THEVERMONTCYNIC THE Issue 19 - Volume 138 | February 15, 2022 | vtcynic.com
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UVM sees highest number of applicants to date as in-state applicants continue to drop Residency In-state student? Out-of-state student? RJ Morrison Cynic News Reporter
Despite a record number of students who applied to UVM this year, the number of in-state applicants fell, said Jay Jacobs, vice provost for enrollment management. The University received more than 30,000 applicants for the class of 2026, breaking the previous record number of applicants set last year, Jacobs said. However, the number of Vermonters went down 8%. The previous record number of applications recieved by UVM, set in 2021, was 25,500, according to a July 15, 2021 article from Seven Days. UVM did not require standardized test scores this year, the second year of a three-year experimental pilot program of operating as a test-optional institution. About half of the applicants decided to apply without using their standardized test scores, Jacobs said. The decline in Vermontbased applications likely stemmed from declining numbers of students graduating from Vermont high schools, he said. “We are expecting fewer and fewer Vermont applications from here on
out,” Jacobs said. “The number of high school graduates is declining in the state of Vermont. The University anticipates the number of Vermont applicants will remain stable next year but will fall sharply during the 2030s, he said. In 2004 – the birth year of the majority of 2026 graduates – 6,597 babies were born to Vermont residents. These numbers were up by eight from 2003, according to the Jan. 15, 2005 Vermont Department of Health’s Annual Vital Statistics Report. Vermont birth rates began declining during the 1990s, and continued dropping steadily throughout the 2000s, according to the 2008 edition of the Statistics Report. Although birth rates declined nationwide in the ‘90s according to CDC data, Vermont’s birth rate dropped more significantly and remained lower than the national average. Vermont’s 2008 birth rate was 10.2 per 1000 residents, as compared with 14.0 for the nation. The number of students in Vermont’s 2020 cohort fell 3% from 2019, according to the New England Secondary School Consortium’s annual Common Data Project published in November 2021.
The report defines a cohort as the group of students who enter high school in grade nine, plus the students who transfer into school, minus the students who transfer away. It includes students who drop-out of school and/ or do not graduate, the report stated. Only 48.9% of Vermont’s 2020 cohort enrolled in a college program the following fall, the lowest of any New England state, the next highest rate reported was Maine at 55.2%, according to the same report. An admitted student from Montpelier, Juliet Rapaport, said in-state student’s desire to get out of Vermont might also be part of the cause. “Vermont was really shut down for a while and we couldn’t really do much,” Rapaport said. “People really want to get out of Vermont. I know all my friends are really just saying ‘Oh, I need to get out of here. I need to go somewhere else.’” The University worried about the drop in Vermontbased applications, Director of Admissions Moses Murphy said. “That is of concern and it’s something that we’re continually trying to address,” he said. The University actively looks to attract more
Vermonters to the school. This includes assisting students who previously went to community college to finish their degree and sending special messages to Vermont high schoolers, according to a Feb. 10 email from Murphy. The University’s handling of the pandemic, national outreach efforts and a switch to test-optional applications helped drive the increase in total applicants, Murphy said. Some students may have felt their standardized test scores would have excluded them from admission. Rapaport believes the testoptional system also helped her get admitted, she said. Of the schools she applied to, only one didn’t adopt the testoptional system. “I do think that history will look back on this time as sort of an inflection point as it relates to standardized testing,” Murphy said. “I could see fewer and fewer schools requiring them as part of the admissions process.” The University considered switching to a test-optional system even before the pandemic, Jacobs said. They have yet to make a decision about whether to make the change permanent.
NEWS
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Edna Hall Brown, UVM’s first female grad Audrie Caruso Cynic News Reporter
Edna Hall Brown is the first recorded Black woman to graduate from UVM, according to an April 2021 article by Ben Yousey-Hindes, assistant vice president for communications and stewardship at the UVM Foundation. Brown graduated in June 1930 with a Bachelor of Science in education, according to documents from Special Collections. Little information is known about her, YouseyHindes said. UVM’s records don’t indicate whether other Black women graduated from the University before Brown, because they could’ve been white-passing, said Beverly Colston, director of the Mosaic Center for Students of Color. “UVM, like all institutions, looks very similar to a country that has not done a good job with its history,” Colston said. “Certainly not with racial reckoning.” More is lost in the historical record the more marginalized you are, Colston said. Having a statue or some physical recognition of her would be a step towards showing representation of women of color, Black women in particular, on campus which would in turn help them feel like they belonged, senior
Zyakkiriah Rhoden said. “It would at least help me know that I have a place on UVM’s campus even though it doesn’t feel like that all the time,” Rhoden said. “The constant marginalization of certain groups on campus made us a lot more behind than a lot of other schools.” Rhoden believes the reason people hear so much more about Andrew Harris than they do about Brown is because Black women face even deeper discrimination than Black men in many ways, she said. “The education that UVM is giving me on the people that look like me from the past isn’t necessarily the education I want to receive,” Rhoden said. “Not to have heard more about [Brown] is just disappointing.” Brown was born and raised in Baltimore, but obtained a high school education at St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont and then continued her education at UVM. Her reasons for moving to Vermont for school remain a mystery, Yousey-Hindes said. A student at UVM initially brought up the question of the first Black woman to graduate from UVM to the Silver Special Collections Library a few years ago, said Prudence Doherty, public service librarian in Special Collections. “It was kind of flipping pages trying to see if we could
Photo courtesy of UVM Foundations identify somebody, once we had her name, we undertook some research to find out more about her,” Doherty said. Multiple librarians pieced together Brown’s story, Doherty said. These efforts also included someone in Middlebury building on the story and then another faculty member after that. UVM gives a scholarship to minority students annually
in Brown’s name, according to Yousey-Hindes’ article. Brown left the money to UVM when she died in 2000. Two recent recipients of the scholarship include Emily Zahran ‘21 and Maya Dizack ‘20, according to the article. Brown enjoyed gardening, reading, doing crossword puzzles, and playing pinochle and bridge, according to an article from the UVM
Foundation. She also loved to travel. She spent the summer after graduating from UVM traveling with her mother. After graduating from UVM, Brown went on to earn her master’s from Columbia University in 1932 and became a science teacher, moving back to Baltimore, according to the UVM Foundation article.
