09.22.2017

Volume 115 Issue 06

Trinitonian Serving Trinity University Since 1902

September 22, 2017

starting on page 11

SGA revises constitution, bylaws Student Government Association will discuss changes in a series of meetings KATHLEEN CREEDON

NEWS EDITOR In its Sept. 11 and Sept. 18 meetings, the Student Government Association (SGA) discussed revising its constitution and bylaws. This Monday, the senators unanimously voted to approve the addition of a judicial chair along with alterations to the first four articles, which state SGA’s mission, concern SGA membership and participation, and detail the duties of the president and vice president.

Amendments to the constitution and bylaws will be presented to the senate in parts, voted on at the next week’s meeting then brought to the student body for approval. Many of the changes to the constitution are revisionary in nature and aim to clarify the documents’ previous wording.

“As we can see in our own government, with a document that is written a long time ago, interpretation is an issue,” said senator Amulya Deva, a junior.

The first major change to the constitution is a new preamble: “As students of Trinity University, we have both a vested interest and a responsibility to see that our University operates at the highest level with a sustained interest

From right to left: Senators ENRIQUE ALCOREZA, SIMONE WASHINGTON and JUAN LUEVANOS listen intently at a meeting. photo by CHLOE SONNIER

in providing the best possible Trinity experience for all. In order to fulfill this responsibility and in accordance with the Student Rights and Responsibilities Section of the Trinity University Student Handbook, we as a student body hereby establish the Trinity University Student Government Association. As a recognized student representative organization, Student Government Association will give direction and voice to student concerns, safeguard student rights, and provide a framework for activities and services for students. We do ordain and establish this Constitution of the Trinity University Undergraduate Student Body to direct our governing entity, provided that no part of this Constitution nor any action taken under its authority shall conflict with the policies of Trinity University.”

Along with amending some repetition and other unclear parts of the document,

the senators have proposed the addition of a judicial chair, a position they believe will increase accountability and transparency.

“The judicial chair will be a member of SGA, but they will have the responsibility of acting independently and impartially,” said senator Callie Struby, junior. “They will be appointed by the Student Conduct Board (SCB) to sit and serve on SGA as an oversight to make sure that we are leading our constitution. What that means in practice is that they will be here mainly for impeachment hearings and for removals from office and also to institute what we’re going to call the demerit system.”

The chair will be responsible for interpreting the constitution and deciding whether or not senators offend it in any way. The demerit system will make this process easier. Demerits will be issued when senators act out of line with the

constitution. After five demerits, a senator is considered ‘not in good standing.’

“The process is fair because we’re only going to award demerits when things are so unreasonable they are getting in the way of us conducting SGA business,” Deva said.

SGA hopes that this chair will add more transparency and accountability to the group. Although all of the senators voted to have this position in the constitution, the specifics of it will be in the bylaws, which will be voted on after the constitution reviews are agreed upon.

“The idea has been pretty well-received by everyone who has heard it. The judicial chair is basically a member of SGA that’s independent, appointed by a body who has yet to be decided yet — we’re hoping Student Conduct Panel. They will make sure people are held accountable for being attentive at meetings, inappropriate dress code, being respectful of other senators,” Struby said.

“They’ll be more of a liaison than anything else,” said SGA president Nick Santulli, a senior.

Struby and Deva, two of the senators who spearheaded the revisions, emphasized the importance of the senators as representatives for all of Trinity’s student body, not just the class that elects them.

“Once you’re on SGA, you represent Trinity as a whole. That’s in the document.

You represent all the classes, alumni to a certain extent, you represent the university community as a whole,” Struby said.

More information about SGA meetings, agendas and minutes can be found on Trinity’s website or by emailing sga@trinity.edu.

TFL honors 9/11 victims, families

Tigers for Liberty memorial receives positive response from Trinity community KAYLIE KING

NEWS REPORTER On Sept. 11, Tigers for Liberty (TFL), Trinity’s conservative student group, organized a tribute to those who died in the terrorist attacks that same day 16 years earlier. TFL members placed 2,977 flags around Miller Fountain; each flag honored an individual who lost their life on that day.

This year is only TFL’s second year as an official student organization. They wanted to organize a similar tribute last year, but

the funding was not available to them at the time.

“Last year, we just put one larger American flag up that we had,” said Luke Ayers, TFL president and junior economics major. “We had some money left over last year and we were able to purchase the flags over the summer.”

Ayers also explained why TFL chose to honor victims in this specific way.

“This kind of memorial is actually a national project,” Ayers said. “It’s a project of Young America’s Foundation — they sell the flags at a discount, and they send free resources to any student group that wants to do this kind of memorial on their campus. I have friends at Southern Methodist University and Angelo State and other schools that have done pretty much the same kind of memorial today.” continued on PAGE 5

TFL placed 2,977 flags around miller fountain to stand in solidarity with the victims and families of the victims of 9/11. photo by AMANI CANADA

How to handle history the right way

Trinity student lands art in Rookie Magazine

Splashin’ in Fashion: Swimmers suit up

Fulbright student Daniel Weber compares the differences between German culture and American culture in terms of memorials.

Sophomore Dinda Lehrmann is featured in the publication that inspired her work.

The swim team spices up practices with funky swim suits.

PAGE 6 OPINION

PAGE 17 A&E

PAGE 23 SPORTS

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Compiled by KATHLEEN CREEDON

Corrections •

In last week’s issue, the article “Campus reacts to Trump’s rollback of DACA,” George Rodriguez was incorrectly recorded as defending the policy. Rodriguez defended the repeal of the policy.

• In last week’s issue, the article “Political science department to offer one fewer study abroad option” stated that the department altered its policies regarding study abroad courses. There is no such policy.

Spot a mistake? Let us know at trinitonian@trinity.edu.

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Identification The Trinitonian [ USPS 640460] [issn 1067-7291] is published weekly during the academic year, except holidays and final exams, by Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200. Subscription price is $35 per year. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Antonio, TX. POSTM ASTER: Send address changes to the Trinitonian, One Trinity Opinions expressed in the Trinitonian are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Trinity University, its students, faculty, staff or the Trinitonian. Editorials represent the opinions of the Trinitonian Editorial Board. The first copy of the Trinitonian is free; additional copies are 50 cents each. ©2017. All rights reserved.

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SEPTEMBER 22, 2017

• NEWS

NEWS • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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University reacts to Title IX speech Students skeptical, administrators strive to maintain current campus policy KENDRA DERRIG

NEWS REPORTER Last Thursday, Sept. 14, United States secretary of education Betsy DeVos delivered a speech on Title IX, calling the current process of handling campus sexual assault a “failed system.” While DeVos provided no specific plan with regards to Title IX, her speech indicated that the policy will be reviewed and most likely revised in some extent.

Title IX is a federal law that porotects students from being discriminated on the basis of their sex in any educational program that receives federal funding. The law has come to be seen as one protecting victims of sexual assault and harassment because it establishes procedures for fairly handling complaints.

Ariel del Vecchio, sophomore art and art history major, expressed concerns over DeVos’ remarks that are echoed among classmates.

“My initial reaction to what DeVos has to say is cautious. I would like to think that she will advocate for the protection of victims of sexual assault on campus, but I’m not convinced that she has a deep enough understanding of the way Title IX works. I’m also concerned that this is just another way for the Trump administration to rewrite the policy of the previous administration,” del Vecchio said.

David Tuttle, dean of students, also voiced concern with DeVos’ knowledge regarding Title IX and the associated campus processes, specifically calling out her verbiage.

“I understand the natural skepticism given the appointment of current secretary and her experience — or lack of experience,” Tuttle said. “I think using terms like ‘kangaroo court’ always shows a certain naiveté about the process. Even saying ‘he said, she said’ oversimplifies things and doesn’t show a true understanding of the nature of evidence.

She did keep using that one phrase, ‘the failed system,’ and so, I don’t know if it’s as failed as she believes.”

However, while the initial student reaction was one of skepticism, Trinity administrators are hopeful that DeVos’ openness to potential solutions will help steer her in the right direction.

“I think the first thing that is worth taking into consideration is that there’s going to be a public comment period. From what I understand, the advice to colleges and universities now is that the current guidelines are obviously still in place, and we should be following them. The changes could end up being minimal, I mean, who knows. Public comment periods often serve a really valuable process in formulating formal rules and regulations,” said Pamela Johnston, assistant vice president for human resources and recently appointed Title IX coordinator at Trinity University.

Tuttle also spoke to DeVos’ apparent willingness to accept suggestions.

“There were a lot of reactions that came out on various sides on what she said, and it seems like nobody is pleased, but to me the underlying point was that they want to look at it in more depth and they want to collect more information. They were talking about ways to look creatively at solutions. Nobody seems to be that pleased with where things are at right now,” Tuttle said.

Tuttle points out that there are major problems with the current process, especially concerning the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which DeVos did address.

“The OCR should practice what they preach. They dictate a lot of rules to institutions, and they give a strict timeline of 60 days. They outline what standard of evidence we should be using, but they don’t do any of that. We have a complaint that was filed against us in 2014. It’s 2017, and we’re no closer to resolution, there’s very little communication about it. To me, it doesn’t embody those elements that I talk about, of being transparent and being fair to any of the people involved in the complaint,” Tuttle said.

Through stating “the era of rule by letter is over,” DeVos implied that the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter, which provides guidelines — not firm laws — for schools regarding handling sexual assault cases, will be altered or completely rescinded.

Both Tuttle and Johnston addressed the importance of the Dear Colleague Letter.

“The Dear Colleague Letter, I’ve read it dozens of time, and I just find that, the

more I read it, the longer I’ve done this, the more clarity I think it offers. I think it’s good. I think it would be a shame to see that get thrown out,” Tuttle said.

Students worry that rescinding the letter will show a lack of solidarity from the government on the side of victims in sexual assault cases.

“The Dear Colleague Letter has provided important guidance for schools, and has been a real positive for victims of sexual violence. I just can’t imagine that at this institution that victims will be taken less seriously if the Dear Colleague Letter is superseded,” Johnston said.

DeVos also implied that there is a possibility for change in the standard of evidence used in sexual assault cases.

“If I’m a student, probably the thing I would look most closely at is whether or not the standard of evidence changes from ‘greater weight of the credible evidence,’ basically 51 percent, to ‘clear and convincing,’ which is a 75 percent standard. What that would do is make it more difficult for reporting students to have an outcome that they are seeking in a case because it’s a higher standard. Now the other side would say that it should be that way because you are creating, in a sense, a de facto sexual offender registry by having it go on student records if they’ve been suspended by a sexual misconduct violation, it follows them around, they may not be able to transfer or complete their education, so there are people saying

by reflecting on several issues, the rich cultural contributions that the U.S. Latinx community bring to every city in the U.S.” Trinity’s celebration of Latinx Heritage Month this year is due largely in part to Norma Cantu, Murchison professor of the humanities.

“About a year ago, when I came to Trinity, it was Latino heritage month, and there was nothing I could see that was marketed as that,” Cantu said. “In the spring, we identified themes that we wanted to bring, so we brought writers and filmmakers. All of them will offer the Trinity community insight into Latina and Latino experience here in the United States, but specifically in San Antonio.”

Cantu highlighted the fact that many other universities celebrate Latinx Heritage Month annually and that she saw great importance in Trinity joining these schools in their celebration of Latinx culture.

“It’s important for all of us on various levels,” Cantu said. “I think the Latina and Latino students on campus are acknowledged and affirmed by having

events that reflect their experience and their reality. The larger Trinity community is exposed to and can learn from the experiences of Latinas and Latinos in the United States. San Antonio has been here for 300 years, so the community has been her way before Trinity got here. It’s a way of connecting with the community as well.”

Blanco-Cano hopes that students interested in attending Latinx Heritage Month events will keep their eyes open and be willing to interact with Latinx cultures while recognizing the complexity of Latinx experiences in the U.S. “We will have a number of local and Tejano artists who will definitely question some of the assumptions that popular culture and discourses present about Latinx in the mainstream media,” BlancoCano wrote. “This is a great opportunity to become closer to the rich history and culture that these productions present.”

it should be higher because the stakes are greater,” Tuttle said.

Both Tuttle and Johnston reassured that regardless of what occurs on a federal level, Trinity will maintain its current stance on handling Title IX cases.

“I always talk about that for us, the three things are being fair, compassionate and transparent, and those are three values that we really try to put throughout our process: to be compassionate to all the parties in a case, and to be fair to all the parties in a case and to have a very evidence-based system in assessing complaints about policy violations that fall under Title IX,” Tuttle said. ”Regardless of what the government does, we will maintain committed to a process that we feel like is something that generally treats our students fairly and compassionately. And so, we feel like generally we are on the right track.”

“I am convinced that Trinity is committed to impartiality in all investigations. I just don’t see that changing at Trinity. We don’t know what her final rules and regulations will look like, but Trinity is absolutely committed to upholding Title IX, to providing fair and impartial investigations that are fact-based. And I would just encourage anyone that believes that there has been a Title IX violation on the campus to please come forward,” Johnston said.

For extended reactions from Tuttle, he provided his initial reaction to DeVos’ speech on the Facebook page Coalition for Respect.

graphic by TYLER HERRON

Trinity celebrates Latinx Heritage Month

Kick-off speaker Jim Mendiola strengthens energy of the festivities KAYLIE KING

NEWS REPORTER Throughout September and October, the Trinity community honors Latinx culture and community with a lineup of events for Latinx Heritage Month.

This year is the first year that Trinity has officially held a program honoring Latinx Heritage Month.

“Last fall, in 2016, we had the honor to welcome [Norma] Cantu who immediately pointed out the importance of celebrating Latinx Heritage Month,” wrote Rosana Blanco-Cano, director of the MAS: Mexico, the Americas and Spain program, in an email interview. “It is imperative for us to celebrate the culture of our city, also welcoming our Trinity students and the community to join us and celebrate,

continued on PAGE 5

JIM MENDIOLA presents to Trinity students as part of Latinx Heritage Month. Mendiola, an independent filmaker, programmer and writer, has screened his films internationally. photo by CHLOE SONNIER

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

NEWS

University revises study abroad policy ‘Home school model’ to cut costs, increase participation KENDRA DERRIG

NEWS REPORTER As of this fall semester, the Trinity University Center for International Engagement (CIE) converted the school’s financial policy for study abroad programs to a “home school model,” meaning each student will pay the same amount for semester abroad programs, regardless of the true cost of their chosen program.

Under this model, students will pay whatever they paid for their previous semester at Trinity, which amounts to tuition with applied scholarships and grants, room and board and health insurance in most cases.

Katsuo Nishikawa, director of CIE, spoke to the university’s motivation for this change.

“The home school model is something that almost all the universities our size are doing for study abroad. The change is happening industry wide. The logic for it is that our previous model was too expensive for the university. We were not making the best use of the resources that we had,” Nishikawa said.

“When we were sending 30–40 percent of our students, that was fine, but if we really want to send 60–80 percent, and we don’t want to increase tuition, then we really have to think about how we do it. The issue is about how to use the same budget and take more students abroad.”

Andre Martinez, study abroad advisor, elaborated on the importance of this change.

“We believe that the revised financial policy for study abroad will allow more students to spend a semester abroad ​ since Trinity institutional and federal aid can be applied to the costs of a semester study abroad experience for approved programs,” Martinez said.

