Issue 29 - Volume 134

VOL. 134

The Vermont Cynic ISSUE 29

APRIL 24, 2018

Students celebrate 4/20 A crowd gathered on the Redstone campus green to light up in honor of the April 20 stoner holiday.

PAGE 4

Janelle Monae 4 / Crystal healing 7 / Shooting team 8

No damages awarded after trial ■ Court witness accuses UVM of a smear campaign Sawyer Loftus swloftus@uvm.edu

ALEK FLEURY/The Vermont Cynic

Cynthia Ruescher, a former UVM techemployee, and her sister, Cathleen Lee Wilkins, leave the courthouse at the end of the third day of her trial against UVM April 19. Cindy lawsuit she filed against UVM based on gender discrimination and illegal retaliation.

■ Ex-staffer sues UVM for gendered salary discrimination, but jury awards no damages after three hours of deliberation News Staff Report

Following three hours of deliberations, a jury ruled that UVM did not mistreat a former information technology employee in a lawsuit she filed seeking financial damages.

Cynthia Reuscher, a former Enterprise Technology Services employee, filed suit against the University in 2014, and was laid off from UVM in 2015, having worked for the University since 2001.

She sought approximately $4.5 million in damages.

“UVM’s very grateful to

■ Former UVM employee says she brought gun to student party Sawyer Loftus swloftus@uvm.edu

A former UVM employee walked up to the home of UVM students having a party, gun behind her back, with the intent to ask them to quiet down.

The former employee, Monica Devino, said in court April 18 that she went to her neighbors’ house to break up a party in September 2016.

Devino confirmed she had a gun that night and said it was unloaded. She was charged with reckless endangerment

the jury for their careful consideration of all the evidence,’ UVM attorney Karen McAndrew said. ‘We believe the jury reached the correct result based on all the testimony and evidence produced at trial.’

Reuscher claimed that the University violated the Equal Pay Act, intentionally discriminated against her because she is a woman, retaliated against her for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, defamed her and created a hostile work environment.

The claims for both hos-

and trespassing. Both charges were eventually dropped.

“I didn’t threaten them,” she said. “I had a pistol.”

Devino served as a witness in Cynthia Ruescher’s gender discrimination trial against the University.

The University lawyer in the Ruescher v. UVM trial said Devino was arrested for the incident in 2016 and read the initial police report in court.

The police report said Devino went to her neighbors’ home with the gun and shouted, “shut the fuck up.”

Devino said that the incident didn’t happen as UVM’s defense described. According to court documents, the charges against her were dismissed in January 2017.

tile work environment and Equal Pay Act violations were dismissed by Judge Robert A. Mello for lack of evidence, and not decided upon by the jury.

In closing arguments, Reuscher’s attorney Siobhan McCloskey directly attacked the University. “[UVM is] like a child with chocolate on their face, and when their mother asks if they ate the chocolate bar, the child says no, even though it’s obvious that they’re lying,” she said.

“UVM is lying for their reasons for terminating her.

That’s wrong and it shouldn’t be allowed.”

UVM’s lawyer Karen McAndrews said that Reuscher’s case was like a line from a nursery rhyme.

“When the whole world’s wrong, and you’re the one who’s right, it’s time to go to bed at night,” McAndrews said.

McAndrews said that the adult version is “When the whole world’s wrong, and you’re the one who’s right, it’s time to reconsider your position.”

The trial, which ran from April 16 to 20, involved testimony regarding an incident in September 2016 where another former UVM employee brought a gun to the home of some UVM students.

Keith Kennedy, Reuscher’s former supervisor, testified that he had watched porn in the office. Ruescher said this contributed to her charge of a hostile workplace.

Earlier that week, UVM associate attorney Kendall Hoechst shed tears after a confrontation with McCloskey.

ALEK FLEURY/The Vermont Cynic

Monica Devino, a former UVM employee, leaves the courthouse April 19 after testifying in a gender-based discrimination lawsuit against the University.

Discrepancies have surfaced between a witness’s court statements and her email comment.

The witness, computer programmer Monica Devino, testified in the Ruescher v. UVM case. She is a former co-worker of Cynthia Ruescher.

In court documents, Ruescher’s lawyer said Devino experienced gender discrimination in the workplace.

A male employee, Martin McLaughlin, pleaded guilty to a DUI in November 2016, but was not punished by the University, her lawyer said.

In September 2016, Devino was arrested for reckless endangerment and trespassing after bringing a gun to her neighbors’ home and asking them to quiet down. Charges against were dropped.

UVM’s lawyer brought up the charges in court April 16, and said Devino was “drunk” with a gun.

Devino stated in an April 19 email that none of what UVM’s lawyer said happened, and UVM was trying to portray her negatively.

“They told me they were going to bring it up to silence me,” Devino stated in the email.

