03.23.2018

Volume 115 Issue 22

Trinitonian Serving Trinity University Since 1902

10 Alternative spring breaks PULSE allow students to give back

Honor Council changes level of penalties

14 Mackenzie Hill’s “Lady Based” A&E wins award of excellence

MARCH 23, 2018

17 An OREC spring break: Big SPORTS Bend and Breckenridge

Prof takes on gerrymandering Eduardo Cabral Balreira saves democracy with predictive analytics

Changes prioritize educational growth over sanction severity NOELLE BARRERA | NEWS REPORTER nbarrera@trinity.edu The Academic Honor Council is considering an amendment to the Academic Honor Code that would reduce the severity of the most serious punishments. The change would only go into effect if a faculty assembly votes to pass the amendment in mid-April.

Currently, the honor code has four classes of violations: Class 1 for minor violations, Class 2 for moderate violations, Class 3 for substantial violations and Class 4 for major violations. However, the council has proposed an amendment to combine the Class 3 and Class 4 sanctions, reducing the total number of sanctions to three.

Chad Spigel, faculty advisor of the Academic Honor Council, explained that this amendment was a result of changes in the council’s goals over the years.

“I think the Honor Code and the council have changed depending on the students who are on it, and one of the things that they’ve been trying to emphasize since I’ve been faculty advisor is the educational process,” Spigel said. “The students are very interested in the educational process and don’t want to make it so that a student can’t recover from their first honor code violation.”

The conditions under which Class 3 and Class 4 are invoked are very similar, which has resulted in uneven categorization for similar offenses over the years.

The guidelines for a Class 3 violation, according to the Honor Code, are that “the offending material in the assignment is either extensive or critical to the assignment as a whole, but the student has also contributed significant original material of his or her own.” continued on PAGE 4

EDUARDO CABRAL BALREIRA, right, attended a workshop this past summer to learn how to use mathematics to solve the issue of gerrymandering. Balreira uses predictive analytics to do this. Photo provided by EDUARDO CABRAL BALREIRA

BOBBY WATSON | NEWS REPORTER rwatson@trinity.edu The past summer, Eduardo Cabral Balreira, associate professor of mathematics, attended a workshop put on by The Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG). The group was started by Moon Duchin, professor of mathematics at Tufts University, and has been on a national tour training professors.

“The workshop has been an attempt by a group of mathematicians to introduce mathematics to a political science problem.

This is the problem of gerrymandering,” Balreira said. “There have been many attempts to get mathematicians involved, and

I believe, as a side effect of the elections in 2016, a lot of people [decided], ‘Okay, let’s get involved in this process.’ “ The actual process of gerrymandering has been going on since the creation of the U.S. constitution, but it has developed into an abused system in the past century.

“Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing district lines to the advantage of a party or to ensure that the current number of majority-minority districts are represented. So it’s basically partisan or racial gerrymandering,” said Keesha Middlemass, associate professor of political science.

The process has become so extreme that parties have begun to use it to prevent the opposing side from receiving an equal chance

at elections or to prevent minority groups from having any block voting power.

“The majority party will control both the redistricting process and all the election laws during their term in office. So they can cut the other party out and they can restructure the laws in such a way that will keep them in officer longer,” said Henry Flores, professor of political science at St. Mary’s University.

“Gerrymanderers will also use racial groups that have significant percentage of populations in districts and either chop them up and divide them into districts to bolster a party or individual or to keep that group from voting in any strength.” continued on PAGE 6

New committee created to review university events

Group to improve event preparation JORDAN BRUCE | WEBMASTER jbruce2@trinity.edu

This semester, the Event Review Committee (ERC), an interoffice working group, was created to prepare for events on campus. The committee most recently worked with Trinity Progressives (T-Prog) to host Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, in collaboration with Our Revolution Texas. The lecture was the first big test for the committee that formed from an earlier incarnation this fall.

According to Shannon Edmond, coordinator for student programs and member of the ERC, the event followed an unconventional planning path.

“Initially, Our Revolution Texas contacted Laurie Auditorium because they heard it was a very nice venue and enough space to hold the people they were expecting to have at the event,” Edmond said. “Policies and procedures state that you can’t hold an event unless you’re sponsored by a department or a student organization.”

Typically, student organizations will fill out

an event information form several months in advance. With this event, though, the ERC’s structure helped accommodate the short notice.

“Although I think there is always room for improvement,” Edmond said, “I think overall, based on what would have happened if we didn’t have the committee, it was a huge success.”

The alternative, Edmond said, would be to organize the event via emails between members of the relevant offices: Strategic Marketing and Communications, Student Involvement, TUPD, Risk Management and more.

Tess Coody-Anders, vice president for strategic communications and marketing, described the ERC’s makeup.

“It’s an interdisciplinary committee led by risk management that is used to vet off-campus, nonTrinity-related events, activities, speakers, so that everyone across the campus can be speaking with one voice,” Coody-Anders said.

The group is relatively new, according to Jennifer Adamo, director for risk management and insurance. In an email, she described the committee’s mission. continued on PAGE 6

NINA TURNER, left, BERNIE SANDERS, middle, and JIM HIGHTOWER, right, visited Trinity earlier this March. This was the first big event the committee, an interoffice working group, handled. The group was created earlier this fall to help prepare for events on campus. photo by CHLOE SONNIER, staff photographer

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • MARCH 23, 2018 •

NEWS

Previously, on SGA: Back From Break This issue covers the SGA meeting on March 21.

Neal explained that nearly every year they conduct a survey and he explained that increasing diversity on staff will help develop more specific outreach programs.

GUEST COMMENTS Junior senator Daniela Montúfar Soria asked if there was a physician dedicated President Amulya Deva, junior, announced the February senator of the month, to helping international students, and Neal said that though there wasn’t a person Julia Shults, junior senator. Senator of the month is awarded to the senator with designated for international students, physicians have to get diversity training as the most points, earned by attending SGA-sponsored events and promoting SGA, part of maintaining their license. among other things. Shults received a bowl of Amy’s white-chocolate ice cream with Reese’s.

COATES RENOVATION UPDATE Jamie Thompson, director of Student Involvement and chair of the Coates CLIMATE CHECK renovation committee, requested feedback from SGA about the current renovations First-year senator Noelle Barrera announced that Trinity Diversity Connection’s to Coates University Center. Thompson suggested SGA members make clearer event “Womyn in Art,” was postponed. The event will now be on April 10, as a what’s going on to anyone who asks, as well as create signs that clarify how to reach part of Diversity Week. (Barrera is a news reporter for the Trinitonian.) the Commons now.

David Tuttle, dean of students and adviser to SGA, asked for more student Thompson also told SGA that there will be a search for a new university feedback about the new contract between dining services and Aramark. Tuttle chaplain since Stephen Nickle, current university chaplain, will retire at the end of suggested that SGA host an event for students in Mabee to request feedback from this semester. students more directly.

BYLAW PRESENTATION COUNSELING SERVICES President Deva joined vice president Rachel Daniel, junior, and chief of staff At the Feb. 19 SGA meeting, legislative relations chair Chiara Pride, sophomore, had raised concerns about the increased demand for counseling services. After that Monty McKeon, senior, in presenting changes made to SGA’s bylaws. The changes conversation, SGA invited Gary Neal, director of Counseling and Health Services, were minor and included changes to language and clarifications of position descriptions. to come speak at a meeting.

Unlike constitutional changes, changes to the bylaws do not need to be voted Counseling Services increased their walk-in hours last spring and hired a new on by the student body. All changes were discussed, voted on and approved. full-time counselor, Claudia Rodriguez Kypuros, in December 2017. The office has been seeing an increase in demand in recent years, which Neal notes is a national trend that he attributes, in part, due to the changing stigma surrounding mental health.

Neal hopes that the move from Halsell to Coates University Center next fall — a return to form for the office, which was temporarily relocated to Halsell in the fall of 2015 to make room for the Center for Experiential Learning and Career Success — will help make the service more accessible and convenient, if less private.

First-year senator Mia Quintanilla asked Neal to go into more detail about how Counseling Services staff members are surveyed. According to Quintanilla, some students have reported bad advice and negative comments from the office

FEMININE PRODUCTS Last semester, SGA implemented feminine hygiene product dispensers on campus. Senator Washington and Senator Emeritus Nick Santulli met with Jim Baker, director of Facilities Services, to try to make this initiative more permanent.

Baker raised concern about the process of restocking the receptacles, so Washington and Santulli negotiated having baskets with the products in it.

OFFICER REPORTS Legislative relations chair Pride told SGA that Diversity and Inclusion is hosting Diversity Week and wants to host an event with SGA to discuss how to approach civics through the lens of diversity.

Tune in each week for Kathleen Creedon’s SGA summaries. SGA meets at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays in the Waxahachie Room in Coates University Center.

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Corrections • In the Feb. 16 issue, in “Intuition trumps algorithm,” on page 19,

Eduardo Cabral Balreira was misidentified as Eduardo Cabral.

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

CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL On Friday, March 2, at 12:28 a.m., a student was charged with consumption of alcohol by a minor after another student called TUPD. The student charged had returned from an offcampus party. The situation was severe enough that the student was escorted to the hospital by EMS.

ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES On Monday, March 12, at 8:48 p.m., two students were charged with chapter 481 of the Texas Controlled Substance Act and standards of conduct. The students were caught after a TUPD officer smelled marijuana outside of their room. The students consented to a search, but no marijuana was found, just paraphernalia. TUPD also found BIKE THEFT liquor in the room, which goes against On Friday, March 2, at 5:20 p.m., university policy. a student reported a bike missing to TUPD dispatch. According to the THEFT student, the bike was locked with On Tuesday, March 13, at 10:30 p.m., a chain outside of Prassel hall and a student reported a wallet missing. The was last seen a day before the report student said the wallet was last seen three was filed. hours before the report was initiated.

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NEWS • MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Trinity enters final stages of reaccreditation University must submit QEP, provide documentation to be reaffirmed by SACSCOC NOELLE BARRERA | NEWS REPORTER nbarrera@trinity.edu Trinity University is in the process of being reaccredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

Trinity has been accredited in San Antonio since Jan. 1, 1946, but every 10 years the university must go through a reaffirmation of accreditation.

Accreditation ensures that the university’s quality of education and facilities are deemed up to standards by either a regional or national accrediting body. Accrediting bodies act as the mediator between a university and the U.S. Department of Education and help reassure the government that a particular university is doing well.

Katherine Friedrich, director of assessment for Institutional Research and Effectiveness, is in charge of Trinity’s preparation for the SACSCOC reaffirmation along with Diane Saphire, the vice president of the office.

“The government has certain things that it asks us to provide — such as student achievement data — so they have a part in the process that way,” Friedrich said. “The regional accreditation bodies have worked very hard to convince the Department of Education that they’re doing a good job and making sure that we all are providing quality programs and meeting federal standards.”

illustration by JULIA POAGE, staff illustrator

SACSCOC has accredited Trinity for many years, but Trinity lost its accreditation after moving to San Antonio in the 1940s due to insufficient funds. Schools often lose accreditation due to financial troubles but can regain it several ways, including getting more students who pay tuition, getting more donors or investing endowments in ways that get higher returns.

“You have to show that you have the resources that are appropriate for your mission and your programs. So you can have smaller institutions

that have a smaller bottom line, but as long as they can justify to SACSCOC that they are able to support their programs and fulfill their missions, then they’re OK,” Friedrich said.

Saphire leads the Trinity committee responsible for SACSCOC reaffirmation and led the previous SACSCOC reaffirmation 10 years ago. According to Saphire, SACSCOC is very egalitarian in nature.

“Everybody has to abide by the same set of standards,” Saphire said. “In many of these cases you have to justify what your mission is and

then show that you are meeting your mission.”

In September, Saphire’s committee submitted SACSCOC documentation supporting Trinity’s compliance with about a hundred SACSCOC standards.This documentation was reviewed in November by an off-site team of representatives from other Southern colleges. While this team did not visit the campus, they reviewed the documentation that Saphire’s team had provided. continued on PAGE 6

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Academic Honor Council seeks amendments continued on FRONT A Class 4 violation occurs when “the offending material in the assignment is either extensive or critical to the assignment as a whole, and the student made a minimal original contribution, if any, to the assignment.”

The original honor code was approved by the Association of Student Representatives, now called the Student Government Association, and the Faculty Senate on Feb. 21, 2003.

Spigel, who has overseen the council since 2014, has seen many cases where similar violations were treated differently.

“I see all of the cases, but the students don’t see the diversity of everything that goes on,” Spigel said. “I sit through it and hear that the same case got a Class 3 last time and a Class 1 this time. I have to deal with the weight that either one student got off easy or one student got off harshly.”

Spigel hopes that the amendment will make the decision-making process easier for students on the Council.

