This year's magazine is a photo illustration of students holding an iPad and basically creating a domino effect.
Thank you to the students who came to our photo shoot and helped us create some fun images for this issue: Cinai Anderson, Samarii Berry, Desireé Cain, Madison Clark, DeMarques Hinds, Aika Kajihara, Lauren Lightbourne, Adrianna McMurray, Alexis Mitchell, Raven Petty, Roni Simeon, Mia Terrell and Katelyn Wellbrock.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
LeSha' Davis
DESIGNERS
Karli Bayliss
Eden Conrad
LeSha' Davis
Susie Duose
Khoa Huynh
Alijah McCracken
Jayme Thompson
WRITERS
LeSha' Davis
Jeremy Ford
Cheyenne Hittle
Chris Jones
Eli McDaniel
Kayla Locke
Jami Morain
Miriam Paraedes
Jayme Thompson
Olivia Watson
COPY EDITORS
Morgan Albrecht
Aja Carter
LeSha’ Davis
Jeremy Ford
Stuti Khadka
Jayme Thompson
ILLUSTRATORS
Karli Bayliss
Eden Conrad
Humphry Del Castillo
Susie Duose
Jayme Thompson
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Eden Conrad
Susie Duose
Cheyenne Hittle
Khoa Huynh
Jami Morain
Artee Pant
Jayme Thompson
ADVERTISING
Mia Anthony
Karli Bayliss
FACULTY ADVISER
Regina Cassell
Letter from the Editor
I am so happy to share my second magazine as the editorin-chief of Indigo Magazine. The theme is technology, which is a very broad topic but I saw it as an opportunity to educate the Washburn community of different ways technology is in your life. In some ways technology can be helpful to your learning and everyday life needs but also it can damage your self esteem or create bad scenarios in your mind.
We had a wide variety of submissions from reporters who wrote about this topic in creative ways. I was able to hone my leadership skills as I made tough decisions about which submissions would fit best with the magazine's high-quality work standards. I want to thank all the writers and editors for their hard work on drafts and final copies.
There is always some kind of heaviness when it comes to working on a project. My biggest challenge with this magazine was writing my "letter from the editor" and getting the images we needed for all the stories. I was nervous because I took a different approach to getting the photos for each story since most of the pieces were feature writing. I am thankful for the Black Student Union and other students who saw my flyers and posts on social media.
Using student volunteers helped me create my ideal cover and also get some amazing photos for the stories throughout the magazine. Getting images and setting up a photo shoot was quite nerve-wracking, but I had a lot of help from our photographers and Eden Conrad, who did some extensive editing for the cover and other images. She learned how to use Photoshop like a pro and Gene Cassell helped us understand how to create the domino effect on the cover.
When it came down to writing my "letter from the editor," I faced writer's block. I wanted to express my gratitude to everyone involved and discuss the theme, but I also knew this would be my last letter for Indigo. I have a hard time saying goodbye to things. I had no idea I would develop such a passion for media and writing in this format, nor did I think I would meet so many supportive people who I will deeply miss.
I am confident that the relationships I have built through Student Media will not come to an end after graduation and that gave me the courage to write this letter.
"Be well, do good work and keep in touch."- Garrison Keillor
LeSha' Davis Editor-in-Chief, Indigo Magazine
Two worlds combined: technology & agriculture
BY CHEYENNE HITTLE
Technology affects everyone everywhere, even those who are secluded from the rest of society. Technology isn’t only digital objects like phones and computers. It can also be something as simple as a shovel.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines technology as an application of scientific processes to make things more practical. This is why we can consider the shovel a technological advancement. Other similar advancements are rakes, pitchforks and cotton gins. All of these advancements have helped humans to increase production in the agriculture sector.
Agriculture is responsible for food on the table, clothes on one’s back and supporting the large population around the world. Without agricultural production, many people around the world would starve to death.
The practice of agriculture has been used for thousands of years and has changed the way that people live and work. On the other hand, people have also changed the way that agriculture works. As time progresses, people have found new ways to increase crop yield to feed growing populations.
Some examples of technology in agriculture are precision agriculture, drones, soil health monitoring and automatic irrigation systems. The most talked about agricultural
PHOTO BY BARBARA HITTLE
(top left) Family uses a square bale hay loader to load alfalfa bales. This was a less traditional form of technology, but it was an effective way to increase the speed of the job.
PHOTO BY CHEYENNE HITTLE
(bottom) Farm animals such as cows and goats benefit from improved farm technology. Advances have improved animal comfort and quality of life.
technology is precision agriculture, which incorporates most of the other new advancements within the system.
Precision agriculture is a large-scale technology that has vastly increased crop yields for farmers. A couple of technologies that are included within the package are selfdriving tractors, drones, monitors and other things.
The movie “Interstellar” gives viewers a look into precision agriculture and what it can consist of when it shows the main character, Joseph Cooper played by Matthew McConaughey, repairing his self-driving tractors. After repairs are made, the scene carries on with the farm equipment harvesting the crops and requiring no assistance from the farmer.
More often than not, movies’ depiction of precision agriculture is a bit more advanced than real life. The costs that are incurred with all of the fancy technology advancements are far higher than what most farmers can afford.
The price of a used tractor costs twice as much as a new 2024 Mustang, which averages about $40,000 from Ford. This puts into perspective how much equipment can cost. Farmers struggle to get new equipment, which prevents them from increasing yields that are needed to feed the constantly growing population.
Farming is the backbone of the United States. Precision agriculture is a new way to maximize benefits of farming, but it is too expensive for the majority of farmers to implement. This says something about the way that corporations operate. There are various misconceptions about the agriculture industry. The biggest one is that many people believe that local family farmers are rich; this is not at all true. Farmers rely heavily on
A windmill from a ghost town that uses wind to pump underground water. Windmills were a form of technology that was important to the survival of towns in the past.
their crops to get them by financially for the year. But a lot of times it isn’t quite enough, and they have to work another job on the side.
It is hard to make advancements in this industry because so many corporations have taken over. Food is not locally sourced anymore because corporate farms are the only places that can afford to utilize high yield technologies. Small-scale farms, which make up the majority of farms in the United States, are unable to put themselves on the map because they cannot afford to upgrade. This holds them back with their current equipment that will decrease yield every year due to maintenance issues.
PHOTO BY CHEYENNE HITTLE
As time goes on, food in grocery stores is going to be shipped from further away where corporations are able to maximize yield efficiently. This will eventually put familyowned farms out of business. The best way to help small farms increase their yields is to help them increase profits.
Helping small-scale farmers upgrade is simple from a consumer standpoint. Consumers should take the time to find producers in their area. There are a variety of ways to find local
producers including searching on Facebook, Google or using the Agri-Tour 360 app. Agri-Tour 360 partners with producers around the country and connects the seller with the buyer.
Finding a local producer allows the consumer to be aware that their food is locally sourced and raised the right way.
Supporting local farmers will increase profits for small-scale farmers and allow them to upgrade equipment and processes to increase future production.
Weed eaters, chainsaws and other equipment help farmers and maintenance workers beautify landscapes. Beautification has been a method to prevent weeds and invasive species from causing problems.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BARBARA HITTLE
INTERDISCIPLINARY
PAIR THESE MINORS WITH ANY WASHBURN MAJOR!
