Marquette Tribune I April 9, 2024

The Marquette Tribune

Trespassing on Palestinian memorial

MUPD sent out a university-wide email Monday

By Sophia Tiedge and Julia

Abuzzahab sophia.tiedge@marquette.edu julianna.abuzzahab@marquette.edu

Marquette University Police Department responded to an incident on Sunday, April 7 at 8:30 p.m., at the Students for Justice in Palestine flag display outside of Lalumiere Hall. Three subjects not affiliated with Marquette were taken into custody.

MUPD sent out a

university-wide statement today at noon. They said the subjects were charged with trespassing and theft for taking property from the flag display. One subject was in possession of a gun but had a concealed carry permit.

The 41,000 flags on display were organized by Mar-

quette’s Students for Justice in Palestine to mourn the lives lost in Gaza to kick off their “All Eyes On Gaza” week. Each flag represents one person killed in Gaza over the past six months.

“I want people to see that these people are more than just a number that you see

Preparing for MU's financial future MU budget suggestions

2031 Steering Committee policies face backlash

By Megan Woolard megan.woolard@marquette.edu

Last month Marquette announced “Marquette 2031: Securing Our Future”, a plan to permanently reduce the operating budget by $31 million, starting FY 26 (beginning in July 2025), over the next six fiscal years.

A steering committee, co-chaired by Jill Guttormson, dean of the College of

Nursing, and Ralph Weber, acting general counsel, was appointed by the Executive Leadership Team to head the effort.

As committee members are being finalized, an open letter from faculty at Marquette, has been signed by over 130 faculty members, largely from the College of Arts & Sciences.

The letter is asking for changes in committee policies and questioning whether or not faculty and staff will truly have a say in the process.

At the same time the co-chairs of the steering committee insist that transparency, fairness

and shared governance are at the forefront of the committee’s work. Steering Committee’s role

The committee plans to meet with campus stakeholders ranging from academic programs, facilities planning and management, to student affairs throughout the spring. Weber said that by Labor Day the goal is to have identified $11 million in operating savings and present their initial recommendations to the Executive Leadership team.

“We are starting without any preconceived notions

or without any recommendations currently in front of us, we really believe that those doing the hands-on work on campus have the best lens on what the opportunities (for savings) are,” Weber said.

During the fall of this year the committee plans to complete the FY 26 budget with its recommended action steps, then present to the Board of Trustees.

“We’re using everything that we can think of, and that people will bring to us....because we want this to be as thoughtful, careful and effective as it can be. And so it’s sort of a no

By Sophia Tiedge sophia.tiedge@marquette.edu

The University Academic Senate’s Ad Hoc Committee Response to the Report from the University Faculty Committee on Budgets and Financial Planning has drafted eight recommendations on how university leadership should proceed after the publication of the full budget report.

The budget report detailed the issues seen in the communication between UAS and university leadership.

Provost Kimo Ah Yun said the university is operating under a current budget shortfall that is estimated between $9 million and $9.5 million December 14. Since then UFCBFP published a full budget report.

The Ad Hoc committee is

Photo by Keifer Russell keifer.russell@marquette.edu

The 41, 000 flags displayed by Students for Justice in Palestine in the Central Mall for "All Eyes On Gaza" week represent each life lost in Gaza over the past six months.

BUDGET: Items promote transparency

Continued from page 1

made up of representatives from each college, elected by the faculty in each respective college co-chaired by Manoj Babu and Paul Gasser.

The eight recommendations were not voted on at the special academic senate meeting on Monday April 8, but they will be revised and voted on next Monday April 15 and at the following meeting.

Here are the eight recommendations:

The First recommendation suggested the chair of the University Faculty Committee on Budgets and Financial Planning should also be on the Executive Committee, which schedules senate agendas and makes decisions for the senate when the senate cannot meet.

This would mean that the Office of Finance would come to the first UAS meeting of the second semester to give their budget report, rather than doing it prior to winter break. University Provost Kimo Ah Yun said this recommendation might be hard to implement because there’s a chance the February meeting may not continue due to scheduling changes.

The third recommendation hopes to provide more transparency between administration and UAS when it comes to the 3% contingency fund.

UFCBFP’s full budget report pointed out that the

The second recommendation will move the December university budget approval date to February in order to combat the issue of having to predict revenue leading up to the next fiscal year. This would give the Board of Trustees an extra few months to account for what the next year will look like.

contingency fund reduction from $10 million $5 million may have impacted the budget shortfall seen in December 2023.

The recommendation suggests that UFCBFP should communicate with the Office of Finance to discuss the level of the contingency fund. This communication would be compiled into a report and presented at the first UAS meeting of next year.

The fourth recommendation urges the university leadership team to be transparent about the financial transactions to a reasonable extent. The committee took into account that some of the transactions wouldn’t be able to be shared, but they hope for a minimum limit of transparency to be set.

The fifth recommendation suggests that Deans and program directors should be involved in discussing

enrollment and tuition for their respective colleges.

The Budget report stated that one of the reasons Marquette saw a budget shortfall in December was because certain programs didn’t reach it’s projected enrollment numbers, so their hope is that keying in deans and program directors would hypothetically help create better communication.

The sixth recommendation is to modernize the software utilized in the office of finance and create more “efficiency.”

The UFCBFP report pointed out a need to create department/college data for deans and program directors to have access to. Access to these records would hopefully translate to better financial decisions in the long-run.

The seventh recommendation is for the Executive Leadership Team to increase shared governance when it comes to larger capital projects and expenses. This would include things like projected costs and funding models for the respective projects.

The eighth recommendation is for the strategic plan core team to report to UAS regularly and ensure that the “health” of existing programs not be forgotten while new projects are in the works.

Each recommendation was presented by someone from the Ad Hoc Committee and then UAS members were able to weigh in.

Over the next two UAS meetings the recommendations will be revised and voted on.

Ah Yun pointed out that the Office of Finance is already working on ways to improve their programs and efficiency.

FUTURE: Over 130 faculty sign open letter

Continued from page 1

stone unturned project,” Weber said.

Guttormson said that the committee is looking into all aspects of the university, not just the academic side.

“So for example, are there buildings where there could be more efficiency and how we utilize the space on campus?

There’s an opportunity to think about whether there are more efficient ways that we can support the IT framework of the university,” Guttormson said. “It’s looking at every single unit on campus and saying where there are efficiencies … and how do we implement them in a really strategic way.”

As the committee looks for ways to cut the budget, some faculty are concerned that their or their colleagues’ jobs could be on the line. The letter references past layoffs in 2019 and 2021 that the university attributed to lower enrollment and financial challenges.

The open letter asks the committee to make decisions that avoid firings, forced retirements and contract non-renewals.

“$31M in cuts will mean program closures and likely job losses, even among tenured faculty. Cuts will also mean that overworked and understaffed units will be stretched even thinner. This is not a recipe for preserving the value of a Marquette education,” the letter stated.

Program cuts

In addition to concerns about layoffs, some faculty have expressed unease over potential closures of academic programs. The open letter cites the facul-

programs that have Y number of students, that only says, we should look at that. That doesn’t mean there’s any decision made about what’s going to hap-

“We're using everything that we can think of, and that people bring to us....because we want this to be as thoughtful, careful and effective as it can be. And so it's sort of a no stone unturned project,”

Ralph Weber

Co-chair of the Steering Committee, acting general counsel

ty handbook provision that only the University Board of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies can make recommendations on adding or removing academic programs before bringing them to the Academic Senate for approval.

The letter alleges that since faculty have only been asked for their input, the steering committee could be in violation of the provision should they choose to recommend cutting an academic program. There are currently over 70 programs, according to data from the Office of Instiutional Research and Analysis that have five or less students enrolled in them.

“You may have seen some information about whether it’s X number of

pen,” Weber said. “The data is an opportunity for inquiry. The inquiry is holistic, and includes the application of judgment and wisdom to what the data tells us.”

Guttormson said the committee aims to ensure they won’t blindside any department with their recommendations.

“I think we’re committed to being really transparent in what was the rationale for tentative decision recommendations, and then ensuring that that rationale is shared with the units that will be impacted,”

Guttormson said.

Committee Membership

The steering committee is composed of the co-chairs, 18 members

from varying departments across the university (not including students), two project managers and four additional representatives from the University Academic Senate.

