DePaulia
The
Age of To’Morrow’
Volume #106 | Issue #12| Jan. 31, 2022 | depauliaonline.com
BEN ZEBROWSKI | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul freshman forward Aneesah Morrow is averaging 20.8 points and 12.8 rebounds per game. On Sunday, at Seton Hall, she set the new Big East record for rebounds in a game with 26.
Aneesah Morrow has taken over the Big East — one rebound at a time By Lawrence Kreymer Editor-in-Chief
Aneesah Morrow rarely talks trash during a basketball game. No matter the situation or the opponent, she won’t commit her attention to talking to the other team. The goal? To win. “If you pay attention, most of the time I don’t talk,” she said. Will other players talk smack to her? Possibly. But most other players are also not putting up 20.8 points and 12.8 rebounds per game in their freshman season. But will her family talk some trash during pick-up games? Most definitely. “My mother, like, when we play, all the time and she talks stuff,” Morrow said. “But that’s how my family is, so you have to get used to it.” Morrow, who is 6’1”, is letting her game speak for her as she continues to dominate any opponent that is put in front of her. Entering Wednesday’s game with No. 10 UConn, the freshman forward from Chicago put up 12 consecutive double-doubles — the longest streak in the nation. But she had yet to face an opponent like the Huskies, who present a matchup nightmare in the post with multiple players taller than 6-foot-1. No problem. Morrow still went on to put on a clinic inside the paint against UConn, going for 30 points and 14 rebounds. She was only the fourth player in the previous 20 years to score at least 30
points and grab at least 10 rebounds in a game versus the Huskies, per ESPN’s Stats and Information. DePaul ended up losing the game by two, 80-78, via a game-winning layup from UConn’s Caroline Ducharme. And, yet, after the game, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma — who is the winningest coach in women’s college basketball history — only had positive things to say about Morrow. “I don’t think that there’s another player in our league like that,” he said. “I don’t think that there’s another player in our league that plays like she plays.” Not bad for a freshman to hear that from a Hall of Fame coach. In the midst of that performance, Morrow didn’t feel the need to talk back to some of the UConn’s players — even if some of them might have been chirping the other way. “I feel like [Wednesday’s] game was the most I ever talked, and all I said was ‘Andone,’” Morrow recalled. The numbers are speaking for themselves, and the awards and recognition that Morrow is racking up on a weekly basis are speaking even louder. “I just feel like it just shows all the work I’m putting in, and my determination for the things that I’m going to accomplish,” she said.
See MORROW, page 27
MADDY MAES | THE DEPAULIA
Aneesah Morrow looks to get past a Georgetown defender on Jan. 16 at Wintrust Arena.
DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA
Aneesah Morrow gets by her St. John’s defender on Jan. 28 at Wintrust Arena.
2 | News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
First Look
CAMPUS COVID-19 CASES
Dec. 17, 2021 - Feb. 4, 2022
The DePaulia is the official student-run newspaper of DePaul University and may not necessarily reflect the views of college administrators, faculty or staff. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | Lawrence Kreymer eic@depauliaonline.com PRINT MANAGING | Nika Schoonover managing@depauliaonline.com ONLINE MANAGING | Nate Burleyson online@depauliaonline.com NEWS EDITOR | Nadia Hernandez news@depauliaonline.com ASST. NEWS EDITOR | Josephine Stratman news@depauliaonline.com NATION & WORLD EDITOR | Jackson Healy nation@depauliaonline.com OPINIONS EDITOR | Erik Uebelacker opinion@depauliaonline.com FOCUS EDITOR | Kiersten Riedford focus@depauliaonline.com ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Amber Stoutenborough artslife@depauliaonline.com ASST. ARTS & LIFE EDITOR | Brandon Sun Yechout artslife@depauliaonline.com
SOURCE: COVID-19 DASHBOARD | DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Visit the Covid-19 Dashboard for information on how to report positive cases on campus.
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La DePaulia es el noticiero oficial estudiantil en español de la Universidad DePaul, enfocado en proveer una voz para la comunidad latinx. Nuestras opiniones no necesariamente reflejan las opiniones de la administración, facultad o personal de la universidad. JEFA DE REDACCIÓN | María Marta Guzmán eicladepaulia@depauliaonline.com GERENTE EDITORIAL | Erika Pérez managingladepaulia@depauliaonline.com EDITOR DE OPINIONES, ARTE Y VIDA | Santiago Posada - Jaramillo opinionesladepaulia@depauliaonline.com EDITORA DE MULTIMEDIA | Julie Atencia multimedialadepaulia@depauliaonline.com ASISTENTE EDITORA DE MULTIMEDIA | Jocelyn Diaz assistantmedialadepaulia@depauliaonline. com
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News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 3
AUDREY CHAMPELLI | THE DEPAULIA
The DePaul Food Pantry, located in St. Vincent de Paul Parish 1010 West Webster Ave., and is open to students every Tues. and Mon. through Sat. to provide essentials.
Campus food pantry offers food, sanitary products
By Kiersten Riedford Focus Editor
DePaul’s Food Pantry has expanded their services to include more than food after the pandemic financially strained students. The food pantry is located on the 1st floor of the Lincoln Park Student Center in Room 107. It is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The food pantry is not currently available to faculty, but if faculty members can use it as well. Rick Moreci, director of housing, dining and student centers, said over the last two years, the pandemic increased food insecurity among college students. In 2019, Temple University conducted a national survey that 39 percent of students in the U.S. food insecure. To accompany the rising issue of food insecurity, DePaul has a food pantry open to students on the Lincoln Park campus. “The pantry is open to all enrolled DePaul students,” Moreci said. “They do not need to show proof of food insecurity. The pantry is meant to help students in need whether their need for food is temporary or more longterm. Our pantry is a no-questions-asked service that we provide to students who need it.” Dreihaus economics professor Sebastien Mary said the no-questions-asked service is the most beneficial to students because it can help students not feel ashamed or nervous about taking food they need. But, he said a turn-off from the food pantry would be the student volunteers. “Let’s think about a scenario,” Mary said. “You are helping there and suddenly you see someone that you are quite close to in a classroom, someone you have to do a group project with but you’re not really friends. How does that make you feel? And more importantly, how does he or she or they feel about the situation? Do they feel awkward about it and then leave or do they stay around and now their secret has been broken into the open?” This could create additional distress for students who want to come in. Yet, Housing can provide some accommodations if a staff member did not want others to know. “Currently the pantry is only open to students,” Moreci said. “However, if a faculty or staff member were ever in need of this resource, they could reach out to us via email and we would make arrangements to assist.
AUDREY CHAMPELLI | THE DEPAULIA
The food pantry, in the also provides professional clothing for students.
AUDREY CHAMPELLI | THE DEPAULIA
Not only are there food resources, they have free hygiene products for people to take. The pantry is operated through the staff of The pantry works with Chartwells and the Student Center and it is actually managed the Lincoln Park Whole Foods to provide reby two student employees who were hired to sources. They also added a cooler and freezer serve as pantry assistants.” to have fresh and frozen food. The food pantry currently offers a variety “[Chartwells] are the biggest partner to of staple, non-perishable food items such as the pantry because they provide not only ficanned goods, pasta, rice and cereal, Moreci nancial resources to the pantry but they also said. Aside from those products, there has use their suppliers to order a good portion been a development to what the food pantry of the food that gets stocked weekly,” Moreci offers students. said. “[The Whole Foods] donate generous
amounts of food weekly to our pantry. Our relationship with Whole Foods is pretty new but so far it is going really well.” If someone is looking to donate to the food pantry, Moreci said anyone can drop off non-perishable, non-expired food or donate money online. For direct food donations, there is a collection box right outside the food pantry door. DePaul alumni Rechal Patel said there are also other ways to help those in need. Patel suggests if a student knows someone who is food insecure they can give to them personally. “If students are friends with other students that are food insecure they should share information (about how to get food),” Patel said. “That can help them get a good meal through places such as the food pantry. It would also be helpful if they are able to share a meal once in a while with their friend.” The food pantry also provides other products to students besides non-perishable foods. Hygienic products are one example of the additional products the food pantry provides. “We try to stock basic needs items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper and hygiene products,” Moreci said. “We may not always have everything in stock but we try. We are also creating an Amazon Wish List specifically for these types of items so donors can have this kind of stuff sent directly to the vpantry so we can stock them.” The food pantry also has a clothing section for students who are in need of clothing. There is professional attire for anyone who needs professional clothing for a formal event. Previously, clothing was in the Schmitt Academic Center. But through the Career Closet and pantry partnership clothing is now only in the pantry. “The clothes are for the students to keep once they take what they need,” Moreci said. “We just ask that students leave the tags from what they take so we know what we may need to replenish. The clothing we get also depends entirely on donors, but luckily this also happens frequently from our very generous donors, especially faculty and staff.” The pantry can sustainably exist if students who need it are the only ones using it. “We want to be able to sustain this food pantry for a long time to come,” Moreci said.
4 | News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
Celebrating Traci Schlesinger’s life, accomplishments By Nika Schoonover Print Managing Editor
Traci Schlesinger, an associate professor of sociology at Depaul, passed away on Dec. 19. The DePaul community remembers her for her dedication to her work, her passion for social justice and her devotion to her students. DePaul is making arrangements to host a memorial gathering for DePaul faculty, staff and the broader community. According to DePaul spokesperson Russell Dorn, the gathering will likely be held in May. Schlesinger was born and raised in Dumont, New Jersey, where few of her friends or family attended college, according to Newsline. After receiving her associate’s degree from Bergen Community College, her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Fordham University and her doctorate in sociology from Princeton University, she joined DePaul’s sociology department in 2004 and received tenure in 2012. Kristen Ethier was one of Schlesinger’s students. Ethier, who received a master’s in sociology from DePaul in 2013, says she will miss Schlesinger’s “great spirit and fiery personality” and notes her great dedication to her students. “I think that one of the things that Traci was most proud of in her life and in her work was her deep and abiding commitment to students,” Ethier said. “She was so devoted to her students, particularly to her graduate students.” Ethier’s partner, Meggan Lee, was one of Schlesinger’s advisees and continued to work with her after graduation because of their shared interest in studying the criminal legal system. It was then, Ethier said, that she developed a personal friendship with Schlesinger. Allison McCracken, an associate professor of American Studies at DePaul, was one of Schlesinger’s close friends and colleagues. The two met at summer advising in 2007, a space in which DePaul faculty worked as intake advisers for new students. “She was a singular person, one who always stood out in a room not only because she was beautiful and had electric blue hair, but because she was so fully alive, so fully
present,” McCracken said. Neither of them had a car in Chicago, so they spent a lot of time walking together and taking public transportation. “Traci was high femme, so she inevitably attracted attention on the street,” McCracken said. “She was an extraordinary, performative dresser, each outfit of hers a creative act, with often vintage styles of dress and heels ornamented and accessorized exactly. No matter the weather, she always put enormous energy into her presentation.” McCracken recalled how engaged Schlesinger was with everyone she met. Schlesinger came from a working-class background and developed a strong kinship with those she met in her everyday life. “She made people feel seen and appreciated, whether in a positive, interested, playful way or in a negative and critical one if they were behaving like assholes,” McCracken said. David Frank, another of Schlesinger’s students, received his master’s in sociology from DePaul in 2010. Like McCracken, Frank said he admired
PHOTO FROM DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Schlesinger’s gravitation towards “outsiders.” “That’s probably what I admired most about her. That she liked outsiders better than insiders,” Frank said. “She liked the weirdos, the freaks, the people that didn’t automatically fit in were people that she automatically cared about a little bit whether she knew them or not.” Prior to pursuing his master’s degree at DePaul, Frank had struggled with addiction and had been in and out of the criminal justice system. At DePaul, he gravitated toward Schlesinger because of her work in social justice. “And because when I talked to her, she let me know that not only was it okay that someone with my experiences and someone who has criminal justice involvement could be in academia, because I felt a little bit of imposter syndrome, but she made me believe that my voice was important and necessary and that I should be pursuing this,” Frank said. “Which was super helpful to me, just because I was second guessing myself at that point.” In his work, Schlesinger introduced
Frank to literature from marginalized populations. These pieces helped Frank use his own experiences in his sociology work while Schlesinger helped him gain confidence doing so. “She gave me confidence. She made me feel like I’m doing the right thing,” Frank said. Schlesinger also had a passion for books, music and dance. “I often thought of Traci as a performance artist, in that she had a very particular aesthetic and a performative energy that reflected and enhanced her critical consciousness, and she was a born storyteller with a mountain of material to share,” McCracken said. McCracken added that she possessed a “critical eye and point of view,” which made her an excellent cultural critic. “She understood and could express, often in performative ways, the ways their music could inspire and save people who needed to be saved which, of course, is the only real reason media matters at all,” McCracken said. Though she had “little use for traditional cultural hierarchies of taste,” McCracken notes that she read every novel that won the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She was also a lover of a wide range of music. Particularly, she loved the “feminist punk aesthetic” of Bikini Kill, especially its lead, Kathleen Hanna. In addition, she loved heavy metal, industrial music and anti-racist rap and hip-hop. In film and television, she watched anything that was directed or written by a woman. “She adored Sandra Oh of ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ to the point of accosting her on the street to tell her so (I explained that this was bad fan behavior, but she paid me no mind),” McCracken said. Of all art forms, Schlesinger loved dance the most. “Traci loved the embodied expressivess of dance the most, likely because she was a dancer and the greatest joy of her life, for many years, was rehearsing and performing with a local Chicago dance company,” McCracken added.
Graduates anticipate in-person commencement By Nika Schoonover Print Managing Editor
This year, after two years of virtual commencement ceremonies as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, DePaul will again be honoring its graduating class at Wintrust Arena in 2022. Riley Reed, a DePaul senior, has already registered for this year’s in-person commencement and is excited to be celebrating her college experience at this year’s ceremony. “And I’m very excited. Sad that I’ll be leaving this chapter of my life behind, but college has been a really transformative and significant time of my life, so I’m excited to have an ‘official’ close to the chapter,” Reed said. DePaul’s commencement ceremonies will be held on June 11 and 12 in Wintrust Arena while the College of Law graduation will be held at the Chicago Theatre on May 21. Both ceremonies will also be live streamed. As a result of the pandemic, however, DePaul cautions that these arrangements could be subject to change. According to Newsline, “Commencement plans may change as needed to promote the safety and health of the DePaul community.” Currently, DePaul is mandating that ceremony guests, age 5 and older, show full proof of vaccination and must wear a mask inside, as required by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. According to DePaul, the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021 will not be honored at this year’s commencement ceremony. “We recognize that the Classes of 2020 and 2021 were impacted by the pandemic in different ways than other graduating classes,” DePaul spokesperson Mary Hansen told the DePaulia. “The university safely celebrated those graduates with online ceremonies, and the Class of 2021 participated in the Graduation Celebration on both campuses.” According to Hansen, the celebration included the opportunity to walk across a graduation stage in front of family and friends and photo opportunities around campus, including a 360-degree booth that simulated DePaul’s traditional graduation balloon drop. The university oringially added this virtual graduation experience for 2021 graduates, in an attempt to commemorate their graduation while still remaining Covid-safe. Genera Alexandria, a 2020 DePaul graduate, was in the first class to experience an altered commencement ceremony as a result of the pandemic. Alexandria did not attend the general commencement ceremony DePaul had online but went to the Lavender Graduation that was hosted by the Office of Multicultural Student Success. The event, Alexandria said, felt a lot more personal and was focused on interaction
JAKOB EMERSON | THE DEPAULIA
The last in person commencement was in 2019, students are excited for their ceremony. with DePaul’s LGBTQIA+ students. Though Alexandria said she understands why DePaul can’t honor past graduates in this year’s commencement, she says she would go if they were able to honor 2020 and 2021 graduates. “One day I was with everyone in my class, the next day I couldn’t see my friends and everyone was across the country,” Alexandria said. She added that the end of her undergraduate degree felt unfinished because of how everything was shifted online in 2020. “I finished. I have an expensive piece of paper but it doesn’t feel like it actually finished,”
Alexandria said. Reed said that the pandemic has only increased her desire for an in-person graduation ceremony. “My brother was class of 2020 and seeing the disappointment he felt from not having one was really upsetting, so I have definitely hoped and wanted it to be in person,” Reed said. DePaul students who want to participate in commencement must register in Campus Connect by April 27, 2022. That is also the deadline to place an order for graduation regalia.
