REPORTER OCTOBER 2016 reporter.rit.edu
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REPORTER EDITOR IN CHIEF Mandi Moon PRINT MANAGING EDITOR Bryanne McDonough ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR Liz Peterson COPY EDITOR Ramya Shankar NEWS EDITOR Taylor Derrisaw TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan Black LEISURE EDITOR Claire Fleming FEATURES EDITOR Rozie Yeghiazarian SPORTS EDITOR Kristin Grant VIEWS EDITOR Jake Krajewski WRITERS Rozie Yeghiazarian, Kevin Zampieron, Ryan Black, Claire Fleming, Taylor Derrisaw, Alissa Roy, Kristin Grant, Ryan Black, Jake Krajewski
ART ART DIRECTOR Dennae Makel ONLINE ART DIRECTOR Madeleigh Place DESIGNERS Lauren Mays, Dasha
EDITOR’S NOTE I’ve seen people be critiqued on just about everything: their hair, their outfit, their choice of major, their hobbies, hobbies they don’t have. I’ve seen people be judged for reading and for not reading, for enjoying something a little too much or too loudly or in the wrong way, for not smiling, for saying the wrong thing, for not saying anything. I’ve heard bystanders comment on every aspect of someone’s life that they know nothing about. I’ve been those people, too – both the judger and the judged. I’ve asserted my opinion about others’ pastimes or habits or lifestyles, and I’ve been caught in the act by the object of my editorialization. I’ve been the object of unlooked-for criticism and just wanted to ask: can I live? Sometimes I feel like October ‘tis the season for judgement. Whether it is someone’s Halloween costume or their fondness for yoga pants and pumpkin spice lattes, the ugly side of how we feel about others has a tendency to rear its head as the weather starts to get cold. But seriously, why do we care? Why do we feel like we have the right to say anything about what makes other people happy, as long as they’re not hurting anyone? Just let them enjoy their damn PSL, and don’t let anyone make you feel bad about living.
Buduchina, Paula Piedrahita, Kevin Zampieron, Emma Fleming, Carina Singeltary ILLUSTRATORS Ray Miller, Alyssa Minko, Carina Singeltary, Lauren Mays, Madeleigh Place, Unique Fair, Cassy Smithies
PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO EDITOR Rob Rauchwerger ONLINE PHOTO EDITOR Joseph Ressler PHOTOGRAPHERS Ramya Shankar,
Mandi Moon Editor in Chief
Rob Rauchwerger, Joseph Ressler, Daniel Vasta
BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Zachary Grzelka AD / PR MANAGER Alexis Montoya PRODUCTION MANAGER Mitchell Morgan ONLINE SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR Peter Willis WEB MANAGER Joe Jankowiak VIDEO EDITOR Francesco D’Amanda
Letters to the Editor should be sent to rpteic@rit.edu. No letters will be printed unless signed. All letters received become the property of REPORTER.
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Reporter Magazine is published monthly during the academic year by a staff comprised of students at Rochester Institute of Technology. Business, Editorial and Design facilities are located in Room A-730, in the lower level of the Campus Center. Our phone number is 1.585.475.2212. The Advertising Department can be reached at 1.585.475.2213. “How do you fund a meme?” -T.D. The opinions expressed in Reporter do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute. Reporter is not responsible for materials presented in advertising areas. Reporter takes pride in its membership in the Associated Collegiate Press and American Civil Liberties Union. Copyright © 2014 Reporter Magazine. All rights reserved. No portion of this Magazine may be reproduced without prior written permission.
October 3
TABLE OF cover and TOC photography by Rob Rauchwerger
NE WS 7
T E CH
I AM AN ACTIVE BYSTANDER RIT has taken steps to ensure students' safety. Their solution: watch out for your fellow students.
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EDIBLE PACKAGING AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
LEISURE 10
Efforts to find sustainable technology within the field of Packaging Science have yielded packaging one can eat
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@reportermag 4 October
PROST TO OKTOBERFEST Celebrate beer and bratwurst, no trip to Germany required
HAUNTED ROCHESTER Uncover the secrets buried in Rochester
AYL No costume? We've got your back
CONTENTS FE AT URES 16
#TEAMUSA AND THE STAR SPANGLED SCANDALS We see what the media wants us to see from the Olympics
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SAFE SPACES, SAFE PLACES What do students need to feel safe and welcomed on a campus?
SPACE PIRATES, NASA AND POLITICS RIT students are working to understand the final frontier
SPOR T S 24
PAY FOR PLAY: A DISCUSSION Members of the RIT sports community discuss the pros and cons of paying college athletes
VIEWS 26
AUDIENCE MISCONCEPTIONS: HOLLYWOOD’S PROBLEM WITH REPRESENTATION While other mediums move forward, Hollywood is still appealing to the same demographic
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WORD ON THE STREET What is your craziest RIT story?
RINGS Text or call (585) 672-4840
reporter.rit.edu October 5
by Taylor Derrisaw photography by Ramya Shankar design by Emma Fleming
I AM AN ACTIVE
Donna Rubin, assistant vice president for Student Wellness, sits for a portrait in her office in the Student Health Center on Sept. 7, 2016. Rubin says that Tigers Care was started as a way to encourage students to support each other in times of stress.
BYSTANDER “I AM BRAVE.” “I AM SUPPORTIVE.” “I AM CARING.” “I AM AWARE.” These words were branded into black T-shirts handed out by the Tigers Care Committee, an initiative designed to encourage students to act as active bystanders. Often referred to as “Good Samaritans,” active bystanders are individuals who watch over the people around them in situations that can easily get out of control, or who help their fellow students and friends by watching out for them in times of need. After numerous student deaths were reported at RIT, both administration and concerned students realized something was needed to reach out to people who were struggling within the community, and as a result, the Tigers Care Steering Team was created. The division of Student Affairs hopes to motivate students to help other students. This is a trend in many universities, partially as a result of Title IX, which strives to prevent institutions from discriminating on the basis of sex and eliminate sexual assault. Donna Rubin, assistant vice president for Student Wellness, has been spearheading the movement, which encourages students to act when they see something that seems out of the ordinary. Tigers Care is entirely centered around students actively watching out for each other, creating a more caring and supportive campus community. This year, Rubin has placed emphasis on raising awareness for what an active bystander is in an effort to get students to be one for people they know. By handing out T-shirts with phrases like “I am Brave,” they are challenging students to watch out for their colleagues.
Rubin hopes to make Tigers Care more active through different events and outreach efforts. This, she hopes, will involve students in more than just taking T-shirts. “In the future, we would like to have a questionnaire that says, ‘If you were in this situation would you respond A, B, C?’ and we have different scenarios ... We would like students to have T-shirts; we just want them to learn something on the way to getting a T-shirt,” she said. In addition to the questionnaire, Rubin wants to include a wheel that Title IX coordinators frequently use which will help students understand how they can react to different situations. She hopes to include these in conjunction with other events, such as I “Heart” Female Orgasm. “You spin the wheel and it goes to number five, and number five is a question: ‘If you were in this situation what would you do?’ ” With regards to feedback, Rubin said students are really interested in the idea and want to learn more about how they can be an active bystander. “I would hope that the campus becomes even warmer toward each other, that more students would know their resources,” Rubin said. She hopes that mores students come forward with ideas or ways to improve the Tigers Care program. “It’s an embrace-your-community effort,” she said. Rubin expressed interest in gathering feedback from students on ways in which they can improve Tigers Care. “I welcome ideas. I want to hear from students if they want to be involved,” she said.
