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THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
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Leath lays out vision for Auburn’s future President promises to make Auburn a premier research institution, hire 500 faculty By LILY JACKSON Managing Editor managing.editor@theplainsman.com
Steven Leath, now officially Auburn’s 19th president, said the state of Auburn is strong, but strong is not enough to take the University to the next level. Leath was installed on March 29 in the Auburn Arena. Following former Student Government President Jacqueline Keck, Daniel Svyantek, chair of the University Senate, and Beau Byrd, president of the Auburn Alumni Association, Leath laid out his vision for the future of Auburn University — a future focused on innovation, research, visibility and growth. “It’s a bold vision, and I want it to be crystal clear right from the start,” Leath said. On multiple occasions, Leath expressed his ambitious goals to not only have a meaningful impact on Alabama but the nation and world, as well. He said with the help of the Board of Trustees, his leadership team and state representatives, the vision for Auburn’s future is clear and bright.
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INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
Steven Leath speaks to the audience at the Installation of the Nineteenth President ceremony on Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
COMMUNITY
Council OKs bump to downtown height
CAMPUS
After delaying vote, city will move forward with increasing height regulations By KAILEY BETH SMITH Community Reporter community@theplainsman.com
Amid much controversy, the City of Auburn voted on Tuesday night to raise the height ordinance in the downtown area, potentially paving the way for new developments. Anxious citizens awaiting the decision of the council filled the council chambers on Tuesday evening.
The council voted 7-1 to raise the height in the downtown area from 65 feet to 75 feet, the original height in the city’s master plan. Some members of the community have been fighting this proposed change for years, while others have embraced it. Mayor Bill Ham said that throughout the last several months and years of the height controversy, he has discerned that the main problem is not the height itself — it is the design of the buildings. Before the meeting began, Ham proposed an idea to the council to commission a design task force to address growing concerns over the downtown redevelopment plans. This Design Review Task Force will be comprised of three members of the Auburn community and two city staff members. This team would not 75’ have any legislative power but would be able to make recom65’ mendations to the Planning Commission based on its experience and insight in design and city planning. Auburn residents David Hinson, Dan Bennett and Anna
Dennis Solomon were suggested for appointment to the task force by Ham. Hinson, a 21-year resident of Auburn with five generations of family in Lee County, held the position of head of Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture for 10 years and is a current professor at the University. He and his teams have been nationally recognized for design. Bennett, another Alabama native and 18year resident of Auburn, is dean emeritus at Auburn with a master’s degree in architecture from Rice University and a bachelor’s in architecture from Auburn. He currently sits on the city Planning Commission as the mayor’s representative. He is a registered architect and has served on several architectural review boards. Solomon, whom Ham described as “a member with distinction from the citizen rank,” is employed by the Auburn University Pharmacy. Though the mayor was hesitant to use the name Architectural Review Board, Ward 5 Councilwoman Lynda Tremaine found
COMMUNITY A.M.E. Zion congregants reflect on race relations 50 years after MLK’s assassination Churchgoers speak on their experiences with racism during Easter Sunday service Page 6
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Hundreds of backpacks sit on the Auburn University Green Space as part of a demonstration by mental health advocacy group Active Minds.
Backpacks without owners raise suicide awareness By HANNAH LESTER Campus Writer campus@theplainsman.com
Backpacks rested against the plush grass of the Green Space. There were hundreds. The sky was clear and blue above, the air crisp but comfortable, a perfect day. Against the backpacks rested pages of lam-
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LEATH » From 1
“Our vision for Auburn is to become a world-class academic, research, and service university in the true spirit of our land-grant heritage,” Leath said. Leath stressed the importance of acting on the roots of Auburn’s land-grant institutional foundation and charter. Those chartered tasks include student innovation and growth; scholarship, research and development; and engagement and outreach through leveraging the first two goals. EDUCATION, STUDENT GROWTH: INSPIRE
VIA MARK SCHIERBECKER / FLIKR
Jane Goodall speaks at James Madison University in September 2014.
Scientist Jane Goodall to speak on campus By LILY JACKSON Managing Editor
Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, will be speaking at the 16th annual Women’s Philanthropy Board Spring Symposium and Luncheon on April 16. Goodall’s presentation will begin following the luncheon in the Grand Ballroom of The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. The luncheon is sold out but should tickets become available, guests can be placed on a waiting list. Another presentation will begin at 10 a.m. in the hotel auditorium and will feature Cathy Saunders, head of registered investment advisory business at Putman Investments in Boston, and Brie Williams, vice president and head of practice management at State Global Advisors in New York. “Empower, Elevate and Achieve: A Financial Guidebook for Women” will be presented by Saunders and “The Power of
DOWNTOWN » From 1
hope in that aspect of the evening. Tremaine has been calling for an architectural review board for several years and said that it would be a step in the right direction during a fall interview with The Plainsman. The mayor’s proposal, however, was not enough to change her mind on the height variance. She said that the controversy was a perfect storm that resulted from an uncomfortable situation for all involved. “The words I have heard have been spoken with passion,” she said. “I am seeing citizens who are upset with the direction that our city is taking. ... People feel like they are being ignored.” Susan Honeycutt, an outspoken opponent of the height ordinance, was appreciative of the compromise proposed by the mayor but was also unimpressed with its use as a replacement for concerns over the height variance. Other citizens echoed their approval of the task force, which would function similar to a model program instituted in Mountain Brook. Ward 7 Councilman Gene Dulaney also supported the resolution, citing the city of Mountain Brook’s approach to design and development. City Manager Jim Buston clarified to residents that there are many details to still be worked out but was enthusiastic about the proposal.
BACKPACKS » From 1
inated biographies. Their cloud settled over the area, invisible and unsettling. College students. Eyes that would never light up again. Smiles that would never again be shared. Degrees that would never be earned. Some had graduated. Others were still pursuing their educations, their futures cut short after they took their own lives. Among the many backpacks rested those of three Auburn students, Justin Weimer, Thomas Osborne and Clark Kelley. Kelley, an engineering student at Auburn, who loved the St. Louis
Women in Leadership: The Making of the Fearless Girl,” will come from Williams. Goodall is known internationally for her work as a scientist, conservationist, peacemaker and mentor. When she was just 26, Goodall began working in Tanzania with wild chimpanzees. In 50 years of work, Goodall has studied chimpanzees and sparked awareness for their condition. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 in an effort to continue pushing research forward in Gombe, Tanzania. Once young adults expressed their interest in her endeavors, she co-founded Roots & Shoots. She has published over 100 books and her most recent publication was, “Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants.” The Spring Symposium brought Former First Lady Laura Bush last year. The Women’s Philanthropy Board is the flagship program of the Cary Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies. Buston will draft the mayor’s proposal, and the hope of the council is to have it on the agenda at the April 18 meeting. “Downtown is the priority,” Ham said. “There is an increased commitment to the downtown area through cityscaping and streetscaping.” Although every citizen who came forward seemed optimistic about the mayor’s proposal, some citizens continued to express their concerns over the height vote and asked for the council to again slow the process. The body had planned to vote on the change during its last meeting but delayed the vote to this week. Ward 2 Councilman Ron Anders thanked the community for their communication and concern. “I am glad we delayed the vote from two weeks ago until today,” Anders said to the chamber. “My family has very deep roots here.” Tremaine was the only council member to vote no and was applauded by several citizens for her decision. She called for a public meeting open to both sides of the issue in order to allow the council more time to hear the arguments of the people. “Without a doubt, this has been the most passionate, most emotional and toughest issue,” Dulaney said of the debate over the ordinance. Dulaney said that he understood the concerns for the downtown area and spent time weighing both sides carefully. He described the height change as a grand opportunity to improve the vitality of the city.
Cardinals and the Auburn Tigers, left the Auburn Family on Aug. 5, 2017. He was active in his youth group at church as well. In the almost 46-minute-long video made after his death, you can see Kelley as a newborn, a young child, a young adult and in photos with friends and family. He appeared happy, living a normal life as a child, teenager and adult. There are photos of Kelley attending games, taking family photos, posing with superheroes and living a “normal” life. “Despite his polished public appearance, Clark struggled mightily with mental illness, which caused his ultimate demise,” read Kelley’s biography that rested against his
Leath said the Auburn student experience is “one of the crown jewels” of Auburn’s performance. He said in response to “robust facultystudent access,” post-graduation statistics are favorable. That being said, the University will hire more than 500 tenure-track faculty by 2022. The hiring foundation will be based on the University’s mission of expanding research and development. Leath’s staff told The Auburn Plainsman that an increase of instructors would allow for growth of the student body, while working toward Leath’s research aspirations, as well. The Office of the President said diversity is valued greatly, and they see building a diverse pool of candidates when hiring incredibly important. By announcing the hiring initiative nationwide, Leath and his team see a more diverse applicant pool in the years to come. Leath said his main priority is students. As a part of the installment schedule, Leath held a Student Celebration on the Green Space on Wednesday, March 28. He mingled with students, addressed the crowd and visited with the organizations who performed and entertained.
“We will strategically target our areas of research and scholarship in STEM, agriculture and veterinary medicine, among others, but we will also expand into disciplines with clearly identified promise — such as kinesiology,” Leath told The Plainsman. “No area will be overlooked as we assess all possibilities for promising new additions.” Leath said the changes will occur in the next five years. He emphasized that expanding research and sitting on “groundbreaking intellectual property” would not pass in the coming years. VISIBILITY, MARKETABILITY, BUSINESS: TRANSFORM
“We will implement the practices and structured processes to convert IP into marketable new products, new therapies and new value-added services to foster the businesses that create jobs here in Alabama,” Leath said. He said a strategic planning process directed by Beth Guertal, professor in environmental science; and Bruce Tatarchuk, professor and director of chemical engineering, will assess on-campus needs. The team will reach out to other faculty and staff to create an overarching perspective. New facilities, equipment, housing, labs and administrative needs for recruiting will all be assessed in the coming months. Leath said the University will focus first on the current strength in STEM and agriculture but will not overlook expanding departments. Leath announced that funding for the many projects ahead is on schedule, noting the funding campaign, “This Is Auburn” that finished 16 months ahead of the initial completion date.
