October 6, 2020

Special FIT edition included inside PHOTO BY: KEILEN FRAZIER

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VIEWS FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL

VOLUME 96 • ISSUE 7

WEEK OF 10.6.20

“This isn’t about politics. Black Lives Matter isn’t about politics.”

TRUCKIN’ GREAT COVID-19 leads to new dining options

By Debra Murray

WKU COVIDdashboard lacks active case count

debra.murray940@topper.wku.edu

By Leo Bertucci leo.bertucci665@topper.wku.edu

JACK DOBBS

Cindi Roehm, owner of The Groovy Gus Donut Bus, rings up an order on Oct. 3, 2020. The bus was parked at Jackson’s Orchard and Nursery all day on Saturday.

Food trucks are in the process of being added to the meal plan system to provide students with outdoor food options.

Due to COVID-19, food trucks have been starting to visit campus so that students have other places to get food instead of the busy food courts. The Groovy Gus Donut Bus is one of many different food trucks that has been visiting campus to sell food to students, but due to lack of advertisement, business has been very slow on campus. The other food vendors approved to sell on campus include Pelican’s Snowballs, Lost River Pizza Company, Chaney’s Dairy Barn, Empanadas BG and the Taste of Europe.

Cindi Roehm and Steve Garden, owners of the Groovy Gus Donut Bus, explained how being part of this new program would help their small business.

“We got a call from Aramark to see if we could come help with food on campus, they are working on the point of sale machine so we can take Big Red dollars and meal plan dollars,” Garden said. “[POS system] will really help us on campus because we’ve had a lot of students come up but can’t get anything because they can’t swipe.”

Aramark contacted Roehm and Garden to serve food on campus to avoid students piling up in food courts. Each truck serving on campus is supposed to receive the point-of-service system, which will allow them to take meal plan dollars and Big Red dollars by scanning students’ WKU IDs.WKU Restaurant Group has been working with WKU and the operating system used by WKU ID center for meal plans to get these systems to the food trucks.

In section 15.2 of the contract between Aramark and WKU, it states, “Aramark agrees to prepare and serve meals to WKU for WKU to resell to its students, faculty, or staff participating in Board Plans and Meal Plans.”

Roehm has been waiting for the POS system for weeks, but due to an increase in demand, they haven’t been able to get the business that was expected.

“I’m in business, I have to make money, so I can’t afford to lose $500 a day,” Roehm said. “Being on campus and not being in a good spot or not having the swipes, I’m a small business. I can’t do that long term.”

“So I would imagine that a lot of campuses are trying to get food trucks on campus, so they are trying to get the swipe systems and there is a backlog, so we’re hoping to get it in the next couple weeks.”

The Chaney’s Dairy Barn trailer has also made an appearance on campus throughout the past few weeks. They are also awaiting the POS system from Aramark to be able to accept meal plan and flex dollars. Joanna Porter works at Chaney’s Dairy Barn and is responsible for setting up the trailers for the company.

“We signed a contract with Aramark, [but] we haven’t received equipment yet to be able to accept meal plan or flex dollars,” Porter said.

Since the trucks have yet to receive the POS system, they haven’t had substantial business from students.

“Right now on campus, we’re doing 10% of what we would do if we were off-campus,” Garden said. “It’s that slow without awareness and without equipment. It’s just hard for us to do business.”

Once the POS systems are in place, business at these food trucks on campus is expected to increase.

“Once those are in place I think we would be as well on campus as we would anywhere else, if not better,” Roehm said. “It’s all-new. We’ve been talking to Aramark, and it was thrown at them like they have to get more food options on campus because all the kids can’t be in the buildings. So they got food trucks, but there’s a whole system that has to be put in place.”

Local business took a hit during the pandemic, and the Groovy Gus Donut Bus was no exception to losing revenue because of COVID-19.

“I was closed down for a month and a half,” Roehm said. “I lost all that revenue, so to be on campus and make a tenth of what I could make at the farmer’s market, I can’t do that because I’m still building back up after COVID-19 shutdown.”

Both places are large supporters of WKU, so getting to serve their food on campus is something they are looking forward to.

“We have always enjoyed serving ice cream on Western’s campus,” Porter said.

The owners of the Groovy Gus Donut Bus are also excited to serve hungry students on campus.

“We’re excited to be on campus, we love Western,” Garden said. “I’m sick to death with how much I love it there. The opportunity to have a good day is always there.”

