Issue 26, Volume 113, Publication Date--April 25, 2019

THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS’ STUDENT NEWSPAPER

WEDNESDAY

APRIL 24, 2019 Volume 113 — Issue 26

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The Echo

Campus Life:

Entertainment:

Sports:

Bad Book Review: Pretentious book misguides any who dares to read

Beach Volleyball: Season ends for Bears with conference showcase loss

Tacos and Tunes: Students enjoy performances from UCA Jazz

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Proposed tuition hike to fund faculty raises

Stormy

78/60 THE NEWSDESK FROM THE ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

by Matt Smothers

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

The University of Central Arkansas is considering a 5% tuition increase for 2019-20.

At the campus talk April 2, UCA president Houston Davis and UCA vice president Diane Newton revealed a proposal that would raise student tuition.

Davis listed the main objectives in handling the increase as: Having cautious optimism, focusing on student success, maintaining stable reserves and minimizing the financial impact on students — which are all directly or indirectly related to overall enrollment. “[The] number of [ full-time equivalent] student credit hours generated off of full-time enrollment have to be used to be able to build a budget,” Davis said.

“Enrollment drives budget.”

A chart compared UCA’s select mandatory fees prices to other four-year public universities in Arkansas as well as what UCA will pay in 2024 if the proposal is accepted.

Right now, UCA students pay a total of $44.25 in athletic, facility and technology fees.

In 2024, UCA students would pay $64.75, which is a 9.26% increase per year for these particular fees.

However, $64.75 is still less than what students at the University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff and the University of Arkansas-Little Rock pay now. UCA leadership expects most of the other public universities in Arkansas to raise fees as well, putting UCA back in the middle on fee rates.

Another chart presented at the campus talk showed that UCA’s total room and board, along with tuition, puts UCA in the middle considering other Arkansas public universities’ total costs.

UCA’s leadership also expects other schools to raise these

Staff Writer

Terrorism strikes Sri Lanka during holiday

Explosions in Sri Lanka killed over 30 people and injured over 150; some targeted churches’ Easter services. At least six explosions have been reported.

Three took place in churches in Kochchikade, Negombo and Batticaloa, and three more took place in Colombo hotels: The Shangri La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury.

Casualties included some foreigners, and no responsibility has been determined.

N AT I O N A L Illegal militia group hounds border areas In Southern New Mexico, an armed right-wing militia group, the United Constitutional Patriots, is posted along the Mexico border to stop migrant groups and detain them at gunpoint. The group has filmed its actions and detained nearly 200 migrants who sought asylum. The American Civil Liberties Union asked New Mexico’s officials to investigate because the militia had no legal authority to detain migrants.

Mueller report public ; information redacted On April 18, Attorney General William Barr released special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report to the public, which detailed, between redacted information, the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The report was submitted to Barr on March 22. Any redacted information was labeled “harm to ongoing matter.” Mueller was asked to testify before the House Judiciary Committee by May 23.

S TAT E

Suspension of jockey Jockey David Cohen was suspended from April 27 to June 25 for whipping another jockey. His lawyer plans to appeal. Though riders can be accidentally struck, according to the Association of Racing Commissioners International website, Cohen purposefully whipped jockey Edgar Morales multiple times after he forced Cohen and his horse wide into the stretch during the eighth race at Oaklawn Park April 6. Cohen was also suspended for April 25 and 26 for careless riding in the eighth race at Oaklawn April 7.

WHAT’S AHEAD

IN OUR NEXT ISSUE The Echo will return in the fall.

photo by Taylor Sone

Senior Chizzobam-Uloma Eze accepts a Student Involvement award during a ceremony at the McCastlain Hall Ballroom on April 17 recognizing students for their achievements both in and out of class. UCA president Houston Davis and vice president for student services and institutional diversity Ronnie Williams presented the awards.

Students awarded for semester’s work

by Lauren McCabe News Editor

UCA’s Office of Student Life hosted its annual Student Involvement Awards on April 17 in McCastlain Hall to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of students, advisors and student organizations during the academic year.

UCA president Houston Davis and vice president of student services Ronnie Williams handed out of awards to student organizations from all across campus, including representatives from sororities, fraternities, event groups and RSOs. “This is a great occasion for students to gather,” Davis said. “I think there are a few things you are going to experience within your studies or within your careers that are more satisfying on a positive level than when your peers recognize you.”

Awards given out included those for campus-wide program of the year, service program of the year, outstanding community outreach by a student organization, emerging student leader of the year and RSO president of the year.

Among those who were presented with a certificate included Team Global as the winner of service program of the year for its organization of the “Pie-In-The-Face”

fundraiser, Kaylin Wilkinson for Bear Service Challenger of the year, Delta Zeta sorority for the highest chapter GPA for spring 2018 semester and many more.

Presenting the Pan-Hellenic and IFC awards was senior and president of the Order of Omega Joshua Welsh.

“Congratulations and good luck to all the sorority and fraternity students as you continue to seek success in your classes,” Welsh said.

Cameron Willis, senior and head of Pi Chi, was the 2018 recipient of the Outstanding Diversity Outreach Bound student award.

“For the last three years, she has served as a team leader at the Girl Power in STEM conference that UCA hosts each year,” Katie Frazier, assistant director of Student Life and IFC advisor, said as she presented the award to Willis.

“She works throughout the year to promote this conference that inspires towards a greater diversity of girls entering STEM fields. She [also] developed a website that teachers can use to establish power in STEM clubs in schools and much, much more.”

The Student Organization of the Year was awarded to UCA’s Active Minds, which according to its submission, “strives to educat[e] its members” about the pharmaceutical and mental health field and services found on campus “while also

ARKANSAS TRAILBLAZERS

Hodges talks new book, importance of American history in classrooms

by Caela Fugate Entertainment Editor

Arkansas native and best-selling author, Phyllis Hodges, held a “Pen to Podium” talk at the Arkansas State Archives building in Little Rock on April 16 where she spoke on the vital nature of history through her acclaimed book “8 Years of Unforgettable History: The Allure of America’s Firsts.”

Hodges’ book highlights a diverse set of Arkansas trailblazers while shining a light on economics and politics along with parallels to the significant works of former President Barack Obama.

A few Arkansans Hodges highlights in her book are: • Martha Dixon — a global name for her stunning but sophisticated couture gowns, which Hillary Clinton and members of the Black Hall of Fame have worn • Lottie Shackelford — a childhood idol of Hodges and the first woman and

Index:

African-American female to be appointed mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1987 • Jeffrey Henderson — a gold medalist in track and field who graduated from Sylvan Hills High School in North Little Rock Hodges also included worksheets in the back of her book, allowing readers to begin writing their own history, including who their ancestors are and how their ancestors have impacted society. Hodges said she hopes to bridge the gap between education and experience.

Hodges’ mission is to put this book in every classroom possible. The book is already in several high schools and libraries across Arkansas — such as Hall High School, Hodges original high school; England High School; Lisa Academy in Little Rock; the Central Arkansas Library system; and the North Little

See Mission- page 2

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promoting inclusion and diversity” as well as educating and raising awareness about mental health.

This past year during National Suicide Prevention Week, members of Active Minds placed 1,100 pinwheels on campus to represent those who lose their lives to suicide each year.

“UCA is a safe space to connect and learn about different communities,” Frazier said. “At UCA, we also have students cultivate cultural humility and cultural agility.

UCA students who engage in diversity and [services in] Brewer-Hegeman set themselves up for success in the marketplace.”

Davis reminded the students that the night was all about them and their dedication to making UCA a campus to love.

“You’ve had to distinguish yourselves in terms of work ethic … [to be] a fair dealer with your colleagues … [to be] someone who has had to go that extra mile, and you are absolutely somebody in a group who stands for excellence and service above just the self,” Davis said. “This is, at its heart, peers honoring peers and an opportunity to lift each other up. To all the students who are here, you are the best of the best that we have.”

costs as well.

“If they don’t make a move, which we know they will, we will be second highest,” Newton said. “[However, we are] very likely to be right back where we are.”

In 2018-19, UCA’s total average cost per full-time on-campus year were $15,605 if the proposal is approved the total cost in 2019-20 will be $16,386, a $781 increase.

The tuition increase would be used to help give the staff a 1-2% raise and upgrade facilities.

“The proposed increases are needed to reinvest in the campus infrastructure, services and its employees,” Newton said while giving a summary of how the tuition increase will be put to use. “All of these are tied to improving the student experience. The increases support much needed help in the Counseling Center and student success areas, provide funding for growth in high demand programs currently capped and allow the option to provide a small pay increase to employees.”

Newton also connected the increase to the ongoing campus renovations.

“They further help to underwrite the costs of renovations, expansions, technology upgrades and new construction in order to prepare students with learning spaces more in line with what they will experience after graduation,” Newton said.

More information about 2019-20 tuition and fees will be presented to the board of trustees at 10:30 a.m. May 10.

The latest campus talk, which included information about all these technology refresh and facility upgrades, can be found in its entirety at www.youtube. com/watch?v=nKfhe1zsAw&feature=youtu.be.

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Phone: 501-499-9822 E-mail: ucaechoeditor@gmail.com

photo by Caela Fugate

Phyllis Hodges relishes in signing and selling her best-selling history book “8 Years of Unforgettable History: The Allure of America’s Firsts” to long-time friend Sonny Rhodes, associate professor in the Journalism department of UALR. Rhodes was also previously an editor for The Echo and attended UCA for his undergraduate degree.

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NEWS

ucanews.live

Campus technology receives new updates

by Matt Smothers Staff Writer

UCA’s Informational Technology department started a new technology refresh over spring break, starting in 40 to 45 buildings.

All the buildings will have the Wi-Fi capacities and speeds updated by late April.

However, all the newly upgraded access points, which includes replacement and expansion of APs, is not expected to be completely finished until the first week of August.

UCA President Houston Davis attended the campus talk April 2 and discussed the refresh. “[UCA is] certainly looking into the future for where priorities are going to be on making certain to have a long-term [impact],” Davis said.

