04.21.2017

Trinitonian Trinity professor publishes book

Engineering capstone Senior students design and build race car for project

Amy Stone’s releases “Cornyation” after years of research on longstanding Fiesta tradition

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Volume 114 Issue 25

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Women’s soccer Team prepares to defend eight-year championship title in the fall PAGE 16 SPORTS

APRIL 21, 2017

Student Government Association denies the concept of Greek Council proposed annual budget, senators talk about their votes and expectations for SGA’s last meeting of the year

BY JEFFERY SULLIVAN

NEWS EDITOR During their second to last meeting of the year, Student Government Association (SGA) Senators voted 7 to 4 to deny the concept of the Greek Council annual operating budget.

A re-vote motion is expected to come during SGA’s last meeting of the year scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 24 in the Waxahachie Room.

As the decision currently stands, Greek Council will receive $0 of their requested $36,075 from SGA’s portion of the student activity fee paid by each Trinity student. The Senate departed from long standing precedent of approving the operating budgets of University Sponsored organizations (USO) by denying the spirit of Greek Council’s budget, the first part of a twostep process that ultimately decides whether or not funding is given.

“The Senate voted to deny the spirit of Greek Council’s budget proposal, which means the concept of the budget was denied,” said SGA President Nick Santulli. “Meaning we didn’t deny a specific dollar amount, we denied the entire idea of the budget.”

Vice president Joseph Khalaf explained some of the general reasoning behind the voting majority’s decision to deny the concept.

“A majority of the concern was that the funds are allocated towards a group that not everyone can join or benefit from,” Khalaf said. “The general philosophy, or theory, behind allocating the student activity fee is something that benefits the student body at large. Some senators didn’t believe that allocating that large of a portion of money would benefit the student body. Others felt that due to experiences with Greek Council programming that it was irresponsible to allocate such a large portion initially. We fully expect them to come back with funding requests on a case-by-case basis.”

While the president and vice president do not have a vote in budget decisions, the president does have ways to influence the voting body.

“I can veto the denial, because I can veto any motion as long as it’s not overridden by two thirds of the Senate,” Santulli said.

An appeals process for this denial does not exist in the constitution of the Trinity University Undergraduate Student Body.

“If a senator motions to re-vote, that motion is seconded and then that motion is approved by a simple majority of the Senate a re-vote can happen,” Santulli said. “Senators have been inundated with feedback. I guess we’ll see if that affects their decision on Monday. It is possible that the decision will stick.”

First-year senator Tyler Tinker told the Trinitonian that he plans on motioning the first SGA budget concept re-vote.

“It would be ignorant of us not to,” Tinker said. “There will be a motion at the very least, and hopefully it will go our way this time.”

Tinker was one of four other senators that voted in the minority seeking to approve the spirit of the budget.

JEREMY ALLEN, coordinator for fraternity and sorority life, and members of Greek Council listen to a question at the meeting held on April 18 for the Greek community to discuss steps moving forward after SGA’s decision. photo by CLAUDIA GARCIA “The vote moved quickly,” Tinker said.

“We didn’t really see all the information for something that sets a precedent as big as this.

I didn’t even understand the scope and I was already saying ‘guys this is going to make a huge impact.’ Two days later, I’ve received 60 emails from different people from different aspects of life, like alumni and other groups.

It’s made an even bigger impact then I could have ever imagined. I’m very disappointed that it had to be that way.”

Jeremy Allen, the Coordinator for Fraternity and Sorority Life, discussed the perspective of the Greek Council in their budget presentation to the SGA. “I do think that they think they didn’t get a fair shot at presenting our rationale for funding, and if there were such big concerns with the budget, I think that students were looking for more follow-up questions,” Allen said. “We had a 10-minute presentation, with three follow-up questions, and then we receive an email an hour later saying our budget’s not being considered. So why didn’t we have a chance? If they had big concerns about the spirit of funding or the spirit of Greek Council, students were looking for an opportunity to

address any concerns that SGA had, and they just didn’t have that opportunity.”

Sophomore Senator Manfred Wendt and Junior Senator Alex Perkowski both voted for the motion to deny the spirit of Greek Council’s budget. Perkowski told the Trinitonian that he plans on defending his original position in the next meeting.

“There have been a lot of messages sent my way both for and against funding,” Perkowski said. “But none have really been real, substantiating or convincing arguments for me to say that Greek Council should get their money in advance.”

Wendt elaborated on why he believes that Greek Council budget allocations should more closely resemble those of Registered Student Organizations, who request funding on a case by case basis.

“Basically we think that Greek Life is getting too much funding,” Wendt said. “I don’t know what the exact reasons behind it are. Personally I don’t see why Greek Life gets a privileged status when it comes to applying for funding, and I don’t see why they couldn’t just apply for funding like everyone else. I think they can apply individually for their events now.

It would be just like if they were a normal student group.”

Perkowski, who was identified by Wendt as the primary advocate against lump sum funding, discussed why he believed that student activity fees should not go to funding Greek Council.

“Many and most student governments in the state of Texas and in the United States do not allocate money to what are deemed selective student organizations,” Perkowski said.

“Those are those that are defined as student organizations that have exclusive memberships such as Greek life and Greek Council. They’re both selective because members can only be in Greek Council if their members of constituent fraternities and sororities, and those fraternities and sororities have different standards for how they pick and choose their members. It seemed to us that Greek Council didn’t really fulfill the same general student body focus as the other USOs.” Allen aided in the organization of an emergency meeting held for members of the Greek Community and student body members on Tuesday, April 18. There he and members of Greek Council voiced their concerns and options for the future.

“So it [was] kind of an open forum with Greek members across all organizations and actually some SGA reps,” Allen said. “We [wanted to] get on the same page about next steps. We [wanted to] get a little more transparency into the SGA process, but we also [wanted] our members to be able to communicate just how important a lot of these [Greek Council] events have been to them personally.”

No other USO is currently required to request funding on a case by case basis. Wendt described some of the potential budget cuts that SGA expects to make on such a system.

“One of the events that probably won’t get approved is the [Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values, AFLV] conference where they send all twelve of their executive board members to a conference on the West Coast in a five star resort, which is really expensive,” Wendt said. “It probably won’t be approved.”

Greek Council Women’s Co-Chair Yvette Peña explained why Greek Council events, such as the AFLV, create leadership opportunities that ultimately contribute to the Trinity community as a whole.

“Jeremy and I talked about things we learned at AFLV about recruiting and were able to give that information to groups like TUVAC and were able to help smaller groups like the Anthropology club,” Peña said. “Smaller clubs get exposed to these things that we learned while at our conference. I would have appreciated the opportunity to discuss this [in the budget proposal presentation]”.

Members of SGA invite all students to its final meeting, where the spirit of Greek Council’s budget will either be challenged or left to stand.

Staff disclosure: Alex Perkowski is an opinion columnist at the Trinitonian.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • APRIL 07, 2017

• NEWS

INDEX

Staff

News.......................................................... 2-5 Opinion.................................................... 6-9

editor-in-chief: Julia Elmore managing editor: Alexandra Uri business manager: Shivali Kansagra ad directors: 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, Kaylie King, Haley McFadden, Philip McKeon, Claire Nakayama, Elizabeth Sanchez, Julia Weis columnists: Alejandro Cardona, Mia Garza, Sarah Haley, Joy Lazarus, Gabriel Levine, Michael Miller, 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

Pulse.......................................................... 10-13 A&E.......................................................... 14-15 Sports........................................................ 16-20

BRIEFS TUPD 04/19/2017 4:00 a.m.

Location: Witt/Winn, Beze/Herndon, Calvert/Miller Verna Mclean, Mabee Dining Hall, and the Bell Center Information: Interruption to Water Service 04/09/2017 6:15 p.m.

Location: Verna McLean Residence Hall Information: Fire Alarm 03/30/2017 2:33 a.m.

Location: Dick & Peggy Prassel Residence Incident: Consumption of Alcohol By a Minor Information: Injury / Illness Compiled by Jeffery Sullivan

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NEWS • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Engineering students go on fast and furious track for race car

Senior design team building Formula One car for capstone project

BY HANA KRUGER

NEWS INTERN

A team comprising of senior engineering science students Michael Robison, Todd Edwards, Hamza Adisa, Nate Kiszla and Austin Haas has been constructing Trinity University’s first Formula One race car for their senior capstone project.

The project, which involves the deconstruction of a snowmobile for its engine and other useful components, is part of a goal to eventually compete at a Formula SAE student design competition, organized by SAE International. The competition involves the meticulous construction, testing and racing of cars by students from around the world.

“We’ve always had groups of students who have wanted to race, but were discouraged by the cost and technicalities,” said Jack Leifer, professor of engineering science at Trinity and faculty advisor for the group in the fall. “If I have met a group of students who could do it, it’s these students.”

The car has been in the works for the past

year, beginning with a presentation in the spring of 2016.

“Last spring, we got together and talked about the project, what we wanted to do and our goals, developed a project charter and a project plan and proposed it,” said Michael Robison, lead student on the project. “In the fall is when we started designing. We started making a lot of design decisions from the systems engineering standpoint … to get a picture of what we would be able to do and how we were going to build it.”

Getting to the design process was no easy undertaking, as the group had to fundraise around $55,000 in order to purchase a snowmobile and the necessary tools in order to construct the vehicle.

Typically, schools with established FSAE programs have multiple cars already built, $100,000 to $1,000,000 budgets and teams of 50 to 100 people. These vehicles also can be re-entered as long as the car’s frame is reconstructed, as per competition rules.

“In bigger schools, for their senior project one year, teams will choose to rebuild, re-optimize or redesign a certain component in the car,” Robison said. “The difficulty with starting a project here, with only five of us, is we don’t have a car, we don’t have any infrastructure, we don’t have any of the experience. We had to start from scratch, basically.”

HAMZA ADISA (left) and MICHAEL ROBISON (center) work on a component of their Formula One race car. photo by HENRY PRATT

Unfortunately the specificity of the competition and the difficulty of completing certain technical forms led to the team being unable to submit their car for competition this June.

However, their goal is to construct as much of the car as possible this year to leave behind for future FSAE projects. The team will continue working toward their capstone presentation on April 27, which involves a series of structural tests on the frame of the vehicle.

“We’ve already put together another group of [underclassmen] students who are ready to modify this vehicle,” Leifer said. “This group [of seniors] has developed a legacy and the intention is to continue and modify this car, build additional cars and compete in the future.”

Morgan Jones, a sophomore engineering student who has been working closely with the senior design team, jumped at the chance to be a part of the construction of the car.

“Knowing that there were people who were actually motivated to do this huge project that most larger schools do, and smaller schools often don’t, I definitely wanted to be a part of it,” Jones said. “It was very clear to me that the engineering design experience that you get from doing this project is unparalleled.”

Jones, who is planning on being a part of future FSAE teams, is looking forward to

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the attention this project will bring to the engineering science program at Trinity.

“Kids who come to this school should really see something like this,” Jones said.

“They should see that there are students in a small school capable of building these large vehicles. If we can make our team grow, that will definitely attract tons of other students, both locally and from around the world.”

The engineering department is also excited for the future of FSAE projects at Trinity.

“What I really liked about this competition is that the purpose is really well aligned with the course objectives that we have for senior design,” said Farzan Aminian, chair of the engineering science department. “Obviously this was an ambitious project to finish in about eight months, but we tried to be realistic in what can be done in eight months.

We’re really looking at this to be a multi-year project so that we can get to a point where we can be visible in this competition on an annual basis.”

The finished product will be a testament for the level of excellence Trinity students can achieve, all beginning with this year’s senior design team.

“Assuming we display this vehicle somewhere in the [Center for Science and Innovation] building, it will be an attention-getter,” Leifer said. “It will show what you can accomplish with a Trinity engineering education.”

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • APRIL 21, 2017 •

NEWS

Budget surprises Eco Allies present force student govt. Earth Week events The student organization aims to raise awareness spending deficit through environmentally friendly activities.

