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October 07, 2016

Tiger swim team hopes to keep winning streak alive during upcoming season Team captains express optimism about new team members and coach’s training regimen

BY ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER The Tiger swim team has a history of success.

Trinity has won the women’s swimming and diving conference title for the past 13 years, and the men have done the same for the past five.

Junior Captains Rebecca Andruzzi and Charles Clark have high hopes for the success of the team this season, and both see the addition of new first years, a team weightlifting program and season-long, tough mindsets as factors that can lead to a successful season and another conference championship.

Welcoming seven new women and 11 new men to the swim teams increases the number of young member on the teams, which not only builds a foundation for future seasons, but gives new possibilities to the outcome of this one. “[New members] make up 50 percent of the guys team, so it’s gonna be good to see how they develop as swimmers and how they contribute to the team,” Clark said.

The girls’ side of swim has no current seniors, but plenty of new swimmers to make up for what they lost last year.

“From the girls’ side we are in a rebuilding

JACOB HARRELL, a first year from San Antonio, practices his butterfly stroke.

photo by HENRY PRATT

phase,” Andruzzi said. “We brought in a new miler, we brought in some new sprinters, we brought in middle distance, we brought in people all across the board so we can be pretty diverse which is exciting, and we won’t lose anybody next year.”

In addition to new swimmers, the Tiger program also maintains its strength as swimmers

outside the pool, through dryland workouts, running and weightlifting.

“We lift three times a week,” Andruzzi said. “On Saturdays, we’ll usually have threehour practices with running and lifting and swimming.”

Mandatory weightlifting, implemented for the first time this year is something that will

strengthen the performance of the Tigers when it comes time to race. Time spent lifting can also lead to a stronger team bond, said Andruzzi.

“It’s really good we’ve started doing weights as a team,” said sophomore swimmer Ivy Claflin. “It’s brought the team closer together.”

The swim team stay deciplined while training for this rigorous and exhausting sport that is just as mentally demanding as it is physically.

“We train really heavily throughout the season,” Clark said. “Usually on days that we have home meets we’ll have a full practice before the meet.”

Though exhausting, hard work in training is what will lead to a stellar performance by the Tigers in this coming season.

“It’s really important for the whole team to keep the mindset that, if we want to be successful, we have to work really, really hard,” Claflin said.

Throughout the season, the teams will compete in dual meets where they go head to head against one other university. These meets give swimmers a chance to gauge their performance before heading into conference where they will hopefully see their best times of the season, the times which they have worked for all year long.

“The satisfaction of looking up at the scoreboard and seeing the time that you wanted is really worth the pain that you put yourself through,” Clark said. “It always is, it draws you back in.”

“It’s an addiction,” Andruzzi said.

Open-access movement Campus clubs get the comes to Trinity campus chance to earn stripes Student Government Association works with students New program initiated to help improve the success and staff to provide Open Educational Resources of student clubs and Sheryl Tynes, vice president for Student Life

BY CHRISTIANA ZGOURIDES NEWS REPORTER and professor of sociology agrees with Graves. organizations Student Government Association (SGA) is working to bring open-access textbooks to Trinity. These textbooks are published under an open copyright, would be available for free online, as well as in print for a fraction of the price students currently pay.

The price of textbooks has been a source of stress and indignation among many students.

In January 2016, a strongly worded post in Overheard at Trinity about the price of textbooks got almost 150 likes.

Carlie McCrory, the current junior who wrote the post, was frustrated by the high price of a particular textbook and by the larger system in which publishers drive up prices by frequently publishing new editions that professors then require students to purchase.

Diane Graves, University librarian and professor, commented on McCrory’s post with a link to Openstax.org, an open-source textbook site.

“I don’t think it lends itself to goodwill with our students when you guys have to go and pay 300 bucks or 200 bucks for a couple paperback books,” said Tynes.

Graves explained that the system of driving up textbook prices for students is similar to the one that makes academic journals so expensive for the library to acquire.

Institutions like Trinity support faculty research, which is then reviewed by an editorial board. Then, faculty often sign away their rights to their article to for-profit journals which sell them back to higher-education institutions for tens of thousands of dollars a year.

In 2009, Graves was a key leader in getting Trinity to adopt an open-access policy for faculty produced academic work.

Since the policy passed, faculty make their work available in Trinity’s Digital Commons, where they are free for public access.

Continued on page 3

BY KATHLEEN CREEDON

NEWS REPORTER

The Student Involvement (SI) staff has developed a program to recognize and promote student organization success.

The Earn Your Stripes program will be implemented this year and intends to improve student organization sustainability.

The program’s goal is to help organizations become more successful.

The SI recognizes the increasing number of student organizations that were not renewing their registrations and decided to create a program to resolve that turnover.

“We needed something to establish higher levels of sustainability, so when students come back for Alumni Weekend in 2040, their organization still exists,” said Jamie Thompson, director of Student Involvement and Trintiy alumnus.

Thompson wants to go beyond merely maintaining organizations. SI wants to preserve organizations.

SI did extensive research before finalizing the program. They looked at various markers and models of student organization success to try to define organizational success from a big picture.

“It basically came down to were elements that fit into three boxes: sustainability, member development and engagement and involvement,” Thompson said.

Those three elements, along with a fourth that includes required steps, compose the four categories of “stripes” organizations can become successful and grow. Organizations that complete 15 of the 20 stripes will receive honors at a new excellence awards ceremony that will be held in April.

Although organizations were previously recognized at the annual Student Leadership Awards, SI is starting a brand new excellence event. This change was proposed when the SI staff realized the only people attending were those who received awards, and organizations were limited in the number of members who could go to the ceremony.

Continued on page 3

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • October 07, 2016

BRIEFS SGA At this week’s SGA meeting, the governing body continued to hear funding requests. This week they heard proposals from five campus organizations. SGA also met with John Hermann to discuss his Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). They discussed the different ways first-year students can have a better advising experience. Finally, the different committees — Intramurals, OER, Rules and Oversight and Elections — gave reports to the senate on their activities.

TUPD 10/03/2016 Location: Witt-Winn Residence Hall Classification: Alcohol

Local News San Antonio Pets Alive! (SAPA) has lost their lease on the Paul Jolly Adoption Center. The San Antonio City Council voted last week to give the lease to the Animal Defense League (ADL). The decision came after the city had to bailout SAPA four months ago. City officials cited the need for financial stability as the main reason the lease was given to ADL. Compiled by Alex Uri

• NEWS

Board of Visitors to make changes Alumni seek to engage with students to learn campus needs

BY PHILIP MCKEON

NEWS REPORTER

The Board of Visitors, a group of Trinity alumni and business leaders that advise the president of the university, is now accepting proposals from students for plans to help improve campus life. The Board typically appears on campus twice a year to offer advice to the president.

“The Board of Visitors is a group of folks that come to campus twice a year to stay updated on what’s happening at Trinity and to provide advice to the president. Many of these alumni have already served in leadership roles on campus, on the Alumni Board, for example, and they come back twice a year to help the president choose how to keep Trinity on track,” said Michael Bacon, vice president for advancement and alumni relations.

This is the first time the Board has opened itself to advise students, and the program could expand in future years.

“They have an interest in getting more engaged, and since they represent a number of different fields, they can serve as an advisory group for students as well. In the future it may expand to include faculty, but for this first year we want to keep it narrow and limit it to students,” Bacon said.

The Board is looking for new ways to work on improving Trinity, and they hope students can provide new ideas.

“These might be things that mean working on something to expand summer internships, for example, or something to work on the university’s relationship with the surrounding community. These are ideas about what could be done, or even what should be done. Individuals would submit these ideas, and we’d quickly review them and give them suggestions. We just want to see a few pages about what should be done and who should do it. We’d like to keep things fairly modest,” said Peter Jennings, former senior vice president at Morgan Stanley and current member of the Board of Visitors.

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Students will have the opportunity to present their ideas to the Board, and the Board will help students strategize the implementation of their ideas.

“I’m hoping we’ll have about five to ten proposals, and the idea is that they will be able to come and pitch their ideas to the Board. So they’ll pitch their ideas, and then they can discuss with the Board how to allocate money and resources for the project.

They can form a small team with people who have experience in the field and work together either in person or by phone over a period of a couple of weeks. They even have a small budget to work with, so that could prove beneficial to the projects as well.

The board will help strategize how to implement the plan, but the actual implementation of the project will be on the part of the student and their organization,” Bacon said.

Noah Boriak, sophomore and business administration major, is looking forward to seeing the student suggestions.

“I’m really interested in seeing what ideas get turned in. I know we all spend plenty of time complaining about stuff on campus that should be fixed, so it’s kind of nice that they’re giving us a way to tell them about it and make some changes,” Boriak said.

The Board hopes that students will provide more insight into the needs of the campus and its community.

“We’d like to identify situations that need to be addressed or, at the very least, learn more about them. We don’t know a great deal about what’s going on on the ground, so we’re hoping that students will be able to fill in that information gap and share with us what they think should change,” Jennings said.

The purpose of this project is for the Board to help students with big ideas make significant changes on campus.

“I hope we see organizational projects and ideas that people have talked about, but haven’t yet figured out how to make them happen. For instance, the alumni office has been talking about creating an alumni travel program, but that hasn’t happened yet. That’s an idea that could be presented, and the Board of Visitors could help strategize how that could be made possible,” Bacon said.

Project proposals are due Oct. 12, and can be submitted through the Board of Visitors page on the Trinity website.

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NEWS • OCTOBER 07, 2016 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

3

Clubs earn stripes continued from Front “The broader student organization community wasn’t getting exposed to the great work that was happening. We know there’s a lot of value in other organizations and in other student leaders being exposed to the work other organizations are doing,” Thompson said.

This new event will be called the LeeRoys, and will be held April 20.

“My goal is to have LeeRoy there with a bowtie on,” Thompson said. “We’re hoping more student organization representatives attend that, whether you’re receiving an award or not.”

SI aims to have at least 20 organizations complete half of the points this year and to have strengthened relationships between advisors and organizations.

“A student will only be here for four years, whereas an advisor has been here long before you and long after you, so we’re trying to encourage stronger relationships between student organizations and advisors,” Thompson said.

The clear guidelines the program offers allow organizations to gain and maintain success.

Earn Your Stripes also helps keep progress made in previous years.

“I think it’ll bring continuity to our organization. Often some initiatives are lost

when we have new people coming in. I think with this set of standards, we can build on the effectiveness of our organization — instead of starting over with each new set of senators,” said Brenna Hill, Student Government Association president.

Since 2014, 28 student organizations have failed to complete the annual registration process; Earn Your Stripes intends to reduce these future numbers. By offering a checklist for organizations to follow, the program is creating sustainability.

“It’s a helpful checklist. Are we doing what we’re supposed to be doing? Are we functioning as a group? I think it’ll help build on what organizations have already accomplished and help maintain their efficiency,” Hill said.

Trinity Diversity Connection president, Huda Syed agrees that the program will encourage organizations to have a stronger presence on campus.

“It’ll help boost our representation on campus. We’re already really involved, but we’ll be able to look back and see whether or not we did as much last year as we did this year,” Syed said.

The building-block nature of the Earn Your Stripes program intends to help clubs grow and become more developed each year. With the incentive of winning a LeeRoy, Earn Your Stripes offers guidelines that organizations can follow to become more sustainable.

graphic by TYLER HERRON information provided by JAMIE THOMPSON

Tigers For Liberty to Open Access at Trinity host diversity panel continued from Front

Minority millennials to discuss why they are Republicans

BY JULIA ELMORE

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Several weeks ago, comedian W. Kamau Bell challenged the Trinity community to start having important conversations — uncomfortable as they may be — about inclusion and diversity. This Monday, the members of Tigers For Liberty (TFL) plan to do just that.

TFL members felt that some of Bell’s comments were demeaning toward conservatives. In an effort to offer another perspective on some of the issues he presented, they will be hosting Diversity Post Bell: A Discussion on Race and Politics this Monday.

The event will be a question and answer style discussion featuring ten minority millennials who are also Republicans.

“At one point in the lecture, Mr. Bell inferred that to support the Republican presidential nominee you have to be a racist and also that Dr. Ben Carson is no longer a member of the African American community because he is a Republican,” said Jonah Wendt, TFL field director and chief financial officer. “He has the right to say what he wants, but we also hold a right to disagree and challenge his statements — particularly remarks that demean people on the basis of their political views.”

Last year, the Tigers For Liberty faced heavy criticism for bringing Milo Yiannopoulos

to campus because of the offensive nature of his presentation. TFL members say that this event aims to spark discussion, but in a more appropriate way.

“A panel discussion is more appropriate for a discourse-driven event that we seek to establish with our talented panel,” Wendt said.

“The panel and the topic are important for Trinity because students need to see both sides of every topic. Often times people are told that Republicans are racist and all white. This is obviously wrong and this is one of our ways to prove this.”

The ten panelists hail from universities and political organizations around the state and represent various minority groups.

“We asked these people to speak for us because they are accomplished millennials who have taken concrete and substantial steps toward putting their conservative beliefs into action,” said Luke Ayers, TFL secretary.

Ayers says that TFL hopes that this panel will show the community that diversity is not just important to the left. The organization hopes that this will help people go into the upcoming election better informed.

“This is important to Trinity students because diversity is important to Trinity students,” Ayers said. “We are bringing light to the fact that there is diversity on the right side of the aisle. We also want to emphasize that people shouldn’t feel obligated to vote one way or the other because of any single characteristic about them — whether that be race, religion, sexual orientation, income or anything else.”