“Just look around you. If someone is sitting around or looks lonely, just lend a hand. Even just a smile could make all the difference.” News 7
EDIBLE PACKAGING AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR
SUSTAINABILITY by Ryan Black |illustration by Madeleigh Place | design by Lauren Mays
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ackaging science, like many other fields of study, has made promising advances in developing sustsainable technology in recent years. Researchers have been seeking new methods of food packaging that could minimize the industry’s environmental footprint without sacrificing efficiency and shelf life. Just recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s research on milk proteins, as highlighted by the American Chemical Society, shows that those proteins are good candidates for edible packaging.
8 Technology
EDIBLE PACKAGING
According to Professor Georgios Koutsimanis of RIT’s Department of Packaging Science, edible films and coverings for food can be derived from many different materials. “They can be made from polysaccharides, proteins — from milks, from eggs, from collagens. You can have polysaccharides from starch,” said Koutsimanis. Some components can even be isolated from bacteria. The USDA, for example, has been experimenting with the milk protein casein. According to Peggy Tomasula, a research leader and chemical engineer for the USDA, the new casein film is supposedly up to 500
times better at keeping oxygen away from food than the plastic that would typically be used. Since it is made from milk, it is also biodegradable, environmentally sustainable and safe to eat. Tomasula sees this as a potential way to keep food fresh while simultaneously cutting down on plastic waste.
IF IT COULD STIMULATE CONSUMPTION FOR [A] PRODUCT IN A NON-TRADITIONAL WAY, MAYBE THAT WOULD BE A DRIVING FORCE FOR BROADER ADAPTATION.
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS
The USDA team behind these findings is currently testing applications for the casein film to be used in packaging for singleserving foods or beverages. Casein dissolves in water, so using it this way could reduce packaging waste. “Everything is in smaller and smaller packaging, which is great for grabbing for lunch, for school, but then it generates so much waste,” said Laetitia Bonnaillie, the USDA researcher who co-led the project, as quoted by Bloomberg. According to her, edible packaging of this variety has the potential to fulfill that need. For example, cheese sticks are one product for which she says plastic can be eliminated. Koutsimanis sees potential utility for technology like this with products that typically come in smaller individual packages, like coffee creamer. These products' ability to dissolve into water is similar to that of dissolvable laundry detergent pods. Carlos Diaz, a professor in RIT’s Department of Packaging Science, mentioned how many meats and cheeses already have edible coatings which enable them to have a longer shelf life. For such technology to be widely implemented, Koutsimanis says it will have to be more than just a new means of containing food: it should also give people a new way of consuming it. “If it could stimulate consumption for [a] product in a non-traditional way, maybe that would be a driving force for broader adaptation,” Koutsimanis said.
CURRENT LIMITATIONS Since casein film is sensitive to water, single-serving wrappings or pouches made from it will still need to come in larger plastic or cardboard packages in order to protect it
IT HAS TO REALLY COME AND OFFER SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING DIFFERENT, BUT AGAIN I WOULDN’T BE SURPRISED [IF] IT KEEP GROWING EVERY YEAR AND WE START SEEING MORE AND MORE PRODUCTS IN THE YEARS TO COME on shelves. While Bonnaillie noted that many products already come in similar containers — thus still presenting a potential opportunity to lessen waste — this highlights how food packaging needs to not only keep food fresh, but contain it and safeguard it from environmental conditions. “It may give you some protection or a few extra days of shelf life in certain applications,” Koutsimanis said in reference to edible coatings. “But it’s probably not [going to] substitute for an outer layer, whatever provides a strong physical barrier from the environment.” Many of the components of edible packaging are water soluble, so storage, exposure to moisture, humidity and other external elements are factors in reaching necessary levels of performance. Diaz explained how this necessitates the need for more traditional exterior packaging, and how, for the immediate future, it will relegate the utilization of edible films and coverings to a complementary yet effective role. “I think it’s going to be more in the applications where that layer, that extra layer of something that is edible, is going to provide an extra functionality, or an additional shelf life,” said Diaz.
WHAT IT NEEDS TO PROVE Both Koutsimanis and Diaz indicated that new forms of edible packaging will need to be able to perform as efficiently as their more conventional counterparts in every single aspect in order to be widely accepted. Diaz noted how many of the current plastic wrappings being used for food products are doing a very good job at protecting food and keeping it fresh. “The thing is, a lot of this technology they have to compete with the current system — that is maybe plastic. They have to compete in functionality, and they have to compete with cost,” Diaz explained. He added that in order for companies to implement edible packaging on a mass scale, the technology will have to either compete in terms of costs or by bringing about a new innovative way of consumption. “It has to really come and offer something new, something different,” said Diaz. “But again I wouldn’t be surprised [if] it keeps growing every year and we start seeing more and more products in the years to come.”
Technology 9
by Claire Fleming | photography by Rob Rauchwerger | illustration by Alyssa Minko | design by Paula Piedrahita
10 Leisure
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cemetery is the cliché home of "paranormal activity." Walking in a cemetery at night can play games with one's mind. Besides the crickets, the rain and the pavement beneath your feet, all you hear is silence. Anything you see or hear could be a figment of your imagination — or maybe it isn't. In here, you will hear what you want to hear and see what you want to see. What lies here are stories untold, silence and the inevitability of death. Walking quietly through the twists and turns of the road, you see gravestone after gravestone. Some are pristine, but some have illegible names that have eroded away along with the lives of those that are buried here once lived. Questions of all the souls buried beneath the earth linger here, unanswered. All you can do is step quietly and respectfully, wondering if your mind will begin to play games with you or if you might experience something you can't explain. Rochester and its surrounding areas happen to be hosts to quite a few cemeteries, including the famous Mount Hope Cemetery and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, but these are not the only places urban legends permeate in Rochester. According to Rob Pistilli, founder of Monroe County Paranormal Investigators (MCPI), both private and public places hold unexplained experiences — including some frightening ones. "Some people are so terrified, they don't want to leave their homes," he said. Whether or not you believe in spirits or ghosts, the unexplained is always a source of inquiry. For people like Pistilli, it's finding the answer that is most intriguing. This first legend, perhaps Rochester's most famous, is the tale of the White Lady of Durand-Eastman Park. This legend has been told since the 1800s and has numerous versions and varying details. Rochester Subway highlighted a few of the different stories and noted the most popular details. In most versions, a woman lived in a castle and had a daughter that was either abducted or ran away. The woman is rumored to have never found her daughter and thrown herself off a cliff into Lake Ontario in despair. It is
told that he woman still rises from a pond in Durand-Eastman Park and searches for her lost daughter. In some versions, The White Lady is young and travels with two hound dogs, and in others she is old and decrepit. While the tale of the White Lady has not been confirmed, there are some aspects of the tale that have been disproved. "[The White Lady] didn't have a castle at all; what everyone thinks is her castle was really a restaurant," said Pistilli. Pistilli argues that just because a legend is well-known doesn't mean it is based in truth. The restaurant known to be the White Lady's castle closed during the Great Depression, and the building itself fell to ruins. All that is left is a wall.