This move is a part of the University’s Strategic Plan, part of which contains a goal to greatly increase the percentage of students who study abroad.

“The Trinity Tomorrow Strategic Plan ​for study abroad has a 2022-2023 goal of 60 percent of all graduates who study abroad

illustration by ANDREA NEBHUT

increase, so the revised financial policy was developed to help students study abroad for a semester,” Martinez said. “The costs of study abroad programs are high. For example, DIS Abroad in Copenhagen costs $25,500 for spring 2018. If Trinity did not make the decision to help more students study

abroad for a semester then programs such as DIS Abroad in Copenhagen would not be financially possible for most students.”

Nishikawa claims that by instituting the home school tuition model, the quality of the study abroad experience for most Trinity students will also be enhanced.

“Before, students shopped around for the cheapest program, and not necessarily the best academic fit. Students can predict how much it’s going to cost. Parents can predict how much it’s going to cost. Students are focusing on the programs that are going to be the best for them, the most challenging ones, the most rigorous in the most famous places. You can go to the London School of Economics, go to different universities abroad that are renowned for their quality,” Nishikawa said.

Already, the CIE has seen increased interest in study abroad programs.

“So far, our numbers at this time of year are excellent! We are swamped with student appointments which I attribute partly to the decision to revise the financial policy as well as our increased outreach to students over the last two years,” Martinez said.

Ethan Courtman, a sophomore who studied abroad this past summer in Zhuhai, China under Kelly Lyons, associate professor of biology and environmental science, expressed his support for the new tuition model.

“I think it’s a good idea. I feel like it makes study abroad more accessible because it doesn’t discourage people to not study abroad due to price concerns, but it also encourages people to study abroad over the summer with the grant program,” Courtman said.

This summer, the university also launched its CIE Participation Grant program, a needbased grant given to students who wish to participate in faculty-led study abroad programs over the summer. Unlike the fall and spring semester abroad options, these summer programs are not eligible for financial aid.

“The home school tuition model allows us to create the CIE Participation Grant. It’s money that students can use to help pay for Trinity summer programs or beyond-theclassroom programs,” Nishikawa said. “Last year, we spent about $100,000 on sending students abroad. So, some students didn’t pay a dime, and went to Japan, Shanghai, Spain, and the only thing they had to do what apply for the grant. It’s a need-based grant, so students would have to have FAFSA document.”

For more information about Trinity’s study abroad programs at gotu.us/studyabroad.

Trinity pushes to improve GPA levels Faculty and staff attempt to lower rates of academic probation for sophomore class CATHY TERRACE

NEWS REPORTER This year, as in past years, rumors about large numbers of students on academic probation have arisen. As a new semester rolls around, Trinity has rolled out several strategies in an attempt to lower this number of students and to maintain that low number in the future.

“Academic probation is a policy that has been adopted by the faculty and administration here that is meant to encourage student process towards a fouryear degree. The standards that are in place to remain in good academic standing assume a student will complete a degree in four years with a GPA above 2.0,” said

Michael Soto, vice president for academic affairs and for student academic issues and retention. “[The policy] was put in place as a result of our commitment to faculty governance and that typically means that changes to a policy will go through one of the faculty senates or university’s committees that will be brought forward to the entire faculty assembly, which will then be voted on, approved by the president and formally endorsed by the Board of Trustees.”

This semester, 41 students are currently on academic probation. If individuals have this status for more than two semesters, they could face temporary dismissal and will have to reapply to Trinity. The university has been pushing forward with additional academic policies over the past few years, including the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

“The Quality Enhancement Plan, which bears the title ‘Starting Strong,’ is a comprehensive university effort to improve the experience and academic performance of first-year students at Trinity,” Soto said.

“It’s part of the university’s larger efforts toward reaffirmation of accreditation, which is a process that happens every 10 years, when our accrediting body, the

Southern Associations of Colleges and School, will request a very comprehensive report from us and require a quality enhancement plan.”

While the QEP has not yet been completed, it will go into effect next year.

After its start date, the plan will be laid out over the next five years and will involve strategies geared towards raising student’s overall academic success. These measures will look directly at first-year’s grades, as last year averages had been low.

According to the QEP updates website, “Almost one-third of our first-year students receive deficient grades ... 40 percent of those deficient grades are a ‘F’ ... Over six percent of our first-year students earned a GPA below a 2.0 after their first semester.”

Soto pointed out, however, that this plan was not created in response to the number of students on academic probation.

“I don’t think it’s a direct response [to the number of sophomores on academic probation], it’s a response to some oncampus soul-searching,” Soto said. “Although we’re doing well, we could be doing better, and we think that we’ll have a very lasting positive impact on all campus at Trinity if we serve our first-years very well.”

In addition to Starting Strong, the administration reported several other measures to the Southern Association of Colleges and School. The Student Success Center, Student Success Team and changes to staff across several programs were all included in the report. Trinity also hopes to pursue an academic analytics system to do this more efficiently.

According to the report, “As part of the QEP, the University is presently exploring a number of academic analytics systems that will provide real-time support for advising, teaching, and student success efforts, all with the goal of improving student completion rates.”

However, as a whole, Trinity’s graduating classes are still strong, as they compare well to both national averages and other smaller private schools similar to Trinity.

“We do quite well against national averages,” Soto said. “We want to admit the most academically qualified student body possible so that we can provide the students who are already here the best possible undergraduate experience.”

with additional reporting by news intern Gabby Garriga

NEWS • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Mike Fischer granted inaugural distinction Professorship honors the role of humanities studies in public life CATHY TERRACE

NEWS REPORTER Trinity University recently appointed Michael Fischer, professor of English, the first Janet S. Dicke Professor in Public Humanities. According to a Sept. 8 press release from the office of Strategic Marketing and Communications, the university hopes the new distinction will reaffirm the importance of the humanities outside academia.

Fischer, who specializes in modern literary criticism, earned the distinction primarily through his service to the university.

“Fischer is a long-time member of the Trinity administration and faculty,” the press release reads. “Fischer was Trinity’s vice president for Academic Affairs from 2000 to 2016. In this role, he served as the University’s chief academic officer, providing leadership for student affairs, intercollegiate athletics, and undergraduate recruitment and retention. He also played a central role in the development of the Trinity Tomorrow strategic plan as one of the committee’s three chairs.”

As noted in the position’s title, this professorial distinction revolves around the public humanities. Fischer’s role will include advocating a more widespread understanding of what the disciplines that fall under this title will entail.

“I think the key part of the title is public humanities. The function of this position is for me to help bring the contribution of the humanities to a broader public and to reaffirm the value of the humanities to all of us,” Fischer said. “I think that what I most want to do is to help people outside the humanities understand what humanities majors do and appreciate their value — I want them to see how important the values are and spread that appreciation. I love the humanities; I majored in English in college and have studied it my entire career.

I’ve benefited from that so much, and I want others to benefit as well.”

Fischer returned to being a full-time professor in the fall of 2017. In addition to continuing his research, he also teaches HUMA, one of the first-year experience courses available to new students.

“I really enjoy the readings that go on in the humanities, as well as the discussions and thinking that goes on in different areas, such as history, philosophy and religion,” Fischer said. “I think it’s all really stimulating and interesting, and in addition to that, as a professor, I’ve noticed how the humanities help cultivate important skills, such as clear writing, careful reading and critical analysis. I think that these skills help people become better at whatever they’re going to major in, citizens and people.”

As with many of the other professorial distinctions, the salary, research and other elements with the special position are paid for by donors who wish to give back to the university.

“The Janet S. Dicke Professorship in Public Humanities is made possible by an endowment gift from James Dicke II ’68 in honor of his wife, Janet, a current member of Trinity’s

Board of Trustees,” the press release reads. “An education advocate, Janet St. Clair Dicke ’68, is an active civic leader who has served on the Board of Trustees of the Academy at Ocean Reef, a private school in Key Largo, Florida.

A former member of the Chi Beta Epsilon sorority, Janet graduated from Trinity with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in elementary education, and a teaching field in art.”

In addition to this title, Trinity has 16 other professorial distinctions that professors may earn. They all required something more than a typical associate professorship does.

“Distinctions are always named after the donor, and they’re usually assigned to a specific discipline or set of disciplines,” said Duane Coltharp, associate vice president for faculty recruitment and development.

“Typically, someone who holds a distinction or endowment position will have a reduced teaching amount, and that’s because there’s the expectation of heightened scholarly output. These professors already have established scholarship, and they’re expected to keep that up, and sometimes do additional research.”

MICHAEL FISCHER, professor of English, is the inaugural Janet S. Dicke Professor in Public Humanities. photo by CHLOE SONNIER

Latinx Heritage month Flags honor victims continued from PAGE 3

Cantu also has hopes that students will attend the different events that Trinity is hosting in honor of Latinx Heritage Month.

“My most compelling argument for joining us at these events is that you will be surprised, you will learn a lot and you will come away with a sense that we are all in this together,” Cantu said. “Some of it is political, but most of it is cultural. Each one of [the speakers] has a different contribution to make. If you come to one, you get a nice shot of Latino history or culture, but if you come to all of them, it’s a more enriching and more robust experience.”

Trinity University Latino Association (TULA) is involved with helping the MAS program welcome and promote the speakers for Latinx Heritage Month.

“It is important for Trinity to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month because it showcases the diversity of Latinx cultures and the nuances that make up Latinx individuals,” wrote Jennifer Ochoa, president of TULA and sophomore international business and Spanish major, in an email.

Yessenia Lopez, TULA member and junior neuroscience major, attended the kick-off lecture for Latinx Heritage Month last Thursday. (Lopez is an illustrator for the Trinitonian.) The speaker, Jim Mendiola, is a filmmaker from San Antonio. Mendiola recounted the significance of the Alamo from a personal, non-stereotypical perspective.

“The Jim Mendiola lecture was mainly a viewing of the work he does as a writer and director, and it included aspects of his ‘obsessions with punk rock and the Alamo,’” Lopez wrote in an email. “It was received very well by the audience, who had many questions and comments on the vision he made into a reality.”

Lopez also encourages the Trinity community to make an effort to attend Latinx Heritage Month events.

“Every time I go to one, it gives me a feeling of satisfaction because I learn something new and something from a perspective that is not my own,” Lopez wrote. “The lecture series will also give more insight on the Latinx and Hispanic cultures that surround us here in San Antonio.”

Students interested in attending Latinx Heritage Month events can look forward to Laura Varela’s film screening on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 5:30 p.m. in the Ruth Taylor Recital Hall and can find a list of the events online.

NORMA CANTÚ, Murchison professor of the humanities in the modern languages and literatures department, introduces lecturer JIM MENDIOLA. photo by CHLOE SONNIER

continued from FRONT

Ayers hopes to be able to put together a similar memorial next year.

“We are definitely hoping to do this again next year,” Ayers said. “I’m graduating next year, but hopefully TFL will do this years after that as well.”

Ayers said that the memorial received a positive response.

“A lot of people have reached out to me and said they liked it. I’ve gotten messages from a couple people who work for the school,” Ayers said. “There’s a video on the school’s Facebook page, and Instagram and Twitter now. I’ve gotten a really positive response from everyone. I think this is a really good way to honor the people who died. It’s not particularly in your face, but it’s also hard to miss.”

Students passing by the fountain shared their thoughts about the memorial.

“I think it’s a good thing to remind all of the students of what today is,” said Morgan Block, junior English and geoscience double major. “In the midst of the chaos going on around us, with the hurricanes and everything, and politically, it’s important to take a step back and remember what happened so long ago, even for some of us that may not remember it. I think it is important to remember, so I appreciate a group on campus realizing that and putting up the flags.”

Christiana Ellard, junior urban studies and global public health double major, reflected on the importance of the location of the memorial.

“I also think it’s beautiful, the fact that the flags are in the middle of campus life, so people can walk by and take a second to say, ‘Wow, we remember what today is,’” Ellard said. “I think it’s just beautiful to be

able to take a second and step away from what’s going on in your life and reflect on the bigger picture.”

Tina Skeen, first-year biology major, also shared her thoughts.

“The fact that people have continued to honor those who lost their lives on 9/11 has symbolized America’s ability to unite together as one country,” Skeen said. “The 9/11 project at Trinity made me really happy because it showed how deeply the university cares for this day and allows students and faculty to take the time and empathize.”

Tigers for Liberty received many positive reactions for the memorial. This is the second year the group has set up a dedication in honor of 9/11 victims. photo by AMANI CANADA

Opinion

LET’S HEAR YOUR VOICE.

...

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

FROM TH E EDITOR’S DESK

Don’t mess with the press: We’re with you We wish that anyone who believes in the virtue of democracy could see the value of a journalist’s work as clear as day.

Too often, however, reporters are painted as a prying, invasive presence.

Popular media often depicts reporters as bullies, associating responsible reporters with tabloid paparazzi. These representations eclipse the banal reality of most journalists’ work.

Trinitonian writers are constantly emailing and meeting with public figures on campus: university administrators, staff supervisors, professors, student government officials, officers in student clubs and more. Sometimes we’re previewing some innocuous on-campus event or another. Sometimes we take a critical look at what the university is up to.

Even when we disagree with professionals’ actions and opinions, we take care to be fair, if direct. It’s what we do as journalists.

We take full command of the rights afforded to citizens so that we can perform valuable public services. We are assertive but balanced when we inquire into campus controversies; we investigate allegations and rumors with caution and

diligence; we provide the campus with a free public forum in the opinion pages.

And when we make mistakes, we’re eager to learn a lesson from it.

Case in point: Last week we ran a story about changes to the political science department’s approach to offering courses that include a study-abroad component.

While it was true that the department changed what courses it was offering, that wasn’t due to any change in policy or other long-term planning; it was just a fluke, a series of misunderstandings that never became clear to us until David Crockett, the department chair, brought it to our attention Wednesday evening. The online version of the article has since been amended.

Reporters don’t receive special privileges for being journalists; really, anyone could conduct interviews and print articles, if they had the time, money and energy. But we hold ourselves to high standards and take criticism seriously.

Yet, even at Trinity, our newspaper staff is treated unprofessionally every now and then, with disrespect or suspicion.

Last week, our news editor Kathleen Creedon attended an on-campus lecture

that was pertinent to a news story.

When the man presenting learned that our reporter was a student journalist, he began to directly address her each time he discussed the views of liberals. He took frequent breaks from his speech to instruct her what to write down. “Make sure you got that.” Yes, of course she got it.

A veteran editor once asked a top university official if he’d like to conduct an interview over email. He said yes — and sent her a set of questions and answers that he wrote. His tone was tongue-in-cheek, but the whole exercise might charitably be described as ‘a bit much.’ Reporters know what questions to ask, or will learn through trial and error.

Grace Frye, our director of digital presence, had a tough time conducting interviews when we covered students’ reactions to President Trump’s election last November. Many students assumed that she was attempting to solicit interviews in bad faith, hoping to smear Trump supporters rather than provide a faithful account of the campus climate in the days following the election.

Interviewees frequently request to view a story or interview transcripts before

we publish the article. In rare cases, an external authority might attempt or threaten to inhibit or restrain the publication of a story — we call this prior review and prior restraint, respectively.

It’s a threat to the free press. How could you trust the Trinitonian as a source of independent journalism if we were only publishing work that was green-lit, as if we were a public relations mill? We politely decline requests like these and — more frequently than we’d like — explain that these situations put our reputation at stake.

