Issue 26, Vol. 138 by Vermont Cynic

THEVERMONTCYNIC THE ISSUE 26 - VOLUME 138 | APRIL 12, 2022 | VTCYNIC.COM

FEMALE DUO TO LEAD SGA

SOPHIA BALUNEK/The Vermont Cynic Sophomore Sarah Wood, SGA vice president candidate and senior Maddie Henson, SGA president candidate, present at Brennan’s Pub April 4. Lila Cumming Cynic News Reporter

Two SGA committee chairs run unopposed for SGA President and Vice President as the ﬁrst female duo since 2006, according to the department of Student Life webpage. Junior Maddie Henson, chair of the committee on student action and well-being, and sophomore Sarah Wood, chair of the committee on legislative and community affairs, plan to prioritize communication to students about available resources on campus and increase transparency, Henson said. “Both candidates, Sarah Wood and Maddie Henson, they’re like powerhouses; they know exactly what they want [and] have always had a really powerful voice,” said SGA Elections Chair Shirin Dravid, a senior. “We all just agreed that it didn’t make sense for anyone else to run.” Other SGA members chose not to run for the positions because they believe Henson and Wood feel passionate about the SGA senate and care about student initiatives, Dravid said.

MADDIE HENSON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Henson served on the Title IX internship committee as the sexual violence education project coordinator from April 2021 to late October 2021, and helps with UVM Extension to

improve on publicizing their agricultural and environmental resources, she said. UVM Extension brings together higher education, research and outreach to help Vermonters apply what they’ve learned in their families, homes, farms, companies, towns and the natural world, according to the UVM Extension webpage. Additionally, Henson intends to highlight issues surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion throughout her term as SGA President, she said. “Are we helping them logistically but not going into the white saviors complex?” Henson said. “Are we doing these things that actually beneﬁt the community and help BIPOC communities beyond just saying that we’re diverse and support all cultures?” Henson believes the University has a promising foundation for sustainability, but still lacks an Indigenous voice to ensure that BIPOC students have the power to make decisions in every space on campus, she said. “Speaking as an Indigenous woman, I think we can really revamp the conversation around things like land grants and stuff like that,” Henson said. “This may be a controversial opinion, instead of decolonizing, let’s indigenize and let’s bring Indigenous people to the table.” Henson co-founded the Indigenous People’s Collective and received anonymous funding of $100,000 to build

a statue honoring Indigenous people, according to a Nov. 21, 2021 Cynic article. Henson worries she and Wood will not be listened to or taken seriously, she said. “We’re the first potential women duo in the first 15 years,” Henson said. “So I’m wondering how that’s going to affect everything.” Henson wants to highlight mental health resources and what lies within the University’s control in addressing issues, she said. Many students claim CAPS is underfunded, but Provost Patricia Prelock has always approved CAPS funding requests, Henson said. Issues with CAPS stem from an inability for the University to find mental health providers to employ. “[It] needs to be better communicated to the student body that some of [UVM’s issues are] just literally out of the University’s control,” Henson said. After communication and mutual respect across the board improve, other projects SGA struggles to complete will fall into place, she said. “I want to leave the student community better than how I found it,” Henson said. “I thank all the students who have come to me and anybody who has worked with me professionally in the past, thank you for trusting me.”

SARAH WOOD, VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Wood began her involvement with SGA during her first year, she said. She works with Student and Community Relations to build relationships with students and the community of Burlington. The Office of Student and Community Relations provides UVM students with information and support as they make the move to living off-campus and works to make it easier for students and non-students to communicate, according to the Office of Student and Community Relations webpage. “I’m running for Vice President because I think that SGA has a lot of work to do in terms of how we perceive ourselves versus how the student body perceives us,” Wood said. “I’m really excited to get started on that work and make a change at my university.” Students are unaware of many resources the University offers, fueling student frustration and the belief that such resources don’t exist, which could be improved by SGA better communicating with LivingWell, Wood said. Wood talked to students who work with the Student Accessibility Services department about the lack of advocacy for students with disabilities or accommodations on campus and in the classroom, she said.

“When there are issues in the classroom, students don’t know what resources they have available to them to bring that to someone higher up,” she said. “A teacher could just discriminate against you and then, because you’re so scared, you don’t say anything about it and it just keeps happening.” Wood’s favorite project was granting students CatCard access to the laundry room in the Harris-Millis Residence Hall to prevent the ﬁre alarm from going off as frequently. Within three days of reaching out, someone from ResLife granted CatCard access and the alarm has gone off less, Wood said. Students used to prop the door open in Harris-Millis to allow others to get in, which regularly set off the ﬁre alarm, according to an April 9 email from Wood. “I wanted to make a real change on my campus, especially because I did not have a great experience in my K-12 education,” she said. “So I really wanted to make sure that I could impact some people’s college experiences.” Campus-wide voting for the 2022-23 SGA President and Vice President took place on the UVM Clubs website from April 7-8, according to the SGA webpage. Henson and Wood will be sworn in April 12, according to an April 10 email from Dravid.