News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022| 5
6 | News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
Clinic makes gender-affirming care accessible By Leslie Williamson Contributing Writer
DePaul’s newly opened Speech and Language Clinic is making gender-affirming care accessible for the community. Voice is an important part of identity for many people. For transgender people, voice may contribute to feelings of gender dysphoria. “Your voice is such an auditory representation of you that hearing it and knowing it doesn’t match you is a very intense feeling,” said Jane Koppitz, vice president of Spectrum, DePaul’s student LGBTQ+ organization. DePaul’s Speech and Language Clinic, located in DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus Welcome Center, is trying to help. The clinic serves as hands-on experience for graduate students in DePaul’s Speech Language Pathology master’s program and provides services for a wide variety of communication, voice and swallowing disorders. Voice is incredibly underlooked as an aspect of gender-affirming treatment, Koppitz said. “A lot of trans folks, such as myself, view voice dysphoria as one of [the biggest], if not the biggest, hurdles to overcome,” she said. There are many ways transgender and gender-nonconforming people can make their presentation congruent with their gender, such as hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgeries or simply clothes and makeup. “But when it comes to voice dysphoria,” Koppitz said, “there’s not half as many resources out there.” It administered voice therapy sessions to its very first clients just a few weeks ago. The clinic’s gender-affirming voice therapy services make an important, often difficult-to-find resource more accessible. Gender-affirming voice therapy helps transgender and gender nonconforming individuals “to align the sound of their voice with their gender identity,” said Ann Fennell, director of clinical education for the speech language pathology program. Fennell oversees the graduate students who administer therapy at the clinic. She specializes in voice disorders and has worked in gender-affirming voice therapy for over 20 years. “We ask individuals who come in what their goals are for their voice,” Fennell said.
DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA
The DePaul Speech and Langauge Clinic is located 2400 North Sheffield Ave and is open to the general public. “We don’t assume that someone wants a super feminine sounding voice or a super masculine sounding voice, but what is it that they want to do with their voice that will help them with that alignment.” Under Fennell’s supervision, graduate students coach clients on how to use their voice to make changes to the way it sounds little by little. “To improve that perception of a more feminine voice we’re going to add in a higher pitch, higher intonation pattern and make sure the voice is very forward and resonant,” Fennell said. This means making your voice more forward sounding and using an almost singsong way of speaking, raising their pitch on some words and sliding back down towards the end of a sentence. “For trans men, we’re sort of doing the opposite,” she said. They flatten intonation to more of a monotone and lower the pitch. Clients are given exercises to practice on their own, and depending on different factors, usually finish their voice therapy sessions after six to ten weeks. Fennell said the clinic is
looking to expand treatment options to group therapy sessions, as well. Many trans folks help coach each other to change their voice, but most people can’t find or aren’t aware of professional voice therapy services, Koppitz said. It’s also simply more difficult to change your voice compared to other aspects of gender presentation. While testosterone hormone therapy results in a change of vocal pitch, estrogen does not. Additionally, health insurance doesn’t always cover gender-affirming care, and if it does, it may require an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria. And even with a diagnosis that can be difficult and expensive to obtain, insurance may not cover voice therapy. DePaul’s Speech and Language Clinic is entirely donation-based, meaning there are no financial barriers to getting treatment, and clients can easily enroll regardless of a diagnosis. “The great thing about our clinic being donation based is it makes our services accessible to everybody,” Fennell said. Koppitz said she knows several people who have signed up for this service already and are excited.
Hannah Senanayaka, president of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association at DePaul, works at the clinic’s front desk. She said students and faculty are just as excited to be providing this care. “To see [the clinic] come to fruition and finally be able to start treating our clients is really special,” she said. “We’re filling a gap of need in the community for all sorts of therapy services.” Most of the clinic’s clients come from referrals from other treatment centers, Senanayaka said, but the NSSLHA posts about the clinic’s services, including gender-affirming voice therapy, on their Instagram to help increase awareness of these valuable resources. “I think there’s this collective community of care at DePaul where students want to share resources, so by posting it on our student page we knew that it would spread,” she said. “We want really any member of DePaul and the outside community to learn about these programs.” To sign up for voice therapy services at the clinic, fill out a new client form on the clinic’s website.
CAMPUS CRIME REPORT: Jan. 19, 2022 - Jan. 25, 2022 LINCOLN PARK CAMPUS
1150 W. Fullerton Building
LOOP CAMPUS
6
990 W. Fullerton
5
Clifton Parking Garage Munroe Hall
4
Sheffield Garage
1
2 3
1
Assault & Theft
Jan. 19 1) A Possession of Cannabis report was filed in Munroe Hall. Jan. 20 2) A Smell of Marijuana was reported in the Sheffield Garage stairwell. No drugs were found. Jan. 21 3) A Smell of Marijuana was reported in the Sheffield Garage stairwell. No drugs
Drug & Alcohol
Other
were found. Jan. 22 4) A Harassment by Electronic means report was filed for a person in 990 W. Fullerton. Jan. 25 5) A Possession of Cannabis report was filed for someone in the Clifton Parking Garage. 6) A Theft report was filed for tools taken
in the 1150 W. Fullerton Building. LOOP Jan. 21 7) A Harassment by Electronic Means report was filed for inappropriate behavior on Zoom (not pictured above). Jan. 24 8) A Harassment by Telephone report was filed for a person receiving unwanted phone
calls. A Criminal Trespass and No Contact Order was also issued. (Not pictured) Jan. 25 9) A Battery report was filed for a person who got spit on while walking down Van Buren. (Not pictured)
News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 7
‘Quick and easy’: New on-campus Covid-19 testing site By Lily Lowndes Social Media Editor
A second Covid testing site has opened in DePaul’s Loop campus, providing more testing resources to DePaul students, faculty and staff. The new site, which opened Jan. 18, is run by SHIELD Illinois, the University of Illinois System’s in-state, non-profit Covid-testing unit. The SHIELD-run testing is open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays 4-7 p.m. on the lower level of the DePaul Center in the DePaul concourse. The second site expands the testing hours into the afternoon and evening to better accommodate student schedules. Morning testing is run by DePaul student workers trained by SHIELD. The DePaul-exclusive tests are available in the DePaul Center concourse on Mondays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and Thursdays 9-11 a.m. DePaul students, faculty and staff can make appointments at either site, while members of the general public can only make appointments for the SHIELD-run site. To make an appointment during DePaul-only hours, DePaul community members must first fill out a waiver to let the service process their tests. Students, faculty and staff can then make a SHIELD Portal account and enter the DePaul agency code found on the Covid-19 Testing resources page. The code for students is x2z7zqti-stu and the code for faculty and staff is x2z7zqti-emp. Using the code will unlock the available times in the Loop and Lincoln Park campuses. To make an appointment during the SHIELD-run hours, use the agency code df5brbrj. If you do not have time to make an appointment, walk-ins are accepted. “You can make a walk-in, but it would be easier to have a SHIELD account and an appointment,” said Rutendo Chimbaru, DePaul’s temporary Covid Prevention and Response coordinator.
This is the third Covid-19 testing location on DePaul’s campus; however, the only location not run by DePaul. People with appointments must show their appointment confirmation QR code to submit their test. Walk-ins will follow the directions given by the workers. According to Chimbaru, the DePaul-only testing site has been running smoothly. The Loop location gets about 50 people each day, whereas Chimbaru estimates 100 people get tested in Lincoln Park. “People just stream in, it’s never super crowded,” Chimbaru said. Once at the testing site, community members will be given a self-administered saliva-based PCR test. There are indicators on the sample tube marking how much saliva is needed. According to Daniel Shute, a field-operations team lead with SHIELD, people should not eat, drink, chew or smoke for one hour before their appointment.
Testing results will be available approximately 24-48 hours after the test. According to Shute, SHIELD has one of the fastest lab results turnarounds excluding lab on-site testing locations. There are seven SHIELD labs in Illinois located in Decatur, Itasca, Maywood, Normal, North Chicago, Rockford, and Springfield. Test-takers can access their results by logging in to the SHIELD website with their username and password. Like the DePaul-run site, Shute noted that the SHIELD-run site has been pretty quiet. “So far, it’s not been super busy,” Shute said. “We’re in week two of the [Loop] community site. Most that test regularly go in the morning and go in Lincoln Park.” SHIELD has the capability to com-
LILY LOWNDES | THE DEPAULIA
plete “a few hundred tests” in the threehour community time slot, Shute said. He is hoping more people take advantage of the free testing site. DePaul students have been satisfied with the ease of the Loop testing site. “I heard about [the Loop testing site] through a friend,” DePaul student Olivia Baczkowski said. Baczkowski has been to both testing sites at DePaul. They said the Loop testing site was much easier to get through compared to the Lincoln Park site. Other students echoed that sentiment. “It was very quick and very easy,” said Kevin Ryczek, another DePaul student. “You can get out in a minute or two.” Both Loop testing sites are free of charge.
‘Combating misinformation’
SGA relaunches Covid-19 vaccine campaign with focus on booster By Nadia Hernandez News Editor
DePaul’s Student Government Association relaunched their Covid-19 vaccination campaign at the beginning of winter quarter with a special focus on the booster. The SGA campaign is encouraging students to receive their booster before the university’s March 1 deadline and reduce vaccine hesitancy overall. The booster campaign will include a video series similar to their initial vaccination campaign, where members share why students should receive their booster dose. DePaul is requiring all students to submit proof of their Covid-19 vaccine booster by the start of March in order to register for spring quarter classes. “When we first launched, it was to simply get students to get their booster shot,” SGA Vice President Kevin Holechko said. “As Omicron became more widespread, it became something that we were heavily interested in doing. Now that the booster shot is mandated, it is important to show that every day students are get-
“By showcasing people beyond SGA, people will see this not merely as an initiative by SGA, ... but that this is something that is taking place across the DePaul community.”
Kevin Holechko
Vice President of Student Government Association ting their booster shots and that they are safe and effective.” On SGA’s Instagram, students are sharing their reasons why they got their booster. “DePaul Activities Board (DAB) holds big in-person events like Demon Jam and FEST, and for that to happen, having your Covid-19 booster shot is a great way to protect yourself and others,” DAB Vice President of Marketing Brianna Catalinotto said via Instagram.
SGA plans to collaborate with other on-campus organizations to promote the booster. This was critical to represent multiple aspects of the DePaul community. “We believe by showcasing people outside of SGA, not only are we showing that people beyond SGA are taking part in this, but it is also a great way to strengthen our relationships with our campus partners,” Holechko said. “Lastly, by showcasing people beyond SGA, people will see
this not merely as an initiative by SGA or a political stunt, but that this is something that is taking place across the DePaul community.” SGA aims to provide students with accurate information about boosters. The campaign will also allow students to see their peers share their own reasons for receiving the booster. Freshman Liam Elsea said he is appreciative of SGA’s efforts, and also that DePaul is requiring the booster to stay in person. “It’s important to get legitimate information out to counter the vast amounts of misinformation that we see,” Elsea said. Students can go to vaccine.gov to schedule an appointment or visit local pharmacies. CVS and Walgreens have locations in Lincoln Park and the Loop. “We will also be showing students how to go and book their appointments and work to combat misinformation around the vaccines and their effectiveness,” Holechko said. “All of these things were done in our prior vaccine campaign, and we are so excited to continue working on this
8 | News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
‘The Heart of Little Village’
MARIA MARTA GUZMAN | THE DEPAULIA
The Little Village Arch is located at 26th St. & Albany St., was granted official landmark status in a City Council meeting last week.
Arch to become new landmark, residents conflicted By Maria Marta Guzman La DePaulia Editor-in-Chief
After 31 years of the Little Village Arch serving as a symbol of the Mexican community in Chicago, the two-story terracotta structure is now an official city landmark — but Little Village residents express mixed emotions on the decision. The final vote on the landmark designation of the Little Village Arch came Wednesday after Chicago’s City Council gave the approval with zero objections. Located in the community’s beloved 26th Street, the arch marks the beginning of the two mile strip filled with bakeries, taquerias and mom-andpop shops. For some Mexican Little Village residents like Ana Laura Saavedra, the landmark symbolizes resilience for her community. “Our community has endured so many social and racial injustices, but yet our people continue to persevere,” Saavedra said. “When I see the Little Village Arch, I see the rich Mexican culture [and] also a sense of new beginnings.” Growing up in Little Village, her earliest childhood memories revolved around the arch. At a young age, she remembers passing under the arch with her mother when going to doctor or dentist appointments. “Being a daughter of immigrant parents and growing up in Little Village — it defines me,” Saavedra said. Saavedra used the Little Village Arch as a sign of triumph when she graduated with her doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. With her cap and gown, Saavedra posed under the arch demonstrating to her community that she not only beat the odds, but takes pride in her roots. “I couldn’t have done what I did without my upbringing,” Saavedra said. Although she is proud that the arch is being recognized as a citywide landmark, she says the recognition is “long overdue.” “[The arch] is the heart of Little Village. There’s no Little Village without that,” she added. Other residents, like Ana Solano, 27, have different opinions on the deci-
sion taken by the Commission on Chicago Landmark department and City Council. Solano, who is a Little Village resident of over 20 years and resides by the Crawford Coal Plant, says that although the landmark decision is historic, it overlooks the community’s bigger issues. “I think it’s pretty cool that we get to mark our place in history but then again, it also feels very performative because it doesn’t really feel like it’s something substantial that people can improve their lives with,” Solano said. An organizer in her spare time with Únete La Villita, a volunteer-based organization that focuses on advocating for affordable housing, Solano is more concerned with the City’s response to her community’s current struggles. “Rent is going up,” she said. “A lot of our neighbors are getting displaced. With low wages and rent increases, it feels performative.” “What’s the use of making it a landmark if the people that you’re displacing are not even going to get to enjoy it, it’s not going to be reflective of the community that’s here,” she added. Solano hopes that city and community officials have the same initiative to work on improving and investing in the lives of Little Village residents. The Little Village Arch was designed by Mexican architect Adrián Lozano and built by Balti Contracting Co. in 1990, according to a document by the City of Chicago. Costing about $275,000, the structure is set to resemble similar arched entrances found in the streets of Mexico. The Little Village arch has an orange archway, two dome-capped stucco towers, sidewalk passages, a mechanical clock, a mosaic diamond pattern, an orange clay tile roof and a black metal sign reading “Bienvenidos A Little Village.” Alderman Michael D. Rodriguez of the 22nd Ward, which covers part of Little Village, told La DePaulia via email that as a lifelong Little Village resident, he is excited by the historic designation. “The landmark is a recognition of the importance of Little Village, and the Mexican American and immigrant
communities to our region,” Rodriguez said. “Mexican Americans across the Midwest recognize the arch, that bears the message ‘Bienvenidos A Little Village’, as a symbol of their home.” Often referred to as the “Mexico of the Midwest,” Mexican immigrants began arriving in Little Village and other neighborhoods in the late 1970s. According to data by the U.S Census Bureau and WBEZ, Latinos in Chicago are the second largest group and make up 29.9 percent of the city’s population. “Little Village is where hundreds of thousands of individuals of Mexican ancestry have lived, worked, worshipped or conducted business over at least the last seven decades,” Rodriguez
said. In a 2020 report, the two-mile stretch shopping district that makes up 26th Street was the second highest grossing retail strip in Chicago following Magnificent Mile, home to luxurious and high-end brands. “The landmark recognition of the Little Village arch is also a recognition of the vitality and economic strength of Little Village and of the Mexican American community in the Midwest United States,” Rodriguez said. “I am happy that the arch has been awarded a status that honors its architectural beauty and cultural significance.”
9 | News. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
10 | Nation & World. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
Nation & World
DePaul’s Jewish students react to Texas synagogue attack By Brandon Tejeras Contributing Writer
Members of the Jewish community attended the Sabbath service at Congregation Beth Israel on Jan. 15 in Colleyville, Texas. With services being held both online and in person, many were expecting a typical day of faith, worship and bonding with fellow attendees. According to CNN, that all changed when Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and Jeffery Cohen, vice president of the Board of Trustees, heard the “unmistakable sound of an automatic slide engaging a round.” What would follow was a several-hour standoff between the hostage-taker and negotiators, with the congregation’s attendees caught right in the middle. For DePaul’s Jewish student population, the attack was unsurprising, and the fear of gathering is all too real. “When the attack first occurred, it was a great shock. But, it was bound to happen,” said Julia Kagan, secretary of Chabad Jewish Student Club at DePaul, reflecting on the hostage situation at a Jewish synagogue in Texas on Jan. 15. For Chabad Jewish Student Club president Emily Fridland, the community’s fear of gathering has translated to her uncertainty about the organization’s meetings. The attack on Jan. 15 served as a reminder of the precarity of American Jews’ situation. “I can’t tell you with 100 percent certainty our events will go smoothly,” Fridland said. “We should be able to practice freely, and everyone should be able to practice their religion freely.” For several hours, Congregation Beth Israel worshippers waited in terror for hostage negotiators to resolve the situation. During the standoff between attacker Malik Faisal Akram, the hostages and the FBI, Akram made statements about dying and helping to get his sister out of a prison. According to CNN, the woman Akram requested be released is Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman serving 86 years in federal prison. The two are not related. The attack on the Colleyville synagogue shows that antisemitic attacks can happen anywhere and to anyone. As such, organizations have responded to growing threats. “Increased numbers of community organizations have had to spend money when they now see that they’re targets. For nothing, just for being Jewish,” said professor Steven Resnicoff, director of the Center for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies. Part of the FBI’s success in getting the synagogue’s hostages out safely was their rapid response. FBI Director Christopher Wray remarked that the continued contact between Akram and the negotiators was key to the operation. “Within a matter of hours, we deployed FBI SWAT, two highly trained units from our elite Hostage Rescue Team; those are the folks who ultimately were the ones who went into the synagogue, along with canines,” Wray said. “We had our crisis negotiation unit. We had one of our folks on the phone with the hostage taker for hours and hours, and that turned out to be pretty important.”