We work in service of the university community’s public interest. We record our interviews because we are committed to accuracy. Our reporters remain observant even when they aren’t on deadline because the most thrilling stories emerge organically before our eyes, not via rumor or LeeRoy. It’s not because we’re interested in snooping or violating anyone’s privacy.

Trust is a two-way street. We strive for transparency in what we do, and we hope it’s clear that our efforts are undergone in good faith. As always, we’re interested in hearing feedback and honest criticism.

Fulbrighter: America, recognize your painful past openly in the streets of Charlottesville definitely supports this notion. And all of this is covered by your interpretation of freedom of speech. This is one thing we would never have in Germany — yes, there are people who have a strong affiliation towards rightwing ideology, but the use of swastikas and making use of hate speech can actually get you imprisoned. However, despite the rise of right-wing movements and the return of increasing racial tensions, I think the United States is on the right track.

“What America needs now is a change in its culture of remembrance.”

DANIEL WEBER takes photographs of American flags on campus last week. photo by AMANI CANADA

DANIEL WEBER GUEST COLUMNIST

Right now, the U.S. is in a crucial moment in history. In a few years, people will look back at 2017 and point to the actions being taken with regard to resolving an issue as old as the nation itself: How does a nation deal with its own history? I am not an American — I am one of the current German Fulbrighters at Trinity, and I will try to give you a view on how visiting outsiders see the U.S.-American culture of history.

It is significant to note that we are here during times of a social restlessness that have been fueled by the aftermath of the presidential election. You now have a man at the top of the state who acts very differently from his predecessor in office. The rescission of DACA, for example, is causing upheaval among hundreds of thousands of young people who were taken to the U.S. as children and try so hard to be accepted members of society, and is promoting racial bias against those same people.

Many voices say President Trump’s campaign offered white nationalists a political home in the mainstream. Seeing “alt-righters” and members of the National Socialist Movement — Nazis — march

During the past few weeks, city councils in Texas have voted on the removal of Confederate statues from public spaces — such as Dallas’ Lee Park and San Antonio’s Travis Park. Last week, our Fulbright group had the chance to attend a San Antonio city council meeting, and I am more than confident that your representatives made the right decision — politically and morally — to take down the statue. And just this Tuesday, Republican Texas House Speaker Joe Straus called for the removal of a Confederate plaque from the Texas Capitol building which claims that “the war between the states was not a rebellion, nor was its underlying cause to sustain slavery.”

I strongly believe that this approach of taking down Confederate monuments is a very good starting point to resume the debate

about history. To some people that might seem extreme, but only by taking such actions is it possible to address painful subjects in a way that can bring a change. And what America needs right now is a change in its culture of remembrance. But to be clear: I do not want to sound patronizing. I want to share my experience on how Germany deals with its own historical burden. I almost wrote “our” burden, but being a 20-yearold I do not feel responsible for our history.

What I feel responsible for is to make sure that the past is remembered objectively, adequately and in a way that makes today’s Germany a place where its people are able to live together in harmony, stressing and acknowledging diversity.

Removing memorials is not rewriting or forgetting history. By taking down symbols of times long gone, a people actively chooses to address and acknowledge the wrong that is linked to these embodiments of once dominant ideas and notions in a society.

Trust me, you will not forget your past after removing the Confederate memorials. What is going to happen is a shift in public debate on how the Civil War is remembered. By putting the statues into museums and labeling them with historically correct plaques, you will be able to create a whole new and appropriate way of educating on and remembering the past. Eventually, America will be able to shake off the ghosts that have been haunting it for so long, and some time down the road it will come to terms with its past, even if this road is still long and hard.

Daniel Weber is in his fourth semester at the Technical University of Dortmund in Dortmund, Germany. He is a applied literary and cultural studies major. This is his third and final week at Trinity as part of the Fulbright Program on campus.

OPINION• SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Trinity’s nanny state is what we asked for MANFRED WENDT OPINION COLUMNIST

Progressives at Trinity have much to be thankful for this year. The progressive nanny state at Trinity has taken a surprisingly large jump in size, especially compared to years past. The nanny state is defined by the Collins English dictionary as “a government that makes decisions for people that they might otherwise make for themselves, especially those relating to private and personal behavior”. This is the vein of progressive thought which brings about taxes, bans or restrictions on behavior.

Trinity has announced a number of groundbreaking progressive policies in the past year.

These policies have been implemented with the intent to make Trinity a safer, more secure and healthier campus. There is now a complete and total ban on tobacco products on campus and further restrictions on student’s access to residence halls. These are strong progressive policies that should please our seemingly progressive student body. Students should look forward to the warm, comforting arms of the now slightly bigger Trinity nanny state.

The tobacco ban is a perfect example of the progressive nanny state slogan, “if you don’t like it, ban it.” Until Aug. 1, anyone on Trinity’s campus was allowed to smoke in designated smoking areas, much like in most places off-campus in the real world. However, the administration decided last year to become part of an initiative to go completely tobacco free. Students were technically asked for their input at a town hall event, but were

also told that regardless of student input that the ban would be going into effect.

I personally find smoking a nuisance. It smells terrible, makes the air hard to breathe and brings back memories of my first-year roommate filling a large Amazon box up with cigarette butts.

However, I believe that it is someone’s personal choice as to whether or not they engage in the behavior, not that of the university they attend.

But from a progressive lens, the tobacco ban is a step toward the utopia of their dreams. The tobacco ban is a beautiful, progressive move down the slippery slope of health. How long until Trinity, in the name of health, moves to become more restrictive in other areas of our lives? Why not put students on a specific Trinity diet? Why not be uber-progressive and ban the serving of meat? Mandatory vegetarianism would save students years of their lives, which they can then spend telling people about vegetarianism. Yes, smoking is a nasty habit that is dangerous for people’s health. But with a smoking ban in place, what will the next target be? When thinking about the effects of potential policies, one must keep in mind what new proposals could result from the implementation of the policy. Now that smoking’s no longer a problem on campus, what happens next?

The progressive should also be happy about City Vista students being unable to access campus residence halls. After all, nanny states claim that their main concern is our safety. This semester, students discovered that, for some reason, City Vista residents had their access to any on-campus residence halls revoked. Students voiced their concern about the new policy. David Tuttle, dean of students, announced that his decision was final because this was necessary due to some sort of software requirement and security purposes.

“With this decision we have prioritized security

Exclusively English MICAELA HOFFMAN OPINION COLUMNIST

The German Fulbright scholars who have been with us over the last few weeks had many questions about American culture. I learned to re-examine things that I had thought of as normal, and to appreciate key differences that are our American experience. But, one thing they commented on has stuck with me: It seems like we only speak English!

Even though we take mandatory language classes in school, many of us can’t really speak in any other language very fluidly.

In Europe it is rare to come across someone who doesn’t speak at least two — if not more — languages. English is often mandatory, so being bilingual is the norm.

Did you know that people who are bilingual have more gray matter and better quality white matter built up in their brain? Scientists don’t exactly have a definitive conclusion about what this means, but it sounds like a good thing.

Why is it that, even with years of education, American students still find it so difficult to learn another language? Are we just lazy? Or is it really difficult to practice?

It’s some combination of both, I think. In a way, we have over inflated the difficulty and underestimated the value of learning new languages.

But learning a language is not that hard. And you really only need about 300 words of vocabulary to be at a basic level of conversational fluency in a language.

Linguists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, teachers and philosophers have all tried to pinpoint the function of language in concept formation, when it begins to occur in the human development and how it can be used to accelerate learning. When we are just 20 months old, we are able to begin

understanding two different languages in a bilingual household, according to an August study in Science Daily. Babies have been learning sign language since the discovery of how communication was blocked by the difficulty of producing sound, but symbolism for concepts could still be formed through hand gestures. So what really begins the process of the creation of concepts and understanding of our world; is the primacy thought or language? If it is language, then how does it affect our ability to understand our surroundings?

Eskimos have over a hundred different words for snow, but does that mean that the rest of us can’t really form a concept around the various forms of snow they have?

I believe that concepts and language are connected, and until we can describe something really well with words, we don’t realize it fully in our reality. So, I don’t have 100 words for snow, and for me there are really only a few variations of snow.

In the end, I can’t conceptualize the many other nuances associated with 100 words defining snow.

Language skills actually put you into a new frame of reference for how you think about the world.

Assigning a label to concepts and categorizing knowledge is a part of how language shapes our understanding.

So what does it mean if we cannot understand someone’s frame of reference for conceptualizing the world when they speak a different language? It means that we must look at things in an even more open-minded way; there are times when we cannot even understand the realities around us the way another person does.

We may share in our existence in reality, but our relationship to reality varies.

Learning a new language is about the most intimate way to connect with another human because while memorizing vocabulary, one also begins to conceptualize reality in a totally new way.

Micaela Hoffman is a senior business analytics and technology and urban studies double major.

7

graphic by TYLER HERRON

over convenience,” Tuttle wrote in a campuswide email on Aug. 24. This, of course, raises the question of what security threat the off-campus students and City Vista residents pose to the oncampus students in the residence halls. If they pose such a danger, then why do we allow them to attend classes with on-campus students? Does something strange happen to students who live off campus that somehow makes them so hyperdangerous that they must have their access to the residence halls revoked? But from a progressive perspective, wouldn’t it be best to remove the potential risks involved when people interact with each other? Wouldn’t the most progressive option, which Tuttle threatened at an SGA meeting, be to only allow students access to their residence hall specifically?

On both of these issues Trinity students were not seriously asked for their consent in the matter.

On the smoking ban, we were told that the policy would be put in place regardless of how the

students feel, though the administration did ask for feedback. On the question of campus access, we were told that the policy was in place, regardless of how students felt. The policy remains in place even though the overwhelming student opinion is that City Vista students should have access to the residence halls (as seen on the student response whiteboard in Coates University Center).

Maybe this is what progress looks like to the progressive. Students simply can’t make these decisions for themselves. Maybe this will give you some thought that just because the word “progress” or “progressive” is attached to a policy, that doesn’t mean it will help further society. With every action and policy there are consequences both intentional and unintentional. It remains to be seen what the consequences will be for both of these progressive policies that have been implemented this semester.

Manfred Wendt is a junior political science major.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

Appropriation or appreciation?

MICAELA HOFFMAN OPINION COLUMNIST I really love braids and dreads. I wanted to let my hair dread, but I discovered that this was actually something quite controversial.

After further investigation, I realized I must have been living under a rock, because this is called cultural appropriation. To sum it up, that is when a dominant cultural group takes the cultural expressions of a minority group and uses it to look exotic. Wow, well that is exactly what I was trying to do, right? I wanted to look different and so I was taking a hairstyle that I thought was cool and trying it out. I also have the privilege of never having experienced discrimination related to the hairstyle, so there is no long-term impact of me choosing to wear my hair this way. Arguably, dreads have been around for centuries: the Celts, the Vikings, even Egyptians had dreadlocks. But in contemporary cultures, dreads have been synonymous with Rastafari movement and African American culture.

Also, the dreadlock is seen by some as a ‘dirty’ hairstyle, therefore having all sorts of damaging racial implications. Simply put, black people experience discrimination when wearing dreads, and white people don’t.

Cultural mixing will inevitably happen with time, and I am a person who really appreciates cultural differences. I celebrate

“Simply put, black people experience discrimination when wearing dreads, and white people don’t.” them! I thought that by choosing to wear a hairstyle that is associated with African American culture, it’s like me saying, “Hey! This is cool. You are cool. I want to be like you!” Imitation is a form of flattery, right? I mean no harm, and in fact, I would consider myself an activist in regards to a variety of minority issues. There are a lot of scenarios where people are criticized for all sorts of displays of culture that they don’t realize might offend someone. Avril Lavigne — though she has a huge following in Japan —

was accused of cultural appropriation when she dressed as Hello Kitty in a music video.

There are countless white rappers who are deemed ‘wangstas’ because they are acting like wannabe gangsters and appropriating hip-hop culture. I’m not sure where to draw the line. Does that mean I can only wear clothing that has been deemed culturally appropriate for a white girl to wear? Like, man, I don’t know if I can pull off the Nike shorts-Chaco combo for long!

I see this conversation as a huge gray area. I understand and see both sides, truly.

Why can’t it be seen as me showing my appreciation for something cool about your culture instead of me taking advantage of it? But I am also aware that I can’t really understand or appreciate the difficulties minorities experience every day.

I think the key difference between appropriation and appreciation is respect, acknowledgement and understanding. If I choose to wear a color or a pattern that is from another culture, I should understand its meaning and be open to discussing how that culture is beautiful. By wearing it, I am choosing to promote, accept and model symbols from that culture. Religious symbols, in my book, are off limits; I am not about to put a bindi on my forehead — as done at Coachella. But, I think I would like to learn about Hinduism, understand henna and wear it. Maybe another rule, too, would be to use the symbol as it was originally intended to be worn, for example … don’t wear a full-length Dashiki during the day, as in Rwanda they are considered house clothing.

I think this is really about a larger discussion of what some people call ‘politically correct’ language and I call respectful communication and behavior. Today, with so many gray lines about how to speak, act and dress without offending someone, I think the best way to navigate it is to examine why and how you do things. You might make a mistake, as I have before, but there is a way to talk about these things constructively. A lot of Americans might feel censored because we don’t want to hurt anyone, and so instead of risking it, we just stick to what we know is ok. I still don’t have dreads, and I probably won’t get them.

I want to make sure I do it in a way that is not appropriation, but appreciation. I don’t want to be just a white girl; I want to be a person, a human on the earth that likes all of the ways that other humans dress, speak, express themselves and look.

Micaela Hoffman is a senior business analytics and technology and urban studies double major.

OPINION

Discover cooking through your family GABRIEL LEVINE OPINION COLUMNIST

Living in a house off campus for senior year feels like a training run for independent living.

Dishes have to be cleaned, floors have to be swept, furniture has to be purchased and trash and recycling have to be taken out. A fair number of these chores still had to be done before college when I lived at home, but then there was the obligatory parental command. Now, my housemates and I have to discipline ourselves, or else the pile of dishes in the sink will become complex enough to develop sentience and ally with the trash can to overthrow us.

Beyond chores, there is one other activity essential to off-campus living: cooking. For the first few weeks, buying groceries and cooking personal meals was fun and gratifying, as is true of any form

“In Europe I could fend for myself with a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese.

The Camembert would always smell better after being in your backpack for a few days.”

- Allan Levine of self-sufficiency. There’s an element of pride in making scrambled eggs with Cajun spice for breakfast, as well as the relief in having, for the first time in three years, something besides Pop-Tarts or an empty stomach for morning classes.

Earlier this week, though, I discovered that I had prepared every meal in my culinary repertoire and was now bored of what little I could prepare.

More than that, I often came home tired after a long day of classes and the thought of preparing food was daunting. I began to grow tired of cooking.

Then I felt, like a temporally infinite weight, the realization that from this point onwards, for the rest of my organic life, I will be preparing meals for myself three times a day, most days of the week.

Self-sustenance suddenly felt like a chore. I realized that this was because, growing up, I never needed to concern myself with food preparation.

My dad is a chef and my mother is a good cook in her own right, and so there was almost always excellent, prepared food at mealtimes or in the refrigerator. If there wasn’t, I would subsist off of tortillas and ice cream until cooked food magically reappeared.