‘Mr. Cynic:’ The Cynic’s first Black editor-in-chief Reitz Wishtischin Cynic News Reporter
Nicodemus McCollum III became the first Black editorin-chief of the Vermont Cynic in 1952, according to a June, 26, 1952 Jet magazine article. McCollum, known as “Mr. Cynic,” studied political science and aspired to enter the world of journalism post-graduation in 1952, according to the article. He eventually became a father of four, among his many other accomplishments, an April 1952 Cynic article stated. “McCollum was named managing editor of the Cynic in September [1952], when it was considered a dying newspaper, but by spring the energetic World War II vet had made the paper a paying proposition,” the Jet article stated. Jet is a now discontinued weekly magazine that focused coverage on Black American life and history, according to a Jan. 19, 2021 article from the LA Times. McCollum served two years on the Cynic staff. His roles included re-write editor, comanaging editor, managing editor and editor-in-chief, according to an April 25, 1952 Cynic article. McCollum’s first issue as re-write editor came out Sept.
Photo courtesy of UVM Special Collections
15, 1951, according to the Cynic Archives. His first issue as co-managing editor came out Oct. 18, 1951, and he became managing editor on Dec. 14, 1951. McCollum’s first issue as editor-in-chief ran on April 25, 1952. McCollum became the editor-in-chief at 34 years old, the Jet article stated. McCollum worked a variety of odd jobs in order to pay his way through college, including TJ Maxx and Thrifty Car Rental for over 20 years, according to his obituary. Bob Beaupre, the city editor of the Burlington Free Press at the time, awarded McCollum
the gold Cynic key in 1952 for outstanding contribution and work to the Cynic, an April 25, 1952 Cynic article stated. While McCollum was a student, he was married and had one daughter, an April 17, 1952 Cynic article stated. Born in Burlington on March 16, 1953, his parents were Mary Hatcher and Nicodemus McCollum Jr., according to his obituary. McCollum and his wife had four children – Sharon, Mary Elizabeth, John and Nicodemus Jr. – according to a Sept. 30, 1961 article from the Burlington Free Press. Prior to attending UVM, McCollum attended Winooski
Photo courtesy of UVM Special Collections
High School, the obituary stated. During World War II, he served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army, according to an April 1952 Cynic article. McCollum worked in active duty with the Vermont National Guard, 131st Engineers. He served three years in the South Pacific during World War II, a 1961 Burlington Free Press article stated. McCollum descended from Buffalo Soldiers who arrived in Vermont in 1909. The Buffalo Soldiers were one of four groups of all-African American regiments of the U.S. Army created in 1866, according to the United Methodist Church of
Winooski database. “The Vermont Buffalo Soldier Community is like a family, even though many of us aren’t biological relatives. You can’t pull us apart,” said Sharon McCollum in a 2009 UVM alumni article. The Winooski United Methodist Church hosted McCollum as an active member, where his memorial service occured in Oct. 2016, his obituary stated. He died on Oct. 7, 2016 at the age of 63 in Colchester, according to his obituary. He died at his home after suffering a long illness.
NEWS
Athletics works to end sexual violence Isabelle Tanner Cynic News Reporter
In an effort to communicate with the UVM community, Director of Athletics Jeffrey Schulman and Cathleen Rahill, associate director of athletics, addressed sexual violence prevention and training within the athletic department at the Feb. 8 SGA meeting. The presentation resulted from a push from student leaders confronting the athletic department’s lack of communication about their sexual violence and prevention training, said senior Olivija Stephens, vice president of SGA. “We’ve sort of thought long and hard over the past several months about what we can do in terms of educating our student athletes and being part of the campus solution,” Schulman said. Schulman and Rahill spoke about new, current and future initiatives within the athletic department that aim to educate UVM’s student athlete population. The department has a partnership with HOPE Works, a non-profit organization that has committed themselves to end sexual violence, according to their website. UVM athletics and HOPE Works have meetings with each sports team to speak on topics of consent, relationships and sexual violence prevention, Rahill said.