BRANDON WADE | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police stand in front of the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022, in Colleyville, Texas.
“I think it’s a sad reality where I can walk into a synagogue and worship any holiday and I have to think, ‘where’s the nearest exit?’ or ‘where am I going to hide?’”
Julia Kagan
Secretary, DePaul Chabad Jewish Student Club As the morning turned into afternoon and then night, tension remained high for those locked inside the synagogue’s walls. The quick-thinking Rabbi Cytron-Walker hurled a chair at Akram, giving him and the remaining hostages enough time to escape. At about 9:12 p.m., a CNN team heard a loud boom — a result of the breach into the building — and the breach team killed the attacker. No hostages were killed or severely injured during the operation. Initial statements that night by FBI representative Matt DeSarno indicated that the hostage standoff at Congregation Beth Israel was not a product of Akram’s personal antisemitic sentiments. “The initial response of the FBI to what happened in the synagogue was really appalling …it boggles the mind,” Resnicoff said. “We do not believe from our engagement with this subject that he was singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” DeSarno said in a press conference.
Wray later walked back this statement during a Jan. 20 Anti-Defamation League webinar. “Now let me be clear and blunt: The FBI is, and has been, treating Saturday’s events as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community,” Wray said. “We recognize that the Jewish community, in particular, has suffered violence and faces very real threats from really across the hate spectrum.” “They were very fortunate there was only one hostage-taker,” Resnicoff said. “The Almighty was with them.” However, in the context of countless recent attacks on Jewish people and their centers of worship, the attack at Congregation Beth Israel was unsurprising for many. “Unfortunately, when I first heard the news, I wasn’t surprised… [antisemitic attacks] are pretty common now,” said Alexandra Rozhko, social chair for Chabad Jewish Student Club at DePaul. According to data for 2020 from the Anti-Defamation League’s “Audit on Antisemitic Incidents,” there is a sense that for American Jews, antisemitism is on the rise: one-in-four American Jews
say they have been targets of antisemitism in the last 12 months. Reports indicate that this fear of rising antisemitism and possible attacks on Jews is borne out of fact. Assaults, vandalism and harassment based in antisemitism have all risen between the years 2019 and 2020. According to the ADL’s audit, acts of assault, vandalism and harassment increased 12 percent over the previous year. 61 percent of the 2,024 registered incidents in 2020 “were cases of harassment, a 10 percent increase from 1,127 in 2019.” There were 751 incidents of vandalism and 31 incidents of assault, with no fatalities. For many people both at DePaul and in the Chicagoland area, it is hard to believe that added measures may be needed to keep worshippers safe. “In foreign synagogues, they had to have security guards, and I never dreamed that would be necessary in America,” Resnicoff said. “I think it’s a sad reality where I can walk into a synagogue and worship any holiday and I have to think, ‘where’s the nearest exit?’ or ‘where am I going to hide?’” Kagan said. “I’ve seen bouncers checking names outside synagogues. I’m coming here for prayer, not a club.” While antisemitic attacks like the one witnessed at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville serve as prominent examples of the kinds of uphill battles Jews face in terms of safety, many of Chabad’s members don’t see much coming of this hostage standoff. “I don’t see anything really changing,” Rozhko said.
Nation & World. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 11
Virtual learning’s impact on students in higher education By Samantha Moilanen Contributing Writer
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the transition to remote learning, students around the world had to adjust to changes in their education as they carried out their studies at home. Even though schools have been reopened for partial or even completely in-person learning, students are still trying to regain educational losses from the last two years. For Grand Valley State University student Alexandria Borraccio, adjusting to online learning while transitioning from high school to college during the height of the pandemic was a challenge. “After high school, I decided to defer for a semester because I was paying tuition just to sit in bed and take classes,” she said. “I found myself losing my drive and interest in school, which has been hard to regain since coming back to campus.” At the university level, online learning posed many challenges such as decreased motivation and productivity, an uptick in mental health issues and for some, insufficient resources for a successful education at home. “My mental health took a toll last year since I was supposed to be a freshman in college but was stuck taking four university-level classes from my bedroom,” Borraccio said. “I feel like my college experience has been taken away from me and life still hasn’t gone back to normal.” Michael Kofoed, an economics professor at the U.S Military Academy at West Point, and his co-authors recently released
a study conducted on West Point students looking at online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Because West Point students have little control over their academic schedules, he was able to randomly assign students to in-person or online modes of education. From the study, Kofoed found final grades for online students dropped by 0.215 standard deviations, driven mostly by academically at-risk students. This number is statistically significant considering 0.2 standard deviations can mean the difference in whether a student gets a B+ or a B- depending on their current grade in the course. “Everytime I ran the regressions, I couldn’t believe how big the gap was,” he said. When Kofoed conducted a follow-up survey, the online students reported having more difficulty concentrating on their coursework and felt less connected to their instructors than the students that attended class in-person. In addition to negatively affecting student’s grades, online learning increases the amount of educational inequalities. While some students have access to resources like reliable internet, libraries, and at-home support systems, low income families often can’t provide the same assistance. Parents who work in labor-intensive jobs that required them to work during the pandemic would have been unable to monitor their kids’ online education. “The question is: If West Point cadets, who are pretty resilient, still do worse, what do you think the average, third grade, minority student in the South Side
MADDY MAYES | THE DEPAULIA
Masked students walk past The Theatre School at DePaul University. of Chicago is going to do with not very good internet connection?” Dr. Kofoed said. According to the Household Pulse survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau between Dec. 29 and Jan. 10, over 10 million college students in the United States said they were not planning on taking classes this term due to the coronavirus pandemic. Borraccio, a sophomore at Grand Valley majoring in cardiovascular sonography, says she feels that online classes have not prepared her for her future career and now has difficulty keeping up with in-person classes. “As someone majoring in science and health, being in-person and engaging in hands-on learning is imperative and can’t be done properly online,” she said. The world still faces uncertainty about the virus with the onslaught of new variants and fear of another lockdown if hospitals get overrun. Even with extra precautions in place, students are still struggling
with transitioning back to in-person classes amidst the pandemic. “In some ways, it was hard for some students to come back,” Professor Howard Rosing, executive director of Steans Center at DePaul University, said. “Last term, it seemed like there were a lot of absences for some students, and I don’t recall ever having that many in the past.” Covid-19 has undoubtedly had lasting effects on students across the world, from making the transition to virtual learning, living in a constant state of fear for their loved ones and themselves and dealing with mental health issues during a pandemic. Still, the long-term effects of virtual learning remain unclear. “It’s going to be a while until we know the real impact of the pandemic,” Rosing said. “In some ways, the world is becoming more virtual, and I think it’s going to evolve into where learning online will help students manage a hybrid workplace in the future.”
How Biden’s first year in office changed the White House, but not America By Milan Opsenica Contributing Writer
President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign was centered on unity, a return to normalcy and an end to the “chaos” of the past four years, and on Jan. 20, 2021, Biden was sworn into office at one of the most unique times in American history. The next year would be filled with difficulty as Biden attempted to remedy the challenges that were facing the country. DePaul political science professor Wayne Steger outlined some of the challenges awaiting BIden’s administration. “[The biggest issues facing Biden were the] Covid pandemic, resistance to government actions on [the] pandemic, rising anti-government sentiment, political polarization, threats to democracy, rising inflation, rising crime, surging illegal immigration, growing economic inequality, decreasing economic opportunity, civil strife over racism, LBGTQ, and religion, very high expectations,” Steger said. “Those are a lot of problems.” Whether inherited or not, these are just some of the problems that Biden was presented with after being elected, and his first year has been defined by how he has — or hasn’t — dealt with them. The most unique situation that Biden has faced since taking office is the Covid-19 pandemic — specifically, attempting to slow the spread of infection. Former President Donald Trump’s administration was noted for its slow response to Covid-19, a trend that the Biden administration was set on reversing. A day after being sworn in, Biden’s administration released a national strategy for beating Covid-19, which, in 200 pages, showed Americans a much different approach toward battling the Covid-19 pandemic.
SUSAN WALSH | ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks during a news conference Jan. 19, 2022. The biggest challenge for Biden was not assembling the Covid-19 response plan — it was getting people to trust it. According to Pew Research Center, the U.S. is at one of the lowest levels of trust in the government in its history, making it difficult to get over 300 million citizens on board with any federal action. On the brighter side, after inheriting a struggling vaccination program, Biden’s administration completely revamped how the country would distribute the vaccines. Over 530 million doses have been given out over the past year and 75 percent of the population is now at least partially vaccinated. These numbers are considered one of the greatest successes of Biden’s first year in office. Another change seen over the past year has been the nation’s handling of the climate change crisis. Once again, this is where Biden’s administration completely diverged from Trump’s, taking a much more active approach. On the same day he was sworn in, Biden chose to both cancel
the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and rejoin the Paris Agreement. And in April 2021, he announced his goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50 to 52 percent from 2005 to 2035. Biden’s goal has been considered by many as highly ambitious for the country, especially after the Trump administration never set their own goal to reduce these emissions. Biden has still struggled to get a lot of his legislation passed in his first year, in particular the Build Back Better plan, which has been particularly divisive in both the House and Senate. This ties into one of Biden’s biggest focuses, and something he has grappled with all year: unity. During his inaugural speech, Biden repeatedly focused on unity, solidifying it as one of the key tenets of his presidential agenda. “My whole soul is in this: bringing America together,” Biden said. “Uniting our people, and uniting our nation. I ask every American to join me in this cause.” Yet, Biden still finds himself as the
leader of an extremely divided country. As of Friday, Biden’s approval rating currently sits at about 42 percent — higher than Trump’s was after his first year, but lower than former President Barack Obama’s. “I think that going into the 2020 election, the country needed what I call the ‘healer-in chief ’ because it was so divided,” DePaul professor Nick Kachiroubas said. “And I think Biden’s personality has been that.” The threat of midterm elections likely also looms in Biden’s mind. Democrats risk potentially losing seats in both the House and the Senate — a result that would certainly throw a wrench in their ability to pass legislation. “It’s traditional in most presidents’ first midterm they lose control of one or more chambers, so that is not a surprise.” Kachiroubas said. “The notes on the wall, at least at this point — and we’re months out before the final election — is that he may lose the house.” As Biden’s first year comes to a close, his administration has begun looking towards the next three. Just this past week, longtime liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer stepped down, opening up a seat on the court for Biden to fill. This provides Biden an opportunity to fulfill another promise from his campaign: to appoint the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. Still, many of Biden’s campaign promises remain unfulfilled, and some Americans, like DePaul senior Michael Caballero, hope that he can find a way to get a few of those things done. “I’m a little skeptical from what I’ve seen so far, because there’s been a lot he hasn’t done,” Caballero said. “I’m looking for more concrete policies to come out, especially those from his campaign.”
12 | Opinions. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
Opinions The art of quitting
ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
Giving up is an opportunity to look for new adventures, not a sign of defeat By Amber Stoutenborough Arts & Life Editor
As kids, most of us were forced to stick to hobbies. I went from gymnastics to piano to swimming, each time begging my parents to let me quit so I didn’t have to wake up early Saturday morning for practice. Even later, in middle school and high school, I was told I couldn’t leave jobs or extracurriculars that I wanted to quit to learn lessons on resilience and commitment. My parents always told me quitting was never an option, and for a very long time, I took that to heart. While I still appreciate the reasoning behind the message, I disagree now. The fear of how someone would be perceived because of the negative connotation over the word “quitting” is something I held onto for too long. I feel now that I’ve grown older, I wish I had quit things a lot sooner than I did and saved the stress and heartache. Our generation especially is now acknowledging the importance of quitting things that don’t provide what we need. I feel now more than ever is the most important time to reflect if you are doing something because you want to or feel obligated towards it. I swore into the army reserves on March 5, 2018 after received a full ride Army ROTC scholarship to DePaul. Excited for this new phase in my life, I was proud of the hard work I put in to get where I was. All of the extracurriculars, the late nights studying and workouts paid off for me to go to my dream school in Chicago, and I did it all by myself. I thought this was the right path for me, as I was determined to be successful in my future, but I was naive in my ability to do it all. And that’s what I did, juggling full-time school with full-time ROTC, reserves — I was also accepted in a leadership role with a community service group and joined a sorority. On the outside, I felt I had fully achieved what 12-year-old Amber always wanted but what it felt like was 18-year-old Amber never recognized the importance of saying no. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I realized I was doing a lot of these activities for people to be
“Everything I’ve quit has opened up my world in ways that I did not imagine.”
Gracie Dolan
Manager at Chicago Bagel Authority
proud of me — not because I wanted to do them. I had to learn the hard way of dropping things as it started to heavily reflect my mental and physical health. I feel a lot of us decided to stay in the places we are for the comfort and security it gives us, instead of taking chances to do things we actually want. I stayed in ROTC for three years. After putting in so much time and effort, I even had high leadership roles and lifelong friends within the program — but it was killing me. The toxic military culture of never expressing weakness became so apparent as I felt I was gasping for some sort of support and was instead ridiculed and judged. During my freshman year of ROTC, I unfortunately experienced what many women in the military have, and was assaulted by another soldier and student in leadership. Instead of finding the help needed within the program, I was ostracized and blamed. Even after this experience, I stayed, as the fear of quitting something I put so much effort toward carried more weight than my mental stability. It wasn’t till the spring of my junior year, so close to the end, that I finally came to terms how much pain I was in. I felt cheated after the years and labor I put into it just for me to leave so close to finishing. I was worried what my family would think after seeing the pride in their eyes when they brag about their daughter being in the military. Being someone who has never truly quit something I cared about, it felt like I was harming my future self in the process. Why couldn’t I just hold on for a little longer? After finally gaining the courage to leave, I never felt so much
peace in my life. Even if the military was supposed to be an opportunity for success, it ruined me, and I had to come to terms with quitting something — even if it meant everything I went through lost its meaning. After I left, I felt secure in being able to quit things that don’t serve me anymore. The lessons I’ve learned have helped me more in my future than staying in something that was just creating pain. Kristen Pengelly, a communications professor at DePaul, said it’s very common for people to stay in bad conditions instead of leaving because of how they were raised as children to never quit. “It makes sense when you’re younger, because when things get hard and you think you don’t like it instead of understanding that you’re building some life skills and resiliency by getting through a tough moment,” she said. “But I think in [some] ways, we like to continue that mentality throughout life.” Pengelly feels Gen Z has really changed the idea of work and quitting something that isn’t for you. Instead of previous generations, the negativity towards quitting has been adjusted through time. “Gen Z is showing us that we don’t have to put up with this treatment in a way that older generations maybe didn’t feel empowered to do,” Pengelly said. “I think that Gen Z is making organizations really think about how they treat people. If people are consistently leaving your place of employment at like a four-toeight month mark, it’s not a generational problem, It’s an organizational problem.” The sunk cost fallacy is defined as the phenomenon whereby a person is reluc-
tant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear the abandonment would be more beneficial. Zach French, a junior at DePaul, felt this way after quitting football right before his senior year of high school. French had never really liked football, but felt pressure from his dad to continue into college. After 10 years, French ended his career and quit the team. “I can’t make decisions on a gut whim,” French said. “I got to put a lot of time and thought behind what my decisions are. The culmination of 10 years of hate off my chest for a sport that I never once liked. And I was just to the point where I’m done, I don’t want to do it anymore.” For Chicago Bagel Authority employee Gracie Dolan, quitting something comes with finding the right support through it. Her parents helped display that when she was younger by also quitting their jobs in order to find passion in what they love. “My dad quit his really high-paying job to become an artist,” Dolan said. “I always looked up to him and it inspires me to be able to quit something if I don’t love it anymore. Both my parents support me and I think that’s important when making difficult decisions like quitting something big.” Dolan is an advocate for quitting things that don’t benefit you and has lived her life according to that value. “Everything I’ve quit has opened up my world in ways that I did not imagine,” Dolan said. “At the end of the day, you got to do the thing that is best for you. Gather a support system and build up self confidence to do what you need, and not others.” Quitting the military has opened opportunities to a life and career I really wanted instead of trying to manage it all and falling under the pressure. The difficult decision to leave something will never be easy, but I think we need to hold quitting things to a higher standard for the betterment of ourselves.
The opinions in this section do not necessarially reflect those of The DePaulia staff.