“I think it’ll make it a little more uniform in terms of decision because what I’ve seen is that students really struggle between 1 and 2 and between 3 and 4,” Spigel said. “They quantify. They try to give percentages, and you can’t really do that because it’s not black and white in terms of what’s cheating and what’s not cheating, and so it becomes very hard.”

Kristen Rundstein, senior and internal chair of the Academic Honor Council, agreed that reducing the number of sanctions may lead to a more equitable process.

“We feel like by changing to this threecount system we will have more fair hearings across the board,” Rundstein said.

One of the important changes is lessening the severity of the harshest sanction.

The protocol for Class 3 and 4 violations is the same under the current standards, with

graphic by LIZ DAY, graphics editor

one major difference. Like with all violations, students must complete an online program that focuses on ethical principles. Students will get a zero on the assignment for both Class 3 and 4 violations, but students will receive a one-letter grade reduction for a Class 3 violation and a twoletter grade reduction for a Class 4 violation.

Under the new amendment, the harshest sanction will be a Class 3 violation — just a one-letter grade reduction.

Rundstein feels that this change aligns with the objectives of the current Honor Council.

“We decided that because we don’t want Honor Council to be punitive and we want it to be a learning experience, we should reduce the harshest sanction to a one-letter grade reduction as opposed to a two-letter grade reduction,” Rundstein said.

“I think anything that creates more consistency across the board on how sanctions

are applied is good,” said Diane Smith, professor of geosciences.

Ten years ago, Smith was part of the five-year review of the Academic Honor Council, where a committee composed of faculty and students interviewed people who were involved in the Academic Honor Council process.

Students with questions can email Chad Spigel at cspigel@trinity.edu.

Trinity Progressives march against gun violence Student group plans to shuttle students to and from March For Our Lives to promote firearm safety

illustration by ANDREA NEBHUT, staff illustrator graphic by LIZ DAY, graphics editor

AMBER ADICKES | PULSE INTERN aadickes@trinity.edu In response to the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, which resulted in the death of 17 students, a nationwide protest against gun violence called March For Our Lives will be held. The march is scheduled for this Saturday. Trinity Progressives (T-Prog) has expressed their support of and involvement in the march in San Antonio.

Carson Bolding, first-year and public relations officer for T-Prog, explained that the members of the club are participating in the march to show solidarity and support for students across the nation taking a stand against gun violence.

“Since Trinity wasn’t in session during all of

the school walkouts, we want to be able to show our support in this way,” Bolding said.

Bolding explained that T-Prog’s goals for the semester are primarily to register voters and educate students about important issues.

“The big thing is making sure people’s voices are heard,” Bolding said. “That’s what makes marches important.”

She hopes the march will encourage conversation about gun control and get the attention of legislators.

Simone Washington, sophomore and vice president of T-Prog, considers March For Our Lives a crucial campaign.

“It is important for our nation to see the tangible change that can occur when people work together to achieve a common goal,” Washington wrote in an email interview.

Inspired by the survivors of the Douglas shooting, she wants to initiate change and believes others should as well. Washington encourages the Trinity University community to participate in the march.

“Needless loss of life in this country transcends political party,” Washington wrote.

“This issue is one of human rights and of the preservation of valuable human life. We should all be able to rally together and advocate for our collective well-being.”

Emily Bourgeois, sophomore and copresident of T-Prog, empathized with the victims of the Stoneman Douglas mass shooting. In 2011, Bourgeois’ school district in Omaha, Nebraska, suffered a mass shooting.

The gunman killed both the vice principal of the school and himself.

“I personally have a deep connection with the cause itself and wanting to prevent that violence from happening to anyone else in any other community,” Bourgeois said.

Bourgeois hopes the march will pressure legislators to create gun legislation that protects children and their communities. She believes student involvement in politics and civic life allows youth to have a voice and grants them a chance to make their future better.

March For Our Lives San Antonio will be on Saturday, March 24, from 12–2 p.m. starting at 100 Military Plaza. T-Prog will provide shuttles to the march on a limited basis. Students in need of a ride should contact Simone Washington at swashing@trinity.edu and meet outside of the Witt Reception Center at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, March 24.

NEWS • MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

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Former U.S. secretary of defense Ash Carter speaks as this year’s Flora Cameron lecturer Politician discussed international security, change in administration, relations with foreign countries BOBBY WATSON | NEWS REPORTER rwatson@trinity.edu Ash Carter, the former U.S. secretary of defense, visited Trinity as this year’s Flora Cameron lecturer. Carter focused on international security, on changes in administration and on U.S. relations with foreign competitors and agitators such as Russia and China.

The lecture is a part of an annual series that focuses on politics and was held on March 21 in Laurie Auditorium.

Carter drew in a diverse crowd from around San Antonio including many residents, college students from multiple schools, and even high school classes. Trinity alum Alex Decker, ‘14, brought his high school class from BASIS, a charter school in the area.

“As other countries are advancing their technologies, I was curious to hear that [Carter] thinks [the U.S.] will be prepared against new innovative weapons such as autonomous guns and newer bombs,” said Guillian Paguila, 14-year old student at BASIS. The crowd was mainly curious about the state of U.S. safety in light of Russia’s recent cyber attacks, North Korea’s nuclear arms and the President. During the Q&A part of the lecture, Trinity sophomore Travis Boyd asked Carter to expand on comments made about hacking during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Carter’s lecture was dominated by international safety concerns, specifically with China, North Korea and Russia. In his response to questions like Boyd’s, Carter emphasized that these nations are issues for the U.S. and that he foresees conflict with them in the coming years, though he hopes the country will avoid it. According to Carter, these nations’ authoritarian leaders are too power-driven and dangerous to be taken lightly.

Later on in his speech, Carter suggested that he wouldn’t be surprised if war came to pass with North Korea, in which case nuclear arms would be used in the Korean Peninsula.

Though he made it clear he did not want war, Carter made it clear that he believed some form of conflict will emerge, but that the U.S. would be victorious in any conflict “China, Russia are trouble in their own different ways, trouble in my opinion. There is an issue with China. It is a communist dictatorship and we have an economic relationship with communist dictatorship, and you have to look at that for what it is. It’s not friendly,” Carter said. “And then there is North Korea and Iran, and so it’s all out there and I don’t believe our fundamental strategies with dealing with them will change.”

Carter has a background of over 20 years at the Pentagon, but actually graduated from Yale University with a double major in physics and medieval history. He accounted much of his success and ability to problem solve in politics towards his liberal arts education, similar to that offered at Trinity.

“I thought it was really cool how [Carter] has a doctorate in theoretical physics, and I read articles about how he was relatively nonpartisan and tended to be more analytical about things,” said sophomore Ari Bearman.

Carter utilized a serious rhetoric in describing how the U.S. has values that are largely superior to that of the majority of the world, and countries like Russia, China, and North Korea threaten the U.S.’s morals.

Carter stated that the U.S. was something to be proud of, but that in order to maintain its status, it needed to stay vigilant.

ASH CARTER, above left, joins university president DANNY ANDERSON, above right, on stage at this year’s Flora Cameron lecture. The lecture series takes place annually and focuses on politics. Carter, former U.S. secretary of defense spoke at this year’s lecture. Carter focused on international security and foreign affairs. photo by STEPHEN SUMRALL-ORSAK, staff photographer

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Committee created to improve events on campus continued from FRONT

BERNIE SANDERS visited Trinity earlier this March. The event was the first big event the review committee handled. The committee is an interoffice group that works to improve the process of scheduling and promoting events on campus. photo by CHLOE SONNIER, staff photographer

“The Events Review Committee (ERC) is a byproduct of an ad hoc committee comprised of faculty, staff and student representatives that gathered in the fall, 2017, to review and examine policies related to free speech, protest and event management,� Adamo wrote. “The committee anticipates that all campus events with elevated risk will be funneled through this committee in the future.�

The committee’s role is not to take over events, however. Coody-Anders shared how the goal of the committee is more an advisory and mentorship group for student organizations. “We don’t see it as our role as a university to appropriate the students’ event,� CoodyAnders said. “But we have limited space on the campus, so where that university committee steps in is to help make sure that we don’t have miscommunication about space and make sure that everyone knows who’s on campus and what’s going on so we can be sure to support the student group or department appropriately.�

Edmond shared praise for the organizers, saying that the committee believes that they are excellent examples for other student organizations attempting to organize an event of this caliber.

continued from FRONT

continued from PAGE 3

“The consensus around the departments and offices who worked with T-Prog were very impressed with their professionalism, not just in working with us but in reaching out to campus partners and at the event where they acted very professionally,� Edmond said. “If student groups are planning a large event, T-Prog is a great contact.�

If groups want to plan an event, they should fill out the event information form and submit it to Shannon Edmond as soon as possible.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS Jennifer Adamo Risk Management Michelle Bartonico Strategic Communication and Marketing Shannon Edmond Student Involvement Kevin Hawkins Laurie Auditorium Alexa Johnston Risk Management Justin Michaelson Conference Services Ivan Pendergast Emergency Mgmt.

Clint Ratliff TUPD Michael Soto Academic Affairs Jamie Thompson Student Involvement

Prof. saves democracy Accreditation process Upon Balreira’s emergence into the political realm, he has started collaborating with professors in other departments such as Flores, who has spent the past 20 years working with all levels of government on gerrymandering issues. In the pursuit of creating the perfect district, many professors must overcome the large amount of variables within politics. “There are so many variables that you have to hold in place, control for, that I think that it’s almost impossible to meet the mathematical standards [of a perfect congressional district.]

You can never tell when a politician is going to get involved and all of the sudden make this decision that defies all rules of logic and mathematics,� Flores said.

Though Flores is more than willing to contribute to the pursuit of correcting gerrymandering, he has doubts that it’ll be able to account for all levels of human behavior.

Despite the many obstacles, Balreira and the MGGG see hope for change in the form of the recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that declared the state legislature’s redistricting to be too extreme in excluding democratic voices, and therefore unconstitutional.

“The workshops were a training, a beginning of a shift in academic career so that I can become a lot more knowledgeable and useful in this process. After this course, the realization is that I have to get involved, so I am trying to get involved in local redistricting,�

Balreira said.

Balreira took part in a special part of the workshop that begins his training to be a special witness in court for gerrymandering.

However, certification for such a position will take Balreira years more of research and publishing that will establish him in the political field. In the meantime Balreira intends to include gerrymandering in his math courses to continue informing people about the issue. “I’m preparing materials to start teaching [gerrymandering] in Intro to Modern Mathematics, where I already included predictive analytics,� Balreira said. “We can also use predictive analytics for gerrymandering.

Whatever I will do, I want to focus on the mathematical side of gerrymandering. We want to introduce mathematicians to the process, so we are not driven by any political process.�

Balreira is already in the process of starting his writings on gerrymandering and is planning on interweaving that into the university’s curriculum.

Of those standards, the team requested additional information for 17. In January, Saphire’s team submitted additional information on those 17 standards to a different staff, the on-site team. The onsite team read the new information and came to campus in early March.

According to Saphire, there are six additional standards that the SACSCOC reaffirmation team wants, so there will be one more round of documentation and assessment. “It’s a three-stage process,� Saphire said. “They keep narrowing it down and narrowing it down to what you need to provide more information on, and so this is typical of the way that this process unfolds.�

The Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) is a vital part of Trinity’s reaffirmation process. Universities affiliated with SACSCOC are required to release a new QEP every 10 years as part of the process.

The university’s QEP 10 years ago focused on digital literacy as a response to the rapidly changing technological landscape.

This year’s QEP, Starting Strong, is focused on enhancing the academic experience for first-year students.

Michael Soto, Trinity University vice president, is the QEP director.

The QEP aims to improve the overall firstyear experience in teaching, first-year advising and bolstering types of academic resources for first-year students specifically. “We’re simply going to expand on what we already do by adding additional peer tutoring, student-led supplemental instruction in many courses — specifically in STEM fields.

We’re also going to create a new Quantitative Reasoning and Skills [QRS] Center which will also be housed in the Tiger Learning Commons,� Soto said. “There’s going to be a full-time QRS Center director who will work with faculty and students.�

In addition to providing more quality academic resources, the new QEP also aims to center the first-year experience within campus culture. “We’re also going to be working on making sure that all students get the message that it’s a sign of successful students to reach out for support,� Soto said. “We want to embed in the DNA of the university the idea that getting off to a great start as a first-year student is the key to being successful throughout the four years here and throughout students’ subsequent careers.�

The reaffirmation process will most likely be finished in December.

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Opinion

Trinity’s Parscale promotion is shameful CRAIG MILLS GUEST COLUMNIST cmills.nyc@gmail.com Discover. Grow. Become. Trinity’s tagline is affirming to those who seek a personalized, liberal arts experience, a goal of which is to produce civically engaged members in a free society. When its alumni succeed, Trinity should rightfully be proud and celebrate their success. When one begets success through questionable, possibly illicit tactics, however, it is concerning that Trinity would actively highlight it. Yet Trinity did precisely this when it produced a video of alum Brad Parscale it posted on Facebook March 6. It begs the question, who approved it?