First-year student athletes must complete a course called Student Athlete Development, or EDPE 024, Rahill said. Within the course, athletes complete sexual misconduct modules containing information about consent, communication, power and identities. Student athletes go through the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity’s mandatory sexual assault training. The AAEO gave reporting resources and reviews the investigative process for sexual violence with the athletes, according to a handout from the Feb. 8 meeting. Staff also has mandatory training through the AAEO covering sexual misconduct prevention, reporting and UVM’s adjudication process, according to the handout. Additionally, athletes must sign a code of conduct which includes a comprehensive sexual misconduct policy. “Athletes are responsible for knowing and abiding by the provisions of the University’s Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy,” the policy stated. The athletic department is currently in the midst of preliminary conversations with an organization called Men Can Stop Rape about adding their messaging to UVM’s education for male student athletes, Rahill said. This organization stems from the idea that men need to help with prevention and
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MARY MCLELLAN/The Vermont Cynic Director of Athletics Jeffrey Schulman and Cathleen Rahill, associate director of athletics presented at the weekly SGA meeting Feb. 8.
ending of sexual violence. MCSR hopes to empower men to enforce a culture free from sexual violence, according to their website. “We’re always evaluating what we’re doing and Men Can Stop Rape is good example of that,” Schulman said. Senior Maddie Henson, chair of the committee of student action and well-being, junior and senator Taylor MacHarrie, and Stephens suggested an increased emphasis on training
upperclassmen and team captains to improve culture at a Nov. 19, 2021 meeting with the athletic department, Stephens said. “That recommendation came from my own anecdotal experience on sports teams and how when I was a firstyear student or a freshman in high school on my teams, I was definitely a lot more nervous and a lot less likely to speak up if I saw something that bothered me,” Stephens said.
Stephens hopes to see further bystander intervention and leadership training implemented that is aimed towards those influential upperclassmen, she said. Stephens and other senate members are looking forward to further communication with the AD and for the student body to be made aware of progress that has been made through honoring the Title IX Advisory Committee’s demands that were made last year, she said.
UVM requests $10 million from House Committee Lila Cumming Cynic News Reporter
UVM President Suresh Garimella requested a $10 million increase in the University’s base appropriation from the state’s House Committee on Education Feb. 10. The current base State Appropriation budget amounts to just over $42.5 million, according to UVM’s 2022 Detailed Operating Budget report. These funds support academic, administrative and department operations. UVM has not requested an increase in appropriation funding in 14 years. If approved, the budget will rise to roughly $52.5 million, said Wendy Koenig, director of federal and state relations. The House Committee on Education in the Vermont General Assembly, the legislative body of the state of Vermont, considers the educational needs of Vermonters pertaining to financial affairs, according to the Vermont General Assembly website. “Such an increase in base funding would really allow us to continue our commitment to affordability and access,”
Garimella said. “That’s been my central focus, it’s part of our strategic plan and it serves the land grant mission for our state.” Garimella has sustained a tuition freeze every academic year since taking his position as UVM’s president, according to a Sept. 15 Cynic article. He announced plans to freeze tuition this past fall, marking the fourth consecutive year. The University also plans to re-request the $30 million to improve the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems to improve the air quality in buildings on campus to ensure the safest environment possible in the midst of the pandemic, Garimella said. For FY 2022, the University has a total Operating Revenue Budget of $714 million, $376 million of which is general funding that allots to base appropriation funding, according to the University’s 2022 Detailed Operating Budget report. The Operating Revenue Budget provides a summary of UVM’s overall budget and gives details of the University’s total operating budget including the General Fund and Income/ Expense activities, according to the University website.
UVM requested the $10 million increase in appropriations after four years of frozen tuition. Room and board made matters challenging because it’s a big expense to the community as almost half of instate students have their tuition covered in full, Garimella said. Over the last five years, 44% of in-state students have had their tuition entirely covered by the University, according to a Jan. 23, 2020 Cynic article. In July 2020, the University introduced a new Office of Engagement which the state legislature funded $2 million to start up, according to the University website. The Office of Engagement consists of researchers, faculty and students that private, public and nonprofit entities can directly consult with if they are interested in approaching the University, according to the Office of Engagement homepage. The University’s Office of Engagement supports the University’s land-grant mission, which enhances the economic and social well-being of the state, according to the University website. “One of the most important areas that I personally believe is quite critical for the state is
KATE VANNI/ The Vermont Cynic UVM President Suresh Garimella announced UVM will freeze tuition for the 2020-2021 school year at an Oct. 26 press conference,
to double down on internships that are offered within the state,” Garimella said. If graduates feel there is a future in Vermont career opportunities, they’re more likely to remain in the state, Garimella said. Every year, the University adds over 1,000 graduates to Vermont’s workforce and UVM’s contribution of direct and indirect economic activity comes out to $1.33 billion, according to the University’s 2017 presentation to State Legislatures.