Opinions. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 13
‘That girl’ trend
Therapy would help more than that green smoothie By K iersten Riedford Focus Editor
She wakes up before the sun so she can rise as the sun does. She heads to the gym after doing her intensive skincare routine, but she has to be in her monochromatic workout set and matching yoga mat. After an hour of training, she heads home to make a green smoothie and shower with her endless sugar scrubs and soap concoctions. After all of this, at around 8 a.m., she meditates for half an hour and does some breathwork. She is “that girl.” The “that girl” trend is geared to make people want to be the best versions of themselves, but it is typically done by those who do not have a strict time schedule in the mornings. “That girl” is known to be the person who is mindful, fit, lives in an aesthetically pleasing way and is accomplished in life. They are perfect. They are who we want ourselves to be, but most of the time is an unattainable version of ourselves that we are stretching for through mindfulness activities and exercise. “I am pretty neutral to the trend,” sophomore Edie Leonard said. “I do not think that waking up in the early morning will personally bring me happiness or make me a put-together person, but I do respect the fact that these habits truly better the lives of people other than myself.” Leonard said the benefits of this trend are geared to long-term health since the habits make people feel better in the long run. “The trend makes it easy for people to access communities where the prime focus is working on oneself and building up healthy habits,” Leonard said. “Working on yourself is never easy or fun work, but it feels a lot better when others are doing it alongside you. Also, the intended theme of the content is positivity and self-growth for women and it’s nice to see that in the media.” Senior Carmen Eggleston said she likes the “that girl” trend and how it can help someone grow to be a better person, but the trend alone cannot do that for someone. “I do think this trend helps with the overall experience of becoming your best self, but I think most of the work is done in therapy,” Eggleston said. While there are benefits to mindfulness activities that one can do on their own, ultimately, the trend cannot help someone get over traumatic experiences, depression or anxiety. Putting together a morning routine will help a person have more control over their mornings, which will, in turn, make them feel better when starting the day, but it cannot completely insulate someone from mental health problems. The trend should be about having fun finding out how to live a productive and put-together life. It should not be about trying to solve someone’s problems by ignoring them and exercising, meditating and putting together aesthetic outfits instead. The trend is fun when people take it as trying to get physically healthier by eating clean and exercising when they are able to. It is fun when people are being mindful to give themselves clarity before a long day. It is fun when self-care can be the focus of your life at that moment. The best part about the trend is it allows someone to take everything they want to do and tells them to implement it as they can. But, the trend should not disregard their responsibilities and stress them out.
Travel with caution in the time of Omicron By Maggie Thompson Contributing Writer
ART BY KIERSTEN RIEDFORD
The “that girl” trend is intended to make people want to be the best versions of themselves.
Eggleston said to create balance with this trend, people should take pieces of the trend that they like and apply those to their life when they want to. “At this point in my life, I can make a decision whether or not I’d like to wake up at 5 a.m. and do yoga or not,” Eggleston said. “It’s a mix and match thing and you have to find what works for you. [The trend is] really only meant to enhance your life, not completely change it.” Leonard agreed that those who participate in the trend should only have certain aspects of the content they see others doing because what they do should pertain to what they want, not just what they see. “At the end of the day, becoming your best self needs to be centered around you and what you need,” Leonard said. “If you follow the exact lifestyle of another person, it is highly unlikely that all their habits will make you feel good about yourself as you will not share the same personality. I think trends become harmful once you feel like you must follow them exactly as stated instead of just being inspired to do what fits best for you.” Another side of the “that girl” trend that can be off-putting is how young white women run the trend. With this demographic at the forefront, it can be difficult
for people of color and older people to feel like they are able to participate in this trend because of the unspoken expectations that come with it. “I do think that it is hard to live up to the full expectations of the trend as they are not super accessible to everyone,” Leonard said. “Not everyone can afford to wake up at 6 a.m. daily to work out due to a job or an already overwhelming schedule. Much of the content comes from young white girls who seem to have a lot of material items. I do think that it is important to look at who is making and is credited for creating trends to make sure they are inclusive and relatable to all viewers. All people deserve representation. If the people who are running the trend are all of the same race and class, it begs the question about who exactly is given the opportunity to experience that lifestyle.” All in all, the trend is beneficial for little habits that people are trying to incorporate into their lives to make them feel like they have more control over their lives and their ability to feel happy, but it is not a substitute for therapy or for seeking out genuine help. Not everyone can be fixed by a green smoothie and a long skincare routine.
With the weather in Chicago growing colder by the day, it can seem enticing for many to book a trip to a warmer climate. It can be easy to imagine flying to Hawaii or Cancun, away from the long waits at the L station, hands freezing and ears burning, but we are still in the throes of a pandemic. Many people have made dubious statements about the true impact of the virus, claiming that we have receded into an endemic state. For vaccinated, able-bodied citizens with healthy immune systems, this may be the case, and the virus may not be as deadly for them. Regardless, the question still remains of not whether you can travel, but whether you should. It is important to note that even if you want to travel, some countries aren’t allowing entry for foreigners. Recently, the Study Abroad Office at DePaul University cancelled a host of their spring trips and some summer trips due to varying factors. Both summer Japan trips (Japan: Computer Animation and Gaming and Japan: Design and Culture) were cancelled due to the country no longer allowing foreigners to enter for extended casual stay, but other factors, such as communication with sponsors and whether or not the instructors themselves feel safe travelling, also applied to the decision to cancel the trips. We are not near enough to the end of the coronavirus pandemic to call it an endemic state. Recent studies show that even if you receive the booster or the vaccine, you are still vulnerable to the disease. Having the vaccine itself may or may not allow you to travel internationally, and things are always changing. Just as in the early stages of the pandemic, an outbreak could leave you stranded at an airport due to flight cancellations, or worse, stuck in the country for much, much longer than you anticipated. Outside of the question of ethics, or the possibility of getting the virus yourself, I believe that travelling is an incredibly dangerous and expensive option right now. Most likely the attractions you want to see will all be closed, and you will only get a half-baked experience of the real trip for the same cost. Adding to that the danger of contracting the disease, the possibility of being stranded in a different country or state and possibly passing on the disease to others, it doesn’t seem like the most viable option right now. However, there isn’t a way to fully suspend travel. Many people need to travel for family or events they can’t skip, so I propose that if you were to go out of state, you keep your trips as short and concise as possible. Maybe only travel for a weekend instead of a week, which allows you to save money and balance your time there as well as protect against the virus. Other than that, taking unnecessary flights to events you can afford to miss should not be attempted, just due to the inherent danger, and you should try to find a way to stay warm and have fun at home.
14 | Focus. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
Focus
AGE OF EVOLUTION
ALICIA GOLUSZKA | ART
Individuals share historical moments which shaped their generations Generational Differences
The Silent Generation
This generation was born from 1925 to 1945. First labeled as “silent” by Time Magazine in 1951, they earned their name because they lived through economic and political uncertainties like the Great Depression and World War II by adhering to traditional roles in society.
Baby Boomer Generation
This generation was born from 1946 to 1964. They are known for their generation’s high birth rates after World War II of nearly 72.5 million births and outer space advancements such as the launch of Sputnik.
Generation X This generation was born from 1965 to 1980. They grew up unsupervised with career-driven parents. There was a growing emphasis on education and had a lack of trust in institutional authority. Music released by artists like Michael Jackson and The Thompson Twins encapsulated this generation’s unapologetic attitudes.
By Jackie Cardenas Contributing Writer
World War II, Obama’s election, 9/11, the technology revolution and the Black Lives Matter Movement. These events defined generations. Regardless of one’s background, people remember these events with pain, grief, fear, hope and joy. These shared experiences create an opportunity for people to come together, recognize each other’s humanity and cooperate in times of need. A generation is a cohort of people, who are close in age, born and living at the same time. Generations are labeled differently based on their segmented time periods when they were born. There’s the silent generation (1925-1945), baby boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), millennials (1981-1996), and Generation Z (1997-2012). All of them lived through different historical events that helped define their generations, leading some to view the world differently based on their experiences. “Some people might decide to re-evaluate their values, but some people might decide to more strongly commit to the systems
It was so hard for somebody to even imagine—especially if you do not have the money, the connections, the ‘right color’ of the skin—to be able to be elevated in such a position 58-year-old Nelson Acain and norms they are accustomed to,” Ellen Dulaney, a social psychology professor at DePaul, said. This is what happened to 95-year-old Robert Al Stark, and many members of the silent generation. They were labeled as silent because they grew up during a time of conformity, where many adhered to traditional roles in society. Many reevaluated their values and their place in society after living through World War II. At 17-years-old, Stark left Sycamore, Ill. and joined the United States Marines to serve overseas in Honolulu during a time when
Black Americans faced heavy discrimination in the armed forces and all over America. Stark said the coalition of races forced many to learn how to fight alongside each other. He argues it began to chip away at some of White Americans’ thoughts of race superiority which dominated the era. Stark said he witnessed the maltreatment of Black people within and outside the armed forces, particularly in the south. “I saw how people had to drink out of separate drinking fountains, when Blacks had to always respond with ‘no sir’, ‘yes sir’ or else,” Stark said. “We said we were for all people, but that wasn’t true. Some were not as free as others.” With a million Blacks serving in World War II, attitudes slowly began to shift. By 1953, according to PBS, The Secretary of Defense announced that the last all-Black unit was abolished. Stark said he, and many others in his generation, went against the status quo and learned the importance of treating people with respect regardless of skin color. The recognition of others’ humanity during a time of adversity was a monumen-
COURTESY OF ROBERT STARK | PHOTOS
95-year-old Robert Stark, a part of the silent generation, sits in his back yard. (Featured on the left) Stark and his wife Eunis Stark pose for a portrait photograph in the 1940s, slightly after the end of World War II.
Focus. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 15
tal stepping stone that led people to listen to each other and strive towards social equality in the following years. Meanwhile, 58-year-old Nelson Acain and his baby boomer generation were defined differently. Born in the Philippines, Acain said he immigrated to the United States in 1996 because he dreamed of better economic security for his family. He also wanted a more accountable government. In desire of change, Acain and many of his generation joined the 1986 People Power Revolution. The members held non-violent demonstrations which advocated to overthrow longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcus and restore democracy in the Philippines. Acain said he recalls people of all kinds who joined the movement: older women, clergy members and even military officers all marched to the capital for a change. On Feb. 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino was named the rightful elected president. Although Acain did not live to experience democracy under Aquino, a defining moment for his generation was the parallel between the success of the People Power Revolution and witnessing Barack Obama become the U.S. president in 2008. Acain said he felt a similar sense of satisfaction watching Marcus’ and later Bush’s cabinet leave office. “The old is out, here comes the new, here comes the younger ones and that is what I had been wishing for back in the Philippines,” Acain said. Obama’s success made Acain and many people in his generation feel moved. Acain said Obama restored hope in the U.S. and broke the mold of previous American presidents. “It was so hard for somebody to even imagine—especially if you do not have the money, the connections, the ‘right color’ of the skin—to be able to be elevated in such a position,” Acain said. “But when (Obama) was able to do that, that broke some barriers.” Just like how movements and elections can bring people together, so can tragic events. Fifty-three-year-old Ruth Peterson is a part of Generation X and can recall vivid memories of the 9/11 attack. Peterson said she was at home with her newborn daughter when she turned on the TV and felt her heart sink with disbelief at the sight of the towers collapsing. “You just sat there and watched it with your mouth open,” Peterson said. The first twin tower was struck and chaos was unveiled in New York City. Firefighters rushed to enter the burning buildings to save lives, police sirens were echoing throughout the city and urgent boat evacuations encapsulated the unforgettable day. Peterson described 9/11 happening at a time when Americans “felt untouchable” and confident in their nation’s security. The attack shook the nation, yet there was a sense of humanity when Americans were supportive of New York City and its people. “These experiences can be hard for a generation to overcome, but it does represent an opportunity for compassion and strong bonds to form,” Dulaney said. Since the event, Peterson said her generation no longer felt as secure. But, at that moment “We were all on one team,” Peterson said. She said unity helped shape them as people. As for millennials, they experienced the rise of the technology revolution and were defined differently because of it. Growing up, 33-year-old Aaron Evans watched it evolve from the days of AOL instant messenger to Apple iPhones. As an English language arts teacher at Curie High School, Evans experiences the ef-
fects of technology as a millennial distinctly, witnessing the digital divide. He said he cannot help but consider how inequitable it is that his students are not provided with their own tablets, laptops, or Chromebooks for their academic work. Even as Covid-19 rates surge and in-person classes continue, many are still not provided with their own device. Evans said he is concerned with some of the disadvantages his current high school seniors will endure in college and future jobs with a lack of technological resources being provided to them. He said his seniors are “extremely bright, hardworking, and care about their learning.” The lack of resources has resulted in students typing essays on their phones because they do not know how to on a computer. Evans said having technology also provides easy communication which makes the world a lot smaller and a better place. The defining moment for his generation is recalling life before smartphones yet also enjoying the ways it connects us to others in a way that people have never seen before. As for Generation Z individuals, they were raised with smartphones, the internet and social media. This generation has been able to experience major events together through their screens. Isabel Olivo, a sophomore at DePaul, said she remembers the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 amid the Covid-19 paranoia. She felt paralyzed watching the breaking news on
the TV with her mom and remembers most vividly the softness of her tears streaming down her cheeks. “I didn’t sob, I wasn’t shaking, but no matter what I did, my eyes wouldn’t stop leaking,” Olivo said. “I cried quietly, and silently, because it had happened yet again.” Olivo said the killing of innocent Black lives has been an ongoing occurrence in American history but the loss of Floyd helped solidify the idea to people that Black individuals are murdered at a higher rate than any other demographic group. Social media platforms have significantly helped fuel movements like the Black Lives Matter Movement, and young Black social media users are more likely to use sites like Twitter to engage in political activism according to Pew Research Center. Olivo said this tragic event binds Gen Z to the older generations who lived through the civil rights movement because of a similar sense of unity when fighting for the equity of Black lives. The emotional turmoil of this generation has led Gen Z to “ask the kinds of questions people would rather avoid discussing because we understand that difficult conversations need to happen if we want things to get better,” Olivo said. No matter the historical event, these shared experiences have the ability to change perceptions and create connections, allowing each generation to learn from the previous.
Generation Y This generation was born from 1981 to 1996. They are better known as “millennials” because they became adults at the end of the millenium. They are characterized as being tech savvy since they were raised during the rise of the internet and are adaptable because of the 2008 economic recession after or during college. Generation Z This generation was born from 1997 to 2012. They were born with technology integrated into their lives. They were raised amid the climate change crisis and intensifying police brutality. They are known to advocate for change. DAILY FREE PRESS | SOURCE
COURTESY OF ISABEL OLIVO | PHOTOS
(Featured in bottom right) Sophomore Isabel Olivo participated in a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest over the summer of 2020. Olivo said her generation, Generation Z, is invested in being activists for what they believe in.
16 | La DePaulia. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
La DePaulia
“El corazón de La Villita”
MARÍA MARTA GUZMÁN | LA DEPAULIA
El arco de La Villita esta ubicado en la Calle 26. Fue diseñado por el arquitecto mexicano Adrián Lozano y construido por Balti Contracting Co. en 1990.
Arco de La Villita se convierte en un nuevo monumento oficial, residentes expresan emociones encontradas
By María Marta Guzmán Jefa de Redacción, La DePaulia
Después de 31 años del arco de La Villita sirviendo como símbolo de la comunidad mexicana en Chicago, la estructura de terracota de dos pisos es ahora un símbolo oficial de la ciudad — pero los residentes de La Villita expresan emociones encontradas sobre la decisión. La votación final sobre la designación histórica del arco de La Villita se produjo el miércoles después de que el Concejo Municipal de Chicago diera la aprobación sin objeciones. Ubicada en la Calle 26, amada por la comunidad, el arco marca el comienzo de la franja de dos millas llena de panaderías, taquerías y tiendas familiares. Para algunos residentes mexicanos de La Villita como Ana Laura Saavedra, el arco simboliza la resiliencia de su comunidad. “Nuestra comunidad ha soportado tantas injusticias sociales y raciales, pero aún así nuestra gente continúa perseverando”, dijo Saavedra. “Cuando veo el arco, veo la rica cultura mexicana [y] también una sensación de nuevos comienzos”. Al crecer en La Villita, sus primeros recuerdos de la infancia son sobre el arco. A una tierna edad, recuerda pasar por debajo del arco con su madre cuando iba a citas médicas. “Ser hija de padres inmigrantes y crecer en La Villita me define”, dijo Saavedra. Para Saavedra el arco de La Villita es un mensaje de triunfo. Cuando Saavedra se graduó con su doctorado de la Universidad Johns Hopkins, ella posó bajo el arco demostrando a su comunidad
“[El arco] es el corazón de La Villita. No hay La Villita sin eso”.