The panel will take place on Monday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. in Northrup Hall 040.

Is there a conversation you’ve been wanting to have but you’re not sure how to start it? Is there something you think the Trinity community needs to think about and discuss?

We want to help make those conversations happen through our Let’s Make It Awkward series. Send your topics to trinitonian@trinity.edu

“We were the first school of this size and type to do that,” Graves said. “And I guess you can argue that there’s an opportunity for us to be trail blazers on [open-access textbooks] too, because so far this sector of higher education has not really embraced this yet.”

Graves explained that studies have shown that student-learning outcomes are usually better when using Open Educational Resources (OER) as opposed to traditional textbooks by for-profit publishers, because more students actually buy the lower cost OER books.

Trinity alumnus Nick Shockey, class of 2009, who now works at at the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), expressed that even e-books, which are touted as lower-cost alternatives to print textbooks, do not save students nearly as much money as they could save using OER. Shockey, also a member of Trinity’s National Alumni Board, introduced the idea to SGA as an area in which Trinity could be a leader among small schools.

In addition to supporting institutions in transition to using more open textbooks, SPARC works to create public policies that facilitate this transition nationwide.

When Shockey was a student at Trinity, the student government was one of the first in the nation to call on the federal government to make publically funded educational resources openly available.

In 2013, SPARC finished this work.

“We were successful in getting the Obama administration to issue an executive direction requiring all federal agencies to require articles that report on the research they fund to be made publically available within 12 months,” Shockey said.

SPARC has worked with the Departments of Labor and Education (DOE) to pass a similar measure for textbooks funded by those branches. A proposal is currently pending with the DOE; Shockey expects that it will be decided on within a few weeks.

In addition to these national efforts underway at SPARC, the initiative is gaining force on campus at Trinity.

SGA held its first event to promote the Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative at their “How Much Did You Pay” tabling event on Sept. 14, where students spoke with SGA senators about OER and wrote the amount

they spent on textbooks this semester on a whiteboard.

Brenna Hill, SGA president, expressed that the event was successful in bringing the idea to the attention of students who had never heard of OER. When SGA garners enough student support, they will pass a resolution that will then go to the Faculty Senate. The goal is then for the Senate to pass a policy encouraging the use of open textbooks at Trinity.

“To do that we’d also need some support from administrators, which we already have,” Hill said. “Dr. Anderson’s really in favor of this, as well as Dr. Sheryl Tynes, and we’re working to build more supporters that we can kind of use to show faculty, hey, this is something that administration and students are all really behind.”

Tynes explained that faculty are not always aware of how much students are paying for their books.

One of the major challenges in bringing open-access textbooks to college campuses is faculty awareness that there are high-quality open access options.

“Large commercial publishers that have $200 textbooks have large sales forces that go out and meet with the faculty and provide free copies of textbooks, and make sure those materials get in front of faculty,” Shockey said.

“But there isn’t such a sales force for open [educational] materials.”

“We really just want professors to, at first, just consider those books, to take a look at them and look at the quality, because they’re really high-quality textbooks,” Hill said.

In the meantime, SGA is working to bring more open-access textbooks to Trinity as soon as possible.

“We’re hopeful that we can at least introduce, maybe on a trial basis, a few by next semester or the following semester, but that’s very ambitious, and sometimes it’s a slow-going process,” Hill said.

Tynes expressed that student interest will be crucial in bringing open access textbooks to Trinity classrooms.

“My sense is that if students say, this is really important to us, we’re absolutely going to listen,” Tynes said.

Students who are intersted in OER are encouraged to reach out to SGA members via email through sga@trinity.edu.

4

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • OCTOBER 07, 2016 •

NEWS

IHCI brings international issues to campus

New organization allows students to focus on global refugee problems

BY CHRISTIANA ZGOURIDES

NEWS REPORTER

The International Humanitarian Crisis Initiative (IHCI), a campus organization founded last spring, has expanded membership this year and is working on both new and continuing projects to help alleviate the worldwide refugee crisis.

The group was co-founded by Anthoula Christodoulou and Yara Samman with help from businessman and unofficial advisor José Ramón Campos.

“Me and Anthoula have always been interested in helping out refugees and just helping out people who are very unfortunate.

And so we were once talking about it and she suggested to start a fundraiser,” Samman said.

The two students realized that their ideas were too big to accomplish with just one fundraiser, and decided to start an organization that focused on refugees and other criseses.

They met Campos, who had spent the summer of 2015 in Lebanon, through Samman’s roommate. “[Campos] made some contacts, especially with people who were creating a school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon,” said Daniela Montufar, volunteer chair for IHCI. The group has also started working with the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), a nonprofit organization that works with refugees.

IHCI’s focus fills a gap in Trinity’s volunteer and fundraising community.

Members of the International Humanitarian Crisis Initiative work to raise money and awareness for refugees photos by CHRISTIANA ZGOURIDES

“I haven’t seen anything at Trinity, at least when I came, that dealt directly with refugees,” Samman said. “There is a lot of volunteering with homelessness, with great causes, poverty, but there weren’t any specifically for refugees, for asylum seekers.”

Despite the global nature of these issues, they can be found close to home. Montufar, who currently works at RAICES, explained that that organization is a perfect example of refugee issues reaching San Antonio.

“We sometimes think ‘For me to work on that, I have to go to the Middle East or even

New York’. And we forget that we are actually located pretty close to the border with Mexico, and that border is one of the most transited in the world, if not the most,” Montufar said.

Refugees crossing the U.S. border are not coming from just Mexico and Latin America.

“We have people from Syria crossing the border, we have people from Ethiopia that maybe they don’t find a way into the U.S. but they find a way into Mexico or Central America, and they travel all the way up,” Montufar said.

IHCI has held a number of fundraising and awareness events this semester.

IHCI also held a Jeopardy fundraising event that raised about $700, as well as an information panel on refugee crises which was open to the Trinity community and the public.

“We’re hoping to keep on doing that every semester, I mean at least once or twice a semester,” Samman said of the panel.

ICHI has partnered with other campus organizations including Trinity Diversity Council, the Alpha Epsilon Delta pre-med society and the International Club.

Christodoulou explained that ICHI started with about ten members last spring, with about six who were very active. This year they have 25 very active members, with a much more extensive mailing list of people who are interested in the work of IHCI. “This year we’re very excited because we had a lot of freshmen join. Last year it was kind of hard to recruit people, but this semester through the organization fair we got a ton of interest, and it’s great because we’re able to expand immediately and set our goals for the whole year,” Christodoulou said. “And it’s very exciting to see people who have never even been in the Middle East or have never encountered a refugee that want to help.”

Students interested in IHCI are encouraged to reach out to Yara Samman, Anthoula Christodoulou or Daniela Montufar.

IHCI is looking for new members interested in volunteering, fundraising or even initiating a new project. Those interested in joining should contact Yamman or Christodoulou.

“This is not just refugees,” Christodoulou said. “If you have a passion for anything, come to us — and we’re more than happy to start a project, start a different committee if you want. We just want to help. This is about helping the community, helping people that are less fortunate than us.”

Counseling Services enters busy season More students than usual seeking help for mental health issues

BY KATHLEEN CREEDON

NEWS REPORTER

Trinity’s Counseling Services has become busy much earlier than it usually does this time of year. The larger first-year class, and more widely accepted idea that mental health problems should be discussed openly, have led to this increase in clientele.

“It feels like we are busy earlier than we usually are, but business always peaks in the middle of the semester, more so in the fall than in the spring,” said Gary Neal, director of Counseling Services.

The staff attends to students of all needs, from homesickness or school-related stress to chronic mental illness.

Neal attributes the rising number of students to the disappearance of negative attitudes towards addressing mental health issues.

“I think it has a lot to do with declining stigma of mental health, not that it’s completely gone. Students and parents now perceive it as a service that’s here for them,” Neal said.

According to data collected by Counseling Services, the number of individual counseling clients seen annually increased by 57 percent in the 2015-2016 school year, and more clients have opened up about their medical history.

In order to keep up with the ever-increasing demand, Counseling Services hopes to bring in more staff. However, such a change wouldn’t occur until the 2017-2018 school year.

“We hope to be adding staff — we need to add staff — to meet the current demand.

Otherwise, we’ll have to refer more and more students out, and we know that’s tough, whether it’s transportation, cost or insurance problems,” Neal said.

Although all Trinity students are required to have health insurance, Neal notes that some students are connected to their parents’ plans, which might dissuade a student from contacting a mental health service. Students must be willing to be open with their parents about seeking counseling.

The staff has rarely had a waiting list for clients and hopes to maintain that. However, it might be hard considering the increasing service rates.

“Over my 30 years at Trinity, we’ve never had a waiting list. 40 to 50 percent of counseling centers end up with a waiting list at some point in the year. We work really hard to avoid it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens in October,” Neal said.

In order to meet the demand, the staff is looking at hiring a practicum student from a local graduate program who would be here ten to 15 hours a week and would be able to minimize the load. However, the hiring process cannot happen until the spring semester.

“I’m aware that some small private schools similar to us have higher utilization rates than we do, but this is not unique to Trinity; this is happening across the country,” Neal said.

According to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, institutional enrollment in counseling services increased 5.6 percent nationally in the past five years.

An initial consultation with Counseling Services can be made through an appointment or during walk-in hours, Monday through Friday between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Counseling Services is located in Halsell Center, Suite 201.

NEWS • OCTOBER 07, 2016 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Alcohol support group created for students David Tuttle to facilitate program based on his personal struggles

BY PHILLIP McKEON

NEWS REPORTER

David Tuttle, dean of students, is launching an alcohol support group for Trinity students.

“It’s not an AA program. It’s an alcohol support group, and that’s a very important distinction. I’ve been talking to various students about it for the last two years and what I hear from them, whether it’s people reaching out because they feel like they’re struggling or whether it’s related to conduct issues and actions, is that there’s a need for some campus-level support. I think that the needs of our students are different from what they can find out in the San Antonio community, and so it would make sense to see if we can try something here that meets their needs,” Tuttle said.

While Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) programs have undoubtedly been effective for many, this program will be tailored to the specific needs of college students.

“An AA program is a 12-step program that is effective for the people it’s effective for, and

for others it just doesn’t work. So you have to respect that it’s had great success, but I think a lot of the time for younger people, especially college students, it’s a lot different. I think for younger people they can walk away from those meetings and feel like they don’t have a lot in common with the people there. They have more life experience, and they may have more evidence of a problem. Students don’t have that life experience, and they may not have that kind of evidence of a problem. The bad things that have happened to them may not have happened to you, so you’re not sure that you can relate, and so now you’re questioning whether or not you have a problem at all,” Tuttle said.

The group will be based around discussion and support between individuals struggling with similar issues.

“What I’m hoping this will be is something in which a number of people with an array of alcohol issues can come together and discuss with one another and find some things in common with people who are dealing with the same things they’re dealing with. What I want to learn from them is what they hope to get out of the group. So it will be a discussion format, it won’t be a lecture or presentation. It should be a way for them to build each other up while also dealing with their own alcohol issues,” Tuttle said.

Second Greek Alumni Carnival to take place Event to feature games, food, and beer tasting

BY CHRISTIANA ZGOURIDES

NEWS REPORTER

The Greek Alumni Carnival will take place this Saturday, Oct. 8, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Prassel Lawn as a part of the Alumni Weekend festivities. It will include a variety of games, refreshments and a silent auction benefiting the Fisher House, as chosen by the Greek Alumni Advisory Committee While the focus of the event is on Greek alumni, is open to the Trinity community.

“I think last year it was primarily actives and alumni from the Greek community, but this year we have advertised it a little bit more to first-years and potential new members as well as faculty and anyone else that would like to stop by,” said Jeremy Allen, coordinator for fraternity and sorority life.

The Fisher House is an organization that provides housing to military families who are in town for a veteran receiving medical services. They provide an affordable or free place for veterans and their families to stay, as well as rides to and from the hospital and other health services.

“It’s a cause that’s really near and dear to my heart, as well, I know, a lot of other Trinity students,” said Rebecca Prager, co-chair of Greek Council.

The silent auction will be located at the center of the event and will feature a variety of unique items. Each Greek organization will submit two or three items to be auctioned off at the Carnival.

Allen explained this year the auction will focus on homemade, Greek-life specific items that can’t be replicated.

“You might have really old throwback Gamma jerseys, or the Kappas are offering to remake any old jersey that’s out of circulation; so if I wanted my jersey re-made I could donate ‘X’ amount and they would re-make it for me,” Allen said. “We’re trying to make it more specific to the organizations, things that alumni would enjoy having as kind of a relic, a reminder of their time and their affiliation with their fraternities and sororities.”

Surrounding the silent auction on Prassel lawn, there will be a variety of carnival attractions. Each one is sponsored by at least one Greek organization.

Events include games such as Sumo Wrestling

by Phi Sigma Chi and Alpha Chi Lambda, a bungee run by Sigma Theta Tau and Omega Phi, Cornhole by Bengal Lancer and Chi Beta Epsilon and Giant Pong by Gamma Chi Delta and Chi Delta Tau. If attendees are not feeling competitive, they can always visit the puppykissing booth put on by Zeta Chi. There will also be food and refreshments available: Kappa Kappa Delta is hosting a Barbecue Tailgate and the Delts will have a Snowcone booth. Beer will be provided free of charge for guests 21 and up with a valid ID as a part of an informal beer tasting.

