INDEX
Emory Events Calendar, Page 2
Sports, Page 6
Crossword Puzzle, Page 6
Police Record, Page 2
Reflections, Page 10
Student Life, Page 13
A Year in Review
THE EMORY WHEEL The Independent Student Newspaper of Emory University
Volume 94, Issue 48
www.emorywheel.com
Every Tuesday and Friday
Friday, April 26, 2013
More Than 4,000 Students to Graduate May 13 Rita Dove To Address Seniors at Graduation This article was originally written by Jordan Friedman on Feb. 11. Rita Dove, a former U.S. Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, will address the Class of 2013 at this year’s Commencement ceremony on May 13, the University has announced. Currently the Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia, Dove served as Poet Laureate of the Rita Dove, former U.S. United States Poet Laureate and Consultant and Pulitzer to the Library of Prize winner, Congress from will address 1993 to 1995. the 2013 She was also graduates. the special consultant in poetry for the Library of Congress from 1999 to 2000 and the poet laureate of Virginia from 2004 to 2006. Dove has received several awards and honors for her work, including the Pulitzer
See DOVE, Page 4
Bryan Meltz/Emory Photo/Video
University President James W. Wagner speaks to the more than 4,000 students who graduated at Emory’s 167th annual Commencement ceremony on May 14, 2012. Neurosurgeon and humanitarian Benjamin Carson addressed the Class of 2012.
Students Enter Various Post-Undergraduate Worlds By Rupsha Basu Staff Writer As the end of the year approaches and the University prepares for the 168th Commencement ceremony, more than 1,300 seniors are looking ahead to prepare for the next phase of their lives. Some seniors have
decided to brave the job market while others have chosen to remain in the Atlanta area for opportunities and connections they have made. College senior Madeline Teissler found a job through Emory’s English department. She will be a teaching assistant at the Cliff Valley School, which is a small, progressive, inde-
EVENT
pendent school in Toco Hills for preschoolers through eighth graders. Her job will involve teaching four subjects — English, math, social studies and science — to middle school students. “I’m really looking forward to continuing being in school while not being in school if that makes any
sense at all,” Teissler said. “Sharing knowledge and seeing that feedback loop is just the coolest thing in the world.” As a Theater Studies and English double major — and as somebody who always knew she wanted to
See STUDENTS, Page 6
EVENT
Commencement Issue Page 3: A Year in Review: Looking back at 2012-13’s top stories Page 4: Major award winners of 2012-13 ELECTIONS
Ayalon Reveals His Simon ‘Secret’ Identity Appeals, Wins RHA President By Shivangi Singh Staff Writer
Courtesy of Emory Media
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama visited Emory in 2010. He has accepted an invitation to visit Emory again from Oct. 8 to 10.
Dalai Lama to Visit Emory in Oct. By Karishma Mehrotra Asst. News Editor His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, a University Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory, will visit campus for the third time on Oct. 8-10. Some events will be open to the local community while others will be limited to the Emory community. The public events — a public talk and panel session — will take place Oct. 8 at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The move to Gwinnett for these events from the Woodruff P.E. Center is the largest change in this year’s visit and will minimize campus disruption, according to Michael Kloss, the chief of protocol and the
executive director of the Office of University Events at Emory. He also wrote that the WoodPEC is too small to hold the event. Dates, times and titles for the Emory events are tentative but will include a “Secular Ethics 101” lecture in Glenn Memorial Auditorium and a “Conversation with Scholars” about secular ethics in the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on Oct. 9. A “Traditional Buddhist Teaching” will take place Oct. 10 in Glenn Memorial. “His Holiness has spent many years developing his ideas of these ‘Secular Ethics,’ a theme which has been a primary focus of many of his teachings and books in recent years,” Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, the director of the Emory-Tibet
NEWS A LOOK AT THIS
YEAR’S PROTESTS, SPEAKERS, CONCERTS AND MORE
... PAGE 3
Partnership, wrote in an email to the Wheel. “As His Holiness’s official university, it gives us great pleasure to create a platform from which he can speak about a topic that is so dear to his heart.” Kloss wrote in an email to the Wheel that he anticipates releasing about 1,500 tickets mostly to students through a lottery system. He added that the largest event will be the “Secular Ethics 101.” Kloss clarified that the Dalai Lama uses the phrase “secular ethics” to mean “beyond religion,” rather than simply “without religion” to still respect religion’s role in our ethics. “While previous visits have featured events on a variety of topics
See HIS, Page 4
Yaron Ayalon, a visiting assistant professor of Middle Eastern history, revealed himself last night as the Emory Secrets professor in front of a crowd of about 30 people in White Hall. College seniors Malika Begum and Meena Vanka organized the event. Ayalon has been posting on the “Emory Secrets” Facebook page since December, posting a total of 57 secrets and simply identifying himself as a “professor.” The page allows Facebook users to post their thoughts and opinions anonymously. He introduced himself and spoke for 20 minutes about his experiences and then opened the floor to student questions. A student asked about why he started posting on the page, and Ayalon responded by saying he took up the alias to reflect on his experiences and to provide advice for the student body anonymously. He used Emory Secrets, which
is operated by undisclosed users, as the platform. His initial motivation to take up the secret alias came from “Emory Compliments,” a separate Facebook page that enables students to say kind words about their peers, also anonymously. After hearing his students discuss the Emory Compliments page in one of his classes, he became curious about it. After looking at the page himself, he was directed to the Emory Secrets page. Ayalon had some ideas of his own, so he decided to send them out and see the responses. But soon, Alayon
The Student Government Association’s (SGA) Constitutional Council reversed the Residence Hall Association’s (RHA) decision to disqualify RHA Vice President of Programming and College sophomore Jessica Simon from the RHA presidential race following an Jessica appeal Simon made Simon against the RHA Elections Board. Simon has therefore been named RHA president. This decision marks the fourth time a candidate was named RHA
See STUDENTS, Page 4
See SGA, Page 4
Student Trials ‘Dean for a Day’ Initiative By Nicholas Bradley Features Editor On Feb. 19, College senior Elizabeth “EB” Pruett became Emory’s first “Dean for a Day.” The event, which was the first of its kind at Emory University, provided Pruett
A&E BEST MOVIES, ALBUMS
SENIORS REFLECT ON
AND SHOWS THIS YEAR AND WHAT
...PAGE 10
By Dustin Slade Asst. News Editor
FEATURE
OP-EDS GRADUATING MEMORIES AT EMORY
Yaron Ayalon, visiting assistant professor of Middle Eastern history, is the ‘Emory Secrets’ professor.
TO LOOK FOR
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the chance to experience a day in the life of Dean of Campus Life, Ajay Nair. Pruett said she felt that there was a severe lack of transparency between the students and the administration in the wake of Emory’s recent department cuts and, in an attempt to get a
STUDENT LIFE
YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS’ SUMMER PLANS ... PAGE 14
better sense of what goes on “behind the scenes,” she approached Nair with the idea for Dean for a Day. Pruett said that she was inspired by a program run by her elementary and middle school, Shore Country
See DEAN, Page 4
SPORTS SWIM TEAM DEVELOPS CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE
... BACK PAGE
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NEWS ROUNDUP National, Local and Higher Education News • Creating one of the world’s largest trading blocs, China and 15 other Asia-Pacific nations plan to begin the first round of free trade talks next month, officials announced Thursday. A rival pact to the U.S.-led TransPacific Partnership, which excludes China, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will commence negotiations with a five-day meeting in Brunei on May 9 with intentions to complete talks by 2015. The group, which underscores the economic rivalry between China and the U.S., established guidelines allowing flexibility for poorer nations involved, such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. • Beginning Wednesday night, seven explosions aboard two fuel barges in Mobile, Ala. caused a large fire persisting well into Thursday morning. The blasts injured three Oil Recovery Co. workers, all of whom were transported to the South Alabama Medical Center in critical condition. U.S. Coast Guard officials, along with firefighters from Mobile, responded around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, establishing a one-nautical-mile safety zone around one of the barges the next morning. A
THE EMORY WHEEL
NEWS
Friday, April 26, 2013
full investigation of the cause of the explosions will take place once the fire is out. • A south Fulton County toddler was mauled to death by his family’s pit bull on Wednesday afternoon. While his mother was in the restroom, the dog attacked the 2-year-old boy inside his Sierra Trail townhome around 1 p.m. Animal control employees transported the pit bull, a family pet for eight years, to a shelter for evaluation. Investigators will evaluate the animal’s general health and temperament, as its motives for attack remain unknown. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office refrained from releasing child’s name Wednesday night, pending notification of other family members.
— Compiled by Staff Writer Lydia O’Neal
Corrections
POLICE RECORD • On April 19, officers received a call from the Phi Delta Theta house located at 20 Eagle Row. According to an individual in the house, as he was walking downstairs, he heard glass on the front door cracking. When he arrived at the door, he did not see anyone near the area. • On April 19 at 2:28 a.m., Emory police received a call from a taxi driver who brought two students to campus from Maggie’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill. Prior to leaving the bar, the students and the driver agreed upon an set fare. Upon arrival at Emory, the students changed the price they were willing to pay. Following the dispute, officers arrived, and the students agreed to pay the fare.
TUESDAY
THE EMORY WHEEL Volume 94, Number 48 © 2013 The Emory Wheel
Dobbs University Center, Room 540 605 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322 Business (404) 727-6178 Editor in Chief Arianna Skibell (404) 727-0279 Founded in 1919, The Emory Wheel is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University in Atlanta. The Wheel is a member publication of Media Council, Emory’s organization of student publications. The Wheel reserves the rights to all content as it appears in these pages, and permission to reproduce material must be granted by the editor in chief. The Wheel is published twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions. A single copy of the Wheel is free of charge. To purchase additional copies, please call (404) 727-6178. The statements and opinions expressed in the Wheel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Wheel Editorial Board or of Emory University, its faculty, staff or administration. The Wheel is also available online at www.emorywheel.com.
Event: Carlos Museum Bookshop Spring Clearance Sale Time: 10 a.m. — 4 p.m. Location: Carlos Museum, Level One Event: All About Blackboard Mobile Time: 10 a.m. — 12 p.m. Location: ECIT 217 Woodruff Library Event: Professor Roald Hoffmann (1981 Nobel Winner Chemistry), “The Chemical Imagination at Work in Very Tight Places” Time: 1 — 2 p.m. Location: PAIS 290 Event: Professor Roald Hoffmann (1981 Nobel Winner Chemistry), “All the Ways to Have a Bond” Time: 2:15 — 3:15 p.m. Location: PAIS 290 Event: Finding Your Financial Freedom: Finance and Your Future Time: 4 — 5 p.m. Location: Goizueta Business School room 338 Event: “A Dangerous Method” (2012), Film Screening Time: 7:30 p.m. Location: White Hall 207
• On April 17 at 1:58 a.m., officers received a report from the Phi Delta Theta house located at 20 Eagle Row of an individual carrying and spraying a fire extinguisher in nearby bushes. Officers checked the area but were unable to locate the individual. A considerable amount of fire extinguisher dust was found outside the building on the benches. Campus Life was notified.
• On April 17, Emory police received an anonymous report from a male victim of an aggravated sodomy that occurred in an unknown residence on Jan. 1. EPD was not provided with details.
— Compiled by Asst. News Editor Dustin Slade
• On April 18 at 6:42 p.m., student conduct officers notified Emory police of a drinking game, “pong,” at the Pi Kappa Alpha house located at 22 Eagle Row. Student conduct obtained information from the students and advised them it was against University policy. Emory police did not obtain any information.
May 5, 1995 On the morning of Monday, May 8, 1995, more than 2,000 students graduated, walking to the sound of the Atlanta Pipe Band’s rendition of Emory alumnus Henry Franz’s “Emory and Old St. Andrews March.” A crowd of more than 14,000 attended the ceremony, at which the Atlanta Symphony Brass Quintet performed. About 2,900 students received their degrees.
EVENTS AT EMORY
The Wheel reports and corrects all errors published in the newspaper and at emorywheel.com. Please contact Editor-in-Chief Arianna Skibell at arianna.skibell@emory.edu.
This Week In Emory History
Event: Emory Dance Company Spring Concert Time: 8 p.m. Location: Dance Studio, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
WEDNESDAY Event: Carlos Museum Bookshop Spring Clearance Sale Time: 10 a.m. — 5 p.m. Location: Carlos Museum, Level One Event: Emory Dance Company Spring Concert Time: 2 p.m. Location: Dance Studio, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Event: Athletics — Baseball Time: 3 — 6 p.m. Location: Chappell Park
Event: Emory Dance Company Spring Concert Time: 8 p.m. Location: Dance Studio, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Event: Joel Thompson, choral conducting Time: 5 p.m. Location: Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Event: Emory Concert Choir Time: 8 p.m. Location: Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
Event: Break the Cycle 8: Break the Cycle of Environmental Health Disparities Time: 8:30 a.m. — 4 p.m. Location: Rita Anne Rollins Room, Rollins School of Public Health
THURSDAY Event: University Worship with The Rev. Lyn Pace Time: 11 a.m. — 12 p.m. Location: Cannon Chapel Event: Torah Dedication Ceremony Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: Winship Ballroom
Event: School of Medicine Art Gala Time: 4 — 5 p.m. Location: Emory School of Medicine Atrium
Event: Flying Shaman Kite Workshop for Children Time: 1:30 p.m. Location: Carlos Museum Tate Room
Event: Emory University School of Medicine Spring Weekend Art Gala Time: 6:30 — 7:30 p.m. Location: School of Medicine Foyer
Event: Hao Feng, piano Time: 2 p.m. Location: Emerson Concert Hall, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Event: Athletics — Baseball Time: 3 — 6 p.m. Location: Chappell Park
Event: Prof. Hiroshi Matsui (Hunter College) “Reconfigurable 3D superstructures from collagen-mimicking peptides and label-free cancer cell detection with electric polysilicon chip platform” Time: 4 — 5:30 p.m. Location: Atwood 316 Event: Bate-papo (Portuguese conversation hour) Time: 4:30 — 5:30 p.m. Location: Starbucks at Barnes & Noble, Emory Bookstore Event: Extravaganza Screening and Awards Time: 5:30 — 7:30 p.m. Location: White Hall 112
NEWS
THE EMORY WHEEL
Year in Review
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Friday, April 26. 2013
This year at Emory: several notable speakers visited, students rallied for different causes, famous music artists performed on campus and students coped with the loss of beloved classmates. Here’s a look back at the year’s top stories.