While the office operated well so far in engaging the state with professional education, the increase in funding would help with the affordability of the University, Garimella said. “Being one of the most expensive public institutions in the country isn’t very hopeful in the longevity of our success and sustainability,” Garimella said. “So this shot in the arm from the state will be a good message, and we have committed to continuing to do our best for affordability.”
OPINION
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Bring back Grundle comfort food
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EXECUTIVE Editor-in-Chief Kate Vanni editorinchief@vtcynic.com Managing Editor Greta Rohrer newsroom@vtcynic.com
OPERATIONS Operations Manager Emma Chute operations@vtcynic.com
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ADVISING Andy Elrick Inquaries email cynic@uvm.edu
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ightly pizza and pasta at Harris Millis Dining Hall have always been a staple for my on-campus dinners. However, since the Grundle no longer regularly serves comfort food items, it’s hard to find dining hall food I can eat. All dining halls need nightly comfort food for people like me who are restricted by disordered or picky eating and severe food allergies. As a resident of Trinity campus, trekking across campus for food has become a part of my routine due to the lack of options at Northside Dining. As long as the Grundle had pizza and pasta, I always knew I had a safe option I could rely on. MyZone, an option located in all residential dining halls, should help my severe food allergies as it provides a separate food station for those allergic to gluten, peanuts and tree nuts, according to UVM Dining’s website. Since coming back this semester, I’ve noticed UVM Dining has removed the MyZone options from every dining hall’s daily menu, even though it still lists it as an option under each dining hall’s description, according to UVM Dining’s website. “Due to the current disruptions in the supply chain we are experiencing frequent
ABBY KAISER
menu changes and substitutions for ingredients that may cause changes to the allergens in some of your favorite menu items,” an Aug. 19, 2021 UVM Dining notice stated. This makes UVM’s dining halls inaccessible for many students. “Every time the numbers in the U.S. go up due to COVID-19, it has a ripple effect on people staying home, a run on supply and then worker shortages,” UVM Dining Director Melissa Zelazny said. Although this may not be UVM Dining’s fault, this makes eating in dining halls incredibly difficult. A Change.org petition created by Flynn O. has recently spread around social media titled “Bring Back Grundle Pasta.” “For the health of student
minds, bodies, colons and community, we humbly ask the University of Vermont and Sodexo Dining to return pasta, pizza and most importantly, garlic bread to the Grundle,” the petition’s description stated. The petition has 120 signatures, as of Feb. 13. Some students feel UVM Dining food leads to disordered eating for students due to its lack of quality and options, according to a Dec. 2, 2021 Cynic article. I fell into this trap last semester after coming to UVM, struggling with where to get my next decent meal. As I try to improve this semester, I face the extra obstacle of my safe foods being gone on most nights. I often face severe anxiety about going to the dining halls,
wondering whether or not there will be an option for me. I am paying $2,284 per semester for my dining hall plan, according to UVM Dining’s website. I should not find it difficult to find a decent meal free of allergens and anxiety. The only time I was able to get pizza, pasta and garlic bread this semester was Feb. 7. The hour-long line winding up two flights of stairs was worth getting garlic bread. UVM Dining should bring back Grundle comfort food, for the sake of students with food allergies and disordered eating, or for those who simply miss their Grundle garlic bread. Emma Dinsmore is a firstyear English and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies double major. She has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2021.
Practice loving yourself this Valentine’s Day Grace Visco Assistant Opinion Editor
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’ve never had a valentine on Valentine’s Day. This upset me in years past, but this year it’s not going to. Valentine’s Day is associated with romance, chocolate and flowers. However, love doesn’t need to be romantic. Instead of crying over boys and moping about how lonely I am, this Valentine’s Day I’ll be practicing self-love. Throughout the past year I have been on a long — and difficult — self-love journey. After experiencing a heartbreak that left me feeling broken last Valentine’s Day, I realized I needed to make a change. I had no idea how to love myself, so I started small. I began journaling, meditating and doing things for and by myself. I slowly began to gain more independence and understanding of what self-love actually means to me.
It was a long journey that took a lot more than journaling and yoga, but putting in the effort to love myself was worth it. Loving myself healed me. There is not one single definition of self-love, nor one single way to practice it. Self-love can mean something different to everyone. For me, it’s loving all the quirky and silly parts of myself and building confidence. Every day I go for a walk around campus. I pop in some earbuds and play my favorite music. In my mind I am performing the world’s greatest dance break. Some days I return from my walk and do my little dance in front of the mirror, just for fun and for myself. Dancing and envisioning movement brings me confidence, happiness and makes me feel whole. I even have a playlist called “Grace world” with all the songs my mind loves to perform to. Maybe this isn’t the traditional way to practice self-love, but it’s what I do.