The representatives from the Academic Senate have yet to be made public.

Chris Stockdale, Chair of UAS, said at the April 8 senate meeting that 14 people were nominated. The UAS executive board selected the four representatives. In addition, four other members of the Academic Senate had already been a part of the steering committee.

However, the faculty that signed the open letter are pushing for the steering committee to have UAS appoint 50% of the members, plus one additional seat. At the moment less than 25% of the steering committee members are part of the Academic Senate.

Some members of the Marquette community are also asking the steering committee to expand membership to students.

“The purpose of the steering committee is to ensure the health of the university and to ensure that we can educate the next generation … so why are there no students on this steering committee? If this is about students why aren’t they included,” Tim Houge, a graduate student, said at the April 8 Academic Senate meeting.

Guttormson said the non-disclosure agreement that steering committee members must sign discourages them from

including students.

Non-Disclosure Agreements

The open letter from faculty has asked the steering committee to remove the non-disclosure agreement requirement, saying that it violates widely accepted definitions of shared governance.

However, Weber and Guttormson both said that the NDAs are essential to the committee’s work.

“It’s really important that within those group discussions that people know, what we talk about in this room is going to stay in this room until the report comes at the end of the process,” Weber said.

In addition to helping create an open environment to share ideas, Weber said the committee will also be accessing confidential financial information.

“In order for this to work, you need to have access to nonpublic information, and it’s fair and appropriate for that nonpublic information to remain non-public,” Weber said. Teams site

Throughout the process, a Microsoft teams site related to the initiative will be available for anyone with a marquette.edu email address to share ideas anonymously. There is also a FAQs section that Weber and Guttormson said will be updated regularly.

Sophia Tiedge, Hope Moses, Gabe Mannion and Ellie Golko contributed to this report.

News Briefs

Hmong history bill

Governor Tony Evers signed a bipartisan bill into law. The bill, which Evers signed on April 4, requires that Wisconsin K-12 schools teach Asian American and Hmong American Histories.

Evers signed the bill at an elementary school in Wausau, where the Hmong population makes up 12% of the city’s inhabitants.

Wisconsin overall is home to the third largest Hmong population, with 50,000

Hmong individuals, according to the Hmong American Center.

Current Wisconsin law requires K-12 schools to teach Black, Hispanic and Native American histories. This new law’s stated goal is to promote greater awareness and understanding of Hmong and Asian American histories, cultures and traditions by adding them to the current curriculum.

Disney shareholders

Disney defeated Trian Partners, headed by activist shareholder Nelson Peltz, for control of the entertainment giant’s boardroom. The company said on April 3 that shareholders voted to elect all 12 of its proposed directors.

The takeover attempt, according to the Wall Street Journal, could possibly have totaled to over $140 million in marketing and

solicitors, making it one of the most expensive proxy fights in recent history. Peltz openly criticized Disney’s strategy and cited the company’s stock price, which is currently at nearly half of its 2021 high. Supported by former Marvel executive Isaac Perlmutter, Peltz’s plan included making Disney more “Netflix-Like” in its strategy and profitability.

Student debt relief

President Joe Biden unveiled a proposed initiative to provide relief for over 30 million Americans on April 8 in Madison.

A key part of the plan would cancel up to $20,000 in unpaid interest for borrowers who owe more than their initial loan amount, as well as undergraduate debt that borrowers have been paying back for 20 years and graduate-school debt that has been in repayment for 25 years or more.

According to the White House, borrowers who took out loans to attend “low-financial-value programs,” as well as borrowers at risk of defaulting and “other financial hardship” are all also eligible for cancellation.

Some state attorney generals, such as Ohio’s Dave Yost, are already planning to contest the plan and possibly create a multistate challenging suit.

Wallen arrested

Morgan Wallen, country music artist, was arrested in Nashville, TN on three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one

April 10

Cake a Kappa Delta

Details:

- 11-2 p.m.

- Eckstien Commons

Community Care with the Gammas

Details:

- 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

- AMU 254

disorderly conduct misdemeanor after throwing a chair from a rooftop bar.

Trump secures bond

Former President Donald Trump secured his $175 million bond to guarantee judgement during his appeal in his civil fraud lawsuit. This brings his total in bonds to nearly $267 million after securing a $92 million bond in his civil defamation case.

This bond comes as part of a real-estate civil fraud case where New York judge Arthur Engoron ordered the former president to pay $355 million, which now stands at $454 million due to interest, after

finding Trump guilty of falsely valuing select pieces of real-estate

According to analysts, the appeals court is unlikely to rule until later this fall, meaning any penalties faced by Trump are unlikely to come before the final election results in November.

Trump maintains his innocence in the case and claims the case is a politically motivated attempt to discredit him and prevent him from running in the 2024 election.

March labor report

The National Bureau of Labor Statistics released their March Labor Report on April 5, which highlighted changes in overall jobs and in the employment rate.

Highlights of the report include over 300,000 jobs added to the economy in March, significantly more than the 200,000 median expected by leading economists, with healthcare and hospitali-

ty services both leading in jobs added. The unemployment rate did not change significantly, dropping to 3.8%, versus the previous month’s 3.9%. This figure represents over 6.4 million unemployed individuals in the U.S. The rate has been hovering between 3.7% and 3.9% since August of 2023.

Historic eclipse

Although Milwaukee wasn’t on the path of the solar eclipse’s totality, its residents still got to enjoy a partial eclipse. At Marquette, campus was able to start viewing the eclipse around 12:52 p.m., but it didn’t reach its peak until 2:08 p.m. with the eclipse ending at 3:21 p.m. At its peak, 89.% of the sun was covered by the moon.

This was the most coverage of the eclipse Milwaukee has seen since 1954, however, it will be beat in 2099 when Milwaukee will be one of the select areas witnessing a total eclipse. Marquette was located in one of the best spots in Wisconsin to be able to see

the partial solar eclipse. The rest of Milwaukee, Kenosha, Racine, Lake Geneva and Janesville also had a higher chance than other regions of the state.

Although Milwaukee residents could see a partial solar eclipse, some of those living in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine were able to see the total solar eclipse along with small areas in Tennessee and Michigan.

It was found that tourism stemmed by the eclipse could generate approximately $1 billion into local economies.

April 11

Civic Dialogues:

Confronting the loneliness epidemic in age of polarization

Details:

- 5 p.m.

- O'Brien 150A-B

CHAARG Tote Bag Painting

Details:

- 6 p.m.

- Cramer Hall 087

April 12

Multicultural Showcase

Details:

- 7 p.m.

- Weasler Auditorium

MU Theatre Sweeny Todd

Details:

- 7 p.m.

- Weasler Auditorium

Weekend

Marquette Night Market

Details:

- Saturday April 13

- 6-9 p.m.

- Weasler Parking Lot

Pure

MU walk raised funds to help prevent suicide

'Talk Away the Darkness' was this year's theme

By Mia Thurow mia.thurow@marquette.edu

Over 200 students and community members wearing American Foundation for Suicide Prevention shirts and colorful beaded necklaces lined Marquette’s streets on Saturday in a walk to bring awareness to suicide prevention efforts.

AFSP is a voluntary health organization that gives those affected by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research, education and advocacy to take action against this leading cause of death. The organization’s motto for the year is “Talk Away the Dark,” which led to the creation of Marquette’s “Out of the Darkness” campus walk.

Elizabeth Gnau, a sophomore in the College of Nursing, reached out to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Marquette’s Center for

Student Wellness and Health Promotion last year about starting a campus walk to help prevent suicide.

Gnau, a Madison native, said she became familiar with AFSP through UW-Madison, who hosts one of the biggest suicide prevention walks in the nation.

“I attended their walk when I was in high school, and then my freshman year of college I wanted to do something to make an impact and commemorate my own progress,” Gnau said.

Bernadette Heitschmidt, a Marquette alum and the Director of the Center for Student Wellness and Health Promotion, said she was thinking about starting a suicide prevention walk at Marquette last year when Gnau approached her with the same idea.

“If we help one person on Marquette’s campus, I think we’ve done our jobs,” Heitschmidt said.

After reaching out to campus organizations and offices that support student

mental health, Gnau and Heitschmidt were given the green light and set a goal of $5,000 for last year’s “Out of the Darkness” campus walk.

