Aggie BluePrint Magazine Vol. XI Issue 1 (April 2019)

aggie blueprint

SPRING 2019 | VOLUME 6 | ISSUE 1

F TABL NENTS OF CON TABLE S CONT SLICE

LUCKY

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6 E C A R T U O B A LK TA E W AY W THE

8 E M ED G N A H C LE Y ST Y M G IN G N A H C HOW ART

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MUSEUM



RENOVATION

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LE OF C TABLE NTENT OF CO TENTS 12 G IN IN D S PU M A C IN Y IT IL B A IN A SUST HAIRY MIX

ONLY

TALES

UP

YOUR IN

ON

CAMPUS

15

DRINKS

18

UTAH

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G M AG T H E THEMINDS DSBEHIND E H I N DT H E E T H E M AG editors-in-chief hannah mcdonald tyler bates creative director anne schill contributors hannah mcdonald autumn marilyn miskin dillan passmore ke n d e n q u a y l e sophia thimmes va l e n t i n o wa r re n photographers hannah mcdonald z a e ka re e m a r ke t i n g d e s i g n matt jager adviser cathy ferrand bullock 4

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Dear Reader,

When we first started talking about this issue of Aggie BluePrint, we decided we wanted to reinvent ourselves a little bit. We wanted to make ourselves more well known as the uncensored voice of Utah State students—a venue where students can discuss everything from politics to music to fashion.

With that idea in mind, we decided to base our first “new era” issue around reinvention. That’s what college is all about, right? We reinvent ourselves by learning what we love and what we believe in; we reinvent ourselves into independent adults who can cook (ramen) and aren’t afraid of getting rid of the spiders that infest our apartments. We start to learn how we, as future professionals, have the capacity to remake the world into something better.

Several of the stories in this issue focus on different ideas of reinvention, both personal and institutional. Flip to page six for Miss USU’s ideas on how we can reinvent the way we talk about race on campus. In “How Changing My Style Changed Me (and Vice Versa),” writer Autumn Marilyn Miskin talks about how her personal style evolution reflected her progress as a person. “Wandering Among the Masterpieces” (page 10) shows the results of the university’s $5 million art museum renovations.

This issue could not have been produced without the hard work of all of our writers and the indomitable Cathy Ferrand Bullock. I want to give a special shoutout to creative director Anne Schill, who is a goddess of design and was responsible for putting together the beautiful piece of work in your hands.

Share your feedback with us at aggieblueprinteditors@gmail.com. Let us know how you’ve reinvented yourself lately. And, as always: Read thoughtfully, think deeply, and leave your print.

Sincerely,

Hannah McDonald Editor-in-Chief

L S L S L

LUCKYL SLICE S LUCKYL SLICE S LUCKYL INTRO HERE

This New York-style pizza restaurant is a destination for more than just food

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n a quintessential college town, there must be a quintessential restaurant that caters to hungry college students. One such restaurant is downtown Logan’s Lucky Slice Pizza. The pizzeria is located on Logan’s Federal Avenue, a stone’s throw away from other unique establishments like the Spirit Goat, Earthly Awakenings, and Café Ibis. This is the “hipster block of Logan,” said Lucky Slice head chef Derik Esplin.

The atmosphere of Lucky Slice Pizza welcomes creativity, which can be attributed to co-owner Mike McDonald. As noted on the restaurant’s website, McDonald is a self-proclaimed lifelong pizza shop worker.

“I don’t know anything else; I’ve only ever done pizza,” he said. His first job out of high school was at The Pizza Guy restaurant in Flagstaff, Arizona. Soon after starting as a pizza delivery driver, he was promoted to manager, a position he fell in love with and held for five years. Still, he was convinced he could do it better.

“At the time, I thought I could run it better. We were doing really basic pizzas, and it wasn’t exciting — at least to me it wasn’t. I thought I could improve on all aspects of it.” McDonald said. In 2007 he moved to Ogden with his business partner, where they bought and ran an Italian restaurant. In 2012, McDonald and partners Will Shafer and Nick VanArsdell opened the original Lucky Slice in downtown Ogden. They followed with a second location in Clearfield in 2015.

The Logan location opened its doors in June 2017.

“Logan is a legitimate college town,” McDonald said in explaining his decision to introduce Lucky Slice to Logan. “It just had a good energy. There seemed to be this really creative community here that was kind of underlying that took us a little while to find.”

