The Oracle
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F S O U T H F L O R I DA
A guiding force 1,800 miles away
Student Body Vice President Shaquille Kent will represent USF students on a committee tasked with finding USF’s next president. He credits all of his success to his mother in Trinidad. By Josh Fiallo M A N A G I N G
Shaquille Kent is one of 15 members on a committee to help find USF’s next president, USF Board of Trustees Chair Brian Lamb announced Friday. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE/SHAQUILLE KENT
E D I T O R
Growing up, it was Gale Lewis’ dream to leave Trinidad and Tobago to pursue a college education in America. However, being one of nine siblings, money was too tight for her to come. That’s why, whenever Shaquille Kent, her youngest son and USF’s student body vice president, said he wanted to study in America, she was determined to make it happen — even with money being a concern. “What I didn’t do, he needed to — not just for him, but for me,” Lewis said from her home in Trinidad. “I told him, whatever we need to do, we’ll do it.” Now a junior at USF, Kent is living his and Lewis’ mutual dream, studying business and serving in a plethora of roles around campus — being a USF Ambassador, a figurehead in Student Government and a member of the Alumni Association’s board of directors. Most recently, Kent was selected to represent USF’s student population on a 15-person search committee that’s tasked with finding USF’s next system president to replace Judy Genshaft when she retires next July. While his success on campus is nearly as prominent as his smile, Kent’s day-to-day life has not been as easy as it may seem on the surface. Days go by where he eats only one meal. Other days, he’ll eat none.
“You had to choose some days,” he said. “Insurance, rent or multiple meals.” In order to transport to and from campus, Kent purchased a 2006 Dodge Caravan with a fellow Trinidadian, splitting the cost at $500 each. He described the van as what Americans would call a “soccermom van.” Kent insisted the type of vehicle didn’t matter. He had something to get him from one place to the next. That is, until the car’s transmission blew up and the duo couldn’t afford to fix it. He now relies on friends and the Bull Runner to get from point A to B. “There’s this misconception when you’re in leadership roles that everybody thinks everything’s going perfect, that everything’s alright,” Kent said. “They assume I don’t struggle. Honestly, I do.” Back home in Morvant, Trinidad and Tobago, Lewis aches at the thought of her son struggling, especially when it comes to eating. Kent’s the youngest of four siblings and has always had an extra-special bond with his mother, though, he said he’s sometimes hesitant to admit it. While Kent opts at times to use Feed-A-Bull, a campus food pantry initiative, Lewis constantly urges him to eat properly — usually doing so in their daily texts and phone calls through WhatsApp. “I tell him, ‘look, use the credit card, eat properly, the money will come and we’ll pay it back,’” Lewis said.
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Maitenance issues frustrate students who live in Village By Leda Alvim C O R R E S P O N D E N T
In between classes and busy schedules, some students face maintenance issues in The Village — the newest residence community on campus — creating frustration for some of the students who live there. The Village started its construction in 2016, finishing the first phase in fall of 2017 — with the opening of two new residential buildings, Beacon and Summit — and finishing the final phase at the beginning of this semester with the addition of Horizon, Endeavor and Pinnacle. However, some students are questioning whether the price paid to live in The Village is worth it after maintenance problems persist five weeks into the semester. Alex Gonzalez lives on the first floor of Endeavor Hall with her roommate and fellow freshman Hanalyse Loboda. For the past month, they have been having issues in their dorm, resulting in more than 25 maintenance requests. According to Gonzalez, everything started when she first moved in on Aug. 16 to participate in band camp. After only one hour in her room, all the lights and plugs stopped working. Maintenance came in the same day to fix the problem. However, that same week Gonzalez had to call maintenance three additional times to fix the same problem that kept happening. “I would get back from band camp exhausted after a long day of practice and neither my lights nor outlets would be working,” Gonzalez said. “One of my outlets that had my refrigerator was not working and I was afraid to lose all the food in it.” According to Gonzalez, it took less than a day for the power to go out
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The Oracle THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1966
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NEWS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
KENT
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To save money, Kent says he often cooks his own meals, some of which he calls his mother for help with preparing. His favorite dish: curry chicken with garlic, spices from Trinidad, chickpeas, rice and roti skin. When he’s not cooking or using his campus meal plan — a 32-meals-per-semester plan, the cheapest available — he’s using coupons and doing whatever it takes to cut costs at every corner. “I try to use coupons as much as possible,” Kent said, with two coupon books sitting in the middle of his desk. “I always look and see where I can save, little here, little there.” In Trinidad, Lewis is a newlyretired elementary school teacher, while her husband works in construction. Kent said he grew up wanting to be a scientist and that his mom always supported any and all aspirations he had. Though the now-24-yearold didn’t discover his love for business until he spent two years as a clerical assistant at a bank in Trinidad — saving money to come to USF — his mom said she couldn’t be more proud of who he’s become. Kent says he owes it all to her. That’s why, whenever he does something — as big as winning a student body election or as small as acing a test — she’s the first to know. The same rang true whenever Kent found out last Thursday that he’d been selected by the USF Board of Trustees (BOT) to join the 15-person search committee that’ll actively search to find USF’s next system president. Kent said he never applied for the position, but instead received