Less paranormal but still creepy is the rumor that a Jack the Ripper suspect is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Jack the Ripper was a serial killer in London who killed and mutilated prostitutes in impoverished areas in 1888. While the true killer has never been found, Francis Tumblety was and still is one of the main suspects. The rumor that Tumblety is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery was confirmed by Democrat & Chronicle, who also reported on his background. Tumblety was born outside of the U.S. (exact location is unknown) and moved to Rochester to be a
quack doctor and a con man. He was widely known as misogynistic and was charged with having a connection to Abraham Lincoln's assassination. While Tumblety was never found guilty of any of these crimes, he is ironically buried in the thirteenth section of Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Mount Hope Cemetery is one of Rochester's most prominent historical landmarks, but some say that it was haunted even before the cemetery was built due to a deadly cholera outbreak. Many of those living nearby claim to have seen spirits and flickering lights in Mt. Hope. In 2000, the skull of Gen. Elisha G. Marshall, a Civil War general known as "evil genius," was stolen. The more disturbing piece of this story, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, is that the general's grave was robbed, her bones were taken and scattered around the cemetery and evidence of a satanic ritual was found at the burial site. Pistilli noted that while Mt. Hope has been investigated by paranormal groups, the outcome of those investigations cannot be discussed after one investigation was conducted in poor taste. In fact, there are many historical places in Rochester that have been investigated by paranormal groups who don't want to be associated with the findings, including Geva Theatre, Rochester Public Library (which was investigated on the Syfy show "Ghost Hunters") and Valentown Museum, according to Pistilli. Even though many public places in Rochester don't accept investigations, residents of Rochester have contacted MCPI with questions about their homes and spirits that may reside in them. "People always say, 'This is going to sound crazy,' and then I remind them they just called paranormal investigators," said Pistilli. He reported that out of all 500 investigations MCPI has done, about 75 percent of them can be debunked by a normal cause. Pistili reminds us that sometimes people see what they want to see: "Some people want to be scared."
Leisure 11
Prost to
Oktoberfest by Claire Fleming | illustration by Ray Miller | design by Carina Singletary
“P
rost!” in German roughly translates to “Cheers!" or “To good health!” and is a word you commonly hear at Oktoberfests worldwide as people raise their drinks in the air. Two of these such festivals will take place in Rochester this year. Both Irondequoit and Fairport put on Oktoberfests this September and October. Irondequoit Oktoberfest runs September 9, 10, 16 and 17. Fairport Oktoberfest ran September 30 through October 1. You might be wondering, “If it’s called ‘Oktoberfest,’ why is it happening in September too?” The short answer is that the timing made more sense for the original Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. According to the official website, Oktoberfest in 1810 in Germany was originally held October 12 – 17. As celebrations became more popular each year, the festival was prolonged. It began in September and still ended in October. Starting Oktoberfest earlier allowed for better weather. September days are a bit warmer in Munich, and people were able to enjoy the outdoor festivities for longer.
12 Leisure
“Having the event in September is especially important here in Rochester, where sometimes it seems like it could begin to snow at any time of the year,” said Mike Spang, director of Special Events for the Town of Irondequoit. Now, as Munich heads into their 183rd Oktoberfest, the tradition still stands and has found its way to American Oktoberfests as well. Along with running dates, American Oktoberfests incorporate other German traditions into their festivities. “German culture is pervasive to the extent that it’s, you know, from your Budweiser to your Miller — which are all German breweries — to hamburgers and hot dogs, you know, it’s all German," said Scott Winner, an event coordinator for Fairport Oktoberfest. "Those are just some minor examples, but significant ones because they are just so woven into our culture.” Spang mentioned how Oktoberfest in Irondequoit has grown but still keeps its German roots. “What once was a gathering of folks under three small tents is now a massive operation with a one-acre tent with
numerous vendors, with bands direct from Germany and a few domestic bands that draw thousands of people each of our four nights over the course of two weekends,” he said. German traditions, including official Oktoberfest beer brewed in Munich, the Shuhplattler dance, authentic German folk songs, yodeling and food including wurst, schnitzel and strudel are available at both Fairport and Irondequoit Oktoberfests. Irondequoit Oktoberfest invites Hilby the Skinny German Juggle Boy from Berlin, Germany to light up the stage with juggling, unicycling and jokes. Master yodeler Richard Brandl from Bavaria will also join the Irondequoit fest on its second weekend. Both Irondequoit and Fairport Oktoberfests incorporate American tradition in their festivals. In Fairport, each night at 9 p.m., an American rock band takes the stage, and a whole different crowd joins the party. As the fest changes from German music to rock-and-roll, people who may not have normally taken part in a German tradition suddenly become a part of it.
“The people who come in at night may be walking into something they have never experienced before,” Winner said. “When people come and see and hear and sing they may start to recognize the things that they haven’t noticed before; things that they thought were American but, oh, that’s German in its roots.” Irondequoit brings in American culture through its food and drink. Along with German beer, food and desserts, Irondequoit Oktoberfest adds Sam Adams and Genesee Brew House to its taps and offers American snacks like chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks. “Each year our bands make a point of doing covers of American Songs. There’s nothing like hearing rock songs on accordion,” Spang said. Oktoberfest is all about the assimilation of cultures, and the music is just one of the ways Rochester Oktoberfests bring the cultures together. One of the most important aspects of Oktoberfest — especially for Americans — is the beer. Authentic Oktoberfest beer can
only be brewed in Munich breweries. The breweries that can produce Oktoberfest Beer are Augustiner-Brau, Hacker-PschorrBrau, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner and Spatenbrau. The two offered in Rochester Oktoberfests are Hofbrau and Paulaner. All six beers are offered at Oktoberfests in Munich and are the only beers on tap. Hofbrau beer contains 6.3 percent alcohol by volume, and the beer that gets imported to America is the same beer that is featured in Munich's Oktoberfest. The most popular beer from Paulaner during Oktoberfest is Marzen, which, according to Paulaner’s website, is brewed in March to have best flavor by Oktoberfest. While Marzen is most popular in both Germany and America during Oktoberfest, it is available in America year-round. Along with beer, there is no shortage of food at Rochester Oktoberfest. One main vendor for both Irondequoit and Fariport Oktoberfests is Swan Market, which is Rochester owned and operated and has been around for over 80 years. Swan’s is owned by
a man named Barry who apprenticed with Master Butchers in Germany and strives to make sure everything he sells is authentic. At Oktoberfest, Swan’s sells Schnitzel; all kinds of of wursts, both smoked and fresh; tangy German potato salad; cabbage; and, of course, sauerkraut. At the fest, don't be surprised to see traditional German clothing. Lederhosen is traditional German wear for men, usually made of leather and worn with knee-high socks and a white shirt. A dirndl is a traditional dress for women with a bodice, skirt, blouse and apron (think Hansel and Gretel). While Oktoberfests in Rochester are both American and German, one thing that permeates all Oktoberfests is “ein Prosit,” a song that is sung as a toast. With beer in the air, the crowd sings loud, “Eins, zwei, drei, g’suffa!” which translates to “One, two, three, drink!” as everyone drinks as much beer as they can. Oktoberfest is full of dancing, laughing, singing and lots of beer. When you go, don’t forget to say “Prost!”