Such subsistence living isn’t a viable longterm option, though, and so I turned to my parents and asked them about their experience of transitioning to independent living and how they approached cooking. I heard several commonalities in my conversations with them.

Both mentioned the initial proliferation of preprepared meals in the 1960s and how those products enabled many people, though not themselves, to avoid ever having to learn how to cook. Both mentioned learning how to shop for groceries, how to keep a kitchen and how to prepare different types of food by observing their mothers, both of whom were housewives for most of their childhoods.

My mother said of cooking for herself, “It was matter-of-fact, but positive. I enjoyed it. This doesn’t mean I cooked fabulous meals every day.

Sometimes I just cooked rice and beans and ate off that for four days. Sure there was tedium and drudgery and also I was on a strict budget. I never had a feeling of unease or dread.”

My father said something similar, “A lot of stuff for me just kind of came about naturally.

Ultimately, for me really, everything’s been a matter of course. I’ve never thought about fending for myself.” This natural acceptance of self-sustenance extended to his time abroad, even when he was without kitchen access. “In Europe I could fend for myself with a bottle of wine, a loaf of bread, and a hunk of cheese. The Camembert would always smell better after being in your backpack for a few days.”

For my parents, cooking — the core element of self-sufficiency — was a natural progression of things. They took this necessary element of adult life and made it an enjoyable aspect by reading cooking books, discovering new cuisines and, in the case of my father, studying culinary arts professionally.

In a certain sense, the existence of cooking — varied across cultures, thoroughly dynamic, dependent upon inherited wisdom and fully accessible to all people — is the ultimate expression of human exceptionalism and optimism. It represents our success at turning a basic biological need, nourishment, into a source of personal joy and physical delight.

My parents discovered this and now, through my conversations with them, I’ve discovered it as well.

Gabriel Levine is a senior chemistry major.

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Pulse

Students present research in Nacho Hour Office of Experiential Learning highlighted summer scholarship last week to stoke students’ interest in opportunities on campus MEREDITH GOSHNELL PULSE REPORTER

Last Wednesday, the Office of Experiential Learning held a mini-research poster session during Super Nacho Hour, with 15 undergraduate students presenting across a variety of academic disciplines.

“The summer research conference is a two-day event in late July,” said Scott Brown, assistant director of Experiential Learning: service-learning and undergraduate research.

“Most students aren’t on campus in late July, so one goal for hosting a smaller scale research symposium was to showcase a sample of student research projects that took place over the summer.”

This event promoted undergraduate research opportunities, highlighting projects across a variety of disciplines from the arts and humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields.

One of the STEM students that participated was Alexandra Gass, a sophomore biology and Russian double major.

“I presented research on the pharmacology of nitric oxide signaling during UVB [shortwave ultraviolet ray]-induced stress in cucumbers,” Gass said. “My research was

Students present their research to their peers in the Fiesta Room on Wednesday. photo by ALLISON WOLFF

primarily repeating previous published experiments, and by doing so, we found a confounding variable that may have been overlooked. So while my research presents a negative result, revision and repetition of previous research is vital to the scientific method and a super important contributor to science’s integrity.”

Nacho Hour is a campus tradition that is held every Wednesday at 3:33 p.m., where students are served free nachos and aguas frescas.

“Nacho Hour is a campus tradition and draws many students, staff and faculty,” Brown said. “Rather than adding another program to an already-busy fall schedule, I thought overlapping the mini-symposium with nacho hour would be a great opportunity for students to learn from and celebrate their peers’ good work in the summer research program.”

The session was planned to host students from a variety of disciplines in order to show the wide variety of research that students can participate in. One of the initiatives

represented was the Mellon Initiative, which seeks to foster undergraduate scholarship in the arts and humanities and promote the value of these academic disciplines at Trinity.

“In my project, I looked at a second century work called ‘The Metamorphoses,’ also known as ‘The Golden Ass,’ written by the Latin author Apuleius,” said Andrew Tao, a sophomore majoring in classical languages and minoring in linguistics. “‘The Metamorphoses’ tells the story of a man named Lucius, whose curiosity about magic leads him to be accidentally transformed into an ass. My objective was to create an intermediate commentary to help Latin students read and understand the text.

I structured this commentary into three parts: text, vocabulary and further explanations.

A more scholarly commentary can be problematic because it often references other works of classical literature and scholarship, which can sometimes be too advanced for students.”

Other students that participated were: Benjamin Brody, Javier De Luna, Francesca Gomez, Sarosha Hemani, Aamu Karla, Zoheb Hirani, Ryun Howe, Adam Litch, Gabby Mudekunye, Addison White, Samsara Davalos-Reyes, Gabriel Righes, Zabdi Salazar and Christian Schreib.

Ultimately, the mini session provided a good environment to not only share the hard work Trinity students put in over the summer, but demonstrate the importance of research to other students and encourage them to participate in the future.

Human Library brings Coates Library alive People, not books, were the library’s storytellers Wednesday. Sophomore Lutfi Sun and alumnus James Godfrey shared their stories.

DOMINIC WALSH PULSE REPORTER Last Wednesday, the Coates Library temporarily put on display an unusual group of books: ‘human books.’ The collection of ‘books’ included members of both the Trinity community and the larger San Antonio population who have personal stories pertaining to a wide variety of topics, including foreign politics, gender identification, race and mental illness.

Jason Hardin, manager of access services at the library and organizer of the event, was inspired by a similar Human Library he attended at University of the Incarnate Word.

“They held a Human Library in the spring and I went over and participated as a reader. I listened to a human book, a young transgender man, and I heard his experiences, which were really interesting and really eye-opening,” Hardin said. “I thought that given Trinity’s mission as an educational institution, given our strong values with regard to diversity, inclusion, dialogue, this is really up our alley and we need to try this here.”

Human Library was established 15 years ago in Denmark and today has trained human books in cities all over the world. However, event organizers at Trinity decided to include volunteers from the Trinity student body to give the event more relevance.

“We really wanted this to be kind of an organic experience for us, and we really wanted to involve our own students and let them have a voice in our own Human Library activity,” Hardin said.

Each human book gave a brief bio followed by an approximately 20 minute

Q&A session. Lutfi Sun, a sophomore, spoke about his experiences as the son of a Turkish governor following the 2016 coup attempt, which occurred a few months before he was scheduled to arrive at Trinity for his freshman year.

Sun’s father was in hot water with some members of Turkey’s ruling party due to an investigation he conducted into child abuse at social service institution in Istanbul, which uncovered a criminal organization and implicated several members of the ruling party in the organized business of child abuse.

“When the investigation went on, it also touched some politicians. Then, in reply, they started an investigation on my father.

Then my father, in reply, released some information to the press. So there was this tension between my father and the [Justice and Development Party]. When my father released this information to the press, they kicked him out of Istanbul, to another city, so that things were more calm from their perspective,” Sun said.

After the coup attempt, the government arrested many innocent Turkish citizens, including Sun’s father, for alleged involvement. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current president of Turkey, declared a state of emergency, allowing warrantless arrests and complete executive control of the country.

“The real story starts in July 2016, when the coup attempt happened. The government started persecuting thousands of people who were not involved. My father was already on the list. The coup attempt happened on Friday, and on Monday my father is fired.

Wednesday, the police came to our house

and searched for evidence. They didn’t find anything, but took some books and electronics, like phones and computers, and detained my father,” Sun said.

Sun’s family eventually found a lawyer who was able to get a single meeting with Sun’s father.

“We agreed that we were not going to cry, we were going to stay strong to give him strength. Then we saw him through bars, a dusty window, and we talked one-by-one with a handset. He was also trying to stay strong, to look strong. He told us to try to keep pursuing our education and career goals, my other brother and me. Near the end, my mother and father were telling each other how much they love each other and then we all burst into tears, breaking our agreement,” Sun said.

Although his government passport had been cancelled, Sun was able to obtain a civilian passport and left the country soon after, putting an end to his anxiety that he might not be able to attend Trinity. He left not a moment too soon.

“Right after I got that civilian passport, I left. One day after I left the country there was an executive order from the president saying that from now on, government officials and their families cannot have civilian passports,” Sun said.

Sun’s father will receive a decision on his case in October.

One of the other human books recently graduated from Trinity University.

James Godfrey shared his experiences as a transgender individual in Texas, and specifically at Trinity. Potential aggression by

cisgender males keeps him out of the maledesignated restrooms in many places, but he sees Trinity as having made significant strides to accommodate its students.

Godfrey spoke to incoming first-years during new student orientation week last year and the year prior. The experiences he shared have made a concrete impact on campus, ensuring that transgender students know that they aren’t alone.

“I had a guy come up after the last time I spoke at the first-year orientation week, and he gave me the biggest hug, and he was like, ‘I’ve never met a guy like you before.’ He had never met another trans guy before, and that was the coolest thing. That alone is reason enough for me to do this. To let someone know that they belong here, that’s really important,” Godfrey said. “I really appreciate that the university has recognized that this is a unique thing, and that we should give these individuals a voice.”

“I hope people come away recognizing the fact that in all of these issues, in all of these experiences and backgrounds and things pertaining to religion and politics and social issues and other things we’re dealing with nowadays, there are always human beings behind the stories and behind the headlines in the news and behind the other computer monitor on the other end,” Godfrey said.

These are only two of the many storues stories from this Human Library event.

For more information on the Human Library organization, visit humanlibrary.org. like them on Facebook at their Facebook page at facebook.com/humanlibraryorg or contact Jason Hardin in the Library.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

PULSE

Can straight men eat ice cream? TDC says ‘Yes!’ Trinity Diversity Connection and The Men’s Project are challenging toxic masculinity via campus Diversity Dialogues

DOMINIC WALSH PULSE REPORTER Approximately 40 students filled the Woodlawn Room in the Coates University Center on Tuesday to hear students and staff from Trinity Diversity Connection (TDC) and The Men’s Project broach the subject of toxic masculinity. The event, called “Can Straight Men Eat Ice Cream?”, is part of TDC’s ongoing Diversity Dialogues. Kezia Nyarko, sophomore and TDC’s public relations chair, came up with the topic.

“I was reading an article about Richard Hammond, who is one of the hosts on “Top Gear.” Someone mentioned ice cream, and he said, ‘Oh! I mean, I’m straight, so I don’t eat ice cream’,” Nyarko said.

Richard Hammond’s refusal to eat ice cream is one example of the social issue the event focused on: toxic masculinity.

“Thinking about it, it’s hard to come up with just one defining experience,” said Nathan Tuttle, Residential Life coordinator. “Toxic masculinity really feels more like a set of rules and boundaries and limitations that people use to police you to make sure that you’re sufficiently masculine and that you’re living up to society’s expectations about what it means to be a man.”

Unhealthy thoughts and negative behaviors that stem from societal expectations placed on men fall under toxic masculinity.

“For example, masculinity tends to be more aggressive and assertive, so people might translate that into other behaviors,” said Samsara Davalos Reyes, junior and TDC president. “Rape culture and other things that aren’t supposed to be normal

become normalized because masculinity is seen as something you have to perform.”

Toxic masculinity has a profound effect on college-age males, said Sheryl Tynes, vice president of student life and professor of sociology and anthropology.

“You see it at Trinity. You see it in who picks what majors, and that is partially pressure that young men feel,” Tynes said.

“You see women in sociology, in education, in art, in English. We have more options; we have more choices than young men do.

In some ways, young men are pigeonholed into this very narrow set of options in terms of what is acceptable and what sounds masculine. Majors themselves are gendered. They absolutely are.”

More effects of toxic masculinity can be seen in research conducted by The Men’s Project, which was introduced at the event by Tuttle and Jeremy Allen, assistant director for fraternity and sorority life.

“Some of my colleagues did some research on campus that showed that, overall, Trinity men didn’t have as high graduation rates, didn’t have as high GPAs, tended to get into some more trouble with conduct and were generally more disengaged than their female counterparts,” Tuttle said.

This poor performance by Trinity men is possibly due to the expectations placed on them.

“So people thought that guys were drinking more than they actually were in college. People thought that guys were skipping out on class more than they were,” Allen said. “People thought that they were hooking up with more people, more often, than they actually were. There was kind of this dissonance between expectations and reality, and that’s a really interesting thing

Percent graduating in 6 years Source: Trinity University Factbook 2016

Female

100%

Male

80%

60%

2001

2002 2003

2004 2005 2006 2007

2008 2009

2010

graphic by TYLER HERRON

that I think fits in this conversation about societal norms and masculinity.”

The expectations made evident in the research could explain the lower academic performance and worse overall behavior seen among Trinity’s male students when compared to it’s female students.

Expectations of poor performance may directly cause poor performance.

Effects of toxic masculinity on collegeage males can be further-reaching than unimpressive academic performance. Men are less likely than women to seek help when they have problems with mental and physical health. These trends are reflected in statistics handed out by Tynes. For every 100 women who die in the 15–19 year old age range, 260 men die. For every 100 women that die in the 20–24 year old age range, 294 men die. For every 100 women that die of suicide, homicide and accidents, 354, 459 and 285 men die, respectively.

The Men’s Project hopes to address some of these negative outcomes

through peer mentoring and student-led group discussions.

“We’re looking to see if there are students interested to help us launch The Men’s Project, not from a data collection standpoint but from something like this: What if we met once a month and had a dialogue about what it means to be a male? About what it means to be a male on college campuses?” Allen said.

“The idea of the program is that you have these near-peer educators, who are junior and senior men at Trinity, who are helping first-year and maybe sophomore men. To sort of guide and lead these small group discussions about what it means to be a man, around different topics: drinking, academics, health and fitness,” Tuttle said.

There are currently no future events planned by The Men’s Project.

“We’re looking for men who’d be interested in helping us facilitate these conversations, which we’re hoping will happen on a monthly basis,” Tuttle said.

‘Pollinator Night’ sets campus abuzz about Trinity Bee Alliance The beekeeping group joined forces with Trinity Community Garden to promote environmental awareness with an outdoor mixer DOMINIC WALSH PULSE REPORTER By 6 p.m. last Thursday, the community garden by George Storch Memorial Building was buzzing with students. The Trinity Bee Alliance and the Trinity community garden teamed up for Pollinator Night at the Garden with the intention of drawing awareness to nocturnal creatures, such as bats and moths, that play an important role in the campus environment.

“My goal for pollinator night was just as focused on community engagement and participation as it was on eduction. It was great to see so many of my peers out having fun and supporting the cause,” Roybal said.

“We specifically wanted to talk about other pollinators that aren’t really seen as much as butterflies and bees are. Bats, moths and beetles are all very important pollinators,” said Abbi Bowen, sophomore and president of the Trinity Bee Alliance.

Much of the foliage on Trinity’s campus is supported by these nocturnal insects. Olivia Roybal, junior and garden director, spoke about the benefits that unseen nighttime pollinators bring to one species of tree on campus.

“There’s actually, in one of the intro biology labs, a data collection project they do every year on Texas mountain laurels. Something interesting that they’re finding is that it looks like a majority of the pollination and nectar release happens at night, and they haven’t really identified which potential pollinators that could be, but it would probably be some kind of moth,” Roybal said.