a call from BOT Chair Brian Lamb out of the blue, asking him if he was interested in representing students on the committee. He gladly accepted. Though he’s still unsure of what his duties will entail, he knows he’ll be asked to help build the profile of what attributes the next president should possess. After accepting, conversations with prominent USF figures ensued — a food-court chat with USF Provost Ralph Wilcox and then a phone call with Les Muma, USF’s all-time leading donor and chair of the search committee. They, however, could never mean as much to Kent as the first person he called upon being offered the position. “When he was selected to be on the committee to select the president, he called me and said, with so much joy, ‘mommy, mommy,’” Lewis said. “Then he told me and I dropped down to my knees and said, ‘Thank you Jesus.’” Kent said he visits home every chance he can, money permitting, and his mom does the same in coming to him. To cut costs, both he and Lewis fly into and out of Fort Lauderdale, using a bus to get from Tampa to South Florida. He says he could’ve never imagined accomplishing everything he has at USF before he came to the school in the fall of 2015. Though she misses him every day, Lewis said she’s proud to see her son not only living her dream, but potentially living it even better. “People here tell me I have a golden boy,” she said. “Everybody’s so proud of him. I wish he could be here sometimes, but we keep in touch everyday. That’s my douxdoux.”
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HOUSING
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Ana Hernandez, assistant vice president of Housing and Residential Education, said that students should report every issue they encounter so her department can investigate it. ORACLE PHOTO/ CHAVELI GUZMAN
again after maintenance fixed the problem. This continued to happen for three consecutive weeks until they switched the room’s entire breaker. After this issue was resolved, both Gonzalez and Loboda said they experienced another maintenance problem. Last week, according to Loboda, she found a puddle of water forming under her desk after showering at about midnight. The problem was not fully solved by maintenance until 2:30 a.m., leaving Gonzalez and Loboda to clean the mess themselves. Gonzalez said she is fed up with the issues. “The whole situation is annoying,” Gonzalez said. “With both the flooding and the light issue, we could’ve been electrocuted or tripped on something.” Ana Hernandez, assistant vice president of Housing and Residential Education, said that safety is the top priority of her department. “All of the construction certainly went through an inspection process, so we do not anticipate that there are any hazards existing in the buildings,” Hernandez said. “If somebody else feels otherwise, we would want them to let us know whether they submit
a work order or they come to report that directly to one of our 24-hour desk locations.” According to Loboda, communication between workers was the biggest issue. “The workers were really nice and respectful, however, one thing that made it hard was the communication between them,” Loboda said. “Even though our room was having problems all the time, nobody heard about them.” According to Hernandez, there’s a professional team of staff located in each residential building that does a regular walk-through of the residence halls. “With new construction, it just may bring new issues unique to a newly constructed building,” Hernandez said. “That’s why we ask students and we also engage with staff in each building to let us know if there are any issues.” Besides those problems, both roommates reported that the elevator at their building breaks very often and the stove, located in the communal kitchen, was not working for the first three weeks of fall semester. According to Gonzalez, she tried to make a maintenance request in order
to fix the stove, however, according to the worker’s response — since not enough people were reporting the issue — they were not able to come. Maritza Armengol, a freshman majoring in architecture, lives in Endeavor Hall and said that she had fill out more than 10 maintenance requests in order to have her lights and outlets fixed. “The maintenance issue I had while living in endeavor was that all the outlets would constantly go out,” Armengol said. “It was extremely inconvenient when I had an assignment or quiz due that day and my laptop would just shut down in the middle of it.” It was not only in Endeavor that students had complaints regarding their housing situation. Valentina Simão, a freshman majoring in chemical engineering, lives on the second floor of Horizon Hall and said the air conditioner installed in the entire building is not only disturbing her sleep, but it is also interfering with her studies when trying to finish assignments and study for exams due to the loud noise. Linh Ho, a freshman majoring in finance, echoed the points of Simão. Living on the fifth floor of Horizon Hall, Ho said that the air conditioner is the worst thing about living in the village. “The air conditioner is too loud,” Ho said. “Sometimes it is hard to sleep and it distracts me from focusing on my academics.” According to Hernandez, despite not knowing the specifics of the problem, she said that students should first report the issue so they can further investigate the nature of it. “It’s hard for me to determine whether there’s an issue with that particular air conditioning unit or whether it is the nature of the equipment that is in the building,” said Hernandez. “If we know where the issue is specifically happening, then we can have someone investigate that.”