This year, after approval to host anther walk, the goal became $10,000. Gnau said Saturday’s walk has raised over $8,229.27 for suicide prevention so far and donations will be accepted through June 30.

“We’re hoping to close the gap with fundraising and awareness today. I’m really happy, honestly, because any amount that we can donate to suicide prevention, research and education is great,” Gnau said.

Organizations attending and assisting with the walk included Active Minds, BlackMindz, the Counseling Center, Counseling Education, the Graduate School, the Office of Inclusion and Belonging and On Your Marq, among others.

Aside from raising funds for suicide prevention, Gnau said another main goal of the “Out of the Darkness” is to de-stigmatize the topic of suicide across the

nation. She said she thinks suicide prevention is not talked about enough on college campuses, and she wants struggling students at Marquette to feel heard.

“College can be tough, and we want people to seek resources and feel okay about it,” Jenan Halawa, a firstyear in the College of Arts & Sciences, said.

Halawa said she was very grateful to help Gnau and Heitschmidt put on this year’s “Out of the Darkness” walk. She said going into college she wanted a job in advocacy and leadership, so she became a peer wellness educator and developed a friendship with Gnau.

Heitschmidt said that she thinks hosting annual suicide prevention walks at Marquette will encourage more students like Halawa to enter the mental health counseling workforce where they can help others who are battling suicide.

“It goes hand-in-hand with our Jesuit value of being men and women for others, and that’s what we’re here to do today to carry out our

mission.” Heitschmidt said.

Gnau, Halawa and Heitschmidt also hoped hosting a campus walk this year would help achieve the goals set by AFSP for their “Talk Away the Dark,” like teaching students to learn the warning signs of suicide, know the risk factors and have honest, open conversations. Halawa said she was excited to spread the message of healthy discussion all over Marquette’s campus at the walk on Saturday.

“Let’s talk about it and not keep it in the dark anymore. It’s okay to ask for help, it’s okay to need help and it’s okay to want help,” Halawa said. “I think the only way to prevent suicide is to be open about it and talk about it.”

If you or anyone you know at Marquette is struggling, visit the Center for Student Health and Wellness Promotion or the Counseling Center for support. The suicide and crisis lifeline number is 988, or text TALK to 741-741.

Todd A. Hernández: A legacy that lives on

A scholarship fund in his name has been created

By Sophia Tiedge sophia.tiedge@marquette.edu

Passion, drive and authenticity.

Three words Todd Hernández’s daughter, Sofia Hernández, used to describe him.

His passion for Spanish, drive to explore the world and authenticity in the classroom are what Sofia hopes people remember when they think of her father.

Marquette University mourned the loss of Spanish professor Todd Hernández last April. Now, almost a year after his passing, the university, along with the Hernández family, have created a Marquette scholarship fund in his name.

The Todd. A. Hernández endowed Excellence Fund will go towards supporting students’ immersive learning experiences, stipends for applied learning opportunities and undergraduate research stipends.

“My grandparents, along with my family and my dad’s colleagues thought it would be cool to have a scholarship in his name. They got together and came up with the idea with Marquette administration,” Sofia said.

a book he was working on. His legacy lives on through the Spanish department as well. Barnes said not only is his footprint all over their curriculum, but in every meeting the department always asks, ‘What would Todd do?’ when trying to make a decision.

“He was always one of those people where when he speaks, everybody listens. Everyone trusted his opinion,” Barnes said.

Barnes said he always remembered the little things, and served as a resource to anyone who just needed a shoulder to lean on.

“Even though I was little, I could just tell people were engaged. He really cared about his students,” Sofia said.

The Hernández family said in a statement that Todd loved to travel and learn about different cultures and their history.

“Todd knew how to bring the study of language to life inside and outside of the classroom. This scholarship will ensure that although he has tragically passed far too soon, Todd’s love of learning and passion of language will live on through future students,” the Hernández family said in a statement.

Sofia, now a senior in the College of Communication, used to sit in the back of her dad’s classes as a little girl and watch him teach.

Sofia said that he taught the importance of immersive learning to his students as well, always encouraging them to step out of their comfort zones and to try new things.

“Giving students the ability to do that through the scholarship is exactly what he would’ve wanted,” Sonia Barnes, professor of Spanish, said. Barnes and Hernández were the only linguists in the Spanish department, and they worked together every day to ensure the success of their students. “He was a true leader. He wasn’t a loud leader, he was quiet and measured, but with so much integrity,” Barnes said.

Barnes said he gained the respect of his students in the classroom while also being a friend to each one. She said he was a great teacher, but she could also tell he loved what he did.

Outside of the classroom, the Hernández family said he devoted himself to his family. “He never missed a moment to spend time with his family,” the Hernández family wrote. “He was a happy and compassionate person who made anyone around him feel the beautiful energy of life.”

Sofia hopes the scholarship in his name will be a great way to symbolize the things he never got to finish, such as his classes and

“He was incredibly generous. His office door was always open. He would sit there and actually listen to what you were saying,” Barnes said. “He was genuinely interested in whatever people had to say.”

Sofia said her dad encompassed “Cura Personalis” because he cared about his students inside and outside the classroom.

Barnes said if a student would continually miss class, Todd would go out of his way to check in on them and make sure they were okay.

“He’s one of those people who’s ever replaceable,” Barnes said.

Although his time at Marquette was cut short, his legacy is not one that will be forgotten.

“He was everything to everyone,” Sofia said.

The Hernández family worked with University administration to solidify the scholarship and its purpose.

Photo courtesy of Sofia Hernández

Partnering with sister-state university

Celebrating 25 years of Marburg relationship

By Sofía Cortés sofia.cortes@marquette.edu

Marquette University is celebrating its 25th year of its partnership with the Phillipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany. This is a partnered exchange program with five Marquette students currently enrolled for a semester abroad in Marburg.

As well as being partners through both universities, Wisconsin and Hesse have the oldest sister-state relationship between the United States and a German federal state. Marburg is the university town that lies in the state of Hesse.

The program encourages students to take courses in all areas of study and academia, not just German, while learning about German culture and allowing students to immerse themselves in new experiences.

Jenny Watson, associate professor of German studies at Marquette, said that the program can be eye-opening for students and faculty who participate.

“The thing with any program abroad — if it’s immersive and long enough — is that students not only learn a great deal about the country, culture, people and language, they also gain a different perspective on their own country, culture and language. They also see how university works in a different country,” Watson said.

Watson said that her personal connection to Germany has a lot to do with her friends, the history and the art scene.

“German friends are lasting friends, but it’s more than that. I love taking students to Berlin to experience one of the most vibrant cities in the world, to see German history up close, to experience the art scene, to meet ‘real’ Germans and get to know their perspective on the world,” Watson said.

From an accounting perspective, Dr. Kevin Rich, chair and professor of accounting, said that this program can also help prepare students for an increasingly global business environment.

“Our students take a course in International Corporate Governance (where they learn a lot about the regulatory

differences in Europe vs. the US) and visit both a large public accounting firm office and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt,” Rich said. “The course is taught by Professor Sascha Mölls, who leads an accomplished research group in Marburg.”

Rich added that this program is a great chance to expose and teach students skills needed in the business world.

“This is a great chance to expose them to some of these issues in a fun environment that expands their horizons. We also use the study tour as an opportunity to get our undergraduate and graduate students to work together since they both participate,” Rich said.

Michael Koch has been teaching German at Marquette for over nine years and serves as the Vice Treasurer of the Hessen-Wisconsin Society, a board member of the Goethe House Wisconsin and the board of the DSSV (Wisconsin German Language and School Society).

“It is another testament to the importance of each country to the other over the centuries: political and economic ties, mutual cultural influences, and

— simply — friendships,” Koch said. “It is a natural fit for Marquette in Milwaukee to have the Philipps-Universität in Marburg as our partner with the sister-state arrangement between Wisconsin and Hessen.”

Koch said that he encourages every student to study abroad at least once throughout their college experience.

“Students come back to the United States with their horizons blown wide open. Their German language skills improve in leaps and bounds,” Koch said. “Also, their global competence benefits greatly in ways that cannot be quantified, which is very attractive to employers.”

Koch added that while speaking to anyone about their college experience, they will say that studying abroad was the best part. If they did not end up studying abroad, they will usually say that their biggest regret is not studying abroad.

