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The Oracle

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Adjunct Q&A elicits more questions than answers

By Maria Ranoni N E W S

E D I T O R

In an attempt to answer questions about unionization from concerned adjunct professors, USF announced they will have voluntary informational sessions.

However, many of these adjuncts are concerned with the impartiality of the hired speaker.

In a letter to adjunct professors, Dwayne Smith, senior vice provost and dean of the Office of Graduate Studies, said USF will provide a resource to them.

“The university’s highest priority is that there is no interference with your right to decide whether or not you wish to vote in a union and that you have access to the information you need to make an informed decision,” Smith

said. “We have already received many questions from adjuncts, and we want to be sure that we respond to those questions in a consistent and timely manner.

“To that end, we have partnered with a labor attorney, Katie Lev, who works as an adjunct professor at Boston College, to answer questions and provide information about labor law and unionization in general.”

In response to this, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and other concerned parties sent a letter to USF questioning Lev’s impartiality in the matter.

“As a Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB) member, you are tasked with serving citizens of the state of Massachusetts in neutrally overseeing and ruling on public sector labor disputes,”

USF hosts informational session featuring a potentially bias speaker. ORACLE PHOTO/ CHAVELI GUZMAN the letter said. “The public and Governor have entrusted you with the power to fairly enforce labor laws. We believe that by acting as a consultant to aid institutions seeking to block and discourage worker

organizing, your ability to adjudicate impartially is called into question.”

SEIU — the organization USF adjuncts are voting on whether or not to unionize with — leadership signed the letter

along with Barbara Madeloni, President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and Alphonso Mayfield, President of the Florida Public Services Union.

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Black Lives Matter journalist to address race relations

By Jesse Stokes M A N A G I N G

E D I T O R

In a world filled with news headlines on social injustices and protests, the oral accounts of such events can lend more to the audience than written instances can. That is where Wesley Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist comes in, as he is also the next speaker to be featured as a part of the Frontier Forum Lecture Series today at 7 p.m. in the Marshall Student Center Oval Theater.

Lowery’s stories have been featured in The Washington Post

— where he currently serves as the leading reporter on police shootings and the Black Lives Matter movement — The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine, among other publications.

Lowery is expected to speak on race relations in the U.S. as well as discuss his book, “They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement,” which focuses on the Black Lives Matter Movement, as well as Lowery’s personal experiences.

His personal experiences are

well documented in an article he wrote at The Washington Post, and include being arrested alongside a Huffington Post reporter during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

Lowery was covering the protests for The Washington Post as a reporter in a nearby McDonald’s. He was told he was arrested for trespassing at the McDonald’s where he and many other reporters were making best use of the free Wi-Fi and electrical outlets.

“As they took me into custody, the officers slammed me into a soda machine, at one point setting

off the Coke dispenser,” Lowery said in the Washington Post article.

“They put plastic cuffs on me, then they led me out the door.”

With a topic that comes with such strong opinions attached, Dean of The College of Arts and Sciences Eric Eisenberg, the individual who spearheads the Frontier Forum Lecture Series, said he is unsure of how Lowery’s message will be received.

“I don’t know how the campus community is going to receive it,” Eisenberg said. “I assume pretty positively. But, I am willing to deal with however it is received. It is

such an important topic and so timely.”

With both personal and professional accounts on social justice issues, Eisenberg said Lowery’s speech will be different than other speakers that come to campus, such as those that are a part of the University Lecture Series (ULS).

“I think the ULS goes somewhat broader and more of an entertainment crossover, and we try to make sure that everyone we bring has an academic pedigree so that we don’t have people who

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the Oracle the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

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ADJUNCTS

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Another issue that brought about these concerns was an article written by The Huffington Post. The article outlines Lev’s involvement in a news site, Law360, attempting to unionize. Lev gave a similar talk to these employees in which she appeared to be bias.