SGA president: “[Deficit] sounds terrifying and shocking, but … it’s really not as sexy as it sounds.”

BY DANIEL CONRAD

NEWS REPORTER

Rumors that Student Government Association (SGA) has gone over its semesterly budget have been confirmed

by SGA president Nick Santulli and vice president Joseph Khalaf. “[This deficit] essentially means that the demand of student organizations exceeded the allocation we got for this semester,” Santulli said.

In an email interview, Joseph Khalaf explained how the funding allocation process works.

“Every student at Trinity pays a student activity fee (SAF) of $150 per semester,” Khalaf wrote. “This money is pooled together and 94 percent is given to SGA to distribute to student organizations.” Khalaf explained that the university keeps 6 percent of each year’s SAF; 2 percent of the remaining 94 percent funds SGA’s internal operating budget.

University-sponsored organizations and registered student organizations send funding requests to SGA. The vice president of SGA and elected student senators then decide whether to back the proposals.

But according to Santulli, SGA wasn’t told its semesterly budget allocation until midFebruary — after senators had already heard proposals and approved funding for several events.

“We weren’t really able to estimate how

BY PHILLIP McKEON

NEWS REPORTER much money we had to allocate before that, and it was lower than we expected it — more students, I guess, transferred or withdrew,” Santulli said.

A number of unusual surprises complicated this semester’s budget.

“The previous SGA underfunded recreation sports and we are obligated under contract to fund a [five]-year average,” Khalaf wrote.

“The previous SGA also funded a $40,000 spring concert and this expenditure certainly didn’t help the financial situation.”

Though SGA approved the newly installed B-Cycle station in 2014, it wasn’t paid for by the 2014 SGA budget allocation. $15,000 was pulled from this year’s SGA budget in order to pay for the station.

“That $15,000, independent of the other issues, would have been fine,” Santulli said.

“With our budget, we’re going to get a [new] allocation next fall, and we’re really not that much over budget. We’re not too concerned; we’re still allocating money to groups.”

Khalaf explained how SGA can still allocate money despite its spending deficit.

“We have been able to overspend because we have a carryforward account [comprising] excess funds from previous administrations,” Khalaf wrote. “We receive more money from the fall allocation next semester and expect to be back in the black for the calendar year.”

The Trinitonian reached out to SGA treasurer Rachel Daniel, but received no response.

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Eco Allies is a student organization focused, according to their advisor Sharon Curry, on helping the Trinity community become more conscious and eco-friendly.

“They’ve definitely helped increase awareness through peer to peer education, which is something I struggle with as staff. When students are engaging students, the programs are more successful,” Curry said.

Kristen Rundstein, president of the Eco Allies, described some of the events her organization will be putting on as part of Earth Week.

“Earth Week is a yearly event that we’ve been hosting for the past several years. This year we did a garden work day, which is pretty traditional, and on Friday we will hosting an Eco Festival, which we’re really excited about. We’re hosting nacho hour and on Thursday we’re showing Wall-E in Mabee,” Rundstein said.

The Eco Allies will be hosting a campus exchange for gently used products, open to anyone with a Trinity ID. “The campus exchange is something we do every semester now, instead of every year, because we’ve seen so much support for it.

It’s on Friday, and it’s an effort to keep items out of the landfill. We found that there was a lot of interest in students exchanging some items instead of simply donating them, so we do this as a precursor to the Goodwill end of year collection, so it’s a good way for students to bring items that they no longer want, and students who would like those items to pick them up and take them. We hold it at Heidi Lounge, and it’s an all day event. In the morning, we invite people to come and drop off their items, and then from one to four, students and staff can come and take anything they want at no cost,” Curry said.

The reason for hosting such an exchange is to reduce the amount of waste that would ultimately end up in a landfill, a growing problem today.

If you look at, for instance, the Texas report for landfills, it’s estimated that if we keep going at the rate we’re going, and we don’t

build more landfills, we will run out of landfill space in 60 years. Obviously that’s a problem because where do you put the garbage if you don’t want a landfill?

At the same time as the campus exchange, the group will be hosting a festival to help raise awareness for their cause.

“We try to get a lot of campus clubs and a few off campus organizations to participate. I believe B-Cycle will be there. We’ll have live music and some activities, we’ll be giving away some free stuff like wildflower seeds and reusable bags, and it’s really just us trying to get people aware,” Rundstein said.

The club will be joining a national march for science to bring send a message to our politicians.

“We just plan on making posters and trying to get as many people to come down to the march with us as we can. It’s organized through a larger organization, and it’s a national event, so we just hope to raise awareness to our politicians that this generation does care about science, and that there are many of us who believe that global warming is affecting us and we want to see a change in reduced emissions, and that scientific agencies like the EPA should continue to receive the funding that they have been,” Rundstein said.

Junior Zeina Zayat explains why she supports the club in their endeavours I think it’s becoming more and more important for us to raise awareness about climate change and the things we can do to be more environmentally conscious, especially when we see leaders and prominent people denying it’s even a problem,” Zayat said.

The club’s goal is to shift the attitude of the Trinity community to something more environmentally conscious.

“I’m really hoping to see a change in the Trinity community. We have the sustainable infrastructure, but we want to change the culture so that people want to engage and participate in recycling and reducing their food waste and things like that,” Curry said.

“As a campus, there’s always room for improvement. We have the means, but it’s hard to change a mindset of a single person, let alone an entire campus,” Rundstein said.

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NEWS • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Quality Enhancement Plan aims to improve student learning outcomes QEP committees focus on helping first-years be successful

BY KATHLEEN CREEDON

NEWS REPORTER

Last summer, faculty members gathered to create a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for Trinity. All year, the committee has focused on strengthening the experience of first years and has discussed the different ways of doing that.

The group is separated into three major subcommittees: teaching, advising and academic support. Each sub-committee met every week to find what strategies would best help the program be successful, and in March, they began reporting their findings to the chair of the QEP, John Hermann.

“Now we’re back at the developmental phase, where we’re voting to approve or not approve different information that the committees have. At the conclusion of this semester, the QEP should probably have approved tentatively what we call our new student learning outcomes, which are directly related to the institutional data,” Hermann said.

The strategies that have emerged from each sub-committee have helped developed five new student learning outcomes, which are goals that the QEP are trying to help firstyear students meet. The outcomes include being able to demonstrate an understanding of Pathways, registration procedures, and requirements for graduation; being able to assess the interactions they have with their advisor; being able to determine their success in a class by the fifth week to identify any

areas that need improvement; being able to identify institutional resources; and ultimately demonstrating help-seeking behaviors.

“I think the last is the most ambitious outcome. Help-seeking means, essentially in the literature, that they will establish a little bit of independence, so instead of me telling a student the best route to take, the student can figure out themselves what needs to be one to resolve an issue,” Hermann said.

The teaching subcommittee focuses on primarily first-year classes, such as First-Year Experience courses or introduction courses in STEM, as well as on creating a more consistent progress report system. This will allow students to have a stronger transition from high school into college.

“Sometimes students didn’t know that they were actually in pretty significant trouble grade-wise until they were more than halfway through the semester, almost like it was too late to change their performance,” said Lisa Jasinski, the teaching sub-committee vice chair.

Though the group aimed to resolve deficient grades in first-years, it needed to keep in mind the influence the changes would have on faculty members. To do this, the sub-committee decided workshops and incentive grants would be the best ways to involve professors.

“In colleges, we believe really fervently in academic freedom, which means that colleges, really professors, have almost entire discretion in how they teach their courses, so we didn’t want to feel like we were telling anyone how to teach their course, but we thought that through workshops and through these developmental grants and hopefully through a new software program, faculty will help find those ways to better help the transition,” Jasinski said.

Another strategy that the committees have developed is a way for students to know where they stand in classes before midterms.

“The teaching sub-committee has recommended a lot of good stuff. They have early alerts at low-stakes assignments in the first weeks, like five or ten percent of their final grade, so if the student is doing poorly in any way, the advisor will find out, and the professor will notify key factors, whether it be the writing center, or if they’re having sleep issues, they can take the student to the right place,” Hermann said.

Many of the classes that have high deficient grade rates tend to be entryways to pre-professional programs. By analyzing information like this, the committees have discussed implementing a winter skills camp.

“Since we have more deficient grade rates lately, we want to create a winter skills camp for students who are not doing well in their first semester. It hasn’t been approved yet, but when you come back from your fall semester, we’ll have an intensive session on strategies on how you can improve our grades, and we want that to continue into the spring semester,” Hermann said.

To aid in the process of strengthening students’ first-year experience, the QEP may also include a software that will enable professors, advisors, students and administrative faculty to communicate more efficiently.

“I don’t think technology alone helps at all. I think it’s a facilitator of technology, and it has to be used-friendly, both for the students and the staff. One of the things that I think is so essential that seems so obvious is that we want to make it easier for people to communicate. If we can facilitate and communicate, technology becomes invaluable,” Hermann said.

However, there is some disagreement with the software companies that the committees are looking at, Starfish and EAB. Although the companies’ predictive analytics may help students find the best major for them, Trinity’s later major decision may not be compatible.

“There are some issues with it. We don’t declare a major until the end of our sophomore year, and the demonstrations involved all these analytics about switching majors, but by the end of your sophomore year, you’re a little more sure of what you want to do, so we’re not sure if it’s going to be that helpful at Trinity or not,” said Diane Persellin, chair of the advising sub-committee.

Though the software may benefit the whole campus, some argue that an internal alert system for grades and issues in classes may be equally effective.

“I think technology helps connect the dots. It could be helpful, but I think it’s very flexible depending on how we set it up. We’re mainly focused on our students and having good advising for our students. We want our first years to really succeed and to flourish their first year,” Persellin said.

Although the QEP has come a long way from its creation, the committees are still working to refine it; the plan will be accredited in February of next year. After that, the plan will be rolled out in stages over the next five years.

“The underlying goal is to help students.

Hopefully, it will make a meaningful difference and an enduring difference because that’s what a quality enhancement plan demands, but we need to get faculty to buy into this and support this. I hope our deficient grades reduce among first-year students, I hope our advising improves, and I hope that faculty and students know all about the great resources that are available to them,” Hermann said.

Student groups work to find common ground

BY JULIA ELMORE

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Pick a word to describe the national political climate this year. Polarized, heated or divisive might be a few that come to mind. The atmosphere at Trinity has been no different, and tensions between members of different political groups have risen at times.

Despite their differences, the members of the Trinity Progressives and the Tigers for Liberty have been working to build respect and understanding between students of liberal and conservative viewpoints. In an effort to help facilitate these positive interactions, the Trinity administration invited representatives from both groups to a Mutual Understanding Dinner several weeks ago.

Vice president of student affairs Sheryl Tynes led the effort and hosted the students and other faculty in her home on Oakmont.

Tynes says she wanted to facilitate personal conversation to create a sense of commonality.

“I am a big believer in bringing people together face to face. People say and do things online that they wouldn’t if another person was sitting right in front of you,” Tynes said.

“One of the things that has struck me most in the last year is that we’re a culture that focuses on highlighting differences rather than common threads. It’s in the common threads where we build empathy, understanding and humanity.”

Initially, some of the students struggled to think of what they might have in common with those from the organization that

from left MADDIE KENNEDY, ISIAH MITCHELL, JULIA ELMORE, JONAH WENDT, JAMIE THOMPSON, DAVID TUTTLE, CATHERINE WALTERS, SHERYL TYNES, MANFRED WENDT, BETH LEGG, DANNY ANDERSON photo provided by BETH LEGG

was not their own. After all, these sociopolitically focused groups had a physically and emotionally tiring year advocating for opposing parties and policies.

“I anticipated a little bit of awkwardness,” said Trinity Progressives co-president and sophomore Maddie Kennedy. “I know that the publicity after the Dinesh D’Souza and accompanying flyer incident caused a lot of attention on the university’s political climate.

I think the administration wanted to ensure that we had a space for cross-partisan political dialogues, and that this dinner was a way to provide that space very formally.”