The campus talk gave a glimpse of how much improvement will be made to UCA’s Wi-Fi and wireless technology.

The refresh will make campus Wi-Fi 10 times faster, going from one gigabyte to 10 gigabytes.

UCA’s chief information officer Michael Lloyd said the upgrade has been needed for quite some time.

“We definitely had a need for the upgrade. We

are replacing core switches, border routers, edge building switches, fiber optics and wireless access points. Some of the technology was very old and out of warranty, which means we could no longer get support or replacement parts easily,” Lloyd said. “In addition to addressing aging technology, we also needed to significantly expand our wireless coverage across campus to provide a more stable and faster Wi-Fi experience for our campus.”

The technology department upgraded security as well, including firewall policy changes that were completed during core migration.

UCA’s banner servers have been moved to the new core fabric. The refresh also includes cabling for Wi-Fi expansion and the fiber replacements are in progress, aiming to be completed by August.

There will also be a migration to new Juniper routers in Burdick Hall the first week of May. The IT department has plans to install new software tools, an analytics engine and information governance by the end of the summer. At the end of the summer, IT also plans to have voice-over IP implementation.

The committee that

organized and directed this technology refresh included Lloyd, UCA vice president Diane Newton, associate vice president of finance Terri Canino, Physical Plant director Larry Lawrence, Physical Plant assistant director Velton Daves, construction manager Kevin Carter, director of programming and operations and interim director of enterprise applications Terry Brewer, and networking manager Wayne Lunsford.

The total budget for the entire technology refresh is $7.6 million. For more information or questions about what UCA’s technology refresh means and is doing for students, staff and faculty, contact Michael Lloyd at mlloyd3@uca.edu or call the IT department at 501-450-3117.

The UCA IT department offers many services that can be found at uca.edu/ it/services/. Some of those services include help with information security, user support, systems administration, instructional technology, programming, training, enterprise applications, networking and equipment loans and purchases. They offer several other requests with online forms that can be found at uca. edu/it/facultystaff-resources/ online-forms-requests/.

SEASON LINE-UP

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre starts 13th season

by Rose McGarrity Staff Writer

The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is preparing for its 2019 season, which will last from June 7 to July 7.

According to its website, the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is Arkansas’ only professional Shakespeare company.

This will be the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s 13th season. Each summer, the theater company performs several plays.

Despite the name of the theater company, the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre often performs plays that Shakespeare didn’t write such as “West Side Story” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

This summer, the Shakespeare company is performing three Shakespearean plays: “The Comedy of Errors,” “MacBeth,” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare did not write the other play “Guys & Dolls.”

The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre performs its plays in Reynolds Performance Hall and on McAlister Lawn at UCA. AST doesn’t perform the same plays each year, but sometimes it repeats plays.

“AST has produced ‘MacBeth,’ ‘The Comedy of Errors,’ and ‘Romeo and

Juliet’ before — all in entirely different styles, with different companies of actors and different creative teams. So this year’s offerings promise to be unique, fresh [and] sensational in brand new ways,” Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre actress Paige Reynolds said.

Reynolds, an associate professor of English at UCA specializing in British Renaissance drama, has appeared in the past 11 seasons of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. She also supervises AST’s dramaturgy program, working with students who do special research for the cast and directors.

“We are so lucky to have a theater like AST right in our own backyard. Each year, Rebekah Scallet [one of Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s directors] assembles a team of talented artists,” Reynolds said.

“Whether someone is a total Shakespeare fanatic or has never seen one of his plays before, AST warmly welcomes them. There will be something in the season to speak to each and every person who comes.”

Conway native Rachel Lance is a big fan of the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre. Before attending Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre plays, she read some of Shakespeare’s plays.

“I grew up reading

Shakespeare in middle school and high school and it was fine. However, seeing the Shakespeare plays at the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre brought the stories to life for me,” Lance said.

One method AST used to promote its upcoming season was to send out a brochure with its information to people in Conway.

According to its brochure, “Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is proud to be part of the University of Central Arkansas and is grateful for the continued support and sponsorship of the following UCA entities: Office of the President, College of Fine Arts and Communication and department of film, theatre and creative writing.”

Tickets are on sale now for the upcoming season. Tickets for “MacBeth” and “Guys & Dolls” cost $34 for the general public and $28 for students, seniors and military. “Romeo and Juliet” tickets cost $15 for the general public and $12.50 for students.

“Comedy of Errors” is a pay-what-you-can showing, and it will take place on the McAlister lawn at UCA. Tickets can be ordered online by calling 866-810-0012 or in person at the Reynolds Box Office.

More information about Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre can be found at arkshakes.com.

BEAU BATS BALL BEYOND BEARKATS

photo by Taylor Sone

Junior Beau Orlando swings at a pitch during game two of a doubleheader against the Sam Houston State Bearkats at Bear Stadium April 19. The Bears swept SHSU, who were the No. 1 team in the Southland Conference.

photo by Dy’Kajeon Brown

[Left to right] Freshman Tanner Manasco and freshman Camden Shaw record runner Justin Shaw as his daughter Chloe Shaw cheers him on during the Cystic Fibrosis Awareness 5K at the UCA football field on April 20. The event was hosted by the UCA Cornhole club in efforts to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis to UCA and the surrounding area of Conway.

5K event promotes cystic fibrosis awareness

by Dy’Kajeon Brown Online/Social Media Editor

Instead of spending a Saturday night lounging around, UCA’s Cornhole Club invited people from the surrounding area to its 5K race April 20 at the UCA football field to raise awareness for cystic fibrosis. Admission for the race was $20 for students and $25 for adults. The proceeds totaled $1,600 and were donated directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Cystic fibrosis is a rare hereditary disease that affects the lungs and digestive system, causing the body to produce a thick mucus substance capable of clogging the lungs and obstructing the pancreas.

Over 40 participates signed up for the race — from walkers to runners and bikers — ranging from all age groups. The course began at the football field and led along a designated route through campus that finished back on the football field.

Freshman and UCA Cornhole Club president

Camden Shaw got the idea from Kelly Bullington, executive district director for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

“I volunteered for the foundation while I was in Lawton, and [Bullington] recommended that we should host a 5K to spread the awareness for the disease,” Shaw said.

Among the participates was UCA graduate student Ashley Crafton, who suffers from cystic fibrosis. Crafton gave a short motivational speech to her fellow participants shortly before the race began.

“I want you all to know that people like me are so grateful for your time and efforts,” Crafton said. “This is really impacting a lot of people’s lives.”

The disease has a wide number of symptoms including salty-tasting skin, wheezing or shortness of breath and nasal polyps.

Diagnosis for the disease comes after a three-part evaluative test. The first part being a sweat chloride test, a genetic test and a clinical

evaluation at a cystic fibrosis clinic.

Treatment for the disease includes a range of options such as airway clearance, medication, a fitness plan and nutritional therapies.

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1955. Its mission statement is “to cure cystic fibrosis and to provide all people with the disease the opportunity to lead full, productive lives by funding research and drug development, promoting individualized treatment and ensuring access to highquality, specialized care.”

The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is fueled by a dedicated group of scientists, caregivers, donors, volunteers and people with cystic fibrosis as well as their families, all of whom are united by common goals: To find a cure for cystic fibrosis and help those with cystic fibrosis live longer, healthier lives.

For more information of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and cystic fibrosis, be sure to visit www.cff.org.

SGA

Earth Day resolution passed for greener campus

by Lauren McLemore Assistant News Editor

At its last meeting of the semester, SGA passed an Earth Day resolution and heard from graduating seniors before heading to McCastlain Hall Ballroom for their end of year banquet.

Some senators prepared a presentation about the gazebo project, but were told before the meeting that the finance committee, after hearing their request

Misson:

for $25,000, recommended that more research be done.

The committee said that the request had no broken down itemized price list nor cost comparisons made to companies who provide the same products.

While the gazebo may have been a nice addition to campus, another way to make the university stand out is by keeping it clean.

In honor of having its last meeting on Earth Day, senators unanimously passed

the Earth Day Sustainability Resolution sponsored by the SGA sustainability committee which “urges the University of Central Arkansas to champion new and inventive programs to create convenient recycling options for students everywhere on campus,” according to the document.

Before the final adjournment, graduating SGA members gave thanks and pieces of advice to their fellow senators.

Hodges hopes book help celebrate diverse history

4 Continued from page 1 Rock Library — and has been named a best-seller.

Her book is also on display in the downtown library of Little Rock and is sold at university bookstores such as Pulaski Technical College, Philander Smith College and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. With each classroom or library this book finds a home in, another student is educated on their own history and opportunity.

“You must know your history. You can confuse and you can mess up the minds of your children if you don’t know your history,” Hodges said.

The book contains a plethora of facts and personal history for our country, including a letter Obama wrote to current President Donald Trump. Hodges also included stories of her life with her husband who sat in the front row of the lecture. She took a moment to reminisce on their personal story.

The two dated in 1974 when Hodges was 16 and a

student at Hall High, and her husband, 22 at the time, was a student at UALR. They’ve been together ever since.

Through her comparisons of Obama’s biracial origins and her own biracial children, she emphasized the strength and compelling nature of unity in her own relationship.

“It’s not a fad; I don’t think a fad would last 45 years,” Hodges said.

Hodges took a moment at the beginning and end of her lecture to reflect on her late grandfather and father, neither of whom lived to see her publication nor Obama’s election. Hodges spoke to the community members with conviction as she enforced how these two men couldn’t have imagined this book becoming a reality, let alone imagine an African-American elected into the presidency.

The Black History Commission of Arkansas funded part of the book and the Friends of the Arkansas State Archives hosted the event. Hodges emphasized

the lessons that lie within this history book aren’t just for the celebration of Black History Month in February, but for every month all year long.

After thanking each person individually, Hodges ended the “Pen to Podium” event with the statement “never underestimate what God had in store for you.”

The public information specialist of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, Scarlet Sims, affirmed how vital these “Pen to Podium” author talks are for the Central Arkansas community.

“Pen to Podium is important to the Central Arkansas community because it is a chance to bring people together to learn about their Arkansas roots, heritage and identity,” Sims said.

