1
THREE PENNY OPERA 7
POWER TRIP INTERVIEW 12
MENS BASKETBALL 13
theTrinitonian
Vol. 115 Issue 11
Serving Trinity University, San Antonio Since 1902
November 06, 2015
ST
SB 11
OF AUGUST,
* Information provided by Texas Legislature Online
BILL GOES INTO
EFFECT
* amantha
yS Graphic b
Skory
Gun control ignites at Trinity Campus carry forum to take place following the passage of Texas Senate Bill 11 BY JESSICA LUHRMAN
NEWS REPORTER
The university will host a campus carry forum sponsored by the Student Government Association on November 11. The forum is in response to the passage of Senate Bill 11, commonly known as “campus carry,” which allows for concealed firearms on the campuses of public higher institutions with designated “gun-free zones.” SB11 provides an exemption for private universities to opt out of the bill provided that the university consults its students, faculty and staff. Trinity currently prohibits firearms on campus and intends to opt out of the SB11 requirement through the campus forum, according to Sean McCutchen, student government association president. “We’re holding this forum so that both sides can be heard and so that all sides can
NEWS...1-4
be represented and have their voices heard. So the administration can make their point clear about why they do not want campus carry and why campus carry won’t be at Trinity,” McCutchen said. The Texas Tribune reports that Trinity is one of three other private institutions including Austin College in Sherman and Paul Quinn College in Dallas to likely ban guns on campus. The forum will open with introductory words from Danny Anderson, university president, followed by an assessment of the difference between “open carry” and “campus carry” by Paul Chapa, chief of police. “I’ll be introducing the difference between open carry and campus carry. Open carry is strictly off campus with guns not allowed on campus. Campus carry is identifying state institutions allowing weapons on campus and private institutions the option to opt out,” Chapa said. The forum will also feature the differing viewpoints on campus carry from both students and faculty. From the student perspective, McCutchen will explain to the audience the concerns of campus carry and first year Brenham Pozzi will discuss the advantages of campus carry. John Hermann, associate professor of political science, and David Crockett,
OPINION...5-6
PULSE...7-9
professor and chair of political science, will provide the faculty perspective on both sides of the topic. “Dr. Hermann is going to play the part advocating for campus carry and Dr. Crockett will play the part against campus carry. They’ll provide an academic side of things, not just anecdotal evidence,” McCutchen said. Students, faculty and staff will be able to voice their opinions during a question and answer period at the end of the forum. Following the forum, a vote will also be taken from the SGA senators, Trinity Staff Engagement Committee and the Faculty Senate, according to Sharon Jones Schweitzer, assistant vice president for external relations. “This is going to precede what might be a series of votes by representative bodies at the university so that we can document that we’ve consulted all levels of the university’s constituents from student to faculty and to staff,” Schweitzer said. The forum and the votes from representative bodies will document the steps the university has taken to fulfill the opting out requirement of SB11. “This is what we hope will be a continuation of a longstanding policy that we have of forbidding guns on campus,” Schweitzer said.
SGA plans to pass a resolution within the next two weeks against campus carry. Miraziz Khidoyatov, senior and political science major, is one student that intends to attend the forum. Khidoyatov argues that Trinity’s policy of forbidding guns on campus is positive. “The open carry policy that Texas has taken is just scary where people can carry weapons wherever they want to, they can use them whenever they feel like it,” Khidoyatov said. “I don’t think it is normal. There is extensive research available that other international organizations has done that shows the more availability of weapons you have, the more violence you have.” Opting out of SB11 is indicative of what the Trinity community wants, according to McCutchen. “I think this is legitimately reflective of what the campus wants from staff, faculty and students. That’s why we’re doing this so that Dr. Anderson can go to the Legislature and say this is what our students, administration and staff said,” McCutchen said. The forum will be held on Nov. 11 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Chapman Center Auditorium.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT...10-12
SPORTS...13-16
2
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
WEEKLY PREVIEW
NEWS BRIEFS
6
NOVEMBER 6 - NOVEMBER 13
FRIDAY
8
What: First Friday Breakfast When: 8:00 - 10:30 a.m. Where: Heidi Lounge
On Thursday afternoon a bomb found on a via bus in San Antonio was detonated. The device was later discovered to be a hoax. A passenger on the bus discovered the device and alerted the driver of the public transportation bus. The San Antonio Police Department bomb squad detonated the device which later was discovered to be filled with Styrofoam. Although nobody has been arrested the suspect will face severe charges for alarming and causing potential harm to the public. mysanantonio.com
7
9
What: Diwali When: 7:00 p.m. Where: Laurie Auditorium
Boulder, Colorado
SUNDAY
Meet the SENATO
SATURDAY
Tyler’s Birthday
For a complete list of upcoming events head to trintonian.com/ eventcalendar. To request coverage of an event please email us at trinitonian@trinity.edu with the name, time and date of your event.
What: The Trinity Jazz Ensemble When: 3:00 p.m. Where: Ruth Taylor Recital Hall
What: Chinese Culture Club Art When: 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Where: Coates Lobby
STAFF PICKS
San Antonio
MONDAY
What: Film Screening When: 6:30 p.m. Where: Chapman Auditorium
LET TER EDITORS TO THE
TUPDBriefs
On Thursday a 9-year-old boy was lured into an alley in Chicago and fatally shot. The boy was originally playing in the park before getting drawn into a back alley. The father is said to have gang affiliation which may have led to the death of his son. However it is said he is refusing to cooperate with the police in regards to the death of his son. The boy was shot from behind while en route to his grandmothers house. The police know the gangs involved however no individuals have been charged.
Location: Herdon Residence Date: 11-03-15 Time: 7:44 p.m. Classification: Texas Controlled Substance Act
Location: Prassel Residence Date: 11-03-15 Time: 5:58 p.m. Classification: Texas Controlled Substance Act
Location: South Residence Date: 11-01-15 Time: 3:24 a.m. Classification: Texas Controlled Substance Act
Location: Coates Center Date: 11-03-15 Time: 11:21 a.m. Classification: Theft
Location: North Residence Date: 11-01-15 Time: 2:21 p.m. Classification: Injury/Illness
mysanantonio.com
CONTACT US EDITORIAL
On November 5th the coalition of hackers known as Anonymous, released the names and information of over 1000 Klu Klux Klan members. The group of hackers used human intelligence rather than just hacking to gain information about Klan members. The group has begun a campaign known as “Hoods Off” to respond to the violent threats from the KKK. The threats originated after protests broke out in Ferguson, Missouri. The two groups have begun to spar with each other online by posting different threats via twitter. bbc.com
1994
So it’s the birthday of our very own News Editor. He’s a champ, and he’s turning 21. So if you seem him around campus try and be nice to him. Although he does have a gigantic ego so maybe as a birthday present shoot him down so he knows his true place at this school. The Bottom.
U.S.
International
NEWS
Email Newsroom Editors Fax
trinitonian@trinity.edu 210 999 8558 210 999 8557 210 999 7034
Location: Shook Avenue Date: 10-31-15 Time: 3:12 a.m. Classification: Evading Arrest
HONOR COUNCIL Location: South Residence Date: 11-01-15 Time: 3:24 a.m. Classification: Texas Controlled Substance Act
Location: Lot V Date: 11-01-15 Time: 1:40 a.m. Classification: Reckless Driving
ADVERTISING
Email Advertising Fax Business
Location: Mabee Dining Hall Date: 10-29-15 Time: 1:01 p.m. Classification: Theft
trinitonian-adv@trinity.edu 210 999 8555 210 999 7034 210 999 8556
Opinions expressed in the Trinitonian are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Trinity University, its students, faculty, staff or the Trinitonian. Editorials represent the opinions of the Trinitonian Editorial Board. The first copy of the Trinitonian is free; additional copies are 50 cents each. ©2015. All rights reserved.
Location: CSI Date: 10-30-15 Time: 9:37 p.m. Classification: Fire Alarm
Compiled by Tyler Boelts. Information provided by Trinity University Police Department
Identification The Trinitonian [USPS 640460] [issn 1067-7291] is published weekly during the academic year, except holidays and final exams, by Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200. Subscription price is $35 per year. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Antonio, TX. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Trinitonian, One Trinity Place, #62, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200.
Corrections compiled by Tyler Boelts
See something wrong? Contact us and we will run a correction in the following issue.
NEWS • NOVEMBER 06, 2015
3
• WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
Just For Kids founder Shauneen Lambe visits campus British lawyer speaks to students and faculty regarding detained youth in the UK BY ALEXANDRA URI
NEWS REPORTER
On Tuesday October 27, the departments of urban studies, sociology and anthropology, political science and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship welcomed Shauneen Lambe, a British lawyer and barrister. According to Leeroy, “Lambe’s work in the criminal justice system has earned her awards from the World Economic Forum and the Eisenhower World Leadership Program among others. She will also discuss her work on Louisiana’s death row and as the founder of Just for Kids, which provides advocacy, support and assistance to young people in difficulty.” Lambe’s talk was made possible by the Eisenhower Fellowship. “She is here courtesy of the Eisenhower Fellowship that we should all be so lucky to get someday. She is one of twentyfive people who have been chosen from around the world by the Eisenhower Foundation to come to the United States in order talk to people about the work she has accomplished and also to share what she has learned from organizations in the United States who do projects with kids,” said Sarah Beth Kaufman, professor of sociology at Trinity University. Lambe began her talk by discussing how she began her work in the field of social justice. She talked about her
client, Ryan Matthews, who was on death row in Louisiana. “He was seventeen years old. He received his death sentence on Mother’s Day; the jury had been deliberating all night until about one in the morning. And when they returned the verdict I was in the courtroom in Jackson Parish. I had recently arrived in the United States — we don’t have the death penalty in England, and this was one of the cruelest things I had seen in my entire life,” Lambe said. She went on to discuss how her client was innocent of this crime despite being convicted and sentenced to death by twelve jury members. “What was interesting after the trial was to discover that Ryan was actually innocent. Pulling the pieces together to figure out how an innocent seventeenyear-old had been sentenced to death was a kind of fascinating journey for me,” Lambe said. Ryan’s case started Lambe’s journey into advocacy work for youths facing trouble with the law. “That was on the micro level, getting Ryan out of prison, but on the macro level, we were looking at the fact that the United States, the leader of the Western world, was still sending children to be executed. Was there a way that we could change the belief … that children didn’t need to be killed for what they may or may not have done, [as] in Ryan’s case?” Through her work with the rest of her legal team, Lambe was able to prove to a judge that Ryan deserved another chance in court and he was released in 2004 after five years on death row. She went on to discuss the Supreme Court Case, Roper v. Simmons (2005), which made the execution of a minor
illegal based on the fact that the adolescent brain is still developing. “What I had seen a lot of on that journey was the recognition that even when someone had done something wrong, which Ryan clearly hadn’t, the adolescent brain is really different from the adult brain; the neuroscience was beginning to show that from the age of 14 to even 23 or 24, particularly in boys — with girls it’s about 20 or 21 — the brain is still developing. The frontal lobe, which is the consequential thinking part of the brain, is not developed in adolescents in the same way as it is in adults,” Lambe said. After she went back to the United Kingdom, Lambe decided to begin her advocacy work by creating Just for Kids Law. “I was really moved by what I had seen with young people and
adolescents. I decided to set up a law office there that specialized exclusively in representing young people and young people who had difficulties, legal difficulties. [This way] they didn’t just have to be in the criminal justice system. Perhaps they had other legal difficulties,” Lambe said. All in all, the cost of locking children away has cost the United Kingdom about four trillion pounds in the last twenty years. Lambe’s group works to protect children’s rights and to enact a systemic change in the way adolescent cases are handled. “Our aim is to help transform the lives of young people from crisis to stability to independence,” Lambe said. However, the main goal that Lambe and Just for Kids Law have is to engage youths in social activism work. She discussed the Let Us Learn movement in
Students and professors listen to the lecture regarding detained youth
the United Kingdom which was led by undocumented students and young people trying to gain access to student loans. “The young people led this movement themselves. They gave the program its name, Let Us Learn, and they’ve done a lot of their own publicity. As a result of that we’ve had over 100 young people contact us in similar situations who have places at university and can’t get in,” Lambe said. Lambe’s main point of the talk was to encourage young people to become involved in the world around them. “We call it converting the potential energy, because there is so much potential energy in youth and young people, into kinetic energy. How do we get all of you guys to think about the things that you care about and actually go out there and stand up and speak for them?” Lambe asked the audience.
photo by Tyler Boelts
Super dapper giraffe wants you to apply for trinitonian sports and news reporter email trinitonian@trinity.edu
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
Do it for me, please.
