11 18 2015

OPINION Yik Yak is a powerful and destructive mobile tool

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A&E

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Symposium celebrates student art, performances

SPORTS Men’s and women’s XC take first at regionals

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DEMANDING ACTION Black student activists outline demands for administration News story | pg. 4 Our Opinion | pg. 11 Op-Ed | pg. 10

The Independent Student-Run Newspaper of Emory University Since 1919

VOL. 97 ISSUE 11 November 18, 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS November 18, 2015

NEWS

NEWS

OPINION

4 students protest campus racism

7 board announces presidential selection committee, process

10 facts only

5 administrators, students discuss race at town hall

11 admin, campus must address black students’ demands

8 reproductive health group hosts first annual sexual health conference

6 university confirms safety of paris study abroad students

12 a tool for raw expression - and opression - on campuses

9 emory endowment hits all-time high

13 indeed, it’s just a cup

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

EMORY LIFE

SPORTS

14 symposium: coming together for the arts

19 student spotlight: casidy campbell

22 volleyball falls in regional finals to hendrix

16 ‘mockingjay part 2’ burns out

20 tedx peachtree

23 cross country sweeps regional championships

17 Q&A with carey mulligan

24 eagles challenge uga

18 sufjan stevens concert illuminates art, nostalgia

FRONT PAGE Photo By: Jason Oh | Contributing

EDITORIAL BOARD DUSTIN SLADE | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF RUPSHA BASU EXECUTIVE EDITOR Copy Chiefs Shalvi Shah Benazir Wehelie News Editors Anwesha Guha Emily Sullivan Opinion Editor Erik Alexander Arts & Entertainment Editor Julia Munslow

KARISHMA MEHROTRA EXECUTIVE EDITOR Emory Life Editor Hayley Silverstein Sports Editor Jacob Durst Photo Editor Ruth Reyes Video Editor Leila Yavari Senior Digital Editor Tarrek Shaban

ZAK HUDAK MANAGING EDITOR

Digital Editors Brandon Fuhr Morgan Roberts Editor-at-Large Samuel R. Budnyk Associate Editors Hagar Elsayed Loli Lucaciu Annie McGrew Lydia O’Neal Ryan Smith

STEPHEN FOWLER EXECUTIVE DIGITAL EDITOR business and advertising

ALLEN HSIN | BUSINESS MANAGER BEN MOORE | SALES MANAGER BRYCE ROBERTSON | BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Assistant Sales Manager: Brittany Fales Design Managers: Dami Kim, Alyssa Polskensky Sales Associates: Ifrah Khan, David Schupper, Celeste Leonard, Junior Hailu, Chris Diglio Office Assistant: Justine Schoenbart Business / Advertising Office Number (404) 727-6178

NEWS

ANWESHA GUHA AND EMILY SULLIVAN | EDITORS

Students protest campus racism

Black students present demands to administration

Anwesha Guha and Karishma Mehrotra | News Editor and Executive Editor

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olice lights on Clifton Road illuminated the silhouettes of standing students, who were blocking traffic and chanting “black lives matter” as part of a campus protest on Wednesday evening.

In response to recent unrest at the University of Missouri, at Yale University and in South Africa, undergraduate and graduate students voiced their concerns about race relations on Emory’s campus.

“So make sure that when you walk on this campus that we are heard,” said protest organizer and College senior Casidy Campbell to the wall of over 50 students in front of Woodruff Circle.

She turned to face the police cars and cars backed up till Haygood Drive.

“I hope all of ya’ll heard me today,” she shouted. “This what I’m feeling. This is what we’re feeling. And if it’s not recognized then we’ll come back again, and the next day, and the next day. And we will block traffic and you won’t eat and you won’t sleep and you’ll run out of gas. Do you understand me?”

The demonstrators first assembled on Asbury Circle at 5 p.m. to listen to Campbell detail the recent controversial events and other demands for Emory administration.

“They do not provide any type of resources for black students to thrive and succeed at the University,” she said to the

anwesha.guha@emory.edu and kmehrot@emory.edu

group. “Emory prides itself on being diverse so they lump us in here and just expect us to swim.”

In addition, she listed numerous demands for Emory administration that were later posted publicly online. The online demands were expanded upon days after the protest.

The group’s most recent demands include: • • • • • • • • • • •

recognition of traumatic events for black students by the University institutional support for black students facing trauma on campus repercussions or sanctions for racist actions on campus evaluations of faculty regarding race increased academic support for black students the consultation of black students and faculty during the implementation of diversity initiatives higher compensation and positions for black staff and administrators tighter job security for black administrators increased funding and decreased policing for black student organizations more faculty of color in all departments a virtual barrier against Yik Yak

• •

better conditions for cafeteria workers a GER course that focuses on people of color

As the sun began to set, students — with posters reading “Black students unite or remain forever exploited” and “Students in Solidarity” — marched from Asbury Circle towards Fishburne Drive before looping onto Clifton Road.

At the intersection in front of Woodruff Circle, the students lined up underneath the traffic light for about half an hour as police diverted traffic along Uppergate Drive.

At one point, the group of students split apart for an ambulance to drive down Clifton Road but Emory University police did not disrupt the protest.

Before the demonstration, organizers met with Senior Vice President and Dean for Campus Life Ajay Nair to discuss the condition of black students on Emory’s campus “in regards to a true sense of diversity and inclusion,” according to Business School junior Lolade Oshin, who believes that Nair was receptive to their comments.

“He was glad he was able to meet with us and understand [how black students feel],” said Campbell, who hopes to construct a more specific set of demands than those that were put forth to administrators last year.

Campbell said in an interview with the Wheel that the event began as a response to the student protests against tuition fee hikes in South Africa and the “exploitation of black workers” at University of Cape Town but then realigned itself to also address the “unrest” occurring at the University of Missouri, where the University’s chancellor will step down to a different role after the football team protested how the school has handled racial incidents, and Yale University, where a school official sent an email pushing back against concerns about racially offensive Halloween costumes.

“I think this is such a defining moment in history,” said College junior Serwaa Osei-Danquah, who participated in the event. “It’s now. This is the revolution, and its time that we took over as the young people of the world, as the future leaders of the world. We are the future, and we’re about to make a change, whether people like it or not.”

Khalfani Lawson, a graduate student from the Candler School of Theology, agreed, saying that the event effectively brought these issues to the forefront of campus conversation.

“So now they [question] what it was all about,” he said. “Now they have to take a look and see what’s being going on around the country and, more specifically, what’s been going on at Emory.”

College senior Casidy Campbell (Left) | Photos by Jason Oh, Staff

11.18.15 xx.xx.2015

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Administrators, students discuss race at Town Hall

By Anwesha Guha | News Editor

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o discuss the role of student government in addressing the concerns of black students, the Student Government Association (SGA), campus administration, black students and others convened in Winship Ballroom to discuss the recent demands put forth by several black students at Emory in the SGA-organized “Community Conversation” on Monday.

SGA President Raj Tilwa and SGA Vice President Max Zoberman mediated the conversation, which was a response to a black student protest led by College senior Casidy Campbell and others to address campus and nationwide racism.

“We ask that you reflect on what you might be able to do and how you might be able to participate in what we hope to be Emory’s movement to true respect, true inclusion and community of care in practice and not just in saying,” Zoberman said at the onset of the discussion.

Students introduced the discussion by explaining national incidents and approaches involving racism and discrimination. Campbell pointed out University incidents and discussed a list of demands for the administration — an updated version to the first draft of demands publicly published the evening of the protest.

“The University’s slightness towards the negative response to President James Wagner’s three-fifths compromise statement was another slap in the face to the black community at Emory University,” Campbell said.

anwesha.guha@emory.edu

Among many other issues, Campbell discussed hate speech on Yik Yak, insufficient resources in Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and a lack of inclusivity in Creating Emory.

College junior and Black Student Alliance (BSA) President Sophen Joseph argued that the demands and movement need to be evaluated more carefully for its content.

“When we look at these movements, we have to try and unpack what students are doing,” Joseph said. “I don’t think it’s so much how we’re doing it, I think it’s really about what is being said, what’s being asked for, because we’re doing our best, but this is our livelihood on the line.

You’re literally putting our bodies on the line.”

Dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences Robin Forman, Senior Vice President and Dean for Campus Life Ajay Nair and other faculty attended the event, but only Forman and Nair responded directly to the concerns of students.

“We’re with you,” Nair said. “We actually have shared goals. We’re willing to take on as much burden we need to.”

Although Nair voiced his support for the movement, he added that time, conversation and accountability measures still need to be addressed since many concerns are systematic issues.

“We are in absolute and complete agreement [with student goals],” Forman added. “We’ve made some progress, slow but steady.”

Forman specifically addressed the goal of diversifying faculty, taking into account the progress that Emory has made and goals for the future.

Later in the night, Goizueta Business School junior Malik Alexander said that there needed to be more progress in the student community.

“We need, as a black community, as a Latinx community and as an Emory community, we need to come to some consensus as to what it means to be an ally — something that’s more than just changing your profile picture, and we have to get to that,” Alexander proposed.

Many students continued to voice their dissatisfaction, voicing their support for a General Education Requirement class about diversity and race.

“All of us in this room — students, leaders, staff, faculty and friends — have the power to affect change at every level of our university, and we need for the first time to work together to figure out how to harness that power and how to use it,” Tilwa said.

Although Tilwa and Zoberman attempted to force the five-minute restriction for speeches, they loosened the rules as more questions were asked and issues addressed.

“How do other people expect us to move forward past these issues when we can’t hold them accountable for it?”

College freshman Marshall Crayton asked. “That’s my question to really anybody — but especially SGA. You can’t move forward when people keep pulling us back.”