WHAT STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW:
Plans for new dining options, more parking and additional residence hall capacity. The planning team hopes to be able to eventually accommodate all freshman.
Leath said the University has a responsibility to instill strong work ethic, sound character traits and high values in students during their time on campus. “We engage students to make valuable contributions to the world they live in and to lead their fellow citizens in creating meaningful change — particularly with respect to those most in need,” Leath said. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: INNOVATE
Leath said there is room to grow in the areas of scholarship and research. Citing many positive steps toward the goals Leath has set for the University, he said feels the University can do more. “We need to be more efficient and more streamlined, to be great stewards of our funds, and carefully reinvest those funds in our new priorities. We will earn the reputation as the University that business, industry and governments seek,” Leath said. Reorganization of departments, expanding faculty and increasing allocated funds to better serve research and development is on the table for the upcoming years. “We will target a broad range of strategically selected disciplines across the University. The strategic planning process led by faculty will to a great extent determine the direction we take,” Leath told The Plainsman. THE CHANGES TO COME IN DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH:
Research and economic development have been split into two vice president level roles. Leath said the hope is that the split will “maximize the value of the intellectual property” developed and “accelerate business.” Auburn Research Park will transform into an Arts and Innovative District with future lifestyle and cultural additions. New facilities will be added to the area. There are three facilities currently in planning, specifically. Auburn will begin to work with the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. Plans for new research funding, competitive incentive programs and an expanded graduate student program are in the works.
backpack. “Mental health problems, and the debilitating issues that accompany them, are often misunderstood.” Active Minds, an organization dedicated to raising suicide awareness for college students, filled the Green Space with hundreds of other backpacks like Kelley’s on April 2, 2018. They aimed to remember students who will never laugh again, never pursue their dreams. The backpacks without their owners were placed as part of a suicide awareness and prevention campaign called Send Silence Packing, said Courtney Burke, one of the organizers. “Over a thousand backpacks representing the amount of hallowed
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE ALREADY:
Presidential Awards for Interdisciplinary Research were announced; more than 100 proposals submitted in early March. New Graduate Research Fellowship program announced.
As the University expands, Leath said he plans to increase Auburn’s visibility on a national platform. One of the main priorities of a land grant University is outreach and engagement. Leath said visibility and awareness will put Auburn in the position to reach further. “I’m not advocating we brag or boast. That’s not the Auburn way,” Leath said. “But there’s nothing wrong with Auburn getting its fair share of well-deserved recognition for our tremendous abilities and accomplishments.” Leath said visibility is critical as hiring presses forward to the goal of 500 tenuretrack faculty. Efforts such as the Critical Conversation series, in which Auburn brings in nationally known speakers and thinkers, are examples of how Leath and his leadership staff plan to increase Auburn’s visibility. During his time at Auburn thus far, Leath has published articles concerning higher education topics on his personal LinkedIn page. Discussions such as these are examples of his personal efforts to warrant discussion — using Auburn as a springboard. Leath’s staff said in addition to conducting foundational scientific research, they will work toward forming partnerships with growing industries. He reached out to each segment of the University’s make-up, from staff and students, to the Auburn Family and the University’s business partners — pushing each group toward a higher level. Leath closed with a quote from former President John F. Kennedy: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things … Not because they are easy, but because they are hard … Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills … Because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win … ” And a “War Eagle.”
student lives who died by suicide each year,” Burke said. Several of the backpacks were those the student’s themselves owned and even contained personal items. Kelley’s backpack was sitting in between a larger collection of backpacks that spelled A and U. “There’s always help, and sometimes it’s difficult to find the right thing that helps, but treatment is effective whether that’s medication, therapy or combination of both,” Alexia Ruiz said, another one of those on the Green Space raising awareness. “There’s always a solution, we just have to keep trying.” On a bright orange and white laminated page was a biography of
Osborne, an Auburn senior who left his friends and family in April 2015. “He suffered in silence, and forever our hearts will ache knowing the debilitating loneliness and pain he carried alone,” Osborne’s biography read. “He was a very spiritual person with a great sense of humor. He was bright and compassionate. We miss him very much, and his loss has scarred us deeply.” The campaign has been active since 2008, Ruiz said. “Never miss the opportunity to hug, hold and tell your loved ones and friends how much you care,” Osborne’s biography said. “Be active in their emotional and mental welfare even when there are no visible signs.”
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OPINION
OUR VIEW
All undergraduates should receive their fair share
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By EDITORIAL BOARD Spring 2018
After a two-day celebration and ceremony last week, University President Steven Leath was finally installed as Auburn’s 19th president. In the Auburn Arena, Leath delivered a speech that laid out his goals for the University and was intended to inspire Auburn faculty and students. Leath’s overarching goal is for Auburn to become a top-tier academic, research and service institution. To accomplish this, our
new president shared his intention to hire more than 500 tenure-track faculty by 2022. Most of this new staff is expected to be in STEM fields, and the plan is intended to attract more Ph.D. students and research projects. We commend Leath on his commitment to hiring more personnel for Auburn and for his long-term goals of having Auburn become a premier research institution. However, we feel strongly that incoming resources and new tenure-track professionals should be evenly hired throughout the University’s
colleges. A commitment to bettering Auburn must benefit all students at the University. From 2012 to 2017, the percent of classes taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty decreased from 62 percent to 56 percent, according to a report by the University Senate from March 2017. The same report shows that classes taught by GTAs and other nontenured instructors has increased from 23 percent to 24 percent. This trend is worrisome. While non-tenure-track faculty are often great teachers, many students fare better and learn more in classes taught by tenured professors, having access to the knowledge of someone who has gone far in their field. Students pay high tuition to attend Auburn, and they’re entitled to the most experienced faculty. By having too many classes taught by GTAs, students may feel they are losing out on a part of their education. We understand the opportunities that come with having a GTA teach a class, as it gives them an income and experience in a line of work they themselves may enter. But an overreliance on GTA-taught classes can be unfair to undergraduate students.
The steps toward increasing tenure-track faculty are appreciated, but we feel it is important to be deliberate in placing the new faculty throughout the entire University. Hiring more tenure-track faculty for all majors ensures better education at Auburn for all students and can help recruit more prospective students. A high school student knowing they’ll receive an education from a score of tenured professors, whether they head into the history track or an engineering track, is more likely to keep Auburn high on their list. An intent to better Auburn as a research institution should come as part of a plan to better Auburn as a whole. This requires hiring more tenure-track professors for all colleges and majors and ensuring resources are distributed fairly across disciplines. We believe in Leath’s vision for Auburn, and we’re excited to see it come into fruition. We understand his focus on Ph.D. programs, attracting research projects and working to boost Auburn’s name recognition. We want to make sure this initiative doesn’t leave behind other undergraduates at Auburn.
SGA COLUMN
Students can make a difference with parking, transportation By AUSTIN CHANDLER Letter to the Editor
Parking. The word that commonly answers the cliché questions asked by Auburn students and administration. “What is the worst part about Auburn?” “If you could change one thing on campus, what would that be?” “What is one of the downsides to attending Auburn?” As soon as we step foot onto campus, Auburn students are quick to blame a lack of service that we desire as a necessity. In an ideal Auburn world, a student would have a parking spot right in front of their class. They could park wherever they want, leave whenever they
want — life would be convenient and easy. We wouldn’t have to play the game of circling parking lots to dodge Parking Services vehicles or risk driving to afternoon classes in hopes of not getting a ticket. That would be very wishful thinking. The fact of the matter is that this isn’t our reality; rather, every student deals with these inconveniences. But what can we do as students to voice our opinions in ways other than just complaints? Let me start first by saying this: Parking Services is not your enemy. Don Andrae, the manager of Parking Services, is one of the best administrators that Auburn has. He is always willing to work with students, listen to our complaints and think of innovative
ways to help students move around campus. If you do not believe me, just stop by his office in the South Quad Parking Deck. The Manager of Transit Services Rex Huffman has the same attitude, also taking students’ comments about the daily operations of Tiger Transit into concern. We need to continue to provide feedback to parking and transportation issues on campus. Auburn University Parking Services, Tiger Transit and Facilities have hired a consulting firm to perform a Transportation Demand Management Study for all modes of transportation to campus, from campus and within campus. On Thursday, April 11th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in room 2223 of
the Student Center, an open forum will be conducted where all students, faculty and staff can present their concerns for parking and transportation on campus. This will be very different from the normal town hall setting. The forum will use a format where the person will actively participate in providing information on various “learning walls” around the room. They will be tracking how we get to campus, locations we come from and so much other information through interactive tables. This data will be used by the consulting firm, as well as Auburn administrators, to best plan out our future for parking and transportation on campus. This is our time as students to make a difference. Without constructive
student input, administration can’t provide solutions that meet students’ needs, so let’s show up. This forum and study across campus will be the backbone to change: change that will be for the betterment of students, administration, faculty and Auburn as a whole. As you are grabbing lunch from Chick-Fil-A, walking to class or studying in the quiet zone, please stop by next Thursday, April 11. Let’s all voice our opinions as students so we can change the question of, “What would you change about Auburn?” from “parking” to “nothing.”
The views expressed in columns do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Auburn Plainsman.