4
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
NEWS
Alamo in need of major restorations Conservationists undertake project to restore the Alamo to its original appearance BY JESSICA LUHRMAN
NEWS REPORTER
Restoration efforts are underway at one of San Antonio’s most prominent monuments: the Alamo. The project is led by Ivan Myjer, senior conservator of building and monument conservation, and Miroslav Maler, master stone conservation specialist. Myjer spoke to an audience at Trinity regarding their restoration work at the Alamo and their previous projects for the San Antonio missions on Thursday, October 29. The talk was hosted by the Urban Studies Society. Myjer and Maler are working on a restoration project for the Texas General Land Office. The Texas Legislature has allocated $31.5 million for the project, including five million in emergency upgrades. After an intensive application process that began in 2006, the Alamo and the missions that make up the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park were declared a UNESCO World Heritage
Site last July. In 2015, the Alamo shifted management from the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to the state of Texas overseen by the Texas General Land Office. There has been debate as to the future appearance of the Alamo, which Myjer elaborated on. “The larger question is: what should it look like? We know it shouldn’t look like what it looks like now. There are people who want to return it to the day of the battle in 1836. There are people who would like to take the entire plaza downtown back to 1836. There are people who would like to see the colonial portion restored to 1740, but to still retain the 1850 appearance,” said Myjer. While the Texas General Land Office plans for the future of the Alamo’s appearance, Myjer and Maler have been busy doing emergency repairs on the building. “We’ve been closing up areas where water has been getting in. We’re trying to stabilize the façade in order to buy time while a much larger deliberative process takes place about what’s going to happen to this building and how it’s going to be restored,” Myjer said. The Alamo is in need of numerous conservation fixes to stabilize the building. “I have told the General Land Office that we could easily spend $1 million and
you wouldn’t see anything different. We could do a lot of conservation, a lot of stabilization and the appearance of the Alamo wouldn’t change. That’s how great the need is,” Myjer. said Myjer noted that there are many “zones of deterioration” outside of the Alamo due to weather conditions. “The terrain in front of the Alamo has changed dramatically over the years. During the 1950’s or 1970’s, someone added a hardscape up against the stone. What happens is the water lands on it and has nowhere to go. So it lands up against the building, capillaries up in the stone, brings salt with it and causes a lot of deterioration,” Myjer said. “The most heavily deteriorated areas are at the base of the building and the top of the building and on the sides.” Some of the most critical work for Myjer and Maler is research, receiving mortar samples from inside the wall to assess the previous conditions of the Alamo throughout time. The Alamo had previously been painted pink, according to Myjer, who added, “This is macho Texas, but the Alamo used to be pink.” Nick Santulli, sophomore and political science major, was surprised that the Alamo had previously been painted pink. “I’ve never thought much about the appearance of the Alamo. I just assumed that it looked the way that it should
look. It’s interesting to see how past attempts at conservation have distorted its appearance. It’ll be interesting to see what they do from here on out to fix that.” Myjer and Maler have been removing the pink mortar and replacing it with historically correct stone. Myjer has been peering into the inside of the Alamo’s wall to see the different layers of stone that have been altered throughout time. The differences in the Alamo’s appearance over time stood out to Cole Murray, sophomore political science and urban studies major. “I knew that there were different time periods of the building but I didn’t realize how much they differ. And really, the time periods don’t connect with each other in any way, except that they’re [present] in the same building,” Murray said. The role of conservators is to restore the building while also maintaining them for future generations, according to Myjer. “Future generations of conservationists can remove what we’ve added. We don’t use epoxy or strong anchors; we generally use weak adhesives and mechanical anchors,” Myjer said. “Our work can be twisted or removed.” Once the Texas General Land Office reaches a decision regarding the future appearance of the Alamo, Myjer and Maler will be able to move forward with more intensive conservation efforts.
Meet and greet provides valuable insight to organization
Students of color consider meet to decide future plans and goals BY ALEXANDRA URI
NEWS REPORTER
On Thursday October 29, Trinity Diversity Connection hosted their first Students of Color meet-and-greet. The event was open to students, staff and faculty of color. The program was started under the Council for the Advancement of Higher Education Standards. “This is our first one and we want people to tell us where they want this vision to go. We just really wanted the opportunity for that. We haven’t had anything where faculty, staff and students from underrepresented populations come to one place to do anything, to talk about what’s going on with someone who looks like
them,” said Soisouda Smith, coordinator of diversity and intercultural relations at Trinity University. Students, staff and faculty met to open communications among people of color on Trinity’s campus. The group discussed how future meet-ups would be run, as well as addressing the needs of the minority community as a whole. “This is our first meeting so we’re allowing them to let us know what are they wanting. Stacy and some of our other staff members created these surveys based on who you are. If you’re faculty, how do you want to be involved in this process? If you’re a student, how do you want to be involved? Do you just want to come to things like this meet-and-greet? Do you want a mentor to do some programming?” Smith said. Students are excited that they have the opportunity to meet fellow students and staff members who have similar backgrounds. “I would like to connect with more students and faculty. You can never make too many connections,” said Laura Harris, a first year at Trinity.
Staff members are equally excited to reach out to students of underrepresented populations on Trinity’s campus. “I think this is an important opportunity to not only introduce ourselves to each other and build a community, but also, in particular for students, to let them know where there are informal resources to help them navigate some of the issues of race and identity at a majority white school,” said Keesha Middlemass, professor of political science at Trinity. Trinity Diversity Connection and Student Involvement hope that this type of programming will continue into the future in a way that best fits what Trinity’s community members need. “I do foresee it continuing. Maybe it’s not something like a meet-and-greet, maybe it’s a lunch or maybe it’s a dinner or maybe faculty or staff host something at their home. We won’t know until they let us know,” said Smith.
Interested in writing? Being involved on campus? Journalism? Apply to the Trinitonian team today! Email trinitonian@trinity. edu for information
T
O
5
OPINION • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
...
pinion
COMMENTARY
We want to read your thoughts on gun control! Do you want more regulations? More freedom? Let us know! Submit your written pieces to trinitonian@trinity.edu for a chance to be featured in our upcoming issues.
Amending the amendment
I’m ultimately quite nervous about writing this article, which is something I’ve never been able to say before. I fear that I may rub some people the wrong way with this, but I promise you it’s not a deliberate act. I’m finally caving in and putting my feelings about gun control into print form. This is not meant to offend. I’m a guest in your country and am greatly appreciative for the wonderful opportunities its given me and the incredible people I’ve met here. However, America isn’t perfect. Sorry. There are many things you guys get right that the rest of the world could learn from, including Sonic drinks and college sports. On the flip side however, the guns have gotta go. Or at least be decreased in their prevalence. I understand this is pretty much an impossible dream — the second amendment is so vitally ingrained in this society that it’ll almost certainly never be repealed — but this situation could definitely be improved. In my humble opinion, the single biggest mistake in American history is the second amendment. I truly believe that. This is not a judgement; God knows my country has made some tragically big mistakes in our long and supposedly
illustrious history, which is actually stained with the blood of many innocent victims of the United Kingdom. We’ve CALLUM SQUIRES done some pretty messed up things. British Invasion The British Empire was arguably the biggest global oppression movement in history. But thankfully we sorted it out eventually. My question is: When will America acknowledge its gun problem? There have been too many school shootings and mass murders to ignore this. Even just last week, there was a gunrelated incident in our very own local community in San Antonio. UIW had a scare with a man in black supposedly carrying an assault rifle around campus. Whilst social media reports may have blown this out of proportion, it’s still a scarily real situation for me. The idea that UIW was in lockdown and TUPD were telling us to avoid their campus was not something I ever thought realistic, but having open campuses and the ability to acquire a firearm relatively easily means that living with the constant threat
of gun violence is our reality. This is a reality. Trinity’s current position of not allowing guns on our campus is something I wholeheartedly support. I would feel incredibly unsafe and uneasy if this was overturned. I already feel a slight sense of panic whenever I see a TUPD officer with a firearm on his hip. Admittedly, this is partially down to my socialisation. The only time I see guns in London is when I visit an embassy — usually the U.S. one — or if you see a serious drug or gang crime unit out on the streets. It’s a shock to our system because it’s so rare. And yet I came to Trinity and within the first three weeks I was Facebook friends with four different people holding guns in their profile pictures. The fact that someone holds on his hip the power to end my life is inherently frightening to me. And then we get to the rebuttal that if the citizens and police of America don’t have guns themselves, then how can they protect themselves from these criminals? But my counterargument is that if guns weren’t so readily available in the first place, then criminals wouldn’t have them. In London, knife crime is prevalent. Shootings are extremely rare.
There is a clear and direct worldwide correlation between countries not allowing the possession of firearms and a lower rates of gun violence. It just makes sense. What is more, there is about a 70 percent chance that you will survive a stab wound. There is about a 70 percent chance you’ll fail to survive a gunshot wound. I understand that many fear that giving up guns will lead to the government oppressing the American people, but in a country as big as this one, is that ever truly likely to happen? I guess I just don’t see the relationship between freedom and a gun. I urge anyone who feels strongly about this to attend the Campus Carry forum on November 11 at 6:00 p.m. in the Chapman Auditorium. This is an issue worth debating and one that everyone should be able to give their voice to. I hope I haven’t come across as too much of a foreigner moaning about the culture in another country — this was never meant to be that — but I do think that there has to be another way. I don’t want to be the guy who loses his friend to a shooting. Callum Squires is a junior German studies major.
Standards of discourse: a critique of the critique
Before I begin I would like to say thank you to those who have taken the time to address my original article about the Prejudice Panel and the subsequent discussion about political discourse in Trinity that developed on the pages of this publication. It is always great to see widespread engagement from a variety of perspectives which, in some ways, is exactly what I stated to be missing from university panel discussions and student organized events. That said, I cannot resist to underscore the irony onto which we have now inevitably stumbled — the political discourse of diverse views did not develop as a result of the Trinity community waking up to the intrinsic value of such discourse, but rather entirely in opposition to such a prescription (or perhaps out of denial that the problem of discourse exists in the first place). In either case, I reiterate my point that the application of this mode of open discussion to future events with “diverse viewpoints” will yield a much needed illumination of truth that is otherwise unattainable in the vortex of silence. Upon a closer look at the points made by the opposition, I can clearly distinguish two groups of arguments. The first are the quasiarguments. These include tautological statements that add absolutely nothing to the issue at hand (ex: progressive groups host panels with progressive viewpoints because they consist of progressive members with progressive viewpoints.) Thank you for your insight, but I think that much we already know. Other examples in this group include ad hominem attacks that authors received anonymously after the publication of their articles, the request to provide references for the existence of the GULAG, and the claim that diversity in ethno-racial backgrounds ought to trump the diversity of actual ideation. I do not have a detailed response to these types of claims simply because they either commit a logical fallacy or are too absurd to address in general. The second category of arguments consists of the intelligible objections raised by Dr. Singhi and Dr. Siavoshi. It is the latter that I am interested in respectfully addressing.
STAFF editor-in-chief: Luke Wise managing editor: Claire Hoobler-Curtis business manager: Cori Whang ad director: Christina Moore news editor: Tyler Boelts campus pulse editor: Julia Elmore arts & entertainment editor: Madison Smith sports editor: Aynav Leibowitz photo editor: Miguel Webber graphic editor: Samantha Skory
In response to Dr. Crockett’s vortex of silence argument, Dr. Siavoshi wonders “what institutional, financial or structural forces have been generated against minority voices?” However, this question only underscores a part of our point to begin with. The inherent NIKITA CHIRKOV danger of the vortex of silence is that it is The Contrarian generated by majoritarian tendencies that often exist outside a need for institutional, financial or structural forces. The challenge that is facing the freedom of ideation on university campuses is far too complex to be narrowed down to a particular institutional barrier. Furthermore, oppression of minority views often serves as a precondition for a development of structural barriers that strengthen the power of the majority. Consequently, these barriers become impossible to remove for they are not considered dangerous by the majority that put them in place. Moreover, I am slightly disappointed that Dr. Siavoshi, being a former chair of the political science department, isn’t willing to admit the widespread ideological intolerance toward conservatives in academia. Intercollegiate Studies Institute, acquainted me with conservative-leaning professors across the country. However, most of them keep their affiliation with ISI a secret due to legitimate concerns of job security. Are these circumstances created by clearly evident institutional, structural or financial barriers? No. Yet they represent a reality for many professionals who dare not express their views in a nation that was once the epitome of open discourse. And while many readers may secretly feel ecstatic about the fact that rightleaning academics face this type of intolerance, this reminds me all too closely of the current ideological suppression of intelligentsia in the Russian Federation. However, what are we to say about students in American colleges? Particularly about those who also push back on majority opinion? I feel a duty to reiterate that those of us who speak out do not consider
intellectual responses as suppression. To the contrary, we encourage the clash of ideas of all sorts and attempt to start provocative discussions where we can. What we oppose are safe spaces, the culture of extreme political correctness and mind coddling. Therefore, we also oppose ad hominem and mischaracterization of arguments as phobias. In what seems to be Dr. Siavoshi’s strongest point, she states that “according to a 2006 Washington Post ABC poll, 46 percent of Americans have unfavorable view of Islam but more importantly, 33 percent of Americans thought that ‘MAINSTREAM Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims.’” However, what does this statistic establish? If I were to say that “33 percent of Russians thought that mainstream Marxism encourages violence against the bourgeoisie,” would that prove a systematic prejudice against Marxists in Russia? Of course not. These are exactly the types of media claims that structure the discourse in such a way as to portray the opposition fearful or racist. Indeed, one can have an “unfavorable view” of a certain ideology, religion, or philosophical position without being racist against its members. The distinction here isn’t subtle, and it’s quite misleading to make a connection where none exists. In conclusion, I would like to say the following — there are a number of systematic barriers that completely undermine and suppress the views of the minority in this and other academic institutions. They exist as a natural extension of the vortex of silence and are rooted deep within the campus culture. Some of the ones I have come across in Trinity are absolutely extraordinary. I would love to talk about them in detail — but I too fear for my job security and reputation.