There will also be a pie-throwing sponsored

by Iota Chi Rho and a dunk tank by SPURS. All of these events will be free of charge, although some may involve fundraising.

“I told the SPURS [last year] if they raised $25 for the charity that I would get dunked in the dunk tank. And so they cheated and went straight to Dr. Anderson and he donated whatever the amount was, and I got up on the dunk tank,” Allen said.

Samy Abdallah, alumni chair of Omega Phi, expressed that the carnival can be a great way to learn more about Greek life history.

“You get to meet a lot of alumni from other organizations, and just get to know the history of their organizations and how things have changed from maybe like the ‘00s, ‘70s, ‘80s to now,” Abdallah said.

This year marks important anniversaries for some organizations: Kappa Kappa Delta is celebrating 30 years since its founding, the Bengal Lancers are celebrating 60 years, Gamma Chi Delta is celebrating 55 years and Phi Sigma Chi is celebrating 20 years.

“We had some alumni from the late ‘90s, and we also had one of our alumni, Tom Smith, who came — he was in the fifth pledge class of Omega Phi, so he was in Trinity in the mid to early ‘80s. So it’s a good mix of grads,” Abdallah said.

Students and alumni who are interested or planning to attend are encouraged to visit the Alumni Weekend Greek Carnival Facebook event page.

Tuttle will launch the group, citing his own history with alcohol as credible experience.

“I’ll facilitate it. Given my own alcohol history, having quit drinking in 1983, having dealt with and met with a lot of students about their drinking issues and having seen a lot over the years… I feel like I’m equipped to launch this because I think there’s a perceived need, but it’s important to note that I’m not an expert. It’s not meant to be an official grouptherapy session or an AA meeting. It’s meant to be a support group in the broadest sense of the term,” Tuttle said.

Part of the reasoning behind this program is to prevent the progression of students’ issues with alcohol.

“I struggled with alcohol in college, and I had to face the question of, ‘Oh, this is a problem, but what can I do?’ To me, having shared experiences that some of these students can relate to is always helpful. Even though these things happened 30 years ago, I’m still able to tie them back to the same issues today because you don’t forget. You don’t forget what it felt like to realize you’ve got a drinking problem. I think that experience gives me some credibility, and it means that I’m not sitting in a place of judgment. For me, I had already graduated college, and it came down to a choice that I forced upon myself. But for those students who may be younger, or whose drinking may

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not have progressed as far, maybe I can help support them as they come up with strategies, not tricks, to help them so that they don’t get to the point I got to, which is to have to have it be an all-or-nothing and have to quit,” Tuttle said.

If students find themselves practicing alcohol habits that are outside the norm for most, they might consider seeking help.

“The issue is often whether or not bad things happen when they drink, or when people can’t slow down or stop their drinking. So I think, if you’re a student, and you drink a glass of wine every night, you might say, ‘Oh, I have a drink every night, so I must have a problem.’ Well, not really. There’s no behavioral consequences to that. But let’s say it’s a student who goes out and has a blackout three times a month, or gets in trouble, or gets very weepy at the end of the night or people have to take care of them… If they see things that for them or their peer group might seem normal, but for the greater population are abnormal, I think that’s when they should take notice, and the strategies to prevent these things are pretty straight forward. Drink less, drink less often and monitor whether or not bad things are happening as a result of the drinking, and if they are then consider getting some help,” Tuttle said.

If interested students should contact Tuttle.

...

COMMENTARY Have an opinion? Want others to hear it? For a chance to be featured as a guest columnist, please submit your article to trinitonian@trinity.edu by Monday night to be in Thursday’s issue of the paper.

Opinion

Yes, let’s talk about “Good Kids” JAKE PURSELL

GUEST COLUMNIST Trinity University opened their main stage season this past weekend with “Good Kids.”

This show, based on the Steubenville sexual assault case of 2012, tackles the issue of sexual assault and the role of social media in exacerbating the aftermath of such crimes.

An opinion article written by an ex-student in last week’s Trinitonian and the article focuses particularly on the actor playing the narrator of the show, Deirdre, who is in a wheelchair for the entirety of the play. The author of the opinion article claims that because the actor is able-bodied and not disabled, she should not be playing a character in a wheelchair.

As an actor myself, I seriously thought about this claim. This statement means that every actor must already have real-life experience similar to those of their character, otherwise the actor will be appropriating those experiences.

The idea that an actor must experience everything the character has lived is taking method acting to another level. For example, if a character is an alcoholic, then a method actor would actually become an alcoholic while embracing that role. If the actor must have experienced everything their character has, it takes away the representation of art and theatre. Acting is about representing, which means that the actor does not need to be exactly like the character; otherwise, no talent would be needed by the actor.

The author says that the department should have actively attempted to find actors in

wheelchairs; auditions are advertised and open to all, but no one is invited nor pressured to audition. The theatre department cannot force a disabled person to play a part, as that would potentially cause discomfort and make them feel exposed and used because of their condition. Moreover, what if a student in a wheelchair auditioned, but a better actor was found through the audition process?

Would the department be expected to cast the character based on whether they were in a wheelchair or not, instead of casting the better actor? Not casting the better actor would be a disservice to the play.

The author mentions two options the theatre department should have considered: first, that the department should not have done the show. From an outsider’s perspective (which the author is — she left the school), this claim is disrespectful to the entire department. There is a policy of season selection that involves students and faculty input. “Good Kids” was thoughtfully selected through a process of reviewing the proposed season’s educational goals, budget, past seasons, the size and range of the casting pool, etc. Consequently, it was selected for a number of reasons. Not only that, the play covers important material on sexual assault that any community profits from watching.

The author also suggests that the department should have brought in a guest artist. This has happened before, with a child actor in “Pippin” and then a professional actor in “Mousetrap.” These actors were chosen based on their suitability for the role and the needs of

the play. Deirdre, on the other hand, could be believably played by a student actor. Marlon Brando in the 1950 film “The Men” played a paraplegic war veteran to great critical acclaim without actually being paralyzed himself. More recently, Jared Leto played a trans woman with HIV in “Dallas Buyers Club” to astounding success, again without being a trans woman or having HIV himself.

The author also claims that “Representation needs to be rooted in inclusion; otherwise it is appropriation.” At first glance, I had no problem with this statement. However, I started to think: does that mean “Fiddler on the Roof ” is appropriation of Jewish culture?

What about “RENT”? For example, I had the opportunity to be involved in a production of the one actor show “Amish Project,” a play based on a true story of a shooting at an Amish school. The actress playing all of the characters was not Amish. Does this mean the play was appropriating the Amish community? No, and that is the beauty of representation and theatre in general: one can embrace any role in order to empower a certain people and draw appropriate attention to their community and situation in ways that they aren’t able to otherwise. Again, going back to the example of the sexual assault survivor, does this mean that the actor playing the survivor in “Good Kids” needs to be a sexual assault survivor in real life? Otherwise, is it appropriation of sexual assault survivors’ stories? I would argue, after talking to several survivors themselves, that this play is empowering them and drawing attention to their situations. It is representing

You’re not alone: fight for change PHILLIP FLAGG

ALUMNUS COLUMNIST The cliché is that college is the best four years of your life. For me, the cliché was true. When I graduated last May I knew I had closed an incredible chapter in my life. I experienced new things, I grew as a person, I changed and most obviously — I learned. The specifics of what I learned would take pages to recount but in the past few months since graduation I’ve come to realize that it’s what I failed to learn that matters most. In all of my time at Trinity I never learned that I wasn’t alone. Not in an immediate, literal sense, but in the deeper, quieter sense.

This isolation was bred in a political climate that treats individual participation as either insane, impossible or both. It was reinforced through countless class discussions that circled endlessly around the same conclusions about the state of the world: if you wanted to do something about any of the powerful corporations that have gained such a stranglehold on our government, real change is impossible.

It was rarely stated but every one of these conversations subtly reinforced the same message: you are alone. No one feels the way you feel. If you’re angry about the state of the world it’s because you’re crazy. Other people are content and you’re just the “political friend,” the crazy person that rants on Facebook and dreams of a better world. Your classmates might pay lip service to what you believe in but none of them are really doing anything — and neither are you.

This was how I felt in my four years at Trinity.

It wasn’t painful because I knew no alternative.

There was no organized resistance against the destruction of our society. There was no fight for me to take up. I was alone.

I am writing this article now to reach every single one of you that knows what I am describing because you live it every day. I am writing to you all to tell you that you are not alone. You are not crazy. You are one of countless millions of people that understand exactly what is happening to the world and what must be done about it. It was people like you that made civil rights or a 40-hour work week or gay marriage a reality. If you are one of those people you will almost certainly be asking the next question: How? To this question there is no single answer. There are dozens of groups in San Antonio that are active in every issue from racial injustice to climate change and everything in between. I do not know about every group in San Antonio, but I do know about most of them, and I have names and contact information to share.

As for me, I have chosen the fight that promises the highest return on investment.

Rather than working on any single issue I am devoting most of my time and energy to removing the corrupt, ignorant and hateful people that got us into this mess from office and replacing them with decent people that will answer to us: their constituents.

In particular I am working to unseat Lamar Smith — your representative here at Trinity — from office. To fully grasp who Lamar Smith is and what he stands for, allow me to roll out the Greatest Hits of his time in office.

Lamar Smith has been in office since 1986, three years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In that time he has voted against the 9/11 First Responders Bill twice, has voted for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, has repeatedly acted to block climate change efforts and has become the only sitting member of Congress to not only endorse Donald Trump, but even donate some $4,000 to his campaign.

Meanwhile, his opponent, Tom Wakely, has spent his life trying to help other people. Long before anybody cared who he was, he worked with Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers in the 70s, was a labor organizer for hospital workers, was an ordained Unitarian minister and currently runs a hospice for veterans out of his home. Undoubtedly, many of you reading this will now be saying that it doesn’t matter because Wakely can’t win anyway. If that’s the case you should tell that to Smith who, for the first time in more than a decade, is actively campaigning against his opponent. Rather than being comfortably reelected without any real effort as usual, Smith has hired a professional fundraising firm to ensure that he wins. He is hosting fundraisers, sending out mailers and hiring phonebankers. If you think Smith has got this race in the bag you should tell him, because evidently he doesn’t think so. The Wakely campaign is the fight that I’ve chosen for myself but I do not expect everyone to do the same. Everyone is different and will have different causes they gravitate to. What matters isn’t that we all do the same work, but that we are all working in general.

Since graduation I have learned that I am not alone. Neither are you. You don’t have to be quiet. You don’t have to be passive. You don’t have sit idly by while the world burns. If you feel the same way I feel, please message me on Facebook or go to wakely2016.com to get involved. I will personally do whatever I can to connect people who care about the issues with the groups working on them. To whoever is reading this, wherever you are, I ask you to get involved and fight back against injustice in the world. I have a deep-seated belief that most human beings are good, kind people that would work to change the world if only they were given the opportunity. Please don’t disappoint me.

their stories. The actors are having the opportunity to empathize and experience a bit of life firsthand with this subject, and are therefore being educated themselves as well as educating their audiences. After all, this is an educational theatre.

My final and most important point: this whole disabilities issue is not the central point of the play! It is focused on sexual assault and how we deal with it in our modern world. We should not be distracted by irrelevant noise trying to drown out an important conversation, but rather realize how empowering this show is. In fact, Deirdre’s disability in the show is a physical manifestation of her dealing with her own sexual assault. The fact of the matter is that this article was written by someone far outside the Trinity theatre department, with no concept of the play, process or conversations surrounding it. I argue that Trinity University and our theatre department are taking major strides by addressing sexual assault. This topic is one that is important to address, but one that many people shy away from.

Theatre has been used, since the beginning of civilization, to place the stories and issues of people on a platform where audiences can be educated, become empathetic and recognize that they are not alone. “Good Kids” has done this for one of the most silenced communities: sexual assault survivors. Our theatre department is not taking a step backward with this production, but rather a step forward in creating change through conversation about a subject matter that is important and relevant to our community.

EDITORIAL

Why so serious?

“God invented mankind because he loved silly stories.” If this quote from British artist Ralph Steadman is true, the big man upstairs has to be particularly pleased with how the October 2016 chapter of our story is unfolding.

The most puzzling story of the last few weeks is the clown problem facing the United States. Videos of clowns appearing out of nowhere and chasing cars are sweeping social media. It’s a story straight out of a parody of a horror movie. Is it performance art? An actual terrorist threat?

An early Halloween celebration? Or perhaps some kind of socio-political commentary?

There aren’t any obvious answers, which might be the scariest part of it all.

That brings us to the other clowns in the news. No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, each candidate has had their share of mockable moments.

Poor Jill Stein was not included in the first presidential debate, so she chimed in with her responses via a remote video complete with a podium of her own. Gary Johnson seems hell-bent on cashing in on months-old memes every chance he gets.

But probably the most important product of the debate was the Saturday Night Live parody, which exaggerated Hillary Clinton’s thirst for power and Donald Trump’s obsession with being as politically incorrect as possible.

These events are undeniably bizarre. With everyone taking them so seriously, we have to wonder sometimes whether it’s worth it. As this week’s columns prove, there are plenty of issues worth caring about. But we also like to think that having a sense of humor about it all is the best way to stay sane amidst the silliness.