MINORS
• African American and
African Diaspora Studies
• Game Design
• Great TEXTS
• Kansas Studies
• Latin American, Caribbean
• Peace, Justice and
• Women’s and Gender Studies and Latino/a Studies Conflict-Resolution Studies
• Museum and Curatorial Studies
WHY CHOOSE AN INTERDISCIPLINARY MINOR?
• Pursue your passions by taking courses from multiple disciplines.
• Experience travel, service, creative projects or conferences.
• Broaden your understanding of the world.
• Stand out to employers and graduate programs.
basketball evolves through innovation From hoops to high-tech:
BY JEREMY FORD
“Basket Ball,” as it was originally called, was created in 1891 by James Naismith as a sport to fill the dead time between the football and baseball seasons. The sport has come a long way since its original 13-rule games, and the introduction of technology has allowed more than 300 million people worldwide to play it.
Basketball has been constantly evolving as new advances in technology have evolved with it, ranging from the material of the basketball to advanced stat-tracking on highperformance computers.
The game of basketball that is played today includes many additions of technology causing several features to often go unseen or unnoticed by the average viewer and player. Things like wearable monitors to track players’ health vitals, advanced AI stat-tracking and even basketball shoe design all play vital roles in the sport of basketball.
One particular addition has allowed the objectiveness of basketball officiating to come to the forefront.
In March of 2023, the NBA, who was amid backlash due to referee scandals at the time, signed a contract with Hawk-Eye Innovation to mitigate mistakes made by referees on the court. Their optical-tracking system is designed to “make sport fairer, safer, more engaging and better informed.” This system allows a control-team to track almost every aspect of the game: where the players stand, how they move, where the ball is, who the ball is out on and much more.
Hawk-Eye’s technology is used in 23 of the top 25 global sports leagues and enhances the game for both participants and spectators.
This addition to the NBA has allowed for the 2023-24 season to be more closely regulated and tracked according to the official rules of the game instead of relying on human referees to make the judgment calls. The optical-
PHOTO BY ASHLEY HEAVNER
(right) The Ichabod bench cheers after an impressive offensive play. Washburn ended the season with a 14-8 record.
tracking system is complemented well by instant replay, a feature that has been involved with the streaming of sports since 1963, according to the Smithsonian Institution.
“There’s lots of things that us coaches and the players miss in the moment but fans see because of instant replay, so it’s nice to go back and watch some of that on film so we can fix it later in practice,” said Jordan Banks, assistant men's basketball coach for Washburn University.
Another addition to the game that has been continually improving the sport for decades is film. Coaches are able to take previous footage from games and study how both their team and their opponents play. This also allows coaches to scout players, another big aspect of basketball.
“[Film] helps us coaches see things like intangibles and IQ in a guy that we might miss if we only watch one game in person,” Banks said. “We use it a lot for scouting and learning from our mistakes. It makes my job easier.”
Players also use film to showcase their skills on the court and how they can benefit a team using their specific
playing style. These players have highlight tapes put together to share with coaches as a way to gain attention to their game in the hopes of being picked to play for them at the next level. For the players receiving these tapes, they use them similarly to an application or portfolio for a job. They send them to coaches to display their skill sets. The coaches then watch several different tapes and decide which player best fits their system.
“Film has made scouting so much easier,” Banks said. ”We can look at a hundred guys in a day instead of one or two guys a week.”
While there have been a lot of improvements to the game of basketball due to technology, there have also been some setbacks. Social media has taken the sports world by storm, and many young players can be influenced by what they see in their feeds.
“I borderline hate it,” Banks said.
Banks explained that players like Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry have an exclusive skill set that can’t be easily replicated. However, young players are adapting their play style to these upper-echelon athletes, and it’s causing the younger players to forget the fundamentals and lose their personalized skill set.
Social media can also cause sportsmanship to be easily looked over. Many social media pages are devoted to posting basketball highlights, such as dunks and ankle breakers. While these plays are impressive, it’s the reaction that follows that typically crosses the line of being a good sport.
Sportsmanship is a key aspect of competition in all sports, not just basketball. It is often the main focus when kids begin to learn a game. If they are constantly being exposed to the idea of poor sportsmanship as a positive, then their actions in the game will reflect the disrespect that is displayed on social media. This can taint any player’s attitude on the court and can be detrimental to their involvement in sports, whether it’s at a recreational
PHOTO BY ASHLEY HEAVNER
Sam Ungashick, sophomore point guard, eyes up the defense before making a move. Ungashick led the Ichabods in time played at 30.5 minutes per game.
PHOTO BY ASHLEY HEAVNER
Michael Keegan, junior forward, high fives his teammates as he takes a seat on the bench. Keegan led Washburn in blocks with 25.
PHOTO BY ASHLEY HEAVNER
or professional level.
Although social media has its negatives, it is an incredible tool for Gene Cassell, Washburn’s sports information director.
“Social media has been the biggest change in 25 years since there was no Twitter (now X) and there were barely websites when I started,” Cassell said.
X and Instagram are Washburn athletics’ two biggest social media channels alongside its website. Cassell said he expects wusports.com to reach 4.5 million views in 2024.
Cassell and his team get live stats during the game, which fans can check directly from their phones. Cassell has also helped create a more engaging environment in Lee Arena with some new additions on the video board. Washburn basketball games now feature live social media
Jack Bachelor, freshman guard, lays the ball up for an easy 2 points. Bachelor led the Ichabods in assists with 116.
polls. Spectators can go to X and vote on what song they want played at a timeout or what emoji is most used by the head coach.
The video board can also be used for fans to show their Washburn pride live at the game.
“If fans post a photo on social media of them at the game, we can feed it to the video board live while it is happening,” Cassell said. “I think people seeing their faces on the video board is a pretty good kick for some of them, especially some of the kids.”
All of this technology has allowed basketball to grow to a national level, with millions of coaches, players and fans enjoying the game worldwide.
Religious studies professor urges students to think for themselves
BY CHRIS JONES
I teach students how to study religion. That doesn’t by itself make me an expert on academic integrity and artificial intelligence, but it does give me a certain perspective on it. Religion and technology are both things that humans have done since before we were even human. We used technology, at first, to solve immediate problems, but in the process, it opened up new ways to think about ourselves and our place in the world. The transition from “I can use this flint and straw to start a fire” to “I am a being who can control fire” is subtle, but in it lies everything we now take for granted about what it means to be human.
This is especially true of informational technologies. The first form of IT was the human memory. For countless generations, humans remembered and passed along information that was worth keeping: the names of ancestors and the stories that were told about them, the catalog of local herbs and what they do, the signs of passing seasons and the significance of the group’s totem. Information was either committed to memory or it was lost forever.
With the dawn of complex, large-scale societies in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Meso-America, humans developed a new way to keep track of larger amounts of information in the form of writing.
Writing in the ancient world was laborious and expensive, so the most important things were memorized. Still, though, writing was, and is, a weird and magical enterprise. It’s something that basically turns every literate person into a walking, talking cyborg: a creature whose natural capacities for speech and memory are artificially augmented by technological innovation.
Beep boop, beep boop, I am a cyborg. And if you can read this, then so are you.