“As is standard, Lev does not tell employees how to vote, but she does manage to paint a scary portrait of unionizing,” the article said. “She warns that things may not improve despite paying union dues, that employees may not like what’s in the contract (”you better hope that everybody else wants the same things you want”) and that a union is difficult to get rid of once it’s there.”

Prior to the informational session on Tuesday, Lev attempted to clear this up.

“I’ll be completely honest with you, I was hired by USF, so I just don’t want to give the impression that I’m something that I’m not just because I am providing you with factual information,” Lev said. “I’m not a neutral third party in this particular matter. The union is not going to be neutral. They are bias when they present you information. Frankly, I don’t have an opinion as to how I want you to vote” Dana Corrigan, an animation adjunct professor, said these sessions are misleading to adjuncts who may not know any better.

“The university has a very particular standpoint that is not neutral,” Corrigan said.

“These are being advertised as informational sessions that

are meant to give information to people who may not know about unions. They’re going into these events not knowing they’re getting a biased directive to potentially intimidate them.”

Lev presented adjuncts with basic information on how the unionization process works as well as the actual voting process that will start this week.

However, in some instances, Lev inserted her opinion on unions.

“Imagine the worst employer you could ever think of,” Lev said. “Imagine your least favorite job ever. Imagine a really terrible employer. If they’re so bad and they don’t care about their employees and they don’t want to help their employees, it’s a leap, and this is in my opinion, to think that they’re necessarily going to do what you want them to do just because the union asks.”

In between her factual presentation points, Lev said she herself would not be in favor of unionization.

“I would prefer to speak for myself because I would be concerned that what I want for my working conditions might not be appropriately represented by the majority,” Lev said. “I’d rather speak for myself.”

Many of the adjuncts that are in favor of unionization and attended this session picked up on this and began to question her.

“The way you’re subtly framing this argument is misleading,” Tara Blackwell, an adjunct biology professor, said.

“There’s a subtle undercurrent of, ‘Well, these are the facts, but you really don’t want to vote for this, because you’ll get

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screwed.’”

Jarad Fennell, an English literature adjunct professor, said Lev adjusted her comments when this questioning began.

“Some of the information she put up there seemed slightly biased, but I think when we started aggressively questioning her, she tried to be much more neutral,” Fennell said.

After the session, Blackwell said she doesn’t trust Lev or USF’s motivations for this at all.

“A lawyer’s job, by definition, is to spin the evidence to make it look favorable to their client,” Blackwell said. “She’s being paid by USF administration, who has done nothing but obstruct, delay, deny and insult us. I don’t buy this ‘Oh, I’m just presenting the facts business for a minute.’”

Fennell said this choice of resource provided by USF makes him question the intentions of the university.

“I wonder about their (USF) motivations a little bit,” Fennell said. “I read up on her beforehand and I was surprised that she had that kind of background. It seemed like she was being hired to sort of union-bust and discourage us for voting for the union.”

According to Corrigan, one positive that came out of the session was a feeling of unity.

“One thing I definitely noticed was the frustrations of the other adjuncts,” Corrigan said. “It kind of brings a feeling of camaraderie because we don’t get to see each other that much. You could feel their frustrations, and it makes my own feel more justified.”

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Lowery is an experienced journalist who covers the Black Lives Matter movement for The Washington Post. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

LOWERY

Continued from PAGE 1

are just celebrities or who have an opinion about things,” Eisenberg said. “We really want our people to have a rigorous and intellectual position.”

Eisenberg said there is no better time than now to have Lowery speak to students.

“The time is right,” Eisenberg said. “This is such an incredible moment in American history, where all of these things that are being brought to the surface and that we have to deal with them.

Our commitment is to the fact.

So, if this is a problem and he has done Pulitzer Prize winning reporting to reveal what is going on, let’s get it out there and talk about it.”

Eisenberg said he and his team, who decide on what speakers to invite, first look at what the issues are that peak the public’s interest the most and invite intellectual individuals with relations to the issues to share their stories.

Though these topics often may include discussions that can be deemed as controversial to some, Eisenberg said there is a vetting

process that goes into inviting speakers, before they have been secured.