Debra Murray can be reached at debra.murray940@topper.wku.edu. Follow her on Twitter @debramurrayy

An active case count is not included in WKU’s COVID-19 dashboard like some other Kentucky universities.

WKU’s COVID-19 dashboard can inform members of the university community about how many campus-related positive cases there have been in a three-day span or three-month span, but an active positive case count is not currently available.

WKU is not the only school in Kentucky to not provide an active case count for COVID-19 cases. The University of Louisville, Murray State University and Morehead State University are not providing an active COVID-19 case count as of Oct. 4. Meanwhile, Eastern Kentucky University is reporting 46 active cases of COVID-19 as of Oct. 4.

Bob Skipper, WKU’s director of media relations, said that the university can not quantify an active case count without data from the Barren River District Health Department that is specific to WKU. “We are currently not receiving data from BRDHD for our dashboard,” Skipper said in an email. “I check with them before every update and as of Oct. 1, they still could not pull WKU-specific information.”

WKU could not receive COVID-19 positive case data from the Barren River District Health Department for its most recent update because the health department is updating its COVID-19 case data software, according to Ashli McCarty, a spokesperson for the health department. As of Oct. 2, the software update is still ongoing.

“The issue has primarily been resolved, but there’s still some residual effects and discrepancies that we’re working through, so while that is complete we’re still dealing with making sure that all of our data is accurate,” McCarty said.

McCarty said that the Barren River District Health Department’s software update is “definitely” prohibiting the health department from providing an active case count for WKU. McCarty does not know if the new system will allow for a WKU-specific case count.

Unlike WKU, the University of Kentucky has its own definition for active COVID-19 cases. According to the university’s dashboard, students who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have not yet been allowed by their local health department to leave their isolation location are counted as an active case. In order for a UK student to leave their isolation location, they must be able to provide the university with a “release from isolation” document from their local health department. Once the university receives the document, the COVID-19 case is tallied as a recovered case.

The Barren River District Health Department is currently tallying active and recovered case counts in its case

WKU ACTIVE CASES • A2

A2 WKU ACTIVE CASES • FROM A1 dashboard for the counties in its service area. On Oct. 2, the health department reported 1,041 active cases of COVID-19 and 6,452 recoveries.

In order to determine whether a

COVID-19 case can be identified as a recovered case, contact tracers from the Barren River District Health Department frequently keep track of an infected person’s symptoms, McCarty said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most infections last for 10 days after symptoms begin.

The CDC states that if an infected person does not take fever-reducing medication for at least 24 hours, that is generally a sign of recovery.

Skipper said that he would like to include information on active and recovered cases on WKU’s COVID-19 dashboard.

“If we get to the point where BRDHD can once again provide WKU-specific data again, we will revisit the information we post,” Skipper said.

Leo Bertucci can be reached at leo. bertucci665@topper.wku.edu Follow him on Twitter @leober2chee.

Math department head responds to demotion, reanalyzes model

41 days later

By Liza Rash liza.rash282@topper.wku.edu.

WKU’s Faculty Senate released a statement Friday, Sept. 18 requesting that interim Dean of Ogden College Greg Arbuckle and acting Provost Cheryl Stevens reconsider their decision to remove Bruce Kessler as head of the math department.

According to WKU math professor Patrick Brown, concerns for Kessler’s removal were formally expressed by the math faculty before the Faculty Senate released their statement on the matter.

Twenty-nine of the 31 full-time professors of the math department signed and sent a letter to Arbuckle and Stevens on Sept. 4, requesting that they reconsider the decision to not renew Kessler for another four-year term.

Brown was one of those 29 faculty members.

“To my knowledge, we have so far received no response,” Brown stated in an email. “So, whether the recent action by the Faculty Senate will yield different results is difficult to predict.”

The statement gave several reasons as to why a majority of the department is concerned with the decision, including the faculty’s lack of involvement in the evaluation process. This differs from their alleged involvement in years past.

When Kessler was due for evaluation in 2017 after completing his first term, math faculty claimed to have been given an online survey and individual, in-person meetings with the appropriate dean.

This time around, faculty claims that they were not asked to participate in Kessler’s evaluation at all. This violates WKU Policy 1.5041.III.A., as listed in the Faculty Senate statement.

Brown also noted that the way in which the department faculty was notified that Kessler would not be renewed for a third term raised suspicion that an evaluation may not have even taken place.

