University Daily Kansan 11/19

THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904

The University Daily Kansan

vol. 137 // iss. 26 Mon., Nov. 19, 2018

Les Miles named KU coach A home run hire Former LSU coach, national champion brings 141-55 record to Kansas ANALYSIS

for struggling KU

BRADEN SHAW @bradenshaw4real As soon as he donned his signature white hat, this time with a “KU” logo, newly christened football coach Les Miles seemed right at home.

“I’ve always believed that at some point in time, the choice comes down to the credential I’m going to have as I go forward,” Miles said at his introductory press conference on Sunday. “I think the Kansas credential is spectacular.”

Miles comes in after a bit of a break from coaching, where he previously spent 12 seasons at LSU and four seasons at Oklahoma State as a head coach.

“The further I got away from it, the more I desired it,” Miles said. “I was prepared for a lifetime to be a coach. 10,000 hours supposedly makes you an expert. I’m closing in on that 10,000th hour.”

Kansas Athletic Director Jeff Long, who Miles has known since their days at Michigan from 1988-94, said that their relationship makes this arrangement that much more impactful.

BRADEN SHAW @bradenshaw4real

Chance Parker/KANSAN Kansas football coach Les Miles speaks at his introductory press conference on Sunday, Nov. 18.

“We’ve worked together, we’ve competed against each other in two different conferences,” Long said. “I’ve always respected his leadership and coaching acumen.”

Long said that for any job opening that he’s had as an athletic director, he has definitely considered Miles as a possible candidate. However, according to Long, now was finally the time where the stars aligned.

“Sitting down with Les,

he’s a very honest person,” Long said. “The opportunity to step in and build a program, rebuild us and take us to a level of successful football was exciting to him and made a lot of sense for me to choose him.”

“The national prominence of our program has improved immediately and dramatically,” Long continued.

Coming into “researching” the Kansas program, Miles said that Long and

him are “cut from the same cloth,” citing that his colleague was a major factor in him ending up in Lawrence.

“I knew I would be able to communicate with [Long],” Miles said. “He is a tremendously competitive man. I knew that this place would have a check mark.”

Long said that this was not a fun process, even though the time between the dismissal of coach SEE MILES • PAGE 7

Almost immediately after Kansas Athletic Director Jeff Long announced the dismissal of Kansas football coach David Beaty on Nov. 4, fans and pundits alike began speculating who would be the “best fit” for the future of the Jayhawk football program.

More or Les, they got what they wanted.

Now that former LSU coach Les Miles is the new head man of Kansas football, announced on Sunday by Long, the floodgates are open. It’s easy to think that this is a program-shifting hire, a personnel move that can not only change the public perception of a crumbling program, but also transform an on-field product that has been OK at best and disgustingly insulting at worst.

Miles is a home run hire for Long, who has ties with Miles all the way back to their days at Michigan from 198894, with Long as an associate athletic director and Miles as an assistant

coach, as well as their days in the SEC with Long at Arkansas and Miles at LSU. It can’t be emphasized enough how truly insane this hire is. Miles is, plain and simple, one of the best coaches in college football over the last decade. From 2007-15, 2015 being his last full season at LSU, Miles was the fourth-winningest coach in college football, with 92 victories over that span.

The three coaches ahead of him — Chris Peterson at Boise State and Washington, Urban Meyer at Florida and Ohio State and Nick Saban at Alabama — are some of the best coaches not only in the nation, but some of the best of all time.

There simply should be no question whether or not Miles can win games, especially as he proved time and time again he can do so in the peak of the SEC’s dominance. Miles went 114-34 in his 12 years in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, making it to two national championship games and SEE HIRE • PAGE 7

Editorial: KU finally shows it’s serious about football KANSAN EDITORIAL BOARD @KansanNews

December 31, 2008 was the last time Kansas football was seen nationally in a positive light. The Jayhawks that night beat Minnesota in the Insight Bowl to win their third bowl game in four seasons.

Since then, the Kansas football program has been mired in mediocrity.

The team has gone 18-89 since the 2010 season and has generally been a national laughingstock as it struggled through multiple expensive coaching changes and a University administration that consistently showed it cared only about maintaining its historic basketball program.

That changed Sunday.

University of Kansas Athletic Director Jeff Long — assuredly with the backing of Chancellor Douglas Girod — made the biggest coaching hire in KU history in announcing Les Miles as the 40th head football coach. Miles, who brought both Oklahoma State and LSU to prominence, has a pedigree unlike any Kansas football has ever seen. He’s won 142 college football games, two conference titles and a national championship.

Coaches like Miles do not come to football programs like Kansas.

And the significance of Long and Girod’s efforts to bring someone of Miles’

reputation and ability to the University cannot be understated. Simply, it speaks volumes about how much the upper level of administration cares about making Kansas football respectable again.

“The national profile of our football program has improved immediately and dramatically today,” Long said Sunday evening at a press conference introducing Miles. “…

But don’t be mistaken, there is much work to be done and this will be a process.”

Long and Girod showed they’re willing to dedicate serious resources to the football program, as Miles will get a $2.77 million salary each year — a nearly $1 million increase from current coach David Beaty’s pay. But as the University struggles to cut $20 million from its overall budget, this salary increase will likely be criticized by different academic groups on campus.

That’s wrong for a number of reasons.

First, the University does not pay coaching salaries out of its operating budget — Kansas Athletics does, and the two entities operate independently of each other. In other words, the expensive salaries of basketball coach Bill Self and now Miles could not be used to “fix” the University’s budget crisis. The funds

Kansan file photo Chancellor Douglas Girod, left, shakes hands with Athletic Director Jeff Long at Long’s introductory press conference in July.

Coaches like Miles do not come to football programs like Kansas.

And the significance of Long and Girod’s efforts to bring someone of Miles’ reputation and ability to the University cannot be understated.”

Kansan Editorial Board

simply come from different places.

And second, if Miles’ time at the helm of Kansas football is even remotely successful, that will inherently help create a broader interest in the University. It’s

what’s known as the “Flutie effect” — named for Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie, whose famous hail mary touchdown pass in 1984 against defending national champion Miami led to a 30 percent

increase in student applications for the next two years.

Athletic success serves as a wide-ranging and free advertising opportunity for a university. The University saw a 5 percent increase in applications after a basketball national championship and an Orange Bowl victory for the football team in 2008, and it will likely see another increase next year after another basketball Final Four.

It remains to be seen how successful Les Miles’ time at the University will be. But for now, this is a time for Kansas

football fans to celebrate, as the school finally has a chancellor and athletic director who care about making sure the sport with the biggest moneymaking potential can again be a source of pride for the Jayhawk community.

Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are: Shaun Goodwin, Conner Mitchell, Rebekah Lodos and Baylee Parsons.

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staff NEWS MANAGEMENT

Editor-in-chief Shaun Goodwin

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News editor Lara Korte

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IFC, PHC commend Greek life task force LUCY PETERSON @petersonxlucy After the debut of a Greek life improvement task force last week, members of the University’s Greek life are feeling optimistic for the future. Last semester, the University Interfraternity Council froze 24 fraternity chapters amidst disciplinary action against several fraternities on campus. The freeze of these chapters came after the suspension of two fraternities, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Upsilon, due to allegations of hazing.

Following the suspension of the two fraternities and the freeze, which was lifted at the end of the spring semester, the University of Kansas has been making efforts to stop hazing among the Greek community and promote a safe environment for all of its members. In order to do this, the IFC proposed the creation of a Greek life task force, which includes 27 members, to improve on the community through recommendations.

Members of Greek life at the University said they recognize these issues and are hopeful of what is to come from the task force.

Bethany Dart, a sophomore from Bellevue, Nebraska, and a member of Kappa Delta, commended the task force for its potential positive impact

Sydney Hendin/KANSAN Gamma Phi Beta (left) and Sigma Kappa (right) house two sororities at the University. Members of Greek life at the University share their thoughts about the creation of the task force. on Greek life as a whole.

“I think the creation of the task force is a great step in the right direction for Greek life, especially in today’s day and age,” Dart said. “With everything that’s going on, especially in fraternities, whatever measures the University can take to protect its students from harm is very respectable.”

By working with fraternities and sororities and recommending improvements, the task force has the potential to remedy fears of hazing within the Greek

community, and the men and women involved said they are hoping to see changes for future members.

“I think Greek life will become more unified, especially amongst the people in the individual fraternities,” said Denvernative Colton Jahr, a freshman member of Phi Kappa Tau. “There won’t be as much isolation, and it’ll hopefully battle the stereotype or the truth that is held by Greek life in terms of hazing. Enacting the task force against hazing will decrease

hazing largely, and with persistence, could change how the frats run their chapter.”

Andrew Anderson, a sophomore from Overland Park and member of Theta Chi, praised the formation of the task force.

“I believe some guys would feel better knowing that hazing is trying to be stopped, and that might make them want to join a house. Greek life could definitely grow,” Anderson said.

Across the board, Greek members are looking for improvements

in the community to allow more success and safety in Greek life.

“I feel as though the task force will benefit the community as a whole.

It will hopefully make students, especially those interested in Greek life, feel much safer due to the addition of [the task force],” said freshman Jake Mueller, a member of Theta Chi from St. Louis.

“I think this will definitely cause a rise of interest in the Greek community due to many factors, including students being more comfortable.”

Professor studies Latino social media use SOPHIA BELSHE @sophiabelshe For government officials and everyday citizens alike, social media has become a forum for political debates and activism. But a new study finds that online political activity has a significant effect on a particular demographic.

Recent research

by Alcides Velasquez, assistant professor of communication studies, at the University of Kansas, found that social media use can help increase political participation among Latinos in America.

“What we wanted to look at was how social media use and social media political expression were related to political participation,” Velasquez said.

“Our study, specifically, wanted to look at the mechanisms or the process that would explain that relationship; how social media use and how social media political expression turn into that kind of political participation.”