She was suspended with pay for three months for the incident. She received a warning letter in December 2016, Devino stated.

In court, when Devino cut off UVM’s lawyer as she was questioned about the September 2016 incident, the lawyer asked her if she was angry with UVM. Devino said no, “UVM’s awesome.” She stated a different opinion overw email. “#smearcampaign #UVMsucks #UVMtreatsstafflikedirt,” Devino stated in the email. She said she worked for UVM for the last 20 years, and was fired in 2017.

She said she was fired for being sarcastic, missing a meeting for her daughter’s orthodontist appointment and slamming her phone on a desk.

“UVM fired me without cause and is making up a story to fit their dialogue,” she stated in an April 16 email.

NEWS

2

The Vermont Cynic

Police watch over 4/20 crowd Lee Hughes ehughes7@uvm.edu

Hundreds of UVM students gathered on the Redstone campus green to smoke weed and celebrate 4/20.

Students began arriving around 4 p.m. for the annual event and dispersed around 4:40 p.m. UVM police arrived well before the students to set up a perimeter around the green.

“It’s a classic UVM event,” said first-year Sophie Berg, who came out just to watch. “I felt I would be remiss if I were to miss it.”

Sophomore Sydney Haas said the excitement drew her out to the event, but she was still deciding if she would participate.

Sophomore Maggie Maziejka, who attended with Haas, said she came solely to observe because it is fun to watch.

She thinks the 4/20 event was bigger this year than last year, she said.

Sophomore James Schaal said he came out because his significant other was there.

He doesn’t smoke often but thought this would be a good time to, he said.

UVM police officers stood around the green keeping an eye on the crowd and the spectators.

April 24, 2018

Car crashes into Davis Center wall Brandon Arcari barcari@uvm.edu

CAROLINE SLACK/The Vermont Cynic

Hundreds of UVM students gathered on the Redstone green to smoke marijuana when the clock hit 4:20 p.m.

“4/20 is typically an event that folks tend to gather for, and our job out here is really just to ensure the safety of everyone involved,” said UVM police Lieutenant Mandy Wooster.

A new law to legalize recreational usage of marijuana for those over the age of 21 will go into effect July 1, Wooster said.

Regardless, UVM’s no-smoking policy forbids smoking marijuana on UVM property.

UVM has sponsored an alternative to 4/20 on Redstone green through the Wellness Environment’s “5K for Wellness” walk/run which occured in a different area on campus, Wooster said.

UVM police try to steer people toward participating in the WE 5k, she said.

Wooster is not sure if the annual WE 5k has led to a decrease in attendance to 4/20 on the Redstone green, but she hopes it has, she said.

SGA denies UPB funding Brandon Arcari barcari@uvm.edu

SGA is not giving more money to the University Program Board to help fund SpringFest after learning of a stockpiled emergency fund.

The debate over a bill at an April 3 SGA meeting centered around the $196,000 fund.

SGA gave $50,000 annually for SpringFest in a deal that ended this year.

Senior Simon Pavlow, chair of SGA’s finance committee at the time the bill was discussed, described the stockpile as a frivolous use of student money. He also found UPB’s accounting disorganized, he said.

“It’s like UPB is holding student money hostage in stockpiling those funds and asking for their usual annual $50,000 for SpringFest from SGA,” Pavlow said.

For five years, SGA gave UPB a $50,000 grant toward SpringFest, former SGA President Chris Petrillo, a senior, said in a Feb. 20 interview.

The temporary deal was put in place to help cover expenses for UPB as they became seperate from SGA, he said.

The gradual reduction measure proposed would have given UPB $40,000 for next year’s SpringFest, $30,000 for the following and $20,000 for the third, according to the bill.

At that point UPB would have to go to SGA again to renegotiate allotments, according to the bill.

The bill would have required an increase in student ticket prices to $15 from $10 and also would have authorized selling more tickets than the amount of students that were allowed to come. Their emergency fund would have been capped at $30,000 by this bill.

Senior and former senator Sam Howley said she thought the bill failed because UPB never provided feedback and expected SGA to vote yes.

“I think it was still difficult for senators to think about UPB continuing to do this and expect SGA to provide more money every year,” Howley said.

Senior Jack Hockman, a member of the UPB concert committee, said funding issues have negatively impacted the quality of artists UPB has been able to get for the concert.

“If they’ve been keeping money out of our concerts all this time, they best be planning on spending that money to get Kendrick,” sophomore Meredith Maloney said.

The bill is being proposed again in the fall, said sophomore Taylor Magda, UPB concert committee member.

“We are currently focused on SpringFest, which is happening next week,” Magda said.

A car crashed into the Davis Center at 12:58 a.m. April 15.