So, what is it like to educate cyborgs? Writing changed education, slowly but fundamentally. The change was gradual for several millennia; it picked up pace with the advent of movable type (i.e., the printing press) in China and Europe. We have seen as much acceleration of it during my lifetime (I’m not that old) as we did in all of those years before it. Put simply: writing
has changed education from a transfer of knowledge to a transfer of skills. Where education was once the process of memorizing (and thus preserving) traditional knowledge, it is now the process of learning where and how to find knowledge and how to use it.
We live in an age in which information technology has lapped itself. As recent as when I was in college, most information was still stored in books that you had to either own yourself or find at a library. You didn’t necessarily have to memorize it, but you also didn’t have it in your pocket all the time. Information was still located in specific places, and it took time and effort to go to those places and get it. A Boolean keyword search on JSTOR today was several weeks of work in the nineties (and don’t even ask about random song lyrics). In just 30 years, our main problem has changed entirely, from not having enough information to having far too much of it.
Starting in the 2000s with Web 2.0 and the advent of the smartphone, we now have a significant amount of all of the information that humans have ever produced literally in our pockets and purses, all of the time.
So how has this changed education? I can think of two specific areas. The first is classroom teaching style. When I was in college, lectures were the only kind of teaching there was. Every class was comprised of the professor talking from a podium the whole time, aside from when students would ask questions. We were still of the mindset that the professor, as an expert, had knowledge to give us, and that it was our job to write it down, memorize it and be able to write it down on an exam without the help of our notes. Education, as transformative as it was to me, was largely just an extended call-and-response.
Today, I hardly ever lecture. I know that there is very little that I can say that students couldn’t find on Google in a few minutes. My job, as I see it, is to show students how to find credible, reliable information about a subject and make honest use of that information in their own lives.
Memorization can be a means to an end, for instance when students need to know the definitions of words or the basic tenets of a religious tradition—i.e., the “math facts” of religious studies. Otherwise, technology frees us to spend our time thinking about what we are learning and developing our own ideas about it.
The second way that advances in information technology have changed education is, sadly, with academic dishonesty. Don’t get me wrong, cheating has always existed in education, and it always will. But the thing is, information technology has made it a lot easier to cheat in just the past 30 years.
In the late ‘90s, if you wanted to cheat on an assignment,
you had to mean it. There was no Google, no Wikipedia, no Course Hero or Chegg. You had to go to the library, find the stuff you wanted to copy, and then physically copy it word for word into your assignment. Now, students can find information online that fits their topic, copy and paste it with a few clicks, change some words around and be done.
Of course, it’s also a lot easier for professors to catch, especially for those of us who were trained in identifying slight changes in authorial style in 2500-year-old Hebrew texts…
Generative large-language-model artificial intelligence has changed the game once more. Cheating is just as easy, if not even easier, with tools like ChatGPT, and is nearly impossible for professors to catch with any definitive evidence because the source isn’t any one document on the Internet. It’s literally everything on the Internet filtered into coherent prose by predictive language algorithms. Now, students can enter complex prompts into the chat window and produce an accurate and well-written essay, one that is genuinely difficult to distinguish from human writing.
And that, in turn, brings us full circle back to religion. If artificial intelligence can produce human-like writing on any topic that humans have actually written about, why should you bother learning how to write for yourself? I’ve wrestled with this question myself for the past two years and here’s what I’ve settled on.
If writing has gradually turned us into cyborgs, capable of augmenting our biological capabilities with technology, chatbots like ChatGPT are more like robots, capable of mimicking actual human production. But mimicry is not the same as actually doing something, and the purpose of education is to cultivate the qualities of ourselves that make us more, not less, human. More to the point, copying directly from a chatbot and representing the work as if it is something you wrote is plagiarism. Even in this brave new world of generative AI, that is still a hard line in higher education.
I’m not your conscience, nor am I your moral or spiritual guide. You have to figure out for yourself how to navigate the role artificial intelligence takes in your education. Look at your professor’s policies. Consider how it will affect their impression of you if they see AI-generated language in your work. Look at the expectations of the careers that you want to prepare for. Lastly, above all else, reflect carefully on your own values and act consistently with them.
Chris Jones is an associate professor of religious studies at Washburn University and not a robot as far as we know…
Sinking within the scrolling
D oom scrolling can negatively mold and distort your view of reality
BY ELI MCDANIEL
Staying informed is at the forefront of everyone's mind these days. Whether it's the latest trends or hot topic or world events, those who are not up to date might feel left out. But this constant bombardment of new and stressful content is not always worth its aftermath.
Doom scrolling is defined as spending time looking at a screen, intentionally scrolling through negative news and social media, more than you intended to. It has plagued our society into believing they must constantly be aware of everything that is going on, at all times. It doesn’t matter if you are looking up negative threads, hashtags, or themes, negative topics in general are everywhere.
This has affected not only the amount of screen time people average but how they view the world. David Amer, outpatient private practice therapist sees the effects of doom scrolling firsthand.
“Social media is a helpful and informative hellscape.
- Tucker Jones
“When people get sucked into the tidal wave of negative content, it’s a symptom of the algorithm,” Amer said.
Amer has spent plenty of time around the younger generation, starting as a high school Spanish teacher, and now starting his own private therapy practice, Better Mood Counseling.
“I have seen students and clients actively wanting to minimize time on their phones. They want healthier boundaries,” Amer said.
According to Amer being knowledgeable and staying informed are initially great things but once it becomes constant phone scrolling, it has reached the point of an unhealthy, unintentional habit.
“I used to ask students, ‘Am I using my phone, or is my phone using me?’,” Amer said.
Many think that by scrolling through social media or their favorite news site, for hours on end, they are doing themselves a favor. But more often than not, there is something deeper being pushed away into the background of the mind.
“Even though our logical brain knows that avoiding a task will cause more stress, our brain is wired to remove the bigger concern in the present. So by avoiding something, it removes the threat that our brain perceives it to be,” Amer said. “Next time you get on social media or a news website, ask yourself; ‘Am I on here because I am avoiding something? Or am I being intentional with my time?’” Amer said.
We see now that many people tend to have an unconscious draw to the negative things going on in life. This, mixed with the endless scrolling performed by many in our world, causes our worldview to be molded and shaped by everything we see.
“Doom scrolling can cause a negative thought spiral and impact the lens through which we see our environment,” said Tucker Jones, assistant professor.
Jones, got his master's and doctorate in Social Psychology at Kansas State University, experienced doom scrolling on a personal level.
“I experience doom scrolling around really awful events such as mass shootings. I'll click on a thread and just continue scrolling.”
Social media provides an opportunity for people to connect when going through similar experiences and situations. But with everything, there will always be pros and cons.
“Avoidance doesn't solve anything; it merely serves as a temporary salve.
“It lets people know, ‘Hey, you are not alone, there is this whole community out there who understands what you are going through.’ But then you look at the comment section and it quickly spirals out of control and becomes cynical,” Jones said.
- Tony Dungy
The practice of doom scrolling can alter how you view the world around you. Jones said it can make you think the world is a more dangerous and hateful place than it truly is, fueling the “Mean World Syndrome.” This syndrome is displayed by the relationship between negative and violent content and how its viewer perceives their world.
The gloomy content becomes so addictive because the more violent and gruesome the story, the more it is going to be pushed and focused on. We have become accustomed to
focusing on the negative.
“Even in psychology, researchers tend to focus on the negative side of things. There is a push for positive psychology and researching the reasons why people laugh, have relationships, etc,” Jones said.