MOLLY PARKER
Discovering this practice allows me to have a different outlook on Valentine’s Day this year. I have a healthier relationship to this holiday than I did in the past, because I have a healthier relationship with myself and love. I love myself in an unromantic way, but this day of love can hold space for this form. This Valentine’s Day, everyone should create their own definition of self-love and find
happiness and appreciation for themselves. Valentine’s Day should not only be about couples. I cannot wait to spend this Valentine’s Day grooving, laughing and admiring the many sides of myself.
Grace Visco is a sophomore Spanish and secondary education double major. She has been writing for the Cynic since spring 2021.
CULTURE
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Lucia McCallum
increase in the hiring and giving of tenure to faculty of color, more classes aimed at teaching diversity and the increase in accountability for racist remarks made on campus. Historically BSU played large roles in each of these events and the frustrations of the takeovers are not unfamiliar to the BSU, McCallum said. “I see myself in the tradition of the Waterman takeovers, we’re fighting the same battles because I don’t think the vision of those takeovers was fully brought to fruition,” McCallum said. Additionally, BSU now faces challenges their predecessors never experienced. During the times of COVID-19, maintaining a sense of community over Zoom calls and restricted social gatherings has resulted in BSU searching for new ways to connect, McCallum said. “The reality of the way that COVID-19 has disrupted things means that carrying on that tradition is a little bit more complicated,” McCallum said. “In terms of community turnover and in terms of participation and retention.” Going forward, BSU finds strength in utilizing its traditions and history, Colston said. “It’s inspiring to know that you come from a legacy where people are willing to basically step up and put themselves on the line for change,” Colston said.
The history of the Black Student Union Culture Staff Writer
The Black Student Union creates a space of community for Black students at UVM, said senior Miles McCallum, president of the BSU. Although formally recognized by the SGA in 2004, McCallum said BSU took many forms during its time at UVM. It carries on the traditions of its predecessors while also creating new traditions. “Black students were organizing and making community whether or not formally recognized by SGA,” McCallum said. “That surely didn’t translate into just activism and activity that’s going to be recorded on the news but also in getting together and experiencing community together and making joy together.” This history can be traced back to the ‘60s or ‘70s, times in which student activism was prevalent on campus, English Professor Nancy Walsh said, according to a March 2, 2016 Cynic article. Beverly Colston, director of the Mosaic Center for Students of Color, said when she first joined the UVM community in 2000 she learned about the New Black Leaders, a previous iteration of BSU primarily active in the ‘90s. “I’m sure that students created the New Black Leaders for similar reasons to why students created the BSU,” Colston said. “To make space for themselves in a place where you
ANDREW BURGET/The Vermont Cynic Senior Miles McCallum, president of UVM’s Black Student Union, poses with a 1988 poster for BSU Feb. 11.
don’t see people that look like you and or your culture is not necessarily being celebrated.” The legacy of Black student groups is not lost upon the current BSU. Although the group celebrates the community BSU provides, McCallum said he is also aware past obstacles are still relevant today. Included in these obstacles is facing UVM’s long history of racism, McCallum said. “I want BSU moving forward
to be a unified rebuttal to that history,” McCallum said. “And to make space for the collective experience that is Blackness as personified and as lived by the Black undergraduate students here.” Deciding how to take action on issues has also been key in how the BSU historically operates, Colston said. “I believe that all of our clubs, including the BSU, and New Black Leaders in the
past, also were spaces where students could determine how they wanted to combat racism,” Colston said. Students have occupied Waterman three times in hopes of pushing the administration to act on issues of inclusion and diversity, according to a Feb. 26, 2019 Cynic article. According to their respective lists of demands, all three takeovers included, but were not limited to, demands of an
Looking at the Burlington Reparations Task Force Cameron Provorny Culture Editor In response to Black Lives Matter protests in summer 2020, the Burlington City Council put together the Burlington Reparations Task Force, said Rebecca Zietlow, associate dean at the University of Toledo College of Law. The Task Force was created to explore the possibility of reparations for the city of Burlington, Zietlow said. They work with a team of historians to look through years of documents to determine how the government of Burlington might have profited from slavery in areas like insurance companies and economics. The Reparations Task Force held their first meeting over Zoom on Nov. 11, 2020. “One example is the history of redlining and racial segregation of neighborhoods,” Zietlow said. “Which has contributed to the huge wealth disparity between white and Black people in this country and continues to today.” Vermont abolished slavery in 1777, according to the National Museum of African American
History and Culture, though Tyeastia Green, Burlington Director of racial equity, inclusion and belonging said enslaved people still lived in Vermont until 1863. “Vermont is racial injustice, that’s how I see it,” Green said. “It’s 2022 and it’s still incredibly white and that’s not by accident. Vermont has a long way to go as far as working towards racial justice.” Green and Mark Huges from the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance created the idea of the Reparations Task Force, Green said. The city of Burlington funded the task force with $50,000 to complete the research. The goal of the Task Force is to study Vermont during the slavery era and how Burlington in particular benefited from the transatlantic slave trade, Green said. Another topic of research the Task Force is looking into is the history of land deeds in Burlington. This issue is especially specific to Burlington because the City governs the property and the deeds, Zietlow said.