SPEAKERS
PERFORMERS
Left: File Photos | Right: Courtesy of David Feldman
Performers Eli Young Band (top left), Kendrick Lamar (top right), Amy Schumer (bottom left) and 3LAU entertained students during Dooley’s Week, freshman orientation and Fall Band Party.
RALLIES AND PROTESTS File Photos
Tim Wise (top left) delivered a speech at the annual State of Race in March during which he addressed topics including white privilege and racism across the country and at Emory. In addition, at this year’s TEDxEmory conference, a variety of speakers including both former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California Carlos Moreno and CNN reporter Josh Levs (top right; left to right) spoke on topics such as the humanities, sciences and arts. University Distinguished Professor Salman Rushdie (bottom) spoke with students and faculty throughout the year at a various events on campus.
CONCERTS AND PERFORMANCES
File Photos
This year, Emory students held, performed and enjoyed a plethora of concerts and shows across campus. Student a cappella groups such as Aural Pleasure (above) and No Strings Attached performed songs ranging from the hits of today to songs of the past. Other campus performance groups such the Emory Symphony Orchestra (Left) have held multiple concerts throughout the year open to the Emory community.
THE MOST-READ WHEEL STORIES OF 2012-2013 A lot happened at Emory this year, so perhaps it’s time to take a look back at the most-read stories on the Wheel’s website. There are several noticeable patterns, so see if you can spot any. 15. “An Open Letter From the AAUP,” Oct. 30, 2012, The Emory chapter of the American Association of University Professors called for an “immediate review” of the process that led to the department changes announced in the fall. 14. “Emory to Remove Chickfil-A from Cox Hall,” March 12, 2013, As part of a facelift the food court is undergoing, Emory decided to remove the popular fast-food chain from Cox due to negative student feedback. 13. “Committee Helped Forman Evaluate Departments,” Sept. 20, 2012, Surprise! Another story about the department changes. This story focused on the College Financial Advisory Committee, which helped College Dean Robin Forman evaluate the eliminated departments. 12. “Faculty Clash with Forman at Meeting,” Oct. 5, 2012, Yup, yet another story about the cuts. Many faculty members weren’t too thrilled, to say the least, about the announcement, and more
than 100 of them attended a special meeting with Forman to express their concerns. 11. “Fraternity Houses, Sports Fields to Be Demolished,” April 1, 2012, The Wheel is quite proud that we were able to fool 2,951 readers with this story. 10. “English Dept. Faculty Members Respond to Wagner’s Column,” March 6, 2013, University President James W. Wagner faced considerable backlash for his column in Emory Magazine. And many English faculty members explained why they felt these criticisms were justified. 9. “Former Emory Professor Sues University for Alleged Discrimination in Tenure Case,” Jan. 18, 2013, A former assistant professor in the Department of German Studies sued the University claiming discrimination in administrators’ decision to deny him tenure. 8. “Faculty Censure Wagner, Consider No Confidence,” Feb. 21, 2013, Wagner makes it closer to the top of the list of most-read stories. This time, faculty censured him at their monthly meeting as they considered holding a “no confidence” ballot. 7. “Controversy Arises Over Wagner’s Column,” Feb. 19, 2013, Here we go again. 6. “Ten Fictional Deaths
That Broke Our Hearts,” Feb. 18. 2013, A shout-out to former Managing Editor Roshani Chokshi, who wrote this story on, well, 10 deaths in fiction stories that apparently left us heartbroken. 5. “Abramowitz Predicts 2012 Election Results,” Sept. 13, 2012, Alan Abramowitz, professor of political science, predicted Obama was going to win the election by a close margin of about 1.2 percent. 4. “EMORY SHUTS DOWN DEPARTMENTS,” Sept. 18, 2012, Hey, did you hear about the department cuts? 3. “Lamar to Perform at Dooley’s Week,” Feb. 8, 2013, The Wheel broke the story that rapper Kendrick Lamar, DJ 3LAU and comedian Hannibal Buress would be performing on campus from April 1-6. 2. “Faculty Letter to President Wagner,” Feb. 18, 2013, Faculty from the Departments of History and African American Studies joined the English faculty in expressing their disappointment in Wagner. 1. “College Downsizes Departments, Phases Out Programs, Faculty, Staff,” Sept. 14, 2013, The first Wheel article of approximately 1 million more about the cuts.
— Compiled by Executive Editor Jordan Friedman
File Photos
Students and faculty rallied on issues of concern on campus throughout the year. In the fall, students and faculty held a seven-hour sit-in in the administration building in response to College Dean Robin Forman’s department re-allocations (top). Students also protested University President James W. Wagner’s Three-Fifths Compromise column as well as acts of racism on campus (middle and bottom left). Students contested Chick-fil-A’s presence on campus citing the chain’s stance against gay marriage.
REMEMBERING CLASSMATES AND PROFESSORS Maximilian Aue, German Studies professor, died in a vehicular accident in August.
in September.
Victor Vinh Charles Le, College junior, was shot by a police officer
Annie Tang, College sophomore, passed away shortly after New Year’s day due to a stomach virus.
EMORY POINT File Photo
Emory Point opened up its doors this year to the Emory community. The new complex, which is located across the street from the Centers for Disease Control, offers students residential apartments in addition to new restaurants such as BurgerFi, Marlow’s Tavern and Fresh to Order. Students can also go shopping and take advantage of Emory Point’s selection of high-end clothing stores including JoS. A. Bank and Ann Taylor Loft.
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Friday, April 26, 2013
THE EMORY WHEEL
Dalai Lama Panel Discussions to Focus on Compassionate Human Values, Secular Ethics Continued from Page 1 from happiness to creativity, peacebuilding to contemplative sciences, the events of this visit are all focused on ethics and what it takes to be a citizen in the 21st century,” Kloss wrote. Kloss also wrote that hosting the events in these areas will provide a “more intimate feel.” The Dalai Lama first spoke at Emory in 1987 to a 4000-plus crowd at the Woodruff P.E. Center. “The mission of Emory University, to educate the heart as well as the mind, resonates deeply with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s lifelong philosophy,” Negi wrote. “At the same time, both His Holiness and Emory recognize that there is so much that our different traditions can
learn from one another, which has led Emory to undertake several projects that further this mutually beneficial relationship.” This visit marks an extension of the Emory-Tibet Partnership, founded in 1998, and the Dalai Lama’s acceptance of University President James W. Wagner’s invitation to visit Emory when Wagner visited Dharamsala, India in March 2011. His Holiness visited the University in 2007 — when he was named Presidential Distinguished Professor at Emory — as well as in 2010 for events focused on science research and meditation, creativity and spirituality, interfaith dialogue and compassion. ”The Dalai Lama has made invaluable contributions to our under-
standing of what it means to be an ethical citizen of the world,” Wagner said in an April 23 University press release. “We are looking forward to the return of Emory’s Presidential Distinguished Professor and the opportunities for our faculty and students to engage with him on these vital issues.” The public talk, titled “The Pillars of Responsible Citizenship in the 21st Century Global Village,” will take place from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and will focus on the compassionate human values and the Dalai Lama’s vision for secular ethics. Paul Root Wolpe, the director of Emory’s Center for Ethics, will moderate a subsequent question-andanswer session. In addition, the panel discussion,
titled “Secular Ethics and Education” and open to the public, will also include top scientists and educators and will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. The panel will explore the application of secular ethics to modern education. Panelists include Negi, Emory C.H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior Frans de Waal, University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry Richard Davidson and Panel Moderator and Amherst College Professor of Physics Arthur Zajonc. “[The Dalai Lama’s] relationship with Emory is special, and we are afforded a very generous amount of focused time,” Kloss wrote. “In return, we do our best to make sure that his time here is meaningful and reaches the largest number of people
possible.” Gary Hauk, the vice president and deputy to the president, wrote to the Wheel that the Emory-Tibet partnership has brought together faculty and researchers from all across Emory. “Since his first appearance on Emory’s campus ... the Dalai Lama has encouraged development of a special kind of partnership that takes advantage of Emory’s penchant for interdisciplinary collaboration,” he wrote. College freshman Naomi Maisel wrote in an email to the Wheel that she is especially excited to attend the public talk and panel. “Not only is it going to be incredible to hear him speak, but I think the fact that he’s coming really solidifies his involvement in Emory,” she wrote.
“By actually participating in an event with him, I will hopefully further understand his presence on Emory’s campus as well as his teachings.” Maisel will be taking the “Dalai Lama’s Ethics” philosophy class next semester and will be meeting the Dalai Lama this summer in Dharamsala. “I am also secretly hoping he will remember me,” Maisel wrote. Free tickets for the two days of Emory events will be available starting Sept. 1 at dalailama.emory.edu. Tickets for the public events can be purchased at GwinnettCenter.com starting on April 26 at 10 a.m. and range from $35 to $90. Each ticket gives admission to both events.
— Contact Karishma Mehrotra at kmehrot@emory.edu
SGA Reverses ‘Dean for a Day’ Applications Dove to Receive Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree RHA Pres. To Be Accepted Next Semester Decision Continued from Page 1
Continued from Page 1
Continued from Page 1 president and the second time Simon was named to the position in the last three weeks. Simon was disqualified by the RHA Elections Board after the second general election for sending out emails that the Board ruled violated the RHA elections code. RHA Publicity Chair and College sophomore Akshay Goswami was also disqualified following a challenge Simon made against his campaign. RHA Volunteer Chair Kadean Maddix was then announced the winner by default April 15. He held the position for five days. “I am not mad at [Simon] nor am I mad at [Goswani],” Maddix said. “I think that Jessica made her decision. She is her own individual and in my opinion, I just want to see what is best for RHA, and I let her know that her decision, whatever it may be, should be in the right for the organization and not some exterior motive.” The SGA Constitutional Council reversed the RHA Election Board’s decision because they found that Simon “used Microsoft Office 365 in a parallel way to Learnlink in her campaign for Residence Hall Association (RHA) president,” according to the SGA ruling, obtained by the Wheel. The SGA Constitutional Council therefore conclude, “Simon’s use of the lists of residents provided to her by RHA was substantially similar to the allowed activity of posting to LearnLink conferences with the permission of the conference controller.” Therefore, the SGA constitutional Council determined that Simon would once again be named RHA president. RHA — like all subsidiary bodies such Student Programming Counci, Indian Cultural Exchange and Emory Hillel — is obligated to follow the Constitutional Council’s ruling, as it is the supreme judicial entity of all charted student organizations, according to Kara Maynard, the chief justice of the SGA Constitutional Council and Goizetta Business School junior. Following the announcement of SGA’s decision, Goswami said in an interview with the Wheel that he believes Simon’s personal connections with individuals on the SGA Constitutional Council have made the decision unethical. “She did whatever she could to get the position,” Goswami said. “It seemed she was doing it for herself rather for RHA, and the way she went about doing it was unethical because the people who made the final decisions were her friends.” Simon said she does not believe that she had any personal connections with the SGA Constitutional Council and that she does not understand why Goswami would make these assumptions. “I was unaware of any close ties I could have had,” Simon said. “I’m not the kind of person ever to do something like that.” Simon said that moving forward from an election process like this is going be difficult for both her and RHA. “It is what it is,” Simon said. “Obviously an objective of my presidency will be rebuilding my reputation on campus, and that’s fine with me.” “It’s kind of interesting because by the end, all of the candidates have had the experience of learning what it is like to win and then lose … I think all of us got shaken up throughout the whole process,” Simon said. Maddix said that during his fiveday presidency, he had begun to organize and interview his executive board in preparation for the work ahead. Maddix added that he was shocked and a bit disappointed by SGA’s decision.
—Contact Dustin Slade at dpslade@emory.edu
Day School in Beverly, Mass. As part of a fundraising auction, parents could buy the opportunity for their children to be headmaster for a day. “I thought that it would be an interesting program to do on a college campus,” Pruett said. “It wouldn’t be a fundraiser, but it would be a good way for students to see the behindthe-scenes [of being a dean] – it could be called ‘Dean for a Day.’” When inspiration struck, Pruett contacted Nair, who she had met through her duties as an Emory Admissions Fellow. “EB mentioned to me that she was intrigued by my job and would love to have it,” Nair wrote in an email to the Wheel. “She inspired the Division of Campus Life to create a Dean for a Day program.” Nair said he hoped the program would achieve several goals. He, like Pruett, wanted to “develop a culture of transparency.” Other goals the programs seeks to achieve included helping students understand the complex workings of University governance, inspiring students to pursue a career in higher education and helping students to “experience our intergenerational Emory family by interacting with alumni,” Nair said. In the same way that Pruett wanted to get a better sense of how the University’s administration works, Nair said he wanted to get a glimpse of what student life is like. After Pruett spent the day as dean, Nair attended one of her sociology classes. “Nair was a very active participant,” Pruett said. Pruett’s Dean for a Day experience started early – at 7 a.m., to be exact. She had the opportunity to schedule meetings with a variety of Emory administrators including Eric Bymaster, assistant vice president of finance and operations, Dean of Students Dr. Bridget Riordan and University President James W. Wagner. Over the course of her day, Pruett
spoke to administrators on a variety of initiatives to improve the university. She even spoke with Wagner about his controversial comments regarding the Three-Fifths Compromise in Emory Magazine. Throughout the day, Pruett and Nair tweeted about their activities and took lots of pictures. “I wish that I had had a video camera so that people could have seen the experience,” Pruett said. The next day, Pruett flew to Washington, D.C. with Nair and Director of Development Andrew Christopherson to speak at an Emory alumni networking event. Nair said he felt this event was one of the more successful aspects of the Dean for a Day program. “It helped alumni get a better understanding of activities on campus and it helped EB get a sense how involved our alumni are in the life of the University,” he said. Looking back, Pruett said she enjoyed how passionate the administrators were about their work. “It was so nice and refreshing to see that these people actually care,” she said. “The school actually listens.” Pruett cites her experience developing and executing the Dean for a Day program as proof that Emory students can bring their ideas to life, if they know the right people to talk to. Although there was only one Dean for a Day this year, Pruett said that her experience was just a test run for next year. She says she hopes that future Deans for a Day will be inspired to pursue their own projects and will have developed the connections with administrators to make that become a reality. Nair said that he hopes to make Dean for a Day a monthly program, with an application open to all students. “My take away is that student life is incredibly vibrant at Emory,” Nair said. “EB has set the bar high for the next student Dean!”