NEWS Univ. confirms safety of Paris study abroad students Lydia O’Neal | Associate Editor — West from the attacks that occurred in the 3rd, 10th (CEPAR) email requesting confirmation of their safety.

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lmoneal@emory.edu

ARIS — As a group of coordinated terrorist attacks struck parts of Northern and Central Paris and a stadium just North of the city, Emory students studying in the French capital took to social media on Friday night to assure their loved ones of their safety. All 14 Emory students studying abroad in the city were safe.

All students from Emory University, Georgia State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia and other Georgia school students who are studying in Paris were not one of the more than 100 people killed and more than 300 people who were injured, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. However, one American student from the California State University at Long Beach (CSULB) was among the victims on Friday night, according to their press release.

EDUCO staff immediately reached out to students via emails and phone calls, according to a Center for International Programs Abroad (CIPA) statement obtained by the Wheel. EDUCO and CIPA staff members followed established protocols and communicated with students as quickly as possible. EDUCO had accounted for all of its students’ safety by 7:50 p.m.

For the next few hours, study abroad staff on Emory’s campus reached out to students, parents and study abroad offices, according to the statement.

“The primary concern of everyone involved in Study Abroad at Emory is and will continue to be the safety and wellbeing of Emory students,” the statement stated.

Just after the start of the attacks, at around 10 p.m., Zhilin Zheng, an Emory College junior studying in Paris for the EDUCO program, returned to her homestay

and 11th arrondissement.

“My house brother was with his friends at the house and ensured me that I was safe and to not worry, but I didn’t feel in danger at all,” Zheng said, adding that she immediately got in touch with her parents but was a bit delayed in announcing her safety on social media.

Zheng, like other Emory students in the EDUCO program — which includes Emory, Duke, Cornell and Tulane University — received her first Emory notification from a CIPA administrator at 1:02 a.m. Paris time.

Meanwhile, Duke University students received notifications around 11:30 p.m., Cornell students around 12:30 a.m. and Tulane students at 1:38 a.m., according to emails forwarded to the Wheel by students from their respective schools.

Emory parents received an email confirming that all Emory students in Paris were safe at 9:55 a.m. on Saturday. Emory students in Paris received a similar email about eight hours later. Duke students received a similar email, confirming the safety of its 25 EDUCO students in Paris about five hours before Emory, and Cornell received a similar message one hour after Emory.

Tulane students in the EDUCO program did not receive an email confirming that the school’s students in Paris were safe.

College junior and EDUCO student Ahd Niazy, who was with several Duke students also studying in Paris through the EDUCO program, said she was “shocked” that Duke notified her friends and asked them to confirm that they were safe an hour and a half before any Emory source inquired about her safety.

Students who had registered with the travel advisory service International SOS, or ISOS, a service that Emory contracts for its students abroad, received an Emory Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response

On Saturday evening, all Emory students, regardless of whether they were registered with ISOS, received a CEPAR email urging them to register with the travel advisory service, register with a U.S. Department of State traveler safety service and continue to confirm their safety to family members back home. The CEPAR service has been used for several other recent crises abroad, notably the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, according to CEPAR Executive Director Alexander Isakov.

“When these events occur, Emory’s Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response works with partners across the university to compile a comprehensive list of Emory travelers in the area of concern, ascertaining their well-being and providing assistance as needed,” Isakov wrote in a statement to the Wheel. He added that, for the students not registered with ISOS, “CEPAR communicates with representatives across the University to help ensure that everyone is accounted for.”

Still, some students were surprised by the time disparity between alerts from their American universities.

One Duke student who applied through Emory received her first emails from Duke just after 11:30 p.m., but did not receive any emails from Emory requesting confirmation of her safety until 1:02 a.m.

Though seven perpetrators were killed Friday night, according to the New York Times, authorities are searching for an eighth perpetrator. The city remained quiet on Saturday and Sunday, save for the sound of frequent police and ambulance sirens, with schools, shops, libraries and museums closed and a heightened police and military presence in the streets. According to notifications from the ISOS service, a three-day mourning period has been declared and public gatherings in the city are banned until November 19.

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11.18.15

Board announces presidential selection committee, process Anwesha Guha | News Editor anwesha.guha@emory.edu

B

oard of Trustees Chairman John Morgan announced the presidential selection process at the University Senate meeting on Tuesday in Cox Hall Ballroom.

Morgan introduced the 14-member presidential selection committee of faculty, staff and students, which will launch the presidential search in early December, and praised the diversity of voices in the committee.

“This committee will not only select the president, but it will also set the standards for Emory’s ambitions and achievements,” Morgan said. “This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to take the Emory community and bring it together to determine not only who the leader will be, but also what we care about, what we value, what we think is important, where we see ourselves going and define that.”

Morgan said the committee would welcome communication with the community during the process.

The committee has not announced a strict timeline but hopes to finish its search process by May 2016 and will decide on a president by June 2016. From a selection

process, and their website will also inform the Emory community.

“I think we need a president that not only has good intentions but is knowledgeable about the experience and history about persons of color, particularly in an academic context,” College freshman James Bagans said.

Morgan answered pre-written questions from the Student Government Association (SGA) and other organizations at the end of his explanation. Many of his questions focused on including diversity in both the selection process and the new president.

“I think [diversity] is a natural value,” Morgan said. “I believe that our selection committee, as it’s constituted today, is emblematic of that value. It’s very diverse and has a variety of voices, and they don’t have to blend in perfect harmony, but they do have to blend to the extent of having commitment to Emory and to the goals and aspirations of this university.”

However, many students, especially in light of recent events, have said that the committee is not inclusive.

“This committee will not only select the president, but it will also set the standards for Emory’s ambitions and achievements. This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to take the Emory community and bring it together to determine not only who the leader will be, but also what we care about, what we value, what we think is important, where we see ourselves going and define that.”

— Board of Trustees Chairman John Morgan of 26 executive search firms, the committee has narrowed the options to about five firms to help them.

“There are two searches that are especially attractive in the US — Stanford and Emory,” Morgan said. “So we think we will have the opportunity to be highly selective and highly attractive in terms of candidates.”

Although the committee said it will value transparency in the selection process, the process will keep candidates confidential until it has been completed, Morgan said.

The committee will periodically organize meetings to update all groups about the

“I think that in order for a person to be selected [who] will represent the interests of the student body, the presidential committee should reflect the student body,” Bagans said. “So we need blacks, Hispanics, Asians, women, non-heteronormative, non-heterosexual individuals to be able to be on this committee. I know this committee can only be so big, but there needs to be every interest that is made up in this college in this committee, especially those with their voices taken away — the marginalized communities.”

It is also important to find a president who shares the vision of the university, like James Wagner did when he was elected in 2003, Morgan said.

NEWS

ANWESHA GUHA AND EMILY SULLIVAN | EDITORS

Reproductive health group hosts first annual sexual health conference Emily Sullivan | News Editor

Courtesy of Emory Photo

emily.sullivan@emory.edu

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he Emory Reproductive Health Association (ERHA) held its first annual conference at the Rollins School of Public Health this past Saturday, hosting speakers and panelists who discussed the conference’s theme: “Sexual and Reproductive Health through a Social Justice Lens.”

“Globally, when abortion is legal and accessible, women remain healthy,” said Willie J. Parker, an obstetrician-gynecologist, in his keynote speech at the conference. “When [it is not accessible], women die.

Along with Parker’s keynote about abortion, speakers discussed sexual assault on college campuses, women’s health in West Africa and more.

Parker, one of three doctors who provide abortions for women in Mississippi, flies from Alabama to Mississippi two to three times a week to conduct abortions at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This clinic, also called the Pink House, is the state’s only reproductive health clinic that offers access to abortions.

Parker makes the biweekly commute because he knows that there will be women waiting for him “who nobody else will help,” he said.

On an average day, the clinic will provide counseling and abortion services to between 20 and 120 women, according to Nursing School junior Kayley Scruggs, who attended the conference and works

as a patient escort at the clinic.

One-third of women will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old, Parker said. Although these women are of all races and backgrounds, there remains a “preoccupation with race and stigma[s].” Parker discussed the concepts of abortion being a form of black genocide, and Planned Parenthood being a racist organization.

Some protestors who believe those theories gather regularly outside the Pink House.

“What sickens me is that you’re a black man taking [black lives],” one protestor said in a clip that Parker shared during his speech. “All black lives matter.”

Parker said he believes that this is a misconception and that race should not dictate whether or not a woman can receive an abortion.

Parker also said that while a woman’s zip code should not affect her access to sexual and reproductive health services, this is often not the case. For example, Georgia’s abortion policies are more relaxed than those in Mississippi, Scruggs said.

One of Parker’s goals was to convey the interconnectedness of sexual and reproductive health issues such as sexual assault, abortion and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI).

In another speech, Stu Marvel, a doctoral candidate at the Osgoode Hall Law School and a postdoctoral fellow at the

Emory School of Law, discussed sexual assault on college campuses, especially the most prestigious and economically fortunate universities, Marvel said.

At Yale University, 34.6 percent of female students said that they had experienced sexual assault by force or incapacitation while at Harvard University the number was 29.2 percent, according to Marvel.

Marvel added that many universities have been slow to address sexual assault in the past perhaps because “white men overwhelmingly hold the most powerful positions, [including] presidents, provosts [and] professors.”

However, universities have begun to address sexual assault more effectively due to a widespread acknowledgment and rejection of rape culture, she said.