Nikita Chirkov is a senior political science, international studies and Russian major.
web editor: Kim Nguyen reporters: Jessica Luhrman, Alex Uri, Nipuni Gomes, Clint Schroeder, Sarah Price, Sarah Tipton, Paige Perez, Grace Frye, Dylan Wagner, Emily Elliot columnists: Nikita Chirkov, Courtney Justus, Callum Squires, Jeff Sullivan copy editors: Daniel Conrad, Zach Wilson, Emily Wood photographers: Karina Duran, Eva Littman, Jordan Leeper, Sarah Thorne, Nayeli Perez distribution manager: Nikita Chirkov advertising staff: Donovan Allen, Laura Campbell, Lauren Harris, Kayla Hood, Jordan Leeper, Erin Patridge business staff: Krushi Patel, Jessie Taube adviser: Katharine Martin
6
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
Hypocrisy dragged out of the closet
In last week’s Trinitonian, Nathan Rothenbaum took it upon himself to “test his mettle against the likes of Dr. Crockett.” In his response to Dr. Crockett’s article, which reminds us all that every issue has an alternative narrative and that individuals who hold such alternative views shouldn’t be cornered into silence by politically correct, mainstream viewpoints, Mr. Rothenbaum posits that Dr. Crockett has missed the “very nature of democracy” and asks: “whose ideas are being silenced, and where is this silencing happening?” To answer Mr. Rothenbaum’s question, this silencing is occurring on our own campus and those who hold back their expressions of alternative narratives are being subtly silenced by hypocritical pronouncements. Mr. Rothenbaum’s own article is complicit in this charge because he claims to believe in the freedom of speech, but only if it resides within his lofty and progressive “limits of discourse.” But such limits that exclude alternative narratives cannot possibly be rationalized as adhering to the tenets of free speech. The specific point of Dr. Crockett’s article was to express that there is more than one narrative that is acceptable to believe and promote in light of the charges of Islamophobia in the recent “clock scenario.” More generally, his thesis argues that there are alternative viewpoints to any controversial issue our society faces and it is almost comical to see how Mr. Rothenbaum’s veiled hypocrisy perfectly illustrates Dr. Crockett’s entire message. Now, let me drag that true meaning out of the closet. Citizens of our great nation are free to express whatever they like without fear that the government will punish them for whatever statements they choose to make. Mr. Rothenbaum is probably correct in stating that no one is being imprisoned for what they believe or say because Americans usually feel very comfortable that the police will not break their door down over public expressions of their views. However, some private citizens (Mr. Rothenbaum included) now encourage a more subtle and sinister form of censorship that is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Many private citizens now see the
need to collectively and publicly vilify any individuals who express unpopular or “politically incorrect” statements that are no longer deemed acceptable or within the mainstream narrative’s “limits of discourse.” This includes support for traditional marriage to the Alex Hartzell universally true recognition that all Guest Column lives matter, to the most recent episode of justifying the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed for bringing a suspicious object to school, and the list can go on forever. On reading Mr. Rothenbaum’s response to Dr. Crockett’s article, it is clear that he fully embraces this new phenomenon of condemning unpopular speech as evidenced by his own quote: “no one (yet) opposes your freedom to speak, they just think your ideas are both dumb and oppressive.” By labeling alternative narratives that are expressed in the public square as “dumb and oppressive,” Mr. Rothenbaum condescendingly assumes that these ideas, which don’t fit the mainstream narrative, are the products of certain troglodytes who are too antiquated to contribute anything positive to our society, simply because they resist the politically correct narrative on the issue. The effect of this causes some individuals to self-censor themselves for fear that if they don’t, others will publicly decry their statements as oppressive, racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. On top of this, these jibes have been liberally used to discredit anyone who continues to recognize an alternative narrative. There is no easier way to discredit another person’s opinion than to convince others that he or she is a racist, a bigot or any other term for oppressor that is the current flavor of the month. But the continued onslaught of these verbal assaults leads many to self-censor once they have seen outspoken individuals’ character publicly smeared. Mr. Rothenbaum’s own article offers up prime evidence for this new form of self-censorship. He states, “the fact that people now bite their tongue instead of openly arguing for oppression
Why I choose to remain in Texas Gemini Ink, the literary arts organization in downtown San Antonio, honored me with the “Award of Literary Coleen Grissom Excellence” last The Short List Thursday evening at its annual INKstravaganza. Even before the gala, I realized that fame is fleeting: one of the first announcements of the event and the honor was in the “Express-News” featuring a colored photo of me and the words, “a beloved, longtime professor and administrator at Trinity University…” A week later, the announcement reappeared and this time, the photo was in black and white and the modifier, “beloved,” had disappeared. And people wonder why, at my advanced age and station, I have absolutely no problem being humble and touched by every kindness. (Who edited out the modifier, “beloved?” I try not to care.) At past Gemini Ink galas, I have often been asked to conduct interviews with the visiting author/honoree, so, this time, desperate to find someone who, as the director, Sheila Black, put it, “could handle” me, the planners invited me to “interview myself.” Why not? I’ve already lost the tag “beloved.” One of my favorite questions I asked myself was this: “Why do you continue to live in Texas where you have to deal with the likes of Rick Perry and Ted Cruz, as well as men wearing t-shirts that read on the back, ‘Cure for PMS? Shoot the bitch’?” As I observed in my response, it certainly isn’t easy, and I am also a “between you and me” person in a “between you and I” world. Frankly, sometimes I realize that if I didn’t already drink, I would start. Here’s the thing: I cherish my home and surroundings at the exquisitely beautiful Cordillera Ranch in the Hill Country. I love the windmill, the towering live oaks
and the critters that wander through the property. I love the silence and the heartbreakingly beautiful night sky. I love working at Trinity University. I cherished being a part of that community even as a young woman when the university didn’t have much money, and neither did I. I recall those days when we all got a call from Derwood Hawthorne, the business manager, asking that we not cash or deposit our paychecks until after the weekend. I love the priorities and values of Trinity — the high quality of staff, faculty and students. I love some of my colleagues, and, God help me, I even love many of my students. The beautiful, well-maintained grounds, the latest in equipment and technology, the sincere commitment to a community of scholars — all this matters to me. I love having been associated with and grown from association with the likes of Jim Laurie, Bruce Thomas and Ronald Calgaard who built the university I have served so long and love so much. Anyone who even scans my newly published collection of essays will note that several times I quote Trinity’s “commitment to excellence.” I believe in excellence. I like excellence. I find it at Trinity University, deep in the heart of the state of Texas. Thus, I continue to live here — in spite of all the unenlightened. I try to challenge all those who make the mistake or have the misfortune of crossing my enlightened, liberated path. I hope occasional readers of this column, many of whom also struggle to cope with some aspects of Texas life — especially much of the social and political environment, including the disturbing number of climate change deniers — might take hope from some of my thoughts. Anyway, Thanksgiving’s upon us. Let’s count our many, many blessings. Coleen Grissom is a professor of English.
OPINION
is a spiral of silence worth protecting, not changing.” Of course, the fear of being labeled as an oppressor may cause people to “bite their tongue” and not voice an alternative narrative. Mr. Rothenbaum may not have realized, but by compounding the expression of an alternative narrative with the promotion of oppressive beliefs, he is aiding the silencing of individuals with alternative viewpoints from speaking up due to their fear of being the object of such aforementioned labels. Thus, Mr. Rothenbaum may have his answer that yes, self-censorship does happen at our university, and the objects of this silencing are those who possess and/or would like to express an alternative viewpoint, which they know they cannot achieve without being denigrated for doing so. Inevitably, the easiest result for many is to self-censor, which only further contributes to the spiral of silence. If we continue to self-censor ourselves and intimidate others into silence, we will not only lose a fundamentally important aspect of our great nation’s heritage, but we may also find that these actions will become a stable component of our culture. If politics resides downstream from culture, how soon will it be before our laws reflect the mainstream views and authorize the awesome force of government to punish or oppress those who offer a divergent opinion? Mr. Rothenbaum seems fine with this notion of “progress” as he ominously predicts, “no one (YET) (my emphasis) opposes your freedom to speak,” thus fully admitting that the suppression of speech may be on the horizon. In Mr. Rothenbaum’s envisioned future, it may not be long before any future attempt of mine to defend unpopular or alternative views must be submitted to the Trinitonian via mail, and written with pencil and paper. After all, computers are not permitted within jail cells.
Alex Hartzell is a senior political science major and history minor.
Islamaphobia Response
Well, better to be scorned than ignored. I need say little about Mr. Rothenbaum’s column. The notion that I am making excuses for racial discrimination is risible. Advocating that certain David Crockett perspectives be “stomped From the Wild out” just makes my point. Frontier Professors Singh and Siavoshi are more thoughtful. I think there are three different issues at play. The first is the question of defining “Islamophobia.” A “phobia” is an exaggerated or irrational fear. Thus, someone who is Islamophobic is someone who is irrationally fearful of Muslims. Both Singh and Siavoshi cite data to support the argument that Islamophobia is on the rise. However, expressing unfavorable attitudes about Islam does not make one Islamophobic — it just means someone has an unfavorable view of Islam! There may be any number of reasons for that, separate from irrational fear. Readers may be interested to know that a June Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans would be willing to vote for a well-qualified Muslim for president (I include myself in that number, by the way). “Evangelical Christian” ranked only 13 points higher. Reversing the question, we find that 38 percent of Americans would NOT vote for a Muslim — and that one quarter would not vote for an evangelical. Breaking this apart by party, more Democrats are willing to vote for a Muslim (73 percent) than an evangelical (66 percent). But I addressed my column solely to the clock incident, questioning the assumption that the authorities were motivated by Islamophobia. And that raises the second issue — how to address security threats. It is unfortunate that innocent people experience dehumanizing procedures. But we live in a dangerous world of asymmetric conflict, in which one individual with a hidden device can bring down an airplane. Those responsible for public safety and security have a difficult and unenviable job. If they are overly-vigilant, they are criticized for racial animus. If they are not vigilant enough, they are blamed for the resulting deaths. When faced with a security issue, they must make prudential decisions without the time for extended contemplation. Contrary to Professor Singh’s suggestion, my argument does NOT justify racial profiling. It DOES recognize that there are organized groups of people in the world, sharing certain descriptive characteristics, who want to kill us. When people
matching that description seem to be engaged in questionable activities — an essential qualifier — it is perfectly rational to be extra vigilant. That is not the same thing as racial profiling. The third issue concerns my indelicate invocation of the “spiral of silence.” I did not do so in reaction to the Prejudice Panel, but in response to those who dared question the premises of that panel. How Professor Siavoshi can construe that to be a call for confinement of free speech is a mystery. But she goes to great lengths to highlight the level of free speech I enjoy at the university, rightly arguing that free speech does not immunize us against criticism of that speech. But I did not argue that any specific authority was suppressing free speech. I argued that there is a conventional wisdom in the academy that tends to run in one direction, and the understanding that this direction is “the way we should think” (it’s obviously racism, for example) works to suppress alternative views for fear of public ridicule. A casual glance at some of the comments on social media about this dispute makes this point obvious. Using me as an example of free speech is problematic, since I have job protection. But if my untenured clone arrived here, I would advise him NOT to embrace my heresies in the public square. Why? Because I once attended a talk by a department chair from another university who openly confessed that she wished she could ask the partisan affiliation of job candidates. Because I know of a group of graduate students and junior faculty who attended a conservative conference and took special pains to ensure that their pictures would NOT end up on social media. Because the chair of another political science department told one of my former students to make sure she did NOT betray any conservative sensibilities during her job interview. Because untenured conservative faculty at other institutions tell me they hope never to have their partisan persuasion revealed before they hit the tenure decision. Because a colleague once told me that I was a good addition to the department — but that (and I paraphrase) one was enough. Anecdotes, to be sure, but they reflect the findings of more scholarly studies. I have no complaint about Trinity, which has been very good to me in this area. But political and ideological diversity is far more important in democratic discourse than cosmetic diversity. David Crockett is a professor and the chair of the political science department.