HIS VEW
That Che Guevara T-shirt you’re wearing doesn’t mean what you think By COLE DAVIS Contributing Columnist
The infamous bright red T-shirt bearing the face of the Latin American revolutionary, Che Guevara, has been a popular fashion piece among many liberals for around two decades. Those who wear the shirt see themselves as carrying on the values of resistance to capitalist oppression and solidarity with the working class. But in all actuality, Che shouldn’t be associated with either of these things. In fact, the record shows Che was a totalitarian, mass murderer whose face does not belong on the T-shirts of college students who profess to love liberty. Cuban exile Humberto Fontova wrote that in 1959, Che began his authoritarian career by arranging the burning of 3,000 books. These belonged to an anti-communist organization that had been tasked with the gathering of information on Soviet KGB agents. This was only the beginning of the “freedom fighters” excursion
into politics. In Che’s mind, a Marxist revolution required violence, censorship and an extermination of all dissenting opinions. The mass killing of political dissidents is what Che would initially become famous for as he was made Fidel Castro’s “chief execution officer.” In January 1957, Che wrote to his wife in a letter, “I’m here in the Cuban hills, alive and thirsty for blood.” A few weeks after he sent this letter his thirst was quenched. Upon discovering a member of the revolution who was not quite radical enough, Che took it upon himself to dispatch the contrarian because no one else stepped up to do so. It was this instant that Che remarked in a letter to his father, “I discovered I really liked killing.” He made it clear to Castro that he really had no knowledge of military tactics. Instead, it was his bloodlust that allowed him to rise quickly in the ranks. In a sense, he was the Himmler to Castro’s Hitler. Under the direction of Che, thousands of Cu-
bans were either killed, imprisoned or sent to labor camps during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Due to falsified death certificates, the number of people killed by his secret police is unknown. The Black Book of Communism, which was compiled by French scholars to determine the total number of human lives lost in the 20th century due to political ideology, estimated the people executed under the direction of Che during the first year of the Cuban revolution at 14,000. That is the equivalent of 3 million deaths in the U.S. based on populations figures. The London Telegraph presented in a 2009 article that more than 30,000 people have died attempting to flee Che and Castro’s socialist paradise. Throughout Che’s leadership in the Castro regime, he sent thousands of men, women and children to his prison “La Cabana” or slave labor camps. One dissident of the regime, Roberto MartinPerez, commented that, “There was something seriously wrong with Guevara. ... For Castro, it
was a utilitarian slaughter, that’s all. Guevara, on the other hand, seemed to relish it.” He was not the humanitarian savior of the oppressed that many like to claim. In an article for the Independent Institute, Alvaro Vargas Lloso wrote Che’s initial labor camp on the Guanahacabibes peninsula was the “precursor to the eventual systematic confinement of dissidents, homosexuals, AIDS victims, Catholics and Afro-Cuban priests.” This reflects many of Che’s racist remarks made in his Motorcycle Diaries like when he called blacks “indolent and frivolous” for example. He is hardly a role model. In Fontova’s Exposing the Real Che Guevara, the author presents how in 1957, Cuba had a significant middle class with an average wage (per eight-hour day) higher than those of Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. The same report continues that Cuban labor received 66.6 percent of gross national income (the figure in the U.S. was at 68 percent and the figure for Switzerland was at
OPINION PAGE POLICIES COLUMNS AND EDITORIALS
The Auburn Plainsman welcomes letters from students, as well as faculty, administrators, alumni and those not affiliated with the University.
The opinions of The Auburn Plainsman staff are restricted to these pages.
Letters must be submitted before 4:30 p.m. on Monday for publication. Letters must include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification, though the name of the author may be withheld upon request. Submission may be edited for grammar and/or length. Please submit no more than 500 words.
This editorial is the majority opinion of the Editorial Board and is the official opinion of the newspaper. The opinions expressed in columns and letters represent the views and opinions of their individual authors. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the Auburn University student body, faculty, administration or Board of Trustees.
The views expressed in columns do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Auburn Plainsman.
THE EDITORIAL BOARD CHIP BROWNLEE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LOREN KIMMEL CAMPUS EDITOR
ALEX HOSEY LIFESTYLE EDITOR
LILY JACKSON MANAGING EDITOR
SAM WILLOUGHBY COMMUNITY EDITOR
JEREMY NEWMAN OPINION EDITOR
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INGRID SCHNADER PHOTO EDITOR
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64 percent). After Castro appointed Che to Minister of Industries, the island nation could barely stay afloat. The results of his policies were so destructive that even large Soviet subsidies weren’t enough to bolster the country’s economy. All of these factors, including his collusion with the foiled Black Liberation Army terror attacks and 1965 terrorist bomb plot of New York City, solidify the notion that he was no hero at all. While Che may have appealed to the oppressed, as dictators often do, all he managed to accomplish was the creation of a totalitarian state that systematically murdered its citizens. No matter if you are on the left or right, it is of the utmost importance that you understand the political symbols you display on your clothing, unlike the careless students I recently saw brandishing their despotic hero on red Tshirts.
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HONEYBEES By MELISSA MITCHELL Campus Writer Geoffrey Williams is an Auburn University entomologist and one of 16 researchers to receive a $283,000 grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research’s Pollinator Health Fund. According to Williams, beekeepers have been experiencing a 25 percent increase in bee losses, mostly seen in the winter months. He will use the funding to research two specific stressors affecting this decline; pesticides and Varroa mites. “There has been a lot of work looking at individual stressors with bees but there is nothing about the effect of two stressors,” Williams said. “The grant will help us continue research on multiple colonies kept in the campus Bee Lab.” His assistants, Emily Muehlenfeld and graduate student Selina Bruckner, help maintain the bees and equipment in the lab and also analyze data from the experiments. “I never was really interested in insects until I realized that this work is very important,” Bruckner said, who is working toward her master’s degree in entomology. Before coming to Auburn in 2016, Williams was Bruckner’s professor at the University of Bern in Switzerland. He inspired her desire to work with bees. “I had studied entomology and parasitology and somehow was able to fuse the two together,” Williams said. “It was very opportunistic and I feel fortunate to do work that some people want to do as a hobby.” In addition to their current research, Williams, Muehlenfeld and Bruckner are taking charge of the APHIS National Honey Bee Survey this year. During the month of April, beekeepers can document losses and identify patterns that will help the survival of future colonies.
MELANOMA By STAFF REPORT The Oncology Service at Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine will enlist the help of man’s best friend to launch a clinical trial for a new melanoma treatment drug. “This study is designed to test a new drug that may be useful in treating melanoma, or skin cancer, which most commonly occurs in the mouth in dogs,” said Bruce Smith, professor in the department of pathobiology and director of the Auburn University Research Initiative in Cancer. The peptide MMX is the drug tested in the study to determine its effects on tumors. “The melanoma is measured, the drug is administered, and we begin a series of treatment and monitoring the tumor to measure its response,” Smith said. “The dog will need to visit Auburn weekly for five weeks. In addition, owners will administer the peptide daily at home and keep a logbook about their dog while it is being treated.” The drug is not chemotherapy, but rather, a medication tested on dogs with no known side effects. “It appears to act quickly to shrink the tumors,” Smith said. “It has been under testing in a clinical setting for about 10 years and now, it is ready to be tested for FDA approval.”
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
Mark Wilson speaks at the Final Lecture on Monday, April 2, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
LISTEN UP
Director of Civic Learning Initiatives Mark Wilson delivers Final Lecture encouraging students to listen in order to create change By ELIZABETH HURLEY Campus Reporter In the Final Lecture Monday evening, Mark Wilson strove to remind students where they came from and in the Final Lecture Monday night. The Final Lecture is a program created to give all Auburn students the opportunity to participate in a teaching award given on behalf of the students. Assistant Director of Student Involvement Brad Smith said it recognizes professors who have made extraordinary contributions to Auburn University through classroom teaching and service. Wilson reminded the audience that research, instruction and extension are inscribed in the Auburn University symbol and chose extension as the one to focus on. “Auburn’s commitment to extending knowledge, extension, is found all across campus in each college and school as well as through the division of university outreach,” Wilson said. “We are a part of a long tradition of land-grant universities who see, as part of our DNA, a commitment to the state and its people.” Wilson reviewed the tradition and history of Auburn University to remind students, especially seniors, of the University’s commitment to extension. “We extend, we reach out, we respond to need, we create things to solve problems,” Wilson said. “Seniors, I hope that you will always remember the University that you call your home has this kind of commitment to the people of the state, nation and world.” Since 2009, Wilson has taken a group of students to the Clearfork Valley of Tennessee for spring break, where they
worked with the Clearfork Valley Institute and learned from each other rather than projects. Wilson believes learning from others helps to create positive change. He said social change comes from forming relationships where that change can come from and wanted the students present to think about how they can cause social change and where it originates from. “There’s a tradition of social change and effort that doesn’t offer the solutions or the answers to certain problems but offers a willingness to work alongside people so that solutions emerge out of that relationship,” Wilson said. Wilson said in order to create those relationships, students need to pay more attention to those they are around so, he encouraged students to actively listen more. “We teach public speaking, but we don’t teach public listening,” Wilson said. “We teach you to find your passion, but we should also teach you to be very interested in the passions of others. Starting where citizens start, listening to where people are willing to go.” We, as students and as members of society, have so much more to learn from history. There is much history that has yet to be discovered that we can learn from, Wilson said. To discover and learn from that history, students must actively search it out and then listen to all of it, which is why Wilson stressed listening matters. “The adventure begins with listening,” Wilson said. “So seniors, you are about to be unleashed upon the world… you’ll wake up each day in a community of place, an ecology of democracy. You yourself will be an extension of the University shaped by its people and the Auburn.”