Leisure 13
AYL
AT YOUR LEISURE
EMERGENCY COSTUME Did you forget your costume for Halloween? Don’t worry, Reporter’s got your back. Cut along the lines and tape on a string! Happy Halloween!
by Claire Fleming | illustration and design by Carina Singletary
14 Leisure
#TeamUSA and the Star Spangled
SCANDALS Being an athlete means being "dedicated to something you have passion and love toward," according to fourth year Industrial and Systems Engineering student Alexa Farner, a member of the RIT women's varsity softball team. "It teaches a lot of life lessons." Members of the RIT athletic community discussed with Reporter how the media abused Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, the lessons we all hope 30-year-old Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte learned from his trifling in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and how media coverage affects our athletes at RIT.
by Rozie Yeghiazarian illustration by Alyssa Minko design by Emma Fleming
#CrabbyGabby U.S. Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas brought home two gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics, one of them for the prestigious individual all-around event. At just 16 years old, her once modest-life changed in an instant as sponsorships and fame painted a new face in the media — the face of "America's star gymnast," as an NPR reporter phrased it. She continued to say "If you push through the hard days, then you can get through anything." Douglas received rampant praise across various media outlets. This greatly contrasts with the media coverage Douglas received during the 2016 Rio Olympics. The young gymnast went from being shown comforting her competitors in 2012 to being harassed by the media in 2016. Douglas was seen standing at attention when the U.S. national anthem played, but she did not have her hand on her heart like her fellow four U.S. gymnasts. She was also caught gazing at her competing teammates with a notably stale expression rather than actively cheering. Thus, the hashtag #CrabbyGabby was born as the social media attack swiftly made its way into the athlete's line of sight. Fourth year Industrial and Systems Engineering student Jessica Dzailo, a member of the RIT women's cross-country team, heartily contested the reactions to Douglas' inactions by stressing that the gymnast's ability to come back to the Olympics a second time was a phenomenal feat by itself. "Think of all the work she had to put in to get to that point again," she said. Dzailo proceeded to point out how easily people felt they could "criticize" Douglas. While competing in events at the 2012 Olympics, Douglas' coach "had forbid her from looking at the scoreboard throughout the competition, telling her to focus solely on him and the apparatus," a Washington Post article reported. Competing at that caliber takes 16 Features
intense focus, and even the smallest distraction can be detrimental to an athlete's performance ability. Added to that was a growing social media presence looming over her, demanding an apology. "To me it looks like she's being bullied," Reuters quoted Douglas' mother Natalie Hawkins as having said. She further stressed that the respect shown towards your country is represented by "your actions towards your country, how well are you abiding by its laws." These are all qualities that Douglas has gone above and beyond to exhibit. The people antagonizing Douglas are the ones acting in an unpatriotic manner. Their words and actions were based in superficial and subjective discourse ranging from how she wears her hair to how she cheers for her teammates. Third year Computer Engineering Technology student Kelsey Patten, a member of the RIT men's wrestling and men's track and field teams, described the drive in team sports when he said "I want to win for myself, I want to win for my teammates." This mentality, which is shared by Dzailo and Farner, was clear in Douglas' performance throughout her Olympic career. Even if the support she expressed for her teammates was not made clear to viewers, that does not mean it was nonexistent. Unfortunately, Douglas's post-Olympic interviews were full of inquiries regarding the "latest wave of criticism," reported ESPN. Dzailo, who found this particularly upsetting, concluded that "it could have been covered way better by the media, in a much more sensitive way." Then, something that Joe Venniro, executive sports information dditor for RIT, had called a "non-story" had turned scandal in a matter of hours. Another Olympian found himself in the media's crosshairs.
#LochteGate Ryan Lochte is a name we have all undoubtedly heard in conversations surrounding the Rio Olympics. His actions have woven a tale with more twists than any reality TV series. Lochte's original statement about having been mugged at gunpoint on the streets of Rio eventually devolved as its merits disappeared and the truth surfaced. The scandal, dubbed #LochteGate, took on a life of its own. A Washington Post article wrote, "The three other U.S. swimmers were lying on the ground, following their assailant’s orders, when the gunman turned to Ryan Lochte, one of Team USA’s charming stars." Believing the coast was clear in their tweet-sealed blood pact, the swimmers crafted a lie and consciously fed off the public's sympathy — but the truth would soon disgrace them for their actions. It was only a matter of time until the headlines began to read, "Police discredit Ryan Lochte’s robbery story, say swimmers owe Rio an apology," and derivations thereof. That same article went on to detail the depth of the swimmers' indiscretions. The four "charming
stars" had destroyed property, capturing the attention of a security guard who had demanded they pay for their vandalism. Their natural response to the night's proceedings had been to fabricate a riveting tale of assailants dressed as cops mugging their seemingly innocent selves. "What bothered me the most is the fact that he lied," Farner said. She found his behavior especially disappointing and stated, "He had millions and millions of people following him throughout the Olympics." Farner, like many RIT athletes, has been taught that "you're held to a standard when you put on that T-shirt." That is not to be taken as entitlement to enact such negligence in representing the U.S. She continued, "Sure, maybe he wasn't wearing a USA Swimming T-shirt, but everyone knew who he was." She proceeded to talk about the journey that shame takes through an athletic organization. When an athlete does something bad, it embarrasses the team, adjacent sports teams and ultimately the school as a whole.
#RITSports "It's unfortunate that that's overshadowed ... the fact that you had so many stars in the Games between Bolt, Phelps, Ledecky and Biles," said Venniro. "The bigger the stage, the bigger the coverage." The student athletes and Venniro agree that the media is a commerce-driven entity. News outlets are looking for what might rile their audience, and, according to Venniro, "Sometimes the truth gets skewed. Places will go with what sells the most." Venniro is responsible for handling the media and social media surrounding the RIT athletic community. "We have a brand to uphold here," he said while explaining how he and his team work to portray the school in a positive light. They take the time to weave individual athletes' stories into the overall RIT athletic narrative. Venniro summed it up as, "We like to focus on our athletes." As Patten phrased it, "I'm here to represent RIT, myself, my family and my hometown."
“You’re held to a standard when you put on that t-shirt,” Farner said. “Sure, maybe he wasn’t wearing a USA Swimming T-shirt, but everyone knew who he was.”