“I try really hard to listen to their message before they come to see the kinds of arguments that they make and the way that they present themselves,” Eisenberg said. “He (Lowery) is absolutely not an extremist. He is an intellectual, a journalist and someone who believes in fact.”

The Lowery event was purposefully scheduled during Black History Month and the Frontier Forum Lecture Series is partnering with the Black Leadership Network and The Institute on Black Life to put the event on, according to Eisenberg.

Though Lowery is a journalist, Eisenberg said that his message goes beyond students who plan to pursue that field.

“I think anybody interested in criminology, law enforcement, race relations and social justice would be the kinds of folks interested in something like this,” Eisenberg said. “And I think a lot of our students are interested in those issues, regardless of what their majors are, just because these are the issues of our time.”

LIFESTYLE

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Tattoos tell tales that will last a lifetime

By Andrea Martin C O P Y

E D I T O R

The earliest known tattoos were found on the bodies of Egyptian mummies, dating back to roughly 2000 B.C., according to the Smithsonian.com. Among the pharaohs and commoners, these tattoos have mostly been found on female mummies. It is believed these tattoos worked as therapeutic, permanent amulets to help women through childbirth — being adorned around the abdomen, on the thighs and the breasts.

Fast forward several centuries into the mid-18th century, Native American women used the act of getting tattooed similarly to acupuncture, to alleviate pain, according to Time.com.

The classic pin-up style, boldlined tattoo, however, had its birthplace in New York City. Martin Hildebrandt, first professional tattoo artist, tattooed Civil War soldiers as a form of identification.

Now, tattoos mean so much more than just a way to tell soldiers a part. From religious and spiritual sentiments to permanent memories stamps, every line of carefully crafted ink tells a story.

Stephanie Sanchez, a junior double majoring in psychology and English, has ten tales to tell across her body. Among them is a chain of tattoos around her ankle. Using the anklet of tattoos as a permanent passport, Sanchez gets a new stamp every time she visits a new city as a way to remember all she sights she took in.

Stephanie Sanchez proudly shows off all of the tattoos that she has acquired over the years.

“My first anklet piece is the ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN Liberty Bell,” Sanchez said. “I got it Liberty, representing New York City. same time I’ll be studying abroad,” upon the craft of stick-and-poke when I traveled to Philadelphia for I lived there most of my life so when Sanchez said. “Hopefully, the whole tattoos, also known as hand poked a couple days by myself to see my I went back a couple weeks ago, I anklet will be complete or close to it tattoos, and I did extensive research favorite band in concert since they had to add it on.” by the end of the summer.” on how to do it. I gathered the proper weren’t coming to Florida.

This summer Sanchez is studying As Sanchez clasps the final supplies and went for it.”

“The second charm on my anklet abroad in London and maybe even charms on her anklet, Robert Andre Allen recently did his own cover is a ferris wheel. I got it to represent a few other countries to close the Allen, a sophomore majoring up, covering his first tattoo that he the same ferris wheel from Camp chain. communications, is trying his hand got at 16 years old.

Flog Gnaw. I’ve gone to the carnival “I’m also planning on visiting at being on both sides of the needle.

“I got my first tattoo the week two years in a row now, and it was other places in Europe, most likely “I have always admired the craft I turned 16,” Allen said. “It was an the happiest place on Earth for me. Paris and maybe Ireland since and I yearned to perform tattoos equal sign, to represent my undying My newest charm is the Statue of there’s a festival happening there the myself,” Allen said. “I stumbled ode to equality. However, it was

poorly done and I chose to cover it mainly because my fingers seemed like good real estate, so I thought of a lightning bolt. I realized it could seamlessly align with an equal sign.”

Allen has completed a few other stick-and-pokes on himself, including a smiley face on his thigh close to his knee. He is also adorned by some professionally-done tattoos, unlike Grace Howell, a sophomore majoring in public health, who only has one tiny tattoo. Howell got her first and only tattoo in Ybor City during her first semester of college.