The driver of the vehicle, Uber driver Adeleke Fajobi, lost control after making a left turn onto Main street from University Heights, damaging the shrubbery by the Davis Center tunnel and knocking over the Nolin House sign.

Fajobi then crossed the median. His car took out a metal railing and a granite barrier before jumping a 6-foot air vent and driving into the Davis Center Marketplace.

Rick Barry, the facilities coordinator for the Davis Center, said the damage was “substantial,” but the building’s structural integrity was not compromised because it was a strong area to have been hit.

Barry said that the University’s insurance was expected to examine the damage and costs to repair the building.

Fajobi was not intoxicated. A preliminary police report stated that he may have panicked and held down the gas instead of the brake when he started to skid out of control.

He was transported by UVM Rescue to the hospital but did not appear to be injured.

Lieutenant Mandy Wooster of UVM police said that there was an injury involved in the crash, but could not give any more details as the investigation was still open.

“The car was head-first in the nook where the Davis Center juts out,” senior Andrew Hollar said. “[It] didn’t look like it had crashed into the wall very hard.

‘It looked like the front was banged up, not smashed and flattened.”

Barry said that the damage was primarily to the stone facade of the building, with damage to the concrete layer underneath. The window frame buckled, but the window itself remained undamaged.

A Marketplace kitchen worker had left a bottle of hot sauce on the windowsill which got thrown across the room, but the window wasn’t cracked, he said.

Hollar said that the street was very slushy. He said he drove slowly home from work from the Skinny Pancake on campus around 1 a.m.

“There were seven or eight police cars with lights flashing; I couldn’t see anything,” Hollar said.

Susan Hendrick, a spokesperson for Uber, confirmed that Fajobi is a driver-partner with Uber and said the company has reached out to him to check on his wellbeing.

The Vermont Cynic

OPINION

April 24, 2018

The Vermont

CYNIC

3

Mandated reporting issue Staff Editorial

F EXECUTIVE Editor-in-Chief Erika B. Lewy editorinchief@vtcynic.com Managing Editor Greta Bjornson newsroom@vtcynic.com Operations Manager Sorrel Galantowicz operations@vtcynic.com OPERATIONS Advertising Manager Kaysie Smith ads@vtcynic.com Distribution Manager Brittnay Heffermehl distribution@vtcynic.com PR Manager Sara Klimek cynicpr@gmail.com EDITORIAL Copy Chief George Seibold copy@vtcynic.com Culture Bridget Higdon arts@vtcynic.com Izzy Siedman life@vtcynic.com Features Maggie Richardson bside@vtcynic.com News Lauren Schnepf news@vtcynic.com Opinion Sydney Liss-Abraham opinion@vtcynic.com

or some people it’s a friend, others a family member, sometimes a professor. We all have someone we trust in our lives who we can turn to with issues or concerns.

But when is that person legally obligated to share those conversations with law enforcement?

As mandated reporters, all faculty, supervisors, University officials and police services employees are required to report any sexual misconduct they’re informed of.

Yes, this policy has good intentions. It is designed to protect students and hold perpetrators accountable.

Yet, the drawbacks of this system outweigh the benefits.

Suppose a student confides in a coach about a stalker from a relationship turned sour — now, the coach is legally bound to report this case, without the consent of the student.

Mandated reporting removes the power from the victim’s hands and disenfranchises them, pushing victims out of the reporting process and instilling fear in them. It’s hard to confide in a professor or supervisor when there can be consequences from sharing.

By the time most students enter college, we are le-

Sports Eribert Volaj sports@vtcynic.com Video Kailey Bates video@vtcynic.com Web Connor Allan web@vtcynic.com Illustrations Genevieve Winn illustrations@vtcynic.com Layout Eileen O’Connor layout@vtcynic.com Photo Alek Fleury photo@vtcynic.com Assistant Editors Henry Mitchell (Opinion), Locria Courtright (Sports), Kyra Chevalier (Layout), Katie Brobst (Life), Joey Waldinger (News), Addie Beach (Arts), Caroline Slack (Features), Sophia Knappertz (Copy), Oliver Pomazi (Photo) Page Designers Meg Stevens, Lindsay Freed, Brandon Acari Copy Editors Brandon Arcari, Lindsay Freed, Sabrina Hood, Claire MacQueen, Greta Puc ADVISING Faculty Adviser Chris Evans crevans@uvm.edu

Luke Liscio lliscio@uvm.edu

T GENEVIEVE WINN gally adults. At this age, there is no reason why we students shouldn’t have control over our own narratives and our own lives.

Mandated reporting assumes victims do not know what is best for them. As the person who has lived through the experience, there is no reason why they shouldn’t have the final say in when they report incidents and how they wish to proceed.

Instead of enforcing mandated reporting, we should leave this choice to students. It allows them to be independent, make their own choices and build stronger relationships.