Creativity is a major theme for McDonald, and it all starts with the food. “When you are in this kind of restaurant,” he said, “trends happen, and you have to be quick to adapt to those.” A growing trend, especially among young people, is having a gluten-free or vegan diet. As more customers began

asking for more options, McDonald and his business partners decided it was time to add them to the menu.

One such example is the Lucky Slice’s vegan take on chicken wings, Cauli Buds — hand-breaded pieces of cauliflower that are fried and tossed in wing sauce.

They’re one of the biggest hits on the vegan menu.

With local art adorning the walls and an area devoted to live music, Logan’s Lucky Slice is a place where visitors are encouraged to display and appreciate creativity. The restaurant features quirky, pop-culture themed murals and a chalk wall fully decked with cheeky messages and drawings from visitors. “It is a necessary type of restaurant for a college town; it’s perpetuating a creative space,” said J.D., a graduate student in biology at Utah State University. The shop's owners are currently working on new ways to get the word out about upcoming opportunities to showcase both visual and performing arts in the restaurant. “I think art [relates] itself really well to young people, and we’ve got 25,000 young people here,” McDonald said. Art simply adds to the experience.

The atmosphere of a pizza shop is a special one, and McDonald is trying to mold the aura at Lucky Slice into one of acceptance. “I think that is our vibe, people being comfortable,” McDonald concluded. This atmosphere of comfort became clear when J.D. began talking to McDonald about the partnership between Lucky Slice and Aggie Radio from his table across the restaurant. The conversation came easily, naturally.

It’s a place where visitors can find more than just a piece of pizza. That’s the true luck to be found at Lucky Slice — the people. “Cool environment, with cool people, where I get to make good pizza,” Esplin said. “I used to love it because we’d have a mom and a little kid sitting right next to some biker dude, sitting next to some high schooler, sitting next to some missionary and it was this melting pot of people. … Everyone just felt comfortable there.” ◆

by Kenden Quayle

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The Way We Talk About Race Like the background?

It's made entirely out of the text of Cooper's slam poem,"Who Am I," that discusses her experience as a person of color at a majority white unviersity.

Check out a video of the poem here:

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by Hannah McDonald

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lexis Cooper is a senior majoring in veterinary science. She won the Miss USU pageant last year and gained nationwide recognition for a spoken word poem she performed about her experience as a person of color at a majority white university. She has since spoken at conferences about how sororities and other university-affiliated entities can reform how they discuss diversity on campus. Cooper spends her time outside of class working as a resident assistant in Snow Hall, conducting undergraduate research, and participating as an active member of Kappa Delta sorority.

Aggie BluePrint: Thank you for meeting with me! I wanted to talk to you about how we can reinvent the way we talk about race on campus. You did that poem for Miss USU about your experience as a person of color on campus, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the ways we discuss race now and what we can do to change that discussion.

Alexis Cooper: I think what we’ve done in the past is not talk about it. Or if we do talk about it, it’s in some weird marginalized conversation of majority ruling over minority. …

And I know we’re talking about this hard topic the wrong way. It shouldn’t be marginalized group against majority; it should more be a person talking about their experiences.

You can’t expect anything to be changing or to be reinvented if you’re not talking about it.

AB: So we need to create a space on campus where people in marginalized groups can feel more comfortable sharing some of these stories and sharing their feelings.

AC: The way we talk about race and sexuality and gender is we think of it more as a concept instead of person. Like, I am a person of color. Here are the things that you’re saying to me, but here is how that’s impacting me and how that’s making me feel. Empathy is one of the strongest emotions, and everyone is striving to be an empathetic person to some degree. We talk about race as just a statistic, when it’s a reality, it’s a person and it’s an experience. … You have to get to know someone; you have to love someone that’s not the same as you for you to start understanding and appreciating what it’s like to be a person of color, to be queer, to be confused about your sexuality, things like that.

AB: You can’t just think of it as a concept; you also have to think of it as an individual experience.

AC: Right. And you might start experiencing that empathy. I’ve never experienced what it’s been like to be, I don’t know, an Asian American, but I feel empathy toward you. Because that would be a hard life to go through your day with living a whole new set of stereotypes. You know, like, I’m not a man, and I’m not really masculine in any conventional way. But I empathize with men that feel  like they need to fulfill those character roles

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SO HAT D O O ? W HINO HAM IHTO YOU ?WLE T ME YO U I A , BE MY VLL E RSIT Y WISH O M OR EM T H ACAU N A SE D ESTII AM A N CO NTR ARY LO R. I MO AMRE T HTEH G I R LA TH AT HAS AY D P IAN O FOR OV ARS, E GEIRL T H AT DA N C E DE RHE1 3R YE S Eand those gender identities. I empathize with that because I’ve been through something similar with my race. And it’s no longer a construct, it’s no longer a theory. … They’re a person, and I become much more empathetic to that construct and much more understanding of that concept when it’s attached to someone that I love and care about.