“My tattoo is on my wrist,” Howell said. “It is a simple, handwrittenstyle font that says, ‘Here I am. Send me.’ This phrase is close to my heart because it embodies all that I stand for.”

Howell plans to use her degree in public health to teach basic public health techniques in underdeveloped countries. The verse, from Isaiah 6:8 in the Bible, continually reminds her of the purpose she has made for her life.

“In this verse, God asks who he can send out into the world to make a difference,” Howell said. “I chose to put this verse on my wrist to symbolize me volunteering to go out and serve.”

As Howell looks to the future, Alexandra Núñez, a sophomore majoring in marketing, uses her tattoo to help her take gradual steps into the future and to help overcome some of the hardships she has experienced.

“My tattoo is on my left forearm,” Núñez said. “It shows the growing stages of a rose. My tattoo means that no matter what you go through in life, you’ll overcome it and continue to grow. I got it because I went through a sexual assault recently and it was a tough time for me. This tattoo just always reminds me that I’ll get through it.”

According to StatisticBrain. com, 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo. That amounts to 45 million stories, reminders and memories adorning the bodies of all those Americans.

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OPINION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

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Tarte beauty fails minorities with recent product launch

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What you said Multimedia editor Chaveli Guzman asked students if they think cosmetic brands are all inclusive to every skin tone.

“Yes, because makeup needs to be for everyone and we shouldn’t leave anyone out.”

— Stephanie Marin, a sophomore majoring in biomedical sciences

Tarte’s newest foundation launch brought the issue of diversity in cosmetics to light. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

By Lyann Lallave-Segui C O L U M N I S T

Within society today, individualism and expression go hand-in-hand. The rise in the popularity of makeup trends and influencers on the masses has also brought to light a significant disparity within the makeup community itself.

Over decades, beauty standards around the world have catered to a lighter skin ideal of beauty and due to this focus on solely fairer skin tones very few brands have taken time to set aside a variety of products for people of color.

Brands should be more inclusive in their product lines, stop denying a mass market and cease propagating a lack of diversity.

Tarte, a popular cosmetics company mainly sold in department stores such as Macy’s, Sephora and Ulta, released its much anticipated Shape Tape Foundation online Jan. 21 only to produce a limited shade range to its diverse fan base.

When the color swatches of the shade range were revealed to only have 15 shades in total and three shades dedicated to people of color, the brand let down their diverse consumer population.

With industry standards put into

place by the rise of Fenty Beauty by Rihanna in the fall of 2017, the topic of makeup equality was brought to the forefront of beauty-related news and set an example for other beauty brands to follow.

Fenty Beauty released 40 shades with a variety of undertones for its consumers. Numerous other brands such as Maybelline’s Fit Me and Bare Minerals’ foundations all carry 40 shades. With a numerical precedent set in place, the audacity of Tarte to simply set aside three shades for people of color is unacceptable.

Several beauty influencers, such as Jackie Aina and Jeffree Star, both having a large presence on YouTube, have also voiced their opinions on the lack of shade ranges via Twitter and posting review videos on the issue.

“If you can not create an allinclusive shade range, why is the product even being put out?” Star asked in a video review of the Tarte product. “It is literally 2018.”

While their contribution to speaking out against the lack of diversity has created a call to action against Tarte, other influencers decided not to speak up against it for fear of being blacklisted by makeup companies. Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence in the influencer industry.

One example is the beauty influencer Tati Westbrook being exiled from Kim Kardashian West’s makeup launch party after posting a bad review of her contour sticks on YouTube.

Taking this idea into account, should consumers continue to support companies that do not provide diverse beauty options?

Considering that the same three pigments are utilized to create shades for any foundation formula — red, yellow and black iron oxides — the concept of a limited shade range would seem ridiculous.

With apps such as Bare Minerals Made 2 Fit and the more high end option Teint Particulier by Lancôme providing custom foundations for any skin tone, Tarte’s excuse that they did not have the time to create a wide variety of shades for its audience also increases their lack of credibility.