Hodges’ “8 Years of Unforgettable History: The Allure of America’s Firsts” is available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble and at the Pulaski Technical College and UALR bookstores.

Campus Life

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April 24, 2019

Around Campus: Film Festival At 6 p.m. April 26 in Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA will host its 15th annual student film festival. UCA students of any major submitted their films to the festival. The Digital Filmmaking faculty reviewed the entries and selected which films will be screened at this event. An awards ceremony and after party will follow the screening. A panel of judges, who are professionals in the film industry, will choose the awards. For more information visit ucafilm.org/ ucafilmfestival.

Prehistoric Adventure At 6 p.m. April 28 in Reynolds Performance Hall, Erth Visual & Physical Inc. will present an interactive show about the prehistoric ocean called Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium Adventure. The show will educate the audience about prehistoric marine reptiles that may still exist today. Erth uses actors, technology, puppets, science and imagination to create a unique learning experience.

The producing company of the show, Erth, is renowned for its distinct visual aesthetic and huge variety of puppets.

For tickets go to tickets.uca. edu.

Climate Solutions At 5:30 p.m. April 27 at 2003 S Louisiana St., Little Rock, Arkansas, volunteers from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby in Arkansas will host the second Arkansas Climate Accord event. The event will take place in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Jonesboro in addition to the Little Rock location. At the event the hosts will discuss bridges to climate solutions, such as the passage of the Energy and Innovation Carbon Dividend Act. Food, beer, wine and entertainment will accompany the informational lecture.

To RSVP to attend this event go to arkccl.org/arkansasclimate-accord. To volunteer to help facilitate the event send an email to Kim Lovely at KimwithARKCCL@gmail.com.

Miguel Concert At 8 p.m. April 25 at the Farris Center, the Student Activities Board will host a music concert featuring R&B artist Miguel. Miguel is a Grammy-winning singer/ songwriter who started his musical career in his early teens. Several of his singles and albums have placed in the top ten on the R&B/hip-hop music chart. Miguel’s musical style has been compared to the musical style of Khalid, Oddisee and Drake. Doors will open at 7 p.m. For tickets go to tickets.uca.edu.

Professional Development At 5 p.m. April 24 at UCA Makerspace, Mike Preston, the executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, will talk about his experience as a local entrepreneur.

Preston was appointed to his position by Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in 2015. Preston is regarded as a leading advocate of economic development. He played an important role in recruiting over 300 businesses around the world to locate or expand in Arkansas. Preston was selected to become a member of the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council in 2018.

After an hour of networking, Preston will discuss his life and give business advice in a fireside chat. Refreshments will be provided. To RSVP visit arconductor.org.

Game Changer At 11:30 a.m. May 8, at UCA Makerspace, RazorCity IT founder, Keith Jetton, will discuss how he successfully started his technology solutions company. Jetton RazorCity IT provides high-quality technology solutions to small and midsize businesses including cyber security, blog insights and cloud services. Jetton will discuss the origin story of RazorCity IT and give business advice. Lunch will be provided to attendants. To RSVP visit arconductor.org.

photo by Marley Cash-Powell

Assistant professor of Saxophone Matt Taylor laughs at the irony of the Nina Simone “Feeling Good” song lyric “sun in the sky” being sung by adjunct instructor of music Jaimee Jensen-McDaniel at Tacos and Tunes outside Donaghey Hall April 19. Despite the particularly chilly spring day, UCA’s Jazz II ensemble members played for a small audience to practice performing outdoors ahead of their Arkansas Jazz Festival performance April 27.

Tacos and tunes take over Donaghey Hall lawn

by Marley CashPowell Editor

Soothing jazz notes shifted across the cool and cutting breeze, traveling across campus from the lawn at Donaghey Hall as the UCA Jazz II Ensemble performed for a meager crowd of determined music lovers noon April 19.

Assistant professor of saxophone Matt Taylor invited campus community members to join him and music students for the Tacos and tunes event, encouraging participants to snag tacos from Twisted Taco before joining the performers on the lawn outside.

“We want to try to do more

things around campus so that we’re not just stuck in our concert hall,” Taylor said.

Anticipating sunny spring weather when planning the performance, the group was met with temperatures 10 degrees below the historical average for this time of year and wind gusts upward of 30 mph instead.

However unideal conditions may have been for audience members, the conditions actually helped serve Taylor’s ultimate purpose in scheduling the performance.

“We’re playing a jazz festival — the Arkansas Jazz Festival — with the first jazz ensemble on Saturday, and it’s an outdoor event,” Taylor said. “A lot of these students have never played outside, which comes with its own

set of challenges.”

Taylor said the ensemble was hoping for a beautiful day.

“But it looks like it is going to be challenging playing conditions, which is actually kind of great for us because it gives [the students] the chance to experience this,” Taylor said.

Taylor asked to perform at the event, including adjunct instructor of music appreciation and music history Jaimee Jensen-McDaniel, who is also the creative and communications coordinator of UCA’s Community Music Institute, and staff member Ronald Jensen-McDaniel, who is the fiscal and outreach coordinator of the Community Music Institute as well as Jaimee’s husband.

Taylor and The Jensen-McDaniels all went to UCA together for their undergraduate degrees, graduating in 2010.

Taylor introduced Jaimee as the “Contessa of UCA” when she kicked off the concert, performing a cover of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.”

“I’ve been singing since I could talk. It was something that I was always really good at,” Jaimee said. “And it is something that has always brought me joy.”

After Jaimee’s performance, the ensemble played “Happy Birthday” for audience member Steven Flores, who was in the crowd, supporting the performers.

Then, Ronald performed a cover of The Commodores’ “Brick House.”

Between Jaimee’s warm, controlled tones and Ronald’s funky stops and growls that had everyone, including Taylor, grooving in the crowd, the day’s chilliness was nearly forgettable.

The accompaniment of the jazz ensemble, on the other hand, was anything but, lending a larger-than-life feel to the live performances.

To further support UCA’s jazz students, the UCA community is invited to join them at their next performance which will be at the Arkansas Jazz Festival at Freedom Park in Van Buren, Arkansas, April 27. The Jazz I Ensemble will play at noon and the Jazz II Ensemble will play at 1:30 p.m.

ONE-MAN PERFORMANCE

Psychological play sparks college mental health conversation

by Ronak Patel Staff Writer

UCA’s Active Minds, Student Government Association and Psychology Society collaborated to bring speaker Josh Rivedal to campus to give an informative performance about mental health issues that affect today’s college students.

Rivedal performed a one-man play telling the story of his life and how his experiences led him to advocate for mental health awareness — using his skills as an actor and writer. Rivedal focused his presentation specifically on suicide.

In the midst of practicing for a big audition, Rivedal received a call from his mother, informing him his father had committed suicide. Rivedal’s grandfather committed suicide as well, and it seemed to be a generational curse. Rivedal’s life took a turn for the worse after his father’s suicide, and it seemed as if he couldn’t break the curse.

Rivedal’s one-man play focused on how, through the midst of his depression, he fulfilled his dream of becoming an actor and, more importantly, broke what he believed was his family’s generational curse.

Senior and executive president of SGA Joshua Eddinger-Lucero was

photo by Ronak Patel

Keynote speaker Joshua Rivedal opens up a Q&A session for students so they can start a healthy dialogue on mental health awareness at Doyne Health Sciences Center April 18. During the keynote, Rivedal said he uses acting as a way to cope with his mental illness.

impressed with Rivedal’s story and felt students needed an event like this, which would leave a lasting impact.

“We were really trying to think about a topic that’s really going impact our students and start a conversation and keep that conversation going as we move toward the end of the academic year into the next academic year, too,” Eddinger- Lucero said.

SGA, Active Minds and the Psychology Society wanted to start healthy conversations on campus about mental health and suicide.

“One thing we all came back to was mental health awareness, specifically on suicide. We found out about Josh and were really impressed with his story and thought that he’d deliver a really good message to students,” Eddinger-Lucero said. “I think conversations about suicide and mental health are so stigmatized that it makes it really difficult to have good conversation and dialogue on these topics. We wanted to let students have the opportunity to ask him questions about his story but also share some of

their own experiences and start a dialogue with Josh.”

While watching the presentation, junior Kaela Lawrence felt she gained a better understanding of vulnerability.

“I thought his part on vulnerability was valuable — it’s a really scary thing — and just bringing that up and talking about how it’s okay to be vulnerable,” Lawrence said. “He brought up how to recognize the signs of depression and how to cope with those signs. A lot of us don’t really know how to cope with negative emotions

and how social media can be a catalyst toward coping in an unhealthy way.”

Lawrence enjoyed her first ever experience watching a one-man play.

“It was unique the way the content was presented — the broadway part — it just wasn’t a typical speaker talking at you.

It was more entertaining, so it grabbed your attention at the beginning and then he brought in that information and tied it in with that,” Lawrence said. “It was well-balanced — serious and entertaining.”

C A M PA I G N

Get Yourself Tested spreads awareness of local, national STD statistics

by Macy Davis Staff Writer

Sexually transmitted diseases are a growing issue among college students. Many students assume if they don’t have symptoms, they don’t have an STD. In most cases, people don’t know they have an STD until they get tested.

The Get Yourself Tested campaign set up an informative STD booth outside of UCA’s Christian Cafeteria from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 18.

“We’re trying to promote students getting themselves tested and give out some statistics on STDs in the nation

and also on campus,” senior and student wellness intern Eric Tripp said.

Senior and student intern in the UCA student wellness and development center, Smitha Patel, stood beside the booth asking students if they had heard of GYT before going into a discussion about the campaign and STDs. The booth included colorful GYT pins, statistical displays of STD information and pamphlets for students to peruse and take home.

“A lot of students don’t know UCA statistics on STDs. It’s important for us to let them know that it’s actually on campus, and they should be

aware of it,” Patel said.

According to GYT, one in two sexually active people will get an STD in their lifetime, but most of them won’t ever know it. Patel said that chlamydia, herpes and HPV are the most common STDs at UCA. “These [STDs] are the biggest things that people don’t really take into consideration.