Political opinions aside, Parscale’s actions as digital director for the 2016 Donald Trump’s campaign are antithetical to the values Trinity claims to promote. To wit, Parscale tells an absurdly verifiable lie in the video’s first minute that Trump’s was the first digitally driven presidential campaign. It sets the tone for validating a man who gained fame via his close association with an ethically and morally bereft, willfully ignorant president. Moreover, it is confounding that Trinity would overlook this lie, given Trinity has its own active digital marketing team. Someone on it should know the basic fact that Obama’s digital operation transformed presidential campaigns.

Let me be clear: It strains ethical credulity that Trinity would celebrate a man Trump recently promoted for actively engaging in spreading false information — most people call it lying — to suppress voter turnout during the 2016 election. Parscale works for a man who: 1) fosters

xenophobia, sexism and racism; 2) actively tries to suppress the truth, threatens and retaliates against those who try to expose it; 3) bullies people in person and online and encourages others to attack them — physically, if necessary; 4) though married, is a serial philanderer, including with porn actresses; and 5) actively undermines the institutions upon which we have built our democracy.

Some argue it is Trump, not Parscale doing the above mentioned. But Parscale, widely credited for his digital savvy, actively enables Trump. To be sure, Parscale punctuates many of his tweets with #MAGA. Has anyone at Trinity asked him to define when specifically America was great and what made it so, or why it wasn’t great anymore before Trump? Has anyone at Trinity discussed with Parscale why many perceive the hashtag as racist and then let him defend it on record? Trinity seems willing to overlook this to promote him.

Parscale boasts about his sophisticated digital operations and its role in Trump’s victory; U.K. and U.S. authorities remain skeptical. Their concerns focus on possible election law and privacy violations and data theft related to Cambridge Analytica, a firm Parscale consulted with to procure data. Facebook has subsequently suspended Cambridge from its platform. Predictably, Trump’s team asserts that Cambridge played a minimal role in its digital efforts. Trump officials also said George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn played minimal roles in his campaign. The government has since indicted each of them. His team also lied about a 2016 meeting with Russians, ostensibly about adoptions, that quickly unraveled. Because Trump is a documented serial liar, it is not surprising investigators

do not take his team at its word. As a Trinity and University of Pennsylvania alum — Donald Trump’s alma mater — I am interested in both schools’ responses to their high-profile alums. Most colleges understandably are proud of an alum who ascends to the presidency. Not Penn. Prior to the election, over 4,000 Penn alums signed a petition denouncing Trump. (Interestingly, the authors removed the signatories’ names, fearful of Trump Administration retaliation.) Post-election, Penn’s president issued a statement about the campaign’s divisiveness in which Brad Parscale play a significant role. Further, Penn alums have called on its administration to take a stronger stance against Trump. Meanwhile, Trinity promotes Parscale.

Trinity’s mission and values statements include “integrity” and “honoring the dignity and worth of every person.” Where did Trinity see these traits in Parscale that warranted raising his profile among alums and the broader public?

The video’s shameful implied pitch to prospective students says, “Come to Trinity, and you too can be like Brad.” To current students and alums, it signals an institutional preference for alums close to power and wealth, regardless of of their approach. It is highly offensive.

Integrity matters. Parscale’s actions transcend politics, because they undermine the core of what we value as a democracy: respect for our institutions, the rule of law, and the pursuit of the truth. He espouses actions on Trump’s behalf that do not make for a free citizenry, a core liberal arts tenet. Trinity performs a disservice by celebrating him.

Besides the need to discover, we have another significant ontological need that we generally overlook. We are not only the readers of “The Book of Universe,” but we are as well a part of it. We are not only meant to discover but also to be discovered.

I have felt the cries of the Muslim world asking for discoverers. An ever-open invitation to everyone: “Let’s all be met.” And they were right. We need eyes to see us living a normal life. We need ears to hear us praying for the mankind’s peace five times a day. We need arms to hug us as brothers and sisters. We need discoverers. On that night, there were hundreds of discoverers who were willing to make an effort to get to know us, to see and appreciate our diversity, to taste our food, to listen to our music, to watch our unique dances, and to accept us as a part of one big family: “the children of Adam.”

In the end, Adam Syed, Caileen Tallant, Meghan Zirkle, Sam Vincent, Mikki Hofman, and Charlie Stein expressed their feelings in Cheb Khaled’s words: “Aisha, Aisha listen to me Aisha, Aisha don’t go Aisha, Aisha look at me Aisha, Aisha answer me.”

And they continued as an art piece that is weeping for the appreciation it deserves: “Keep your treasures, Me, I’m worth more than that.

Bars are still bars even if made of gold.

I want the same rights as you and respect for each day, Me I want only love.”

Yes, that night was a touching cry of Muslims, and I hope it touched and will touch the hearts of many if not all. I hope we will free ourselves from the Satanic arrogance, come to the realization of Qur’an’s words, and put an end to all conflicts, saying that we are here so “that we may know one another” (49:13).

Craig Mills ‘85 is a political science alumnus and active in Trinity’s New York City alumni chapter. He teaches at NYU and writes freelance for the Daily Beast.

In light of Henna Night, discover Islam LUTFI SUN GUEST COLUMNIST lsun@trinity.edu

“Who perfected everything He began the creation of human from clay” (Qur’an, 32:7).

It was not from light like the angels, not from fire like the jinn. It was from the cold, lifeless clay which creations step on. How shocking it was for the angels to understand when Allah called this new creation His “Khulafa” (representatives) (2:30) and infuriating for Satan when he was ordered to “prostrate” (7:11). Although in its material, it was the weakest of all, something was special with this one. This one was taught “the names — all of them” (2:31). This one was the only bearer of the “trust” (33:72). In the Prophet’s words, this one’s face was the closest to His. Allah perfected the weakest material and made from it the best of all. For one more time, He said “Be!” and it was, showing His names in their best forms (3:59). We, as His representatives, are made as the subject to the whole creation, and the creation is an object to our actions, studies, feelings, looks, etc.

From the beginning, we are meant to learn His names, and the creation is meant to show us His beauty. We are the discoverers in this ocean of creation. We are the readers of “The Book of the Universe.” As Einstein says “curiosity has its own reason for existing,” and in Islam that curiosity, that need to discover takes its reason from the nature of our creation, our and only our name “Khulafa.” That is how our creation defines our relationship with the creation.

We need eyes to see us living a normal life. We need ears to hear us praying for the mankind’s peace five times a day.

As we are subject to the whole creation, we are objects to each other. These two needs — to discover and to be discovered — define our relationships with each other as brothers and sisters: a deep, sharing, and caring relationship.

We are “honored as the children of Adam” (17:70) to be “Khulafa” to the creation and to each other. In Qur’an’s words, “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another” (49:13).

In 13th century Turkish Sufi Poet Yunus Emre’s words: “Come, let’s all be met Let’s make this easy Let’s be lovers and loved ones The earth is never left to anyone.”

Last year on Friday, March 24, on a traditional Henna Night at Trinity University,

Lutfi Sun is a sophomore mathematics and economics double major.

FROM TH E EDITORS’ DESK

Stand by

your rights The freedom of expression, guaranteed by the First Amendment, is one of the core principles of this nation. About one year ago, the Washington Post changed its slogan to “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

We couldn’t agree more.

In part, that’s why the Trinitonian strives to bring you the most in-depth coverage of campus. We offer news and opinions that you can’t find anywhere else.

As a private university, Trinity is not legally required to extend First Amendment privileges to students. But the administration’s commitment to the value of the First Amendment, detailed in a 2010 university webpage titled “Student Rights and Responsibilities” and prefaced by a history of protest and negotiations extending to at least the 1960s, grants the freedom of expression that allows us to work for you.

But some questionable events at Trinity leave us curious about where the university wants to draw the line. Consider Milo Yiannopoulos’ 2016 lecture in Laurie Auditorium, organized by Tigers for Liberty. Trinity Progressives, Black Student Union and Trinity Diversity Connection had organized a Diversity Dialogue on the topic of microaggressions a month prior; Milo railed against the concept with a foul mouth and an acrimonious attitude.

Then came Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative author and filmmaker. His 2017 lecture, partly paid for by Young America’s Foundation, prompted students, faculty and staff to debate his views. Student organizers Manfred and Jonah Wendt felt the backlash when students returned event flyers to their dorm, replete with sarcastic handwritten notes.

Most recently, the Trinity Progressives brought Bernie Sanders to campus last Friday. The event seemed less contentious, though conservative students charge that another D’Souza wouldn’t have so easily been given the platform offered to Sanders on very short notice. Our Revolution Texas co-sponsored the event, which was more a political rally than an educational lecture.

Campus’ prevailing liberal disposition certainly influenced his quick reception.

Are liberal and conservative groups’ events held to the same standards? What should those standards be? Should they be up to students, as hot-headed and impulsive as we can be?

If administrators are wary of students getting played by outside groups, perhaps conditions on co-funded and co-sponsored events are in order. Or maybe attendance to such events could be restricted to students only. Would D’Souza or Bernie have found it worthwhile to talk to only a hundred or so students, rather than a thousand-plus supporters each? Color us skeptical.

Whatever the standards, they should be public and transparent. We look forward to hearing more from the university’s new Event Review Committee about the policies they wish to codify and implement.

And we all should keep a close eye on the freedoms promised in Trinity’s statement on Student Rights and Responsibilities.

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WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • MARCH 23, 2018 •

OPINION

Trinity international students are “in the mix” illustration by JULIA POAGE, staff illustrator

BOB SEESE FACULTY COLUMNIST rseese@trinity.edu We often think of language, culture and nationality as common denominators for friendship and involvement on a university campus. For example, it is common to assume that international students from the same country will hang out together.

I was an international student in China for one year. However, because I wanted to learn to speak Chinese, I avoided hanging out with other Americans and other native English speakers like the plague.

Another misconception is that students from a particular continent, like Africa, will naturally hang out together. In reality, a student from Kenya is no more likely to make friends with a student from South Sudan than a student from Texas would want to make friends with a student just because she is from Minnesota.

Moreover, like U.S. students, international students choose their involvements and friendships based on common interests, virtues, thinking and other ideals.

EXAMPLES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN THE “TRINITY MIX” Victoria Abad is from Ecuador and is an economics major. Her passion is dancing. She serves at the co-captain of Loon-E Crew and is a member of the Trinity Ambassadors. In addition, she has held several on-campus jobs.

Jose Roberto “Robbie” Andres is from the Philippines and is a finance major. He is the captain of the Trinity Men’s Soccer Club, a resident assistant, a member of the fraternity Omega Phi and the

founder of the San Antonio AI Meetup, Growing with Artificial Intelligence. In 2017, the Center for International Engagement presented him with the award for outstanding achievement in international education, because of his successful integration into Trinity culture.

Abad and Andres are just two of many Trinity students from other countries who have blended in extremely well. Robbie Andres was presented the international student award by Katsuo Nishikawa, director of Center for International Engagement.

LOVE AND RESPECT GO A LONG WAY We, the ‘homegrown’ Trinity faculty, staff and students, play significant roles in helping international students become successful members of the Trinity

community. Soon after I arrived at Trinity in 2014, a fellow staff member said that a way to view Trinity is “it is a secular university with religious roots.” In that spirit, and by drawing upon a unique characteristic of Texas culture, I would like to propose two principles for interaction with international students and scholars at Trinity.

First, from one of Trinity’s roots, the Bible: “When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” — Leviticus 19:33–34, New English Translation.

Principle number one: “… love the [international] as yourself ” and treat him as much as possible ‘as a

native citizen.’ This over 2,000-yearold principle works well when relating to most people. We are the hosts and internationals are our guests. Therefore, we should love and respect them, even if we disagree with their opinions or beliefs.

Second, Texas developed a culture that is unique to the 50 states. I have visited all 50. It is the only state where citizens routinely display the state flag. Only upon my arrival in Texas was I personally welcomed on several occasions as a new resident from out of state. Finally, it was in Texas where I learned that you should always keep salsa and chips handy for unexpected guests.

Principle number two: Embrace the long-held Texan custom of being a welcoming state. Welcome international students to Trinity!

Welcome them to Texas! Bring out the salsa and chips or maybe just a cup of coffee at Einstein’s. Make

friends with the world that has come to us!

Like students from the U.S., international students are individuals. Consequently, it is best to recognize them as such.

If you are currently growing, discovering and becoming internationally, keep up the great work! If not, start today by practicing principles one and two!

Finally, if you are an international student and you feel you are still on the outside, please take advantage of the many opportunities — especially those offered through Student Involvement — to become a successful member of the Trinity community!

Bob Seese is the assistant director for international student & scholar services in the Center for International Engagement.