To establish a sense of safety and openness, the six students, three from Trinity Progressives and three from Tigers for Liberty, along with Tynes, dean of students, David Tuttle, university president, Danny Anderson

and director of student involvement Jamie Thompson, completed a survey before the dinner in which they were able to open up about personal strengths, struggles and stories. Their answers were displayed on posters around the room.

“I think it was really nice to get to know people on a more personal level than I would have otherwise — I wouldn’t necessarily ask people ‘what were three formative experiences in your life?’ and it was really nice to be able to see everybody’s answers,” said junior Beth Legg, who was also representing Trinity Progressives at the dinner.

After opening up about the experiences that shape their worldviews, the students were able to begin engaging in discussions about their respective opinions.

“My understanding of progressive goals

were definitely refined,” said first-year Isaiah Mitchell, who was representing Tigers for Liberty at the dinner. “I had considered (somewhat anxiously) beforehand that personal experience might be used as rhetorical ammunition during the discussion, but I was pleasantly wrong.”

Though they said they ultimately benefitted from the discussion, some felt the conversations felt superficial.

“I still felt like we were all walking on eggshells by the end of the night,” Mitchell said. “I hope people across campus will recognize the difference between conversational respect and unwillingness to discuss touchy issues. When we don’t delve into them, they stay touchy.”

The members of each organization plan to use what they learned at the dinner — the importance of listening and understanding the experiences that form others’ worldviews — as they move forward with their plans for the coming year.

“I think the biggest takeaway for me was continuing to get to know the people involved,” Kennedy said. “The more information you have about the way somebody processes the world, the better you will be able to interact with, relate with and understand that person. I plan to continue to host and foster events and spaces where people, regardless of political affiliation, can form relationships or talk about political issues, focusing on how building relationships can benefit this process.”

Opinion

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Critiquing the Trinity Campus Master Plan ANNE FERGUSON

GUEST COLUMNIST

George Storch Memorial Building is one of the buildings constructed using the revolutionary lift-slab building technique.

Photo by SARAH THORNE

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EDITORIAL

Why so serious?

As Trinity students, we have a lot to be proud of. Our women’s basketball team has been almost National Champions for several consecutive years. Our tower is the second highest point in the seventh largest U.S. city and we boast not one, but two companies that created pocket businesses through our entrepreneurship program. Not to mention, we can organize a town hall or open forum to talk about any and every emotion we feel at a moment’s notice.

Our university has won awards for being one of the best small, undergraduate, private, red-brick campus, starts with the letter T, has a tiger mascot, liberal arts schools in the state. In fact, we earned a coveted spot on the Princeton Review’s Best 379 Colleges list. Can you say #TigerPride?

What makes Trinity so great? Some may say it’s the students. The Tigers are some of the best and brightest young minds around, but their success doesn’t come without a price. Our students often sacrifice experiences, like the weekly free lectures and the majority of the school’s sporting events, in order to make time for their studies. However, if you think that Trinity students are all work and no play, you are mistaken. A quick glance at the Trinity Snaps account will show that Tigers love illegal drugs and reckless debauchery just as much as the next

person. Even those who graduate can’t stay away. Alumni who are well beyond the appropriate age to still be friends with college students can regularly be found at the local bar, Bombay Bicycle Club, or, as most Trinity students know it, Bays. It is almost as if they have no life outside of reliving their college years on Thursday nights.

But behind every great student is an inspiring professor, spurring the young minds to reaching their full potential.

Trinity professors are the foremost experts in their respective fields; no other scholars’ works are ever on the reading list because the professors’ own books and published research fill the syllabi.

Despite such prestige, they work to be relatable and approachable for students by making off-color jokes, but then reminding their classes, “It’s OK for me to say whatever I want, I have tenure,” behind nervous laughter. Though many have won awards and recognitions, nothing elicits as much pride as getting away with saying a curse word or a sex joke and earning the laughter of a room full of 20 year olds.

Though we have so much to be proud of as members of such an innovative, progressive and intelligent community, we must never take ourselves too seriously. Sometimes, we just have to laugh at ourselves.

To President Danny Anderson and the Campus Master Plan Committee, We are excited to hear the news that Trinity University is seeking placement on the National Register of Historic Places. We love our unique mid-century modern campus and appreciate that its historic nature is being recognized.

You mention in your email this week to the student body that a historic district designation can benefit Trinity through tax credit opportunities and financial assistance with renovation expenses.

However, shouldn’t the greatest benefit of seeking historic designation simply be honoring the architectural legacy left to us by O’Neil Ford? We outline for you here some of the revolutionary, unique and valuable traits of Ford’s original campus plan for Trinity: Programmatic division between academic and living spaces, celebration of site and letting the “hills design the buildings,” use of the technologically innovative lift-slab building technique (some of the very first buildings in the world to use this technique are here at Trinity), deliberately pushing cars to the edge, emphasizing pedestrian safety and comfort, resistance of hierarchy by means of no main campus axis, landscaping dominated by native plants, buildings oriented with views toward downtown San Antonio, spatializing the whole point of seeking higher education: to go out and make a difference in the world around you.

Several of the stated strategies of the proposed Campus Master Plan directly oppose Ford’s campus planning ideals, namely the establishment of a main campus entrance on Hildebrand Avenue and the creation of a “Living/Learning Corridor” to serve as a North-South axis, stretching the entire length of the campus.

The Living/Learning Corridor directly deviates from the east-west orientation of both the original campus design and the geology of the site. Ford’s plan for Trinity embodies the meandering nature of a liberal arts education and the idea that students create their own path.

There is no singular route to completing our liberal arts education, as there is no singular route to or from any campus building. That’s the joy of moving through Trinity’s campus.

We do acknowledge that campuses evolve and it’s important to keep buildings up-to-date. However, you do not need to gut the interiors of buildings to do so, and you definitely do not need to “remodel” exteriors beyond recognition, as what happened with the demolition of the original Northrup Hall in the early 2000s. There are ways to design sensitively to Trinity’s historic precedent, including preserving Lynn Ford’s stunning woodwork and Martha Mood’s distinctive lighting fixtures and

pottery.

In addition to seeking placement on the National Register of Historic Places, we propose Trinity seek a local Historic District designation through the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation.

Doing so will guarantee that no O’Neil Ford building within the campus historic district be demolished or altered significantly, and any new construction would also have to be approved by San Antonio’s Historic and Design Review Commission.

President Anderson, we quote your email: “The Campus Master Plan process helped to reinforce the historic nature of our campus and Trinity’s duty to honor the legacy of O’Neil Ford’s architecture and our significant collection of midcentury modern buildings.” Well, we believe that if you truly mean to honor Ford’s philosophy of design, you must practice what he preached. This means resisting axial hierarchy, maintaining the programmatic division between living and learning at the escarpment, and preserving the important downtown vistas. It’s more than just red brick.

As students and alumni of this university, we hope our voices are heard.

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to this important project.

Respectfully, Anne Ferguson, Larsen Andrews, Julia Torres, Briauna Barrera, Mackenzie Hill, Camilla Manca, David Deming, Andrew Sander, Claire Rettenmaier, Melissa Loseff, Ottilia Willis, Cassandra Watson, Evan Epps, Lorene Sugars, Alexandra (Sasha) Faust, Joseph Khalaf, Joyce Palmer, Davis Stubblefield, Katie Middleton, Elizabeth Celentano, Cady Wills, Shivani Parmar, Chloe Campo, Kaylee Krambeck, Sophie Wikstrom, Khaniya Russell, Molly Field, Peyton Wionzek, Katherine Jones, Monica G. Baez, Alec Ferguson, Sarah Thorne, Samuel Simoneau, Emma Lichtenberg, Sidney Hopkins, Willa Rubin, Megan Allen, Michael Miller, Brendan Powers, Sarah Haley, Maggie Milam, Emily Wood, Derek Hudson, Mia Olea Garza, Lauren Harris, Faith Byrne, Susan Griffith, Kassie Kelly, Julia Grace Palmer, Anna Thill, Sarah Collins, Cheyne Minto, Georgie Riggs, Jeanette Gutierrez, Evan Chambless, Cynthia Alvarez, Mollie Patzke, Jordan High, Grace Frye,Emily Peter, Elizabeth Metzger, Claire Burrus, Casandra Lomeli, Bailee Manzer, Olivia Roybal, Isaiah Mora, Kara McLean, Yvette Peña, Elizabeth Sanchez, Glenn Wright, Marcella Reyes, Jessica Jennings, Cole Murray, Celeste Macias, Megan Medrano, Molly Lenihan, Benjamin Gonzalez, Diana Chavarria, Alyssa Reinard, Paola Cobos, Heidi Krause, Erin Roberts and Clarissa Castañeda.

Anne Ferguson is a senior urban studies and Spanish double major, with minors in art and art history.

OPINION • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Greek life is for all

Chi Beta Epsilon member reflects on the personal and social importance of Greek Council TORY TOLAR

GUEST COLUMNIST Currently as a junior and a rising senior, I have been a part of Trinity’s Greek life for three years now. In these three years, I have made friends, pushed myself to the limit of being a leader as vice president and service chair for my sorority, Chi Beta Epsilon, and I am currently the service chair for Greek Council. Of course, I am biased about the recent SGA denial of Greek Council’s budget. However, this does not only affect me, but also 25 percent of Trinity’s community, as well as non-affiliated members of the student body.

When I first came to Trinity, I had no intention of being a part of Greek life.

I knew that it was completely different from national programs found at other schools, but I was still not sure as to how.

After the extensive recruitment process, I found myself in a club that accepted me for who I was. Whether or not you choose to be a part of a Greek organization is totally up to you, but I honestly hope that every single student who comes to Trinity for any amount of time finds a place like I did. I entered an organization that did not judge me based on anything other than the fact (I hope) that they thought I was someone who they saw potential in. I have never been into the party scene (really, we do exist: you can ask my friends) and that was definitely not the reason I joined Greek life at Trinity. I joined because I realized that a quarter of the student body can do a lot of good, even in a city like San Antonio, which has more than one million people.

I am no longer the scared little girl my parents sent off two years ago about five hours away from home.

While I could have sat in the background of the Betas, I was given an amazing opportunity in the fall of 2015, as a sophomore, to attend a leadership retreat hosted by Greek Council called Greek U. Despite being a sophomore who thought she knew everything, I learned a lot about leadership and how to make connections work in a more serious and thought-provoking environment — college.

Because of Greek U, within that same week, I was elected vice president and service chair of my organization. If I hadn’t gone to Greek U, I would have never had the confidence to do anything like that. That is not why I joined Beta, and it never even crossed my mind before someone suggested it to me.

Fast forward a year to the fall of 2016, when I was encouraged by members of my club to run for Greek Council. I was absolutely terrified. I tried to put on a brave face and pretend that everything was fine, but in reality I had nightmares about making a complete fool of myself, thinking that I was not at all qualified to help lead this many students. But now that I’m on Greek Council, reflecting my time spent at Greek U as well as in officer positions in my

own club, my confidence in my ability to at least try to do the best I can do has increased tremendously. My parents noticed, my extended family noticed and my friends from back home noticed. I am no longer the scared little girl that they sent off two years ago about five hours from home.

By denying Greek Council’s budget, SGA is basically saying that 25 percent of their constituents don’t deserve to be funded.

It saddens me to think that because SGA has denied Greek Council’s budget proposal, other people will not be able to experience even a few of the same things I’ve experienced while at Trinity. Whether students know this or not, every single one of us pays something called the “Student Activity Fee” as part of our tuition. This money is allocated to fund Trinity’s clubs, including Greek Council, which is designated as one of six UniversitySponsored Organizations. SGA, our elected student governing body, is in charge of distributing the money throughout all of Trinity. By denying Greek Council’s budget, they are basically saying that 25 percent of their constituents don’t deserve or are not “good enough” to be funded by Trinity.

For those outside of Greek life, I urge you to empathize with us and to put yourselves into our shoes. How would you feel if your club or organization did not get the money needed to help support all of the good things your individual club brings to Trinity?