Especially with HPV, people think, ‘Oh well I’m not that old yet,’ and they think HPV is something more mature adults would get,” Patel said.

Some of the most common misconceptions about STDs are if people have only had sex with one person they shouldn’t be tested, STDs are visible to

the naked eye, people can’t get STDs from oral sex and if people don’t have symptoms, they don’t have an STD. The more sexual partners people have, the more likely they are to have an STD. College students are known to have multiple sexual partners during their college experience.

“To be honest, we are college students.

College students do tend to have more than one sexual partner and you don’t know who they have been in contact with,” Patel said.

It can be very scary for anyone to work up the nerve to visit the Student Health Center.

STDs are something that no

one wants to talk about; people don’t want to think they could be one of the many people who have one.

“The GYT is very important because I got a list of the statistics from just this campus, and it’s insane. You never know who will have [an STD],” Tripp said.

No matter how scary it may seem to have an STD, it’s better to take care of it now rather than later. If sexually active currently or sexually active recently, students who haven’t been tested can go the UCA Student Health Clinic. The cost for testing is included in tuition.

For more information on STDs, go to uca.edu/studenthealth.

ucanews.live

CAMPUS LIFE

Sensational sensory room unveiled

What do you think of the fact that so many people are starting presidential campaigns?

”

Story and photos by Christine Nichols

photo by Marley Cash-Powell

Students, faculty and staff mingle over pizzas, sodas and sweets during the unveiling of the Old Main Room 28 sensory room April 15. Last month, the honors core II-search for community course partnered with SWAP — Students Who Advocate for People, a disability advocacy RSO — to raise funds to furnish the sensory room with items of comfort, convenience and therapeutic benefit.

successful in more ways than they could have imagined.

“We actually had an alumna who is an [occupational therapist] and she sent probably five different gifts,” Lea said. “One of them was a blow-up chair. It also helps in the same way [that the hanging chair would].”

The alumna was Jade Verge who received her undergraduate degree in 2014. Lea shared The Echo’s fundraiser-kickoff article from last month on Facebook, and Verge saw it and reached out to Lea before she and her husband, Anthony Verge, gifted the items — including the blow-up chair, a tall popup tent and a bean bag chair — to Lea through Amazon.

But The Verges were not the only helping hands in this mission.

Employees from departments and offices across campus came together to donate comfy couches and armchairs, end tables and artwork, lamps, and even a rug.

Becky Bogoslavsky, a lecturer from the department of student transitions, acted as Lea’s right hand during the

effort.

“We also raided our office suite — we have a common area — so, we got that [end]table from there, and I got these two [end]tables from the flea market,” Bogoslavsky said as she pointed to each new item. “These [arm]chairs came from different offices.”

Bogoslavsky said people around campus sent whatever wasn’t being used in their own offices for use in the sensory room.

“Julia Winden-Fey [the director of student success and a lecturer of philosophy and religion] arranged for us to get the purple tables and chairs from the Tutoring Center when they changed out some things,” Bogoslavsky said.

Kathy Wages, an administrative assistant in the department of student transitions, arranged for physical plant employees to paint the room a more soothing pale-green color.

“All the different offices helped work on this space,” Lea said.

Over the summer of 2018, when new lighting was installed in Old Main, dimmer

switches were installed in room 28. Lea said that the Office of Student Success, Department of Student Transitions and the honors college paid for online training about low sensory rooms.

“We already knew that we wanted lighting that was not fluorescents, which often make an annoying sound, and [we] knew having a dimmer switch to lower lighting would be ideal, as well,” Lea said.

UCA’s sensory room is open to all students — including those who are autistic, have Asperger’s Syndrome or are otherwise neurodiverse, along with their friends and allies — as a quiet space to socialize or to calm down when feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

The collection effort will continue. Now that the room is well-furnished, Lea and her students still intend to build a collection of books for a neurodiversity library in the room.

Anyone interested in donating items or money can contact Cindy Lea at clea@uca.edu.

‘US’

Freshman Harvi Davis

Freshman Alexis Harris

“Well I think diversity is always a good thing but since it’s dominantly two parties, I think that having so many people doesn’t really change [anything].”

“I’m kind of surprised and I don’t think that’s going to work out very well. I feel like some of these [candidates] just kind of do it for the popularity [factor].”

Freshman Flynn Slay

Senior Maleak Dotson

“In some ways, it’s good because we are getting a lot better representation, but there’s also the spoiler effect where if we have too many candidates running then that could definitely split the vote.”

“I think it’s a pretty good thing [because] having more options is always good. I know [one of the] things that happened with our last presidential voting [was] people didn’t vote because they didn’t like either of the [major] candidates. “

Jordan Peele’s Horror film proves thought-provoking and disturbing

by Rafeal Soliz II Staff Writer The University of Central Arkansas’ English department hosted a community discussion with students and faculty about Jordan Peele’s movie “Us” on April 16 in Irby Hall.

Assistant professor of English Glenn Jellenik and professor of English Wayne Stengel hosted the discussion, but it was mostly student led. They discussed and reviewed topics of the film.

More popular topics included the deeper meanings of the film and dissecting what each scene might have represented.

Many students gave their own opinion of the film and

April 24, 2019 /4

STUDENTS SAY

“

by Marley CashPowell Editor Just over one month after kicking off a fundraiser drive to furnish the Old Main Room 28 sensory room, the UCA community banded together once again to bring a goal closer to fruition.

On March 13, Cindy Lea, a lecturer and leadership/ engagement coordinator with the UCA Schedler Honors College, led her students in the honors core II-search for community course to partner with members of SWAP — Students Who Advocate for People, a UCA disability advocacy RSO — to furnish the sensory room with items of comfort, convenience and therapeutic benefit.

Lea unveiled a new-and-improved sensory room at 6 p.m. April 15 during the last evening SWAP meeting of the spring semester. Students from the honors course, SWAP and otherwise mingled in the dimly lit room, celebrating the new environment over pizzas, sodas and sweets.

“I just found it to be generally interesting, like as a place where I could just chill out … and just exist, I suppose,” freshman Niccole Hunt said.

While Lea and her supporters aimed to furnish the room with a hanging chair, five pairs of noise-canceling headphones and two weighted blankets, they fell short of this specific goal.

“We were able to get the weighted blanket,” Lea said.

“We were able to get five of the noise canceling headphone sets. The only thing we weren’t able to get was a hanging chair.”

Despite this, they were

dissected the film in ways that others may not have touched on. Staff gave their thoughts on the film as well.

“I thought the film was truly disturbing, truly powerful and it represents stuff that isn’t done in American cultural media movies,” Stengel said. “It’s less grizzly than it is thought-provoking. It is disturbing in a way that things that are artistic are disturbing. Not that many horror movies are lastingly disturbing, but this one is.”

A majority of students in the discussion thought that the movie was of high quality and far from a cliché horror film.

“I thought the movie was amazing. I thought that

it was much more complex than ‘Get Out’ and it really needs to be seen because it’s very much a commentary on the current state of the United States,” junior Connor Lichtenwalter said.

The meeting touched on themes of the film and whether it magnified race or class more.

Many who took part in the discussion believed the movie contained little violence and a much deeper meaning. The discussion was very laid back and most of the people who attended expect to see the movie again to dissect it and look even deeper than they could in their first experience.

“A movie that has this kind of control and this many visual ideas could certainly

be seen again,” Stengel said.

Students at the meeting showed appreciation toward the meeting as it gave them a chance to listen to what others had to say on the topic and look deeper into the meaning of the film.

“I thought the meeting was really great. It was such a complex movie and it really allowed me to look more into it. As someone who appreciates horror, it was really nice to come to a meeting where we can discuss horror as a high art whenever it’s not really seen as that anymore,” Lichtenwalter said.

“Us” released March 22 and is director Jordan Peele’s second film, with the first being “Get Out.”

Sophomore Jalen Allen

Freshman Kaitlyn Shea

“I think it’s good. I think there’s a wide variety of candidates who all represent different types of people and the different facets that make up the population of the United States, so I think it’s good.”

“I definitely think there should probably be fewer candidates. I feel like now that there are more candidates people are going to be less motivated to do as much research.”

PEOPLE OF UCA: Amber Sherer

by Marley CashPowell Editor Amber Sherer is nontraditional in every sense of the word.

Sherer is a 26-year-old senior who will graduate spring 2020. Sherer identifies as nonbinary and as bisexual.

Hannah Hanshaw, who works in the education and outreach division of Torreyson Library, approached Sherer about volunteering as a book for the Human Library to give the nonbinary community a voice.

“Amber’s official book title was ‘Living Beyond Binaries,’” Hanshaw said. “I thought that would make a great title that would attract readers’ attention and help them to understand what [being nonbinary is] about.”

Sherer accepted the challenge, regardless of struggling with depression, borderline personality disorder and anxiety.

Out of the dozens of people who interacted with Sherer, almost all Sherer’s experiences were positive.

“Overall, I want to stress that it was really good,” Sherer said.

However, two instances were not. When a psychology student and then a physiology faculty member checked Sherer out, Sherer spent each 20-minute session defending their own identity because of the student and faculty member’s differing ideologies.

photos by Marley Cash-Powell

Senior Amber Sherer smiles through their traumas and obstacles as they continually pursue their education while giving a voice to the nonbinary community. Sherer is a double major in computational linguistics and philosophy, and a double minor in sociology and Chinese.

Sherer was most uncomfortable with the faculty member’s insistence that, biologically, only two genders exist; however, intersex people born with a variety of biological variations atypical to binary gender norms.

“My mom completely ignores [that I’m nonbinary], and my dad will purposefully call me a girl to mess with me,” Sherer said. “I’ve just kind of given up on [my mom] accepting it, and I just have to deal with it if I want to have a relationship with her.”

Sherer was home schooled in her primary and secondary education. After graduating at 18, Sherer enrolled at Ozarka College in Mountain View, Arkansas, because their home life was tense. Sherer graduated with an associate of art degree at age 20 before

transferring to UCA for one semester at 22.