NEWS

Staff Union contract remains in negotiation Skyeler Devlin Cynic News Reporter

UVM’s staff union failed to come to an agreement with UVM administration on the first union contract at an April 8 meeting, said Annie Valentine, UVM Staff United bargaining team member. Negotiations on the first UVMSU contract began in October 2021, and after 10 meetings an agreement has yet to be reached, Valentine said. When staff unionized this past summer, they prioritized livable wages for all staff, said Ellen Kaye, bargaining team member and cataloger at Howe Library. “[Staff members] are on food assistance,” Kaye said. “[They] have to decide between which bills they’re going to pay […] people are stuck in the same position for decades at UVM.” UVMSU brought their wage proposal to the bargaining table Dec. 17, 2021, and the administration came back with their counterproposal March 16, Kaye said. “We brought the wages [to the table] and then they came back three months later and countered with something that wasn’t even acknowledging the concepts that we have,” Kaye said. A liveable wage differs depending on where an individual lives – it’s a wage that allows a worker to meet their basic needs, according to a June 5, 2019 New York Times article. Along with livable wages, UVMSU hopes its first contract will ensure flexibility in scheduling to help staff members maintain a healthier work-life balance. The proposed contract also focuses on improving and adding staff benefits, according to their

UVM Staff United and students protest outside of the Waterman building March 16. website. “I think we are just eons apart from getting to a place where you compromise and you work with people, and it just doesn’t feel like we’re being heard,” Valentine said. Valentine works in education and training in the Center for Health and Wellbeing and began working for UVM 18 years ago. Due to confusion around the University’s pay bands and the reclassification system for staff, her career path is still unclear to her, Valentine said. UVM’s pay band system refers to the maximum amount of money a staff member can make depending on the position they hold at the University, Kaye said. The pay band is non-negotiable upon a staff member’s hiring. “The pay band in my job goes from $39,000 to $71,000,” Kaye said. “Nobody’s seen

anywhere near $71,000.” Within UVM’s Career/Pay System, jobs are categorized into job series based on the nature of the work, according to UVM’s HR Services webpage. “Within each series, job standards may be part of a formal or informal career progression. Each job standard has a broad, market-based pay band that accommodates the complex work environment of the University,” the webpage stated. UVM staff members do not have a clear raise schedule. They have not received a raise in two years while the cost of living steadily increases, Kaye said. The cost of living in Chittenden County is 21.3% higher than the national average, according to Salary. com. Living costs rose 1.6% from last year. “It doesn’t feel like [the

SOPHIA BALUNEK/The Vermont Cynic

administration is] prioritizing what we believe are our biggest priorities,” Valentine said. “We need to have better wages to be able to live here.” UVM can’t fill many of the open staff positions because the salaries are too low for potential candidates, Valentine said. “We continue to negotiate in good faith with UVMSU,” stated UVM Spokesperson Enrique Corredera in an April 5 email. “UVMSU and UVM agreed through ground rules that our negotiations should be private. We respect that agreement, and will not comment on the details of negotiations at this time.” UVMSU and UVM administration will have another bargaining session April 13. UVMSU will hold a press conference outside of Waterman starting at 10 a.m. April 11, and three Vermont legislators will speak. They will also hold a rally at noon

April 15 outside Howe Library, Valentine said. The April 15 rally will give the UVM community another opportunity to put pressure on the administration, Sharp said. The Union wants students, staff, faculty and community members to show up and show strength in numbers to push for a fair contract, Valentine said. UVMSU started a petition calling on UVM President Suresh Garimella to provide livable wages for UVM staff which has amassed 1,809 signatures as of April 10. Valentine plans to present the petition to Garimella during the rally, she said. Corredera did not disclose the names of the individuals on the administration bargaining team, according to an April 7 email.

Exit Sign Take Back Day following theft “epidemic” Ella Ruehsen News Editor

Residential Life is allowing students to return stolen exit signs April 6 no questions asked, according to an April 6 email to on-campus students from Kevin Hytten, interim executive director of ResLife. Possession of UVM exit signs or other University property may result in a fine up to $500 per violation, per student, among other sanctions, according to ResLife’s Terms and Conditions. Exit sign take back day serves to eliminate fines and repossess lost property, the email stated. “This year our campus community has struggled with an epidemic of stolen and broken Exit signs,” the email stated. “The cost of these damages has been staggering. The health and safety implications of missing or broken exit signs cannot be understated; it puts lives at risk during an emergency.”

