02.24.2017

Trinitonian

Ron Nirenberg

The light of Einstein’s

Trinity alumnus is candidate in the 2017 San Antonio mayoral election.

Michelle Alexander joined the Trinity community in August and is loved by many.

PAGE 3 NEWS

PAGE 8 PULSE

Serving Trinity University Since 1902

Volume 114 Issue 20

Tornado touches down near Trinity Damage from storm disrupts lives of students

New club works to build community of passionate student rock climbers.

PAGE 15 SPORTS

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Basketball seniors honored Historic season recognized at final home game of the year

BY ALEXANDRA URI

MANAGING EDITOR While many students prepared to start the week, violent winds and rain shook San Antonio late on Sunday night. The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that a tornado touched down near the Quarry Market.

Several students were personally affected by the tornado. First-year Spanish and international business major, Katherine Donovan’s family home was in the path of the storm and was damaged by the tornado.

“There is a large tree in our pool, the shingles and most of the ceiling slats are missing leaving the attic exposed, the ceiling is in danger of caving in, three thick windows are shattered and one wall is off the foundation and leaning sideways,” Donovan said.

Senior engineering major, Amanda Dinh, was in her home off campus when the tornado hit.

“We were watching TV when we noticed how loud the storm outside was getting. When we went to peek out the window, our ears popped from the pressure being put on the house,” Dinh said. “Multiple trees had fallen around our house and we had to move our cars to make sure they didn’t get damaged.

There was so much water coming from our ceilings that there weren’t enough towels and buckets in the world to stop [the rain]. It was a surreal experience.”

Most of the damage to Dinh’s house was on the roof.

“Part of our roof got damaged.

Our neighbor called night of the storm to let us know part of our roof was in his lawn. Because the roof was damaged, water leaked through the ceiling. The living room and one of the bedrooms got flooded. The ceiling came down in the bedroom. There was some damage to our garage door as well. In comparison to some of our neighbors, we are very fortunate in terms of damages. Some of them don’t even have a roof anymore,” Dinh said.

Senior engineering major, Kate Walls’ house was also damaged.

“When we were able to get into the locked bedroom the entire ceiling, insulation and all, had collapsed onto the resident’s bed.

Along with that the ceiling in another bedroom as well as the front room were drenched and sagging. Our front door had also expanded with all of the moisture

Rock climbing club

BY ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER

Damage of the tornado’s touchdown can be seen throughout the areas that surround Trinity. photos by CLAUDIA GARCIA and we had to force it open with one of us on the outside pushing and two of us on the inside pulling.

Once we got it open it would no longer shut since it was so waterlogged. The garage door had also been ripped from the wall and our newly replaced roof was stripped of the shingles in several places,” Walls said.

The typical response from Trinity is an all-campus alert put out by Trinity University Police (TUPD).

“The Trinity University Police Department Dispatcher monitors severe weather and takes action when warnings of imminent danger are indicated to effect the Trinity Campus. The type of actions the TUPD Dispatcher can take may include sending a notification to the Trinity community by campus indoor and outdoor speakers, the campus phone systems and the use of TrinAlert,” said Ivan Pendergast, crisis management team coordinator.

However, an official alert was not sent from Trinity. Pendergast said that because the NWS did not include Trinity’s campus a warning was not issued by TUPD. “The information provided to Trinity University Police Dispatch from the National Weather Service at the time of the warning indicated that there was not a threat to

Trinity Campus,” Pendergast said.

Overall students wish that Trinity had sent out a warning. Donovan said she was disappointed that only the Student Government Association (SGA) has reached out to students regarding storm damage.

“It was very disappointing that the only email we have gotten about the situation is from SGA and no one else has said anything.

People didn’t believe there was any danger since there was no warning and that could have ended badly,” Donovan said.

Walls said that because she lives off campus a warning from Trinity would not have made a difference for her. However, she was still surprised that one was not issued.

“It was a little surprising, given all of the practice tests, that Trinity failed to warn its students with its emergency response system,” Walls said. “I knew several students that were still out and about driving around and unaware of the tornado. It’s just lucky they weren’t close enough to any of them to be injured.”

Santulli also believes that students were not given enough warning from Trinity before the storm.

“Personally, I feel that the student body received insufficient warning prior to the onset of the severe weather, and I like the idea of SGA

helping offset the financial pain wrought on some students who were on campus during the storm,” said Nick Santulli, president of SGA. After the storm, SGA sent out an email encouraging students affected to contact them about their damage.

“SGA officers, just like everyone else, were shocked by the storm’s force and the destruction it wrought on the San Antonio area.

However, we also know that the Trinity community is stronger when it comes together. Therefore, we felt it was our obligation to form some coherent response and lead potential support efforts,” Santulli said.

SGA is currently looking at options on what kind of aid they can provide to students affected.

“We are exploring a few options that vary based on people’s needs.

Please remember that, as of now, these are only proposals; we have yet to make any final decisions.

If adequate demand exists, SGA may form a temporary volunteer workforce to help clean up homes of students, faculty and staff that were damaged by the storm.

However, first we would need to clear some liability and logistical obstacles,” Santulli said.

Students affected should contact sga@trinity.edu.

Last weekend, both the men and women’s basketball teams had two games against Schreiner University.

The first, on Thursday, took place on the Mountaineers’ home court in Kerrville, Texas. Saturday, the schools faced off back home in San Antonio.

The weekend started strong for the Tigers, who left Kerville with victories against Schreiner from both the men and the women’s teams.

The men’s team faced stiff competition against Schreiner University’s men’s basketball, ranked first in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC).

“We knew going into the games against Schreiner that they were going to be close and that we had to bring our best to get the win,” said junior Jayden Holden, “We are becoming more consistent and getting to where we need to be faster and with confidence.”

The men maintained offensive control throughout the match, giving away five turnovers to Schreiner’s 15. Sophomore Isaiah Specks scored 14 points, junior Matt Jones 13 and first-year Brooks Mays 11, beating the top SCAC team with an ending score of 78-73.

“It really felt like we were on top of the conference,” said sophomore Isaiah Specks, “We had a complete team effort, everybody did what they needed to do to get the win.

They hit us with a few punches but we proved we could bounce back and throughout the night we did all the little things, got rebounds, tracked down loose balls. We played our hardest against them and they couldn’t handle that for 40 minutes.”

The victory can be attributed not only to the strong offensive performances of these scores, but also to the defensive plays that enabled them to occur.

“The energy we brought to the defensive side of the ball was what helped us beat Schreiner,” Holden said, “Down the stretch we made some timely stops which led us to easy buckets on the offensive end.” continued on page 2

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24, 2017

BRIEFS TUPD 02/21/2017 4:22 p.m.

Location: Susanna Wesley Residence Hall

SGA During this week’s SGA meeting it was proposed that students affected by this week’s storm should be contacted through email. Further, SGA discussed why a TUPD alert was not sent out. A meeting was set for Feb. 24 regarding a feminine products proposal. An amendment was passed allowing Mirage Editors to serve on ResLife staff.

Compiled by Jeffery Sullivan

INDEX News.......................................................... 3-4 Opinion.................................................... 5-7 Pulse......................................................... 8-10 A&E..........................................................11-12 Sports...................................................... 13-16

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Staff editor-in-chief: Julia Elmore managing editor: Alexandra Uri business manager: Shivali Kansagra ad director: Lauren Harris & Christina Moore news editor: Jeffery Sullivan campus pulse editor: Emily Elliott arts & entertainment editor: Dylan Wagner sports editor: Markham Sigler opinion editor: Julia Poage photo editor: Miguel Webber graphic editor: Tyler Herron layout editor: Katie Groke web editor: Alexander Motter circulation director: Maddie Kennedy reporters: Kathleen Creedon, Daniel Conrad, Elise Hester,

Haley McFadden, Philip McKeon, Clarisse Nakayama, Julia Weis columnists: Alejandro Cardona, Mia Garza, Sarah Haley, Joy Lazarus, Gabriel Levine, Alexander Perkowski, Jacob Rossitter, Callum Squires, Nabeeha Virani copy editors: Soleil Gaffner, Nicholas Smetzer, Emlynn Smith cartoonist: Michael Miller photographers: Noah Davidson, Claudia Garcia, Henry Pratt, Osvaldo Veloz business staff: Sarah McIntyre & Krushi Patel advertising staff: Aroosi Ajani, Melissa Chura, Rebecca Derby, Isla Stewart adviser: Katharine Martin

Corrections In last week’s Pulse article regarding the McNair Program we incorrectly said that only minority students could apply. Any first-generation, lowincome student from any racial background is eligible, as well as students from certain minority groups, whether they are first-generation, lowincome or not.

Spot a mistake? Email us at trinitonian@trinity.edu and we will happily run a correction in the following issue.

• NEWS

Basketball seniors honored continued from front

The womens team’s first game was tense and close. The Tigers, which are 23-1 overall and 12-1 in conference, pulled ahead from the start, scoring 18 to the Mountaineers’ 7 in the first quarter.

“Our biggest challenge, especially during our first game was rebounding,” said senior Monica Holguin.

In the next three quarters, Schreiner almost matched Trinity point for point, and in the end Trinity’s first quarter dominance won the game.

“Our strategy was simply to bring energy to the floor on every possession,” Holguin said, “This helped us get defensive stops and made it a lot easier to get good shots on offense.”

Holguin herself scored 31 points, marking a career high for the senior. Micah Weaver scored 24 and Allison Stanley 14, with 4 threepointers. Stanley, the third highest scorer from the women’s team scored the same number of points as the mens team’s top scorer.

Back home, for senior night, the men fell to the Mountaineers.

“It’s tough to beat a team two nights in a row, back to back,” said sophomore Isaiah Specks, “they are the number one team in the conference. It was a close game again. We just got gassed.”

Seniors Josh Ingram and AJ Pulliam were honored before the game and Ingram, in his first start of the season, scored two threepointers and a lay up.

“We tried to work the ball around to make Shreiner have to work on defense and look for breakdowns in their defense,” said senior Josh Ingram, “that’s how I was able to get a few open looks from [the] three and we were able to get decent shots as a team.”

Despite their loss, the Tigers were able to celebrate their seniors.

“It was night about Josh and Josh went out there and got buckets,” Specks said, “It wasn’t a night about [Schreiner] it was about celebrating Josh and AJ.” “I am very happy to be a part of this program for the last four seasons from the experiences on the court and the friends I have made from being on the team,” Ingram said, “I am sad that it is coming to an end, but I am grateful for my time in the program.”

Junior Matt Jones had another great game as well, breaking his own record for the most single season assists in Trinity history.

The womens team continued their historic winning streak in their second game. In a team

full of exceptionally talent players and a season full of firsts, the womens team made their last home game of the season and the last home game for seniors, Alexander, Horn, Holguin, Balido and Staley, one to remember.

The Tigers worked harder to keep the game from getting close by upping their scoring with more aggressive offensive “Our offensive strategy was just to try to push the ball as much as we could and get good shots on offense,” Balido said, “We wanted to make sure we didn’t give them any reason to keep the game close and that was mainly by taking care of the ball and getting the best look we could.”

By scoring more, the Tigers did not allow the Mountaineers to get the score close.

“We did a better job of crashing the boards in the second game which helped eliminate second chance points for our opponent,” Holguin said.

This weekend both the men team and the womens team will travel to Georgetown to face off against Southwestern University in the SCAC championship. The men believe they have developed the skills needed to conquer the Pirates, but must keep their heads in the game in order to pull out a win.

“Going into playoffs, we know that we have to bring it every game because every team in the conference can heat up any given night. Our thinking is pretty simple, we know we can win it, we just have to bring the energy and focus every game,” Holden said, “Turning defense into offense will be big in the upcoming SCAC Tournament.”

As one of the best teams in the nation, the womens team are taking every game as it comes and being the best they can be day by day.

“Our team mindset is just to keep playing one game at a time and to not focus too far ahead,” Balido said, “We just have to focus on the game in front of us and make sure we win that one.”

The women, ranked ninth in the nation, have had a historically successful season and have enjoyed every moment.