OPINION • OCTOBER 07, 2016 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

The best places to run near campus When I was in high school, I hated running.

It made my side hurt, it made me sweaty and it was pretty boring to boot. I’d do anything to avoid it.

Now I feel the exact opposite way: I love MIA GARZA going on jogs, and at OPINION COLUMNIST this point it’s almost more of a need than a want. I think, like in many situations, it was a simple change of mindset.

Running is healthy, and everyone knows that. There’s a plethora of good things that come from going on a jog that you might not know until you actually try it. Challenging myself by running as fast or as far as I can makes me feel strong in a way that nothing else can quite make me feel. Running gives me an opportunity to test out new music, jam to my favorite songs or listen to some thoughtprovoking podcasts.

Furthermore, if you pick your songs right and use your imagination, you can actually feel like you’re in a music video, movie, TV show or whatever you please. When you’re actually moving with the music, it gives the music a new feeling. I’d even go as far as to say, a new definition. This how I assume a talented dancer would feel.

One of the most valuable parts of going on a run is that it gives you the rare opportunity to explore your immediate surroundings and spend some time with nature. It makes you

slow down and dwell on your thoughts, your body’s ability and your surroundings, but it also makes you speed up and get energized.

You’ll discover things you would have never otherwise had any clue existed. A bluebird’s nest filled with baby birds hidden in a grassy alleyway, a mobile library stand in the middle of a neighborhood and a pond behind all the stores you usually drive past are some of the many small wonders that I’ve discovered.

I never knew that there were hundreds of fireflies all around where I live until I went jogging there at night.

Running wears you out and helps you sleep at night, but it also helps energize you when you feel lazy. It also causes your body to release endorphins that interact with a chemical in your brain, causing a reduction in your pain perception and, consequently, a positive feeling. Some people take drugs to feel that way, when all you really have to do is go for a good run.

A large factor that made me have this change in mindset is the realization that going jogging doesn’t have to be about running a certain distance in a certain time. If you want to take a break and walk some, or sprint, that’s up to you. When you go running, there are no rules you have to abide by. It’s just you and your body, so you can either make your own rules or not make any rules at all.

There are lots of places to run all around you.

My first suggestion is to exit your front door and go. Just go whichever way your feet take you, and see where you get. Don’t worry about getting lost; you can map yourself back later.

Here are some other suggestions: Broadway: There is a pretty consistent sidewalk going all the way down Broadway near campus. The number of places that you’ll discover on this run is incredibly high. You’ve probably driven down Broadway multiple times, but when you’re a pedestrian, you notice countless things that you would never notice while driving. Quirky restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, speciality stores and even little museums line Broadway: you never know what you’ll find.

The football field track at night: While it’s typically not that safe to go running at night, the track that runs around the football field is usually a safe place to run at night not only because it’s lit up by the bright stadium lights, but also because there are many people around and TUPD is always patrolling nearby. Plus when you run on the track it’s easy to monitor your progress. I like running here because it is right in the middle of Trinity, so as you’re making your way around the track you can see different parts of campus: the sophomore and junior dorms, lower campus and the tennis courts and bits of upper campus and the Trinity tower.

East Contour Drive: This street runs along the Olmos Basin Park, a dense forest with some thin paths, mostly for bikes. The forest is on one side of the street and on the other is rows and rows of Olmos Park estates. It’s a friendly area, and if you go at a popular time

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like sunset, you’ll be accompanied by bikers, kids playing, couples walking and other joggers. It’s a long, curvy street with views on either side.

Brackenridge Park: The biggest benefit to running here is that Pets Alive! is located right on the edge of the park closest to Trinity and they love having volunteers come in and take the dogs on a walk. If you want a running companion but don’t have a dog of your own, this is a win-win situation! Those dogs need all the socialization, stimulation and exercise they can get, so taking them on a run with you would make their day and yours. The park itself is scenic and serene, which provides the perfect backdrop for a calming run.

The perimeter of Trinity: Trinity is large enough that running around it is the perfect length for a longer run. This is another opportunity to explore your surroundings.

Seeing the outskirts of Trinity and the parts that you might not ever go to during the evening when there aren’t many people around can give you a whole new perspective.

Alta Vista Neighborhood: Neighborhood streets are always a good bet when it comes to running. There are usually not that many cars to worry about, and in some neighborhoods there’s a sidewalk to run on. In Alta Vista, the houses are magnificent, large and old, and the architecture is unique to each one. This will definitely add some entertainment and safety to your run.

Seniors, lend me your ears (of corn) Quirky small-town tradition in Hondo, Texas proves useful in relieving seniors’ existential crises Between graduate school applications, career fairs and capstone projects, the Class of 2017 seems to be collectively feeling the impending reality of post-undergraduate adulthood looming on SARAH HALEY OPINION COLUMNIST the horizon. Along with this realization that the relatively carefree lifestyle of college can’t last forever, may come a nostalgic desire to be a kid — or a first year — again. To any and all seniors who find themselves feeling this, I have one piece of advice: go to the South Texas Maize this fall and explore what this festival has to offer.

About 40 miles west of Trinity’s campus is a holy little town called Hondo, Texas. The welcome sign for Hondo famously states “THIS IS GOD’S COUNTRY PLEASE DON’T DRIVE THROUGH IT LIKE HELL,” and the motto of Hondo itself is simply: “This is God’s country.” An essential annual tradition that gives Hondo its character is the South Texas Maize, a fall festival on the Graff 7A Ranch.

Upon entering Graff Ranch, you receive a map of all the attractions available. From MatterCorn Mountain, a man-made hill

equipped with tube slides that run from its peak to ground level, to the Apple Cannons, huge metal air cannons from which people launch perfectly edible green apples at iron silhouettes of cows and cowboys place roughly 50 yards out. There are over a dozen attractions beyond these two, each as decidedly country and uniquely hilarious as the last. Some, like the Corn Poppers, trampolines formed by trapping air between the ground and a rubber sheet, are geared more towards children than adults. And some, like the Bon Jovi cover band, are evidently more geared towards adults rather than children.

The perks of this all-ages design of the festival for a college senior is twofold: we can still choose to partake in the elements designed for kids, all while retaining the option to consume the plentiful beer and wine available for adults only. And no, they don’t breathalyze people before shooting the Apple Cannons. Indeed, this is wholesome fun in God’s country.

Even though there is a variety of delightful activities, by far the main attraction is the “Maize.” Each year the Maize has a different design, over seven acres in area and made up of two phases. Participants navigate through the maze using what’s called a “passport,” a half-sheet of paper with ten multiple choice questions on it. The maze itself has ten markers corresponding to the ten questions;

get the trivia correctly and the passport tells you the correct direction to go, but answer the question incorrectly and you’re sent on a detour. There are multiple passports focusing on different subjects, including American History, Scripture Trivia and HEB Trivia (HEB partnered with the Graff 7A Ranch this year), forming a holy trinity of traditional Texan life.

The group I attended the maze with opted to take a variety of passports, really putting our quality liberal arts education to use.

I only learned after leaving the ranch grounds and visiting their website that the “Maize” isn’t actually planted in corn, but in haygrazer, the plant hay bales are made of. I was initially outraged and felt duped, as the attractions are all named after corn and corn-related things, with heavy doses of corn puns everywhere. Yet the reasoning the Graff Ranch provides is that haygrazer is both more drought-tolerant and pest-resistant, allowing the Maize to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. No environmental studies major would fault them for that, although I’m fairly certain 99 percent of Maize goers have no idea it isn’t made of corn. Regardless, what better way to feel like a kid again than to run around in a maze and feel special for knowing the three branches of the U.S. government?

Exploring the grounds, jumping and sliding, discussing the potential moral implications of

pig racing all while devouring a massive bag of hot kettle corn proved the most lighthearted, freeing fun my fellow seniors and I have had in a long time. For a few hours, we weren’t worried about Statements of Purpose or LSAT or MCAT scores. In the crisp early-October air, fireworks exploding all around us, the South Texas Maize satisfied the primal urge to return to our childhoods.

Seniors, reaching the end of our undergrad era, deserve some final hurrahs, and this Hondo tradition serves as the perfect nostalgic portal to simpler times. While we can’t stay in college forever, and indeed it would be highly concerning if one did, there is no harm in allowing yourself to be free and playful when the time is right. In fact, the sort of active and silly entertainment the festival provides is liberating and energizing in a positive way, allowing me to tackle midterms with a renewed sense of purpose. “Work hard, play hard” seems to be a theme in the Trinity community. There is ample room to play in Hondo. If my experience is any indication, the South Texas Maize is an absolute must for anyone wrapping up their time in Texas or San Antonio.

The festival runs until Nov. 20, and admission is $15 plus tax for adults. Come with closedtoed shoes and an open mind, and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Paid reporting positions are available now.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • OCTOBER 07, 2016 •

OPINION

The role of nostalgia in an ever-changing world

I spent last summer doing a chemistry internship at Northeastern Un i ve r s i t y and, aside the GABRIEL LEVINE from OPINION COLUMNIST i n v a l u a b l e experience itself, it was worthwhile because it resulted in my hearing blink-182’s “What’s My Age Again” for the first time. The instant that I heard the song’s nostalgic lyrics for the irresponsible antics of man-children and its classic, catchy chords emanating from my apartmentmate’s room, it got stuck in my head.

Since then, it has joined Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and the Beatles’ “It’s All Too Much” among the songs that I play when I get back to the dorm at the end of a long day. I relax in the sense of nostalgia that these songs create, a kind of calming reminder of simpler times.

I’m not alone in indulging in nostalgia. It seems to be having a

cultural moment right now. In the realm of entertainment, “Stranger Things,” “Star Wars” and Pokémon GO had phenomenal success by trafficking in nostalgia.

In the realm of politics, Donald Trump has built his campaign on an appeal to the nostalgia of a segment of America that feels left behind by changing cultural norms, societal demographics and new technologies.

Clearly, these two examples of cultural nostalgia are not equal. The former takes nostalgia as a jumpingoff point for rejuvenating old ideas as new works of art for the benefit of billions of people. By contrast, the nostalgia of Trump’s supporters is pernicious in that is calcifying. It reflects a kind of mental stasis, which is by no means unique to Trump supporters, that I find concerning.

I’ve felt it myself as a form of denial as I’ve pondered my own obsolescence. At my internship this summer, I did computational chemistry research. Working with computers, I became acutely aware of how much automation can supplant human effort, including

my own. It’s terrifying to realize that, as computer processors improve and machine learning becomes more sophisticated, in 50 years much of the creative thought that I am taught now as a chemistry major might be done by machines instead.

My career is relatively safe.

Even at current pace, it will still be decades before computers can do independent research. But for millions of Americans — many of them the disgruntled, blue-collar Trump supporters who have lost manufacturing jobs to automation — the nightmare has already arrived, as machines do their jobs better than humans can. For millions more, the nightmare will arrive in a few years as cars become self-driving and the service industry becomes automated.

In the longer term, even higher education will not protect workers from replacement with automation.

The innovations in machinelearning and neural networks, which enable automation of menial tasks like driving, will automate complex tasks. Already, computers are replacing accountants and

business analysts. Even the vaunted computer scientists will not be safe as computers begin to learn to write their own code.

Automation will tremendously benefit quality of life by reducing toilsome labor. But if we want to control technology’s advancement and not be dragged along by it, mental stasis must be avoided. It is necessary to actively anticipate the obsolescence of our education and reevaluate our expectations of our value to the world.

Something similar can be said of societal change. The racial tensions bubbling in America now, as many white people confront the prospect of being a minority in coming decades and see current minorities pushing for inequality and injustices to be addressed, are emblematic of the same calcified, static worldviews that set in when we don’t constantly reevaluate our beliefs.

It’s hard to accept new ideas. I took months to accept microaggressions as legitimate and not joke-worthy, and years to accept that it made sense to not believe in God.

But difficulty is no excuse; in the face of continuous social and technological change, mental stasis of any kind is unaffordable. At first this scared me. At first it was no fun to constantly question and reevaluate politics, religion, social norms and my employment prospects. It was no fun to be doubtful and uncertain.

But gradually I’ve come to find doubt and uncertainty thrilling!

It’s much more satisfying to muster the intellectual bravery to dive into the ocean of progress head-on than to huddle on a static island of preexisting beliefs while the waves eat away the shoreline.

Of course, sometimes I just want to relax, so I’ll come back to my room and blast blink-182’s “What’s My Age Again.” The key difference is that when I bask in the song’s nostalgia, I don’t pine for the past it evokes. Instead, I use the nostalgia as a measure of how the world has changed and how we must necessarily change along with it.

Naturally, though, you’ll have to come back and ask me what I think when I’m 23.

Our culture’s politicization is evident. The simple drive down 281 South from San Antonio to Corpus MARKHAM SIGLER Christi used SPORTS EDITOR to be marked by the flat Texas countryside, with expansive farmlands and not much else. This weekend I noticed a new feature — a large, low-to-the-ground billboard that read, “Hillary lied, and four men died.” More so than perhaps any point in our country’s brief history, we care deeply about who gets elected and who does not, despite its relatively minimal impact on our day-to-day lives.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “A sick society must think much of politics, as a sick man must think much of digestion; to ignore the subject may

be fatal cowardice for the one as for the other. But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind — if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else — than what was undertaken for the sake of health has itself become a new and deadly disease.” America’s founders were both innovative and humanly flawed, like all of us. Most importantly, they romanticized a land not concerned with the political nuances, infatuated with elite politicians who were inherently incapable of understanding the ordinary lives of their countrymen.