ERIC SCHARF/The Vermont Cynic Church Street hosts crowds of people Feb. 12.
“We are looking in the city, to what extent were there racially exclusionary deeds in the past that prevented African Americans from purchasing property,” Zietlow said. Unfortunately, the City
would never be able to pay the debt of reparations and neither could the state of Vermont, Green said. “What Burlington can do and what Vermont can do is make sure that racial justice
and racial equity initiatives are put in place,” Green said. “As far as paying out reparations to descendants of enslaved people, there is no state or local municipality that can actually pay that debt.”
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CULTURE
Gender gaps still prevalent in CEMS Avery Delisle Culture Staff Writer
Since Ellen Hamilton and Lida Mason were the first women to graduate from UVM in 1875, there have been advancements in the gender ratios on campus but STEM fields are still unequal. In the college of engineering and mathematical sciences, 945 students are male-identifyng and 375 are female-identifying. This makes CEMS college a male-identifying majority which is unlike any other colleges at UVM, according to UVM’s office of institutional research webpage. UVM does not have a category in these statistics for students who identify as neither male nor female. One of the biggest things about being a woman in STEM is dealing with imposter syndrome, said junior Jordan Allen-Brandon, treasurer for Women in STEM. “A lot of the women I’ve talked to in my STEM classes, we’re always like ‘Are we really smart enough to be here?’ And the answer is always yes,” AllenBrandon said. Women are not encouraged to reach out and typically the professors are male which adds an unintentional power dynamic, she said. “It’s intimidating, especially if you’re particularly expressive in your appearance or feminine in your appearance,” Allen-
Brandon said. This is why Allen-Brandon tries to find someone to connect with in each of her classes. “It makes you feel more part of a community, like you’re not alone,” Allen-Brandon said. “It’s also helped me ask more questions, and to not be afraid to not get something right away and to really work through something.” Junior Isabelle Kressy, president of Women in STEM, said she also noticed this in her computer science and math
courses. The Women in STEM club, founded in fall 2021, is one resource for femaleidentifying STEM students. It started because of a need for connection, Kressy said. “I think there’s still definitely a gender gap in the STEM field between men and women,” Kressy said. “I’ve experienced it myself, just kind of feeling out of place and showing my feminine side just seems not wrong but like I don’t fit in.” Linda Schadler, dean for
the college of engineering and mathematical sciences, said in her studies as an undergraduate, she didn’t notice any challanges. When Schadler was a graduate student, however, she said it was lonely. “There were mostly men in the department,” Schadler said. “They had a regular poker game that was men only and so I never felt a full part of the crowd.” When she went to work in academia, Schadler said she was the first woman hired in her
department. “I just felt like I lived in a fishbowl,” Schadler said. Not caring what other people thought was a huge help, Schadler said. “I think that helps with resiliency in the field, if you can have enough of your own true north to ignore the rest of that,” Schadler said. That comes, however, with a lot of privilege and a lot of family support, depending on what their life experience has been, Schadler said.
Sophomore splits time between class and tattooing Max Gerlach Culture Staff Writer
Sophomore Symoad Frolik works to balance her life as a UVM student and tattoo apprentice. Frolik got a tattoo at Imperial Tattoo Company in Burlington in August. After expressing her interest in tattooing to the artist, he invited Frolik back to the shop to paint, she said. This began the unofficial prerequisite for becoming a tattoo apprentice, Frolik said. “And then I just kept going in every single day for, like, three months,” Frolik said. Before the jump from paper to ink, all tattoo artists must undergo a long, stressful period of vetting, known as an apprenticeship, Frolik said. The apprenticeship process takes an immense level of dedication, said Drew Holland, the artist who invited Frolik to come to the shop and paint. Holland started tattooing full-time three years ago and apprenticed under Jamie Pompa, the owner of Imperial, who is now Frolik’s mentor. The process of becoming an apprentice is intense and goes
beyond artistic talent, Holland said. Tattoo apprenticeship is a closely-guarded, secretive tradition, which can make the process really stressful for some people, Holland said. “There were two other people who wanted to be taken on,” Frolik said. “They just messed up and were told never to come back.” With this pressure looming over her for months, Imperial Tattoo finally offered Frolik a position as an apprentice on her 21st birthday in late October 2021, she said. Since recieving the apprenticeship, Frolik balances her time between school fulltime and honing her craft at the shop. Maintaining that balance is challenging, she said. “I’m about to start my dream career, and for some reason I’m still pursuing a degree,” Frolik said. However, the transition to official apprenticeship has been smooth, and she goes into work six days a week, Frolik said. “The important thing is Symoad showed up, she kept showing up, and now she’s part of the team,” Holland said. After five months of training,
Frolik is nearly ready to work on skin, Holland said. Yet she knows there is so much more to learn, Frolik said. “It’s one of those things that you can forever be better at, and everyone who gives a shit wants to forever be better,” Frolik said. Frolik remembers drawing as a kid in the backseat of her family car as they moved across the country to their new home on a nature reserve in California, she said. “Once I got out to the reserve I would just walk around and draw everything I saw,” Frolik said. Drawing, and later watercolor painting became a constant in her life, as her family moved around a lot when she was younger, she said. “I have attention deficit issues, so it also really helps with that,” Frolik said. Symbolism drives Frolik’s art and she often adopts a surrealist style, she said. She’s a fan of artists such as Alphonse Mucha and Egon Schiele, but draws influence from her perceptions of the world around her. “I like the idea that if I paint someone a picture, it doesn’t
JOSH HARWOOD/ The Vermont Cynic
Sophomore Symoad Frolick’s art spans a table Feb. 12. Frolick works as an apprentice at Imperial Tattoo Company. necessarily have to do anything with them, but they still know it’s for them,” Frolik said. Frolik is currently working
towards becoming a full-time tattoo artist at Imperial Tattoo Company.
