and the Razorbacks What’s Your Number?

History in the Making Coffee Spots in Conway Staff Playlist: Middle School Dance Edition

Editor-in-Chief: Monica Martinez Online Editor: Hannah Diggs Photography Editor: Rebecca Burks Copy Editor: Josiah Vallone Layout Editor: Lauren Allen Layout Editor: Adison Linxwiler Photographer: Emma Sampson Green Photographer: Margaret Sampson Green Photographer: Victoria Horan Staff Writer: Sophie O’Reilly Staff Writer: Phillip Powell Staff Writer: Lauren Allen Staff Writer: Maggie Ryan Staff Writer: Charlotte McCombs Staff Writer: Shayne Brannon Staff Writer: Exavier Wells Staff Writer: Reilly O’Neill

ADVISOR Dr. Felipe Pruneda Senties

MISSION STATEMENT As a student-run and student-funded newsmagazine, The Profile uncovers the smart edge to campus culture: the people, places, ideas and trends that curious, confident students and faculty want, need and ought to know. By critically examining issues important to the Hendrix community, The Profile aims to act as a catalyst for change, a tool for transparency between the student body and faculty and a source of inspiration for its readers to begin thinking glob-

The Staff’s Favorite Coffee Spots

@Hendrixprofile

The Profile At Hendrix

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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Monica Martinez EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Welcome to the Gen Z issue.

Misunderstood, desensitized, overstimulated, compassionate Gen Z. We felt that there was no better time to highlight the characteristics of this generation than right now. There has always been catastrophe and there have always been problems, but we have never witnessed these events through the rapid, vicious lens of the internet until our generation. In this issue, we have brought together stories that have completed a representative puzzle of what Gen Z has grown up with, without having to curate it. These are stories that are pertinent right now. These are emergencies that are hovering closer as we speak.

Some of these story topics include The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent warning that current climate change policy is ineffectively mitigating climate breakdown, the impacts of social media, and a story on the role that mass terror has played in shaping our development. When we talk about Gen Z, we often laugh about the strange sense of humor we have or the fact that “we’re all depressed,” but the reality is that social media, combined with the atrocities we have witnessed through it from a young age, has had tremendous effects on how we see the

world and move about it.

We cover a lot of ground in this issue, and I encourage you to read these stories with care. After all, who better to describe the intricacies of a generation than the generation themselves? This is your issue.

It’s our issue. The first step towards change is self-awareness. This issue tells us who we are, what problems we are currently facing (there are a lot), and figuring out how to move forward is up to each of us individually.

I hope you enjoy the issue we have poured so much vulnerability into. On pages 18 and 19, we catch a little break and give you our rankings for the best coffee spot in Conway and a staff-curated playlist of nostalgic, middle school dance music. How Gen Z of us.

All the love,

Have a question, response, or inquiry?

You can reach us any time at thehendrixcollegeprofile@gmail.com.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on the latest stories.

MARCH 2022

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NEWS

The Ukraine Crisis:

Dr. Whelan and Dr. Kolev of the Politics Department at Hendrix walk the campus through the ins and outs of the Phillip Powell |Staff Writer Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On February 24 of this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized an invasion of Ukraine.

The conflict has since dominated headlines and television with shocking and horrifying images and details of the Russian military’s siege of several Ukrainian cities. As this article is being written, around two million Ukrainians have been internally displaced by the invasion which has also produced three million Ukrainian refugees and a rapidly growing civilian casualty count.

Furthermore, the world has been shocked by the unfolding humanitarian crises in cities such as Mariupol, where residents have been deprived of water, medicines, and energy for more than a week “The West” has been unified throughout the invasion in applying immense economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure against Russia, and military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine to pressure Russia into negotiating an end to the conflict, or at the very least, to punish Russia for its aggression. As the conflict enters its fourth week the fighting has only grown worse. While there has been reporting of potential peace-talks, the Russian siege of the capital, Kyiv, and other major cities has only intensified as Russia targets civilian infrastructure with artillery and airstrikes and the Ukrainian military holds fast in the wake of the assault. In two separate conversations with Dr. Whelan and Dr. Kolev of the Hendrix Politics Department, The Profile has tried to gain a better understanding of some of the causes, dimensions, and implications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In these conversations, The Profile was interested in asking questions that would help provide a local, informed perspective on a crisis that seems so far away from Hendrix, but has so many consequences for the world.

On the topic of the causes and motivations of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dr. Whelan provided some insight on what Russia’s aims are in Ukraine. “What Russia is trying to accomplish is a neutralized vassal in any way, shape, or form. The Ukraine that he would leave behind, in this case, would be a landlocked country with no access to the sea. It would basically be the western part of Ukraine.” The other aim that Dr. Whelan outlined was Russia taking all of Ukraine, commenting that “Russia is moving forces in from the East and the North to try and surround Kyiv. The reason why they are making a dash for that, well there must be a tactical reason to do that. So, it appears that taking Kyiv or decapitation of the Ukrainian government is still the goal—but it’s not clear that 4

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this is an achievable goal.” While the immediate goals of the invasion are more easily identifiable, the motivations Putin and Russia have for achieving those goals are less clear. Dr. Whelan pointed out the context for the invasion created by Putin’s public statements. “When you look at his speeches, that’s the context. Ukraine is not really a state, we are part of the same people. Ukraine is an artificial state…

Crimea made sense because there was a lot more local support for annexing Crimea. But, there is also the perspective of what if he has lost his mind because he is trying to achieve a goal that cannot be achieved without the complete and utter destruction of Ukraine. Even if he were to leave now, what is he going to be able to extract economically out of that region? How long is it going to take for the costs and benefits to start lining up? Because the costs are enormous.” When Dr. Kolev was asked about how Russia benefits from invading Ukraine, he said “In my mind, this is oriented internally, and this is more my interpretation, but Russia—more so than the vast majority of other countries—has a very large subset of the population that cares about greatness, about Russian exceptionalism. This is one of the most amazing cultures in the world, and it takes its spheres of influence seriously. The Slavic world and the Russian-speaking world…Russia has liberated them in the past and is pushing against the Ottoman Empire, this other big culture. So, when I think about Putin’s goals, he delivers that with no punishment time and time again. And I’m not saying whether he is right or he is wrong—it resonates with domestic constituents. His endgame is to survive in power, and to do that he needs to deliver, and the vast majority of people are responsive to these cultural goals.”