Additionally, stealing signs has detrimental impacts on Custodial and Facilities staff members who are tasked with cleaning and restoring damages, according to the email. Hytten has heard directly from staff that the damage makes them feel demoralized and disrespected. It takes up to an hour and a half to repair or replace a broken exit sign. This time would otherwise be spent addressing other student community maintenance concerns. In addition to violating the ResLife Housing contract, tampering with Life Safety devices violates the Code of Student Conduct and in some cases is against the law, the email stated. Hytten recently became aware of an incident wherein 10 exit signs were found in one double room, according to the email. Under the current policy, ResLife may fine these occupants $500 per resident,

ERIC SCHARF/The Vermont Cynic An exit sign hangs in the stairwell of the Living/Learning Center building D April 8. per exit sign, to accumulate a fine of $5,000 per student, or $10,000 in total. “Fining students is not our goal,” the email stated. “Ensuring your safety and maintaining an environment of mutual respect is. I would like to take this moment to provide you with clarity on the approach we have taken in recent weeks and will be taking moving forward.” ResLife will refer any

student caught tampering with an exit sign or other Life Safety device to the Center for Student Conduct, and UVM Police Services when applicable, the email stated. ResLife will closely monitor damage to Life Safety devices and exit signs for the remainder of the semester and will return to group billing for any excessive violations, according to the email. Any student found in

possession of an exit sign in their room will be fined at the maximum rate, with no opportunity for appeal regardless of how the sign got there, according to the email. “Based on the volume of damage up to this point – group damage billing would result in hundreds of dollars in fines per student this academic year,” the email stated.

NEWS

SGA fails to provide promised training Shannon Turner Cynic News Reporter

Instead of promised mandatory ClubSigner sexual violence training, SGA will offer smaller trainings this semester, according to junior Ann Wong, chair of the SGA club affairs committee. These changes directly respond to last semester’s Nov. 16 training, which ClubSigners found difficult, Wong said. Many ClubSigners believed the training didn’t address the correct issues that it needed to. “I feel like they scheduled the [training] last semester, got it done, checked it off their list and that was it,” said senior Natalie Johnson, former president of the Outing Club. Last fall, ClubSigners received an email from Wong on Sept. 27, 2021, announcing the mandatory training on Oct. 14, 2021. A few months later, the fall 2021 SGA newsletter stated their plans for next semester’s training. “We [...] hosted the firstever sexual violence prevention training for all ClubSigners and are hosting one again next semester,” the Dec. 13 SGA fall 2021 newsletter stated. Johnson and the current Outing Club president, junior Sophie Moyer, were supposed to receive an email on the training from SGA, but they never received it, Moyer said. After last semester’s training, SGA asked Elliot Ruggles, sexual violence prevention and education

MARY MCLELLAN/The Vermont Cynic Lights shine in the SGA office April 8. The office is located on the third floor of the Davis Center. coordinator, to perform a Q&A for ClubSigners to attend and have conversations, Wong said. The Q&A is currently scheduled for April 28 and will provide ClubSigners an opportunity to send in questions. Instead of all the ClubSigners attending this event, it will be a smaller group of 50-70 people, Wong said. Wong believes Ruggles, as a speaker from the UVM community, will make asking questions and understanding specific issues ClubSigners look for easier, she said.

Active Minds President Emma Von Licht, a sophomore, trusts Ruggles would be more helpful than last semester’s training, as he specializes in this topic and understands the problems the school faces. The Q&A is the only confirmed event SGA has planned, but Wong said more events are in the works. This offering is separate from the plans several SGA senators have for sexual violence awareness month. “I definitely think that there’ll be more sessions,”

Wong said. “We’re starting off with one to gauge what the response is.” Ruggles also plans to offer one-on-one conversations with club leaders, separate from their open-to-all office hours. This would give any ClubSigners the space to discuss their more specific problems or questions that they may have, Wong said. Additionally, SGA plans on having representatives from HOPEWorks hold a guided discussion with students, which would be separate from the lecture session with Ruggles,

Wong said. HOPEWorks is a Vermontbased non-profit that gives counseling to those who have been impacted by sexual violence. They also have an education outreach system that teaches others about sexual violence, according to their website. HOPEWorks has a partnership with UVM, providing on-campus appointments and a 24/7 hotline at (802) 863-1236, according to UVM’s website. Wong feels confident this could happen by the end of the month. Despite Wong’s optimism, some ClubSigners worry these promised events won’t happen before the semester ends. “I think at a certain point it’s gonna lose momentum because it’s not going to become as prevalent [as] last year when everyone was protesting and was very vocal about it,” Von Licht said. These opportunities are optional unlike the mandatory training last semester due to the logistics of Ruggles’ availability and the coordination of a session for 500 people, Wong said. “I think optional versus mandatory isn’t really a big factor anymore,” said UVM Beekeepers President Matt Heilbron, a senior. “We’ve had one training already where we were all required to go and then sat there for two hours and really got nothing out of it.”