Without fear of their conversations being reported, students can have open and honest discussions and share what they feel most comfortable with, while deciding the next steps to take.

Staff editorials officially reflect the views of the Vermont Cynic. Signed opinion pieces and columns do not necessarily do so.

The Cynic accepts letters in response to anything you see printed as well as any issues of interest in the community. Please limit letters to 350 words. The Cynic reserves the right to edit letters for length and grammar. Please send letters to opinion@vtcynic.com.

Guilt tripping to save the earth

Podcasts Chloe Chaobal vtcynicpodcasts@gmail.com

John Strek jstrek@uvm.edu

W

e live in a world where environmental negligence is commonplace. Just look at what we’ve done.

Disasters like the Sanchi oil spill this January or the Keystone Pipeline leak in November 2017 seem more grave than past disasters. Infrastructure, including building construction, transportation and electricity, still relies on the fossil fuel business.

The U.S. alone produces roughly 130 million tons of landfill waste per year, according to the EPA. All of these damages are done for our convenience.

The easy reaction to this is to proclaim horror and advertise these atrocities, to show the stone-cold truths environmentalists have been pointing to for years. But how effective is this?

Using facts to make others feel guilty is ineffective in solving the problem.

University of California Los Angeles’ Climate Lab initiative met with Norwegian psychologist Per Espen Stoknes, notable for his TEDx talks, to discuss guilt’s role in the climate debate.

Technology is changing cognition

GENEVIEVE WINN Stoknes spoke of how creating guilt, especially when mentioning the grave facts of our climate dilemma, is counterintuitive because guilt causes withdrawal from the issue, and makes us care even less about our effects.

In reality, we all have our environmental faults. Let’s be aware that we are all to blame; that we, all in one way or another, caused Mother Nature’s plight. I occasionally put food into the trash. I drive an older car with low gas mileage.

There’s always going to be flaws in what we do. Our goal should be to minimize the amount and size of them, instead of ridding ourselves of them completely.

As college students attending UVM, we are given many chances to modify the little things in our lives in favor of the environment. Recycle that

piece of paper you threw in the trash. Carpool when you can.

Avoid using unneeded energy and bike instead. Unplug your charger when not in use.

Understand that while the factors we change may have minimal effect in the greater scale of things, the slight ways in which we decide to alter our habits is better for the planet than not changing at all.

As Mother Earth’s flowers grow through concrete cages, through our cage of climate guilt follows beauty. Within our guilt are seeds of opportunity. I encourage you to let your seeds grow into change.

John Strek is a first-year planning to major in environmental studies. He has been writing for the Cynic since 2018.

he negative effects of technology are widely known, yet we refuse to acknowledge them.

Instead of just relying on research to understand the effects of technology, such as addiction to our devices and decreased face-to-face interaction, we must also use our own wits to identify these effects in ourselves.

The realities of how technology changes us should be evident with or without scientific research.

We are training our brains to never completely focus on a given task due to impending notifications from our ever-present phones. Our attention spans have dwindled down to a mere eight seconds, according to a 2015 Time Magazine article. This is hardly enough time for a brief scroll through Instagram.

Many of my family members and UVM friends have said how dangerous and all-consuming technology and agree that its effects are changing us.

Some said they were addicted to technology, yet seemed unconcerned about the issue.

Many admitted to an addiction to technology, yet do not find it alarming and instead laugh it off as if it were inevitable.

Imagine how this affects the classroom, university, human interaction and everything else.

According to a poll conducted by a May 3 Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids in a world of technology, 50 percent of high school students feel addicted to their smartphones.

We are the rushed generation, a generation lost and distracted because of constant connectedness to technology.

Information overload and increased rapid exchange of information are leaving us confused and lost.

I suggest that technology is clogging our thinking and keeping us from productive introspection.

We must slow down and detach ourselves from constant connection.

Stop. Think. Reflect.

When we engage in introspection, we start to grasp how we are chained to technology.

Google can’t help us, YouTube can’t either. Alone, maybe with a pen in hand, we all need to think about how deep and far-reaching addictive technological habits can be.

Luke Liscio is a sophomore philosophy major. He has been writing for the Cynic since 2018.

OPINION

4

The Vermont Cynic

April 24, 2018

Janelle Monae’s new song empowers women Kim Henry kchenry@uvm.edu

J

anelle Monae’s new music video, “PYNK,” paints a radically queer and black sci-fi landscape.

And the way things are going right now, I want to jump in the painting with her.

For many black, femme oddballs out there, Monae has long been the android queen of our dreams, bopping and singing as her robot alter ego Cindi Mayweather.

Now, after a brief Oscar-nominated stint in acting, Monae has fallen down the rabbit hole back to her record label, Wondaland.