Velasquez coauthored the study with Andrea Quenette, assistant professor of communication studies at Indiana University East. The study was published in the journal of Mass Communication and Society, and is part of

a special edition on media theory and the 2016 election.

Researchers collected data during the 2016 election cycle through an online survey from 227 participants who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino and used Facebook or Twitter.

Velasquez used social cognitive theory, which is used to explain human behavior, and the concept of efficacy, or an individual’s perception of whether they can perform the actions needed to achieve an objective, to analyze the data.

“So, let’s say you are taking a class, and what the theory suggests is that your performance in that class is going to be strongly influenced by your efficacy perceptions...If you perceive that it’s too difficult and you can’t, then that’s going to influence your behavior,” Velasquez said. “For [this study], it’s the same. We wanted to look at how social media political efficacy, defined in terms of how capable people feel about the use of social media for achieving their political goals, and how much that played a role in explaining social media political expression, and further political participation.”

The study found that people are influenced by past successful

Contributed photo Alcides Velasquez is an assistant professor of communication studies at the University. experiences using social media politically, and how many other people on their feed use social media for political purposes.

“Using social media successfully for political purposes increases your perception of what you feel you’re capable of doing, and then you’re going to, in the future, share more and express

more and so on, and that is going to lead to more political participation,” Velasquez said.

While the study did not look at voting specifically, a record number of Latino voters cast ballots in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center.

That trend continued into the 2018 midterms, when Latinos made up an estimated 11 percent of

all voters, which is just under their 12.8 percent share of all eligible voters.

The study, instead, focused on other kinds of political participation, such as taking part in a march or donating to a campaign.

“The 2016 elections were special, but I believe that that happened again during these elections,” Velasquez said. “I didn’t do it, but if we collected data again, I think that the relationship should hold and might even be stronger.”

This study focused on Facebook and Twitter, because those are the most commonly used social media outlets for Latinos in America, but Velasquez hopes to expand his research to include WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram and other forms of social media.

“People learn about politics not only through what news media outlets post on social media, but also through what our Facebook friends and social media contacts post on social media,” Velasquez said. “That’s an important source of information and it influences us a lot because it’s not just the news media outlets, but what our friends are sharing and saying, so that influences our behavior.”

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arts & culture Monday, November 19, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE

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K A N S A N .C O M /A R T S _ A N D _ C U LT U R E

Author Neil Gaiman to speak at Lied Center COURTNEY BIERMAN @courtbierman

The line wrapped around the Lied Center last month when tickets became available for Neil Gaiman’s sold out Nov. 19 appearance.

At “An Evening with Neil Gaiman,” the awardwinning author will speak about his life and career, working in audience questions along the way.

Stations will be set up around the Lied Center ahead of the event for question submission.

Gaiman, a prolific writer of fantasy across multiple mediums, was brought to campus by the Hall Center for Humanities as part of its 2018-19 Humanities Lecture Series.

Joseph Sommers, who has written three books on Gaiman and said he has read all of his work, is an English professor at Central Michigan and earned his Ph.D from the University of Kansas in 2007. “[Gaiman] is a truly renaissance man by way of what he’s done,” Sommers said.

“He’s done books, films, script adaptions of his own work and others’, comics, graphic novels — everything you can think of, he’s done it.”

Sommers said no matter what form Gaiman’s work takes, it has a distinct flavor —a quality Sommers calls “Gaimanesque.”

“That’s the most undefined and

unqualified term I’ve ever heard,” Sommers said.

“And I have no idea how to define it. It’s the sort of thing that you can hear his voice, whether you’re listening to him read instructions or if we’re reading instructions.”

Among Gaiman’s best-known works are the novels “American Gods,” “Coraline” and “Good Omens,” as well as their television and film adaptations. His “The Sandman” comic books have won numerous awards and are widely regarded as one of the greatest graphic novels series of all time.

Giselle Anatol, director of graduate studies in the Department of English at the University, has read and studied much of Gaiman’s work during her career as a scholar of fantasy literature.

She said one thing that makes Gaiman notable as an artist are his social contributions to the fantasy genre.

“He has the ability to be successful and to exhibit talent in a lot of different media,” Anatol said. “[‘The Sandman’] was really groundbreaking because it pulled in a lot of new readers, especially amongst women and younger women because for such a long time, comic books had been envisioned as this very white, male genre.”

Gaiman is a worldbuilder, Sommers said.

And no matter what kind of world he’s building, it’s bound to be fun.

Contributed photo Author Neil Gaiman appears at New York Comic Con in October of 2018.

“No matter how dark his tale gets, there’s a delight in it,” Sommers

said. “That’s what his work fills me with. I think that’s what it fills my

students with. I think that’s what it fills a lot of folks with.”

“An Evening with Neil Gaiman” is set to show on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

JOSIE LAPKE @KansanNews

“[Muecke] really found ways to share ideas like victory, patriotism, heroism, sacrifice and commitment to the cause,” said Diana Staresinic-Deane, executive director at the Franklin County Historical Society. “Those were the ideas that he was able to capture that were not only about Franklin County, but really were about the whole Midwest and what people here were doing for the home front movement.”

The photos in the exhibition show how the war affected every facet of people’s lives. This includes photos showing service banners that hung in the homes of families who had members serving in the military, children taking part in the war effort, German prisoners of the war working on local farms and industries, a Red Cross drive, the rationing of food and gas, and a scrap pile of materials donated for the war.

Along with the photographs, the exhibition also features other items that relate to the experience in Lawrence during the war, such as toys, uniforms and memorabilia. Included in these items are a shirt made from the silk of a parachute used during the war and children’s toys that reflect how they processed the changes they

were experienced.

Everything featured in the exhibition shows not only how people were affected by the war, but how they worked to move forward and support the war effort.

“What I would like people to walk away from this exhibit with is maybe how resourceful people were able to be on the home front when they were living under rationing and really making due and making the best out of a difficult situation,” Keegan said. “It reveals how much everyone took part in the war effort.”

Visitors of the museum will not only feel a connection with the display due to of its relevance to Lawrence, but also with the people featured in the photos.

“I think that because the pictures show everyday people, there is a natural sense of connection to the people in those photos,” Staresinic-Deane said. “We know those people. Those are our aunts and uncles and grandparents and great grandparents. It shows a connection to what happened at that time, and it’s relatable.”

“Picturing Home: Kansas During World War II” is on the second floor of the museum and is displayed through Feb. 9.

Museum photo exhibition shows Kansas during WWII

Rachel Griffard/KANSAN The Watkins Museum of History features a “Picturing Home: Kansas During World War II” exhibit, containing photos by J. B. Muecke.

Many people have a general understanding of what happened during World War II on a national level, but many haven’t had the chance to see what the war experience was like for those living in their hometown.

In a new exhibition at the Watkins Museum of History, people now have the opportunity to see how the war affected counties across Kansas and other areas throughout the Midwest.

“Picturing Home: Kansas During World War II” features photographs from J.B. Muecke who lived in Ottawa. Muecke passed away in August 1985. The photos are on loan from the Franklin County Historical Society, which owns the photos along with 6,000 others by Muecke.

Although the photographs were all taken in Franklin County, exhibition curator Brittany Keegan said the experience people had in Lawrence during the war was nearly the same as the experience in Ottawa. The photos capture the everyday lives of people on the home front during WWII, while also demonstrating how these people contributed to the war efforts.

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ARTS & CULTURE

Podcast looks to makes research more accessible ALEX ROTHERS @Alex_rothers

The host of a new podcast isn’t afraid to ask questions to learn what exactly University of Kansas researchers do and what it all means. “I’m not afraid to ask a question that may be stupid-sounding, because I’m genuinely trying to help understand not just for myself, but also other people,� said Emily Ryan, host of the podcast “Unwinding.� “Unwinding� features conversations with University researchers about their daily life and research topics.

Listeners can unwind the complexities of research topics at the University, while simultaneously unwinding at the end of the day.

The podcast is hosted

by Ryan, director of the KU Commons, and produced

by Mark Sheaves, assistant director of communications at the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “This came out of a conversation that Mark and I were having about ways that we could really make research that’s happening on campus more accessible to a broader audience,�

Ryan said. “We decided that we want to do a few things with the podcast that sort of humanize a researcher in the eyes of someone beyond the University so they could get a better sense of what a professor does on their daily routine.�

In each podcast episode, Ryan and Sheaves sit down with one University researcher and have a conversation about what their research is, why it matters to them and its impact on

Elizabeth Will/KANSAN Mark Sheaves, left, is the producer of “Unwinding�, a new CLAS podcast along with anthropology professor Kathryn Rhine. society.

Because discussions of research can often be heavy or complicated, Ryan and Sheaves chose a podcast format for the series to achieve a more relaxed tone. “We recognize that there are times when people don’t want to look at their phone anymore, don’t want to read anything, but are still wanting to be entertained, or learn something. For example, driving between Kansas City and Lawrence, or having a bath, or going for a run or cooking,� Sheaves said.

Both Ryan and Sheaves aid they recognize that there is a need to make research more digestible to the general public, which requires presenting it in a way that incorporates a

human interest element. “I think that’s a conversation that’s been happening across universities and it’s really important now when science is being attacked, just in the general political moment that we’re in,� Sheaves said. “What universities are doing is sort of holding true to the idea that there is truth; there is research that can be done that can make a difference.�

Through the podcast, Ryan and Sheaves also said they want to challenge long-held misconceptions about researchers. “There is a perception in society that researchers just teach in their own world, just whittling away taxpayers’ money for their own random interests,�

Sheaves said. “The point

lenges of PTSD and re-assimilation — or so the participants believe.

Immediately, questions begin to arise: What is the real purpose of Homecoming? Is the facility really in Florida? Who exactly is in charge, and what do they stand to gain?

One of those questions is partially answered in Heidi’s interactions with her boss, Colin Belfast (Bobby Cannavale). Belfast constantly manipulates and gaslights other people both for his own gain and to cover up his mistakes.