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OPINION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
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Don’t be fooled by Nike’s new campaign
Nike’s new campaign takes advantage the Black Lives Matter Movement to turn a profit. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE By Paige Wisniewski C O L U M N I S T
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” This tagline — under a black and white still frame of Colin Kaepernick — of Nike’s newest advertising campaign would leave the impression that Nike is positioning themselves as a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. Do not be fooled. Nike’s use of Kaepernick’s image is nothing more than a marketing scheme. Kaepernick — the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who knelt in peaceful protest of police brutality during football games — has become a celebrity voice for the movement. While he voluntarily lent his image to Nike, this advertisement should
be met with some skepticism. Nike aligning themselves in support of police brutality protesting appears bold, but any measure of corporate activism seems like it has more to do with profitability than genuine support or humanitarianism. When social movements are used as marketing schemes, the movement becomes commodified and exploited for a company’s financial gain. Nike is hardly the first corporation to participate in this tactic. Dick’s Sporting Goods dropped their sales of assault rifles after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. in February. Pepsi used the image of a street protest in a television ad in 2017. Using social and political movements of the oppressed to push athletic gear or soft drinks is manipulative and tacky.
Suffering is not a brand. Black Lives Matter should not be commercialized. Slapping a corporate logo on one side of a national debate only serves to divide us further and co-opt our voices. Would Nike “sacrifice everything” to continue supporting Black Lives Matter if cultural attitudes shifted and the movement’s prevalence faded? Why is it that Black Lives Matter is not “something” they “believed in” prior to Kaepernick’s public protesting? The movement has been building before Kaepernick started kneeling and police brutality has been around for even longer than that. If companies are genuinely interested in joining social action for more than just higher sales, then their activism should not stop at a national advertisement. Nike could donate some of their revenue to organizations committed to fighting police brutality. Proceeds could be used in the legal funds or medical expenditures of a person who was the victim of police brutality. Would Nike sacrifice their profits to believe in something? Not likely. Paige Wisniewski is a senior majoring in interdisciplinary social science.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The athletic measure of student attendance Thank you. Two powerful and meaningful words that we don’t say enough in our daily lives to our family, friends, coworkers and strangers. And we also often neglect to express our gratitude to those who help us get to where we want to go — simply by showing up, by lending their voices and by having our backs. USF students — thank you. Thank you for your incredible support at our first two home football games of the year at Raymond James Stadium, both victories for the Bulls. Thank you for those who made the 1,200-mile trip to Chicago for our victory over Illinois on Saturday. We saw you, we heard you and we thank you. Our Bulls’ football team is currently undefeated — including wins over ACC and Big Ten teams this young season. We are a remarkable 24-4 since the fall of 2016. We have won five straight games over Power-Five opponents. So much of our recent success can be attributed to our student-athletes and our coaches for sure, but also to our student body’s passion and commitment. It makes an enormous difference when our student section is full and loud and proud. Our players feed off of your energy as do our fans. When you are “on your game”, it elevates everyone’s game. This Saturday night, we open our American Athletic Conference slate
with an 8 p.m. kickoff against East Carolina at Ray Jay, and we need our students out in force. Including this week’s upcoming game, we have just four home games remaining in 2018, all crucial in our pursuit of a championship. It is such a great time to be a Bull. This fall, our football, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball teams are a combined 19-8, including volleyball off to an impressive 10-2 start and nationally ranked women’s soccer currently at 4-1. All of our student-athletes sacrifice and work so hard to make their classmates proud and I know it means so much to them when their fellow students come out to watch. So, I encourage you to watch our volleyball team courtside at The Corral. To cheer in the stands at Corbett Stadium for our soccer teams. To line the course for our cross-country teams at the South Florida Invitational in October. And yes, to be visible and loud at Raymond James Stadium for our football team. On behalf of our Department of Athletics, Coach Charlie Strong and his staff and our student-athletes, thank you to all of our students for doing your part in our pursuit of excellence and I hope that you will continue to be loud and proud! Horns Up! Bull Speed Ahead! Michael Kelly is the Vice President of USF Athletics.