This is where we are. Your elected SGA senators have the power to decide where they want to put our money. No matter what clubs you’re in, it is not OK that they have rejected funding 25 percent of the student population without any reason attached to the decision. Again, it makes me to sad to think that some other person in my same situation will not have the opportunity to grow. After all, Trinity encourages us to discover, grow and become. How are we to grow if we are being constrained?

I want to conclude by saying that as a firstyear, I was a part of many organizations.

Those people who I had contact with my first semester, as well as the now many after, will have forever changed me on my way to great leadership positions. Many of these people were not in Greek life and have no affiliation to it whatsoever. It is not my intention to exclude individuals of Trinity’s wonderful population. I believe that we all have gifts in this world and it has never been a part of my personality to be exclusive in any way. While I cannot speak for everyone in Greek life, it has been my own personal mission to go beyond just “Greeks.” If it was not for Greek Council and the programs it hosted thanks to previous budgets, I might have left Trinity a long time ago.

Tory Tolar is a junior history major with a minor in religion.

7

Finding brotherhood JAMES LOVETT

GUEST COLUMNIST I am not fond of my freshman year. I came to Trinity expecting to have the time of my life. It was a fresh new start away from my hometown with not a single person from my high school attending, save for myself. I welcomed the small size of campus and population and in 2015 was ready to make new friends and create memorable experiences that would last a lifetime. What happened instead was an unfortunate fall into reclusion.

Not long into the school year I began to feel lonely. I didn’t have many friends and the ones I did were often reclusive themselves. That social environment I needed was nowhere to be found and I slowly slipped into a depression that I continuosly denied existed. My grades slipped tremendously, I rarely left my room and almost never had the lights on, and I began to eat … a lot: three Jack in the Box munchie meals a week. I wanted to find new people, new experiences, but I found often that cliques and groups had formed quickly, and I had missed the deadline. I thought desperately about what I could do and how things had to be able to get better and came to think that maybe a transfer to A&M was necessary. But instead I trudged it out stubbornly and stayed, hoping fall of 2016 would be different.

And to my surprise it was, because I found my brothers at Iota Chi Rho. Through Greek life functions, invitations to movie and bowling nights and the generosity of the Greek community I began to meet new people who were actually like me. Ambitious, studious, quirky, but in the end just wanted to have a good time with their friends. I am now a full active member of IXP and am increasingly satisfied with my decision

as I grow closer to my brothers and meet more and more friends through them each and every week. Since joining Greek life there hasn’t been a weekend spent wishing I was somewhere else.

That is why I am disheartened by the recent decision by the SGA to deny consideration of the Greek Council’s budget. Trinity promises an opportunity for close-knit relations because of its size and an environment where students can truly feel at home. Greek life is a part of that. It was for me and it is for nearly a fourth of our student body; and a lot of that is because of the actions of Greek Council. If they are denied funding it threatens their capability to bring clubs together, train new leadership and, most importantly, recruit new members looking for a brotherhood/ sisterhood of their own. If SGA represents the students, then why deny opportunity to an organization that helps 24 percent of the students they represent, students whose college careers have been defined by greek life, like me?

I don’t expect everyone to understand. Greek life is perceived too often as a taboo part of college that they would rather not touch because of what their parents have told them or what they’ve seen in movies. But understand what it has done for me. I’m happier than I have been in 20 years of life, my GPA is rising quickly, I’m making memories I am proud of and I’m actually starting my own business with the help of many of my brothers. So I ask the SGA, for the sake of those you represent now and those you will represent, please reconsider your decision for funding Greek Council.

James Lovett is a sophomore psychology major with a minor in political science.

8

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • APRIL 21, 2017 •

OPINION

Fulfilling civic duty Tobacco-free campus

I paid my taxes for the first time on Tuesday. April 18 is Tax Day, if you have not heard.

This is not the first time I’ve filed a tax return, but it is the first time I ALEXANDER have paid any taxes.

PERKOWSKI OPINION COLUMNIST Something about watching my $36 being sent to the United States Treasury filled me with glee. Hopefully these dollars will not be spent on a bomb, or on an aircraft carrier or on a rifle. I especially hope it is not spent on another Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, but we still have a few left to complete so I digress. But with paying my taxes comes one of my first rites of passage as a citizen of the United States, something I will always cherish.

The Wendt Twins may call it theft, but I like to think of it as part of my patriotic duty.

Duty is a funny word. At times, I am not sure if people fully understand its meaning.

Citizens have several duties, that at times we take for granted. We have a duty to pay taxes. We have a duty to serve in juries. We have a duty to vote in democratic elections and participate fully in our governments.

Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to do all of these things. My chance at jury duty was rudely interrupted by Trinity University’s academic calendar, but I hope to serve with a jury of my peers one day.

When considering the population as a whole, who decides what civic duty

is? Is it our leaders? Is it the people? My consideration is that it is the second. In a democracy, the majority rules, it makes laws and it hopefully does not oppress the minority. I will be the first to say that any sort of oppression, whether it be through the laws of a government, or the customs of the culture, is fundamentally wrong.

As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” “A just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself.” Citizens must consider who the majority is, and who the minority is.

The perceived minority cannot stray from the laws simply because they see themselves as above the laws, if the majority agrees it is to be law and follows that law accordingly.

So it is established that a minority group cannot possibly expect to break the laws without punishment. Furthermore, any special privileges are unjust since they do not apply to the majority.

This is a sentiment that has been proposed by political philosophers since the days of Socrates. Aquinas in his “Summa Theologica” wrote that any law that uplifts human personality is just. Democracy, when placed in the correct hands with the correct intentions, is able to create and do wonderful acts. It is able to level the playing field for all groups. It is able to lift minorities to feel part of the whole, and reduce majorities to prevent the oppression of that same whole.

continued on page 9

Study Tips for Final Exams From Student Success Center, Academic Support - Make a plan: Start early, budget time for study sessions, pace yourself, and don’t cram.

-Study in groups: Work with peers for motivation, shared notes, teaching each other.

-Work your notes: reorganize and outline class notes for daily review.-Read, write, say: study your notes in all three ways.

-Get quizzy: Create questions and ask someone to quiz you.

-Sleep: Not enough and you’ll be more stressed and less focused.

All-nighters are counterproductive.

-Balance: Take short breaks: it will help your concentration.

-Prioritize: spend more time prepping for finals in toughest classes.

-Nourish: Eat healthy food, drink plenty of water, and limit caffeine.

-Get creative: Make mind maps, draw tables, use whiteboards to organize the information.

-Talk to yourself: explain the material out loud to find out how much you know and to improve your memory.

-Turn it off: get rid of electronic distractions.

-Walk it off: 20 minutes of cardio can help your focus, energy, and reduce stress.

-Finish papers: If they are due during finals week, finish them early to save time and energy for finals.

-Overlearn: Think you’re finished? Keep going!

-Check it! During finals, use the time to proofread your test and consider if you have answered questions fully.

-Stay Positive: You CAN learn the material through hard work, using strategies, and seeking help.

Need help? Contact Stacy Davidson, Director, Academic Support. sdavidso@trinity.edu, 999-8427.

KATHERINE HEWITT

GUEST COLUMNIST

It is official, Trinity University will become a tobacco-free campus on Aug. 1, 2017.

Admittedly so, this has been a lengthy process for our campus, with more work to be done. As we close out the academic year and count down the final months before the new policy is official, there were many noteworthy highlights of the tobacco-free campaign since its inception.

History During the spring of 2013, Health Services began investigating tobacco-free campuses and policies. In the fall of 2014, the tobacco-free campus proposal was presented to the Safety, Security & Health Committee; who then endorsed the idea and a policy was drafted. In the fall of 2015, Wellness Services debuted and with Health Services unveiled the Tobacco-Free Trinity campus advocacy campaign. This has included a bi-monthly poster series, covering topics such as toxic waste, secondhand smoke, college grads who quit, cost of tobacco products and health concerns of tobacco use.

Fulfilling the Trinity Tomorrow Strategic Plan The tobacco-free policy is in support of the university’s Strategic Plan, specifically action step 4d, which is the commitment to holistic wellness and expanding these opportunities for students, faculty and staff. Other wellness initiatives that have come along during this process have included Nutrition Services appointments, Por Vida, Stress-Free Zone program, Training for Intervention Procedures alcohol awareness workshops and the Body Project re-homing into the Wellness Services area, to name a few.

Endorsement To get the support rolling for this policy, we started at the top. Wellness and Health Services scheduled a meeting with Trinity University president, Danny Anderson. Although our health committee representatives were a bit nervous going in, we made our case, and by the end of the meeting, we received the go ahead to move the policy forward. After that meeting, we thought about something David Tuttle said: follow the Three P’s; Process, Plan, Prepare. We had to process Dr. Anderson’s recommendations, put together an implementation plan, and then prepare the campus for the new policy.

Shortly thereafter, Sheryl Tynes, vice president for Student Life, sent out a Tobacco-Free Trinity email to faculty and staff seeking champions to endorse the campaign. Close to 100 faculty and staff responded, this not only included former smokers, but personal stories from staff about how tobacco has negatively affected their loved ones health. Next thing you know, champion posters started popping up all over campus. Talk about motivation!

Next, campaign presentations were lined up for Student Life staff (Residential Life, Dean of Students, Student Involvement, etc.), Faculty Senate Chairs and Student Government Association. We were officially getting the message out.

Outreach Trinity continued our annual participation in the 1Day Stand program to challenge our campus to quit tobacco (along with over 70 universities), as well as co-sponsored the Tobacco Free Trinity Town Hall with the Trinity Progressives and Student Government Association in November 2016. In addition, Health and Wellness Services continues to hold open “quit tobacco” office hours.

A major highlight was Wellness Services co-presenting on a Tobacco Free College Campus Initiative webinar educating others on the tobacco-free transition in February 2017. Our impact was growing and we now had enough experience to help other colleges. 80 universities tuned in, this was for sure a “wow” moment!

Data

This is an opportunity for Trinity to be a leader in wellness for private universities in the state of Texas.

The Center for Disease Control reports that nearly 9 out of 10 cigarette smokers first tried smoking by the age of 18 and 99 percent first tried smoking by age 26.

Young adults age 18 to 25 have the highest smoking rate of any age group (United States Department of Health & Human Services, 2012).

In the U.S., as of April 3, 2017, there are at least 1,827 100 percent-smokeless campuses, of these, 1,536 are 100 percent tobacco free and 1,400 prohibit the use of e-cigarettes anywhere on campus (Americans for Non-Smokers Rights).

Trinity’s longitudinal Health and Wellness survey was administered to a random sample of current students in January 2017. This data showed that during the fall semester, 85 percent of Trinity students never smoked tobacco, 97 percent never used smokeless (chew) tobacco, and 88 percent never used e-cigarettes or vaporizers. These statistics reassure us this policy is congruent to our students’ health and wellness needs.

Advocacy There are more than 20 colleges and universities in the state of Texas that are tobacco free. However, the majority of these tobacco-free campuses are public institutions. This is an opportunity for Trinity to be a leader in wellness for private universities not only in San Antonio, but in the state of Texas. At Trinity, enacting this policy will create further wellness opportunities in the form of possible grants or partnerships at the local and state level.

The Safety, Security & Health Committee will continue to monitor the implementation of the campaign and will develop and train a task force to help with enforcement of the new policy. Anyone willing to join the task force should contact khewitt@trinity.edu.

Campus community members can still schedule an appointment to create a quit plan with a campus physician, nurse or wellness coordinator at any time, with the possibility of receiving nicotine replacement therapy. Further resources can be found at gotu.us/tobaccofree. Tobaccofree campuses help people quit, support those who already have quit and prepare students for tobacco-free workplaces.

Thanks to all of those who continue to champion the tobacco-free policy and support other wellness programs on our campus!

Katherine Hewitt is the coordinator of Wellness Services on campus.

OPINION • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

9

How do we measure the cost of manufacturing?