I think if any students or matriculates of Utah State, I guess, want to reinvent the way we’re talking about race, we have to stop talking about the statistics and the construct of race and we have to start talking about the experiences you have as a person of color. And you need to start being open and asking and just starting candid conversations about what it’s like to live life as a marginalized individual.

AB: What are some ways we could do that on an institutional basis?

AC: I’m not sure how. We’re taking thousands of students coming from such diverse backgrounds and putting them all in the same institution in the same little compound. I don’t think Utah State does a good job of addressing the differences in people that you will see coming to a university, you know? … A lot of people come from small towns and small cities where, for example, they’ve never met a Muslim person before. Then they see someone wearing a hijab and they don’t know what to say or they don’t know how to ask questions about a head scarf, so they come off as microagressive and ignorant when in reality they might just be curious.

An example of this would be someone making a passive aggressive comment about whether or not my father was in my home when I was growing up, which I’ve been asked probably 10 to 15 times while I’ve been at Utah State.

Whether or not I knew my dad, whether or not my dad was at home, making passive jokes about my father not being around because he’s black, which is a whole other conversation in itself. But people come off as racist and microaggressive because they don’t know how to ask questions. So someone making a passive-aggressive comment about how maybe my father, because he’s black, wasn’t at home when I was growing up and being raised — that’s an ouch for me. So I should say, “Ouch!”

and talk about how that comment made me feel because it humanizes the whole race debacle. …

And then the response to an “ouch” is an “oops.”

Oops, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize and I understand now that my comment was problematic at its core. And oops, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make a comment like that. What I’m trying to ask you is what your family structure was like growing up.

You see how that question is so much more?

You’ve taken the problematic parts of that curiosity out. And you’ve just asked an honest and straightforward question. I guess on an institutional basis, we should be trying harder to educate people how to ask the right questions.

AB: You used to attend Tuskegee, a historically black college or university. Are there some things you noticed there that you think could be adopted at Utah State?

AC: I never felt like the black girl at Tuskegee, because everywhere I looked, there were black girls and mixed-race girls and boys. And I thought it was so interesting at Tuskegee, because although it is a historically black college or university, there were a lot of white students and Latinx students. But any time someone would make them the other, like call a white person “snowflake” or make some microaggressive comment to a Latina woman, other African American students would say, “Hey, that’s not cool,” which nobody really does here at Utah State.

But I think the reason why they were so much more willing to be vocal about these “ouches" that other people are feeling is because they felt them themselves. We were all the minority before we came to Tuskegee, because that’s when we were the majority. And it was so amazing to be a part of the majority group for once that was so awake and keen to catch those microaggressions. … Only a handful of times has that same experience happened here at Utah State. I’d really like to see Utah State make that flip, where it’s the majority recognizing when individuals are being hateful, when they’re being ignorant. And it’ll take a long time to make that change. And again, it’ll come from a lot of candid and open conversations, and a lot of wanting to educate and wanting to be educated. ◆

"We should really be educating people on how to ask questions."



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How Reinventing My Style Changed Me (and Vice Versa)

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n high school I would wake up, open my closet, and realize I had nothing to wear. I had a closet full of clothes, but I didn’t love any of the things I owned. As my senior year ended, I knew I wanted a change. I was moving away from home to make new friends, have new experiences, and start a new adventure, so why not create a new look as well? Some of my friends thought leaving home was scary, but I felt nothing short of pure excitement. College was going to give me an opportunity to reinvent myself.

Beginning my fashion transformation was easy. I took most of my clothes, threw them into a large basket, and drove them to Goodwill. There was nothing wrong with the clothes I donated, except that they were something my mother would have picked out for me. They were common, modest, and tolerable. I wanted clothes that were unique and would express who I was now that I was heading to college. I wanted my first impression to project an image of confidence, and my high school wardrobe just wasn’t doing that.

As shallow as it may seem, dressing to make a good first impression is important because people from all backgrounds make assumptions — accurate or inaccurate — about others based on their appearance. People treat someone wearing a suit and dress shoes differently from someone with an untucked shirt, muddy tennis shoes, and uncombed hair. In

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Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, Leonard Mlodinow wrote, “What most of us don’t understand is just how much looks matter, and how difficult it is for us to ignore a person’s appearance when making a social judgement.” Keeping this in mind, I knew I wanted to alter my look so people could know I was comfortable with myself.