Do not be dismayed though. There are ways to reduce and redirect such an avoidance-type habit.
“It all comes down to friction, you need to set up barriers that are hard to bypass,” Amer said.
Most screen time settings are easy to bypass, so there needs to be more to do to counteract this. Try deleting the app or signing out of your account after each use. Or find an accountability partner to help set up those built-in screen times.
“It takes some intentionality and we need to become mindful about what it is we are giving our attention and thoughts to,” Jones said.
Now barriers have been set up but there is more that can be done.
“Replace one habit with another,” Amer said.
Think of things to be intentional about. Text a friend you
BY EDEN CONRAD
Doom scrolling is an epidemic that is consuming today's society. People have been absorbed into their phones and learned to zone out the world around them.
haven't reached out to in a while. See if they want to meet and catch up. If you are still wanting to stay informed, listen to a podcast about current events or a topic you are passionate about. Amer is a big advocate for using mood/health tracking apps, try one out and work on yourself. Apps like Moodfit, Worry Watch and MoodTools help keep track of the emotions you feel, pushes positive self-help activities you can do, teaches motivation and many other therapeutic practices. You can also attempt positive journaling. Grab a cool journal, your favorite pen, and dissect your day/week/month and reflect on things that have happened in your life. But it starts with loving and being patient with yourself. It is hard to shift your focus and start a new habit in one day. Keep pushing towards a positive outlook on life.
“We need to reframe and focus on the positive things going on in life compared to the negative things,” Jones said.
PHOTO
ADDICTION
ALGORITHM
ANALYTICS
APPLICATION
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AUTOMATION
BINGE BYTE
CHATGPT
CLOUD DATA
DATING APP DIGITAL
EXPONENTIAL FACEBOOK
FILTER BUBBLE
GAMING
HULU
IMPLANTS
INNOVATION INSTAGRAM INTERNET MALWARE
NETFLIX PHISHING PRIME SCREEN SCROLLING SINGULARITY SMART PHONE SNAPCHAT SOCIAL MEDIA SOFTWARE STORY STREAM TIKTOK WECHAT WIKI
Reeling it in: how I got phished
BY MILES MOORE
In today's interconnected world, the digital realm intertwines seamlessly with both our academic pursuits and social interactions. However, amidst the convenience lies a lurking danger – the prevalence of cyber threats and the unfortunate reality that anyone can be scammed.
A music student at Washburn University was scammed. Like many students, he uses the internet for his schoolwork, streaming TV shows or listening to music and much more.
Unfortunately, he fell victim to a phishing scam, an online scam that targets consumers by sending them an email that appears to be from a well-known source.
A scammer sent the student a fraudulent UPS notification stating that they were having trouble delivering a package he ordered and sent him a link to schedule the dropoff; however, this link was phony and took him to a fake website where he filled in credit card information, which led to unauthorized charges on his credit card.
Administration, and Jeff Hopp, the Director of Program Security for Federal Customers at Jazz Solutions, gave some helpful advice.
"Phishing has a low cost of entry," Finney said. "All it takes is one person to click on a phishing email, and the consequences can be dire. Malware can be surreptitiously deployed, paving the way for unauthorized access to online accounts."
After this encounter, the student was paranoid about his online activity, and his sense of privacy was cut into pieces.
“I haven’t ordered a package since I was scammed,” the student said. “I feel uneasy every time I get an email or text from companies like Amazon or even my bank.”
This encounter sheds light on the prevalent risks of cyber attacks and the very real fact that anyone can fall victim to them.
To understand the gravity of these threats and the ways to combat them, professionals like Vince Finney, the security program manager for the state IT office, and the information security officer for the Department of
Furthermore, Finney highlights a recent scam known as QR code scams, a lesser-known yet equally menacing form of cyber exploitation. The problem with QR codes is that you can't see the actual URL. The QR code allows for deceptive camouflage that enables scammers to lead unsuspecting users to websites harboring malware, often under the guise of enticing discount offers.
In light of these threats, Finney and Hopp advocate for proactive measures to counteract phishing and malware, especially among college students who frequent the digital space. The number one thing for people to do is be aware of red flags.
“If you get an email or text message from odd sources, do not click on them,” Finney said. “If you get an email or text from a business or bank, check the official information for that company and check what you received.”
Hopp emphasized the importance of vigilance and using critical thinking when assessing emails and text messages. "We get bombarded by media from every different angle all the time," Hopp said. "So, when it comes to emails and websites, slow down, read your emails closely, and inspect the URL before clicking anything. Look for grammatical
GRAPHIC BY SUSIE
DUOSE
errors, language that is out of context of the message and red flags, such as pushy messages that tell you to act now and too-good-to-be-true messages.”
Hopp advocates for students and individuals to peer beyond the superficial gloss of a message's sender and to question the authenticity of the sender's persona and the coherence of the message.
"Look at who it's from, not who the sender says they are, and ask, ‘Would it make sense for this person to send me this?’" Hopp said. "When in doubt, go directly to the business homepage and do your best to validate the message."
Finney also illustrated the importance of safeguarding mobile devices by cautioning individuals against installing applications from third-party suppliers. He is against the practice of jailbreaking or rooting devices and actions that
BY JAYME THOMPSON
Student volunteers employ their own 'phishing' schemes at the Leland Harvey Garden on Washburn's campus. Keeping your digital information safe requires a watchful eye.
can cause your device to be more susceptible to malware infiltration.
In essence, the art of digital navigation demands an unwavering commitment to skepticism, a critical eye for discerning deception and a resolute resolve to safeguard one's digital domain. Every click, every correspondence and every digital interaction in the modern age requires us to slow down and evaluate what is in front of us because the only thing that is between us becoming a victim is five minutes.
PHOTO
Washburn professors reflect on changing technology
From typewriters to smart phones, each generation evolves along with tech
BY KAYLA LOCKE
rofessors at Washburn University have been around the college education scene enough to see how technology has evolved and impacted universities.
David Sollars, dean of the School of Business and professor of economics, attended Ohio University from 1982 to 1990 where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He then attended Florida State University to obtain his doctorate in economics.
At the beginning of his time at Ohio University, Sollars
brought a typewriter along with him to ensure he could type his homework and turn it in by hand.
During his freshman year, Sollars said there was a new computer lab, and it was here where he first learned Microsoft Word along with other software applications. He added that the only option to turn in assignments was by hand.
“I took Spanish one semester. We still used little cassette tape machines with headphones to practice our Spanish, so that was high-tech for that period of time,” Sollars said.
What seems ancient now was considered high-tech at
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID SOLLARS
David Sollars (left) and now Tricia Sollars (right) in the middle of the College Green at Ohio University, Athens in 1982.
the time.
In the current age of projectors and white boards, Sollars reflects on chalkboards.
“The sign that you were a great teacher was when you came back from class, and you were covered in chalk. And if you were really fancy, you were covered in colored chalk,” Sollars said.
Chalkboards and overhead projectors with transparent film became normal in college classrooms around that time.
One of the biggest technological advancements Sollars has seen while on a college campus was the installation of the internet when he was the associate dean of the School of Business at Auburn University at Montgomery.