While many veterans housed in the facility have doubts about the program, some are more trusting than others. One of the other principle characters, a veteran named Walter Cruz (Stephan James), experiences survivor’s guilt but truly believes that Heidi can help him.

Bergman and Cruz begin to develop a slow-burning, carefully tread relationship. This was actually one of my least favorite aspects of the show. Not only was the power dynamic between the characters uncomfortable, but Cruz deserved someone better than Bergman.

The Homecoming set-

ting of the show takes place in early 2018. However, the show alternates between 2018 and the year 2022 — after Heidi has left her job at Homecoming under mysterious circumstances and seems to have little recollection of her time at the facility.

Pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place as Department of Defense investigator Thomas Carrasco (Shea Whigham) begins investigating a complaint from 2018 that Walter Cruz was being held in the facility against his own will.

Carrasco is a driving force in linking the disparate elements of the mystery together.

A quirky but straightforward mystery, Homecoming is a five-hour time investment that will prove difficult to turn away from.

is: they’re not. Even people doing subjects that seem a bit niche have real, important, larger universal outcomes, and are really pushing knowledge for the world, and finding new ways to think or finding actual products that make the world better.�

One unique aspect of the podcast is the focus on location. Ryan and Sheaves ask the subject of their podcast to choose the location for their conversation — somewhere they feel comfortable in. Whether it be where the professor goes to work or goes to unwind — the site of the podcast is significant in telling the researcher’s story. “It’s a way of using the surroundings or environment to access some element of their personhood

or what they’re interested in,� Ryan said.

Although listeners are unable to see the chosen space, they can hear the sounds of crickets, bees and train whistles at the Common Ground gardening plot in Paul V. Stock’s podcast episode. Listeners can also hear researcher Alison Olcott describe the contents of her office and learn why she has a paleontologist Barbie on her desk in her episode.

Neither Ryan nor Sheaves come from scientific backgrounds, but many conversations with their subjects have, and will, center around complex, scientific research topics. Yet, the podcast focuses on the listener’s understanding of the topic. “We are the audience.

We are the people who have the questions, who want something explained a little bit deeper,� Sheaves said. “We just sort of let the conversation flow, and if we have questions, we wanted it to be informal, what would the audience be asking right now and we hope that we have that voice.�

Sheaves complimented Ryan on the way she can make “everyone feel incredibly welcome,� and on her ability to ask clear, but open-ended questions.

Currently, two episodes of “Unwinding� have been released. Ryan and Sheaves hope to speak with researchers from all departments, and maybe even some undergraduate students to make it a “University of Kansas thing.�

TV Stock: Picks to get you to Thanksgiving break JAYA CHAKKA @jaiyaofthebees It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving break has not hit yet when there’s already been some snow, but, alas — a few more weeks until we have a few days to relax.

The beginning of November has brought some promising television — both in terms of conclusions and beginnings.

This week, we review the now-concluded 13th season of one of the longest-running live-action sitcoms in America, as well as a new Amazon Prime original.

“HOMECOMING�: TRENDING UP From the director of “Mr. Robot,� this 10-episode original series began streaming on Amazon Prime on Nov. 2. The series serves as a first-time television role for actress Julia Roberts.

Roberts plays Heidi Bergman, a counselor who has just begun work at the Homecoming center. The purpose of Homecoming is to help struggling combat veterans return to civilian life while facing the chal-

“IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA,�

SEASON 13: TRENDING UP The 13th season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia� aired live on FXX on a weekly schedule from Sept.

5 to Nov. 7.

Even as a show that has been around for 13 sea-

340 Fraser | 864-4121 www.psychCLINIC KU EDU COUNSELING SERVICES FOR LAWRENCE & KU

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Contributed Photo Julia Roberts stars as Heidi Bergman in the new Amazon Video series “Homecoming.� sons, “It’s Always Sunny� has not lost its charm. True, season 13 is not as impressive as season 12 — there are no standout episodes that reach the caliber of, for example, “Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer.�

Nonetheless, the quality of season 13 relative to previous seasons is an impressive feat, given the difficulty that went into creating it. The main issue was uncertainty that Glenn Howerton, who plays Dennis, wouldn’t even be returning for the season. Howerton landed the lead role in the series “A.P. Bio,� and his ability to juggle both shows was called into question.

The majority of the first episode is Dennis-free, and as cast and viewers alike quickly realize, the show just isn’t the same without him. Luckily for us, Dennis’

character makes a grand return in the opening episode of the season; however, he is absent from several of its later episodes, and this absence is evident.

As always, the show tackles relevant issues in its own horrible, incredibly flawed way. The characters are awful people who maintain their own hellish existences, and you love to hate them.

A new character named Cindy (Mindy Kaling) briefly takes Dennis’s place and (almost) helps the gang find its own twisted sense of success. There’s a lifesized, hyper-realistic doll that looks like Dennis — and it’s just as horrifying as you’d imagine. Gay pride, sexual harassment, and the “bathroom issue� are touched upon. Mac even performs an incredibly

elaborate dance in the season finale, which is beautiful but juxtaposes uncomfortably with the show’s normal vibe.

By far, one of the most morbidly engaging episodes of the season is “Charlie’s Home Alone,� in which Charlie gets left behind when the gang goes to watch the Super Bowl.

Loosely following the plot of “Home Alone,� Charlie booby traps the whole bar to protect it. Unfortunately, he falls victim to his own traps and knocks himself unconscious several times.

Longtime fans of “It’s Always Sunny� will not be disappointed by season 13.

This season is available to stream on the FXX website. And, with a season 14 already promised, the gang doesn’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon.

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Monday, November 19, 2018

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FFA of the Day: College is dumb. I’m dumb.

College made me dumb.

“I guess Les is more?”

“It’s not alcoholism if you’re in college!” *sings sweet child of mine to a slice of pizza* My mom is currently staying in the same hotel as the turkey that the president will pardon this year the father the mumford and sons and the holy ghost Didn’t think I’d be crying at 9a.m, but here we are “googling where to buy rope is gonna put you on some kind of suicide watchlist” “bold of you to assume I’m not already” My professor just told our class to use 123movies to watch a movie for class Find My iPhone app, but for Juuls my morning routine includes, in part, deciding whether i’m going to be a bitch today or whether i’m going to be that bitch today quik trip is out of mango juul pods :sob: the sun is shining. the snow is gone. and a strong democratic woman is our governor. rock chalk mother truckers.

“I had sex for the first time on my mom’s 50th birthday” - heard in Anschutz library this evening Heard at the Hawk: “yeah I’m definitely not going to class tomorrow. I’m blacking” still praying for the guy that had to explain what a glory hole was to our class not to be dramatic but reese witherspoon in legally blonde made me gay

K A N S A N .C O M /O P I N I O N

The dam is finally breaking

This year's midterm election surged in favor of women in politics, and it's long past due HANNAH HENRY @hannahh3614 In case you haven’t heard, women set a record in this year’s midterms for number of running and elected officials. The country saw this long overdue surge of women in elections for state legislatures, Congress and governorships. Up from the current 107, 121 women will serve in the 116th Congress.

Here in our sweet home of Kansas, Governor-elect Laura Kelly flipped the governorship currently held

by Jeff Colyer. Michigan’s Governor-elect Gretchen Whitmer will also replace the seat of incumbent Rick Snyder.

Women all over the country made history. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman elected to congress. In Kansas, Sharice Davids joined New Mexico’s Deb Haaland as the first Native American women to be elected. Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar are the first Muslim women elected to Congress, and many other states saw first-time female governors, senators and women of color elected to Congress.

This diversity by religion, race and ethnicity is inspiring to women and girls all across the country. We are entering a time when women’s presence is expanding and young women are understanding that their voices can be heard.

As an advocate for the Get Out the Vote movement, sophomore Hanna Cox of

Sarah Wright/KANSAN Governor-elect Laura Kelly vowed to be the “education governor” during her victory speech on Nov. 6.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, wants to stay involved with politics and bring improvement to the system.

“I just think that it’s really important, if we want change, and I feel like a lot of people do want change because all of us are complaining all the time,” Cox said. “Voting is the easiest way to change things right away.”

It did, in fact, bring change. An estimated 116 million, or 49.2 percent of eligible voters, showing up to the polls — the highest number in over a hundred years.

Around the University, communities are popping up to support women who want to succeed in the job market. For example, junior Chloe Schade’s club idea, Boss Girls KU, an initiative

that seeks to build bridges in all professions and help aspiring professional women network.

Jordan Serati, a junior from Overland Park, is the vice president of events and one of the co-founders of the club.

“Our biggest goal is to provide an outlet for women to come and share what they’re going through in their undergrad, based on their studies and experiences here at the University and to create an environment of empowerment through leadership,” Serati said.

The midterm results filled Serati with hope for the future, especially for the new crop of younger women who will grow up with a more egalitarian frame of reference.

“After this [midterm] election I was extremely happy. I get really jazzed about progressive change like this and I just think it’s really about time that there is equality in the realm of politics. I think it’s really empowering to see female leaders leading our country and setting examples for younger girls and future generations,” Serati said.

Successful women start young. They start with what was once considered a fairytale, an unrealistic dream.

“I think [the midterm outcome is] cool, because growing up for us versus my eight-year-old sister, who will grow up with this kind of norm of women in government and women having more of a say,” Cox said.

Hopefully this trend con-

tinues until there is accurate female representation in Congress, and girls no longer grow up thinking that becoming a successful politician is unfathomable.

No longer will it be shocking when multiple women are on the ballot, or when they win.

These women started young by advocating for or starting clubs focused on empowering young women.

These women are the products of acceptance and decided to make a difference in their communities.

Perhaps someday it will be someone you know who becomes governor or president. Recent history has been favorable to women — something we have long been waiting for.

working together to solve a problem. When my tour ended, I had a smile on my face. I was thankful to be a Jayhawk.

As I walked around our beautiful campus, I stopped and spoke with students.

Since Thanksgiving is less than a week away, I wanted to find out who else was thankful to be a Jayhawk, and why.