Finally, Dr. Whelan and Dr. Kolev both talked about the implications the conflict has for the international system and the global economy. On the liberal international order, Dr. Whelan said “If the narrative before was that the western order, the liberal international order, was falling apart and on the retreat—it’s not that this invasion changes that. But in a certain way, and I think this is the more optimistic view, there is a return to or a pointing to principles and international law to say this invasion is wrong. It doesn’t mean the liberal international order is back—it’s going to change, and it will take a generation to see how it changes.” Dr. Kolev, who specializes in comparative politics, spoke more about the implications of the conflict on the global economy. “The thought of a globalized world is more interdependent, and if you make countries

: A Hendrix Perspective interdependent, they don’t go to war. But what we have seen is that there are some ways in which a country with a very valuable export can actually hold the rest of the world hostage. I think that is weaponizing interdependence, and what Russia has learned is that it can do that. Adam Smith thought every country will have their one thing that they are good at, but I think that is dangerous. What we are observing is that if one country has a monopoly on a particular thing, like oil or energy, they can weaponize that. So, this teaches us that interdependency is good, but there are different types of interdependency. Globally, we could cut Russia out and be okay, but the issue is that some of the countries that are essential for this decision have not diversified their imports and they rely upon Russia for energy.”

As the Ukraine Crisis enters its second month, what is clear is that Russia’s aggressive and unjustified invasion of Ukraine has led to immeasurable suffering unleashed upon the Ukrainian people. The conversations with Dr. Whelan and Dr. Kolev was intended to add some local perspectives on a conflict that feels abstract and foreign, a conflict we watch slowly unfold on our televisions, but the crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had terrible humanitarian effects on millions of displaced Ukrainians. If you, The Profile reader, would like to donate to the humanitarian relief of the Ukrainian civilians suffering through this conflict, the organizations listed below are working to provide housing, food, medicine, relocation, and other aid to Ukrainians displaced by the invasion: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) https://help.rescue.org/donate/ United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) https://www.unicef.org/ukraine/en Amnesty International https://donate.amnestyusa.org/ International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) https://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/europe-central-asia/ukraine

Photoss (left to right) by Victoria Horan and Creative Commons MARCH 2022

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HOW LATE IS TOO LATE? The UN says countries are not taking climate change seriously Charlotte McCombs |Staff Writer Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a statement with a grim warning: we are heading, full speed ahead, towards a fate fueled by climate change. The report, which is over 3500 pages long, details how some countries’ refusal to implement adequate policies regarding the detrimental effects of climate change (or in some cases even acknowledge them) will lead future generations to a premature death caused by extreme heat, malnutrition and a mass exodus from anywhere near a coastline. The report details how many aquatic animals will become extinct, along with the coral reefs. Bugs and animals will carry diseases deadly to humans. Entire island nations will be underwater. At this point, it’s inevitable that we will see at least a version of this fate. It’s up to the world’s leaders to act so that we can temper it as much as possible.

The effects have already begun to appear. Scientists have been proven wrong in some senses — though not in the way that climate change deniers thought they would be. In fact, climate change effects have begun even sooner, and at lower temperatures, than previously anticipated. Extreme storms displaced 13 million people throughout the continents of Asia in Africa in recent years. Water scarcity is steadily becoming a significant problem for nearly half the world. Diseases like malaria are killing more people and spreading to new places. There is only one possible explanation for this — and of course, it’s climate change. There has already been an uptick in violence due to desperation — and the IPCC believes that it’s only going to get worse. In fact, the IPCC believes that pretty much everything is only going to get worse — unless we act fast.

In addition to the overwhelming natural effects that climate change will have on our planet, the IPCC is also worried about the social inequalities that will flourish in a post-climate change world. Although many lowincome island nations barely contribute to the emission of greenhouse gasses, they will be the ones to suffer the consequences of the wealthy nations’ greed. They will experience the most death, and naturally the most deracination. The infected bugs and creatures will thrive in tropical climates — and homes along beaches and shores will quickly be swept underwater, leaving millions without their homes and belongings. Although climate change is a global issue, and the effects will certainly reach everyone (even the most privileged, wealthy and sheltered) the poor and marginalized will disproportionately be negatively impacted by climate change. Despite being in the throngs of desperation, starvation, disease and unlivable temperatures, social inequality will still prevail.

However, the report isn’t entirely grim. The IPCC lays out a trajectory that countries can take, starting now, to repress the effects of climate change as much as possible. Whether they will implement these policies is another question.

The IPCC says that, more or less, we’re just too slow.

We react to climate crises as they happen, not as they

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Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

are predicted. We only take charge once the effects have already metastasized (if we even do that.) Right now, we’re standing in the middle of a train track, with the train of climate change heading straight towards us, with no time to brake. If it’s already hit us, there’s nothing we can do. But — we have a couple of years left where we can avoid a horrible end. We may have a few broken bones, but at least we’ll be alive.

But it’s not going to be easy. The IPCC says that we must change practically everything about our way of life.

We must entirely change the way we get energy. The use of fossil fuels must go out the window. We must restructure cities to promote a greener energy system. In other words, we’ve simply got to stop interfering. We must let nature, quite literally, take its course. If we can restore rivers and wetlands, stop interfering with marine life through overfishing, we might stand a chance. We, as humans, rely on other species more than we can ever grasp. By getting in their way, we’re not only killing them, but we’re killing us.

Although the effects of climate change can sometimes feel distant, they’re closing in on us, getting closer and closer to becoming a new reality. We as individuals are pretty much powerless. We must rely on world leaders to do the right and moral thing for us and our future generations. But now that we are in the midst of an ongoing health crisis (COVID-19), and a new European war is possibly beginning, and political division is at the forefront of most political discussions, it seems like world leaders have put the climate crisis in the backseat. But we can’t afford this.

For in a few years, climate change will be all we are able to talk about — because it will be a fight for survival. As the IPCC says – now is the time to put an end to it.

FEATURE Exavier Morrison Wells |Staff Writer

PROFESSORS HAVE HOBBIES TOO:

Dr. Daniel J. Whelan is a professor of Political Science, scholar in the field of International Relations, co-author of “Human Rights (5th edition)”.....and a music producer.

During his time at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies (at which he obtained his Ph.D. in International Relations; Political Theory; Human Rights) he embarked upon a project with a few of his colleagues in which he managed the creation of a website.