Their president, George Washington, did not intend to be a beloved ruler, and remarked in one of his letters, “it is my great and sole desire to live and die, in peace and retirement on my own farm.” Their vision of a non-politicized nation, untainted by self-serving, individualistic behavior, is proving to be ephemeral.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the direct antitheses of the founders’ political “philosophy,” as Margaret Thatcher once called it. Each candidate stakes their campaign on a frightening brand of messianism, asserting that only they can “save” the country — and provide its inhabitant’s a realer, fulfilling meaning.

A few weeks ago at a conference in North Dakota, Trump said, “Politicians have used and stolen your votes. They’ve given you nothing. I will give you everything.”

Everything? What exactly does he mean, everything? Unfortunately, claims like this allowed him to win the Republican primary, and put him in the position to face Clinton, whose mantra she herself has described as a “politics of meaning.” She has decried Americans’ lack of true purpose and believes wholeheartedly that a collective political mindset shared by Americans everywhere is the first step towards achieving the quixotic progressive concept of an earthly utopia.

It does not take a doctor to diagnose our country’s political system as broken. It is too prevalent a topic in society for us to be considered healthy humans. Too many of us identify first and foremost as our political affiliation. “Freedom” is a corrupted term. When one seeks freedom in the realm of politics, it should mean freedom from government interference into our communities, our businesses and thusly from our personal lives.

Freedom to determine for ourselves what is really important in this world. Freedom from the idiocracy perpetuated by popular media, politically-crazed academics and power-hungry politicians. It starts with us, the millennial generation.

Our idealistic nature must dedicate itself to things like loving others, personal responsibility and finding purpose in things that matter, not empty fantasies of political saviors and the wholeness they promulgate.

The purpose of politics

We are looking for Self-motivated, outgoing students with customer service oriented attitudes and experience Excellent communication skills A team player *Preference will be given to students who will commit to both semester and summer employment

Perks of the job Great pay, flexible semester schedule, professional work experience, add work experience to your resume Free room and board Summer Employment

To apply send resume and cover letter to: Justin Michaelson at jmichael@trinity.edu Deadline for application submission is Wednesday October 19th.

Applicants selected for a follow-up-interview will be contacted the week of October 24th.

Pulse

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT “It’s always interesting to hear what people do after they graduate. Valerie Alexander is an example of the wide diversity of outcomes for our economics majors, which can include doctors, filmmakers and lawyers” David A. Macpherson, professor of economics

Graduate begins successful career Taylor Mobley ‘16 thrives as an associate producer on NBC’s San Antonio Living program

BY COURTNEY JUSTUS

PULSE REPORTER

Taylor Mobley, a recent Trinity graduate, is building a career in the San Antonio media industry. Soon after graduating, she began working as an associate producer for the San Antonio Living Morning Show.

“I actually got the job because of Trinity,” said Mobley, a Trinity alumna with a B.A. in communication. “Aspen Gonzalez was telling me how Admissions wanted to advertise the upcoming Career Fair on the San Antonio Living Show. She asked me to go on the show and give a student’s perspective. It was the coolest thing.”

After appearing on the show, Mobley emailed the contact Aspen had been given, expressing her appreciation for the chance to appear on air and an interest in any internship opportunities the station had to offer. Mobley applied to three internships from the station and interned that summer at the San Antonio Living Morning Show through the Live Style Internship. She now has the chance to continue pursuing that passion through her job.

“I help with guest relations, making sure that everything is to their liking before the segment happens and making sure that everything is set in place so that the show can run smoothly,” Mobley said. “It’s hectic, but really fun. The job keeps you on your toes and gives you something new every day, which is one of the things that I really love about the job.”

When she first came to Trinity, Mobley knew she wanted to be active in the theatre department, but also sought another discipline. She took two classes with Robert Huesca, professor of communication. She enjoyed both, then declared her major in communication. Huesca became her advisor.

“From the start of my passion for communication, Dr. Huesca was a big influencing factor because of his passion for the field and for helping students. Whether it was questions about classes or just life, he was always very helpful,” Mobley said.

Huesca offered Mobley support throughout her time at Trinity, such as when she had an internship at Channel 4 this past summer.

“I remember checking my e-mail one day and clicking on a video clip that Taylor had sent from her internship at Channel 4’s morning show,” said Huesca. “They had given her the chance to go live on-air with a social media segment. Her delivery was as strong, poised and polished as any of the paid staff her first time live. That’s when I knew that for Taylor, the sky’s the limit career-wise. I really believe that we’ll be seeing her on the national stage before long.”

After declaring her major, Mobley also grew close with Jennifer Henderson, chair of the communication department.

“Dr. Henderson became someone I really leaned on once I was getting into the upperclassmen phases of job applications, interviews and decisions,” Mobley said. “She was always very helpful and supportive, whether it was for advice on what to put in a cover letter, what to put on my demo reel and even just to calm me down.”

Mobley also worked on the set of TigerTV during her time at Trinity, which she feels has helped her to prepare for her career.

“James Bynum from TigerTV was always super supportive and really offered great feedback whether I was on air or off,” Mobley said. “He was always there to offer a good perspective and be a mentor.”

As a theatre minor, Mobley participated both in mainstage shows and off-campus productions. She was cast in “Pippin,” “Three Sisters” and “Hellcab,” among other shows while attending Trinity.

“Taylor is the kind of person who can always put a smile on your face,” said Catherine Clark, a Trinity alumna with a B.A. in Spanish and communication. “When I worked with her for ‘Three Sisters,’ she brought a brightness

TAYLOR MOBLEYposes with fruit and vegetables alongside fellow alum HAYLEY SAYRS, who has been working with the Trinity Market since her May graduation, for a segment on Mobley’s morning show. photos provided by TAYLOR MOBLEY

to rehearsal and the whole play. She’s great and I would love to work with her again.”

Within the department of theatre and human communications, Mobley developed a close relationship to Stacey Connelly, associate professor of human communication and theatre. She took several classes with Connelly, such as Play Structure and Acting II. “Stacey Connelly really helped mold me and sculpt me as an actress and was super supportive even when I did decide to pursue communication,” Mobley said. “I really appreciated her support and all the things she taught me during my time at Trinity.”

Connelly enjoyed having Mobley in classes and working with her on various projects.

“Taylor is very emotionally available and sensitive. She reads plays with a lot of empathy and insight,” said Connelly. “I feel like Taylor really grew a lot as an actor. She truly has this great charisma, and that is what makes her really watchable.”

While at Trinity, Mobley acted in a wide

variety of roles in productions and class projects, from a rather unsympathetic soldier in “Three Sisters” to one of the main characters in “By The Way, Meet Vera Stark.”

“I remember particularly a scene she did from ‘Julie Johnson’ by Wendy Hammond,” Connelly said. “She played the best friend of the title character. I thought that Taylor was so good at playing this down-to-earth, workingclass woman.”

Mobley continues to find time for theatre whenever and wherever she can.

“Say yes to every opportunity. I realized that any experience within the industry that you feel passionate about is good experience,” Mobley said.

Originally, Mobley did not see herself as a producer. Now she loves her job and encourages others to be open to diverse opportunities, since these might really change their perceptions about what types of careers they’re interested in.

Heteronormativity discussion enlightens attendees Trinity Diversity Connection’s event encourages nondiscrimination

BY ALEXANDER MOTTER PULSE REPORTER Heteronormativity, or the belief that heterosexuality is the only sexuality and that all individuals fit into precise gender categories, allows many to reach their adult life without ever noticing the innacuracies of this worldview.

The absence of discussions about the effect of heteronormativity on LGBTQIA+ individuals allows for this community’s challenges to continue uncontested.

Organizations on campus like Trinity Diversity Committee

(TUDC) seek to combat these internalized misnomers, developing dialogues like their first one on Heteronormativity and the Orlando Shooting to foster conversations about difficult topics. Rita UrquijoRuiz from the Modern languages and literatures department and Lauryn Farris, a local San Antonian transgender activist, shared their experiences after the massacre this summer and discussed challenges to the queer community.

Sophomore Abigail Wharton anticipated the first diversity dialogue, as she is the secretary of PRIDE and facilitates communication between the officers and its members.

“I thought it was really impactful and was really excited that the conversation went as well as it did,” Wharton said.

After speeches by Ruiz and Farris, Wharton’s small group focused

primarily on initial reactions to Orlando and what could be done to continue this conversation about Orlando in the future.

“I really loved the way the full group ended talking about living out loud. I think that was something that really keyed in with me, the idea of living unapologetically present.”

Straight ally and PRIDE member Will Farner remembers being involved with TUDC and PRIDE events throughout his first two years.

“It was cool to hear from different groups of students, to get a feel for what everyone’s reactions to Orlando and heteronormativity in general were,” Farner said.

Farner found the issue of intersectionality to be one of the biggest takeaways from the dialogue.

After attending SA Pride and realizing how profoundly Orlando affected the prominent queer Latinx community locally.

“As a white straight cis guy it’s hard to be aware of every avenue that I’m privileged in,” said Farner.

Recognizing the ways people can be privileged in one way and underprivileged in another remains a constant challenge, Farner looks forward to future dialogues.

“When I come to events like these I learn something new so I keep on showing up and keep on learning things,” Farner said.

Sophomore political science major Hunter Sosby serves as TUDC’s Public Relation chair, developing ideas for dialogues such as these and marketing them to the larger Trinity community.

“I think the official count we had was 47 people, including the speakers, which was awesome. It was definitely one of the best turnouts we’ve ever had,” Sosby said.

Sosby, like Ruiz and many in attendance of the dialogue, initially

felt numb after the news of the Pulse nightclub shooting broke.

“Later, I went to a vigil for the victims and they read out the stories of the victims, and that’s when it really started to hit me. What I really took from the dialogue was the idea of changing hearts, not minds. I think so often it’s really easy to antagonize the other side for any issue and just not talk to them,” Sosby said.

The next Diversity Dialogue will be highlighting issues of police brutality, particularly cases like the Alton Sterling Shooting and Anti-Black police practices.

A collaboration between the Black Student Union and Black Male Leadership Initiative, the conversation will cover the different ways that varying messages of black criminality have incited fear. Keep checking the LeeRoy for more specific information.

10

Tacos El Regio gains the support of Trinity students

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • OCTOBER 07, 2016 •

PULSE

Activists seek many signatures for petitions against the sudden table restriction and shortage at the popular off-campus food truck

BY ELIZABETH McENRUE

PULSE REPORTER

About three weeks ago, Trinity students learned that Tacos El Regio, the food truck outside Hardbodies Ladies Club on the N. St. Mary’s strip, lost all their tables. Students have expressed frustration over this sudden change.

“Now when you drive by at night or when you just go and get tacos, you literally see people eating in the dirt. So we’ve put our minds together to determine ‘How is a table really unlawful?’ There’s really just an overreach of governmental power to tell someone [they] can’t have a table outside [their] property.

It’s really one of those things — we don’t think is right, so we’re

going to stand up and petition the government,” said Jonah Wendt, sophomore political science major.

This taco truck is a popular eatery for the many late-night patrons of the popular N. St. Mary’s strip.

“The first time I heard about the Taco Truck was in my first year when the members of the debate team took me there. I remember they told me that the taco truck was a mystical place that only existed between the hours of 12 a.m. and 4 a.m., and that, similar to Narnia, it only existed when you were drunk,” said Nathan Rothenbaum, a recent graduate. “I think the lack of outside seating not only sucks because it means that you can’t enjoy yourself, sit down and have an amazing taco, but you also miss out on some

amazing interpersonal interactions with the denizens of San Antonio.”

Some Trinity students have since banded together to petition their local councilor to bring back the truck’s tables for comfortable dining.

“We have an online version and a physical version, and we try to get the physical version out into Coates, so people can sign it. And the online version we’ve just been sending the link out [saying], ‘Hey, have your friends sign this.’ The online version has about 40 sign-ups. The physical copy has about 100. We have [the petition] available under the Tigers for Liberty Facebook page. We plugged it in Overhead at Trinity, and we’ll do that one or two more times before we finally send it in,” Wendt said.

Located on 2726 N. St Mary’s St, Tacos El Regio has been a favorite dining establishment for Trinity students for years. photo by NOAH DAVIDSON

Students like Rachel Shepherd, a senior biochemistry major, have been encouraged by the petitions to help the food truck.

“I’m a huge fan of Tacos El Regio.

They’re one of the best taco places in the city, and they’re very affordable for the quality of food they provide.

I find it worth helping because it is a

small business that is being restricted by a ludicrous city law, and small businesses need all the support they can get,” said Shepherd.

The petitions currently have no set date to be sent to city council.

Students interested in helping Tacos El Regio are encouraged to sign the digital petition via Facebook.

Alumni anticipate the reunion weekend events Attendees will be able to mingle with new faces and catch up with old ones

BY ALEXANDER MOTTER

PULSE REPORTER

Homecoming isn’t just for high school students - it’s for Trinity alums too. This Saturday marks the annual Alumni Weekend, an opportunity for graduated students to return to campus and see the many ways clubs and departments they were involved in have changed.

Michaela Knipp is one of the youngest alumni on campus, graduating just this May. “I still know a lot of the students on campus. It’s been fun seeing familiar faces around, but I’m also in a very different role,” Knipp said.