Other speakers at the conference included Roger Rochat, Emory Research professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Hubert Department of Global Health; Pamela Scully, Emory Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies professor, African Studies professor and assistant vice provost for Academic Innovation; and Lorrie King, Peace Corps program coordinator for the Rollins School of Public Health and founder of “50 Cents Period.” Each of them drew from their own work and experiences.

A three-member panel on STI services followed the one-and-a-half hour speaker series. Senior Health Educator at Planned Parenthood Southeast Domi-

nique Doyle, CDC staff member Saman Wijesooriya and Associate Research Professor and Acting Director of the Interfaith Health Program John Blevins answered questions from attendees about health issues, services and misconceptions during the session.

Doyle compared STI-related issues on a global scale to those on a more local scale, discussing the importance of accessibility to STI symptom and service information.

“If people in the city of Atlanta don’t have access to [STI service] information like that, then think about [the information that women don’t have] in rural areas,” Doyle said.

Interactive sessions and a networking hour followed the panel session.

The goal of the conference was to “bring together multidisciplinary voices from across Emory’s campus,” ERHA Co-President Ruvani Jayaweera said. She added that the conference was a success, citing its 130-member audience over the course of the day.

“I think we had people show up who were really impressed by the multidisciplinary nature of our talks and our speakers’ new ways to think about work,” ERHA Co-President Lasha Clarke said. Sexual and reproductive health issues apply to everyone, including “indigenous people, people of color, women and people with disabilities,” she said. “[These] are issues that impact each and every one of us here.”

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Emory endowment hits all-time high Namrata Verghese | Staff Writer namrata.susan.verghese@emory.edu

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mory’s endowment value climbed to more than $6.7 billion this June, however, the fund’s annual return on investment fell from 19.1 percent to 3.6 percent.

“We are fortunate at Emory to have substantial endowment and related investment income as one of our five principal income sources,” University President James W. Wagner wrote in an email to the Wheel, referring to tuition, fees, research, philanthropy and patient care reimbursement as Emory’s other sources.

Emory has the largest endowment of any Georgia school, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute.

“Our investment team deftly weathered the market challenges this year with strong performance in equities,” said Mitchell Tanzman, Emory Uni-

tions of the endowment or other qualifications to the spending of the money are unclear, very opaque,” he wrote. “Faculty are on the receiving end of decisions, which are often unexplained, not partners in those decisions.”

However, Wagner pointed out that, contrary to popular belief, the endowment is not simply a large savings account subject to the University’s discretion. The majority of the funds are gifts restricted to the donor’s intended purpose.

“Our endowment is made up of over 2,000 gifts donated over time — each one intended to serve the donor’s intent perpetually,” Wagner wrote.

He presented a hypothetical scenario in which a donor gifts $100,000 to establish an endowed scholarship. In this case, Emory is obligated to invest the money and then use the interest for a yearly payout in the form of a scholarship to a student. Typically, the payout rate is about five percent.

“We are fortunate at Emory to have substantial endowment and related investment income ...”

— University President James W. Wagner

versity trustee and chair of the Investment Committee in a Nov. 12 Emory Report article. “Emory continues to remain competitive among the nation’s elite universities.”

However, some wish that Emory distributed the endowment funds differently.

“The crux of the problem is not the size of Emory’s endowment, but the ways that decisions are made about that money,” film and media studies professor Jason Francisco wrote in an email to the Wheel.

While faculty and administration should jointly make decisions regarding financial matters in a process called “shared governance,” according to Francisco, it is much different in practice.

“From a faculty standpoint, restricted uses of pools of money or por-

This year, philanthropic gifts to the University totaled $72 million, “representing continued generosity and confidence among donors,” according to the press release. This is a trend that has held up over time. In 1979, Robert W. Woodruff, the first president of the Coca-Cola Company, gifted Emory a lump sum of $105 million, which was at the time the largest single donation ever to an institution of higher education.

In Wagner’s opinion, the endowment has allowed Emory to flourish and grow to its current status as one of the nation’s top universities. He credits both donors and Emory Investment Management, a team that oversees Emory’s endowment, for its value.

“The endowment grows by both gifts and wise investment,” he concluded.

OPINION

ERIK ALEXANDER | EDITOR

Facts only.

TJ Greer College Senior Huntsville, Alabama

Shalvi Shah | Copy Chief

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n Monday, Student Government Association (SGA) President and College senior Raj Tilwa and SGA Vice President and College junior Max Zoberman provided a forum for students to voice their concerns to SGA and several University deans. Overall, the dozens of cries from students of color spoke to the larger truth that our nation’s colleges are not truly integrated. Less than 10 percent of the over 100 community members in attendance were not students of color.

Yet, these students, specifically European-Americans, make up a majority of the Emory population and must understand and accept that integration is not the equivalent of assimilation. The first effective trailblazer of integrationist thought would not emerge at Emory until the arrival of James T. Laney in 1977. In 1989, he asked, “Whose common good is our goal? White males? Protestants?” He understood that the future of higher education was moving away from viewing “education as exclusive.” Simply, he set the “tableau of diversity” at Emory, which likely created the more global-minded environment that finally nudged the culturally exclusive University to remove “In the heart of dear old Dixie” from the University’s alma mater in 2001. However, the verbal exchanges at “Community Conversations” provided great evidence that Laney’s moral leadership and example has not effectively brought about the truly multicultural and inclusive campus or classrooms that he envisioned for the University.

Politically Correct SGA Reps Bewildered SGA representatives opened up the “Community Conversation” with an awkwardly scripted but confident statement. They called for “real lasting progress” and “effective change.” Yet, this optimistic cadence would give way to a weak and powerless tone after an Emory N.A.A.C.P leader and College

sophomore Chelsea Jackson questioned why SGA representatives wrote “SGA Stands With Black Students at Emory” in the subject line of a campus-wide email but used the broader term “students of color” within the entire body of the email. SGA representatives swiftly and blatantly admitted they were “unprepared” to deal with the concerns of African American students and other students of color.

“We understand that we don’t understand,” Zoberman declared. “Don’t trust us” and “Remain skeptical,” he added. He said he understood that student demands for a more inclusive environment have rotted in the file folders of Emory leaders for decades. He reasoned that students of color had no reason to “trust [SGA]” now and should merely hold SGA “accountable.” Students demanded there be better representation on the committee to select the next University president. As the only student on the committee, Tilwa was expected to voice their concerns about the lack of diversity within the committee. Tilwa, appearing disheartened, admitted that he didn’t know much about the logistical aspects of the committee itself. How can “effective change” take place if our leadership doesn’t know “what’s going on?”

Students of Color Speak Truth to Power Students presented demands and supported each other with snaps, claps, laughter and words of encouragement. Students wanted “real” cultural awareness courses and events to supplement the University’s general education requirements and orientation, for the University to take aggressive and fair actions against racial micro- and macro-aggressions on campus, more faculty of color, specifically African American faculty and challenged the University to offer additional financial resources to these faculty members and other multicultural student groups on

campus. Other students rebuked the Goizueta Business School’s lack of cultural programming, while other students were disgusted that the University was discontinuing the Hughes Undergraduates Excelling in Science Program. Finally, student after student told stories of racism and ineffective leadership on campus. Overall, the message was, “Emory is a house, not a home. The leadership needs to make it our home, too.”

A Stuttering Dean & Our Eurocentric Curriculum College Dean Robin Forman was reluctant and visibly uncomfortable at the event. After I asked him if the University’s curriculum was Eurocentric, he responded, shaking and stuttering, “Absolutely!”

However, he contended that most universities have a Eurocentric model. According to Forman, faculty members have brought this topic up and have tried to make courses with a more “global perspective.”

On the other hand, he partly blamed the faculty for the Eurocentric curriculum because “faculty changes slowly.” He also found it “shameful” that we lack a truly diverse faculty.

One student said, “Our high schools are Eurocentric and our colleges are Eurocentric.” Not only do students of color miss out on their histories, European-American students miss out on them and often find themselves ignorant of important issues in college. If modern human beings emerged in eastern Africa around 200,000 B.C.E., and the white-skinned ancestors of modern Europeans didn’t emerge until 40,000 years, how in the world do we limit people of colors’ histories and global significance to colonial slavery, the structural oppression that followed our emancipation and the national resistances that African Americans waged throughout the 20th century?

We are left in the dark about our histories beyond

This editorial has been shortened for print. The full version is available online.

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11.18.15 our interactions with Europeans during Western domination, which has only characterized 0.026 percent of human history.

One international studies major from Puerto Rico found that all of her courses are culturally biased. She pondered why she had never had the opportunity to learn about Puerto Rico when it’s right “in America’s backyard” and functionally “a colony” of the United States. Though our country has used the codename “territory” to describe its 16 land possessions, these places’ representatives have no voting power in Congress.

It is an unequivocal experience, this “double-consciousness,” this experience of constantly judging one’s mode of existence by the socially constructed standard of another, of measuring one’s subjective experience and phenotype by the “tape” of a Western society that lives on with amused condescension and apathy toward the “Other.” People of Color, we are eternally ripped apart by the duality of our being within the decaying, offspring empires of various European “Crowns.” We, the descendants of the colonized, neglected and exploited, have had enough.

This movement is about finally ending Eurocentricism in higher education and

bringing in more university scholars and leaders of color. Less than seven percent of the faculty is not enough. Integration is more than accepting our music, dances, jargon and style of dress. Integration is about recognizing our scholarship, origins and human dignities and incorporating them into our curriculum. This movement is about European-Americans still continuing to call African American students “niggers” and even questioning our presence at campus events nearly two decades into the 21st century. This movement is about holding those “champions” of Emory’s “global hub” of learning and inclusivity accountable. This movement is about urging those in positions of leadership to wage an aggressive campaign, through education, against racial micro- and macro-aggressions on campus. These are the steps toward true integration at Emory and eventually American society.