“They wired the building, and then I had to go with my student worker to everyone’s PC and the student worker would basically take the box apart, put a network card in it so the wire could plug into it, then I would install a little bit of software,” Sollars said. “We had probably 50 machines to do. So, I remember it took a few weeks to do that, but it was kind of fun.”
a concept, they will eventually become familiar with and comprehend them completely and will be able to recall that concept in the future. In the world of AI and the internet being the core of getting a college education, students don’t have to experience the struggle of not having the ability to turn to Google for any help.
From 1990 to 2001, Sollars recounted that a lot of new technologies came to the forefront, from the first laptop computers to PCs that continue to grow more powerful.
Sollars was always adaptive when getting to new technology as he wasn’t surprised when more technology would come out. He was never afraid to embrace new technological advancements.
“I grew up in the Star Wars and Star Trek generation, and I grew up with those movies, teleporting and stuff like that. You realize there’s a technology that people would like to get to,” Sollars said.
LHaving the internet so readily available allowed people on campus to have access to the world’s knowledge at their fingertips.
Sollars joked about how in academics, sometimes they would argue about something and they called them empirical questions. Now, if he ever gets into an academic squabble, in under a minute he has an answer that is credible, just from the internet.
Although technology has been changing and adapting since Sollars was a college student, he values the art of struggling to understand concepts.
“Sometimes it’s helpful to go through the drudgery of learning a concept and then realizing there’s a tool that makes it a whole lot better and faster,” Sollars said.
The idea is that if a student perseveres through the tedious process of learning
indsey Ibanez, assistant professor of sociology, experienced firsthand how the advancements of technology can force us to change unexpectedly. She also attended Ohio University between 2000 and 2004 for her undergraduate degree and majored in magazine journalism.
In high school, Ibanez shared that they had one computer in the classroom but never had a computer in her home growing up. By the time she was a freshman in college, she was familiar with computers, but not proficient. Her freshman class was the first to have desktop computers in their dorm rooms, and email addresses, despite using it only a couple of times.
The dorm rooms also housed landline telephones.
“Those were very important for making plans and keeping in touch with one another and keeping in touch with our friends and family back home,”
Ibanez said.
Although the landline phones were not cordless in her dorm room, Ibanez had a cordless headset to be able to walk freely while talking on the phone and give her some added privacy. The newest technological development was during the end of her senior year when she had a friend who got a cellphone, and she
had her first smartphone while in graduate school in 2010.
Ibanez’s classes were not reliant on technology. Most of her college professors used PowerPoint presentations, which came out in 1987, but some would also use overhead projectors with transparency sheets.
Instead of handwriting each assignment she had to turn in for her classes, she remembers using word processing to write and submit her papers.
“I remember typing them up in Microsoft Word and taking them on a flash drive to the printer at the library and getting them printed, or using a printer in my apartment,” Ibanez said.
Transitioning assignments to be done digitally required a great deal of trial and error. A lot of students would misplace or lose flash drives with their assignments, or if they printed them, it wasn’t uncommon for a printer to run out of ink, resulting in faded lettering on the paper that would be turned in.
Turning assignments in was seamless; students had to leave it at the professor’s office or bring it into class with them. Nobody had to worry about experiencing technology issues while submitting assignments like today. If students wanted to talk with their professor, they were better off visiting their office hours, making an appointment or talking with the professor after class.
journalism classes, she interviewed people, wrote articles, worked on the student campus paper, was the copy editor in her magazine class and recorded stories for the radio in a broadcast class.
One of the student jobs she had was working on a local website promoting tourism to Appalachian, Ohio. She was part of the long process of collecting information that was only available in print materials where she was digitizing it.
“Before algorithms and machine learning and sort of some of that scanning technology, a lot of this stuff was input by hand,” Ibanez said.
Several college students did a lot of data entry jobs, which she described as being horrible and boring, but they were important at the time to get information people wanted.
Her professors didn’t use their emails at all, and some of them did not want to get cell phones. Ibanez didn’t think her college professors were slow to adopt new technology, but it didn’t seem like they were fully comfortable with it at first.
“Technology definitely felt more of a foe than a friend back then,” Ibanez said.
On the other hand, she feels as though she learned a lot in college because she didn’t have so many distractions technology wise.
As a magazine journalism major, Ibanez has fond memories of her journalism classes that were very handson compared to other general education courses. In her
“The websites were very rudimentary. They were very not user friendly. They were slow to load, hard to read and poorly designed, and so I was optimistic that [it] would get better over time,” Ibanez said. “There wasn’t the wealth of information on Google like there is now. So, I anticipated that [it] would grow and there would be more information and be more accessible. And that has been true.”
Some of the real-world experience she was able to get while being a magazine journalism major was working as a journalist for the printed student newspaper for four years that was fully run by students.
As a copy editor, she used Adobe PageMaker to lay out the pages and get them ready for printing. At the time, the newspaper was only distributed as printed copies. In the early 2000s, the newspaper became digitized, so they then started publishing in both print and online versions.
“That shaped my career trajectory because I decided by the time I graduated, print journalism was doing very badly because online journalism hadn’t really taken off yet,
“ I'm a millennial, so we're in this weird dynamic of when we were in elementary school, we had floppy disks. When I got further on [we] moved into CDs, flash drives, and now [we have] laptops and smartphones and AI.
-Kara Langin
and there weren't any jobs in it. A lot of local newspapers were closing, and a lot of magazines were laying people off. So I didn’t see a good employment future for myself in print journalism, so I decided to change career paths,” Ibanez said.
After graduation, Ibanez joined the Peace Corps to work in development and decided to get her doctorate and become a professor to pursue her academic interests. Now, as a professor, she can understand both sides to implementing new technology into the classroom.
“I will adopt technology if I know that it makes my life easier and improves my teaching,” Ibanez said. “If I think it impedes my teaching or students' learning, I don’t want to adopt it. There are technologies that I’m curious about, but I simply don’t have the time to invest in learning them. We must be judicious in what we choose to adopt so it doesn’t become a time suck.”
Although Ibanez couldn’t have predicted how readily available technology currently is today, she did have belief that the internet would continue to grow. Unfortunately, the rapid growth of technology led her to switch her career path, but that doesn’t stop Ibanez from currently using technology to an advantage in her current career.
KaraLangin, assistant professor in the family and human services department, is a recent graduate who has seen a wide evolution in technology throughout her college experience.
Langin began her freshman year in 2010 at a community college, the College of Southern Nevada, and graduated with her undergraduate and master’s degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She graduated with her doctorate in philosophy from Kansas State University in May of last year.
While in her freshman year, the iPhone 4 was released, and Langin described it being the “big hot thing” that everyone had to have. She was amazed by the power of the newest iPhone, with having the internet at her fingertips while iPods were slowly becoming old technology. At the same time, it was the first time she noticed that most people had laptops on campus.
Before college, Langin had never used computers a lot for school in general. She recalls using Microsoft Word to write papers and printing it out to turn it in, but everything was mostly done by hand in her early college days.
In college, she was also introduced to the learning management system, Blackboard, which is like Desire to Learn. She began college in a transitional time from projectors over to PowerPoint presentations and computers being implemented in each class.
these photos are from the early 2010s, the app was released
PHOTOS COURTESY OF KARA LANGIN
Kara Langin, assistant professor at Washburn University, tries various photo effects with her friends using the Photo Booth app on Macbooks. Although
on Macintosh computers in 2005.
“It was strange for me that everything was on there, and that was a little bit of an adjustment,” Langin said.