Features 17
by Kevin Zampieron photography by Joey Ressler design by Kevin Zampieron
I
n a comfortable looking room in the basement of the SAU, there’s a group of students sitting in a loose circle. Some are browsing their phones, some are doing work on laptops and others are idly chatting while eating. The room seems as innocuous and nondescript as any other place on campus during lunch time. Yet the Q Center, and places like it, have recently become the center of rigorous debate over the nature of speech in a college setting. That’s because the Q Center is a safe space. This ever-present debate of what constitutes free speech in an academic community was reignited by a recent letter to incoming freshman at the University of Chicago in which it came out vocally against both trigger warnings and safe spaces. “Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called trigger warnings, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of
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intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own,” said the letter. This sentiment is not rare. Safe spaces, along with trigger warnings, have received negative connotations as of late; they’ve been described as a form of “self-infantilization” by the former president of Barnard College, Judith Shapiro. They’re pushing back the advances of the Enlightenment, according to British comedian Stephen Fry. Some say in addition to being self-centered and entitled, the ever-maligned millennials are apparently also emotionally fragile regressives, ready to crumble at the first sign of adversity. However, the reality of safe spaces on campus is a lot more complex than that. RIT has multiple spaces, designed to foster a safe and respectful environment for all members of the RIT community. It also has multiple organizations meant to further support or enhance the college experience of students from diverse backgrounds. The Q Center offers support and information for LGBTQIA+ students, and OUTspoken is a student organization that advocates for LGBTQIA+ issues. Multicultural Center for Academic Success (MCAS) is an academic support group for African American, Latino/a American and Native American (AALANA) students and Global Union is a multicultural student group that encourages communication between all ethnic groups. The Center for Women and Gender focuses on relationship and gender issues. The Center for Religious Life is an interfaith community center. “Safe spaces are where historically underrepresented, marginalized or oppressed groups can come together to find support and safety so they can go about the business
of learning,” said Associate Director for the Center for Women and Gender Cha Ron Sattler-Leblanc. The Center functions as a safe space for anyone who needs it, but also aims to promote a campus environment that is safe and respectful to all. “They’re a place where students can not have to worry about their identity, not worry about explaining themselves, and sort of recharge so that when they go back outside that space, they can focus on being a student,” she said. Sattler-Leblanc brought up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a well-known psychological theory that considers the feeling of safety second only to physiological sustenance in human survival. “If you don’t feel safe,” said Sattler-Leblanc, “or if you’re dealing with another underlying issue, it can be hard to learn.” “To say that we want to have intellectual discussion — that’s great, but we’re here for students,” said MCAS Senior Assistant Director Jonathan Ntheketha. “It’s important to have not just a level playing field, but open seats at the table." One way to keep discussion fair and accessible for everyone is the use of trigger warnings, the safe space’s equally controversial cousin. Trigger warnings are a brief headsup that precede sensitive content, such as content involving rape or bigotry. It may seem ridiculous to some, but trigger warnings can be helpful for those with conditions stemming from traumatic experiences. “There’s consequences for what we say or that have an impact on other people. There's free speech, but there’s also impact,” said Sattler-Leblanc. Including trigger warnings acknowledges and validates past traumatic
experiences, which leads to a more open and fair dialogue. “Even if there’s only one student who feels that way, aren’t we marginalizing him or her if we just say, ‘What you’re thinking is irrelevant, sorry you feel that way'? ” asked Ntheketha. He said that one-size-fits-all education keeps everyone from contributing their perspectives to the community. “We have to understand that things impact people in different ways. It may not be our intent but it's our reality,” he added. Because of this, Ntheketha chooses his words more carefully. Asking for these kinds of concessions often inspires pushback and tension, however. Third year Software Engineering student Chloe Søren Cleo has experienced this tension firsthand. “Being non-binary, it’s definitely been rocky in terms of trying to get my professor and peers up-to-speed,” said Cleo. MyCourses doesn’t currently have a system for requesting pronouns, meaning that the burden is on both binary and non-binary trans non-conforming or trans* students to individually correspond with every professor or staff member they encounter. “I had an instance where a professor did misgender me at the end of one of the class,” they said. Although the professor had no problem using the correct pronouns after a brief email correspondence, Cleo feels that the incident is representative of a larger problem. “It feels like it’s very much built against us. The administration only helps us around the obstacles instead of removing the obstacles,” they said. Cleo considers removing institutional barriers like this one a matter of survival,
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not just of acceptance. Those who do not need a safe space often do not know what it means to be part of a marginalized group; for example, according to a survey by the Association of American Universities, one in four transgender students experiences some form of sexual assault while in college. And although RIT is by and large a tolerant community, it’s far from totally accepting. “I have witnessed multiple events of bullying and intentional misgendering,” said Cleo. “My experience is much different than yours in that the way I process that bullying becomes kind of like not ‘Oh, here's an incident’ — it becomes ‘This is the atmosphere now that I have to walk through. This is what potentially could happen to me.'” For Cleo, the necessity of a safe space is obvious. The promotion of safe spaces within a university is an issue that is further complicated when considering student responses to controversial guest speakers. DePaul University, located just miles away from the University of Chicago, found itself at the center of controversy for just that.
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The DePaul College Republicans had invited Milo Yiannopoulos, alt-right provocateur and Breitbart personality, to speak on campus. Yiannopoulos’ multitude of inflammatory statements about race and LGBTQIA+ people inspired virulent student protests, both supporting and opposing the speech from occurring. Tension came to a head during the speech when a protester grabbed the microphone from Yiannopoulos. The disruption led to the speech being cancelled and a ban on future appearances by Yiannopoulos on campus. The protest and subsequent ban could be regarded as infringement on free speech, but they may also have been necessary to keep a peaceful campus. “We do need to be able to have these conversations on campuses,” said SattlerLeblanc. “We can’t shy away from difficult conversations. The questions is, what’s the appropriate way to do that?” Although discourse involving controversial opinions and people is valuable, the way in which it is conducted is vitally important.
“Is it appropriate to protest?" asked SattlerLeblanc. "I would probably say yes. Is it appropriate to rip the mic out of someone’s hands? That might be something different.” RIT is no stranger to controversial public figures. Just last year, this discussion on free speech was stirred up after Robin Thicke was invited to perform at 98PXY’s Jingle Jam, which was hosted in the Gordon Field House on campus. Many accused Thicke’s 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” of making light of consent and being a promotion of rape culture, which lead to Thicke’s ban from over twenty universities in the United Kingdom. This discussion made its way to this very magazine: a Reporter article was published condemning Robin Thicke’s presence on campus along with an op-ed that argued the opposite side. A PawPrints petition proposing that RIT ban Thicke from performing received nearly 1000 signatures. Despite this outcry, RIT’s Student Government decided not to pursue the ban of Robin Thicke from campus, while also officially condemning his performance. “I like what RIT did,” said Ntheketha. “As members of the community, we wanted to say 'Listen, we don’t agree with this.’ ” The official response also promised “alternative programming during Thicke’s performance, which seeks to highlight the issues with "Blurred Lines," as well as education on the other issues concerning rape culture on campus and in popular culture.” Ntheketha discussed an earlier case of a controversial speaker brought to RIT’s campus. In 2010, playwright and poet Amiri Baraka was invited to perform his award
winning play “Dutchman.” Baraka was also known for anti-Semitic statements in both his personal life and work. While Ntheketha was excited to have Baraka at RIT, this controversy created some potential conflict. “By me inviting Baraka, am I unconsciously making a Jewish member of the community feel unsafe?” he asked. This tension, according to Ntheketha, provided an opportunity for two intersections of identity to have an honest discourse. “Instead of minimizing it, there’s the opportunity to talk about these kinds of things,” he said. With our constantly shifting and polarized society, the future of safe spaces can seem muddled. In discussing safe spaces, Cleo spoke about the recent sexual assault of a transgender woman at the Stonewall Inn. The inn, considered one of the most historically significant locations in the history of LGBTQIA+ rights, should by all means be considered a place that individuals can be themselves — yet the assault still occurred. “There can be no true safe space,” said Cleo. Ntheketha had a different take on the subject. “The safe space has to be the university. It can’t be one room or my office. It has to be the entire university, and we can't stop until it is,” he said. With a concept as intersectional and complex as this, safe spaces can at once be both illusory and everywhere.
Although safe spaces on college campuses are far from a new concept, the sheer volume and fervor of their recent critics are unprecedented. Hyperbolic accusations aside, it seems that both sides desire to see the same outcome: a free and open exchange of ideas. Having the free exchange of ideas also means having a safe environment in which to express these ideas. While critics pose the idea of a safe space and the exchange of free ideas as two diametrically opposed concepts, in reality they’re complimentary. You can’t have one without the other.