If you think this movement is about what the Wall Street Journal has labeled “crybullies” in the face of the First Amendment, you’re missing the whole point and don’t have a wise heart that seeks knowledge. If you don’t believe that this movement’s goals are in line with the logos, pathos and ethos of this University and country, we encourage you to send your evidence-based responses to the Wheel.

Staff Editorial

Admin, campus must address black students’ demands

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ast week, scores of students gathered for a protest in solidarity with black students at Mizzou and Yale. College senior Casidy Campbell read a list of demands, which was given to Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Ajay Nair and later tailored into a public document.

Campbell then led the students to stand and chant in the middle of Clifton Road, blocking traffic during rush hour.

The peaceful protest was clearly an effective form of activism because we are already hearing more conversations about race on this campus. We are glad that several black students on this campus have released this list of actionable and feasible demands.

And while we at the Wheel have also been discussing race on campus, we have to acknowledge that we are part of the problem. Despite our moderately diverse staff and our support for the movement, we can’t ignore the fact that the Wheel is a historically white publication that hasn’t always been on the right side of history.

That being said, we would like to criticize the campus’ response to the protest and demands, especially the huge disparity in the demands and the emails in response to the conversations. While the black students have called for a concrete list of changes on campus, the all-cam-

pus emails from Nair, Student Government Association (SGA) and College Council (CC) haven’t even referenced the demands or attempted to discuss possible changes to address racial injustice on campus.

Instead, the emails project a deceivingly liberal tone with Martin Luther King quotes and a declaration of solidarity that wasn’t grounded in any concrete language. Without any substantial call for change on campus, the claims of solidarity feel empty. The time for talking about talking about race is over. When is the Emory administration and student body going to directly respond to the demands?

“We call for the University to understand and then appropriately address the mental stress incurred by Black Students at this institution on a daily basis,” the preamble of the demands states. It goes on to state that the authors expect an administrative action plan by Dec. 4. Otherwise, it says, they will take “appropriate non-violent actions.”

The conversation here on and forward needs to focus on the grievances of the black community on this campus and the steps Emory needs to take to address the demands. The black community has raised their voice and the campus needs to listen and act. Now.

The above staff editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s editorial board.

Caption Contest Send your caption suggestion to wheelcaptioncontest@gmail.com by Sunday, Nov. 22. The winning caption will be published in the next issue.

A arti Dureja | Illustrator

OPINION

A tool for raw expression — and oppression — on campuses

Ryan Fan | College Freshman |

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Stony Brook, New York

n 2013, Furman University graduates Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington launched the social media app Yik Yak, which allows users within a five-mile radius to anonymously create, vote on and comment on discussion threads made by other users in the vicinity. Since its inception, the app’s popularity has grown so much that it raised $73 million in revenue by March 2015.

Among the most avid users of Yik Yak are college students, who see the app as an unregulated platform for blunt discussions and humor among fellow students where the consequences are devoid of punishment. On the app, students may discuss frustrations with their classes or personal lives. Often, Emory campus users have made self-deprecating jokes surrounding their failures with relationships. Many of these jokes and frustrations are probably posted light-heartedly. On most days, the majority of yaks surround common grievances suffered by the average college student, such as exams, relationships and friends.

Yik Yak posts are ranked by popularity through its voting system. Users can “upvote” posts that they like and “downvote” posts they dislike, and the app has a section where a user can read the most upvoted posts. If a post gets five downvotes in its area, it disappears.

However, recently there has been a surge of yaks regarding racial issues after the events surrounding the resignation of University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe. At Emory, a large portion of yaks in recent days have been about our own racial issues and misunderstandings on this campus, especially after the protests that took place on Nov. 11 on Clifton Road. Recently, there has been genuine discussion on the app regarding these issues.

Through this anonymous forum, many students have expressed the daily institutional and subtle racism faced on this campus. Many have expressed solidarity for the protestors at Emory University and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement as a whole. On Nov. 12, one of the most popular yaks stated that “all American lives matter the same and deserve to be equal. But I support Black Lives Matter because black lives haven’t been treated like they matter equally.”

Many have clarified misconceptions about what the BLM movement truly represents. Some have questioned the methods of protesting, namely blocking traffic on Clifton Road, where the Emory University Hospital is located. Protestors, although, did move aside for ambulances. Some have expressed disagreement and confusion over the goals of the protests.

A wide variety of opinions and positions are taken on Yik Yak, and users can accept these as honest opinions probably because of their anonymity and the lack of reprisal they face. With many students, including myself, there’s a genuine and immense concern to be politically correct and to not offend people. The concern only intensifies as people become more immediately affected by the pressing issues at hand, especially something as severe and infiltrating as racial injustice.

In the public sphere, these student users may not openly express opinions at all, which is counterproductive to the crucial dialogue a college campus seeks to promote.

Even worse, they may avoid the issue because they fear that passionate advocates may censure them with strong opinions. For instance, since coming to Emory, I’ve essentially suppressed any expression of my opinions surrounding the Israel-Pales-

tine conflict for many reasons: I’m not immediately involved in the conflict, there are other students much better informed and passionate and I fear the potentially harsh response if I take a polarizing stance on the issue. These instances are the exact opposites of the values that the university seeks to promote.

More importantly, when a marginalized identity experiences injustice, Yik Yak is sometimes where frustrations are expressed. This is because not all students are comfortable expressing these frustrations openly out of fear of being judged by fellow students. Often at Emory, posts detailing a prejudiced encounter are “upvoted,” and users reply with immense support, showing a minority that they’re not alone in their struggle on this campus.

Unfortunately, Yik Yak can be a tool for hurtful and offensive comments as well, and sometimes even extremely harmful ones. In many high schools and smaller colleges, it can be used for extensive gossip and cyber-bullying. A recent yak in response to a Black Lives Matter post outrageously claimed that a black student was only on campus because of Affirmative Action. Similarly, there may be many more posts of the same malicious content, but Yik Yak’s voting system deletes many negatively voted posts. Since these posts are deleted, students are inaccurately lulled into believing far less prejudice exists on campus than there truly is.

Thus, Yik Yak is designed so users predominantly see the posts most popularly approved by people in the area, and for Emory students, the posts most approved by students on campus. In doing so, Yik Yak skews its feed in order to avoid representing prejudiced posts and in turn casts a false positive light on the true expressions of Emory students.

Furthermore, Yik Yak can also be used as a threatening mechanism, even so far as threatening the lives of others. For example, at Oxford College on Oct. 11, a student used Yik Yak to post this shooting threat: “I’m shooting up the school. Tomorrow. Stay in your rooms … The ones in the quad are the ones who will go first.” Another example lies with University of Missouri student Hunter M. Park, who posted the following threat after Wolfe’s resignation: “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see … Some of you are alright. Don’t go to campus tomorrow.” Especially in the face of devastating school shootings like those of Umpqua Community College and UC Santa Barbara, these yaks are evidence that the app can pose tremendous threats to the safety of students.

In its anonymity, Yik Yak has the potential to override while also be used as a tool for oppression. In his letter to the Emory community, Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Ajay Nair stated, “We may encounter unsettling, ignominious, unpopular and even offensive and hateful ideas … If we don’t counter the ideas we disagree with, we cannot possibly create a more socially just community.” I agree completely with Nair.

Although Emory administrators preach open expression, dialogue and communication, the reality reveals that none of the above has yet to be achieved. Instead of incessantly praising our school’s diversity and open-mindedness, it’s important for us to acknowledge that we as a university still have a long way to go to bridge these gaps in understanding, no matter how well-intentioned we may be.

Whenever we bridge these gaps, will we have as much of a need for Yik Yak anymore?

13

11.18.15

Indeed, it’s just a cup

Jessica Cherner College Senior Bethesda, Maryland

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or some inexplicable reason, Americans have developed this need to be offended by everything they see and hear. In the past several months, America has expressed its deep and passionate offense toward the following things: Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” music video, Cosmopolitan’s “First Family” cover, Ariana Grande’s donut-licking, and Girl Scouts cookie prices. But we Americans have officially outdone ourselves with our most recent outcry: the Starbucks holiday 2016 cup.

It’s a plain red cup with the classic Starbucks logo and a white lid. The only ones who should feel personally attacked by the Starbucks cup are the other colors in the rainbow. Why, please, does this offend any freethinking human being?

The claim is that Starbucks is waging a war on Christmas by removing the classic trees, snowflakes and ornaments that have historically decorated its cups in past holiday seasons. Starbucks’ response to the criticism is

Olivia Shuler | Staff

that the “unadorned cup allows customers to put their unique drawings and message on it.” Maybe that is the real reason, or maybe Starbucks just realized that there are other religions out there and the company can’t fit every single one of their religious holiday symbols on a freaking coffee cup.

The most outrageous part of this whole mess is that people are actually taking time out of their days to post videos, photos and messages on social media to condemn the coffee company. Joshua Feuerstein, an Arizona Christian, posted a 1:18 minute video to his Facebook page claiming that Starbucks removed the Christmas decorations from their cups because the company hates Jesus. The video received more than 200,000 likes. People like Feuerstein should take a minute to remember that in less than an hour after ordering the coffee drink, the cup will end up in the garbage and for that reason, it doesn’t really matter what’s on it.

I can think of at least two more offensive things that

Starbucks does to its customers that no one else seems to have noticed: they are already using holiday cups in early November, and they charge nearly $5 for a cup of mediocre coffee. Also, since when did Starbucks cups become the sole representation of Christmas?