A group of students hang out in the garden at the Nocturnal Pollinator event. photo by AMANI CANADA

The evening was also informative for students unfamiliar with the Trinity Bee Alliance and its mission. Hearing about the bee colonies on top of the Center for Sciences and Innovation (CSI) was enough to arouse the interest of Collin McGrath, a junior who was at the event.

“Keeping bees on top of CSI is pretty interesting; I think I might join. I’ve always been pretty fascinated with insects. I think they’re very neat,” McGrath said.

Malcolm Fox, sophomore member of the Trinity Bee Alliance, hopes that McGrath and others who haven’t had experience with the campus bees take the opportunity.

“A lot of people know of the bees, and it’s kind of like a little local legend on campus.

I think that it’s really important to have that kind of activity and for people to go and experience it. It allows you to see into this ecosystem that we don’t always get to be a part of as college students,” Fox said.

For those more familiar with the organization, the event was an opportunity to bond with other people who care about environmental issues.

“Aside from all the lovely educational and fun activities, I think the most important part of this is just everybody seeing each other and seeing that they have the same interest

in this organization is really cool,” said Philip Trenthem, sophomore and member of the Trinity Bee Alliance.

Trenthem explains that the Trinity Bee Alliance supplies more than just a friendly community on campus.

“The bees help all the flowers here, but they also are kind of symbolic that this university does really care about the environment and about pollinators. There are only two hives, so we’re not running a huge operation, but the gesture that they’re there and that there’s a lot of people looking out for them is really cool,” Trenthem said.

Roybal emphasized that the bees aren’t the only important pollinators on campus.

“There are a lot of native plants that have, probably, their own respective native pollinators that we just don’t know that much about because they’re not as studied. Native pollinators face the same threats that European honey bees face it terms of pesticides, but also, habitat fragmentation. Those native pollinators could just be moths or bats. Bats are a pollinator that people don’t really think about that are really cool, especially in Texas,” Roybal said. “So many of the plants that we know and love, beyond food, depend on pollinators. Even though we don’t see the pollinators, our actions affect them. If you love the way Trinity’s campus looks, you probably love the plants, which means that you also, at least indirectly, love the pollinators.”

For more information on the Trinity Bee Alliance conact Abbi Bowen. For more informaiton on the Community Garden contact Olivia Roybal. Follow the groups on Instagram and like them on Facebook.

FALL INTO FALL

FASHION

A FASHIONABLE BLAST from the past...

Trinitonian Archives FROM UNIFORM TO YOU-NIFORM

Dressing smart:

Trinity’s

FASHIONABLE FACULTY illustration by ANDREA NEBHUT

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

Welcome to the Trini-Vogue-ian A letter from the (Managing) Editor As the leaves begin to change and the weather turns cooler something incredible begins to happen across the world. In the great fashion capitals of the world – New York, London, Milan and Paris – fashion designers showcase their newest designs. At the same time, Vogue, one of the leading publications of the fashion world, puts out their September Issue, their biggest and arguably most important issue of the year.

This year the Trinitonian is joining the ranks of great fashion publications with our Fashion Week special section. For us as a publication this is a new one. As far as we know, this publication has never dedicated an entire section to the fashion and style of Trinity’s campus. To me this seems silly. Trinity is home to some incredibly fashionable faculty and students, and where better to showcase that style than in the pages of the Trinitonian?

Within the pages of this special section you’ll find stories about the way Trinity students and faculty are impacted by fashion and style. You can read about a student who wore the same outfit for a week to improve her productivity and hear the perspective of two students who dress outside of the gender binary. You can get the perspective of some of Trinity’s most fashion-forward professors and read one student’s journey of self discovery through clothing. You can see a photo gallery of students styled in this season’s hottest trends and a photo gallery of fashions from days past. All of these stories and photos help illustrate the importance fashion plays in the lives of so many in the Trinity community.

For so many people fashion is more than just pieces of fabric that they put on their bodies. Fashion can be a creative outlet with outfits serving as entire art pieces. Fashion can be political. You can chose to only shop from ethical fashion brands or shop in resale shops to lower your carbon footprint. For some fashion can be their entire identity; it is the first thing that the outside world sees of their inside views of themselves. Fashion is never just material. It helps us express ourselves to the world in countless ways.

FASHION WEEK

Beat the heat and frostbite KENDRA DERRIG It’s 98 degrees outside. Humidity is at 80 percent. You dressed for this weather — sporting shorts, a t-shirt and a ball cap to keep the sun off your face, yet the walk from Mabee to history class leaves you spent and sticky.

Awkwardly aware of your sweaty state, you sit down in class under the refreshing blow of the AC vent. As the lecture progresses, the sweat dries off your forehead and is slowly replaced by goosebumps. The AC that had once saved you has turned on you, and suddenly, you’re shivering.

As a northerner, this experience of needing to layer up before going inside a building was completely foreign to me. We don’t even have AC in 70 percent of homes in Seattle. In what strange world do I need to carry my flannel when I’m outside, and then shrug it on when I get to class? Why is my Patagonia fleece completely useless, until my dorm AC is stuck at the coldest setting?

To find solutions to these pressing dilemmas, I enlisted the help of a native Texan, Juhi Choudhury, a sophomore computer science major from Houston.

Kendra Derrig: What do you recommend I do to help transition from inside to outside?

Juhi Choudhury: Just layer. I wear flannel and a tank top. When I go outside, I tie it around

my waist, and then I put it on if I get cold.

KD: Honestly, I can deal with the heat, but what about the sweat?

JC: “Synthetic fabrics make you sweat, and they also retain sweat and the smell, so they get kind of gross. Cotton is supposed to be better because it is more breathable.”

KD: But I really just want to wear black leggings all day.

JC: “I mean, you could, but you should try and keep your clothes loose and light. Wearing lighter colors can help, too, not only because of the sun, but apparently it helps with mosquitoes, too. Technically, it’s best to wear long sleeves and long pants to protect against mosquitoes and the heat of the sun, but it’s also hot as fuck, so you got to decide what you care about more. It’s a compromise.”

KD: Anything else you’ve done to help combat the heat?

JC: “I got a side shave to stay cool, in every sense.”

So apparently, there’s no real solution to the combination of Texas heat and Trinity AC. You just have to resign yourself to carrying extra layers and sweating as soon as you step outside. But, there’s still hope. Rumor has it, the climate is changing at an alarming rate.

Maybe the next freak weather phenomenon will be snow in San Antonio.

Now, as the great Miranda Priestly, Editor-in-Chief of the fictional Runway magazine, once said, “That’s all.”

Alexandra Uri Managing Editor

illustration by YESSENIA LOPEZ

Dressing for productivity GRACE FRYE

GRACE FRYE is shown wearing the outfit she chose to test the theory that you can become more productive by wearing the same outfit everyday. photo by STEPHEN SUMRALL-ORSAK

What’s for breakfast? Should I walk to school or ride my bike? Is today a makeup day or not? Should I get up right now and work out or sleep for another hour? These questions, plus at least a hundred more tiny decisions, dominate my morning routine every day. But no question is bigger or more time consuming than What Should I Wear Today? What does this shirt say about me? Will this resonate with my peers? Is this over the top for my meeting?

Is this in line with my Personal Brand™?

Most mornings I dread the act of having to root around in my closet, looking at the same exact clothes I tore through yesterday. I know they haven’t changed, but I always find myself hoping a new piece that says everything I’ve ever wanted will appear unexpectedly, unceremoniously, and in my exact size.

Enter my challenge this week: stop making decisions. For the first time in my life I chose to take on the act of wearing a uniform. I was inspired by a 2015 article in Harper’s Bazaar

by Matilda Kahl, the former creative director of a top advertising agency. Kahl faced many of the same stresses I do (plus more, as she is a functioning adult with a demanding executive role), and chose to eliminate at least one by creating a work uniform: black slacks, a white silk blouse and a simple leather cord necklace.

As noted by many publications before me, the concept of a work uniform is not new. Mashable published an article in 2014 that discussed why successful men wear the same thing everyday. A few years ago a Fast Company reporter embarks on a similar challenge, citing public figures such as Barack Obama as inspiration. But what does this all boil down to? The answer: making fewer decisions. Focusing brain power, decision making efforts and general productivity on the things that matter each day.

It was with all of this in mind that I started

my week. Rather than taking the time to fully coordinate and plan my outfit, I did exactly the opposite. On Monday I woke up late, hustled my way through my morning routine and selected the first few pieces of black cloth I could find in my closet. Thus, my decisionless week was started accidentally with almost the same philosophy. I decided all black would be my best bet. It meant I’d have fewer visible stains, it didn’t stand out so much as to call attention to the experiment and, in my mind, it made total sense to wear all black in the Texas summer heat.

The first thing I noticed was my tendency to sleep in a few extra minutes (read: 30-45 minutes). Minutes that I honestly did not have. Every morning I found myself rushing around cursing myself for snoozing just one more time and cursing my voice command alarm clock for listening to me.

One thing I did not curse was the need to find a new outfit. Surprisingly, my decisionless morning was working. I applied it to my breakfast as well by stocking up on yogurt and grabbing the first one on the shelf each morning.

I’m not say that not making these decisions left me more alert in my classes, but it did leave me less stressed. I wasn’t concerned about my outfit. I didn’t even think about it; it was a given. It wasn’t up for debate and I loved it.

Not a single person asked about the shift in wardrobe; I wonder if anyone even noticed.

Where I originally worried that eliminating this element of personal expression would bore my peers and mark me as unoriginal, it actually gave me the opportunity to focus on my many other decisions, most importantly what’s for lunch.

And while I don’t plan to implement this every week moving forward, I think I’ll reserve my uniform for those hellish weeks college students are so well acquainted with.

FASHION WEEK • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Get ready to (thrift) shop until you drop

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ALEXANDRA URI Shopping can be such a wonderful experience. For many people, like myself, it can be a time to focus only on yourself and treat yourself to things that make you happy.

There’s nothing quite like finding the perfect little black dress or a killer pair of heels.

However, there can be a huge downside to buying new clothes. Not only can it be a burden on your wallet, it is a massive burden to our environment.

The textile manufacturing industry has a colossal carbon footprint. According to EcoWatch, “Globalization means that your shirt likely traveled halfway around the world in a container ship fueled by the dirtiest of fossil fuels. A current trend in fashion retail is creating an extreme demand for quick and cheap clothes and it is a huge problem. Your clothes continue to impact the environment after purchase; washing and final disposal when you’re finished with your shirt may cause more harm to the planet than you realize.”

This is where thrift shopping comes in.

Thrift shops resell clothing items and shoes for a discounted price. This means not only are you getting super cute clothes for sometimes less than half of their original price, you’re also helping to reduce your carbon footprint.

San Antonio is home to some really great thrift shops and secondhand clothing stores.

From Boysville to Goodwill, there is a store for everyone. However, are all thrift stores created equally? To answer this question I visited three thrift stores frequented by Trinity students: Boysville, Buffalo Outlet and Goodwill. At each store I attempted to put together and purchase a complete outfit.

Boysville:

Boysville is a Trinity classic. Its close proximity to campus and super low prices make it extremely appealing to students. The clothing they offer definitely skews towards an older aesthetic. It was a little difficult finding pieces that I wasn’t going to have to alter to fit my style. I started by looking in the dress section, but I soon realized most of the dresses

were formal dresses. I moved on to the tops section and found a really cute black and white striped top for $2.99. I paired it with a dark red mini skirt for $4.99. I tried finding shoes to go with the outfit but there wasn’t anything that stood out to me in my size. Luckily, I have a pair of boots that would go perfectly with this outfit.

Outfit total: $8.64

Buffalo Outlet:

Buffalo Outlet definitely has a younger feel compared to Boysville. The first thing I noticed was that it was a lot less organized than Boysville. It was a little difficult to figure out where to start but I eventually found some great pieces. I started with a (possibly faux) suede tank top for $4.50. I then went to the bottoms area and found a satin patterned skirt for $4.00. This was definitely the most formal of the outfits, which was interesting given the youthful feel of most of the clothes in the store. Something that was really nice about this store was that they offer different discounts throughout the week, so my skirt ended up only being $2.00. Once again, I couldn’t find any shoes that I was ready and willing to spend my own money on.

Outfit total: $7.18

BUFFALO OUTLET Top: $4.50 Skirt: $2.00 Shoes: Reporter’s own

GOODWILL Top: $1.75 Flannel: $6.25 Jeans and Shoes: Reporter’s own

Goodwill:

This was honestly the most disappointing of the stores. Maybe it was just the day that I went or maybe I was just tired of shopping at that point, but I felt like there was not a ton of selection in my size. I found a really cool band shirt for $1.75 and a flannel shirt for $4.50 but I couldn’t find any bottoms or shoes that I was really excited about.

Outfit total $6.25

Overall, this was a fun experiment going into thrift stores to put together full outfits.

I highly recommend going out and trying out these thrift shops for yourself because you never know what you may find — although you may have a little trouble finding shoes.

BOYSVILLE Top: $2.99; Skirt: $4.99; Shoes: Reporter’s own. photos by AMANI CANADA

Dressing smart: Trinity’s fashionable faculty ARIANA RAZAVI

Ariana Razavi sat down with some of Trinity’s most styleconscious professors to get their take on dressing well, clothing essentials and having a signature style Name: Dante Suarez Department: Finance and Decision Sciences Number of years at Trinity: 16 AR: Is dressing well important for you?

If so, why?

DS: It is. When I was a kid my mom always wanted to dress me up, so, naturally, I rebelled and looked as disheveled as I could. Now I am a bit older and can appreciate that dressing well is important for oneself as well as for the community you belong to. In a professional setting, you basically have no choice.

AR: How would you describe your style?

DS: I don’t like wearing a tie, simply because it is annoying, so I try to avoid it when I can. In that sense I would call my style business casual, perhaps very casual. Outside of the Trinity bubble, though, I like to dress a little retro, kind of 1970s funky-cool.

From LEFT to RIGHT: JENNY BROWNE, HEATHER SULLIVAN, DANTE SUAREZ and DIANE PERSELLIN show off their style. photo by CHLOE SONNIER

Name: Heather Sullivan Department: Modern Languages and Literatures Number of years at Trinity: 22 AR: Is dressing well important for you?

If so, why?

HS: Well, I usually dress differently for exercise than for work. And if I were going surfing, I’d probably also have a different set of clothes. There is also the role that one plays in life — I’m a German professor and I dress like one.

Name: Diane Persellin Department: Music Number of years at Trinity: 35 AR: Is dressing well important for you?

If so, why?

DP: It’s important to show that you care about yourself and your students. However, dressing well can’t take a lot of time in the morning!

AR: What’s an essential that everyone should have in their closet?

DP: Black pants. I think everything works and looks great with a pair of black pants.

Everything. Or at least I pretend that it does.

Name: Jenny Browne Department: English Number of years at Trinity: 10 AR: Is dressing well important for you?

If so, why?

JB: I don’t know that dressing ‘well’ is as important to me as dressing in a way that feels appropriate for the occasion, comfortable and hopefully a little inspired. I also have a sister who worked in retail for a long time and most everything I have that could be considered fashionable probably came from her.

AR: What’s an essential that everyone should have in their closet?