— Contact Nicholas Bradley at nbradle@emory.edu
Students Suspected Ayalon Was Emory Secrets Prof. Continued from Page 1 admitted, he became addicted to Emory Secrets. Another student was curious as to why Ayalon decided to reveal his identity, something Alayon said he decided after posting his final secret. He wanted to meet the students who were following his alias before leaving Emory to teach Middle Eastern history at Ball State University in Indiana next year. A third student wanted to know how Alayon maintained his anonymity. Alayon answered many people, especially his students, suspected him to be the anonymous professor, but he never personally admitted his identity until the event last night. Begum, a student of his, was the first student to learn Alayon’s secret. She said she became good friends with him and eventually figured it out. Vanka learned about the professor’s secret through Begum. Together, they helped him plan the event. “This event is a tribute to how awesome the Emory community is,” Vanka said. “We are all gathered here for a common purpose because Emory students have a lot of issues that we face in daily collegiate life, and it’s really comforting to have a figure who is willing to listen to them and respond to them.” According to Alayon, no faculty, except his wife who is a part of the Emory faculty, knew his identity, either. College freshman Bharat Koti, who attended the event, didn’t know the professor previously, but Alayon’s personality accurately matched Koti’s
expectations. “His messages were not earthshattering, not absolutely inspiring. It’s what we’ve heard before,” Koti said. “Just the way he reached out to students is admirable.” College is the time to explore those passions, but that too needs to be goal-oriented Ayalon said. Students perform poorly in classes not because they aren’t studying correctly but because they are bored of the subject Ayalon said. Students don’t see a purpose behind the material. Success, though, is not limited to academics, Alayon explained; developing skills to survive in the real world is equally important. Alayon noted networking and learning how to write and use a computer beyond just Word and Powerpoint as being key to prosperity. But his first tip — reaching out to professors — is what he considers most important. “You would not believe how a really good relationship with one professor can transform your college experience,” Alayon said. “You are more than just a number. So let your teachers know you are more than just a number. So talk to your teachers and let them know.” He doesn’t know how — or if — he’s going to continue with his online alias, but he is happy to have gotten the opportunity to share his insight. Much of the inspiration for Alayon’s posts, he said, stems from a student of his from his time teaching at the University of Oklahoma.
— Contact Shivangi Singh at ssing62@emory.com
Prize in 1987 for her book of poems, “Thomas and Beulah.” President Obama honored Dove with the 2012 National Medal of Arts, which recognizes artists and arts patrons for their contributions to the growth, availability and support of the arts in the United States. Dove earned the National Humanities Medal — the nation’s highest honor for writers and scholars — in 1996 from former president Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to receive both of these accolades. Dove additionally received the Library of Virginia’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 and the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal in 2009. At the Commencement ceremony, Dove will receive an honorary doctor of letters degree as part of the University’s tradition of honoring its Commencement speakers in this way. Gary Hauk, Emory’s vice president and deputy to the president, wrote in an email to the Wheel that Dove is a “fitting choice” because Emory has been ranked a top campus for aspiring writers, and Natasha Trethewey, Emory’s Robert W. Woodruff professor of English and creative writing, currently holds the poet laureate title. “It has been too long since a literary artist delivered an Emory Commencement address,” Hauk wrote, noting that the last was Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner, in 2003.
In addition, Hauk acknowledged that Emory has one of the largest collections of African American literary materials in its Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. According to Hauk, Dove appeared on campus in spring 2011 as a visiting lecturer for programs sponsored by Emory’s Women’s Center, the James Weldon Johnson Institute and the Center for Creativity and Arts. Throughout her career, Dove’s interdisciplinary approach to her work has prompted her collaboration with musicians, composers and artists, according to a Feb. 12 University press release. Dove was the first African American to be named poet laureate. The title of poet laureate replaced the former position of consultant in poetry following an act of Congress in 1986. She was the second African American to receive a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. “Rita Dove’s contributions to our collective intellectual, creative and interdisciplinary life serve as an example of how to create new opportunities for community and collaboration,” University President James W. Wagner said in a Feb. 12 University press release. Last spring, Hauk convened a committee of approximately 25 members of the Class of 2013 who met three times during the course of about six weeks. The list offered a variety of potential speakers, including Obama, who was their first choice.
“Although we had been encouraged by someone in the White House to invite him — and did —, it was not until after the election that we could get a response, at which time the message was that they would not be able to confirm until March or April,” Hauk wrote. “We couldn’t wait that long. In the end, we realized that the best possible commencement speaker had already been invited last fall to receive an honorary degree and had accepted — Rita Dove.” In regard to her speech, Hauk wrote that the University gives its commencement speakers a “wide latitude.” “The occasion naturally calls for some reflection about the world to which our graduates are going, and the Emory vision they carry with them into the world,” Hauk wrote. “But I imagine that Ms. Dove, as a poet, will avoid clichés, couch her message in vivid language, and inspire our hearts as well as our minds.” This year’s Commencement ceremony will take place on the Quadrangle with an expected 14,000 attendees, the press release states. In addition to Dove, Burundi humanitarian activist Marguerite “Maggy” Barankitse will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree, and architect and designer Michael Graves will be granted an honorary doctor of fine arts degree.
— Contact Jordan Friedman at jordan.m.friedman@emory.edu
THE EMORY WHEEL
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Friday, April 26, 2013
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Friday, April 26,2013
THE EMORY WHEEL
AWARDS: This year’s recipients of major awards
Four Students Awarded Bobby Jones This article was originally written by Dustin Slade on Feb. 21. Four College seniors were awarded the Robert T. Jones Jr. Scholarship for 2013-2014 on Monday, allowing them to study for a year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. The scholarship was awarded to College seniors Becky Levitan, an Art History major and Mediterranean archeology minor; Nour El-Kebbi, Middle East and South Asian studies and International Studies double major; Lauren Henrickson, a Linguistics and Religion double major; and Katie Dickerson, who is studying Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, Anthropology and Biology. The award, commonly known as the Bobby Jones Scholarship, was established in 1976 and recognizes individuals in the Emory community who exemplify the legacy of Bobby Jones. According to the scholarship’s website, Bobby Jones was a golf legend and a scholar, earning degrees from Georgia Tech, Harvard and Emory. The scholarship sends four students from both Emory and St. Andrews to the other school to undertake a full-paid year of study. Of the 26 students who applied at Emory, 12 students were selected as finalists, and four were ultimately selected as award recipients. For the first time in the scholarship’s history, all eight recipients both at Emory and St. Andrews are women. “It really speaks to the extent to which woman at Emory are full participants and fully involved and a part of the leadership,” said Dee McGraw, Emory’s director of National Scholarships and Fellowships. “We have arrived at the point where it is not so much, ‘we’ve got to balance the men and the woman,’ but instead when you look across campus at who the leaders are, it’s likely to be anybody, and that’s a good thing.” Levitan said the fact that all recipients were women demonstrates that
This article was originally written by Rupsha Basu on Feb. 21.
Lauren Henrickson
Rebecca Levitan
academia is no longer a male-dominated field. “This year, [women] were the ones that showed they were the best candidates.” Levitan said. There is no formula or quota used to determine who is awarded the scholarship, according to McGraw. She denied any rumors that race and gender quotas are a part of the recipients of the scholarship. She explained that judges only seek to find the most qualified candidates. “The fact that eight woman were selected speaks a lot to the fact that the committee was really looking for merit and not trying to fit any kind of mold,” Dickerson said. Students are awarded the scholarship based on their “intellectual excellence, significant leadership, and exemplary character, integrity and citizenship,” according to the scholarship’s website. “I think that’s this is a really a unique opportunity,” said Dickerson. “St. Andrews is a sister school of Emory and it is rare that an exchange program like this could exist. This was a unique opportunity and I wanted to make it an aspect of my Emory Experience.” Student finalists meet with faculty, administrators and judges in a social reception prior to an official interview process. The selection committee is composed of faculty, administrators, alumni and Bobby Jones IV, a direct blood relative of Bobby Jones. “All of the judges and finalists come together in a social setting and chat,” McGraw said. “[Finalists] try to be as normal and as themselves as possible under stressful circumstances. It really is a way for the judges to
Students Seek Travel, Service After Graduating from Emory Continued from Page 1 teach — Teissler has extensive experience as a theater instructor. Teaching other subjects, however, will be a new experience. “I advocate working a little before you go to grad school,” Teissler said, speaking to the pressures that many students face in attending graduate school immediately after finishing their undergraduate studies. Teissler said that graduate school may still be in her future. While Teissler has decided to put her theatric aspirations on hold, College senior Tim Harland, also a Theater Studies major, is in the process of auditioning for shows in the Atlanta area. “With my profession, there will most likely never be consistent, certain work. A show’s contract would only last a little less than two months between rehearsal and shows, so I will be stuck constantly searching for work,” Harland wrote in an email to the Wheel. Harland, however, said that he is excited to be an “eternal student” in a constantly evolving mode of art. But not all have chosen to remain in Atlanta. With the unemployment rate for 20 to 24-year-olds now at 13.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor, some students see postponing work as the path of least resistance. Even though he had been warned of the sparse range of work opportunities for students who pursue academia, College senior Max Ashton will nevertheless attend Stanford University (Calif.) in the fall as an English Ph.D. student focusing on Medieval English and Anglo-Saxon poetry. “The woman I’ll be working with at Stanford told me [that] when I visited how bad the job market is. I’ve been hearing that for four years,” he said. Ashton, however, did not turn to graduate school as a last resort. His consistent attraction to graduate school has had much to do with being in a new city as it does the subject matter. “My life outside of school will be really fantastic,” Ashton said, noting that he looks forward to being near San Francisco. “San Francisco is really cosmopolitan.” Also embarking to new territories, College senior Jeff Sporn plans to spend six months to a year traveling across Europe. Sporn decided
Nick Thompson Garcia Named Luce Scholar Receives
long ago that entering the job market was the last thing on his mind. “I think it’s silly to spend so much of [one’s] youth working for a career,” Sporn said. “You have your whole life to make a career.” He will visit family and friends before working in France with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, an organization of organic farmers who offer jobs to travelers in exchange for food and housing around the world. For Sporn, the biggest challenge will be staying fiscally responsible. He plans to save money by couch surfing, a system where strangers offer their homes to travelers through an online database. He said he looks forward to the new job and new culture the most. Other students have also decided to pursue unconventional postgraduate dreams. College senior Tess Komarek will join the Peace Corps in September, working in the health sector for two years before she attends medical school. According to Komarek, the influence of her grandfather’s experience in the Peace Corps and traveling to underprivileged areas as a child encouraged her to apply. She will most likely be placed in West Africa because that is where most of the health-related offices of the Peace Corps are located. “Because I’ve traveled a fair amount and seen parts of the world that don’t have basic access to medical care, that is what I want to do with the rest of my life after medical school — go and serve in underprivileged areas around the world,” Komarek said. She said she believes her experience in the Peace Corps will prepare her for her ultimate career aspirations. Like Teissler, Komarek is optimistic about gaining work experience before graduate school. “I may be entering [medical school] with people that were freshmen and sophomores when I was at Emory ... but I’m excited to gain this life experience that will only enhance my application and experience once I’m in medical school and beyond,” Komarek said. Komarek is a strong advocate for taking advantage of having few responsibilities as a fresh graduate. “This is the perfect time in your life to just go and do and experience and learn what life means,” she said. — Contact by Rupsha Basu at rupsha.basu@emory.edu
Katie Dickerson
Nour El-Kebbi
get to know the finalists in a more personable and casual way.” Selected students are offered the opportunity to continue their undergraduate education abroad and experience local and cultural offerings within the community of St. Andrews while serving as representatives of Emory, according to the scholarship’s website. “We’re looking for people who represent the face of Emory, the best that Emory has to offer,” McGraw said. “These are people who have been deeply engaged in campus in different kinds of ways through athletics, music or student government.” McGraw said the student finalists are the types of individuals who judges engage in a conversation with and instantly connect and want to learn more about. The student finalists were anxious in awaiting the announcement of the winners. Both Dickerson and El-Kebbi said that they began crying when they found out they were awarded the Bobby Jones scholarship. “I walked into the office with my roommate, and I was extremely nervous,” El-Kebbi said. “I hadn’t slept in five days.” Since the creation of the scholarship, the program has sent more than 200 students from both Emory and St. Andrews to study abroad. McGraw said students interested in the scholarship should be extremely active on campus and in the Emory community. “Love [Emory] and give yourself to it,” McGraw said. “Find your niche and those things are going to make you a strong candidate in the future.”
— Contact Dustin Slade at dpslade@emory.edu
College senior Nick Thompson was named one of 18 Luce Scholars nationwide this month. He will now have the opportunity to spend a year working in Asia. The Luce Scholars Award is given to students from various disciplines who have limited exposure to Asian studies. After the selection process, award recipients are placed in an Asian country based on his or her interests, professional experience and qualifications. Thompson, a double major in biology and music, will learn where he is placed in April or May of this year. He is the University’s sixth Luce Scholar since 1999, according to Director of National Scholarships and Fellowships Dee McGraw, who also noted that applicants can apply up to the age of 29. Thompson said he applied for the award after he became interested in Asian studies through his study abroad experience in Dharamsala, India, where he learned about Tibetan holistic medicinal techniques. “I just wanted more of Asia and experience in traditional eastern medicine and get more exposure to Asia in general,” Thompson said. The Luce Scholars Award aims to strengthen the bond and increase collaboration between the U.S. and Asia, according to McGraw. To be chosen as an awardee, Thompson had to undergo an arduous review process that took about six months, he said. Emory, as one of the 75 participating institutions, nominated Thompson and two other students for the award. Eligible students include college seniors or graduate and professional school students. “They want people who are welcome to new experience and diversity,” McGraw said. “They want people who are highly motivated and have a record of accomplishment and leadership.”
Nick Thompson, a College senior double majoring in biology and music, is a Luce Scholar. After candidates are interviewed for the scholarship, 45 finalists are selected. Each candidate then appears in front of one of three selection committees, each of which interviews 15 candidates. The final Luce Scholars are typically announced in mid-February. “It was amazing,” Thompson said, in reference to when he was first notified of his award earlier this month. “I was flying back from the interviews, and they left a message for me hinting at it.” The Luce Scholars’ website states that it focuses on experience rather than academics in choosing recipients. Thompson is the principle cellist for the Emory University Symphony Orchestra and is heavily involved in Emory’s Chess Club. “[Thompson] lets unfamiliar experiences move him; he lets himself be challenged by them,” McGraw said. Thompson said he has an interest in working in eastern medicine in Cambodia, Laos or Mongolia. He said he plans to learn the native language of the country in which he is placed as well as a traditional eastern instrument as a part of an ensemble. “I feel really fortunate to be going on this program next year,” Thompson said. “It’s an honor to be selected and to be able to take part in such a unique experience.” Henry Luce founded The Henry Luce Foundation in 1974 in honor of his parents, who were Christian missionaries in China.