Knipp works in the admissions department, something she wanted to do since landing a job her first year in the application filing room.

OLMOS PARK CHEVRON

Hildebrand

McCollough

Next to Taco Taco

Student and Faculty Special 10% Off All Parts and Labor $5.00 Off Oil Change Wheel Aligment Brake Repairs Tune-ups Air Conditioning State Inspections

“I wanted to work in higher education, and with prospective students to try and find the right fit for them because Trinity was the right fit for me,” she said.

Alumni are important not only to their fellow graduated Tigers but also to new community members.

“We also use our alumni in a lot of our recruitment in efforts in the sense that they can talk about their experiences, and prospective students love to hear about them,” Knipp said.

Since Knipp graduated so recently, the people she graduated with are more like friends than fellow alumni.

“I’m excited for this weekend because I’ll get to see the friends I graduated with who I haven’t seen since graduation, even if it has only been half a year,” Knipp said.

Another recent graduate, Megan Kruse class of ‘14, took some time to develop professionally before she returned to work for Trinity.

“I worked at a nonprofit called ArtPace downtown for about two years, and I did grant-writing, development, I was a liaison to the city government to talk about funding, pretty much all the non-art related jobs,” Kruse said.

Working in the Dean of Student’s office now, Kruse has learned more about this world that didn’t exist for her as a student.

“I mostly interacted with the faculty and the occasional staff member.

We’re almost like this sort of ghost army who’s working to make sure that everyone is getting what they need done,” Kruse said.

Kruse joined a sorority and stays in touch with others interested in nonprofit work or art like she is.

“At Trinity, I think that though you graduate, you still have an awareness of what people are doing. It’s a small enough school so you can keep up with where people are, and Alumni Weekends really help,” Kruse said.

For Heather Haynes Smith, professor of education, Trinity has been a significant part of her entire

life. Smith graduated in 1997 with her undergrad and in 1998 with her M.A. in Teaching; her husband is also a Trinity alum.

“We didn’t have cell phones, the computer lab was in Halsell and you had to walk all the way there to use it. We also just got email when I was a student; I still have my original Trinity email account.”

Smith stayed active in Greek life as a student, so contact with her sorority sisters has strengthened her connection with fellow alumni.

“The transition [to teaching] was great. I still had a lot of weekends with my Trinity friends all over Texas, we did a lot continuing our Trinity experience and we still get together and travel just about every year,” Smith said.

Alumni like Mark Lewis, a professor of computer science, especially look forward to this reunion weekend, which will also mark his 20th graduation anniversary.

“It wasn’t that odd, and I had the advantage of knowing the campus.

Some people wonder about the interaction with your former professors now as colleagues, I didn’t find it that odd either. The only thing that was challenging was learning everyone’s first names,” Lewis said.

Many of the people Lewis was close with during his time at Trinity now live very far away, such as his roommate who resides in Paris. Alumni Weekend, however, allows attendees to build new connections.

“Even if you’ve never met someone before, this one connection opens the door to great conversations about the faculty they had and experiences shared. I don’t feel that any of my friends who went to state schools or even smaller liberal arts college have had the same experience,” Lewis said.

Events like Alumni Weekend bring together people who, though they may have had very different individual experiences while in college, are united by the memories of attending Trinity.

PULSE • OCTOBER 07, 2016 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Friday, October 7 10 am – 8 pm Centralized Check In is open.

Northrup Hall, Lobby

6:30 pm Paul Baker Tribute Meet and Greet Ruth Taylor Theatre building, Café Theatre

11 am All Alumni Golf Tournament (12:30 pm) and Lunch (11 am) at Quarry Golf Club

7:30 pm KRTU 40th Anniversary Concert Laurie Auditorium

11:30 am – 1 pm “The Joys and Jolts of Caregiving: Parenting your Aging Parents” Jim Comer ‘66 Coates University Center, Fiesta Room 12:15 pm Happy Friday (student a cappella singing) Coates University Center, Lobby 4 – 6 pm Business Alumni Reception Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Innovation Center, Room 282 STEM Alumni and Students Reception Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Room 253 4 pm A Guide to Basic Estate Planning Gina Gaedke ‘89 Northrup Hall, Room 214 4:30 – 6 pm Ambassador Alumni Happy Hour Coates University Center, Lobby 4:30 – 6 pm Tennis Clinic Butch Newman Tennis Center Education Alumni Reception Storch Building, Upper Lobby Young Alumni Happy Hour Stay Golden Social House 401 Pearl Parkway 5 pm Department of Communication Alumni Wine and Cheese Richardson Center, Studio A 5:30 pm Mirage and Trinitonian Reunion Coates University Center, Newsroom 5 – 7 pm Engineering Science Reception Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Room 470N Sigma Theta Tau Alumni Weekend Kickoff Tycoon Flats 2926 N St. Mary’s St. 6 – 8 pm 50-Year Friday Night Party Coates University Center, Skyline Bistro All Alumni Gathering and Dinner including performances by students Magic Stones (Rain: CSI lobby)

8 pm Good Kids Theatre Performance directed by Kyle Gillette ‘01 Stieren Theatre 8:15 pm Greek Alumni Advisory Council General Meeting Northrup Hall, Lobby 9 pm All Alumni After Party Bombay Bicycle Club 3506 N. St. Mary’s St.

Saturday, October 8 8 am – 3 pm Centralized Check In is open.

Northrup Hall, Lobby 8:30 – 10 am Tennis Clinic Butch Newman Tennis Center 8:30 am (gun goes off at 9 am) Check In and Bib Pickup for the Tiger Trot 5K and 1-mile walk Tiger Football Stadium 9 am – 1 pm Trinity Farmers Market North end of campus behind Coates Library 10 – 11 am Down Memory Lane - and Beyond. Dr. Coleen Grissom, Professor of English Dicke/Smith Building, Ruth Taylor Recital Hall 10 am – 12 pm Tower Climb President Anderson will be at the top for photos from 10:30 - 11:30 am.

11 am, 11:30 am, and 12 noon Guided Campus Tours Tours start at Miller Fountain 11:30 am Class of 1966 Coffee Visit with Coleen Grissom Ruth Taylor Theatre building, Café Theatre 11:30 am – 1:30 pm All Alumni Picnic | Alumni Artisans’ Sale | Alumni Book Signing William Knox Holt Conference Center, 106 Oakmont Court (Rain: Laurie Auditorium foyer) 12:30 – 1:30 pm The College Search Northrup Hall, Room 040 1:30 pm Ambassador 25th Anniversary Reunion 139 Oakmont Court

11

2 – 4 pm Carnival Sponsored by Greek Alumni Advisory Council and Greek Council Prassel Lawn

Class of 1976 (40 years) Storch Memorial Building, Patio and Lobby Class of 1971 (45 years) Elizabeth Huth Coates Library, Java City

2 – 5 pm Tennis Alumni Reunion Butch Newman Tennis Center

Class of 1966 (50 years) Northrup Hall, James F. Dicke Board Room, 4 th Floor

2 pm Paul Baker Tribute Gathering Ruth Taylor Theatre building, Café Theatre

7 pm Bengal Lancer-XBE Party Tribeca Restaurant and Bar 4331 McCullough Avenue

3:30 pm Tour of Trinity University Special Collections/Archives Elizabeth Huth Coates Library meet in lobby.

7:30 – 9:30 pm Alumni and Faculty Dinner hosted by the Alumni Association Board La Fonda on Main 2415 N Main Avenue

3:30 – 4:30 pm Special Gathering of Trinity Sweethearts Coates University Center, Skyline Bistro 4:30 – 6 pm Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Social Candlelight Coffeehouse, Wine Bar & Café 3011 N. St. Mary’s Street Legacy Parents Reception Tribeca 4331 McCullough Avenue Celebrate with other alumni parents who have children attending Trinity.

Free babysitting for ages 6 months to 12 provided by APO volunteers from 6:0011:00 pm in the Coates University Center Waxahachie and Woodlawn Rooms.

6 pm President’s All Alumni Cocktail Hour Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Innovation Center, Room 282 7 pm GOLD (Graduates Of the Last Decade) Reunion Tower Plaza (Rain: Fiesta Room) Class of 2006 (10 years) William Knox Holt Conference Center, 106 Oakmont Court Class of 2001 (15 years) Northrup Hall, Lobby Class of 1996 (20 years) Dicke/Smith Building, Foyer Class of 1991 (25 years) Hosted by President Anderson Chapman Center, Great Hall Class of 1986 (30 years) Coates University Center, Skyline Bistro Class of 1981 (35 years) Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Atrium

8 pm A True Studio piano alumni event with studio class and reception Margarite B. Parker Chapel 8 pm Good Kids Theatre Performance directed by Kyle Gillette ‘01 Stieren Theatre

Sunday, October 9 9 am – 11 am Experiential Learning Showcase Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Innovation Center, Room 282 9:15 am President’s Brunch Invited Guests are Classes of 1966 and Earlier Chapman Center, Great Hall 11 am – 1 pm Trinity University Network of Entrepreneurs (TUNE) Brunch Center for the Sciences and Innovation, Atrium Sigma Theta Tau Brunch with Actives and Alumni Tribeca 4331 McCullough Ave 11 am Chapel Service Margarite B. Parker Chapel Guest preacher: Diana Bell ‘01 Noon – 1 pm Spurs Alumni Tea Coates University Center, Skyline Bistro **Don’t forget to stop by the Margarite B. Parker Chapel to reflect on the memorial to those alumni we have lost this past year.

AE &

Trump wins vice-presidential debate

Kim Kardashian robbed, loses % 0.001 of personal wealth

“Everybody is saying I won the debate, Sean Hannity and everyone,” the candidate and real estate mogul said Wednesday in another cocaine-fueled toilet Twitter storm.

Kardashian was robbed by armed men, although some experts now believe that her story is fishy. One theory: Kanye is in debt. Sets up wife to get robbed. No longer in debt. Case closed.

“Brangelina” turns into two regular names Celebrity couple of ten years splits, millions lose faith in famous love “Brangelina,” one of the most famous couples in the world, announced their split last NABEEHA VIRANI week. People were in shock, A&E WRITER devastated and upset over Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt deciding to end their twoyear marriage.

Jolie and Pitt first met on the set of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” a movie about a couple hiding the fact that they both are assassins working for opposing agencies. Their romance was instant, and they soon became a power couple on and off the screen.

Along with their chemistry and prominence in the industry, the couple is known for their army of children. Jolie adopted her first child, Maddox, in 2002 and raised him alone following a split from

graphic by TYLER HERRON

her previous marriage to Billy Bob Thornton. In 2005, Jolie and Pitt adopted Zahara from Ethiopia. In 2006, Jolie gave birth to her first child with Pitt, Shiloh. In 2007, she adopted Pax from Vietnam and, in 2008, gave birth to twins Knox and Vivienne. Jolie filed to change all kids’ surnames to Jolie-Pitt and Pitt legally adopted his non-biological children as well.

Attention has always been on the Jolie-Pitt family because of their children, but more so when the two

decided to get married two years ago. People Magazine covered their wedding and published intimate pictures of the family. Jolie’s dress incorporated sewings of the kids’ drawings and the cake was made by the children. The magazine had been the first to publish pictures of Shiloh and the twins when they were born.

Constantly being in the spotlight is challenging for all celebrities. One reason why Brangelina has garnered so much positive attention and support is because their children are

such a large part of their identity. It’s hard not to notice their love for their children, and that’s primarily why the media and public loves them.

Despite however happy and in love Brangelina seemed, it’s obvious that there are some things the public just doesn’t know. But that doesn’t mean we should be prying into their life to figure out what happened, or making assumptions about their marriage. People, whether they’re celebrities or not, split up. It’s a fact of life. It’s not like Jolie and Pitt are

going to watch an E! News segment on their lives and completely change their decision. It’s a personal matter and it’s not our right to know the details. Sure, it would be nice to know what caused this split. But it’s not crucial to our existences.

The important thing to mention is how many of us invest ourselves into popular culture, especially into celebrities’ lives. Hollywood has always been a crazy fantasy life that we like to idealize, and with the rise of social media, access to celebrities is now easier than ever.

We’re connected to celebrities and often feel that we know them.

Admiration is one thing, but getting obsessed is another. Yes, it’s sad that Brangelina is breaking up after ten-plus years. But that’s not my problem, and it’s not yours either.

There are hundreds of other things we should be worried about and having conversations about. Look at Syria, or look at the murders of Terence Crutcher and Alfred Olango. If the rumors are true and the reason for this split is Pitt’s child abuse, then it’s vital to raise awareness on that. Let’s reevaluate what really matters to us as human beings and express that, rather than tweet about how true love doesn’t

Celebrity and the delicate art of casting Actors working in modern media should expect valuation based on personal fame ALEJANDRO CARDONA

A&E WRITER

Harold Clurman used to say “Choose a good script, cast good actors - and you’ll all be good directors!” This is as true today as it was in the beginning days of film, but for entirely different reasons. With the rise of celebrity culture, audiences developed a deep knowledge and personal relationships with their favorite movie stars, which is a casting game-changer Nowadays, it’s not enough to cast an excellent actor that fits the part: casting in the age of celebrity requires an awareness of the perceptions that an actor carries with them onscreen.