CAMPUS PULSE
P
• NOVEMBER 06, 2015 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT “I’ve been at trinity for 26 years now and my favorite part about teaching is getting to know and work with students. I look forward to it everyday.”
7
ulse
David Hough, Physics
Students prepare to perform “The Threepenny Opera” which officially opens on Friday November 13 at 8:00 p.m. and runs through Saturday, November 24.
photos by Sarah Thorne
Trinity actors practicing to perfect performance Theatre department students prepare for upcoming production of “The Threepenny Opera” BY NIPUNI GOMES PULSE REPORTER Trinity University’s department of theatre will debut the musical “The Threepenny Opera” next week, with a preview night on Thursday and the official opening on Friday. The performance is open to the general public and tickets can be purchased at the student theatre box office. “This is an adaptation by [composers] Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill of a literal translation by [German dramatist] Elizabeth Hauptmann of this play from the 18th century called The Beggars’ Opera, and it was built originally as an opera by and for beggars; a sort of a light, comic opera. This adaptation modernizes it and became basically the model for modern musical theatre,” said
Kyle Gillette, associate professor of human communication and Theatre and Director of ‘The Threepenny Opera.’ According to Gillette, the story of “The Threepenny Opera” is set in a version of London where elements of the 19th century mix with contemporary ones. The musical concerns several threads, one of them being Mr. Peachum, who runs a shop for beggars. “He kind of has a monopoly on selling the rights to begging in London. […] Mr. Peachum has a shop where he sells slogans and sells outfits for beggars to make them look more pitiable, like stumps and things like this. So it’s sort of a parody of how he used messages from the Bible to actually bilk people of their money,” Gillette said. In the play, Peachum’s daughter
Polly weds criminal mastermind Macheath, “Mack the Knife,” and a rivalry between Mr. Peachum and Macheath ensues. “That starts the plot, and you kind of get Mack pursued by Mr. Peachum, and you get all these wonderful scenes, lots of great music and just a fascinating play and musical. It was the inspiration for all of the meta-musicals that we have now like Cabaret… these dark, seedy musicals that point to a political underbelly that it exposes; those all have their bases in the The Threepenny Opera,” Gillette said. The cast of the play consists of approximately twenty five students. Among them, Mr. Peachum and his wife will be played by Matthew Reynolds and Amy Rossini; Polly Peachum will be played by Jasmin Weber; Macheath will be played by Alejandro Cardona; the chief-
of-police, Tiger Brown, will be portrayed by Nicholas Champion; Tiger Brown’s daughter, Lucy Brown, will be played by Tristan Harness. “The students here put a lot of effort and time into it, and it’s going to be interesting because we don’t have musicals that often on campus; it’s every two years. [Students] should come and watch it because it’s different, it’s not like a normal play and it’s not like a normal musical.” said senior Ember Porter, production and stage manager for the show. According to Gillette, “The Threepenny Opera” will have a preview on Thursday November 12 called the “Threepenny Thursday,” which anyone can attend for the price of three pennies or by donating a greater amount to the Theatre. The show
will officially open on Friday November 13 at 8:00 p.m., and will run until Saturday November 21. On Saturday November 14, the play will run at 8:00 p.m., on Sunday November 15 there will be a matinee at 2:00 p.m.; on the following Wednesday and Thursday, it will run at 7:00 p.m., and that Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are available for purchase online and at the student theatre box office. “It’s going to be a great show. The music is fantastic, the characters are deeply puzzling and the show is just tremendous food for thought. Even if you’re not usually a theatre person, the “The Threepenny Opera” … can be very gratifying, it can be a really rewarding experience because it’s truly unlike anything that has been done before,” Cardona said.
Religion department ready to “Reinvent” the Bible Professors excited for speakers to present fresh approaches to Biblical interpretation BY EMILY ELLIOTT PULSE REPORTER Have you ever wondered about what defines the Bible? How do various cultures’ interpretations of it affect our fundamental understanding of what the Bible is? Or have you ever wondered about what additions different cultures have made to change the Bible as we know it over time? This spring, students can register to take the Lennox Lecture Series course titled (Re) Inventing the Bible, which focuses on discussing and analyzing these questions. Co-taught by professors Ruben Dupertuis and Chad Spigel of the religion department, this course is offered on Wednesday evenings from 3:55 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. The Lennox Lecture Series, endowed by the Martha, David and Bagby Lennox Foundation provides a forum for students to discuss topics of interest in a classroom setting while also being granted the opportunity to be lectured by several visiting scholars in a close environment. “I’m really excited about the visiting scholars approaching such a diverse variety of topics, like when did the Bible become holy to particular communities. There is a diversity of scholarly talent; the scholars are from Brown, UPenn, SMU and DePaul. It’s a great collection, and students are going to be able to interact with each scholar. There will also be public
lectures, meals and opportunities for casual conversation,” Spigel said. With registration just around the corner, students are encouraged to consider enrolling. The instructors are excited and anticipate a unique experience for themselves and their students. “We’ll have these public facing lectures and we’re bringing in world class speakers for the larger community, but the larger impact on the students is really exciting. We’ll connect it to a seminar, so they’re taking this journey with us. For the teachers, part of this will be out of our specialty, but to have the students be able to meet these scholars to have lunch and talk about the books they’re reading is really exciting,” said Dupertuis, professor of religion and co-teacher of the series. These speakers, including scholars such as Mark Chancey and Valerie Ziegler, will discuss the Bible and religion from a variety of perspectives, allowing students to gain direct insight into the subject they’re studying. “We got all four speakers we invited, and they really span a range of approaches to the study of the Bible, which is our goal within the course,” Dupertis said. Students will be expected to integrate material from this course with what they are learning in other areas of study. For example, by writing papers on diverse topics and blogging for the course, students will have the ability to reach out to the public and inform them of the material covered in the course. “Students will blog their responses to ideas, what they read and what they see on the news. It’ll be a way to interact with the wider community, so I think that’s another interesting part. There will be private elements, but we’ll have public as well,” Spigel said.
In fact, Spigel proposes that work done for this course could even go so far as to be published. “There’s a possibility of a collective volume of the best student papers being published. It’s an opportunity to get published; not all students papers will be, but if you write a good paper, there’s a good chance it’ll be included.” As the origins, modifications, and interpretations of the Bible are such subjective aspects, all participants in the class, including the professors, will have the ability to learn about this influential text with a clean slate. “I’m coming to this with fresh eyes and learning this from a student’s perspective. As they bring their ideas into the conversation, there will be a really interesting mix. It’s taught with Dr. Dupertis, so we’ll have different perspectives from the course professors, then discuss the different conversations, so maybe the two different groups will come up with their own interpretations. My knowledge of the ancient text and the modern use of the text coming together will be really interesting. Everything about it is new and exciting,” Spigel said. This “fresh” approach is considered particularly useful, as subjects from the Bible are relevant to much of the discourse in the media today. “I think this is an opportunity for students to look at a hot topic in the media. The Bible comes up in a lot of different areas in the media, whether its abortion, gay marriage or putting up the 10 Commandments in front of a court house,” Spigel said. There are no pre-requisites necessary to complete before enrolling in the course. Students interested in taking this course are encouraged to visit http://www.reinventingthebible.com/ or contact Ruben Duperuis or Chad Spigel.
8
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
CAMPUS PULSE
English department shakes up Shakespeare Professors, students excited as film screening series begins with “Anonymous” BY NIPUNI GOMES PULSE REPORTER Trinity University’s department of English is in the process of creating a new series of movie screenings accompanied by short lectures by members of the faculty. The endeavor is headed by professors of English Andrew Kraebel and Aaron Pratt, and began last Tuesday with the screening of “Anonymous,” a production depicting the theory that William Shakespeare did not
truly author all of his works. “‘Anonymous’ is a movie that was released in 2011 and it was directed by this guy Roland Emmerich… [who] believes that Shakespeare did not author his own plays, and that in fact they were written by a member of the elite, this guy Edward de Vere
who was the Earl of Oxford,” Pratt said. According to Kraebel and Pratt, the premise of the film is unacceptable because, in reality, many of Shakespeare’s works were issued even after Edward de Vere died in 1604. However, watching Emmerich’s film provides students with the opportunity to analyze and assess what kinds of assumptions about Elizabethan history could lead to the creation of the conspiracy theory. “The movie is this insane conspiracy theory, and I chose the movie because it’s a fun movie, because it’s completely insane. But, it’s also an opportunity to think critically about the assumptions that the text brings to the table […] and I think figuring out what
assumptions a text or an
The purpose of the film screening also included placing the texts read in English courses into the context of the greater world. “I think that one of the things that was nice about [what] went into the choice of the film is that it was
not just a film adaptation of a text that we teach; it
i d e a brings to the table is a central critical thinking skill, one that I think is broadly applicable,” Pratt said.
allows for a… way of seeing how the texts [apply] to the larger historical field, of how the texts fit into the way we imagine the world… That payoff was really interesting, and we’re looking to continue things like that,” Kraebel said.
Kraebel and Pratt plan to continue the screening of films related to English-language literature. While there are no further events scheduled for this semester, students and faculty are encouraged to submit movie recommendations via email to Kraebel (akraebel@trinity.edu) and Pratt (apratt@trinity.edu). “[Email us] one or two sentences saying how you would imagine [the film of your choice] being a cool thing for English majors to see. […] We really do want people to make recommendations because we are open [to different ideas],” Pratt said. The film series will be open to members of all majors with the aim of encouraging critical thinking about media among students. Maria Teresa Kamel, a junior English major, believes this is a productive idea. “I think it’s a good idea, because sometimes we get so caught up in just studying that we don’t think beyond our books, but that’s not really part of the college experience because we’re forming ourselves intellectually but we’re also going to be in the world. So, I think film in particular is really important because [with] literature, once you get into that mode of reading [into] things, you can read into anything, so you can also read into film,” Kamel said.
Ebola colloquium sparks enthusiasm about combating diseases Kline discusses experience combating Ebola, AIDS worldwide; students interested in getting involved BY ZOHEB HIRANI PULSE INTERN
“A lot of the lessons learned from [dealing with] HIV/AIDS can be applied to [the] ebola[virus],” Kline said. Both viruses originated from similar climates in Africa, and both are hypothesized to have been transmitted from animals to humans. Most importantly, both infections have social fears and stigmas associated with running indicative tests, which decrease the number of individuals willing to enter care centers.