Throughout Monae’s musical career, the singer and producer infused her tracks and music videos with sci-fi elements, such as her own fictional “Metropolis” filled with android rebellions and a sweet black robot-sorority called Electro Phi Deltas.

Monae has released three new tracks with videos called “emotion pictures” by Monae’s official YouTube page since the start of 2018, including “Make Me Feel,” “Django Jane” and most recently, “PYNK.” Monae floods “PYNK” with female imagery, not the least of which are the now-famous vagina pants and her own afro of pubic hair peeking out from behind a pair of underwear, embroidered with “Sex Cells.”

“PYNK” largely takes place in an empty desert motel filled with care-free black women singing and dancing for no one’s entertainment but their own, focusing the camera on self-pleasure.

In addition to self-love, Monae showcases queer, platonic, sexual and sisterly love

ERIN BUNDOCK blending seamlessly among the women surrounding her.

Despite these undeniably strong images, I keep coming back to Monae’s entrance: She drives through a pink desert in a pink drop-top hover car surrounded by a fashionable entourage of black female friends.

Monae and the video’s director, Emma Westenberg, give us the technology of the Jetsons placed in the untouched nature of the desert.

They fill the car with black women — who the media rarely depict in sci-fi or natural settings. Monae’s particular brand

of afro-futurism has rarely felt so grounded in this present reality, but “PYNK” breaks the mold.

What could have possibly brought this scene into existence? Maybe the Electro Phi Deltas are just taking a sorority retreat from Metropolis?

Or maybe it’s the world where Trump finally got North Korea to snap, and the only ones to survive the nuclear holocaust were black women who, like the people of Wakanda, have been hiding their superior technology for all these years.

By placing black women

in an under-utilized narrative space, Monae continues her radical sci-fi project, allowing black women to be something else, somewhere else and live outside of stereotypes while retaining so much of what makes us magic.

From the labia-based wardrobe to the focus on female friendship, “PYNK” communicates an afro/queer/cis-female-centric message. However, the lyrics speak a universality into the folds of the vagina pants.

Yes, in addition to crooning “pink like your fingers in my,”

followed by a pregnant pause, Monae sings to the audience that pink is also like “the lid of your eye ... the skin that’s under.”

Monae reminds us that pink is “like the folds of your brain” and is “where it all starts.”

My question: When will Forever 21 come out with their own line of vagina pants?

Kim Henry is a junior English major studying in Cuba. She has been writing for the Cynic since 2015.

Learning from a long history of revolutionary action Gabriel Timberg gtimberg@uvm.edu

T

here have been times in my life where everything seemed like a hopeless waste of time, and during these times there has been one comforting thought that makes it all OK: the hope of a year as revolutionary as 1968.

1968 served as the most important social turning point during the Cold War, setting up a grassroots explosion around the world.

Now, 50 years later, there are countless lessons for the next generation of organizers for our liberation to learn.

The Tet offensive sparked mass anti-war feeling all over the U.S., and other nations of the world observed how weak the imperialist American war machine really was.

Soldiers refused to fight in the name of a capitalist war

machine after seeing traumatic media coverage. General strikes all over France resulted in workers taking over the factories.

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. resulted in riots all over the U.S. The deployment of 73,000 National Guard troops, in an effort to crush anger and despair, led to the rise of the Black Panther Party.

Less revolutionary, but important nonetheless: environmental experts from around the world met for the first time to discuss environmental problems like pollution, resource loss and wetland destruction at the U.N. Biosphere Conference.

Massive environmental demonstrations also took place around the world.

Today, on top of the incredibly complex global, social and political unrest, climate change looms.

It harms impoverished members of the working class the most. They can’t afford to

escape the rising sea, water and food shortages, or the health costs of pollution.

To top it all off, the elected leader of the largest contributor to climate change per capita denies its existence.

This is one of the many challenges the left faces as a new tide of conservative ideology flows throughout the globe. The years from 1968 to 1975 were revolutionary, but they were not revolutionary enough.

The past 40 years have been grounds for reactionary right-wingers to take back all our progress and to suppress the direct action that caused such radical changes.

We must remember that the only way to fight such an organized force is through equally organized democratic force.

Gabriel Timberg is a sophomore environmental studies major. He has been writing for the Cynic since 2018.

EMMA PINEZICH

The Vermont Cynic

April 24, 2018

CULTURE

5

Eco-Reps advertise zero waste living Lily Merriam lemerria@uvm.edu

If you’re tired of having to take out the trash, perhaps it’s time to consider a zero waste lifestyle. It’s not as daunting as you might think.

The UVM Eco-Reps, an organization that aims to train environmentally responsible leaders, is promoting a guide for living waste-free in college for UVM’s Earth Week.