BY MEGAN PLENGE

FACULTY CONTRIBUTOR Environmental headlines typically revolve around a lone polar bear on a melting ice sheet, coral bleaching events of previously unimagined size or massive coastal flooding during epic storm events in faraway (or not so faraway) places. What I want to talk about today is something less glamorous — waste.

The headline issues above are typically associated with climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions, and are incorporated into a measure called the social cost of carbon. The social cost of carbon measures the cost of burning fossil fuels on society as a whole. This includes not just the expense of mining, transporting, burning or refining, but also damage to human health, farmland, ecosystems and property due to direct and indirect impacts of fossil fuel use.

Quantifying the social cost of carbon allows us to measure the economic impacts of fossil fuel use and associated pollution problems in a comprehensive way.

The Environmental Protection Agency calculates this in order to determine the long-term damage, in dollars, due to carbon dioxide emissions. There is lots of information on this topic on the EPA website, but you should know that the current administration has made moves to delete this concept — see the executive order promoting energy independence and economics, which disbands the “... interagency working group on social cost of greenhouse gases,” and notes that it is “... no longer representative of governmental policy.”

Today I’m not going into whether this is a good idea, but rather, I want to apply the “social cost” concept to waste.

It’s time to start thinking about the social cost of waste — not CO2 waste, or even wasted water, but just garbage.

That plastic water bottle? Rinse it and recycle it! Recycling single-use containers is a fairly easy way to decrease the social cost of polyethylene terephthalate and glass bottles, and recycling is supported by societal infrastructure: recycling bins are readily available in most public spaces, and curbside pick-up for recycling is typical

Civic duty continued from page 8

Democracy means all are equal. It means everyone has the same access, provided they are a constituent of the same polity. When groups purport or propose themselves to be above the laws, they are belittling democracy.

Furthermore, if groups purport others to be not worthy of the laws, belittlement continues. If the rationale is because of their difference to the population as a whole, one need look no further than Dr. King to understand the fallacy of that argument.

Everyone is equal under the law. That is one of the fundamental tenets of democracy.

Everyone is entitled to a fair share. Winston Churchill once wrote “you can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.” He has many more intelligible and digestible quotes on democracy, but that is the only one I need for the purpose of this article. People may have issues with democracy, they may have issues with its processes and they may have issues with its leaders. But the beauty of democracy is thus: we the people hold the power to change.

graphic by TYLER HERRON

in many cities and towns. Additionally, it’s cost effective: less energy is required to reprocess the recycled material than to produce the glass, aluminum or plastic from scratch, reports Popular Mechanics.

But even better than recycling that water bottle is getting a reusable one. The fewer resources in total that have to be turned into single-use containers, the better.

Opting for reusable water bottles is starting to become mainstream, but it seems like people have a difficult time translating their distaste for single-use water bottles to other non-renewable resources. It seems like bringing to-go containers to restaurants (so you don’t have to bring home Styrofoam) would be as normal as carrying a Nalgene, but this is not yet the case. Same idea for plastic grocery bags. Reusables can go a long way compared with single-use bags and containers, and environmental studies have shown that no matter what type of bag you use, the key to reducing impact is to reuse it as many times as possible, according to the UK’s Environment Agency. The above graphic from that study shows the amount of primary use required to take reusable bags below the global warming potential of high density

M.S. in Biotechnology Laboratory-based, hands-on experience on a university medical center campus.

Professors are NIH-funded biomedical research faculty.

High faculty/student ratio.

polyethylene (HDPE) bags (with and without reuse).

Single-use containers are high on the list for reuse and recycling for obvious reasons. But what about things like old laptops? An iPhone 5c that someone wants to update to an iPhone 7? A 2004 Ford Explorer? Last season’s jeans? Running shoes? These things are all generated using energy — burning fossil fuels, and most are made out of nonrenewable resources.

Electronic waste (e-waste) is particularly troublesome, because many of the materials they are manufactured from are costly and/or toxic, a bad combination for things that end up in a landfill. And yet the EPA estimates that 2.37 million tons of electronic waste was discarded in 2009, and 75 percent of that went into landfills, where cadmium and lead can leach into water, and where non-renewable resources are lost forever.

Recycling should be considered for all electronic waste. But even here, reuse should be the goal.

How many times have you heard, “It’s cheaper just to buy a new one?” A broken blender, a car, an old printer … many products today are cheaper — or seem cheaper — to replace than repair.

But only if you don’t consider the social cost.

If you junk an old computer, even if you recycle it, there are environmental and health consequences. With e-waste, we’ve outsourced the heavy metal poisoning and air pollution to third world countries, reports National Geographic. The Basel Convention is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries — however, the U.S. has not ratified this treaty, nor has it banned these exports.

Recycling reduces the need to mine and process ore into component minerals, and in some cases the components themselves can be extricated and reused. Recycling is a good thing, and our future focus needs to be on making e-waste recycling both clean and profitable. But right now, any profit from these recycling centers has to be balanced against the public health crisis e-waste creates in the cities where it accumulates. The better option is to take care of our electronics and think of them as precious resources rather than endlessly replaceable commodities.

Recycling cars is more commonplace than e-waste recycling in the U.S., and is effective in terms of resource reuse, but recycling old cars to create new ones is only a viable option if we maximize the use of every car (just like grocery bags) That means taking care of things and being willing to make a repair if the alternative is throwing the whole car into the recycle bin.

A student recently asked me how to be more eco-conscious with clothing. My answer was to shop at thrift stores. Just because clothes are cheap and abundant doesn’t mean there isn’t an environmental cost to production.

Reusable bags and water bottles are already mainstays for many people, but reuse goes further than turning a single-use item into a multi-use item. Reuse includes things like car maintenance, resoling old shoes and hanging on to that outdated but fullyfunctional smartphone, because it doesn’t just go away when you throw it away.

Megan Plenge is a visiting assistant professor of geosciences.

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Pulse

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT “I’m looking forward to having the time to read and write more this summer.”

David Wood, associate professor of physics and astronomy

AMY STONE (right) discuss the details of the research that she completed for her novel with the attendees of the “Cornynation” release party on Monday, April17.

Photo by CLAUDIA GARCIA

Trinity sociology professor publishes longawaited novel on unique Fiesta tradition Amy Stone released “Cornynation” earlier this month after several years of careful research on the historical affair

BY KAYLIE KING PULSE REPORTER As the month of April culminates, people all over San Antonio are looking forward to Fiesta, an annual festival that honors the memories of the battles of San Jacinto and the Alamo. Many activities and traditions take place during Fiesta to commemorate these historical affairs that members of the Trinity community anticipate participating in each year.

Amy Stone, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity, has enjoyed learning about one particular Fiesta event; Stone has written a book entitled “Cornyation: San Antonio’s Outrageous Fiesta Tradition,” which explores one aspect of the Fiesta celebration that is often overlooked. Stone’s book is about the history of a Fiesta event that’s called the Cornyation “For people unfamiliar with Fiesta, there is a long-standing event called

the ‘coronation of the queen of the order of the Alamo,’ which is a huge debutante pageant for people in the Anglo community,” Stone said.

A parody of the event was later created, capturing attention from Fiesta participants.

“In the 1950s, that was one of the really big events in town and a group of men in the theater decided to do a satire of it. They named it the ‘cornyation.’ Eventually, it turned into a sort of spoof on political and cultural events.”

Stone was in the middle of writing a different book in 2009 when she was inspired to write “Cornyation.”

A co-worker suggested that she should go see the Cornyation to take a break from writing, so she attended the event at the last minute.

“The royalty for the event is the ‘king anchovy’ — there’s a lot of royalty in Fiesta — and that year it was the city manager, Sheryl Sculley,” Stone said. “And I thought, ‘How did they get the city manager to dance on stage in a skin-tight bodysuit and a cape for three nights in a row?’”

After asking herself that question, Stone began researching the event and eventually composing her book.

Stone learned that the Cornyation event is now a fundraiser, and most of the money raised during it goes toward assisting several HIV/AIDS service organizations.

“The show has raised over two million dollars for these foundations,” Stone said.

Stone hopes that readers of “Cornyation” will realize how important the unique event is as it pertains to the history of Fiesta, and that even though the Cornyation is known for being a comedic event, it still holds a special place in the historical context of Fiesta and San Antonio.

In 2012, John Dean Domingue, a former student of Stone and a 2013 Trinity graduate with a Bachelors of Arts in art and sociology, received a Murchison Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and worked with Stone to complete her research for “Cornyation.”

“The summer of that fellowship, we primarily focused on 1949 to 1965, and also some aspects of Cornyation in the 1980s,” Domingue said. “We primarily researched in archives and conducted oral history interviews of people involved with Cornyation and Fiesta. We saw these wonderful documents such as handmade programs and letters involved in the creation of this community endeavor, and we encountered many rare photographs.”

Domingue and Stone continued to access several sources of information to get a strong variety of resources for their research.

“We needed to look at more than just newspaper reporting so we could learn about what it was really like to be there, and some of these photographs and documents really helped us do that. Additionally, the lively people we interviewed gave us first-hand accounts, and what made these interviews so special was that these participants were reflecting on something from several decades prior in their lives,” Domingue said.

Caitlin Gallagher, who graduated in 2013 with degrees in urban studies and economics, was another one of Stone’s research assistants for the Cornyation project. The topic of her research was complicated to explain to others.

“When I told people I was researching Cornyation that summer, I’m not sure many of them ‘got it’ — after all, it’s a Fiesta event with a pretty wild reputation,” Gallagher said.

The confusion her peers expressed at the research encouraged Gallagher to continue exploring Cornyation alongside Stone in order to clarify its significance and history.

“That said, I think Dr. Stone’s book proves the value in exploring how these traditions that may seem eccentric or silly on first look can actually reveal a lot about our communities and their evolution over time,” Domingue said. “I ran

into Dr. Stone on campus a couple weeks ago and got to take a look at her book, and it was really cool to see that a lot of the things we found that summer made their way into the final project.”

Stone has maintained a big impact on students, including Domingue, as her lessons from her courses still resonate with him as some of his favorite memories at Trinity.

“We had an opportunity in her Gender Transgressions class to modify our gender presentation just outside of our normal comfort zone. One day more masculine than normal, and one day more feminine than normal. That assignment taught me a lot about the connections between social interactions and personal affect in regards to gender, and how others’ reactions can impact self-perception,” Domingue said.

Domingue is excited about the release of his former professor’s book and hopes it also impacts readers.

“I am so glad to see this book by Dr. Stone published because I want everyone to see the imagination and creativity that went into and continues to go into Cornyation and to see the result of the years Dr. Stone spent researching this and tying it all together,” Domingue said.

Stone’s “Cornyation: San Antonio’s Outrageous Fiesta Tradition” is currently available for purchase.

PULSE • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

David Lesch earns several accolades

The professor of Middle East history has received international recognition for his prestigious ventures

BY CLAIRE NAKAYAMA PULSE REPORTER

Trinity’s faculty consists of many professors engaged in the world around us. One such professor is David Lesch, a Ewing Halsell distinguished professor of middle east history.

Among his accolades and accomplishments, Lesch is known for his extensive knowledge of Syria and is the author and editor of 14 books and several other publications.

Although Lesch himself declined to be interviewed, several of his coworkers and students have spoken highly of him and his commitments. Carey Latimore, associate professor and current chair of the history department, met Lesch in 2004. The two became so close that Lesch was Latimore’s best man at his wedding.

“David and I have been extremely close over the years. It amazes me that he’s so busy, and yet he still teaches and does all the departmental work that he does,” Latimore said. “He was chair of the history department for a number of years. He has also been on all of our new search committees. Besides that, there are a number of outside projects that he works on that are extremely important.”

Lesch organized and led the HarvardNorwegian University Institute of International Affairs-Trinity Syria Research Project in 2012, funded by Norway and Switzerland’s governments. Jacob Uzman, who graduated in 2013 with degrees in philosophy and political science, was a research assistant for the project.

The work Uzman did with Lesch impacted his professional career after Trinity.