Time to re-examine our worldviews with #MeToo DAVID POOLEY FACULTY COLUMNIST dpooley @trinity.edu We finally — finally! — seem to be at a watershed moment for the abolition of tacit acceptance of rampant sexual harassment. It has been a long time coming, and there is reason for cautious optimism that things might actually begin to change.

It will not happen overnight, and it will not just happen by hoping and wishing. It will take diligence and perseverance to carry the #MeToo movement to lasting social change.

For many men, when these stories began to break, the news of such widespread sexual harassment was unbelievable. They had no idea that such routine, systematic and entrenched sexual harassment was a standard and tolerated part of so many workplaces.

I don’t know any woman who was shocked.

Therein lies an opportunity for the men who are just now realizing that the world is a very different place for the other 50 percent of the population. This is not a column about sexual harassment; that is a piece for someone else to write. This is a column about how to navigate your way through an upheaval of your worldview.

I remember very distinctly the first time I realized the world was not what I thought it was. And I remember exactly who let me in on that fact. His name was Chuck D, and the album was “Fear of a Black Planet.”

It had just been released. I listened to that tape — yes, tape — over and over again, and each time my world got a little bit bigger and a lot more unsettling. How could 911 be a joke?

Why did he have so much trouble on his mind?

Was it really possible that everything they were singing about was true? If so, how could that be?

How could the world I lived in and thought I understood be that different for a black person?

I cannot answer that question any more deeply or fully than many others already have. Our country — my country, a country I love and cherish — began with one of the greatest of evils. There is no getting around that, and there is no denying that we continue to deal with the original sin of slavery to this day.

The beginning of that realization for me happened in that summer, so many years ago, with that Public Enemy tape.

It was a turning point in my life. It gave me the opportunity to see things in a different light, to examine my life and the lives of my friends and family I started to see things and to hear things that made me sick. The racist jokes were so much more prevalent than I realized, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond the overt bigotry was the casual racism that seemed to find its way into almost every hour of every day. The surest way to insult someone was to liken him or her to a black person.

With my new eyes and ears, I quickly realized that everything Chuck D was singing about was true.

Of course it was. Racism was baked

into the fabric of America. So what could I do about it?

To start, I could make sure I no longer actively contributed to it. I could examine my speech and my actions. So I did. And I found things I was not proud of, things that needed to change. So I changed them.

I withdrew from ‘friends’ who persisted in their telling of racist jokes.

I couldn’t really do that with family, so I had to tell some uncles to stop using the N-word and other words around me because I just didn’t want to hear that anymore.

I call out casual racism when I encounter it — the only time I’ve ever lost my patience with a student was because of an offhand comment about Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I explain unintended racism to those who unwittingly say something stupid.

I send monthly donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center. And I made promises to my children that I would raise them without that hate in their hearts or in our home.

So, now, with the unsettling realizations that the #MeToo movement has brought into the open,

many of you men may feel something similar to what I did all those years ago.

What will you do now? What can you do now? What should you do now?

There are many positive actions that you can take, but one thing you should not do is to presume you know what it’s like. You simply cannot know that.

The world that women face is not the same one you face. We live, study and work side by side, but that does not mean our experiences are the same.

A good start would be to critically examine your own life, your speech and your actions. Root out and excise traces of sexism. Don’t stand idly by when you encounter sexism in your circle of friends. Realize that it is still sexist to denigrate or make jokes about women even when they are not there.

Understand that you have a bigger part to play in this than just being one of the ‘good ones’ who doesn’t actively harass women.

David Pooley is an assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy.

OPINION • MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

CIVIC STUDENTS Texans do not like to talk about politics.

The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life recently published the 2018 Texas Civic Health Index, which used the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) to compile a report on the state of civic life in Texas.

Texans appear to be apathetic about discussing politics, “When asked how frequently they talk about politics with friends and family, only 23 percent say they do so often — ranking the state 50th in the nation,” according to the 2018 Texas Civic Health Index.

My responsibility as a Texas Civic Ambassador is to track how this trend of depressed participation manifests on Trinity’s campus, and to use my platform to extend a conversation around the very subjects Texans love to avoid — civic participation and politics. My hope is that this column will serve as a guide for navigating the emerging civic dialogue on campus.

‘Civic life’ has a wide variety of significances depending on who you ask, but it generally refers to community participation. As outlined by the 2018 Texas Civic Health Index, some common indicators of civic life include: voter registration and turnout (political participation), other forms of political contact, donating, volunteering and neighborhood connectedness.

Essentially if you register to vote, vote regularly in elections, contact and work with your political representatives and/or participate in community initiatives that require dialogue, cooperation and trust — you are a civically engaged citizen.

There are many ways to be civically active, and there is no ‘best’ way to be involved in your community. Still, all of them — voting, volunteering with a community group, and political organizing — require some level of money, time, knowledge and emotional commitment.

It is a privilege to be a civically engaged citizen in Texas. While participating in your community as a student can be difficult, active involvement on our campus and an awareness of civic life are vitally important.

Trinity students are poised to change the landscape of our political community by acting on our civic and political convictions.

The data available in the 2018 Texas Civic Health Index illustrates that those with higher incomes and advanced degrees are more likely to discuss politics.

Trinity University students are receiving an advanced education and are on the path toward long-term socioeconomic success, thus we must simultaneously recognize our potential marginalization from civic dialogue as young people, our privilege as students who attend a private four-year university with a wealth of resources and our power to change the course of civic life and politics in Texas.

The data hints that we may be the next generation of change-makers for our state.

While low voter registration, turnout and civic participation are detrimental overall, the depressed state of civic life also means students have a window of opportunity to alter the civic health of our communities positively — because Trinity students have the skills and access needed to become involved

CHIARA PRIDE on political engagement

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graphic by LIZ DAY, graphics editor

and motivate others. Further, we as students can chose to have informed conversations, broaden our field participation and listen to the diverse array of organizers and political activists that are working in and around the Trinity community.

The following two articles in this series will explore why civic participation is so crucial, the emerging vibrant civic life on campus and will include some opportunities for student involvement.

For now, I want to close with a note on data interpretation. This series relies heavily on data from the 2018 Civic Health Index to give readers a picture of the overall poor civic health of Texas, and often displays the

correlation of civic participation and higher education and income. This correlation is not intended to imply that the wealthy and more educated among us possess, or indeed should possess, a monopoly on civic participation.

While socioeconomic privileges make navigating our structures of citizenship easier, the healthy civic life of Texas inherently depends on community participation and should transcend socioeconomic barriers.

Everyone, including Trinity students, should be talking politics.

Chiara Pride is a sophomore anthropology and political science major.

The harsh reality of the culture shock ‘U-curve’ illustration by JULIA POAGE, staff illustrator

CLARISSA CASTAÑEDA GUEST COLUMNIST ccastane@trinity.edu

Culture shock is something that’s widely talked about and is to be expected by anyone who goes overseas. You’re going to another country with a different culture — possibly a different language — and these differences take some time to get used to. It takes time to get out of the American mentality and adjust to your new surroundings.

I studied abroad twice in Madrid, Spain with Trinity’s summer and fall Spain programs.

While I experienced some cultural shocks — eating dinner really late, double kisses when you greet anyone — I did not take long to integrate into Spanish culture, possibly because I grew up in a bicultural home.

Because the summer program was seven weeks, I did not necessarily experience culture shock for long. By the time I started feeling homesick, the program was over, and I got to spend the rest of the summer at home.

However, the semester program was different, and that’s when I started experiencing what researchers call ‘the culture shock U-curve.’

Culture shock does not just apply to students studying abroad, it applies to anyone who leaves their home country for an extended period of time.

A web page by the U.S. State Department explains the culture shock U-curve. When a person goes abroad, they experience the ‘honeymoon’ phase where everything is new and exciting, but they start to experience culture shock because they start to realize that their surroundings are very different from what they are used to.

Finally, the individual adapts to their new environment abroad. Culture shock itself is a widely accepted phenomenon, but what

happens when you experience culture shock ... when you come back home?

This is what I have experienced since I came back — reverse culture shock. Just like with culture shock, there is a honeymoon phase once you get back to the U.S. I was happy to be home; I had missed Mexican food — which was nonexistent in Spain — Chick-fil-A, stick deodorant and over-thecounter medication, just to name a few. Then,

when I came back home, I started to feel the crisis phase.

Coming back to Trinity after being abroad was even more difficult than when I first came as a first-year. I was scared and nervous to reintegrate myself on campus because both Trinity and I had changed.

I think that one of the misconceptions of going abroad is that everything will be the same as when you leave, but it is not. I was

gone for one semester and it took me about a week to finally start seeing people I knew around campus.

It got to the point where I felt I no longer fit in and wanted to go back to Madrid.

Reconnecting with friends has taken time, and although I kept in touch with most through social media, coming back has been interesting and at times overwhelming.

One of the worst moments since I have been back was waking up after a Sunday afternoon nap wanting tapas and realizing that I was in the U.S., where there are no tapas. That was a really low point for me, but thankfully I have the Trinity friends from Spain who became like family. Seeing them around campus has been reassuring and made coming back a bit easier.

The purpose of this column is not to discourage anyone from studying abroad.

On the contrary, I think everyone should study abroad, whether it’s for a few weeks, a semester or — if you’re lucky — a year.

You come back with a greater appreciation for the little things, like stick deodorant and central heating. Not only do you get to immerse yourself in another culture but you also learn to be critical of your own. While culture shock is to be expected, I believe so is reverse culture shock, and this should be something that is more openly discussed.

Everyone copes with being back differently and at a different pace, but this should not be seen as a negative thing. On the contrary, I think that reverse culture shock is a sign that you fully integrated yourself to your new culture and came to appreciate it just as much as your home culture.

For me, Madrid will always be my home away from home, and I am already counting down the days until I go back.

Clarissa Castañeda is a senior political science, international studies and Spanish triple major.

Pulse

HAVE A STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE TOLD? Know a professor or student who embodies what it means to be a Tiger?

Email us at trinitonian@trinity.edu to let us know about the people and events that should be covered in an upcoming issue of the Trinitonian.

Tigers give back on spring break trips

Students volunteer and learn on Trinity-organized breaks GABBY GARRIGA | PULSE REPORTER ggarriga@trinity.edu Normally, spring break does not invoke images of cleaning, recycling or sleeping on the floor of churches. But some Trinity students participated in spring break trips which had them do exactly that.

These students spent their week working with local, national and international organizations to learn more about the issues various communities are facing, and to toward work toward possible solutions.

SAN ANTONIO URBAN PLUNGE Intervarsity is an international and interdenominational Christian campus ministry. This spring break, chapters of Intervarsity across the United States gathered in San Antonio to volunteer at local nonprofits and discuss their faith. Participants were also divided into groups that focused on teaching them about racial injustice and identity.

There were about 85 participants in total, including five members of Trinity's own Intervarsity chapter, who attended for the first time last week. One participant, first-year Grace Yun, volunteered at a local homeless shelter called Haven for Hope and spoke to people who were staying at the facility or using the services offered. The trip helped Yun see homelessness in a new light.

“I knew about the homelessness issue and the race issue and I knew about it because I read stuff.

But I never had to face these issues and see how what I believe in goes about to answer how this issue is solved, “ Yun said.

TIGER BREAKS NEW ORLEANS The New Orleans Tiger Breaks trip was centered around environmental justice in the city. Ten students spent one week volunteering for a total of forty hours at different organizations, working to repair the effects of harmful practices to the environment.

Sophomore Kievan Boudreaux-Bostic attended the trip as a trip leader, choosing

SUSAN GRIFFITH sorts recycled Mardi Gras beads on the New Orleans Tiger Breaks trip. photo by JORDAN BRUCE, webmaster

the organizations the group would go to. He enjoyed visiting New Orleans — where his family is from — and experiencing the culture.

“It was a good way for me to go back and give back to my community,” BoudreauxBostic said.

One of the most memorable volunteer opportunities for Boudreaux-Bostic was at Arc of Greater New Orleans, where volunteers helped organize ninety tons of Mardi Gras beads to be reused for next year’s celebration, minimizing the waste produced. Arc of Greater New Orleans also employs people with developmental issues, working to foster an accepting community.

“I really liked that one because it was a nice merge between social justice and environmental justice,” Boudreaux-Bostic said.

TIGER BREAKS OKLAHOMA CITY On the newest student-led Tiger Breaks trip led by TUVAC, nine Trinity students traveled to Oklahoma City, completing 40 volunteer hours. Participants volunteered at the Salvation Army every morning, building relationships with fellow volunteers from the community.

Each afternoon, the group volunteered with different organizations, all of which focused on homelessness and poverty. The volunteers then

Students pose for a picture in Nicaragua. They met with with Nicaraguans in order to learn about the community. photo provided by JANETT MUÑOZ

attended alumni dinners and returned to Church of the Open Arms, where they slept each night.

Siddhant Shetty, first-year, was one of the trip's leaders.