In Watson, I approached Hannah Coon, a junior from Florida who studies speech and language pathology.

She was working at the circulation desk. I told her I had a question, though not about books. Was she thankful to be here?

“Definitely,” Coon said.

Coon’s dad is from Kansas and for her, the University is a home away from home.

“I always wanted to understand where he came from since I moved around a lot as a kid, and being here, being with his family, made me really thankful that I decided to come to school here and gave me that opportunity to get away from my family and discover who I was, while also being connected with family I hadn’t been with for a long time,” she said.

At Capitol Federal Hall, freshman Trent Byers, from Topeka and studying marketing, sat on a bench after

class.

“I just like the campus and the tradition we have here.

All the people, everyone is super nice. It’s fun going to games, the atmosphere that everyone brings,” Byers said.

That night, Byers and about 16,000 others packed Allen Fieldhouse to watch the men’s basketball team play. There is no better place to watch college basketball.

Nathaniel Castillo was in Green Hall reading his textbook. Castillo, a second year law student from Boise, Idaho, said he is thankful for the Jayhawk community and culture.

“The community around the University of Kansas is extremely friendly, everybody is willing to say hi to each other, everybody is willing to offer some sort of assistance if you need it,” he said. “The culture is very different here than any other university or college I have seen.”

Castillo reminds us to be grateful for our community.

“You have to appreciate what you have here,” Castillo said.

Sometimes we can get distracted from the everyday privileges of being a stu-

dent here.

The last student I talked with was Kate League, a senior from Wichita studying architectural engineering.

She was in the basement of the new LEEP2 building.

I asked her the same question: are you grateful you’re a Jayhawk?

“I am thankful to be a Jayhawk because we have so many opportunities here that others do not, and I am grateful for the family that KU has provided,” League said.

League, like so many others, made lifelong friends at the University. She is also happy for the opportunities the University provides, especially research and the quality of teaching in general, she said.

I am thankful to be Jayhawk for all of these reasons: the homey-ness, traditions, culture and opportunities. Growing up in Lawrence, I have always been a Jayhawk, but until starting school here, I never truly appreciated how great it is be part of a community with such a passion and dedication for learning.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk and happy Thanksgiving, Jayhawk family.

Jayhawks, what are you most grateful for?

ALEX CATEFORIS @A_Cat24

Last Friday, I spent the afternoon walking around the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. I began at Wescoe Hall and made my way to Watson, the castle-like library with the red roof. From Watson, I walked down the hill and across Sunnyside Avenue to Capitol Federal Hall.

My next stop was Green Hall, where I found law students studying, chatting and relaxing. I crossed the street to explore the School of Engineering — my final stop. I peeked into a classroom and saw students

Being sick is the only thing ensuring I get enough sleep anymore Some girl just showed up to class 55 minutes late. Why even come?

The fact that the rat mascot of Chuck E. Cheese’s full name is apparently “Charles Entertainment Cheese” haunts me every day

K ANSAN.COM

Chance Parker/KANSAN The Kansas student section throws shredded newspapers up prior to the game against Vermont on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018.

how to submit a letter to the editor

LETTER GUIDELINES: Send letters to editor@kansan.com. Write LETTER TO THE EDITOR in the email subject line.

Length: 300 words

The submission should include the author’s name, year, major and hometown. Find our full letter to the editor policy online at kansan.com/letters.

contact us Shaun Goodwin Editor-in-chief sgoodwin@kansan.com

Baylee Parsons Business Manager bparsons@kansan.com

editorial board

Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Shaun Goodwin, Conner Mitchell, Rebekah Lodos and Baylee Parsons.

K ANSAN.COM

SPORTS

7

KU soccer's season comes to abrupt end CARLOS PETERSON @CarlosWritesKU

In a season that's been full of exciting last minute goals and heartbreaking penalty losses, Kansas soccer's season came to a rather cut and dry ending on Friday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Kansas fell 4-1 to No. 1 seed North Carolina in Cary, North Carolina, marking the second time in the last three years that the Tar Heels have crushed the dreams of a hopeful Jayhawk team.

Just as they did two years ago, the Jayhawks struggled to command any sort of presence in all areas of the pitch.

North Carolina's smothering presence quickly extinguished any sort of Jayhawk threat, whose creativity was diminished even further when sophomore midfielder Ceri Holland's season came to a premature close due to an injury during the game.

With Kansas looking to get on the board early before weathering the storm, it was North Carolina who instead struck first blood. The Tar Heels' Brianna Pinto scored in just the 12th minute of the game to immediately put the Jayhawks on the back foot.

The goal was the earliest all season an opponent has scored against the Jayhawks, perhaps serving as an omen for what was to come for the next 78 minutes.

Kansas Soccer season stats

HIRE • FROM PAGE 1 winning it all in 2007.

He won 10 or more games seven times, never winning less than eight during his tenure with the Tigers. Miles coached 10 All-Americans, went to 15 bowl games and was named Coach of the Year in 2011 while at LSU. Even with all of those accolades, there is still one detractor for some: his age.

Miles recently turned 65, which, admittedly, means that he is closer to the end of his coaching career than the beginning.

Maybe a younger hire like North Texas coach Seth Littrell (40), Air Force coach Troy Calhoun (52) or Los Angeles Rams offensive senior assistant Jedd Fisch (42) would have made more sense for longterm security.

But, age is really but a number in coaching. Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and Saban are both 67, and Kansas State coach Bill Snyder is 79. Being “old” does not necessarily have a correlation to being unable to win football games.

Even with that, something else needs to be said: do not expect Miles to come in and immediately bring Kansas back into the national conversation.

This program is still

Chance Parker/KANSAN Senior Forward Grace Hagan plays in her last home game as a Jayhawk. Kansas fell to Texas Tech 2-1 on Sunday, Oct. 14.

A further two goals on the stroke of halftime all but condemned Kansas to defeat before it headed to the locker room for the halftime break.

"If we could've avoided that and kept it close for longer, maybe it's a different story," Kansas coach Mark Francis said, according to a Kansas Athletics press release.

"But at the end of the day,

they converted the opportunities they had and we didn't."

The Tar Heels added a fourth in the 66th minute to stretch the lead to 4-0, but an 82nd minute goal from junior forward Katie McClure gave the Jayhawks something to cheer about in the dying embers of the game.

"I was proud of our kids and the way we bat-

tled but (UNC is) a very good team," Francis said.

"We got beat by a better team, there's no doubt, but I'm disappointed in the result."

Kansas' campaign comes to an end with a record of 12-6-3, and with that four seniors' collegiate careers. Goalkeeper Lauren Breshears, midfielders Kaycie Young and Miriam Melugin and

perhaps most importantly forward Grace Hagan all pulled on the Kansas jersey for the last time against the Tar Heels.

Hagan assisted the Jayhawks' only goal on the night, meaning the senior finishes her collegiate career with 67 points (25 goals, 17 assists), which ranks as the sixth-most in program history.

"It's been a tremen-

dous group of kids. It's been a fun group to coach. I think our senior class deserves a lot of credit, they really led the way the last few years and really established the culture that we have on the team," Francis said.

"The challenge to the underclassmen is to now to continue what they've started. Just a tremendous group of kids."

12-6-3 28 23 24 214 SEASON RECORD

struggling, sitting well behind the NCAA scholarship limit and has only one recruit signed for the class of 2019. This isn’t a plug-and-play fix, meaning that Beaty was not the cancer that destroyed this program.

Beaty was just in over his head, with his first head coaching job forcing him to work with almost nothing, yet expected to amass an almost unreachable amount of victories given his skill set and resources.

Miles will come in and change the culture, which is all that can be asked of him right off the bat.

The Jayhawks may only win four or five games the first season, which still wouldn’t make the team bowl-eligible, but still an improvement nonetheless.

Long pulled off the hire of a century, as coaches like Miles don’t come to programs like Kansas, especially at times in their lives like this. Miles didn’t have to come back to coaching, but here we are.

Long’s decision makes Kansas now the only school in the nation with a football and men’s basketball coach that have won a national title, a detail that may seem meaningless, but is still indicative of what Kansas stands for and hopes to accomplish in athletics, at least in Long’s

GOALS FOR

GOALS AGAINST

ASSISTS

FOULS

MILES • FROM PAGE 1

Chance Parker/KANSAN Newly announced Kansas football coach Les Miles brings a 141-55 record to the Jayhawks. new vision.

The previous relationship makes sense, but the sales pitch must have been incredible, especially given that Miles left $5 million on the table with his contract with LSU, agreeing to a $1.5 million buyout on Thursday.

The misdirect and consistent — albeit humorous — social media trolling aside, Long did what he was brought here to do: hire a winning football coach.

Long wanted to “break the cycle” and get a proven winner patrolling the sidelines in Lawrence. Long has done his part, now Miles needs to come in and change a debilitating culture and attitude in and

out of a struggling football program.

Regardless of what happens during his tenure at Kansas, whether Miles wins a considerable amount of games or flames out after a few seasons, this is the correct move. Football is the most important sport revenue-wise, and needs to be successful for Kansas Athletics to prosper.

This is an ideology that other coaches in Athletics recognize.

“There’s still nothing like a fall Saturday to bring energy and excitement to your school,” said men’s basketball coach Bill Self on Friday. “I think there is an opportunity to do that here, because we’ve seen

it firsthand. Football being competitive and putting people in the seats makes my job and all the other head coaches in the departments’ jobs much easier.”

There is no guarantee that Miles can get back to the Mark Mangino era-level of winning that Self is alluding to, but, again, that shouldn’t be the expectation.

Who knows how long Miles will be here, but for now, people need to live in the present, and for once, actually give a coach a chance to work his system, recruit his players and maybe, just maybe, win some ball games.

David Beaty and this press conference was 14 days, and that he took to social media to get even a tiny bit of enjoyment from it.

“Did I relieve stress on social media? Sure,” Long said. “There might have been a fictitious flight plan scheduled. I don’t know who could have done that.”