SPORTS
7
Dennis: athlete & first Black board Chair
Photo courtesy of Special Collections.
Matthew Rosenberg Sports Editor
Richard Dennis ‘57 made history at UVM during his time as an undergraduate, athlete and long after as a member of the board of trustees. Dennis, a native of Summit, New Jersey, was one of few Black students at UVM when he arrived in 1953. He participated in varsity football, basketball and track and majored in political science, according to the UVM website. As a first-year, Dennis joined the Phi Sigma Delta fraternity
alongside football teammate and fellow New Jersey native LeRoy Williams ‘57. Phi Sigma Delta, a Jewish fraternity, was the only fraternity to offer Black students full membership, according to an April 25, 1999 Burlington Free Press article. In 1954, the fraternity decided to wear purple makeup instead of blackface at Kake Walk because of its two Black members, according to a Feb. 25, 1954 Cynic article. As an act of protest, Dennis did not participate in any part of Kake Walk except for the weekend’s basketball game,
Photo courtesy of Special Collections. according to the Free Press article. Dennis played defensive end on the football team and was a key bench player for the 195657 men’s basketball team, which earned a 15-5 record, according to the 1957 UVM yearbook. The 1955 UVM football yearbook stated he was an outstanding student. After graduation, Dennis taught at Orange High School in New Jersey while pursuing a master’s degree at Montclair State University. He joined Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1964 and became one of
the first Black executives at the company, according to his obituary. Dennis joined the UVM board of trustees in 1992. He later became the first Black chair of the board. Dennis retired from the board in 1998. “Richard Dennis has offered his tireless service, good humor and strong commitment to justice and fairness to the board through his distinguished leadership as Chair of the board, Vice Chair of the Investment Committee, and by his membership on the Student Activities committee,” stated a
Feb. 7, 1998 board resolution. Dennis died in 2005 at age 70. After his death, family and friends established the Richard A. Dennis Green and Gold Professorship in his honor, according to the UVM website. The Provost assigns the professorship, which recruits or retains a professor who embodies the ideals exemplified by Dennis’ life, according to the UVM website. Professor Major Jackson, who left UVM at the end of 2020, held the professorship most recently.
Shanahan captains women’s hockey to success Matthew Rosenberg Sports Editor
Graduate forward and captain Kristina Shanahan is leading UVM women’s hockey to historic success in her fifth and final season with the Catamounts. Shanahan, from Ste-AnneDe-Bellevue, Quebec, became captain two years ago after previously serving as alternate captain. This year, Shanahan leads a team that has won the most games in a season in program history and reached the national rankings, according to UVM athletics. “I’m super grateful to have had the chance to come back for a fifth year and to have success this year has been truly special,” Shanahan said. Shanahan and the rest of the graduating class celebrated their achievements at senior day in the Gutterson Fieldhouse on Feb. 12. “We missed the fans last year and I know for me and for the other seniors graduating, we’re all gonna have some family in the stands,” Shanahan said. “So that’s really special.” Despite their success, the team wants to continue to rewrite the record books, Shanahan said. “Getting ranked was a first
in program history and to be a part of that is super special,” Shanahan said. “But we don’t want this to be the highlight and we don’t want this to be the peak of our season.” Shanahan is grateful to be in a leadership position on this historic team, she said. “It’s definitely been a big honor,” Shanahan said. “Because our team as a whole is made up of such an amazing group of girls, everybody brings leadership qualities to the table. So it’s such an easy team to lead.” The team appreciates Shanahan’s positivity and leadership, graduate forward Alyssa Holmes said. “She’s such a good captain and role model for us all,” Holmes said. “She brings such a positive atmosphere to the group and everyone just looks up to her and respects her so much.” Head coach Jim Plumer values Shanahan’s genuine nature and kindness, he said. “She’s the kind of person who asks me how I’m doing on a regular basis and she really means it,” Plumer said. “It’s not just like ‘Hi, how are you’ but like, ‘Hey, how are you? It’s been a tough week. How are you doing?’” Shanahan has had record
Photo courtesy of UVM Athletics. on-ice success this season. With two games remaining, she has set career-highs with 15 goals, 13 assists and 28 points. “When you have a senior leadership, you have a person with a letter on their jersey that’s going out and showing us how to do it, it’s awesome,” Plumer said. “And it’s easy for others to follow.” Shanahan witnessed a
positive change in the team’s culture during her five years at UVM, she said. “If you look at every single person on this team, it’s just good people with good intentions, people that are bought in,” Shanahan said. “You put that together and it’s gonna equate to a really good culture.” As the Catamounts near the Hockey East tournament,
Shanahan focuses on winning post season games and extending her UVM career by advancing in the playoffs, she said. “It’s been a really good experience here and I’m sad that it’s all coming to an end, but hopefully we can extend the season as long as possible,” Shanahan said.