“We were notified via a third-hand email that originated from Interim Dean Arbuckle that Dr. Kessler would not even be considered for renewal,” Brown said.

“So, to my knowledge, the evaluation process didn’t happen at all.”

Brown also expressed a particular distaste for the timing of this decision.

“I think Dr. Kessler has provided level-headed leadership during these very difficult times: the continuing COVID-19 pandemic as well as the year-after-year budget tightening resulting in the termination of long-time permanent full-time faculty members,” Brown said. “It seems absurd to me to change leadership right in the middle of all of this unless it were absolutely necessary.”

The Faculty Senate statement detailed a different reason for their issue with the timing of Kessler’s demotion.

This decision was announced shortly after the Herald published a story about Kessler’s mathematical model that measured how long it would take before a WKU faculty member died of COVID-19 once campus re-opened.

This raised suspicions amongst faculty surrounding the grounds upon which Kessler was demoted.

According to the statement, faculty members are concerned that Kessler may be losing his position due to his outspoken opposition to university policy regarding COVID-19. This would be a direct violation of the WKU Faculty Handbook, which states that faculty members are entitled to publicize their research and investigations in their areas of specialization. Snippets of this clause are included in the Faculty Senate statement, along with WKU Policy 1.5041.III.A. Although Kessler is also skeptical of his demotion, he has declined any further involvement in the faculty’s efforts to hold Arbuckle and Stevens accountable for their suspected violations of WKU policy.

“I do not want to be seen as rattle rousing here,” Kessler said. “I’ve pretty much accepted my fate.”

However, Kessler’s laid-back stance in this situation does not mean he does not appreciate the support he has been shown from his colleagues.

“It’s very heartwarming,” Kessler said.

“It feels good to know that I’ve built a decent reputation in my years here.”

He also said that he felt the Senate letter was important, regardless of its focus

on his demotion.

“I didn’t object to the letter because I think the letter contained a lot of concerns, not just with me, that need to be talked out,” Kessler said.

Director of Media Relations Bob Skipper declined to answer any specific questions regarding this matter, but he did want to clarify that Kessler “was not terminated.”

He further explained that Kessler will remain on faculty; he will not, however, be renewed as department head.

Skipper finally included Stevens’ official statement regarding Kessler’s position. This is her statement: “Bruce Kessler served as department head for an interim year and two full four-year terms. He will not be offered another term. He was not fired or dismissed. Times have changed. The academy has changed. It is time for a math department leadership change. Leaders get to refresh their teams with new people. Presidents do it. Provosts do it.

Deans do it. I changed out eight out of nine department heads while I was dean.

It’s not retaliation. It’s not for cause. It’s not about academic freedom. It’s not a violation of policy.”

The Herald staff reached out to Arbuckle via email and phone call to request an interview for this story. He did not respond to either attempt.

Kessler also noted that he doubts that the Senate statement will alter Arbuckle’s decision. He said he is dedicated to finishing out his job to the best of his ability and will help make the transition for the new department head as smooth as he possibly can. He said that he has made no changes to how he performs despite current circumstances.

The student body has also voiced an opinion over Kessler’s demotion. Sidewalk chalk reading “Kessler cares” and “Tell us why” began popping up in Centennial Mall last week. As of right now, the Herald staff was unable to find out who has been chalking these phrases.

Kessler’s demotion is effective July 1, 2021.

“I’m gonna do the job until I’m not doing the job,” Kessler said. “I plan to do it well.”

As for the model itself, it has now been 41 days since WKU re-opened its doors.

Kessler’s model showed that a faculty member would die within 29 days of WKU re-opening its doors. There has not been a reported faculty death due to COVID-19.

Kessler still stands by his model. He wanted to reiterate that the model was just an estimate, and there were many variables he simply could not account for.

“We had no accurate way to forecast how many people were showing up sick and not knowing it,” Kessler said. “When I did the model, there were a certain number of students coming back, and it’s built around all of those students being here. Now, some students may have classes entirely online.”

This affects the outcome of Kessler’s model; there was no way for him to build this variable into his model without knowing the exact number of students whose classes have gone online or hybrid.

He keeps up with WKU’s numbers and compares them to his model.

“I’m watching the dashboard that’s a part of ‘Healthy on the Hill,’ and they’ve indicated that there are not as many active cases that I’ve projected,” Kessler said. “But they’ve pretty much conceded its inaccuracy with the amount of asterisks that are scattered about the page.”