“This has been an amazing regular season,” Balido said, “I couldn’t have asked for a better one for my last regular season.”

“I am proud of the hard work and dedication that we put forward every day in practice and on game night. I am surrounded by amazing, talented players and coaches. I could not have asked for a more perfect senior year. This season just keeps getting better and better,” Holguin said, “Now it’s time to go make a run at this thing.”

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NEWS • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Interview with Alumni & San Antonio Mayoral Candidate Ron Nirenberg

BY DANIEL CONRAD

NEWS REPORTER

The Trinitonian recently had the opportunity to interview Ron Nirenberg, Trinity alumnus and candidate in San Antonio’s 2017 mayoral election, about Trinity University and his election campaign.

Nirenberg graduated from Trinity University in 1999 with a B.A. in communication before going on to earn his M.A. in communication from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. At Trinity, Nirenberg was on the Trinitonian staff as editor-inchief. He returned to San Antonio as the general manager of KRTU between 2009 and 2013. Nirenberg was elected city councilman for San Antonio’s District 8 in June 2013; he was re-elected in 2015 and presently sits on the council.

San Antonio residents will vote for their next mayor on May 6, 2017. Incumbent mayor Ivy Taylor is running for another full term.

Nirenberg announced his candidacy December of last year and stands with Manuel Medina, Bexar County Democratic Party chairman, as Taylor’s primary opponents. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Trinitonian: You’re a Trinity alumnus and former Trinitonian staff member — it makes me wonder what you saw in San Antonio as a student here. Are you originally from San Antonio?

Nirenberg: Right. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. We moved to Austin, Texas, when I was three.

When it came time to decide where to go to college, I had three choices: go back to the east coast — which I kind of wanted to do — go to UTAustin, or go to Trinity, which was not really on my radar until my dad suggested I go check it out.

T: Did your experience in the press help prepare you for politics?

Did it spur your interest?

N: One of the first things I did when I stepped foot on campus was walk down to the [Trinitonian]

dungeon and ask for an internship.

My dream was to be the beat writer for the Red Sox, so I really wanted to get into sports journalism, which I eventually did. My first break came when I got a fill-in football assignment. I got to cover one of the primetime football games and I guess the editor at the time saw talent in me. I became a sports editor my sophomore year, studied abroad my junior year, came back and was a sports columnist. I applied for the editor-in-chief position, got the job and we turned the newspaper around.

It prepared me because, especially as an editor, I was attuned to what was happening in San Antonio.

It formulated a lot of my initial impressions of the changing leadership and dynamic of the city.

T: The mayoral election is on May 6. In formulating your campaign strategy, what do you prioritize?

N: Really, it’s about listening to the aspirations of people throughout the community. From neighborhoods in my own district, to offices to CEOs, to soup kitchens at local churches, there are hopes and aspirations that exist in the city of San Antonio that the current leadership is failing. I want San Antonio to be a tier-one, world-class city, in which no matter where you live, you’ll be proud of it and you wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I believe that we have all the resources, people and the willpower to make that city. It’s time leadership gets on board.

T: Your first campaign had a slogan: “Meet your neighbors.”

What can students and institutions of higher education offer to the city in order to become a better neighbor to San Antonio?

N: I have a deep and abiding belief that if people get outside of the confines of their own lives, homes and offices to meet people across the street or across town, or even consider that people “other” than themselves — and I use the word “other” in quotes — have every right to thrive and to enjoy San Antonio as they do, we would create a better place. It works for local policy and it

would work for international policy if we all had the cause and mission of being a better neighbor.

There’s not a greater concentration of intellect and motivation among the next generation, and the people who inspire them, then at the universities of San Antonio. I think it’s extremely important for a place like Trinity to coalesce that energy, burst the Trinity bubble and really reach out to San Antonio and offer your talents. Reach out across the campus and get students to start thinking about the city they live in.

T: The conduct of the press has become a mainstay in national conversation. What role do you think the press has to play in politics, in serving the public, especially at the local level?

N: At every level, there is not a more important institution than the free press. The denigration of the media under the current administration, and really over the last many years, is one of the greatest concerns I think we should have for our democracy.

I’m not exaggerating that. I’m a huge believer that if we don’t have an autonomous, independent free press that has the eyes, ears and trust of the public, then we’re in trouble as a country. It’s one of the reasons why I think we, at the local level, need to do a better job of being transparent.

The only place where citizens can readily find out the work of local government, without having to go down to city hall every day, is through local media: through the newspaper, TV, radio and so forth. We know that social media is a great way to spread information, but it lacks the independence and credibility of a legitimate, professional media outlet.

This is also one of the reasons why, as a councilman, my office has strict rules about the media: when they call, we answer. When they ask a question, we answer. When they ask for information, provided that it’s not under some sort of non-disclosure clause, we provide it. I have a general rule that when a member of the media calls, I try not to let them go to voicemail

Ron Nirenberg is competeing against several candidates for the mayorship of San Antonio. photo provided by ANDREW CASILLAS

— though I hardly ever live up to that — just to maintain a level of respect. We ensure that we’re providing journalists the latitude they need to tell the story of what’s happening in city government. As a member of the city government, I have a responsibility to provide them that access.

I think we can all agree that there’s a crisis of public confidence in all institutions: public institutions, the private sector, education, certainly government and the media are also part of that. It’s incumbent on all of us to work together to inspire trust again. Part of that as an elected official, with regard to the media, is to provide unfettered access and transparency, even when it’s uncomfortable. We’ve done that for professional outlets here in San Antonio, when they call outside of San Antonio and when they call from the campus press.

T: Would you like to share any closing thoughts?

N: I would, actually. I work a lot with refugees. There’s a huge population in my district. I also do kid’s town halls with students as young as six, seven or eight years old, where I go in and answer questions as I would with Homeowners Association leaders. I come from a civic engagement background,

I did work professionally after Trinity in civic engagement. It’s really important for people to know that they have a voice and even a responsibility to be part of their city government. Yes, voting is one way of doing that. It’s extremely important that people vote. But honestly, if voting were the only way of being involved in your local government, we might as well turn it in now. The reality is that one out of 10 registered voters in San Antonio vote in municipal elections, even fewer than that if you count people in general who are ineligible to vote because they don’t [permanently] live here, because of their immigration status, age or whatever else.

It’s really important that we work with young people, regardless of their age and regardless of their residency, to be involved. I encourage everybody at Trinity to take an interest in this election and be involved one way or another.

Their voice is no less important than the retiree’s who’s lived the last several decades here in San Antonio.

Ron Nirenberg will debate Mayor Ivy Taylor and Manuel Medina in Laurie Auditorium, March 6th at 6 P.M. The forum will be put on by Pi Sigma Alpha, Student Government Association and the Contemporary.

RecycleMania returns to campus in Mabee Trinity participates in annual event that promotes waste awareness

BY KATHLEEN CREEDON

NEWS REPORTER

Since 2008, Trinity has participated in RecycleMania, an annual event that helps schools across the country improve efforts to reduce waste on their campuses.

For the next eight weeks, Trinity will promote vigilance and awareness of the effects of waste on the environment.

During the event, schools focus on waste management and waste reduction. The ultimate goal of RecycleMania is to fare better than

the other schools participating; however, the office of campus planning and sustainability intends to focus more on the benefits of the event on our campus.

“One of the goals of RecycleMania is waste minimization. People are so used to seeing Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but it’s actually a hierarchy.

The goal is that first, you reduce your waste, then you try to reuse your waste, then you recycle what’s left and if you have a compost program, the next step is rot, and the last option is landfill,” said Sharon Curry, director of sustainability.

To improve Trinity’s waste diversion percentage, signs are being hung by the waste centers in residence halls. Each sign displays the weekly percentage of each hall and will be updated throughout the event.

“Instead of beating other universities, we’re trying to improve our recycling rate on campus rather than thinking of ourselves in relation to the other schools. It’s sort of like a Trinity competition right now,” said Lillie Marquez, one of the sustainability assistants.

Percentages are the total number of pounds of recycling over the total pounds of trash per buildings. The columns on the posters are grouped by how they’re picked up and makes keeping track of the numbers easier.

“We compete to see how we rank with other schools, but the real goal is to get people to start recycling because we’re competing, and hopefully they develop habits.

It’s more to get people to keep recycling in mind and to have a goal accomplished,” said Ian Witecki,

the other sustainability assistant.

Although Trinity is compared to schools of a similar size, some schools that allow students to live off campus have a higher percentage of waste diversion.

“One of the goals of RecycleMania is waste minimization.”

“It definitely changes if you have people living on campus because they’re there full time, and they generate more waste. If you’re just going to class, you’ll recycle a plastic bottle, but if you’re living

on campus, you may be lazier,” Marquez said.

Last year, Trinity maintained a 16.89 percent recycling rate, and the goal is to reach 20 percent this year. Although the rate has been relatively steady over the past eight years, ranging from four percent to just under 20 percent the office of campus planning and sustainability hopes to improve the rates more drastically.

“We got 16th most improved last year, which is really good. If we improve our past rate by 20 percent, we’ll reach our goal of 20 percent,” Witecki said.

Although RecycleMania focuses on improving recycling rates on campus, the overall intention is to reduce waste, including food waste. continued on page 4

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 •

NEWS

Susan Orlean gives reading on campus The famous writer spoke to students and faculty about her career as a journalist

BY KATHLEEN CREEDON

NEWS REPORTER

Writer Susan Orlean visited Trinity to read excerpts of four of her works. Before her lecture in Ruth Taylor Hall, Orlean met with roughly 30 students in the Waxahachie Room for an hourlong Q&A. Many of the questions involved her relationship with these subjects and the effects of those relationships on her work. One student asked how her personal judgments of a subject interferes with her writing.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge, as a writer, that I am viewing the world subjectively, that of course my perspective is particular to me, that I can’t write objectively. I’m not judging the people I’m writing about because it’s not really who I am as a person; I wouldn’t write about a person simply to support an opinion I had already about them. In fact, I often will do stories especially because I think there is a perceived idea of what this person or this subculture might be like,” Orlean said.

Orlean mentioned a tour she went on with a gospel group called the Jackson Southernaires, called “Devotion Road.” Although she developed interest in writing about a gospel group for a while, it wasn’t until after she read about the group’s late lead singer whose funeral caused traffic in Jackson, Mississippi, to come to a halt.

“I just had this urge to see what that world was all about; it couldn’t be more removed from my world.

I think the reason it stuck with me

was I couldn’t have been in a more different world. I was also really struck by how people welcomed me without blinking an eye, even though it was rather noticeable, and that was a real lesson to me about a certain kind of openness that I really value,” Orlean said.

Orlean said she was inspired after she had read the negative bias that beauty pageants are given. She intends to open her eyes rather than to react based on a social bias.

“I like writing about worlds [that]

to learn more,” Orlean said.

Orlean discussed the emotional connection that is made with her subjects and how it can be tough for them to let go of the intimacy once she is done researching and is ready to write the story.

“You create a bond with people, and it’s a very particular kind of bond where it probably mimics the relationship between a therapist and a patient more than anything else,” Orlean said of the relationship.

Orlean also credited her

writing, I have a stack of books on my desk by the people I really admire, and I can’t tell you the number of times I open them up and look at the way they structured a sentence or made a transition from one place to another in their story. I think imitation is a great way to learn,” Orlean said.

Orlean read from “Shooting Party,” “The American Man at 10 Years Old,” “Orchid Thief,” and “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.” Before each reading,

Susan Orlean reads from four of her selected works during her reading in the Ruth Taylor Recital hall, and answered questions after. photo by KATHLEEN CREEDON

are not my world because I can open up and see how open I can be to a perspective that’s not my own. You may come out to the same point, but there’s a value in exploring it and really knowing something about it. I think as opinionated as I am, I’m also really open to learning, and I think that’s all you can hope for. Everyone’s entitled to be judgmental, but you need to want

inspiration to the work of others, expressing the importance other’s work should have on one’s own.

She listed “Giving Good Weight,” “Great Plains,” “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” and the collections Literary Journalists and Literary Journalism as books that always remain on her desk for inspiration.