— Contact Rupsha Basu at rupsha.basu@emory.edu
Domach Wins Bobby Jones Fellowship This article was originally written by Wendy Becker on March 4.
Zachary Domach, College senior, won the Bobby Jones Fellowship and is graduating with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history. He will attend a year of graduate studies in Scotland.
be a stepping stone for more advanced studies, like a Ph.D. “I’ve always enjoyed school, so the opportunity to spend a fully-fundThe Robert T. Jones, Jr. Fellowship ed year in Scotland is particularly was awarded to College senior appealing,” Domach said. Zachary Domach last week. McGraw said that the fellowship Domach is graduating in May with is an opportunity for an “exceptional” a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Emory student. history. “At the same time, [he or she can] The fellowship — commonhave a priceless international educaly referred to as the Bobby Jones tional experience, make friends who Fellowship — is a scholarship for one will become lifelong colleagues and year of graduate studies at Scotland’s collaborators and get the chance to St Andrews University in the Schools travel a bit around Europe and have of International Relations, Divinity, a lot of fun in the process,” he said. Philosophy or the Neuroscience gradDomach said he was “stunned” uate program. It was established in who have “deep records of academic that he received the news only two 2008 in honor of Robert T. Jones, who excellence,” according to McGraw. days after becoming a finalist. was an Emory alumnus and internaThe students typically have done “After I found out, I thanked God tionally renowned golfer. independent research, received SIRE and called my parents,” Domach said. Domach said he plans to complete grants, earned departmental awards “It didn’t even begin to sink in until a Master of Letters in Systematic and other merit awards and have had that night when I told one of my and Historical Theology through St multiple related internships, she said. friends, who had been a past scholar. Andrews’ Divinity “ S u c c e s s f u l Even now, having found out nearly a School, St Mary’s Bobby Jones month ago, it hasn’t fully hit me. I’ve College. Fellowship recipibeen really blessed.” “I’ve always enjoyed He is interested ents are able to In general, McGraw said that the school, so the in researching articulate a mature, program has been an amazing experipatristic writings nuanced, focused ence for all of the students who have opportunity to spend and the developa fully-funded year in research interest and received the fellowship. ment of Christian to explain why the She said that students find the prothought up to the Scotland is particularly St. Andrews degree gram in Scotland “exhilarating” and appealing.” Byzantine era. they’ve selected “one of the best years of their lives.” In order to will further their “They are enthusiastic about the receive the award, — Zachary Domach, academic goals,” courses and the challenge of their students must subacademic programs, but based on the College senior McGraw said. mit applications She also said stories they send back to me, I’d say to the National that Domach was a they are immersed in every sort of Scholarship and Fellowship Program “model of a successful Bobby Jones club, sport, musical program and voloffice. Fellowship applicant” as his work unteer service you can imagine, while Director of Emory’s National at Emory is exemplary and shows a eating every sort of unfamiliar food, Scholarship and Fellowship Program clear path. and taking every dare extended by Dee McGraw and Scholarship She added that Domach shows a their St. Andrews friends,” McGraw Advisor Elizabeth Fricker then continuously increasing level of dedi- wrote. give students feedback on their cation to the topic. Domach said he anticipates that applications. “[Domach] has systematically the experience will be an amazing According to McGraw, a com- gathered expertise learning opportunimittee of faculty and administra- in each area and ty and he is excited tors reads the applications — which excelled at each,” to continue his stud“It didn’t even begin to ies abroad. include transcripts and letters of McGraw wrote in an sink in until that night recommendation. email. “He was able “I’m excited for They rank the applications and to explain with conwhen I told one of my the whole experireach a consensus about the top can- viction why a degree Domach said. friends, who had been a ence,” didates within the three fields (divin- in divinity, specifi“The degree propast scholar.” ity, international relations and neuro- cally in scripture gram is something science and behavior biology). The and theology, will I’m very interested top applicants are then sent to a com- provide a necessary — Zachary Domach, in, spending a year mittee at St Andrews. part of the foundaCollege senior in a part of the “The National Scholarship and tion for doctoral world so beautiful Fellowship Office has been a huge work later in ancient and ancient will be resource in advising me,” Domach history and/or classics. He’s a fine incredible, and the opportunity to said. “[McGraw] and [Fricker] are scholar, and we have every expecta- travel around the UK and Europe is highly knowledgeable, in addition to tion that he’ll distinguish himself at similarly amazing.” — Contact Wendy Becker at being phenomenal people.” St Andrews.” wrbecke@emory.edu The fellowship is given to students Domach expects this fellowship to
McMullan Award
This article was originally written by Nicholas Sommariva on April 5. College senior Eduardo Garcia has received the Lucius Lamar McMullan Award for his service to the Emory and Atlanta community, the University announced on Tuesday. The McMullan award recognizes a graduating senior who “show[s] ext raordi na r y promise of becoming our future leaders and rare potential for service to their community, the nation and the world,” according to an April 2 Office Eduardo of Undergraduate Garcia, Education press release. The winCollege ner of the award senior, receives a $25,000 won the prize to use as he or she wishes. McMullan Garcia will Award officially receive for his the award at the College diploma service and ceremony at grad- leadership. uation this May. “I remember that when I was sitting in Dean Forman’s office, I was very nervous because I had no clue why they wanted to meet with me,” Garcia wrote in an email to the Wheel. “Once they mentioned that I won the McMullan award, I was mildly confused; it wasn’t until they told me what the McMullan award was that I was overcome with joy.” Garcia is a Chemistry major also minoring in Global Health, Culture and Society. Additionally, he is involved in Residence Life and Housing as a Sophomore Advisor and a Resident Advisor. At Emory, Garcia has been heavily involved in community service by “devoting much of his work to immigrant and refugee communities in Atlanta.” “I believe that I have committed myself to my passions and allowed for this to be the driving force of all my actions,” he wrote. “When I find something that inspires me, I do not let the momentum die out; I always try to find a way in which I can get involved in my community and help out those individuals that are in desperate need of it.” Garcia has volunteered more than 500 hours of community service for the AmeriCorps Jumpstart Program. The program helps prepare children from low-income communities to succeed in school. He was recognized twice at Emory as Team Leader of the Year.
“... I was nervous because I had no clue why they wanted to meet with me.” — Eduardo Garcia, College senior According to Associate Director of the Honor Council Jason Ciejka, who served on the selection committee, 14 students were nominated for the award this year. The press release states that Garcia was nominated for the prestigious McMullan award because of his “extraordinary charisma, generosity and kindness.” Ciejka wrote in an email to the Wheel that the committee consisted of 12 members including administrators, faculty from the sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts and representatives from Campus Life. “The committee considered not only the academic achievements of the nominees but also their leadership and their service to Emory and the wider community,” he said. Garcia said he is not quite sure what he wants to spend the money on quite yet. “One of the things that I am passionate about is eliminating the barriers that prevent people from accessing care,” he wrote. “Therefore, I am trying to think of the best way to use the money to help improve access to care in my community.” Garcia will be attending the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University of the school next year. — Contact Nicholas Sommariva at nicholas.sommariva@emory.edu
EDITORIALS THE EMORY WHEEL
Friday, April 26, 2013 Editorials Editor: Priyanka Krishnamurthy (pkrish4@emory.edu)
CONTRIBUTE
Email: pkrish4@emory.edu
Our Opinion
A Year in Review: The Good and The Bad
It’s been a challenging year for the Emory community. We’ve received negative media attention on a number of issues, but the end of the 2012-2013 academic year is a time to discuss our true values as a higher education institution, as well as reflect on both the good and the bad that the University has faced. We should now aim to move forward. Last summer, Emory released the results of an internal investigation revealing that officials had falsified our admissions data for more than a decade. This was followed by the department changes announced in the fall, which led to protests across campus and continues to spark controversy among faculty and students. Emory made local and national news once again this semester after University President James W. Wagner published a column in Emory Magazine citing the Three-Fifths Compromise as an example of compromise for the greater good. Students also received some heat after controversial comments on an online episode of “The Dooley Show” as well as several instances of cheating in student government elections. However, negative media attention does not — and should not — mean that the education we receive here is any less significant or valuable. It is important that we learn from our mistakes. One instance of this that has already occurred is the discussions about racism that have begun since the publication of Wagner’s column. For example, several groups held a “Rally Against Racism,” the first step in campus-wide discussions about the issue. We are glad that the Emory community is able to come together in difficult times to try and improve campus life, rather than focusing only on the negatives. That being said, it is important to explore some of the more positive achievements of the University this year, some of which might have been overshadowed by the controversy that Emory has experienced this year. Emory completed fundraising for its multi-year Campaign Emory. Applications to Emory continue to rise. The women’s swimming and diving team placed first nationally for the fourth year. An Emory faculty member, Natasha Trethewey, became the U.S. Poet Laureate. The list goes on. The students do not have control over the administration. The events this year were out of our control. There was nothing we could do to stop them. And these events — the ones we could not stop — reflect negatively on us as Emory students or graduates. Many graduating seniors may be worried about having Emory attached to their name when trying to get a job or get into a graduate school. Sadly, there is nothing you can do to erase the negative attention Emory has received this year. But what you do have control over is the impression you make moving forward. Every time an Emory student does some good in the “real world” we improve the Emory name a little bit. If an employer has had a good experience with an Emory student, they will be more likely to look favorably on Emory when hiring in the future. In this small way, we as individuals, can improve the value of our degree. We encourage our graduating seniors to keep this in mind as they enter the work force and begin embarking on their various journeys.
Zachary Elkwood
Zachary Elkwood is a member of the Class of 2015. His cartoons appear in every other Friday issue of the Wheel.
JASON SCHULMAN
Contextualizing Advice
RHA: For The Last Time, Enough Is Enough This election season, the Residence Hall Association (RHA) has seen four different presidents and far too many appeals to list. We at the Wheel feel that this endless parade of RHA presidents, cheating allegations and, we must say it, shenanigans reflects terribly on RHA and student governance at Emory in general. To recap the madness: following a general election on March 28 in which neither College sophomore Akshay Goswami nor College sophomore Jessica Simon achieved a majority of the vote, a run-off election occurred between Goswami and Simon, where Goswami ended up winning the re-vote. After this happened, Simon accused Goswami of cheating, and he was disqualified. However, Goswami appealed the disqualification and was granted another re-vote, where College junior Kadean Maddix was allowed to re-enter the race as a candidate. Simon won this vote. After this Goswami proceeded to accuse Simon of cheating, and both candidates were disqualified. Maddix was elected RHA president at that point. But Simon appealed the accusations. After Simon approached the Student Government Association (SGA) with her appeal, they ruled that she should become RHA president ... again. Maddix, who had served as president for six days, was forced to leave the post. The official document in which the ruling was outlined states that the allegations that Simon cheated were not founded because her use of Microsoft Office 365 did not diverge from the allowed postings in LearnLink conferences. It seems Simon cheated enough to lead to her original disqualification but not enough to stop SGA from overruling this disqualification. The document continues to say, “We reverse the decision of the Residence Hall Association to disqualify Simon from the presidential race. Furthermore, as the Elections Board has previously certified Simon as the winner of the RHA presidential race, we conclude that Simon has been duly elected to and qualified for the office of RHA president.” Simon’s inability to concede and accept her disqualification — bringing her case to SGA to intervene, effectively taking away the presidency from Maddix (the only elected RHA president that did not cheat) — makes us doubt, to a certain degree, her ability to lead effectively. This is not the mark of an effective leader. The flurry of disqualifications and subsequent appeals somewhat delegitimizes RHA’s position as an effective organization on campus. We feel that RHA’s best interests have not been put first in deciding who will be RHA president. After both Simon and Goswami were disqualified, RHA made the right move in making Maddix president. Maddix may not have garnered as many votes as the other two, but his votes were honest. It does not make sense that a candidate found guilty for cheating should be allowed to keep the position of president. Further, it is discouraging that SGA intervened in this matter. By going to SGA, Simon undermined the authority of RHA’s Elections Board and its ruling. She ignored the decision RHA made, thereby further disrespecting the organization. This is no way for the president of RHA and an Emory student leader to conduct herself. This whole affair has made a mockery of student governance. A true leader knows when to accept defeat and to do so gracefully. We hope in the future RHA will take measures to stop anything like this from happening. We also hope that other student organizations use this incident as a model for what not to do as a student leader. The above staff editorials represent the majority opinion of the Wheel’s editorial board.
THE EMORY WHEEL
Volume 94 Number 48
Arianna Skibell Editor in Chief Jordan Friedman Lane Billings Managing Editor Executive Editor
The Editorial Board
News Editor: Nick Sommariva Editorials Editor: Priyanka Krishnamurthy Sports Editor: Nathaniel Ludewig Arts & Entertainment Editor: Annelise Alexander Student Life Editors: Jenna Kingsley and Lizzie Howell Photo Editors: Emily Lin and James Crissman
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The Emory Wheel welcomes letters and op-ed submissions from the Emory community. Letters should be limited to 300 words and op-eds should be limited to 700. Those selected may be shortened to fit allotted space or edited for grammar, punctuation and libelous content. Submissions reflect the opinions of individual writers and not of the Wheel Editorial Board or Emory University. Send e-mail to askibel@emory.edu or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. 30322.
Priyanka Pai | Contributing
The Graduation Speech I Wish I Heard More years ago than I care to admit, I sat and listened to a fairly well-known TV actor give an inspiring college graduation speech about life stories and working in the creative arts. Here is what I wish he would have said. It’s entirely possible you will find yourself several years out of college unemployed. Even if you are employed, it may not be the job you wanted or thought you would have. It may seem beneath you or it may be outside your field of interest. No matter what the situation, focus on developing skills that are transferable across content areas. This will certainly help you market yourself should you wish to switch fields. But even if you stay in the same field, given how fast things change these days and how interconnected most sectors have become, transferable skills count immeasurably. That being said, specialize. Find a topic, region/market or topic within a region/market that you can and want to become expert in. And pursue it above all else. With the internet, everyone knows a little about lots of things. Or, to paraphrase a well-known maxim, “When everybody knows something, nobody knows anything.” Think of this specialty as a river carrying you forward, and do take opportunities to explore smaller tributaries if they feed back into your overall flow. That being said, don’t follow others into specialties. When I was in college, studying Arabic seemed like what everyone did. Today, it’s Chinese. You will have to spend many hours a day, many days a year, focusing on a small sliver of the universe, so make sure it’s something you want for yourself, not something everyone else is doing. Take what you learned in college and use it, but realize that expectations are different.