For a majority of Langin’s undergraduate experience, most assignments were turned in as paper. Any additional information students needed or class PowerPoints were shared on Blackboard.
“I took an online class, maybe my second or third semester, and that was when I adjusted to having to turn everything in on Blackboard,” Langin said.
The technology wasn’t as big of an adjustment, it was the transition of using a computer for a limited time; going on MySpace, typing a paper or making a PowerPoint to then everything being in one space. Langin was excited by the changing of technology.
“I’m a millennial, so we’re in this weird dynamic of when we were in elementary school, we had floppy disks. When I got further on [we] moved into CDs, flash drives and now [we have] laptops and smartphones and AI,” Langin said.
For her professors, she thought there was a challenge.
“I think teachers were used to having PowerPoints up and that kind of thing, but when they were transitioning over to everything being on Blackboard, I think that was a little bit of an adjustment. In terms of smartphones and laptops, I think that was an adjustment because there was a new theme where all of a sudden kids were distracted by their phones or their computer,” Langin said.
Langin is neutral on whether the constant advancement of technology is either helpful or harmful for current college students.
“I think there’s just more distractions now in the
classroom. There’s a lot more on the internet. There’s a lot more that computers can do. There’s a lot more that smartphones can do,” Langin said. “It has also become normal now to have your head looking down at your phone before class begins, or if there is a break in class to go right back to scrolling on your phone.”
Langin thinks it has become a comfort.
“I think there’s a lot of ways to get connected. If it’s like making friends, showing clubs on campus, keeping in touch with friends, if they moved here from somewhere new and whatever, you could FaceTime or text easily. Even with citing sources and looking up things, I feel like there is more availability of research and access to research,” Langin said.
Many current students could agree with Langin’s statements when it comes to how easily accessible it is to do research for certain topics within their studies. It’s also simple to agree with her statements about being able to connect with relatives or friends with new technology in comparison to how it was for her before the release of the iPhone. Nowadays, there are things like FaceTime, Zoom and Skype that allow us to connect face-to-face in a digital way.
All these professors have one thing in common, they each found ways to adapt to the ever-changing concept of technology. Whether that means using it to help teach others new skills or learning new things for themselves, they have evolved with the changes in technology and will continue to adapt as technology grows.
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The changing face of library collections
BY LESHA' DAVIS
No matter the amount of technology or how many ways someone can search for something online, books are valuable resources. Libraries across the world have the choice of filling their shelves or their digital selections. By embracing both formats, libraries can continue to serve their communities and adapt to the continuous changes of technology.
Sean Bird, senior associate dean of Washburn University libraries, started at Mabee Library in 2010. This was during a time when Mabee was more book centric and the majority of the budget was spent on print books and journals. Bird saw the needs of students changing and wanted to be able to provide what was needed on campus.
“As a librarian, I started recognizing that students needed print less here at this library and that they needed digital more,” Bird said.
When patrons visit Mabee, they are more likely looking for books that will help them further their research or materials related to a class on campus. As a librarian their
job includes paying attention to the forecast of what people may want or what they could be lacking so future patrons can find what they need at all times.
Over time, the Mabee Library selection started growing in digital selections and the printed books were decreasing. This allowed the library to have more of an open-floor plan and introduced new services in the building.
According to Bird, 75% of the budget went to printed materials and 25% went to digital. 10 years later and now the budget is switched; approximately 25% goes to printed materials and 75% goes to digital. Some patrons may wonder if digital books could undermine the roles of libraries in general or if what they are looking for is even available.
“We've gotten our collection right sized, meaning that we got rid of some of the books and materials that probably didn't have a place in our library anymore because of their age, or because fields and disciplines evolve and change. And that changes the materials that are relevant," Bird said.
Bird explained the cost of digital versus printed books. A large part of the cost for books printed or digital is paying for the intellectual property of the creator and copyright holder. Libraries negotiate contracts with vendors rather than individual authors and
(left) Washburn students can access a wide variety of databases from the library website. Sophia, junior anthropology major, taught Adrianna McMurray, freshman education major, how to use the database.
(right) When you buy a digital book, you are leasing it rather than owning it. This has raised concerns about the future of ownership and copyright law.
PHOTO BY EDEN CONRAD
PHOTO BY KHOA HUYNH
publishers.
“Who writes something is important…those materials that are produced by people that have high credibility are going to be more expensive. There is a cost to printing things, and to binding them, and then to shipping them, that is tacked on to print materials. But there is a cost to digitizing and to putting into databases and to connecting through metadata,” Bird said.
Both print and digital books involve compensating the intellectual property owner through purchases or licensing agreements. When purchasing a book, the library is buying them under copyright law and digital materials are licensed under contract law. Libraries negotiate contracts with vendors and not individual authors and publishers for digital books. Check out periods for printed books are up to the library but when checking out books for digital books it is based on the contract the library has with the vendor.
“We own that book, even though the intellectual property belongs to the person who copyrighted it, we own that item. And we can do with that item what we want, we can check it out for four weeks, we could check it out for a term, we can take it off the shelf, if we no longer think it's valuable,” Bird said. “But the electronic resources, we don't own those, we licensed those. And the license is based on
PHOTO BY KHOA HUYNH
(top right) Librarians strive to balance physical and digital resources to support the information needs of students.
the number of faculty, staff and students we have in our university.”
Amanda Luke, instructional librarian at Mabee Library, shared some concerns of whether digital preservation would become a bigger issue in the future. As technology changes more and more, information is always being added to different sites and databases.
When people first started writing and documenting information, archivists would keep all the information in the library organized and ready for patrons to find what they are looking for. Now, libraries have made contracts with multiple vendors and moved most of their information to online archives.
“Preservation is a big conversation in archives, instead of thinking 'how are we going to preserve these scrolls', we're asking 'what if the library catches on fire'; those are their preservation questions then,” Luke said. “Now our questions are, ‘what if the server breaks’ or ‘we need backup copies of this’. But what happens if there's some cataclysmic event in the future that erases all this
Fall 2024 will begin a new library tradition as Mabee Library transitions to house the School of Applied Studies. Students will find library resources and many other student services in the Plass Building beginning Aug. 5.
information?”
Digital archives, like the Wayback Machine, help preserve websites and online information and there may not be any physical archives of these website pages.
“They have cached copies of webpages from 1995. But that probably is only a drop in the bucket of all the information available, which is so much that it's completely unfathomable, you could not picture,” Luke said.
The conversation surrounding preservation will always be a topic for discussion. As time goes on, the best practices will change and information will continue to shuffle through databases or shelves. The way we read is changing, but both digital and print have their own charms.
PHOTO BY JAYME THOMPSON
Internet Evolution
1975
U.S. government builds first fiber-optic line
First message between computers is sent
2010
KARLI BAYLISS
The internet is a basic necessity in the United States nowadays, but few know about its history and development. Here is a visual walk-through of how the internet has evolved in the United States over time, as well as its usage and cost. WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY
2001
First digital subscriber line modem is built
The World Wide Web is invented 2016
Broadband reaches speeds of 2.0 GBPS
2019
4G starts rolling out across the nation 1991
5G starts rolling out across the nation
3G starts rolling out across the nation
Cable modems start being sold 2021 FCC launches Affordable Connectivity Program 2007
First iPhone is released
2022
91.2% of households subscribed to internet
CUUR0000SEEE03?output_view=data & https://www.statista.com/statistics/189349/us-households-home-internet-connection-subscription/, icons) courtesy of freepik.com.