“These are my teachers, other people’s work, and when I’m

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Orlean briefly described the backstory of each, emphasizing the moments that influenced her work the most.

“One of the interesting things about starting work on a new project is you never know where it’s going to take you, and you certainly don’t know what your passion for doing a good job on the story will result in,” Orlean said.

She spoke of how she immediately rejected the idea of getting into a swamp to follow the story she outlines in “Orchid Thief,” but how in the moment, she knew there was no better way to present what happened there.

“I remember at the time feeling like, as a writer, my job is always to remain at a distance, and that I write about people that are passionate, then it suddenly hit me that I had been fooling myself. This thing that drove John Laroche to go into Fakahatchee Strand and steal these orchids, the passion that he had, was exactly the same thing that drove me to follow him into the swamp — a place that I would have never wanted to go,” Orlean said.

The audience marvelled in Orlean’s ability to relate to them despite the peculiarity of her stories. Even nonEnglish and non-journalism majors appreciated her honesty and were inspired by her readings.

“I enjoyed it. I’m not so much into journalism, but I like to read, and now I want to go buy more books.

I was really interested in all of her stories,” said Laurel Fitzgerald, undeclared first year.

First-year Delia Rogers, an avid reader of the New Yorker, mentioned that both of her parents alerted her and insisted she attend Orlean’s appearance on campus.

Other students who were unfamiliar with her work enjoyed the readings equally as much.

“I thought she was brilliant. I really liked her stories about engaging with unordinary people; it’s a very relatable way for aspiring writers to learn,” said Chris Glennon, senior political science major.

Orlean has been a staff writer for The New Yorker for more than two decades, has written articles for numerous magazines — including Esquire, Rolling Stone and Vogue — and has written six books.

Her work focuses on profiles of interesting people she meets.

RecycleMania returns continued from page 3 The office of campus planning and sustainability acquired posters to promote this reduction of food waste that are now hung in Mabee Dining Hall.

“It’s just information, awareness. We can’t force anyone to change behavior, but we can ask people to consider their behavior by putting the facts before them and letting them make informed choices,” Curry said.

Although Trinity does compost preconsumer waste, such as prep scraps and coffee beans, there is no viable post-consumer compost program on campus because there is not the space that vendors require to do so.

“The fact that 40 percent of food ends up in landfill is appalling. The posters may not seem like much, but anything we can do to change that is a good thing,” Curry said.

There are many things that people recycle that are not recyclable and ultimately hurt the system. If there are too many contaminants in a load of recycling, it will be landfilled.

“A lot of people in our industry call it wishful recycling. They wish it was recyclable, so they put it in the bin, but it doesn’t help if you do that. If we get enough contamination in the bins, we actually divert it to the compactor

for landfill in order to protect our recycling stream,” Curry said.

Trinity’s office of Campus Planning and Sustainability doesn’t have the staff or space to sort out the contaminated recycling, and vendors will reject a load that contains too much contamination, so to avoid penalties that come with contaminated recycling, the office diverts it to the landfill instead.

Examples of contamination are plastic bags, Styrofoam, aluminum foil, hangers and coffee cups. Although some are recyclable, we do not accept them as recycling on campus because they will cause problems with the recycling machinery or because they are contaminated with food or liquids.

“Our focus is not to get recycling to the highest possible rate, but to get waste to the lowest possible rate. It’s great that we recycle, but it’s better if we don’t create the waste at all,” Curry said.

The office of campus planning and sustainability will be promoting RecycleMania by hosting Milk and Cookies on Mar. 2 and 9 and by serving tea in reusable cups outside of the Witt Center on Thursdays at 3 p.m. For more information, email turecycles@trinity. edu, or visit recyclemaniacs.org.

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

EDITORIAL

Personality quizzing Media sources of all shapes and sizes — including this one — are encouraging their readers to be more “empathetic” and “openminded.” They’re both nice sentiments, generally born out of an honest desire for a kinder, more gracious world, but how can we truly seek to embody these qualities? We’ve devised several questions to assist in the nationwide search for political shalom.

One of the most interesting ways to better understand a person is by hearing their answer to this question: Who was your favorite character in “The Lion King?” Clearly, how they respond will provide splendiferous insight into who they are as a human being, why they do what they do and other necessary philosophical queries that, if we simply took the time to ask and subsequently listen, would greatly enhance the connections we have with one another, thusly augmenting the holistic quality of our society with ferocious fervor.

Whether they say Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Timon, Pumbaa, Scar, Zazu or one of the hyenas, you’ll be able to extract several key points of reference you can utilize (in an empathetic manner) when it comes time to ask more serious questions that you may disagree on, such as “what was your reasoning for voting for Donald Trump,” “what do you make of his bizarre relationship with Vladimir Putin,” or “what does the fox say?”

This may seem like a comparatively basic question. There are plenty of other questions that are simple yet elegant, mundane yet insightful etc. Maybe, rather than have them choose from a limited spectrum of fictional

characters, you want to discover what animal said person believes is the best manifestation of their personality. (Note: If we were you, this comparison should be restricted to personality.

Although it may seem impossible, we have decided, scientifically, that you are able to totally remove considerations of aesthetics in deciding what animal best serves as a “manifestation” of your personality.) (Additional Note: Do not confuse this thoughtful query with its more banal cousin “If you could be one animal, what would you be?” We must do better.)

Two questions may prove to be insufficient.

If we are to see the world from our political enemies’ point of view, or the point of view of a small child raised in a fundamentally different society in a region ravaged by war, we need to be able to ask contemplative, personal questions.

For example, you can ask him or her “How would you describe the color ‘blue?’”

Admittedly, this is a tricky one. Such a query dives into the somewhat suffocating limitations of language, and how your dialogue partner handles it may offer you unforeseen knowledge as to their motivations, and what they ultimately hold dear. Guard yourself — they may try to avoid the question altogether by answering an imagined question that you didn’t ask. It is quite possible that by the time they’ve finished providing you with this answer to the imagined question, you may be too tired to tell them that they didn’t answer your question — or maybe you’ll have forgotten the details of your original question. No matter. You see, some of the world needs to be asked questions by others of the world. It is the most important.

Opinion Absurd “All-Stars” I love sports. I always watch sports. I’ll watch almost anything with a ball in it, and many other things besides.

But sometimes I have to draw the line. Some things in sports are CALLUM SQUIRES so mind-numbingly OPINION COLUMNIST pointless that they leave me scratching my head asking, “How is this a thing? Why are people playing money to see this?!” Which leads me to this past weekend’s big event. The NBA All-Star Weekend is the most pointless thing in sports. The only thing that comes close to rivalling it is the NFL Pro Bowl.

At least in the MLB All-Star game we have the home advantage during playoffs on the line. In this event though? Nothing. It’s a sham.

Outside of the United States, “All-Star” games are not really a thing. And for good reason! Who would want to watch/play in a game that has absolutely no meaning? In soccer, “team of the year” awards, the basic equivalent of being named an All-Star, are commonplace. Individually honouring the best players in a league from that past season is a nice touch, no doubt. But they’re not forced to play with each other! That would be ridiculous. Wouldn’t it?

Well, apparently not. The NBA loves this. I would love this if it were actually a competitive game between the world’s best basketball players.

Sunday night’s showpiece event was a glorified dunk contest — and we’ll get to that later — with zero competitive edge. I felt like I wasted three hours of my life watching it. My teammate correctly pointed out that the Team USA basketball scrimmages were basically like the All-Star game, yet they were actually competing.

So why couldn’t we have that last sunday night?!

Yes, Anthony Davis breaking the All-Star game points record was nice, but it was in no way

challenging. Nobody defended him. He played point guard for the first five minutes of the game!

It infuriated me.

The only thing that made me more angry was that my housemates insisted on changing the channel to the CrossFit games on ESPN2 at every ad break … Why anyone would put themselves through the personal torture of competitive crossfit is beyond me, and I feel physically uncomfortable watching them do so on TV! But anyway, the game was a joke.

The biggest story seemed to be whether Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant would coexist for the West. They did. ‘Nuff said.

And the game is not the only part of NBA AllStar weekend. The Skills Contest was actually quite a fun relay-race style event, but even the usually exciting Dunk Contest was a bit of a bore this year. An actual Dunk Contest between the league’s most athletic dunkers would be amazing. Like it used to be! But now all the big names remove themselves from it and as such it’s just not as exciting as it could be. The best part of the whole weekend was the league’s $500,000 donation to Craig Sager’s SagerStrong Foundation. But you don’t need a weekend in New Orleans to do that.

For me, if you’re desperate to have an All-Star game or weekend with lots of festivities, make it worthwhile. Make it mean something. Put the playoff homecourt advantage on the line. Get the league’s actual best players to compete in the dunk contest. Otherwise, it’s just a showcase of nothing. There’s no passion, drive or competitive edge in it. I’ll always watch sports, but it has to mean something. There needs to be something emotional to invest in. It needs to be something that matters. And the current NBA All-Star weekend does not.

Callum Squires is a senior German studies major with a minor in sports management.

Exploring life through the sincerity of letters The best card I received was for Christmas a few months ago. I have a box of cards beneath my bed partly because I’m sentimental and like to write them (and thus receive some in return) JOY LAZARUS and partly because I’m OPINION COLUMNIST a minor hoarder. None of the cards compare to the one I got from a friend before departing home, though. It accompanied a present and it read, simply: “Dear Joy,” And that was it. No verbiage followed suit to fill up the empty white space besides those two words. The shock of the incomplete thought took over me in a burst of authentic laughter. My friend had been writing cards for others as she went and she had forgotten to finish mine. She was embarrassed, but I loved it regardless, and proceeded to make all other friends and family members read what I deemed “the best card I had ever received.”

The heartfelt portrayal of friendship which typically is documented in a card was not present in mine. Instead, I valued the seemingly empty piece of cardstock because of the humor in its nothingness. Thus, following this minor joy, I found myself reading collection of letters. First, “Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam”

and then “A Life in Letters: F. Scott Fitzgerald.”

The contents of these books vary widely from each other, but the art of a well-written letter is present in both. The letters are beautiful representations of a current moment in time. They’re pristine snapshots of a life, preserved through writing that is uncensored by outside influence because of the intimate nature of a single audience. By reading this stream of consciousness I can really understand a writer’s thought process, rationale and value system. Reading well-crafted, honest letters inspires me to write my own. I am not talking about open letters, ones posted online that are compilations of your opinions, addressed to everyone, sincerely signed by you. No, the letters I speak of are ones that are intimate and sent away.

Modern forms of communication, such as texting and emailing are ever-present. I currently have over 1,000 emails in my inbox. They’ve been hanging out there for a while. I check my inbox multiple times a day, constantly responding and deleting and forwarding and drafting. But imagine that the email was actual mail, as in mail without an “e” attached to it. The amount of paper would be absurd and completely unnecessary.

We would all be inundated with paper, and the recycling movement would be beside itself.

This image allows me to perceive just how much communication clouds my accounts. I feel like I’m constantly communicating with someone.

It’s gotten to the point where I can’t remember if I replied to the email or I only opened it and

looked at it briefly, in all its banality. The same is true of texts. I find myself, minutes later, going back to respond to a text message that I thought I had forgotten about, only to discover I had already responded and there’s a reply waiting for me. It’s like my brain quick fires responses and I

They’re pristine snapshots of a life, preserved through writing that is uncensored by outside influence because of the intimate nature of a can’t process it all at once. The texts are mildly funny or mildly plain, depending how much time I have. Emojis are indicators of feelings that I don’t have to express with words, so I can tap a

little heart and send it on its way without doing anything emotionally or mentally taxing.

I enjoy communication without efficiency that doesn’t always get straight to the point and has frills. Some of the letters I read were flowery and overdone, but they said something and they had real substance in them. This form of communication meant long, drawn-out conversations, one-sided, in need of another response. With F. Scott Fitzgerald’s letters, the schedules wouldn’t sync and sometimes correspondences would go out of order, and lines would cross and it would be quite a muddy mess to sort everything out. But that’s because they were communicating in a time when instant gratification wasn’t sought after, and responses to a question weren’t reduced to single letters, such as a “k” or a “y.”