“Students’ enthusiasm and excitement about the experiences, which they only could have had thanks to the study abroad programs, are gratifying,” Koch said. “They learn so much about European customs, food, history, art, lit-

erature, architecture, and culture first-hand and are exposed to so many different ‘foreign’ viewpoints and value systems.”

Catherine Fink, a senior in the College of Communication, is currently abroad in Marburg at the Phillips-Universität. Fink said the flexibility in her schedule allowed her to choose any classes she wanted throughout her time in Germany for the semester.

“For the first six weeks I was in extensive German language courses with people from all over the world as this was not just for students but for immigrants who needed to learn or better their German skills,” Fink said.

Fink is bilingual (German and English) and said she wanted to take the semester to immerse herself in all things German.

“It is a fairy tale city, literally. The city looks just like what you would imagine an old German city to look like, its most famous students were the brothers Grimm,” Fink said. “The more we learn about other people and countries, the more we can as individuals and as a country be better at understanding and solving issues.”

MUSG winning ticket: Brooks and Dalieh

The two hope for transparency and community

By Sophia Tiedge sophia.tiedge@marquette.edu

After the Marquette University Student Government elections April 4, 2024, the President and Executive Vice President for the 2024-25 school year will be Amayah Brooks and Amani Dalieh.

The ticket received 46% of the votes in the first round and 58% in the second round.

There was a 29.7% voter

turnout during the election. Students were able to vote through an email MUSG sent out.

Brooks and Dalieh, juniors in the College of Arts & Sciences, based their campaign on two major topics: interconnectedness across campus and uplifting marginalized voices.

“She (Brooks) lives on campus and I’m a commuter, so we saw that difference (in campus experience). For me, I had to really seek it out to find different events,” Dalieh said. “So that’s our goal: to bring us all together, whether you commute or you’re

a non-commuter, I just want everybody to have the same opportunities.”

This year, Brooks serves as the MUSG senator for Arts & Sciences and Dalieh doesn’t serve in MUSG.

The other two tickets were Thilini Mendis with John Flanagan and Lori Martinez with Kaitlyn Rohan.

A petition was filed by Lori Martinez that said the Brooks/Dalieh ticket had violated the rule on mass distribution.

They were found to have violated the rule that states flyers can only be posted in designated areas with the hall director or apartment

managers permission.

The penalty for this violation was a 1% reduction in votes.

Another ticket, Thilini Mendis and John Flanagan, were found by the MUSG Elections Committee to have violated rules on signature collection. This resulted in 51 signatures being ruled invalid on their nomination form. This violation petition was filed by Lori Martinez.

Justin Uribe has been elected as the College of Arts & Sciences Senator, Kaitlyn Brodhagen for the College of Business Administration Senator and Brennan Wills for the College of

Communication Senator.

Three seats are still open following this election. Two in the College of Arts & Sciences and one in the College of Business Administration ticket.

The Education Senator, Engineering Senator, Health Sciences Senator and Nursing Senator also still need to be filled as there were no registered candidates for the seats.

Additionally, the senior commencement speaker finalists are: Hope Moses, Clarie Schomogyi and Ashley Tan. The senior speaker will be announced at a later date.

MEMORIAL: SJP responds to arrests

Continued from page 1

on your screen… they’re people,” Amani Dalieh, SJP president and Marquette University Student Government executive vice-president, said. “If this (the flag display) doesn’t affect you in any way, I don’t know what else will.”

MUPD said they will be monitoring the display until it ends on April 12.

No safety alert was issued last night after the incident.

SJP issued an official statement to the

Marquette Wire. “This is disappointing but expected as people refuse to recognize this as genocide, and do not respect the oppression of black and brown bodies,” SJP said in a statement. “SJP will keep these flags up until Friday and hope people will respect and reflect on the lives that were lost in Gaza as well as the privilege we all have in our safe blessings.”

On Monday SJP held a poetry reading in the Cen-

tral Mall— the day after the incident occurred.

“I didn’t want them (people coming to the poetry reading) to feel discouraged or feel unsafe for coming out here,” Dalieh said. “I even called MUPD a couple hours ago and they made sure that there was extra (police) presence here because it’s scary.”

Dalieh said the entire situation with the people removing the flags was “scary” and “disappointing.” “Especially as someone

who was doxxed back in October for having my Palestinian stance and people threatening my life— how are we going to know what people are capable of,” Dalieh said. “Coming out here, a lot of us were like, ‘we’re together.’ It was scary, but it’s like, if we don’t do it (honor those in Gaza), who will?”

However, Dalieh said she felt “supported” that MUPD stepped up and responded to the incident immediately.

“This still is going to be a Marquette thing and it made us feel good that we had that sort of protection,” Dalieh said.

Regardless of the entire situation, Dalieh said SJP will continue to spread awareness for Palestine.

Students are urged to reach out to the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and Campus Ministry for support. MUPD wants students to contact them if they witness any suspicious behavior.

End of an era

Megan Duffy leaves Marquette for Virginia Tech

By Jack Albright jack.albright@marquette.edu

Marquette is now in need of a new women’s basketball head coach.

Megan Duffy, after five seasons at the helm of the Golden Eagles, is going to be the head coach of Virginia Tech, the program announced Wednesday.

Duffy posted an overall record of 110-46, going 6430 in Big East play. Her winning percentage (70.5%) is the best in Marquette women’s basketball history. She became the fastest coach

to reach the 100-win mark when the Golden Eagles beat Xavier Jan. 6, 2023.

In Duffy’s tenure, the Golden Eagles made three trips to the NCAA Tournament — though they failed to post a win, going 0-3 — and earned a pair of runner-up finishes in both the regular season and conference tournament.

Duffy was named the Big East Coach of the Year after her first season as head coach.

“In her five years with us, Megan and her staff have had tremendous success leading us to four postseason appearances,” Marquette vice president and director of athletics Bill Scholl said in a statement.

“She has been an

incredible leader for our program and department and a great mentor to our student-athletes. We wish her and her husband, Kevin, nothing but great success in this next chapter of her career.”

Duffy was hired in 2019 to replace former coach Carolyn Kieger, who left to go to Penn State.

This season, Marquette had its best start in program history (12-0), which gave the Golden Eagles their AP Poll highest-ranking under Duffy (No. 18) and made them one of 10 teams in the country to go undefeated in non-conference play.

But, Marquette finished the year 11-7 in the Big East after losing multiple conference games

WOMEN'S LACROSSE

due to fourth quarter scoring droughts.

Once the season ended at the hands of Ole Miss in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, all five Golden Eagle starters left the program.

Senior Jordan King and graduate student Frannie Hottinger ran out of eligibility. Seniors Liza Karlen and Rose Nkumu both had an extra year they could have exercised at Marquette, but chose not to — Karlen entered the transfer portal.

Sophomore guard Kenzie Hare also entered the transfer portal. Her departure marked the third time in four years that an underclassmen transferred out of the program under Duffy. Monday April 8, junior

Starting from scratch

Coach Black helped build WLAX program

By Benjamin Hanson benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu

Meredith Black was with the Marquette women’s lacrosse team before it could even be considered a team.

Before any names were on a roster, and long before there were any practices and games and wins and losses, Black was there. She has been at the helm of the team for the lows of a 2-15 record in 2013 and the highs of a 15-4 2023 season in which they made their first NCAA tournament appearance.

But in the beginning, she said starting the program in 2012 was extremely challenging.

“It was harder than raising my daughters,” Black said. “Nothing is as difficult as starting a program from scratch like I did. Though at that time, the lack of knowledge of the sport around here was so great because it enabled me to be truly be able to do it my way for our program. We got to forge the path of how we wanted to do things and there were no outside influences.”

Assistant coach Caitlin Wolf joined the team in 2016 and said that she could tell that Black wasn’t just focused on how she coached, but who she coached.

“The way she built her program was about bringing in good people,” Wolf said. “That’s a big part of her recruiting philosophy: recruiting the whole human and the whole family. Her message from the start that’s still ongoing is recruiting players who want to build

guard Lee Volker entered the transfer portal too.

Before Duffy left, Marquette had three incoming players in the class of 2024, Kayl Petersen, Leila Wells and Jaeda Wilson. Petersen was Duffy’s highest-ranked recruit at Marquette (No. 67 on 2024 HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings). In 2025, the Golden Eagles also received a verbal commitment from Amani Jenkins.