Even outside of his and Long’s longtime friendship, Miles did detail some of his future plans, such as being open to the possibility of retaining current coaches and adapting to the Big 12 style of play that differs from the SEC. “I’m going to work hard,” Miles said. “I’m going to enjoy the kids that I coach. I’m going to hire a staff that wants to buy into what we have here at Kansas.”

Long said that this would still be a process, but that he is proud of how the current Kansas roster has reacted to the situation.

“Change is always toughest on the football players themselves, the student athletes on the team,” Long said. “I want to thank our players for the way they’ve handled this situation, the way they’ve continued to play hard for the Kansas Jayhawks.”

8

sports

SPORTS

Monday, November 19, 2018

K ANSAN.COM

K A N S A N .C O M /S P O R T S

Basketball Gameday Kansas vs. Marquette, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 6:00 p.m.

Chance Parker/KANSAN Senior guard Lagerald Vick had a personal best 33 points in Friday's game against Louisiana. Kansas defeated Louisiana 89-76 on Nov. 16.

MADDY TANNAHILL & BRADEN SHAW @KansanSports

Beat Writer Predictions:

Maddy Tannahill: Kansas 90 Marquette 82 | Braden Shaw: Kansas 89 Marquette 80

KANSAS 3-0 (0-0 BIG 12)

MARQUETTE 3-1 (0-0 BIG EAST)

Lagerald Vick

Markus Howard

★★★★

★★★★

Dedric Lawson

Sam Hauser

★★★★

★★★★

senior guard

On the heels of an explosive 32-point home-opening performance against Vermont, Vick put on another offensive show for the Jayhawks against Louisiana, dropping 33 points on the Ragin’ Cajuns.

The Memphis, Tennessee, native additionally recorded nine rebounds while shooting 11-for-18 from the field, including another impressive 7-for-12 from three-point range.

redshirt junior forward

Having broken a single-game scoring drought against Louisiana while seated on the floor of Allen Fieldhouse, Lawson recorded 19 points on Friday, a number that left both him and coach Bill Self dissatisfied.

Despite back-to-back slow offensive nights for the redshirt junior, Self remains confident that Lawson will return to his role as a key scorer for the Jayhawks.

After dropping 37 points against Bethune Cookman, shooting 10-for-16 including seven three-pointers, Howard cooled off a bit against Indiana and Presbyterian, with 18 and 10 points respectively. Nonetheless, Howard still leads the team in scoring, averaging 20 points per game, as well as amassing 22 assists and shooting a field goal percentage of 47.2 percent.

junior forward

Hauser has been looked at as one of the key returners from last season, even being named the 2017-18 Marquette Most Valuable Player. This season, Hauser has again been a key contributor, averaging 15.5 points per game, dropping 18 against Indiana and 19 against Presbyterian.

Not only that, the 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward has utilized his size, averaging 6.5 rebounds a game.

Marcus Garrett

Joey Hauser

★★★

★★★

sophomore guard

Coming off the bench for Kansas, Garrett has averaged 23.3 minutes per game through the first three matchups.

Having entered the season with many questions surrounding his shooting ability, the sophomore has not done much for his case as he currently sits at a .250 mark from the field and has yet to make a shot from beyond the arc.

athletes of the week

junior guard

Jessica Washington Women's Basketball

After missing her senior season due to an ACL injury, sixth-year senior guard Jessica Washington made her Allen Fieldhouse return on Saturday, recording 12 points for the Jayhawks, including backto-back three-pointers to spur a 12-point run for Kansas.

The senior returns to the roster after having earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors in 2016-17.

redshirt freshman

Joey Hauser, Sam's younger brother, has followed in his brother’s footsteps as a regular contributor for the Golden Eagles. After missing the majority of his senior season in high school with an ankle surgery, Joey is tied with his brother Sam for the team, leading in rebounding, averaging 6.5 per game.

Pooka Williams

Football Freshman running back Pooka Williams stole the show in the Jayhawks’ 40-55 loss to the No. 6-ranked Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday. In a career day highlighted by 252 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown, Williams recorded four 20plus yard runs, making him the front runner in the Big 12 in 20-plus yard runs with 14.

Mon., Nov 19, 2018

2

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

GABY OTERO

McLain’s baker puts her heart into work RACHEL GAYLOR @raegay218 Just four years after graduating from the pastry program at Johnson County Community College, Lawrence native Gaby Ortero is entering her second year as the cake manager at the Lawrence location of McLain’s Market.

EARLY MORNINGS AT MCLAIN’S Ortero is always up before the sun. She clocks in each morning, except Wednesdays and Sundays, at 5 a.m. As the day starts, Ortero and the other staff begin by baking muffins, macarons and cookies that go into the case for purchase.

The entirety of the day consists of baking cakes not just for display, but to send to McLain’s two other locations in the Kansas City area.

Jack Hatzfeld, a University of Kansas junior from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a former employee of McLain’s and quickly became friends with Ortero when they started working together.

He remembers seeing her hard work during the

Rachel Griffard/KANSAN McLain’s cake designer Gabriela Otero begins work at 5 a.m. to get started on the day’s orders. A Lawrence native, she previously worked at the Overland Park location before the newest McLain’s opened in her hometown. summer when he would open the store with her.

“I would be walking in, eyes half-closed, kind of dreading the work day and I’d walk in, go get my

bucket of ice from the back and that’s when I would see Gaby and she would just be so focused and so attentive to detail, even in the earliest time

of the day,” Hatzfeld said.

“She would be sculpting this cake or sculpting these pastries and putting these thoughtful designs in the early hours.”

Rachel Griffard/KANSAN Gabriela Otero, cake designer at McClain’s market, works on a large batch of macarons.

Weekends are Ortero’s favorite days — that’s usually when she gets to use her creativity for wedding and birthday cakes.

“Creating a giant cake that is going to be on display [is the most exciting part],” Ortero said.

Ortero graduated from JCCC in 2014 and began working at McLain’s Overland Park location.

When the Lawrence location opened earlier this year, she knew she had to jump on the chance to move back to her hometown.

Her favorite part is interacting with bridal customers.

As cake manager, she is the one in charge when the bride and groom are searching for a wedding cake — whether they know what they want or not.

“They can be all kinds of people,” Ortero said.

“Some people come in and know exactly what they want, some people are clueless about what cakes are almost but they are fun.”

Both types of brides bring their challenges, with one not outweighing the other. Some brides have a clear idea of what they want on paper, but it doesn’t always work out for the cake.

However, Ortero enjoys the creative freedom that some brides give her.

She can experiment with different recipes and combination of flavors.

“We can get to do something we’ve been wanting to try,” she said. “I think because we’re such a new bakery people see our stuff on Instagram they’ll say, ‘We trust your guys, we’ll let you do what you want to do.’”

AFTERNOONS OFF One of the reasons Ortero is glad to be back in Lawrence is her family.

She moved in with her

sister and her twin nephews, so she gets to be around them as the “cool aunt.”

“It’s really nice, just watching them grow up,” Ortero said. “I used to live in Kansas City, so I felt like I missed a lot. When they’re that young and you miss a day or two it’s like, ‘What happened?’”

She also partakes in typical 20-something activities: Netflix, napping and playing with cats.

“I just go home and sleep,” Ortero said.

Since her mornings start so early, Ortero tries to be in bed by 9:30 p.m.

She used to bake outside of work, trying to perfect the macaron recipe.

“It was kind of nice just to go home and [bake] in my own space,” Ortero said.

Now, she focuses on her own self-care with essential oils and bingewatching. Between “The Office,” “Riverdale” and “Parks & Rec,” Ortero’s binge-watching schedule is packed.

At the Overland Park location, Ortero was the assistant manager for cakes, but now that she is a manager, she takes her work home with her, making self-care breaks harder to find time for.

“Sometimes it’s a little tough,” Ortero said. “It comes home as far as emailing and making sure that everyone is okay.”

Hatzfeld said Ortero is the right person to take on the pressure of managing the bakery of McLain’s.

“She consciously decides to put in everything that she has in every shift,” Hatzfeld said. “With every single cake or every pastry she makes, she puts her heart into it.”

K ANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

3

TRAVIS HEROD

‘Feel free to dream as long as you have the option’

Sarah Wright/KANSAN A man of many talents, Travis Herod enjoys musical theater, has tried out for the TV show “Survivor,” and works at Chick-fil-A in The Underground.

COLLIN BIERY @colbiery The people of Lawrence would likely recognize Travis Herod as the friendly, hardworking man responsible for getting Chickfil-A sandwiches into the mouths of hungry students at The Underground — or as that rabid “Survivor” fan who auditioned for the TV show six times.

Herod starts each weekday with clocking into work at The Underground at 7 a.m. sharp. He’s the team lead at Chick-fil-A, where he works until about 3 p.m. preparing and serving the beloved chicken and fries, and directing his team.

With a line of students that sometimes reaches out the door during a lunch rush — it’s hard work.

“It’s chaos. Being under-

staffed most days forces me to adapt to fast working speeds,” Herod said. “It’s physically and mentally taxing, but I just have to keep going because it’s my job and it’s what’s expected of me.”

Despite this, Herod maintains a friendly attitude.

University of Kansas sophomore and Chick-fil-A regular Michael Pitchford said Herod “always seems to be working his hardest and doing his best.”

“Every time I go up to Chick-fil-A, he has a smile on his face and a positive energy about him,” Pitchford said.

This is a common theme of Herod’s life — he aims to do his best and keep going, no matter what.

Herod is quite possibly one of the biggest fan

of the TV show “Survivor,” and doesn’t hide it.

Wednesdays are his “Survivor” night. He’s never

out, here’s our goal and here’s how we’re going to achieve it together.”

Herod has tried out for

“No matter what you’re doing, you’re going to have to work with different types of people that you don’t necessarily get along with to achieve your goals.”

Travis Herod Chick-Fil-A manager

missed an episode.