But what are we really saying in these short exchanges, these professional reminders? Not much. I miss letter writing because it seems like it was once therapeutic and very, very expressive.

People had time and were willing to write what they wanted to be read, and the substance of a message depended on a pure desire to authentically connect with someone, no matter what the message entailed.

Joy Lazarus is a senior art and communication double major.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 •

OPINION

Parasitic bad science vs. peer review

BY MEGAN PLENGE

FACULTY CONTRIBUTOR A friend of mine recently did a “colon cleanse.” She took some homeopathic pills she’d purchased for some amount of money — money that I would have considered wasted on pseudoscientific nonsense until she told me it caused her to “pass” (to put it delicately) an intestinal parasite called a rope worm. I was impressed that the treatment worked, but I had never heard of a rope worm before and of course Googled it. (Note that if you do this you will see lots of images of people’s feces, always with the question, “Are these rope worms?”)

I thought it was strange that my Google search results did not include the websites that typically come up when Googling scary medical things: WebMD, Mayo Clinic, government medical websites like Medline or the CDC. Wikipedia did not even have a page for rope worms. Yet there were plenty of results.

I followed a link to a website called “ScienceBased Medicine,” assuming that this would be a valid website to verify the existence of these frightening parasites. The first sentence of this 2014 article informed me that there was indeed a scientific basis for believing in rope worms, despite their absence on typical medical websites. The article linked to a

research-based article by authors with Ph.D.’s who had studied rope worms. Not satisfied by the existence of an article alone, I dug a bit deeper. I looked up the journal the article was published in, only to find that it was not a peer-reviewed publication of research, but rather an online archive that allowed people to publish research that had not gone through peer review (more on peer review later). Then I Googled the authors and found that the two primary authors of the paper were not physicians, clinical researchers or even biologists. The first was a mechanical engineer (who has several patents associated with cleansing methods designed to get rid of said parasites), and the other worked in industrial safety. The remaining authors, as far as I could tell, were untraceable online.

In the end, I decided my friend’s colon cleanse was a waste of money and probably did not cause her to pass any intestinal parasites.

The only evidence demonstrating the existence of these parasites at all was based on flawed research that was unverified within the scientific community and was completed by scientists who did not study biology or medicine and who stood to benefit financially from the existence of the parasites they claim to have discovered. Yet, there are an amazing number of websites that claim rope worms are real, based on this “study.” And the more websites there are that spread this misinformation, the

more people will believe it to be based in fact.

The internet can make it hard to tell if the information you’re getting is legitimate.

It seems as though finding the information from numerous, different sources should be evidence that the information is valid, but this is not always the case. I think this helps fuel the anti-science movements that are now widespread — people feel they have enough information to make their own decisions on scientific issues without having to blindly rely on scientific experts. People who doubt scientific consensus have a broad platform from which to champion their own point of view, unchecked by things like empirical evidence and statistical analyses.

The peer-review process is designed to prevent “bad science” from being published, and ensures that the methods, data analyses and interpretations of data are correct, or at least correctly executed and reasonable, as judged by other experts in the field. Typically, research studies must pass through peer review prior to widespread dissemination and publication within peer-reviewed journals.

In today’s world of quick information propagation via the internet and social media, some research results are making it to the public before undergoing peer review, and some study authors opt to bypass peer review altogether. While it’s tempting to think anyone who has a Ph.D. is an expert in

anything they want to write about, the rope worm article discussed here demonstrates that this may not the case. While the peerreview system is imperfect, I would feel more comfortable with the idea that this string of mucus containing human DNA is in fact a previously undiscovered and pervasive parasite if a clinical researcher, knowledgeable in this field, agreed with this assessment.

The presidential election brought the issue of “fake news” to light. This is an issue that has been plaguing science and is especially rampant in areas that are most relevant to the lives of nonscientists, like medicine and environmental issues such as climate change.

I urge you to be vigilant in your digestion of science (and non-science) news, and to find the original source of the data. Is the author an expert in the field? If not, where did he/ she get their information? How much of the data was interpreted by the expert, and how much by the author? Is there a link to the actual research article? Was it published in a peer-reviewed journal? In the end, you may find that all 700,000 hits from your Google search of “rope worms” points to the same bogus article.

Megan Plenge is an assistant professor of geosciences.

Small schools can have big problems

When choosing colleges, high school seniors often rule out schools that are too big, like Texas State University, which has 33,480 students enrolled.

Class sizes at schools like that are often large too, MIA GARZA with hundreds in one OPINION COLUMNIST classroom. This often takes away from an individualized education. It makes it more difficult for students to keep up unless they’re already selfdisciplined. It can also be socially intimidating. At large schools it’s easy to get lost in the crowd and can make it difficult to find your niche.

The appeal of a small school like Trinity, with a student population of just 2,506, is its socially and academically beneficial environment. Smaller class sizes allow students to get to know their professors

and receive more attention when needed. Socially, familiar faces are everywhere with such a small amount of people.

But after almost four years at this school, I believe that Trinity is too small. I like to call Trinity my problematic fav, a buddy who I love anyway despite its many flaws. When I got back from being abroad last semester, after the thrill of returning to the things I missed wore off, I went back to listing in my head reasons why I don’t like Trinity.

Usually what happens is something small frustrates me — not having enough people to attend an event on campus, not having a club that caters to something I’m interested in, students’ lack of interest in something — that makes me feel angry towards this institution. I think to myself, “At other schools, this would never happen,” or, “This would not be a problem at another school.” I get mad and sad and list off the reasons Trinity sucks and then I remember that it’s

provided me with friends, fun times and a whole lot of knowledge, then I remind myself that the grass is always greener on the other side, and that my path is meant to be this way. Blah, blah, blah, I move on with my day. It’s a whole lot like the song “7 Things I Hate About You” by Miley Cyrus, but substitute her middle school fling for Trinity.

As a senior, my time for making friends has almost expired. I say almost because I’ve made some really good friends just last semester. I often find myself running out of people to pester to do things. For example, I need actors to be in my films. There are few that are willing, simply because there are few that exist to begin with. I imagine that at a larger school, there would be a pool of skilled actors begging to be in my films.

But instead, I have to end up reusing the same people and catering to their busy schedules. I watch my friends at larger schools throw huge birthday parties or go to events in large groups.

I try my best to plan and then rally together the

friends I have to do anything fun but it ends up being a group of four, at most. All the clubs and organizations I’m passionate about are small, which makes it difficult to do anything big or make anything big happen. Seeing the same faces can be nice, but when you run out of new faces to see, and the only ones you end up seeing are the ones you’re trying to avoid, more people sounds nice.

Perhaps if there were just one or two thousand more people, my problems would disappear. Or maybe they wouldn’t. There’s no way of knowing because there’s no changing the experience I’ve had here. And I know that I’m privileged to complain about a problem like this one. My hope is that Trinity keeps improving (and growing in size!) for future students.

Mia Garza is a senior communication and business double major with a minor in creative writing.

OPINION • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Questioning D’Souza’s “qualities”

Last semester, I wrote an article recommending “Trailer Park Boys,” a show centered on the stupidity of the dope-dealing, heavydrinking, uneducated GABRIEL LEVINE OPINION COLUMNIST inhabitants of a Canadian trailer park.

Among the many traits that make “Trailer Park Boys” great is that it operates under no delusions about how stupid a show it is, even if its stupidity is implemented in a smart way. It never imagines itself to be smarter or more important than it is. The main character, Ricky, is well aware of how stupid and uninformed he is and readily acknowledges it. Endearingly, he’s eternally trying to pass his grade 10 (sophomore year of high school), despite being at least 30, to impress his daughter.

Unfortunately these valuable lessons about acknowledging stupidity and seeking growth through learning seem to have been lost on the organizing committee of Trinity’s chapter of the Young America Foundation (YAF), a national conservative youth organization. YAF recently announced that they will be bringing Dinesh D’Souza to campus on Mar. 7. Indeed, due to demand, they have secured Laurie Auditorium, as they did when they brought Milo Yiannopoulos to campus. I would say that congratulations are in order for any student group that is able to arouse enough interest in a speaker to warrant the use of Laurie Auditorium. That is, I would say that if I thought the speaker drawing the interest was worth anyone’s time.

Like Yiannopoulos, D’Souza is not worthy of attention. A confessed felon, D’Souza pleaded guilty

in 2012 to a felony count for using straw donors to make $20,000 in illegal campaign donations to a Republican candidate for the senate. He has termed his latest lecture tour “D’Souza UNCHAINED.” The lack of shame would be appalling if it weren’t such a transparent money-grab.

D’Souza is a filmmaker. His 2012 thrillerdocumentary, “2016: Obama’s America,” managed a 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, worse than Suicide Squad. It seems the felony took its toll on D’Souza’s filmmaking abilities though. His 2016 masterpiece, “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party,” has an eye-popping four percent, worse than “Fifty Shades Darker.” D’Souza can’t make a film better than a terrible adaptation of the terrible sequel to a terrible kink novel.

Lest anyone doubt his versatility, D’Souza is also, ostensibly, a writer. In a 2010 Forbes article, D’Souza summed up the extensive legacy of Barack Obama’s father: “This philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anticolonial ambitions, is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son.”

Taking the words right out of my liberal mouth, The American Conservative described the article thus: “Dinesh D’Souza has authored what may possibly be the most ridiculous piece of Obama analysis yet written.”

If anything, D’Souza’s ridiculousness has only grown since. Before speaking at Columbia University earlier this week, he tweeted, “Snowflakes beware! I’m on my way to Columbia where we’re going to talk Trump, conservatism and campus activism.” At the talk there were no disruptive snowflakes, just students asking probing questions.

How disappointing.

It really is pathetically sad to watch D’Souza,

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a 55-year-old man, degrade himself in his quest for relevance by aping the language of Milo Yiannopoulos. It is all the more ironic and revealing that Yiannopoulos was only dropped by movement conservatives and, of all places, Breitbart News, after his past comments defending pedophilia emerged in recent days. His promotion of misogyny, racism and anti-Semitism were apparently not enough. Neither, it seems, was his complete lack of any real intellectual rigor. Did Trinity’s conservatives think that having a man declare “feminism is cancer” in Laurie without any further clarification or academic argument was a means of convincing the liberals on campus of the merits of conservatism?

D’Souza may actually be a step up in that regard.

At one of his recent talks, D’Souza declared, “The progressive Left has been, from its origin, the party of racism, bigotry, segregation, slavery, lynching and the KKK.” Such a statement can only be defended by the particularly amusing blend of alternative facts and logical somersaults that are a hallmark of D’Souza’s films, writings and public lectures. I call this a step up from Milo because such a nonsensical argument may stir real conservatives to put forward a compelling case simply out of disgust at how hacks like D’Souza have co-opted their intellectual tradition for the purposes of petty fame and profit.

YAF could have invited intelligent conservatives like David French or Ben Shapiro who intelligently articulate the merits of conservatism. Instead, they opted for the stupid, gaudy, intellectually bankrupt antagonism of D’Souza. After the lecture I’ll probably watch some “Trailer Park Boys” for a refreshing dose of morality, humility and intellectual honesty.

Gabriel Levine is a junior chemistry major.

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Pulse

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT “More students should take advantage of the guest lectures offered at Trinity. To listen to an expert discuss their field, such as Susan Orlean and her writing, is simply a wonderful opportunity.”

Corinne Pache, professor of classical studies

Optimistic Einstein’s employee has positive impact on Trinity community

Michelle Alexander’s zeal has continued to impress her customers and coworkers

BY CLAIRE NAKAYAMA

PULSE REPORTER

If you have ever been to Einstein’s Bagels on campus before to get your daily coffee or bagel, then you probably already know about the lovable lady behind the counter.

Many students on campus admire Michelle Alexander for the incredible amount of positivity she brings to work every single day. Although Michelle has only been working at Trinity since August of this year, she quickly grew to love the campus.

“This is the second campus that I’ve worked at for Aramark, and I really enjoy it. The students are wonderful and the scenery is just gorgeous,”Alexander said.