Students plan Sexual Violence Awareness Month Audrie Caruso Cynic News Reporter

Four students’ plan for this year’s Sexual Violence Awareness Month focuses on healing for survivors of sexual violence, junior Maeve Forbes said. Forbes, alongside sophomores Olivia Eisenburg, Taylor MacHarrie and Riley O’Hagan, planned SVAM around good, healthy sex and getting students back in touch with their own bodies in response to the University’s mishandling of sexual violence, MacHarrie said. “[Campus] can be a really hard place to be for survivors when you’re constantly in the midst of a protest on sexual violence and being constantly bombarded by ‘UVM protects rapists’ and all that, as a survivor that’s really difficult to be constantly surrounded by,” MacHarrie said. Students call for change at UVM due to its mishandling of sexual violence since students started coming forward about it fall 2020, according to an Oct. 13, 2020 Cynic article.

COVID-19 inhibited the execution of SVAM events until recently, Forbes said. While SVAM events were planned last year, they were unsuccessful, she said. This year, the oranizers provided an outlet for survivors where survivors don’t have to concentrate on getting “better,” the events focus more around students reconnecting with their minds and bodies, Forbes said. This can help survivors process their own trauma, Forbes said. “When harm happens, it can really create a disconnection with our pleasure, with our bodies and with ourselves,” said Jenna Emerson, a health and sexuality educator in the Center for Health and Wellbeing. As a survivor herself, Forbes feels most excited for restorative yoga, she said. She looks forward to healing through reconnecting with her body. The people working to put these events together wanted these events to take a step back and check in with the survivors and activists, Eisenburg said.

Junior Maeve Forbes speaks at an SGA meeting.

EVENT ITINERARY April 11, 18, 25, 1-3 p.m. – Emerson holds sex education office hours year round and are not specific to the month of April. Emerson provides one on one coaching for sex and relationships, she said. April 11, 18, 25, 8:15-9:15 p.m., Patrick Gym – Restorative yoga will be open to anyone. April 13, 3:30-4:30 p.m. – The Good Stuff: Mindfulness and Sexuality April 17, 24, 8:00-9:30

ALLIE BODELLE/The Vermont Cynic

a.m., Patrick Gym – Girl Gains, a club promoting female weightlifting, is holding events involving exercise and learning to weightlift for femme, female and non-binary people, Macharrie said. April 18, 7:30-9 p.m. – EnSex-Clopedia April 20, 3-5 p.m., Living Well – Earth and Salt, a local sex store, will hold a pop-up shop where students can purchase books, sex toys, kink material, BDSM items and other sex related items, Emerson said.

April 21, 1:30-2:30 p.m. – Coffee with Elliot Ruggles, sexual violence prevention and education coordinator April 25, 5:30-7:30 p.m. – Planned Parenthood Generation Action sex trivia April 27, 3:30-4:30 p.m. – The Good Stuff: Reconnecting to Pleasure April 28 – Denim Day is a day where people where jeans to show solidarity with the survivors of sexual violence, according to the Denim Day informational site.

OPINION

4 RM

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BTV should prioritize bike safety Spencer Hurlburt Opinion Columnist

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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

EDITORS Copy Chief Dalton Doyle copy@vtcynic.com Culture/ Podcasts Paige Fisher cynicculture@gmail.com vtcynicpodcasts@gmail.com Features Liz Roote cynicfeatures@gmail.com News Ella Ruehsen news@vtcynic.com Sports Matthew Rosenberg sports@vtcynic.com Opinion Emily Johnston opinion@vtcynic.com Layout Ellie Scott layout.cynic@gmail.com

urlington needs to prioritize bikes as a form of transportation. Burlington allocated $1.5 million to bike and pedestrian improvements around the city in their 2022 ﬁscal year budget, according to a June 29 Burlington Free Press article. These include new protected bike lanes on North Champlain Street and a new rotary on Shelburne Road. To analyze this funding, I looked at funding for a similar project in Portland, Maine. Burlington’s funding falls short of the $2 million Portland, Maine spent on its pedestrian and bike friendly infrastructure, according to the ﬁscal year 2019-2023 City of Portland Capital Improvement plan. Portland’s $2 million comes with a comprehensive plan to improve roads, sidewalks and trails around the city. In Burlington, the City’s streets need repair and lack proper design for optimal bike safety. More money needs to go into infrastructure. While Burlington has plans to improve its bike and pedestrian safety, it still has a long way to go. Countless roads in Burlington have potholes, road debris and other hazards