Sherer’s education has been intermittent over the years as living situations have changed and impeded focusing on college. Sherer remained determined, reenrolling at UCA at 24, double majoring in computational linguistics and philosophy with double minors in sociology and Chinese.

Sherer has volunteered at the Bear Essential Food Pantry for two to four hours per week for the past two years and at Paper Airplanes, providing one-on-one tutoring in English for Syrian refugees for the past two and a half years.

Sherer is a readily recognizable character whom many have likely seen across campus, between trademark — cherry red, heart-shaped

glasses — and a flare for dresses and unshaved legs, most who have seen Sherer have likely taken notice.

“I got these [glasses] on Zenni and I was like, ‘These are super cute but there’s no way you are going to wear them every day,’” Sherer said. “[But] they tend to make people happy, and I like making people happy.”

Regardless of their affinity for dresses, Sherer said that you can’t really judge people’s identities based on accessories.

“I get that people are going to look at me and think, ‘Yeah, that’s a girl,’” Sherer said. “But one thing I’ve tried to really stress to people is that you can’t tell a person’s gender by looking at them. And so, I try to explain that a really good praxis is to ask people what their pronouns are.”

Beyond a striking physical appearance — complete with tattoos and facial piercings — lies the story of a person who has faced many trials.

Sherer was diagnosed with anxiety and depression at 11, then experienced sexual assault as a teenager.

Sherer was misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder at 15, and was properly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder at 20.

“I learned more through memes than I did from a few years of therapy in how I deal with my borderline experiences,” Sherer said.

BPD is typically experienced through big emotional experiences, but for Sherer all those emotions get turned inward.

“I have all the suicidal ideation that is like one of the classic qualifier questions

for borderline,” Sherer said. “[Along with] splitting, which is going from one emotional extreme to another, usually [against] someone you care about, and you can’t control it.”

Through therapy, Sherer learned to control their borderline symptoms.

“It’s usually worse with people you are closer to,” Sherer said. “That’s why it’s a lot harder for me to control my tendencies when I’m in a relationship than whenever I’m not in a relationship. Just because that person becomes your favorite person, the one that you want around all the time or the one that you talk to [the most].”

Sherer said, oftentimes, borderline symptoms are comorbid with eating disorders, self-harm and fear of abandonment, each of which have flared up for Sherer recently.

“Borderline is often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder,” Sherer said. “There’s also some thought that borderline is just complex PTSD, but that because it presents more in women, or people who are coded as women, that it is misogyny that is not classifying it as PTSD … some of the symptoms overlap.”

Despite their struggles, Sherer has continued their educational journey with the simple aspiration stamped on the side of their glasses, to just “be good.”

Sports

5

April 24, 2019

Women’s golf takes 2nd at conference championships

Upcoming Games Tennis

10 a.m., April 25 vs McNeese State University

by Macy Davis Staff Writer

Baseball 2 p.m., April 26 at Houston Baptist University Softball 5 p.m., April 26 vs Houston Baptist University

Editor’s Take

photo by Taylor Sone

UCA Bears sophomore pitcher Gavin Stone throws a pitch during game two of a doubleheader against the Sam Houston State University Bearkats at Bear Stadium April 19. Solid pitching helped secure a sweep of the Bearkats, the No. 1 team in the Southland Conference.

UCA gets back to .500, dominates SHSU

by Taylor Sone Photo Editor

photo courtesy of Elaine Thompson/AP

Breanna Stewart was the 2018 MVP for the WNBA. Her injury’s sparked debates of the schedules that female basketball players are forced to endure.

Forced offseason play leads to WNBA player’s torn ACL

by Daniel Adams Assistant Sports Editor

Reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart ruptured her right achilles tendon in a EuroLeague game in Hungary on April 17, playing for the Russian team Dynamo Kursk.

Stewart’s injury highlights a conundrum that WNBA players have found themselves in for years. They’ve constantly been forced to play overseas in the offseason just to make a decent wage.

The WNBA doesn’t have all the benefits that NBA players have. During their last season, the Las Vegas Aces actually had to forfeit a game because they were unable to travel in time and simply had no possible way to make the game up.

There’s no motivation for WNBA players to rest their bodies and focus on just the WNBA in the offseason, unlike their male counterparts.

The ironic part of all this is that the NBA helps facilitate the WNBA, yet says it refuses to help because it constantly loses money when assisting the league.

It’s a bit of an odd argument, especially when NBA president Adam Silver said that he would love to help make things more equal for the WNBA players.

While it’s unclear if the WNBA will eventually implement higher salaries or better protection for their players, Stewart’s injury could be the start of something big in the league’s future.

The annual CBA negotiations are coming up, and the players might push harder for equal treatment in terms of both medical insurance and overall salaries.

Personally, I’ve never understood why the WNBA seems to get the short end of the proverbial stick in terms of treatment. In fact, it’s another example of how women’s sports just don’t get the respect they deserve.

I don’t see why we can’t put female and male players on equal playing fields. One can enjoy the NBA and WNBA at the same time, so they shouldn’t be in competition with one another.

Change won’t be something that comes quickly, unfortunately.

I’m sure, eventually, efforts will ensure change, but hopefully change comes before more significant injuries worsen conditions for female athletes.

The UCA Baseball team (20-20, 11-7 SLC) dominated the Sam Houston State Bearkats (22-15, 14-7 SLC) at Bear Stadium over the weekend, earning a clean sweep and limiting the first place team in the Southland Conference to just 4 runs for the series.

The Bears earned the series with two wins in the doubleheader April 19, winning 6-1 and 4-1 respectively. They earned the sweep April 20, winning 6-2. The victories marked the Bears’ first sweep of the season, and their fifth series win in six weeks of SLC play.

“We pitched really well, and we kept an extremely potent offense down for three days in a row,” head coach Allen Gum said. “We defended well, and we just played good baseball.”

UCA’s pitching staff managed to keep the Bearkats to single runs for both games of the doubleheader and a pair during the final game Saturday.

Overall, the Bear’s pitching combined for 24 strikeouts and a 1.33 earned-run average

for the series.

Senior pitcher Cody Davenport threw a complete game for the opener, earning nine strikeouts and allowing 1 run on four hits.

“He threw 72% first pitch strikes, when you do that, it gives you a chance to win,” Gum said. “Pretty much all weekend our first pitch strike percentage was really good.”

Davenport said that his high fastball worked well over the weekend, as well as his slider. He said preparation was essential to beat a team like SHSU. “I think a lot of that is mindset; my mindset is to always get ahead of [the opponents], kind of keep them on their heels. If you get ahead of them, it makes your stuff a little bit better,” Davenport said.

During the second game, UCA and SHSU were scoreless for four innings, and then matched each other with 1 run in the fifth. The Bears ultimately took the lead off a 3-run homer by junior Josh Ragan in the seventh.

“They had been pitching [Ragan] really well, and they made one mistake on him and he took advantage of it,” Gum

said.

Ragan said after going 0-3 at-bat for the game, it felt great to make a comeback and get the homer, especially against the caliber of pitching that SHSU has. He also said he hopes he and his teammates utilize the momentum from the sweep as they prepare for their next series.

“They’re No. 1 in the conference. This is big time for us. We just got to keep it rolling,” Ragan said.

The final game Saturday was another solid day for the Bears’ pitching staff, with junior Brad Verel and senior Conner Williams holding SHSU to 2 runs.

Offensively, the Bears picked up 4 runs in the first two innings of play and another 2 in the third and fifth innings respectively. Junior designated hitter Marco Navarro batted .500 for the game, with one RBI. Gum said every game has to be played with the same level of intensity.

“We try to stay level. If it’s the first-place team, it doesn’t matter. If we pitch it well and play good defense, we got a chance to beat anybody,” Gum said.

The UCA women’s golf team traveled to Magnolia, Texas, to finish the season at the Southland Conference Championships April 15-17. Even though UCA didn’t come out on top, the team was happy with its performance throughout the conference season.

UCA finished in second place with a total score of 882 after a close competition with Sam Houston State University, the eventual champions, with a final score of 880.

The three-day conference was played in three rounds. In the first round, UCA players scored a 297, followed by their highest score of 302 in the second round.

However, they ended on a downward slide in their third round with a score of 283, which was the lowest round score in the conference.

“It was bittersweet in the sense that we didn’t win. But at the same time, we had an under par round today that was really clutch, and we were not playing under the best of conditions,” UCA women’s golf coach Natasha Vincent said.

Freshman Karley Whittington was the only UCA women’s golfer to get an eagle. There were only five other women who scored an eagle during the Southland Conference. “[The players] responded really well to the pressure, and they’ve been working really hard all year. So, it was good to see them go out there, compete and throw up a low number,” Vincent said.

Senior Emma Svensson tied for third place with an individual score of 218.

Svensson was in fifth place after the second round, but she came back with a low score in her final round to push her up to third.

This is Svensson’s last season playing for UCA, and she looks forward to seeing how the team will do next season.

“I’m super proud of my team. I think they played really good, and they proved that they can play some good golf. I’m also really excited to see them coming into the fall semester,” Svensson said.

Unlike most sports that are based on one game’s total score. Golf has multiple holes, and each is equally important in determining the total score at the end of the tournament.

Vincent stressed the importance of this idea, and she was proud of her teammates for demonstrating their ability to work hard in every hole they played.

“In playing golf, you have hole-by-hole and you’ve got to learn what that means and fight for every shot. I think they learned a lot about that in this event, and I think they came back and really showed they understood that in this last round,” Vincent said.

Freshmen Elin Kumlin and Tania Nunez tied in 10th place with SHS with a final individual score of 222.

“I think today everyone kept one shot at a time and were very calm throughout the whole round. I think that’s something they can keep working on and have in mind,” Svensson said.

“When one shot is bad, you move forward and don’t let that shot affect the rest of the round. I think they did that really good, and I think that’s something they can keep working on”

BREAKING THE STREAK

SHOWCASE SHOWOFF

photo courtesy of UCASports

Sophomore infielder Erin Blackburn sprints to the base April 20 in Hammond, Louisiana. Blackburn has a batting average of .324 for the season in 37 games played.

photo courtesy of UCASports

Junior Jessica Martinez dives for the ball April 20 at the Southland Conference Showcase. The showcase featured a total of six games for UCA, resulting in two wins.