Alexander has been living in San Antonio for six years, though she is originally from Louisiana, where she worked as a supervisor for the Audubon Park in New Orleans.

Since moving, Michelle has grown to not only love Trinity, but the entire city of San Antonio.

“My family just loves the city.

Our favorite thing to do is go to the parks, and we love to go hiking as well. I love that San Antonio is such a family-friendly city. I have 3 children - a 14 year old, a 13 year old, and an 8 year old. My 8 year old son is autistic, and the city has so many resources for disabilities,

which is just really comforting to me,” Alexander said.

Many students at Trinity have shared many conversations with Alexander, who brightens up their day with positive comments and remarkable service as she assists them at the Einstein’s counter.

“Getting my coffee from Michelle is always one of the best parts of my day. She’s one of the nicest people and she always has a big smile on her face,” said Hunter Sosby, a sophomore political science major.

“There have been a few times where I’ve had to wait a little while to get my drink, and when that happens, she’s always upgraded the size of my order, no questions asked.”

One of Michelle’s coworkers, Aracely Rodriquez, thinks that Michelle has been a huge joy to work with every day.

“I’ve been working with Michelle since August, and it’s been an amazing experience,” Rodriguez said. “I like her attitude and personality, and she’s always willing to help out where we need it. I never have to ask her to do anything, she automatically jumps to it.”

Rodriguez also admired Alexander’s ability to remain productive and positive while working.

“Whenever there’s a rush and she is the cashier, she always turns around and sees where we need help and jumps right in. She’s already on top of every single thing, no matter how frustrating the job can get. And on top of that, she always has a smile on her face,” Rodriguez said.

Students have also been observant of and impressed by Alexander’s serving skills.

“Michelle is extremely thoughtful, because she seems to remember everyone and their personal orders.

She also always goes the extra mile to make sure that we’re happy. She said that she likes to give us the best

service possible, and she does just that,” said Sosby.

When it comes to remaining positive, Alexander has some advice.

“I think you always want to treat someone the way that you

limits on what he could do, with no pads on, and then took one spill towards the end that was a little bit harder,” Lewis said.

We reached out to Minto for a comment, but he declined an interview. However, other students were present when Minto fell and have since discussed the consequences of taking a physical education class.

“I guess some classes have inherent danger to them. I think that in a class where progress comes from physically going outside of your comfort zone, accidents like these are bound to happen. Prevention measures can obviously be taken, but it would be at the cost of freedom to progress in the best way for the individual,” said Alexander Hansen, a junior computer science and Chinese double major.

Besides injury in the classroom, so to speak, members of the Trinity community should beware of situations where a trip or slip can lead to them hurting themselves or others. Osvaldo “Ozzie” Crespo III,

Trinity’s director of Environmental Health and Safety, sees to it that Trinity students, staff and faculty are as safe as possible on campus. In his role, Crespo has observed that the majority of injuries on campus are in fact related to falling.

“Based on the information provided to us on our Supervisor Report of Injury Form, the majority of the injuries that occur on campus are from slips, trips and falls.

The slips can be the result of wet floors when it is raining or when something is spilled, or even a layer of dust on a floor. Trips can be the result of uneven walkways, power cords or clutter that can result in someone falling,” said Crespo Crespo adds that in whatever situation you may find yourself in, it is always a good idea to be looking out for the safety of others.

“What it comes down to is ‘speaking up’ For example, if you have to hesitate for a second and say, “Hmm, someone could get hurt from that,” then there is a chance it could happen,” Crespo said.

Crespo has also observed that the habit of walking across campus while using a phone can cause harm.

“Also, keep your head up when walking. Many people become hyper-focused on that tweet, snap or text that they are oblivious to their surroundings. I have witnessed it first-hand throughout campus, not only when I have been walking, but also in the parking garage,” Crespo said.

As for safety tips on the roller rink, Lewis has some up his sleeve.

“You can trip and fall doing anything, but most people are more prone to do it when they’re on wheels than otherwise. Generally when you fall forward, you bruise your knees or something like that, but there’s generally no serious injury if you fall that way. Then another thing is be willing to fall. What really gets people into problems is that they try not to fall too hard. They pass the point where they’re going to fall, there’s nothing they can do to save themselves, but they’re still trying,” Lewis said.

MICHELLE ALEXANDER takes a customer’s order with a smile on her face during a busy afternoon at Einstein’s.

Photo by CLAUDIA GARCIA.

would want to be treated too. Poor customer service can definitely ruin a person’s day, so I always try to be upbeat and positive, and I’ve seen that start to rub off on a lot of people,”Alexander said.

Skating injuries prompt safety advocacy Faculty members share advice on maintaining well-being following reports of incidents in physical education class

BY JULIA WEIS

PULSE REPORTER Whether walking around campus or participating in a class, Trinity students should always be wary of potential dangers on our slippery campus. Last week, several students sustained injuries in the roller skating class taught by Mark Lewis, professor of computer science, including Cheyne Minto, a sophomore who broke a bone as a result of a fall.

“I’ve been teaching the skating class since 2007 and for the most part, on average, there’s less than one broken bone in the class per year. They’re infrequent, but obviously they can happen. Cheyne was pushing the

Lewis has noticed that some rollerskaters may attempt to purposely harm others, but the students who enroll in his course have been careful to avoid this.

“Other things that could cause problems would be being taken out by other people. That doesn’t happen to us all that often in our class. During the time that we’re there, it’s pretty much just us and most people in the class don’t intentionally try to take out other people, or accidentally for that matter. A big part of that is staying in control, which they generally do a good job of, and if they didn’t, I would have to go tell them ‘You’re out of control.’”

Although there is always a concern for safety at Trinity, it may be a relief for some to hear that students are young enough to be fairly resistant to getting hurt, and that their injuries heal successfully with time.

“College students generally bounce pretty well, but once people get into their 40’s and 50’s, they don’t bounce very well,” Lewis said.

PULSE • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Seniors pursue the chance to travel abroad during their final semester Students are excited to live in another country at the end of their college career

BY EMILY ELLIOTT

PULSE EDITOR

After browsing through the photos of Trinity students living in exotic locations, some may feel the itch to study abroad suddenly overwhelm them. While some may think that it’s too late to pursue study abroad after a certain time, others disagree, and have planned trips abroad during their last semester at Trinity.

“I thought I would study abroad junior year like most people do, but then I couldn’t make it work. After that, I thought that I may not study abroad after all. I changed my mind several times, and I didn’t really solidify my plans until the end of junior year,” said Rachel Tchen, a senior neuroscience major.

After several semesters of planning, Tchen was able to study in Italy during her senior spring semester.

“I’ve wanted to study abroad since my freshman year; when else am I guaranteed to live for four months abroad? I’m also unsure about what I want to do in the future, so this seemed like a great chance to study a new subject and gain exposure to new ideas. I picked Perugia, Italy, because of the Food and Sustainability Studies program. Food and the environment interested me from a young age, but I never chose to study either formally, but this program definitely seemed like the perfect chance to. I mean, why not study food in Italy?” Tchen said.

RACHEL TCHEN poses in front of a field in Perugia, Italy where she has completed some of her schoolwork. photo provided by RACHEL TCHEN

Emily Lee, a senior music and Chinese double major, always knew the best time to study abroad was during her final semester.

“It was quite spontaneous because I suddenly wanted to study abroad the second semester of my junior year. By then, I only had two choices, study abroad either fall or spring my senior year. I had music classes to take in the fall at Trinity so I was only left with the spring, but I think it was the best choice because it would be hard to return to real school after a semester abroad,” Lee said.

Violin donation is a high note for employee A fundraiser reunited Taco Taco worker Tommy Glenn with the lost instrument

BY JULIA WEIS PULSE REPORTER After 25 years of not being able to play the violin, Tommy Glenn will be reunited with his instrument. Trinity students have raised over $600 for the Taco Taco worker in order to give him the gift of music that was stolen from him many years ago. Seniors Charlie Stein and Zach Moring came up with the idea after talking to Glenn one night about music.

“He’s always so chipper and enthusiastic, so pretty much we just thought we should do something nice for him because he’s a really enthusiastic person that treats everyone well. It felt like a good thing to do,” Stein said.

Many students across campus admire Glenn’s outgoing personality.

“Every time I eat at Taco Taco, he’s just always smiling and being friendly to customers. His attitude just brightens my day. It’s so sweet to hear that he’s made an impact on so many people,” said Kelsey Osborn, a sophomore psychology major.

After Stein and Moring decided they wanted to help restore music in Glenn’s life, they reached out to the Trinity community on the “Overheard at Trinity” Facebook page.

“I asked about the temperature of the thing and there was an overwhelmingly positive

response that I didn’t expect. It was very heartwarming that so many people were enthusiastic to contribute,” Stein said.

Stein and Moring put the fundraiser together in a matter of days after receiving a lot of attention on the Facebook thread. Within a week, they exceeded their goal of $300, and soon were able to double it. Instead of using this money to purchase a new violin, the organizers were able to work out a trade.

Chrissy Nielsen volunteered to supply the violin for Glenn, as her mother is an orchestra director. They put together a gift basket with various music accessories, including a new bow, rosin, a shoulder rest, a polishing towel, metronome, sheet music and a black stand so that Glenn can jump right into playing again.

Through the fundraiser, Nielsen felt that she got a glimpse of how the Trinity community can come together for important issues.

“I already knew that Tommy is a great guy, and I figured other people knew that as well, but the fact that we raised as much money as we did in such little time really proves how close of a community Trinity is. The fact that so many students and friends immediately banded together to help someone most people may take for granted blew me away, and it makes me happy knowing there are still people who want to help others around them, including Tommy,” Nielsen said.

The leftover money will go to a charity of Glenn’s choice. The students plan to give the gift to Glenn sometime this week. They also would like to thank all members of the Trinity community for their support and contributions to make someone’s day a bit brighter.

Lee will soon be departing for her semester in Taiwan, and is already excited for the new experiences she’ll be exposed to.

“I want to do touristy stuff and live like a local. I want to eat everything cause Taiwan has the most delicious and diverse food, go everywhere in and near Taiwan and experience the night life here because Taiwan doesn’t sleep,” Lee said.

The impact and involvement of seniors studying abroad during their last semester will be missed by their friends and peers.

9

“I’m sad I don’t get to see Rachel, but I’m super happy she’s taken the opportunity because it’s not one you get every day”, said Julia Torres, a senior chemistry major.

Lee will also miss the chance to be with friends during her senior spring semester.

“While I’m sad I won’t be able to walk the stage with my classmates, I think the opportunity to study abroad is worth it.

Besides, I already lived my college life to the fullest. I made incredible friends who are irreplaceable and had friends that I wanted to get closer to. Dance was a huge part of my college life, and seeing my friends put on shows makes me proud yet sad I can’t be a part of them,” Lee said.

Despite missing out on a few Trinity experiences, Tchen thinks studying abroad is worth pursuing, and studying topics outside your major makes a trip even more interesting.

“I’d say save your elective credits for studying abroad your last semester. You don’t want to be stressed abroad or during your last semester anyways. Also, just go for it; it may seem abnormal, but it’s a great opportunity. It feels strange to be away from those you’re closest to at a time right before you’re all supposed to part, but I think in the end, it will be worth it.

To explore something new in a new country is an irreplaceable experience,” Tchen said.

Lee also believes that experiencing a new country should be a priority of any student.

“Your life experiences shouldn’t be limited to one place. College is the time to step outside and broaden your perspective. As you meet different people and learn about their lifestyles, you’ll grow a lot and learn more about yourself. You might even fall in love with the country and not want to come back!

Anyways, traveling for such a long time after you graduate is hard, so do it now,” Lee said.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 •

PULSE

Professor of religion promotes inclusion through activism in and out of classroom Simran Jeet Singh has garnered local and national attention for his advocacy

BY CLAIRE NAKAYAMA

PULSE REPORTER

In the context of today’s current political climate, it is important for Trinity students to have role models to look up to in order to be globally aware of and involved in what’s going on around them. Among many of these role models, Simran Jeet Singh, an assistant professor of religion, has stood out as both a teacher and activist.

Singh attended Trinity University for his undergraduate studies and loved the amount of involvement from students on campus.