When I gave away my clothes, I already had a fashion role model in mind: Rachel Green from the TV show “Friends.” Rachel has a lively, sometimes even risky style. As I fell in love with the humor in the show, I also fell in love with Rachel’s fashion sense, admiring how she wore things like high-waisted pants, graphic tees, and ripped jeans. I began my new wardrobe with trends from the 1990s show — a couple pairs of ripped mom jeans, some graphic tees, jumpsuits, a pair of overalls, and a couple bright, floral shirts — along with some simple pieces that would match everything.

I avoided buying things just because they were cheap. I knew I would rather have one cute, expensive shirt than two cheap, decent ones. Disciplining myself to only buy the things I loved made my closet more appealing. It was exciting to open up my closet and love every piece of clothing I had.

Reinventing my closet inspired me to recreate my hairstyle as well. Most of my life I had kept

"Disciplining myself to only buy the things I loved made my closet more appealing.

It was exciting to open up my closet and love every piece of clothing I had." my hair long because it was too frizzy to cut short.

However, I discovered a new treatment, the Brazilian blowout, that could strip my hair of all the frizz. I set an appointment and chopped my hair to my shoulders. I felt new with shorter hair, and everyone told me I looked older and more mature.

It is interesting how the way we look affects others’ thoughts. My shorter hair created the impression I was more mature. My ripped jeans and bright floral shirts, I hoped, sent the message that I was content with who I was. Alison Lurie, the author of The Language of Clothes, once said, “We say something every morning when we decide how to dress.” Lurie explains that our outside

appearance is a universal language that gives people important information about us. The way we look portrays our feelings, our personalities, our backgrounds, and our future goals and ambitions.

As I reinvented my style, I was pleased with the messages I was sending. My closet turned into that of a confident, mature college student. My clothes communicated my emotional progress as a person, showing that I was confident, lively, and sometimes even a little crazy. Even now, I continue to buy only clothes that invigorate me because that’s the kind of closet — and image — to which I aspire. ◆

by Autumn Marilyn Miskin

Photos by Zae Karee 

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Wandering Among the Masterpieces

by Sophia Thimmes & Hannah McDonald

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fter a two-year closure for a $5 million renovation, the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art reopened in September 2018 to a crowd of young college students in trendy '90s revival apparel, parents towing energetic children, and couples twined at the hands. The word that kept circulating throughout the night of the reopening was “finally!”

Many Logan residents had been waiting hungrily for art. There’s a lot on the menu; the NEHMA collection includes approximately 1,300 ceramics, 896 paintings, 803 prints, 750 photographs, 305 drawings, and 282 sculptures.

Kat Taylor, the public relations and marketing coordinator for the museum, describes NEHMA as a “hidden gem.” Executive director Katie Lee-Koven chose pieces for this year’s “Collecting on the Edge” exhibit to reflect NEHMA’s mission of showcasing significant but under-appreciated artwork from the American West.

Title: The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art reopened in September after a two-year renovation.

Above: Engineering student Abby Lamborn points at "Superball," a mixed-media piece made with arms and legs collected from discarded dolls.

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Right: At 21 feet long, Ruth Asawa's "Untitled," composed of handwoven brass wire, is the largest sculpture  the artist ever created.

Clockwise from top left: This year's "Collecting on the Edge" exhibit is intended to showcase artists from the American West, who are often underrepresented in fine art galleries.

Los Angeles art curator David S. Rubin describes Manuel Neri's "Untitled" as a nude sculpture that celebrates "human dignity and the beauty of imperfection."

Hap Sakwa's "Mad Hatter Teapot" features pop culture knickknacks of figures like Mickey Mouse and Elvis.

In addition to paintings and sculpture, the museum stores significant newspapers, posters, and sketches in protected glass shelves.

Student Catie Giraldes admires California artist Selden Connor Gile's depiction of a Bay Area cherry orchard.

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N I S I F O O R P E TH T H E PAT T Y : W h a t Yo u r s y a S r e g r u b e s Chee y t i l i b a n i a t s u S t Abou at USU

by Hannah McDonald

S

ustainability” became a campus buzzword sometime after 2007, when Utah State University joined 696 other colleges in signing a campus climate commitment and creating its first sustainability policy. Since then, the word has become ubiquitous, and it’s lost a lot of its initial meaning. Sustainability initiatives continue on the USU campus, however, and they’re taking on more than just environmental friendliness. Good sustainability initiatives now must benefit not only the planet, but also communities and businesses. There’s a history of sustainability struggles in something as innocuous as your cheeseburger.