FEATURES The story of George Washington Henderson 8
Photo courtesy of Special Collections Julia Dell’Amore Features Staff Writer
A formerly enslaved person, George Washingon Henderson, graduated at the top of UVM’s class of 1877, according to a 2001 Journal of Blacks in Higher Education article. The UVM community regarded Henderson as the first Black graduate of UVM until 2004. Middlebury College archivist Bob Buckeye informed UVM archivist Jeff Marshall that it was actually Andrew Harris, abolitionist and 1838 graduate, according to an April 19, 2014 Burlington Free Press article. Henderson was born on Nov. 16, 1850. Prior to his entrance into academia, he was enslaved in Clarke County, Virginia, according to an April 1968 Vermont Alumni Magazine article. After the Civil War, Union Officer Byron Chandler Ward, class of 1865, brought Henderson to Underhill, Vermont, according to the 1968 article. In Underhill, Henderson learned to read with the help of tutoring. Henderson’s schooling was not without
hardship. Dr. W. Scott Nay, class of 1873, noted Henderson was frequently ridiculed by his classmates for his race, according to the article. Henderson’s hard work and determination led him to admission to UVM in 1873 after just five years of study, according to the 1968 article. During his undergraduate career, Henderson served as principal of Jericho Academy during his junior year and worked on local Vermont farms in his summers, according to the 2001 JBHE article. Upon his graduation, prestigious honor society Phi Beta Kappa inducted Henderson in 1877. This made him the first Black student nation-wide to receive this distinction, according to the 2001 article. At his graduation, Henderson presented a speech titled “The Economy of Moral Forces in History,” according to the 1968 article. “[The speech’s] maturity and thought and good taste in presentation must be considered truly marvelous,” stated an 1877 Burlington Free Press article. Proceeding his graduation,
Henderson continued his studies, earning a Master of Arts in 1880 from UVM and a Bachelor of Divinity in 1883 from Yale Divinity School. In 1896, he earned an honorary Doctor of Divinity from UVM, according to the 1968 article. Henderson served as a teacher, minister, professor and principal in Vermont, all while he fought tirelessly for Black liberation. He also began teaching at Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1909, teaching ancient literature, Greek and Latin, according to a Nov. 8, 2010 Black Past article. “[Black] education and [Black] suffrage were constant themes with Mr. Henderson throughout his life,” the Wilberforce Mirror stated. Henderson contributed to the exposure of civil rights efforts, authoring his 1894 “The First Memorial Against Lynching,” the first substantial petition against lynching, according to the 2001 article. Other works by Henderson include an 1898 pamphlet dedicated mainly to commemorating the troops that made significant contributions to the progress of America in
the Spanish War, emphasizing the impact of the four Black regiments, the 2001 article stated. In 1899, Henderson was elected to what was known as the American Negro Academy, yet quickly resigned due to his preoccupation with civil rights efforts, according to the 2001 article. Henderson died in Wilberforce, Ohio on Feb. 6, 1936, according to the 2001 article. Today, the George Washington Henderson Fellowship Program funds the studies of pre-doctoral and postdoctoral academics with historically marginalized racial and ethnic identities, according to the Office of the Provost. The goal of the Program is to promote intellectual diversity. The recipients of the George Washington Henderson Fellowship include Dr. Sherwood Smith, CESS lecturer and director of the Center for Cultural Pluralism, and geography professor Pablo Bose, according to the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Bose rejects the common false sentiment that
diversifying faculty means sacrificing instructor quality, according to a 2010 University Communications article. “Everybody I have met who has been recruited through this program [...] is of extremely high caliber,” Bose stated. “I think the biggest challenge for UVM is to hold onto them, not because of anything UVM has or doesn’t have but because we’re all very, very competitive candidates.” Today, Smith is the senior executive director for Inclusive Excellence and Faculty Development in the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. “I think the University has made some really good strides in my time here,” Smith said. “I don’t know that I would say [it’s] completely even across all the different programs and departments, as some have done better and some have done worse.” In order to successfully diversify faculty, UVM must build a strong network before hiring and maintain a welcoming, inviting and supportive climate, Smith said.