Junior Isabel Lisle, an EcoRep employee, first learned about the zero waste lifestyle while attending a zero waste fair as a member of the Vermont Student Environmental Program.

“At the end of the conference this girl walks on to the stage carrying a mason jar full of trash,” Lisle said. “She said, ‘this is all the trash I’ve produced in a year.’ I was completely blown away.”

The team of Eco-Reps published a 12-page guide to student waste reduction March 19.

It can be found in print around the Davis Center or online.

But there is still some confusion over what this lifestyle actually entails, first-year Zach Harris said.

“I honestly don’t really understand the specifics of zero waste other than it’s a general lifestyle of sustainable living,” Harris said.

Zero waste doesn’t mean creating no waste at all, Lisle said.

It means that the only waste an individual creates is stuff that can be recycled, reused or composted rather than being sent to a landfill, she said.

“From what I understand, it’s a movement that stems from all the issues surrounding how much waste humans produce that ends up in landfills and thrown in the oceans,” junior Caitlyn Bain said.

The average American generates 4.4 pounds of trash every day, according to a December 2017 CNN article.

The Eco-Reps aren’t the only ones promoting waste reduction.

Vermont prohibited the disposal of four types of waste when the Universal Recycling law was passed in 2012, according to the state’s official website.

Blue bin recyclables, leaf debris, clean wood and food scraps are not allowed to be thrown into the trash.

Blue bin recyclables include paper, aluminum, cardboard, steel, glass and hard plastics, according to the website.

By July 2020, food scraps will be banned in residential and commercial trash bins.

“UVM does a phenomenal job,” Lisle said. “We really are the leader in sustainability.”

UVM has an Eco-Ware program that offers discounted prices on on-campus retail dining. Most dining locations also have compostable utensils, are zero-waste and practice food

LILLY SHARP recovery.

Lisle is not the only one impacted by UVM’s sustainability programs and clubs.

“I have definitely become more aware while at UVM about zero waste both through classes for my major and clubs and organizations around campus,” Bain said.

The hope is that these tips

can be carried on into students’ adult lives, Lisle said.

“I didn’t think that it would last, but honestly I’m going to do it for the rest of my life,” she said.

A zero waste lifestyle can be overwhelming and it’s difficult to go cold turkey. Taking small steps over a length of time is the key, she said.

“If I’m at a restaurant, and the waiter is coming around with water I say, ‘Oh, actually I don’t need a straw, thanks,’” Lisle said. “That’s super easy to do.”

She hopes that more UVM students will join in her push to reduce waste on campus.

CULTURE

6

The Vermont Cynic

Adventure Dog to open SpringFest Eleanor Webster ecwebste@uvm.edu

Wires snaked around the feet of the band as they walked into their rehearsal space, a chaotic basement littered with craft beer cans, amps and drum kits.

Senior Andrew Tonra, guitarist and vocalist of Adventure Dog, sat on an amp and spoke about his band.

Adventure Dog won UVM Program Board’s Battle of the Bands, held at Nectar’s March 24. The band competed to be the opener at SpringFest, UVM’s annual spring concert.

The band scored highest in the three categories: crowd reaction, stage presence and musicianship, said sophomore Taylor Magda, UPB concert committee chair.

“Adventure Dog checked off all the boxes,” she said.

The band will open for SpringFest’s headliner, Playboi Carti.

“A lot of our shows have a set list written down but sometimes we’ll sort of jump around, but for SpringFest we’ll come as prepared as ever,” keyboardist Adam Schini, a senior, said.

The all-senior five-piece band consists of tenor saxophonist Derek Dykstra, keyboardist and trumpet player Schini, guitarist and lead vocalist Tonra, drummer Will Maschick and bass player Cody Grimm.

Hit rapper deserves criticism Dahlia Maleh dmaleh@uvm.edu

M

PATRICK LANGLOIS / Vermont Cynic

Winner of UVM Program Board’s Battle of the Bands, Adventure Dog performs March 24 at Nectar’s on Main Street. The band will open for Playboy Carti at this year’s SpringFest April 28.

Tonra said that he and Schini have been playing guitar and living together since their first year at UVM, when they began writing songs together.

The group expanded further with Dykstra, Grimm and Maschick.

The band started off small, playing some basement shows, and eventually playing some downtown venues, Tonra said.

The band was named after Little Joe Tazio; Adventure Dog, Tonra’s girlfriend’s dog.

“We’ve really been centered around rock and funk, a little

bit of soul music,” Tonra said.

“There’s this little thing I like to say. We are ‘rock and roll with a funky soul.’”

When everything goes right, the band sounds like a groovy ’70s rock band, he said.

“In one of our first Facebook reactions, we were described as ‘If Steely Dan and Green Day had a baby,’” Dykstra said.

The band is also booked for Tumble Down Festival this summer at Burlington Waterfront Park.