Whilst this project was still underway he turned his spare attention to another rather technical task, the digitization of all his Beatles Vinyls into a digital format. He asked a member of his project team if there was a piece of software that could accomplish such a task and as it turns out there was, for a price however (but in the age of internet piracy this barrier to entry did not prove to be a stumbling block). With a pirated copy of Sony Soundforge in hand Whelan began the task of converting his entire Beatles record library (a rather extensive collection) by plugging in the record player directly to his computer and spinning the Vinyl to create usable sound files. After the files were firmly at his disposal he started off on the gargantuan task of re-mixing and re-mastering the entire Beatles catalogue (213 songs, more than 10hrs of audio that was released between 1962-1970). Whelans work with these tracks went far beyond what many of us would consider to be a simple remix in which songs are simply chopped and modified to get a different or combined sense of sound.

“Whelan works at a more fundamental level, changing the volume and tonal levels of instrumental and vocal tracks, and sometimes outright reinserting takes that had been vetoed…Listening to Whelan’s remixes, you get a much more evenly distributed stereo sound, and you can hear — and often, even tactilely feel the difference, as if you’re more enveloped by the individual instruments and vocal lines. Beyond that, he also overturned some of those

original editing decisions, changing the shape of many songs by coaxing out instruments that were once buried in the mix.” – from Arkansas Times article “The Beatles Anew” After accepting a professorship job here at Hendrix he took the experience that he had garnered from this now more than a decade long project and began to work to work with student and faculty bands and performers alike and has helped to put out a sizable number of tracks, ep’s, and even albums (such bands include Swampbird, The Uh Huhs and Tsar Bomba; all of which were student bands and Hendrix College). These bands offered up their recordings to Whelan and he worked his magic on them to often astounding results as was admitted to by the bands themselves. Quite often even mistakes that made their way onto the tracks were kept in as they added to the complexity of and rhythm of the music in just such a way that it would lessen the work if it were to be removed.

After completing a recent project for the band “Colin vs.

Adam” he was looking for work and found his new gig with Philosophy Professor James Dow and his “psychedelic post-punk” band Thisness. They are set out to begin recording sessions over the summer with a release hopefully soon to follow.

There was a time in which Whelan considered making a go at music production for a living but due to the laborious nature of getting the necessary equipment and studio set up combined with his worries that it “might get boring”, such a path was abandoned. But who knows, with Dr. Dow’s upcoming projects of setting up a studio and record label, maybe Whelean might just have a chance to do so yet.

MARCH 2022

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TIKTOK: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS Discussing the pitfalls of the social media giant Sophie O’Reilly|Staff Writer As with all internet frontiers, the video content sharing app TikTok has presented a slew of social concerns. The complaints levied against the app are largely familiar to those who have heard this debate before. It is yet another place where viewers can damage their mental health, consume misinformation, and put vulnerable populations, such as children and minorities, at risk for harassment and inappropriate engagement.

While there are countless ways to enjoy TikTok and its content, the seemingly addictive nature of the app makes it easy to slip into unhealthy levels of consumption.

TikTok took the social media market by storm upon its inception in 2016. As of January of this year, it was the seventh most downloaded social media app, ousting even Twitter and YouTube.

It is also the seventh most popular social media site as of September 2021, with approximately 600 million more active users than Quora, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, and Snapchat. TikTok is a highly profitable social media outlet. It has an estimated value of $110-180 billion, which makes the app’s parent company, Bytedance, the most valued international startup.

Part of the app’s success can be credited to its ability to keep a long-term captive audience among users. Internationally, users spend about 52 minutes per day—or, approximately six hours a week—on TikTok. A small, informal survey was conducted among Hendrix students to gauge their relationship with the app. 67% of participants say they use TikTok with some regularity. Of this pool of respondents, 60% estimate that they use TikTok five or more hours a week. One respondent notes that the app’s design “is designed to suck you in and result in ‘doom scrolling’,” which contributes to the amount of time spent engaging with the app.

Another respondent claims that unmonitored social media use leads to people “rewiring their brains in the same way addiction does, leading to decreased attention span and increased impulsivity.” The short-form feature of TikTok videos allows for what was meant to be a mindless activity to destress to quickly become an all-consuming drain of time and energy.

100% of survey respondents believe that TikTok has the ability to, in one way or another, influence a user’s mental health. Part of this can be attributed to the highly-personalized algorithm. “Your [For You page] is so tailored,” one respondent writes, “that depending on the mindset you’re in you can consume media that is just pulling you deeper into that emotion. This can be great if you’re happy and 8

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generally interact with media that is positive or doesn’t shift your mental state to a bad place, but it can also be dangerous and keep you stuck in this really cyclic kind of torture that is really difficult to escape from.”

One of the potential positives of TikTok is its ability to disseminate information quickly to large expanses of people, especially those in an age demographic that do not typically interact with traditional media. However, because the app’s content is produced by its users, not necessarily field professionals, it is easy to encounter exaggerated or misleading news on TikTok. A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate how ADHD is discussed and taught about on the app. Of the videos that met inclusion criteria, 52% of posts were classified as misleading, with the remaining videos being about personal experiences (27%) or being medically useful (21%).

Given that ADHD is one of the most frequently discussed health topics on TikTok, such a high percentage of measurably inaccurate posts is concerning.

That being said, it is important to remember that TikTok is just like any other social media app: it can be used in a way that is fruitful and fulfilling, or it can be misused and abused. One survey respondent comments, “Sometimes when I’m using TikTok I find it to be a really nice way to relax or pass time—like watching a sitcom in the evening…

I think it’s a good app, overall, and any social media can be harmful or helpful depending on how it is used…” They add that regulation is one of the hardest parts of using the app, and that one of the ways they are able to manage their usage is to “[delete] the app entirely for weeks at a time.”

If you have been inkling for an excuse to escape the cycle of TikTok-inspired drudgery, perhaps this is your sign. However, if you’re like me, you will be hard pressed to get me to delete the app entirely. Instead, consider putting a timer on the amount of time you spend on the app each day, or finding other ways to regulate your social media consumption. Remember that too much of a good thing is possible and that your mental wellness always ought to come first.

DEFINING GEN Z Students share what they believe defines our generation Maggie Ryan |Staff Writer

For this article, I talked to students around campus and asked them to answer this question: “what defines our generation, and what’s the most significant event our generation has faced so far?” Here are their responses: “I think our generation is obviously very technology reliant—as in we have relationships and experience life events through our phones. I wish I had a more unique or revolutionary answer to that part, but I think the boring response is probably the correct one. For the second part, its hard to choose a single event. Thematically speaking, we have undergone a major reframing of what it means to be in public spaces. From mass shootings to Covid, we have become much more cautious/anxious about being out in the world.”