“Working as a political and security analyst, I routinely draw on the lessons I learned working with Dr. Lesch,” Uzman said. “While I learned an incredible amount about Syria and the Middle East, the most important things I learned were how important ground-level research is and how crucial it is to understand the frameworks through which people, groups and organizations see the world.”

Michael Bacon, the vice president for Advancement and Alumni Relations, knows Lesch through the many university-related activities he is involved in.

“He was one of our presenters at our National Alumni and Parent Conference in Houston, and he did a couple presentations on what is going on in Syria right now. They were not only the most well attended sessions, but obviously incredibly timely,” Bacon said.

Lesch gives many talks to large audiences around the world concerning the history and current affairs of Syria, which can give students a chance to learn about advanced topics at an undergraduate level.

“I think it’s pretty amazing that he has such an international profile at Trinity. It does a lot to enhance our university’s reputation. I also think that it’s great for students to watch CNN or read The New York Times and see that Lesch’s name is there,” Latimore said.

“All of us benefit from our professors’ connections to the outside world. The fact that we have a professor who is so connected to Syria and is such a world expert on that region is really incredible. Students so rarely get access to a professor at the undergraduate level with that much expert knowledge on a subject,” Bacon said. “I think that at a lot of other colleges, you would only meet him if you were a graduate student, whereas he is working closely with several Trinity students each and every day.”

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Students in Ancient Athletics class host the inaugural Trinity Olympics Participants will be able to compete for first place against teams of participants in the same class at UTSA

BY LEAH WOEHR PULSE INTERN

Field day memories don’t have to stay in elementary school anymore; Trinity’s Ancient Athletics class is hosting the first Tiger Olympics in which students can compete in games against the University of Texas at San Antonio on April 22 at 10 a.m. on Trinity’s football field.

The idea was spearheaded by Ann Morgan, visiting assistant professor of classical studies, who teaches the Ancient Athletics class.

“A former colleague is teaching the same class at UTSA. We talked about having students compete in a mock Olympics,” Morgan said.

The idea was later brought up in her class in which it became an integral part of the course.

“We started with Greece and we went over

how the Olympics started and events that they would have. We also studied Roman athletic competitions and how they took things from other cultures and created their own thing,” said senior Samiah Razak, who is enrolled in the Ancient Athletics class.

Much like in the ancient tradition, the Tiger Olympics alters the event to make it unique.

“There were certain events that were pretty standard across festivals, like foot races. Each festival would make it their own by doing things that represented who they were. So by tweaking the events, we still kind of stay in the tradition of ancient athletics,” Morgan said.

Ancient events like chariot racing and javelin throwing are replaced with wheelbarrow racing and pool noodle throwing. Other events include an egg-and-spoon relay, arm wrestling and a rap battle, as songs were typically performed at these games.

Players are additionally able to purchase “curses” to place on the opposing team.

“One of the things my colleague is working on is curse tablets and his students are going to have a table there where you can go and put

a curse on one of your competitors and that will cause them something like a two-second delay in a foot race or a foot off of the distance of their frisbee. So it’s going to penalize them somehow,” Morgan said.

The Tiger Olympics is wholly organized and planned by all of the students in the Ancient Athletics class.

“We based them off of traditions that happened in both the ancient Olympics and Roman spectacles and things that we had read that sounded interesting or obscure,” said Sarah Van Alsten, a junior who is also taking the Ancient Athletics class.

In order to participate, students may sign up individually or as a team using the registration link on the event’s Facebook page.

“People don’t have to be in a team to come and enter, but if they want to be part of a team, like in a sorority or something, they’re welcome to come do that,” Van Alsten said.

In order to register, students only have to come up with a team name and then select the events that they wish to participate in via the official Facebook page for the event.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • APRIL 21 2017 •

PULSE

Ben Brody makes big impression at Trinity with involvement in several organizations First-year student was motivated to fight against a variety of misconceptions through participation

BY JULIA WEIS PULSE REPORTER Whether he’s conducting research on ancient Persian iconography in his own office, teaching his fellow students how to become lawyers and litigators or working as hard as he possibly can to succeed in his classes, Ben Brody is always doing something guaranteed to impress.

The first year splits his time between leading the Mock Trial club, conducting research on ancient Mediterranean studies with Mark Garrison, professor of art history, and studying hard for classes, in addition to the other responsibilities of being a college student.

While some might call him crazy, Brody is determined to make an impact during his time at Trinity. Garrison was very impressed with Brody’s work in the First Year Experience class he taught and reached out to him about doing research together after the fall semester.

“He just did a great job. I guess the thing that really distinguished Ben was his level of engagement. It is very rare for a student to keep a sustained level of engagement, not only in the hours that he or she is in class, but also throughout the semester. That really stood out to me, that he was always there. He was always present and engaged with everything that was going on,” Garrison said.

Brody describes the interest in the ancient Mediterranean as a newfound passion that he

hopes to continue in some way throughout his life. The research he is currently working involves seals from ancient Persia.

“My job with Dr. Garrison is to basically research the seals on these tablets and the imagery depicted: the significance and the culture, how we can understand imperial ideology,” Brody said.

Brody’s classmates and friends find him to be an invigorating person to be around.

“Ben is probably the most hardworking friend and classmate that I have; he works so much that it can be detrimental to his health.

He is always positive and easy to be around, he is also willing to learn or to listen when he does not know about a particular topic and he admits when he doesn’t know something. Ben introduced me to Mock Trial which I highly enjoy, and I think that his passion for the club is contagious,” said Gaetano Dona-Jehan, a first-year economics and political science double major.

Brody warns not to let students put grades in front of mental health. Having dealt with a variety of difficult life experiences in order to get where he is today, Brody has certainly learned more about the importance of balance.

“Taking care of your mental health is very important. It’s something that I don’t do enough and that I didn’t do enough my first semester. And that I definitely suffered for.

I already have clinical depression, and I lost my sister the year before coming to Trinity, in addition to a number of other really traumatic life experiences. I came into college with the notion that I had an obligation to take advantage of the opportunity that my sister didn’t have and that other people who are ill or

BEN BRODY, right, chats with his friend EMILY BOURGEOIS about a variety of topics, including the difficulty of some of their classes and the highlights of this past school year. photo by HENRY PRATT

handicapped don’t have, and that it would be a waste if I did anything other than to work my hardest,” Brody said.

Brody urges first-year students to fight the notion that they aren’t capable of making a difference at Trinity.

“There is no rulebook. Just because things have not worked a certain way before, doesn’t

mean you can’t change that with enough determination and enough willpower. I would encourage people not to put themselves in a situation because that’s what it seems like they’re supposed to do. No one determines your action except for you. Just because no one has done something before doesn’t mean you can’t be the first one to do it,” Brody said.

Know a Trinity student or staff member with a story to tell?

Your story here

Contact us at trinitonian@trinity.edu

ADVERTISEMENTS • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Congratulations to the recipients of the Division of Student Life Student Leadership Awards!

2016-2017 Emerging Student Leader Danielle Couch Samsara Davalos Frances Stone Danielle Trevino

The Roman M. Lubetzky KINDness Award Amanda Cantu Presidential Awards of Excellence Pooja Bollampally Benjamin Gomez Nicole Gardini Dana McLaughlin Abby Seamster Callum Squires Nina Tao Megan Zirkle Dr. Collen Grissom Continued Commitment & Dedication Award Bridget Bey Beverly Chatfield Kylie Moden

TU Alumni Association Student Service to the University Carolyn Young TU Alumni Association Student Service to the Community Brenna Hill Student Life sTUdent Friendly Award Center for Healthcare Services

Thurman Adkins “Unsung Hero” Award Meg Chase Jacob Pursell Lindsey Yazbek

Diversity & Inclusion Award Andrea Acevedo Tahlar Rowe Nicole Woods

ARE YOU A SENIOR? HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY?

Send us your

SENIOR COLUMNS

for the April 20 issue! trinitonian@trinity.edu

Human artist hatches first chicken egg after three weeks 21 days after beginning his experimental art show centering around his sitting on chicken eggs, French artist Abraham Poincheval hatched his first chicks. This is art, folks.

Mr. Rogers fired from Fox News Beloved television star and heartthrob of millions Bill O’ Reilly ended his contract with Fox News this week, saying he was “deeply disappointed” with the decision. On an unrelated note, he settled multiple sexual assault claims against him recently.

AE &

Annual dance show prep gaining Momentum Momentum, one of Trinity’s annual dance showcases and arguably the most anticipated event of the spring semester, will be held on April 28th NABEEHA VIRANI and 29th at 7 p.m.

A&E WRITER in Sterien Theater.

Similar to previous shows, this year’s will be diverse and full of talent.

“There are gonna be a lot of tricks, like people being flipped around and stuff,” said Sarosha Hemani, sophomore choreographer and dancer.

“There’s new people with new talents and dances, which also expands on previous of dance styles. It shows that there’s a diversity of interest which is reflected in the performances themselves,” said Brandon

Smalls, senior and dancer. Dances range from various styles and meanings.

“There’s a lot of variety in the type of dances. There’s tap ballet, belly dancing, country western, contemporary hip hop, Bollywood and more. No two dances look the same, ” Hemani said.

Hemani’s dance focuses on shedding internal and external negativity as well as promoting positive self-thought.

“My dancers are going to be wearing shirts that have words that represent something they don’t like about themselves or something that brings them down.

Throughout the dance, they’re going to be taking their shirts off as a symbol to not let their negative thoughts affect their selfesteems,” Hemani said.

“This dance is a message to the audience to believe in themselves and not let others or yourself weigh you down,” Hemani said.

This is both Hemani and Smalls’ second time participating in Momentum.

“It’s cool because people who start dancing then become choreographers which transforms the show and brings in different perspectives,” Smalls said.

“It’s really fun being part of a community that appreciates and comes out to these shows. Dancing for me is a way to express myself in a way that I can’t do through speech and it’s so much fun putting together a dance and show that lets me do that,” Hemani said.

One reason why Momentum is such an anticipated event within Trinity’s community is because of how unique it is.

“Momentum is strictly a show for dancing and one that has such a wide variety of styles unlike Diwali and Lunar New Year, which are usually region specific or holiday specific.

Momentum is more different in that sense,”

Smalls said.

The rest of the campus is excited for the showcase of the variety of talent that Momentum continuously demonstrates.

“I’m really looking forward to the variety of dances. It’s cool to see how the performances mesh together and how they each mean different things,” said Mykaela Cali, sophomore.

Though most of the campus knows what Momentum is, dancers, producers and choreographers have publicized the event so that it’s everywhere.

“I keep sharing the event on Facebook and inviting people. I want everyone to come out and see all the hard work that was put into the show, because it’s going to be really great,” Hemani said.

Though Momentum is a free event, tickets are needed for entry and can be picked up in Coates from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. on weekdays.

Artistic restrictions and why they’re great Artistic creation is a messy process. It’s a neat process. It require inspiration.

It requires perspiration.

Anyone who DYLAN WAGNER claims to create A&E EDITOR artistic content has, and is allowed to have, their own opinion about what making good art entails and requires. But (there always is one, isn’t there?) my personal philosophy about the subject is that creation takes place more regularly and more effectively in an environment with rules. Paralysis is often the result of too much creative freedom, as the only bounds then are those of the imagination, and those are pretty large and directionless. No this, only so much of that.

No pencils, only paint. No smashing your hands on the keyboard, only certain sets of notes allowed (one or two composers might have a problem with this example).

No writing just any words, only words that rhyme. The last restriction had a personal impact on my early in life, When I was in fourth grade, my teacher Mrs. Ralph thought a fun writing exercise would be for the children to write rhyming couplets for some arbitrary holiday, maybe Valentine’s Day? Within the first 10 minutes, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one, Mrs. Wagner had to deal with my 16-line poem, revealing my fascination with the number of words that rhyme with “poop” and “fart.” It wasn’t in iambic pentameter, but I think her problem with the poem was all of the scatalogical humor. She laughed, shockingly, but sent me back to my seat with an instruction to avoid using words “like that.” I spent the rest of class pushing the boundaries of my burgeoning fourth-grade vocabulary to lovingly typeset such wordcraft as “brown log” and “smelly gas” (although I didn’t dare rhyme that with “ass”; that’s fifthgrade territory). The original is lost to time, but my point regarding it is fairly simple: restrictions force creative innovation.