But, Petersen, Jenkins and Wilson all announced they would be re-opening their recruiting processes in light of Duffy’s exit. Wells has not announced a decision yet.

Marquette said a national search for a new head coach will begin immediately.

something special here and leave their jersey in a better place than they found it.”

One of these players that joined the team in 2013 was Elizabeth Goslee, who eventually went on to compete with the US National Women’s Lacrosse Team and came back to Marquette as an assistant coach for two years.

But back when she was looking for a Division I school to play at, Black was the one to give her a chance and stuck to her philosophies no matter what.

“She remained very consistent to what she believed in and what she of relied on in times of a lot of losses,” Goslee said. “She trusted the process of hustling all the time on the field, building our relationships and doing whatever it took to try to create the standard that was supposed to guide

Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics

Meredith Black has coached MUWLAX

team's start.

Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics

SPORTS COLUMN THIS WEEK: MCPHERSON ON MUWBB

After five seasons at the helm of the Marquette women’s basketball team, now former head coach Megan Duffy is out and moving on to the same role at Virginia Tech. Duffy led Marquette to three NCAA Tournaments and was the fastest coach to get to 100 wins.

The team is going through heavy changes and not just at the head coaching spot. Starters Mackenzie Hare and Lisa Karlen both entered the transfer portal after Hare averaged 14 points per game and Karlen 18 respectively.

As a staple of the roster for years, Jordan King graduating only adds on to the growing rebuild job at Marquette.

The change might be beneficial for both Marquette and Virginia Tech, as they get a seasoned coach and Marquette gets the chance to start a new era with a new leader.

As Marquette announced the search for a new coach has already begun, I had some notes they should take on the details of the now open spot.

The team started out great but slowed heavily toward the end, and Duffy could never crack her 24 wins from her inaugural season in Milwaukee in 2019. Although they qualified for the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid, a first-round matchup with Ole Miss sent them home faster than expected.

Next season was already going to be poised as one of Duffy’s toughest, with all five starters gone and only three new recruits coming in.

Marquette should be

aiming to find a coach with tournament experience, and the ability to recruit high-ranking recruits who will play, and also stay with the program. Marquette struggled to keep its recruits under Duffy and the offense was hard to watch for much of the year. The 67th ranked recruit in the class, Kayl Petersen from Waupun, Wisconsin, decommitted last week after Duffy’s departure. Having a new coach makes it much harder to get recruits to commit, so finding a coach with a specific plan in mind can make the rebuild faster than expected.

Watching teams like Iowa or Connecticut shows how important a system can be and how beneficial it is to design your sets around your players, a la Caitlin Clark or Paige Bueckers. Although the Golden Eagles don’t have their Clark or Bueckers yet, enforcing a system can inspire and motivate recruits and players alike to play and follow the direction of the new coach and system.

Carla Berube from Princeton is someone Marquette should be tracking. Winning the Ivy League Regular Season every year in charge of the Tigers, Berube has also qualified for the NCAA Tournament the last three seasons. The Tigers also lost key players to the portal and Berube has just the experience needed to not only lead a rejuvenated team, but also prepare for the future with Marquette.

With all five starters gone and only one returning player being a consistent member of the rotation –Skylar Forbes – a heavy rebuild is necessary no matter who is leading it.

The new coach should build the offense around one player who they can build the team around. Finding a system early will be key and it might take longer if they have to rely on their young recruits for scoring early in the year.

Although Marquette’s three new first-years will certainly get their opportunities next season, bringing in a player with a high usage rate might be key in order to keep up the scoring with all of the missing pieces. It might be harsh to hand off the reins to the team to the remaining players from last year who barely got any minutes. Bringing in a veteran guard can ease the transition from the old core to the young roster with a lot of potential.

Replacing Megan Duffy

Five candidates for open MUWBB coaching position

By Trevor Hilson trevor.hilson@marquette.edu

The Marquette women’s basketball team will enter a new era in the 2024-25 season.

Former head coach Megan Duffy has left after leading the program to its best start in program history and an NCAA Tournament birth this past season in her fifth year with Marquette.

The Virginia Tech Hokies named Duffy as their eighth head coach Wednesday, replacing Kenny Brooks who coached the team for eight seasons before joining Kentucky.

Duffy signed a six-year contract with the Hokies worth $5.5 million, who finished first in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season and made the Round of 32 in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Marquette vice president and director of athletics Bill Scholl said the criteria for the school’s new head coach search are strict.

“There are a few things that are non-negotiable: you need to have a clean NCAA record, you have to want to do things the right way and you have to be a great fit at Marquette,” Scholl said in an exclusive interview Wednesday with Kristin Parisi.

Here are five candidates to become the new leader of the Golden Eagles:

Ginny Boggess

A familiar name in the Marquette program, Boggess was an assistant under

former head coach Carolyn Kieger and is currently the women’s head coach at Monmouth University.

Boggess led the Hawks to a second-round finish in the WNIT and a second place finish in the Coastal Athletic Association this past season. Monmouth’s 22 wins were the most in a season under Boggess.

In her five years at Marquette, Boggess was the lead recruiting coordinator and was key in player development, helping to recruit Chloe Marotta, Natisha Hiedeman and Lauren Van Kleunen among others.

Kristen Gillespie

Gillespie, who just finished her seventh season with the Illinois State Redbirds, finished last season with a 22-12 record, which included a nail-biter loss to the Golden Eagles on Dec. 1o, 2023, 64-62.

She led the Redbirds to a Missouri Valley Conference title in 2022-23, winning 24 games and advancing to the conference’s tournament title game.

Gillespie has reached one NCAA Tournament with Illinois State, which resulted in a 98-58 loss to the No. 2 seed Iowa Hawkeyes in the first round in 2022.

Tony Greene

Another former Marquette assistant, Greene just finished his third year as an assistant with Baylor, who made the Sweet 16 before losing to USC 74-70.

He only spent a season at Marquette as an assistant in 2020-21, working in player development, recruiting and scheduling.

He has 25-plus years of coaching experience and

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

has helped the Bears hold opponents to just 26.3% from the three-point line this past season, which ranked 8th in the country.

Tamara Inoue

Inoue has been very successful as UC Irvine’s women’s head coach for eight years. Including a NCAA tournament appearance this season, she led the Anteaters to a Big West regular season title in the 2022-23 season and has four 20-win seasons since taking over in 2016.

Her squads have finished tied for second or better in the conference the last five campaigns, including a second place finish this past season.

Inoue boasts one of the better defenses in the country with opponents scoring 55.7 points per game, which ranks 14th nationally. The Anteaters averaged 10.3 steals per game last season (33rd in the country) and forced 18.8 turnovers a game (42nd nationally).

Kellie Harper

Harper was let go by Tennessee on Apr. 1, 2024 after five seasons. She has 29 years of coaching experience, 17 of which have resulted in NCAA Tournament appearances. Seven other seasons ended in WNIT berths.

She is one of two coaches to ever take four different teams to the Big Dance.

A former player under Pat Summitt with the Volunteers, Harper won three national titles as a member of the team.

Harper led the Vols to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in her last two seasons at the helm.

Volker enters transfer portal

Junior guard averaged 3.5 points per game

By Trevor Hilson trevor.hilson@marquette.edu

Lee Volker has entered the transfer portal and will leave Marquette women’s basketball, a source confirmed with the Marquette Wire. The Next’s Talia Goodman first reported the news.

The decision comes almost a week after former head coach Megan Duffy announced she was leaving Marquette to become the head coach at Virginia Tech. Last season was Volker’s first with the program, and she transferred

in from Duke before the 2023-24 season.

The Purcellville, Virginia native came off the bench and averaged 3.5 points in 14.9 minutes per game last season.

She had a career-high 13 points in the season-opening 84-51 victory over UT Martin and had 12 bench points two weeks later in a 96-36 win against St. Peter’s.

Photo by Jack Albright jack.albright@marquette.edu

Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics

Playing with newfound confidence

Windbuchler earns set lineup spot in fifth year

By Sophia Woods sophia.woods@marquette.edu

Tiana Windbuchler’s spot is finally set.

The fifth-year New Zealand native has been a Golden Eagle for all five years of her career, but this is the first season that she has a set spot in the lineup.