Bread

THe goal of sustainability is to provide for future generations to have equal access to environmental benefits and natural resources, said USU sustainability coordinator Alexi Lamm. “That manifests itself in being mindful about the way we use resources and how we manage our systems and waste products. We’re looking at how we can reduce that, or even how we can change the system so that the waste becomes the resources.”

Photos by Hannah McDonald

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During food preparation, dining employees attempt to reduce waste by composting green waste and finding new uses for older food items. Stale bread, once used to make sandwiches or toast, is reused to make products like croutons and bread pudding, and any trimmings from meat and fish go to the animals at the Willow Park Zoo. Somewhere around 80 percent of the university’s pre-consumer food waste is recycled, said Corey Cozzens, USU Dining Services’ former representative on the faculty Sustainability Council. “We do whatever we need to do to make it work instead of filling up a trash can.”

Post-consumer waste is more difficult to manage because, for one, it’s more prone to contamination from other waste. It’s a hassle for consumers to separate food waste from other waste, and USU Dining Services executive director Alan Andersen suspects many students just aren’t interested in taking the extra time to separate their food waste from their paper dishes. Furthermore, composting post-consumer waste requires facilities that Cache Valley doesn’t have. USU purchased an industrial composter in January 2015, but it’s relatively small and can’t handle as much waste as students produce.

Lettuce

USU Dining Services functions on campus as an independent nonprofit. It’s a business, and Andersen said he looks for the most cost-effective purchasing methods he can find. Utah State University allows outside food suppliers to bid for the university’s patronage. A bid typically lasts three to five years.

Currently, most of USU’s food is supplied by US Foods, a national corporation that operates a warehouse in Clearfield, Utah. US Foods sources food products from all over the world, placing particular emphasis on purchasing food from local providers.

Proponents for sustainable food production support the idea of eating local, contending that local food

requires fewer resources to travel to consumers and supports the surrounding community’s economy.

The university’s current bid with US Foods stipulates that USU Dining Services may purchase food from local providers whenever it likes. USU’s biggest local supplier is Caffe Ibis, but the university also purchases produce from local farmers.

During the peak growing season, USU buys nearly all its produce, including lettuce, from Cache Valley-based Johnson Farms. However, the peak growing season for most crops occurs from July to October, meaning USU can only take advantage of local produce for a short time. Eating local is more difficult in the winter, when Logan’s snows and frosts end the possibility of further crop production. Demand for fresh lettuce and other produce goes up in the winter, when it’s more expensive and of lower quality. “We work hard to be sustainable, but in Cache Valley it’s really, really, really tough,” Andersen said.

Cheese

THe university’s local initiative is far from perfect.

Businesses as local as Cache Valley Creamery, which delivers cheese to stores throughout northern Utah, won’t sell directly to the university. Cache Valley Creamery’s contract with US Foods prohibits the factory from selling cheese to entities like USU. “It’s the most cost-effective way to sell their cheese,” Andersen said. “A lot of times [US Foods] will pick up from the Cache Valley Creamery, take it to their warehouse, and then the university will buy it and they’ll bring it back up to the university.”

As redundant as the cycle may be, Andersen argued that purchasing from a large supplier may be more sustainable than purchasing directly from a local source. “Does anybody think it’s a good idea for me to drive a truck out to Cache Valley Creamery for the amount of cheese we use?” he said. If Andersen were to buy directly from the



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factory, he would either have to make the trip several times a week or clear out space Dining Services doesn’t currently have. “Yes, it probably would be sustainable to buy cheese from them,” he said. “But you have to take the bigger picture into account.”

Meat

Hamburgers are the best-selling item on the Logan campus, Andersen said. Every week, USU Dining sells around 750 hamburgers at the Hub and 2,700 at the Marketplace. Student demand for food like hamburgers drives many sustainability initiatives on campus, he noted. Andersen, along with most other sustainability advocates, espouses a belief that true sustainability must meet three qualifications: social acceptability, economic viability, and environmental friendliness. For the university to increase its adoption of sustainability initiatives, students have to be willing to pay for them. “You talk about organic; you talk about sustainable,” Andersen said. “People say they want all our products to be x, y, and z. And I’ll say I’m okay

with that. I don’t have a problem with that. But you have to understand, it’s going to cost you 25 cents more for x. And they’ll say they don’t want to pay for that. …If something is sustainable environmentally but my customers won’t buy it, it’s not sustainable.” Andersen thinks searching for a more eco-friendly alternative for meat could increase a hamburger’s price, leading students to select less expensive food items and causing the eco-friendly products to go to waste.