“It allows students to see an aspect of the community that maybe they are not exposed to. It provides an opportunity to actively engage within the community because, during school, we may not have a lot of time to do that,” Shetty said.

Another new facet to this Tiger Breaks trip was the addition of Jolie Nyamarembo, an AmeriCorp representative who works for TUVAC. She attended with the students, acting as their guide.

“You can give money and you can donate, but you don’t really see where that money is allocated. When you volunteer you can see where the need is. We were able to help them achieve their mission and take the baggage off of them,” Nyamarembo said.

NICARAGUA Nine students and three faculty members traveled to Nicaragua to learn how the community, usually without governmental support, is combating environmental and social issues. The professors that lead this trip, Richard Reed and Alfred Montoya, both from the sociology and anthropology department, worked

with the Center for International Engagement to organize the trip. They also worked with the Mexico, Americas and Spain (MAS) program to create scholarships for students to go to Nicaragua.

The students were selected from International Issues in Health and the Environment, a class offered every other year within the sociology and anthropology department. For 10 days, students traveled Nicaragua, talking to the people and at times staying in their homes. Alejandro Richard, sophomore, felt that the trip helped him better understand the material he was learning in class.

“I’ve always been knowledgeable of people in impoverished situations, but going there emphasized that not only is that true, but it can be true on a national level,” Richard said.

Taylor Bolzer, sophomore sociology major, was particularly struck by the resilience of the people, especially the women of Managua, Nicaragua, who developed a women's clinic in response to health issues they observed in their community. The clinic offers services such as prenatal care and birth control. "[Nicaraguans] might not be where they want to be right now, but they're not going to stop," Bolzer said.

Stumberg competitors prepare for seed round Entrepreneurs get ready to compete for $5,000 and place in summer accelerator

MAGGIE LUPO | PULSE REPORTER mlupo@trinity.edu Amid the tea, soda, Red Bull and water at any of the POD locations on campus, there are, of course, several options for coffee — but only one of those options for cold brew coffee is the product of a startup that’s developed right here at Trinity.

That company, and its cold-brew coffee currently offered in two varieties, is called Quick Sip. Sophomore Jacob Hurrell-Zitelman began Quick Sip in March 2017. The idea started as a combined coffee shop and bar concept that Hurrell-Zitelman wanted to open on N. St. Mary’s Street. Hurrell-Zitelman had no savings and wasn’t 21, so his original plan didn’t work out.

However, during the time he spent trying to make it happen, Hurrell-Zitelman got to meet people in the coffee industry and learn more about specialty coffee.

JACOB HURRELL-ZITELMAN sells his cold brew coffee. He started his company last March and now hopes to win the Stumberg competition. photo provided by JACOB HURRELL-ZITELMAN

“I learned that what makes a good coffee is what’s sweet and fruity and light, as opposed to super dark, like what Starbucks gives you. So that really got me passionate about it, and helped turn it into what Quick Sip is today, which is a bottled specialty coldbrew company,” Hurrell-Zitelman said.

Quick Sip is just one of the 11 startups that will be competing in the seed round of the Louis H. Stumberg Venture Plan

Competition on March 27. This competition gives student startups the opportunity to pitch their company to real investors and get the capital they need in order to expand their businesses.

The seed round of the competition awards five winning companies a $5,000 seed prize and participation in a Summer Accelerator program.

This program, which takes place at Trinity and is led by the entrepreneurship department,

provides the guidance and resources to help get the winning teams on their feet as companies.

In the fall, the winners of the seed round will compete against each other in the final round of the competition for the $25,000 grand prize. “[The Summer Accelerator program] is an excellent opportunity if you’re coming to the competition with an idea that you need some guidance and direction on. That’s the purpose of the Summer Accelerator — to build it out fully for you and accelerate you in the process of starting a business for real,” said Carmen Aramanda, program coordinator for the entrepreneurship department.

Another one of the competitors, a team called PATCH, started very differently than Quick Sip. First-years Gavin Buchanan and Andrew Aertker founded the startup in Trinity’s entrepreneurship course last semester.

Their idea is for a new type of pill bottle that tracks when the medication is dispensed and sends that data to doctors and, eventually, health insurance providers This idea was born out of concerns centering around the opioid crisis, Buchanan explained. continued on PAGE 12

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• MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

A history of Trinity’s major changes

Students years ago had range of options no longer available today GABBY GARRIGA | PULSE REPORTER

ggarriga@trinity.edu

Before 1980, Trinity was known for its tennis team, not its academic programs, like it is today. The future for Trinity looked bleak. Enrollment for many programs was down, and the university was struggling to keep up with the financial needs of struggling programs.

Then, about 35 years ago, Trinity did some rebranding. Ron Calgaard, former Trinity president, changed the university’s unpromising trajectory by eliminating several majors and programs.

Today, we make a tribute not only to those majors and graduate programs that did not meet Trinity’s standards in the 1980s, but also to other majors Trinity has lost throughout the years.

HOME ECONOMICS Trinity’s home economics major began in 1917 and was discontinued in 1982. The major was primarily offered to women. Students in this major were required to take common curriculum classes, but they focused on “cookery,” “household administration,” “dietetics,” “sewing” and “dressmaking.” There was even a home economics cottage on campus in which students would practice cooking and running households.

“It reflects a kind of unfortunate history of things in that it was largely for women,” said Charles White, former Trinity vice president and current psychology professor.

“Home economics was like, how to cook, how to clean your house, how to raise children; it had little to do with economics. It was more about home operations that fell to women.”

GERONTOLOGY White joined the university’s faculty in 1979, when he was hired to be the director of gerontology — the study of aging. Trinity offered a graduate program that allowed students to focus on this area, blending psychology and sociologys. The major was discontinued in 1985.

“Students would go on to sort of run senior centers, they would work for nursing home chains. They might be in health care administration,” White said.

JOURNALISM The department of journalism was created in 1926, but changed to the communication department in 1985. At its establishment, the communication department offered classes focusing on article writing, advertising theory and practice, as well as church publicity.

The department has since evolved to encompass the growing nature of journalism and media.

Sammye Johnson, who was a professor for the department of journalism and now works in the communication department, experienced the shift.

“We modified the existing curriculum in 1985 to streamline it and make it more responsive to an evolving media landscape with merging formats and myriad technological options,” Johnson said. “The field of journalism started changing, and it made sense for our name to become the department of communication to reflect vertical and horizontal shifts in the field.”

SECRETARIAL STUDIES Secretarial studies began in 1938, within the English department, and ended in 1964. The program focused on preparing students for receptionist jobs.

The major was completed in one year or the courses could be used to complete other degrees.

“In order to enable young men and women to prepare for a business position in a short time, the following curriculum, which may be completed in one year, is offered for high school graduates,” states the 1950 courses of study bulletin.

MILITARY STUDIES In 1942, Trinity announced that the university would support the national war effort. To do this, the university created an accelerated track, by means of an enlarged summer program, for students who were interested in joining the military service.

The program ended in 1945, but Trinity continued efforts to enable students returning from World War II to adjust to the university.

“Trinity is an approved school for young men preparing to train as officers in various branches of the military service,” states the 1942 courses of study bulletin.

“A special Trinity University unit of the Texas Defense Guard gives excellent introductory training and service.”

HOME BUILDING Trinity’s home building major was the first of its kind in the country, beginning in 1953. The major was designed to teach students how to construct homes, and produced a number of graduates who

went on to start home building companies in San Antonio. Brian Mayo, of Mayo Construction Company in San Antonio, graduated with this degree. Students even worked on the Charlotte Mayfield Home Economics Cottage at times. The home building major was discontinued in 1983.

“It was a very popular major for quite some time. They had to take courses in common curriculum and a lot of it was hands-on,” said Robert Douglas Brackenridge, former religion professor and Trinity historian. “It wasn’t like straight engineering. It was more of a practical course.”

GRADUATE PROGRAMS The biggest change Calgaard made was to discontinue the majority of the graduate programs Trinity offered.

At the time, around 1980, Trinity offered about a dozen graduate programs.

The programs were structured so undergraduate and graduate students could be in the same class, but graduate students were expected to meet higher standards.

Because of this, there was a doubt that graduate programs were performing at the standard of programs across the nation.

“There were some issues with the quality of the programs — were they really graduate programs?” White said.

Trinity was also having a difficult time finding students for the programs.

“Trinity was expensive enough that people, when they were looking for master’s degrees, could find public options that were cheaper. So, enrollment was an issue,” White said.

White saw the changes that Calgaard made firsthand, and is satisfied with the direction in which they pushed the university.

“He really moved us in a way that people began to recognize that Trinity was doing something in Texas,” White said.

Horse riders take their time traversing Trinity University’s campus in 1971.

Back then, the university offered majors such as home economics, secretarial studies and home building, which have since been discontinued. file photo

WHO DECIDES THE MAJORS? Currently, the process of adding, dropping or rearranging majors and programs now begins with faculty input. Faculty members can bring proposals to the University Curriculum Council (UCC) requesting changes in their departments.

“Faculty members bring those issues through the UCC, the UCC votes on those, they come forward to the entire faculty in the faculty assembly to vote on,” said Diane Saphire, associate vice president for institutional research and effectiveness.

These changes must then be verified by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Trinity’s accreditor.

Former vice president CHARLES WHITE witnessed many of Calgaard’s changes first-hand in the 1980s and felt positively about them. file photo

Trinity’s Mayfield Cottage, left foreground, was the Home Economics Cottage, dedicated in May 1957. It was named in honor of Charlotte Mayfield, who served for many years on the Texas State Board of High School Examiners and Supervisors with a specialty in the field of home economics. file photo

Former president RON CALGAARD made big changes at Trinity in the 1980s.

Many majors did not meet Trinity’s new standards 35 years ago. file photo

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TU entrepreneurs

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • MARCH 23, 2018 •

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Debaters give up break prepare to compete to gear up for nationals continued from PAGE 10 “My dad works for the American Heart Association — he was a practicing doctor for much of his career — and we were talking one night about some articles that had just come out that addressed how big the opioid crisis was. I brought up the idea of, well, maybe we just need a way of better keeping track of when people take their pills, how they take their pills — making sure they don’t overdose — and so out of that idea was, ‘Well why don’t we just make a better pill bottle?’ ” Buchanan said.

The pair didn’t plan on participating in the Stumberg Competition when they were starting out.

Now, however, they are looking forward to the seed round as it approaches.

“We’re kind of excited. It’ll be fun to pitch in front of a group of investors, for sure — people that are actually interested in some of our concepts,” Aertker said.

A third competitor, called FindSA, was founded by seniors Matthew Munroe

and Colby Doyal in response to a challenge that the city of San Antonio brought to Trinity.

The pair told the Trinitonian that their project is not yet public information, but in essence, its goal is to make San Antonio a better place.

The solution that Munroe and Doyal came up with is an app that promotes a healthy lifestyle by incentivizing exercise, while also creating an accurate map of the city’s walking trails.

Munroe and Doyal want to emphasize that the Stumberg Competition isn’t only for people who already have fully formed businesses.

“We don’t have a company, we just have a logo and a concept,” Munroe said.

These three and seven other teams will compete in the CSI Innovation Cube on March 27 from 3:30–8:30 p.m.

Aramanda hopes that students will come and see the seed round of the competition and maybe even get inspired enough to start their own company.

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Khullar and Dill work to reach goal of top 10 in US

ANSH KHULLAR and IAN DILL enjoy time practicing. photo by ELISE HESTER, video producer

KARA KILLINGER | PULSE EDITOR kkilling@trinity.edu For Trinity sophomores Ian Dill and Ansh Khullar, spring break was no break at all.

Instead of kicking back and watching TV or going on vacation with their families, the two students spent almost a full week on campus, waking up to breakfast tacos and working long days to prepare for the national debate tournament.

The team’s primary task over the break was preparing for the final, national tournament at Kansas State University this Friday, March 23.

In addition to improving their arguments and proving themselves as a team, Dill and Khullar’s goal is to make the top 10 partnerships in the nation.

“Every part of the process that we put in is inherently valuable, but it would be nice to see that materially manifested.”

ANSH KHULLAR DEBATE TEAM MEMBER

HAVE YOU HEARD OF SPEED DATING? well now there is speed chessing!!

Chess club is hosting a chess blitz tournament on March 24th at 1 pm in the Fiesta room!

Food and great prizes will be included. Come out and support!!

“It would mean a lot [to be in the top 10],” Khullar said. “Every part of the process that we put in is inherently valuable, but it would be nice to see that materially manifested, and I guess [to receive] the recognition that our work paid off.”

This year, the national tournament’s topic is a timely one: health insurance. Should the government mandate insurance? Provide it for all in a single-payer program, as Bernie Sanders has suggested? Or should the government play no role at all?

Debate coach William Mosley-Jensen explained that even though the team focuses on a sole topic for a whole year, there is so much research to examine that the topic doesn’t get old.