In college, you (ideally) learn to read critically and write clearly. Somewhere in there, creative thinking also occurs. And this experience is extremely important in succeeding in the “real world.” But unlike in academia, you will rarely have days or weeks to read a substantive text, and to write about it.
Your work, whether you like it or not, may impact how others view Emory alums. You will be expected to read something quickly and craft a response. This gets easier with experience. Related to this, while clear and concise long-form writing is appreciated, because you’re young, people will expect you to be able to communicate on social media. The rules for this won’t be found in Strunk and White’s classic, The Elements of Style. Because of the more informal nature of writing on social media, utilize discretion when in doubt. Remember, the reach of the medium is immense: with 140 characters you could reach more people than a book of 300 pages ever could. That being said, there is one area in which your writing skills will be tested and needed — raising money. Whether you work in the private or nonprofit sector, raising capital requires more than tweets and blog posts. You will be expected to craft arguments (“why should I invest in your idea?”) and to do so clearly and cogently. There is no substitute. That being said, no matter how impressive
your writing or your overall resume is, and how much you want the world to function based on merit, sometimes it simply does not. You could do your very best, but not succeed. People get ahead in all kinds of ways: connections, reputation, sheer luck. If that’s the case, play the game. When you are a global leader one day, you can implement a meritocratic system that rewards hard work. But for now, utilize the networks of friends — and fellow Emory grads. If, in a few years, an Emory class of 2020 graduate comes to you for job advice, of course you’ll give it. Emory is more than a brand name, it’s a community. And yet, brands are powerful. Wherever you go, people will associate you as a product of Emory. This can be a blessing, because Emory is a world-class academic institution, and association with it could open doors. But it’s also your responsibility. Your work, whether you like it or not, may impact how others view Emory alums. Of course, you bring your own individuality to your work, and you can’t be defined solely by where you went to school, but in your 20s, when you have limited work experience, your Alma Mater counts for a lot. And finally, take advice from anyone willing to share it with you, but adapt it to your own unique circumstances and proclivities. There’s a path that lies between blindly following the advice of others, and stubbornly following one’s own beliefs. The path is not well lit, though. And though the forks in the road are not nearly as discrete as one imagined as a child, the path generally curves, so be ready with a compass. Jason Schulman is a graduate student in the History Department.
THE EMORY WHEEL
Friday, April 26, 2013
OP ED
9
Some Parting Words to Graduating Seniors ... ROSS FOGG
Building on Higher Education
It’s All Going To Be Okay GINA CHIRILLO
Jessica Goldblum | Staff
Finding Passion: The Rest Will Fall Into Place In the coming weeks, many students will begin the process of graduating and entering the workforce. Others will begin graduate school, have internships or summer jobs or perhaps spend a few months in relaxation before they prepare for these things. The Great Recession has taught us to get the best and highest paying jobs possible and many have searched for the best opportunities they can find. The result is that students have asked themselves which route will be best for them. Where will they find the most job security, the best salary and the most prestige. These are important, practical things to ask and I urge another question to consider: What can I contribute? This question applies to any course of action whether it is a summer position or a long-term career. Instead of focusing on the best company, internship or graduate school that will accept you, why not ask how your talents can be best used? As Civil Rights leader, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, proclaimed: “To hell with your career! What is your calling?” These questions are not mutually exclusive. Aspiration is an admirable quality, but so is spending one’s time with a higher calling. There are obvious benefits to asking where one can thrive, grow and be indispensable.
Job security and personal fulfillment come to mind, but personal and professional growth comes with finding a place in which you can thrive. The best job training is doing what you are passionate about — learning to improve will come naturally. American society and political rhetoric tends to value risk-taking in terms of business. Entrepreneurs and innovators receive much glory and admiration, and for good reason. The future economy depends on the pursuit of passion and contribution to society. But why should it be limited to entrepreneurship? Risk-taking applies as much to following a passion in the humanities, arts, and other pursuits. Society depends upon people risking financial security or what seems certain in exchange for shaping the culture and identity of society. It is indicative of societal values that these risks are not as celebrated. Any society is made up of people who love what they do and always strive to do better, whether clergymen and women, teachers, doctors and nurses or volunteers. These are the people who have influenced us the most, who we should thank as we prepare to do more with our lives and whose values we should perpetuate. Of course, the luxury of having the option
Contemplating the Days Before Graduation RYAN GORMAN I have no idea where I will be two years from now. I have no idea whether I will have finally declared my Economics major, or whether I will be continuing my education or looking for a job. I have no idea whether I will still be sitting with the same people for lunch, whether the friends I have now will be the friends I celebrate graduation with. I have no idea what it will feel like to be finishing college. The very thought of graduating scares me to death. I can only imagine, no, I cannot even imagine what the current seniors are going through as they stand at the end of their Emory years, less than a month away from commencement and the real world. I wonder how many of them are thinking about the good times. Some of them might be thinking all the way back to move-in day, remembering that first comically awkward conversation they had with their roommate. Or maybe a few of them are remembering the first time they received a compliment from a professor. Some may simply be thinking about the first time they sprawled out on McDonough Field, feeling the sun in that special way that it can only be felt in Atlanta. I wonder how many of them are wishing they had more time. At the very least, most of them probably wish they could spend a few more week with their friends. But how many of them are wishing for more time, period? How many are thinking about the opportunities they missed, about that one time during their sophomore year when they decided not to run for executive board of that one organization they loved. Maybe some of them are thinking about that Friday night during sophomore year, when all of their friends went out but they decided not to, instead choosing to spend the night sitting at their desk, a calculus textbook open in front of them, thinking more about what their friends were doing than about what the answer to number four on the problem set was. I wonder how many of them are thinking
about the bad times. I wonder how many of them will be sitting in their seats at Commencement, hearts racing from adrenaline, anxious minds buzzing with bittersweet excitement, thinking about that friend they got into a fight with their first year, a fight as unnecessary as it was destructive, a fight that their friendship never really recovered from. I wonder how many of them are thinking about that midterm junior year, the one that was worth half of their final grade, that they failed and learned the hard way that sometimes its better not to study with friends. I wonder how many of them are thinking about their first college breakup, cringing at some of the things they said, wincing at some of the things that were said to them. I wonder how many of them are too scared to think at all. I wonder how many of them have no idea where they will be or what they will be doing three months from now. I wonder how many of them have had to deal with rejection letters over the past several months. I wonder, if you went around to every senior, and asked them to quantify their rejections and their acceptances, would the acceptances outnumber the rejections? So much of life is about perspective. The way we choose to perceive events oftentimes matters more than the events themselves. There will be many good times. And there will probably be many bad times. At the end of the day, it may turn out that the bad times slightly outnumber the good times. So it goes. We have very little control over most of what happens to us in life. But we do have control over how we perceive what happens to us, over how we react, how we respond, over what we choose to think about and focus on as we move from one phase of life to another. I wonder how many of the seniors have realized this. I wonder how many of the rest of us will realize it over our remaining years at Emory. I wonder to what extent I even realize this. I hope that by the time I stand amongst my classmates at Commencement, I have stopped wondering. Ryan Gorman is a College sophomore from Plano, Texas.
There will be many good times. And there will probably be many bad times.
between choosing a course of fulfillment or one of professional or financial security is not available to everyone. Decent jobs are hard to come across for college graduates at the moment, and there is nothing wrong with putting personal fulfillment on the back burner for a while. In our time, a college education is also unreasonably expensive, and makes the pursuit of personal growth more difficult. But, when the question inevitably arises again, reflect upon your time since graduation and think of where you have been and where you want to go. Essentially, it is important not to settle. There is not much time left to take important risks in life. Most of us are not quite the people who we will be for the rest of our lives, so why not make the most of the time now while we don’t have to worry about providing for a family? As easy as it is to complain about coursework and academic obligations, our education has afforded us incredible opportunities. We owe it to ourselves, and more importantly to society, to return and build upon what has been entrusted to us. To the graduates, I applaud your hard work and wish you the best in your calling.
Online Editor Ross Fogg is a College junior from Fayetteville, Ga.
A year ago, I sat in front of my laptop tasked with reflecting upon the last four years of my time as an Emory student. Today, I sit at my desk in Washington, D.C. wondering where all of that time went. As a graduating senior, I was terrified of a lot of things: finding a real job, figuring out how to do my taxes and cooking. A year later, I’m a (paid!) intern doing work on women’s political participation globally, I submitted my 1040EZ form to the IRS and I still have no clue how to cook for myself. Let’s just say it’s been a lot of frozen dinners with a side of shame. When I wrote my senior reflection, I presumptuously gave advice to underclassmen on how to best spend their time in college. Now, I plan to presumptuously give advice to graduating seniors. So, strap in, Class of 2013, because I’m about to drop some real-world (okay, semireal world) knowledge on you. It’s okay if you don’t have a job right now. I was only truly jobless for a matter of weeks, but being a substitute teacher by day and a Victoria’s Secret sales associate by night isn’t really what I had envisioned for myself when I was walking across the stage to get my diploma. But it takes time. If you sit in Starbucks and apply to at least four jobs every night, someone will eventually hire you. Or, at least, someone will interview you and get your hopes up and you will envision your brand new dream life with your shiny new job and then you will be mercilessly crushed. Either way, just remember that it only takes one. Out of the hundreds of applications you send out, you only need one person to fall in love with you, hire you and allow you to move out of your mom’s house and into a place with eight other people to save money on rent. Hey, D.C. is expensive. It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do. Nobody does. Even my friends who got jobs right out of college doing what they knew they wanted to do at the time are wondering if this is really what they want to be doing for the rest of their lives. So, relax, have fun, try to do something that pays you and figure out what you don’t want to do. Sometimes that’s more useful
anyway. It’s okay to feel like a failure, but it’s not okay if you don’t do anything about it. Being unemployed makes you feel like a failure. Being semi-employed can also make you feel that way. We take for granted that our path is more or less laid out from when we start kindergarten to our college graduation, and now that we’re stuck with the paradox of choice — and worse if we also have nothing to do — we feel like we’ve failed. But you haven’t. You just feel like you have. So do the best that you can. Apply to a bajillion jobs. Email everyone you know. Except me, I get too many emails already. Okay, just kidding, you can email me; I’d be totally flattered. It’s also okay to quit — in the right way. If you know you’re not doing the right thing for you, don’t do it. Don’t stand up in the middle of a staff meeting and yell, “SEE YA SUCKERS!” (even if you really, really want to), but start looking for other opportunities. Quitters never win, sure, but people who hate their job never win, either. If you had asked me a year ago what I’d be doing today, I would’ve told you’d that I’d be teaching high school English in Miami. I’m not. If someone had told me that I’d work for President Barack Obama’s campaign in Florida, I wouldn’t have believed it. If someone told me I would teach at my old high school alongside my old teachers, I definitely wouldn’t have believed it. But I did, and I’m really grateful for those experiences. I went to the inaugural ball. I coached the most amazing, wonderful and perfect kids on the 11th best Speech and Debate team in the country. So, I didn’t make a lot of money, but I learned a lot. And now I’m working with the most awesome group of people (except for the Wheel staff, of course), and I even have my own phone extension. Oh, yeah, it’s really happening for me. So now that I’m done totally bragging on how totally great I am (my own phone extension), I want to say — from the bottom of my heart — congratulations to the Class of 2013. The best is yet to come. And it’s all going to be okay. I promise. Gina Chirillo is an alumna of Emory University from Sarasota, Fla. She was the Associate Editor at the Wheel.
It’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do.
DAVID GIFFIN
On Doing Good
Katrina Worsham | Staff
In Light of the Negatives, Embrace the Positives It’s the end of the academic year. Before long, most of us will be turning in our final papers and standing up after finishing our last exams. Some will be returning for another year of study, while others will be continuing on to the next phase of their lives. Whatever we will be doing next fall, we will be doing it in a world that is vastly different from the one that most of us knew just a few years ago. It seems that over the past five years, the world has grown more embattled and conflicted. Violent conflicts have sprung up in new places across the globe: Mali and other regions of Africa, the Korean peninsula and Syria are all still hotbeds of tension and violence. Political suppression has become much more frequent in Egypt and other Middle Eastern nations that were once a source of hope arising from the Arab Spring. Further, gang violence in northern Mexico has been steadily bleeding across the border into Southwestern states, resulting in largescale crime and death both among Mexican and American populations. Politics has become increasingly partisan and divided as the factions in government have failed to seek out common ground. Due to heightened levels of polarization both here and worldwide, we are unable to peacefully discuss our differences without our conversations erupting in some form of outrage or attack. Rather than focusing on coming together to resolve larger systemic issues faced by the United States, politicians jump between a number of less overarching (though arguably still important) social issues such as
gun control, gay marriage and the drug war. As a result, we are still suffering from the same abysmal job market and economy, and there is little hope in sight for a better future. And as if we needed any further reminders of the conflicts present in the world today, the Boston bombing reminded us that at any time, there are those among us who would live out their political or religious issues by taking lives. These accumulated issues may seem hopeless or overwhelming. However, these shouldn’t merely be a cause for despair for all of us as we go forward into next year. It can also be a sign of hope. One of President Obama’s most popular campaign phrases was his assertion that “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” It was a call designed to inspire his allies to action, pushing them to increase their support for his candidacy and his agenda. Through their collective efforts, his programs of reform and transformation would easily take root in the Oval Office. While it is easy for us to always look toward the next big or popular leader for answers, no one political figure will be able to achieve world peace single handed: President Obama stands as evidence of that reality, despite marketing himself as the candidate of “hope and change.” Nor can we merely rely on the collective will of society, for as we’ve seen hundreds of times throughout history, the collective can be manipulated into both complacency and unspeakable evil. If we merely rely on our leaders or our collective to improve society, we will be continu-
ally trapped in the same negative situations. In order to truly reform society from its most basic levels, individual actors must be relied upon to do the right thing. The individual ability to choose good from evil and pursue it is part of what defines our humanity, and it is also one of the most powerful tools that we have to combat the litany of problems we face as a society. While those of us who are still in a university setting may feel hopeless to act on our own, it is that exact ability to act on our own which gives us the best opportunity to improve our world. By actively considering and choosing a better path in the world – whether it be resisting the urge to polarize one’s self politically by practicing peaceful dialogue, or supporting those around you who are struggling, or pursuing a just cause, or any of the other infinite possibilities – we as individuals are able to shape and improve our immediate lives and surroundings. And as others do the same, we slowly influence and better the world around us through an ever-increasing accumulation of goodness. Choosing to do good isn’t always easy or straightforward, but it is one of the things that we as individuals, regardless of our place in life, are always able to do. So as we look to the next year or next phase of life, I would encourage us all, no matter where we are or what we are doing, to do good.