Mary Kueser

Photo Eric Scharf photo@vtcynic.com

Pages Designers Abby Carroll, Molly McDermott, Sabrina Orazietti Copy Editors Lauren Bentley, Zoe Bertsch, Jacqueline Kelley, Maya Pound

ADVISING Andy Elrick Andrew.Elrick@uvm.edu

that make them dangerous for cyclists. I don’t want to hit a deep pothole on Pearl Street and spill into busy trafﬁc. When Colchester Avenue splits into two lanes, right to East Avenue and left toward Winooski, cyclists have to use the middle of the two lanes and don’t have a proper place to stop at the red light. I’ve had some seriously close calls at this intersection, including a campus bus pushing me off onto the grass. As a cyclist, I am left in limbo sitting in the middle of trafﬁc. Burlington provides bike road lines as a solution to bike safety. Although painted bike lanes help, they do not make the roads completely safe for bikers because the road design

still isn’t accommodating. The painted bike symbol on the road doesn’t account for the crumbling, narrow streets people have to ride on. Local Motion, a bicycle advocacy group working towards a more bike- and pedestrian-friendly Burlington, began advocating for bike and pedestrian safety in 1999, according to the Local Motion website. Local Motion organized bike-to-school days for local children, bike rentals, charity ride events, and safe commute routes and pushed city ofﬁcials to implement pedestrian safe road designs, according to the Local Motion website. This organization has seen success in implementing

bike friendly infrastructure, inspiring Burlington residents to hang up their car keys for a greener way of commuting. Students should support advocacy groups like Local Motion that work toward action in more infrastructure for bikers. As Burlington continues to grow, with increased student enrollment at UVM each year and new businesses popping up in the surrounding area, the City needs to make bike safety a priority to keep carbon neutral commuters safe.

Spencer Hurlburt is a sophomore public communication major. He has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2021.

Think before you hit the repost button

Illustrations Izzy Pipa cynicillustrations@gmail.com

Assistant Editors Grace Visco (Opinion) Ella Farrell (Layout) Halsey McLaen (News) Catie Segaloff (Copy) Tanner Loy (Photo)

MARTHA HRDY

Opinion Columnist

hen I opened Instagram two months ago and learned about the war breaking out in Ukraine, my ﬁrst instinct was to send the Instagram post I saw to everyone. It took me a minute, but I slowed down, checked the source, read the article and decided it was okay to send. In times of uncertainty, everyone looks for information. The reach of social media and online content spreads false information easily. Forty-eight percent of Americans often or sometimes get their news from social media, according to a Sept. 20 study from Pew Research Center. I am among those Americans who get news from social media, and I try my best to remember that just because something is on my feed it is not necessarily accurate. It’s difﬁcult to pause in high-intensity moments, when new information appears

every time you refresh your feed, but this abundance of misinformation is exactly why factchecking is important in times of crisis. I used to send people news stories from Twitter or Instagram without even reading the article to determine the headline’s accuracy. My first thought was to send, rather than to think. In my first year of college, I took a CDAE 195, Activist Journalism. I learned how easily and quickly misinformation can spread under the right conditions. I then realized that my habit most likely contributed to this misinformation. By sharing first and fact-chcecking second, I was perpetuating the spread of fake news. While social media news improves accessibility and speed of sharing information, it also creates a culture that strives for likes, and thrives on moments of chaos when content is not questioned.

IZZY PIPA

One study found that false information is 70% more likely to be retweeted on Twitter, reaching the ﬁrst 1,500 viewers six times faster than true information, according to a March 9, 2018 study from Science. While the instinct to share information with friends can be immediate, taking a few minutes to check a source helps combat the spread of misinformation. Fact-checking can be intimidating, but it’s as simple as seeing if multiple reliable sources have covered the same story.

Individuals should do their part to reduce misinformation by fact-checking before sharing, to help ensure the efﬁcient and reliable spread of information, especially in times of crisis. When a headline inevitably pops on one’s newsfeed, set aside a few minutes to see if it is true.

Mary Kueser is a sophomore public communication major. She has been writing for the Cynic since spring 2020.