Kessler speculated that the WKU Health department has had issues with how many cases are actually being reported, specifically when students don’t test positive at either the Graves Gilbert Clinic on campus or Med Center Health but go home and test positive there.

“The moment I saw what the model said, I was hoping it would be wrong,” Kessler said. “I was never rooting for anyone to get sick so the model would be right.”

WKU Environmental Health and Safety Director David Oliver said that he believed Kessler’s model numbers were calculated assuming that the University

reopened “without intervention.”

“We are still unable to get the numbers from surrounding counties,” Oliver said.

“The public health department is still unable to provide that data because of the system’s issues that they’ve had.”

Oliver said he is confident in the numbers being reported twice a week on the COVID-19 dashboard.

“I think the numbers we have are very reflective of what’s on campus of faculty, staff and students,” said Oliver.

Oliver also said that EH&S “works with and talks to public health every day” and is fully prepared to take “appropriate action” to protect students, faculty and staff if there is a spike in cases. For right now, he does not believe making any further changes to current COVID-19 policy are necessary.

“What we saw in the fall was an escalation initially when everyone came back to campus,” Oliver said. “Then we found a greater escalation based on those pos-

itive cases when we did testing, contact tracing and quarantine. Since then, we’ve seen a steady decline.”

Although Oliver is confident that the virus has not been spreading as fervently through campus in recent weeks, highlighting that the last reporting period only saw eight positive cases, he acknowledged that “we’ve still got a long way to go.”

“We won’t be out of the woods until there is a vaccine, and it is able to be distributed and administered,” Oliver said.

“We’re gonna face a lot of the same challenges this spring.”

Features reporter Liza Rash can be reached at 270-745-6291 and liza. rash282@topper.wku.edu. Follow Liza on social media at @l1za_.

JACK DOBBS

Bruce Kessler, department head of mathematics at WKU, sits in front of his model that predicts when the first COVID-19 related death would occur on campus.

A3 NOT ‘ONE AND DONE’ • FROM A5 University of Kentucky have vehemently backed their athletes trying to bring change especially to a state that has been stubborn and resistant to such change.

Those schools and teams knew there would be a lot of backlash when they made videos, marched or any form of supporting Black Lives Matter and speaking out on police brutality.

On Sept. 24, WKU graduate linebacker Eli Brown, who was a part of the demonWKU VS. MTSU • FROM A5 the Hilltoppers some valuable production, in which he did not disappoint.

Moses accounted for more than half of the WKU yards on their 68-yard drive, which lasted 6:39 with 36-rushing yards that led to Pigrome finding sophomore tight end Joshua Simon on an 11-yard

stration on Wednesday, tweeted “For the amount of BLACK ATHLETES that attend WKU, it feels like nothing has been done to show that they care about equality [for real]. You can clearly tell this school cares more about the fans.”

He isn’t the only one who feels this way as other athletes from multiple sports retweeted his tweet and agreed.

Black Americans make up a big part of WKU Athletics, and there’s no reason why they should feel like the school they chose to go to doesn’t care about them

as much as they thought.

This isn’t about politics. Black Lives Matter isn’t about politics. It’s a human rights issue that has never gone away but has only re-formed.

WKU Athletics did a good job highlighting what these athletes were able to do Wednesday night, but it’s not enough. Don’t let this be a one and done deal. This isn’t a one time photo opportunity to show that they care.

This is an issue that Black Americans have had to deal with for 400 years, and

the people up top need to continuously use the big platforms available to back these students and their message, whether the community agrees with it or not.

Like WKU defensive end Juwan Jones said, “be the change you want to see.”

Help these players, students, alumni and community members be the change.

touchdown pass.

“I just felt like we needed a little bit of a spark to get something in the run game,” said Helton. “Jakairi has always kind of been that guy you can plug in, and he went out there and gave us that spark.”

Down 20-10, O’Hara tossed his first touchdown pass of the night on a 2-yard throw to senior receiver C.J. Windham

leaving the onside kick being the last hope for MTSU. Holt’s onside attempt was unsuccessful as the ball did not reach ten yards giving way for the Hilltoppers to line up in victory formation.

WKU has momentum that they so desperately wanted going into what will be another high-spirited game next week.

The Hilltoppers will look to hand Marshall their first loss of the season when the Thundering Herd travel to the Hill on Saturday for the Moonshine Throwdown.

Men’s basketball beat reporter & columnist Kaden Gaylord can be reached at kaden.gaylord559@topper.wku.edu.