Herod said he enjoys “Survivor” because he can link it to real-life.

“No matter what you’re doing, you’re going to have to work with different types of people that you don’t necessarily get along with to achieve your goals,” he said. “You have to find

the show six times over the past 12 years. His persistence comes with the ideology that he’s constantly growing and learning from his mistakes. Because of this, he goes into each new audition confidently.

“With age and experience comes growth and

maturity,” he said. “That’s why I keep going. If it’s going to happen, it’ll happen at the right time for me.”

Herod graduated from Ottawa University in 2011 with a degree in theater.

Though he still has an interest in the arts, and hopes to someday get involved again, it’s a time commitment he can’t currently make.

Herod noted his background in theater helps him prepare for his bi-yearly “Survivor” auditions.

“It helped me learn how to audition and to be persistent,” he said.

Herod’s favorite musical he has been a part of was a production of “Into the Woods,” in which he played Jack.

“I saw a lot of myself in the character back then,” Herod said. “Young, naive,

Sarah Wright/KANSAN A man of many talents, Travis Herod enjoys musical theater, has tried out for the TV show “Survivor,” and works at Chick-fil-A in The Underground.

full of adventure. I felt that because I could relate to the character, I was able to give one of my most genuine performances.”

It could be hard to guess from his positivity, but Herod hasn’t had it easy.

He faced rejection and abandonment from his father during his childhood, which left emotional scars he said haven’t completely healed.

“Growing up, everyone around me said things like, ‘Travis is a good boy, a gentle spirit, and a hard worker,’” Herod said. “So I wondered why these people around me cared while the person I wanted it from didn’t.”

When he got to college, Herod not only suffered from memories of his past, but was also cheated on in a relationship which he was devoted and serious towards and physically abused by members of the football team.

“Everything hit me all at once, and I tried to take my own life,” he said. “I had one good friend intervene at just the right time. He let me know that I’m not alone.”

That same friend went home to Grand Rapids, Michigan the following winter break and was killed after getting jumped outside of a bar.

“That’s something you’d think would send me back into full depression, but I remembered that he wanted me to live. This young man living life to the fullest died, but he wanted me to live,” Herod said.

Herod attends a local church group each Thursday, where he talks about his experience overcoming depression with others who have gone through similar events.

“Life is about pursuing your passions,” Herod said.

“Feel free to dream as long as you have the option to.

That’s why I keep going.”

4

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

VICTORIA GUNDERSON

Alumna uses chemistry degree at local brewery

Sarah Wright/KANSAN

Victoria Gunderson is a brewer at the 23rd Street Brewery.

JOSH MCQUADE @JoshMcQuadeUDK

Chemistry majors at the University of Kansas usually plan to work in a research laboratory someday.

However, University alumna Victoria Gunderson strayed from the expected path with her degree.

Gunderson is a brewer at 23rd Street Brewery, using her chemistry degree in the brewing process.

Gunderson graduated in 2016 and said her interest in brewing was actually

sparked during a study abroad trip to Brazil.

BREWING A normal day for Gunderson begins at 8 a.m. and ends anywhere from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

— but each day brings different work.

“Every Monday we come in and decide what we need to do for the week, because we brew maybe one to two times a week, and the other days we’re moving beer,” Gunderson said.

While brewing days are only once or twice a week, they are Gunderson’s

favorite days. She said those days normally fall on a Monday, and sometimes later in the week.

“Brew days are fun,” Gunderson said. “Those are cool when we get to make a new beer.”

The process to brew a beer is heavy on chemistry, making the chemistry degree Gunderson holds all the more useful. The process was ingrained in her mind — she was able to go through each step of the brewing process with ease.

Gunderson outlined the following steps:

STEP 1: MILL THE GRAIN “The first step for brew day is milling in the grain, so we crush up malted grain so that we can get the starch that’s in those grains,” Gunderson said.

STEP 2: ENZYMATIC PROCESS “Then we mix it in hot water so that enzymatic process will happen, where the starch breaks down into fermentable sugars like maltose and glucose, Gunderson said.

“That will take a little while, and we create a filter bed where we’re taking that sugar water and putting it back over the top and create a filter bed with all the holes from the grain.”

above the restaurant’s bar.

23rd Street Brewery normally brews a few flagship beers along with seasonal specials. This allows Gunderson to not focus on the same beers each time she shows up for a brewing day.

“It’s like I have a regiment, but at the same time, it’s not so regimented where every single day I’m doing the same thing, I have a little variation, which is something I like,” Gunderson said.

What Gunderson looks forward to most, however, is when she and

STEP 4: THE YEAST DOES “ITS THING”

Contributed Photo Victoria Gunderson during the brewing process.

“Then we let the yeast do its thing, and a few days later it’s beer.”

The process is extensive, and requires several tools that can also be found in a chemistry lab. The brewing station, located above the bar, has a microscope, allowing the brewers to look at the reactions close up.

After the beer is made and cooled down, it’s transferred into a serving tank, which are found

AFTER WORK

When Gunderson is not brewing beer at 23rd Street Brewery, she is either relaxing with her roommates at home, or playing bass. “[Gunderson] plays the bass,” Reynolds said.

“She even plays around Lawrence at open mics.”

Most recently, Gunderson performed at S&S Artisan Pub & Coffeehouse. She will also play a solo show there Nov. 24.

“Victoria is really driven by a purpose,” Reynolds said. “Even when she is making beer, it’s more than just beer to her.”

Rachel Reynolds Gunderson’s roommate

STEP 3: BOIL “From there, we put that to the boil kettle, boil it for typically around 90 minutes and we add hops during that time,” she said. “Then we end up putting it into our fermenter, we’ll cool it down through a heat exchanger, just using city water to cool it down, to exchange the heat.

when she is making beer, it’s more than just beer to her.”

the head brewer Tucker Craig, get to create their own beer. However, Craig usually gets final say on the recipes that will be brewed.

“I’ve made my own beer, but it was only one time,” Gunderson said.

“It was completely all my own recipe, and that was fun.”

Gunderson’s first brew was a coffee-flavored pale ale, which she called ‘Day Man.’ The ale reminded her of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” as one of the characters, Charlie Kelly, creates a musical with a character named Day Man. One of Gunderson’s roommates, Rachel Reynolds, said Gunderson is very motivated in her craft.

“Victoria is really driven by a purpose,” Reynolds said. “Even

Gunderson plans to stay in Lawrence for a bit longer, but wants to move back out to New England and open her own brewery, embracing the use of chemistry.

“My whole family is out there, so I think I want to move back there and open my own brewery,” Gunderson said. “I’ve got six nieces and nephews that I’m missing.”

However, Kansas has left a mark on Gunderson, she said, explaining she will miss the state when she’s gone.

“I love working here, and I love the Kansas brewers that I’ve met through this job because we’re all friends,” Gunderson said. “I really love the Kansas brewing industry.”

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

5

DANNY CAINE

Advocacy guides owner of The Raven Book Store ALEX ROTHERS @Alex_Rothers The Raven Book Store has been around for 31 years on the corner of 7th and Massachusetts Streets. Danny Caine, a University of Kansas graduate and published poet, bought the store in August 2017.

Caine went from chaperoning high school dances in Smithville, Ohio, to owning the Raven Book Store, while getting a couple degrees and publishing a few poems along the way.

He arrives to his store around 9 a.m. every day.

He spends the first half of his days doing restock orders based on what was sold the day before, managing the Raven’s social media accounts, and unpacking new books.

His afternoons are often less structured. He might go to a meeting, do an interview, or make a visit to Lawrence High School to speak at the Young Writers Club after school.

“There’s some routine and structure to the day but not enough to drive me crazy,” Caine said.

THE DREAM JOB After receiving his undergraduate degree at The College of Wooster in Cleveland, Ohio, Caine taught high school English for three years in the small town of Smithville, Ohio.

Because every teacher was required to have school duties in addition to teaching, Caine, who had the lowest seniority among his colleagues, was required to chaperone the school dances. As he fell out of love with teaching, he also realized calling parents and asking permission for their children to leave the dance wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do.

“I started to think, ‘Maybe it’s just not the right job for me,’” Caine said.

Caine moved back to Cleveland to pursue a master’s degree in English

Contributed Photo Danny Caine is the owner of The Raven Book Store in downtown Lawrence. at John Carroll University, where he began writing and publishing poetry for the first time.

He then wanted to get into creative writing and poetry, so he, along with his wife, applied to graduate school at the University of Kansas.

They found Lawrence’s bookstores and the offers from the University hard to resist, so they moved to Kansas.

While pursuing an MFA in poetry at the University, Caine landed a part-time job at the Raven Book Store.

“The more I worked here, the more I loved it.

I got into ordering. I got into event planning. I got into all the elements of the business,” Caine said. “As I approached the end of my degree, I realized I didn’t want to teach anymore, so I kind of needed a job.”

When the owner at the time, Heidi Raak, began talking about retiring, there was an opportunity for Caine to fulfill his dream job of owning his own bookstore.

“It was always kind of in the back of my mind

as something I would love to do, but at the same time it seemed extremely unlikely,” Caine said. “In a way, I got really lucky because the people who owned it before me did a lot of the work and

with Emily Ryan, director of KU Commons, on a speaker series. The Raven and KU Commons bring three or four acclaimed authors to Lawrence each year to speak at Liberty Hall.

“Lawrence is an interesting and vibrant place full of art, and I’m going to do what I can to just be loud about that.”

Danny Caine The Raven Book Store owner

they did a lot of work to set this up as kind of a Lawrence institution.”

ADVOCACY IN LAWRENCE One thing Caine wanted to work on was uniting the Raven with other Lawrence institutions to advocate for art and literature in the community. The Raven has collaborated on events with the Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence Public Library and KU Commons.

In the fall of 2017, Caine began working

Danny Caine is the author of “Uncle Harold’s Maxwell House Haggadah.”