In (rhyming) poetry, this means disallowing dissonant words in certain places (and hitting the “enter” key randomly, if you like blank verse). For other art, the restrictions could be anything and everything from physical restrictions on media, like paint for paintings, or self-imposed limitations

graphic by TYLER HERRON

for a given work, such as that one artist who literally shoots bullets at metal and wood materials and makes semi-realistic silhouettes. Of course, artistic limitations aren’t always physically or willingly imposed: some are forced by an outside party, such as those handed down by Mrs. Ralph. This

is commonly called “censorship.” No one wants to be called a censor, and the practice is seen as only appropriate in certain fuzzy contexts, usually involving phrases like “our children’s precious little jelly bits can’t handle the Lovecraftian horrors revealed by jokes about feces.”

But censorship, acknowledging its obvious negative qualities, has arguably created the conditions for great art over the years. I won’t go into the history of censorship or how many pictures of not-Jesus we might have if the religious restrictions of the last 2,000 years weren’t a thing, because that’s beyond the scope of this article and also because fuck you, that’s why. Instead, I’ll explain why modern cartoons are some of the best contemporary examples of art under limitation.

I’ll definitely miss some great works when cherrypicking a few shows, but I accept this and choose “Adventure Time” and “Stephen Universe” to exfoliate my point. Both are Cartoon Network television comedies made for children, ostensibly, but artfully (sometimes) weave adult themes and adult humor into the show without anyone noticing. At least, that’s the idea.

“Adventure Time” is a surreal storytelling masterpiece that follow best friends Finn the Human (an adolescent human) and Jake the Dog (a magical canine) through a mixture of post-apocalyptic fantasy escapades and Finn’s emotional development — pretty standard cartoon shenanigans, no? What makes this show limitation-friendly is that the writers and animators deftly interweave creative fantasy fun, coming-of-age themes and tasteful representation of mental illness.

They do this while keeping the show’s characters relatable and grounded, at least for a show about a post-nuclear Earth that developed magic in the vacuum of technology after the bombs fell. And there’s a character made of bubble gum. Onto “Steven Universe.”

The show about “gay space rocks,” as aficionado’s call it, has garnered significant media attention, and for good reason. The science fiction series revolves around a strange, if not unheard of, premise: aliens visit from space. They’re made of gemstones, and each one is different in some way.

Without going much beyond that plotwise, the show tricks you with its flashy, wellwritten dialogue and musical numbers before you realize that the alien nature of the Gems makes their genders impossible to verify, letting the show function as a vehicle for progressive, gender identity-positive messages about accepting yourself and others (unless they’re being dicks, in which case DESTROY THEM).

CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Restrictions CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

And they can do this without violating Cartoon Network’s censorship of openly LGBTQ characters — almost. One very “intimate” dance between two characters was censored, and there was backlash on social media. These are only two examples of restrictions in art leading to better art, but I chose cartoons as the medium to exemplify this concept with because with advancing animation technology their restrictions are almost always outwardly imposed, unlike live-action shows which have a multitude of unfortunate limits based on cameras, human beings and other physical things.

Take a look at other shows through the lens of restrictions and you’ll see that many genres develop creative solutions to genrebinding or technology-binding problems.

Further Watching: Cartoons that know how to walk the line -- “Courage the Cowardly Dog” -- “Flapjack” -- “Bravest Warriors” -- “Hey Arnold”

Let’s make sure this one isn’t a Siesta Longstanding tradition to start showing us the meaning of “party”

Everyone who has spent more than a few weeks in San Antonio knows about Fiesta.

But how many of us know why we have Fiesta? I didn’t, so ALEJANDRO CARDONA here’s a little crash course of the History A&E WRITER of San Antonio’s iconic celebration.

The scope of Fiesta San Antonio has grown into a massive and unique citywide celebration. More than 100 events take place over 17 days, and take around 75,000 volunteers to coordinate.

This year’s fiesta marks the 126th iteration of the event, which began in 1891 when a group of women organized to honor the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, two pivotal battles of the Texas Revolution, which secured the addition of the state into the Union.

The event began with the “Battle of the Flowers Parade,” which featured horse drawn carriages, flower-decorated bicycles and baby carriages with infants dressed as flowers. Women met in front of the Alamo and celebrated by throwing flowers at each other. To this day, the parade is the only in the country to be planned and directed entirely by women.

From that point on, the celebration continued to grow, adding days of celebration and events, all of them revolving around revolving April 21, the day of the Battle of San Jacinto and the “Battle of the Flowers Parade.” Initial

additions included a carnival, balls, and coronations of Fiesta Royalty.

One notable early addition to the Fiesta is the Charreada, a traditional Mexican horse riding event similar to the Rodeo.

The event originally served as a way to prepare riders and horses for war, but now serves as a commemorative competition.

If you’ve never been to Fiesta, make some time for the most iconic nights. Night in Old San Antonio is a four-evening party taking place in the historic La Villita.

Another large-scale event is Fiesta in Blue, an annual concert by the US Air Force Band of the West, featuring classical music, jazz and popular songs.

Fiesta is a unique event at the national level, combining the unique flavors of Texan and Mexican cultures.

Sometime next week, take some time to go downtown and connect with this rich San Antonio tradition.

15

Sports

The Death of Aaron Hernandez APR.

21

Two days ago, on April 19, 2017, former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his jail cell, having hung himself days after being acquitted of a double murder he was indicted for in 2012. Hernandez, once a standout receiver for Tom Brady, was originally sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Some have theorized that Hernandez himself was murdered, including both his lawyer and his agent.

Pictured from left to right: sophomore midfielder EMILY WELP, junior midfielder Hannah Booher, junior defender Jordan Bethea.

photo by NOAH DAVIDSON

Women’s soccer sets goals for fall season

BY ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER Trinity women’s soccer is gearing up for their upcoming fall season in which they defend their claim to the past eight consecutive conference championships. Overall the Tigers have won 21 SCAC championships.

“I think it’s gonna be a great year,” said Meredith Licata, rising senior forward. “We have a lot of seniors returning. I’m excited to get playing again and really just excited to be out there one more time.”

The team is currently preparing for the upcoming season with kick arounds, unofficial practices and lifting together as a team, as well as crafting their new identity after the loss of seven seniors who were great contributors to the program. “[The graduating seniors] were a phenomenal group of leaders and people and players,” said Julia Camp, rising senior forward. “Finding people to fill their roles on the field and also missing them as people and as friends is a challenge, but I think it’s something we’re prepared to do and people are already stepping up.”

The Tigers are looking forward to see how players step into fill the rolls left by players like All-American forward Yasmeen Farra.

“I am most excited about finding our new strengths after losing quite a few seniors. A lot of the seniors were a part of the starting line up, so it will be fun to see people step up and fill those roles,” said Chelsea Cole, rising junior center midfielder.

“Our team overall just has a lot of really talented soccer players who know how to play the game. Even with the changes from season to season, we can always rely on our fundamental skills.”

This season will also be the team’s second with head coach Dylan Harrison at the helm.

“Last year was our first season with him, so we didn’t really know what to expect,” Cole said. “Going into preseason with an idea of what to expect will be comforting and he also makes everything fun, but highly competitive.”

In addition to continuing under the Trinity soccer alum’s leadership, the dominant Tigers are excited about the rising leadership of the new senior class.

“We have a big [rising] senior class, a lot of people who have played a lot over the years, a lot of leadership and people who know what their roles are and how to do it and how to be examples for the younger players,” Licata said. “Julia Camp, Colleen Markey score a lot of goals so it will be exciting to have them back and watch them play.”

“We have a lot of depth and a lot of different personalities,” Camp said. “Everyone is kind of stepping up into their role this spring which has been really great for us.”

Players like Markey, Camp and many other returners have been huge contributors to the program and as they step to the forefront of their senior year will develop a team that matches their personality and style of play.

“Our leadership will be strong,” Frye said. “A lot of the juniors and rising seniors have stepped into roles that I think are really going to fill the spots of the outgoing seniors. It will be interesting to see what they bring as their kind of own role as making it their own team in their senior year.”

The Tigers played a spectacularly strong season last year, remaining undefeated until they fell to the eventual national champion Washington University team in the Round of 8.

“Because our returning team is so strong I think our goal is just kind of pick up where we left off,” Camp said.

The National Championship is always the goal for the Tigers, something you will hear repeated by players on both the men and women’s teams.

“The goal every year — we’re not gonna hide it — is to win a national championship,” Frye said.

Camp explains the teams she’d most like to face again are those to whom she’d lost.

“Thomas More, Hardin Simmons and Wash U are the only three games I’ve lost in my career here,” Camp said. “I would love to get a chance to have a rematch of those games so I’m kind of hoping we run into them in the NCAA tournament.”

Each loss over the careers of the rising seniors were during the NCAA tournament. The Tigers face little competition within the SCAC, winning conference games by extreme margins, the greatest of which was a blowout 12-0 victory over Centenary College.

“We’re very used to winning within our conference so once we get to the big games and the NCAA playoffs we sometimes struggle to get into the fast pace with teams that are just as offensive as us,” Licata said.

Last season’s conference play saw the Tigers allowed only two goals, while scoring 66.

“We’re a very possession-oriented team and when we play a team that’s not possession oriented that’s when we get in trouble,” Frye said.

Trinity soccer is working on ways to become even stronger as the edge toward the upcoming season.

“I think the team can improve our already strong game by recognizing what we are good at and making sure that we stick to it and do it consistently. We should also be aware of our weaknesses and try to make sure those don’t get exploited,” Cole said. “As we start to play more together without the graduating seniors, it will be more clear what needs to get better.”

“It’s gonna be great to watch how it all plays out,” Camp said.

SPORTS • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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The struggles of being a student-athlete How the average sports team member suffers in ways most students will never be able to understand

BY HALEY McFADDEN

SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR

Everyone knows college is hard, right? School challenges you, and professors sometimes push you to your limits with tests and excessive amounts of homework. However, as with most things in life, not everyone goes through college at an even playing field, and there are those brave souls who will take on extra work, not to benefit themselves, but the student body as a whole.

The student-athlete population is, quite possibly, made up of the most brave and tenacious students on campus. Taking on the role of athlete, working long days and nights for the good of the university and never stopping The Grind (™) are just a few of the struggles these hard-working souls have to endure.

As a student-athlete myself, I can confirm that much of what I go through on a day-to-day basis will never be understood by the average student. Everyone always wants to complain about how tired they are or how they need more coffee. Like, excuse me, but did you wake up at 6 a.m. this morning to workout?

The average day of the studentathlete is long and exhausting. Wake up early, practice for a few hours, go to class immediately after (the grind never stops) and then go to

MORE practice in the afternoon.

And then, because teachers will never understand how tired we are, after practice, we are still expected to complete the same homework and study for the same tests as our nonathlete peers! There are nights where the student-athlete has to stay up way past our recommended bedtime

Club basketball preps for scrimmage

BY SHELBY DeVORE

SPORTS REPORTER

The men’s club basketball team has been practicing all year, working on their skills and developing a team.

They are competing in their first round of scrimmages of the year this weekend on Saturday, April 22 in Austin.

“A strength of the team is our diverse skill-level; there are guys who have played competitive varsity high school basketball, and people who just took up the sport recently,” sophomore Cole Jackson said. “It is nice to have varying skill levels so that anyone who comes out feels welcome to play. I feel good going into the tournament.”

The team has been practicing twice a week since the fall semester.

Due to the fact they are a fairly new program, they have not had the opportunity to play in a tournament this year. Although they have not gotten to compete against other teams, they have been preparing all year so when the opportunity came up, they were ready. Just like any other team, they have their strengths and challenges, and just like all teams, they have been working to highlight on those strengths and create solutions for the challenges.