- Annie Elliott, ‘24 “I think that the most significant event our generation has faced is COVID, particularly with the struggles of social experimentation in a time when traditional socialization is barred. This coincides heavily with the normalization of the internet in our lives, allowing us to be more and less connected at the same time (less because it’s always a great substitute for in-person conversation).

Most of our culture is a byproduct of the internet, whether it’s sharing a YouTube video, taking inspiration from TikTok, or working in a way that requires social media as a tool for advertising. And, just like any other generation, we’re not lazier, seeing as the younger generation is usually depicted in that way.”

- Reilly O’Neill, ‘23 “Our generation has a good mixture of iPhone babies but also kids playing outside, like, I had a flip phone growing up, but the only reason I had the phone was because I was running around outside all the time. Also I think there’s a divide between who was allowed to watch Spongebob and the people who weren’t. For the second part, I think the growth of technology is big, growing up with [low-quality] TV’s and watching the development of super rad technology. Another big event was probably Trump’s election, I know that’s when I started caring about stuff. And we also don’t really know how much 9/11 affected us, because a lot of us weren’t born or we don’t remember it, but it changed how the world worked.”

- Abigail Rose, ‘23

“I would say that the rise of social media and the pandemic have been some of the transformational events that have defined our generation on a global level, if that makes sense. I feel like our generation is more open minded and full of advocates. We’ve grown up during the emergence of technology and social media and that has exposed us to diverse ideas and experiences. So, optimistically speaking, social media helped people form movements especially during the pandemic where people advocated against racism, police brutality, violence against Black people, Asian people, and for Trans rights. There are also negative aspects of this easy spread of information like group thinking and peer pressure plus cyber bullying and the ‘cancel culture’.”

- Renova Uwingabire, ‘23

“Memes and social media. Meme culture is really strong with our generation, people make memes about events almost instantaneously. The most significant event we’ve faced is definitely Covid.”

- Kayden Castles, ‘24

“As a generation, I would say we are more politically and socially aware than our parents’ generation. Technology has connected us in ways no-one would’ve ever expected. I think one of the most significant events was actually the January 6th insurrection. I had been at work when it was all happening, and it felt like the world shifted as I was driving home. It’s something I’ll always remember.”

- Ellery Seymour

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Lynn Nottage Comes to Hendrix!

Phillip Powell |Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Natalie Massa

On February 8th, award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage came to talk about her career and to interact with students Lynn Nottage is the first and only woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, once for her play Ruined (2009) and again for her play Sweat (2017). Nottage started her career as a full-time playwright in the early 1990’s after working as national press officer for Amnesty International for four years. She graduated from Brown University in 1986 and then from the Yale School of Drama in 1989, where she studied under renowned playwright Paula Vogel. Aside from Ruined and Sweat, some of Nottage’s best known works include Intimate Apparel (2003), Crumbs from the Table of Joy (1995), By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (2011), and Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (2004). Nottage is also the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Obie Award for Best New American Play (Sweat, Ruined), and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play (Ruined). Both Ruined and Sweat are based in the real experiences and narratives of the subjects of the play. Nottage made several trips to refugee camps in Uganda to collect stories from female survivors of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo— those stories served as the basis for Ruined. For Sweat, Nottage spent years in the faltering, de-industrialized community of Reading, Pennsylvania collecting stories and earning the trust of the struggling members of the community. The plays themselves are fictionalized works, but they are based in the stories and experiences of the people Nottage interviewed.

In her busy day on campus, Nottage conducted two Q&A sessions with students in the Murphy House and Cabe Theater before giving a lecture on her work in Worsham. The Profile was fortunate enough to secure an interview with Lynn before she caught her flight back to New York, and we were able to ask her a few questions pertaining to her work. The resulting interview is printed below: Why do Ruined and Sweat connect so well with audiences, and with our society, and what are you trying to do with your work?

That’s not so much a question for me—that’s a question for you.

I think both of them, when they were written, were about subject matter that perhaps audiences weren’t necessarily turning their gaze toward. In the case of Ruined, the moment it was written, in 2007, there was a war going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Which turned out to be the largest war since World War Two with over six million people killed, and by and large people in the United States were pretty ignorant of what was happening. I think that Ruined really gave folks a window into a world they had never been to—a world they didn’t really understand.

It also highlighted the gender-specific human rights abuses that were occurring toward women. I think in the case of Sweat, many people have said that the play was incredibly prescient because it also gave people a window into a world that was largely being ignored. In this case it was the ways in which deindustrialization was affecting a large segment of the country dependent on factory work. It highlighted the ways in which people were becoming disaffected, and frustrated, and angry—and how that anger, particularly in the white community, was metastasizing in ways that would have dangerous implications for people of color.

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You spoke last night about how America’s narrative is hanging by a thread, so how do you think we move forward, or how do you think theater can move us forward?

Yeah, I mean it’s not my job to move the country forward. As theater artists all we can do is pose the difficult questions and try and use the tools at hand to explore ways in which our narratives are fracturing. Also, I think as theater artists we can imagine a better world.

What advice do you have for future writers?

Something that August Wilson had told me when I asked him a very simple question was that, “A writer writes.” I think that, particularly for younger generations, that folks want instant results without understanding that writing is a craft. It is a skill. It takes time to hone it, and really investing in your own voice and your own vision as an artist is super important.

I think if you take all of those little steps everything will fall into place.

That’s what I can say. A young writer really has to invest in themselves first.

Why are some plays successful and some plays aren’t? t’s always difficult to say why a play hits at a particular moment. There are some plays that are very much in conversation with what is happening and capture the zeitgeist. There are other plays that creep somehow into your soul and open up something inside that’s unexpected. There are plays that speak directly to struggles that you’re going through at the moment, so I think that plays are successful for a multitude of reasons.

Really, I think at the core of plays that succeed are plays that find some kind of truth, and express it in ways that are revelatory and surprising and unexpected.

What excites you about the future of theater?

Everyone is always forecasting the death of theater, which I don’t understand because theater is one of the longest-lasting art forms in the world. Every culture has some form of theater. It’s a necessity. I think what excites me is that there is a new and growing generation of young people in this digital age who are still deeply invested in telling stories in a way that is relatively analog. People want to experience the beautiful communal energy of being in the room together, and I think that’s going to be increasingly important as we become more and more distanced by technology.