JB: Red cowboy boots and a good sun hat.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

FASHION WEEK

Fall into this season’s hottest trends ARIANA RAZAVI

ELEANOR O’SHEI, NATASHA MUPPALA and WALKER LANDS as styled by ARIANA RAZAVI. photos provided by ARIANA RAZAVI

I decided to do a fall photoshoot on our campus with some Trinity students, juniors Walker Lands and Eleanor O’Shei and sophomore Natasha Muppala, that covered some of the trends I wrote about in my previous article, “Fall Fashion for Back to School.” Regardless of it being a sunny and warm day, I did not hesitate to style them in fall classics like knit sweaters, turtlenecks and bomber jackets. They might have complained a little about dressing for 70 degree weather when it was 90 degrees out, but they will thank me later when they post the bomb(er) — no pun intended — pictures, taken by junior Jack Parker, on Instagram.

I wanted to give the photos not only a fall feel, but a back-to-school-looking-cool feel so I did the shoot on the bleachers by the football field. I dressed Lands in a jiggy red quilted bomber jacket, which dominated the runway for fall/winter 2017 fashion week.

That jacket looked like something a 1950s greaser would wear, so Walker looks like an actual rebel without a cause — yes, I just made a James Dean joke.

For the ladies, I wanted to continue with the red since it’s this season’s color. So I had Muppala in boss-lady-like red pants with a black sweater. Then, O’Shei in all black, but made it a little cute and county by having a red bandana, a western classic, tied around her neck.

I think these looks are trendy and easy pieces to find at stores like H&M or Nordstrom. They can go well on a dinner out to Pizza Classics with friends, studying at Rosella or even for giving a presentation in class But regardless your style and taste, have fun dressing up this fall because it’s more than just boots and scarves!

From uniform to you-niform ELISE HESTER On a break from college, my 10-year-old brother was shocked to find out that I have a ‘free dress day’ every day in college. The school which he currently attends, which I also attended from kindergarten to 12th grade, has uniforms. I rocked a classy look of plaid skirts with polo shirts for 14 years. If you do the math, yes there was an extra year in there.

I regret nothing. It just meant more time to wear those awesome uniforms. At one point I even wrote a poem called “Plaid Swag: An Ode to Alpha Omega.” Again, no regrets.

When I came to Trinity, it took some time to find my look. There is a lot of freedom here.

I can wear whatever I want. No one cares if you can see my shoulders or if I’m wearing a hat. Spoiler alert, I wear hats. A lot. And you can see my shoulders — on occasion — if I am feeling wild.

In the few short years that I have had control over my clothing choices, I have grown as a woman, as an artist and as an icon.

I also made a mixtape. That was weird. Then I did stand-up comedy. That was also weird, but again, I regret nothing. As the fashion voice of my generation, my clothes mostly come from either the very exclusive Amazon.com, a super chic boutique known as the children’s section at Target or they were given to me for free.

In the winter, I like to wear jeans with boots, which I can get away with because I’m from the country. However, if you are from California, or upstate New York or Plano and you try to wear cowboy boots, I will call you lame. In the winter I can often be seen wearing my Elsa beanie, complete with a built in blonde braid that makes me look like a gosh darn queen of ice and snow. I also always wear mittens in the winter because I am, of course, a fashion icon and gloves are classy as heck and

ELISE HESTER poses in one of her signature looks since moving past a uniform. photo by CHLOE SONNIER

also I am, of course, suffering from Raynaud’s disease and must at least try to keep my fingers from turning numb and purple.

The late, great ‘old’ Taylor Swift once said that “she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts,” but I have discovered that those two articles of clothing are in no way mutually exclusive.

After growing up in plaid skirts, I cannot stand pants in the warmer months. Pants are way too warm and take way too long to put on. I love dresses and skirts, however, as the most dominant athlete that ever lived, this type of dangerous the-wind-could-exposemy-granny-panties-at-any-time risk taking just does not suit my active lifestyle. So yeah, I have compression shorts on underneath my

dress. What are you going to do about it? Yeah I’ll wear a t-shirt with a skirt.

In addition to a cool collection of skirts, I own a super lit pair of shoes that light up different colors. When paired with one of my signature pairs of crazy socks, I become the coolest lady in the land. I have a collection of six fanny packs, including one that plays music from its speakers using bluetooth. Whenever I wear my ‘jambag,’ I become even more of a walking party than I already am. Another favorite item of mine is the ‘Chat N Chill’ visor my friend found when she was cleaning out her office. She was going to throw out this old red visor, but I was so down to take that sucker in as my own. The greatest shirt in my

collection would have to be one I bought from Target for one whole dollar and eight cents.

It says, “What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?” and then in the bottom corner is a little piece of cheese, which can be lifted up to reveal the words “nacho cheese.”

It is a common known fact that I am a total frat star, so my Hawaiian shirt is a real favorite with the ladies. However on closer inspection, it is not just a Hawaiian shirt, but has pictures of Moana on it, which is a real favorite with the fellas. Conclusion: everyone loves me.

Speaking of newer Disney movies, one of my favorite dresses has Anna and Elsa’s faces on it.

Another has popcorn all over it. In addition, I also have a romper that I bought my freshman year of high school during dollar day at a Huntsville thrift shop. It is missing a button and one of the pockets is messed up, but this is an article of clothing that I’m pretty sure is older than me. I bought this romper, my only romper, before rompers were cool, so in a way, I started the whole romper trend. Mother, if you’re reading this, you said my romper was not cool, but now rompers are cool because I started that trend. No regrets.

If I have learned anything through giving up uniforms and becoming a fashion icon, it is probably just how dang cool I am. Whenever you stop caring if what you are wearing is trendy or cool and start focusing on what makes you feel good that is when you start finding your style.

Of course, my aesthetic is always evolving.

My look, for now, is chic-cheap-country-citychristmas-kosher-camp-counselor-foreverfuntastic-frat-sporty-skater-later-organicpineapple-mango-infused-insomniac-acereporter Elise freaking Hester. Trademark me.

No regrets.

FASHION WEEK • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Deconstructing the binary: The Trinity trends: What’s hot and problem with gendered clothing not on campus ABIGAIL WHARTON

KAYLIE KING illustration by YESSENIA LOPEZ

Cut, color, size and style are just a few things that separate men from women in almost every department store and online shopping platform known today. While this may never directly impact your personal experiences, this does not make shopping easy for everyone.

For those going for an androgynous aesthetic, or for those looking to match a nonbinary or nonconforming gender identity, gendered clothing is a nuisance.

I sat down with two Trinity students to learn and talk more about nonconforming fashion.

Ren Loewen is a first-year looking to study the sciences. Maddie Kennedy is a junior political science major.

Abigail Wharton: Tell me a little about your gender identity. Does this affect how you buy clothes and what you wear every day?

Ren Loewen: I’m nonbinary, and to me that means that I don’t identify with the male-female dichotomy. I’m somewhere outside of that and androgyny is less fashion and more expressing myself so that my outside matches my inside.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to shop because clothing is designed and cut differently for men and women, so men’s clothing doesn’t fit very well. I usually end up buying and wearing clothing from ‘boyfriend’ lines. I hate the name, but I like the clothes.

Maddie Kennedy: I am a woman, and I have always identified as a woman. However, my style can lean toward more androgynous or soft butch, depending on the day or event.

Other days, I will dress super feminine and present pretty typically for my gender. However, I do buy clothes from men’s departments fairly regularly — I prefer looser fitting pants, men’s boots and shoes, and some shirts from the men’s aisle at the thrift store. Some 40 percent of the tops I wear are from men’s departments.

AW: What does your closet look like?

RL: I dress really casually all of the time.

Jeans, t-shirts and sweatpants are pretty much all I own for going out anywhere. On the off times I need to be fancy, I have a few button ups and dress shoes I bought in the boy’s section.

As for colors, I wear solid color clothes that are usually gray or black because I don’t like to stand out and they’re the easiest colors to find at the cheap stores like H&M or Forever 21.

MK: Ever since finding a stream of fashion that fit me, I have found myself caring a lot more about what I wear and how I look. I tend to wear some form of high-waisted pants or shorts with a tank top, men’s short sleeved button-up, or occasionally a women’s blouse, frequently layering. Other days, I wear a dress with a shirt or jacket layered on top. I like mixing feminine aspects with more masculine aspects, and seem to normally find a ratio between the two that works for me. I’m drawn to simple patterns like stripes and neutral or deep colors.

AW: Where do you shop?

RL: Brands that are made for nonbinary or gender nonconforming people are generally only sold online and are pretty expensive, so I do the best I can with cheap mall stores.

MK: I mostly shop at thrift stores or H&M. Nordstrom Rack if I’m feeling fancy.

AW: What’s the hardest part about clothes?

What’s the easiest?

RL: The hardest part of androgyny for me is binding because it’s hot outside and I sweat, so I can only wear them once. I’d like to wear a chest binder every day, but the good ones are upwards of $30, so I’d have to either wash my clothes every two days or buy more binders, and neither is a good option. On the bright side, the easiest part is looking in the mirror and feeling more comfortable with myself when I’m wearing androgynous clothing. Validation is one of the best feelings in the world.

MK: The hardest part is finding fit that I like, in a pattern that I like, at a reasonable cost. I can normally get one or two, but rarely all three. The easiest part is knowing what stores I like, or envisioning outfits. I generally know what I want.

AW: What do you wish more people understood about gender presentation and nonconforming clothing choices?

RL: I want people to understand that there’s an infinite number of ways to express any gender, and androgynous or gendernonconforming clothing. For a lot of people, it isn’t about fashion. It’s about dressing to feel less anxious and more comfortable in their body. Androgynous clothing is just one way to express myself as a nonbinary person, and feeling validated in my gender and expression of it makes me a more confident, happy person.

MK: I want to say at the outset, that as a person who is generally understood as female at this time and who generally conforms to most gendered presentations, I certainly don’t think my experiences speak for or should be understood as comparing to nonbinary people and people who are fully gender nonconforming.

I am a white girl who wears makeup and has relatively long hair, giving me the privilege of avoiding most vitriol. That being said, when I had short hair, I was called sir almost daily — sometimes innocently, and sometimes with malicious intent. This happened whether I was wearing a button-up and boots or a dress and winged eyeliner.

I think that size and body type have a lot to do with how the queer community understands gender presentation. When people think of what butch fashion is, they might picture Ellen Page in a suit or Shane from “The L Word” — thin women with very straight bodies who wear tight-fitting clothing.

In reality, people with curves dress butch, plus-size people dress butch. Particularly when I had short hair, being 5’11” with hips and strong shoulders meant that I was more frequently interpreted as a masculine person, despite how feminine I might have dressed that day.

Also, understand that dressing outside of your expected gender and appearing outside of your interpreted gender can open you up to ‘outing’ or judgment from the people around you — your clothes can out you and make you vulnerable. It can be a balance for many people between dressing in a way that feels authentic to yourself and feeling safe in the world around them.

Every community seems to have its own fashion trends, and the Trinity community is no exception. Birkenstocks, baseball hats and Greek life shirts seem to be dominating fashion trends at Trinity this year. Several students shared their thoughts on these current trends.

Students seem to agree that Birkenstocks are very popular at Trinity.

“I have a pair and I love them,” said Julianna Rak, sophomore political science and Spanish double major. “They are so comfortable and go with any outfit.”

Ashley Eads, sophomore business and psychology major, agrees that Birkenstocks are popular at Trinity, but holds a different opinion about them.

“Of the trends you mentioned, the only one I personally dislike is Birkenstocks,” Eads said. “I realize their main appeal is that they’re comfortable, but I just can’t get past the whole socks and sandals thing.”

Several students also agree that Greek shirts are very popular at Trinity.

“Greek shirts are just a result of most of the student body being part of a sorority or fraternity,” said Chelsea Rodriguez, sophomore English major. “It’s like a graphic tee in the way that it draws attention to you and seems to get people interested I guess. It’s kind of like advertising yourself too. If multiple people are wearing their Greek shirts from different sororities or fraternities, then they have a reason to connect and start conversations.”

“Fraternity and sorority shirts are a point of pride for their organizations,” Eads said. “I personally don’t wear any of those trends, but I will start wearing my letters once I get them.”

Baseball hats were identified as another

clear trend at Trinity, primarily because of the protection that they offer from the sun, but also because of style versatility.

Ethan Courtman, sophomore mathematical finance and environmental studies double major, explained why he thinks certain trends are common at Trinity.

“Usually, [these trends] are popular because they are some combination of comfortable and unique, meaning they make a person stand out but not too much, like the Greek shirts,” Courtman said.

Eads and Rodriguez not only reflected on current trends at Trinity, but also how these trends compare to what they witnessed in high school.

“I see a variety of different styles here, much more so than I did in high school,” Eads said.

“The main fashion trends at my high school were a lot less diverse than they are here. Girls would usually wear a couple different styles but across the board everything was mostly the same. They guys were even more so with their polos and pastel khakis.”

A Trinity student models the popular Birkenstock sandal. photo by STEPHEN SUMRALL-ORSAK

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

FASHION WEEK

A fashionable blast from the past Take a walk down memory lane with photos from the Trinitonian and Mirage archives COMPILED BY ARIANA RAZAVI

TOP LEFT: A student posses for a photo in a 1990 Trinitonian article; TOP RIGHT: Chi Betas practice for Sing-Song in the 1958 Mirage; BOTTOM LEFT: Students take part in a SPURS rush event in a 1950s Mirage spread; BOTTOM RIGHT: A young man with a Rubik’s Cube is featured in a spread on trends in the 1982 Mirage. photos from the Trinitonian and Mirage Archives

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Upcoming “Kingsman” film promises a grand old time

“Mother!” leaves viewers polarized and confused

If it’s anything like the last movie in the series, “The Golden Circle” is sure to be a high-octane spectacle if nothing else.

While critics have praised its avant-garde approach to story, this latest Darren Aronofsky flick disappoints popular audiences.

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Trinity student lands art in Rookie Magazine Sophomore Dinda Lehrmann displays her artwork in the same magazine that inspired her

ARIANA RAZAVI A&E CONTRIBUTOR

Have you ever dreamed of having your celebrity crush or favorite singer follow you back on Instagram? That happened to sophomore Dinda Lehrmann, who got more than just a follow from her role model Tavi Gevinson, the founder of Rookie Mag, an online magazine for young feminists.

Back when she was a junior in high school, Lehrmann drew a portrait of Gevinson and posted it on Instagram for her followers to see.

“I tagged her in it and she followed me and I got really excited. Then she messaged me and asked if I wanted to illustrate for Rookie Mag,” Lehrmann said. “I was like, ‘Heck yeah!’”

Lehrmann even got to meet Gevinson in person when she came to Austin in 2015 for a talk on feminism in the Capitol Building.

“It was amazing and so adorable, and she is extremely intelligent,” Lehrman said.

Lehrmann has not only illustrated for Rookie Mag, but she also publishes different kinds of art. Her work varies from studio-based art and whimsical collages to ceramics, which she says are currently her favorite.

Lehrmann also does mixed media works that combine photography, painting and collages. Her goal with collage art for Rookie Mag is to bring light to serious issues, for instance self-harm, and to attempt to bring beauty to the troubles of being a teenager.

Rookie Mag is known for covering deep topics that mainstream magazines aimed at similar audiences do not cover. Instead of focusing on shallow topics like current beauty trends or hottest celebrity males, Rookie covers a spectrum of more realistic topics, including how to improve your relationship with your parents and how to relieve stress in a healthy manner. This depth is one of the things that Lehrmann admires about the project. Rookie gives young women a voice by allowing girls of all ages to submit their writings, photography, poetry or playlists — another aspect of the online magazine that Lehrmann loves.