Sheryl Tynes, associative vice president for academic affairs, openly praised Kline in the questions and answers segment. “It is an understatement to say that you make On Tuesday October 28, Mark W. Kline Trinity look great for what you’ve done. We delivered an extensive presentation on his have many undergrads sitting here who are experience fighting to prevent HIV and ready to change the world. How do they do AIDS worldwide. Kline originally ran a what you’ve done?” small pediatric treatment center in Romania Kline smiled hesitantly and insisted that for HIV/AIDS and then went on to open students must remain “flexible and openand lead several children’s centers in different minded” in their fields so that they do not miss eastern African countries. out on unexpected opportunities. ENGL 2303 ENGL 2340 GNED 2340 MUSC 2340 THTR 2340 ENGL 2304 ENGL “When I was in St. Louis working 3371 ART 1410 ART 1310 ART 2430 ART 2330 ENGL 4323 ENGL 4323 ENGL 4325 in pediatric research on infectious ANTH 3464 ART 3314 ENGL 3314 ENGL 3335 FREN 3305 FREN 3306 FREN 4304 disease, my boss asked me one day, ‘are FREN 4305 MUSC 3341 MUSC 3342 PLSI 3352 PLSI 3361PSYC 2401 PSYC 3431 ovember you willing to oversee the care of 70 PSYC 3351 RELI 1320 SOCI 2306 HIST 1371 SPAN 3321 ENGL 4326 ACCT 1300 children with HIV at Texas Children ART 2314 ENGL 2340 GNED 2340 MUSC 2340 THTR 2340 MGMT 2301 Hospital?’ I knew he had probably HIST 1340 BUSN/HCOM 3362 HCOM 1300 HCOM 1333 HCOM 2304 HCOM 3360 HCOM 3364 PHIL/BUSN 2359 HIST 3304 RELI 3482 HIST 3300 HIST 3374 asked everyone else in the department, g HIST 1370 PLSI 3303 HIST 3372 THTR 1343 MUSC 1349 HIST 1360 HIST 1361 T nin and nobody wanted to go because they e HIST 3384 AFAM 1310 SOCI 3327 AFAM 3310 ENGL 2373 COMM 3325 HIST 1300 Op ex t had their own research agendas to stick n k! ECON 3343 SOCI 3327 MUSC 1346 ANTH 3327 ART 4394 ART 4397 SOCI 3327 e to, but I said yes,” Kline said. e w ANTH 3327 ECON 3343 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 SOCI 3327 ANTH 3327 ECON Kline’s lecture is part of the 3343 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 3343 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 ART 2314 ENGL 2340 international studies colloquium, a GNED 2340 MUSC 2340 FREN 3306 FREN 4304 SPAN 3321 THTR 2340 ACCT global studies course. One student 1300 ALE 3301 MGMT 2301 MATH 1307 or 1311 BIOL 1311 THTR 2412 RELI 2413 taking the course had many positive GNED 3474 CHEM 1318 FREN 1118 BIOL 2319 MATH 2119 MGMT 2203 BIOL ommuNiCatioN by Bertolt Brecht things to say. 3320 ALE 3331 EDUC 2203 MATH 1311 MUSC 3342 FREN 4305 COMM 1111 MATH 1308 or 1312 FREN 4305 MUSC 3341 MUSC 3342 PLSI 3352 PLSI 3361 “I like how the colloquium not only and Kurt Weill, PSYC 2401 PSYC 3431 PSYC 3351 RELI 1320 SOCI 2306 GNED 2340 MUSC 2340 provides a medical perspective on ebola directed by Kyle PHYS 1112 BUSN 1309 BUSN 1311 SPAN 3321 ENGL 4326 ACCT 1300 MATH 1307 but also goes into social and economic or 1311 BIOL 1311 THTR 2412 HCOM 1300 HCOM 1333 HCOM 2304 HCOM 3360 Gillette, music factors about this virus. I can really see HCOM 3364 PHIL/BUSN 2359 HIST 3304 RELI 3482 HIST 3300 HIST 3374 direction by how beyond infected individuals, ebola HIST 1370 PLSI 3303 HIST 3372 THTR 1343 MUSC 1349 HIST 1360 HIST 1361 T affects entire nations. It really expands Jim Worman HIST 3384 AFAM 1310 SOCI 3327 AFAM 3310 ENGL 2373 COMM 3325 HIST 1300 your horizons!” said Christiana Ellard, ECON 3343 SOCI 3327 MUSC 1346 ANTH 3327 ART 4394 ART 4397 SOCI 3327 international studies major. ANTH 3327 ECON 3343 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 ENGL 2303 ENGL 2340 GNED Wednesday/Thursday: 7 pm After the lecture was over, many 2340 MUSC 2340 THTR 2340 ENGL 2304 ENGL 3371 ART 1410 ART 1310 ART 2430 Friday/Saturday: 8 pm ART 2330 ENGL 4323 ENGL 4323 ENGL 4325 ANTH 3464 ART 3314 ENGL 3314 students enthusiastically asked about Sunday: 2:30 pm ENGL 3335 FREN 3305 FREN 3306 FREN 4304 ENGL 3335 FREN 3305 FREN 3306 anticipated future steps toward FREN 4304FREN 4305 MUSC 3341 MUSC 3342 PLSI 3352 PLSI 3361PSYC 2401 PSYC --------------------prevention. 3431ECON 3343 SOCI 3327 MUSC 1346 ANT 3327 ART 4394 ART 4397 SOCI 3327 “How can we get involved with work Adults: $12 ANTH 3327 ECON 3343 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 SOCI 3327 ANTH 3327 ECON 3343 in different children’s centers?” said Faculty, Staff, Alumni: $10 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 3343 THTR 2310 HIST 3384 ART 2314 ENGL 2340 GNED one student. 2340 MUSC 2340 FREN 3306 FREN 4304 SPAN 3321 THTR 2340 ACCT 1300 ALE Students: $6 Kline allowed Robert Blystone, 3301 MGMT 2301 MATH 1307 or 1311 BIOL 1311 THTR 2412 RELI 2413 GNED Reservations strongly encouraged! tutheater@trinity.edu or biology professor, to answer this 3474 CHEM 1318 FREN 1118 BIOL 2319MGMT 2301 MATH 1307 or 1311 BIOL 1311 question. THTR 2412 RELI 2413 GNED 3474 CHEM 1318 FREN 1118 BIOL 2319 MATH 2119 999-8515. Want to see the show for FREE? Contact MGMT 2203 BIOL 3320 ALE 3331 EDUC 2203 MATH 1311 MUSC 3342 FREN 4305 “Come knock on my door,” Dr. azuckman@trinity.edu to learn how! Blyestone said.
Registration is N
9-24
Don’t Be Afraid. a
C 1110: one-credit practicum course prepares students for paid employment with the campus newspaper or yearbook
Know what’s what. Questions: kmartin1@trinity.edu
“Critics of the first children’s center I opened in Botswana warned that nobody would come in fears of being looked at differently, but mothers are more scared of their children contracting a virus as powerful as HIV,” Kline said. “The number of cases of ebola is still slowly increasing, and some of the major challenges are that we can’t control the vectors [organisms that spread disease], and that ebola is not seasonal.”
November 13-15 & 18-21, 2015
ADVERTISEMENT • NOVEMBER 06, 2015
• WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
TUVAC’s November Newsletter Upcoming Events:
Saturday 11/7
Graffiti Wipeout email sstepane@trinity.edu
Monday 11/9
stop by Coates Plaza 11 am - 2 pm and prepare a thank-you for our veterans.
Saturday 11/14
Habitat for Humanity email lsmith18@trinity.edu
PLUS MORE!
Look at our calendar on www.tuvac.org As a reminder, use GiveGab to log all of your volunteer hours. Students are eligible for the President’s Volunteer Service Award.
If it’s not in GiveGab, it doesn’t count! TUVAC leadership positions for 2016 are opening soon. Look out for details!
9
AE
10
&
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
FILM
The first full-length trailer for director Quentin Tarantino’s next movie, “The Hateful Eight,” was released on November 5. The trailer features some classic Tarantino quirks: witty dialogue, a gun fight and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie comes to theaters Janurary 8, 2015.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
NATIONAL HOLIDAY The single most important holiday was celebrated on Thursday, November 5. It was, of course National Red Head Day. Many local gingers, including your very own Arts & Entertainment Editor, celebrated through letting everyone know that the day was happening.
The strategy behind getting 100 likes BY GRACE FRYE
A&E WRITER
There is a phenomenon among teenagers known as the “100 club.” It is an elusive club known to many but available only to those who have achieved status among its ranks. The so-called “100 club” affects teens and college students everywhere, and it is ingrained in popular culture and in teenage identity today. The “club” consists of social media users who have received at least 100 “likes” on a particular post or photo, and for sophomore Vikram Patel, 19, receiving 100 “likes” is nothing but strategy. “[In high school] I was very proud of not having many followers but having very dedicated followers to ‘like’ all of my posts,” Patel said. “I mean, you would see people with 1,000 followers and they would get 100 ‘likes’ and then you’d see me with about two or three hundred [followers] and I would end up getting 100 ‘likes,’ too. It was just strategy. For me there are three different parts to getting 100 ‘likes’ on say, Instagram: picture, quote and the time of the day. That’s it.” According to data gathered by the Pew Research Center, young adults (ages 18 to 29) are “the most likely to use social media” with a usage rate of 90 percent. This is a 78-percentage point jump since 2005. And the adoption rate for social media usage is at “76 percent for those with a college or graduate degree.” Patel said he thinks students feel inclined to post and check their profiles so frequently due to a fear of missing out. “People want others to see that they’re having fun and that they aren’t missing out on anything,” Patel said. “I mean I’m subject to that too. If I’m doing something
like that, then I want people to laugh at or enjoy it and see that I am enjoying myself.” Intrigued by the prevalence of social media, seniors Davis Alcorn and Luisa Ruge-Jones worked together this past summer to conduct research on what motivates people to “like” certain Facebook posts rather that others online. “When we first started looking into what dimension of social media we should look at, we found that not much research had been done on Facebook ‘likes,’ so we decided to pursue that route as to have a good shot of finding new, meaningful results,” Alcorn said. “We found that people ‘like’ for three main reasons. Those are: content-based motivations, relationship-based motivations and self-expression and public identity motivations. These three categories encompass many subcategories but generally hold true for all ‘likes’ reported in our study.” One of the categories identified by the pair is the self-expression and public identity motivation. Alcorn described this as a way to promote one’s own image as well as reaffirm certain online identities. “You can also ‘like’ something to promote or affirm parts of your identity,” Alcorn said. “For instance, I might ‘like’ a political post to reinforce my particular ideology. I might also ‘like’ something to push my own agenda, knowing that if I ‘like’ something it is more likely to show up on my friends’ timelines. That is that self-promotion/ expression side.” This brings users back to the idea of the “100 club.” Popular media oftentimes critique those on social media for using these platforms to create skewed versions of reality and then presenting them as truth to followers and friends. “I think social media allows people to represent whatever parts of themselves they want, especially a side of them that is harder to present in person,” Ruge-Jones said. “You can be anything you want, good or bad.”
Alcorn agreed but said he has noticed new trends within the realm of social media to appear more “real.” “We all know that person who posts all of their vacation photos, tweets out their good grades and generally puts up only things that make their online friends think better of them,” Alcorn said. “I personally have also noticed a trend emerging from my friends of using self-deprecating humor and to come off as ‘real’ and relate to their peers in that sense.” However, for Patel social media is an opportunity to present himself in the best way possible. “I usually just try to stick with looking professional but also being funny at the same time. I don’t want to give myself a bad rep or anything through social media so I never tweet bad things about anyone or anything like that,” Patel said. “I never post bad pictures. I think, especially with Snapchat now people who are making the Snapchat stories want to flaunt how much fun they are having, even if they are not having that much fun. So they will just have stories where they present themselves as if an event they are at is just so great even if it’s not.” But the “100 club” is not only about reaching 100 “likes;” it is also about maintaining an online presence that consistently reaches 100 “likes” while also planning the next post, photo or piece of the identity. “If people see their online friends as being dependent on one’s posts, maybe they are more likely to post — like if you have a huge twitter following or something,” Alcorn said. “There also is definitely a need to be seen on social media as doing relevant, cool things that help prove to your friends, and maybe even yourself, that you are relevant in the huge masses of information passed on the internet. I can imagine that those people who often get large numbers of ‘likes’ now feel the need to meet this threshold to feel as though their post is up to standards or is getting seen by enough people to make yourself feel relevant.”
Graphic by: Samantha Skory
For Ruge-Jones, “likes” do not only show status, but they can also be a source of validation and affirmation. “I think getting ‘likes’ is a good affirmation of existence for most people,” Ruge-Jones said. “There is often at least one person who identifies with you, cares about your family or laughs at your joke, and they can tell you about it by one little click, no matter how well they know you. That situation feels good to a lot of people — like being constantly complimented. It’s good.”
But when it all boils down to that core, no matter the motivation behind the “like,” Patel said he still thinks the drive for 100 “likes” and the pull to post stems from other societal values altogether. “For me personally it is definitely ego — it’s kind of a narcissistic thing. I can say that I am a little narcissistic,” Patel said. “A lot of times you look at other people’s feeds and see their photos, see their tweets or look at their Snapchat stories, at the end of the day I’m looking at my own stuff more than other people are.”
How to make your life look cool on the Internet BY PAIGE PEREZ
A&E WRITER
Your grades are plummeting, you rarely leave your dorm room and you can’t get it together to save your own life. You are far from your prime. Luckily, the year is 2015 and none of this matters! It’s not important to have it all — it’s just important to look like you have it all. By employing a few simple tricks, you can make it
seem like your life is amazing — even when it’s not. Step 1: Never admit to posing for a photo (unless it’s a selfie.) The most glamourous people have entire crews devoted to taking candid photos of them. You can recreate this same effect by looking wistfully into the distance in 50% of your pictures. The goal is to seem like you just happened to be thinking deep thoughts about the universe when someone snapped a candid photo. (Protip: Eye contact with the lens is overrated. You don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard.)
Step 2: Spend hours filtering each photo. Regular life is boring. Life in Amaro is awesome. Even better: pay money you could be spending on real things to download fancy photo apps instead of using the generic filters. Since your followers won’t be able to recognize what filter you used, they’ll assume automatically that everything you post is #natural. Plus, you’ll be able to literally edit any part of your life that you don’t like. Forgot to put on makeup one day? Photoshop it on. Wish your eyes were naturally blue? Change it with a single swipe. Everyone will be in awe of how you look so put together all the time. (If they ask, act oblivious.
Don’t admit that this is all you do with your life.) Step 3: Make it look like you are always on vacation. This can be achieved in a multitude of ways. Option 1 is to go on vacation one time, and take a bunch of photos with different exotic backdrops. If you take 100 photos, you’ll have enough material to upload gradually for the rest of the year. Option 2 is to pull up a high resolution image of an exotic place and post that on your feed, with a caption implying that you’re there. “OMG, Love the sunset in Hawaii tonight! So beautiful, xoxoxox.” As long as you don’t
mention that you haven’t left Prassel all weekend, technically you’re not lying. Step 4: Post about every meal you eat so people know that behind your perfect online profile, there’s just a normal person who loves to eat food (after it’s been photographed, of course.) This is the perfect place to put those filters to the test: if you can make Mabee dinners look exciting, than even your boring life can be made sensational with a little internet magic. Step 5: Get a real life and get off the internet. Just kidding. That’s crazy talk.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT •
11
NOVEMBER 06, 2015 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
Life or death or waitlist: How to register for classes exaggeration, but it’s basically the same idea. There are some ways to trick the system so that even the untrained first year can claim some victory in “The Registration Games.” May the odds be ever in your favor.