To illustrate: if you pick Daniel Radcliffe to play a part in your movie, you’re not just casting a darkhaired, blue-eyed British man. You are also casting the guy who played Harry Potter, and the public knows this. Audiences can’t help but see that baggage, and judge the performance not by its own merits, but on a scale of how much they were able to forget they were watching everyone’s favorite wizard. Alternately, when Leonardo DiCaprio writhes and screams in “The Revenant,” it’s impossible not to see the guy who was really, really trying hard to get an Oscar.

There will always be actors who disappear into their roles — Heath Ledger as the Joker in “Batman,” Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” or Gary Oldman as… well, anyone he’s ever played.

Their careers do not factor into their performance — and that’s great, since it eliminates that layer from the film altogether.

This audience awareness may seem like the bane of a casting director’s existence, but it doesn’t have to be. Directors have been aware that stardom is a factor of the moviegoing experience, and some have started accounting for it in their casting process. Many filmmakers actively select actors whose careers lend additional depth to the film’s narrative, and when it’s pulled off right, it can thoroughly enhance the viewing experience.

Sometimes the right choice is to avoid celebrities altogether. Directors can purposely avoid casting famous actors, even when they could easily do so. Think about how “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was cast. Any actor would have jumped at the chance to play the next Skywalker, but the meaty parts went to John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, who were essentially blank slates in spite of numerous accolades in smaller films.

This casting choice aimed to replicate the viewing experience of the original “Star Wars” films. Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford might be household names today, but when the original trilogy was released, nobody had strong feelings about them. This is the film to be enjoyed in its own terms —

without the added burden of any actor’s celebrity.

Some celebrities have been cast because their careers mirror a character’s arc. In 2008, when Robert Downey Jr. was cast in “Iron Man,” he was the poster boy for Hollywood excess. As a younger celebrity, Downey Jr. spent the early 2000s as a rehab regular, all of which culminated in a stretch in prison for drug-related charges.

In 2007, USA Today responded to the casting choice by pointing out that “Robert Downey Jr.’s struggles with substance abuse echo the problems faced by the character he’ll play.” Not a bold claim, since director Jon Favreau essentially stated that the actor’s career was a major factor in his casting, explaining how Downey Jr. had to “find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That’s Tony Stark.”

Let’s up the ante. What about casting multiple actors, in the same film, so that their real-life personae layer onto the film? Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Birdman” is the prime example of an ensemble’s careers seamlessly blending into their fictional counterparts. At the time of release, “Birdman” lead actor Michael Keaton was a Hollywood has-been who was once famous for playing a superhero called “Batman.”

He plays Riggan Thomson, a Hollywood has-been who was once famous for playing a superhero called “Birdman.” You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to connect the dots.

Michael Keaton was not the only

actor cast for what his career added to the film. In “Birdman” Edward Norton plays a Broadway actor who is remarkably difficult to work with. Offscreen, Edward Norton’s method acting and creative demands sometimes make him a nightmare collaborator. In his contracts, Norton demands final approval of the scripts, and has even re-edited entire films to fit his liking — which famously happened during the filming of “American History X.” This style of casting is not just a nod to people in the industry, or an accidental joke. It’s a creative technique that comes from an awareness that actors don’t only bring their Juilliard chops to a film - they bring entire careers. And it’s not exclusive to film either: some television showrunners realize that over years, they can transform an actor’s public face in a way that bolsters their show’s key narrative.

The most fascinating case study is none other than AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” for Bryan Cranston in the role of Walter White. This particular praise has nothing to do with Cranston’s excellent acting, and everything to do with his bizarre career trajectory.

It sounds absurd now, but Cranston was not an intuitive choice for the role of Walter White. When the cast of the show was announced, Cranston had spent the past six years of his television career at “Malcolm in the Middle” playing Hal, an inept, immature father — hardly the dangerous, machiavellian drug lord that he’d would become by the end of “Breaking Bad.”

But that’s exactly what creator Vince Gilligan had in mind when he pitched the unusual show to AMC: “this is the story about a man who transforms himself from Mr Chips into Scarface.” As writer Nancy Franklin of “The New Yorker” wrote in 2008, ”Walt is almost the dramatic correlative of the hapless sitcom dad Cranston played in “Malcolm in the Middle.”

The choice added a delicious metanarrative to the entire series.

Cranston enters the show as a friendly, harmless sitcom dad, and exits as one of the most fearsome men in television. Our initial expectations were met, and then slowly broken down, as Walt descended through the dark spiral of his own creation. It’s one of the most apt casting choices in television history.

There is no turning back the clock to a time where we could enjoy every movie without the added information that our media-laden culture provides. For better or worse, We cannot escape our own awareness of an actor’s existence beyond the screen. As “Birdman” cast member Zach Galifianakis put it in 2014, “Being a celebrity is shit — it’s dumb and I’m not interested in it. I like to be an actor, and that’s it. The blurred lines are, I think, man-made.” Man-made or not, the lines are there, and they are more blurred than ever. The real decision for directors is whether to let the cards fall as they may, or to take charge and control how an actor’s portfolio will enhance or detract from the overall viewing experience.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • OCTOBER 07, 2016 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Comm alum shares wisdom on life after graduating from Trinity Trinitonian web editor comes back to smack some knowledge into current students KIM NGUYEN

ALUMNI CONTRIBUTOR How should I start? It’s only been four months since I got out of school and my life is nothing like I envisioned before graduation.

I assumed that my internship at an ad agency would turn into a full-time job and my days would be filled with designing websites for various trendy businesses around town.

I thought that I’d be in a nine-to-five job everyday and have job security, a steady paycheck and work around a set of co-workers who I could learn from and improve my design skills. However, life never turns out the way you expect it. Agency life is unpredictable and there were some weeks where there was not enough time to do any work and there were weeks that there was absolutely no work.

I became a freelancer over the course of the summer and learned to adapt constantly to the day-by-day demands of an agency while working to get more clients for myself. Now I work as a full-time freelance web designer for a couple of startups in Geekdom and a contractor for other designers and PR firms in San Antonio.

My time at Trinity felt like it was years ago.

Once I started getting involved with the Geekdom community and other startups, I felt like I’ve always been a freelancer. It’s amazing how a change in environment, even one only a few minutes from the campus I spent four

years on, can change a person so quickly and wildly.

The hardest transition from being a student to becoming a freelancer has been going from a set schedule for one semester to waking up and setting up a different schedule every single day. I didn’t know how badly I missed the structure, through set class times and work schedules, that Trinity provided for me. There hasn’t been a single day since I’ve graduated where I’ve gone to work at the same time and place and done the same set of tasks. On top of that, most Trinity students have a unique path.

During my time at Trinity, I’ve never met someone who jumped straight into freelancing so I’ve had to blunder my way through the whole process. At some points I didn’t even know if I could pay rent on time because I didn’t have enough clients. It’s very stressful to not have a steady income or job locked down, and the uncertainty of this combined with the uneven schedule made the first few months difficult for me.

Thankfully with luck, a great portfolio and the startup community, I’ve settled into a challenging but fun part of my life where I get to work with several different companies a week, doing what I love the most. Freelancing has given me an alternative option, one where I set my own schedule, price and projects. It feels very different from Trinity in that those aspects were set for me by someone else, whether a professor or an organization. As for pay, it was a welcome change to not have a school bill every few weeks, but the education I received at Trinity helped me get to where I am today. There has never been a better time to be a freelancer with the rise of startups, and I’m so happy that I’ve been able to take the plunge onto the crazy ride.

One of the hardest parts about leaving college was knowing I would be leaving behind many of the people I met and befriended over my four years. Everyone says that they’ll “stay in touch,” but the reality is that 95% of the people you regularly talk to after college will not be in your inner circle post-graduation, maybe even more if you move far away from your alma mater (which I didn’t).

That’s why I need to shout out to my ladybro and roommate Maddie Smith for providing a ever-flowing chocolate fountain of humor and goodwill that keeps me going even on my bad days. Keeping your friends close after college may be a futile endeavor for the most part, but choosing the people you know you’ve made bonds for life with is one of the best uses of your time and energy (besides all the studying and finals, of course).

Moving into a professional environment from an academic one has some shell-shock, what with the whole world letting you know that the easy part of life is over and that your newfound bag of skills and tricks will only take you as far as you let it. There’s no doubt that it will be a hard transition for most people, and there’s really nothing I can say to change that before it happens: some advice is wellintentioned but useless, and trying to convince people to predict how graduation will hit them is definitely one of those. Just enjoy your college years while you have them, prepare as much as you can, whatever you plan to do after you leave this place and find you miss the sight of never-ending red brick.

I hope you have an exciting ride just as I have, but there are some things that “adult” life can’t replace. And when I lie in bed ready for the next project to excel at, I can hear the distant chime of the bell tower.

13

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What’s in a name?

Millennials are growing older and beginning to age out of their prime college years, making way for the next generation of young adults as they try to MAX FREEMAN impress themselves A&E WRITER on the world.

As an up and coming generation, we are just now getting to define ourselves, but other, somehow older people have beaten us to the name game. According to Wikipedia, people born somewhere in the middle of the 1990s all the way through the 2010s, also known as present day, are either members of “Generation Z”, “iGeneration” or “Homeland Generation,” or are “Post-Millennials.” I was unfamiliar with all of these names until I was prompted by my suitemates, mid-conversation, to find out how our age group would be documented in history, if at all. So naturally, I Googled it and quickly found my way to the top of a wonderful Wikipedia page.

At first, I didn’t understand some of the names, but I used my college-level thinking skills to figure out what they meant. I understood that “iGeneration” refers to the iPhone and its timely arrival in the world during the same time that the oldest in my generation were in middle school. I also figured the inspiring creativity behind “PostMillennials” — which happens to be the name the U.S. government brought to the table — could only mean so many things.

Apparently, “Generation Z” first sprouted from a USA Today generation-namingcontest and became the most popular choice because it followed the alphabetical pattern the past couple generations used in addition

to their mainstream names. The idea of the “Homeland Generation,” on the other hand, also comes from a contest that saw it win the highest favor of those who took part; it reflects the aftermath of 9/11 when “Americans may have felt [safer] staying at home.”

While I feel bad relying on a source like Wikipedia to learn about some of the names my generation has earned, which was slightly underwhelming, it was an adequate place to get a general sense of the thoughts people have on our generation. The multitude of sources on the page gave me a strong sense that the world doesn’t yet agree on a name to best fit my generation. But what does the name of a generation even matter to people? The importance undoubtedly varies from person to person, but it seems that when people think of age groups, naming each generation helps us form a general idea of what they are like. After all, the name of a generation is the first thing people will have to identify those people. Since the name remains a relatively malleable thing, the “who” behind the name is still undetermined too. My generation’s name could be determined by a renowned author or public official or celebrity or anybody, as past generations have demonstrated, but hopefully my generation can have a role in coining the actual term that identifies us.

I was thinking about suggesting one with hopes that it might catch on, but I’ve reasoned that my suite’s Mega-Awesome-GeniusPhenomenally-Talented-Best-at-Everything Generation idea doesn’t quite have the right kind of ring that a good name should have.

Nevertheless, the name remains open to new ideas and therefore offering us, my generation, the chance to brand ourselves and demonstrate our creativity, state what we represent, and propose what we can we will do in the future.

Good Kids

by Naomi Iizuka September 30-October 2, October 5-8 Stieren Theatre in Ruth Taylor Theatre Building Fri. & Sat. 8pm, Wed. & Thurs. 7pm, Sun. 2:30pm Student $6, Faculty/Staff $8

14

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • OCTOBER 07, 2016 •

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The college report card, academic expectations and your very first “B” NHI NGUYEN A&E INTERN “Joey, I cannot believe he gave me a B minus on this essay. Another B for this class? My performance is worsening. This is shocking!”

Okay, don’t call me a humblebrag, but that was my very honest reaction as I saw a B minus on my art history essay. For a formerly straight-A kid who was very serious about education, a B could mean the collapse of the world. These few lower grades mired me in continual self-doubt about my performance and intelligence.

It was astonishing to know that I was not the only one to go through this stage. Everyone in their academic life at one point experienced this uncomfortable time. Many of my peers shared with me that they felt like failures in college, and they were concerned about their future and grad school plan for not having a perfect GPA. This article will help you get over the flattering childhood nostalgia, overcome the perfectionist mindset, and prove why a few low grades are not bad at all.

Imperfect grades mean that you are actually learning. John Maxwell, an American author who is famous for many well-known leadership books, once said, “If you’re always at the head of your class, then you’re in the wrong class.” You do not pay for Trinity to go to easy classes in which the professors repeat the things you have known. Therefore, the fact that you do not do perfectly well in all classes simply implies that there are parts of academia you have not discovered. You may be a math master, but you may not yet know everything

graphic by TYLER HERRON

about coding, the difference between Italian and Northern European Art during the Renaissance Era, or why the War on Drugs is a failure. The lower grades have little to reflect your true intelligence and potential. In fact, they indicate that you don’t know everything and knowledge is immeasurable. Smart students will not let a few imperfect grades hinder them from learning and improving their limitations.

Imperfect performance may suggest that the field of study does not fit you. And that

is the reason why you chose a liberal arts school like Trinity: to measure your strength and weakness in different fields and find your niche. For those subjects you have a harder and more miserable time to study, they may not be the things you want to do for life. Without the appearance of low grades in certain classes, you would not be able to eliminate some of the choices that seem fit at first but in fact they are not.