Bears’ season ends against Huskies

by Daniel Adams Assistant Sports Editor

The season came to a close April 20 for the UCA Beach Bears (7-11) as the Houston Baptist Huskies defeated them 3-2 in the Southland Conference Showcase in Covington, Louisiana, at the Digs Volleyball Complex.

The first day of the conference showcase didn’t go in UCA’s favor as the Bears lost games to both the University of New Orleans and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-1 and 3-0 respectively. There were some positives though as senior Kimmy Schnars and freshman Kayla Cook picked up the sole victory of the day for UCA in their first game as a duo.

Things turned around in the second day of pool play though, as the Beach Bears picked up two wins against Nicholls State University and Abilene Christian University with scores of 4-0 and 5-0.

The No. 2 team of sophomore Aly Brinkley and junior Mackenzie Dear played a key part through all three games during the day, as they managed to win all three of the games they participated in.

When tournament play

began on Saturday, however, UCA was once again unable to overcome Houston Baptist University, which beat the Bears 3-1 the previous day.

In a closely fought 3-2 game, UCA went down in defeat as Houston Baptist went on to win the showcase.

Senior Haley Tippett picked up her 40th career win on day two of pool play as she and sophomore Colene Hamilton took down Abilene Christian’s No. 1 pair in a 21-9, 21-8 dominating victory. Tippett finished with 41 wins after the semi-final round against Houston Baptist, setting a record as the winningest beach volleyball player in UCA history.

Head coach Jeni Jones Chatman was very satisfied with how the season had gone as a whole for the Beach Bears, even if the end result might not have been what she hoped for.

“We knew we would be young and inexperienced this year, and that certainly showed at times. However, I do feel we improved throughout the season.” Chatman said.

Assistant coach Autumn Erickson agreed that the season went very well despite how things may have looked at

the end.

“Despite our record, our players made tremendous strides and grew mentally,” Erickson said. “It has been important for us to establish an identity and clearly define what it means to be a UCA Beach Bear. I could not be more proud of our athletes and how they represent our program moving forward.”

While not ranked, UCA still received votes in the AVCA National poll for the Beach Volleyball rankings. The Beach Bears played a couple of ranked opponents in No. 7 Cal Poly and No. 20 Texas Christian University earlier in the season.

Next year will be a change of pace as UCA and the rest of the conference will compete for a full championship.

The past few years have only given UCA and other teams the chance to fight for the end-of-season conference showcase.

Only time will tell if UCA will win next year and qualify for the NCAA Beach Volleyball tournament.

“We will still be young next year, but we will have more returners to build with and a strong freshman class,” Chatman said.

Softball grabs 1 win over Lions, loses overall series

by Lisa Sullins Staff Writer

The Bears (22-25, 8-13 SLC) traveled to Southeastern Louisiana (28-18, 14-7 SLC) and won the final game over the Lions 5-3 April 20 at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field. Despite losing the series, this was a big game the Bears needed to win after losing five games in a row.

Head coach David Kuhn spoke on the importance of this series prior to the final game.

“It’s a very important series this weekend. We really need to win the series to increase our chances of making the SLC Tournament,” Kuhn said The Bears scored 3 runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Juniors catcher Cylla Hill and outfielder Kaylyn Shepherd scored 2 homers for the Bears.

The Bears were behind into the late stages of the game, but came back for a win.

Hill, who is second on the team in home runs, nailed her fifth of this season. She finished the final game of the series 2-4 with 2 runs scored.

Shepherd finished 2-2 at-bat for the game. In addition, Shepherd finished with three RBIs. With her 2 runs in the sixth, Shepard gave the Bears the lead and the eventual win. Senior pitcher Rachel Haberman pitched seven innings and

struck out four while allowing only 2 earned runs. This was an excellent starting performance for her and possibly her best of the season.

Sophomore outfielder Reagan Sperling grabbed another RBI for the season getting the Bears on the board, first in the game, and finished 1-3.

Freshman Tyler Vernon scored 2 runs and went 1-2 with a walk. Sophomore Reagan Sperling added another RBI to the day’s game. She made a double to score the first run for the Bears on Saturday, and she finished the game 1-3.

Freshman catcher Tylar Vernon went 1-2 at the plate with a walk, and also scored 2 runs. Freshman infielder Erin Blackburn and junior Kayla Crutchmer made a base hit for Bears.

Associate head coach Jenny Parsons said it was a great day for UCA. “We played a tough two games today. Rio Sanchez pitched well enough to get some wins. Offensively we hit well but [were] unable to come through with some timely hits,” Parsons said. “[We] hope to come back tomorrow and put it all together.”

Next, for the UCA Bears is Houston Baptist at Farris Field on April 26 and 27. The opening game is part of a doubleheader and scheduled to start at 5 p.m.

Opinion

6

ucaechoeditor@gmail.com

April 24, 2019

Senior Columns

The Echo Staff Marley Cash-Powell Editor

Emily Gist

Associate Editor

Lauren McCabe News Editor

Lauren McLemore Assistant News Editor

Aysha Dixon

Campus Life Editor

Christine Nichols

Assistant Campus Life Editor

Ryan Bradford Opinion Editor

Bring Red Lobster to Conway, plus other things I’ve realized Ideally, you would see a senior write about the life-changing experiences and philosophies that he or she learned while in college. Be more open-minded, more observant, more prepared, etcetera. But if there’s one thing I learned in my time of watching ESPN while I was supposed to be doing homework — and then procrastinating until the last moment to do most of my homework — it’s that people don’t want to read what they expect to be reading.

I mean, seriously, why doesn’t Conway have a Red Lobster?

Imagine the relief of having to start a reading assignment for your psychology class only to find out that the assigned story is about your favorite vacationing spot. Boredom to freedom in seven seconds of literature.

Ideally, you would see seniors tell you how they started college with only a passion, and now they have all the answers to the world’s problems. I guess I forgot to read the study guide along the way, because I still have plenty of questions.

For instance, why doesn’t Conway have a Red Lobster?

If life were a test, I do know a few more

Caela Fugate

of the answers, but I feel that I’m still having knew some stuff but was intimidated by every to choose ‘C’ for a lot of them. I think that’s opportunity I had to interview coaches the one they say will most likely be right. and players. Through the process of throwing me into the fire, I learned Maybe that’s what they mean when they many hands-on lessons early in my say C’s get degrees. time at UCA and made some amazing College is typically known for late connections for sports journalism in nights and study groups, and quite the future. often you’ll hear another stressedI went from admiring other out college student say, “The people’s photos to admiring struggle is real.” my own. I can genuinely say I guess I was just ahead that without this college of the game on this one, experience, I wouldn’t be as because I learned that the passionate for news and struggle was real when the world around me – Velcro shoes were no even if that world doesn’t

by Cody Macomber longer an option and I have a ball in it.

Staff Writer had to learn that whole I don’t fear people bunny-through-the-hole with differing upbringings thing to tie a shoe. And and opinions, but rather listen with an open don’t get me started on when my shoes didn’t mind. I’m not here to change someone’s light up anymore. opinion, but rather to deliver the truth and let But just as much as the struggle is – and has the truth do the work. been – real, so is my appreciation for The Echo Ideally, a seasoned-writing senior would tie and its volunteers for the past three years. a piece like this together with a nice quote or I went into college as a sports buff who something, but as I said before, I prefer Velcro.

Entertainment Editor

Marcus McClain Sports Editor

Daniel Adams

Assistant Sports Editor

Dy’Kajeon Brown

Online/ Social Media Editor

Taylor Sone Photo Editor

Ricky Rivera Cartoonist

Broadened horizons: How UCA helped develop who I am today I’ve been the cartoonist here at The Echo far in the first place, congratulations to you over the past semester and I am stressed. I feel too, buddy. As I take this time to calm down like I have a million things I have to get done and collect all my thoughts on everything I’ve and a trillion things I want to get done. experienced over these past semesters, only These days the closest thing I’ve gotten a single concentrated thought floats to to a break has probably been writing the top of this rambling river: I wouldn’t this article. have traded this time for anything else I’m a few weeks away from my in the world. final finals, and soon after I’ll be As a transfer student from Pulaski walking across the stage at that Tech, it felt weird coming back to big party where we’re all dressed UCA after having one very brief, rocky the same except for our unique semester here after high school back fancy hats. Next, everyone in 2011. I did my basics close to and their mother’s father’s home while working in Little sister’s uncle’s dentist Rock and during that time an wants to know: What are inspired poet and a batch of you going to do next? creative writers convinced If you are one of me to adopt a new dream

by Ricky Rivera those people with the and degree, switching Cartoonist unique drive and focus from a fine arts major to a to have the next stage of creative writing major with your life neatly printed a minor in the arts. out in your back pocket like a business card, When I walked back through the halls of congratulations and I wish you the absolute Schichtl and Win Thompson in fall 2016, an best in future endeavors. But if you’re like me associate of arts beneath my belt, I still felt and you’ve only just realized that it’s the third small — or, I guess, even smaller for a guy whose time you’ve stared off into space during lunch 5 foot 5 inches. But over time I grew, thanks to wondering how the heck you even got this professors who challenged my creativity and

classmates with voices, advice and passions all their own that inspired me to produce richer, deeper work.

The students and faculty here have given me so much. From a passion for creative critique and discussion to the opportunity to display my work in the Baum Gallery, the Vortex Magazine/Podcast and The Echo. I’ve not only been able to network and get advice from visiting professional creatives, but learn alongside friends who will no doubt shake the world with their own ideas and perspectives.

It’s kind of funny because I never saw college as a means to an end or a grade I had to make so I could get the job. I came to UCA to learn how to make cool things and meet interesting people, and I feel like I’ve done that in spades. It wasn’t easy, not by a long shot, but UCA gave me a voice and, over the past couple of months, I’ve been stressing to try to say everything I’ve wanted to say before I go. I haven’t. Not even close. But I think in the end that’s what a diploma really means to me. It’s an echo of my voice; a symbol of my time here, and the funny thing about echoes is if you raise your voice loud enough, it resonates.