There are at least some clear-headed people out there who recognize how thoughtless this “Starbucks Hates Organized Religion” conspiracy is and are fighting back against the haters. The #ItsJustACup is circling around the Internet with nothing but good intentions. The hashtag has either stood on its own or ended with a statement like “Children are starving. Girls in developing countries are experiencing genital mutilation. Veterans are homeless. There’s no cure for cancer.”

Instead of wasting our time boycotting the coffee chain and writing nasty remarks online, we should just drink our coffee in whatever cup it comes in and carry on with our lives. There are more important things in life than what the container of your coffee looks like.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

JULIA MUNSLOW | EDITOR

m u i s o p Sym

coming together for the arts

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Olivia Shuler Staff Writer

olivia.shuler@emory.edu

ast Thursday at around 9 p.m., an L-shaped line of students in party-esque clothes formed outside 12 Eagle Row. On the other side of the heavily-manned ticket table guarding the entry, the crowd of those who’d scored tickets packed into the basement of the Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity house. Everyone seemed to buzz against a backdrop of live music and student artwork.

Co-hosted by ATO and The Pulse, Symposium aimed to bring together Greek life and the arts at Emory. With a full night of 18 student performances from a wide variety of artistic genres, the event built a bridge between two campus scenes that often feel separate.

“Reaching out to different cultural and arts groups is something that’s really important to us [at ATO],” ATO Event Coordinator and College sophomore Matt Shehata said. “I think, for people who aren’t involved in Greek life, all frats seem mostly the same, so I’m glad that people get to see this side of ATO.” About 15 minutes into the event, the current of the crowd drew everyone to the corner of the basement and up a cramped staircase, pitch black except for rectangles of white light from phone screens. Attendees funneled immediately into a broad room, lined with sheer black floor-to-ceiling drapes that turned the ATO living room into a concert venue.

White folding chairs were set up in theater rows, jam-packed onto every inch of floorspace the room had to offer. At the front of the room, there was a tiny performance area and a DJ station that blasted chill and (for the most part) unintelligible beats, including “Cream Soda” by Ryan Hemsworth featuring Tomggg, with the bass boosted significantly, pulsating throughout the dark room.

Seats went fast, and, as the rows filled up, conversations about

whose friends were performing flew back and forth across the chatter.

From behind two French doors with parted drapes, performers paused to peek out at their audience. Busy ATO brothers buzzed around, checking on performers, seats, lights and guests to ensure everything was in order for the 9:45 p.m. showtime.

For those who attended Symposium last year, the environment of this year’s event was a stark contrast.

“We tried to upgrade everything,” Shehata said. “We had lighting, stage management and a dress rehearsal. Personally, I just wanted to put on a great show.”

A few minutes after the scheduled start time of 9 p.m., the spotlights that illuminated the stage slowly flashed off and on and then off again. A round of audience “shhhhhh”-ing rang through the room. An iPhone started to ring. Somebody shouted “Fuck you!” at the iPhone and it’s owner.

In the dark, the DJ pressed play on a track with bass-heavy beats.

The audience was silent in anticipation. After a few seconds of music, people began to realize that the darkness was by mistake and several voices yelled, “Lights!” The hulking spotlights flashed on, casting a red glow over the room and revealing the opening act, Persuasion. The dancers decided that the routine should restart from the top, and when the lights went dark again, groans and laughter erupted from the audience. Unlike the rocky first attempt, however, the red glow came on like clockwork with the beginning of the music, creating the perfect ambiance for a spicy hip-hop routine.

After the performance, the room went black again, signaling the transition to the next act.

A warm, yellow light fell on the four-piece band, The Family

11.18.15

Jam, which featured a banjo, a guitar solo that made the crowd go wild and a relaxed, folksy sound somewhere between Palace and Fleetwood Mac. The event also featured stand-up comedy by College senior Rebecca Olderman, who roasted several Emory-related topics including RiceMac, a cappella, road head and last but not least, the B-School. Simply reading the topic title elicited a roar of laughter from the audience.

As the night flew by, Symposium’s performers dazzled their peers with slam poetry readings, bands and solo singers, modern routines, improvised Chinese dance, MADE a cappella quartet, Emory’s improvisational comedy troupe, Rathskellar and almost everything in between. “[Symposium] was a great experience – just being at the show – regardless of planning it,” Shehata said, “If I could’ve done something differently, I would’ve tried to have made the whole thing run smoother, but it obviously wasn’t a professional show.”

Over the course of its late, rough start and attempts at stage management, it became clear exactly what kind of event Symposium is; for those who are looking for perfectly executed shows, like Music Midtown or concerts at the Tabernacle, this is not the event for you. Symposium is where performers break the fourth wall, comfortably make I-just-messed-up-the-lyric facial expressions and involve the audience as integral parts of their acts.

Even more than an event or show, Symposium acts as a dialogue. This is something that more formal performances can’t offer because they exist simply to entertain and amaze; instead, Symposium exists to bring Emory students and Emory communities together. It reminds us of the too-often forgotten fact that, despite our different campus groups and scenes, we are all part of the same University community, in which our peers possess an incredibly rich and wide range of talents.

Left Page: College Meiyou Yue performs a traditional Chinese improvisation dance | Melissa DeFrank, Staff Top: The Family Jam covers “I And Love And You” by The Avett Brothers Middle: Bockarie performs Bottom: College sophomores Diana Bender-Bier (Right) and Catherine Messina (Left) dance | Ruth Reyes, Video Editor

main show:

p u e n i The L

Persuasion (dance group) The Family Jam (band) Rebecca Olderman (stand-up) Aidan Williams (acoustic guitar) Katie Messina & Diana Bender-Bier (dance duet) MADE (a capella quartet) Rathskellar (improv comedy) Virginia Spinks & James La Russa (dance duet) Kirk & Harry & Friends (band) Jamelia Mays (spoken word) Meiyou Yue (Improv Piano & Dance) Matt De LeReaux (hip-hop rapper) TNT (hip-hop dance) Boregard (rapper)

pre-show

Cooper Linn (guitar) Angad Batra (guitar) Shea Fallick (guitar)

after-show

Boregard (rapper) The Watkins 7 (band)

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

‘mockingjay part 2’

burns........ out

Shalvi Shah Copy Chief

shalvi.shah@emory.edu

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n November 2014 in Thailand, citizens protesting the military takeover that overtook the civilian government raised their hands in a silent three-fingered salute, eerily similar to the way that District residents do to show their support Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games trilogy of books, upon which the films are based. The resonating power of that particular display was felt in the shockwaves that swept Thailand, and later, the world. It then becomes difficult to critique the films based on this trilogy; there is always the danger of their popularity overshadowing their worthiness and quality.

However, the three released films — The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay: Part 1 — collectively grossed about $2.25 billion worldwide; clearly, there are people who’ve found them intriguing.

If I’d been even half as expectant (as the aforementioned people who found the films intriguing) of a good film adaptation (or even just a good film) prior to watching Mockingjay: Part 2, I’d be a little disappointed. Not bitterly or sorely disappointed, but disappointed nonetheless.

Directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am

There was no momentum pushing it forward, making it seem disjointed while tip-toeing around a ticking bomb ...

Left: Cressida (Left) and Katniss (Right) prepare to fight Center: Gale readies himself for battle Right: Katniss shoulders her weapons | Courtesy of Lionsgate Entertainment

Legend), the film is about the dystopian universe based in a post-war-like America where one president (Donald Sutherland) rules the rest with a callous iron fist, commandeering games where children kill each other for survival. One teenage girl, Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), and the people who believe in her, want to make things right.

However, the film failed to deliver what the anticipation in Part 1 had built up to. There was no momentum pushing it forward, making it seem disjointed while tip-toeing around a ticking bomb, where only the action sequences served to push the film forward.

Admittedly, the second half of the film and its ending (with the exception of the epilogue) did finally propel the scenes into action, but by then it was too late to overcome the lethargy set up in the first half.

However, the signature gruesome undead scenes that Lawrence specializes in fascinated for the way they flowed, and were definitely some of the most resounding scenes in the film.

Writers Peter Craig, Danny Strong and Suzanne Collins (the author of the books that this franchise is based on) succeeded where Lawrence failed.

The portrayal of civil war and the haunting toll it takes on the people of this fictional world attempted to coerce the viewers into thinking about the fractious nature of the world today, and, mostly it was

successful.

Also with a film adaptation of a book come the perils of dialogue being stilted, or badly changed.

That was not the case here, because although the scenes were disjointed, the descriptions of sorrow and violence in them were stark, hard-hitting even.

Part of the credit for those deliveries should go to the actors, but here, where the raw, emotional unstability of Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) deserves it, the apathy of Everdeen fails, which is surprising for an actress with her pedigree and the famous “crazy” that she brings to the screen.

The rest of the star cast, including Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Woody Harrelson, gave acceptable performances, but Hutcherson definitely stole the show. The ending had to be altered from the book as Hoffman recently passed away, and his character would have tied things up, which left me mourning the negligible screen time he got.

Overall, besides Lawrence, each actor brought some emotion to the forefront of the film.

I expect the film to be a commercial hit, but it definitely lacks in the emotion and direction that would have made it a truly great adaptation.

17

11.18.15

Q&A with

Carey Mulligan

Brandon Wagner | Senior Staff Writer bhwagne@emory.edu

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ver since her performance in the 2009 film An Education wowed audiences and earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, Carey Mulligan has been one of Hollywood’s most graceful and deeply relatable actresses. Through performances in films like Never Let Me Go, Drive and Inside Llewyn Davis, Mulligan has commanded a powerful screen presence despite her relatively young career.