“I always love how much people care about each other and the world around them. I always tell people that Trinity students are serious but they don’t take themselves too seriously, and I really like that about then,” Singh said.

Singh is the advisor for several clubs on campus, including Trinity Progressives, the Muslim Student Association and the Contemporary, where he aids the students in these organizations to think of ways to cultivate a better campus environment for everyone. Recently, one of these ideas involved Singh distributing index cards to local Muslim communities to stand in solidarity with them.

“There will be members from several different mosques that will be present and we’ll have Trinity students step forward and offer the cards and letters. We’ll also take flowers and take the time for people to talk to one another and give support,” Singh said.

SIMRAN JEET SINGH responds to a comment made during a Prejudice Panel in October 2015.

File photo.

Several of Dr. Singh’s students can attest to the fact that Dr. Singh is an entertaining and informative professor to have.

“Dr. Singh is super cool. He keeps the lectures fresh and throws frequent puns in.

He is a great role model, and the things he does for what he believes in is very inspiring.

I follow him on Facebook and Twitter and it’s always interesting to read the things he posts,” said Devina Kumar, a senior economics major currently enrolled in Singh’s special topics course on Sikhism.

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While Singh is a major activist on campus, he also does a lot of work outside the university.

“I’m doing a lot of writing, interviewing and trying to speak on issues related to xenophobia and discrimination. I work for a civil rights organization based in New York City, so I spend a lot of my time working on issues related to discrimination, hate violence, racial profiling and things like that,” Singh said.

“I also spend way too much time on social media, like Twitter and Facebook. I’m not cool enough to have Snapchat though.”

Kumar also noted that Dr. Singh helped his students also become involved as activists outside of campus.

“His classes have assignments that serve a greater cause. For example, in my Qur’an class, he gave us the opportunity to write a paper that would be published if it was good,” Kumar said.

Other staff members at Trinity, such as Stephen Nickle, the university’s chaplain for the past 17 years, have fond memories of Singh as a student.

“He once wanted to do a multi-faith prayer service and fundraiser, and we did something in the chapel connected with that. He was also a part of our first attempt at a religious life council. We have seven Christian fellowships, a Muslim Student Association and a Jewish Student Association, and we thought it was helpful to know what each group was doing and what we could do to strengthen those organizations. We were also able to use it as a springboard to learn more about each other’s beliefs,” Nickle said.

When asked what his motivation was for working so hard in various activist groups, Singh said, “I may not sleep as much, but at the end of the day it’s worth it for me if I can alleviate some of the real suffering that people are experiencing. That’s something that I’ve learned from people much wiser than me, and I’m just trying to continue the tradition.”

Looking at all of his work, Dr. Singh traced his activist career back to Trinity, which fostered his love of learning and getting involved. “Trinity was the place where I learned how to be an activist,” Singh said. “Every time I approached someone in the university as a student seeking to do something that was either educational or awareness-oriented, I always received unconditional support.”

AE &

Adele breaks Grammy in half, supports Beyonce’s album

Milo gets canned for admiring Plato too much

The British pop superstar decided the music award show didn’t know what it was talking about in snubbing the stellar “Lemonade.”

Popular right-wing Tweeter Milo Yiannopoulos “resigned” from Breitbart News this week due to comments excusing pedophilia.

Comedy and music Film screenings help frontrunners coming teach outside class soon to San Antonio COLLIN GILLESPIE GUEST WRITER

BY JACOB ROSSITTER A&E WRITER One of the many benefits that one enjoys by living in a city such as San Antonio is the opportunity to experience performances from a plethora of artists and acts. You might think that all of the good stuff goes to Austin, but you have another thing coming.

As the city continues to grow and attract young people from not only Texas, but the country at large, San Antonio is becoming more and more enticing for artists to visit and put on some great shows. The following is a brief rundown of a handful of upcoming shows to keep an eye out for in the San Antonio area.

Bert Kreischer is a comedian who will be performing at the Laugh out Loud Comedy club from February 23 to February 26.

The comedian recently blew up and started to gain a lot of clout after a clip from his stand up special “The Machine” went viral on Facebook. In the clip, a shirtless Bert Kreischer stands before a crowd and recounts the time, while studying abroad in Russia, he was briefly inducted into the mob and robbed a train all while heavily intoxicated.

The 43 year old comedian has certainly had an interesting career trajectory. Kreischer’s first claim to fame was when he was featured in a 1997 article published in Rolling Stone where he was named “the top partier” at Florida State University.

Since then, Kreischer has appeared in a number of television shows, podcasts, and radio interviews. Bert’s persona on stage is very much the same as his persona off-stage, a comic who is adept at keeping his audience totally engaged with incredibly high energy delivery. Seeing him perform live, especially

in the small intimate setting the Laugh Out Loud comedy club provides, is an experience you don’t want to miss, especially if you are interested in becoming a comedian through the medium of the internet.

Moving away from comedy, if you’re a fan of hip hop, TDE member Isaiah Rashad will be performing at Alamo City Music Hall on Saturday Feb 25th. In August of last year, Rashad dropped his debut album “The Sun’s Tirade” to wide commercial acclaim.

This album was fiercely anticipated by fans, who were eager to finally hear a fulllength album from Rashad. The Tennessee born rapper is often praised for his laid back delivery and the production value of his songs. If you’re interested in attending a concert for one of hip-hop’s rising stars, look no further.

As long as we’re discussing rap, if you’re willing to roll the dice and take a chance, I would suggest looking into getting tickets to see Ugly God perform at Paper Tiger on March 11th. Ugly God is currently one of hip hop’s most polarizing figures. Ugly God made his debut on Mar 16, 2016, when he released the song “Water”.

The track, along with the music video, went viral, with vastly different reactions. The video featured the rapper, Ugly God, perched on a boat spouting a series of outlandishly vulgar and arguably misogynistic lyrics.

However, there was a satirical air to the song that suggested that the listener not take what Ugly God was saying too seriously. The lyrics, beat, and flow were delivered in a very simplistic manner, yet quite compelling in a way. If you’re interested in seeing one of hip hop’s most controversial figures perform, I would highly recommend giving his show a chance (or three).

As someone who loves film, it’s exciting for me when I see a poster on campus advertising a movie screening or series here on campus.

Granted, that excitement is usually followed by disappointment when I notice that either I have seen the poster too late and the showing has already happened or that my schedule will prohibit me from attending the event, but that is beside the point.

If you’ve looked at any of the recent LeeRoy emails, you might have noticed just how many of these film screenings there have been on campus. Just last week, two organizations hosted events on campus (the Black Student Union with a showing of “13th” and the EAST Program with a short Taiwanese Film Festival) in addition to Dr. Benjamin Stevens’ weekly “Classical Receptions” film series and the return of Movies at Mabee with “Moana.” The appeals of movies as focuses for campus events are easy to see. Movies are easy to gain access to and most of them are entertaining. However, there are inherent values to film screenings that I feel aren’t being addressed, and those are the educational and communal values and mores we go to college to understand.

In addition to the accessibility of film and the fact that the majority of films are purposebuilt to entertain in a way that cannot be said about art forms such as paintings or photography, another reason film is so popular for group screenings is the fact, unlike with other narrative art forms like literature, that it can be consumed simultaneously by many people at once.

The fact that film is so easy to implement as the focus of a group event is enough to make it a popular choice by campus organizations for open events. This mass media aspect of movies makes them well suited to bringing together groups of people on campus.

Besides being a practical choice for a campus event, film is also an educational choice.

As mentioned earlier, the Black Student Union held a screening of “13th” last week, a documentary film about the United States’ prison system and its connections to slavery.

Film screenings such as these can serve a similar function to guest lectures since they teach students and faculty members about topics that they might not have known about previously, and in doing so, encourage discussion on campus.

However, film, as an art form, is not as limited in its ability to educate as a lecture.

As an art form film can also be culturally educational. This is where film screenings like those in Dr. Stevens’s film series really shine.

These film showings encourage the viewers to consider the film the same way they consider a work of literature. In addition to adding a new layer to films such as “Interstellar” and “Ex Machina,” this mindset for viewing a film also urges the audience to think more consciously about the ideas being presented in the film.

With the added context of why the film is shown, such as Dr. Stevens’s connections between the films and classic myths, or the EAST Program’s celebration of Taiwanese culture, or the BSU shining a spotlight on systematic oppression, these film screenings cease to be simple campus gatherings and take on a new role as educational experiences.

By pressing for critical thought and discussion concerning the films themselves or what the films are about, these events help to promote a more culturally literate student population and a more comprehensive dialogue about critical issues facing our country and world.

A student body that knows more about art and tradition from our own culture and from cultures around the world. By hosting film screenings campus organizations and faculty are helping to educate others and be catalysts for creative dialogues here at Trinity.

“Endzone” TigerTV show focuses on sports New idea on studentrun channel hopes to remedy dearth of athletic news coverage This past Wednesday, for the first time in 10 years, a brand new show broadcasted live on TigerTV. “Endzone” aims to become Trinity’s ALEJANDRO CARDONA source for university A&E WRITER athletics and local sports news. They hope to achieve this by featuring footage and commentary curated by TigerTV’s allstudent crew.

The show is the latest addition to the channel’s line-up, which includes three other student-produced programs. “Newswave” is TigerTV’s news option, “Studio 21” delivers music and entertainment news, and the “The Not-So-Late Show,” as the name suggests, functions as a variety show that airs in the late afternoon.

The shows exist in part as training for up-

and-coming media professionals, providing students with the opportunity to produce content that represents the diversity of TV broadcasting. The emphasis on producing quality content while training bright students led staffers like Benjamin Gomez to notice the glaring absence of sports as part of the TigerTV line-up.

“We had a little sports content on one of our shows, but nothing near the scale of what sports is in the media industry,” said Gomez, who saw alumni in sports journalism as proof of concept. “A lot of communication majors with sports management minors have gone on to have some sort of sports journalism role,” said Gomez, making a huge creative leap, “and Trinity really hadn’t fulfilled that need, until now.”

It has been four years since Gomez joined the TigerTV team, so he should know how the system works. But only in his current position as station manager did he finally see a way to provide students with the muchneeded opportunity to practice some level of sports journalism.

The show is made possible via a partnership with Tiger Network, the university’s livestreaming channel for athletics and special events. Providing large amounts of raw sports content, Tiger Network is instrumental to

the show’s mission of shining a spotlight on Trinity’s athletes and teams.

Although the station had not seen an addition to its lineup in at least ten years, the plans didn’t stay on paper for long.

After receiving departmental approval in December, TigerTV managers ventured far beyond their job descriptions to make the show a reality.

The initiative for “Endzone” was presented to the department of communication, where it was granted approval for a “pilot stage.” This means that the show is currently broadcasting for 15 minutes every other Wednesday, which is not as much airtime as the 28-minutes pre-existing shows receive once a week. Endzone’s producers hope that once the show establishes itself within TigerTV, its airtime will be increased, be it in length or frequency.

Selecting the show’s content was facilitated by the clarity of its mission. “We knew we wanted to focus mostly on local and Trinity sports, but we didn’t know specifically what we wanted to go into the segments,” said Rosie Van Vliet, who made sure to enlist herself as executive producer of “Endzone.”

This flexibility allowed the production team to build the show on the cast’s skills and interests. The show covers an overview

of the past week’s events in Tiger Athletics, highlight reels from the week’s games, live interviews recorded at the games, and a roundtable to discuss major headlines in national sports news.

Miranda Reinhardt is a producer and commentator tasked with selecting highlights from the ongoing basketball season.

As a former basketball player, she appreciates what the show will do for athletes. “It’s a show dedicated to our Trinity Tigers,” said Reinhardt, “it’s something that TigerTV has been missing, and a show that is very involved with what’s happening on campus.”

TigerTV adviser James Bynum is pleased with the project’s success. “I’m very impressed with the initiative of the students.

I was a little concerned that we wouldn’t have enough student workers for the show, but so far it’s been great.”

The show has flourished quickly, and aims to continue expanding. “We had tremendous success in our first show,” said Gomez, “our hope is to cement the show at TigerTV, and reach out to Trinity supporters and recent grads in the sports journalism sphere.”