How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected theater?

I think what the pandemic has done, for many of us who are practitioners, is to give us time and space to step back and interrogate our practices. To figure out how, and why, and where we want to make theater and whether the spaces we have been working in are safe and inclusive.

I think the pandemic has forced us to be much more introspective in the way in which we approach our craft. Because, at least for me, the world was moving very quickly and there wasn’t time to ruminate and think… and this pause, for me at least, gave me unexpected space.

If you could change something about theater today in America, what would you change about it?

I think the biggest thing I would change is figuring out a way in which we can make theater more accessible, which would mean having some model of national subsidy, similar to what the U.K. has. I feel like it is getting increasingly expensive, even in not-for-profit theaters. In New York City tickets are 100 dollars and that immediately cuts off a large sector of people who won’t have access whether its students or seniors or people on limited incomes, so if I could change anything I’d figure out a way to make theater more accessible.

CULTURE

LEARNING THROUGH ADVERSITY How does trauma affect students’ performance?

Photo by Victoria Horan

There are more Americans that have experienced some form of trauma than those who have not, according to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Yet, our social and educational paradigms have been slow to accommodate those who need additional support. While we are able to measure the impact that trauma has on educational outcomes, implementing programs and tools—especially in a K-12 setting—has proven to be more difficult than meets the eye.

Kaiser Permanente conducted a study in conjunction with the CDC that explored how personal hardship impacted someone’s vocational, educational, and emotional success later in life. They developed a framework called the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) score to try and aggregate how a combination of traumas shaped a person’s behavior. They discovered a noticeable impact on student behavior and academic performance among K-12 students.

They learned that having three or more ACEs corresponded to a 600% increase in the likelihood of behavioral problems, a 500% increase in the likelihood of attendance issues, and a 300% increase in the likelihood of overall academic failure.

These traits also lead to an increased risk of homelessness, drug abuse, and incarceration in adulthood. Further, evidence suggests that it may lead to lower physical health outcomes.

The study makes an important delineation between eustress and toxic stress. Eustress, or “positive” stress, is vital to our ability to engage with the world around us.

It keeps us safe, encourages productivity, and prevents

Sophie O’Reilly|Staff Writer

depression. Dr. Elizabeth Scott argues that, “Without it, we would become bored at best and, in more serious cases, depressed. We would begin to feel a lack of motivation to accomplish goals and a lack of meaning in life without enough eustress. Not striving for goals, not overcoming challenges, not having a reason to wake up in the morning would be damaging to us, so eustress is considered ‘good’ stress. It keeps us healthy and happy.”

There are also forms of tolerable stress, which is when the body’s alert systems activate in a more intense way.

However, what distinguishes it from toxic stress is that there are mediating tools—such as healthy coping skills, strong parental or adult relationships, and a physically stable environment—that prevent the reaction from becoming truly detrimental to the health and wellness of the person.

Toxic stress comes from highly adversarial or dangerous situations. Some categories for ACE scores include forms of abuse, neglect, household dysfunction, behavior, and physical and mental health. These factors can lead to a repetition of these actions later in life. These are the experiences of over 60% of Americans. In fact, almost 17% of people have experience four or more criteria on the ACE scale.

It is our responsibility to intervene early to create a tolerable level of stress in their lives before it turns into toxic or traumatic stress. One of the ways we can do this is by installing empathy-driven educational methods in K-12 education. Kaiser Permanente notes, “Given just how common childhood adversity and toxic stress are, it’s important that schools develop universal traumainformed principles in their educational spaces and structures to reduce overall exposure to adversity and enhance resilience for both children and adults. All school personnel can be trained to understand “disruptive” behaviors and school difficulties as possible symptoms of toxic stress and to respond with compassionate, protective interventions rather than punitive actions.” By taking on the responsibility of mitigating trauma responses early in life, we can lower the burden we place on other social service in adulthood and encourage a stable, healthy lifestyle for our most vulnerable.

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SOCIAL MEDIA’S TOXICITY

Exploring the negative side effects of social media Reilly O’Neill|Staff Writer

Social media has changed considerably from its conception over 15 years ago, but we have incorporated it so deeply into our daily practices that we are often ignorant of its pitfalls. As members of Generation Z, it has become a habit to pull out our phones in order to distract ourselves, browsing the latest Twitter updates on the Ukraine crisis or checking out new recipes on Tiktok. It is difficult to get a breath of fresh air from our studies when the environment we choose to immerse ourselves in can be just as toxic. With the slow transition of COVID-19 from a pandemic to an endemic state, along with the advent of warmer weather, right now marks an opportunity to analyze our screen habits and move towards the future with more clarity.

According to Andrew Perrin and Sara Atske from the Pew Research Center, nearly half of Americans aged 18-29 reported going online “almost constantly”, a number that is disproportionately higher among college students (Perrin and Atske, 1). This is not an opportunity to beat ourselves up for spending large quantities of time on the Internet, but rather to be more mindful and less “automatic” about the way we spend our time. Thus, the first step of the process is recognizing how we feel before and after logging onto a social media platform. We often anticipate the happiness that an exciting new post, article or video will bring us, only to realize that one piece of content is not enough for our addicted brains. One of the most important lessons to take away is that there are diminishing marginal returns from consuming social media, which is just to say that each additional video we watch or post we read makes us less happy than the one before. Eventually, there is a point where we no longer receive satisfaction from what we consume, and often feel worse than when we began scrolling.

The next step is to reevaluate our definition of social media in order to understand its largerthan-expected influence over our lives. While Instagram, Facebook, and Tiktok are some of the first sites that come to mind when we think of social media, there are also networking platforms like LinkedIn and dating platforms like Bumble that don’t fit the traditional mold. Sites that involve lots of interpersonal communication and the sharing of content all fit into social media, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing oneself to others based on their perceived attractiveness, career competency, and intellectual capabilities. Using LinkedIn as an example, being exposed to motivational moments and success stories can be disheartening to one’s own goals and ambitions, perhaps because we think there’s something monotonous or inferior about our own lives. In the back of our minds, we know that the people making these inspirational posts have had their 12

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own failures and setbacks, but it can still be difficult to remember that they exist for everyone.