RIT has many safe spaces meant to foster an inclusive academic environment. Here are some of them. Q Center OUTspoken The Center for Women and Gender The Center for Religious Life Multicultural Center for Academic Success Global Union AALANA Collegiate Association
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SPACE PIRATES, NASA & POLITICS by Alissa Roy | design and infographic by Dasha Buduchina
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“T
hat makes me a space pirate!” declared Mark Watney, the fictional character of Andy Weir's best-selling novel, "The Martian," who uses his intellect and science savvy to survive alone on Mars. This book has propelled astronomy and space exploration to the forefront of our culture's not-so-subconscious. Budgetary funding for space programs such as NASA has been struggling over the past several years, but with society’s growing interest in astronomy, we may all become space pirates someday.
RIT GRADUATE STUDENT SPACE PIRATE “I really hope that space exploration gets people really excited about [space] again, and I hope that the 1950s space race feel comes back,” said Andrew Lipnicky, an Astrophysical Science and Technology graduate student at RIT. “NASA deserves funding, and it is great to see people just getting excited about science.”
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Lipnicky is currently working on his dissertation, in which he conducts research on dwarf galaxies using telescopes to see the impact of these building blocks that make up our Milky Way. “My advisor predicted the location of a dwarf galaxy based on how the gas was distributed in the Milky Way and we looked for stars that would be located in the galaxy,” said Lipnicky. “Specifically, we are looking at the plane of the Milky Way with millions of stars for a specific six or seven to prove the dwarf galaxy’s existence.” Unfortunately, it can take years of work to prove to the scientific community that you have discovered a dwarf galaxy, so for NASA and other sources to be able to continue funding such research would be extremely helpful to people like Lipnicky.
“NASA deserves funding, and it is great to see people just getting excited about science.”
HOW POLITICS AFFECTS NASA In 2010, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would not be returning to the Moon anytime soon since "We’ve been there before,” as Loren Grush reported in The Verge. Since then, NASA has cut any plans to return to the Moon throughout the tenure of the Obama administration. During his time in office, Obama has chopped 20 percent of the budget from deep-space exploration programs, and $100 million from planetary science research, as reported by Ledyard King for USA Today. The shuttle fleet stopped operations in 2011, so NASA has been buying seats aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule to send American astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Currently, NASA has a contract with SpaceX and Boeing to send the first crew missions to the ISS in 2017 or 2018, which is more cost effective, reported Alyssa Newcomb for NBC News. However, with Obama leaving office next year, NASA’s plans may change. A project such as sending men to Mars would take hundreds of billions of dollars, but NASA receives only about $4 billion dollars per year. The president always proposes an annual budget for NASA, and it is then approved by Congress. With either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump entering the office, the budget may change the plans that NASA has outlined for the foreseeable future. Both candidates have been very unclear about their thoughts pertaining to NASA. Clinton, once rejected from being an astronaut for being a woman, appears to have forgiven the administration. “I really,
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evolved, how galaxies have merged together and what this means for our universe. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) intrigues Kartaltepe the most. This is a large, infrared telescope with 6.5 meters of segmented mirrors that will be launched in October of 2018. The JWST will serve as the main observatory for the next 10 years. Astronomers worldwide will be able to use the telescope for reference and to study the formation of solar systems potentially containing planets similar to Earth, along with the evolution of our own solar system. All data from the JWST will be made public since it is being run by a government organization. Kartaltepe will be using the data to perform her research on our galaxy’s evolution and studying its transformation over time. The JWST would also be helpful for Lipnicky. There is a lot of dust in the solar system, but the infrared nature of the JWST will help cut through the space clutter hiding these galaxies. Currently, the Obama administration has $569 million set aside for the James Webb Space Telescope in 2017, which will replace the Hubble Telescope, according to USA Today. “The hope is that it will really revolutionize the world and we can see much deeper things in much better detail by making [the data] public, you can get a lot more science done,” said Kartaltepe. RIT has been involved in huge scientific events in the past, such as the discovery of gravitational waves in February 2016. The Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation participates in this endeavor by simulating outcomes and developing data analysis techniques. Gravitational waves are ripples in time and space, and this discovery
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really do support the space program,” she said at a New Hampshire town hall. Trump’s opinions have been vague, as he has criticized the Obama administration for cutting funding and making the U.S. reliant on Russia for space travel in 2012 and then turned around and said that “Right now, we have bigger problems — you understand that? We’ve got to fix our potholes.” He seems to prefer the privatization of the space program, keeping a manned mission to Mars at a lower priority, NBC News reported. Neither candidate has offered any firm opinion on budget.
MORE THAN MARS Mars may be at the forefront of conversation, but there are other projects planned, with huge implications for the RIT community. “We are pushing the limits of the farthest things we can see,” said Jeyhan Kartaltepe, assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy. Currently, Kartaltepe studies the way our galaxy has
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confirmed Alfred Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity. This discovery has huge implications in science and the cosmos. “As an astronomer, you will remember where you were when you found out,” said Lipnicky. In recent news, the Rosetta spacecraft snapped a picture of the lander, Philae, it had sent to the surface of the comet it shares a name with and subsequently lost in 2014. At time of publication, Rosetta will have descended to the surface on September 30. It will collect valuable data on the way, but the trip will end its mission. The effects that our next president will have on NASA and space exploration are unknown, but hopefully, with society’s increased interest in the final frontier, our space pirates will be able to keep exploring to expand our knowledge of the universe.