Beg If college had a version of “The Hunger Games,” registration would definitely be the actual games. Numbers are drawn and we are listed for the slaughter, except no one else can volunteer as tribute. First years and sophomores have it the worst. They’re like the districts that have no weapons training and can barely lift a sword. Comparatively the juniors have a bit more training, but they still are worse off than the seniors, who pick off the classes oneby-one, leaving nothing for the others and dooming them to die miserable deaths. That may be an
If you really want to be in a class and you don’t want to risk waiting until your actual registration time to secure a spot, it’s time to put on your humble hat and groveling glasses. Email the professors immediately and ask if you can come by their office hours. You could ask them about taking the class over email, but it’s a lot less personable and they have a better chance to tell you “tough luck kid, wait until next year” than if you went to them in person and made sad puppy-dog eyes. When you go to their office hours, be sure to have a list of reasons why you want
to take their class. It will make you seem passionate, and professors love it when students are passionate about learning. But, if their hands are tied and they can’t guarantee you a spot, don’t be a jerk about it. They are doing their best and the Registrar is a cruel mistress they have no control over.
Independent Study This is an insanely underused resource that Trinity offers its students. Say you are passionate about something very specific in your major, but there are no classes that deal with that topic exclusively or at all. You can always ask a professor within the department whose specialty is somewhere in that realm if they would be willing to do an independent study with you. It gets you credits, and you can fine-tune a specialty that will look good for future jobs/graduate school applications. Also, don’t be
afraid to ask professors you don’t know that well or at all. If you come into their office with a clear idea of what you want to study/ work on, then they will be more likely to agree to work with you. Independent studies also take up less time since they should meet about once a week because it’s a one-on-one study. That doesn’t mean less work though. Be prepared to work your tuchus off.
Have Backups Seriously, have at least two for each class you want to take. It’s rough when it’s about an hour before you register and you realize that two of the classes you REALLY wanted to take are full or being waitlisted. If you have backups, you won’t have that terrifying moment where your heart is clenching in your chest as you scramble to find an alternative.
Ask Professor to Register in Class
This one’s a biggie. Chances are that you have a class during your assigned registration time. Kindly ask your professor if you can pull out your computer or phone so you can register. Most will be cool with it because they realize we are dying on the inside. If they say no, don’t throw a fit. Just excuse yourself about 1 minute before your time to go to the restroom and quickly register while you are sitting fully clothed on the toilet. They may suspect what you’re doing, but just act cool, man.
Cry It’s okay. Just let it out. We’ve all been there. And you can have a candy bar courtesy of the Trinitonian! (My editor Maddie Smith would like me to clearly state that there will be no candy bars. But you can use our paper to wipe your tears!)
A guide to post-midterm binge-watching you to do: take a class in Media Immersion. Since I also study at the University of Poor Life Choices (go Sloths!) here is my recommended curriculum, expertly designed to squander your post-midterm rest period. Ah, the sweet smell of red ink and tears: the leaves are changing, daylight is saving and students all around campus are either receiving their graded midterms or eagerly awaiting the disappointing grades to come. Either way, there is a fair chunk of time to kill before professors are done grading and start assigning work again. You could fill this time catching up on old readings, working on extra credit or reminding your friends and family that you are still alive. Or, you could do what your willpower-sapped brain is telling
Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
It is almost time, my friends. The sequel to Bethesda’s massively successful “Fallout 3” will be released on November 10 to the eager hands of millions of postapocalyptic game junkies. Rest assured, the game will include as much content as you need to ruin your GPA and your social life. In fact, with 111,000 lines of dialogue, the game can probably take the place of your actual life — while Trinity doesn’t let us live off campus, they can’t stop us
from living in far-future nuclear shantytowns! The game builds on the openworld environment and gameplay from “Fallout 3,” adding an overhauled power armor upgrade system, dedicated weapon modification features, expanded crafting mechanics and the ability to build and run your own settlement. If you like power-nerdom as much as you like power armor, you can order the deluxe PipBoy Edition, which comes with (surprise) a wearable version of the eponymous electronic companion that “Fallout” players use for maps, inventory and other useful information. The real Pip-Boy can actually hold a couple of different kinds of smartphones in it (recentgeneration iPhones and Samsung Galaxies are supported), which
makes the wrist-strapped gadget even cooler than a cell phone holster, if that’s even possible.
The Bureaucracy of Espionage
If you’re less of a gamer but still like sitting in the dark and staring at a glowing screen, you can’t go wrong in heading over to your nearest multiplex to watch “Spectre,” the Daniel Craig Bond movie everyone hopes will top the first three. While Casino Royale was great (thanks, Mads Mikkelsen!), “Quantum of Solace” left many Bond fans unimpressed and “Skyfall,” while a mostly-great, standalone adventure, turned into adultified Home Alone at the end. In short, Spectre is where everything is expected to come together — for those who don’t know, within the James Bond universe S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is
a huge criminal organization with ties all over the world. But after a period of Bond movies, the group dropped off the map as a villainous entity for the spy franchise. For the Daniel Craig film coming up, the organization returns as James Bond tries to unravel the mysterious threads tying his past adventures (read: the plots from the first three movies) together. So, instead of cracking open those next chapters to prepare for finals, watch this movie and work your way backwards until you see Sean Connery’s sweet, sweet chest hair. Then argue about which Bond was best on internet forums until you’re ready for the next assignment.
Applied Political Studies
I hear some of you saying “Senpai Dylan, what if we want to learn something while we binge? Do you have a class for that?” Don’t worry students, I have just the thing. Your first assignment is watching all of “House of Cards,” a show that gives a brutal examination of both Kevin Spacey’s southern accent and the American political system at the micro level, exposing all of the grimy cogs and greased wheels that turn whims into laws. As a palette cleanser from the cynical Cards, next queue up Parks and Recreation. After you finish all 7 seasons, you might have a brighter opinion of those working at the lower levels of government bureaucracy and have gathered some smart, thinlyveiled commentary about our political system to boot. Finally, take a trip back in time to the early 1980s and watch “The Americans,” an espionage thriller show about a two spies from the Soviet Union posing as a married couple in Virginia. This show will bring sadness back into your life while also educating you about Cold War politics — the show is kind of a downer, so it’s a great segue back into the sad reality of finals! If you’ve followed these instructions and purged your class knowledge in favor of pop culture information, I guarantee you will pass my personal final exam. Your final exams? No guarantees.
12
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Jeff Sullivan has a Power Trip (interview)
1. For those unfamiliar with Power Trip, how do you describe the band? I would describe Power Trip’s sound as crossover thrash. I’d say our goal as a band is to blur the lines between Metal, Hardcore and Punk into something that is entirely our own style and sound. 2. If I’m correct, Armageddon Blues was released while you were an undergraduate student studying writing at UNT. What were some of your inspirations for writing at that time? I was heavily into post-modern theory/philosophy and social observations from all the big French names of that movement, most specifically just about anything from Foucault, Derrida, DeLeuze and Guattari. I found a professor I really enjoyed and took anything he taught that I could fit into my curriculum. 3. Could you talk a little bit about the song “Lake of Fire”? What were you thinking at the time you wrote it? What were you trying to get across when you wrote that song? I wrote Lake of Fire from a very mocking standpoint after I got a very bizarre tip on a job. I was a server at Chili’s, I was only about 19 and this person left a note instead of a tip and it said, “After you’ve done all you can you just stand in a lake of fire.” It confused me and really pissed me off. It was slow day and I didn’t screw up the tab, but still, just this weird note instead of a cash tip. I didn’t get it, but I kept the note as a reminder of how stupid and nonsensical the world can be and the note confirmed my belief in that. I thought about how I’d bet that whether they ever admit it or not, even people with the most deep religious faith still have doubts about the legitimacy of their beliefs. Like maybe they’re wasting their time. Some specific religious denominations believe no matter how well you behave, sometimes God
was going to screw you and you were going to hell. You just weren’t meant to be saved; you weren’t one of the lucky ones. I didn’t get my tip, even thought: I was a perfectly good server. A dumb metaphor for life, but I hated that people live that way. So I wrote “Lake of Fire” as a middle finger to people who only act well towards others in hopes of some great reward in the afterlife. I think I could manage to instill a strong sense of doubt in just about anyone if they were naïve enough to have true, blind faith. We have to be good to each other simply because we all occupy the same space, it’s as simple as that. 4. What was the lyrical focus for Power Trip’s first full-length album Manifest Decimation? If I had to boil all my lyrics down to a singular sentence I think it would be “damn, the world is a MESSED up place, but if you educate yourself and believe in yourself, you can do something about it.” I try to turn things on their heads for people, to try and get to see things a different way, that things are always changing and you have the power to influence, great or small. The album title is obviously a play on the concept of Manifest Destination, which in very simple terms was a European Christian religious excuse to pave our way through colonizing America with slavery and genocide. We’re supposed to feel lucky, as Americans, right? But everyone I know who I consider socially conscious feels a sense of despair or at least a little jaded or downtrodden. Now we live in an age where the incredibly rich and powerful are manifesting their destiny all over the common man and just oppressing the hell out of the lower class. I explore a bunch of different similar themes throughout the album but the song/album title specifically is about finding a sense of power in community. I think if everyone was able to drop their bias and clearly see our enemies in these high political power structures, together we’d be able to destroy some old ways of thought, ways of corruption, and at least take one small step in the right direction for a better civilization. 5. Power Trip has been steadily releasing music since 2008, how have you changed as a lyricist since then?
Photo by: Meredith Miller Photography
I’d say the biggest difference is my vocabulary. I just try to read and read and use words that feel right to me, even if the song might come out convoluted to most, if it makes me happy then I’m satisified. My biggest goal right now for the next album is to probably try to find a middle ground between something catchy and something I find thoughtprovoking. 6. Could you try to describe the feeling of performing? How does it feel to be able to express the thoughts you have on stage? Performing’s great. All negative thoughts go out the window when I get to strut around and be a huge dork and have fun with strangers who just want to strut around and be huge dorks with me. Touring and playing every day for a month can take a huge toll on my body and mind, but I still enjoy it because it feels like an escape from every day things, and that’s the reason hardcore and punk first excited me. I’m good at finding the positive in things, and I think I try to let that come across on stage by not taking myself too seriously. I’m discovering more and more. That I want to actually sound good when I play. I’m taking a little more pride in how I deliver my lines live and make sure they sound nice and fierce. I suppose it ends up being another silly metaphor for life when I still want, expect and know I’m going to fall down on my ass every now and again and it reminds me that I’m not always
going to get it right every night but it doesn’t mean you can stop trying.
that seems broad it’s because it is meant to be.
7. What can fans look forward to lyrically on the upcoming album? Are there any specific issues or topics that have particularly caught your attention since 2013?
8. If you had to recommended three books for undergraduate students to read, what would they be?
Not much has changed but I think the next album may have more thoughts on the future of technology. We have to become conscious and responsible and aware that almost all new technology will be a doubleedged sword. We should embrace it because it could make this world a better, sustainable place, but we have to start on the right foot. If we as a global society want to improve the world, we have to have some foresight and preparation for the future and certainly put a lot of thought into the risks and rewards and uses for new technology. There will still be more stuff about the dangers of wanting to be and associating with the power hungry, power mad people of the world (we’re called Power Trip for a reason). I’ll still have a song or two about unity and standing together against oppression and all those common tired tropes of most metal/punk bands, but it’s still an ethos that I believe in and need to express in many different ways to try and influence more people. I just want people to realize their decision smatter, and you should always be as educated as possible before making important decisions. Consider the variables and risks and rewards. If
That’s too tough a question for me to answer since I’m not an authority on education and also because being an undergraduate is such a broad term. But I think any major should have to take some kind of principles of rhetoric course to really understand how important and crucial language and reading is. We should understand how written language came to be, everyone should understand concepts like logical fallacies and strategies of debate and how they were created. Maybe now in the information and misinformation age everyone might need to take a course to understand and identify satire. So I guess maybe everyone should read “The Candide?” Foucault’s “Discipline & Punish” and Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” both had huge impacts on me and my personal perspective the I first read them. I don’t know, but anybody just doing the act of reading more often would make me happy. Power Trip will be performing at FFF and FFF Nite shows this weekend and begins recording their new album on November 9.