You can catch Endzone every other Wednesday, at 5 p.m. on TigerTV and streaming live on the Tiger Network stream.

12

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 •

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Checking up on a Trinity celeb FEATURED SHOW

KRTUesday: Live Rooftop Broadcast Join KRTU on a rooftop on 6th Street in Austin on Tuesday, March 14th, during the South by Southwest festival (SXSW), for a special edition of KRTUesday - Indie Overnight’s live broadcast concert event series! KRTU Indie Overnight is accepting applications from San Antonio bands to perform at the live broadcast event.

For more info, visit krtuindie.org.

After his Whataburger vs.

In-N-Out rap went viral on Twitter, first-year Isaiah Specks’ life changed.

Specks rapped NABEEHA VIRANI about how A&E WRITER Whataburger was better than In-N-Out as part of the #SoGoneChallenge, a challenge to freestyle about anything off of the beat from Monica’s 2003 hit song “So Gone.”

His rap instantly went viral with over 7,000 retweets and 9,000 likes. Fortunately, Specks took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with me and talk about the upsides (and potential downsides) of being Twitter famous for a week.

Did you learn anything from being Twitter famous?

“I learned that anything could make you famous ... literally anything,” said Specks, a sophomore psychology and Spanish double major who likes Whataburger.

So there were no downsides?

“No, not really. It was just fun. There wasn’t

EVENTS

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NEW MUSIC

anything negative that came with it, it was just everybody recognizing me because they knew who I was. People tried to do raps back at me, the people who liked In-N-Out, but it wasn’t anything bad or negative that came with it. I mean my phone was vibrating a lot whenever it first went viral last semester, but it was all fun,” Specks said.

Do you see yourself rapping in the future? Is it something you want to do professionally?

“Not at all. It’s just fun, like I may just freestyle with my [basketball] team or something but it’s not [something] where I would go into the studio or anything like that. It’s just a hobby,” Specks said.

Do people still bring up your Whataburger vs. In-N-Out rap?

“Yeah, somebody actually brought it up like two or three days ago when I was at Austin College ... some fans were talking to me about it,” Specks said.

Oh, so people actually recognize you when you’re out in public?

“Yeah, when I went back home to Houston I was in a gas station and somebody was like, ‘Hey are you the one who made that Whataburger rap?’” Specks said.

Meet the Press “In-N-Out or Whataburger?”

Nick Smetzer: In-N-Out

Julia Poage: Whata

Julia Elmore: In-N-Out

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You mentioned in your last interview that you were going to do a rap for Trinity.

Did that ever happen and if so, how?

“Yeah, I think either the Trinity University Twitter or President Danny Anderson were like you should make one about Trinity and I was like okay I’ll do it and I was just joking at the time but then I actually ended up writing one to the same beat and I actually made a video for it,” Specks said.

What was it about?

“It was mostly facts like how many students we have and stuff like that,” Specks said.

Do you want to do more stuff like that for the university?

“I think it’d be cool to do stuff like that for the university. I love this school so if they want me to do more raps I’ll do it...maybe for some Tigerbucks or something,” Specks said jokingly.

Specks’ Trinity rap can be found on Trinity University’s Facebook and Twitter pages. He may think his gift is just a hobby but, who knows, in a few years, Specks might become the next face of the university.

Although, maybe Specks would rather be known for his Spanish or Psychology pursuits and achievements.

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Jeff Sullivan: In-N-Out

Mini-Art MICHAEL MILLER A&E WRITER

March 2nd will be opening the 8th annual “Mini” Students Art Exhibition in the Neidorff Art Gallery. Once a year, the art department opens the galleries doors to students interested in exhibiting their work.

This year, four proposals were chosen by the panel to be exhibited. The artists, Brittney Blaylock, Lucy Dibutades, Sasha Faust, and Danielle Trevino, have produced four separate bodies of work that have one common thread: history. The show titled Recollect takes a look at art history, family history, and technological history through an array of mediums.

Dibutades’s series “A Painting a Day” uses painting to look at the history of art with references to biblical and greek mythological stories. And Brittney’s work is multimedia with a collection of sculptures and ceramics in a hand built cabinet.

Junior Sasha Faust, a Human Communication and Interdisciplinary Arts double major, looked into her own history with her series With Our Hands. Her project started while doing Mellon research with art professor, Jessica Halonen, whose own research in Berlin revolved around the synthetic pigment, Prussian Blue. “I started breaking off and doing research for myself.” Sasha says,”I became more interested in the darker side of Prussian blue’s history.

Specifically, its connection to the chemicals used in the gas chambers in the holocaust.”

In her research, she came to learn of how her great grandmother had fled Poland with only a few belongings — one specifically important was a lace pillow. She uses cyanotypes, a photographic printing process using the synthetic blue pigment to capture delicate images representative of this history.

Recollect will run throughout March in the Dicke Art Building. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 1 to 5 P.M.

NBA History Made FEB. FEB

22 24

The trade deadline is an interesting time for professional basketball. Presidents and general managers are under a lot of pressure from fans to concoct a winning formula as soon as possible.

Therefore, rash deals are made, superstars traded for draft picks and tenured front office employees fired, all for the sake of satisfying the team’s fans. This past week, Sacramento Kings superstar center DeMarcus Counsins was traded for a mediocre package that several front office employees from around the league have expressed disgust with. Additionally, the Los Angeles Lakers hired Magic Johnson as their president. He’ll replace Mitch Kupchak, who was the head gm for 16 years.

Sports

Climbing rocks Students reach new heights in recently formed club, enjoy sport and community surrounding it

BY HALEY McFADDEN

SPORTS REPORTER

Though they just started about three weeks ago, Trinity’s newest club sport is climbing to success. The Trinity Rock Climbing club is a new club that aims to build a community of students who are passionate about rock climbing.

The group meets every week at a local gym called The District, which is about a five minute drive from campus.

The gym is primarily bouldering, which involves climbing short walls of about 15 feet without any ropes or harnesses.

There are other forms of climbing, such as speed or traditional, but based mostly on restraints of the gym, bouldering is king for the Trinity team.

While practicing every week in the same gym may sound boring, The District changes their routes every week, allowing each practice to be a new experience. For students worried about gear or not enjoying their time and wasting money, the group is working on a solution for that too.

“All of the gear can be rented there,” said junior Tripp Wright. “They have day passes if you want to just come try it out, and we are trying to create a once-or-so a month event

where you can come climb with the team and just try it out, so we could buy a package of passes and get those out and if you were interested you could come and just try a day. We want to make it where you can come and climb one time to see if it’s for you.”

As of now, the group is not attached to any competitive group, but as individuals they have gone to competitions.

Eventually the club would like to become associated the CCS, or Collegiate Climbing Series, where they would be able to compete against a bunch of other collegiate climbing clubs at both a regional and national level.

Despite still being a relatively small group, the students are passionate and excited about not only climbing, but the community around it. Many students try climbing for the first time and love the experience so much they decide to commit to coming back.

“I was biking by the gym and I saw it, pulled in and bought a day pass out of curiosity. I climbed for 15 minutes and then went up and asked the guy at the counter where the closest place I could buy shoes was,” said Will Skinner. “I went back to Trinity, borrowed my friend’s car, drove to REI, came back with my shoes and chalk bag, bought a membership and

climbed for hours.”

Some students had initial hesitations about their skills, or lack thereof. First-year Ty Tinker says students may be surprised at how quickly they pick it up.

“I was hooked immediately. If you like it you’ll know and you’ll pick it up super quick. It’s almost an instantaneous process. It’s also super easy to get involved, you show up, we’ll put you in our group chat and you can hang with us. It’s not hard or out of reach at all so just give it a shot,” Tinker said.

Current members of the club encourage others to get involved for both the sport and the community.

“It’s such a great community,” Wright said. “I’ve gone to gyms all over the US and no matter where you are every wants to hang out and everyone wants to be friends. Even at competitions no one is ever mean about climbing.”

For anyone interested in joining, the fastest way would be through the contact information on the team’s Instagram page: @trinityrockclimbing.

The team will also be hosting a table in Coates in the near future, and is expecting to be placing a poster in Mabee, so keep an eye out for opportunities to join this up-andcoming group.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 •

SPORTS

The man behind the counter: Randy Gibbons

BY ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER It is late in the evening in the library. The third floor echos with the quiet whispers of study groups and the chatter of keyboards, along with the steam rising off the hot drinks in Java City. It is in Java City, at the Eco Grounds cafe, where students can find Randy Gibbons serving them coffee and pre packaged Aramark snacks. Most students that pass through Java City have no idea that the man preparing their drinks has worked in many different places, in many different and interesting jobs, from a soldier in the United States Army to a basketball coach at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Gibbons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. It was when he was living in Tampa, Florida that he enlisted in the Army. He spent four years in the service, one of which was in Germany. It was his Advanced Individual Training at Ft. Hood that brought Gibbons to Texas.

In Texas, he spent his freshman year playing basketball at the University of Incarnate Word “They didn’t have scholarships so I was getting money from the VA because I had just got out of the service,” said Eco Grounds employee Randy Gibbons.

He started his collegiate coaching career at Laredo Community College with the women’s volleyball program, moving on to become the assistant women’s basketball coach at Texas A&M International, where he took classes while coaching.

“I was there for three years,” Gibbons said, “That’s where I got my degree (in kinesiology) from.”

RANDY GIBBONS has become a beloved member of the Trinity community this year. photos by OZVALDO VELOZ

For six of the past seven years Gibbons served as a part time assistant women’s basketball coach, during which time he earned three conference championship rings, one which hung from his neck as we spoke.

“Mostly I was in charge of stats and I was in charge of the post players.” Gibbons said, “They are awesome. Great bunch of girls.”

In addition to coaching, Gibbons worked as a Starbucks barista at a nearby hospital, where his favorite drink was vanilla blonde.

“That’s where I met [location manager] Kathy [Fordham] and she came here and she said she had a position here and I came here.”

And so, in his year off from coaching, he came to Trinity, taking the night shift at Eco Grounds in the library.

He is not sure if he will coach again next year.

He says he would either like to open his own coffee shop or get back into coaching “I like them both, but if God opened up a job for me to open up a coffee business I would do it in a heartbeat,” Gibbons said, “I love this layout. I love all of it.”

Right now Gibbons is enjoying his time at Trinity and says the students are very respectful and kind.

“They’re very friendly here,” Gibbons said, “I get so many thank yous and pleases and you’re welcomes.”

Gibbons is pretty settled in San Antonio, where he gets to see his two daughters, ages 24 and 28, and their children on a regular basis. It is not just family that Gibbons likes about San Antonio, but the basketball culture as well.

“Even though I’m from Philadelphia my favorite NBA team is the San Antonio Spurs and the reason why I say it is because I’ve coached basketball. I’ve been around it for twenty years and they’re [the Spurs are] very fundamental,” Gibbons said, “That’s the key thing. There’s nothing like watching the Spurs.

Nothing.”

Gibbons loves his job at Trinity and loves the atmosphere of the small school and hopes he can in some small way be a positive influence on the lives of the students here.

“I would...encourage [everyone at Trinity] to continue to be successful and keep loving what they do cause what they do trickles down to someone else like with me,” Gibbons said, “I try to instill that on the students. When they come here I try to greet them, to make them feel welcomed, to help them so when they leave they leave with a smile and leave with a good product. If everyone thought like that I think we’d have a better world.”

Making change: student athlete committee leads philanthropy project Trinity participates in conference-wide competition

BY SHELBY DeVORE

SPORTS REPORTER

Trinity is known for its constant philanthropy and giving back to the community from students. Just like any other organization, Trinity athletics is no different. The Student Athletic Advisory Committee is a nation wide organization that helps give student athletes a voice on rules and regulations in the NCAA. It also allows students from different sports to come together and discuss issues and ideas they have for their athletic program.

Each team has one representative that meets biweekly to discuss certain events and share different successes.