Follow Kaden on Twitter at @_KLG3.

Football beat reporter Matthew Hargrove can be reached at matthew.hargrove426@topper.wku.edu. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewHargrov1

Lady Topper golf finishes second in Hoover Invitational

By Nick Kieser

nick.kieser036@topper.wku.edu.

The Lady Topper Golf program has completed its first two competitions of the 2020 season.

Freshman Rylea Marcum led the way shooting five under par in her debut at the USA Intercollegiate. The program finished in first place at the University of South Alabama and Marcum was named Conference USA’s first collegiate female of the week back on Sept. 17.

“I was honestly surprised when I saw it on Instagram,” Marcum said. “It makes me feel like that I am doing the right things practicing, and I need to continue to do that to help the team.”

In the program’s second competition the Lady Toppers finished second in the Hoover Invitational at the University of Alabama-Birmingham shooting 14 over par. Sophomore Sarah Arnold led the way at UAB shooting three over par.

The third competition of the season is on Oct. 12-13 at Arkansas State. The

Lady Red Wolves recently finished in last place at the Schooner Fall Classic on Sept. 28 and at No. 5 at the USA Intercollegiate.

“Every shot counts, everything you can do to help the team,” graduate Mary Joiner said. “Hopefully we put ourselves in that position again and come away with another top three finish and win and use the experience to keep growing.”

Joiner was accompanied with three other seniors prior to this season. This campaign the graduate has three freshmen by her side on the links.

“Everyone is contributing,” Joiner said. “Qualifying is really close, this team is so much deeper than it’s ever been so we’re able to push ourselves and use that to get better. Everyone just works really hard — it’s been a great year so far and I’m excited to see how we can develop over this year.”

According to head coach Adam Gary, it’s

KU Herald 10/6/20 Crossword

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a dynamic, different look, and everyone is bringing different experiences to the team.

“To come out of the gate and play as well as we have it’s been a pleasant surprise, and everyone has contributed and everyone has played well so far,” Gary said. “They’ve exceeded my expectations.”

The veteran coach added that this program is gelling really well and pushing one another in practice.

“We’re grateful to be playing and grateful to be out on the course,” Gary said. “Anything that happens is a bonus because I’ve told [the team] from the beginning that it’s a huge advantage to have this opportunity to where we can get some tournament reps before we go into the spring.”

According to Gary there will be four new golf courses to play on, which will be a new challenge for the program this season playing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This has been a difficult year, and

we’re just rolling with the punches,” Gary said. “You have to be flexible and be able to adapt to what the circumstances allow you to do. As long as we’re putting in the work and doing the things we need to do and stick to the process, the results will take care of themselves.”

This fall five of the 12 C-USA members are participating in competitions.

Aside from WKU the other active programs are UAB, Middle Tennessee State University, North Texas and Southern Mississippi.

“The other teams that we are competing against in conference that aren’t playing are going to have more rust and try to get into the role of competing before the conference tournament,” Gary said.

Sports Editor Nick Kieser can be reached at nick.kieser036@topper.wku. edu. Follow Nick on Twitter at @KieserNick.

FUN

PuzzleJunction.com

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5 Vichyssoise 17 18 16 ingredient 19 20 21 22 9 Young ‘uns Classified Advertising Manager: Will Hoagland herald.advertising@wku.edu 13 Volcano feature 23 24 25 26 14 Exhort 15 Blacksmith’s 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 block ow iring 35 36 37 38 34 16 Scent 17 Sharpener Waterworks Autowash now hiring $10 hour 40 41 42 39 plus tips/commission. Apply at 2270 Scottsville 19 Related Road BG. 21 Barbershop sound 43 45 46 47 44 22 “I’m impressed!”

WKU Herald 10/6/20 Sudoku 1 P 49 50 51 52 53 48 23 Choose Note to readers: The College Heights Herald screens ads for misleading or false claims but cannot garantee any ad or claim. Please use caution when answering ads, especially when WKU Herald 9/8/20 Sudoku 1asked PuzzleJun 26 First lady to send money or provide credit card information. The College Heights Herald is not 54 55 responsible for the content or validity of these paid classified ads.

27 “Oh! Susanna” composer To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 box must contain the numbers 1 to 9.

30 PC linkup To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and 65 66 67 68 69 70 box must contain the numbers 1 to 9.