“What ends up happening is you explore it in great depth and detail,” Mosley-Jensen said.

All of that research takes time and sacrifice.

This break, Dill and Khullar had a short respite from Saturday, March 10, to Monday, March 12, but were back on campus the following Tuesday through Sunday to work.

Their typical days at Trinity over spring break began with discussion of their opponents over breakfast. Then they spent hours going through simulated speeches with those opponents, brainstorming ways to refute other schools’ positions. With the help of coaches and debate alumni, they prepared for many possible arguments.

“Arguments kind of evolve and they change,” Mosley-Jensen said. “[The opponent will] read evidence to support their conclusion from a particular source, and you might endite their

source. They might endite your sources, and you have to defend them and compare them.

It’s an interesting process, certainly.”

Debate preparation involves more intellectual discussion than actual argumentation. When Khullar or Dill did practice debating, they debated their coaches rather than each other.

Coaches posed as the teams against which Trinity will be competing, referencing the arguments that other debate teams have posted online.

“They’re pretty good, too, and we’re out of practice,” Mosley-Jensen said. “So it’s a little bit like an old football coach getting on the field or whatever. You can demonstrate some of the principles, but it’s been a while of course.”

The Trinity team tried to get through about four opponents each day of the break.

They sometimes worked until midnight, only to start all over the next morning.

Neither Dill nor Khullar regret sacrificing their time and energy for debate, however.

“The most difficult part was definitely all the work we had to put in, but in a way that was kind of the best part. The most fun and most rewarding part of the process will come at the end of it when we see that we’ve achieved a result and done really well at the tournament,” Khullar said.

Dill explained that in order for the team to be a top competitor, the spring break work week was fundamental.

“It was a big sacrifice I guess, but I think it was kind of worth it,” Dill said. “Every major team that really wants to do well at this tournament makes the spring break sacrifice, so it’s kind of necessary if you want to be part of the top 16 or so.”

The team left for Kansas this Wednesday night for the tournament, and will not be back to Trinity until next Tuesday, March 27.

“It’s an exciting prospect to do well and beat some of these Ivies.”

IAN DILL DEBATE TEAM MEMBER

Dill and Khullar said professors were understanding about their missing so many days of class, but they will still have a large amount of work to make up when they return. “[The time we put in] gives me a stronger sense that I really want to do well at this,” Dill said. “There’s more riding on it than one of the normal tournaments.”

Dill and Khullar feel prepared for the tournament.

“I think we’re set up really well,” Dill said.

“I mean, I remember going up against some of these schools which have huge coaching staffs and budgets ... but anyone can win these tournaments ... It’s an exciting prospect to do well and beat some of these Ivies.”

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• MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

Information Technology Services keeps campus connected and capable MAGGIE LUPO | PULSE REPORTER mlupo@trinity.edu Every facet of the university depends on members of the Information Technology Services (ITS) department. They are responsible for all hardware and software needs on campus: From equipping classrooms with proper technology to making sure that the whole campus has Wi-Fi, the ITS staff keeps us covered.

But how do they actually spend their time?

What does a day in the life of an ITS staff member look like?

For Fred Zapata, senior director of the ITS Project Management office, it involves a lot of juggling. As a project manager, Zapata checks in on all of the projects in progress when he first gets to work at around 8:15 a.m.

“I come in in the morning and kind of get a status update of the projects that we have going, and update any of them online — we use a system called TeamDynamix to manage that — and just do any updates to the plans or projects, or gather any information that the team may need to work on the various projects,” Zapata said.

Then, Zapata talks to one of the other project managers to check in with them about the status of incoming projects.

“We usually touch base at least once a day, and usually in the morning,” Zapata said.

After that, Zapata has meetings, either internal ITS meetings or external meetings with potential

contractors or other departments, for projects that are in the works around campus.

For example, one of the main projects that ITS has on deck right now involves the new construction and remodeling of Coates University Center. ITS has to make sure that the offices being relocated out of Coates will still have the connectivity and equipment they need in order to fully operate in their new locations.

Zapata cited the bookstore as an example.

“We’re working with Barnes & Noble to make sure that everything they need in their new location, as it relates to technology, is up and running,” Zapata said.

This is just one of the many projects that Zapata and his team are dealing with right now.

“It’s pretty awesome to

see how the campus has evolved, how the administration has evolved, how the courses have evolved,” ENDER ERGUN SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATOR

“We probably have a total of 40 or 50 projects at some stage in the process, and they could be anywhere from network upgrades to software upgrades, to building construction things,” Zapata said.

Assuming he has no pressing technology emergencies to deal with, Zapata either has more

meetings in the afternoon, or time to catch up on these many projects before he leaves around 5:30–6 p.m.

“Everyone here really cares about what they do and the systems they support and the people they support,” DAVID COLLIER PROGRAMS ANALYST

Not all ITS members get to leave at this hour, however. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, Ender Ergun, systems and business intelligence administrator, doesn’t leave until around 9 p.m.

He doesn’t mind, though, because during the evenings on these two days he gets to teach classes.

Every Wednesday evening, Ergun teaches a three-hour-long business analytics & technology (BAT) special topics class on databases, and every Thursday evening he teaches three one-hour sections of a Spreadsheet Modeling class.

“The database one I’m really excited for because it’s the first semester we’re offering it, so I was really happy when the school of business asked me if I wanted to teach a database course because that’s kind of my realm,” Ergun said.

Ergun’s foray into teaching has given him a different perspective on his job, because he’s gotten to see things from a faculty point of view.

“Sometimes there’s a disconnect between the administrative side of the school versus the faculty side of the school, so [my teaching experience] kind of bridges that gap,” Ergun said.

Ergun has also gotten to see things from a student perspective, as he was a Trinity graduate,

class of 2011. He says that one of the unique aspects of his job is getting to see how Trinity has grown since he first got here, back in 2007.

“It’s pretty awesome to see how the campus has evolved, how the administration has evolved, how the courses have evolved,” Ergun said. “Like, there was no BAT program when I was a student — there was no CSI when I was a student. So, seeing Trinity grow is pretty astonishing.”

Ergun is also the mind behind the TU Life mobile app, which he’s proud of — he is working with ITS and others to try to figure out how to have the app utilized more. Overall, he’s happy with his job.

“I love working here,” Ergun said.

David Collier, program analyst, also enjoys what he does at ITS, especially when things go the way they’re supposed to.

Even when they don’t, though, Collier says that he likes the feeling of accomplishment that comes from fixing a problem quickly and efficiently. He also enjoys the genuine feeling of respect that he and his colleagues have for their work.

“I’ve been here almost three years, and I think it’s apparent when you’re working in ITS that everyone here really cares about what they do and the systems they support and the people they support,” Collier said. “And everyone really wants to give good customer service to everybody they interact with.”

ITS is housed in the Halsell Center, though students having tech issues should contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@trinity.edu.

This article marks the third in a series profiling “a day in the life” of Trinity staff and faculty members.

Wes Anderson’s newest artistic masterpiece is here

“Pacific Rim: Uprising” is not a nightmare but a reality

The iconic director’s latest film, “Isle of Dogs” will be hitting theaters March 23 and will be sure to bring happiness and joy to the world.

The mediocre toy-inspired “Pacific Rim” got a sequel that will be filling the void of boring CGI-filled films that we all didn’t ask for or need.

AE &

Mackenzie Hill dives into SA with “Lady Based” Hill’s award-winning capstone documentary covers topics of representation, gender and identity in the San Antonio art community AUSTIN DAVIDSON A&E EDITOR adavids1@trinity.edu

When senior Mackenzie Hill set out to work on her communication capstone project last semester, she only knew that she wanted to educate others about the art world.

Hill hardly could have known then that her documentary “Lady Based,” an exploration of gender in the San Antonio art community, would become an award-winning short film.

As Hill started to interview artists in the community, she began to see that there was more she needed to capture.

When setting out to create her capstone, Hill had no idea what it would be exactly.

But she did know that she wanted to educate people on a facet of the art world, whether it be historical or contemporary.

But while she was filming, Hill also began to realize there was more to her capstone than just educating people about the art community.

“While filming ‘Lady Based’ I ended up getting in contact with an art gallery called Lady Based which was the inspiration for the title. From there, I began to interview with some of the women artists at the gallery about their experiences of being artists in San Antonio — and of course, being in San Antonio, a large part of their experience was tied to gender and equality but also to identity. So then ‘Lady Based’ also became about identity as well.”

This additional aspect of the film also helped open Hill’s eyes to yet another aspect of the San Antonio art community. As she was filming “Lady Based,” Hill learned about the disproportional representation of women, Hispanic women and members of the LGBTQ community within the art community of San Antonio.

“Another aspect of the film was lending a voice to the people within the art community who felt that they weren’t being represented or heard.”

Hill found the filming experience to be very rewarding. During the filming process, she was able to get outside of the Trinity bubble and really dive deep into the San Antonio art community. There, she began to see and understand the lack of representation of women within it.

“It was important as a woman and feminist to hear from these women who have completely different lives and experiences than I do,” Hill said. “By talking to women of color, trans women, Hispanic women and learning about their life experiences, I was able to really create a film that not only informed people of their struggles but also gave them a platform to these women to be able to feel heard.”

One of the main goals of “Lady Based” was to share the life experiences of the women within the San Antonio art community. Hill wishes that she had a larger platform to give to

these women to share their experiences with everyone, but was happy to give them what she could.

After finishing filming, Mackenzie submitted her film to the short film category of the Broadcasting Education Association Festival of Media Arts, a massive festival with thousands of submissions. Due to its positive message, fascinating content and slick editing, she won an award of excellence.

Only four other films out of hundreds shared this honor with “Lady Based.”

“I got to learn so much about this art collective —‘Lady Based’— and I was able to tell their story and through it accomplish all the goals I set out to achieve. It was amazing for me to be able to give a platform to a group as important as Lady Based’s because they are so important in creating a space for people to express themselves and for people to be heard. I was happy to be able to create something I am proud of and to also help a group as important to the community as Lady Based.”

One of the most important parts of a film is the message within it, the idea that the director hopes the audience receives when they watch it.

For “Lady Based,” Hill wanted audiences to leave the film aware of the issues within the art community, but also with a better understanding of the people within it.

MACKENZIE HILL, top & top left, angles her camera for the next shot. Hill was the writer, director and cinematographer of her film “Lady Based.”

ANEL I. FLORES, bottom, talks to Mackenzie Hill about womens representation in the San Antonio art community. provided by MACKENZIE HILL

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

In the name of the Lorde GEORGIE RIGGS A&E CONTRIBUTOR griggs@trinity.edu

On Monday night, a piece of pop music glitter, followed by a storm of starshaped confetti with “just another graceless night” printed in handwritten font, landed in Houston.

A figure I had previously suspected to exist only in an ephemeral state took a corporeal form, filling the cavernous Toyota Center with the eponymous melodrama of 2017’s best album. Lorde’s tour for her latest album, “Melodrama,” presented a dance-filled yet emotionally potent celebration of her music, an especially fitting milestone from an artist who has felt like a defining figure for coming of age in the digital era.

Lorde declared early in her show that this was the “dancing tour,” which meant — despite the limited foot space of stadium seating — we were on our feet the entire night. Even with Lorde’s saddest songs, like “Hard Feelings,” there is a necessity for rhythmic release, with the harsh industrial noises of the song somehow becoming a catharsis for the emotional turmoil.

The dancing in cramped spaces wasn’t a huge issue until she performed “Green Light,” which was prefaced by her request that the audience put all of their heartbreak and angst into dancing to the song.

Unfortunately, there is only a limited amount of emotional movement allowed between the bleacher-like seating. Along with the excitement of the “Green Light” chorus, which filled the arena with an electric energy, there was the actual fear that my awkward jumping would result in an untimely fall forwards mid-song.

The lyric from “Perfect Places” written on the confetti, “just another graceless night,” took on a slightly more personal meaning during that stilted, dance-jumping moment in those bleachers. Definitely a sign that the show would have been better facilitated by an all-standing, general admission venue.

All of her shows this year have featured two unrecorded performances from Lorde that made the tour even more worth attending. One seemed to be off the cutting floor of “Melodrama,” a pulsing club bop called “Precious Metals” that has arguably the poppiest sound of any of Lorde’s songs.

illustration by JULIA POAGE, staff illustrator

The other was a cover of Frank Ocean’s song “Solo,” a personal favorite from his album 2016 album “Blonde.” “It’s hell on earth and the city’s on fire / Inhale, in hell, there’s heaven,” Lorde sang in a stripped back performance. Out of all the tightly-written and composed songs off of “Melodrama,” Ocean’s words stood out as a thesis statement for Lorde’s vision for her album.

When “Melodrama” came out last summer, I was particularly struck by how all-encompassing the album felt. There is an immediate intimacy you feel with Lorde when you hear her songs, which often brings an oddly wise prescience to contemporary pop. Her almost prophetic ability to simultaneously observe and experience the transition between adolescence and young adulthood alongside us makes her music feel intensely personal.