She brings that emotional relatability to Focus Features’ new film, Suffragette. Mulligan plays Maud Watts, a young woman in early 20th century London thrust into the fight for voting rights and the battle for equality — something that comes at the cost of everything she’s known.

I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Mulligan in a conference call with college students from around the country. Mulligan talked about her character process, the importance of telling the story of women’s suffrage and more.

Brandon Wagner, Emory University: In telling the history of a group of women who haven’t necessarily had their story told, what did you want your performance to say about them?

Carey Mulligan: I think that it is sort of a tribute to them; we wanted to show that courage and that conviction.

This is largely a lot of women who had everything to lose. At that time, to make that choice to be a Suffragette was incredibly dangerous and risky and could ruin you.

And they stood behind it and endured everything that you see in the film and more because they felt so strongly that they needed to do this — not really for themselves but for their future, for the future generations.

I think that kind of conviction for their beliefs and doing things for the betterment of society was completely unselfish. The change that would be [made] wasn’t really going to affect their lives.

But they knew that it would affect the lives of future generations.

Natasha Nescarinas, Boston University: [How did it feel to have] had the opportunity to delve into the inspirational and raw story and just basically embody the movement, especially when it’s something that’s not truly talked about on a day-to-day basis?

CM: Part of the excitement for me was that I got to really dive into the research for this role. My character was based on lots of accounts of real women. And to get to read these letters and prison diaries written by these women, and to read accounts of what their working lives were like and the testimonies they gave in Parliament — it’s just amazing.

It was almost frustrating to not be able to get more in there because there was so much that we found so inspiring, [along with] brilliant quotes by [the] Suffragettes — things that people had said, and experiences that women had had. And we just wanted to pour all of it into the film. But there obviously is a limit to how much you can do [in a 2-hour] film. It was kind of amazing, a privilege to get to read all of that stuff.

READ UNABRIDGED AT EMORYWHEEL.COM

Colleen Nielsen, UC San Diego: In what specific ways [do you think] that recounting this political movement through Maud’s experiences may have impacted the portrayal of the movement’s scope?

CM: Well, I think you’re seeing a very specific story line within the suffragette movement.

We’re just showing one specific side of it. And the side that’s probably the least discussed, especially in England. [This is about] acts of civil disobedience and the bombings and the imprisonments, all the stuff that we kind of wanted to write out of our history books in England.

That’s the side that we really wanted to show. And I think it’s important that people read around and read about all the actions of the women around that time. And read about the impact that the war has on women’s suffrage because [it] definitely was a contributing factor.

So many women in England got behind the war effort, [so many] were so heavily involved that that was another contributing factor to women getting the vote.

Kiera Fellows, Southern Methodist University: What do you think about this movie makes it so relevant at today’s culture?

CM: I think there are lots of things that make it relevant today. I think it’s really great. We’re a kind of generation of apathetic voter[s], but this film is a reminder to people for when they use their votes what was done for them to have it.

And I think certainly for me it made me think about what my vote really meant.

We still have 62 million girls who are denied an education. And that’s so very Edwardian and very outdated. It’s a really sad fact of today. And one in three women in the world will experience sexual violence. And all of these themes are in the film.

But it’s a reminder that we’re looking at a historical drama, something that seems like it was very long ago. However, a lot of these things we still have to work on. So that’s been a really great part to making the film. And also the idea that this film can inspire people to take action.

Courtesy of Focus Features Entertainment

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

18

Sufjan Stevens concert illuminates art, nostalgia Hannah Conway | Contributing Writer hannah.conway@emory.edu

“I

don’t know where to begin.” It’s the tender and honest lyric at the top of singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens’ “Death With Dignity,” the song that opens last week’s show on Nov. 5 at the Cobb Energy Performing Centre. Home video footage of kids frolicking in the grass in the 1970s is projected onto split diamondshaped screens behind him. “And I don’t know where to begin,” Stevens repeats.

The lyric encapsulates the nostalgia and heartbreak of his newest work, Carrie & Lowell, an album devoted to Stevens’ fervent attempts to reconcile himself with his complicated childhood in the wake of his estranged mother’s death.

Since the release of his first solo album in 2000, Sufjan Stevens’ music has traversed a myriad of topics — Christianity, Greek mythology, serial killers and homages to Illinois and Michigan — just to name a few. But with Carrie & Lowell, Stevens takes a break from his mythological imagination and deals with the intimate, inescapable realities of mortality and grief that are right in front of him.

Last week, he spent the first segment of the show performing the entire track-listing of the eulogistic album, adding in two songs from his more electronica-heavy 2010 album, Age of Adz. Stevens’ performance was pure art. Throughout the show, he demonstrated his extensive oeuvre by compiling layers of rich sound, switching between guitar, piano, recorder, banjo, vibraslap and various forms of percussion instruments. Moments of loud sound interpretation were quickly followed by minimalist interludes of just him and his guitar. His angelic voice was complemented with guest vocals from his four-person band, in particular Dawn Landes, who blanketed Stevens’ voice with delicate harmonies.

During the performance of “Fourth of July,” which is perhaps the darkest song on the album, Stevens sat at the piano and recounted the last bedside conversation he had with his mother in 2012. The song is riddled with childhood rhetoric, rhymes and confessions.

“And I’m sorry I left/but it was for the best/though it never felt right,” Stevens sang from his mother’s perspective.

Stevens’ mother abandoned him when he was just one year old, unable to handle parenthood amidst her own alcoholism, homelessness and schizophrenia. A single spotlight shone directly on him until the final chorus of the song, when he began to chant, “We’re all going to die” over and over again. Then, the spotlights started to circle around, projecting onto the audience, ultimately shifting the song from the individual to the universal by reminding the crowd that these topics, although heavy, are inescapable and real to everyone.

Although Stevens may be drawn to complexity and sorrow, there is an immense undercurrent of hope and forgiveness that exists beneath his solemn lyrics.

“Don’t back down, concentrate on seeing,” he sang in his performance of “Should Have Known Better,” filling an initial regret with awareness. The song ended with him pointing upwards, whispering the word “illumination” until the stage went dark. It is through these moments the Stevens is able to strike the balance between regret and absolution, darkness and light.

Stevens ended the first segment of the show by performing “Blue Bucket of Gold,” the last track of the album. He finished the song with a 20 minute spectacle of what seemed like an improvisation of pure noise, disconnecting himself from the audience and getting lost in the music. The sound built and built until its diminuendo, and the stage lighting followed the same trajectory as the music itself — rainbows of light were quickly met with darkness. Though this displayed his extensive talent as a multi-instrumentalist, the audience might have been more receptive to him using the time to playing more songs.

Nonetheless, the audience were on their feet by the end.

Stevens did not address his fans until he walked back onstage for the encore.

“I really tried to create an encore set that is fun and

exciting … but no matter how deeply I delve into my repertoire, it’s just misery and morality,” Stevens said, joking about his affinity towards darkness. “I think I get it from my parents … they were obsessed with death in a very unflinching, flippant way.”

Towards the end of the show, he spoke in metaphor about the miraculous experience of watching his niece being born at home.

“The midwife in the living room kept saying ‘Bear down! Mother Earth, bear down!’” Stevens said. “And whenever I have these depressive excursions thinking about death and mortality … I think about that. Bear down when it feels unbearable. When it feels like you can’t make it through, you bear down. I remember my sister in law bearing down, and then beautiful new life appeared out of her.”

The audience clapped at the sentimentality, his words offering brief profundity and a glimpse of encouragement amongst the emotional heaviness that came with listening to Carrie & Lowell. He then delved into the “oldies” segment of the show, where he played crowd favorites, the most notable being “Chicago,” the smash hit single from his 2005 album Illinois. The entire crowd sang along.

After a night of contemplative and moody tracks, Stevens ended the show with a goofy cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling.” Opener and alternative R&B singer Gallant joined him onstage, and, together, they danced foolishly in front of a projected picture of Drake. The cover left the audience on their feet, dancing and laughing hysterically at the absurd dissonance that comes at the intersection of Sufjan Stevens and Drake.

As an artist and a human being, Sufjan Stevens undeniably succeeds at doing the hard and important work of making peace with his past and childhood. He climbs the mountain of acceptance in attempt to reach forgiveness.

He uses his music as a purely cathartic form.

He recognizes that there is meaning in suffering and despite inevitable darkness and sorrow, Stevens chooses to dance.

EMORY LIFE Student Spotlight

HAYLEY SILVERSTEIN | EDITOR

Casidy Campbell Lauren Balotin | Staff Writer lauren.paige.balotin@emory.edu

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n Wednesday, Nov. 11, College senior and Emory Black Student Union (EBSU) Senior Student Staff Administrator Casidy Campbell led protests in response to the racial tensions and uproars that have pervaded the University of Missouri and Yale University campuses.

Demonstrators marched out of Asbury Circle to block traffic on Clifton Road, expressing their opinion that black students are not given rights equal to those given to other races and demanding that Emory University recognize these opinions and take action.

Campbell was one of the organizers of the demonstration, and she delivered a speech that rallied and unified the protestors.

“We wanted to bring our black students together to feel a collective emotion and fervor,” Campbell said.

Campbell, along with other Emory students, was already planning to hold an event in solidarity with South Africa, where students at the University of Cape Town were met with violence after storming South Africa’s Parliament to protest rising tuition fees in October. However, when the protests at the University of Missouri and Yale University occurred, they accelerated and enlarged the protests.

Campbell said that she hopes the protests will show other students, including those at other schools, that Emory students stand together with them and are fighting for the same goals. She also intends to gather the community together to vocalize and bring visibility to its frustrations, especially after students at the University of Missouri received death threats.