Ana Laura Saavedra
Residente Mexicana de La Villita que no solo venció las adversidades, sino que también se enorgullece de sus raíces. “No podría haber hecho lo que hice sin mi educación”, dijo Saavedra. Aunque está orgullosa de que el arco esté siendo reconocido como un monumento oficial en toda la ciudad, ella dijo que el reconocimiento está “muy atrasado”. “[El arco] es el corazón de La Villita. No hay La Villita sin eso”, agregó. Otros residentes, como Ana Solano, de 27 años, tienen opiniones diferentes sobre la decisión tomada por el departamento de la Comisión sobre Chicago Landmark y el Concejo Municipal. Solano, quien ha sido residente de La Villita por más de 20 años y vive cerca de la Planta de Carbón de Crawford, dijo que aunque la decisión es histórica, ignora los problemas más importantes de la comunidad. “Creo que es genial que marquemos nuestro lugar en la historia, pero, de nuevo, también se siente muy performativo porque realmente no parece que sea algo sustancial con lo que las personas puedan mejorar sus vidas”, dijo Solano. Una organizadora en su tiempo libre con Únete La Villita, una organización de voluntarios que se enfoca en abogar por viviendas asequibles, Solano está más preocupada por la respuesta de la ciudad
a los desafíos de su comunidad. “La renta está subiendo”, dijo. “Muchos de nuestros vecinos están siendo desplazados. Con salarios bajos y aumentos de alquiler, se siente performativo.” “¿De qué sirve convertirlo en un monumento oficial si las personas que se están desplazando ni siquiera van a poder disfrutarlo, no va a ser un reflejo de la comunidad que está aquí”, agregó. Solano espera que los líderes de la ciudad y la comunidad tengan la misma iniciativa para trabajar en mejorar e invertir en las vidas de los residentes de La Villita. Según un documento de la Ciudad de Chicago, el arco de La Villita fue diseñado por el arquitecto mexicano Adrián Lozano y construido por Balti Contracting Co. en 1990. Con un costo de alrededor de $275,000, la estructura está configurada para parecerse a entradas arqueadas similares que se encuentran en las calles de México. El arco de La Villita tiene un arco anaranjado, dos torres de estuco con cúpula, pasajes en las aceras, un reloj mecánico, un patrón de diamantes en mosaico, un techo de tejas de arcilla naranja y un letrero de metal negro que dice “Bienvenidos A La Villita”. El concejal Michael D. Rodríguez
del Distrito 22 le dijo a La DePaulia por correo electrónico que, como residente de toda la vida de La Villita, está emocionado por la designación histórica. “El monumento oficial es un reconocimiento de la importancia de La Villita y de las comunidades mexicoamericanas e inmigrantes en nuestra región”, dijo Rodríguez. “Los mexicanos americanos de todo el Medio Oeste reconocen el arco con el mensaje ‘Bienvenidos A Little Village’, como un símbolo de su hogar.” Conocido a menudo como el “México del Medio Oeste,” los inmigrantes mexicanos comenzaron a llegar a La Villita y otros vecindarios a finales de la década del 1970. Según datos de la Oficina del Censo de EE. UU. y WBEZ, los latinos en Chicago son el segundo grupo más grande y representan el 29.9 por ciento de la población de la ciudad. “La Villita es donde cientos de miles de personas de ascendencia mexicana han vivido, trabajado, adorado o realizado negocios durante al menos las últimas siete décadas”, dijo Rodríguez. En un informe del 2020, el distrito comercial de dos millas que conforma la Calle 26 fue la segunda franja minorista con mayor recaudación en Chicago siendo superada solo por la Magnificent Mile, que es hogar de marcas lujosas y de alta gama. histórico reconocimiento “El un también es del arco de La Villita fortaleza y vitalidad la reconocimiento de económica de La Villita y de la comunidad mexicoamericana en el Medio Oeste de los Estados Unidos”, dijo Rodríguez. “Estoy feliz de que el arco haya recibido un estatus que honra su belleza arquitectónica y su importancia cultural”.
La DePaulia. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 17
Después de la muerte de Melissa Ortega, residentes exigen paz e inversión By Stephania Rodriguez Escritora, La DePaulia
Una semana después del tiroteo y muerte de Melissa Ortega, una niña de 8 años de La Villita, residentes y organizadores de la comunidad exigen paz y apoyo con recursos para salud mental y así poner fin a décadas de violencia dentro del barrio. Ortega caminaba con su mamá alrededor de las 2:45 p.m. en la cuadra 4000 oeste de la Calle 26 el 22 de enero, cuando recibió un disparo en la cabeza de una bala perdida. Ortega murió momentos después. Emilio Corripio, de 16 años, y Xavier Guzmán, de 27, son acusados por el asesinato de Ortega. Corripio, un miembro de la pandilla Latin King, tiene un historial de dos robos de coches y posesión de un vehículo robado, según James Murphy, el fiscal adjunto del Estado. Corripio abrió fuego contra un miembro rival de una pandilla, impactando a su objetivo pero también, l amentablemente, a la joven Ortega. Guzmán, un taxista, fue quien transportó a Corripio antes y después del tiroteo. Ahora ambos individuos están detenidos sin derecho a fianza. La comunidad de La Villita está devastada después que la vida de otro niño ha sido robada por la violencia sin sentido. Los residentes y los organizadores comunitarios realizaron una marcha de paz el sábado por la tarde a lo largo de la Calle 26. La marcha ocurrió desde el arco de La Villita hasta la esquina de la Calle 26 y Pulaski. La marcha se organizó para pedir clínicas de salud mental, centros juveniles, escuelas de comercio y programas extracurriculares. “Estamos aquí porque no podemos ser silenciados. Estamos sufriendo como comunidad”, dijo Balatzar Enríquez, presidente del Consejo Comunitario de La Villita. “Estamos cansados de esto. Estamos aquí y nos disparan”, dijo un hombre que apoyaba la marcha. “Recibí una bala aquí mismo y un montón de estos tipos aquí tienen agujeros de bala. Y no hay cambios”. La comunidad de La Villita dijo que
STEPHANIA RODRIGUEZ| LA DEPAULIA
Residentes de La Villita trajeron flores y velas a la esquina oeste de la calle 26 y sur de la Pulaski donde Melissa Ortega murió. están trabajando para abrir una clínica de salud mental en el vecindario con servicios gratuitos. Según el Chicago Tribune, Enríquez dijo que pidió a los residentes su apoyo para agregar un referéndum a la boleta electoral para crear un impuesto a la propiedad que ascendería, en promedio, a $14 al año por hogar para recaudar fondos para la nueva clínica. El consejo planea pedir a los gobiernos locales y estatales que igualen los fondos de la comunidad para ayudar, dijo Enríquez. El concejal Michael D. Rodríguez, del Distrito 22 que cubre parte de La Villita, elogió la cooperación y colaboración de la comunidad de La Villita que llevó a la policía a las dos personas acusadas del asesinato de Melissa. La comunidad también ayudó a la familia Ortega a recaudar fondos a través de
GoFundMe para gastos funerarios. Se han recaudado más de $80,000 y la cantidad sigue aumentando. Mensajes de donantes como “que dios guarde a esta familia” y “nuestro más sentido pésame, en eterna paz descanse la princesita,” están escritos en el sitio web. Más de 2,000 personas han donado Rodriguez habló con La DePaulia sobre sus creencias sobre cómo responder a la violencia y el crimen en el vecindario. Él dijo que primero debemos abordar el tema de la “pobreza en el alma”. “¿Cómo se siente un adulto que está bien darle un arma a un niño de 16 años y cómo se siente un niño de 16 años que está bien, o una decisión racional, dispararle a alguien en la calle?”, dijo Rodríguez. “Hay un problema ahí con el pensamiento racional”. Rodriguez compartió una historia sobre un viaje en autobús escolar que hizo cuando
era niño con sus compañeros de clase al lago Michigan y recordó que para la mitad de ellos era la primera vez que veían el lago a pesar de vivir a unas pocas millas de distancia. “Es el hecho de que nuestros jóvenes están en este capullo y piensan que una vez que crecen, no tienen futuro”, dijo. “No están pensando a largo plazo en formar una familia y tener una carrera, vivir una vida larga o cuentas de jubilación. Lo que están pensando es solo lo que está frente a ellos”. Para ayudar a combatir el trauma y reducir la violencia en los vecindarios de la ciudad, Rodríguez dice que continúa impulsando inversiones para el apoyo a la salud mental, la prevención de la violencia y las organizaciones que ayudan a desmantelar las desigualdades sistémicas.
OPINIÓN: No te dejes conquistar por encabezados llamativos By Santiago Posada-Jaramillo Editor de Opinión, La DePaulia
Cuando empecé a investigar para escribir este artículo, nunca me imaginé qué tanto iba a cambiar la historia que tenía en la cabeza y mi perspectiva sobre el tema. Pasó de una exploración de los efectos del Reggaetón en el cerebro a enfrentarme con la compleja relación entre periodismo y ciencia. Pero, bueno, no nos adelantemos; vamos desde el comienzo. Todo inició por el título de una noticia compartida en redes sociales: El reguetón provoca mayor actividad cerebral que escuchar música clásica o folclore. Parecía un tema perfecto para tratar. Lo propuse al equipo, fue aceptado y me puse a investigar. No me tomó mucho tiempo empezar a dudar de la primera idea que había creado en mi mente con base en aquel título. No sé qué tan generalizado sea, pero era muy común para mí escuchar comentarios negativos hacia el Reggaetón. Hay muchas personas que lo ven como vulgar, misógino, mediocre, etc. Pero, claro, esto muchas veces viene de estereotipos que no aplican a todo artista o simplemente vienen del hecho de que el Reggaetón tiene sus orígenes en personas jóvenes, de color y de clases populares. Así que este primer título parecía contradecir estos estereotipos. Sonaba como la realidad dándole una cachetada a los prejuicios. Mientras leía este artículo,
más dudas me entraban sobre esto. La realidad nunca es tan sencilla. Decidí rastrear el artículo científico original y leerlo para poder sentirme cómodo al escribir sobre este tema. Y aquí fue donde empecé a ver que había una seria desconexión entre lo que estaba en el artículo de prensa que encontré en redes sociales y lo que decía el artículo científico en el que estaba basado. El artículo científico original hace una revisión muy cuidadosa de las variables que podían afectar en la medición (como, por ejemplo, la letra de las canciones, que fue removida para evitar interferencias) y hacían la medición de la activación de partes específicas como las relacionadas con la audición y el movimiento. Hablé con Jesús Martín-Fernández, neurocirujano español, compositor musical y uno de los autores de este estudio, y me dijo que “La diferencia con la prensa es que, casi todos, lo han enfocado desde una parte más morbosa que otra cosa. Como, ‘el Reggaetón activa más el cerebro’, pero es que no es real eso. (…) No podemos decir que activa más todo el cerebro porque no lo hemos analizado así, hemos analizado áreas de interés.” Y aquí yace el principal problema: la ciencia tiende a ser complicada y es imposible explicar fielmente sus hallazgos en un título y menos aún si su meta principal es atraer la atención del posible lector (un problema que solo empeora en internet). La Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), en un
artículo relacionado, dice al respecto: “(…) incluso los sitios de noticias aparentemente confiables lanzan titulares engañosos. Los titulares de editores rivales aparecen uno al lado del otro en nuestros teléfonos, compitiendo por los clics resultantes que impulsan los ingresos publicitarios. La verdad sin adornos no siempre es suficiente para captar nuestra atención. Los informes exhaustivos, detallados y precisos tienen que competir con el clickbait que fabrica respuestas emocionales, curiosidad y anticipación.” La razón por la que la mayoría de la gente no lee el artículo científico original de una noticia, es porque el lenguaje especializado de un área puede ser inaccesible para la mayor parte de la población. O como bien lo dijo Angie Espitia, neuropsicóloga clínica y profesora universitaria, especializada en desarrollo y vejez: “Yo creo que hay un bache o un desfase entre la forma en la que nosotros solemos hacer una comunicación en el contexto científico y la forma en la que se comunica en otros contextos. (…) Parece que se necesita un intérprete que traduzca la forma o el lenguaje propio de ciertas áreas a otras para que no haya malinterpretación.” Este intérprete debe ser el periodista. La divulgación científica es cada vez más importante y puede hacer mucho daño si no se hace de manera correcta y responsable. Esto es especialmente cierto cuando la gente toma decisiones que conciernen a su vida y su salud, según lo que leen en los medios. “Acá estamos hablando de la música y de su efecto en
JOCELYN | LA DEPAULIA
el cerebro, pero perfectamente podríamos estar comunicando con nuestra actualidad, como con el uso de las vacunas”, dijo Angie Espitia sobre esto. En conclusión, es importante que como lectores de noticias y miembros de la prensa busquemos fuentes con prestigio, comparemos con la fuente primaria (en este caso el artículo científico) y tomemos como banderas rojas afirmaciones que parecen reducir todo un estudio a un hallazgo simple. Especialmente, tengamos cuidado antes de compartir noticias sin haber revisado con cuidado qué tan confiables son las afirmaciones que hacen.
Arts & Life
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Topographies of sound MADDY MAES | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul freshman Emma Docken thumbs through vinyl records at Reckless Records, on of Chicago’s local music stores on Belmont
Sound quality, vintage asthetic of vinyl resonates to this day By Brandon Sun Yechout Asst. Arts and Life Editor
The delicate crackle of an aged record. The ceaseless hiss of ferric tape. Imperfections, but not obstacles. They act as invitations — passageways through to an intimate listening experience with analog mediums once forgotten. What’s drawn people back to the physical amidst the technological tumult of the digital age? To me, the experience of listening to music through analog mediums is one which cannot be emulated. It’s an experience which is in many ways difficult to describe, multifaceted as it is. This is because it transcends music. It’s a jewel case which beckons you from a cassette rack. It’s a ceremony — from the preparation of the stereo system to the moment the cassette’s spools begin to turn. And it’s a texture — a warmth, a fuzziness and occasional interferences which you come to memorize like landmarks in the soundscape of each album (in the case of vinyl, this is with respect to each album’s literal topography). What were once considered mundanities and compromises are now heralded as indispensable tactile experiences by a large subset of music aficionados. But many would also shudder at the thought of going back to such mediums. After all, for those who wanted to listen to music at home or on the go, such physical mediums were, for many years, the only option. Vinyl has a storied history, of course — one which can be traced back to the earliest days of sound recording. And for many years after the advent of the compact cassette — which replaced the decrepit 8-track as the dominant medium for portable listening — the two mediums happily co-existed. This is because neither encroached too far into the territory of the other. If you wanted quality, you’d purchase a record. If you wanted convenience (or you just wanted to spend less), you’d purchase a cassette tape. Many other physical mediums from this time exist, of course, and many of them also made use of magnetic tape — notably, digital rips of reel-to-reel recordings are still sought after by seasoned audiophiles. But then the compact disc — the CD — came along, and by the turn of
the millenium it had more or less exterminated its competition. It was also around the turn of the millenium that digital music began to take hold in a big way, which would eventually exterminate the CD and bring us to where we are now — where most music is streamed digitally. But something miraculous happened. In the early 2010s, a revival of the archaic medium of vinyl began to make waves. At that time thought of as a fad relegated to “hipsters” (for anyone who remembers that old term), vinyl began clawing its way back into the mainstream. Cassette, however — save for being one of the stars of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” series — did not follow suit. Paul Sondhaus is a Chicagoan and former collector of vinyl and cassette. While not actively collecting at the moment, Sondhaus’s passion for analog audio mediums has never yielded. “Vinyl is physically bigger [than cassette], and that somehow makes it seem more vintage … which is more like ‘hipster cool,’” Sondhaus said. “With vinyl you’re at home, whereas with cassettes it’s mobile. For vinyl collectors, it might be more like ‘[these records are] a part of my home.’” Sondhaus went on to say the process of collecting vinyl is “one hundred percent” a decorative one, though he mentioned it’s also the reason he sold his most recent collection. “It was taking up too much room.” Blake Drinen is a Chicagoan and collector of vinyl and cassette who sees much of the same aesthetic appeal in vinyl records. Drinen said that the tangibility of physical audio mediums has provided for him a valuable reconnection with the real amid the pandemic. “There’s something so refreshing about being able to step away from my computer or whatever screen I’m looking at. I go to my little shelf over here,” Drinen said, motioning to his stereo system and turntable. “I physically get to hold [the record] in my hand. I get to appreciate the album art up close, and then I get to take out the actual vinyl itself, which — what I also love about vinyl is that it comes in so many different colors and there are so many different styles of pressings … I feel like the actual vinyl itself is another form of art.”