Even though it is just makeup, if discrimination cannot end in the simplest forms how can it be expected to end in society as a whole? The least Tarte could do is create a new formula and provide a wider shade range.

Lyann Lallave-Segui is a junior majoring in Professional Writing and Rhetoric.

“Brands are not being smart about it. The more range of foundations you have, the more sales you have.“ ­ Gabriela Figureroa, a junior — majoring in intergrative animal biology

“Yes, because I think that people should have the right to find their skin tone in makeup brands.”

— Rasha Daas, freshman majoring in biomedical sciences “I think they should so everyone can feel beautiful with a little bit of makeup on.”

— Teresa Kee, a senior majoring in cellular molecular biology

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Classifieds To place a classified ad go to

http://www.usforacle.com/classifieds

ANNOUNCEMENTS Tutor for highscool artist needed Seeking tutor that is proficient in CAD design for artist along with the ability to teach Z Brush. Also, knowledge of VR helpful.

Email Devin@devincahn.com

Magic Puzzle Rules: Fill the rest of the puzzle using words from the official International Scrabble Word List. Words must be spelled left to right or top to bottom. Words can only be used once. THERE IS ONLY ONE SOLUTION ! The validity of your words can be checked at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/scrabble/. Good Luck.

Solutions will appear in Monday’s paper.

Created by faculty member H. Henrick Jeanty, an instructor in the Computer Science and Engineering department.

Answer Solution to Monday’s puzzle

CROSSWORD

Sports

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Baseball

Baseball preview: Bulls return a majority of 2017 roster for first season under coach Billy Mohl

By Josh Fiallo S P O R T S

E D I T O R

Two seasons ago, USF baseball was the talented, but inexperienced team of the AAC. Last season, it won its most games since 1996.

Seven of the Bulls’ 2016 starting lineup were either freshmen or sophomores. They went on to finish that season 24-33. In 2017, those freshmen and sophomores turned to sophomores and juniors producing a 42-19 record, which included a 19-game win streak and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

In 2018, those same players have grown up even more.

Instead of a contingent of young players, USF’s core group is nearly all juniors and seniors. When USF opens its season at home against No. 6 North Carolina on Friday night, it’s likely that seven position players will take the field who started at least 25 games last season and a pitcher who started 14 games — Shane McClanahan — on the mound.

“All those guys are (at least) juniors now, they’ve been through

the fires,” first-year coach Billy Mohl said. “They have hundreds of hundreds of at-bats under their belt.

The pitchers have tons of innings under theirs.”

Whether the Bulls are good enough to hang with the NCAA’s best will be tested early, with a FridaySaturday-Sunday series against No. 6 North Carolina and a single game against No. 5 Florida State to start the season. After those four games, the Bulls’ next game against a ranked opponent won’t come until April 7 against No. 24 Houston.

“Getting out of the gates is going to be tough,” third baseman David Villar said. “We were close to winning the American title last year. We were close to dethroning the National Champions. That’s a little bit of the unfinished business.

We want to finish at the top of the American and get a little revenge on Florida.”

Villar, team captain, batted .303 last season. He and the Bulls will get their first chance at taking down No. 1 Florida on May 8 in Gainesville. A year ago, USF beat the Gators 15-10

in the regular season, but lost to them 5-1 in the NCAA Tournament’s first round.

While many of the returning Bulls have played over a hundred games in their careers at USF, Friday’s game against North Carolina will be Mohl’s first ever as a head coach.

Mohl, who came to USF as a pitching coach in 2010, was hired to take over the program just hours after former coach Mark Kingston accepted the same position at South Carolina on June 30.

Last season, Mohl led USF’s pitching staff to a program-record 620 strikeouts and a team ERA of 3.24, which was the tenth best out of 295 D-1 programs in the nation. No program had more strikeouts per nine innings than USF’s average of 10.1.

Nine of the 13 pitchers who were on staff last season are back for 2018.