Price

As Andersen said, “It’s just not as easy as what’s good for the environment. It really isn’t.” In the end, environmental sustainability has a cost, especially when it comes to food. It takes considerable time, effort, and money for an individual to make sustainable choices, and considerably more time, effort, and money for an organization to become more sustainable. Increasing campus sustainability will require devotion from a majority of vocal and interested students, not just from a small but enthusiastic interest group. ◆

Clockwise from top left: Dining employees prepare food in the Marketplace kitchen.

Dining Services does the majority of its recycling in kitchens before consumers ever receive their food, but most of the disposable dishes and utensils used to serve customers are also recyclable.

These cups were intended to be easily compostable in USU facilities, but the university recently stopped providing composting bins in food areas because frequent incorrect disposal contaminated the fertilizer.

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hairy tales on campus

by Valentino Warren

J

esus Christ. Abraham Lincoln. Chuck Norris. Santa Claus. They all have one thing in common: Glorious beards.

For some people, facial hair is just a matter of style. For others, it’s an accessory that plays a role in their identity.

Beards have a long, illustrious history. Prehistoric men grew facial hair for warmth and protection. Egyptian royalty wore false beards made of metal. According to the Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History, the Assyrians dyed their beards black. Chamber’s Encyclopedia says Arabs and Persians dyed theirs an orange-red using henna, an easily obtainable plant extract, with the former doing it because it approximated the golden-yellow color their Prophet Mohammed preferred. Ancient Greeks commonly curled their beards with tongs to create hanging ringlets, and beards were only cut as punishment.

Today beards are big business. In 2017, products for grooming such as beard balms, oils, shampoos, and conditioners were raking in a revenue of more than $3 billion dollars in the U.S. alone, according to research firm Euromonitor. The trend of not shaving is taking a toll on businesses like Procter & Gamble, whose 2018 profits dropped 14.6 percent from 2017. That’s attributable to new beard styles, chief financial officer Jon Moeller said in a press briefing. From muttonchops to chinstraps to a 6-o’clock shadow, the range of beards people rock can be viewed on Instagram and Facebook, where people discuss facial hair with hashtags such as #beardgang and #beardlife and praise those with luscious beards.

The trend extends to barbershops like The Beardsmith in Garden City, Idaho, which specializes in beard trimming and maintenance. Its slogan is “your total BEARD SOLUTION.” They’ve brought Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons



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back the meaning to “schorem,” or the classic barbershop, and claim to have worked with thousands of beards. It’s safe to say the beard is back. But did it ever leave?

The 23rd president, Benjamin Harrison, was the last president to wear a beard full time, according to author Allan Peterkin, and William Taft (the 27th), who had a mustache, was the last president to have any facial hair. In the ’20s and ’30s, actors such as Ramon Navara and Ricky Ricardo wore thin slick mustaches such as the pencil and toothbrush, Peterkin writes in One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair. The goatee was popular in the ’50s as part of a counterculture movement, while beards in the ’60s symbolized becoming disconnected from society.

Later in the decade, longer beards became synonymous with the free love movement or sexual revolution. The last movement likely led to the horse shoe mustache in the ’70s or the more popular “pornstache” worn by the likes of wrestler Hulk Hogan and Ron Jeremy, which then birthed the chevron, made famous by Tom Selleck. But most importantly, the 21st century birthed the lumbersexual, defined in the Oxford dictionary as “a young urban man who cultivates a style of dress (typified by a beard and checkered shirt) suggestive of a rugged outdoor lifestyle.” The beard never left, it seems. It’s just changed identities over time.

I

n the historic halls of Old Main there sits a man with a legendary tuft. He’s been growing his beard ever since his daughter was born over 20 years ago. It’s a part of his identity and to shave it off would “require a dire medical condition,” said Charlie Huenemann, a professor of philosophy at Utah State University.

For many Aggies across campus, having a beard is not just a trend or a social movement but a means of identification that shapes how people perceive and treat them daily. For Dr. Huenemann, whose beard hangs

"The beard never left, it seems. It’s just changed identies over time."

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia 16



almost to the middle of his tie, facial hair seems to fit the mold of who he as a person and professional.

“Having a beard and carrying a pipe in my mouth, I seem to meet the stereotypes of a typical philosophy professor,” Huenemann said. “My beard is an accessory to my identity.”