Back to the past: Comeback shows we should have 7. “Gossip Girl”
Nabeeha Virani A&E INTERN
As some of you may have heard, “Gilmore Girls” is being revived and will be airing on Netflix with four 90-minute episodes. It will bring back the love we have for the small town of Stars Hollow and the hilarious, relatable relationship between one of the best mother-daughter pairings in TV history: Lorelai and Rory. Some shows have been brought back from the dead with their own twist, but with the same characters: “Fuller House” and “Girl Meets World.” This brings to mind the question, what other shows would make such a big impact if resurrected?
“Gossip Girl” was full of backstabbing friends, parents with hidden secrets and fairytale princesslike relationships. The friendships and love this show brought made us all want to live as luxuriously as those on the Upper East Side but without all the drama. If revived, “Gossip Girl” would definitely be a hit because its characters show strength, determination and loyalty, and teach us that we should try to get what we want before it’s too late.
6. “Drake & Josh”
Everyone’s favorite stepbrothers. Full of crazy plot lines and catchphrases that mostly consist of Drake and Josh screaming “Megan!” at different decibels. Costars Josh Peck and Drake Bell
have a remarkable chemistry that should be reignited. It was a hit back in the 2000’s and would draw those who want a whiff of their childhoods.
5. “Freaks & Geeks”
Relatable and appealing to all, as seen from the title of the show. “Freaks and Geeks” brings out the laughs, the weirdness and the secret wannabe popular kid hidden in everyone. Packed with classic quotes and an A+ cast, if it were to make a comeback, it would grab the attention of millennials, those middle school kids who think they’re 24 and everyone in between.
4. “Star Trek”
A Classic with an uppercase “C”. Enough said.
3. “Seinfeld”
The wonderful brainchild of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. This show epitomized the 90’s while its four main characters capture the lives of struggling, hilarious working people in the city. The original “Friends” and “How I Met Your Mother,” a “Seinfeld” return will be a hit with middle-aged folks who miss their lives before the turn of the century.
2. “The Office”
Full of laughs and love with a starstudded cast, a comeback would draw viewers of all backgrounds and generations. Crude humor with elaborate and well-planned pranks, “The Office” is an acquired taste, but once you get hooked, you’ll never want to stop watching.
We got seven seasons with boss Michael Scott (Steve Carrell), but a comeback with him would be dramatic, hilarious, and full of “that’s what she said” jokes.
1. “Monk”
A detective with OCD? It doesn’t get any better than this. Adrian Monk continues to solve dangerous and intricate crimes, while subtly growing as an individual throughout the series. Filled with jokes and mindblowing cases, “Monk” is a show you will want to watch with your entire family. A return will make you laugh, cry, and love this brilliant character with your entire heart. Because of this, “Monk” is an easy and obvious choice for number one.
SPORTS •
S
NOVEMEBER 06, 2015 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
ATHLETE INSPIRATION “I may or may not be back. No promises. I have a very lively and active social life.”
Llamanator
13
ports
Trinity men and women’s basketball teams prepare for upcoming 2015-2016 season BY SARAH PRICE
SPORTS REPORTER The women’s basketball team has launched their preseason starting with their Midnight Madness pep rally. The Midnight Madness event was a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project as well as a way for the men’s and women’s team to show off their skills with some competitions between the teams. The women dominated in the 3-point contest and the mid-range shooting competitions. The event is a way to announce the start of their seasons as well as engage with the fans through competitions that include members in the stands and have prizes. The Tigers finished their last season by competing with Southwestern in the SCAC Championship game. This year, the Tigers are more than ready to get back in the gym, especially their head coach, Cameron Hill. “I am so happy to be out there with this team, and they have done a very good job preparing and executing thus far,” Hill said. “We have some terrific leaders, talented players and truly amazing young women. It’s exciting walking onto the practice floor everyday.” Leading the team this year are senior captains Anecia Richardson, Bryony Harris, Elizabeth Balido and Caitlin Barrett. Richardson, Harris and Balido have been playing basketball together since high school, having all come from Ursuline Academy in Dallas, Texas. Not only have they been teammates for over four years, but they have also won a state championship together, allowing them to really know what it takes to reach the top. “Leading by example is my go-to leadership style,” Richardson said. “I want ..to show my team that their captains are working as hard as they are. Since we all have the same goals, we all have to put in our best effort everyday.” First year Rachel ..Chavez speaks on the captains’ effectiveness on the team.
“I believe our senior leaders have helped us prepare for the season by pushing us everyday to become better teammates and athletes overall,” Chavez said. “At first, some challenges included learning new plays and jelling with a new team, but the girls have been really helpful making it an easy transition.” With those challenges comes a supportive coach. “You need to know, these girls on this team mean the world to me,” Hill said. “I believe we can accomplish a lot, but my expectation is that we take things one day at a time and focus on the steady climb.” The team’s goal this season is to win the SCAC Championships and improve on their finish from last year. The team has brought in some new plays to increase the offense diversity. The Tigers opened up Saturday against UTSA only losing 60-69, and the team was able to put up a good fight against a division-one school. This preseason match gave the team a chance to work out some of their weaknesses, giving them a better idea of what to focus on in practice. “Staying close with them actually gives us a boost of confidence for our regular season with them being division one and being a bigger team than us size-wise,” Richardson said. “We now know what we need to work on as a team and individually so this will really help get ready for our first game of the season.” Richardson was not the only one who thought the team showed great talent in the game. “Our girls were confident and poised. We played a very good defensive game and we were able to get all of our players some time on the floor,” Hill said. “I think we can feel very good about where we are and improve a lot from this!” Although the Tigers lost, the game was a great indicator of the hard work put forth already and the potential this team has for the season. “We are trying to push the ball more,” Harris said. “We hope to use our speed to our advantage so we can run directly into plays.” The Tiger’s first home match will be November 16 at 8 p.m. against Mary-Hardin Baylor.
BY CLINT SCHROEDER
SPORTS REPORTER The Midnight Madness pep rally signals the start of the Trinity university Men’s Basketball team’s season. Senior captain Jimmy Clark enjoyed his final Midnight Madness pep rally as a Trinity student, noting the fans who came out for the event were very engaged in the festivities. “My favorite part of the Midnight Madness Pep Rally was definitely the T-shirt cannon,” Clark said. “It had quite a bit of firepower and was a great way to reward the audience for coming to support our team and the Wounded Warriors Project.” With their season officially underway, the Tigers are looking forward to facing their first opponent, Mary Hardin-Baylor on November 14. This away game will be a tough test for the Tigers, but they have reason to be hopeful with the team ending last season on a three-game win streak. “We are very optimistic,” said sophomore Aaron Knopp. “We like the talent we have with the [new first years and our returning players. This is] just like every year where we set a goal to win the conference title and try to make a run in the tournament.” Compared to the Trinity men’s basketball teams of the past, this year’s team just may have the athleticism and the talent to make a deep run in the tournament, and they may cause some noise during the season. With the excitement of the new season underway, Clark is trying not to read too much into the highlight reel plays that are being made in practice. “I am guardedly optimistic about this season,” Clark said. “Having been a part of teams that have won the conference championship and played in the NCAA tournament, this year’s team has the talent required to accomplish those same things.” According to Clark, it is how the team applies their talent and how each...... individual
buys into his own role with the team in head basketball coach Pat Cunningham’s system that will ultimately determine the success of this year’s team. “In comparison to previous years’ teams, what’s stood out to me about this year’s team so far is the height, length and athleticism that we have across the board,” Clark said. “We have a lot more dunking occurring in practice which should make for some really exciting games.” Cunningham is also looking forward to the upcoming season now that the team has been able to see how they stack up against some outside competition after their recent scrimmage against St. Mary’s University. “St. Mary’s is a very good Division II team,” Cunningham said. “They gave us a good barometer of where we are and what we need to work on in the next two weeks before our first game.” From the scrimmage where Cunningham was able to see the depth of his team by continually rotating through his players, weaknesses became apparent, thus permitting Cunningham the opportunity to fix those mistakes before their first official game. Even though there were some miscues in the game that Cunningham would like to avoid, Cunningham could not help but note that the work the team put in during the offseason appeared to pay off. “The work they did in the offseason to improve themselves and now the work we are doing in practice has us ready to pick up where we left off and improve from there,” Cunningham said. It is a young, hard- working, talented group. Hopefully we can pull it all together and get some good results when we start playing games.” To Clark, all the team has to do is execute on the minute details and the team could be in store or a stellar season. “We just need to continue to improve on the little things,” Clark said. “If each of those items becomes just as important to everyone on the team as scoring a basket or blocking a shot, we have a chance to be really good.”
photo by Clint Schroeder
Athlete Spotlight
Senior soccer player Hometown: Houston, Texas What is your favorite frozen yogurt flavor? Peanut butter with chocolate chip cookie dough bites and banana. What is your favorite part of playing soccer at Trinity? Being able to play the sport I love with my absolute best friends.
k e s a l o Kim P photo by Sarah Thorne
Why do people call you Donut? A classic Siri autocorrect. I meant to call one of my friends a “noob” over text and my phone autocorrected it to donut without me realizing it. Since I called them a donut on accident, the nickname just kind of stuck with me.
14
WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • NOVEMBER 06, 2015 •
SPORTS
Running the show... Trinity men’s cross country achieve perfect score, named SCAC champions BY CLINT SCHROEDER
SPORTS REPORTER At the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) championship meet, the Trinity University Men’s cross country team accomplished something that has only happened once before in SCAC championship history. They won the championship with a perfect score of 15. With only the top five runners scores for each team counting and the lowest total of points being the winner, the men’s team earned their first perfect score in championship history. As this is only the second time in conference history that a team had earned a perfect score in the championship, it is evident that the team is a very talented and has an incredible amount of depth. Sophomore Michael Erickson is one member of the team who knew that this team had the potential to be special. “By the time the team ran the Chili Pepper 8k in Arkansas, I think we knew we were favored for SCAC,” Erickson said. “I personally did not realize how favored we were until after Pre-Nationals when Coach Daum told us our top five runners were ranked first through fifth in the conference.” Erickson stated that when the team was informed of their runners’ ranking in the SCAC conference, they felt even more motivated to be a part of Trinity history. Travelling to the race turned into an eventful situation, but the team did not let the uncontrollable situation affect their focus. “[We] were on a bus for 16 hours trying to get to Sherman the night before the race,” said senior captain Taylor Piske. “We were afraid the hard day of travel might take a serious toll.” It was not until the Tigers were able to firmly separate themselves from the opposition that they felt comfortable with the events that had transpired during their trip to Sherman. “When the Colorado College contenders finally fell off of our pack, I think it was relief,” Piske said. “Happiness that we all felt in knowing that rotten luck was not going to ruin our chance at taking SCAC.” Head coach Emily Daum is especially proud of the men’s team for their performance in the SCAC championships and for making school and SCAC history. Daum credits the work that the men did during the offseason as the reason for their impressive dominance in the championship meet.
First year OLIVER LANGSELLUS crossing the SCAC championship finish line after being named SCAC Freshman of the Year (above). Men’s team finishing the SCAC championship race first, third and fifth (below). photos courtesy of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
“It was a proud moment to see the men work as a strong pack early on,” Daum said. “[Also], when our fifth runner passed the last non-Trinity runner to solidify our 1 through 5 sweep.” What is different about this year’s team is the success that they are finding running in a pack, especially when they are in the lead. Because the team has found success in running together when in the lead, they have learned to trust one another to set a good pace. “We’ve really become a unit in the past couple of weeks,” Piske said. “Runners one through five are running together, running as a pack. That hasn’t happened in a long time and it’s exciting.” Daum noticed the success the men were having while running together, so she had the top five runners stay together for the first half of the SCAC championship race. “It definitely made us as a whole stronger, said Erickson. “So learning to trust the team is the biggest preparation we’ve had for regionals.” Daum was well aware of the talent of the team, but she knew that there would be obstacles in their ascension to the top.
“If the men were going to make history, a lot of things had to right and according to plan, mainly putting the team ahead of themselves,” Daum said. “They did just that and now they’ve earned the team recognition of having the most all-SCAC runners from one school.” With nine All-SCAC runners along with Piske, who was named the SCAC male
runner of the year, this Tiger team is full of confidence. Piske is well-aware of what awaits the team as the they prepare for their regional meet. “We need to keep up the good vibes and focus,” Piske said. “Perfect scoring SCAC was incredible, but we don’t have the time to celebrate. The true test of our mettle is in Virginia.”