The two-day festival will take place July 27 and 28. Ad-

venture Dog is scheduled to play at 4 p.m. July 27.

“We’re very excited,” Tonra said. “Getting booked for something like that gives me so much inspiration to be as good as I can be. It’s a really good opportunity for us.”

Adventure Dog has an EP in production. It will be available this summer on Spotify and Apple Music.

SpringFest will take place at 2 p.m. April 28. UVM students can purchase tickets in advance online at tickets.uvm.edu for $10.

With finals approaching, you might want a podcast to listen to while you’re hunkered down in the library.

The Culture staff has got you covered with four podcast recommendations.

Check the Culture section weekly for our staff’s latest picks.

Song Exploder

April 24, 2018

Girlboss Radio

Dynamic Banter

Hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway Hunter McKenzie’s pick

Hosted by Sophia Amoruso Bridget Higdon’s pick

Hosted by Mike Falzone and Steve Zaragoza Allie O’Connor’s pick

Song Exploder highlights a different musician every week and invites the artist to tell the story behind one of their songs.

The artist talks about their creative process, including the evolution of their lyrics. Often the artist will bring juicy demos or early outtakes.

Since 2014, there have been more than 70 guests including U2, alt-J and Lin-Manuel Miranda. My favorite episodes: Solange with “Cranes in the Sky,” Carly Rae Jepsen with “When I Needed You” and Perfume Genius with “Slip Away.”

Entrepreneur and author Amoruso interviews innovative and boundary-pushing women who’ve made a mark in their profession.

Each woman how she got to where she is today and provides advice along the way. Amoruso ends each conversation by asking: “What does success mean to you?” It’s time to start making space for other definitions of the word, Amoruso says.

My favorite episodes: poet Rupi Kaur, journalist Katie Couric and Burton Snowboards CEO Donna Carpenter.

Bees, harmonicas and legitimate advice you should definitely follow are just some of the topics tackled by comedians Falzone and Zaragoza.

Each episode is full of improv. A segment called “History Road” even features listener-written stories.

My favorite episodes: “Fall,” where Falzone recounts a particularly bad open mic, and “Bees,” where Falzone and Zaragoza discover just how much information about bees you can cram into one episode.

50 Things That Made the Modern Economy Hosted by Tim Hartford Keely Lyons’ pick

If you like history, fun facts and learning how the world works, this podcast is for you. In each of the 50 nine-minute episodes, Harford gives a history lesson on a different world-altering invention.

Topics range from passports, to Google, to the TV dinner. Harford’s well-researched and engaging shows teach you something new about the things that have become such staples of Western life that we’ve never stopped to consider them.

usic media and its consumers are facing a moral dilemma: whether they can continue to separate artists from art.

XXXTentacion’s 2018 album, “?” fits how he should be viewed as an artist: with question and caution.

To call the Florida rapper problematic is an understatement. In October 2016, he was arrested on charges of domestic battery, false imprisonment and aggravated battery of his then-pregnant girlfriend.

In September 2017, Pitchfork, an online music publication, got a copy of the victim’s 51-page medical record, which contains horrifying details and pictures of the abuse.

Despite his treatment of women, his fame has suffered no consequences. His new album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and he rose from No. 22 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart.

The songs from his album feature lyrics about his battles with depression and continuous suicidal thoughts, nearly providing fans with an excuse for his violent actions.

His lyrics could easily be seen as a poetic testimony to the world: he tells everyone that he is a broken soul looking for love and sanity. The narrative he creates, no matter how relatable, is no excuse for the violence he has committed.

Not only are fans giving him support, but multiple music media outlets are still publicizing his success and not reporting on what the artist has done outside of the studio.

Complex is a major music publication that has consistently published articles praising XXXTentacion’s music, yet they’ve written very little about his abusive actions.

XXXTentacion is not the only abusive rapper that gets publicity and spots on the charts.

Kodak Black was charged with sexual assault of a minor, yet no radio station stopped playing “Tunnel Vision.”

These rappers are our generation’s R. Kelly because of our reluctances to shun “good talent” from the despite heinous wrongdoing.

Despite it all, R. Kelly’s “Ignition (Remix)” and now XXXTentacion’s “Look At Me” will still be playing at frat parties, clubs and even Bar Mitzvahs.

Dahlia Maleh is a firstyear public communications major. She has gone to more than 50 concerts.

The Vermont Cynic

CULTURE

April 24, 2018

7

Students explore healing alternatives Enola Mercer elmercer@uvm.edu

Not many doctor’s offices have sparkly purple amethyst, rose quartz and soft glowing salt rocks, but some people seek healing through these minerals.

Crystal healing is an alternative healing technique in which crystals and other stones are used to treat ailments and protect against disease, according to an October 2017 Time Magazine article.