As smartphones continue to become an everyday part of society, so does the next logical step in technological integration. The implantation of microchips in people has generated a heated debate. The possible future of these devices is one in which wallets and keys become unnecessary and are easily retrievable with a single-hand motion. However, this possibility is approached with concerns about personal freedom, ethics and privacy.
BY MIRIAM PAREDES
Elon Musk’s most recent project is an implantable brain chip called Neuralink. A person can use their thoughts to control external devices thanks to this device that can interpret their neural activity.
Clinical trials are being conducted for individuals with quadriplegia due to spinal cord injuries or Lou Gehrig’s disease as the devices' initial data appears promising. Musk even revealed that those who have lost the ability to use their limbs may be able to utilize Telepathy, the first Neuralink product.
Talking about chips implanted in our bodies is a tricky conversation. Some people love the idea of easy access to their info, but it’s got some folks worried about their privacy. Imagine being able to quickly get through airport security or to buy groceries with a simple flick of the wrist or even instantly accessing your medical records in an emergency. With their ability to provide real-time health monitoring and alerts, these chips may also prove to be lifesaving for people with chronic conditions. A lot of the concerns, from not just critics but consumers, say that implanting chips could lead to having their every move watched.
Hilda Chavarria, a senior social work major, believes a chip placed inside of her could lead to having her space invaded.
“I wouldn’t want a piece of material in my body. I like to think I’ve done well as I am, and I’m happy just like that,” Chavarria said. “We live in a day and age where we have advanced technology where our phones and computers are able to listen to us and even generate personalized ads for you, so I can’t even imagine how it would be with a microchip in my body.”
There are also moral dilemmas to consider. Identity theft and other problems can result from hackers and could lead to more of these issues. It can range from how your data is being
collected, who and what has access to all your information and won’t try to exploit it.
Gisselle Flores, a sophomore nursing major, expressed a cautious attitude toward the idea of having a microchip implanted. She acknowledged the potential benefits, such as helping with child abduction, human trafficking and finding family members with dementia or Alzheimer's. Her concern is about security and privacy.
“I wouldn't say I’m against the idea, but my main concern would be my privacy. Who assures me that I can trust whatever company is behind the microchip and who all has access to the information given?” Flores said.
Microchip implants are already being put to the test through Walletmor, a biotechnology company based in London. The chip is authorized and works instantly after implantation. It weighs less than a gram. Near-field communication technology is used, which allows a short-
scary, mainly because it’s still something new that is being explored. But I can see it being more of a normalized, everyday kind of thing more down the line.”
In a YouTube interview about NeuraLink, Musk admitted that he knew the technology wouldn't catch on quickly.
“I really think artificial intelligence or digital super intelligence is likely to arrive before we have advanced Neuralinks, at least that's where the trend is right now, but ultimately the goal would be to achieve symbiosis between our biological mind and digital mind. We’re already kind of like a cyborg if you think about it. Your phones and computers are an extension of yourself,” Musk said.
Microchip-payment implants raise difficult issues regarding personal autonomy, security and privacy, even though they provide a glimpse into a future in which technology and the human body merge.
People discuss the pros and cons of having a microchip in their body. For some people, the technology could be lifechanging.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY EDEN CONRAD
Digital technology revolutionizes criminal justice system
BY JAYME THOMPSON
Each career field has been impacted by technology in its own way. For the criminal justice system, it is the backbone of quickly searching data and new forensic science developments.
In 2001, the United States Courts published an article that read: “It will not be long until personal computers are as common as telephones.” Now, in the year 2024, this sentence remains true with many technological
For Halloween 2023, the Forensic Science Club made a mock crime scene of a murder. Students figure out who the culprit is through forensic science stations.
advancements in the past two decades.
The criminal justice system existed before technology came around, but it wasn’t nearly as easy. In the United States, Massachusetts was the first state to collect data about crimes in 1834. This was all done on paper, which made processing and dispersing information a much more difficult and longer task.
Patricia Dahl, associate professor of criminal justice, has an experienced history of working in background jobs
PHOTO BY ARTEE PANT
CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS
of the system and has seen various changes over time.
“Technology has advanced enough to where a lot more has gotten computerized for both law enforcement and for the people in the agencies having to process information,” Dahl said.
While paper records haven’t become totally obsolete, having electronic files has become the norm. It can take agencies years to go back through and digitize old case files, which some agencies are still doing today.
Now there are several programs and databases that help file the information in an organized way and make it easily accessible for law enforcement agencies. Police officers use a computerized program called the National Crime Information Center in their everyday work to add in information on people committing crimes. One simple laptop in the patrol car grants access to all the national crime information already inputted.
“That was unheard of back in the day, to have a screen in the police car,” Dahl said. “They would have to call in and you’d have that person looking through the paperwork and stuff like that.”
Because technology is constantly changing, people in the criminal justice system have to train on everything that’s new. This happens in both the background of new systems and also in specific disciplines, such as forensic science. Things are always evolving, so training never stops. People need to be updated on new technology as it pertains to their specific job.
“When I was at the FBI…they sent us to Quantico for training because the security for what we were doing was changing,” Dahl said. “Because it was above classified …not everyone knew what to do. So, you had
to go to Quantico, and the specialists would tell you how to do something in a secure manner.”
While people working in criminal justice have to adapt to the new technology, it also allows new opportunities for new crimes. Therefore, information technology departments were created along with the discipline of digital forensics.
“I think in some ways [technology] makes us more vulnerable to hackers or to people wanting to commit crimes,” Dahl said. “There’s always pros and cons.”
Some of the technologies that are now commonly used are drones, license plate scanners and surveillance cameras. Technology has also allowed law enforcement to approach difficult situations without immediately turning to lethal force, such as tasers and lesslethal rounds. There are even robots that are used in harmful situations, such as bomb threats, to get a glimpse of what’s going on without endangering the lives of people. Body camera footage on officers has also made a big difference when it comes to supporting evidence and claims in a court setting for cases that go to trial.
Going specifically into how new technology has changed the forensic science discipline, Kimberly Gerhardt-Whiddon, lecturer of criminal justice, spoke on how technology impacted her previous job as a crime scene investigator.
“You had a whole division that used to have to develop film,” Gerhardt-Whiddon said. “You had analysts in the lab whose full-time jobs were just film developing and then those went away in the last 20 years.”
Forensic photography has gone from developing film to digital cameras. Now crime scene investigators also have 3-D mapping scanners that can digitally intake the entire scene.
“The only people in 2006 who
PHOTO FOR GRAPHIC COURTESY OF SAM MEYER
CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS CRIME SCENE DO NOT CR
had digital cameras were the crime scene investigators,” Gerhardt-Whiddon said. “The quality was so poor. Our cell phones take better pictures than those first digital cameras.”
In the past, forensic scientists would map scenes by creating a three-dimensional display to replicate crime scenes. Now, this has been rendered useless as it turned completely digital a little over a decade ago.
“When I went to Canada for training in 2012…they had a division where these analysts were literally cutting doors out of Styrofoam board to put on their dioramas that are going to go to court,” Gerhardt-Whiddon said. “That’s not a skill we utilize anymore because we’re all able to bring it in digitally into the courtroom.”