Windbuchler said getting used to her new position required a mindset shift, especially since this is her last year at Marquette.

“It’s weird not going into a match day being like ‘I’m probably not playing’ and then that constantly being proven wrong,” Windbuchler said.

She described the uncertainty she faced as unsettling and said that

staying confident has been a key role in her success this season.

“I have to have confidence in this position because otherwise I will just crumble,” Windbuchler said.

Windbuchler has seen the most success in her doubles matches this season, most recently going on a three-match win streak with partner sophomore Emma Davis.

And where she finds this confidence is in her unique playing style.

“I just have to play the way I want to play,” Windbuchler said. “If I can pull what might not be the safest shots, like a dropshot, that freedom gives me confidence.”

Head coach Jud Schaufler said he can see that freedom in her game.

“She’s always had an exceptionally good racquet palette,” Shaufler said. “She

can be a very creative player and ad-lib out there better than any others.”

Schaufler said that this new security has improved her confidence, as well as her overall game.

“It had enhanced her confidence that she knows she’s going to be out there competing and as a result, she has a different type of swagger to herself,” Schaufler said. “Between picking up that level of confidence and using her natural talents, this has been a coming out year for her.”

Davis agreed.

“I have seen her confidence grow exponentially, and it is really showing in her doubles and singles results,” Davis said. “She is really growing into the person she wants to be both on and off the court and you can really see it in her shots.”

While her newfound confidence has made her play

that much better on the court, her positive energy off the court has been lifting the team up since day one.

“She’s constantly laughing, throwing out jokes, just being the life of the party on and off the court,” Davis said. “Her positive reinforcement just brings in a different atmosphere of a college athletic team because it is so serious at times, and it is a lot of pressure, but Tiana brings in that laid-back personality that allows us to think this really is just about having fun and being together.”

Davis came to Marquette last year as the only firstyear on the team, and it was Windbuchler who reached out immediately and made her feel included.

“She’s very open, very inviting, she was the most inclusive person on the team at that point,” Davis said.

The bond between the

two is not just friendship though. Davis said Windbuchler is someone that she looks up to and a role model.

“Tiana represents a leader in my life,” Davis said. “Even though she was a leader and had a ton of great insights and held a lot of respect on the team, she was always someone I considered a super close friend immediately on the team.”

Schaufler said that Windbuchler’s off–court attitude is a reflection of her confidence and makes her a leader for the entire team.

“She’s extremely popular,” Schaufler said. “She is a free-flowing and talented person and as a reflection of her outside relationships, they look at her as a creative outgoing individual. Now that she’s in the lineup as much as she is, it translates to pretty good leadership on her part.”

WOMEN'S LACROSSE SCRATCH: Setting 'gold standard'

the team.”

Along with trusting the process, Black established her pillars of philosophy in the WHATS acronym, which stands for work ethic, hustle, accountability, trust and selfless service.

She calls it the gold standard and it’s something that she gives each recruit in a packet, that includes more information about the team, before they arrive at Marquette. It even sits posted in their locker room and on some of their previous years’ jerseys.

“Our core principles are our identity,” Black said. “We try to incorporate those things in every single thing we do — on the field, off the field, in the classroom, as humans and as lacrosse players.”

Fifth-year attacker Hannah Greving started her relationship with Black as

a freshman in high school, and said Black holds her athletes to this standard because she recruited them for her confidence in them.

“She really holds us accountable because she knows what we’re capable of,” Greving said. “Yes, she’s gonna yell at us when we’re not playing to our standard, but it’s not for no reason. It’s because she knows that we can play better and we’re a much better team when we do play connected.

“She celebrates when we do stuff well and works to find those solutions, so we can be better and make the change that we need as a team.”

Black’s willingness to call out players comes from her history of having to start at the bottom with the program. Before you could even really call it one.

Over her 12 years, Marquette has never been the favorite to win it all in the Big East, but that’s the foundation Black said she has established this team on.

It’s obvious when she yells to all the players in the locker room, “Let’s go f—ing win!” before every game.

“I’ve built the team on hustle and a blue collar work ethic,” Black said. “We’re built on being an underdog because we’ve always and still are at this moment one, so we’re built on that mentality.”

Despite the previous season of winning and record-setting, Greving said the idea of working harder has been further engraved into the team.

“There’s definitely been a shift in the mentality now

that we’ve hit those big milestones,” Greving said. “We know what it takes because we did win a lot lost year, but there’s still mental challenges like pushing yourself harder, doing the extra work and doing all the stuff that will make that 1% difference. We can still do more.”

The idea of giving everything to the sport has been something that Black said brought this team to where it is today. However, she also prioritizes building relationships off the field.

For Goslee, lessons that Black taught her still stick with her today.

“I’ve continued to coach ever since I left the program and every day, something that Coach Black said or did comes into my thoughts,” Goslee, who now lives in Cincinnati, said. “What really has probably stuck with me is the love for the game, how passionate she is and how she doesn’t give up on anyone or any process. I bring that to the high school girls that I coach now.”

Along with Goslee, countless alumni are still texting Black all the time and coming back to Marquette to visit. Wolf said that these lifelong relationships are evidence of the impact Black has had on her athletes.

“The sign of a great coach is someone who’s not only going to push you to be the best athlete in your four years, but going to push you to be the best person and have your back for life,” Wolf said.

“That makes her pretty special.”

Photos courtesy of Marquette Athletics

Marquette women's lacrosse poses in the preseason of its inaugural season in December of 2011.

Continued from page 6

Assistant coach Caitlin Wolf (left) joined Black's staff in 2016.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Kolek and Ighodaro 'set incredible standard'

Two seniors may be leaving MU after three seasons

By Jack Albright jack.albright@marquette.edu

DALLAS — Tyler Kolek did everything in his power to keep his head held high.

He walked off the court, his face beet red and his jersey torn in half.

Tears streamed from his eyes. The pain was overwhelming. Too much so to fight it back, to keep it down.

As he made his way into the locker room, just minutes removed from Marquette men’s basketball’s 67-58 season-ending loss to NC State in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the realization was setting in.

At the same time, Oso Ighodaro, Kolek’s senior counterpart, was coming to grips with the same thing — their three years spent in the blue & gold had been filled with highs, but all ended abruptly in the same heartbreaking fashion.

Ighodaro made his way around the dressing room, giving hugs to every one of his teammates and sharing a word.

“That’s why it hurts so much,” Ighodaro said as he cried. “I love these guys so much.”

When he got to Kolek, he embraced his starting point guard for the longest time of all.

“He just does so much for the school,” Ighodaro said. “And I feel like I let him down today. He’s just a warrior. He’s fought through so much to be here.”

Kolek embraced back.

“We (Ighodaro and I) came in with Coach, we were his first couple recruits,” Kolek said. “First people that he’s retained, first recruiting class that he brought in… “We built a lot at this school. Just to see it end now is tough.”

Kolek and Ighodaro ‘have set an incredible standard’

After Friday’s loss, Marquette head coach Shaka Smart was quick to recognize just how valuable his two veterans have been.

“I did tell the guys after the game in the locker room that our two seniors, Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, have set an incredible standard over the past three years in our program,” Smart said.

“It’s really going to be on the rest of us to uphold that standard. It’s going to be tough, but even try to raise that standard.”

The two of them have been at Marquette every step of the way with Smart.

Through Smart’s first statement win as the Golden Eagles head coach over Illinois in the 2021-22 season.

Through the program’s first outright Big East regular season championship and first conference tournament title in 2022-23. And the subsequent heartbreaking loss to Michigan State in the NCAA second round.

Through this year’s trials and tribulations, which ended at the hands of the Wolfpack in the Golden Eagles’ first Sweet 16 appearance in 11 years.

“Done a lot of great things here. Just couldn’t get it

done this year,” Ighodaro said. “We built something special here. And it’s gonna continue to be special. So I’m proud of that.”

Before the season started, Ighodaro said he was confident he wouldn’t be using his extra year of eligibility and would turn professional next year. And Kolek could very well be leaving the program after another strong season that has seen him sit comfortably in many NBA mock drafts.

"It's really going to be on the rest of us to uphold that standard."

Shaka Smart

Marquette men's basketball head coach

If both do leave, which is looking likely, the Golden Eagles will go into next year without two of their pillars, both on the court and in the locker room.