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Editorials written in The Voice express the opinion of the newspaper and the editorial staff. Individual staff opinions are expressed in individual columns.

The Echo office is located in Stanley Russ Hall 124

Dear students: You have options, but quitting is not one of them I am a nontraditional student and I graduate May 4. I am so excited. I’m 55 years old, and may I say, though rewarding, college has also been challenging.

My biggest challenge has been doing anything other than typing a document on a computer. I was so excited when I learned how to copy and paste! Most of my classmates grew up working on computers in school. I saw my first computer in my father’s house in 1984. I had two children and was a stay-at-home wife.

Though this part of my education has been aggravating, other — younger — students have reached out to help me so many times. Some people have helped me so much I offered to write them a check! None would take it, but I did get many smiles along the way.

This generation has been so generous, friendly and helpful to me. My heart is so full of gratitude to these young people. Now moving on, I want to say though I am excited, I am sad at the same time. I feel like I am leaving home.

If I could get paid for being a student, I can honestly say I would never leave this beautiful university. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m excited to come to school and learn something new every day.

I will admit to feeling such a sense of pride and accomplishment every time I walk from the parking lot lugging my 40-pound backpack onto campus. Taking a risk at making

this with any advice, it would be to stay in a dramatic overstatement, I believe I have attended and will graduate with my bachelors school. Even though this has been a positive from one of the finest universities in the experience for me, I wish I would have had the country. It may not be an Ivy League university, drive in me then that I do now. If you are going but that doesn’t matter to me. It does have through a rough time personally or in school, the most caring and dedicated staff and tell yourself you have options, but quitting is faculty I have ever encountered. I not one of them. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. have been to other colleges when I have made some good and some bad my children were small, so I am in choices, like anyone else. Not sticking with a place where I can say that. college earlier in my life was one of the One of the universities I bad ones. attended was Kennesaw State Some people have a bucket list. I University in North Georgia. only have two things on it: One is UCA President Houston to get my degree. The other is to Davis, I have been told, was travel out of the country. I will there when UCA hired him. walk May 4 and fly to Europe It, too, is a great place to the next day. Do you have get a degree, but the a bucket list? If not, you professors here have should. It may encourage a passion for teaching

by Lisa Sullins you. It creates goals which and such joy when they we all need to strive for.

Staff Writer see their students learn And travel. Go see the and succeed. I have world. It’s just waiting to not seen this depth of be explored. commitment to students anywhere.

I want to thank the students, faculty and I am a history major and a journalism the very best professors a girl could have for minor. My first home is Irby and my second this adventure. I wish each and every one of you is Stanley Russ. I will miss the students and happiness and may all your dreams come true. I professors so very much.

If I could leave the students who read know mine have.

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Entertainment

7

April 24, 2019

New This Week Movies

April 26— Avengers: Endgame (PG-13), directed by Anthony Russo Joe Russo, starring Brie Larson, Scarlett Johansson, Karen Gillan, Paul Rudd April 26 — The White Crow (R), directed by Ralph Fiennes, starring Oleg Ivenko, Ralph Fiennes, Louis Hofmann, Adèle Exarchopoulos

‘Mystery’s’ fails to depict real female sexuality, love

by Emily Gist Associate Editor

“Mystery’s” — a novel published March 20, 2019,

by Ohio State University graduate Will Sly — is a coming-of-age tale about a woman who grapples with love and sexuality intermittent with social commentary. But don’t let the description, or cover, fool you; it’s actually a pretentious piece disguised as fine art with its best quality being its cover art.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

April 26 — Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, directed by Pamela B. Green, starring Alice Guy, Richard Abel, Marc Abraham, Stephanie Allain

Music April 26 — Designer — Aldous Harding April 26 — Fear In A Handful of Dust — Amon Tobin April 26 — Thrilled To Be Here — BAILEN April 26 — I Need A New War — Craig Finn April 26 — A Rock Supreme — Danko Jones April 26 — Seeing Other People — Foxygen April 26 — Warp And Woof — Guided by Voices April 26 — Stay Around — J.J. Cale April 26 — Oh My God — Kevin Morby April 26 — Fishing for Fishies — King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard April 26 — Violet Street — Local Natives April 26 — Run Fast Sleep Naked — Nick Murphy

Netflix April 19 — ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads, directed by Brian Oakes, starring Keith Richards, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo’, Bonnie Raitt April 19 — She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, starring Aimee Carrero, AJ Michalka, Marcus Scribner April 19 — The Sapphires, director by Wayne Blair, starring Chris O’Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy April 19 — Yankee, created by Diego Enrique Osorno, Veronica Velasco, Epigmenio Ibarra, starring Pablo Lyle, Ana Layevska, Leonardo Daniel April 27 — American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold, starring Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough

Top five places to nap, or cry, during finals List compiled by Lauren McCabe News Editor

I entered this book with an open mind; curious but hesitant about the subject matter because I knew if its characters weren’t accurately characterized, the book would fall flat. I read the first paragraph, and I was bombarded with word vomit.

“Out it came, the sky’s first roar before the great flood of their prophesy. First the words, then there was.

She didn’t sigh or pour out the sweat of shock at its utterance.

It was no meek confession.

There was a warmth that overwhelmed her when those words finally grazed and cleaned that bar, bounced off the kind reflections of the mass of America’s antiheroes bearing witness to her relief.”

Who was the paragraph referring to? Where was she?

A party? To ease confusion, the paragraph referred to the main character named Keira, whose name wouldn’t be mentioned until six pages in, and she worked in a bar named “Mystery’s.”

photo courtesy of www.amazon.com

The cover of Will Sly’s female coming-of-age novel “Mystery’s” depicts the internal struggle of female sexuality. “Mystery’s” released March 20, and currently has no customer reviews on Amazon.

The first ten or so pages have the same writing style filled with gems like, “His man’s scent was pick-pocketed by the tiny clovers of her perky nose to send her mind into a fantastic montage of their wayward history.”

Clearly, the author sat with a thesaurus open beside him when writing the first dozen pages. Thankfully, the writing eventually becomes legible, but the relief is short-lived.

Keira Rhys, our main character, is in love with the bar owner, Micah. She’s obsessed with this man for no real reason and decides the best way to confess to him is to strip naked with lightning speed in their

YOUTUBE

Lil Dicky’s music video ‘Earth’ stands for cause

by Rose McGarrity

shared apartment, to which he simply responds, “I’m gay.”

girl though. It was as close as I could get.”

The book then travels back in time, recounting times with Keira’s past lovers.

In the span of 120 pages, Sly manages to pigeonhole women into a stereotypical category defined purely by their sexuality and sex drive.

Again, women are not defined by sex, and that includes transgender women.

I recognize it’s supposed to be a commentary about our sex-driven society, but by making the main character all about sex and love without any tangible motivation — aside from hints at an artistic side, which just come off as pretentious — Sly perpetuates the stereotype.

Society needs a strong female character who has ambitions and motivations beyond her sexuality and finding love, and Keira is not that.

This view on womanhood is made even more apparent with the side, transgender female character, Jezebel.

Firstly, Jezebel was probably the worst name one could find for a transgender woman. The character says she names herself that because, in the Bible, Jezebel is strong. But one cannot remove the connotations of the name and shrug it off with a weak one-paragraph explanation. Secondly, when describing her experience coming out, Jezebel says she asked her girlfriend what it was like to have a man inside her and Jezebel talked about the time she felt closest to being a woman. “[My boyfriend] came out to me, and we took turns sucking each other’s cocks …

It was the first time I felt like a

One specific scene drove me up a wall. Keira is drunk with two other men, who comment on how sexy she is in a dress without her wearing a bra. They come up with a competition to draw Keira, and as Keira poses, Jezebel reaches behind her and undoes her top, revealing her bare breasts. Keira shrugs this off and poses on two stacks of books because, as Jezebel tells her, “They’re not perverts.”

In the last 50 pages, Sly tries to mimic closure with plot-twist after plot-twist, each more unrealistic than the last, and Keira’s character takes a turn so drastic it gives the reader whiplash.

First, Micah has sex with Jezebel behind the bar, which is completely unrealistic for his generally-passive character.

Then, Keira decides she will do whatever it takes to be with him, which includes pretending to be trans.

Thankfully, Jezebel calls Keira out on this, and if she didn’t I might have burned my computer in outrage.

However, Micah is completely fine when he learns that Keira is pretending to be trans solely for him, which might have been interesting had Micah’s character been more deeply explored beyond his, like nearly every character’s, love of reading.

The novel throws in a

mishmash of social issues — gentrification and the political climate — without an ounce of consistency.

It attempts to captivate a changing world where art is dead, but without a clear arc.

These side conversations fall as flat as the characters.

But by far the most tragic element of the book is that it is sprinkled with good, well-written moments where Sly is clearly trying to delve into foreign territory. The best scene is the mural Keira paints in her new apartment in the last segment of the book. It’s well-described and really gives a glimpse into her character never seen in the previous 140 pages of the book. She’s artful and cares about her art and I wish that were her primary motivation.

However, the mural is just mentioned at the end and never referenced once previously.

The book tries to tackle the complex subject matter of sexuality, love and lust, and it crashes and burns. I wish the author had consulted the demographics he describes in the book before publishing it because they might have pointed him in the right direction for such complex territory. Instead, the book does more harm than good and wasted the ten days it took for me to read it.

But if you want to feel this confliction for yourself, it’s available for $12 as a paperback from Amazon or $3 as an ebook for Amazon Kindle.

QUEEN BEY

Beyoncé’s Netflix film goes behind scenes

by Aysha Dixon Campus Life Editor

Rapper Lil Dicky released an animated music video titled “Earth” on April 18 to promote environmental protection and celebrate Earth Day. This music video is timely because Earth Day was April 22. The majority of the video is animated, which was a refreshing change from most videos that are released in current times. I haven’t seen anything like the music video for “Earth.”