Campbell felt that in general, the community was very responsive to the opinions and demands of the protesters, citing Dean of Campus Life Ajay Nair as an administrator who effectively responded to them. However, she also felt that the reactions of many others were inadequate.

“Many administrative and student groups reached out to

us, and they definitely sought to try to take some action and facilitate some consolidation, but I think that there’s always more to be done,” Campbell said. “I don’t think I heard enough from everyone.”

Campbell has tried to meet these goals in other forms as well.

According to Campbell, in February of 2015, she organized and held Emory’s first “blacktivism” conference, “Black at Emory: Activism in a ‘Post-Racial’ Society,” an event that aims to gain justice for people of color. She is also organizing another “blacktivism” event to take place in early 2016 that will focus on a thematic idea of intersectionality, or the relationships that link various forms of oppression and discrimination, such as the intersection of oppression against a black woman for both her gender and race.

Campbell also described feeling as if she were in a “different, transcendental state of mind” while speaking about her opinions on inequality, acting in the flow of the moment and relying on her emotions to lead her speeches and actions.

“I was feeling everything, any emotion,” Campbell said, regarding how she felt while leading the protests last week. “Anger, hopelessness, happiness, love.”

Although Campbell believes that there is always room for improvement and changes geared towards equality, she hopes that she can start by creating a space for people in the community to make changes happen at Emory.

“I’m about to graduate. I’m a senior,” Campbell said. “I definitely want to leave with at least a few guarantees that some of the demands will be met before I graduate.”

Photo Courtesy of Casidy Campbell

EMORY LIFE

Peachtree Karishma Mehrotra | Executive Editor kmehrot@emory.edu

Featuring: Jordan Amadio Senior resident physician of neurosurgery at Emory University and co-founder of NeuroLaunch Jill Perry-Smith Associate Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School Jennice Vilhauer Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Emory University School of Medicine, and director of Emory Clinic’s Outpatient Psychotherapy Program

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11.18.15

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s hundreds of people snacked on popcorn and sipped coffee in the Georgia Institute of Technology auditorium, Jennice Vilhauer, the director of Emory Clinic’s Outpatient Psychotherapy Program, walked out onto a small, red, circular carpet in the center of the stage.

“Raise your hand if you would like to win the lottery,” she said to the audience this past Friday afternoon at the TEDxPeachtree event. Most of the audience raised their hands.

“Keep your hand raised if you have ever bought a lottery ticket,” she continued. Most of the hands went down.

Along with Vilhauer’s talk about pos-

itive f u ture thought and action, two other Emoryaffiliated community members — Neurosurgery Resident Physician at Emory Jordan Amadio and Associate Professor at the Goizueta Business School Jill Perry-Smith — spoke at this year’s TedXPeachtree event. Amongst beatbox performances and demos of friendly robots, the three discussed their respective research about psychology, neuroscience and management.

Vilhauer began by discussing her patients’ desires to change their lives and their frustration with their

lack of agency. She attributed the problem to our brain’s “automatic tendency” to work based off of anticipation; we use the past to predict what will happen in the future and therefore limit our expectations.

“The larger the gap between expectations and what you want, the worse you feel,” Vilhauer said. “Change your expectations to match what you want …

When you don’t act, you take yourself out of the game.”

Only then, Vilhauer said, can you change your life. Otherwise, you can find yourself stuck in a self-fulfilling prophecy, where you only get what you expect.

“I realize some of you might be thinking I don’t expect this to work for me,” she said, as the audience chuckled in response. While Vilhauer also didn’t expect this to work for her patients, she found that it created tangible changes in people’s lives. One patient even quit his job to start a successful new career.

“When you are motivated by what you want, change is possible,” she said.

“It’s your expectations of the future that limit you the most.”

In an interview with the Wheel after the event, Vilhauer said that distilling academic research in a 13-minute talk without any academic language can be “terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.” She found that the audience was open and willing to listen and participate. In fact, one woman began to cry when she told Vilhauer how much she enjoyed her talk.

“Moments like that give meaning to all the nights and weekends I have spent working on research papers or grant applications, sometimes questioning whether it is worth the effort,” she said.

Later in the afternoon, Amadio entered the stage to discuss the intersection of cutting edge neuroscience research and technology.

“We are living at the cusp of a golden age of neuroscience,” he said. “If you’re a brain geek, this is the best time to be alive in history.”

Amadio explored the age of convergence between neuroscience and technology not only in medicine but also in consumer technology with new tools to connect your brain with phones and computers. The hackers and makers of this field have led us into the “infancy

of a renaissance.”

That being said, Amadio made sure to address the resilient obstacles in the field as well, such as brain cancer and mental health. But, he said, the problems are not money. The field simply lacks access to mentorships, networks and partnerships.

He especially found this to be true when he immersed himself in the Silicon Valley world of technology and discovered the benefits of startup accelerators — boot camps that help early stage startups.

“Instead of importing the tools [from Silicon Valley], why not import the methods?” he asked.

He developed the first neuroscience startup accelerator, NeuroLaunch, and helped 11 new startup companies get off the ground. The initiatives included everything from devices to implant stem cells in the brain to doctors accessing brain MRIs on the cloud to children with disabilities using robots and games to learn.

Finally, Perry-Smith discussed the way in which connecting with people you don’t know very well can unleash your inner creativity.

She led two studies and found that acquaintances were more likely to have a different functional background from subjects and thus, participants receiving feedback from acquaintances were more creative.

“My message is simple,” Perry-Smith said. “We all can be creative. Our creativity may be dormant. One way to nurture it is to seek out people you don’t know well — acquaintances and even virtual strangers.”

Perry-Smith reasoned that this is the case because we hold implicit expectations that the people close to us will agree with us. Consequently, we listen to their dissent less than that of acquaintances.

After the event, Perry-Smith said she received plenty of positive feedback about the ways in which her talk inspired others.

“The event is an amazing opportunity to hear from experts from a variety of fields,” she wrote in an email to the Wheel. “In most cases, we only learn from others doing similar kinds of work. This was a great way to hear unexpected and new ideas.”

Jordan Amadio

Jill Perry-Smith

Jennice Vilhauer

Photos Courtesy of Emory

SPORTS VOLLEYBALL FALLS

JACOB DURST | EDITOR

Avery Yang Staff Writer

avery.huang.yang@emory.edu

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(Top) Freshman outside hitter Karissa Dzurik spikes the ball vs.

Birmingham Southern (Center) The team huddles before the regional final vs. Hendrix (Bottom) Senior setter Sydney Miles sets the ball vs. Hendrix in the Regional final | Photos courtesy of Emory Athletics

In regional finals to Hendrix

he NCAA Mount Berry Regional Tournament provided true triumph and heartbreak for the Emory women’s volleyball team last week. They won twice, but fell to Hendrix College (Ark.) in the final game.

The Eagles, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, faced off against Greenville College (Ill.) to open the tournament. The Eagles were able to outlast Greenville, winning 3-1 (25-18, 27-25, 20-25, 2520), notching their 33rd win of the year.

Emory’s hitting percentage was .234 (48-18128), besting Greenville’s .125 showing (52-32— 160). Junior outside hitter Kathryn Trinka was a major factor in Emory’s kill total, putting up a game-high 12 kills for her 30th double-digit kill game on the year. Junior setter Sarah Maher put up 10 kills and 11 digs for her 11th double-double (double-digit kills and digs) on the year.

The spotlight of the game, however, was on senior setter Sydney Miles, who became the Emory women’s volleyball’s all-time career leader in assists. With her 41 assists on the night, Miles increased her career assist total to 5,741, besting the record set by Natalie Schonefeld of 5,732 in 2011.

“It’s a really cool honor that reflects what this program as a whole has done these last four years and [what] the people that have been a part of it have done,” Miles said.

After a successful opening round to the tournament, the Eagles faced off against a formidable Birmingham-Southern University (Ala.) squad that had taken down the University of Chicago (Ill.) 3-1 in the previous round. The BirminghamSouthern Panthers were seeking vengeance on the Eagles, having been overpowered 3-0 in the teams’ previous matchup on Sept. 1 at the Woodruff Physical Education Center (WoodPEC).

However, Emory took down Birmingham-Southern handedly 3-1 (25-13, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23).

Superior hitting again led the Eagles a victory.

Emory hit .258 (58-17-159) compared to Birmingham Southern’s .169, and the Eagles topped the Panthers in digs and total blocks. The Eagles put up their best single-game dig count on the season with 94, along with a respectable 14 blocks. Freshman outside hitter Karissa Dzurik shined bright for Emory, registering 14 kills and hitting .367 (14-3—30). Junior mid hitter Jessica

Holler joined Dzurik with double-digit kills, putting up 12 with a .370 hitting percentage. Miles again finished as the assists leader of the team, ending the match with 47 and increasing her career total to 5,788.

With the convincing victory over BirminghamSouthern, the Eagles moved on to the NCAA Regional Final. Here, they faced their toughest test of the season, Hendrix College, for a chance at the tournament title. The first set, which Emory lost 25-23, was tight, but the second set proved to be even tighter. The set seesawed from a 7-2 Hendrix lead to an 11-10 Hendrix lead to a 21-19 Emory lead after 40 points of play. After 49 points, it was set point for Hendrix at 25-24 before two quick Emory scores flipped the set point arrow towards the Eagles. However, Hendrix strung together three straight points to rob Emory of the second set, giving themselves a 2-0 lead in the match.

“We simply weren’t willing to let our season be over,” Miles said.

Behind Dzurik’s five kills in the third set, the Eagles were able to fight back and win the third set, forcing a fourth. In the fourth set, two 4-0 runs allowed the Eagles to dominate and force a fifth and deciding set. Hendrix was up 15-13 and 20-18 at two different points of the set, but the Eagles’ point surges brought the momentum back to their side.