“After Danny bought the store and started pushing to have social justice as a voiced goal of his programming, I thought about this speaker series as a real way to connect campus and community with spectacular writers,” Ryan said. “Representation is a big priority when we invite speakers for The Commons, and Danny was invested in that as well.”

Ryan said the idea behind the speaker series is to connect the community with artists who often

embody identities that are significantly underrepresented in higher education, in order to “create community with our community.”

Through these partnerships, Caine wants to create change and advocacy in Lawrence, and keep art and literature at the top of community conversations.

“I believe in diversifying representation in what people read and who gets behind microphones in Lawrence,” Caine said. “I think it’s important to do what I can to amplify marginalized voices.”

Caine said he wants people to engage in the art being made and consumed by varieties of people, and see Lawrence as a cultural capital of Kansas.

“Lawrence is an interesting and vibrant place full of art, and I’m going to do what I can to just be loud about that,” Caine said. “One way to amplify that message is to unite — to get together with the Arts Center, with the Commons, with the library, with all these organizations with similar interests.”

FINDING TIME FOR POETRY

Contributed Photo

When he’s not running the Raven, advocating for Lawrence art or changing the diapers of his 5-month-old son, Caine is at the La Prima Tazza coffee shop during the last hour of his work day, with a laptop and a cup of coffee, working on his poetry.

“Having a kid and owning a business, my writing time shrinks,” Caine said. “Instead of being able to sit down for six hours and work on something, I’ll have a bunch of little like 15-minute chunks. My life is more suited to a poetry schedule now.”

Caine compared poetry to an artist’s collage or an impressionist painting.

“If you look at it up close you don’t get the whole picture, but if you

can zoom back, all these little pieces unite to make a bigger picture,” Caine said. “Telling a large story in small parts is really interesting to me. In the books that I’ve written, I think that’s kind of what I’m going for.”

Currently, Caine is working on a book of poems, in collaboration with photographer Tara Wray, titled “El Dorado Freddy’s.” The book is a collection of 30 poems, each about a different chain restaurant. Each poem works as a review of the restaurant and the food Caine ate there, but also as a poem on its own.

In a weird way, Caine said, the collection of poems is a memoir of early fatherhood. He started writing the poems when his wife was pregnant with their first child.

“I think, in a lot of ways, how people think about food and where they go to eat changes after you have a kid. It’s a lot easier to take a baby to Wendy’s than it is, like, Merchants,” Caine said. “Through these funny little poems about chain restaurants you get a picture of someone coming to terms with being a dad.”

As a writer, Caine is interested in pop culture and consumer culture, both as an ode and a critique.

The feeling that interests him most in writing is ambivalence — not being sure how to feel about something.

But with poetry, Caine can sometimes find that feeling along the way.

“I think all writing can invite you to selfdiscovery, but with a poem it happens quicker because a poem is shorter,” Caine said. “I can’t imagine writing a novel. I’m sure there are people that start writing a novel and have no idea how it’s going to end, but as a writer I think I would need to know how it would end.”

6

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

AMII CASTLE

Reflecting on life, law and ‘sweetest gig ever’

“I was afraid they were going to come pull me out of that classroom and say ‘You do not belong here.’”

Amii Castle Professor of business and law

Lara Korte/KANSAN Amii Castle is a professor of law and business at the University of Kansas. Castle spoke with the Kansan about her unusual path to success and her passion for students and poltiics.

LARA KORTE @lara_korte

Amii Castle always knew she wanted to teach.

So a few years ago, after working for most of her career as a litigator in downtown Kansas City, the University of Kansas alumna decided to give her alma mater a call.

“They said, ‘Well, we don’t really hire KU grads, so you’re kind of wasting your time,’” she said.

Undiscouraged, Castle went ahead with advice

to develop a class and get published. Within two years, she published nine articles — all while working full time.

“Nobody does that,” Castle said.

To those who know her, Castle is a force of nature. After working 20 years as an attorney in Kansas City, she moved to Lawrence two years ago to take a joint position as a business and law professor. Soon after, Castle launched the University’s American Civil Liberties

Kansan File Photo After the 2016 election, Castle was motivated to start a KU chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Castle is pictured with the original members in 2017.

Union student group, of which she is now the adviser.

“I just go all in, no matter what I’m doing,” Castle said, who last year won KU’s H.O.P.E. Award (Honoring an Outstanding and Progressive Educator).

Regarding her life now, the 51-year-old said she has the “sweetest gig” with the best office on the campus — a cozy spot on the third floor of Capitol Federal Hall, with a wall of windows overlooking the atrium.

But Castle’s path wasn’t always straight or easy. It’s not a subject she typically shares with her students, but she does describe it as “one of those crazy stories.”

A few weeks before turning 16, she dropped out of high school. At 18, she had a child who passed away. At 20, she met her husband. And at 21, she became a stepmother to three children and set her sights on a college career.

“I went and took my GED and yeah, academi-

cally speaking, the rest — as they say — is history,” Castle said.

She started off small — taking classes at Johnson County Community College with her husband, who was also a high school dropout. Part of what made her so driven, she said, was her insecurity.

“I think I was so academically insecure, I was so afraid that they were going to come pull me out of that classroom and say ‘You do not belong here,’ that I really over-tried,” Castle said. “Which is how I ended up with a 4.0.

That’s tough to do.”

After earning enough credits to transfer to the University, Castle said she was still looking for a career path. Her husband was pursuing a medical degree, but that didn’t appeal to her. It wasn’t until she took a constitutional law class that she realized her calling.

“The very first day — it was my ‘aha’ moment,” she said. “I was like ‘I love the law. This is my jam.’”

After spending seven

years earning her bachelor’s degree, she went onto the University’s Law School, where she graduated top of her class in 1997.

It was hard at times, she said. The couple went into “debt like you wouldn’t believe” to earn their education. In addition to her husband’s three children, Castle had a daughter while she was in school.

Now, Castle’s life is a bit more low-key. She and her husband separated ten years ago, and now Castle spends her time with her bulldog, Phoebe, and traveling with her daughters.

“When I’m finished with my law class, usually I go home, I put my yoga pants on, I might take an afternoon nap, cuddle with the bulldog,” she said.

But a lot of her free time is spent doing political activism work and helping run the University’s ACLU group.

Cody Campbell, a senior from Wichita and president of the group,

first met Castle at an informative ACLU meeting.

He’s traveled with her to protests and shares her passion for civil liberties.

“She’s very energetic; she’s very intelligent,” Campbell said. “She’s passionate about her beliefs and others. She’s very student-oriented, too.”

Campbell also takes Castle’s business law class.

“She loves to communicate and talk to her students, and she really loves not just to lecture at you, but have fun with it too,” he said. “She will help any student with anything.

She’s a little bit, you could say, old school. She just says it like it is.”

Looking back, Castle said there were struggles in her life, but she made it through.

“There were times it would have been so easy to say, ‘No, this school’s not worth it,’” she said.

“But I just kept those blinders on, and it was all worth it in the end because now I have the sweetest gig ever.”

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

7

TIM MELIA

Sporting KC goalie outlines game rituals SHAUN GOODWIN @ShaunGoodwinUDK

Seconds before every home kickoff, Tim Melia stands alone between the pair of bright white posts that he calls home for 90 minutes each match day.

Butterflies in his stomach, the Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper can only watch the ball from afar, as it sits 55 meters away in the center circle.

The fans behind Melia in The Cauldron, Kansas City’s season-ticket holder section that dates back to when Kansas City was called the Wizards, enthusiastically bellow out a rendition of “I believe that we will win,” as they prepare for 90 minutes of exhilarating soccer. For 90 minutes out of a seven-day week, these fans are about to get their weekly fix of Sporting KC, before returning to their day jobs until the next time Sporting KC welcomes another team into Children’s Mercy Park.

But for Melia, preparation for those 90 minutes began two days prior with a steak salad.

LEAD-UP TO GAMEDAY Achieving the 2017 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award didn’t just happen by chance for Melia. As is the nature with soccer, Kansas City plays mostly every weekend during the regular season — and sometimes even midweek during the thick of the season — but preparation for game day makes things seem a lot more compact for Melia.

“About the only thing that I’ll consistently do is I’ll eat the same meals two days leading up to a game,” Melia said following Sporting KC’s 2-2 tie with the Seattle Sounders on April 15.

Meal number one for Melia, two days before game day, is a steak salad, in order to begin decreasing his carbohydrate intake. Spending the next day on a low-carb diet and getting plenty of rest, Melia will then eat his second standard meal to begin a carb overload heading into game day.

As long as he’s home, Melia will make sure to eat some pappardelle pasta with chicken and sausage,

storing up carbs and getting plenty of protein heading into the game.

“I’ve just always done it,” Melia said. “I try to lower my carbs two days before, and then right before the game you can overload on the carbs, just to make sure your energy is built up and ready for the game.”

Aside from his meals, Melia’s other main goal is to get plenty of rest. Aiming to get to bed by 10:30 p.m. at the latest — if his oneyear-old daughter allows it — Melia is adamant that getting a good night’s rest is crucial. Having prepared for the upcoming game for the past few days, he wants soccer to be the last thing on his mind as he goes asleep.

“You spend the whole week of training preparing for whatever team, and then the night before if you’re not able to turn your mind off and focus on resting, you’ll be anxious and nervous for a game,” Melia said. “I don’t think that’s a positive way to go into a game. So I try to prepare the best I can, make sure I’m rested and when the game comes we’re going 100 percent.”

GAMEDAY It’s not typical that a person enjoys cleaning up — especially when they’re a couple of hours away from performing in front of over 18,000 fans.

But after a good night’s rest and a breakfast of fruit, eggs and avocado toast, cleaning has always been something to calm Melia before a match.

“Not as much anymore ... I used to be really into cleaning actually,” Melia said, even sounding a bit confused at himself as he said it. “I’ve kind of dialed that back a little bit, just because it’s become a lot with the baby.”

Hopping into his Kia Optima after a morning of cleaning and more rest, Melia makes the trip up Interstate 35 from Overland Park to Children’s Mercy Park, arriving about two hours before kickoff.