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COMMUNITY

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OPENING DOORS

New scholarships show that WKU cares Herald Editorial Board Illustration by Alex Cox

Issue: WKU has added new financial aid options for incoming full-time first-year freshmen, including an opportunity for free tuition through the Hilltopper Guarantee and more extensive instate tuition.

Our stance: The steps that the WKU administration is taking to make college more accessible for incoming students are necessary and honorable strides toward closing the affordability gap.

On Sept. 17, WKU announced the Hilltopper Guarantee, which guarantees “100% tuition coverage for any freshman from Kentucky who receives Pell Grant assistance and has at least a 3.0 cumulative unweighted GPA,” Caboni stated in a letter published by WKU News.

The new Hilltopper Guarantee makes it that much easier for incoming freshmen to receive free tuition as long as they meet four criteria: a full-time first-year freshman, a Kentucky resident, Pell Grant recipient and a GPA of 3.0 or above. If a student checks all four of these boxes, the student will be able to attend WKU for free.

“4,968 (35.6%) of 13,959 degree-seeking undergraduates in Fall 2018 who received Pell Grants,” Media Relations Director Bob Skipper stated in an email.

Assuming that the percentage of Pell Grant students doesn’t vary too much between Fall 2018 and Fall 2021, when the guarantee is set to go into effect, this new affordable option for students will positively impact a large part of the WKU community.

Later in the month, on Sept. 24, WKU News reported that the university was opening more scholarship opportunities to future freshmen, including the WKU Family Scholarship and the WKU Border State Scholarship.

The WKU Family Scholarship guarantees “instate tuition to first-time, full-time freshmen whose parents or grandparents are WKU graduates no matter where they live,” WKU News reported. The WKU Border State Scholarship extends in-state tuition to all seven states bordering Kentucky: Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri and Ohio.

Even further, WKU is reducing out-of-state tuition by almost half for full-time first-year freshmen with a 3.0 high school GPA, part of the existing Tuition Incentive Program.

With enrollment declining 13% in the past 10 years according to WKU’s Fact Book 2020, these financial aid incentives are a step in the right direction for the WKU administration. Especially in an economy where many are losing jobs, going broke and getting sick, it is important that WKU is making these steps toward accommodating its community.

It is hard to navigate funds in a pandemic, from business to personal, but WKU has found a way to do this while also providing for its students.

These new scholarship and tuition opportunities for incoming freshmen show that WKU cares about the financial well-being of the community.

OP-ED

SGA President Garrett Edmonds plans for new academic year

By Garrett Edmonds SGA President

JACK DOBBS

Garrett Edmonds was elected as the Student Body President of WKU. Elections were held on Sept. 28 and 29, with Edmonds defeating challenger MJ Mayo.

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bbey and I are beyond thankful to have this opportunity and appreciative for all the support throughout the campaign. The reality to this year is we have seven months in our terms to ensure that SGA is doing everything it can to advocate and serve student interest. SGA needed experienced, dedicated and well-connected leaders to campus for this difficult time we find ourselves in. When Abbey and I embarked on this journey to be SGA President and Vice President we knew it was going to be a very difficult year with bumps in the road. However, we felt with our experience and determination we could lead SGA through this time in our academic career to ensure students’ interest were the top priority. Our intentions for this year are to ensure students feel connected to campus and with their peers in a COVID-friendly manner. At a time where there is so much distance between us, it is our top priority that students still have the chance to have the student experience of a four-year institution. We plan to expand our reach to organizations across campus with organizational aid, and it’s our hope that by contributing to organizations, we can connect students to all types of opportunities on campus. Once again, Abbey and I are so humbled to have this opportunity and look forward to serving all students this year. Through these unprecedented times, we will face challenges, but it is through adversity we find our strength.

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TOPS TAKE VICTORY

Defense rejuvenated after bye-week, give WKU 20-17 rivalry win

KEILEN FRAZIER

WKU linebacker Eli Brown celebrates after sacking MTSU quarterback Asher O’Hara on October 3, 2020 at Floyd Stadium. The Hilltoppers defeated the Blue Raiders 20-17 to advance to 1-2 on the season.

Brown had the 1 sack and 5 tackles to finish the game.

By Matthew Hargrove

matthew.hargrove426@topper.wku.edu The Hilltoppers (1-2), (1-0, C-USA) took down the Middle Tennessee State University Blue Raiders (0-4), (0-2, C-USA) on Saturday by a score of 20-17.