This accessory, Huenemann suggests, has historically been a tool or weapon used for male dominance. The philosophy professor said some cultures and people see growing a beard as a physical advantage and will use it as a way of “bearding” or challenging them on their own ground.

He’s right. During the Middle Ages the beard became a symbol of a knight’s honor. Touching another man’s beard without permission was considered offensive and a duel would be staged.

If USU’s campus was a bearding arena, then Huenemann would be challenged to a beard-off by none other than his colleague Geno Schupp, a professor in the College of Natural Resources. Schupp has had a beard for most of his life and in 1975 he decided to let it go untamed. A simple shampoo and combing is all it requires. “I just wake up, take a shower, and go,” Schupp said over the phone. If it gets too hot I put it in a ponytail.” Schupp said being a bushy-faced professor who wears T-shirts to work is a part of who he is, and it fits well with the image of someone who deals with nature. Don’t ask him about shaving either. “I shaved my beard on one occasion,” he said. “I needed to wear a respirator, so I shaved to potentially save my life.”

Both Schupp and Huenemann said their beards have grown on them, even though they might seem intimidating to some students and teachers.

Windi D. Turner, who formerly taught Dress and Humanities at USU, said beards are considered modifications to the body and are indeed closely tied to an individual's identity. “Amidst our contemporary western social culture, a man's beard is often associated with maturity, dominance, and even social status. In other cultures, the beard is a significant demarcation of civil rights or serves as a symbol of manhood,” Turner communicated through email. The bearded tentacles have managed to creep into Turner’s own life. Her husband spent 26 years in the military and 12 years as a Virginia state trooper. She said when he retired two years ago, his first aspiration was to grow a beard because he was never allowed to grow one while a soldier and trooper. “For me, it was not appealing, and we have since compromised. He keeps his hair cut in a flat top and his beard short and tight,” Turner wrote.

While some professors on campus will go

through a lot to keep their beards, students are a little bit more laid back. Mack Wakley, now a sophomore, said in fall 2017 he started growing his facial hair for fun as a Halloween costume, but then it become a serious venture. “I started growing it out because I was too lazy to shave,” Wakley said. “I’ve made it past No-Shave November and now I’ll be growing it until the end of December.” Or "Decembeard," as it's known in bearding circles, which encourages men to give up the razor and grow a beard to help those affected by bowel cancer.

As beards go, there is a word for those who won’t and can’t grow one: women. As far as appealing to the opposite sex on campus, some women dislike a man with flawed facial hair because, well, he looks a bit like a hobo or an infant. In fall 2017, Rachel Clouse, now a senior, said she likes her boyfriend with facial hair simply because he looks more attractive and older, and she gives him a hard time when he’s clean-shaven. “Aww, look at the little baby,” Clouse said, mocking a motherly voice soothing an infant as she strokes her boyfriend's smooth face. “We both think he looks like a baby when he shaves, and I know some people are different when it comes to facial hair but do what you want, it’s your face.” As far as facial hair for a woman goes, Clouse said it is frowned upon to even have a little peach fuzz. “Society, I guess,” she answers with a shrug.

Society indeed. Turner said social cultures and standards do dictate the values and norms of a given culture, and the attitude of our culture has long been to view bearded women as non-conforming to their gender role. They have been ridiculed and bullied for wearing facial hair. Men are not excluded from this treatment. Type “beard” into your Google shopping search engine and the top items include Advanced Beard Growth Kit, Beard Growth Oil, Starter Beard Care Kit, and a “growth-stimulating” Beard Roller.

“For those with difficulty growing a beard or those wishing to join the trend, the lace front beard is now an option for them,” Turner explained. “If the intent is deception, I would assume it is linked back to a yearning for the masculinity we associate with beards.”

Feng Luo, a former USU student from Huai’an, China, who earned degrees in graphic design and accounting, said his family would see him as more responsible or masculine if he was able to grow facial hair. He also pointed out that being clean-shaven is more businesslike and professional in his country. “In China, girls like young men. The older generation like my grandfather have facial hair

"Amidst our contemporary western social culture, a man's beard is often associated with maturity, dominance, and even social status." but Asian people are not able to grow too much,” Luo said pointing to his peach fuzz. “Just a little bit.” Even with the cultural attitude toward facial hair in his country, Luo, 30, is using a testosterone booster, he said, “to help me grow more hair. But it doesn’t work.”