Letters to the Editor are published at the discretion of The Oracle’s Editorial Board. Letters should not exceed 400 words and should include a name and title or major. All letters are subject to editing for content, grammar and length. Submit Letters to the Editor to oracleeditor@gmail.com.
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SOCCER
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under the radar was freshman Mia Palango from Hamilton, Ontario. The rookie defender has only been off the pitch for 19 minutes all season. “I think you only find a kid like [Palango] if you are native,” Schilte-Brown said. “She wasn’t even on her provincial team, she hasn’t been in the national pool and she’s been starting every game for us at center back.” Viens was assigned a mentorship role to help the younger Palango feel more comfortable when she came to USF. Palango recalled one moment that made her feel at home — Viens left a handwritten note in Palango’s locker. “It said: ‘We love you, keep working hard, we’re so happy you’re here,’” Palango said. “That was very thoughtful, I’ll definitely do that for some of the younger players next year.”
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Palango cited the drastic difference in climate as the toughest part of her transition from Canada. Viens, on the other hand, worried about some basic tasks American students might not think of — setting up international phone numbers and bank accounts. Viens also spoke only one language when she arrived in Tampa — French. It wasn’t long before her teammate, Yasmin Hall, who is from Edmonton, Canada, stepped up. She served as a translator for Viens to help her pick up English phrases and communicate with her team. Hall transferred to Kent State after last season, but it seems the Bulls have a steady stream of international students coming in each year. The Bulls had nine international students on their roster last season and 13 the season before that. Conference opponents Memphis and UCF have 15 and nine international students on their respective
rosters. USF, however, is unique in that it has established a culture of international success, according to Schilte-Brown. “I think you get a reputation,” she said. “The girls that have come through our program have felt like they’ve been treated right and felt growth in themselves as a person and a player. “When you can build that reputation, then you can get more and vice versa. A lot of schools that are bringing in international students and haven’t dealt with them well — when that happens, the Canadians, or any foreign player, looks at that program and sees that as a higher risk.” The Bulls don’t feature just Canadian players, however, the current roster has faces from Ghana, England, Iceland and Jamaica — including sophomore defender Chyanne Dennis, who could represent Jamaica in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup if Jamaica is a top-three finisher in the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s
FOOTBALL
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Duran Bell Jr. high-steps his way into the end-zone against Georgia Tech. He sat out during the Illinois game due to an ankle injury. ORACLE PHOTO/CHAVELI GUZMAN
Carolina and our hearts and prayers go out to those families and also the lives of 17 people that’s been lost.” Clearly there were more important things for North Carolinians to worry about last weekend than football. But, much like when USF missed out on a game against UMass last season, last week will be a game ECU’s upperclassmen will never get back. “I think it’s tough — not for the younger guys, but for the seniors,” Livingstone said. “That’s a game that they lose for their film or their resumes. So that’s definitely hard. After the season, there were guys that said that they wish they could have got the UMass game back. That’s really, really hard.”
Andrea Hauksdottir, of Iceland (10) celebrates with Grace Davis, of Ghana (10) after scoring a goal.. ORACLE PHOTO/SAM NEWLON Championship this year. Dennis wouldn’t be the only Bull playing in the World Cup if her nation qualifies. There are USF alumni from England, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile and New Zealand. “There’s a lot of pride from where [the players] come from, but we’ve created a family culture,” Schilte-Brown said. “So when you get to watch your teammate on TV in a national
event … we’re cheering for them. That’s exciting.” The culture away from the pitch for the USF women’s soccer team seems similar to the culture on the pitch — do your part and help your teammates. “I feel like at USF, you do something and you pass it,” Viens said. “When I was a freshman, the senior class helped me and I did the same with the sophomores and the freshmen.”