“The hope is that it will really revolutionize the world and we can see much deeper things in much better detail … by making [the data] public, you can get a lot more science done,” said Kartaltepe. Features 23
PAY FOR
PLAY A DISCUSSION by Kristin Grant photography by Ramya Shankar design by Lauren Mays
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nother year of college sports, another round of sports scandals. Like clockwork, allegations of unsanctioned gifts, booster involvement and unlawful salaries begin to crop up with alarming frequency. Every season, these headlines incite indignation and resentment toward the schools that believe they can get away with illegally compensating their athletes. Yet despite the outrage that these stories tend to 足incur, there is an equally vocal group 足足 arguing for a change in NCAA regulations when it comes to gifts and payment. With t足 oppaid college football coaches making upwards of seven figures and top schools gaining millions of dollars worth of profit, to some
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it seems ludicrous that the men and women actually laying their abilities on the line do not receive a salary. Since the RIT sports program occupies a very unique niche within the NCAA, it was time to bring the pay for play discussion here. As one of the few schools to have a split division program, RIT athletics operates on a very differet set of rules than the average university. Unlike most Division I schools, RIT hockey is not allowed to give out scholarships of any kind to its players, and must find alternative ways of attracting talent. With all of this in mind, Reporter sat down with a variety of members from the RIT athletic department, including athletic
director Lou Spiotti, several varsity coaches and a handful of student athletes. The resulting discussion was just as nuanced and complicated as the issue itself. Some, like men’s hockey coach Wayne Wilson, believe in athletic awards — in moderation, anyway. “I’m a firm believer in scholarships,” Wilson said. “Players put an awful lot into it, and I believe they deserve some recognition. And most times, a scholarship is sufficient. “Where it gets a little sketchy is when you’re talking big time athletics,” Wilson continued. “We’re Division I in hockey, and in our mind that’s ‘big time,’ but when you’re talking about the amount of money some
Big 5 schools are making off football, not to mention coaches ... it's hard to look at a player and say 'A scholarship is enough for you.'” Men’s baseball coach Rob Grow was in agreement. “If certain colleges want to pay athletes and form a minor league system, I’d be okay with that. I think the reason that 99 percent of the kids that play sports in college stays the same — they're here to receive their degree. At RIT, our mission of college sports is still very clear. Our athletes are here pursuing their education." Fourth year Exercise Science major and men's track sprinter Myles Garner also favored the idea of scholarships, and possibly more. “I think that if the athletes are of a certain skill level where they are benefiting their team, they should receive a scholarship," he said. Garner also supported the NCAA's new "cost of attendance" clause, a recent update in the rulebook that allows certain Division I universities to provide a stipend to cover the cost of travel and other expenses. "If there is a financial need, there should be some form of payment that helps the athlete participate in the sport,” Garner argued. However, his fellow student athlete, second year Biotechnology and Molecular Biosciences major and swimmer Grace Morales, was strongly opposed to the idea of salaries and scholarships for athletes. “No, I don’t think athletes should be paid,” Morales said definitively. “In college, I don’t think my ability to pay for school should depend on how I perform in the pool.” Women’s soccer coach Liz Masterson agreed with Morales. “I can’t speak for big basketball or football institutions — that’s a whole different animal,” she said. “However, the goal of the RIT sports program is to provide students with an athletic experience that compliments their academic one. If athletes got paid or even received a
scholarship, it changes that experience. It makes money the most important factor in their choice. “Right now, choosing to go Division III is a really pure choice,” Masterson elaborated. “At RIT, we’re fortunate enough to have a team full of players that come here because it’s where they want to be, this is where they belong. When you add money to that dynamic, you risk getting a team that’s here for the wrong reasons.” Spiotti objected to the idea of compensation for atheletes as well. "I consider college sports to be a pure form of amateurism. I think pay for play undermines the intent of college sports, particularly at the Division III level,” he said. “When we talk to our student athletes about their participation in our program, we say to them very clearly that playing sports here is a privilege, not a right," he explained. "They have to earn their way through.” However, Spiotti argued that the benefits of playing college sports far exceed a monetary value. "A great deal of learning takes place on the field of play," he said. "Values are developed. Attitudes are developed. And it really serves our athletes well — those are the kinds of things that you can't duplicate in a classroom ... The benefits the athlete gets from their participation pay off handsomely." While RIT will not be moving toward pay for play anytime soon, the discussion will undoubtedly continue at a national level. Payment scandals almost seem to have an element of inevitability about them, explained Garner. "There's so many athletes ... there's so many loopholes, so if people want to get paid, they'll find a way." If there ever comes a day when the NCAA finds a way of mitigating those loopholes, perhaps the collegiate salary talks will stop. Until then, the conversation must continue in order to strive for a more even playing field.
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AUDIENCE MISCONCEPTIONS HOLLYWOOD’S PROBLEM WITH REPRESENTATION
Accusations of failing to accurately represent audiences have been increasingly leveled at Hollywood in recent years. A study from the University of Southern California, released this past February, boldly underlined many of these claims. The number of speaking roles within film and television for women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and non-white racial/ethnic groups is indeed disproportionately small relative to their share of the population. Whether it is deliberate or fed by a lack of awareness from the same thin slice of the population being the decision makers, there is a clear lack of diversity. This lack of diversity is arbitrarily made and works to the detriment of both viewers and the companies perpetuating it.
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by Ryan Black illustration by Unique Fair design by Kevin Zampieron
WHY IT MATTERS Limiting the different perspectives brought to the creative process only ensures that the stories we see will be that much more iterative. It’s a form of selfinflicted stagnation brought on by ignoring other kinds of world views, narratives and storytellers — who, like the many waiting to consume such media, are hungry to make it. With stories meant for mass audiences, one also has to consider their potential to either deconstruct or reinforce what our culture sees as normal. Kieran Shiach of Comics Alliance recently wrote about the importance of fighting the perception that stories with queer characters or subject matter are inappropriate for younger readers. “The more stories with LGBTQ representation we see published, the more it normalizes the idea of those relationships, and the more we erode that taboo,” said Schiach. Many also want the chance to see themselves in the media they enjoy, especially young, impressionable kids. Characters like Rey and Finn from “Star Wars,” the new cast of “Ghostbusters” and TV shows like “Supergirl” give kids more material to connect with on screen than they might have had before. The large market for toys and merchandise of characters from these big-budget properties has the chance to make such an impression with kids even more enduring. Additionally, in the case of toys of female heroines and characters, an increase in their prominence could help erode the trend of genderized action figures. People such as sociologist Elizabeth Sweet and Lisa Dinella of Monmouth University and Megan Fulcher of Washington and Lee University criticize this very trend for instilling damaging stereotypes about gender.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER
WHY THE ARGUMENT AGAINST IT MAKES NO SENSE It is understood that the entertainment industry is a business. Yet, any sort of financial argument against diversity holds no water. One would think the prospect of having several under-served audiences would motivate them to change. A report from the University of California, Los Angeles suggests they may be leaving billions of dollars “on the table.” It's similarly confusing to see how a franchise like "Star Wars" is carried by female, black and hispanic leads to a massive box office and a colossal amount of merchandising revenue, but when parents look afterwards for toys of Rey, they can barely find any.
Similarly, with successes across works like “The Hunger Games,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “Frozen,” “Mad-Max: Fury Road,” “Jessica Jones,” “Orange is the New Black” and others in recent years, it very much seems like the only one not interested in more diverse stories is Hollywood itself. It just goes to show how entrenched and rarely questioned many companies’ understandings of their audiences are. Many of the worst notions seem so deeply rooted that at a certain point it becomes a selffulfilling prophecy built on the flimsiest of logic. If, in their eyes, their patrons are only of a very specific and delineated crowd (most often “Straight White Males”), entertainment companies will only market and make content aimed toward them — or at least, their often narrow interpretation of that demographic. Yet without ever really trying to reach out to new or different audiences, they cannot truly know that others wouldn’t enjoy such material or merchandise — perhaps they would. Maybe they already do. As
reported by MTV News’ Victoria McNally, the opening weekend ratio of men to women for the highest grossing science fiction and fantasy films of 2015 was 60 to 40 — with greater parity among movies with female protagonists. Such numbers reinforce how mistaken Hollywood has been to not recognize the benefit for everyone — including themselves — of being inclusive. First coined by economist and Harvard professor Theodore Levitt, there is a term in business called “marketing myopia,” where a company loses sales because it failed to determine and act on what customers’ unmet demands are. Being overly presumptive about the longevity and demand of what its currently selling and ignoring opportunities to grow ultimately comes at one’s own cost.
PROMISING CASES OF CHANGE Holding misconceptions about one’s audience has troubled entertainment companies before. It is arguably what lead to a shrinking readership among Marvel Comics in the past two decades. Sean Howe’s “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,” document's the company's failure to garner a “wider audience” outside of its aging and particularly homogenous readership. However, in recent years, they’ve been making a concerted effort to change that by becoming more inclusive. Supporting characters like Ms. Marvel, Jane Foster, Laura Kinney (X-23) and Sam Wilson (Falcon) have been elevated to the foreground by becoming the new Captain Marvel, Thor, Wolverine and Captain America respectively. A longtime X-Man, Iceman, came out of the closet — a rare instance in which the team often serving as an allegory for marginalized groups also had actual representation.