Because of this intimacy, I was a bit perplexed at Lorde’s choice of tour venues.

Not only did the tour skip Austin and unsurprisingly San Antonio, but also, all of the shows were in large stadiums. Though I think of Lorde as a hugely popular artist, I did not, and still don’t, see her as a stadium tour kind of gal.

The arena setting allowed her to bring some stunning technical displays to the show, inundating the stage with fluorescent visuals and putting dancers in a tilted and suspended glass box. However, it was only about half filled, and my seats from the stadium section were too far away from the stage for that intimacy to be fully delivered. A smaller venue might have sold out and kept a few fans from getting tickets, but it would have made the experience more meaningful.

I know how amazing the show was from a few hundred yards away, so I can’t imagine how it would have felt to be closer to the stage and to have actually seen Lorde clearly on the stage, not through the screens broadcasting closer shots of the stage.

While driving to Houston on the Monday night after spring break for one concert could seem excessive, Lorde and “Melodrama” deserves an excess of any emotion.

While I wanted more of the intimacy that makes Lorde’s work so distinctive, the show brought all of the vivid images of adolescence I felt listening to “Pure Heroine” at age sixteen in my car after school. Lorde’s tour stop in Houston, buoyed by nostalgia for her debut and heightened by the urgency of her sophomore album, delivered all the colors, sounds and emotions of growing up and becoming an adult in this era.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT illustration by ANDREA NEBHUT, staff illustrator

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Benchmarking progress through popular culture

Tracking societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evolution by watching the popular movies and television shows of the time GABRIEL LEVINE OPINION COLUMNIST glevine@trinity.edu

Want a job next year?

2018hire.trinitonian.com

A permanent feature of modern life is technological envy. Due to the rate of technical progress and astute marketing, a new phone or computer only feels new for a few months until a newer, faster model comes out. In this way, we have a consistent, periodic reminder to update our notions of what constitutes the bleeding edge of technology.

This is very different from how awareness of personal and cultural change proceeds.

These kinds of changes often seem to occur all at once. Consider how rapidly gay marriage and marijuana legalization became prominent in cultural and media narratives, and how rapidly transgender issues are now entering American consciousness.

This suddenness happens because we never get a break from the first-person experience of our lives and no break from our attitudes changing. Even when a personal change of opinion occurs rapidly, that new opinion becomes the norm and it becomes hard to remember what it was like to hold oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s previous beliefs, just as it becomes harder and harder to remember what it was like to be a teenager or a child as one gets older.

The result is that we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t notice how much our opinions and culture have changed â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or stayed the same â&#x20AC;&#x201D; until, by happenstance, some external benchmark appears to remind us, such as a critical mass of public opinion resulting in a change of laws.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d suggest that this haphazard mode of involuntary introspection is a sub-optimal way for individuals and society to deal with change because it amounts to another form of ignorance of history, a kind of short-term memory loss.

Instead, just as the steady release of new phones and computers gives us a benchmark of technological change, we should develop consistent means of benchmarking personal and cultural change. Some people already do this to an extent by journaling or taking pictures and looking back on those frequently.

However, these methods generally limit us to our own self-perceptions.

I discovered a better approach when, while procrastinating, I re-watched clips from â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mad Men,â&#x20AC;? a TV show set in the advertising world of Madison Avenue in the 1960s that I binge-watched two years ago. At the time, I aspired to the self-assuredness of

the showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main character, Don Draper â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an authoritative, handsome advertising genius.

Now, informed by knowledge of the extent of workplace sexual harassment and broader sexism, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clear to me that Don, and most of the characters on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mad Menâ&#x20AC;?, arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worth aspiring to. I still love the show, but now I enjoy it as a kind of reminder of how depraved that era truly was and how much weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve improved.

A more recent example is the 2002 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spider-Manâ&#x20AC;?, starring Tobey Maguire as Spidey. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great movie, but one line has aged poorly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Spider-Manâ&#x20AC;? is in a cage match fighting the wrestler Bonesaw, portrayed by the late Randy Savage. Our hero mocks Bonesawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s singlet. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a cute outfit, did your husband give it to you?â&#x20AC;?

That line would never be included today and, while it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t substantially detract from the overall brilliance of the scene and the movie, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a kind of benchmark for what was culturally normal when I was a kid that I would have completely forgotten otherwise.

This method of benchmarking from popular culture landmarks isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just limited to assessing change. It can also show how certain constants of American life have changed over decades. Two examples have stood out to me recently.

First, the film adaptation of â&#x20AC;&#x153;American Psycho.â&#x20AC;? Released in 2000 and set in 1987, the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s depiction of a Wall Street investment banker whose disillusionment leads him to embark on psychotic murder sprees. Tinged with homophobia and misogyny, while opening with the pop music of the day, the film still seems relevant as an examination of greed, wealth and masculinity.

Second, George A. Romeroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1978 classic, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dawn of the Dead.â&#x20AC;? Following four survivors of a zombie apocalypse who hole up in a shopping mall, the film goes far beyond blood and gore to touch on race, religion, gun culture and most predominantly, American consumerism. Forty years later, the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s treatment of these issues is still relevant and biting, a benchmark for how little some things have changed.

We should develop a habit of deliberately and periodically going back and reassessing various elements of culture that have loomed large in our lives so that we can both see how they compare to current society and how our relations and attitudes toward them have changed.

We define ourselves, subconsciously and consciously, in relation to these external instances of culture. In revisiting them, we better come to know our personal history and the history of our society.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN • Men’s Tennis vs. Austin College, Friday, March 23, 4 p.m.

• Softball @ Texas Lutheran, Friday, March 23, 5 p.m.

• Track & Field @ Rice Invitational, Friday, March 23

Sports

Athletes compete over break Baseball rises to No. 2 in the nation, tennis spent the week in California SAUL MALEK | SPORTS REPORTER

smalek@trinity.edu

In a year of big upsets, what teams will make it to the Alamodome?

Most Trinity students use spring break as a time to relax and take a load off. But for Trinity athletes, there are no days off. Over the break, the Tigers’ baseball, softball, track and field and tennis teams continued their regular season competition. Take a look at how each of these teams fared: BASEBALL Trinity’s baseball team played five games over break, winning all of them. The Tigers started the break with a 9-0 win over Millikin University on March 11, holding the Big Blue to a mere two hits over the course of the game.

Tigers’ sophomore starting pitcher James Nittoli was perfect for over six innings, striking out eight while walking zero.

Trinity maintained the strong performance with another 9-0 win, this time against the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Great pitching was once again the story of the game for the Tigers — Junior Holden Nix started the game, going seven innings while allowing two hits, walking one and posting five strikeouts.

This game was followed by a three-game series versus Southwestern University, which Trinity swept 11-1, 6-2 and 13-0. The Tigers were sparked by an eight-run second inning in their 11-1 win, a game in which junior Logan Morrison, senior Michael Davis and sophomore Michael Goodrich all homered.

The Tigers kept things going in their 6-2 win, with sophomore Rafe Chaumette leading the charge with a home run. Chaumette reflected that the success depended on teamwork.

“Every hitter in our lineup is doing their job and contributing and it all starts with the leadership of those guys,” Chaumette said.

The Tigers finished up the series with a 13-0 blowout victory, as James Nittoli improved his record to 4-0 and Michael Goodrich hit two home runs. Goodrich was later named Southern Collegiate Athletics Conference (SCAC) player

Editor’s picks for this year’s Sweet Sixteen

KENDRA DERRIG | SPORTS EDITOR

kderrig@trinity.edu

Members of the men’s tennis team pose for a photo in California. photo provided by TILDEN OLIVER

of the week, and to D3baseball.com’s team of the week. The Tigers are now 14-1 overall on the season and ranked No. 2 in the nation.

They will look to keep things rolling over the weekend at Austin College.

SOFTBALL Softball had a very busy spring break jampacked with double headers, playing a total of 12 games. The team went 5-7 across the 12 games, leaving them with an overall record of 11-9 on the season and 4-4 in conference play. The break began with a doubleheader on March 10 at Centenary College, which the Tigers split, winning the first game 5-3, but dropping the second 4-3. The two teams squared off again on the March 11, this time with Trinity taking both games of the doubleheader 5-1 and 11-9.

After leaving Centenary, the Tigers traveled to take on East Texas Baptist University,

losing 6-3 and 9-1 in the doubleheader.

This was followed by a doubleheader against LeTourneau University, in which the Tigers fell 10-9 in the first game before winning 9-1 in the second. The Tigers finished with four games against Schreiner University, dropping three of them.

Contributions have come from across the board — junior Devon Potter is now batting .406 on the season with an on-base percentage of .472, senior Rebecca Berreth is batting .375 with two homers and 20 RBI, and senior Sara McCarty is batting .385 with 20 hits over 52 at bats. Despite the spring break record two games below .500, the team holds high spirits.

“Overall, the team was able to figure out what it needs to work on for the remainder of the season, especially heading into conference play,” McCarty said. continued on PAGE 19

There is a one in 9.2 quintillion chance of correctly guessing every game in the NCAA championship tournament. That means every upset, and every No. 1 seed dethroned in the first round. While my bracket is, as they say, “busted” (thanks, Virginia. And Arizona. And Xavier), I can at least take pride in my bracket being better than Obama’s. And I can celebrate that the Final Four is in San Antonio this year, bringing all the nation’s top talent right to Trinity’s backyard.

But, before we can know who will be battling it out in the Alamodome, the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight must play over the weekend. Will this be the year of the underdog, or will a No. 1 seeded powerhouse cut down the net yet again? Anything could happen, but here are my picks: EAST REGION Sweet Sixteen: No. 1 Villanova over No. 5 West Virginia, No. 3 Texas Tech over No. 2 Purdue Elite Eight: Villanova over Texas Tech Villanova has been the favorite to win the big dance since the beginning. Now, I’m not saying that’ll be the case, but they’ve yet to face anyone that has given them a run for their money in the tourney. With only four losses on the season, and at least four NBA-bound players, it’s hard to justify that they will lose one of their next two games. However, don’t discount the offenses of Texas Tech or Purdue, who will go face to face in an undoubtedly tight game this Saturday. continued on PAGE 19

OREC camps, canoes and skis through the break

Trinty Outdoor Recreation takes students on trips to Big Bend National Park and Breckenridge, CO HAILEY WILSON | SPORTS REPORTER

hwilson@trinity.edu

Over spring break, Trinity’s Outdoor Recreation group (OREC) led two different trips that gave students the opportunity to get out and explore the outdoors with other members of the community.

The first trip was a ski trip to Colorado, a new addition to the usual spring break trips organized by OREC. The group of eight, led by OREC leaders Shane Bono and Max Towers, began the trip with a drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, where they stayed and camped for a day. The group woke up and drove the rest of the way to Breckenridge on Sunday, March 11, where they set up shop for the next few days.

“We stayed near the base of Breckenridge Ski Area. We also skied at Keystone and the Arapaho basin,” said Bono, a senior.

Bono says that back in the ’90s, OREC was known for going on crazy excursions, which he used as inspiration for planning the trip. continued on BACK

Senior OREC leader IAN WITECKI paddles on the Guadelupe River in Big Bend National Park over spring break. photo provided by MADDY WALSHAK

18

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • MARCH 23, 2018 •

SPORTS

Baseball’s John Tucker embraces the grind

Junior explains how he conquered his fear of hitting for a starting spot and a .533 average

JOHN TUCKER, left, and TREVOR JOHNSON, right, then first years, pose with championship rings from the team’s 2016 DIII National Championship victory. photo provided by EMMA BIRBECK

ELISE HESTER | VIDEO PRODUCER ehester@trinity.edu

Hitting a baseball is extremely difficult, almost as difficult as describing what it feels like.

“There’s no analogy to hitting. I can use adjectives, but I don’t even know if those work,” said junior third baseman John Tucker. “It’s honestly an indescribable feeling.”

In his 18 years at the plate, Tucker has faced collegiate aces and summer-league relievers.

He’s been walked by high school closers and by select team southpaws. He’s hit off of coaches, machines and plastic tees in the game he’s played since age three.

In the front yard of his Houston home, surrounded by trees and shrubs, a preschooler held up a child’s metal baseball bat, perhaps mimicking the stances of the Astros’ Jeff Bagwell or Craig Biggio, whom he’d watched night after night on television.

Another energetic child faced him across the strip of dirt and pitched a tennis ball. John Tucker swung the bat.

One night, as a kindergartner, Tucker left tee-ball practice with his father, Marcus Tucker.

The sounds of the youth baseball park mixed in the humid Houston air: the crunch of cleats, the clink of bats and a voice that called out to Marcus. A man, Mr. Burns, asked if six-yearold John can stay and hit.