David Giffin is a second-year Masters in Theological Studies student at the Candler School of Theology from Charleston, Ill.
THE EMORY WHEEL
OP ED
Friday. April 26, 2013
10
SENIOR REFLECTIONS
CONTRIBUTE
Friday, April 26, 2013 Editorials Editor: Priyanka Krishnamurthy (pkrish4@emory.edu)
Email: pkrish4@emory.edu
Thoughts and Sentiments on Graduating ... A.J. ARTIS
A.J. Doesn’t Talk About Graduating
Ryan Gorman | Contributing
EVAN MAH
Atypical, Unexpected and Worth It
Last weekend, I visited my best friend at another top university. I arrived Thursday night and didn’t see a sober person again until I returned to Emory Sunday evening. The experience was jarring and a reminder that the 1962 classic “Animal House” lampoons a world that does exist on college campuses. I know many people who think that this is the only world you should experience in college. I’m not one of those people. When I graduate in May, I will do so knowing that I have carved out my own unique college experience. I dedicated my entire college career to this newspaper, and it culminated in a senior year that has shaped me in ways I never expected.
As editor in chief of The Emory Wheel, I had much work to do. What does it mean to run a newspaper? It means spending 40 hours a week solely on an extracurricular. It means ignoring homework and friends to manage crises and people, often crises in themselves. It also means knowing when to breathe for the sake of your own sanity. When Emory unexpectedly announced the closing of several departments and programs last September, I found myself in a strange position. Administrators knew that the newspaper would play a role in the implementation of the plan while students, faculty and alumni, many angry and bewildered, looked to us for answers. There would be protests and sit-ins, secret meetings and off-the-record conversations. Everyone on this campus had and continues to have a stake in the direction of this University, and I felt dizzy being in the middle of that vortex. The vortex was often unkind. Outsiders hardly understand the work that goes into a newspaper but nonetheless often rush to label us as stupid, biased, racist, ignorant, lazy and sensational. Being made aware of one failure amid dozens of successes — such is the nature of any leadership position. There will always be those who encourage and those who discourage. Neither are necessarily in the right, but what matters is that there are many different voices in the first place. Running a newspaper was also a privilege.
It was a privilege to have a voice in a community with thousands of brilliant minds, and it was a privilege to be a vital source of information for the uninformed. It was a privilege to learn, grow and bond with my fellow editors. A former editor-in-chief recently asked me whether I “had fun” this year. No, not really. This year was an unpleasant one but nonetheless defined by a rich experience that was demanding and emotionally taxing in ways that go beyond homework and midterms. I’m glad it was all of those things because the real world doesn’t get any kinder, or so I’m told. There would often be days where at the end of the night I would open the door to my apartment and literally fall to the floor. I’d just lay there, and I’d think, “Jesus, it’s only October.” Well, now it’s April. I have yet to pull an all-nighter, streak across campus, commit a lewd act in the library, drink wine from a bag or wake up in a place I don’t remember being in the night before. And that’s okay. It’s okay because after four years at Emory University, I feel ready to graduate and take on the world. You can call me wrong. You can call me naïve, but in my eyes, I think that’s the best college experience anyone could have.
It has been a sincere pleasure to serve as your humor columnist this year. Rather than tell you about anything worth hearing, I’m going to tell you about humor. Someone asked me the secret to humor. I told him a few choice quotes from some funny people. Then I said, “I am quoting these people because I don’t know what humor is. I just know I’m only funny when I’m trying to hide something from everyone else.” I’ve never posted a secret to the website “Emory Secrets.” Even anonymously, I don’t want to tell anyone anything outright. I believe fear, pain, sadness and frustration should not be told without first distilling them into something else. Perhaps this is unhealthy. But I don’t care. The one time I told someone about whatever was bothering me, she wrote a play about it. Her name is Allie Kayhart, and it was a badly-written play. It was produced at Emory. She didn’t change my name and misspelled the coffee shop that I worked at. Incidentally, the week it went on, I decided to buy clippers and give myself a haircut. I am very cheap. I accidentally cut the left side too short and had to shave the whole thing off. The next day, I walked into class with a professor who
Time (Well) Spent Throughout College
JEREMY BENEDIK
It was a Friday morning around 11:55 a.m.; I’m walking into my psychology class 10 minutes late holding only a pen and a piece of paper. I’m wearing athletic shorts (with no underwear on), a sorority tank top and to top it all off — I’m barefoot. At this moment, I really had to take a step back and question my life decisions. We’ve all had similar experiences, ones in which the only way you can get through is by reminding yourself that at least it will make a good story one day. Stories you will tell for the rest of your lives when someone asks you about your college experience. Sometimes in these stories, you can even learn a little something about yourself. For instance, in this moment, I learned that I have absolutely no shame.
But there are other stories with other lessons learned. About friendship; sitting in a pale white tree with some of my closest friends on a beach in Florida — not giving a care to the outside world — or streaking our old freshman dorm on a winter’s night because of a silly bet made during a game of beer pong. About failure; trying to make a comedy film only to end up with an embarrassingly cringe-worthy blooper reel, or the countless nights with friends being indecisive, never managing to make it out of the house. About hard work; finishing an entire human physiology textbook in one night before the final, or staying in lab until midnight only having to wake up at 6 in the morning to go back in. About love; skipping class to drink mimosas in Lullwater only for myself to fall out of a tree and cut open my chin and look over to see a girl who found it funny — but also endearing. Of course, it wouldn’t be college if there weren’t lessons learned inside the classroom as well. I’ll never forget the resting state potential for a neuron (-70mV), the theme of Hamlet (it’s about death), nor what a Grignard reaction is (you don’t want to know). But nothing compares to the satisfaction of recognizing that I learned enough information in all of my NBB classes to actually understand the process of a brain surgery that I witnessed firsthand. When I sat down to write this reflection, I questioned what to write about: how could I sum up the past four years of my life? Would
the typical graduation themes be the best route? Should I be cliché and mention how these were the best times of our lives? Or how about the idea that our graduating class is the future of the world and all of our dreams will come true? Instead, I decided to be somewhat selfish, and share with everyone some of the stories that meant most to me throughout my time here at Emory. Putting at least a bit of my college memoir down has been a cathartically positive experience. However, it also made me recognize the ease at which my thoughts could turn into dissatisfaction. There are plenty of things to regret: terrible decisions, missed opportunities, unfulfilled potential and wasted time. All mistakes provide an occasion for growth and learning, and it’s definitely important to take that opportunity. Moving forward from college requires a mindset change; no longer is it beneficial to look back with regret. My hope was that writing this might motivate at least a few of the students graduating here today to take some time, as we inevitably sit through a long graduation ceremony, to reflect on some of their best stories from Emory — even take this opportunity to share it with our loved ones present to celebrate our accomplishments. But more than anything to not let memories get marred with regret and try to remember at least a couple of the countless good times in the future.
Senior Editor Jeremy Benedik is a College senior from Austin, Texas.
Humor Columnist A.J. Artis is a College senior from Sunnyvale, Calif.
STEFFI DELCOURT
Senior Editor Evan Mah is a College senior from Memphis, Tn.
Growing From All Kinds of Experiences
had seen the play about me. Seeing a newlyshaved head, he asked after class, “Alfred, is everything all right?” Everything was, except my shaky hands. I’m just cheap. I can’t give you any insight into Emory. If you want to know any real secrets of Emory that I know, it’s that the third floor of the library has two bathrooms, and the one by the back is the best place to take a poop in solitude and reflect on life. It is where I am composing this reflection on my phone. I can give you insight into the only thing of worth I did at Emory. I hope that I made people laugh. The only way you can do that is to have pity, and to have something pitiful to hide. You can’t make fun of people for being stupid unless you admit that you are also stupid. No one has anything all figured out. And to mock someone for not having things figured out, without acknowledging your own lack of direction, is not funny. The best stories are the ones that secretly say, “I’m pathetic.” If you want to be funny, hide your feelings or make fun of them. And of course, write on the toilet. As I wrote this, a man walked into the bathroom talking on his phone in spanish or italian. He continued the conversation while taking a s--t. It reminded me of the only thing I can say about humor with confidence: Good humor reminds us that everybody poops.
There’s a mystery to time. There’s too much of it one day, then suddenly, there’s not enough left. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice of a certain Wonderland would say. My time at Emory has left me far more quickly than I thought it would. At times, four years doesn’t seem like enough. There’s not the time to do everything! I wanted to shout on those days when I lived in Woodruff Library, buried up to my nose in homework. I didn’t go to half the events I wanted to go to on campus. I didn’t study abroad. I never made it to Music Midtown. I have yet to set foot in the Pitts Theology Library; I only ever ventured into the Carlos Museum because of class. And I never did manage to catch a Dooley’s Week T-shirt properly at Wonderful Wednesday (the one that managed to land on my head that one time doesn’t count). Somehow, graduation has crept up on me. A time when half the Quad is cordoned off with yellow tape, a large metallic frame for the stage appears overnight and seniors face the question we’ve been hearing since September: “so what are you doing with the rest of your life?” One moment, I was planning how many books I need to return at the library, and the next, it hits me: I have one more week of classes for my entire college career left. It’s hard to appreciate how earth-shattering this realization can be until it hits you. One more week of classes. One week of finals. Graduation. Then: the real world. You think, how on earth did I already spend my four
years? I spent an inordinately large amount of them in the Wheel offices, managing the spelling and grammar side of the newspaper while the staff of section editors changed every year. The midnight hours I spent staring at a computer screen and looking for wayward Oxford commas became all too familiar, but they afforded me the chance to appreciate the rush of meeting the printing deadline. And the night sky when no one else is awake to see it. And the stupidity of signing up for an 8:30 French class the morning after a production night. Through all four years, Evan and Roshani have been two constants at the Wheel — no matter who was in charge or what section was running late, I knew that Evan would finish his work absurdly early, and Roshani would meow at anyone who bothered her. I witnessed the majority of the performances held in the concert hall of the Schwartz Center without too many bumps or moments of ‘gracefulness’ to live down. I saw every candlelight entrance and exit for Nine Lessons and Carols at Christmas. I investigated for the Honor Council and helped at a speech language and learning lab in the Psychology department and invaded Dr. Rusche’s office for two-hour conversations that were meant to be only five minutes. I survived writing my honors thesis. I watched way too many weird movies with my roommate. I laughed until I literally could not breathe more times than I can count with my friends. Somehow, my four years filled themselves with friends, interests and activities that I never would have imagined myself having at the beginning of freshman year. I was barely 17, not even old enough to sign my own documents when I signed up for housing in the spring. I couldn’t have predicted the importance that King Arthur or Doctor Who or Aldous Huxley would have to me now. Four years have passed since my orientation at Emory. Next year, I will only be a visitor to the campus. I will be living in the real world and not in the Emory bubble. I will be a graduate student, on her way to a Ph.D. Time will slow back down to its regular rush. Curiouser and curiouser.
Next year, I will only be a visitor to the campus.
Senior Editor Steffi Delcourt is a College senior from St. Simons Island, Ga.
Arts&Entertainment THE EMORY WHEEL
Friday, April , A&E Editor: Annelise Alexander (annelise.alexander@emory.edu)
YEAR IN REVIEW
This Year’s Best... Albums
Movies
MUMFORD & SONS, BABEL
“LES MISERABLES”
Mumford & Sons and I go way back. Like, back to before college. I’ve been obsessed with these guys since the release of their debut album Sigh No More a little over three years ago. “I really f---ed it up this time” has never sounded as poetic as it did when sung by Mumford frontman Marcus Mumford in the guys’ smash hit “Little Lion Man.” But with this September’s release of Babel, the little British band that could goes above and beyond and proves they’re more than just a one-hit wonder. I naturally default to praising “I Will Wait,” a track so frantic and beautifully desperate that you can’t help but cry cry, “I will w wait for you too!” And here’s something I found out about way too late in life: the album’s deluxe edition includes a seriously folked-up cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1969 classic “The Boxer,” featuring Mr. Simon himself. Another winner is the album’s title track, the hard-driving “Babel.” With emotive lyrics like, “I know perhaps my heart is a farce, but I’ll be born without a mask,” Mumford & Sons demonstrates their magnificent ability to get deep with metaphors, to tell a tragic yet exquisite story and to make banjo cool again. Not even kidding.
You went because you love the musical, you went to see Hugh Jackman sing, you went only because your girlfriend dragged you — no matter the reason, it’s easy to say “Les Miserables” was one of the best films of the year. Based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo, this enthralling story of redemption, love and sacrifice follows the life of Jean Valjean (Jackman) as he attempts to escape his past in 19th century France. The star-studded cast introduced through Valjean’s journey includes Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen. Hathaway’s heart-wrenching performance as Fantine won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Unlike many musicals-turned-movies, the vocals for “Les Miserables” (or as many fans — and people who don’t speak French — call it, “Les Mis”) were recorded live on set with the help of piano accompaniments played through ear pieces to guide the actors. Because almost every line in the film is sung, director Tom Hooper felt this choice made the verses seem more natural and gave the actors more freedom. Fans and critics responded positively, as did the box office; the movie broke the record for the highest opening day gross for a musical film. “Les Mis” made us laugh, it made us cry, it made us say, “Eugh, Russell Crowe, please don’t sing” — and it was one of the best movies of this year by far.
— Contact Emelia Fredlick at emelia.j.fredlick@emory.edu
— Contact Jenna Kingsley at jdkings@emory.edu
FRANK OCEAN, CHANNEL ORANGE
“DJANGO UNCHAINED”
I may not be able to wax poetic on the piece of art that is Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange as well as the illustrious Managing Editor Lane Billings has for Paste Magazine, but I decided I’d give it the old college try. Channel Orange was easily one of the best albums of 2012 and quickly became the soundtrack to my summer. The album is an ode to youth and love, as Ocean sings about the formative experiences and people that make us who we are. Ocean’s first single from the album, “Thinkin Bout You,” is a gold record, making millions and breaking barriers in R&B. On the surface, the song appears to be a regular run of the mill slo slow jam, but upon deeper examination, “Thinkin Bout You” is challenging the rigid boundaries of sexuality in R&B music. The song is written for Ocean’s first love, a man he had a relationship with as a teenager. The need for deeper analysis is a trend on Channel Orange, as Ocean’s songs on the surface are incredible musical concoctions. From the steady base and piano-laden tempo of “Super Rich Kids” to the beat-keeping snaps found in “Pilot Jones” to John Mayer’s chilling guitar solo on “Pyramids,” Frank’s falsetto guides the listener into his world, giving and taking, rising and falling. Still, further listening will reveal complex stories and fantasies, some about Ocean and some about other people — all of them relatable and beautiful.