“Well deserved!! Back in full effect in August @USF_CoachMohl #2018,” pitcher Andrew Perez tweeted minutes after the official USF announcement.

“We all wanted him here,”

McClanahan, USF’s ace, said. “We all wanted him to be our head coach.

We got what we wanted and we’re just really excited to go out there and play for him.”

As pitchers, they have good reason to be happy, too. Eight Bulls have been drafted under Mohl’s guidance, including Phoenix Sanders, Joe Cavallaro and Ryan Valdes in the 2017 draft.

While the man in charge is different this season, the philosophy and routines aren’t. Mohl has never coached collegiately without Kingston and, as a result, gets many of his coaching qualities and techniques from him. For the Bulls, that’s made for an easier transition.

“I’d been with him for a long time and I learned from one of the best in the business,” Mohl said.

“I think it’s very important in the transition mode, you don’t come into the situation and change everything.

Especially after the season we had last year.”

While Mohl now has the responsibility of the whole team, he still dedicates time to the

pitchers exclusively to ensure their development as he acts as both the manager and pitching coach.

“The biggest change for me was obviously going from 16-17 pitchers you work with on a daily basis, to working with 35 (players),” Mohl said. “We’ll split practice time where we have everybody together, but then I can have individual time with the pitchers as well.”

USF lost its No. 1 hitter from last season — Kevin Merrell — to the first round of the MLB draft. Though Merrell led USF in batting average (.386), runs (46), hits (78) and stolen bases (18), the Bulls are returning 65 percent of their run production.

Villar, Coco Montes, Tyler Dietrich, Joe Genord and Garrett Zech all batted above .250 last season and are returning this year.

“I’ve always said, you want a veteran team,” Mohl said. “You can have a young talented team, you’re still going to make mistakes. With a veteran team that’s been through the fires before, you’re going to know what to expect on a daily basis.”

Women’s Basketball

Bulls struggle early, come out on top over SMU 64-54

By Sam Newlon S T A F F

W R I T E R

No. 22 USF (21-5, 10-2), donned in all-pink jerseys for its annual Play4Kay game, it held off SMU (10-16, 4-9) 64-54 for its sixth consecutive victory Wednesday night in front of 2,004 at the Sun Dome.

Despite success throughout its upset of Ohio State on Sunday, the Bulls struggled early on against the Mustangs.

“We played probably one of our best games all year and

then we come back and play like that,” coach Jose Fernandez said.

“I thought we turned the corner against East Carolina (and) led into playing well against Ohio State. Now we revert back to this.”

The Bulls shot 21 percent in the first half and entered halftime with just 22 points. Both of these statistics were on track to set season-low marks for USF. “We shot the ball atrocious in the first 20 minutes,” Fernandez said. “It was just awful.”

At halftime, the Bulls were able

to make necessary adjustments to pull out the win. In the first minute-and-a-half of the second half, a layup by Maria Jespersen followed by back-to-back threepoint shots by Laura Ferreira and Kitija Laksa extended the Bulls lead to 15.

“We’ve had games like this before when we don’t hit shots,” Jespersen said. “We know we’re good shooters, we know the shots will fall, but in those droughts where they’re not going to fall, you have to do other things. You have to play better defense, you

have to drive it to the basket.”

Jespersen led the Bulls with 28 points. She also added 10 rebounds and four assists.

According to Fernandez, her lack of turnovers is what made her performance great.

“She (Jespersen) was assertive when she shot the ball from three when she was open,” Fernandez said. “Her most impressive stat line was that she didn’t turn the ball over and that’s one thing that we’ve talked about, having more value for the basketball and taking more care of it.”

The Bulls were able to find a rhythm in the second half when they shot 48 percent and 64 percent from three-point range.

Even though the Bulls won, Fernandez expects more from the team moving forward.

“Our guys haven’t understood yet, and it’s February, that no one is going to lay down against us,” Fernandez said. “That’s been the issue with our guys. All year long.

We get up eight or 10, we don’t hold leads. I thought we had moved past that, but apparently not.”