Tucker joined Burns’ select team — which at one point also included Trinity sophomore Mason Meredith — and played from kindergarten until seventh grade, growing taller, stronger and more anxious. One night, the elementary student woke from a nightmare where he had been moved down in the batting order.

But baseball, Tucker would come to learn, is about failure.

Tucker arrived at Trinity in the fall of 2015, certain he’d be on the field come spring.

Unfortunately for Tucker, as for many other former high school all-stars his year, he spent spring weeknights doing homework in the Witt-Winn lounge while the team he was promised a part of was winning game after game without him.

From his first year on the team, Tucker received Trinity baseball gear to wear to class and an impressive national championship ring to one day show his grandchildren — Danny Anderson, president of the university, made sure that every player, on the traveling team or not, received a ring as a reward for numerous practices and hard work.

Despite these perks, for Tucker, the long practices felt fruitless without the chance to put his skills into play.

“It’s a discipline to work on your skills, knowing that you might not get your own reward any time soon,” Tucker, now a junior, said. “The hardest part and the most important part is keeping a good attitude and realizing the team is bigger than yourself.”

The 2017 season allowed a new group to step up. In Tucker’s first season at the collegiate plate, the sophomore batted .297 in a season he found personally disappointing.

“There was definitely a lot of pressure, but it was pressure I put on myself,” Tucker said.

At the plate, you can do everything right and still fail. And you will fail, as will the greatest players, more than you will ever succeed. In hitting, you must face countless outcomes with a singular focus.

“If you’re gripping the bat as tight as you can, trying to do the best you can, you’re not going to. You gotta be relaxed and have fun,” Tucker said. “If you’re uptight and high strung, I think that is because you’re scared of failure, and if you’re scared of failure in baseball, you’ll never really be successful.”

Day after day, the four-hour practices are grueling, but gathered around the green turtle cage, watching each player take turns at bat, the teammates laugh and cheer.

“This year it’s a lot more about having fun and enjoying playing baseball with some of your really good friends,” Tucker said, “Baseball is a grind and you have to embrace that. When you embrace the grind, that’s when it becomes fun.”

Tucker hasn’t had any recent nightmares about batting orders. The 21 year old is having fun — and hitting .533.

“There’s so much more to life than just baseball,” Tucker said. “Baseball doesn’t define me. I love to play, I’m having fun with it, but I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it.”

Baseball, it turns out, is a lot like life.

“When you’re able to relax, you’re able to take more risks and be more open about things. If you’re so scared to fail and you’re just trying too hard, you’re not gonna enjoy what you’re doing,” Tucker said. “If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing then what’s the point?”

It’s a beautiful spring day on the campus of Trinity University. The purple mountain laurels are in bloom. John Tucker swings the bat. Statistically, he missed. That’s life.

That’s baseball.

SPORTS • MARCH 23, 2018 • WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM

19

Athletes weigh in on nutrition at Trinity Tigers express their opinions on competing with Mabee as their primary source of fuel ANTONIO PEDRAZA | SPORTS REPORTER apedraza@trinity.edu

One of the major differences between Division I and Division III athletics is the attention paid to athlete diets. While Division I schools such as the University of Texas at Austin have athlete-exclusive dining halls with meals constructed specifically for athlete diets, Trinity, as a DIII school, does not have this luxury, leaving athletes to eat at Mabee Dining Hall and the Commons.

“I feel it’s good enough, for what it is.

We aren’t DI, so we have to do the best with what we got,” said sophomore tennis player Jordan Pitts.

Junior volleyball player Jade Schoenberger believes that moving away from Mabee has been beneficial for her diet.

“I eat relatively healthy. I live in City Vista so I have a full kitchen to maintain a healthier lifestyle for myself,” Schoenberger said.

Men’s tennis coach Russell McMindes argues that nutrition is one of the most important factors in athletic performance.

“I feel nutrition plays a large part in the performance of athletes,” McMindes said.

“This is the fuel you’ll be using and burning through as you push your body to perform.

And it’s a process. It can’t just be, ‘Today is match day, better eat right.’ We always discuss our schedule and understand that as the match approaches, at least a day or two prior, they should be modifying their nutrition to be in optimal condition for match day. And if we know it’s a double header, that only adds to the urgency.”

McMindes spoke to the visible effects of a poor prematch diet.

“You can see them run out of gas when things get physical. Their ability to stay composed and focused also diminishes.

Cramps may appear as well,” McMindes said.

Trinity athletes that live on campus frequent Mabee Dining Hall for their nutritional needs. photo by ELISE HESTER, video producer McMindes also wished that the food selection at Trinity encouraged players to make better choices.

“This is tricky. I feel there could always be more options provided, and more times where these options are accessible. But, my big caveat to that is that the responsibility still falls on the athlete. They have to be disciplined and make those proper choices when provided. A big area of concern to me is the beverages. Too many college students drinking coffee, soda and energy drinks,” McMindes said.

But while McMindes has an aversion towards beverages, some of his players reap their benefits.

“I get all my calories from liquids so that way I feel lighter when I play,” said sophomore Ricky Mayer.

Former tennis player Matt Tyer, senior, also spoke to the merits of beverages.

“During my time as an athlete I ate pretty healthy, but I drank a lot of energy drinks.

In fact I credit energy drinks for my national title-winning season because I shotgunned a Monster energy drink before the championship match,” Tyer said.

Trinity athletes balance athletics with school, so sometimes thinking about their diets can add another level of stress.

“I don’t eat very healthy. I eat candy, cookies, pizza and chips on the daily,” said first-year soccer player Diego Gonzalez.

Wilson Lambeth, junior tennis player, thinks that what’s important is to prioritize when it comes to juggling class, athletics and diet.

“The classroom always comes first, but we still find a way to practice hard and eat correctly,” Lambeth said.

Spring break sports The weekend’s picks continued from PAGE 17 TRACK & FIELD Both men and women’s track had a big break, enjoying successes at the University of the Incarnate Word spring invite. The Tigers totaled four overall victories at the meet, with senior Haley McFadden taking the women’s 3000 meter and senior Jacob Hammond taking the men’s 3000 meter, with times of 10:25.41 and 8:54.79, respectively. Senior Michael Erickson earned first place in the men’s 1500-meter title with a time of 4:04.11 and took home second place in the 800-meter dash with a time of 1:57.45, earning him men’s SCAC track athlete of the week honors. Senior Cody Hall’s time of 14.99 won the 110-meter hurdles. It was an encouraging meet for the Tigers, especially given that attendance was not mandatory.

“Some of the schools competing were quite good, but it was also nice to see that a good number of teammates were able to make it given that [the meet] was optional and during spring break,” said first-year Chris Ault.

TENNIS The men and women’s tennis were in action over the break with both teams playing five matches. The men went 3-2, improving their

overall record to 5-10, while the women went 2-3 to fall to 4-10 on the year.

The men’s biggest win over the break for the men was 9-0 over California Lutheran University, led by contributions from first-year Jace Akagi-Okuma and junior Tilden Oliver.

The team ended the five-game stretch with a 5-4 win over Case Western University.

The Tigers represented SCAC quite well over the break, as the men swept all the SCAC player of the week honors. Akagi-Okuma was named the SCAC men’s singles player of the week, while sophomore Jordan Pitts and junior Wilson Lambeth earned doubles players of the week. The men are now ranked No. 15 overall.

The women’s tennis team’s biggest victory over the break was an 8-1 romp over Whitman College, led by first-year Paulina Garcia and sophomore Ashley DeBauge who enjoyed 8-0 victories over the opponents. The team’s most recent match was a 5-4 defeat at the hands of Bowdoin College, a close match that came down to the wire.

“We improved and seem to be ready for conference,” said sophomore Francesca Canjar.

The men will compete next against Austin College and the women will take on California Tech. Both matches will be at home on Friday, March 23.

for March Madness continued from PAGE 17

MIDWEST REGION Sweet Sixteen: No.1 Kansas over No. 5 Clemson, No. 2 Duke over No. 11 Syracuse Elite Eight: Duke over Kansas OK fine, another No. 1 seed pick for the Final Four. This girl obviously doesn’t really know what she’s talking about. After Kansas scrapes one out over Clemson, and Duke hands it to Syracuse, the Jayhawks will have to face the Blue Devil’s tight zone defense, a feat that is a challenge for a healthy team, whereas Kansas is facing injuries and their showing against Penn in the first round doesn’t give me a lot of faith in their ability to pull through to the Final Four.

SOUTH REGION Sweet Sixteen: No. 5 Kentucky over No. 9 Kansas State, No. 11 Loyola-Chicago over No. 7 Nevada Elite Eight: Kentucky over Loyola-Chicago Predictions aside, this is the region to watch. The south region is impossibly tight, with the No. 5 seed being the highest seed left after No. 1 Virginia and No. 4 Arizona lost in the first round, and No. 2 Cincinnati and No. 3 Tennessee lost in the second. In honesty, it’s anyone’s game, but that’s no excuse, as it’s always anyone’s game when it comes to the big dance.

Still, this one is tough. Loyola-Chicago and Nevada are both coming off of nail-biter victories, while Kentucky and Kansas State each won handily in the second round. I like Kentucky because Kansas State didn’t do

so hot when it came to nonconference play in the regular season. I’m choosing LoyolaChicago because, who am I kidding, I love an underdog, and they are quickly becoming a true Final Four contender. But, like I said, it’s anyone’s game.

WEST REGION Sweet Sixteen: No. 4 Gonzaga over No. 9 Florida State, No. 3 Michigan over No. 7 Texas A&M Elite Eight: Gonzaga over Michigan Sorry George H.W., but I don’t see your Aggies progressing past the Sweet Sixteen.

And as for Florida State, I don’t think that their comeback victory over No. 1 Xavier is telling of a secretly competitive team that has found its momentum.

Instead, Florida State has paved the way for Gonzaga, who many thought would fall to Xavier in the Sweet Sixteen. As a Washingtonian, I am admittedly biased when it comes to Gonzaga. And maybe I just want the chance to run into Mark Few next weekend, who has led the Zags to 18 straight years in the tournament and last year’s championship game. But also, the Zags have shown that the 2017–2018 season has been anything but the ‘down year’ that was predicted, and while Michigan is another popular choice, they’re lucky to be in the Sweet Sixteen in the first place after their near disastrous matchup against Houston.

It will come down to Gonzaga’s offense versus Michigan’s stellar defense, but I see the Zags coming out on top.

20

WWW.TRINITONIAN.COM • MARCH 23, 2018 •

SPORTS

OREC visits Big Bend, Breckenridge over break

LEFT: Trinity students on the OREC trip to Guadelupe Canyon in Big Bend National Park climb a cliff. The group of 12 canoed for four days through the canyon. photo provided by MADDY WALSHAK RIGHT: A group of two OREC leaders and six students drove to Breckenridge, Colorado for four days of skiing in the area. This was the first ski trip organized by ORECs. photo provided by SHANE BONO

continued from PAGE 17 “OREC is growing, so I thought, why not grow the trips as well?” Bono said.

He sat down with Kristen Harrison, the associate athletic director for recreation, last semester and started planning the trip. Unlike other OREC trips, this trip required an early verbal and monetary commitment.

“We ended up charging $400 per person, including the leaders, plus ‘options,’ which included lessons, helmets, snowboards, and things like that,” Bono said.

Despite the steeper prices for more options, the group was able to do more than just ski. First-year Olivia Littlefield, who

attended the trip, enjoyed exploring the area around Breckenridge.

“We went thrifting after skiing and we shopped around the stores in Breckenridge. We even cooked some amazing burgers after skiing the second day at Keystone,” Littlefield said.

The group finished their trip with a night of camping at Caprock Canyon State Park before heading back to Trinity.

“It was a lot of work but the trip was a huge success! We had so much fun and I felt like we covered the basics of all outdoor things: navigation, extreme terrain, camping, first aid, wildlife, meal prep — you name it,” Bono said.

The second OREC trip was a camping trip to Big Bend, a national park located in

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Southwest Texas. The group spent three days canoeing down the Boquillas Canyon on the Rio Grande.

The group left on Monday, March 12, and returned to campus on Friday, March 16. Twelve students took the trek — four OREC leaders and eight participants. The trip to Big Bend was also cheaper than the ski trip; participants paid $80 for the five-day excursion.

Sophomore Maddy Walshak helped lead the trip.

“Before we canoed down the canyon, we spent the first day at Big Bend doing some day hikes and visiting the famous Big Bend Hot Springs at night,” Walshak said.

The group hiked down to a famous lookout point and visited the hot springs under the stars.

“The stars in Big Bend are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before — you can even see the Milky Way! We jumped between the hot springs and the freeing Rio Grande while trying to make out different constellations. It was a mind-blowing experience,” Walshak said.

The group canoed down the Rio Grande and stopped to cliff jump along the way. They dove into the river, and played an ultimate frisbee game in the water.

OREC’s next trip, a hike in Friedrich Park located in San Antonio, is planned for March 31.