The poor performance in some classes can be a reason for you to extend your social network

and diverse your experience. Normally when you are too perfect, you usually work in your own cage and do not have any reason to reach out for others for help. However, when you struggle with something, you have no choice but to contact the professor or make connections with other peers in that class to assist you with the hardship. The inadvertent byproduct of this connection is that it initiates the formation of a diverse network. It gives you reasons to connect people out of your field. And therefore, you have chances to get to know the multitudes of academia and step out of your own confinement.

Last but not least, do not let the Bs, Cs, Ds, or even Fs make you feel like you become more stupid as you grow up. They are just indicators that you are growing up. You are no longer babies who only want to hear mellifluous words and cheerful compliments. You are now ready to face your imperfect self that parents and teachers always tried to cover up.

You are now courageous enough to accept the challenges that give you the multiple spectrum of experience, despite good or bad. In short, it is not the grades that define you. It is how you deal with these early failures that suggest your maturity and personalities.

Grades matter, but what you actually learn weighs more. You do not pay for Trinity just to get good numbers, but to genuinely learn and feel comfortable with challenges. Therefore, whatever B’s, C’s, D’s or F’s you just got, embrace such imperfections and turn them into fruitful fuel to get you farther on this academic journey.

Alumni Weekend Chapel Service Alumni Weekend Chapel Service

Sunday, October 9, 2016 11 a.m.

Margarite B. Parker Chapel

Sunday, October 9, 2016 Alumna Preacher 11 a.m.

REVEREND DIANA BELL C 1 Margarite B. Parker‘ 0Chapel LASS

OF

Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo, CA

Sermon: “We Are Going”

Alumna Preacher

REVEREND DIANA BELL CLASS OF ‘01 Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church Of San Anselmo, CA

Sermon: “We Are Going”

Dr. Gary Seighman will be singing

Dr. Gary Seighman will be singing

Sports

The Curse of the Goat OCT.

7

71 years ago, “Billy Goat” Slanis bought tickets for him and his pet goat to Game Four of the World Series at Wrigley Field. At the gate, the pair was told they couldn’t enter. Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley suggested letting Billy in, but not the goat. Slanis asked, “Why not.” Wrigley said, “Because the goat stinks.” Outraged, Slanis cursed the Cubs, saying, “The Cubs ain’t gonna win no more. They’ll never win a World Series so long as the goat isn’t allowed in Wrigley.”

The curse has been real — just ask Cubs fans. The Cubs are 103-58, good for the best record in the MLB. Stay tuned to find out if Billy’s curse will finally be broken.

Men’s soccer reaches no.1 ranking Undefeated record and national poll’s top spot aren’t enough; Tigers remain hungry for championship

BY HALEY MCFADDEN

SPORTS REPORTER

The Trinity University Men’s soccer team is once again ranked No. 1 in the nation according to the NSCAA coaches rankings.

This marks the team’s 14th year in a row to reach the number one spot, and shows a significant improvement from their number five ranking at the beginning of the season.

The team has worked extremely hard to reach this point, climbing steadily in the rankings since the beginning of the season. The Tigers are currently undefeated, having won all eleven of their games, but refuse to be satisfied with their current level of success, and are looking to translate the ranking into actual wins by the end of the season.

“We are proud that our program is held in such high repute, but being No. 1 at the end of the season matters much more to us than an opinion poll does. We believe that we have a team that’s capable of winning a national championship, so our mission every week is to prove the rankings right and live up to our billing and our potential,” said Assistant Coach Edward Cartee.

“The primary goals this season are the same as always: a regular season SCAC Championship, a SCAC Tournament Championship and a National Championship. This year we know we can achieve this by rising to the occasion in critical moments, which comes naturally for the team as we are all competitors working towards a common goal,” said junior defender Brent Mandelkorn.

Last year, the team also reached the number one spot in early rankings, but fell short in quarterfinals, losing 1-0 against Amherst, who went on to become the 2015 National

The Tigers have steamrolled through their first eleven games, winning all eleven games by a total score of 32-6.

The Tigers have eight remaining conference games over the course of the month of October, before the SCAC tournament and nationals begin in November.

photo by NOAH DAVIDSON

Champions. Coming back from that loss, the team knew they had work to do to make their comeback, and feel that this year they are stronger and more capable than before.

“Our goal is to win every game that we play, one by one, and if we keep doing that then we will stay atop the rankings and finish the season the way we want it to go. We know

it will take tremendous preparation, unity, effort and performance, and the players are giving everything they have to make our team successful,” said Cartee.

The players are happy with the improved offensive-defensive balance, citing it as a main reason for their improved play.

“I feel this year we have a real balance between attack and defense. Last year we were struggling to score goals at the start of the year, whereas this year it hasn’t been as much of a concern. Defensively we have only let in six goals in eleven games which is good,” said sophomore midfielder Laurence Wyke.

Despite having gone undefeated this season, the team has not stopped focusing on how they can do more. By consistently working not only on their in-game weak points but also overall health, the Tigers are hoping to continually improve and bring home their second national championship.

“There are probably four major themes which we are concentrating on right now.

We are working on creating quality goalscoring chances on a higher percentage of our offensive possessions through better movement off the ball and better decisions on the ball, improving our productivity off of our corner kicks, neutralizing our opponents’ counterattacks, and we are emphasizing taking care of the players’ bodies so that hopefully, in spite of the rigors of playing two games every weekend for two straight months during the regular season, come postseason we have a full squad healthy, fresh, and in condition to play at our best,” Cartee said.

The Tigers conference season continues this Sunday, Oct. 9, versus University of Dallas.

Only time will tell whether or not the No. 1 ranking will be kept, and more importantly, whether they can win another championship.

Golfers poised, ready as competition stiffens Both teams looking to build on last season’s success, unite individual talents for memorable season

BY CHRIS GARCIA

SPORTS REPORTER

With the golf season well under way in early October, the women’s and men’s teams’ success so far and the upcoming obstacles are becoming apparent. After a fifth place finish at the John Bohmann Memorial Invitational two weeks ago, the Trinity men’s golf team is settling into what could be a marquee year.

The women’s golf team has been hot to start the season as well, with two top-five finishes in their first two tournaments to start September.

As summer turns to fall, both teams have battled through the scorching summer heat, enjoyed the cooler fall temperatures, and ultimately, played well up to this point in the season. The men’s team is looking to build on their success from last spring, when they barely missed out on a SCAC championship, finishing as the runner up in the conference tournament. Selected as the captain of the men’s golf team, Redmond Lyons played a key role in last year’s run and aims to be a main contributor this year as well.

“We didn’t really have the showing we wanted at TLU’s event a couple weeks ago and are going to have play better going forward,” Lyons said. “Our first goal as individuals and our main goal as a team going into every event is to put a win on the board. Obviously that won’t happen every week but we want to show how strong we are as a team. And nothing says that better than winning” The women’s team has started this fall off with ferocity, finishing second in their first tournament of September, the TLU Lady

graphic by TYLER HERRON

Bulldog Classic. After ending the first day of tourney play in third place, the Lady Tigers forced their way into second place to finish the weekend. After losing some integral senior leadership, they have definitely made a statement this year with two top-five finishes, and senior Shelby Devore is glad that the team is living up the expectations that they set.

“Our expectations were to work as hard as we could and do our very best. We finished strong last year and we wanted to continue playing well coming into this year. I think we have reached those expectations. As a team, we have really come together and put a lot of time

into practicing. We have beat some of the best teams in the country,” Devore said. “We just need to keep practicing and working hard. We only have one more tournament for the fall so for the next couple of weeks, we just need to put everything we have in it so we can finish the season strong.”

Sharing Devore’s optimism is senior Hannah Niner, who was vital to the team’s SCAC championship run last year, garnering AllSCAC second-team honors. Niner’s fantastic individual play last year is carrying over into this year. Despite the success the team has had so far, Niner knows her team will be facing some tough competition to finish out this year.

“We have one more tournament left, so we expect to work hard in the next couple weeks and make a strong appearance since it will be on our home course (the Quarry).

Coming into the season, our mentality was on improving our overall ranking nationally because we know that is the only chance we would have to make nationals,” Niner said.

Both teams are looking forward to their next tournament. The men travel to Florida to compete in the Golfweek Division III Invitational beginning on October 8, and the women will be staying home to compete in the Trinity University Alamo classic at the Quarry Golf Club beginning on Oct. 17.

16

“Pitch:” Fiction, or new glimpse of the future?

Kylie Bunbury stars as baseball player Ginny Baker in FOX’s new show, “Pitch.”

Baker is a screwball specialist called up from Triple-A for a supposedly brief stint with the ELISE HESTER SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR San Diego Padres, making history as the first woman to play in any of the four major American sports leagues. The show, produced in partnership with Major League Baseball (MLB), is advertised as “a true story on the verge of happening.” Baker wears number 43, chosen because it is one up from 42, the number retired across all major league teams after being worn by Jackie Robinson.

Robinson is famous for being the first African American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era.

Due to FOX’s partnership with MLB, games are shot in Petco Park using the cameras that film real games. It is difficult not to get chills watching Baker take the mound in a symbolic moment that hardly seems fictitious. As an aspiring sport videographer, watching “Pitch” is a visual storytelling delight. Additionally, “Pitch” does a great job of capturing the magnitude of potential historical moments, which is especially exciting to me, as someone interested in capturing these moments as they transpire in reality.

The future of baseball is uncertain, but there is no physical or genetic reason why a woman could not pitch in the majors. Young female pitchers are often pressured to switch sports once they outgrow Little League. If they do

not switch to softball, they play on teams of all boys s and the camaraderie of playing with other women.

I am no expert on baseball and I am certainly not an expert on pitching, but I do know that being a great pitcher requires more than power, strength and athleticism, though those components are extremely important.

Pitching requires focus, confidence and technique, which are not necessarily dictated by one’s gender. A woman cannot naturally deliver a fastball with the same velocity as a man, but that does not mean she cannot find ways to excel as a pitcher — Baker is a great example of a potential reality, mastering a unique, barely hittable pitch — the screwball.

Being able to throw quality strikes is arguably more important than throwing at high, hardto-control speeds. Additionally, according to Steve Johnson, orthopedic surgeon at the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, women usually have more laxity in their tendons, which makes female pitchers more limber and less likely to suffer career ending injuries.

In the opening of the pilot episode, Ginny Baker steps out of a limousine in front of Petco Park on game day, following her callup. A crowd of people are lined up, awaiting her monumentally significant arrival. Hoisted on her father’s shoulders is a young girl with a sign that reads “I’m Next.” Somewhere today, there could very well be a lone, young girl in a bullpen, preparing to change the game she loves. If she does, I want be there to tell her story. In a nation on the verge of electing a female to the highest office attainable, there is no reason to think baseball too will not soon be changing.

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • OCTOBER 07, 2016 •

Football prepares for the conference season

BY CHRIS GARCIA

SPORTS REPORTER

With a record of two wins and two losses so far this season, the Trinity football team is ready to enter conference play with increased urgency. The Tigers have traveled from Mississippi to California, but the fact is the team’s non-conference record has no material impact on their playoff placement; that is fully dependent on their record over the next six conference matchups they are currently preparing for.

The defensive unit was strong in nonconference play, but limited production on the offensive side has hurt the team, especially throughout their most recent loss to Chapman University. Both of Trinity’s losses occurred with the team only one score away from a win, as the Millsaps loss ended with a score of 2420 and the Chapman loss 19-17. This pattern of close games is evident in their wins as well, each coming at six points and seven points vs Pacific Lutheran and Redlands University, respectively.

Tight games may be exciting for viewers, but for coaches and players, these victories produce stress. Hoping to clean up the act for the rest of the season, the Tigers will need to continue to bolster their offense while remaining consistent on the defensive side of the ball.

As quarterback, senior Austin Grauer holds a lot of responsibility for improving the offense, and acknowledges some of the roadblocks.

“Obviously you never like to lose any games, but one thing that our team has not done is give up. In the two games that we have lost, we lost by a combined six points so we have battled and played to the finish. The next step is finishing those close games and I believe that we will continue to get better every day and finish those close games,” Grauer said.

Defensively, the Tigers have been solid, but a discrepancy exists between the quality of

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SPORTS

run and pass defense. The Tigers have allowed less than 400 yards of rushing on the whole season; yet they have also conceded over 1000 yards of passing offense. Regardless of the noticeable difference, junior Mitchell Globe feels confident heading into conference play.

“I think we handled the travel [to Mississippi and California] pretty well for the most part.

Now we just need to learn how to finish those games. The biggest positive is all the young guys stepping up and making huge impacts in big moments. Expectations going into the season were to win conference and go 5-0 on the road. We have not been able to do that, but looking forward we look to go undefeated in conference play and will take it one game at a time,” Globe said.

The special-teams unit has improved dramatically since the beginning of the season, mostly due to junior placekicker Colby Doyal. Doyal has made some key field goals throughout the last few weeks, and earned the SCAC player of the week honor this past week.

Doyal sees this season as exceptionally meaningful because it is the last year Trinity will be playing in the SCAC, and he is optimistic they will be holding the conference trophy at the end of the season.

“This is our last year playing in the SCAC and we want to be the last team to win the conference,” Doyal said. “It would mean a lot to not only the team but especially to the seniors to leave that lasting legacy as the last class to win a ring in the SCAC. It is definitely obtainable and we have the players and coaches to get it done.”

The Tigers’ run at the coveted SCAC title will begin this weekend as they take on Texas Lutheran on their home turf. By the end of November we will have the answer to whether this team can leave their mark in history as the final Trinity Tiger football team to win the SCAC.