Sophomore DINDA LEHRMANN, in addition to creating illustrations and collages, also creates ceramics and even mixed media projects. art courtesy of DINDA LEHRMANN

Lehrmann is currently working on her fourth collage set for Rookie. The theme of this month is “On The Verge” — of something great, weird, bad or unique. She took photos of her friends and added bright shapes and colors to evoke the suspense that you feel when you are on the verge. The collage can be seen in Rookie later this month.

You can also see more of her beautiful

works on her Instagram account, @stars_shine_for_you.

Being a part of Rookie helped Lehrmann realize that she has a gift, and she hopes to keep her art as original as possible. In the future, she aspires to go to graduate school at the Pratt Institute to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree. Eventually, she hopes to help other people through art, as it has been a great form of therapy for Lehrman.

Caroline Vout speaks on sex and power in Rome NICK SMETZER A&E EDITOR

On Sept. 12, Trinity University’s Lennox Seminar lecture series kicked off in the San Antonio Museum of Art with a talk on sexuality in the Roman empire

by Caroline Vout, one of the most

prolific modern historians of Greek and Roman culture. She had quite a busy day beforehand, having flown to Texas from the United Kingdom just in time to have a smaller, more specialized discussion with a group of Trinity classics undergraduate students.

“I’ve got such bad jet lag, it’s four o’clock for me right now,” Vout said at the beginning of her lecture, though she did not regret the opportunity to speak. “Trinity’s students were absolutely fantastic.”

CAROLINE VOUT, answering questions after the lecture. A renowned historian on relationships in the classical era, Vout has published a multitude of books on the subject. photo by AMANI CANADA

Jetlagged though she may have been, it did not show during the Lennox lecture itself, which focused primarily on the evolution of attitudes towards sexuality — especially femininity — held in Rome, how it contrasted with attitudes held by classical Greece and how these attitudes further shifted with the rise of the Christian faith in the empire.

The packed auditorium sat close to 170, a crowd composed of Trinity students, other students of the classics and casual attendees. Many audience members were forced to stand in the back or take seats on the stairs in order to accommodate such a large attendance.

Vout began the lecture by pointing out the scarcity of coverage that Rome’s sexual history recieves in the academic world, saying that little attention has been paid to the subject other than its role in mythology or in the capital itself. Despite this, Vout argues that the transgressive and overwhelming potential of sexual desire did much to shape the nature of the empire.

“Sexuality [is] a force to transcend societal constraints,” Vout said, calling attention to the vast number of norms and rules enforced by Rome upon its conquered territories. For a state so bent on subjugating others, why would there be such a focus on controlling sex if not to prevent agency among its people?

She went on to provide various alternative interpretations of artistic representations of Venus, noting that in the historically male-dominated world of academic study, feminist discussion of such works have only appeared recently.

Similarly, while heterosexual relationships were prioritized in the Roman empire in order to continue one’s lineage, Vout discussed how homosexuality and other

alternative orientations were certainly not taboo or unknown, despite some popular belief to the contrary. Vout brought specific attention to the homosexual relationship between Roman emperor Hadrian and the young man Antinous, a liason well-known by the public of Rome, as well as the myth of Hermaphroditus and surrounding body of artwork made in his image.

“Hermaphroditus [was] a queer body celebrated by the Romans,” Vout said. “[They] were attuned to the fluctuations of what we now call gender.”

Vout spoke quickly and with authority.

While it was easy to get lost in the rapid stream of names, places and events she spoke of, it was impossible to miss the tender, respectful way in which she referred to them. Vout has spent years of her life studying the often poorly documented ways that sex was treated in the Roman empire, having written several books on the subject, including “Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome” and “Sex on Show: Seeing the Erotic in Greece and Rome.” She is a woman who, despite the countless hours of dry research, has not forgotten that the people who form the subject for her study were themselves thinking, feeling beings.

“Sexuality remains enigmatic, regressive and primitive,” Vout said. “If you truly want to know what it was like to live under the Roman empire, you could certainly do worse than study sexuality.”

While Vout has since departed from San Antonio, the remaining three lectures in the Lennox series will occur on Trinity’s campus.

The next speaker, Craig Williams, is a professor of classics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and will discuss the treatment of relationships between animals and humans in Roman texts on Oct. 2.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Students meet artists bringing life to Latinx stories ABIGAIL WHARTON A&E CONTRIBUTOR

Last Tuesday, students taking the Issues in Contemporary Arts course met with San Antonio-based painter Ana Fernandez and explored a joint exhibition curated at The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center’s Brazos Street Gallery.

The gallery space divides two artists’ solo shows into three rooms; each work is more colorful than the last. Figures and familiar-feeling San Antonio buildings and street corners unfold on paper, canvas and occasionally directly on the wall.

In “Narratives Invented,” Ruth Buentello paints detailed portraits of people, drawing on her own experiences and the many ups and downs of being a part of a family. Buentello’s work is intimate and references Chicano identity, mental illness, deteriorating physical health and gender roles. Buentello is a fulltime public school teacher as well as an artist.

In her work, children play and lean on parents and uncles. Grandmothers hold babies and stare deeply at the viewer. A painting of a modern family at dinner riffs on Da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” Family units are constantly in motion in her paintings, displaying as much happiness as they do pain, as much exciting activity as they do mundanity.

The series “Eastside Westside” by Ana Fernandez focuses on small, Latinx-owned businesses in San Antonio, depicting the

One of Ruth Buientello’s pieces in the Guadalipe Cultural Arts Center. Buentello’s work often focuses on Chicano families and topics of mental health. photo by ABIGAIL WHARTON

American dreams of South Texan people of color. Fernandez lives and breathes an entrepreneurial life herself, first as a painter

and second as the owner of popular food trucks, including Chamoy City Limits. One of her biggest works depicts the seasonal Las

Princesas market. Others capture street-side rose vendors, gas stations and parking lots — the spaces of everyday life.

Buentello and Fernandez both attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but did not meet until returning to San Antonio.

Their friendship has become a powerhouse for Latinx representation in art.

Fernandez took time to talk to Trinity art majors about her winding career path and artistic ideas. From a student who switched majors multiple times, to a desk job in California, to owning food trucks, Fernandez has known work within and outside of the art world. That spirit lives in her paintings.

“Ana dispelled the misunderstanding that young artists tend to have, that adult artists are super profound thinkers and always know what they’re doing,” said Julia Poage, a junior studio art and English double major. (Poage is the opinion editor for the Trinitonian.)

“It’s comforting to know that you can still have a life outside of art, because I worry about that sometimes. She’s confident in all spheres of her life — as a small business owner, as a painter, in her identity as a Mexican-American woman in San Antonio,” Poage said. “I’m inspired by how passionate but realistic she is about everything she does.”

Fernandez balks at interpretations of her art that deal with themes of gentrification or cultural decay.

“To me, it’s about blooming,” Fernandez said. Change and movement are a part of both the small business and the human experience.

Buentello and Fernandez’s work will be in Galeria Guadalupe through Oct. 6. On Sept.

28, both women will be giving a free artist talk at 6 p.m. in the gallery.

“It” spooks Trinity audience graphic by ANDREA NEBHUT

AUSTIN DAVIDSON A&E CONTRIBUTOR

When Sept. 8 came around, I was ecstatic. I had been looking forward to “It” ever since the first trailer was dropped, and I had been getting more and more excited with every spoiler and leak. At around 11:30 p.m., my friends and I got to our seats at Alamo Drafthouse, and then a clown came to get our order. Not a normal clown, but one that was covered in what I hoped was fake blood and a terrifying smile.

For the next 30 minutes, I watched little vignettes about clowns and the crazy s--t they do. Those short videos definitely got the crowd in the mindset for the movie. And then it began, and I can honestly say that about the first 10 minutes of the movie are pretty horrific. As Bella Dillman, a sophomore who also saw the film, put it: “The beginning was f—ing crazy.”

She isn’t exaggerating. The beginning is crazy and while I would love to describe the whole movie, I would much rather people go and enjoy it for themselves.

“Not only was it a scary movie, but it was also a good movie,” Dillman said. I agree. It was well worth the money.

“It” is a very long movie, with a run time of two hours and 15 minutes, but it’s worth it all. I myself have never been a fan of the horror genre, especially because the past 10 years have been filled with bland, boring rehashes of the same premises and cliches. One could make a case that “It” is just another rehashing of an old premise, yet after watching, I believe one will see the movie has much more to offer.

What made me really love “It” was its characters. A major problem with horror is that the characters within that genre are generally boring and when they are killed, taken or possessed, we don’t know them well enough

or care enough to feel that bad for them. But with “It,” director Andres Muschietti dedicates considerable amounts of time to developing genuine and enjoyable characters. His ‘loser’ gang is filled with personality, each of the members representing an aspect of childhood and showing how hard childhood could be.

Through these interactions and hardships, you grow to love the characters; from the funny kid to the fat one, each matters. And that makes it eight billion times scarier when you see one them get their face eaten by a painting.

Horror is also nothing without a scary linchpin, and Bill Skarsgard delivers.

“The unpredictability of Pennywise impressed and terrified me the most,” said Alec Trahan, sophomore.

Pennywise is the epitome of fear. Our first interaction is of him talking to Georgie, a young boy. Pennywise is peeking from a streetside gutter, water pouring over his face. Yet he doesn’t pay mind. All his focus is on the prey: the little boy above him. His eyes, a deeplypotent sky blue, are unflinching and eerie. As the movie goes on, you are also shown the true range of his powers. Skarsgard took the mantle of “It” and added a new, fresher take to the immortalized horror icon.

If I was forced to give a number rating to “It,” I would say it was an 8.75 of 10. It had great acting, stellar set design and a dedication to the message and plot of Stephen King’s original novel that few book-to-movie adaptations accomplish nowadays.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

PoNt

19

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Point: Movie reviews are arbitrary and often misguided GEORGIE RIGGS A&E INTERN

Does anyone really need to read a review in a paper to decide if they want to see “The Avengers 4: Revenge of Kylo Ren”? As someone who loves watching and analyzing movies, I don’t look towards reviews as a way of gauging whether or not I want to see a film. The days of humoring movie critics and their supposed superiority should be over.

Anyone who scrolls through Amazon users’ reviews of movies — or the Twitter account that shares the highlights — will realize how subjective movie reviewing truly is. One of the most-shared Amazon movie reviews on social media is a one-star rating of “The Wolf of Wall Street” that states, “There were no wolves in this movie.”

Objectively, this review is absolutely correct. There are no wolves in this movie.

Was this review helpful? That depends on whether or not you are judging this movie from a wolf-content-only perspective.

Movie critics have no more authority over deciding the quality of films than this single-issue wolf reviewer. Movie reviews might have worked in the past by allowing moviegoers to decide if a particular movie will keep their deep existential dread at bay for another week. That role has transformed into a near tyranny of imagined objectivity,

as sites like RottenTomatoes have tried to convince us that we can quantify the quality of movies. However, information on new movies is no longer restricted to what is available in newspapers. Consumers have a wide array of online sources to tell them what is showing near them, especially with the amount of viral marketing for movies, leaving the utility of reviews and ratings obsolete.

There is a reason why, after I watched the first episode of the third season of “Black Mirror,” I had a nightmare in which the library denied entry to students without near-perfect GPAs. Not to sound as dire or contrived as that “Black Mirror” episode, but we are living in a world run amok by seemingly objective rankings.

Our lives are increasingly lived between a variety of obnoxiously-named phone apps, all subjecting us to the wrath of their five crucial stars.

I too am guilty of searching for the perfect four-star-and-above Yelp spot before committing to a dinner outing. But movies cannot be judged as objectively as the time it takes for your smoothie bowl to arrive.

One audience member’s specific niche will not be the same as any other’s. For example, as a first-year, I went to see the historical indie horror “The Witch” with a group of Trinity students. We were some of the only people in the theater, so we reacted quite openly to anything we found shocking or ridiculously funny. Our reactions seemed to be in sync: We tried to hold screams in at the same time and laughed uncomfortably at bizarre scenes.

illustration by YESSENIA LOPEZ

When we left, I expected us to unanimously agree on the brilliance of the film. However, we were all in varying states of disappointment. The movie was admittedly not a typical horror film, and the lack of jump scares left us wanting.

Maybe not everyone is looking for natural lighting and a part-feminist, part-satanist, fully anti-patriarchal message in their historical horror. Both movie critics and myself have to accept this.

Of course, I’m not saying film scholarship and analysis aren’t extremely important.

In fact, I think we would all be better off with more writing dedicated to the actual content of movies and not whether or not they’re worth watching. Because, really, no movie can ever be universally worth or not worth watching. Sometimes you just have to discover that “Batman v. Superman” has nothing to offer you, ironically or not, on your own.

Counterpoint: Movie reviews are crucial to the industry AUSTIN DAVIDSON A&E CONTRIBUTOR

At their core, movie reviews are opinions. And, like any opinions, you can agree or disagree with them. Now, these specific opinions are written by people who have dedicated their professional lives to the study and analysis of film and who have watched literally thousands of movies. And, of course, you can disagree with their refined and studied opinion and say that “Transformers” is a good movie or that Kevin Hart is funny, but you are then missing the point of a movie review.

Reviews, in my opinion, are created to keep the industry of Hollywood and the people working for it in check. When they make a bad movie, they get a bad review, and this dissuades people from watching it because they read the review. And, thankfully, there are dozens of movie reviews for each movie, so you can read them all if you wish and choose among them the one that aligns with your ideals towards film. You can also choose to ignore all of the reviews and go see the “Emoji Movie,” but I would recommend you spare yourself the horror.

Reviews are ways of telling the elites of Hollywood that, if they make garbage, reviewers will tell the audiences to avoid it.

But, when Hollywood gets it right — which it does — the reviewers will tell the audiences to see the movie. Reviews can and have helped movies gain hype and make money.

Take “La La Land,” for example, a movie with dozens of high ratings from many respected and revered reviewers. Because of that, it gained considerable hype for its December release. And, when it did come out, it was a box office success and gained traction among a widespread audience.

The “La La Land” hype train began with reviews and continued because of them.

Reviews are also meant to give movies validation and, hopefully, recognition.

As much as our support of them matters, the public doesn’t vote in the Oscars or the Golden Globes, nor do they help put movies on the American Film Institute’s (AFI) “Top 100 Best Movies” list; reviewers and respected film critics do. The Oscars and AFI couldn’t care less if “Furious 7” made $1.5 billion and was voted “Movie of the Summer” by the Teen Choice Awards; they look at what the reviews said about it. They ask those respected, academic people what films they believe signified and pushed the boundaries of good film.

But reviews do not tell you what to like. They give you a refined opinion on

the film for its artistic value and its place in the world of cinema. Anyone can like any movie as much as they want, but a critic and their review can also say what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’

and be backed by years of knowledge and experience. That’s something that should be respected and taken into account when choosing between watching “The Mummy” and “Baby Driver.”

illustration by YESSENIA LOPEZ

Sports

LET THE GAMES BEGIN: • Football vs. Chapman University, Saturday, Sept. 23, 1 p.m.

• Men’s Tennis ITA Regional Championships, Sept. 28 – Oct. 1 • Women’s Soccer vs. Schreiner University, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 7 p.m.