“Django Unchained” was one of the most highly acclaimed films of 2012, as can easily be seen from its myriad of nominations for a variety of awards, including a win for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Quentin Tarantino succeeded in making his latest film as incredible as its predecessors, mixing a film of the Wild West with dark, twisted humor. The film revolves around Django, played by Jamie Foxx (“Dreamgirls,” “Horrible Bosses”), a slave in the South circa 1858. Forcibly separated from his wife Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington (“Scandal,” “Fantastic Four”), he lives a harsh life until rescued by Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, “Water For Elephants,” “Inglourious Basterds”), a bounty hunter who enlists Django’s help. The two of them then set out to rescue Broomhilda from her master, a sleazy gambler played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The film somehow manages to be both disturbing and humorous: some scenes are filled with torture and violence but then buffered with well-injected humor. The adventure is easy to get caught up in, and the chemistry between Foxx and Waltz is fun to watch. At times, the film borderlines on ridiculous but manages to stop before getting too farfetched — a well-honed skill of Tarantino. The perfect blend of drama and comedy, this film is an emotional roller coaster: a fast-paced one that leaves you hooked from start to finish.
— Contact Jordie Davies at elizabeth.j.davies@emory.edu
— Contact Dhvani Ghatlia at dghatli@emory.edu
OF MONSTERS AND MEN, MY HEAD IS AN ANIMAL
“SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK”
Of Monsters and Men’s definitive debut My Head is an Animal and its hit single “Little Talks” easily made waves in their homeland of Iceland, but success at home and a burgeoning fan base here in the U.S. eventually made its way to the ears of Universal Music Group. Now the group is a fixture in the folksy, moderatelyhipster division of music. “Little Talks” was the perfect debut single for the band, as co-vocalists Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson (if someone finds out how to pronounce these names, please let me know) invite us into their conversation. The track is filled with soft, upbeat trumpets, and if you don’t find your foot tapping with the beat, you might not actually be conscious. It isn’t long before you realize that the ongoing conversation is strange and doesn’t match the campfire, hippie atmosphere of its instruments. Someone is seeing ghosts, “the screams all sound the same” and these people are clearly having communication issues. It doesn’t stop you from clapping your hands and singing along. Actually, you might even belt out the chorus. Most of the numbers on the album follow a similar dichotomy: you feel like you’re in the Alps singing with your local Icelandic Baptist church choir (I’m not entirely sure those exist) all the while piping out a descent into madness — but what a catchy madness it is. As a whole, My Head is an Animal is a good album for the idealist at heart and the thoughtful hyperactive. The repetition in quality will turn some away and (admittedly) bore the living daylights out of others. The lyrics, however, are heartfelt and enchanting and the tunes are deceptively uplifting, so for some, it’ll be a refreshing change from the sugar pop of the Billboard Hot 100.
Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro. These three names alone should be enough to tell you that “Silver Linings Playbook” is awesome. Yes, this acting trifecta certainly helps confirm this movie’s claim to greatness. It’s really not all about the cast, though. I swear. That being said, Jennifer Lawrence triumphs for her role with wit and finesse. The Oscar it earned her was well-deserved and not just because everyone felt bad for her when she tripped. She plays a widow named Tiffany who, donned in modern mourning clothes, acts as confident on the outside as she is crushed on the inside. “Silver Linings Playbook” offers audiences a distinct blend of romance, drama and comedy that’s a far cry from typical rom-com material. The leading couple, should you care to call them that, comes to know each other through frank discussions of their various psychiatric conditions. Mental health is a topic not often explored with such openness and humor in film — or in life — and “Silver Linings” handles it admirably. Screenwriter/director David O. Russell balances the serious issues with dialogue full of quick quips, a whole lot of Eagles football, a Raisin-Bran date and, of course, a ballroom dancing competition. The film manages to be edgy without losing its heart. Some call it the rejuvenation of the romantic comedy. I just call it genius.
— Contact Aniqa Alam at abalam@emory.edu
— Contact Emily Jackson at eajack2@emory.edu All Photos Courtesy of Wikipedia
ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE
This Year’s Breakthrough Stars PSY
JENNIFER LAWRENCE Of this year’s crop of freshfaced young actresses to look out for, none have been quite as prolific as Miss Jennifer Lawrence. A wide-eyed kid from Louisville, Ky. with no drama training and an unconventional look, Lawrence first entered the public eye back in 2010 with her out-of-nowhere Best Actress nomination for the depressingly poignant “ W i n t e r ’ s Bone.” But this year really was the year of Jennifer, from her starring role as the bowand-arrow-wielding heroine of “The Hunger Games” to her surprise win at the Oscars for her crazy good performance alongside Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro in “Silver Linings Playbook” (no one has ever tripped and made it look quite so endearing). Not to mention bringing to life the shape-
shifting Mystique (perhaps even doing so better than Halle Berry?) in 20th Century Fox’s latest installment of the “X-Men” series. And then there was some horror movie thrown in there. But my favorite moment from Lawrence’s year didn’t happen in a film at all but at the Oscars afterparty. A video clip that went viral after the ceremony shows Lawrence being introduced to film legend Jack Nicholson — and totally fangirling out. She came across as so genuine, so charmingly awkward and so honestly thrilled that for that moment, no one could help but love her. Well, maybe the women who had just lost for Best Actress. But I’d bet even they cracked a smile. — Contact Emelia Fredlick at emelia.j.fredlick@emory.edu
Many new faces took over the spotlight this year, including fresh-faced actresses, hip-hop breakouts and even socially-conscious Korean pop stars.
MACKLEMORE A year ago, no one knew who Ben Haggerty was. Now, he’s known around the world as Macklemore. As an independent hiphop artist from Seattle, Macklemore has been releasing music since 2000, but it was only over the past year that he soared to fame. In 2008, Haggerty joined forces with producer and musical genius, Ryan Lewis. Since then, the duo has produced multiple songs, including the sensational “Thrift Shop,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 List for six weeks.
By writing songs that truly resonate with audience members and adding upbeat, catchy music, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have found their niche in the music world. Tracks like “Same Love,” a song about marriage equality, and “Starting Over,” which chronicles Haggerty’s own personal struggle with drug addiction, give Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s debut album, The Heist, something for everyone to rally around. — Contact Annie McNutt at annemarie.mcnutt@emory.edu
This year brought sudden international success to the K-pop music artist Psy, famous in the western world for his hit song “Gangnam Style.” The song’s music video is the most viewed video on YouTube. Americans wore T-shirts reading “oppa gangnam style,” imitation videos flooded the Internet — even Barack Obama tried his hand at the dance craze that came with the song. But contrary to the western perspective, Psy isn’t a one-hit wonder, and “Gangnam Style” isn’t a nonsensical “Macarena.” Believe it or not, “Gangnam Style” is an example of Psy’s critical and intelligent song writing. Most people in the U.S., because they don’t speak Korean, can only appreciate the song for its catchiness and accompanying dance craze.
But in its actual lyrics, the song criticizes a materialistic culture that has developed around the Gangnam District of Seoul. Essentially, people try to emulate the wealthy, consumerist lifestyle of the Gangnam District, a lifestyle termed Gangnam style, but are posers for doing so and can often go broke trying to keep up with the Joneses. Psy is criticizing the cultural climate in South Korea, commenting on the materialism of it. Hopefully knowing that the song isn’t just nonsensical dancepop will make it more enjoyable. Either way, it’s a fun song and the dance is entertaining. Psy’s new song “Gentleman” isn’t half bad either. — Contact Sasha Freger at sfreger@emory.edu All Photos Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
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THE EMORY WHEEL
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Friday, April 26, 2013
MUSIC FEATURE
The Summer’s Most Anticipated Albums CIARA, CIARA
VAMPIRE WEEKEND, MODERN VAMPIRES OF THE CITY Vampire Weekend, the smart, quirky, world-beatinfused rock band, are at it again with their new album, Modern Vampires of the City, set to be released May 7. Vampire Weekend successfully blends African beats with punk rock, while lacing the whole thing with instruments as varied as harpsichord and synthesizer. The lyrics are often confounding yet deep when analyzed closely. The new album is sure to follow their pattern of clever, indefinable and incredibly enjoyable tunes. The band formed when frontman Ezra Koenig met drummer Chris Thompson at Columbia University, starting as a rap collaboration. After gaining Rostam Batmanglij and Chris Baio as members, the band went on to create their wildly successful eponymous first album in 2008. The songs were catchy and unique, causing songs such as “A-Punk” to be used in several films and commercials. In 2010, they released Contra, another dynamic and eccentric album. They continued to blend genres and fill their songs with colorful arrangements. Contra was polished and weird, and fans consumed it like crazy. Again, movies and commercials loved the stick-in-your-headness of the album, so songs such as “Holiday” provided soundtracks to several advertisements. Courtesy of Wikipedia Modern Vampires of the City promises to be nothing short of unconventional. Vampire Weekend started marketing the album by spamming social media with the acronym MVOTC, confusing fans. They then released two songs from the new album, “Diane Young” and “Step.” The songs were accompanied by a video of a burning car and a lyrics video, respectively. If these two tracks are any indication of what to expect, the new album will utilize synthesizer and electronica a bit more than the past two. The altered voice effects transform Koenig’s vocals from his normal lilting melody to a warped baritone, a muted falsetto and finally straight-up auto-tuned. These songs show influence of noise rock, afro-beat and a host of disparate genres. Koenig described the new album as “darker and more organic.” Basically, it’s going to be awesome.
Ciara returns to the music scene with her fifth album, the self-titled Ciara to be released on July 9, 2013 through Epic Records. It’s her first release since parting ways with the now defunct Jive Records. This is her follow-up album to Basic Instinct (2010). We got a taste of the Ciara’s new work with the release of “Body Party,” the first single from the album, which was released this March. The music video for the song was filmed right here in Atlanta and released April 22. The album has more of a soulful sound then some of her previous, poppy albums. It also features musical collaborations with rap star Nicki Minaj and her current boyfriend Future who co-wrote “Body Party.” According to Ciara, this is a pivotal album in her career. When asked about the album on “106 & Park” on BET, she said, “This album goes beyond my music. This time it’s about taking a new journey with me.”
— Contact Sasha Freger at sfreger@emory.edu
— Contact Kelli Richardson at kdrich2@emory.edu
Courtesy of Wikipedia
TELEVISION FEATURE
MOVIE FEATURE
Movie Preview: Our Picks for the Summer’s Best Films Courtesy of Wikipedia
THE GREAT GATSBY Who hasn’t read
The Great Gatsby at some point in their lives? A staple of American literature and AP English classes across the United States, Gatsby is widely celebrated as one of the best E ng l i sh -la ng u a ge novels of the 20th century. Whether or not most students like it, however, is an entirely different matter. Regardless, The Great Gatsby has a pretty substantial fan base — the tragic story of millionaire Jay Gatsby’s pursuit of an old love, Daisy Buchanan, has captured the hearts of Courtesy of Wikipedia countless readers, and the novel’s upcoming film adaptation has been greatly anticipated for some time now. But you ask: why should someone not completely ravenous about The Great Gatsby see the movie? First of all, “The Great Gatsby” is a high-
From Left to Right: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Joel Edgerton in Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS
SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL
J.J. Abrams continues to demonstrate his passion and admiration for compelling sci-fi thrillers with his upcoming “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” I had the privilege of previewing a 10-minute scene from this highlyanticipated sequel and am extremely eager to witness the evolving relationship between the young characters of Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto). Kirk, the underdog who eventually proved he was meant to be the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and Spock, the practical Courtesy of Wikipedia Vulcan who learned the value of human emotion, will undoubtedly provide the most interesting dynamic in this upcoming film. Still, Abrams showed in “Star Trek”’s first installment that he understood the importance of comical yet reflexive minor characters (as played by Simon Pegg, Karl Urban and Anton Yelchin). The fantastic performances by these actors pay homage to the communal and familial tone of the original franchise. Hopefully, Abrams will successfully incorporate mind-numbing visual effects without taking away from character or plot depth once more. This confidence in successful character development within the scope of elaborate spectacle has certainly been a consistent theme for Abrams’ past work (“Lost,” “Cloverfield,” “Super 8”). It is also important to note that Abrams clinched the heavily contested spot as director in the upcoming “Star Wars” reboot after 2009’s “Star Trek.” This may not have been the sole factor in this decision, but it certainly shows that he has gained a favorable reputation as a connoisseur of sci-fi and fresh reboots of fan classics.
Zach Snyder, the director who brought you epics like “300” and “ W a t c h m e n , ” returns this summer with a gritty retelling of Superman’s story. This highlyanticipated film starts with baby Kal-El being sent from Krypton to Earth, where his father (Russell Crowe) predicts he will be “a god to them.”The film goes on to follow the Big Blue Boy Scout (Henry Cavill, “The Tudors”) through Courtesy of Wikipedia his childhood as Clark Kent in Smallville, Kan. and his discovery of who he is and the things he is capable of. When General Zod (Michael Shannon), another survivor from Krypton, threatens Superman and the Earth, Superman is called to action. Let’s only hope that like Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Man of Steel” frames a superhero we know and love with relevant social commentary. The American military in “Man of Steel” is distrustful of Superman’s powers and other characters are generally xenophobic around him. After all, the film’s posters and promotional material show Superman in handcuffs, escorted by armed soldiers. But through it all, Superman still wants to protect the humans with whom he shares Earth. “Man of Steel” doesn’t just want you to watch, it wants you to think. The days of the big, dumb superhero movie are over.
— Contact Nathan Parker at naparke@emory.edu
— Contact Grace Cummings at gccummi@emory.edu
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
budget film. It’s directed by the renowned Baz Luhrmann — in case you haven’t heard of him, Luhrmann is the critically-acclaimed director of films such as “Australia” and “Moulin Rouge.” In addition, “The Great Gatsby” boasts a cast filled with major Hollywood stars — Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Gatsby, while Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway (the novel’s narrator). And if one is still not certain, merely watch one of the trailers that have been released for the movie — even such a short sampling of the film exudes emotional content that completely absorbs the viewer. “The Great Gatsby” hits theaters on May 10. Don’t miss it.