OPINION

City Council should improve zoning

Alexander McMurray Opinion Columnist

ack of affordable housing is a harsh reality Burlington residents live

with. The city and state government’s restraint of the market creates does not allow for sustainable growth or building affordable housing complexes. The city of Burlington reports the average tenant now spends over 40% of their income on rent, according to BTV Housing policy reform. Families paying 30% or more of their income on housing are considered cost burdened, according to Ask the New York Times. Spending half of income on housing eats away at money left over for other needs like food, car payments or insurance, leaving little left for activities which the renter enjoys. High rent results from single-family zoning, which restricts development to single-family detached homes. Single-family zoning outlaws townhomes, duplexes and multi-family housing apartments, according to a Sept. 21, 2021 LA Times article. Single-family zoning covers almost all residential zones in the Burlington Zoning Map, according to the 2019 map that gets updated as amended. These zones result in the lack of new affordable housing built in Burlington, the City Council doesn’t allow for it. Students cram into

LIZ COPPES

makeshift apartments formed from old houses as the lack of new apartment building projects tightens the market. The University tries to help through the UVM off-campus housing tool, but options are limited. Ten year home appreciation, the increase of home price over time, has been at a staggering 44.2%, according to BestPlaces, a website dedicated to being a resource for those looking to relocate. The medium rent for a one bedroom apartment in Burlington is currently at

$1,450, a 4% increase from 2021, according to Zumper, a website dedicated to helping consumers to ﬁnd apartments. The City of Burlington is building new apartments for the ﬁrst time in 20 years, according to a Nov. 1, 2021 WCAX article. Mayor Miro Weinberger stated the City created barriers to building new housing in the district through their local zoning laws, according to the article. Housing should not be limited to those who can bid the highest. Lack of housing causes

renters to compete for apartments because there are not enough for them all. “Exclusionary zoning was designed to racially and economically segregate communities, and today drives up housing costs and erects economic walls around communities,” the 2019 AOC and the Progressive Consensus on Housing stated. Burlington implements this exclusionary practice through single-family zoning whether it be unintentionally or a genuine attempt at planning the city. The Burlington City Council and Housing Authority has

gutted the capability of the free market through housing overregulation. Burlington City Council, for the good of the renter, the homeless and those of a low socioeconomic status, must end this practice of market obstruction and allow highdensity development for Burlington to increase supply, lessen demand and decrease rent. Alexander McMurray is a ﬁrst-year history major. He has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2021.

Incoming students: don’t pick a major, come undeclared Grace Visco Assistant Opinion Editor

ear incoming students,

As a current sophomore I came to college having already declared my major, but I frequently wish I came to college undeclared. Use college as an opportunity to ﬁnd what you love. At UVM, students are not required to select their major immediately, according to UVM’s undeclared majors page. Students should take advantage of this policy and try out a wide variety of classes. UVM has over 100 majors to choose from, according to their majors, minors and graduate programs’ page, but some students never explore varying areas of study. I didn’t get the opportunity

to learn about topics such as food systems, anthropology or art history in high school but I did in college. Trying classes outside of my usual area of study early on in college could have opened my eyes to so much more. For certain majors, such as engineering or nursing, the rigorous programs may make it harder for students to come in undeclared and still graduate in four years. However, if an undeclared student chooses to pursue these programs, they should expect to not graduate on time. Deciding late is expensive, but it saves money that would otherwise be lost if one graduates with the wrong degree and has to go back to college. College ﬁrst-years are only exposed to a few career options and areas of study. No one should expect an 18-year-old to know what they want to do for the rest of their life. Students in rigorous programs should use

ANGELIKA HILLIOS

their general education requirements to explore disciplines outside of their major. A major does not have to pave your career path. I know I will use my education and Spanish degrees, but these are not the only areas I’m interested in. I feel happy studying Spanish and education, and it’s

likely I would have ended up in these programs regardless of whether or not I came in declared. However, coming to college undeclared could have given me the ability to learn about topics that are outside of my ﬁeld of study. Though I haven’t changed my major, I try to allow myself to explore areas of

study unrelated to Spanish or education. Do what I didn’t and use college as a time to explore all your options. Grace Visco is a sophomore Spanish and secondary education double major. She has been writing for the Cynic since spring 2021.