“The team right now has on a focus on skill, hard work, and chemistry,” sophomore captain Nick Thies said. “Although we may not be the most talented group of basketball players, talent doesn’t always win games. We as a team believe that hard work intelligent

play and lock-down defense are our biggest priorities and our success will come from that.”

What makes club sports different, besides that they are associated with Trinity Athletics or compete in the NCAA divisions, they play with schools of all different divisions from all over the state and even some outside of Texas.

Some of these teams compete with schools such as University of Texas or Baylor University or Louisiana State University.

“We are looking at joining the Texas Collegiate Club Sports League,” sophomore Logan Simmons said. “As of right now we have nine members going to play in the scrimmage. We will be playing with new members so we will be practicing with them this week as much as possible.”

The team hopes to grow and play some tournaments in the fall.

As a new team, they have met the requirements of what exactly it takes to be competitive. Now, they have the opportunity to take what they have been practicing and use it on the court.

“As for the upcoming games I’m from Austin Texas and played many games in the St. Edwards gym growing up,” Thies said. “It will be fun to bring my friends from San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, etc to Austin. We hope on the 22nd we enjoy a nice competitive game, with a school right down the road.

With a secondary focus of creating a friendship with the coaching staff and players of St. Edwards to further our future exhibition opportunities.”

of 9:30 p.m. to finish homework to ensure that their GPA remains good enough to play, and they rarely, if ever, are thanked by anyone for all they do for the school. I mean, rude?

Also calculate in the time we have to spend editing pictures of us playing for our Instagram and Facebook fans and all the time we have to

spend keeping up with professional players, and it’s a surprise we sleep at all!

I have heard a lot of excuses by students who are not athletes for why they are tired too, or why school is wearing them out. Everything from “I’m a triple major in BCMB, Spanish and Engineering,” to “I

have to work full-time and attend class,” or “I have a medical condition that makes me chronically tired.” All of these are fine and dandy excuses, and vI’m sure to the average plainold student, they sound like good reasons, but it is just hard to imagine that any of these people could come close to understanding the struggle athletes go through every semester to balance academic achievement and athletic accomplishments, never giving less than 110 percent.

Anyway, I believe I have made my point fairly clear, but just as a final clarification, we student-athletes do not just suffer for our own achievement, but rather we suffer for you. When you tell your friends and family that you go to Trinity, inevitably the first thing they will think of is Trinity Athletics and how great they are, which will confirm how cool you are for attending this tiny, Division III school. That is the true reason why while you are dreaming, we are out there chasing dreams. Next time you see a studentathlete, thank them for their service.

And for my fellow athletes, don’t stop The Grind #D1BOUND.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • APRIL 21, 2017 •

SPORTS

Tigers swept by No. 16 TLU in final home stand Softball team celebrates seniors, hopes to bounce back this weekend in games against Southwestern

BY SHELBY DeVORE

SPORTS REPORTER

This past weekend saw the softball team’s last home series for the 2017 season against No. 16 ranked Texas Lutheran University. It was filled with dedication, hard work and even some tears.

The Tigers struggled the first day against the TLU Bulldogs. The first game they lost 11-2 and the second 7-0. The next day they came ready to give it their all. They lost the first 9-1 but in the second they began to fight.

“Generally, they went pretty well,” sophomore second baseman Hailey Wilson said. “Playing a team that is nationally ranked can be kind of a daunting task and kill the team morale a bit. I think we did a great job of not worrying about rankings or statistics and just going out there and playing our game. They have some of the best pitchers in Division III, and we still managed to string together a few hits.”

They battled back in fourth, but neither team was able to score a run until the sixth inning. In the top of the sixth, TLU scored two runs but Trinity was able to score two in the bottom, tying up the game. With two outs, Wilson stepped up and hit a single then

junior shortstop Rebecca Berreth walked, allowing Wilson to advance to second. First year first baseman Danielle Ruiz singled out to centerfield but advanced to second on an error, allowing Wilson to score. Next up in the batting line, sophomore catcher Siera Spurlock also singled, allowing Berreth to score their second run of the game.

In the top of the seventh the Bulldogs scored five runs off of four hits and one error. In the bottom of the inning, the Tigers’ first three batters struck out, leaving the score 7-2. After a hard-fought game, the team honored their four seniors, pitchers Katie Castillion and Katie Glomb, second baseman Hilary Hoffman, and outfielder Mackenzie Hill. They received gifts from their families and teammates along with framed jerseys “Playing my last softball game at home is kind of weird because it has been such a big part of my Trinity life,” Hoffman said. “I loved that all of my family and friends came out though that really means a lot. Though it was my last home game I wasn’t as emotional because we’ve still got one more series and the tournament left to play.”

This weekend saw more than just a weekend filled of softball. Due to the long holiday weekend, families of the team came to support

the Tigers. They not only cheered from the stands but they also helped organize the team’s annual Easter egg hunt and senior potluck.

“It is great being on a team with so many traditions,” first-year outfielder Cameron Lavergne said. “We have a family culture with not only our teammates, but our parents as well. They do so much for us every game and we are truly grateful for them.”

This team has showed there is more to the game than just hitting a yellow ball with a bat. It is a game where they can make friends, share their passion with their families and carry on traditions. The Tigers will compete this weekend, traveling to Georgetown to play Southwestern University, where they will close out their season against their rival the Pirates.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE Softball: Apr. 22-23, at

Southwestern (4 games) Track and Field: Apr. 28-29 SCAC Championships Tennis: Apr. 28-30 Location TBD SCAC Championships Location TBD Baseball: Apr. 24, 6 p.m. vs.

Our Lady of the Lake; Apr. Bold - Home game 25, 5 p.m. vs.

Hardin-Simmons

SPORTS • APRIL 21, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Pictured on right, back row from left: DELIASOFIA ZACARIAS, DANIELLE TREVINO, CRISTINA KODADEK, CLAIRE MUNRO, JAELYN JERNT; middle row: libero CELESTE ACEVEDO, ANNIE BARAHONA; bottom row: seniors ANDREA ZAVALA, JORDAN HIGH, GABRIELLA GREENFIELD photos provided by KRISTEN HARRISON

Women’s club volleyball ends on high note

BY HALEY McFADDEN

SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR

For many Trinity students, club sports have provided a way to continue playing without the commitment level of varsity athletics. While some club sports keep practices and games relaxed and non-competetive, other, such as the Trinity Volleyball club team, are constantly pushing to become winning players.

Recently, the Trinity women’s club volleyball team has come away from a fairly successful season. The team, a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, played against many Alamo Colleges and San Antonio-area colleges, beating out schools like Northeast Lakeview College and Palo Alto College. While the win-loss record is very important, many see club volleyball as more than just a sport, and as a way to make life-long friendships and connect with girls who they otherwise would not have met.

“I really wanted to have a sport built in to my collegiate

experience so I could stay active, and I wanted to be able to meet people on campus,” said junior Mallory Garcia. “I love the ability to play the sport that I am passionate about at the club level and to have so many students and others who work really hard to make success happen.”

Recently, the Trinity team has faced off against division one University of Incarnate Word club volleyball for the Texas Collegiate Club Sports East Championship. The girls walked away victorious, proving all their work this season paid off.

UIW and Trinity had faced off many times in the past, and have been long-time rivals, making the victory even more exciting.

UIW had taken home the conference championship in 2016, so the team came into the match with something to prove.

This victory came as the result of many practices, picking apart where the girls needed to make improvements and focusing on a bigger result.

“One big improvement we’ve made is having a well balanced offense,” said co-team captain, junior Danielle Trevino. “Our scoring has gotten more balanced, and we no longer depend on

one or two players. The team has also pulled in a lot more new girls with previous volleyball experience, which is helpful. This team has come a long way since even last semester.”

The Trinity men’s club volleyball has also experienced some success this season, mostly in the way of rebuilding a strong team for future seasons. While the team experienced disappointment at the conference level, placing 15th out of 25 SIVA schools, losing to schools like University of Texas, Texas A&M, and Baylor, the team brought in many new players, and is ready to train to compete harder in future years.

“In terms of wins total, no, we did not really have that good of a season. However, this was basically a rebuilding season, we lost five of our six starters to graduation and so the goal this year was really to just teach a bunch of guys how to play volleyball. For that goal I think we’ve had success,” said team captain Ben D’aurizio. “Since Fall semester we’ve make a lot of improvements, and the guys have come a long ways, so we are ready to keep working for next season.”

cortex. Career or season ending injuries are terrible and tragic, but darker still is the pain that slowly takes all you’ve given to the sport you love and destroys all you’ve worked to build. This chronic pain from years and years of stress you voluntarily put on your body is terrible and terrifying and it use to confuse me as to why you just accept it.

Your fate is signed before you’re old enough to realize the reality. You start down a path before you know where it leads.

As a child, you are placed in the midst of a game which you are bound to fall in love with, where the price for your love will be yourself. Football and baseball pitching are the two things with which I would never wish my child to fall in love. Football is terrifying because you do not know CTE is killing you until it literally does. I have so many opinions about this and more to say than I could ever fit here, so I will only say football is the hardest sport to justify, even by those who love it.

As you grow older, as you run farther, as you throw harder, as you face stronger opponents, your skills increases along with the strength of the poison you drink. Your attempts at protection and prevention, your preparation is futile to the cancelling the effect of the poison you willing ingest. Limiting the poison does not remove the effect, as you know your days are numbered.

I would ask myself, WHY? Why would you keep pitching knowing you are slowly destroying the weapon that has taken you to where you are now, giving up the ability to play catch with your kid in the front yard? Why do you run mile after

mile knowing your shins have long passed their limit? Why do you play the game you do knowing your ACL is teetering on a line? Why do you buy a childhood of glory for the price of an adulthood of pain?

I asked these questions, then realized I am doing the exact same thing, everytime I skate. I feel the same pain that many runners experience, though I expect yours to be much worse than mine. The more I skate, the worse my ankles become. The farther I go, the more dangerous the poison I willing allow to destroy me becomes.

WHY? I found the answer to my ponderance in my own life.

LOVE. We fall in love with what we know will only break our hearts and bodies. This inescapable passion has cast a spell that pain cannot break. It is an obsessive and unhealthy love affair with that which can never reciprocate the devotion we offer. We fall in love and let it kill us. We let it kill us slowly. It’s a gamble I’m willing to take, though I know it is unwise, because when I am flying down the hill, I know who I am. So I sacrifice my ankles. We sacrifice ourselves to receive the one thing that tells us who we are.

IS IT WORTH IT? From the outside, the answer is no. It is crazy and stupid. But when I’m skating, the answer is yes. Yes. It will always be worth it as long it makes me feel like I feel now.

There’s a Taylor Swift song that says, “We fall in love till it hurts or bleeds or fades in time,” and that’s how I think sports are.

Sports, love and the potential for injuries

BY ELISE HESTER

SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR I recently used my tax refund to purchase a new pair of inline skates. It has been almost six years since I broke in a new pair of skates and I forgot just how terrible it is. I have broken in cleats, boots and heels, but nothing compares to skates. The bigger the wheels, the bigger the blisters and with them come foot cramps and muscle aches. It will get better, but pain is simply a part of sports. (Let me be clear. I don’t consider my version of distance inline skating sport, nor do I consider myself an athlete. My skating is a hobby, a physically intensive hobby, but a hobby nonetheless.)

No pain, no gain. Being good at anything physical, whether you call it a sport or a hobby, requires a certain level of pain.

Hebrews 2:11 says, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained up by it.” At the end of the day, blisters turn into calluses and soreness to strength.

This is only the first type of pain from sports. The second is darker. The first pain is that of which it is said what does not kill you will only make you stronger. The second is the pain that you make stronger until it kills you.

For many athletes, the question is not if you will get hurt, but when. Sports are an inevitable gamble and the chips laid down is your ACLs, joints and not-yet-fully-formed prefrontal

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • APRIL 21 2017 •

SPORTS

The past year in sports photographs

Top left: photo by NOAH DAVIDSON. Top right, bottom left and bottom right: photos by OZVALDO VELOZ