The gemstones are sometimes placed on the body, or held during meditation, the article states.

Common crystals are amethyst for the stomach, topaz for mental clarity, aventurine for the heart and rose quartz for love.

The use of crystals is traced back to Sumerians and Egyptians, but the growing new age health practice comes from Chinese culture, a June 2017 Live Science article states.

With finals week arriving May 7, many students are entering a time of stress. Some will turn to crystals and other alternative healing methods to cope.

Burlington has numerous retailers for non-western medicine, such as the Crystal Cottage on College street, Holistic Alternative Practitioners in

South Burlington and the Railyard Apothecary by the waterfront.

Sophomore Stella Cunningham tried a crystal healing session at home with a friend who practices regularly.

“To a certain extent, I kind of liked the whole ritual.

“My friend gave me a necklace and I had to pick the one that spoke to me,” she said.

“Even if it didn’t do anything, it made me a little bit calmer when I wore it. It’s probably a placebo, but it can still have an effect if you believe in it.”

Though there is no scientific evidence to connect crystals with increased feelings of well-being, some doctors are now looking to learn from alternative healing to take a more holistic approach to their patients’ health, a June 2013 CNN article states.

“When it comes to alternative medicine, it’s not clear what the mechanism is that can make it helpful to patients, but it may be that it helps create the right environment,” the article states.

Sophomore Bekah Kuster is open to the practice but skeptical of the benefits.

“I am not sure if there are any real benefits, but I think they can positively affect people’s energy and moods,”

TAYLOR EHWA/Vermont Cynic

The Crystal Cottage on College Street is just one of the stores in Burlington that provide customers with materials for non-Western medicine. The gemstones are sometimes placed on the body, often in the location of key chakras or held during meditation.

Kuster said. “There isn’t much evidence.”

Sophomore Lara Cwass tries not to let the lack of evidence deter following what path of healing works for her, she said.

“I don’t do much research on their specific benefits, but I do strongly believe that they

In distress? Feeling down?

Need to talk?

Call us for free, anonymous, non-judgmental support.

bring warmth and good energy into a living space,” Cwass said.

“I think that applies to anything that comes from the earth, such as Himalayan salt lamps, plants and flowers.”

Even if they do not provide healing, crystals are always a wonderful decoration to any

dull dorm room, she said.

“They’re beautiful, of course,” Cwass said. “I love to just look at the crystals on my desk. That itself brings me positive energy.”

SPORTS

8

The Vermont Cynic

April 24, 2018

Shooting club competes at high level Maddie Allen msallen@uvm.edu

The UVM Shooting Sports club is a lesser known club sports team on campus, but it has had a lot of success in recent years.

This past season, the club won in the rimfire division at Nationals in Alabama March 8 to 11 for the second year in a row.

Prior to the 2017 Nationals, UVM competed in the open division, meaning they competed with a partial squad.

In 2017 and 2018 they were able to field a full squad, allowing them to compete in the rim fire division, coach Kenny Flagg said.

“We came back and won the legitimate rimfire division [in 2017],” Flagg said. “And then this nationals last month we defended that title.”

The team’s two primary branches of competition are pistol and shotgun. Both branches compete in various disciplines in their matches.

UVM also has a recreational squad, junior team president Kyle Freundlich said.

UVM competes in squadbased competitions in the Scholastic Action Shooting Program, where schools compete in teams of four. The four-person squad’s score is cumulative. “[For example] in this situa-

LUC BURNIER / The Vermont Cynic Junior Kyle Freundlich, president of the UVM Shooting Sports Team, fires a gun during target practice April 21. tion you’re shooting five targets for time and all of your scores are added up at the end of the day,” Flagg said.

UVM focuses on team-oriented competitions rather than solo shooting competitions. The team also prioritizes safety and control, Flagg said.

“There’s a range safety officer, a scorekeeper, a shooter and a coach that are all on the line at the same time,” Flagg said. “Everything is very con-

trolled and observed.”

The team competes in a number of regional competitions with other schools and clubs from around the area.

The team typically stays for two nights at the match’s location.

“One day is usually practice and the next day is a match all day,” Freundlich said. “We just compete against [the other schools] and go for medals and it’s a lot of fun.”

The club stresses that they

are not political, Freundlich said.

“We’re just a bunch of fun-loving people going out and having fun,” Freundlich said.

First-year Ryan McGuinness said he competed in shooting competitions in high school and was looking to continue when he arrived at UVM. “The UVM shooting team gives me the best opportunity to continue competing in college,”

McGuinness said.

For Freundlich, the team has been a huge part of his UVM experience.

“I’ve made so many friends on the team. It has just given me something to do all the time,” Freundlich said.

If a student is interested in joining the team, they should reach out to the UVM Shooting Sports Club on Facebook for more information.