Once the Virginia Tech game was canceled, the Pirates relocated to Orlando to wait out the storm. ECU coach Scottie Montgomery explained the team’s decision to evacuate lowlying Greenville, North Carolina, on the AAC’s weekly conference call. “We really were trying to hang in there because we thought we were going to play the Virginia Tech game all the way up until Tuesday evening, Tuesday afternoon, somewhere in there,” Montgomery said. “Then we got the word that the decision was made, that the game was not going to be played and a couple of other games in our state were not going to be played. At that point in time, we wanted to make sure we gave our kids the best opportunity to be safe. At the end of the day, it was all about
making sure that our kids were safe and that’s what we based it all around.” Mitchell Wilcox was able to relate to what ECU is going through, as USF’s tight end and his family had to evacuate last year as Irma approached the west coast of Florida. “It’s a lot on your mind, for sure,” Wilcox said. “It’s always like — the fear and the thought of the unknown. My family and I, we have some elderly grandparents, we actually got them out of Tarpon Springs and went to north Georgia. It was kind of that deal where if the storm had kind of diverted at all, they would have been right in the eye of the storm. It’s just like the kind of unknowns.” The Bulls and Pirates kick off Saturday at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPNEWS.
Sports
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Women’s Soccer
An international family within USF women’s soccer
By Sam Newlon S P O R T S
E D I T O R
When Evelyne Viens, USF’s forward, visited Tampa, she was worried about being homesick. She’d potentially travel 1,632 miles from her hometown, L’ancienne-Lorette, Canada, to play soccer and go to school at USF. A key aspect that helped her make her decision was coach Denise Schilte-Brown. “The first time I came to visit, [Schilte-Brown] said: ‘if you’re homesick, you can come over and eat dinner with us. We’ll always be there for you,’ which was a major factor,” said Viens. Offering Viens a spot at her table could be chalked up to a simple recruiting technique, but Schilte-Brown, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, likely had
Football By Brian Hattab S T A F F
and received letters in the mail from American schools. After a few college visits, she received a full scholarship to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “I was definitely a pioneer,” she said. Unknowingly, Schilte-Brown helped set a precedent that follows her today. At the helm of No. 19 USF, she currently coaches nine international student-athletes — six of which are Canadian. “When you grow up in a country, you understand the Evelyne Viens (middle) celebrates with Andrea Hauksdottir (10) and Katie Kitching (7) after scoring a goal. Viens system better than everybody else,” Schilte-Brown said. “I would is from Canada, Hauksdottir is from Iceland and Kitching is from England. ORACLE PHOTO/SAM NEWLON know where the best players are that generosity ingrained in her Schilte-Brown said she was Canada,” she said. “I happened — even the ones that aren’t in personality. among the first wave of female to be very young when I had the the national pool. I would know She recalled watching a man soccer players in Canada to travel goal that nobody else thought was where that next tier is that could from her hometown gift a stranger to the U.S. to play soccer. even possible — or a good idea.” compete for the national pool.” the shirt off his back because the “It wasn’t a common thing Schilte-Brown competed in One of the players who flew stranger said they liked it. when I was coming out of American soccer tournaments n See SOCCER on PAGE 7
USF seeks win No. 150 against ECU
W R I T E R
After defeating back-to-back Power-Five opponents Georgia Tech and Illinois, USF football (3-0) opens its sixth season of AAC play against ECU on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium. Saturday’s game — the 255th for the football program — could be historic for the Bulls. With a win against ECU, USF would record its 150th win in program history. That would set a new record among Florida FBS teams for the quickest to
150 wins, surpassing the Gators, who accomplished the feat in 258 games — a record that was set in 1937. “I think it’d be a pretty big game for the school and the program,” defensive end Kirk Livingstone said. “But it’s also important because it’s the very next game. ECU is a very good team and we just have to come out ready to play.” The Pirates (1-1) are also coming off a Power-Five victory, although they’ve had to wait a while to play their next game. ECU defeated North Carolina 41-19 on Sept. 8. and haven’t played since.
ECU’s game last weekend at No. 13 Virginia Tech was canceled due to Hurricane Florence heading toward the Carolinas. While Virginia Tech wasn’t in the direct line of the storm, ECU was. The Pirates found themselves in a similar situation to what USF went through last September when Hurricane Irma hit Florida. “You sit here a year ago, what we were experiencing, how we were bracing ourselves for the hurricane,” coach Charlie Strong said. “Then you think about what has just happened in North
n See FOOTBALL on PAGE 7
Blake Barnett celebrates a rushing touchdown against Georgia Tech. He’ll be leading the Bulls again against conference opponent ECU.. ORACLE PHOTO/BAILY EASTERMAN