Volleyball crushes nationally-ranked opponents Tigers move up to No. 5 spot in DIII poll following pre-conference, top-team takedowns HAILEY WILSON

SPORTS REPORTER Fall sports are in full swing and, to no one’s surprise, Trinity University volleyball has been completely dominant in pre-conference play, defeating seven of their last eight opponents.

This streak included wins against top-ranked teams such as California Lutheran University, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The Tigers are 10-2 in the season.

“Our coach does a great job of making sure that we play some of the top teams in the country every weekend,” said Maggie Linker, sophomore middle blocker. “We always play ranked teams, and that gives us an amazing opportunity to take them down. … Right now, we’re building a lot of confidence.”

The Tigers took down the previously No. 11-ranked team, California Lutheran, in the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational on Sept. 9. Trinity swept Cal Lu 3-0 and continued on to defeat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Madeline McKay, a senior outside hitter, believes the win against Claremont was a redemption match that has given the Tigers that new level of confidence.

“There are so many games this season I would consider my favorite, but I would have to say Claremont. We did exactly to them what they did to us last season, and it gave us a certain confidence that we didn’t have yet,” McKay said.

After going 3-1 at the Cal Lu Fornia Invitational, the Tigers moved up in the latest Division III poll, becoming the No. 5-ranked team in the nation. The Trinity Fall Classic was held on campus Sept. 15–16, and the Tigers went 4-0, taking down No. 11-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, East Texas Baptist University and Pomona-Pitzer.

“It was a great weekend going 4-0 and beating a nationally-ranked team, so we’re pleased,” said head coach Julie Jenkins.

Despite falling behind in some of the matches, the Tigers were able to come out on top.

“The team we have this season has a certain drive and desire that has been unmatched so far,” McKay said.

“Our biggest focus this year is to treat every game the same, whether we are playing topranked teams or teams that aren’t ranked. We are just trying to focus on how hard we are playing and how tough we are being as a team, which will help us be ready for conference,” Linker said.

The Tigers look to continue to dominate this Friday. Conference play begins and the Tigers will face Southwestern University, another nationally-ranked team. The Tigers aren’t too worried about facing another toptier team.

“We have been able to perform so well against top-ten teams because we ourselves are a top 10 team,” McKay said. “We plan to stay dominant during SCAC play by focusing on each task at hand, and playing in the moment.

Our team hasn’t even peaked yet.”

The SCAC is one of the toughest conferences in the country. Three teams of the teams are not only nationally ranked, but ranked in the top ten.

The Tigers next home game is Oct. 13, where they will take on Texas Lutheran University. The following day, the Tigers will square off against Southwestern and Schreiner Universities.

“We know that we have to play big games every weekend, and our goal is to grow in our mental toughness every week,” Linker said.

TOP: Senior outside hitter KIRBY SMITH helps her team defeat Hardin-Simmons University.

BOTTOM: First-year AVERY TUGGLE leads the team in saying goodbye to their opponents after a well-fought match. photos by ALLISON WOLFF

SPORTS • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Cheer team expands for 2017 season

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The 12 women are looking forward to cheering, stunting and tumbling at events this year

JULIA WEIS

SPORTS EDITOR Trinity’s cheer squad is back in action and looking forward to their debut at the home football game this upcoming Saturday.

Co-captains Zoe Heeter and Heather Hayes are excited that their squad has doubled in size.

“I’m really excited to have a bigger team with our new girls!

They are all so sweet and make great additions to the team.

I’m also looking forward to cheering on our sports teams and getting back out there in uniform. I love my team and I can’t wait to do what I love with them,” Heeter said.

“I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me that ‘Cheer isn’t hard.’”

ZOE HEETER CO-CAPTAIN OF THE CHEER SQUAD

The cheer squad went from six members to 12, which the captains say will help them perform better stunts and routines.

To anyone who doesn’t believe that cheer is a sport, these ladies say, “Think twice.” The squad practices twice a week for three hours each time. The women run a mile and do an intensive workout to practice for their stunts.

“I love the challenge of being a cheerleader. You get pushed every practice to be better and to achieve things you didn’t even know your body could do. It’s not easy; cheerleading is a sport, and a hard one at that. We run at least two miles every practice and spend over half of our practice building strength through pushups, sit-ups, lunges, crunches, etc. It’s a lot of work,” said Bibi Cutiletta, a sophomore psychology major.

The cheer squad did their first performance for the first-year move-in day, and will continue performing at various sports events throughout the semester.

“We were at the freshman move-in, the involvement fair and the academic fair. We dress up in our uniforms and make a presence. We cheer for football games and we’ll also cheer for home basketball games,” Hayes said.

At this point in the semester, the ladies are still learning their cheers and making sure they’ve got the motions right.

Later in the semester is when the team starts learning the more complex stunt routines.

“A lot of people think all we do is wave poms around, but it’s so much more than that. We also do tumbling and stunting — because we lift humans for a sport — that take a ton of upper body strength and balance. I can’t tell you how many times someone has told me that ‘Cheer isn’t hard’ or ‘It’s not a sport.’ I tell them all the same thing: come to practice Monday or Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and make sure you bring lots of water,” Heeter said.

The women are grateful for their time on the cheer squad and credit it for some of their favorite Trinity memories.

“I wasn’t really expecting to do cheer here. I got a lot more out of it than I originally had expected. I met a lot of my best friends doing cheer. It’s nice because if you have enough spirit, they teach you everything you need to know. So you didn’t have to come in with the most skill. It was more about the attitude and being enthusiastic,” Hayes said.

You can catch the ladies cheering on Tiger football this Saturday at 1 p.m.

The cheer squad performs for various sports events throughout the year to provide spirit. photos provided by ZOE HEETER

information

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

SPORTS

A look into the basic tailgating experience

Hester breaks down the Division I college ritual for those inexperienced with the tradition ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER Saturdays are for the boys, but you go to Trinity University, where tailgating consists of Kappas playing fake beer pong on Prassel Lawn. So you decide to visit The One Person You Know at Not Your School and spend $70 to see a Division I super-fun death game in person.

As a guy, you wear an untucked polo with Not Your School’s logo paired with your second-best pair of khakis. Khakis are comfortable enough while still making a statement: “I kind of care about this event.”

As a girl, you wear a cute casual dress in NotYour-School’s color and spend at least an hour trying to look like you did not spend an hour trying to look good, while still trying to look good. You wear a long, funky-fun necklace and a pair of cowgirl boots you have never worn before except one time to Cowboys Dancehall.

You break in those boots by walking a mile to the tailgate site, where The One Person You Know is talking to someone you do not know. So you just stand there awkwardly, then remember alcohol exists.

You drink some, or you do not because sobriety is a totally valid choice too. You consume half a hot dog or three hot dogs, washing down the smushed mixture of various animal parts with some gross beer, which you might be too buzzed to tell is gross. You mask the taste of a somehow-burnt-and-also-cold weiner with your choice of Heinz condiments,

illustration by YESSENIA LOPEZ

accompanied by your second-favorite Lay’s product.

A person you just met takes a picture of you and The One Person You Know next to a

truck or something. You hold a beer that you will (maybe) not drink while The One Person You Know holds maybe their sixth. You give your biggest smile of the day for an Instagram

post captioned with emojis of a football and Not Your School’s mascot and hand sign.

Five seconds later you delete it and wait until after the game to take the same picture with a different filter and a caption that reflects the outcome of the game.

“Not My School may have lost, but I won with this one,” it will read, referring to The One Person You Know. You later get a warning text from your mom, sent while she drinks wine, about how you should not post alcohol on social media.

You play an actually really fun game of cornhole. You then walk to a ridiculously large, elaborate and possibly state-funded cathedral where you show your ticket app to a mouseylooking student with glasses.

She gets paid more to scan tickets than the athletes do to play the super-fun death game, but you try not to think about it. You get hyped for the next three hours in which you see 15 minutes of actual game play.

At the end of the game, you react to the outcome with some type of reaction, dependent on the outcome of the game. You see that Trinity beat Millsaps and kind of smile because maybe we won’t suck this year, and also because that one football player you know from accounting class is a pretty chill dude.

You travel back with the looming knowledge of the homework you ignored. It was a good weekend, you guess. You had fun.

At least it looked like you had fun on Instagram.

Trinity athletes enjoy department rebrand

In an effort to maintain uniformity with Nike gear, the Tigers are changing their look HAILEY WILSON

SPORTS REPORTER If you ask any athlete what one of the most crucial elements of their game is, chances are they will mention something about their uniforms. Warm-up suits, cleats, batting gloves and the phrase “Look good, feel good, play good” are common among athletes. Lucky for them, the athletic department recently renewed its agreement with one of the biggest brands in sports: Nike.

“We entered into the agreement about three years ago, and we just re-upped for another five years,” said Quin Patterson, head athletic equipment manager.

The Tigers weren’t in an exclusive agreement with any other companies before the deal with Nike. Trinity athletes wear Nike gear from head to toe, including practice shirts, shoes, cleats, uniforms, hats and other specialized equipment.

The switch was headed by Trinity’s athletic director, Bob King, in an effort to have uniformity across our athletic teams.

“We got some feedback from the coaches and it seemed like a lot of people wanted to go to Nike as far as uniforms and practice gear, seeing that a lot of coaches were already doing that,” Patterson said.

With the help of Patterson, Tiger coaches ordered team equipment and apparel through BSN Sports, a vendor in Dallas. BSN Sports is one of the largest retailers of Nike. Trinity has an agreement to purchase all Nike apparel from BSN Sports; in return, Nike and BSN Sports gives Trinity some apparel and equipment for free.

“It’s a sign of good faith. … We go out and support their brand, and they give us a certain allotment of free goods in return,” Patterson said.

The extra allotment is used in different ways every year. A few years ago, King purchased Nike dri-fit shirts for each team, but the specific order depends on the year.

The women’s cross country team sported their new Nike jerseys during their opening meet on Sept. 1. photo by ALLISON WOLFF

Patterson often orders travel bags for the teams, as well as warm-up pants and shirts.

“We really want to give off that Nike look and feel all the time,” Patterson said.

Trinity athletes love the partnership with Nike.

“I love our dark gray Nike jerseys,” said Brooke Bastien, sophomore volleyball player.

“They are very breathable and give us an intimidating look. Nike has always been my favorite brand to play in because the style and the material is just a cut above the rest.”

The cross-country runners changed up their uniforms this year as well.

“I love the new uniforms. The tops are super lightweight and when we are passing

other runners in races, the Trinity logo on the back of the singlets reminds our competition who is beating them,” said Molly McCullough, a junior engineering major and one of the captains of the women’s cross-country team.

“The most exciting part of our new uniforms, in my opinion, are the buns. At first it seemed most of my teammates were not as excited as I was and at the first meet I was the only one wearing [the bikini-style running bottoms].

“But in Abilene last weekend, quite a few of us ladies wore the buns and we not only looked ready to run fast, but also did.”

The volleyball team also says they love their Nike Kobe Bryant shoes.

The football team got white Nike Vapor cleats this year, as well as icy white helmets.

The team also received new travel jackets, which are maroon quarter zips made out of Nike’s dri-fit material.

“With brand-new polos and pullovers, the team looks good when we travel,” said Alejandro Anzaldua, senior football player.

The men’s basketball team got two new pairs of shoes this season, Nike Zoom Revs and Paul Georges, along with new practice shirts and travel suits.

Trinity athletics will be in partnership with Nike for at least five more years. To see some behind the scenes photos of the athletic gear, follow @TrinityTX_Equip on Twitter.

SPORTS • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Splashin’ in fashion: Swimmers suit up

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When team members feel like spicing things up at practice, they pull out their special gear ELISE HESTER

SPORTS REPORTER For swimmers, especially distance swimmers, practice can be a long, tremulous ordeal. The poor swimmers travel down their lanes, from one end of the concrete pool to the other again and again, under the hot Texas sun.

“Swimming is monotonous; it’s very hard,” said junior swimmer Cole Rezsofi. “You’re just literally staring at the bottom for two hours a day.

You have to embellish it.”

Rezsofi’s teammate, sophomore Elliot Fleming, agrees.

“Swim practice just depresses people,” Fleming said. “You’re just going back and forth.”

Change comes in different forms, but in this case it came in the form of goofing off. The monotony of swim practice brought upon the boys an attitude of mischief — mischief intended to inspire the masses. It was this attitude that led Fleming to search for what would become a defining start to the ‘splashion’ movement: the movement of splashy suits for swim practice.

“I was looking for something crazy and I just happened upon this swimsuit and I was just like, ‘This is the one.’ It called to me. It chose me,” Fleming said. What Fleming found would soon change the young swimmer’s life. Reflected in his eyes by the light of his computer screen was a picture of his future: a bright green swimsuit covered in dollar bills.

Through the miracle of online shopping, the suit soon belonged to Fleming. Founding Father George Washington embellishes the swimmer’s crotch, while across his rear end are calligraphic letters spelling “bling bling.”

“His last name is Fleming, so it was ‘Bling Bling Fleming,’” said junior David Smith.

The swimmers show off their colorful swimsuits and speedos. photo by ALLISON WOLFF

All eyes were on the young swimmer as his splashion forever changed the world of Trinity swimming. On the day he arrived to practice in his new apparel, he shocked the team and head swimming coach Scott Trompeter.

“Scott said when I wore ‘bling bling,’ it was the brightest swimsuit he’s ever seen. He can see it in the water. When I’m swimming he can see ‘bling bling’ and when I’m doing backstroke he can see George Washington,” Fleming said.

Inspired by Fleming, Rezsofi followed suit, donning one that appears, at first glance, to be simply a small black swim suit. Upon further inspection, it’s home to a little kitty cat. On Rezsofi’s crotch is the face of the feline friend; on his butt, a tail.

“Mine’s just always staring at you. I’ll look down and I see cat eyes looking up at me from that area,” Rezsofi said. “Scott came up to me the first day and was like, ‘What is this? Why was

this made?’ and I was like, ‘It’s a cat. I don’t know, but it’s pretty cool.’”

Splashion made serious waves as more and more Tiger swimmers realized the power of garish aquatic attire.

Sophomore swimmer Abbie Jones soon showed up in a suit which covers her torso with the face and neck of a giraffe. On Jones’ rear is the African mammal’s speckled pattern.

“I really like giraffes and I thought it was a super cool suit. I always wear it on days I know practice is gonna be tough,” Jones said. “It’s kind of fun to just push off the wall and be like, ‘That’s a giraffe next to me.’”

Splashion is an artistic expression that stems from a place of joy found in the struggle of swimmers to be complete goofballs.

“If there’s a group that likes to goof off a lot, it’s us. ... The suits just kind of exemplify it.

We just want to look the part of being goofy,” Rezsofi said.

“We take everything seriously but we act like we don’t to make it fun. Otherwise you’re just swimming, staring at a black line the entire time, so you have to have to make the most of it,” Rezsofi said.

While the splashion movement is a serious fashion movement, it is still not accepted as tournament attire.

“In meets, we have wear to our Trinity suits, but in practice there’s no limit,” Smith said.

The suits of the splashion movement make the long practices a little bit more fun. However, Fleming would say, it is not the splashion that inspires the resolve among aquatic athletes, but the resolve that inspires the splashion.

“Honestly we raise morale and those suits just accompany it,” Fleming said.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 •

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