Both Sondhaus and Drinen mentioned having previously visited Reckless Records, a record shop micro-chain local to the Chicagoland area. Steve Rahman, manager at Reckless Records on Madison Street, also zeroed in on vinyl’s tangible appeal in addition to its aesthetic. “There’s something different about owning a physical copy of any piece of art,” Rahman wrote. “Sure, you could stream it and have an excellent experience, but there’s a deliberate and ritual act required for playing a record. There’s something tactile about it, and that experience — of taking a record or CD or cassette from its case and playing it — is the thing that sometimes makes it more rewarding … One of the things about vinyl that makes it special is the large format artwork. I think another thing is that vinyl has a specific kind of ‘cool’ attached to it.” “The hype surrounding vinyl records is just so much higher than [it is for] cas-
settes,” Sondhaus noted. “[People] think of [cassette] as something that’s in the category of MiniDisc and 8-track — they see [cassette] as something that’s gone.” Sondhaus likens the vinyl record to a “status symbol” in the eyes of some collectors. “It’s still a sort of badge of honor to say ‘I have that on vinyl’ about an album and I don’t think that’s ever changed,” Rahman wrote. “The way that vinyl resurged in the 2010s — I honestly think that cassettes are going to have a very similar resurgence,” Drinen said. “Maybe not quite as explosive or as grandiose as vinyl’s … I feel like slowly but surely, it is beginning to pick up — and what I’m realizing now is that more and more of the artists that I follow are beginning to utilize cassettes. Artists are beginning to release their latest projects on cassette. And so while … the trajectory may have started with vinyl in the early 2010s, I feel like cassette is ever slowly but surely catching up.”
DONALD CROCKER| THE DEPAULIA
Reckless Records on Madison St, one of the three Reckless Records in Chicago
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ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
Seasonal depression affects productivity as well as mood By Nadia Hernandez News Editor
Winter marks the start of a couple gloomy months. As the weather starts to change and the sun comes out less often, everyone stays inside a little longer; it affects our emotions. In the Midwest, we can expect winter to last from late November to early March. L According to the Mayo Clinic, “Seasonal affective disorder symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the sunnier days of spring and summer. Less commonly, people with the opposite pattern have symptoms that begin in spring or summer. In either case, symptoms may start out mild and become more severe as the season progresses.” The mix of no sunlight and minimal outdoor activity can lead to seasonal affective disorder, sometimes known as “seasonal depression.” Individuals undergo symptoms of depression due to seasonal changes. With the stress of school combined with brutal Chicago winters, DePaul students are hit hard. Symptoms such as low energy and difficulty concentrating can affect overall produc-
tivity but also affect self-care, according to the Mayo Clinic. “I would say it makes it harder for me to be productive and sometimes even lessens my productivity of self-care,” DePaul sophomore Evelyn Hernandez said. “Like not caring how to dress because it’s too cold, not wanting to go get groceries, not wanting to go out for class but I have to.” Students are recognizing which behaviors they fall into while trying to pursue activities that promote their own well-being. “I kind of just stick with the awful feeling and stay in bed, watch YouTube videos or TikTok,” Hernandez said. “But some positives, I draw, journal, try to make myself something yummy, talk to a friend on the phone and drink hot cocoa or tea.” Seasonal affective disorder can be self-diagnosed, but the Mayo Clinic advises keeping positive patterns to maintain positive mental well-being. “Last year, I didn’t really know how to cope because we were already inside 24/7,” sophomore Natalie Lara said. “But now I’m trying to cope by taking more time to do indoor hobbies like sketching since we spend so
much time inside anyways. I think it’s a learning process to learn how to cope with it.” Although Chicago occasionally gets a sunny winter day, the overall gloominess affects our body’s natural melatonin and serotonin levels. Our internal biological clock is also thrown off by the early sunset, according to the Mayo Clinic. “It affects my whole mood; if it’s sunny outside I tend to get excited about my day and be productive, but when it’s gloomy I literally just want to crawl up in my bed and stay there,” sophomore Ayanaa Durani said. The quarter system requires students to be consistently productive throughout the entire 10 weeks. DePaul professors may overlook how hard it is to be productive during a mentally straining season. “My professors never really mentioned seasonal depression, so I myself am still unsure about what seasonal depression really is and why it happens and how to cope with it,” Hernandez said. “I think it would definitely be helpful for professors to talk about it or to have a workshop or activity that pertains to the seasonal depression topic.” DePaul’s Office of Health Promotion and
Wellness holds events encouraging mental health and well-being such as Mental Health First Aid Training and organization workshops. But individual professors may neglect to discuss mental health for their students. Some students struggle with guilt when they’re unable to be consistently productive — which is only magnified by the conditions for seasonal affective disorder. “I think it’s definitely possible to maintain a productive mindset all year round, but for people who may struggle mentally, it can be very hard to want to stay positive about productivity,” Hernandez said. “When we aren’t productive, we feel even more mentally exhausted because of the disappointment of not being productive enough.” Seasonal depression reveals external pressures to stay productive in the face of mental health. “I would say society should show days we aren’t productive and days we dedicate to do some self-care, sharing how people self-care to encourage others to do the same and not feel awful about not being productive,” Hernandez said. “Maybe in doing so, it can help motivate us to be productive.”
Chicago music venues have survived and adapted to the new normal By Milan Opsenica Contributing Writer
North Center neighborhood staple music venue and bar Martyrs’ was forced to close its doors in Mar. 2020 for over a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s just one of the many music venues across Chicago that have had to close their doors and find other ways to keep their businesses afloat. A lot of music venues pivoted to doing things like live-streaming, opening outdoor patios, or selling food out of their kitchens. “We had four months where it was like, really just totally closed, and then we opened up the patio space and it was literally, we didn’t even have a staff.” said Brennan Quinn, a manager at Martyrs’. Along with neighboring Mrs. Murphy’s Pub, Martyrs’ was able to open up an outdoor patio, and be able to put on shows again. They also started a GoFundMe, which raised almost $25,000 that went to keeping the bar open during the pandemic. “We’ve been around for a while,” Quinn said. “So people were super happy to help, and we were just so thankful.”
After the patio closed for the winter, Martyrs’ turned to selling pizzas using the bar’s kitchen. These pizzas allowed the business to stay open during the cold winter months. Old Town School of Folk Music, located in Lincoln Park, underwent similar struggles at the beginning of the pandemic. Like Martyrs’, they received financial support from the community that helped to keep the school going. “We’ve been very lucky that many of our long-time donors and members have continued to support the organization in a similar manner or in many cases an increased amount over the pandemic period so far,” said Dave Zibell, director of marketing at Old Town School of Folk Music. The school was able to transfer most of their classes and lessons onto an online medium, allowing people to partake in them safely from home. Before they were able to put on live shows again, the school pivoted to doing online workshops with well-known artists. Despite all this help, the pandemic was still extremely difficult for both Martyrs’ and Old Town School. So both venues were more than excited to finally be able to open their doors back up in the summer
of 2021. Old Town School was able to put on concerts inside again in Aug. 2021, and Martyrs’ was able to open its indoor venue in Sept. 2021. Both venues saw great success right off the bat, with tours able to come through once again. Martyrs’ was able to put on shows that had been rescheduled “three or four” separate times throughout the pandemic. About a year and a half of waiting and work culminated in a very successful fall season for both Martyrs’ and Old Town School. As a result of Covid-19, both venues had to drastically change their plans in 2022 . Old Town School has decided to move all classes online once again, and Martyrs’ has decided to take the month of January off. While this is a road bump for both businesses, they’re much more well prepared than they were last time. Old Town School has even found that the pandemic has allowed them to adapt to a whole new audience. “We did not teach any online classes until the start of the pandemic and that’s something we’ll continue to do going forward, which gives us an opportunity to offer programming to folks from all over the country and the
globe,” Zibell said. Martyrs’ had a similar experience with the opening up of their outdoor patio space. They feel like this outdoor space has the chance to feature “quieter music, acoustic music, much more family-oriented” a contrast to the “hard rock club” interior. Both venues are also looking forward to a return to Chicago summers as tours continue to make their way into the city. Chicagoans are just as ready as they always are to be able to go see live music. DePaul senior Caroline Sands is excited to be able to get back out and see shows in the summer. “Outdoor shows in the summer are preferred, but inside shows should hopefully be ok by then,” Sands said. “I’d think that I’d just like to be able to see a show anywhere that I can.” While the next month might be hard for these music venues, we can rest assured that they are much more well equipped to handle the storm. “This thing will be around for awhile, but we know that the world isn’t over,” Quinn said.
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TikTok steals readers from news outlets ART BY KIERSTEN RIEDFORD
By K iersten Riedford Focus Editor
TikTok: a social media platform where people can watch a video about nearly anything in a short span of time. Music, funny videos, dancing, animals, babies, advice, debates, sports, politics, activism and call-outs are all on TikTok. Even the news is on TikTok now. More and more TikTok users are beginning to rely on the platform for their news. Considering With the nature of TikTok, this is not surprising. Freshman Thea Chatelain said the root of receiving news from the platform is not finding entertainment in reading an article or watching the news. “I think students are using TikTok as a way to get their news because for them it is easier to go on the app and scroll through your for you page to watch the news on a 30-second video that is entertaining than going on the internet to search for the most up-to-date news and then to read articles about it,” Chatelain said. Adjunct professor Christina Steed said grabbing information from the platform is familiar to a lot of TikTok users which is why people are using the platform to receive their news nowadays. Steed said there are three reasons why TikTok videos are more enjoyable for receiving the news. “The shortness of the videos appeals to the way we live our lives,” Steed said. “It’s snackable, shareable and spreadable. It is really how we live our lives. It’s about how we can consume media but also how we have the ability to be viral or snackable and delve deeper into something.” Another reason as to why people are drawn to the platform itself, as well as receiving the news from the platform is that the content that is directed to the users on their for you pages revolves around what the users like, not who they follow. Ben Epstein, associate professor of political science, said this helps users learn about topics that they like both from an educational and entertaining point of view. “Tik Tok is designed so that it gives you things that you like based on a really complex algorithm that it is not based on who you know, which is a central feature of so many other platforms,
but it’s based on what you like,” Epstein said. “TikTok is able to measure that in so many really interesting and sophisticated ways based on what seems to be a very simple system but it learns things that you like all these different criteria that you might not even know that you like yourself.” But, while this can be beneficial for TikTok users so they can view content they are interested in, there is a vast amount of information users can not be presented with if they are not looking at a news outlet’s information directly. Steed said there is a lack of information users have when they rely on only TikTok for their news. “If we think about how students go to the library — when I was in school you would go to the library look at the book on the shelf and then you’d see the books that were around that book that could help to inform either your research or a topic that you’re interested in,” Steed said. “You miss out on that opportunity when you don’t get the full paper because you’re seeing the news and your feed based on what you want to follow based on what you want to see so there is that kind of issue where you don’t necessarily broaden unless you were intentional about because that’s the type of news that you want to see.” While there is the downside of not being presented with all the potential information like news outlets’ websites have when relying on TikTok for news, there are many benefits. Steed said the amount of voices TikTok users get to hear about different types of news lets people hear from more than just professional journalists. But, Steed suggests that when people listen to these diversified voices, the viewer must be critical about the news they are receiving. “Given how diversified the media is and how this democratization of voices it is incumbent upon us as readers, as consumers of information and news to seek out diverse voices,” Steed said. “It’s not just for us, it’s ‘What is the other side thinking and talking about?’ so we can become critical thinkers as we think about the news.” Chatelain said she likes the diversity on TikTok, especially in the content she receives. But, she said it can be hard to not trust everything that comes across on her for you page, so she has to do ex-
MADDY MAES | THE DEPAULIA
Emily Stahl, a DePaul Junior on the Brown line scrolling through Tik Tok tra work to make sure the news she is receiving is real. “The best part about getting news through social media like TikTok is that you find news that you would have never been aware of if it were not for the app, it can be good news or sad and devastating news. The worst part is that you will believe everything you see and hear on your for you page if you do not search the news further on your own to see if it is reliable or not. The brain will register misleading information without knowing and you will transfer it to others who will also believe it.” Epstein said creators that have a record of reporting or informing others about what their videos are about are typically more trustworthy than others. He also said news outlets on TikTok are some trustworthy sources. But, regardless of the trust, someone puts in a news outlet or creator, he agreed that users
should be cautious of the information they take in from the platform. “I would love for people to be more thoughtful about the information they are consuming, where they are getting sources and being more critical and thoughtful about them,” Epstein said. “There is an important spectrum between pure entertainment, on one hand, and hard factual information, on the other. It’s really great to have information that could be useful or more interesting or more personalized. It also requires a little bit more critical thinking on the part of the user to say ‘How does this fit into what I already know and how trustworthy is this?’ Or, maybe this is just for fun. It’s a one-minute or maybe three-minute video. You can get a lot of information there but there’s not a lot of fact-checking that goes on.”
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PHOTO BY LUCAS MADLANGBAYAN | THE DEPAULIA
In response to Covid-19 concerns,large gaming expos like Japan’s Tokyo Game Show and E3 have moved to online-only formats to keep atttendants safe.
E3 announces online-only event due to COVID-19 concerns: DePaul students react By Lucas Madlangbayan Contributing Writer
In the far-off past of 2019, 66,100 people flocked to the Los Angeles Convention Center for the latest video game press conferences. A sea of unmasked, non-socially distanced people cheered as Keanu Reeves stepped out of a cloud of fog to present the then-highly anticipated “Cyberpunk 2077” in an announcement that would live on in meme history. This was E3 2019, the last year the Electronic Entertainment Expo — referred to as E3 — was in-person. Second-year community psychology graduate student Matt Buerckholtz has followed E3 news since he was young. “Back then people would always call E3 like the ‘Christmas of video games’ or whatnot, because it would just be this one day where all this news is just thrown out there for people to get excited for,” Buerckholtz said. “As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve gotten a better understanding of people in game development and how the industry works. I’ve had a little bit better of an understanding when companies started to slowly pull out or soften their presence at E3.” E3’s organizers, the Electronic Software Association, announced on Jan. 6 that the video game trade show would be an online-only event for the third year in a row. The pandemic forced many conventions and expos to adapt or cancel. In response to Covid-19 concerns, large gaming expos like Japan’s Tokyo Game Show and E3 have moved to online-only formats to keep attendants safe. “There’s disappointment, but also, I feel like it is the smart move,” Asko Skladany, a DePaul animation major with a minor in game design, said. “You know, there’s always the disappointment, because part of the whole experience of going to like a big convention like that is just seeing all the people, you know, convention goers, all the people from the industry, and all of just the cool stuff that you can interact with in person. But I feel like moving it online also makes it more accessible in a way that way you don’t have to, you know, it’s not pinpointed to one location.”
Companies have shifted to online broadcasts to showcase updates and announcements, such as Sony’s State of Play and Nintendo’s Nintendo Direct. “I feel like a lot of things are just shifting to online, so I think I’ve just become accustomed to it,” Maggie Vallone, a game design graduate student said. “It’s really just a slight disappointment that you won’t be able to see big displays and stuff like that. But at the same time, I think it’s just now kind of more normalized.” With Sony and EA stepping away from E3 and companies moving to online presentations, what was once the “Christmas of video games,” is now being called “less and less relevant,” with some asking if it is still “needed.” “E3 isn’t really ‘necessary’ per se, it’s more that it’s ‘helpful,’” junior and game design major Luis Mojica said. “Having a set date for things to be announced gives studios big and small a deadline that they’ll want to reach. Like, by E3, they want to have a kickass trailer or a kickass demo in order to be able to show it off to people to get them excited for their game. E3’s just a huge marketing event. Because it’s marketing, it’s not necessary, but it definitely doesn’t hurt.” Meanwhile, Vallone sees E3 as a good base for different gaming events such as IndieCade, a festival for independent games. In past years, IndieCade held showcases at E3 and brought innovative independent games to the industry’s attention. “[E3]’s still good to have just to have because it’s trusted,” Vallone said. “That’s compared to like, some of the smaller reveals and stuff like that. But it is kind of large in the sense that you kind of just pick out the times of specific companies and game developers. You don’t choose to really see the newer stuff.” E3’s announcement came at a crucial time for game developers, as Microsoft — a repeat presenter at E3 — acquired Activision Blizzard in the midst of union efforts. Skladany hopes that the focus will shift to pushing for better rights for developers in the workplace. “With all of the absolute storm of very bad things that have come to light in a lot of big studios, I’m just kind of excited to
see where it goes from that,” Skladany said. “I’m optimistic that that will kind of be a turning point to help really push for better rights for developers in the workplace and you know, avoiding crunch and overworking and like just the horrible workplace ex-
periences and environments that you hear about from all the press that’s been going on right now.”
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ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
We made it through January — where do our resolutions go from here? By Leslie Williamson Contributing Writer
New Year’s resolutions promise big changes and sparkling improvements, but sticking to them is easier said than done. Now that January has come to a close — how did you do? If Chicago winter blues have gotten the best of you despite your best intentions, don’t worry — you don’t have to give up your goals, and you certainly don’t have to feel disappointed. The phrase “new year, new me” goes around every January, but in 2022, we’re still dealing with the same feelings of exhaustion and uncertainty regarding ofbrought on by the pandemic. After another hard year, people seemed to approach New Year’s resolutions in a way that’s more compassionate and more realistic. Hannah Eastman, a second-year graduate student at DePaul, has centered her resolution this year on self-care. “One of my New Year’s resolutions was to make more time for myself and not say ‘yes’ to everything,” she said. Eastman said that after staying at home all of 2020, she felt like she had to overcompensate in 2021 when it came to making plans. “I got really burnt out by the end of the year,” she said. The feeling seems to be fairly universal. After the end-of-the-year holiday stress, the idea of doing even more, especially in the middle of yet another pandemic winter, seemed a bit ridiculous. “It could be really overwhelming to even just have that number change, going from 2021 to 2022,” she said. “It’s like, oh gosh, what do I have to accomplish this year?” Carlos Medina, a professional lecturer at DePaul with eight years of experience in clinical mental health counseling, explained how the idea of a New Year’s
resolution can have a negative impact on mental health. The “new year, new me” mentality often comes with an unhealthy pressure to be constantly comparing yourself to others and constantly improving. Medina said that struggling to meet extravagant New Year’s goals can make someone feel exhausted trying to live up to an ideal, and guilty if they’re unable
agrees that fatigue from the pandemic has changed the way he looks at the idea of goal-setting and steered him away from the self-improvement “hustle culture.” “It’s hard not to get super depressed and existential about everything,” he said. “The climate crisis, the pandemic … In the end, it just feels kind of pointless to set goals or resolutions.”