Those who stuck around in the Cage Center got their moneys worth in the incredibly exciting deciding set. After Emory tied the game at 7 points apiece, Hendrix proceeded to go on a 5-0 run to presumably end the game for good. The relentlessness of Maher and the Eagles, who scored four unanswered points to make the score 12-11, pulled them back into the game. However, Emory’s luck ran out there. After Hendrix responded with two unanswered of their own and a Dzurik kill and block assists from Holler and Dzurik, Hendrix closed out the game 15-13.

“In the end, things didn’t fall our way,” Miles said. “Although we fell short of our goals, I think the most important part is that we enjoyed the time we had together and that’s all you can ask for in the end.”

The Eagles finished the season with a 34-4 record, including a conference record of 7-0.

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11.18.15

Cross Country Sweeps Regional Championships Oliver Rockman Staff Writer

oliver.s.rockman@emory.edu

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ast weekend, the Emory men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia for the NCAA Division III South/Southwest Regional Championships.

The Eagles earned first place in each event. In addition to a pair of team titles, Emory accounted for both individual championships thanks to the senior duo of Lukas Mees and Elise Viox.

“I can’t remember the last time we won both the team and the individual titles,” Head Coach John Curtin said. “It was fun for that to happen, and it made for a great weekend.”

The men’s team finished first out of the 30 teams competing, with a score of 86 points. Christopher Newport University (Va.) finished second with 96 points. Senior Lukas Mees beat 203 competitors in the 8K race with a time of 25:46.

“Qualifiers are tricky in cross country because you need to find the balance between putting in enough

effort to get to the next meet, but you still need to save something so you have enough gas in the tank for the next week on the big stage,” Mees said. “It was nice to bring an individual regional championship back to Emory, especially when Elise Viox was able to do it on the women’s side.”

Curtin praised Mees’ performance, as well as the rest of the men’s team.

“Lukas was dominant,” Curtin said. “He ran exactly how we asked. He tried not to over-exert himself with nationals a week away, and he was outstanding.”

The “pack” described by Curtin was lead by junior Michael Sisario, who ran a 26:55. Sisario’s time was good enough for 19th place.

The final three scoring runners for the men’s team were Grant Murphy, Austin Hunt and Max Brown, who ran times of 27:05.2, 27.05.7, and 27:06.1.

“The rest of our guys ran together as a group,” Curtin said. “They began a little far back, but kept working up and did a good enough job to advance to nationals.”

The women’s team finished first out of 27 teams with 35 points, well ahead of Rhodes College (Tenn.) with 106 points and Washington and Lee University (Va.) with 121 points.

Viox finished the 6K women’s course first out of 200 competitors and led the way to a dominant team performance. Her time of 22:05 was a personal best.

“I knew coming into the meet that I was going to have to take the lead early in the race if I wanted any chance at the title,” Viox said. “A little less than two kilometers in, I made my move, committed to it, and saw it through.”

Curtin said that the women’s team entered the meet aiming to have all runners finish in the top 21.

The team went above and beyond their goal and had all seven runners finish in the top 19.

Sophomore Aileen Rivell finished fourth overall with a 22:32, edging out teammate sophomore Gabrielle Stravach, who ran a 22:34.3. junior Sophie Cemaj came in 10th with 22:50.9 that tied her personal best. College freshman Clare Ubersax ran

23:02.8, which was the 15th fastest in the field.

Junior Mia Eisenhandler and sophomore Hanna Saadegh-Vaziri joined their teammates in the top 20 with times of 23:03 and 23:09, respectively.

“Sophie Cemaj hadn’t scored for us all year and this course really lent itself to her talents,” Curtin said. “She’s a good hill runner, and she took advantage of it. Her race was a real highlight on the women’s side.”

Both Mees and Viox said that most of the preparation for this meet has occurred throughout the season and that they are fit and ready. Curtin expressed his excitement for the high level of competition in the national meet.

“The course in Virginia was really rugged, and the kids had to run hard. We’re going to help bring them back down, get them recovered and see what we can do in nationals.”

The Eagles will run in the NCAA D-III Championships in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this weekend on Saturday, Nov. 21.

Senior Lukas Mees (Top) and senior Elise Viox (Bottom) both won their respective races and led their teams to first place finishes at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Championship | Photos courtesy of Emory Athletics

SPORTS

Eagles Challenge UGA

Andrew Burnside Staff Writer

andrew.burnside@emory.edu

Junior Christian Baker qualifies for Winter Junior Championships in 400 meter freestyle at Arena Swim Series

Junior swimmer Christian Baker during his race at the Arena Pro Swim Series this past weekend | Photos courtesy of Emory Athletics

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he Emory University men and women’s swimming and diving teams drove up to Athens, Georgia, to face off against the top-ranked NCAA Division I University of Georgia (UGA) Bulldogs last Friday. Both Eagles teams lost the meet, the men falling 180.5-86.5 to the No. 8 men’s UGA team and the women 180115 to the No. 7 women’s team. Despite the loss, the Eagles put up incredible times, especially when compared to other Division III swimmers.

The Emory women’s team was led by a number of outstanding individual performances.

Senior Elizabeth Aronoff took first place in the 200-breast stroke with a time of 2:22.74. Junior Annelise Kowalsky also took first place in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.88. Freshman Ashley Daniels took 3rd in the same event, finishing un-

der a second behind Kowalsky with a time of 1:05.45. Sophomore Julia Wawer took second the 200 freestyle, with a time of 1:52.26. Fellow sophomore Rebecca Upton took fifth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:05.73. The 200 medley relay team of sophomore Cindy Cheng, freshman Fiona Muir, junior Marissa Bergh and Kowalsky finished second with a time of 1:44.58.

Kowalsky’s performance earned her University Athletic Association (UAA) Athlete of the Week honors for the second time this season.

Emory sophomore diver Mara Rosenstock took the top spot in the three-meter event with a score of 260.63. Freshman Emma Watson came in second in the same event with a score of 259.13. Rosenstock and Watson placed third and fourth in the one-meter event with the scores of 262.05 and 259.95 points respectively.

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11.18.15 The Emory men also had several strong performances against the Bulldogs.

Junior Mitchell Cooper took first in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:53.40. Freshman Thomas Gordon took first in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.25. Senior John Galvin took second in the same event by only one hundredth of a second with a time of 53.26. The 200 freestyle relay team of sophomore Alexander Hardwick, freshman Trey Kolleck Smith, sophomore Oliver Smith and junior Hayden Burdette-Sapp took first with a time of 1:23.33.

Cooper’s dominance was also rewarded with UAA Athlete of the Week honors, his second of the season.

While the results certainly left a lot to be desired, the team was grateful for the opportunity to challenge themselves.

“This meet is a learning opportunity because they have such refined skills compared to us,” said Kowalsky. “Just being around swimmers who have been on Olympic teams and getting a chance to race and observe them can make us better.”

Junior Christian Baker competed at the long course (measured in meters rather than yards) Arena Pro Swim Series Invitational on Saturday at the University of Minnesota. He won the “D” Final in the 400-meter freestyle event with a time of 4:03.69, beating out the second place swimmer by .16 seconds. Going into the last 50 meters of the race, Baker was in third, but managed to pass both of the opponents ahead of him to win.

“I hadn’t swam a very smart race in [the] preliminaries, so I was really trying to be reserved for my first 250 [meters] or so,” Baker said. “Once I got to the last 50, I realized I had probably been too reserved and was somehow able to drop my head down and build into an all-out sprint”.

Baker’s times qualify him for the Winter Junior Championships hosted in Austin, Texas, in December.

“Qualifying was nice considering I had lifted and practiced the day before, but at this point, I really only care about getting my Olympic Trial cut at the Austin Grand Prix in January,” Baker said.

The Eagles’ diving team will compete at the Emory Diving Invitational this Saturday Nov. 21 at the Madeleine Jude Brown Aquatic Center. The Swim team will get back in the water from Dec. 3 to 5 in both the SCAD and Miami Invitational meets.

“Miami is the halfway point of the season,” said Kowalsky. “It should give us a chance to see what’s going wrong, but while we still have a chance to fix things before the second half of the season.”

(Top) Senior Elizabeth Aronoff swimming the 200-breaststroke (Bottom) Sophomore Julia Wawer swimming the 200 freestyle | Photos courtesy by Emory Athletics

RECENT GAMES MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING VOLLEYBALL MW CROSS COUNTRY

L, 180.5 - 86.5 vs. University of Georgia L, 180-115 vs. University of Georgia L, 3-2 vs. Hendrix College, NCAA Regional Finals Finished 1st out of 30 in both divisions

this week in photos clockwise from top right: Emory students gathered in Asbury Circle this past Monday night for a candlelight vigil for the victims of many worldwide tragedies, including attacks in Paris and Lebanon (Julia Munslow | Arts & Entertainment Editor) Last Wednesday, dozens of students held a protest that originated in Asbury Circle then moved to Clifton Road, where they peacefully blocked traffic to protest discrimination against Black students on campus and around the country (Jason Oh | Contributing) Emory’s seventh-annual Veteran’s Day ceremony took place on the quad (Jason Oh | Contributing) Members of She’s The First, a nonprofit organization with 125 college chapters across the country that raise funds to educate girls in 10 different developing nations, sell Chickfil-a sandwhiches and nuggets at Wonderful Wednesday (Christine Song | Staff) Emory students popped away their stress at the Student Programming Council’s SPC With Love featuring giant rolls of bubble wrap, popcorn and prizes (Wenyun Fan | Contributing)