INCLUSION
Student leaders discuss racial reconciliation By STEPHEN LANZI Campus Writer Members of the Auburn community took part in worship and conversation to bring different races together through a shared faith in Christianity at the Davis Arboretum on Tuesday evening. The third-annual Amazing Grace was held the eve of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The event featured a panel discussion from student leaders at the University as well as group worship and small-group
discussion. After a band and choir comprised of members from various local church groups played Christian music for worship, Bri Thomas, SGA executive vice president of outreach, moderated a discussion on the current race climate and strategies of how to move forward. Black Student Union President John Blanding discussed how it can be difficult being a black individual in a predominantly white community and dealing with micro-aggressions and prejudices. “Due to my background and my
skin color, I am afforded the opportunity to ignore those things, but because of my faith, I’m not ever going to,” said Jacqueline Keck, outgoing SGA president. Multiple panelists said their bond with someone of another race with a common faith is tighter than the relationship of a non-Christian person of the same race because of their bond with Christ. “We are family,” said Jay Maye, Auburn student leader, to the crowd. “We’re supposed to be fami-
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ADMINISTRATION
Leath announces plan for hiring spree
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By LILY JACKSON Managing Editor President Steven Leath made news on Thursday with his announcement of a hiring spree: 500 tenure-track faculty by 2022. The hiring will revolve around Leath’s mission to expand research and development for his third goal of strengthening the University’s visibility. Once average turn-over and retirements are factored in, the University faculty will only increase by about 100. Currently, Leath said he sees the Auburn student experience, a response to “robust faculty-student access.” “Faculty-student access” might include non-tenure track faculty or ad-
junct professors as well. In 2016-17, 34 percent of student credit hours were instructed by nontenure-track faculty, 22 percent were instructed by graduate teaching assistants and 27 percent of credit hours were instructed by instructors and lecturers. In fall 2013, Auburn’s tenured and tenure-track faculty fell short of similar research universities in five disciplines. Looking at Leath’s former institution, Iowa State has one of the lowest numbers of adjuncts, sitting at 13 percent. The majority of the new hires will be seen funneling into STEM programs, while not leaving out developing and growing industries. “We will strategically target our ar-
eas of research and scholarship in STEM, agriculture and veterinary medicine, among others, but we will also expand into disciplines with clearly identifies promise — such as kinesiology,” Leath told The Plainsman. “No area will be overlooked as we assess all possibilities for promising new additions.” The hiring process will be lead by Beth Guertal, professor in environmental science; and Bruce Tartarchuk, professor and director of chemical engineering. The team will be taking feedback and thoughts from other members of the concerning departments. For more on the installment and Leath’s vision for Auburn, see page one.
The Auburn Plainsman
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
LEADERS
honest, things may start to be uncomfortable, and that’s okay because they don’t call them growing pains for nothing,” Thomas said. “It’s not easy to grow, and it’s never going to be easy to grow, but that’s not what God wants you to do.” Before concluding with prayer, those in attendance split into groups of about six or seven to continue the conversation in a small-group setting. “There were three females, three males, three black people and three white people, so you got a very balanced viewpoint, and everybody spoke quite a bit,” said Grant Reese, senior in political science. In his small group, Reese encouraged people to seek out a different perspective as he had done by going to Black Student Union meetings as a white male. He specifically encouraged white people to do so as he said white people have a particularly comfortable situation in Auburn. “For you to pray through, ‘Lord break my heart for what breaks yours,’ but you’re not going to listen to anything outside your little bubble, you’re not going to do that,” Reese said. “You have to learn about what other people are going through before you take action.” Byrd, now a staff member of Campus Crusades, said he was pleased with the turnout and how students lingered after the event to continue the dialogue across the fields at the Arboretum. Byrd liked how the panel portion of the event went as the previous two Amazing Grace events had featured keynote speakers. “It was even good for my heart to sit and listen to the panel and have a lot of my own stereotypes and biases attacked and to develop empathy for brothers and sisters who don’t look like me,” Byrd said. “That’s something I struggle with a lot just because I have a very unique background that’s all white, so I want to engage in the conversation.”
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ly. Our father gave us life as all of his children. We are a part of his royal priesthood. So, if we can’t come together as family, then we’re going to have some serious questions to answer when we get to the gates.” Maye told the story of how he was excited to change his reality when he came to Auburn from a predominantly black high school, but he grew resentful when he grew to believe that Auburn self-segregates itself. “I ended up resenting white people because of the things they were doing to me,” Maye said. “All the biases they were putting toward me, I was putting toward them — I became an unfriendly person… to the point where I became the thing I hated.” Maye said one day Walker Byrd, then SGA president and organizer of Amazing Grace, asked him to go to lunch. After he laid out all the built-up frustration to Byrd, Maye thought he would never hear from him again. To Maye’s surprise, Byrd asked him to go to lunch again, and they proceeded to get lunch on a regular basis to talk with one another. Blanding said he gets angered and frustrated when people support racial reconciliation but do not sacrifice the way he and others do. “I could count on my hands how many of us are actually really working for this and are being pulled in every single direction at all times,” Blanding said. “It angers me sometimes — I’m not going to sugarcoat it — when we create these environments and you guys don’t act on it it feels as though your work is in vain.” Blanding, along with the rest of the panel, challenged the audience to think about what actions they are going to take to meaningfully create racial reconciliation following the event. “As we go on a little bit further, I’ll be
PAGE 5
GRACE HARKIN / PHOTOGRAPHER
Panel members discuss with the crowd at the Amazing Grace: Continuing the Story of Racial Discrimination event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 in Auburn, Ala.
GRACE HARKIN / PHOTOGRAPHER
Audience members listen to the panel discussion at the Amazing Grace: Continuing the Story of Racial Discrimination event on Tuesday, April 3, 2018 in Auburn, Ala.
ADMINISTRATION
Auburn HR developing modern ‘Tiger Talent’ system for employees By PAUL BROCK Campus Writer
The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art presents
Strokes of Nature : Plein-Air Painting in the Nineteenth Century
a student curated exhibition.
On Display
Little Art Talks
March 27th –
When: March 29 th 5-5:45p.m.
April 4th
Where: JCSM Auditorium
Auburn’s Department of Human Resources is developing a new talent management system called Tiger Talent, which will replace and modernize various aspects of HR’s current employment system in the city that currently employs over 13,000 people. “We have a lot of our processes that are still manual, paper-driven processes,” Associate Vice President of Human Resources Karla McCormick said. “We were trying to figure out a way to automate those processes, which would then free up our staff to do more value-added things for our customers.” McCormick said that HR started to work on finding a new system around two and a half years ago. After examining a variety of vendors, HR chose PageUp to develop a new system. PageUp systems are already used at over 50 colleges including Florida, Alabama and Michigan State. “[We] really wanted to find a system that would be an integrated system as much as possible,” McCormick said. “Where we could tie up those processes together and have data flow from one work process to another.” The system will be divided into five “modules” or processes that Auburn employees go through when working for Auburn. The first module is position description, where Tiger Talent will provide job descriptions. The second module is applicant tracking, which iswhat potential employees will use to apply for jobs at Auburn. “There is a database, but it’s somewhat manual, that data then flows into an applicant tracking system,” McCormick said. “We do use an applicant tracking system called People Admin, but we were looking for some functionality that wasn’t available within that system, and we don’t really feel that that system has adapted with the needs of the workforce.” The third module is onboarding, and this part holds the information of individuals who have been offered a job and prepares the paperwork necessary for them to work at Auburn. “The goal in that is to get all the paperwork out of the way so that the day that person arrives on campus, we’re ready for them, and they can start work immediately,” McCormick said. “[New employees] will have access to systems, parking, their employee badges and building access, so that on day one, they’re ready.” Once an employee begins working at Auburn, the fourth module, performance management, will keep track of an employee’s workplace performance and will automate the performance review process which is currently all done on paper. The final module, learning management, will keep track of an employee’s training, and will allow supervisors to schedule training. This will replace Latitude Learning that Auburn is using now. “[The fifth module] we think will give more visibility for our supervisors into the training that their employees have had, kind of a complete transcript, so to speak, of training that an employee has been through,” McCormick said. “It’s replacing a system that exists today but adding a lot of robust functionality that we don’t have today.” Position description, applicant tracking, and
performance management will be mostly used for all non-faculty positions. All employees of the University will use onboarding and learning management. “[Another] aspect is sustainability, how can we make sure that the system is maintained over a long period of time, and we have the ability to make modifications as necessary,” said Rod Kelly, senior director of talent management. “Longterm sustainability was really one of [PageUp’s] competitive advantages and we’re going to get the benefit of that.” Kelly said that PageUp will train a few staff at HR to be “superusers” who can reconfigure and add to the system as needed. This means that HR will be able to quickly modify Tiger Talent as needed without having to hire a programmer every time. Director of Student and Temporary Staffing Services Abbi Brown said that her department is still in the process of determining exactly how Tiger Talent will be used with student employees. Auburn University currently has around 4,000 undergraduate student workers. “Student employment is still new to HR, it’s transitioning over from the career center over to us,” Brown said. “In that process of bringing student employment as a whole to HR, we are taking that on as an opportunity to figure out from students what it is that they both want and need, so we’ve got this new system, it’s got this large functionality, and now it’s our job to figure out how to apply that functionality to the students.” Brown said that Student and Temporary Staffing services has been interviewing student employees and has spoken with SGA about ways to improve student employment with the new system. HR will still be conducting surveys with students for the next few months as they decide exactly how Tiger Talent will be used by students. HR sent out surveys to Auburn employees in December of 2017 asking what they like and dislike about the current employment system and ways it could be improved. Communications and Marketing specialist Patrick Johnson said that HR received around 500 surveys back from employees. “A lot of good information came out of the surveys,” Johnson said. “People were fairly open about what they thought, they didn’t always have the most glowing remarks about what we were currently doing, but that’s OK because that feedback is going to help us configure [Tiger Talent].” HR also held three forums in Febuary to receive more feedback from employees, and HR liaisons are being used to collect input from employees. In addition, HR is in the process of creating work-advisory groups of around 60 employees who will be providing feedback on Tiger Talent. “Our hope is that by the time we have gone through the configuration of the system and that it goes live, that everybody on campus is already familiar with it,” McCormick said. “They’ve been involved in the conversations about it, they’ve had input into it, they’ve been trained on it, so that when we get ready to go live, our campus is ready.” The first three hiring modules of Tiger Talent are scheduled to start by the end of 2018, and the last two will be fully implemented by Spring 2019.
community THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
6 THEPLAINSMAN.COM
COMMUNITY
SPOTLIGHT
MLK to today
EDUARDO MEDINA / COMMUNITY WRITER
Auburn A.M.E. Zion Church on April 3, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
A.M.E. Zion congregants reflect on race relations 50 years after MLK’s assassination By EDUARDO MEDINA Community Writer
On Easter Sunday, a six women choir enlivened the Auburn A.M.E. Zion Church with spirited hymnals as the congregation’s clapping hands reached higher and higher toward the chandeliers that shone on the all-black congregation. On the day commemorating the resurrection of their Lord and two weeks after Sacramento, California, officers shot and killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed father of two, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Faulk addressed the shooting and others like it. “God, we see the shootings in the news, and God, we have some of that in our backyard, but we pray for your protection and guidance through this violent turmoil,” Faulk prayed. Bowling Green State University and The Washington Post performed analyses of public records, law enforcement
and legal experts which showed that from 2005 to 2015, 54 police officers have been criminally charged for use of deadly force. Of the 49 victims of deadly force, 33 were black, according to the analysis, and only 11 officers of the 54 were convicted. A man in a white suit with black pinstripes and a soft-pink undershirt, who was working the PowerPoint presentation for the church, nodded as he listened to the sermon. “Amen,” the pinstripe-suited man and others shouted. Oscar Slaughter was listening with his eyes closed as the speech reverberated across the room. Slaughter, an Army veteran, was a racerelations counselor for his battalion in the ‘70s and was 14 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. marched from Selma to Montgomery. But as he stated, “Bigotry still exists in the United States and has especially unearthed in recent years.”
“Since our president’s been in office, I’ve seen and experienced more racism. It’s ridiculous but true,” Slaughter said. Slaughter said several people have referred to him using racial slurs while working at his job behind the register of a gas station in town. Students sometimes overhear strangers calling him the slurs, he said, and they defend him and apologize for others, which he said makes him proud of the young people. But, the instances occur nonetheless, and the damage is done because deriding slurs cannot be unheard and second-hand apologies cannot reverse others’ transgressions, he said. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the U.S. has risen from 916 in 2016 to 956 in 2017. The epidemic has hit close to home for Auburn residents with the emergence in 2017 of a white nationalist group call-
ing itself the White Student Union. Fifty years removed from King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, and 55 years from his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on Washington D.C., there is still hatred directed at people of color, even in a place like Auburn, where community and the Auburn Family are emphasized, several of the churchgoers said. Still, Slaughter said he is content to be with his friends and family in town and is working on making Auburn feel like a home since moving to town. “You’re going to find racism everywhere, so I’d rather be here than anywhere else,” he said as he looked at the whitepainted church, drenched with sunlight, located on Martin Luther King Drive. He is most concerned about his grandchildren — the ones who will likely have their own encounters with racism.
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The Auburn Plainsman
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
PAGE 7
FEATURE
Three-Peat: AU alumna on completing hiking feat By OLIVIA WILKES Community Writer
When Auburn University alumna and Opelika native Jessica “Dixie” Mills embarked on the Appalachian Trail in 2015, the most hiking she’d ever done before at once was a three-to-four-mile trek. On Wednesday, Mills took her first steps along the 3,100 mile-long Continental Divide Trail, which runs from New Mexico to Montana and follows the continental divide along the Rocky Mountains. When she finishes the CDT, Mills will be one of the few hundred people to have completed the Triple Crown of the backpacking world: hiking the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails. Thousands of people will be watching Mills’ five-to-six-month transcontinental journey as she films her adventures for all the world to follow through her popular YouTube channel, Homemade Wanderlust. Mills passion for through-hiking began with a step out on a limb. Soon after graduating from Auburn with a bachelor’s in biosystems engineering, she moved to Colorado and started working in the oil field. At 28 years old, Mills looked up one day and decided that she needed to make a change in her life. “It was a good job, but I didn’t love it,” Mills said. “All these goals and dreams that you have when you’re a little kid, it’s like, ‘Why haven’t I done any of those?’ So the first thing I thought of was the Appalachian Trail.” Mills quit her job, moved back to Opelika in 2014 and then embarked on the AT in 2015. “It was pretty scary to go from making a salary that was good to cashing in on my retirement and saying, ‘Well, I’m going to do this,’” she said. But for Mills, the risk paid off. The AT runs 2,190 miles from Georgia to Maine, traversing the Appalachian Mountains and 14 states. It took Mills about six months to complete. “I had never felt so much like myself,” she said. “I never had necessarily a certain clique or anything like that, so whenever I got out there and I started backpacking, I’m just like, ‘Yes, this is my crowd. … These are my people.’” Before she started, a friend of Mills had suggested that she start a vlog chronicling her trail travels, so Mills began filming and uploading videos of her adventures throughout her trip. “It was more or less to document my journey and to have friends and family keep up with me,” Mills said. “But people started subscribing. It was crazy, and when I got done, I think I had like 1,000 subscribers.” After the AT, Mills started a YouTube channel, which has grown to over 93,000 subscribers. In addition to filming her trail adventures, Mills creates how-to videos in between trips on a plethora of hiking topics. Now, through her channel, blog, an eBook, her Patreon and Amazon affiliates, Mills is able to make a living off of through-hiking.
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY JESSICA MILLS
Jessica “Dixie” Mills hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2017.
“It’s an interesting time to be alive because you can basically monetize your passion now,” she said. But even before her blog became popular and after completing the AT, Mills knew she didn’t want to return to a 9-to-5 job. Mills stayed in Opelika for a year, working multiple part-time jobs doing anything from insurance inspections to bartending to substitute teaching in order to make some money. In spring of 2017, she headed west to start her second major through-hike — the Pacific Crest Trail. Running 2,654 miles long, the PCT winds along the West Coast from Mexico to Canada, passing through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Along the trail, Mills faced a challenge she had not encountered before. The Sierra Nevada received historic amounts of snow in early 2017. “I didn’t really have a whole lot of experience with backpacking in snow,” Mills said. Hiking alone, Mills at one point tried to cross a dangerous rushing stream in the snow. “I got about halfway across, and I was like, ‘No, if I fall right now I’m going to die, like I’m not coming out of this,’” she said. “I ended up having to turn back, and I got really upset because I had even tried it, because I had even done it, because I knew I shouldn’t be doing something like that without having some other people around.” As she set up her tent to wait until morning, a group of four guys came upon the stream, and they were all able to cross together.
“I ended up hiking with them through pretty much the rest of California,” Mills said. “It was great. It was like I had four new brothers or something.” Mills said it seems to always work out like this on the trail. “They always say the trail provides,” she said. “Whether it’s people or supplies, like maybe you need a certain item of gear or you ran out of fuel and now you’re going to have to eat a cold dinner, there’s always somehow somebody pops up and it’s like, ‘Oh, you need that, well here you go.’” Though she’s had her fair share of nerve-wracking experiences, she’s had plenty of equally unforgettable good ones. Some of her most memorable days are the ones where she received “trail magic.” “Trail magic is where these people that we call trail angels, they know about the trail and that community, so they make a point to come out and support the hikers,” she said. The trail angels will often park their cars at an accessible point along the trail and provide the hikers with food, battery banks and car rides into town. “The days where you’re walking along and you think that you’re going to have Ramen noodles for dinner and suddenly somebody’s cooking you a hamburger, those are probably some of the best days,” Mills said. Mills has found backpackers to be a tight-knit and “wonderful” community.