PHOTO BY MADDY MAES | THE DEPAULIA
The Phrase of “new year, new me” goes around every january, but in 2022, we’re still dealing with the same feelings of exhaustion regarding the pandemic.
to do so. “It can spiral into this idea of ‘you’re doing something wrong, you’re not good enough,’” he said. Add on the increased strain from living with COVIDovid-19, and many people are left feeling like the inspiration of a new year is too demanding and simply unrelatable. “Lately it’s just ‘let’s get through the day’ or ‘let’s get through the week,’” Eastman said. Noah Simmons, a senior at DePaul,
But despite how much they may weigh people down in the form of a New Year’s resolution, goals can be a powerful tool during stressful times when used in the right way. “I’m trying to do things to better myself to sort of take my mind off of everything in the world,” Simmons said. When things seem unpredictable and overwhelming, making attainable goals can help keep feelings of chaos at bay. As someone who works in Chicago Public Schools, Eastman is especially fa-
miliar with the stress and unpredictability many people are feeling right now. “It gives you power in the uncertainty to be able to check the small things off your list,” Eastman said. So, how do you make goals without all of the negative side effects? Setting healthy goals means abandoning a lot of New Year’s resolutions’ main characteristics — make them attainable, make them year-round and focus on self-care rather than self-improvement. Medina suggested using S.M.A.R.T. goals, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and TimeBound. Keeping these elements in mind can turn a goal from an unattainable ideal to a specific activity you can easily add into your routine. His other suggestion is to get rid of the year-long timeframe and instead do weekly or monthly check-ins with yourself to set goals. Simmons isn’t a fan of year-long resolutions either, and instead makes goals for every school quarter. As a film and television major, his goal this time around is to spend more time being creative. “The big piece of all of this is take care of yourself,’’ he said, advising people to make goals for things they genuinely want to do, and overall, to give themselves some grace. Medina even said that he wishes our society would get rid of New Year’s resolutions entirely. “There’s something really funny about this idea that January 1 is the ‘new me,’” he said. “What’s stopping us from just trying something different tomorrow?” “And if you don’t do it tomorrow, that’s cool too.”
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Mason Ramsey’s comeback is something the world didn’t know it needed By Chinyere Ibeh Contributing Writer
Mason Ramsey, otherwise known as the “Yodel Kid,” has been quite popular on TikTok lately. “Before I Knew It,” one of his songs from his 2019 five-song EP “Twang,” is making its rounds as part of a new viral sound. A now working class kid who works for Subway, Ramsey finds himself becoming a viral sensation yet again. Ramsey originally went viral in March 2018 for yodeling “Lovesick Blues,” as made famous by Hank Williams, in a Harrisburg, Illinois Walmart. Plenty of remixes and a social media frenzy ensued. Ramsey proceeded to perform at festivals, most notably Coachella in 2018, and did various television appearances. He also became the youngest country artist to be signed to a major label. Almost four years after his initial rise to fame, the Illinois native became a viral hit for the second time. Upon hearing a snippet of “Before I Knew It” on TikTok, I immediately ran to Spotify to listen to the full version. When searching for the song, I found “Twang,” the five-song EP I mentioned earlier. The first song, “Twang,” features Ramsey’s famous yodel during its chorus. Ramsey brags about how a girl likes his music and the way he plays the guitar. Both the song and corresponding music video depict
Ramsey impressing a girl. Another song, “Puddle of Love,” has Ramsey singing his heart out as he’s experiencing puppy dog love. Rather than an acoustic guitar like “Twang,” “Puddle of Love” features an electric guitar. In the middle of the song, there’s an entire guitar solo which I found amusing. It features a softer approach as opposed to the high-pitched guitar solos of metal rock songs, which I thoroughly The guitar solo was comforting and it invites listeners to sway rather than mosh — nothing against mosh pits, though. The next song is yet another love song, this time describing how he’d do anything to be with his girl. “How Could I Not” has Ramsey wanting to spend any given moment with this girl — he’d even drop his own plans if necessary. Ramsey sings: “Wanna ditch my plans // Come hold your hand, and spend all afternoon.” He also begins the song by describing a scenario where he’d be willing to go see a country band out west if he could go with her and without any of their friends. He mentions how he’ll be ready in five minutes and he’ll even have a playlist ready for the drive. “On My Way” takes a different tone than the rest of the EP. Rather than focus on the puppy dog love Ramsey experiences, the song focuses on an existential aspect of life.
ART BY ALICIA GOLUSZKA
Ramsey mentions how he would want to skip ahead to the good parts of life. The chorus has Ramsey wanting to enjoy every single second of life while also trying to look ahead at what’s next. He sings: “On my way up the mountain // I wanna look around it // Takin’ every sunset before it fades // As fast as I am goin’ // I wanna stop and smell the roses // Make every memory I can make.” Ramsey also mentions how he takes two steps forward while taking four steps back. He sings about walking in circles. Though he’s made wrong turns along the way, he knows that it’s led him to where he’s at right now and that it isn’t half bad. Even though he experiences restlessness and setbacks, he knows that his current standings in life aren’t as bad as they could be. The song is slower-paced than the other songs, as the rest of the album is bubbly and upbeat. The song serves as an introspective look as to where Ramsey is right now and where he sees himself going. The last song, “Before I Knew It,” fea-
tures a banjo. The song goes back to the topic of love and chivalry. He describes the nice things he wants to do for the person he loves. The upbeat country song has that charm and it’s understandable why it went viral on TikTok. The pop-country EP has the typical country sound and follows a young boy navigating love and his life as it is now. Pop-country seems to be the way to go as a country artist because it’s the easiest way to stay within the mainstream while still being unique to one’s sound. Even though there’s the pop aspect, he still has the uniqueness of his yodeling. Adding a pop aspect to a song or genre could make it more accessible to the masses. With that logic, it’s clear as to why Ramsey’s song is a popular sound on TikTok. Starting in the aisles of Walmart, Ramsey has shown his potential and one can only wait to see him reach his peak.
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24 | Arts & Life. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
St.Vincent’s
D e JAMZ
PHOTOS COURTESY OF WIKI
“Spinning fresh beats since 1581” By Brandon Sun Yechout Asst. Arts and Life Editor
When it comes to music that moves, few can match the appeal of classic J-pop. The genre known as “city pop” — that being ‘70s and ‘80s adult-oriented J-pop which drew heavy influence from trends in Western music — has witnessed a miraculous resurgence in the West over the past half-decade, owing to the invisible hand of YouTube’s algorithm inexplicably guiding tens of millions of users to old city pop albums. Whether you’re a lover of classic J-pop already or interested in exploring something you might not normally listen to, here are five city pop tunes that I think are worth checking out. “Stay With Me” by Miki Matsubara By far the most popular song from Miki Matsubara, “Stay With Me” is a sta-
ple of any classic J-pop playlist. If you’ve dabbled before, this is almost certainly a song you’ve seen. If not, then it’s as good a place as any to start — groovy as it is cheesy and sentimental, “Stay With Me” captures much of the genre’s appeal in a single song. “Telephone Number” by Junko Ohashi Junko Ohashi’s “Telephone Number” is another great place to start. Also a staple of classic J-pop playlists, this is one of the jazzier tunes I’m featuring here. “Telephone Number” is simply quintessential city pop though and through — and I absolutely love that saxophone solo. “Last Summer Whisper” by Anri It’s difficult to pick only one song from Anri — her funk and disco infused discography has become a large part of the Western conception of classic J-pop. For
Crossword
my pick, though, I opted for one of her slower songs — “Last Summer Whisper” is a sentimental pop ballad that always manages to put me in a mellow mood. “Summer Connection” by Taeko Ohnuki From her album “Sunshower,” Taeko Ohnuki’s “Summer Connection” is another excellent tune — bringing the best of ‘70s pop and yacht rock sensibilities together with Ohnuki’s silky smooth vocals. If you like the sound of it, the rest of the album’s worth checking out as well. It’s more of an acquired taste as far as city pop goes, though. Ohnuki’s brand of city pop is definitely unique. “Love Was Really Gone” by Makoto Matsushita Speaking of yacht rock, “Love Was Really Gone” is possibly the least-known song on this list. But it’s a good one, just as ACROSS 1. Horror film staple 5. Weakens 9. Can 12. Greedy 13. Vivacity 14. Australian runner 15. Table game 17. Zilch 18. Chart 19. Liszt’s “La Campanella,” e.g. 21. Beater 24. Sweat source 26. Part of cooker 27. Make, as money 29. Stat 33. Evolution subject 34. Use elbow grease on 36. Self center 37. Words 39. Prying 40. Stir-fry pan 41. Coral ridge 43. Dirty 45. Platters 48. The “p” of m.p.h. 49. Green 50. Spanish girls 56. Put on TV 57. The America’s Cup trophy, e.g. 58. Kind of water 59. Use 60. Colorful salamander 61. Laugh-a-minute
sleekly produced and with bass that slaps just as much as any other. If you’re already acquainted with the songs above and are looking to dig a little deeper into city pop, I’d recommend that you check out “First Light,” the album this song appears on.
DOWN 1. Go on and on 2. Fertility clinic stock 3. Fix, in a way 4. Dutch exports 5. Trickle out 6. Start and end of the Three Musketeers’ motto 7. Barney, to Fred 8. Contemptuous look 9. Course listing 10. Surrounded by 11. Christmastime 16. Movie shots 20. Twinings product 21. Second baseman 22. Bill Clinton’s birthplace 23. Surefooted goat 24. 86 is a high one 25. Obligation 28. Teen spots? 30. Wrapped (up) 31. Awestruck 32. Slow 35. Golf ’s ___ Cup 38. Attempt 42. Ruhr Valley city 44. March marchers 45. Duffer’s obstacle 46. Commuter line 47. Not straight 48. Left at sea 51. Ram’s mate 52. Without precedent 53. Besides 54. Bustle 55. Posed
Sports
Sports. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 25
Women’s basketball: Morrow’s historic night gives DePaul 10th conference win
85-65 By Joshua Hicks Asst. Sports Editor
DePaul’s freshman forward Aneesah Morrow’s historic night led the way to the team’s 85-65 win against conference rival Seton Hall. The team is now 18-5 and 10-2 in conference play. The team had a hot start to the game. Senior guard Sonya Morris came out the gate swinging with a jumpshot to give the team a 2-0 lead. Senior guard Lexi Held, graduate guard Deja Church and Morrow jumped on the scoreboard with three consecutive scoring possessions to help extend the lead 8-6. Church then sank the three point basket to extend the lead 11-8. Following the three-point basket, Held drove down the lane and scored on a scooping left hand layup to extend the lead 13-11. Morris shot the three-point basket on a transition fast break to extend the lead 16-13 before the first media break. Coming out of the timeout, Morris put the moves on the Seton Hall center, scoring on a fastbreak layup to give the team a 18-16 lead. Next, junior guard Kierra Collier shot the three-point jumpshot to give the team a 21-16 lead. Morrow scored on the next two possessions, helping the Blue Demons on a 7-0 run to extend their lead 25-16. Seton Hall goes on 6-0 run to finish the quarter, with DePaul still on top. At the end of the first quarter, the Blue Demons were up 25-22. The team shot 61 percent from the field and 50 percent from the threepoint line. Morris led the way with 11 points. Church followed Morris with five points, while Morrow contributed
four points. The team dominated in the fastbreak department, but DePaul’s offense struggled in the second quarter. Morrow did not score the team’s first bucket at the seven and a half minute mark of the quarter. The team also committed seven unforced turnovers, slowing down the team’s offensive production. The defense also struggled to defend in the paint, allowing Seton Hall’s Sidney Cook to score 22 of the team’s 35 points. But the team found life halfway through the quarter, going on a 9-0 run thanks to Church starting the spark plug with a left-hand fastbreak layup and Morris following suit with a three-point basket of her own to give the team a 3228 lead. Held’s layup added to the team’s lead. The team was up 34-28 with 4:55 left in the half. At the 3:30 mark, Church scored a jumpshot off the inbounds play to extend their lead 36-29. DePaul then went on a scoring drought before Morrow scored on a jumpshot from the post to give the team a 38-35 lead at the half. The team finished the first half shooting 47 percent from the field and 30 percent from the three-point line. The second half became the Morrow show, helping DePaul’s offense pick up while their defense intensified. The second half started with a defensive stop that led to a Morris layup, giving the team a 40-35 layup. From this point, Morrow began to heat up offensively. She followed suit with an “And-1” to extend the team’s lead to six, 43-37. Afterwards, her scoring efforts continued with three consecutive
MICKY BRAEGER | THE DEPAULIA
Aneesah Morrow dribbling around a Northwestern player in the team’s win on Nov. 21. rebounds off her own misses before finally scoring a layup. The next play, she collected the offensive rebound off the sophomore guard Darrione Rogers miss to give the team a 47-39 lead. Seton Hall went on a 6-0 run before Morris hit the three to extend the lead to 50-44. Morrow scored again in the post to extend the lead to 52-46. Morris hits another jumpshot to extend the lead to eight, 54-46. Held threw an assist to Church in the fastbreak to extend the lead to 10, 58-48. Morris hit the jumper to give the Blue D emons a 60-54 lead. Church followed suit with a three-point basket to extend the lead to nine, 63-54. Morrow stole the ball and scored on the fastbreak layup to extend the lead to double digits. The team goes on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter. DePaul finished the third
quarter with a 65-54 lead. Church started the fourth quarter with a layup to give the team a 67-54 lead. Church scores on a mid range jumpshot to give the Blue Demons a 70-59 lead. Off the Morrow offensive rebound, Morris hit the three to extend DePaul’s lead to 12. Collier scored off the give and go with Morrow and Church scores on a layup to contribute to a 10-0 run that gives the team a 19 point lead before sealing the deal with the win. Morrow finished the game with 22 points and 27 rebounds, breaking the Big East record for most rebounds by a player in a game. Morris finished the game with 26 points. Church had 20 points while Held had nine points. The Blue Demons next game is Friday at 7:00 p.m. against Creighton.
DePaul Esports triumphant in Vincentian Cup By Lily Lowndes Social Media Editor
DePaul University’s Overwatch and Rocket League teams battled hard to win the Vincentian Cup last week. The Electronic Gaming Federation (EGF) hosted the tournament for its three Vincentian Universities: DePaul, St. John’s and Niagara University. The two-day tournament started on Jan. 22 with an Overwatch matchup between DePaul and St. Johns. After five rounds, the Blue Demons fell 3-2 to the Red Storm. “DePaul struggled to make late series adjustments to their team composition,” said Zachary “V1nson” Vinson, one of the sportscasters for the tournament. “They took far too long to swap in order to counter the Echo play of [St. John’s] and were unable to find a cohesive answer for the Winston-Zarya tank line.” Despite losing, DePaul made up serious ground since they last played against St. Johns, which was a 3-0 sweep. “You could definitely tell DePaul Overwatch has improved,” Maggie Vallone, team manager and vice president of the Overwatch board, said. “The team synergy and commu-
PHOTO COURTESY OF EGF’S TWITCH
nication has gotten better.” In the final tie-breaking match of the Overwatch series, DePaul made several large-margin rebounds in the king-of-thehill style control map. In a control map, both teams aim to climb percentage points until one team reaches 100 percent. DePaul faltered in the last map but remained persistent against St. John’s. The Blue Demons bounced back from large point deficits, taking control of the map when St. Johns
was at 99 percent and they were at 0 percent. “In Overwatch, it’s quite difficult to turn around a team’s performance in a short amount of time, but that’s exactly what DePaul did,” said Billy “Chef Billy” Green, the other Overwatch sportscaster for the Vincentian Cup. Despite bouts of strength to catch up to St. Johns, DePaul ultimately lost all three games in the last map. The Rocket League portion of the invita-
tional was on Jan. 23. DePaul’s Rocket League team beat Niagara 3-0 in the first series, advancing to the championship match against St. John’s. The Blue Demons again won the series 3-0, pulling ahead in the tournament and ultimately winning the Vincentian Cup. Joey Puyear has been a member of the DePaul Rocket League junior varsity team for two years but has substituted for the varsity team a handful of times, including playing in the Vincentian Cup. “To beat St. John’s, we really just focused on keeping our communication strong and our confidence level high,” Puyear said. “This win is a great start to our winter split. It gives all of our teams the confidence to keep improving and working hard in order to achieve bigger tournament wins.” According to the EGF’s Twitch, DePaul was the Vincentian Cup champion by two points overall, as each team got one point per game won and two points for winning the series. DePaul finished first with 12 points, St. John’s came in second with 10 points and Niagara, which only competed in the Rocket League portion, came in last with zero points.