With all of this information, how can we best amend our relationship with social media? As college students, social media is embedded into our leisure time, and in some circumstances, our working hours as well. While it would be easy to proclaim, “I will never use social media again!”, it can be difficult to leave the system that many of your friends and peers operate in. The solution, not unlike the way we approach schoolwork, fitness goals, or sleeping habits, lies in intentionality and organization. If you’re not looking to completely jump off the grid, but you want to change the amount of content you absorb on a daily basis, allocating a small, specified time each day to social media leisure is a good way to start. Browsing without a purpose or exceeding the time limit you place for yourself online is usually a catalyst for feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

If you have the chance to see your friends, go outside, or have dinner with your family instead, take it. You’ll thank yourself later!

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

GROWING UP IN THE ERA OF MASS SHOOTINGS Lauren Allen|Staff Writer I was born in 2001 on the eve of 9/11. I, like most Hendrix students, do not remember that day, though I grew up hearing about it and watching annual commemorative documentaries on NBC. This was an event that supposedly changed the course of our lives and our country, yet we have no memory of it.

I don’t remember the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007. I was not yet 6 years old when it happened. I wonder if our parents all sat down that evening, sullen with the news of the largest school shooting yet, to discuss their children’s futures.

In 2008 I started first grade. My days were filled with Littlest Pet Shop, cartoons, and playing outside with the other kids in my neighborhood after school.

That year, another shooting occurred on a college campus. I was unaware.

The first shooting that I recall clearly was the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting. It happened in the summer of 2012. I had just finished fourth grade.

Maybe a month after that, I went to the movies and realized that I was terrified to be there. I remembered watching the news about the Batman shooting and hearing about the dead children through NPR. Sitting in that dark theater, I couldn’t help but wonder if that might happen to me too. Less than a year after that shooting, I had my first panic attack when the power went out during a movie at the theater. I was convinced that my mom and I were going to die during that Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie.

The world was supposed to end that December - or at least that was what the Mayan calendar indicated.

But the world didn’t end. Instead, the Sandy Hook shooting occurred. 27 people, mostly kindergarteners, died. I was in the fifth grade when it happened.

It was the first shooting during my lifetime where

almost all of the victims were nearly my age. That felt unimaginable. Unfortunately, in the next few years, violence like that became more common - worse than that, the shootings were no longer a surprise to me.

There have been 5 major school shootings since Sandy Hook. When I Googled a list, I could really only remember one - the Stoneman Douglas shooting in Florida, where 17 people died on Valentine’s Day. I didn’t remember the 2017 Umpqua Community College shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, where 10 people were murdered and 7 were wounded. I did not recall the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas, where 10 people were killed and 14 were injured.

Masacres such as these dot the timeline of all of our lives, and yet most of them are not even major events to us.

In 1996, 16 students were killed in the Dunblane massacre, the UK’s deadliest mass shooting.

Immediately after the event, the UK began discussing gun reform. Ultimately, they banned most private ownership of handguns and semi automatic guns.

They also enacted a mandatory registration of all gun-owners. Since then, there have been no school shootings in the UK and according to the Smithsonian, the level of gun violence in the UK is some of the lowest in the world.

After the Stoneman Douglas shooting, survivors were simply offered “thoughts and prayers.”

Shootings continue and nothing changes. This only works to further the apathy that exists around these kinds of violent events. As gen-zers, our lives have been shaped by incidents of mass violence. As the generation that has borne the majority of the weight of these traumas, I hope that we can also be the generation who fixes it.

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SPORTS

MARCH MADNESS AND THE RAZORBACKS Will the Razorbacks take it all?

Reilly O’Neill |Staff Writer While Hendrix doesn’t have the luxury of operating a Division I basketball team, we can still be excited for the Arkansas Razorbacks who have made it into the 2022 NCAA March Madness tournament, which features the Photo

by Paigebasketball Guess best 68 college teams in the country. Out of the 16 teams in the western division, the Razorbacks were placed as seed #4 this year, which is reflective of their respectable 25-8 finish to the regular season.

Though there are decent reasons to assert that the Razorbacks will reach the quarterfinals in the upcoming tournament, there are significant obstacles that will challenge the team’s path to success.

Throughout the past two decades, the Razorbacks have only managed to make it to the Elite Eight once.

That was last year when duo Jaylin Williams and J.D. Notae fought tooth and nail against the eventual 2021 champions, the Baylor Bears, and the pair is looking to impress again this year. During the 2021-2022 season, Notae scored second in the SEC league in points per game with 18.9 points, in addition to having an average of 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Williams also contributed considerably to Arkansas’s defensive records, putting the Razorbacks in second for average scoring defense and defensive rebounds. Both players have received honors for their outstanding performance, with Williams being nominated to the SEC All-Defensive Team and Notae being awarded placement to the Associated Press’ All-America team. Players Au’Diese Toney and Chris Lykes were also crucial in the success of the Razorbacks during the regular season, especially in the moments when Notae and Williams were benched for fouls and injuries.

Unfortunately, the Razorbacks have displayed a lack of consistent gameplay in recent days. While they won against the quarter finalists of the SEC tournament, the LSU Tigers, with a score of 79-67, the Razorbacks lost their semifinals game to the Texas A&M Aggies by a margin of 18 points. Though the Razorbacks picked up one of the at-large bids for March Madness, this latter performance has somewhat soured predictions for their first round against the #13 Vermont Catamounts. The Catamounts finished their regular season with a 28-5 record, having only lost 1 out of their last 22 games. Moreover, their average margin of victory for these most recent games is an astounding 14.1 points, which is the third highest in the country. Many sources still appear to favor the Razorbacks in this matchup, though others believe

that the Catamounts have the potential to upset their opponents. As a result of this, and largely in response to their sub-par performance in the previous SEC tournament, Razorbacks forward player and March Madness returner Jaylin Williams notes that Arkansas needs “to be the harder-working team” and “respect every opponent”, being cautious to underestimate the Catamounts in the upcoming match.

Assuming that the Razorbacks quash the goals of Vermont and move on to the top 32, and that they are also able to defeat the winner of the Connecticut and New Mexico State match, their chances of reaching the Elite Eight are hinged on Gonzaga University’s first two performances. Gonzaga has historically performed very well in March Madness, having made the Sweet Sixteen over 10 times in the last 20 years, and having received the opportunity to compete in the national championship twice in the last 5 years. This year, their performance has been nothing short of excellent, depicted in their #1 seed selection for the western division and their status as the overall favorite to win the tournament. If Gonzaga wins against Georgia State and the victor of the Boise State/ Memphis game, it will be a fierce uphill battle for the Razorbacks. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that their chances at the Elite Eight are small, though as people say, better luck next year.