“You go out there to be alone and to find peace in your mind or whatever, and then you end up meeting so many wonderful people that you didn’t really expect,” she said. Mills saw people from ages 10 to 71 on the AT, all encountering the same physical, emotional and mental hurdles. “I don’t have necessarily anything in common with a 10-year-old girl,” Mills said. “I don’t necessarily have anything in common with a 71-yearold woman, but everyone sitting around the fire that night went through the same exact challenges that day.” Mills doesn’t think there’s anything quite like rebooting in nature. “When you get out there, you’re kind of alone with your mind,” she said. “You don’t necessarily have somebody to call and talk to, and so you’re really alone with your thoughts. ... My mind was very noisy on the AT, and then once I got on the PCT, it was a little quieter.” People have asked Mills if recording so much of her journey takes away from the experience. For her, it does not because stopping to film something makes her appreciate it. “I look at it, but it makes me stop,” Mills said. “And I make a point before I snap anything with the camera, I look at it with my eyes first.” Through-hikers typically stop at a town every week or so to get food or recharge batteries. At these stops, Mills can get service to upload her videos. Mills said that backpacking YouTube channels have been growing and thinks her channel has influenced others to create their own. “I wasn’t the first one, but I think I was the first one that stayed consistent for over a year or two,” she said. Mills thinks her subscribers and viewers consist of people planning to through-hike who are looking for more information and people who dream of through-hiking but don’t make it a priority, don’t have a current lifestyle that allows them to pursue it or are intimidated to start. “Just having a place, like an outlet of information where people can learn about it I think gives them the confidence to do it,” Mills said. Through-hiking has made Mills appreciate everyday comforts most people take for granted, she said, and she feels that the trail opens people’s eyes to what’s really important in life. “Before I would say that comfort came from things, possessions,” she said. “But more and more in the past three years it’s been less about possessions and more about experiences and memories and seeing things, adventures.” After completing the Triple Crown, Mills isn’t certain what she’ll do next but is considering an international trail. ONLINE
THEPLAINSMAN.COM FOR A FULL-LENGTH VERSION OF THIS STORY AND MORE FROM MILLS’ HIKES
BUSINESS
Downtown Cheeburger Cheeburger re-opens with new style By SARAH BERRYMAN Community Writer
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
People eat in Cheeburger Cheeburger on Sunday, March 25, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
CHURCH » From 6
Inside the church, Faulk called upon the children attending service to step on stage. The reverend asked each to give an Easter message to the congregation. A little girl dressed in white dropped her wand and grabbed the microphone. “Happy Easter day,” the girl whispered, as adorning claps led her off stage. A little boy with a tucked in plaid shirt followed, looking a bit bewildered before grabbing the mic. “Where are the eggs?” the boy asked, glancing around the room for answers. It’s these kids who Slaughter worries for and whom he prays won’t be tormented at gas stations with slurs or shot while holding a cell phone, as Clark was. Faulk, dressed in a preacher vestment, end-
As time moves on, so does the concept of “retro.” Cheeburger Cheeburger, a long-standing hot spot for fries, burgers, shakes and salads, has gotten a recent upgrade. Starting over winter break, the chain restaurant located on North College Street underwent a series of renovations involving both the menu and the decor. Cheeburger Cheeburger has now opened back with all the renovations and changes. While once known for its old-school diner feel, the restaurant now shows more emphasis on Auburn University decor and exudes a more updated vibe. “It has been pulled out of the ‘50s and will now have a more ‘70s and ‘80s feel,” said Don Doyle, owner of the Auburn Cheeburger Cheeburger. Not only were changes made to the appearance but also to the menu. The restaurant will have new weekly specials, new shakes, a new beer menu and a new happy hour menu. Even though much has been added to the menu, nothing has been removed.
ed the first part of his roaring sermon asking for love and grace. “Let us ride this train to glory, for there is nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Faulk shouted as an electric piano transitioned the congregation into the hymn “At the Cross.”
“
I don’t think people started hating and wanting to do evil since Trump got elected. I think he helps to incite it and bring it out. ” Faulk has been pastoring for 27 years and received a master’s in education from Auburn University. Hearing stories from his father marching with King in the Civil Rights Movement, instilled in him a yearning to make oth-
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
The shake menu for Cheeburger Cheeburger on Sunday, March 25, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
ers’ lives better. “In order for evil to prevail, to win, it takes good people doing nothing. So constantly, I’m trying to shine a light on darkness,” Faulk said. Faulk identifies as a Republican but said he is wary of President Donald Trump’s remarks and actions regarding race. The list of racist statements and actions from the president spans back decades. In 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Trump’s company after it allegedly refused to rent to black tenants. In 2016, he argued a Latino-American judge should have recused himself from a lawsuit involving himself because of his Mexican heritage and membership in a Latino lawyers group. It’s examples like these that trouble Faulk and motivates a pursuit of belovedness when he preaches to members of his congregation — regardless of gender, size or race. “I don’t think people started hating and
wanting to do evil since Trump got elected. I think he helps to incite it and bring it out,” Faulk said. “Many racists would hide and not flaunt their beliefs, but now they are emboldened and thrive off his divisiveness.” Finishing his Easter sermon, Faulk thanked his community for its love, grace and help in spreading the gospel. The last angelic note from the choir was sung, and Faulk gave an Easter egg to the boy who asked where they were earlier in the service before saying goodbye. Outside, basked in the fresh April warmth, people invited one another to lunch and urged newcomers to stop by next Sunday. “Dr. King was a lover of all people, but we have to remember to love ourselves too,” Faulk said. “You have to love yourself, you have to love your family, your neighbor, your race, others’ race — there has to be a full circle of love — love is not defined to one group.”
sports
8
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
THEPLAINSMAN.COM
SPORTS
BASEBALL
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
Edouard Julien (10) fist bumps Brett Wright (22) at Auburn vs. Alabama A&M on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
No. 15 Auburn rebounds, blows out Alabama A&M By WILL SCHUETTE SPORTS WRITER
After failing to plate a single run in the final 16 innings of this past weekend’s series with Missouri, No. 15 Auburn was desperate for an offensive spark against Alabama A&M on Tuesday night. The Tigers’ lineup delivered, totaling 14 hits in a 19-5 win over the Bulldogs. In all, 12 Tigers reached base in the game and nine drove in at least one run. “The thing that we were really looking for with our guys is how hard we worked yesterday of getting back in the cage, Gabe (Gross) and the players,” said head coach Butch Thompson. “I thought we did not swing at balls tonight. That looks like us a little bit.” Designated hitter Brett Wright got Auburn out of its funk early by blasting a three-run home run to the deepest part of
Plainsman Park in left-center during the first inning. The homer was the junior college transfer’s team-leading seventh of the season. While becoming Auburn’s first player to score five runs in a game since 2009, freshman Edouard Julien attempted to keep pace with Wright in the home run category, as he hit a two-run shot for his sixth of the season in the sixth inning. First baseman Brendan Venter also homered on a solo shot in the bottom of the second, his fifth of the season. Auburn pitchers Andrew Mitchell and Cody Greenhill made a return to the mound on Tuesday after each missing multiple weeks with separate ailments. Mitchell got the start for the Tigers after not making an appearance since Feb. 27 due to arm soreness. He only went one inning and allowed his first earned run of the season, but Thompson was encouraged with the way the senior looked throwing the ball. After six different Auburn pitchers followed Mitchell, Green-
hill came in to pitch the ninth inning in his first appearance since March 10. The true freshman had to work around an error and a single, but he was able to finish off the game without allowing a run and brought his ERA down to 0.47 for the season. “I’m just glad to see them in uniform and on the field,” Thompson said. “In respect to Andrew, velocity is not everything but I saw 91 (mph) and I thought the ball came out of his hand really good,” Thompson said. “Cody Greenhill, he impresses me with his ability to shove the ball in the strike zone and get mishits on fastballs,” Thompson said. The Tigers hope Tuesday’s win will serve as a tune-up game before they get right back into the grind of SEC play. Auburn will play its third series in four weeks against a top 10 team when it travels to face No. 9 Arkansas in a three-game stint over the weekend. Casey Mize (6-0) is set to start game one Friday night in Fayetteville with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. CST.
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The Auburn Plainsman
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
PAGE 9
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Mustapha Heron delcares for 2018 NBA Draft
Auburn’s leading scorer the last two seasons will sign with an agent and end his career on The Plains By PETER SANTO Sports Writer
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Mustapha Heron (5) dunks the ball during Auburn at Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Jan. 17.2018.
FOOTBALL
Young QB’s to take center stage in final scrimmage By TYLER ROUSH Sports Reporter
Auburn’s future at quarterback will take the spotlight on Saturday. With starter Jarrett Stidham out while recovering from a shoulder injury, secondstring quarterback Malik Willis has been the immediate first-string replacement this spring. And then there’s newcomer Joey Gatewood, who head coach Gus Malzahn openly compared to Cam Newton, to slide up to the second string. “You know, really, it’s the physical tools he has,” Malzahn said. “I mean, there’s only one Cam Newton. I think everybody knows that. But … if he walked in the room, he’d look like Cam Newton.” Despite enrolling early to take part in spring practices and scrimmages, coaches maintain that Gatewood is not a threat to take Willis’ backup slot. Malzahn said that offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has been impressed by Willis’ and Gatewood’s progression so far. “Of course, you got to keep in mind one of them is a freshman fixing to be a sophomore, the other one should still be in high school,” Malzahn said. “I think [Lindsey] is pleased with where they’re at, with their progression. You got to keep in mind he’s throwing everything at them.” In preparation to having everything thrown
at him, Willis has taken extra time this spring to practice, even using his spring break for more time to workout. Willis traveled to Miami to throw to Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, former Auburn receiver Ricardo Louis and Atlanta Falcons receiver Mohamed Sanu. Malzahn said he was impressed by Willis’ initiative. “Very rarely will you see anybody on their spring break putting in that kind of time,” Malzahn said. “It really shows the importance that [Willis] has. To be honest with you, I was pretty encouraged with it.” Willis ran for 221 yards and a touchdown on 16 attempts while throwing for 45 yards on 6-of-7 passing in his appearances last season. The counterpart to Willis’ initiative, Gatewood will be tasked with fulfilling the expectations of fitting the mold of Auburn’s next great dual-threat quarterback. And it’s his size that makes him stand out. “He’s a very big guy,” Malzahn said. “He can run. He’s very athletic. He has a chance to be real special for us, we feel like.” Gatewood combined for 28 touchdowns his senior season at Bartram Trail High School, Florida, while completing 68.5 percent of his passes. His 1,425 yards through the air complement his 1,108 yards on the ground. Regardless of Gatewood’s expectations or Willis’ initiative, both quarterbacks will show signs of what’s to come after Stidham leaves the program.
Coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2003, Auburn will be without leading scorer Mustapha Heron in 201819. The Waterbury, Connecticut, native announced on Twitter Wednesday morning that he will declare for the NBA Draft and sign with an agent. 247 Sports was the first to report the news. “First off, I would like to thank the man up stairs for making all of this possible,” Heron wrote on Twitter. “I have always dreamed of playing basketball at the highest level and now he is making that a reality for me. I would like to thank my coaches, my teammates, all the Auburn fans and Auburn University for a won-
derful 2 years. “Playing on the plains was an experience like no other and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! With that being said, after discussing with my family, I have decided to forgo my junior season at Auburn and enter my name in the 2018 NBA draft with intent to sign an agent.” Heron averaged 16.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 32 games last season, but the guard was not included in Sports Illustrated’s latest mock draft. “Again I would like to thank everybody who supported me throughout this process and I will forever be a Tiger!!! WAR EAGLE,” Heron wrote. Auburn will look to reload on the perimeter with the reinstatement of Danjel Purifoy and VCU transfer Samir Doughty.