26 | Sports. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022
Men’s basketball: DePaul’s Big East struggles continue with loss to UConn
57-50 By Darcy Waskiewicz Sports Editor
DePaul men’s basketball conference game struggles continued on Saturday when they lost to UConn 57-50 to go to 1-9 in Big East play. With top scorer senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty out of the lineup with an injury, other players needed to step up. And on Saturday, it was graduate student forwards Javan Johnson and Brandon Johnson who led the team. Javan finished with 18 points, while Brandon had 14. However, their efforts were not enough to beat an aggressive and strong UConn team. The game started slow for the Blue Demons as the Huskies dominated from tip-off and scored the first seven points of the game. However, a second-chance layup by senior forward Yor Anei put the Blue Demons on the board, and Brandon Johnson immediately followed up with a 3-point jumper, putting DePaul in the game. After the Blue Demons’ opening shot, the team began to show life, and were diving on the floor and battling for balls to secure possession. Javan tied the game at seven, before he scored a jumper to give DePaul their first lead. DePaul continued to power ahead while playing with more energy than they had all game. The team was getting rebounds and scoring off of turnovers, and went on a 6-0 point run. Sophomore forward David Jones added to the lead by getting his own rebound to make a second-chance layup, followed by a dunk by junior center Nick Ongenda to make the score 20-13. However, UConn began to challenge with a point streak of their own, going 8-0 late in the first half while the Blue Demons struggled to connect on their
side of the court. The Blue Demons had too many fouls, allowing the Huskies to pull ahead with more offensive opportunities, before two free throws by Javan broke DePaul’s point drought. A buzzer beater by the Huskies at the end of the first half pulled UConn within one point of DePaul to make the score 29-28. Brandon and Javan finished the first half with nine points each. The second half was all UConn. While the Blue Demons were able to stay in the game, the Huskies dominated and DePaul was never able to catch up. UConn came out flying to start the second, and took the lead with the first basket of the second half before continuing their offensive success, while the Blue Demons struggled to sink a basket in the second half. A 3-point jumper by Javan snapped the Blue Demons’ scoring drought, but the Huskies still continued to dominate, getting rebounds and making the second-chance baskets that the Blue Demons were struggling to make. The Blue Demons went on a stretch where the team did not score for two and a half minutes until Brandon snapped that scoring drought with two free throws, followed by two free throws by Anei to cut UConn’s lead to seven late in the game. However, DePaul was not able to keep the ball in their end of the court for the finals minutes of the game, and UConn took advantage of that by getting rebounds and using up time with ball possession. “I credit DePaul, those guys are athletic. Tony’s doing an unbelievable job, you know, down [Freeman-]Liberty, to put up that kind of game,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “Tony’s really got some good things going here, but, [if ] you play some elite defense and rebound the heck out of DePaul, you’ve
BEN ZEBROWSKI | THE DEPAULIA
Javan Johnson trying to get a shot past a UConn player in the team’s loss on Jan. 29. got a chance to win every game you play.” DePaul struggled with scoring, but their ability to draw fouls and sink free throws helped keep the Blue Demons in the game. The team finished the night going 16-25 on free throws. “We’ve got to get the ball moving,” head coach Tony Stubblefield said. “We’re taking too many tough, challenging shots at certain times, shots off the dribble, and we’ve got to move the ball and continue to stay in our offense and not break down off of that, and get the best shot that we can get from our offense.” Brandon and Anei had eight rebounds each. From the Huskies, graduate student guard R.J. Cole led both teams with 25 points. “Javan is really coming into his own,” Stubblefield said. “He’s only been with us for about a month, a little over a month, so now he’s getting acclimated from what we want from an offensive standpoint and defensive standpoint,
DAVID JONES, continued from back page praised Jones for his leadership and work ethic, expressing faith that Jones will break out of his offensive slump over time. “David is a competitor,” Stubblefield said after their conference loss to UConn. “I think he has been working extremely hard. He is not being as productive offensively as he would like to be, but he will get there. He just has to stay positive; he’s been great for us.” Teammate sophomore guard Jalen Terry talked about how his relationship with Jones has helped him throughout the season, including on the court during Freeman-Liberty’s absence. “On the court [Jones] plays hard,” Terry said. “He tells us to be tough and brings us energy. He makes sure everybody is playing tough. “It is fun knowing that David has my back and I have his and he has everybody else’s back. It’s fun to be around him.” Terry is thankful for Jones’ positivity. Whenever he has a bad game, Jones’ comfort helps Terry improve in preparation for the next game. “[Jones] tells me to keep my head up,” Terry said. “When I don’t play well he always tells me to keep my head up.” Although there is not a timetable for Freeman-Liberty’s return, Jones
and he’s getting more comfortable in what we’re asking him to do. He’s only going to continue to get better.” The Blue Demons have a week off before the team takes on Xavier on Saturday. The team then faces Georgetown at home on Feb. 9.
Upcoming Events
Men’s Basketball: -Feb. 5 at Xavier, 1 p.m.
Women’s Basketball: -Feb. 4 vs. Creighton, 7 p.m. -Feb. 6 vs. Providence, 2 p.m.
Track and Field -Feb. 4-5 at Meyo Invitational
Women’s Tennis -Feb. 5 vs. Cincinnati, 3 p.m.
Men’s Tennis -Feb. 5 vs. Saint Louis DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul sophomore guard David Jones dribbling around a Seton Hall player on Jan. 13. emphasized that when FreemanLiberty comes back, he’s not changing his leadership style. He will continue to do whatever it takes to help the team win. “I can help the team in many ways,” Jones said. “Even when I am not scoring
the ball or not playing, I can always play defense when Javon is scoring the ball. I can rebound. I can talk through the game and keep everyone together.”
-Feb. 5 vs. Purdue
Club Hockey: -Feb. 4 vs. Illinois, 8:30 p.m. -Feb. 5 vs. Illinois, 3:30 p.m.
Sports. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 27 MORROW, continued from front page ‘I felt like she listened more’ Basketball is in the Morrow family’s genes. Long before Aneesah Morrow was born, her mother — Nafeesah — was shredding college basketball defenses at Nebraska. Nafeesah Morrow spent three years at Nebraska from 1991-94, where she was an all-conference player and averaged 20.2 points and 10.1 rebounds per game as a senior. In those couple of years at Nebraska, she ended up meeting her husband — also Aneesah’s father — Edward Morrow, who was a linebacker for the Cornhuskers. He was part of the 1994 national championship-winning team, as well. So when Nafeesah and Edward had children, their athletic gifts were passed down to their kids. Aneesah’s brother — Ed Morrow Jr. — also had a highly successful high school basketball career before committing to Nebraska and then transferring to Marquette. Their sister — Nazlah Morrow — is now at DePaul, as well, after spending her first two years at Miami Dade junior college. She has yet to appear in a game for the Blue Demons this season. “[Aneesah] had almost, honestly, a cheat-sheet because she had three siblings go to school before her,” Nafeesah Morrow said. “I think she got to watch and see the process in that, and then listen to the process in which we had. I think that helped her kind of know where she was born and think literally about what she wanted to do.” With all the talent in the Morrow family, Aneesah has always connected with her mother from a basketball standpoint. “When we first started, she was like the one that, really, I connected with, more than my other two daughters,” Nafeesah Morrow said. “I felt like she listened more.” The lessons that Morrow was able to learn from her mother has propelled her into putting up big numbers in high school — at Chicago’s own Simeon Career Academy — and now at DePaul. She led Simeon to a 35-2 record and the school’s first girls’ basketball state championship in 2020. During that run, Morrow averaged 28.4 points, 14.3 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game. “They [my family] helped me a lot because I was always around basketball; my mother was a coach for high school and I had something before me,” Morrow said. When it came to sifting through all the
DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul freshman forward Aneesah Morrow scored 22 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in a win over St. John’s on Friday. colleges that were recruiting Morrow, she got help and advice from her family, who already went through this process before. The decision itself, however, came down to a simple thing: staying closer to her family. “When it comes down to making a decision, they [have] already been through it,” she said. “And, me, personally, I knew I didn’t want to go far away from home.” ‘She’s a tough kid’ Before the start of every game, Morrow has a ritual that she follows — she prays. Praying helps set her mind to the right mentality before stepping on the court. But it’s also a part of who she is and where she has been able to get to in her life. “I wouldn’t be where I’m at without my family or without God,” she said. Growing up in Chicago has helped shape Morrow’s identity. The determination and fight that she plays with on the court, to grab every rebound and finish inside the paint, comes from that grit and toughness everyone so often hears about when it comes to Chicago athletes. Morrow is no exception. “I know when you grow up in Chicago there is always a chip on your shoulder about anything,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of things that kids should never have seen, so knowing that I’m trying to get away from that and better myself, helps me a lot.” Off the court, Morrow is that same, tough woman that people watch either at Wintrust Arena or on television when she’s
getting rebounds over two or three defenders and then scoring over them. “She’s a tough kid,” her mother said. “Even in conversation off the court, she’s off the court, you can’t get a lot by her.” Morrow continues to get advice and support from family, but, in particular, her mother. Nafeesah Morrow recently sent her daughter a text message reaffirming her belief about hard work. “Like I told her recently in a text message, I said, ‘See, hard work does pay,’” she said. ‘She showed she was going to have a major impact’ There have only been 22 games in Morrow’s college basketball career thus far, but the stats she’s posted have put her in rarified air for freshmen. Not only is she leading the nation in double-doubles and recently picked up her 15th consecutive, but she is only one of a couple of players this season to post multiple 30-point, 10-rebound games this season. Even her mother didn’t expect this type of success so soon from her daughter. “She’s actually got me thrown backwards because I thought she would be successful, but I just didn’t know it would be on this level,” Nafeesah Morrow said. DePaul head coach Doug Bruno also recognized how good she could be from a very young age, which is why he and his staff heavily recruited her in high school.
“We saw her when she was in eighth grade — we knew the mother and we knew the family — she showed she was going to have a major impact,” Bruno said. Over the course of this season, Morrow’s numbers have also steadily improved, giving DePaul the needed size and physicality it needs to compete with some of the bigger teams. In the last eight days, Morrow has recorded three 30-point games and has averaged nearly 15 rebounds per game in that stretch, with one of those games coming against No. 10 UConn. “Aneesah gives us something that this team really needs — we need rebounding, we need interior strength, interior presence, post presence and we need rebounding,” Bruno said. “Aneesah did a great job [on Wednesday] against a really strong UConn team. Like most young players, there is obviously room for growth. Morrow’s exceptional start has garnered local and national attention, which puts her in prime position to win both Big East Freshman and Player of the Year. But she has goals beyond that. “Well, of course, when you play basketball, the goal is to play in the WNBA — or the NBA — you have to say the sky’s the limit for your goals,” Morrow said. “But I see myself setting school history.”
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, continued from back page where extremely strong quarters are followed by weak ones, or vice versa. In the game against UConn, the Blue Demons were trailing 20-11 after the first quarter, but then outscored UConn 29-11 in the second. “In some games, we don’t come out strong in the first quarter, and we have to pick up the pace in the second quarter,” graduate student guard Deja Church said. “I think in every game, the games have a life of their own, so if we start out fast or we start out good with hitting shots and playing defense, usually we end up winning by a lot and if we come out slow, then it’s usually us fighting back.” The Blue Demons take on Creighton, whom the team has not faced yet this season, at Wintrust Arena on Friday before facing Providence on Sunday. The Blue Demons then have a chance for a rematch against UConn on Feb. 11. “I think we have a lot of potential to be great,” Held said. “We’ve shown that against some really high-level opponents that we’ve played. There’s always room for improvement, but I do think that we are on a good track for where we want to go.”
MADDY MAES | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul women’s basketball guard Sonya Morris jumping up to make a basket in the team’s 102-69 win over Georgetown on Jan. 16.
Sports
Sports. The DePaulia. Jan. 31, 2022 | 28
David Jones’ leadership fills void in team’s recent struggles By Joshua M. Hicks Asst. Sports Editor
DePaul has had an up-and-down season so far, especially when it comes to conference play. The team has only won one conference game, with most of the recent games being played without the team’s star player, senior guard Javon Freeman-Liberty. But one of the key players that has stepped up in his absence is sophomore forward David Jones. Jones has played a pivotal role as the team’s second-leading scorer. However, Jones almost did not come to DePaul — he didn’t even know that DePaul offered him a scholarship until the last minute. “The journey to DePaul was long,” Jones said. “From high school, I didn’t even know that I had an offer from DePaul until the last minute.” Jones chose DePaul because of one factor the other schools could not offer: playing time. “I chose DePaul, because I was going to get a lot of playing time, which is what you need in college to show your game and talent to get to the next level,” Jones said. Since his arrival, Jones has taken advantage of his opportunities. He is currently averaging 14 points a game while shooting 43 percent from the field, but he has also hit a wall offensively, especially in conference play. In the middle of the conference rival game against No. 18 Seton Hall, Freeman-Liberty went down with a groin injury. At that moment, Jones knew that he had to step up. “Somebody has to step up,” Jones said. “Somebody has to help the team one way or another to win games. We are trying to figure that out right now.” During Freeman-Liberty’s absence, Jones stepped up and brought the team its first conference win against Seton Hall. Since then, however, the team went on a four-game losing streak.
DONALD CROCKER | THE DEPAULIA
DePaul men’s basketball forward David Jones raising his hand in the air to celebrate after the team’s win over Seton Hall on Jan. 13. Jones’ offensive output has dipped during that stretch. Overall, he is averaging 11 points on 32 percent shooting from the field against conference opponents this season. Jones acknowledges his offensive struggles, but won’t let that stop him from making an impact on the game. “I can do anything for my team,” he said. “Defense, rebound the ball,
scoring, giving energy to my teammates even though I am not playing. I feel like I can help the team in many ways.” As a leader, Jones also tries to bring a calming presence to the team — an attribute that he learned last season and strives to bring to the team in hard times. He admits that it has been a challenge, but he believes it is necessary and is doing his part in keeping the team
together. “[I learned] to stay calm, stay together and stay with your teammates because when the game gets tough and somebody gets their way the team can get ugly,” Jones said. “It’s been kind of hard, but I feel like I’ve been doing a good job of keeping the team together.” Head coach Tony Stubblefield See DAVID JONES, page 27
Women’s basketball hones in on consistency as conference play heats up By Darcy Waskiewicz Sports Editor
Now over halfway through the season, the final stretch is heating up for DePaul women’s basketball. With conference play intensifying and the Big East Championship a little over a month away, the upcoming games for the Blue Demons will be more important than ever as they make the final push in the regular season. With eight games left in the regular season, the Blue Demons sit third in the Big East standings, trailing first-place UConn and second-place Creighton. The team has dominated in conference play this season with a record of 102. The team’s only two defeats came from an 88-85 overtime loss against Marquette and an 80-78 loss to UConn on Wednesday. With an overall record of 18-5, the Blue Demons can accredit much of their success to freshman forward Aneesah Morrow, who has made an immediate impact since arriving at DePaul. She scored 31 points in her college debut against Texas Southern University on Nov. 9 and has averaged 20.8 points and 12.8 rebounds this season.
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DePaul guard Lexi Held preparing to pass the ball by a Villanova player on Jan. 14. “Aneesah’s presence as a rebounder and an interior presence has helped our guard play,” head coach Doug Bruno said. “Our guards now are moving more free[ly] to let the shot rip and not worry
about the results because it has a chance to be cleaned up by rebounding. While Morrow has found success as a forward on the team, the Blue Demons’ team this season is made up almost en-
tirely of guards, led by the efforts of senior guards Sonya Morris and Lexi Held. Morris regularly competes with Morrow in each game for the team lead in points and had a career-high 36 points against Vanderbilt University on Nov. 27. Meanwhile, Held leads the team in minutes played, and has averaged 32.8 minutes and 14.3 points. Additionally, starting guards Deja Church and Darrione Rogers have helped push the team forward, along with the efforts off the bench from players such as guards Dee Bekelja and Kierra Collier. However, the Big East conference is tight, and the team knows the final stretch of the season will be difficult. One issue the team has struggled with during the season is maintaining a consistent level of play in all aspects of their game. “I just want to find consistency on the defensive side of the ball,” Bruno said. “I’d like to find rebounding consistency, especially from the players. Aneesah can always get better with rebounding, but the returning players, we all have to rebound better.” In games this season, the Blue Demons have gone through fluctuations
See WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 27