The video isn’t animated in the beginning. The beginning shows a city scene with dark car fumes and children who litter. This scene explains that there is a problem — the earth isn’t being treated the way it should be.

Lil Dicky didn’t make this music video on his own.

“Earth” includes an all-star cast including Halsey, Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ariana Grande and Hailee Steinfeld. It was, however, a little outlandish hearing well-known celebrity voices coming out of animated animals, but besides that, I enjoyed the video.

The famous cast, along with the animation, might have been why this video is so successful. As of April 20, the music video was the No. 1 trending video on YouTube.

“Earth” is more than just entertaining. This video was a good idea because it will allow people to take a moment to stop and think about the harm we are causing to our planet.

At the end of the video, Dicky’s animated character said, “You know what, we might die. I’m not going to lie to you. I mean there are

so many people who don’t think global warming is a real thing.”

If people watch this music video or listen to this song just for fun, then I hope they will stop and think when they hear this quote. Maybe this song and music video will convince people to care about the world more.

Even though he didn’t sing in “Earth,” Leonardo DiCaprio had a speaking part and an animated character in the music video. Lil Dicky partnered with The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, and a portion of the funds from this song will go toward a charity that hasn’t been specified yet.

“Earth” isn’t the first song that brought together famous celebrities for a good cause.

The song “We are the World” brought together celebrities, such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Cynthia Lauper to sing about the problems in Africa.

In “We are the World,” the stars would trade off lines, and this is what the stars did in “Earth,” as well.

There should be more songs like these. When people come together for a cause, it’s easier to bring about change.

Additionally, celebrities are big influencers, so when they get behind something the public is more likely to listen.

Despite the cuss words in the song, the overall theme of the song and music video are wholesome. It’s hard to keep from smiling while watching it. The music video was very entertaining to watch, so I recommend checking it out.

I hope this song inspires other artists to collaborate on songs that promote change.

The music video is on YouTube, and the song is on Apple Music and spotify.

Beyoncé’s famous 2018 Coachella performance — appropriately renamed Beychella — is one of the most talked about performances of the past two years. Now, fans can rewatch the performance as many times as they please thanks to Netflix’s newest film, “HOMECOMING: a film

by Beyoncé.”

The film starts off with a girl in a majorette costume blowing a whistle, signaling the trumpets and drums that make up Beyoncé’s introduction music. Beyoncé wears a shimmering black and gold bodysuit, complete with an extravagant Nefertiti-like hat. She is seen switching from the black and gold getup to a similar all silver outfit. The film flawlessly switches between Beyoncé and her crew’s two different attires — one for weekend one and the other from weekend two of Coachella.

Immediately, the inspiration from historically black colleges and universities is apparent from the dancers’ majorette style moves, to the National Pan-Hellenic Council-style fraternity and sorority skits, to Beyoncé singing the Negro National Anthem. Beyoncé’s commentary over clips of rehearsals revealed that while growing up in Houston, she often visited HBCUs like Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M. Beyoncé admitted to working herself too hard during the months before the show. In total, she prepared for the performance in eight months — four of which were spent on handpicking every aspect of the show and the other four were spent

rehearsing.

Her voice was heard over clips of her three children as she talked about having a difficult pregnancy with her twins, Rumi and Sir Carter. Not only did she have preeclampsia, but one twin’s heart stopped beating a few times which resulted in an emergency C-section.

Coachella was her first performance after birthing the twins — hence the title “Homecoming.”

During the months leading up to Coachella, Beyoncé admitted to weighing 218 pounds. She cut out all carbs, sugars, meat and alcohol.

“I’m hungry,” Beyoncé said with a laugh.

She attributes her weight loss not only to her diet but also to SoulCycle classes and intense rehearsals.

As I watched the film, I was amazed at the professionalism on stage.

Firstly, Beyoncé danced for mostly all of the show while singing live and never once ran out of breath. Her backup dancers hardly ever missed a cue, and the band sounded exactly how I remember HBCU bands sounded at The

Battle of the Bands events.

Two of Bey’s dancers that I recognized immediately were the Les Twins — identical twin brothers Laurent Nicolas and Larry Nicolas Bourgeois, who are French dancers, choreographers, producers, models and clothing designers. The twins constantly lit up the stage with their high-energy moves and obvious chemistry.

Nina Simone, Maya Angelou and W.E.B Dubois quotes showed on screen while the film transitioned from clips of the show to clips of rehearsals. Quotes were often coupled with Beyoncé’s commentary about how her inspiration from the show came from her being the first African-American woman to headline Coachella. Not only did she want to bring culture to the festival, but she also wanted to show representation matters.

Hopefully, this is not the last time Beyoncé headlines a large festival like Coachella.

During a time when artists are losing their ability to perform live, Beyoncé is bringing it back in style.

“HOMECOMING: a film

by Beyoncé” is now streaming on Netflix.

1.Your bed This location is the easiest to attest to, since it does have pillows and blankets. As always, the bed is truly designed to be your safeguard against fulfilling your responsibilities and leaving your dorm room.

Not only does it have ample comfort and warmth for a good eight-hour nap, but using resources such as your sheets or favorite pillow will allow your finals tears to be caught and soaked up. If you choose to use this location, please remember to close your blinds and lock your door to alert others that is it officially finals week and you are in no mood to talk or socialize until further notice.

2. The floor of the library You can no longer find a chair or booth in the library because everyone has now started to come in at 5 a.m. to claim studying spots. Instead of panicking or fighting to the death for an inch of cushion, I suggest totally giving up and finding a decent floor corner to cry in. Of course, if you would also like to use this particular spot on the floor for napping, it is advised to bring your own blanket and pillow.

Unfortunately, the library does not provide such meaningful supplies for check out. (But it totally should, right?) Maybe after a good crying session a small sliver of chair or seat will open up.

3. By the fountain Wouldn’t you know, the Arkansas weather has decided to allow you to bath in some sunshine for a whole 18 minutes! But you cannot truly enjoy basking in that warm glory because you are about to be held hostage in a room for 1-2 hours in order to take a test that you surely aren’t ready for. The fountain allows a generous space to sit, and by that I mean right over the water, to allow your tears to fall directly into the waterjets and be forever consumed by UCA. If this is where you choose to nap, however, I would suggest you sleep a bit further from the water, as to not disturb you in your wallowing slumber.

4. In a closet Closets are really cool because they might be the only place to truly offer privacy from the outside world. While a walk-in closet is suggested for you to start living in small spaces because you might just fail your final and have to live in a shed in your parents’ backyard, small closets will do just fine. Make sure to keep your closet as dark as possible to experience the darkness that surrounds you during finals week. While napping is suggested to be done in your own bed (see number one), the activity of crying is emphasized in this location due to the walls blocking out any sound of you having a panic attack.

5. In your car Finally, we reach your car, which perhaps is the most beneficial place. For starters, pillows and blankets are more easily stored in your car, along with snacks and drinks that you might need by your side as you wallow. In my own experience, the back seats are the most comfortable to lay in. Not to mention, laying in the back seats will provide you with more privacy. Being already situated in your car also means that you will have the opportunity to escape from finals and reality whenever you want. I suggest moving to Canada and changing your name because — let’s face it — finals are simply too much.

Staff Writer

photo courtesy of thegrio.com

Beyoncé takes the stage as she delivers one of the most powerful performances of her career in her latest film, “HOMECOMING: a film by Beyoncé.” The film released April 17 and is now streaming on Netflix.

ucanews.live

SPORTS

8/ April 24, 2019

UCA STATS CORNER

SPORT

there, she was a member of the basketball, track and cheerleading teams.

Freshman acclimates to UCA track

by Marcus McClain Sports Editor

Adjusting to the challenge of college track, freshman Z’kiah Kuykendall is seeing it through and is up for the task.

“The biggest challenge for me has been my health,” Kuykendall said.

“Because of hamstring problems, I am not where I expected to be coming out of high school, but I expect to have a healthy, great sophomore season.”

Kuykendall competes in the 60-, 100- and 200-meter dashes for UCA and is looking to improve in as many ways as possible to continue pushing the team forward.

“I want to score as many points as possible for my team. I plan on competing at the highest level possible for me while being healthy,” Kuykendall said. “Those are my ultimate goals as well as improving every part of my

races. It gets very technical, so improving and tweaking my races will greatly help for my second season while also getting stronger over the summer in the weight room.”

The Gosnell, Arkansas, native’s interest in track began in her freshman year of high school while also being a member of the basketball team.

Her decision to attend UCA came late, but she believes it has worked in her favor.

“I chose UCA kind of last minute,” Kuykendall said.

“I was still undecided where I wanted to go and which sport I wanted to do in college.

Basketball was my life, so it was hard, but I don’t regret my choice.”

After spending much time training herself, Kuykendall has enjoyed training with her teammates and coaches.

Building those bonds with teammates has been part

of her best early memories at UCA, including spending spring break with the team.

Kuykendall believes the best piece of advice she’s received came from her uncle and helped shape her mindset.

“He told me that anything easy isn’t worth the fight,” Kuykendall said. As well as accepting advice, she continues uplifting herself and having confidence in herself.

“I’ve also equipped myself greatly with advice and encouragement. I love to beat the odds. I’ve been doing it my whole life,” Kuykendall said.

Outside of track, Kuykendall continues to occupy time with her first passion while finding time to admire nature.

“I love to spend time with my first love, basketball. I also love to enjoy God’s beautiful creations with outdoor adventures such as hiking.

Honestly, I just love a good time,” Kuykendall said.

RECORD (20-20, 11-7)

6-2 (W)

Little Rock

2-1 (L)

(3-1-1)

Softball

Southeastern Louisiana

5-3 (W)

(22-25, 8-13)

Tennis

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

4-1 (W)

(17-7, 9-2)

3-2 (L)

(7-11)

Women’s Soccer

photo courtesy of srpseniors.com

RESULT

Sam Houston State

Baseball

Freshman Z’kiah Kuykendall surrounded with her many medals won throughout her time at Gosnell High School. In her time

OPPONENT

Beach Volleyball

Houston Baptist University