Two seniors morphed further into team leaders

“I’ve given it all I’ve got these past three years,” he said.

Ighodaro — who had been fighting through a left knee injury he picked up in the Big East Tournament championship — has seen his role at Marquette grow with every year he put under his belt.

He has always been the Golden Eagles’ center who prioritized improving his craftiness. That meant working on his ball handling, passing and dribbling abilities.

At the start of timeouts, before Smart makes his way into the huddle, Ighodaro can be seen leading the conversation and pointing out things he has noticed.

After the 6-foot-11 forward speaks, Kolek sits down in his coach’s chair and provides his two cents.

“I think Tyler and Oso laid a great foundation, obviously with the help of all of us,” junior guard Stevie Mitchell said. “Just continue to build off that, grow off that.”

But Kolek’s leadership role started with his ability to lead Marquette to new heights through his on-court presence.

In three years donning the blue & gold, he set benchmarks and broke records that had stood untouched for longer than he’s been alive.

“This guy sitting to my right (Kolek) is the best point guard in college basketball,” Smart said. “It has been an absolute honor to coach him the last three years.”

Kolek has been bloodied and bruised as a Golden Eagle, but he still fought through it all as Marquette’s point guard to lead the team to its best two seasons in decades.

“Grateful for Tyler and Oso and their leadership and setting that standard,” junior guard Kam Jones said. “It’s up to us and the players to stand behind and sustain that standard as long as we’re here.”

But as a senior, Ighodaro served also as the team’s rock — the person everyone else would look to — while still being a nightmare matchup for opposing bigs.

“Oso cares deeply. He is one of the most conscientious basketball players that I’ve ever coached, one of the most unselfish — the most unselfish of the really good players that I’ve coached,” Smart said.

“The guy has been a huge part of winning more games than have been won at Marquette in a two-year stretch than I think anyone else. We love him. We’re going to miss him. We’re grateful for him.”

The Golden Eagles’ 202324 campaign is done, though, courtesy of their worst shooting performance of the season. And now they have to look ahead to a time without their two senior leaders.

“I’ll go to war with this group at any point,” Smart said. “We’ve got some good young players that we’re excited about getting better and improving. Just like last year, this experience will drive us.

“This experience will inform a lot of the things that we do over the course of the next several months, and our guys will come together and improve and go after being the best version of us the next time we get a chance to play.”

Photo by Forster Goodrich forster.goodrich@marquette.edu

Oso Ighodaro (left) and Tyler Kolek (right) have played together under Smart for three years.

Opinions

Students should prioritize sleep

By Clara Lebrón clara.lebron@marquette.edu

Whether it be from a fellow student, an alum or an older cousin, most college students have been given a very particular warning. To survive college, you have to sacrifice your studies, your social life or your sleep.

Most college students see this decision as easy. Memories are forever and classes are the whole reason they are attending university. Sleep is momentary, and it’s something you can always catch up on later. However, routinely sacrificing sleep can be a much more hazardous habit than many assume.

After staying awake for more than 24 hours, the average person usually starts experiencing fatigue, irritability, brain fog, impaired vision and tremors. Twelve hours later, metabolism slows, blood pressure rises and most begin suffering from speech impairment or fluctuations in body temperature. New symptoms begin to accumulate with every couple of hours they

stay awake and will persist until they are able to properly rest.

Staying up for any extended amount of time will create a sleep debt. A sleep debt is when you are unable to sleep as much as your body needs. Although it is not exactly known why this debt activates, it is evident that it is triggered by patterns of insufficient sleep. Usually, a person feels tired and unfocused throughout the entire day when suffering from sleep debt.

People with sleep deficiencies might feel accustomed to this, but that only means that the debt is taking effect in another way, whether it be weakening their immune system or making it more difficult for their brains to process memories.

This can be especially dangerous for college students, as memory, focus and energy are all integral qualities needed to get through the day and be able to understand and apply coursework. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found that for every hour

of average nightly sleep that a student loses, there is an average 0.07-point drop in their end-of-term GPA. Although most people know that getting around eight hours of sleep a night is optimal, many do not know just how detrimental it can be for their health in the long run. Consistent sleep loss or the presence of sleep disorders all increase the risk of hypertension, diabetes, depression and other maladies.

Although sleep recommendations do change depending on age and other factors, for those between the ages of 18-25, around 7-9 hours is ideal. Oversleeping can leave you feeling more tired than you had originally been.

This, however, can be prevented by setting consistent routines, limiting bright lights at both nighttime and afternoon naps and increasing physical activity throughout the day. There is no surefire method that will ensure a good night’s sleep, but there are several ways that students can easily try

to get to bed earlier. We live in an environment that makes us believe that ‘rallies’ and ‘all-nighters’ are just a normal and necessary part of our lives. This, however, does not have to be the case. There are physiological needs that supersede the constant drive to party and succeed. Before being a future doctor or engineer, or even a current party animal, every college student is human.

As college students, there is a constant push for us to define ourselves while still struggling to fit in with our peers. Our fear of missing out is natural, but it is also leading us toward some very unnatural habits that will not simply disappear once we get our diplomas. College may be one of the greatest experiences many people go through, but health is the greatest gift anyone can hope to have.

Fatphobia still rampant in society

By Joey Schamber joseph.schamber@marquette.edu

Social media has allowed our beauty standards to be more diverse than ever. People of all different backgrounds and expressions are able to represent themselves online, further opening our minds to who and what should be considered attractive.

However, there remains a common, dangerous sentiment that persists in our standards of beauty: Being fat, or overweight, makes you unattractive. Not only is this sentiment cruel on an emotional level, but it is also a very real form of systemic discrimination leading to inequities in healthcare and the workplace.

Fatphobia is the bias against overweight individuals. Anti-fatness is often rooted in the feeling that overweight people have committed a moral failing and are not taking care of their health. As a result, being overweight carries a heavy stigma.

Fatphobia is tied to the broader bias people have against individuals whom society deems physically unattractive. This bias is dangerous, because studies have shown that it leads to worse socioeconomic outcomes for people considered unattractive.

A 2013 study published by

the Society for Research in Child Development, found that physical attractiveness predicted positive social, academic, familial and mental health trajectories in young adulthood.

Furthermore, data analyzed by The Economist indicates that obese workers, defined as having a BMI over 30, earn far less than their thinner peers. For male workers with a college bachelor’s degree, they earn 5% less if they are obese. Those with a graduate degree have an even greater penalty, making 14% less than their skinnier counterparts.

Obese women have it even worse. Women with bachelor’s degree make 12% less if they are obese. Women with graduate degrees earn 19% less than their slimmer colleagues.

The fact that this inequity is greater among people with higher levels of education demonstrates something deeply wrong with the way we are treating overweight people. Workplaces are placing greater importance on someone’s physical attractiveness over the actual quality of the candidate.

Beyond this documented discrimination in the workplace, the same bias exists in healthcare. In a 2010 study by Puhl and Brownell, 53% of overweight and obese people reported receiving

inappropriate comments being made by their doctor about their weight.

Additionally, physicians generally spend less time providing consultation to obese patients compared to thinner ones. They also generally build less emotional rapport with their obese patients.

This stigma being perpetuated against obese people in healthcare contributes to worse physical and emotional conditions for overweight and obese people. They may feel less inclined to seek medical care out of fear of poor treatment, which may lead to greater health complications.

Fortunately, several state and local governments have recognized the harm being caused by systemic fatphobia and have considered creating laws against this mistreatment. Last year, New York Mayor Eric Adams signed into law a ban on discrimination based on people’s weight.

The law seeks to prevent landlords from denying rentals on the basis of weight and would enforce workplace accommodations for overweight individuals. This legislation is a step in the right direction at combatting this issue, but it is not far reaching enough.

Employers, employees and health professionals need to

be trained to correct internal biases, before there can be any meaningful change. Workplaces and health centers should be mandated to include conversations about fatphobia as part of their diversity, equity and inclusion training and human resource teams need to more actively pursue instances of this discrimination when they are alerted to it.

Most of all though, we need to combat fatphobia on a societal level by increasing representation for people of all different body types. Just as social media has been an important tool for representing the diversity and beauty of people across different regions and cultures, it should be an important tool for expanding our perceptions of beauty, health, and weight.