Photo by Margaret Sampson Green 14

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OPINION

WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER? Should We Have Another Draft?

Shayne Brannon |Staff Writer

As Russia invaded Ukraine in late-February, many people were understandably afraid of a global military conflict. More specifically, they were afraid of World War III beginning and the United States getting involved.

Although at the moment that still appears unlikely, these fears will linger, especially among young men between the ages of 18 and 25, who, in dire circumstances, could be drafted to fight in such a war.

Now, the first thing to note is that former President Richard Nixon actually ended the draft back in the 1970s, making the U.S. military entirely volunteerbased. In order to reinstate a draft, Congress would have to pass a new law enacting military conscription again. Such a move is incredibly unlikely even in the event of a war [because of gridlock] or because the current U.S. Congress isn’t very good at passing laws for anything other than raising their own salaries.

Reinstating the draft would have to be a bipartisan effort in the most partisan legislature in history. That said, with the right motivation on both sides, doing so would be a rather simple act because the Selective Service System - enacted by former President Jimmy Carter - already keeps a register of male U.S. residents who are within the age range for conscription. The Selective Service System does not keep track of other eligibility factors such as health conditions.

The only situation in which the U.S. would likely reinstate the draft would be if the majority of the population supported it. After all, it was ended because of massive opposition among citizens to both the draft itself and the Vietnam War as a whole. These same sentiments have made a huge resurgence in the 21st Century thanks to the unnecessary, costly, prolonged, and failed War in Afghanistan. It’s well known at this point that the original invasion was based on a lie about weapons of mass destruction and racist rhetoric fueled by 9/11.

Perhaps even more significant than any moral outrage to the War in Afghanistan, though, is the length of it. The war lasted for twenty years; from 2001 to 2021, meaning that it spanned almost the entire lives of draft eligible people. War was a constant part of life for generation z, one that we grew to despise because of both the lies it was predicated on (most of gen-z doesn’t even remember the beginning of the war or campaign in support of it) and the general failure of it. All war has ever done for us is be a looming threat and a source of bloodshed. Even now, although the War in Afghanistan has ended, the U.S. is still unofficially engaged in other conflicts overseas.

I think it’s safe to say that this generation would oppose reinstating the draft. A majority of the U.S. would probably oppose reinstating the draft and for good Photo by Emma Sampson-Green

Photo Courtesy of Creative Commons reason. Even a war deemed just by the general public would be a victim of its predecessors’ legacies.

For example, the U.S. - both its government and general populace - have been very supportive of Ukraine in the past few weeks. People recognize that Vladimir Putin is a dangerous dictator and that the people of Ukraine are fighting for their freedom and deserve the support of the rest of the world. Despite this, the Biden administration has made it clear that directly getting involved in the war is out of the question. Americans are tired of war and even this one, which is of the highest consequence, needs to stay out of our hands.

If Putin were to invade any NATO country, however, the U.S. would have its hands tied by alliances and be forced to declare war on Russia. Even in this circumstance, I cannot see a draft being instated nor would I support one.

Part of this sentiment comes from the fact that I would be eligible, and really really don’t want to fight in a war. Another part comes from the fact that the United States going to war has not ended well in a very long time. Every war in the Middle East - which have been incredibly unjustified - has drastically destabilized the region and left the people there in a worse situation, and we lost both the Korean and Vietnam Wars (which were also not particularly well justified). I want no part of America’s next failed military endeavor.

The U.S. is a military superpower with a long track record of “assisting” our allies and then leaving them to clean up whatever mess we cause. A draft would force people to engage in this reckless destruction. It would demonstrate disregard for the lives of draftees as well as those of the people they are sent “to protect” as is so often the case.

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HISTORY IN THE MAKING: WOMEN’S HISTORY

Looking back on the political triumphs and turmoils for women in the past several years Charlotte McCombs| Staff Writer

This year marked the 35th Anniversary of March as Women’s History Month — a month dedicated to the memory of influential women, the political impact of the female voice, and the empowerment of modern women. A lot has changed for women’s political and social rights ever since Congress declared March as Women’s History Month in 1987.

Journalists called 1992 “The Year of the Woman,” following the controversial Anita Hill testimonies and the drastic increase in female politicians in Congress (so by that, I mean the Senate gained four women. Yay?) Congress passed The Violence Against Women Act in 1994. Leaders defended Roe v Wade (although now it hangs on by a thread.)

Is it enough? I don’t think so. I think that women’s rights still have a long, long way to go.

The Presidential Election of 2016 collectively traumatized liberal Americans — but, I think, particularly damaged the collective psyche of the American women. I was an overtly political, unabashedly feminist Hillary supporter (although I was barely a teenager.) I spent weeks preparing myself to “witness history” in watching the first woman to become President of the United States. Of course, I was (to put it lightly) sorely disappointed.

I think that, although Hillary Clinton and the Presidential Election and the White House all seem so beyond the reach of the typical American woman, Clinton’s loss was a real knock to our collective confidence. If the United States won’t elect (despite her flaws) a capable and intelligent woman over a mentally unstable and ignorant man, then why on earth should we feel that we can accomplish anything at all?

In 2016, feminism, which I used to think people took marginally seriously, became the butt of jokes.

I got called the extremely original and clever comeback “Feminazi” on too many occasions to count. Sexual harassment and violence became an issue at my high school. I couldn’t believe it.

And I most certainly wasn’t alone, when I felt the resonance of the Trump win in my typical, average American female life. We lost on a national level. So,

therefore, we lost everywhere.

However, I believe that the Presidential Election of 2020 was a turning point. In a way, it felt like a fresh start. Although the female candidates for president in the primaries didn’t last very long, Joe Biden offered American women a beacon of hope — “I commit that I will, in fact… pick a woman to be vice president,” Biden said during the first of a series of bizarre COVID debates. Of course, he kept his promise — choosing Kamala Harris as his running mate. Later, she became the first female Vice President of the United States. Not only was she a woman, but a woman of color. It seemed like maybe feminism (and therefore, the term “feminism”) might experience a comeback. People might take it more seriously. Perhaps people would take women more seriously.