Some of the newer databases that greatly involve forensic science records are the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, Combined DNA Index System and the National Integrated Ballistic Information
Network.
These databases make it easier to input new information such as fingerprints and DNA as well as relatively quickly search all the existing national records for a ‘hit.’
Forensic scientists used to have to separate DNA if the sample contained the DNA of two people through the use of gel electrophoresis. However, it wouldn’t be able to separate if there were three or more people involved in the sample, but now technology is able to do that.
“DNA is a golden child example because in 1985 we didn’t do DNA testing and now here we are 30 years later, and you can’t even put a case in front of a jury without DNA because they won’t believe you,” Gerhardt-Whiddon said.
Forensic science can sound confusing to people who are unfamiliar to it, especially juries. Therefore, new advancements aren’t always easily welcomed by the general public.
“We’re kind of held to a different level of scrutiny than
PHOTO BY SHREETI GHIMIRE
(top left) Students place their fingerprints on a square before adding fingerprint powder to it. Once the fingerprint was visible, the students began to identify their pattern type.
other disciplines. So, we really do have to ensure that the science is backed behind that [new technology] before we throw it out there,” Gerhardt-Whiddon said. “The other issue is with new technologies, you have to convince a lot of people it works.”
New advancements have allowed some cold cases to be solved that law enforcement didn’t have the resources to solve. This is where DNA testing has played a crucial part in investigations, such as in the cold case of Gwen Miller that Gerhardt-Whiddon personally worked on.
In Miller’s case, the DNA that was found at the crime scene was sent to a lab to be processed. It was found that the DNA came from a male, and then it was sent to someone with access to genetic information.
“We had her create a basic ancestral tree for this individual based on the genetic information that she had access to in those databases, and she was able to narrow it
PHOTO BY JAYME THOMPSON
2-D footwear impressions are made to demonstrate different ways of collecting shoe prints. Washburn offers criminal justice majors of corrections, law enforcement, forensic investigations and security administration.
OSS CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS CRIME SCENE DO NO
down to a specific family in the city,” Gerhardt-Whiddon said. “It ended up being one of those individuals that was the killer.”
DNA has become especially important for people who were falsely imprisoned. The Innocence Project handles wrongful convictions, and they are able to exonerate people based on revisiting the cases with newer forensic science technology.
“It can be absolutely wonderful, but when people use it for the wrong reasons, illegally, or unethically, it can create problems for everybody. So it’s good and bad,” Dahl said. Technology is still changing, and nobody knows how different it’ll be 10 years from now. There’s still a lot to learn about technology, and new advancements are being created every day.
Students at Washburn who want to learn more about the criminal justice field can find many related student organizations on campus. These organizations are open to everyone on campus.
Criminal Justice Organizations at Washburn
GRAPHIC BY JAYME THOMPSON
Feel it in your soul: Topeka’s music scene
BY JAMI MORAIN
Topeka has multiple options for its music-loving community members, as long as people know where to look. From bars to laundromats to theaters, opportunities for live music are abundant.
One local establishment, Louie’s, has two locations, Louie’s Laundromat is on 21st and Washburn Ave and Louie’s Lounge and Laundromat is on 10th street.
Louie’s 2 provides multiple services including a full laundromat, bar, food, an outside patio and live music. While waiting for their laundry, customers are able to grab a drink or meal while listening to music. The laundromat closes at 10 p.m., the bar stays open until midnight and the kitchen closes at 11 p.m.
On Tuesdays and Saturdays Louie’s 2 hosts musicians for roughly four hours. Musician Cleveland Blue partners with pedal steel guitarist Mike Ramage to perform at Louie’s the first Tuesday of every month, describing Louie’s as “kinda lowkey.”
Blue moved to Kansas in 2008 trying to hit all of the “blues capitals” and Topeka was $100 cheaper than Kansas City. He liked it enough, so he decided to stay.
“Kansas is awesome,” Blue said. “Kansas will give you anything you are willing to bust your ass for, so I just stayed.”
Blue has been playing in bars since he was 13 but has only been performing at Louie’s for five months. He also plays at the Four Guys Bistro downtown for First Friday.
“There’s a lot of things that music will provide, but the main thing is the emotional release and the sound. It’s that feeling that like, it moves you,” Blue said.
He has a new album coming out “soon” on iTunes and Amazon music. Fans can follow him on social media @clebluemusic.
“The older you get, the more you realize what’s important and really it's just the human connection because that's all you get to leave behind,” Blue said. “It doesn’t matter. Monuments will eventually go, but the
BY JAMI MORAIN
thing that lives on is how you are to people.”
Find Louie’s Lounge full schedule on their website.
The Classic Bean, located in the Fairlawn Plaza, is a locally owned coffee shop that provides live music from 7-10 p.m. every Friday and Saturday night. The music is a variety of country, bluegrass and some rock, but not rap because of the shop’s older demographic. At its original location, Classic Bean used to host poetry nights, but live music now brings in the most customers.
“We’ve been serving the Topeka community for 30 years,” said Amy Harrison, an on-again-off-again employee for the past 30 years. “We started with a very basic menu and have added wraps, specialty salads, specialty pastas and also alcohol, so it gives us a wide variety of people that can come in and enjoy a relaxing atmosphere. It's not a bar atmosphere, but you get to listen to live music and it's not
PHOTO
Cleveland Blue and Mike Ramage playing a set at Louie’s. Blue and Ramage performed at the Lounge and Laundromat the first Tuesday of February.
so loud you can’t talk.”
All ages are welcome. Free Wi-Fi and military discounts are also available.
Smith and Wilson, a country lineup, are one of the regular bands that play once every two months. Bob Wilson, who has been a musician since fifth grade, said he met Kenny Smith from their main band, The Coots, and that's how they started their side project, Smith and Wilson. The Coots also play every Thursday for a “jam night” at Gayles Bar.
The Classic Bean has their entertainment schedule on their website.
The Legendary Boobie Trap Bar deemed “Topeka’s home for live music” by Visit Topeka host musicians Fridays and Saturdays with hopes to sponsor music on Tuesdays soon and karaoke the rest of the week.
The bar is an all-ages venue, but anyone below the age of 16 must be pre-approved. Door coverage varies between
$5-$7 for minors on live music nights.
Specks is a bar and grill that used to host “Sunday Funday Jam Nights,” but changed ownership in the summer of 2023. The bar currently has nothing official but occasionally has live music on Sundays and Fridays.
However, Kevin Eman, local DJ and junior business management and marketing major, is hoping to line up a few gigs in town.
“The Specks bar had called out to me and said if I needed to have a space, just to bring people in, then I can more than do it,” Eman said. “Specks will probably be the next spot maybe, just to start off locally.”
He describes Specks as a “pretty old-fashioned type of bar,” a place to go watch sports and it is small compared to other bars he’s been to. In the spring Eman is hoping to have something planned at Norsemen Brewing Company.
If residents know where to look, Topeka has multiple different venues that host live music for its guests.
PHOTO BY JAMI MORAIN
Kenny Smith takes lead vocals during a Friday night Classic Bean performance. Smith & Wilson formed years ago as a result of a side project.
AUGUST 5, 2024
Beginning on May 15, areas of Mabee Library will be closed for relocation.
The library’s main level will remain open for all library services during the move.
Starting August 5, the new library location will open in 1731 Plass on the northwest corner of campus.