WKU will now focus on Marshall University (2-0) who had their most recent game postponed against Rice University due to COVID-19 concerns on Sept.

15. The Thundering Herd has yet to play in a conference game this season before coming to Bowling Green.

Kickoff against Marshall is slated for 6:30 p.m. this Saturday, and the contest will double as WKU’s homecoming game.

The Thundering Herd defense has allowed one touchdown against its opponents this season and as a team outscoring them 76-7. Redshirt freshman quarterback Grant Wells has led the way for Marshall this season. Wells has tossed for 470 yards and four touchdown passes.

Graduate quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome and junior running back Jakairi Moses led a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive to help the Hilltoppers seal their first win of the season while being matchup No. 70 of the 100 miles of hate rivalry.

Pigrome played the hero on the gridiron at MTSU collecting two touchdown passes while throwing for 188 yards and rushing for 55 more on the ground. The graduate signal caller through three games has yet to throw an interception on the year.

The Hilltoppers now move to 1-0 in Conference USA and 34-35-1 all-time against the Blue Raiders.

It was a pleasant day for football in Floyd Stadium, 70 degrees and clear as the teams lined up for the kickoff.

The game began with back-to-back three and outs from the respective programs, as well as a blocked field goal from senior linebacker DeAngelo Malone which led to a quick and scoreless first quarter.

For the Hilltopper defense, in partic@WKURG ular, they were able to put together four tackles for loss, including two sacks from Malone and senior linebacker Eli Brown in those first 15 minutes.

“It just reconfirmed what we were last season, and just having the feeling like ok, our defense is coming to play, they’re gonna be okay, they’re going to

be in control of the game,” Head Coach Tyson Helton said when talking about WKU’s defense to start the game.

More consistency was found with the offense in the second quarter starting with a 47-yard field goal from sophomore Brayden Narveson to give WKU a 3-0 lead, but it didn’t last long.

The Blue Raiders scored on their next two drives that saw junior quarterback Asher O’Hara reach the endzone on a 1-yard run and senior Crews Holt boot a 44-yard field goal.

Down by a touchdown with halftime right around the corner, Pigrome found his groove and eventually hit senior receiver Xavier Lane in the endzone on a 6-yard pass with 0:21 remaining on the clock.

“Just focusing and having fun, really my main thing,” Lane said when highlighting his performance. “Just making plays when my number is called. I left some balls out there on the field, but Coach Helton, all he wants is just to win so that’s what it is all about.”

Lane added 73 receiving yards on seven receptions to his touchdown and had a nice

complimentary performance from sophomore wideout Dayton Wade, who had 66 receiving yards on seven receptions.

“Very, very impressed,” Helton said when talking about his receiving crew.

“Made some critical catches, some tough catches, a lot of contested catches. You know, critical downs when we needed them.”

All tied at 10 going into the second half, there was a sense that one program would give way and fall behind on the scoreboard.

Narveson scored the only points of the third quarter booting a 53-yard field goal, which continued to keep it a one-possession game for WKU heading into the final quarter.

With 12:43 left in the game, the WKU offense took the field like normal, yet there was something unusual about the lineup that rolled out onto the grass.

Senior running back Gaej Walker was not in the backfield, not freshman running back Chase Jones, but Moses was slotted in the position to try and give

WKU VS. MTSU • A3

COLUMN

By Kaden Gaylord kaden.gaylord559@topper.wku.edu

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Last Wednesday, WKU athletes, students and alumni gathered in front of E. Diddle Arena to voice their support for the Black Lives Matter movement as some attendees spoke on their experiences being Black in America and what the movement means to them.

This was the second demonstration on campus after the announcement of the charges, or lack thereof, for the officers involved in the Breonna Taylor’s death. This was the first time athletes have been in the forefront to speak out on these issues since the football team didn’t practice after the shooting of Jacob Blake.

The media was there to capture the movement as well as the WKU Athletics Department. This was the first time the

official WKU sports page run by the Athletics Department has acknowledged the social injustices that have been going on in the country.

This isn’t me being negative, but me just saying WKU Athletics need to do more, stand up for their student-athletes more and speak out on these issues.

“Since I’ve been here, this is probably the first time something like this has happened — this should go down in the history books,” junior defensive end Demarquez Trotter said at the march. “This was a historical event for the campus and hopefully will inspire more campuses to do something.”

When compared to other schools in the state, University of Louisville and

NOT ‘ONE AND DONE’ • A3