At the start of 2022, a year after Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President, I don’t think all that much has changed. I still feel the resonance of Trump’s presidency as if 2016 were yesterday. Roe v Wade is in the process of being overturned. The gender pay gap is still an issue that politicians are reluctant to address (and has to be defended as even existing in the first place.) In a world where people pit social issues up against one another to determine which is the most “important,” it can feel as though women’s rights don’t even make the list in the first place. (Can’t we work on all of them?)

It’s a depressing world for the American woman (although, when has it not been?)

Maybe, as Kamala Harris takes more control of political affairs and proves her strength and capability, feminism will become a talking point again. Although it seems unfair to put the weight of the feminist movement (and the progress of all American women) on the shoulders of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris, the past few years have shown that our progress depends on their success. This begs the question, though — what would the world look like if it were the same for men?

Photo by Victoria Horan

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WHAT’S BREWING IN CONWAY?

Coffee shop reviews to carry you through the rest of the semester Maggie Ryan| Staff Writer

Conway is home to an ever-growing array of coffee shops—all within 15 minutes of campus by car. With at least eight different cafes (not including the second or third branches of a few shops that have taken root around town), this college town has no shortage of variety for students looking for an extra boost to help them through the end of the year.

Demure Located in the parking lot of Woodlands Baptist church on Dave Ward, this small coffee trailer offers basic drinks along with a few signatures, one being the Rowan, named after the owners’ son and flavored with honey, hazelnut, brown sugar, and cinnamon. There are picnic tables nearby, but the outdoor grab-and-go style doesn’t provide much protection from the looming heat of the Arkansas sun. According to their instagram, Demure’s primary focus is on serving the catering and event coffee scene—which explains the small-scale, limited hours currently offered by the team. All in all, Demure offers a lovely cup of coffee for those willing to pay a little extra and wait a little longer for their cup—great to visit, but maybe not the best option for cash-strapped caffeine seekers in need of a quick cup.

Blue Sail A Hendrix favorite, this cafe is located within walking distance of campus (though no-one will judge you for driving over), straight past Fausett and down Front Street, just past the edge of downtown. With an indoor space offering plenty of seating for studying, first dates, and casual interventions alike, Blue Sail baristas happily serve a loyal customer base with any number of their well-loved staples. Blue Sail offers signature drinks along with a rotating seasonal menu, currently including a cherry-mocha latte that tastes like a burst of fresh spring air. Regulars will recognize the popular Kraken and Shakerato—the hot and iced versions of Blue Sail’s signature cinnamon and brown sugar drink—on the yearround menu of favorites.

T.H.I.N.K. (Therapy In A Kup) Another Conway staple, T.H.I.N.K. ‘s drive-through location just off of Harkrider offers a quick cup of joy anytime between 5:30am-7pm during the week. T.H.I.N.K. prides themselves on their signature espresso and community investment, often donating a percentage of profits to local charitable organizations. The second Conway location on Dave Ward has a small but effective seating area perfect for focusing on a lengthy essay, and a spacious bar ready to be covered in study materials.

With what I found to be the smoothest espresso in town, any of T.H.I.N.K’s seasonal or permanent menu items are a surefire way to brighten any coffee-lovers’ day.

Zeteo Located at the edge of Downtown Conway and Oak street, Zeteo’s offers a quaint outdoor patio perfect for light reading or a friendly get-together in mild weather. In the harsher weather of mid-summer or winter, customers can retreat indoors to the smaller, but relaxed seating area. Zeteo’s indoor space is best suited for conversation,

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

lacking larger tables to spread out books and papers across. Zeteo offers a few unique coffee and soda creations for the bold, but their menu also includes a selection of well-loved classics.

Round Mountain Housed in a strip mall just past the Prince street Walmart, this Conway classic is often filled with the active chatter of loyal customers. Round Mountain offers a small but intimate seating area, perfect for a quick study session or chat with a friend. Local art is often on display for customers to view and purchase as they sip seasonal favorites such as the locally-inspired Ozark Latte, or the bright-and-fruity Strawberry Ginger Lemonade.

Doc’s Coffee + Creamery Nestled in Pickles Gap Village, a few miles away from campus, this shop dishes out fresh fudge and ice cream along with their expansive coffee menu. The ample seating area and easy-going atmosphere provides a calm retreat from the bustling shops sprinkled through Conway’s town center. Doc’s is the only shop on this list to offer affogatos, a treat made by pouring a fresh shot of espresso over a fresh scoop of ice cream, a perfect union of hot and cold, bitter and sweet. Unfortunately, the same distance from central Conway that gives Doc’s its out-ofthe-way vibe also makes it a destination that really only should be reached by car—or the very ambitious cyclist willing to risk it all for the delectable treats this shop provides.

7brew Started in Rogers, Arkansas and has quickly grown into a popular chain serving a variety of drinks. With two locations in Conway, 7Brew offers a plethora of flavored coffee, redbull, and smoothie flavors alike. The quickserve drive through service guarantees quick access to whatever craving arises, and with plenty of non-coffee options, 7Brew caters to a crowd ready to get their caffeine and get on with their day. Open until 10pm on weeknights, this drive-through exclusive shop is the perfect option for late-night study sessions.

Starbucks The classic coffee chain we all know and love, Starbucks has three locations across town, with each location boasting a parking lot even more difficult to navigate than the one before. Classic drinks such as the frappuccino, refreshers, and teas make Starbucks a wellloved staple, and the convenience of in-app ordering and a digital rewards system is especially enticing for absentminded coffee-lovers that can never remember their physical punch cards.

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MARCH STAFF PLAYLIST

songs that the profile staff loved to hear at the middle school function Cupid Shuffle by Cupid Party in the U.S.A. by Miley Cyrus Tik Tok by Kesha Kiss Me Thru the Phone by Soulja Boy Paper Planes by M.I.A. Low by Flo Rida Domino by Jessie J Dancing Queen by ABBA I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston we are young by fun!

Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake Gangnam Style by PSY What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction

NOSTALGIA EDITION 18

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THE BEST COFFEE IN CONWAY

...according to profile staff

Docs Coffee and Creamery Zeteo Coffee Blue Sail Coffee Doc’s Coffee + Creamery THINK Coffee Blue Sail Coffee 7 Brew THINK Coffee Blue Sail Coffee Blue Sail Coffee Blue Sail if you want a place to work, THINK if you want a ridiculously good coffee THINK Coffee THINK on dave ward if you need to work!

Photo by Becca Burks

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1600 Washington Ave. Conway, AR 72032