FOOTBALL
FILE PHOTO
Devan Barrett (5) runs the ball in the first half. Auburn vs Ole’ Miss on Saturday, Oct. 7 in Auburn, Ala.
Barrett makes move to receiver By NATHAN KING Assistant Sports Editor
SAM WILLOUGHBY / COMMUNITY EDITOR
Auburn Tiger quarterbacks Joey Gatewood (1) and Malik Willis (14) in practice on March 6, 2018.
As the injuries pile up in the Auburn wide receiving corps, Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn will attempt to patch the leaks with a skill position transplant. According to a report from 247 Sports’ Brandon Marcello, rising sophomore running back Devan Barrett began to take reps at wideout Tuesday at the team’s spring practice, which was closed to the media. Barrett’s move comes in the wake of ACL injuries to receivers Will Hastings and Eli Stove. According to the report, Barrett will fill the void left by Stove in Auburn’s speedsweep formations. Freshman quarterback Joey Gatewood also saw time at receiver in practice, Marcello added. As a freshman tailback out of Tampa, Florida, Barrett saw action in the backfield and as a return man for the Tigers in 2017. The former four-star athlete carried the rock 14 times for
79 yards, but seemed more comfortable snaring passes, hauling in 10 for 33 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown in the team’s Peach Bowl loss to UCF. Suspicions arose about the position change Monday night when Malzahn tweeted a photo of the running backs, tight ends and specialists at his house, and Barrett was not present. However, the next night, Barrett was in attendance with the quarterbacks and wide receivers. Barrett found himself trapped in a spring log-jam in the backfield. Kam Martin is assumed as the starter, and backups Jatarvious Whitlow, Asa Martin and Malik Miller have been receiving praise from coaches in the past weeks. The new look from offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey’s offense will be on display Saturday at 3 p.m. CT when the Tigers return to Jordan-Hare Stadium for their annual A-Day spring game. The action will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
FOOTBALL
Steele: Defense making progress, but still has a ‘long way to go’ By SUMNER MARTIN Sports Writer
ADAM BRASHER/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Kevin Steele coaches at Auburn’s football practice.
Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele is one of the longest-tenured defensive play callers in the SEC. Entering his third year on The Plains, Steele has turned around a unit that was routinely in the bottom half of the conference into a top-10 defense nationally. “I’m tied for the longest tenure as a defensive coordinator at the same school in this league and I’ve been here two years,” Steele said. “Second lieutenants in Vietnam had a longer life expectancy. So there’s lot of change in college football nowadays. Anytime you can keep
continuity as much as you can, the same system, it sure helps them be better players.” Steele said the defense is making strides with their energy and leadership, and progressing as a unit in his press conference Thursday night. The Tigers forced five turnovers in the first spring scrimmage and the defensive line dominated in the trenches, allowing almost no big gains on the ground. Steele expects the defensive line to be even better than last year’s group with the amount of players he has returning. “The fact that we put different combinations of guys out there and the play did not drop, we didn’t get things exposed be-
cause we had different guys out there in different combinations, that was a positive,” Steele said. “Probably the biggest thing is they self-corrected because they understand the system, whereas the first year, wow! I mean, you’re out there trying to get them lined up. The second year the younger guys, occasionally, there’s a weird formation but they applied the principles and the concepts. And it makes it a whole lot easier.” Steele has been mixing lineups whenever he can in scrimmages to show the players there is no depth chart yet. He doesn’t want the players concerned with what the rotation will be and where they stand in the depth
chart; he is simply focused on each player working hard to get better. “There’s not game planning,” Steele said. “It’s not result-orientated. It’s process-orientated that they understand the process and the components as well as the skill set for their position and mastering that. We create some stress now on purpose because we aren’t game planning. “There’s no scoreboard. We make some calls sometimes to put stress on them. You wouldn’t call that in a game if you knew what they were in, but I know what they are in because it’s spring, so put stress on them. Make them play themselves out of some hard situations.”
The Auburn Plainsman
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018 SWIMMING AND DIVING
Hawke retires after 10 years on The Plains
PAGE 10
EQUESTRIAN
By TYLER ROUSH Sports Reporter
Brett Hawke, a name synonymous with Olympians and national championships, has resigned as Auburn’s swimming and diving head coach. The two-time Olympian and three-time Olympic coach spent 10 years on The Plains, guiding Auburn to 11 NCAA individual titles, 64 individual SEC titles and 479 All-America honors. “I have enjoyed my time leading and giving back to a team and university that has given so much to me,” Hawke said. “I feel it is time for me to find a new challenge and for the swimming and diving program to have a new leader.” As the 2009 NCAA Coach of the Year and 2012 SEC Coach of the Year, Hawke led the men’s program to 10 top-12 finishes, eight top-10 finishes and the 2009 National Championship. He also guided the women’s program to six top-15 finishes and four top-10 finishes. In total, Hawke coached 14 Olympians. Adding to his coaching success, Hawke swam at Auburn from 1997-99 and won two national championships. “I would like to thank Coach Hawke for all of his outstanding contributions to Auburn swimming and diving and for his 10 years of service to our student-athletes,” Auburn Athletic Director Allen Greene said. Greene added that the search for the next head coach will begin immediately.
INGRID SCHNADER / PHOTO EDITOR
Auburn equestrian defeats South Carolina, 12-7, on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
No. 2 Auburn falls in SEC Championship By SPORTS STAFF
AUBURN ATHLETICS
Hawke (center) coached Auburn to 479 All-America honors.
The No. 2 Auburn equestrian team fell to No. 1 Georgia Saturday in the 2018 SEC Championship, 12-7, in Blythewood, South Carolina, at One Wood Farm. The two-day conference event was hosted by South Carolina. “I felt like we were riding really well today,” head coach Greg Williams said. “We’ll be ready for nationals coming up. Congratulations to Georgia today, and thank you to South Carolina for hosting a great event.” Auburn (10-4) had two Tigers on the SEC All-Championship team in juniors Betsy Brown and Caitlin Boyle. Horsemanship had a handful of great rides on the day, going 3-1 against the Bulldogs. Freshmen Taylor Searles and Deanna Green finished undefeated on the weekend, scoring 153 points and 153.5 points, respectively. Green was awarded MOP for the seventh time this season, picking up her 11th victory on the year.
STUDENT AFFAIRS
SPOTLIGHT Veterans Resource Center
Redshirt junior Kelsey Jung also went undefeated, picking up a 150-147.5 victory over Madison Anger. Junior Lauren Diaz tied her opponent with 150 points. Brown finished her weekend undefeated in Reining, topping Annabeth Payne, 143-141. The win moved her in a tie for first on the team with nine on the year so far. Green also went undefeated in the event, earning a 143-119.5 victory over Julia Spreng. Auburn saw a pair of victories in Equitation on the Flat from juniors Ashton Alexander and Boyle. Alexander bested Grace Bridges, 159-151, while Boyle beat Ali Tritschler, 152149. The Bulldogs swept Equitation Over Fences, 5-0. Auburn closes out the 2017-18 season at the 2018 NCEA Championships, April 18-21, in Waco, Texas. The Tigers will learn their seed at the national meet early next week and the championship will take place in the Extraco Events Center.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Freshman Davion Mitchell leaving Auburn program By JOHN KOO Sports Writer
Freshman Davion Mitchell is transferring from Auburn after the Tigers’ historic 2018 season. The Hinesville, Georgia, native was a former ESPN 100 prospect and served in an important backup role behind sophomore Jared Harper. “After my due diligence at Auburn, I have decided to further my academic studies and basketball goals elsewhere,” Mitchell said on Twitter. “I want to thank Coach Pearl and the Auburn family for the opportunity to play and embracing me and taking
this young boy and shaping him into a young man. “I want to thank Coach Bruce Pearl and staff for their guidance and giving me the opportunity to make this decision. I wish the program nothing but success.” This season, Mitchell played 17 minutes per game while averaging 3.7 points and 1.9 assists in 37 games played. “Davion is one of the most coachable players I’ve ever had,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said in a statement. “He had a great freshman season at Auburn. We wish him well moving forward.” Mitchell’s next destination is unknown at this time.