CULTURE

Dark Goddess: Rethinking the Sacred Feminine Anna Berg Culture Staff Writer

In her latest photography exhibition, Vermont-based artist Shanta Lee Gander rethinks the Sacred Feminine and the male gaze through a collaboration between artist, model and museum. “Dark Goddess: An Exploration of the Sacred Feminine” began its display in the Fleming Museum of Art Feb. 8 and will remain until Dec. 9. On April 13, Gander will speak and student dancers will perform in collaboration with the exhibition at the Fleming. The full exhibition combines Gander’s photography, a secondary exhibition of Fleming artifacts titled “Object-Defied” and the work of co-collaborator visiting artist Millie Heckler. “I’m one of those artists that if someone is rejecting or doing something different to what I’m presenting, I love and provide it because then that also invites me into this space,” Gander said. “I like to play with the idea of the sacred and the profane.” Gander wanted to create a project that explored a concept of the Goddess beyond simply maternal or benevolent, she said. Fourteen black-and-white photographs encircle the Fleming’s Marble Court, each depicting models as deities that defy gender, Gander said. Each of the models in the photographs pose in the foreground of forested landscapes, embellished in makeup and jewelry. Gander worked closely with the models when creating the exhibition to allow space for them to define what the “Dark Goddess” meant for themselves, she said. “There is definitely room for all the models who are also collaborators,” Gander said. “They co-created this image, it’s not just my image.” Gander did not limit her project to photography. Accompanying the portraits, the Fleming features an extension of the exhibition called “Object-Defied,” which uses artifacts to encourage conversations around representations of otherness in museum spaces, said Alice Boone, curator of education and public programs at Fleming. The artifacts are from the Fleming’s archives and are personally selected by Gander, Boone said. “Object-Defied” is housed in the museum’s European/ American gallery, adjacent to Gander’s photography. Through both her photography and her selection of artifacts for “ObjectDefied,” Gander creates a unique opportunity to cultivate personal and institutional reflection, Boone said. “It’s an artist speaking back to the museum,” she said. While Heckler

Courtesy of Shanta Lee Gander and the Fleming Museum

choreographed a contemporary dance performance by drawing from the voices featured throughout Gander’s art, her dance is a unique artistic formation of its own, Heckler said. She hopes everyone can connect to the piece in their own individual way, she said. “I wanted to create a facilitated process that was more centered around the individuals who are part of it, rather than performing someone else’s work,” Heckler said. The idea of the “Dark Goddess” is open to interpretation, first-year dancer Ava Devost said. “It’s very much about showing up as your authentic self and exploring different parts of your identity,” Devost said.

Alongside the performance, Gander will perform some of her poetry and deliver a talk on her exhibition. She hopes it will give femaleidentifying individuals the opportunity to take up space, Gander said. “I want to be the patron saint of encouraging people to be their most [authentic] self,” Gander said. The collaboration between Gander and Heckler sets the tone for the future of the Fleming, especially as the museum aims to create spaces for reflection and generative response, Boone said. Gander and Heckler’s evening of storytelling and performance will begin at 5:30 p.m. April 13 at the Fleming. The night is free to attend.

Courtesy of Shanta Lee Gander and the Fleming Museum

ELAINA SEPEDE/The Vermont Cynic Student dancers perform April 10 in the Fleming Museum.

FEATURES

Bread and puppets meet activism in VT

The Bread & Puppet Museum is located on 753 Heights Road in Glover, Vermont.

MAC MANSFIELD PARISI/The Vermont Cynic

MAC MANSFIELD PARISI/The Vermont Cynic Sculpted masks display in the Bread & Puppet Museum April 9.

MAC MANSFIELD PARISI/The Vermont Cynic The theater sells several pieces of artwork on the show floor.

Lucy Kelly Feature Staff Writer

with, according to a Sept. 13, 2017 Seven Days article. “To put Bread and Puppets together in 1963 seemed like a correct first step in the fight for the immediate elimination of all evil,” Schumann stated in a 1984 pamphlet titled “Bread,” printed by the Bread and Puppet press. The theater performed the show “Wounds of Vietnam” in the early 1960s, “Laos” in 1947 and “Guantanamo Show” in 2008, according to their website. In 2008, Schumann created a series of banners that were used to protest the Iraq War, according to Bread and Puppet’s 2008 book, “Seventeen Questions About the Iraq War.” These banners included prints of soldiers portrayed as skeletons and were used in protests in Washington, D.C., Burlington, Montpelier, and Barton and Newport Vermont, according to “Seventeen Questions About the Iraq War.” Bread and Puppet will

Returning from their recent tour, “Finished Waiting” and approaching their 60th anniversary, Bread and Puppet Theater has used puppetry as a medium for contemporary political commentary for the past six decades. The theater began using art as a vessel for activism in 1963, often focusing on anti-war or anti-capitalist themes in both performances and art. Their work inspires artists to create protest banners, according to a July 27, 1997 Burlington Free Press article. “From the beginning, the heart of the theater was responding to political and social issues,” said Josh Krugman, a puppeteer with Bread and Puppet. The company just returned from their recent tour titled “Finished Waiting,” Krugman said. It ran from March 17 to April 3 throughout the