Every year, each school in the SCAC competes in Change for the Better to raise money for a charity of the school’s choice. This year each athletic department collected change during one weekend of home basketball games in the months of January and February. Trinity collected loose change from fans at the men’s and women’s basketball game on January 27th and 28th. They selected the Cancer vs.

Coaches foundation, where the proceeds will go to cancer research.

“I really enjoyed helping raise money because it not only was an awesome way to support the basketball teams, but I was able to hangout with my teammates. It was really neat to see how willing people were to donate towards

the cause,” sophomore golfer Elizabeth McGillivray.

Besides helping a worthy cause, it was also a great way to encourage other student athletes to come and support the basketball teams. One of the biggest things SAAC focuses on is how everyone can support one another especially during the seasons. President Callum Squires and Vice President Liza Southwick are always sending encouraging messages to teams who are competing and coming up with ways to spend more time together as an athletic community.

“SAAC is a not opportunity for students from all sports to come together and work together on issues as well support each other and our conference. It was really special to be able to work with other athletes at the basketball games for change for the better. I think it’s a small fundraiser that can make a big difference in the long run,” senior tennis player Southwick said.

Some people donated pennies they find in their pocket and some even went out of their way and donated twenty dollar bills. The fans showed their support not only for the organization but also the support of Trinity sports as a whole. Beating the $115.43 amount they raised for the Special Olympics last year, Trinity raised a total of $277. continued on page 16

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SPORTS • FEBRUARY 24, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

On the left, JAMES CLARK sprints towards the action. On the right, CLARK runs to catch a pass.

photos by OZVALDO VELOZ

Men’s lacrosse team restoring tradition Young club returns for second year after hiatus, earning victories against bigger, competitive programs

BY HALEY McFADDEN

SPORTS REPORTER

Coming off of an extremely successful 2016 spring season, Trinity men’s lacrosse returned to action ready to tackle a new league. The guys went undefeated in the 2016 season and won the Gulf Coast Lacrosse Association championship, earning them a spot in a higher level league.

“After going undefeated last season and winning our league championship in the Gulf Coast Lacrosse Association, we were able to join the Lone Star Alliance, the top club league in the state featuring teams like UT, Texas A&M, Baylor, TCU, etc.,” said Ben Mulford, senior.

As with many teams that join a bigger, more competitive league, the Tigers are going in hopefully cautious. The team is training to be as competitive as possible, and setting big goals to hopefully win it all.

“We hope to be competitive. Entering a new league means there will be better competitors.

We obviously want to win but we want to make sure that we represent the school with respect

and pride,” said John Carr, junior.

“Our goal is to win the second division of the Lone Star Alliance, which would secure us a regional bid to the national club lacrosse tournament this May in Orange County, California.”

The lacrosse team has been on hiatus for several years. The team disbanded several years ago, but Mulford was inspired to bring the program back. The team has been back for about a year.

“My junior year (last year) I and a small group of other students began the process of reestablishing lacrosse as a club sport. We have had tremendous success in recruiting players, putting together a competitive roster and so far have not lost a contest since the lacrosse program restarted play,” Mulford said.

Mulford knew the new team had big shoes to fill.

Trinity’s lacrosse program is one of the oldest collegiate programs in the state,” Mulford said.

So far, they have been holding their own.

While the league only started games in January,

the men have been preparing and competing since last fall. In mid-November the team faced off against top-tier competition from Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Oklahoma at the Texas A&M Fall Classic. After a break, the team came back to start games in January, beginning the season with an 8-8 draw against Texas A&M Galveston.

The team’s first game this semester was in February. They were able to grab a 12-10 victory against St. Edward’s University. The team started slow, with St. Edward’s winning the first quarter with four goals to Trinity’s three. However, the boys rallied together and had a very strong second quarter, scoring six points total — twice as many as St. Edward’s.

The Tigers maintained their lead for the remainder of the game, scoring two points in the third quarter and one in the final.

The team recently faced off against the University of North Texas, recording their first loss of the season, 15-9. UNT, which is actually a LSA Division I school, started the game very strong, securing a 3-0 lead in the

first quarter, which proved to be the ultimate difference maker. The Tigers chipped away over the course of the rest of the game, scoring three points in the second, third and fourth quarters, but UNT scored five in the second quarter and then four in the final to seal their victory.

For much of the team, getting to play lacrosse at the collegiate level is about more than just winning games. Many of the men have longstanding attachments to the sport from when they were children, and others found lacrosse as a way to continue their love for athletics without playing on a varsity sport.

“I was always really competitive in high school. I used to play football and baseball,” said lacrosse player Gibson Hatch. “Coming to Trinity I decided to stop playing sports, but decided to play lacrosse after my good friend Ben Mulford told me I should come out and give it a try.”

Like Hatch, even those without experience are encouraged to try out for the team. For more information, contact Ben Mulford at bmulford@trinity.edu.

Equestrian team rides high in recent contest Club riding team successful in competition, enjoys team bonding during February trip to Houston

BY SHELBY DeVORE

SPORTS REPORTER

Trinity is home to 13 club teams, including the equestrian team. The sport is one of the oldest clubs at the university and continues to proudly represent the Tigers. On Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 11 and 12, the team competed in an Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) horse show at Rice University. Sophomore Erin McGee placed first in Intermediate Fences and sophomores Erica LaRochelle and Simone Garcia placed first and second respectively in the Walk-Trot Equitation.

“I love being a part of the team, it’s pretty cool because it’s the only time in my life that I will get to compete on a team in this sport that I love so much — unless I go to the Olympics or

something and those odds are pretty slim,” said junior Chelsea Runacres, the team’s captain.

“It’s nice being on a club team too, because we take it seriously and work to be our best, but if you have a tough week in school that’s okay because we all understand that academics always come first.”

The co-ed organization consists of 10 women, all of which either competed before coming to school or enjoyed horses and wanted to try something new. They practice throughout the week at their head coach Stephanie Cook’s stables in Bulverde, north of San Antonio.

They compete throughout the year at different universities all around Texas and Louisiana.

“My favorite part of the show is being with the team,” Garcia said. “We practice on separate days, so it’s the only time we’re together. I love

watching (the team) compete.”

IHSA events are two days and consist of different events for different levels of riders.

Each rider will compete for individual points along with team points. More than one rider from each school is allowed to compete in an event but only one can count towards the team total. That person must be chosen before the event starts. What makes the horse shows interesting and keeps the riders on their toes is that they will not know what horse they ride until the day of the event. Each rider will draw a name of a horse and the first time they get to ride it is when they are walking into the arena to get judged.The judges look at the overall style of the rider and how well they performed during each event. Each judge judges differently so the riders may never know what is to be expected.

“Horse riding is about trying to make it look like you’re just sitting in the saddle doing nothing, when in reality, you’re giving your horse a lot of little signals to get them to go straight or jump,” McGee said. “In practice we work on all these little things, so we can feel confident when we go to shows and have to ride a horse we’ve never ridden before.”

In order to compete in the second day, you must qualify for regionals. Throughout the season, each rider will cumulate points. Once a rider receives 26 points, they have qualified for regionals. The top two riders for each event at regionals will then move on to zones and the top two of zones will move on to nationals.

McGee and Runacres qualified for regionals and will be competing on the second day of their next show.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • FEBRUARY 24 2017 •

SPORTS

Learning to just roll with the punches Athletic

BY ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER It was the early 2010s in the small Walker County neighborhood of Timberwilde, a couple miles on the outskirts of Huntsville, Texas. Each day I sat in my room waiting for the day to end. Each day I waited for something to begin with no idea as to what that something was, but praying it would take me far away. I wanted something that came naturally, the way sports seemed to come to everyone but me. Not something that came easily or without practice, but something that would make time slow down. In the moment of intensity I would find clarity and a feeling of purpose.

I wanted to get of the house and escape my shouting siblings. I wanted to be alone with my ideas. I wanted to be tired enough to sleep at night. So I skated. I learned to skate as early as age 6 before I even knew how to read and would skate on the sidewalks around the soccer complex while my sister had practice. I had stopped skating after tearing my hamstring in fourth grade, but in seventh or eighth grade, I started again this time going in tiny circles around our driveway. One day, when I was too lazy to blow off the pine needles, I started skating on the bumpy, pothole filled road and I never looked back.

It was there, flying down hills with pine trees on either side, I found adventure and freedom far from the doldrums of my provincial life. I skated that same 2.5 mile backwoods loop a million times, and as I traveled my determination carried me first one mile, then eventually 26.2, the distance of a marathon.

Skating may be a sport, but my skating was not and is not a sport. The only commitment is to myself and the only competition is against myself. I was free from the criticism

and comparison I then associated with sport.

The feeling of purpose and perseverance was greater than the feeling of the vibrations transferred from the county road through my cheap purple skates into every nerve of my feet.

(That, along with running track at a trackless school, gave me permanent rice krispie ankles — they snap, crackle and pop.)

I would pass a few cute old couples going for their evening walk. A few trucks would pass me and some would wave. I almost hit a doe once or twice. Every loop included skating by a lazy old longhorn surrounded by his harem of heifers and later down the road almost getting chased off the road by the Morgan’s pitbull.

A lot has changed since I first started street skating. I played sports, but none of them gave me the sense of purpose skating does. (Which makes sense. I was really bad, like swingingthe-bat-three-seconds-after-the-catchercaught-the-ball bad.) I had a come to Jesus moment, literally with the literal Jesus, which gave me a greater sense of purpose than skating ever could. I discovered some of my greatest talents and began to understand myself and all the things I had experienced. And then I moved to the city. (Go Spurs Go.) When I came to Trinity I began skating, as I always had, near where I lived, but this time, I was living in a place that is densely populated with my peers. My private escape was reinvented as my public identity. My skating became known and I became known for skating. I went from being viewed as physically inept and wholistically unathletic to someone who is seen as having mastery over a very physical demanding skill, whether or not I actually do.

I shout compliments at the people I skate by. I tell them how slow they are at walking when I lap them. I watch Stephanie Crumrine completely eat it on my skates and then photoshop her skating with Usain Bolt.

The startled Pacific Lutheran football team parts before me like the red sea as I calmly ask, “What up, Lutes?” I watch as the feet of tennis players sync up to the beat of my skating playlist of show tunes. I almost get hit by Colorado College’s charter bus. I find silent encouragement from the presence of the constantly practicing baseball team, while simultaneously managing to not run over any of Tim Scannell’s precious little pitchers.

(At least not yet — Andrew Hoffman, watch yourself.) Side note: I have a dream of catching a fly ball in my bare hands while skating. (Side side note: It’s not going to happen.)

What is the secret to skating twenty miles straight? You just keep skating. (Also it’s all in the hips, y’all.) In times when you feel as if you have no control, the one thing you can do is keep going. Keep going until your toes ache.

Work yourself numb until you can feel only the empowerment of fearlessness, knowing your mind and the impending sunset are all that can stop you. Keep going until you have given all you have within you or until you get really hungry and Mabee is about to close.

When you cannot stop the wheels on your feet and in your head from turning, find your balance and control what you can control.

When you feel like you are going to spin out of control, remain focused and fearless. Fear has no place in your determined mind. Stay focused on your purpose. When you are where you be there.

So you skate. You wipe out and wipe the blood on your shirt. You tighten your laces.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know your purpose. You know your power.

You know your strength. You know what you have survived. You know that you can do it.

Ask yourself will you? You keep going. You are flying down this hill no matter what, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

committee raises funds, gives back continued from page 14

Texas Lutheran University won the competition last year with $339.24 to which they donated to the Susan G. Komen. Trinity placed fourth last year but the committee put extra energy into the campaign in hopes to move up in the rankings.

Whether they win or lose, at the end of the day these student athletes are able to say they made a difference. The results of this years competition will not be announced until the beginning of march.

Throughout the year, the committee does events such as running a field day for the kids at Sunset Cottage and co-sponsoring for Concert for the Cure.

Several teams also raise money for different organizations of their choice and volunteer at local events. Sports is not just about scoring and competing but it is also about helping serve the community.

“It was fun being able to use sports to bring people together and raise money for a great cause. Many trinity teams came out to support the basketball team and raise money for charity, two great things in one,” junior swimmer Meg Chase said.