The Veterans Classic Golf Tournament gives student veterans the opportunity to make meaningful connections with the community. This 18-hole scramble puts 3 person teams together, where each team is paired with an Auburn University student veteran. The Classic will be held at Moores Mill Golf Club on Wed. April 18 at 11 a.m. Register for the classic online at www.aub.ie/vetsgolf or call 334-844-2576. Sponsorships available for greens and players.
auburn.edu/StudentAffairs facebook.com/AuburnStudents @AuburnStudents STUDENT AFFAIRS
auburnstudents
ADAM BRASHER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Davion Mitchell (10) directs the Auburn offense during Auburn basketball vs. Florida on Feb. 24, 2018.
lifestyle
11
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
THEPLAINSMAN.COM
LIFESTYLE
MUSIC
Local musician forms rock band Bobby Rocknroll By ALEX HOSEY Lifestyle Editor
Nathan Coker had been playing guitar and singing in Nate & Function, a funk band, for a few years before the band was invited to open for St. Paul & The Broken Bones at their sold-out show at the Bottling Plant Event Center in Opelika, Alabama, in February 2016. “It was our only major opportunity that just fell in our laps, and St. Paul was a big deal,” Coker said. “(St. Paul & The Broken Bones) had just opened for The Rolling Stones at New Year’s, so it was a really big deal for me.” Unfortunately, none of the other band members could make it to the show, and Coker had to scramble to find musicians to replace them for the concert. In Coker’s mind, that show represented the end of the funk music he used to play with Nate & Function and the beginning of playing rock mu-
sic with Bobby Rocknroll, a band he began a few months later with other local musicians. Coker said he was inspired to pursue the genre while he lived at the Shady Glenn apartments in the summer of 2016, surrounded by Auburn-based bands like Cherry Motel and Lady Legs who, at the time, were beginning to take shape. “I was witnessing all of this rock ‘n’ roll music happening and I was really wanting to play more like that with the guitar,” Coker said. “There were a lot of fast-paced things happening with me at the time, and I felt like the music had to be fast.” After listening to a lot of White Denim and writing more upbeat and uptempo songs, he began playing them with musicians like Seth Brown and Jon Sims from Lady Legs and Abby Anderson from Captain Kuzu, all of them connected to the growing indie-music scene in Shady Glenn in one way or another. Eventually, Bobby Rocknroll formed around Coker, Brown and Anderson, with the band releasing their first album, “Summertime Bikeride,” in the summer of 2017. “Summertime Bikeride came as this amalgam of punk feelings with like a Rolling Stones kind of crux to it,” Coker said. Though the band has changed members in the year since its start, with Alex Horn now playing the bass and Cole Bryant now playing the drums, their sound remains the same at its core, with Coker having described it as “glad rock.” “I came up with this recently, and it might be too clever or
corny, but I thought that it was a mixture of dad rock, like Lynyrd Skynard, and glam rock, like David Bowie,” Coker said. “And I’ve coined the term ‘glad rock.’ So it’s very upbeat, fun rock ‘n’ roll.” On top of being a musician since the age of 19, Coker has also worked as a barista for the past four years, getting his first job at Coffee Cat and having recently moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, to work at Cafe Bon Ami. Coker said that even though he’s moved away from Alabama, he’s still committed to continuing to play with Bobby Rocknroll, even if that means driving the five or so hours back and from New Orleans frequently. “(Bobby Rocknroll) is my entire life,” Coker said. “I go to work for half of my days, but in my spare time and all of my free time I’m writing and talking with the band members and planning the next move, like what’s the next thing we’re going to do together, where’s the next gig that we’re going to play together.” Bobby Rocknroll has been recording with Jacob Lovejoy of Sonic Sons Records, an Auburn-based record label, and they’ve recently released a single, “Radio Goodbye,” on their band camp and on Spotify. Coker said that the full album, “Mojo Recharge,” is expected to be released this summer. Coker is also scheduled to play with Beegles, a band formed with Cherry Motel’s Austin Walley, on Thursday at Red Clay Brewery’s third anniversary along with other local bands.
PHOTO BY ERVIN EHLZI
Nathan Coker holds a guitar.
PHOTO BY ERVIN EHLZI
Bobby Rocknroll playing together. From left to right: Alex Horn, Cole Bryant, Nathan Coker and Jacob Lovejoy.
FEATURE
Do Summer
#thestateway JACK WEST / LIFESTYLE WRITER
Bay Kelley stands outside his studio on March 30, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
Local artist to paint 52 strangers in 52 weeks Save MONEY
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Bay Kelley, a local artist, has been painting a portrait every week for the past 38 weeks. He intends to paint a total of 52, one for every week of the year. The catch: he never knows who he is going to paint next. Titled “52 Paintings for 52 Strangers,” Kelley’s project does just what the title suggests. Each week, he tries to find the people around him doing good deeds and approach them with a compliment. He then requests an interview. “I get refused often,” said Kelley. “But, while it sounds like a con, I promise that it’s not.” For those strangers who take Kelley up on the offer, they sit for a one-hour interview, then Kelley takes that information and works for a week to complete a portrait of the individual. Kelley first envisioned this project to combat something that most people can identify with. “I felt that my worldview was being informed by media,” Kelley said. “I felt powerless and got clouded with pessimism.” He talked about how listening to the constant narrative coming from TV, and the internet makes it difficult to see a person as an individual. Kelley’s answer was to “start training his eye to positivity” — a phrase that he mentioned multiple times, and when asked to extrapolate on it he added that it means “going out and finding people doing good.” For this project though, Kelley couldn’t just settle for finding people doing good, he wanted to listen to their stories and capture them within a 6-by-6-inch frame.
“It’s about getting to know individuals instead of just knowing people generally,” he said. Kelley also fully admits that this has been a journey of inward inspection as well as outward. “I know that I harbor true prejudices, but the more I interact with people, the more I can shave those prejudices away,” he said. Another interesting element of this project is that the subjects — the strangers — do not get to see their portrait until the final reveal after all 52 are done. In mid-September, Kelley will be holding a gallery at the Jane Dempsey Art Center in Auburn to show off all of the completed paintings. “The true test is going to be when I hand the portrait back,” Kelley said. A lot of the paintings are a combination of realistic and abstract portraits while some are completely abstract. “It used to start as a portrait, and then I would abstract it,” Kelley said. “Now, it’s usually an abstraction, and then if the painting wants to be a portrait, then I pull it to a portrait.” Since this project is, at its core, rooted in the community that Kelley finds himself in, he said that he hopes his paintings can be a way to foster empathy. Kelley said he hopes that Auburn students specifically can learn to “think through their perceptions of people,” and by talking to strangers like this, people can get “a personal connection to real issues.” The biggest take away from this project for Kelley so far has not been some kind of artistic style or brush stroke. For him, the lasting message of this year-long endeavor is a realization: “There’s a (ton) of good people around here.”
The Auburn Plainsman
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018
PAGE 12
EVENT
JOSHUA FISHER / PHOTOGRAPHER
Visitors to Auburn’s Azalea Festival enjoy the Davis Arboretum on Saturday, March 31, 2018, in Auburn, Ala.
A ‘friendly affair’: Auburn Azalea Festival draws hundreds By LOREN KIMMEL Campus Editor
Hundreds gathered at the Donald E. Davis Arboretum for live music, local treats and natural beauty for the second annual Azalea Festival, where the locally grown Auburn Series azaleas were sold. The warm Saturday brought a large number of people from the community out as local vendors sold work and live music billowed through the trees. With the goal of increasing appreciation for the arboretum, Morgan Beadles, curator of the arboretum, felt the event was a wonderful way to celebrate spring. As an effort to bring more people to the arboretum, Beadles was pleased with this year’s event and the growth it made from the previous year, almost doubling in its size. “This year’s turnout has been amazing, we’ve had close to 800 people,” Beadles said. “Each year we are learning more and more about how to improve … but it’s going to be an annual event, and it’s always going to take place the Saturday before Easter.” The event included a number of local vendors including The LocAL Market, O Town Ice Cream, Dumps Like A Truck and the Amsterdam Cafe food truck. “I am actually from Auburn,” Beadles said. “A lot of these people I went to high school with now run these businesses. … It’s great to grow up here and then find that your friends are supporting you and each other throughout our life.” Beadles said as adults running their own businesses, they can still work together and help each other out. She said planning the event
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consisted of a couple phone calls one morning given the proximity of her relationship with some of the local vendors. “This whole event was basically planned within a morning,” Beadles said laughing. “I just called Lauren at The LocAL Market, I called Blake with Amsterdam Café food truck, Whitley with Dumps Like A Truck, I knew Angela with O Town Ice Cream, and we called Ernest who grows our plants.” Ernest Koone is the president of Lazy K Nursery’s Garden Delights Garden Center in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and was the azalea expert on hand for the event. In addition to helping handle the native plant sale, Koone grows the Auburn Series azaleas.Two hours into the event, the festival had sold out of Aubie and Tiger azaleas. Along with the native azaleas, multiple of the vendors sold out due to the unanticipated high turnout. “This year we learned we need more than just the two food trucks,” Beadles said due to Amsterdam Cafe food truck selling out of their sweet potato chips in the first two hours of the event, O Town Ice Cream running out of spoons and Dumps Like A Truck selling out twice. Beadles said next year she and her team will have to anticipate a larger crowd because she believes as long as the weather cooperates, people will continue to attend the event and keep it growing. “We really expanded the music,” Beadles said in response to adjustments made this year. “Last year, we learned we just wanted more music throughout the day.” In order to incorporate this, Beadles sought the help of her friend Katy Harper Doss, owner of Here Molly Girl, to help sponsor the sound system for the bands.
Along with community businesses, the Auburn University Museum of Natural History brought live animals to the event for attendees to enjoy and learn more about them. The arboretum and the natural history museum will join again with the vet school’s department of anatomy, physiology and pharmacology to host an event in the fall showcasing outdoor skeleton exhibits. “We are going to have a big, fun event that day where we will have scavenger hunts and things for the kids,” Beadles said. “Then in the evening, we will have a fundraiser dinner for adults.” The event is set to be on Saturday, Oct. 27, in the Davis Arboretum. As another effort to bring people to the arboretum, Beadles said they will be hosting Trolling: an evening with George Hardy on Friday, April 13. The event will include Hardy of Alexander City and a screening of his film Troll 2, which is regarded as one of the worst movies of all time, according to Beadles. The event will also screen the award-winning documentary based off of the film and a discussion and Q&A session with Hardy in between viewings. The arboretum will showcase the completion of their Tiger Giving Day campaign for lighting around the pond by holding a lighting reveal that night. Reflecting back on the Azalea Festival, Beadles said it was a wonderful day and thanked those who came out and joined together, enjoying the arboretum. “It’s been a really great, friendly affair,” Beadles said. “I can’t thank everybody enough for stepping up and answering the calls when I made them and helping out.”
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