Perhaps the most prominent players on this scene are Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) and Miles Morales (Spider-Man). These two have managed to capture a share of the zeitgeist that is larger than the normal comics' fandom. Marvel has also attracted and hired authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates ("Between the World and Me") and Roxane Gay ("Bad Feminist"), diversifying those working with their properties. Describing this new approach, Editor in Chief Axel Alonso said to Fuse, “Our goal is to tell the best, most relevant stories to the widest possible audience. And to do that, it’s important that our readers see their own reflection in our characters.” Not coincidentally, Marvel has seen not only a noticeable uptick in overall readers, but in female readers especially. Marvel’s David Gabriel, senior vice president of Print, Sales and Marketing, noted this in an interview with ICv2: “We’re probably up to at least 40 percent female [readers], which 8 years ago might have been 10 percent. And 15 years ago might have been nothing.” Giving storytellers the license to craft compelling and more authentic types of material allows Marvel’s line to speak to a larger variety of people, making the possible audience for superheroes that much more encompassing than it was before. Some movie studios are beginning to see this as well. Within the next few years, Black Panther, Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel will all be getting new adaptations. Even "Spider-Man: Homecoming" seems set to portray what will be a more authentically diverse cast surrounding the title character. With Spider-Man inhabiting what is perhaps the Marvel Universe's most downto-earth corner, choosing an actress like Zendaya to play Mary Jane Watson seems almost like an acknowledgement of how widely such stories have resonated. It also shows how a portrayal of Peter Parker, Mary Jane and other characters in the modern day should strive to be as true to real life in 2016 as possible.
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Word on the Street
WOTS
What’s your craziest RIT story?
photography by Daniel Vasta | design by Emma Flemming
Kellianne Kornick Physics and Philosophy major Second year “I suppose, for Halloween I dressed up as Socrates. I showed up at my 8 a.m. Chem class dressed as my normal self, which happens to be mostly all black and very plain. Then I showed up to chemistry at 5 which has the same professor dressed as Socrates, and refused to break character. So I entered a dialogue with my fellow students, accusing them of being my accusers, and then asking them if they had a legitimate complaint against me. Basically I refused to break character the entire time. And then I was asked to do an example problem on the board, and almost broke my professor, she was laughing so hard.”
Emily Gray Hospitality and Tourism Management major First year “During orientation, my first week at RIT, I went Red Barn rock climbing my first night, but we missed all the buses coming back, so we had to walk all the way across campus, but we really didn’t know where we were going, and it was really late at night.”
Aashish Bansal Management Information Systems major Graduate student “Last semester I had a course in Finance. It was really interesting, but it was demanding as well. So when we had exams for it we’d spend the whole night in the library studying for it. During the second exam, I still remember, I slept in the exam. I was so sleepy, and so tired that I couldn’t hang around. I had to sleep for a while.”
Aramah Taylor Visual Media major Fourth year “It was my first year here. It was over the spring break. It was me and one other Roommate — I didn’t get along with her too well. It was more cordial speaking, acquaintance. She worked on campus, and I stayed at home because I didn’t have anything to do. So I stayed in my room and chilled. And she comes back one night and knocked on my door, and she said, 'Hi can I speak with you?' I was like, 'Yeah sure.' So she says 'Were you in my room?' 'No I wasn’t in your room. Why would I be in your room?' and she said 'I know you were in my room.' 'I haven’t left my room, why would I be in your room? I have no reason to go in your room.' 'No. I saw you in my room.' 'When did you see me in your room?' I said, 'You know what, I don’t have anything to do with your room. I don’t care. I don’t care about you, and your room. I don’t care if you were on fire, I wouldn’t put you out.' Mind you, I was pretty much in a towel arguing with her in my room.” 28 Views
Khalid Samuels Management Information Systems major Fourth year “One of my most wildest stories probably happened sometime while I was midway through my first semester at RIT, and that was 2014, in the fall. Yeah man, so for whatever reason, a lot of these women seemed very attractive, and I ended up in a tiny situation. So I was messing with this one girl. It was cool, she didn’t tell anybody, except her friend. Her friend doesn’t know me, never seen me. I know her friend apparently, right. I didn’t know that. Boy, I am telling yah. They stormed right up to my UC, wasn’t pretty. I didn’t call Public Safety. There isn’t that many girls here. Even fewer unique ones. And so it’s a small circle, and I think they stick together.”
Emily Patten Advertising Photography major Second year “All I can think of is when I threw up that one time, and it was so upsetting.”
William Spisak Nutrition Management major First year “So it was when I was in class and it was Food Production, and someone didn’t wear the cutting gloves, and they cut a good amount into their finger.”
The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER
Nik Norzapina Seman Biotechnology and Molecular Bioscience major Fourth year “One day my friend and I were in the bus after a very long day of school, and we were very tired. It was like 6 p.m. We wanted to go to the mall, but the bus didn’t stop at the entrance. But it said in the schedule that it should stop, but it didn’t stop. And we were very afraid cause we didn’t know where we were going. And it goes straight to downtown, and it stopped there, and didn’t go anywhere. I had to go down to the bus, and then another bus, and it took us like two hours to get on it, and go to school again. We didn’t go to the mall, cause the bus didn’t stop there.”
Oscar Estrada Mechanical Engineering major Third year “So my craziest RIT story happened on my first year here. Yeah, actually it was like the first weekend I was here. So I got invited to this guy’s 21st birthday. I was like, so excited, it was my first weekend here at RIT, and then I got invited to a party with older dudes, and it was like, awesome. So we go there, and there were like a lot of international people, which means there was a lot of weird-ass alcohol. By that I mean like, Hungarian vodka. People were talking so many different languages. And it was nice, but then we were all just partying and going crazy. Then at midnight they opened a bottle of champagne and they went hard. It was the Province cinema room, movie theater, so they started splashing the whole room, the cameras, there were security cameras, they splashed that, the walls, the ceiling, everything. It ended up being a mess. And so, like a week after that I am at my dorm and I see a girl walking by, and she is like, ‘Oh! You were at that party at Province the other weekend, right?’ and I’m like, ‘Ah, yeah?’ – ‘So the security guys had saw the footage, and they were looking for all the guys who attended the party, and they were trying to make them pay money. So if they ask you something, tell them you weren’t there,’ and I was like, ‘Oh shit! O.K.!’” Views 29
9/6/16 11:44 p.m. [Text]
Life is forever chafing.
Have something to say? Text or call: 585.672.4840
8/30/16 8:37 p.m. [Text]
I wish that I had a backpack that produced fruit. 9/8/16 2:04 p.m. [Text]
It’s so humid out I’m getting sweaty palms just holding hands with the air. 8/31/16 10:37 p.m. [Text]
The frowny-face PMS cookies from Java’s understand me on a fundamental level
7/22/16 4:48 p.m. [Text]
“Should we buy alcohol?” “Yeah, we’re already poor, might as well be drunk too.”
RINGS
compiled by Jake Krajewski | illustration by Cassy Smithies | design by Dasha Buduchina
The opinions expressed are solely those of the students and do not reflect the views of REPORTER
30 Views
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