Northeast and across the Eastern Seaboard, according to their website. “[The show] is an attempt to grapple with what’s going on in the world at this moment, especially in Ukraine, in Yemen and Palestine,” Krugman said. “To deal with the U.S.’ role in those events [...] and how we assimilate them into our understanding of the world.” Peter and Elka Schumann founded the theater in a space in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1963. The theater moved to Goddard, Vermont in 1970, then to Glover, Vermont in 1974, Krugman said. This move led to changes of the productions and scale of the work with the space allowing for larger productions with materials from the Vermont landscape, Krugman said. They aim to use local materials for every step of the puppet creation process. The actors use puppets made of papier-mâché molded from the mud of the Barton

River, Krugman said. After the puppet molds dry, the artists build metal frameworks inside the skins for structure. These are built out of branches from locally grown maple trees, wire and cardboard to attach these structures to the papier-mâché, Krugman said. Local businesses often donate unused or expired gallons of outdoor latex paints which Bread and Puppet then use on the puppets, Krugman said. The “bread” in Bread and Puppet’s name refers to the sourdough rye bread and aioli served at every performance, according to their website. “Bread and Puppet believes that food and art are both necessary to human life and should both be available to everyone regardless of their means and that’s what we try to do with our theater,” Krugman said. Peter Schumann made the bread oven from the same mud the puppet molds are created

celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2023. Its work has been centered around keeping art accessible to everyday people, unlike institutions that emphasize wealth and class, Krugman said. “Art is something that is for everyone, that everyone should be able to make and participate in,” Krugman said. Over the past six decades, Bread and Puppet Theater delivered their own political messages to audiences across the nation. “The experience of art has the ability to transform things on an individual and collective level and the ability to set bodies in motion and set structures in motion,” Krugman said. The Bread and Puppet Museum, located at 753 Heights Road, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. While admission is free, donations are welcome, according to the website.

SPORTS

Men’s lacrosse wins four straight games Austin Chen Cynic Sports Reporter

After starting the season with a 2-6 record, the UVM men’s lacrosse team has a fourgame winning streak and is in first place in the America East conference with a 3-0 record against conference opponents. The Catamounts’ offense excels under head coach Chris Feifs. They score the second most goals per game in the America East and lead the conference in assists and shots per game, according to the league’s website. They also commit the fewest turnovers per game in the conference. “This year, with a lot of bad weather, we were inside for almost the first month of the season,” Feifs said. “I think that kind of stunted our growth a little bit. But now we’re starting to have some better weather and we’re having those full weeks again, and I think that’s helping us put together a better performance on Saturdays.” Senior midfielder Thomas McConvey leads the UVM offense. He earned America East All-Conference First Team honors last season and continues his success in 2022. McConvey ranks No. 2 in the conference in goals and has a 33.7 shooting percentage, according to UVM athletics’ website.

The Catamounts force the most turnovers and win the highest percentage of faceoffs in the conference, according to the America East website. Junior midfielder Nick Alviti leads the conference in forced turnovers with 1.82 per game. Junior faceoff specialist Tommy Burke leads America East with a 0.630 faceoff percentage, winning 172 of his 273 faceoffs, according to UVM athletics. Graduate goaltender Ryan Cornell leads Vermont’s defense. Cornell is a three-time recipient of America East’s Defensive Player of the Week award. He allows the fewest goals per game in the conference and leads the America East with a 0.594 save percentage, according to the America East. Cornell allows an average of 8.07 goals per game. No other goaltender in the conference allows fewer than 10 goals per game, according to the America East website. Cornell’s talent leads the team from the back, Feifs said. “He’s really been helpful to help settle the whole team early in games with a big save or with an athletic clear,” Feifs said. “His leadership, his ‘steady Eddie’ type of mentality has really pervaded the whole team.” Cornell also occasionally

Photo courtesy of UVM Athletics. gets involved on offense, tallying two assists so far this season. Feifs sometimes gets nervous about potential injuries when Cornell leaves his net but appreciates what he can add to UVM’s offense, he said. “It’s a huge boost to our momentum and a huge boost to our offense to have a guy that can create [offense at] any given time,” Feifs said. The Catamounts defeated the University of Massachusetts Lowell 23-9 in Lowell April 9. UVM scored the first 14 goals of the game and led 17-2 at halftime.

Graduate attacker Michael McCormack led Vermont with five goals and graduate attacker Liam Limoges added four goals. “Great conference win for our guys on the road today,” Feifs said. “Glad we were able to fight through a rocky third quarter to finish the game. We’ve got a big week of practice ahead as we prepare for UAlbany.” The Catamounts will travel to New York to face the University at Albany April 16, and will return home to face Binghamton University in their final regular-season home game April 23.

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The matchup with UAlbany is the first game between the two teams since last season’s America East championship game. Vermont won the championship game 15-10 to secure their first America East title and advance to their first NCAA tournament in program history, according to UVM athletics. The Catamounts will conclude their regular season with another trip to New York to face Stony Brook University on April 30.