While cultures and attitudes dictate the norms for who can wear a beard, they don’t dictate who can use the name “Beard.” Ancestry.com tells us that being clean-shaven was the norm in some communities in northwestern Europe from the 12th to 16th century, which was a crucial time for surname formation. By the Old English period, people with beards were the norm and the name “Beard” was used for identity. Karen Beard, a professor of Wildland Resources, wears her beard as an accessory to her identity — but hers is attached by name. “I was born with the last name. I kept it after I got married,” Beard wrote in an email. “I do sometimes think of facial hair, but in general it’s been a pretty easy name to have because folks know how to spell it.”

Facial hair has been an accessory to identity throughout history and is linked to religion, culture, personalities, competence, and composure. Brigham Young University banned beards, so be an Aggie. The next time you see a person with a chin full of skin or a fluffy feathered mane, just remember that growing a beard requires resilience and that true love is like a beard. It never ends; it only grows. ◆ 17

MIX IT UP AC O C K TA I L RECIPES

lcohol is often a staple at college parties, but it isn’t a prerequisite for having a good time with friends.

Follow these classy recipes to liven up your next party — with or without the buzz.

Moscow Mule

Mocktail Mule

For true authenticity, serve in a copper cup. Add ingredients in the order they’re listed, then mix.

For true authenticity, serve in a copper cup. Add ingredients in the order they’re listed, then mix.

1 ½ ounces vodka ½ ounce lime juice Ice ½ cup ginger beer Optional: Garnish with a lime wedge

Ice ½ cup ginger beer 1 ½ ounces lime juice 1 ½ ounces club soda Optional: Garnish with a lime wedge

Recipe from AllRecipes.com

Recipe from TheMerrythought.com

Sex on the Beach

Cuddles on the Beach

Add all ingredients to a highball glass, then stir.

Add all ingredients to a highball glass, then stir.

Ice 2 ounces vodka 1 ounce peach schnapps 2 ounces grapefruit juice (or orange juice) 2 ounces cranberry juice Optional: Add a teaspoon of lemon juice and garnish with a few cherries

Ice 3 ounces cranberry juice 2 ounces grapefruit juice (or orange juice) 1 ½ ounces peach nectar ½ ounce grenadine 2 ounces ginger ale

Recipe from MixThatDrink.com

Recipe from MixThatDrink.com

Bloody Mary

Virgin Mary

Shake all the ingredients together with some ice and strain into a glass.

Shake all the ingredients together with some ice and strain into a glass.

1 ½ ounces vodka ½ cup tomato juice 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 to 3 dashes Tabasco sauce 4 to 6 dashes Worcestershire sauce Pinch of salt and pepper 1 teaspoon celery salt Garnish with a celery stick and a lemon wedge

½ cup tomato juice ½ ounce beef stock or bouillon 1 to 2 dashes lemon juice Tabasco to taste Pinch of celery salt Pinch of black pepper ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Garnish with a celery stick and a lemon wedge

Recipe from MixThatDrink.com

Recipe from MixThatDrink.com

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O N LY I N U TA H : S U P R E M ACY O F D ŌT E R R A

I

know what you’re expecting with an opinion article about Utah: “something something, Mormons … something something, can’t wait to get out of here.” But you won’t find any such criticism here; I believe, like thousands of other Utah residents, that Utah is one of the greatest places in this nation. We have five national parks, we’re home to the first KFC, and Utahns are some of the most generous people in the country.

Utah is a great place! We love America and hate the federal government. We think terrorism is bad and that funeral potatoes should have more butter in them. Moreover, people in Utah believe in something greater than man, something greater than any power or principality: They believe in dōTerra. dōTerra is a small family essential oil company that is dedicated to making the world a better place. Unlike the shame of modern medicine, dōTerra focuses on the source of a problem and not just the symptoms. Take it from me: dōTerra works.

Where there was pain in my life, there is now lavender oil. When there was too much smog in the air, dōTerra gave me peppermint oil so I could breathe more easily. They gave me chamomile for my upset stomach from when I ate too much Chick-fil-A. They took my Prozac and replaced it with ylang-ylang. When my water tasted like a chlorine they gave me lemon oil. Oh gracious dōTerra, thou surely art great. May your oils flow forever.

Thank you dōTerra. Thank you for making Utah an even better place to live. ◆

by Dillan Passmore

Dillan Passmore is one of the creators of the Utah Bull, USU's official unofficial satirical newspaper.



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Read thoughtfully.

Think deeply.

Leave your print.

AG G I E B L U E P R I N T M AG A Z I N E