“Usually first thing I’ll do is tape hands, fingers, things like that,” Melia said.

“Goalkeepers are always dealing with finger stuff. I’ll sit down, have a coffee, try

and get some other forms of hydration.”

Another popular form of hydration and source of vital amino acids amongst the players is BioCharge, a vitamin and herbal supplement that will “support improvements in muscle performance during a workout and accelerate post-workout recovery,” according to its manufacturer Advocare.

20 minutes before kickoff, once Melia has taken care of his hand wraps and had a cup of coffee, he will spend five to eight minutes on an exercise bike, as well as perform core activation exercises before heading out to the field for warmups.

And before he knows it, he’ll be standing between the goalposts with the fans behind his back and the butterflies in his stomach.

“You’re always going to be a little sharper when you have those butterflies,” Melia said. “Nervousness is good as well as long as it’s not overbearing, but I think it’s more about being confident in your ability and confident about how you prepared for the game and letting it all hang out when you get on the field.”

POSTGAME With the 90 minutes of soccer come and gone, Melia heads down the tunnel towards the dressing room, as the fans head towards the exit gates.

“It’s time for reflection a little bit,” Melia said.

“You start going through the good things, the bad things, what you can improve on, what you did well,” he continued. “Obviously results drive that a lot, if you got three points, some things you didn’t do don’t hurt as bad.”

After the result against Seattle, Melia was thinking about the two goals he let slip past him. The first, a close range stab between his legs by Will Bruin right on the stroke of halftime, and the second a beautifully placed 20-yard shot into the bottom corner by Cristian Roldan midway through the second half.

“I have to go back and look and see what I can do better,” Melia said. “I don’t really believe there is a goal you can’t do anything bet-

Kansan file photo Goalkeeper Tim Melia saved six of the seven shots he faced throughout the night. Sporting Kansas City defeated the New York Red Bulls 2-1 on Sept. 20. ter on.”

A quick shower following the game and Melia is back in the locker room, facing the media as he’s always done since he tied down a spot as Kansas City’s No. 1 keeper in May 2015.

Within 45 minutes, he’ll be back in his Kia Optima and back on the road to his wife and child in Overland Park. Making sure to get plenty of hydration and rest, his mind must then move on to preparing for the next game.

While the fans that sing Melia’s name in the stands of Children’s Mercy Park itch to get back behind their goalkeeper, Melia begins the process all over again, getting ready for that next steak salad and a night full of rest.

U.S. Open Cup Winner 2015, 2017

MLS Goalkeeper of the Year 2017

XI MLS Best XI 2017

Shaun Goodwin/KANSAN Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia stands in front of his locker space in the Sporting KC locker room at Children’s Mercy Park.

8

KANSAN.COM

DAY IN THE LIFE

ALISON OLCOTT

KU researcher studies ancient bacteria COURTNEY BIERMAN @courtbierman

Life may exist on Mars, Alison Olcott said, but it almost certainly doesn’t look like the aliens we see in movies. More likely, it’s bacterial in nature.

Olcott is an associate professor of geology and the director of the KU Center for Undergraduate Research. She focuses on astrobiology and chemical paleontology, meaning she studies the chemicals left behind by ancient organisms to learn more about what Earth was like after its creation billions of years ago, as well as what life might look like on other planets.

“Instead of looking for bones or shells, I look for chemicals left behind by life in the rock record,” she said. “Those are the same techniques that we use when we look for life outside of Earth, because essentially people think if there is or was any life elsewhere, it’s likely bacteria.”

Specifically, Olcott studies lipids, a class of fatty acid, and organic compounds that all organisms leave behind — including bacteria.

“They’re made by all life as we know it, and they can get preserved in the rock record,” Olcott said. “If you think of a bacterium, it’s really hard to fossilize. It’s just a bag of goo and chemicals.

The goo isn’t going to get preserved, but the

Emma Pravecek/KANSAN Alison Olcott is an associate professor of geology and the chair of the Center for Undergraduate Research.

Her research focuses on studying ancient life forms. chemicals can get left behind. So it’s a way of sort of seeing what life was like before animals evolved, or in times of mass extinction when it was pretty terrible to be an animal on Earth, or perhaps in outer space.”

Olcott spends her days balancing her teaching duties with her position in the Center for Undergraduate Research, which she’s held since July. She said she tries to spend mornings in her professor office in Slawson Hall and her research office in Strong Hall. When she’s not

working, you might be able to find her fossil hunting with her two young daughters.

Olcott does her research on Earth to better prepare those who may one day perform research on Mars. If one day we do collect rock samples by rover or by astronaut, we may only have one chance to do the research right.

“My goal is really to get the kinks out of the system here on Earth so when we do our one shot, we have the best chance of getting usable data,” Olcott said.

To study early life forms, Olcott doesn’t have to go far. The Gypsum Hills of southwestern Kansas are remarkably similar to the rocks of Mars — full of calcium sulfate and iron-rich sediment.

“If we can understand how to analyze these rocks, we know that when those rocks were formed there was life on Earth,” Olcott said. “So if we can get a picture of how that life gets preserved or if that life gets preserved into those rocks, it gives us an idea of how to look for signals in other

places. It’s really easy to send grad students down to southern Kansas to get some rocks. It’s a lot harder to send them to Mars.”

One of Olcott’s goals as an educator is to make research accessible and understandable.

She applies this principle daily at the Center for Undergraduate Research, where she supports and mentors students and faculty who are trying to make research a part of the classroom.

Jen Roberts is a professor and the chair of the Department of

Geology. She said Olcott is a valuable colleague not just for her academic contributions to the field, but also for her ability to get other people interested in science.

“She really does a great job of making science accessible to a lot of different people and people who are not scientists, but I think what I envy as someone who certainly has that goal as well, is that she gets people really excited about it with her creativity and ability to communicate really effectively,” Roberts said.

Soon after Olcott started teaching at the University, she was put in charge of the lecturebased course Geology 121, titled “Life Through Time: DNA to Dinosaurs.”

The class is mostly taken by non-geology majors looking to satisfy their science requirement.

Olcott gave the class a makeover.

The class became interactive and researchbased and adjusting the curriculum to give students a picture of what the world used to look like and, more importantly, why they should care about geology.

“It was much more fun to teach that way, the students liked it much more, and then it was much more accessible to people who have typically sort of been shut out of science,” Olcott said.

LALA VICK

LaLa Vick’s celebrity status transcends her son’s

SEAN COLLINS @SeanCollins_UDK

LaLa Vick waits all week to be a different person. Lawrence is a city of opportunity for her.

She got to see her son Lagerald play basketball for the storied Kansas Jayhawks program for over three years, but she also lived weekends of community and diversity.

Oh, and also she’s a celebrity when she makes the trip to Lawrence.

“Momma mode:” that’s what LaLa calls her life back home in Memphis, Tennessee. She takes

care of her children and grandchildren, feeding, clothing and assuring their attendance in school and at practice.

But her momma mode includes taking care of all of her children, and she would never miss her son play.

The drive from Memphis to Lawrence is seven hours and 37 minutes.

LaLa, her brother, Patrick Brown, and her mother make most of the trips together, with LaLa doing most of the driving.

“I get us up at four in the morning,” LaLa said.

Contributed Photo Fans take pictures with LaLa before a KU basketball game.

“I’m the driver, so I make the decisions.”

She sounds serious, but LaLa is a people person, which means she pleases the masses.

Everybody gets their music played on the trip.

“We start with gospel music, momma likes that,” LaLa said. “But we always make the same transition after. It’s R&B, then hip hop after that.”

She has made this trip so many times that there are traditions, including stopping at a chicken place she can’t remember the name of. But LaLa knows what the building looks like, so she never misses the exit.

The drive is fine, but LaLa doesn’t talk about that as much. Her favorite tradition doesn’t take place until she arrives in Lawrence: ditching her family.

“Most of the time we get there, we are tired and stay in, but LaLa has to go to the parties,” Brown said.

Brown said when the family first arrives in Lawrence, they link up with Lagerald. It’s usually later in the evening, and the team has to rest before the game on Saturday. Brown and their mother need rest, too. But like Brown said, LaLa doesn’t stop at the hotel check in.

“I don’t get home until late into the night,” LaLa said. “Sometimes 3 a.m. before the games.”

Contributed photo Then-sophomore guard Lagerald Vick poses with his family in Kentucky’s Rupp Arena on Jan. 28, 2017. Kansas defeated Kentucky 79-73 She will go out to the Lawrence bars all by herself. She said she likes to explore Massachusetts Street and then hit up bars like The Bull and The Wheel.

“I’ve been to all kinds of places and met all sorts of people. There’s really no way to put it lightly. Everybody back at home is black, but in Lawrence there’s so many different types of people and that’s what LaLa is all about,” she said. “I love the people and the new things I get to see and learn.”

LaLa has a hard time describing how she feels when she’s in Lawrence because it’s so different from everything else she

does in her life. She used to do stand-up comedy, but that was decades ago before she had a family. Her charisma and humor still delivers, and it’s what makes her a Lawrence icon.

“People be coming up and asking me for pictures,” she said. “Like one time I had this guy that recognized me at the bar and he looked at his friends and goes, ‘Holy s---, it’s LaLa Vick.”

Brown laughed at the thought of seeing LaLa in public with the Jayhawk faithful. In San Antonio before the Final Four, he took pictures of LaLa as she was taking pictures with fans. He said it was such a bizarre experience,

he couldn’t pass it up.

At 35, Brown has been out with Lagerald before, but he said there was one major difference between this experience and going out with her.

“I’m not fabricating this, I’m not exaggerating,” Brown said. “But when I’m with LaLa, more people recognize her than when I’m with Lagerald. It’s crazy.”

Brown, while exhausted by these trips to Lawrence, loves to see his sister in this environment.

“She’s really made a name for herself and for Lagerald,” Brown said.

“She’s been like that her whole life.”