This starts with changing our attitudes and language towards overweight and obese people and recognizing the inherent beauty and value of everyone. No one deserves to be treated differently because of the shape of their body, the way they look or how much they weigh.

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Clara Lebrón is the assistant opinions editor. She is a junior studying journalism and health studies.

Joey Schamber is an opinions columnist. He is a first-year studying journalism.

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CROSSWORD

Across

3. This ship famously sank on April 15th, 1912.

6. You might use this to block out the rain when outside on a rainy day.

8. ____ Day celebrates our planet and nature.

9. People born from March 21st to April 19th fall under this zodiac.

11. The first day of April is called April ____'s Day.

Down

1. When you need to throw away plastic or cardboard, you ____ them.

2. ____ Day can be a stressful day for Americans and is on April 15th.

4. April is the ____ month of the year.

5. This sport just had it's home opener at American Family Field on April 2nd.

7. April falls into this season of the year.

10. April ____ bring May flowers.

April Last

Arts & Entertainment 2024 Airband follows movie musical theme

Winning groups receive donation for philanthropy

By Mimi Sinotte huamae.sinotte@marquette.edu

Marquette Greek life was busy this past weekend performing and competing in Airband — an annual lipsync competition — which was centered around the theme of “movie musicals.”

Maggie Carrol, a junior in the College of Nursing and president of Panhellenic council, and Jonah Lucas, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration and a member of the Marquette Men’s Basketball team, hosted Airband. The event was a two-hour performance from Marquette’s seven sororities and four fraternities.

Each sorority/fraternity performed their own fiveto-eight-minute dance and lip-synched to the mashup of songs they chose to raise money for their chapter’s philanthropies.

The winning sorority and fraternity got to take home $100 dollars to give back to their philanthropy. The money donated from the projected 700 people who attended was given back to a local non-profit, Safe & Sound, that gives back to improve safety across 12 Milwaukee neighborhoods.

Bridget Witticker, Marquette alum and executive

director of Safe & Sound, attended as one of the judges. Five judges from Panhellenic council scored each chapter based off four distinct categories: originality, creativity, costumes and lip-synching ability.

Bella Derosa, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences and vice president of scholarship & service on the panhellenic executive board and a Kappa Delta member, said she was involved in the planning process and got to perform with Kappa Delta.

“It’s just really fun getting to do something super exciting and very out of my comfort zone just for service,” Derosa said.

Felicity Gresnick, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration and vice president of Kappa Delta Learning & Development, said she loves the overall mission of Airband and how creative each fraternity and sorority gets.

“It’s just such a fun experience overall and I’m so glad Marquette does it because it brings everyone into one place and it brings people outside of Greek life into see what we do and what our philanthropies do,” Gresnick said.

Gresnick said she loves how Airband allows Greek life to dance for service and a good cause.

“The overall goal of Airband is to obviously raise money for our

philanthropies for each chapter and panhellenic philanthropies, but it’s also for Greek unity and to have a good time together. We show off our individuality among the chapters and how we are all different, but we all come together for the same cause,” Gresnick said.

Alpha Xi Delta kicked off the night with their performance of “Camp Rock,” whose philanthropic focus is supporting children and teens experiencing foster care or homelessness.

Up next was Delta Tau Delta with the performance of “Mamma Mia” in beach shirts and sunglasses. Alpha Omega Epsilon, a sorority which promotes the advancement of female engineers, came to the stage with their performance of “Descendants.”

Not only were there various costumes for each performance, but all chapters included props to their dances.

Sigma Phi Epsilon performed an upbeat number to a childhood classic, “Madagascar.” Members wore safari animal onesies and tails. Kappa Delta took the audience to the 1950’s with “Grease” and Pi Beta Phi brought the audience to the current time in light of the release of the “Barbie” movie.

The Delta Chi men performed a mash-up of childhood TV shows such as

“iCarly” and “Victorious.”

Maddie Anderegg, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, said she attended to support her friends and enjoyed watching each performance.

“All the performances were so fun. I loved it, all the fraternities were really funny, and I was very impressed,” Anderegg said.

Alpha Chi Omega rapped to “Lemonade Mouth” and Sigma Phi Delta flapped their wings to the songs from the movie “Rio.”

As the night ended, Alpha Phi wore Marquette Basketball jerseys to perform their version of “High School Musical,” and Sigma Kappa closed the night out with a performance from “Pitch Perfect.”

The winners were announced at the end with Kappa Delta receiving first

place for “Grease” and Delta Chi’s performance of TV shows theme songs.

Chris Magnus, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration and a member of Delta Chi, said he was proud of the months practice his fraternity put in.

Caroline Donahue, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences and a member of Kappa Delta, said she is so proud and happy to have done Airband two years consecutively now.

“Doing it again, it’s just such a great way to really make that bond with your sisterhood there’s really nothing else like this that you could do and it’s so much fun just to get with your sisters and these are memories for a lifetime,” Donahue said.

MU Theatre presents 'Sweeney Todd'

Show concludes the program's 2024 season

By Sophie Goldstein sophie.goldstein@marquette.edu

The final production of the 100-year celebration of the Marquette Theatre opened April 5. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” the one musical done during the 2023-2024 season, by Stephen Sondheim follows the story of a Victorian-era barber who returns home to London and murders his clients.

Director of “Sweeney Todd,” and associate professor in Theater Arts department, Jamie Cheatham, said they plan which plays and musicals to do over four years, so that students get exposed to a number of shows.

“We have one musical every season, and we shift from large musicals, to

small, to medium sized musicals each year,” Cheatham said. “This year, we felt we were ready for a large musical and we feel that we have a very strong cast, especially in terms of the voices.”

A committee, which Cheatham said is made up of mostly faculty along with one senior student representative, determines the shows for the year.

Alex Merkel, who plays Mrs. Lovett, and is a senior in the College of Business Administration, said she feels this is one of the biggest productions Marquette has done in her four years here.

“The spectacle of the lights, the costumes, the sound, the set and everything with special effects, I think it is just the biggest production,” Merkel said. “It is so cool to be a part of it and be in the world on stage with this huge set around you, along with such a fun, big cast.”

Casting for this perfor-

mance happened prior to winter break; however, the announcement of the productions put on during the season was announced last fall.

Merkel said that preparing for this role, she had to learn two songs and a monologue.

“One of the songs had to be a [Stephen] Sondheim song, because he has a very specific way that he writes, it’s very difficult. I found my songs during the summer, since I always knew the role I wanted,” Merkel said.

The second week the cast got back from winter break, Merkel said they began practice right away.

“We started by just sitting in chairs and learning the songs for two to three weeks,” Merkel said. “After that, it was putting all the scenes on their feet. We did a lot of blocking rehearsals of just mapping out the general shape of the scenes, not necessarily focusing on the

acting of it.”

Michael Mingus, a sophomore in the College of Communication who plays Sweeney Todd, said his dream was to be able to play Sweeney Todd, and initially he was shocked he even received the role.

“It’s one of the most iconic shows of all time. Sondheim is one of the most legendary composers, and it is so intelligently written,” Mingus said. “This is one of my dreams. Playing this iconic character at how young I am shocked me initially. I was like ‘Oh, okay, I’m playing this guy so early in my career.’ But it’s just so special.”

Because he was a firstyear last year, Mingus said he wasn’t able to audition for the musical. He said he knew he had to work hard because he had done musical theater all throughout high school and wanted to continue that.

“I really started early. When they picked the

show I kind of started going, ‘Okay, this is the show, what can I do with this?’ I worked with my vocal coach during the summer with the songs and stuff. I had pretty much everything picked out maybe two months before the audition, like ready to go. I just wanted it,” Mingus said.

The show will continue to run April 11-13 at 7:30 p.m. at Helfaer Theatre. Ticket prices range from $12-20, with a student discount price of $6 on April 11. Tickets can be bought at the Marquette Theatre website.

“I think people should see it, because not only is it an iconic story, it’s also extremely socially relevant for the time that we’re in right now,” Mingus said. “So not only that, but also it’s just the spectacle of it, and you feel it. With the lights and everything, it’s a huge production. The show was so well casted, everyone knocks it out of the park, every single time.”

Photos by Forster Goodrich forster.goodrich@marquette.edu

Alpha Xi Delta sorority performed 'Camp Rock' inspired dance.