Senior Spotlight – Taylor Piske Hometown: Richardson, TX Major: Engineering
What is your favorite pre-race snack or meal? I used to be too nervous to eat anything before a race! I usually eat a piece of boring wheat toast beforehand, nowadays. I want my stomach to be bored during races. What is your favorite team memory from this season? After we won SCAC, the whole team came to my little house in Richardson for tacos and caramel apples. It was like my two worlds finally collided, bringing the team to where I grew up. They got to meet my sausage-shaped cocker spaniel and sit around my old dining room table. Do you have any pre-race rituals? I grew up playing soccer, so I like to do a few soccer warmup drills before every race. Stutter steps and high kicks, that sort of stuff. It comforts me. photo by Sarah Thorne
SPORTS •
15
NOVEMBER 06, 2015 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
Trinity women’s cross country racing to regionals after SCAC After their recent trip to Sherman, Texas for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) championship meet, the Trinity University women’s cross country team finished second in the conference. “The women put up a tough fight against Colorado College,” said head cross country coach Emily Daum. “They’re very good competitors we just couldn’t match that on Saturday.” The team hopes that their success in the SCAC championship carries over to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III (DIII) South/Southeast Regional in Winchester, Virginia on November 14. If the women are able to get through the regional round of qualifiers, they earn a trip to the DIII championship in Winneconne, Wisconsin on November 21. “One of our major goals for the season is to make it to Nationals as a team, so the Regionals meet is very important,” first-year Molly McCullough said. In their approach to the regional meet, the result at the SCAC championship should serve as outline, for the result of the meet was an impressive one for the Trinity Tigers, especially given the youth of the team. “We’re a very young team with freshman and sophomores making up our top seven,” Daum said. “These girls will definitely be a force to be reckoned with.” Daum said it best that these girls will be a force to be reckoned with, for these girls are already on their way to forming a dynasty due to their team-oriented approach to the meets. “It is not surprising how well the team has done,” McCullough said. “Considering how everyone cares about the team’s performance more than their individual goals.”
With the selfless approach to the meets, the girls have been posting impressive results throughout the season. One of those girls is sophomore Emma MacEachern, whose results have earned her multiple SCAC runner of the week honors. MacEachern credits the success that she has found this season to Daum’s leadership and to the work that she put in during the offseason. “I think I came into this season far better in shape than last year, which has greatly contributed to my success,” MacEachern said. “Coach Daum had us follow a training manifesto during the summer and I slowly progressed from 30 to 50 miles over the course of two months” In addition to the team’s training regime, Daum has stressed the importance of proper eating and sleeping habits. MacEachern believes that these habits Daum has instilled in the team has greatly improved both her and the team’s performance. With Daum’s guidance, MacEachern has become one of the most consistent runners for the tigers this season with her top of the team finishes at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Invitational meet and the SCAC championship meets. MacEachern’s third place finish in the meet helped carry the tigers to be the runnersup for the SCAC championship for the second consecutive year. Even with the impressive results of the team, Daum and MacEachern both believes there is work that needs to be done before the team heads to their regional meet. “I think looking ahead we’ll be sure to focus more on running with teammates to help have a stronger race,” Daum said. “Pack running, if it’s possible, is always advantageous.” McCullough knows the advantages of pack running and hopes that the pack running will
photo courtesy of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women’s cross country team titled second in the SCAC championship meet in Sherman, Texas.
help the team move on to the DIII National Championship meet. “We are focused on sticking with our running partners throughout the race and doing the best we can so that the meet in Virginia isn’t the last one of the season,” McCullough said. But the Tigers running in a pack comes second to maintaining mental and physical health. “The team (needs to focus on) staying healthy, getting good sleep, and remaining uninjured,” MacEachern said.
According to MacEachern, an easy way for the team to accomplish this goal is for the team to continue their injury prevention exercises and stretching. With the preparation the team has put into this season, the race cannot come soon enough for some members of the team. “We’ve been working since the beginning of summer for this race,” MacEachern said. “I believe now it’s just a matter of time before we show what the Trinity Tigers are made of at the NCAA Regional meet next Saturday.”
Campus Carry FORUM Wednesday, Nov. 11 photo by Sarah Thorne
Sophomore Standout – Emma MacEachern Hometown: Temple, TX Major: Biology
What is your favorite pre-race snack or meal? My favorite pre-race snack is a handful of walnuts and two dates. It’s quick energy and it does not make me feel too heavy. If the race is later, I also like to eat Quaker oatmeal and a banana. What is your favorite team memory from this season? My favorite team memory has to be watching our men’s team perfect score at conference last weekend. Our journey to Sherman was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced (16 hour bus ride, arriving in Sherman at 2:30 am Saturday morning for a race that same day at 9 am), and we went into conference a little defeated, especially seeing the terrible conditions of the course. So, seeing Taylor, Michael, Oliver, Austin and Jacob cross the finish line one after another before anyone else was the best feeling in the world and made all our training pay off. Plus, it made me really proud to wear the same jersey and represent Trinity University so well. Do you have any pre-race rituals? My pre-race ritual, if it counts as a ritual, is not thinking about the race. If I think too much about which girl to keep an eye on or what my splits should be, I get nervous, and it distracts me from staying relaxed and “in the zone.”
6 to 7:30 p.m. Chapman Center Auditorium
sponsored by SGA Join the Trinity community in an open discussion of Texas Senate Bill 11, the campus carry law, and our mutual concerns for creating a safe environment in which to live, learn, and work. The forum will feature opposing viewpoints from two faculty and two students within an atmosphere of civil discourse. Trinity community members will also have a chance to ask questions and present their views.
SPORTS • NOVEMBER 06, 2015
16
• WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM
Davis’s fantasy basketball picks Trinity intramural teams BY DAVIS ALCORN
GUEST COLUMNIST
With more scoring responsibilities this year and great three point shooters around him, these averages could see increases as the season moves forward.
Shooting Guards
So here is the problem: You and your friends love all things fantasy sports to the extent that you would play fantasy class registration if you could. Unfortunately, you were too swamped last week to get a draft together for the 2015-16 NBA season. Fear not. It is never too late to declare dominance over your friends in a draft this week. To help, I (an avid NBA fan) will give you the best player at each position to pick, and one underrated guy you can scoop up to fill out your roster.
Point Guards Let’s start at point guard because the decision here is easy. If you can get the God Stephen Curry, do so immediately and claim victory for the season. He has been that good so far. He (at the time of this writing) is averaging 35.8 points, 5 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game which sounds more like 2K16 than real life. According to ESPN, he also has totaled more three pointers than the Timberwolves, Nets, Jazz, Grizzlies, and 76ers. You read that right. Steph, has more threes than five individual NBA TEAMS. Pick him…now. As for an underrated point guard to grab, check out Jeff Teague of the Atlanta Hawks. Though true NBA fans will argue that Teague is not really under the radar, your draft buddies may glance over him in order to get a player with a household name. Teague so far is averaging the same assists per game as Curry and is also adding in 19.2 points for game.
I am going to look past some early season shooting challenges and tell you to pick up James Harden here over the likes of Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler and Paul George. Harden will get past his shooting slump as the chemistry between himself and new Houston point guard Ty Lawson blossoms. Look for his points per game average to increase from 23.8 to near 26. Find yourself later in the draft without a backup SG? Try out Bradley Beal from the Wizards. Not only did he hit a game winning shot Wednesday against the Spurs , but he is also averaging 25 points a game so far this season. This may fall as the season progresses, but he should remain solid overall.
Small Forward This is by far the most difficult position to draft because of the overwhelming talent available. Honestly whatever star player you choose will be worth it. If I were picking, I would take Kevin Durant (29 PPG and 6 REB) over LeBron James (22 PPG, 6APG, and 7 RPG) strictly because Lebron has been playing without a headband and looks weird. Thinking of ordering food for your draft party? Go with Italian to compliment your back up pick of Danilo Gallinari from the Denver Nuggets. After recovering from multiple knee surgeries Gallinari has been on an absolutely awesome spree. Expect 18 points and a handful of assists on any given night from Gallo.
Power Forward If you have one of the first few picks in the draft and you do not pick up
Anthony Davis for your PF, your league-mates have every right to give you hell. He is a double-double machine averaging 20 PPG and 10 RPG. He is also known to fill up the block column. Though I personally don’t see this being “his league” this season or next, he is pretty amazing to watch. A nice back up pick here could be the potential rookie of the year KarlAnthony Towns. Nothing is guaranteed in a rookie (see Jabari parker) but so far he is the second leading scorer on the Timberwolves and is averaging as many rebounds as Anthony Davis. Not too bad for his first few games.
Center So many players in the NBA can fill multiple positions. For instance, Anthony Davis could be taken as a center and would obviously be great for your team. If you do not go that route, look no further than DeMarcus Cousins. I am saying it here now, Cousins is becoming one of the hardest players in the league to guard. So far this season he has made four three pointers, matching his the most he has ever made in a season…and we are only one week in. Scary. After some of the other greats (Gobert, Aldridge, Jordan, etc.) are picked up, I would take Al Horford. Some may say I am taking Horford because he helped me out on my own fantasy team last year and to those people I would say…you are right. Horford is a stretch center who does it all. He will get you points, rebounds, and blocks as well as a smattering of threes, With a player efficiency rating of 26% Horford is a great pick to round out your team. At the end of the day, your fantasy team will win or lose for any number of reasons (so don’t blame me). What is important is that once the big name players are off the board, you still get good value out of your picks. Hopefully this guide helps. Happy fantasying!
crowned champions BY SARAH PRICE
SPORTS REPORTER Flag football and sand volleyball champions have been crowned for this semester. The winners of the co-rec league were the Gamcers, which consisted of team members from the Gamma Chi Delta sorority and the Lancer fraternity. Their championship match came with a win over the Porcupines in the final game. “It’s never easy to play a team of good friends because they work so well together as a unit,” said senior Kristy Hamilton. “Also, you definitely don’t want to mess with Gabbie Roe when she puts her game face on.” Their win came with a $100 gift card to Bays, as well as Intramural Champs t-shirts. The women’s league champions were Trinity’s own women’s basketball team. “We decided to play Intramurals last year during practice one day,” said senior Elizabeth Balido. “Our coaches love to have us run routes as a way to warm up for practice and we realized that a lot of us were really good receivers so we did it.” With the help of their coaches, they trained hard enough to win the championship. The women’s basketball team had to face Trinity’s tennis team in the championship round. “They were aggressive and had the desire to win more than other teams we play,” Balido said. “Their defense was great but in the end our offense won out.”
Having a sports team enter intramurals is not uncommon at Trinity. Some coaches encourage it as it builds team bonding and allows the team to have fun outside of their own sport. “It definitely strengthened our team chemistry because we just went out there and played our hardest and really supported each other through it,” Balido said. “It was nice to get out of our typical routine and play a different sport.” Along with flag football wrapping up, the sand volleyball champions were also crowned. The “That’s What She Set” team took home the championship for this semester: a team consisting of a group of friends who just love to play volleyball together. “Our biggest competition was the team we played in semifinals since the two guys on that team play club volleyball and they knew what they were doing,” said junior Andrea Zavala. It takes more than just skill to win the tournament. A team must consist of hard workers who are able to communicate well, and being a group of friends, they obviously did that well. “We decided to play Intramurals because we thought it would be fun to have games every week with other groups of friends or just groups on campus,” Zavala said. “We also wanted to win the IM shirt.” The next round of Intramurals include dodgeball and indoor soccer. To find out how you can get involved, contact Tyler Hatton at thatton@trinity.edu.
-
NFL Predictions Week 9 Picker of the Week:
Email your picks for the week to trinitonian@trinity.edu no later than 10 a.m. Sunday. Students, Faculty, and Alums can all submit picks for the chance to be featured by the Trinitonian. Whoever has the best results will be the featured picker for that week. All Oracle Method picks courtesy of rank.balreira.com
The Oracle Method
DANNY ANDERSON
DEAN TUTTLE
DR. JACOB TINGLE
DR. JENNIFER STEELE
BRITNI HENDERSON
Cleveland vs Cinncinati
CIN- 74.45%
CIN
CIN
CIN
CIN
CIN
Miami vs Buffalo
MIA- 53.38%
MIA
BUF
BUF
MIA
MIA
Green Bay vs Carolina
GB- 50.48%
CAR
GB
CAR
GB
CAR
Jacksonville vs New York Jets
NYJ- 70.62%
St. Louis vs Minneapolis
STL- 54.39%
NYJ MIN
NYJ MIN
NYJ MIN
NYJ MIN
NYJ STL
Washington vs New England
NE- 74.79%
NE
NE
NE
NE
NE
Tennessee vs New Orleans
NO- 56.10%
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
Oakland vs Pittsburgh
PIT- 58.37%
OAK
OAK
PIT
PIT
PIT
New York Giants vs Tampa Bay
NYG- 57.56%
TB
TB
NYG
NYG
NYG
Atlanta vs San Francisco
ATL- 67.49%
ATL
ATL
ATL
ATL
ATL
Denver vs Indianapolis
DEN- 72.07%
DEN
DEN
DEN
DEN
DEN
Philadephia vs Dallas
PHI- 66.31%
DAL
DAL
PHI
PHI
Chicago vs San Diego
CHI- 53.98%
SD
SD
SD
SD
DAL SD
Last Weeks Results:
9-5
11 - 3
11 - 3
12 - 2
12 - 2
Overall Record:
84 - 35
82 - 37
74 - 45
72 - 47
76 - 43
YOUR PICKS
graphic by Sam Skory