— Contact Anne Reynolds at anne.reynolds@emory.edu
The Bluths are back! Grab your laptop, and get a pint of ice cream ready for this upcoming Memorial Day weekend: “Arrested Development” is releasing season four of the series via Netflix on May 26. The season will include 15 new episodes released simultaneously on the online video streaming site. Each episode will follow a different member of the Bluth family after we last saw them seven years ago. All main characters from the show, which ran on Fox from 2003 to 2006, will return. Many actors are also reprising their recurring roles from seasons one through three: look forward to seeing Scott Baio (Bob Loblaw), Henry Winkler (Barry Zuckerkorn), Mae Whitman (Ann Veal ... Really? Her?) and Ben Stiller (Tony Wonder) among others. The show, which garnered much critical acclaim during its run on Fox and became a cult classic after its release on Netflix, is widely known for its recurring gags and inside jokes that build upon each other: the more “Arrested Development” you watch, the funnier it gets. Some things we’re hoping to see in season four: Hot Cops, the stair car, the Cornballer, Never-Nudes, Boyfights, the banana stand, the chicken dance, Les Cousins Dangereux, Lucille/loose seal, “Steve Holt!”, The World’s First Analrapist (pronounced an-ahl-ruh-pist for those of you who aren’t fans) and, of course, Gob’s tricks — I mean, illusions. Creator Mitch Hurwitz has expressed interest in following the season with an “Arrested Development” movie, but the project has not been given the green light yet. All we know for sure: if you don’t watch season four of AD, you’ve made a huge mistake.
— Contact Jenna Kingsley at jdkings@emory.edu
TV Preview: Upcoming Summer Series Well, it’s finally here. Everyone’s favorite meth-head’s journey will be drawing to an end when the second half of “Breaking Bad”’s fifth and final season premieres on AMC on August 11. Over the past five years, we’ve watched Walter White devolve from a New Mexico chemistry teacher saddled with an unexpected cancer diagnosis to a power-hungry drug lord who climbs, manipulates and meth-cooks his way to the top. With former student Jesse Pinkman (the ever-lovable Aaron Paul) at his side and widely-despised wife Skylar (Anna Gunn) ... well, no one ever knows what she’s doing, Walter White’s fall from grace has demonstrated the significance of “Breaking Bad” as an artistic creation, and — thank God — has finally freed Bryan Cranston from his former glory as the dad on “Malcolm in the Middle.” And for good reason: Cranston’s five years on “Breaking Bad,” three of which won him Emmys for Best Actor, have more than proved his worth (I’m looking at you, “I AM the danger” speech). And then there’s the endearing fact that this show could only ever happen in America. Oh, universal health care, of course we don’t need you. That would deprive us of such a wonderful television event.
— Contact Emelia Fredlick at emelia.j.fredlick@emory.edu
Courtesy of Wikipedia
THE EMORY WHEEL
Student Life Friday, April 26, 2013 Student Life Editors: Elizabeth Howell (ehowel5@emory.edu) and Jenna Kingsley (jdkings@emory.edu)
CLUB SPOTLIGHT
Active Minds ‘Speaks Out’ About Mental Illness By Tanvi Lal Staff Writer
One in every four college students has a diagnosable mental illness. College life is a huge change from everything students have previously experienced. The freedom and ensuing stress can adversely affect one’s mental health. However, mental illnesses are viewed as a taboo, and those suffering from them often feel the need to hide what they are going through. Active Minds, a national organization founded in 2003, strives to change the conversation about and reduce the stigma around mental illness. With more than 400 chapters on college campuses across the country, it is the only organization which uses student voices to address the problem of mental illness. Emory’s chapter is working to educate the Emory community about various mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, autism spectrums and personality disorders. “A lot of people don’t realize how many people do struggle with mental health issues,” College sophomore and President of Active Minds Sarah Spitz said. “It’s a lot more common than people think, but it’s not talked about.” Mental illness is a topic few people feel comfortable talking about — and Spitz hopes to change that. Active Minds co-hosted a Speak Out for Mental Health on Thursday, April 25 with the Emory Mental Health Initiative (EMHI), a student organization mainly comprised of Rollins School of Public Health students.
Taurus
Gemini Gemini, you’re so fierce that Beyoncé herself has to avert her eyes when you walk by. Don’t let anyone tell you to dial it back. Own the classroom, the workplace, the trivia tournament at the bar — whatever venue you know you will shine in.
Cancer
Jenna Kingsley/Student Life Co-Editor
Rollins School of Public Health student Isabelle Hutchings shares an anonymous short story about mental illness at Emory Mental Health Initiative (EMHI) and Active Mind’s Speak Out for Mental Health event on Thursday. Speak Out for Mental Health featured an open mic where students came up and spoke about what they have struggled with or explained their story. Spitz explained that the main aim was for participants to feel open and supported. “The goal really is to show people it’s okay to talk about it and reach out
for help,” she said. Though EMHI approached Active Minds to help run their event and reach out to the undergraduate population, Spitz mentioned her own personal drive to see this event through after reading the numerous posts on the Emory Secrets page describing depression, relationship struggles and
suicidal thoughts. She also looks to dispel myths about mental illnesses by stressing that those with mental illnesses do not look or dress a specific way but are normal people that we see every day. Active Minds also encourages stress reduction and overall wellness. This past year they have hosted
events such as a stress-reduction yoga class around finals and jeopardy about eating disorders. As part of a national Active Minds event called Send Silence Packing, Emory’s chapter laid out 1,100 backpacks on the Quad to symbolize the number of stu-
See STUDENTS, Page 14
Emory Secrets Professor Revealed
OPINION
A.J.’s Rejected Commencement Speech This is my rejected commencement speech. It is about what it means to be an Emory student. It is called, “Bulldozing the Past: A Swan Song for the DUC.” Too often seniors attempt to classify Emory students in generalization — all of which fail. Emory is too diverse for broad, sweeping generalizations. If I were naive enough to offer my own generalization, one that is not explicitly racial, religious or classist, I would say that Emory students are resume builders and fanatically studious, but we have fun parties. But even this is wrong. It ignores the international students. It ignores the conclave of humanities students who “major in life.” In fact, the only real way to generalize Emory students, and capture them all, is to say that we all went to Emory. The only truly unifying characteristic of Emory students is that we studied in these buildings. These buildings, then, are the only thing that have relevance to every Emory student. Of course, to discuss Emory students is to discuss Emory’s culture and traditions. One cannot exist without the other. Emory, as an institution, bulldozed buildings and traditions in a single-minded race to the top of the charts. We cut the real Wonderful Wednesday, not just because we changed from a quarter to semester calendar but also because a day off in the middle of the week is not befitting of a top institution on the rise. Pushball, a hallowed tradition,
Aries Opinionated Aries, you may catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, but why are you trying to catch flies anyway? Flies are gross and nobody likes them. Instead, try to catch butterflies, with ... flowers and stuff. You’re feeling overwhelmed, driven Taurus. You can only give your energy to so many things. Relax and treat yourself to something you know you will find satisfying. Provided this thing doesn’t hurt yourself, anyone else or damage property. Not that you needed to be reminded of that.
SECRETS
By A.J. Artis Staff Writer
HOROSCOPES
opened the door to injury lawsuits. It had to go. Freshman caps from long ago constituted hazing and had no place once women entered our good ol’ boy’s club. There is a long list of traditions that fell by the wayside or were pushed off a cliff and made to look like an accident. Besides Dooley’s Week, which is a fairly new tradition relative to the age of our university, we don’t have any. We cut them all. In fact, the only tradition Emory really has is a proud tradition of cutting. In light of this tradition, I present a cautionary tale. Once in Emory’s history, it failed to bulldoze the past and uphold our hallowed custom of cutting. The University did not demolish Alumni Memorial Hall to make room for a new student center. Emory yielded to pressure to keep that beautiful building, erecting the new center around it. The result is the DUC, perhaps the greatest architectural failure on campus. Choosing to build around the old building, enshrining it, ruined the concepts that were going to make the DUC functional and beautiful. The amphitheater seating, already a horrid and confusing choice, makes the “Coke Commons” a cavern. It defeats the purpose of the skylights. The light, airy feeling provided by the high ceiling is lost. The beautiful glass dome does not illuminate the bookstore or the dining hall food court. The bookstore was too small. The whole building is an exercise in wasted or misused space. Enshrining the past, instead of
Jenna Kingsley/Student Life Co-Editor
College senior A.J. Artis delivers his rejected commencement speech for an audience of one. bulldozing it, ruined the thing we tried to save. Alumni Memorial Hall is a exquisite building exterior, but keeping it ruined both the new DUC and made the old building so much uglier. It would have been better to bulldoze Alumni Memorial because its present state is worse than being demolished. Like our university, the greatest danger to students of my generation, besides the job market, is premature nostalgia. This danger goes beyond
the cultural obsession with the ’90s. It is largely the product of Facebook and the access to all those pictures of “good times.” College will take on a rosy hue once we meet the challenges, monotony and failures of the real world. Emory students, who are accustomed to success and achievement and suckled on the ideology of “positive reinforcement,” are most prone to the dangers of premature
See BULLDOZING, Page 14
“This will be my last secret. For several months I’ve shared with you my thoughts about professor-student relations, college and life challenges and even some burning social issues. When I first posted on Emory Secrets (#171 on Dec. 19) I did not know [I’d] keep going for 50+ secrets, and I definitely did not imagine that hundreds of people would read my posts... that I would learn so Yaron much about student life from Ayalon, reading each a visiting and every of the Middle 2,000+ secrets. Eastern Over these past few months I Studies was fortunate professor, to meet some of you, and each revealed his such meeting identity on filled me with Thursday excitement and joy and many thoughts about how I could help more people. There were many more of you I wanted to meet, especially those who commented on my secrets regularly, who I feel I already got to know to some degree, just enough to yearn for more. My involvement with Emory Secrets was one of the best experiences of my career as a teacher. My goal was to reach beyond the limited audience I have in my classes. If in that process I managed to help even one of you in some way ... I did something. So many times I wanted to post comments, to respond to your secrets, to share my experiences — and perhaps soon I’ll be able to do just that. So thank you all for taking the time to read my secrets. And a big thanks to the Emory Secrets people for providing this wonderful venue (I am not one of them, nor do I know them, despite some rumors to the contrary). I will be leaving Emory soon and would love to hear from you, either in person or via email/ Facebook. If there’s anything I can do for you, or you just need someone to talk to, please get in touch.”
Don’t adopt an “I can sleep when I’m dead” approach to finals. The human body can survive without food longer than it can survive without sleep. Take a study break and Google that fact. Then drink some water so your blood won’t be mostly caffeine.
Leo Unrequited love is a tough situation to be in, and the end of the year is exacerbating this. Gather your courage to find something to say to your crush before you’re separated by summer. Even if you can only muster, “I like chickens,” then you have said something and your crush now knows that you like chickens. Everyone wins.
Virgo As we enter into the trying time of finals, remember the Golden Rule. As in study, and you’ll be golden. Show your professor that you’re worth your weight in gold. Get the golden fleece that is an “A.” Avoid Golden Corral. That last one is just a general, non-finals tip.
Libra They say “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” However, I have it on good faith that being a Jedi/Ninja Turtle/Sailor Scout hasn’t been taken yet. Go for it.
Scorpio Typically, Scorpio, you don’t care what others think of you. And most of the time, you’re right about their silly opinions. But if others think you are capable of murdering a fellow human being in cold blood, you might want to listen to what they have to say.
Sagittarius Good things are coming your way in your career sector ... if you’re willing to work for them. The Job Fairy won’t sprinkle some employment dust on your head and get you hired. In fact, in the ultimate twist, the Job Fairy herself is out of work.
Capricorn Stop comparing yourself to others and work on defining yourself within your own standards of what makes you awesome. Like what your funny, talented, successful older brother does. Why can’t you be more like him? Get your act together.
Aquarius Maybe you’re a morning person, maybe you’re a night owl. But only you can tell when you’re most productive. And only you can prevent forest fires. Just you. No one else. Why are you still reading? We need you to prevent forest fires!
Pisces Give yourself a pat on the back, Pisces. For your 3,000th day alive after not passing on that chain letter in middle school, even though it said you’d definitely be murdered by a serial killer ghost. Now pass on this horoscope or you will have bad luck for the next school year and your crush will hate you and you will die sad and alone. Horoscopes by Grace Cummings
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THE EMORY WHEEL
STUDENT LIFE
Friday, April 26, 2013
What Are You Doing This Summer?
Students Share Their Plans for Summer 2013 “I’m backpacking across
“Going to Europe for two
“Volunteering at a tax
Europe ... I wish! No, I’m
weeks then relaxing before
clinic.”
taking bio classes here.”
med school.”
— Nick Peterson
— Reem Al-Atassi
— Trisha Patel
Law student
College freshman
College senior
“Working for the
“Interning with the
“Doing biomedical research
Foundation for Individual
Attorney General of Ohio.”
at Tufts University.”
Rights in Education.”
— Lindsay Falkenberg
— Divya Padmanabhan
— Aaron Coven
College sophomore
College sophomore
“Going on a mission trip to
“Hopefully working with
“Building educational video
Missouri.”
kids in Slovenia.”
games at North Carolina
— Shelby Perez
— Shion Nagasaka
State University.”
College freshman
College sophomore
— Marisa Guarino
College freshman
College sophomore
“Interning at a film pro-
“Working at Oak Ridge
“Studying for the MCAT.”
duction company, tak-
National Lab in Tennessee.”
— Shyama Appareddy
ing summer classes or
— Emily Reinhard
College junior
EUROTRIP!”
College sophomore
— Daniel Wiesner
College sophomore
“Apartment hunting and
“Working back home in
“Teaching sailing at a camp
then getting ready for med
Minnesota.”
and going on a kayaking
school.”
— Maggie Blaisdell
trip.”
— Eduardo Garcia
College freshman
— Jayme Smith
College senior
Bulldozing the Past: A Swan Song for the DUC Continued from Page 13 nostalgia. Cushy memories will soften the harsh blow of career stagnation and romantic failure. The best thing you can do, then, is remain true to the Emory tradition and bulldoze the past. Commencement may be the beginning of something new, but it is also an end. We must take this time to remember that everything we have ever loved or enjoyed about Emory is gone forever, and we can never make new memories like the ones we have. The worst thing we can do is build a DUC because we are too afraid to bulldoze what is beautiful and comforting about our memories. If you try to build your new life around these days, these memories, you will create something new that, by accommodating the past, is worse than if you had just let go.
Emory bulldozed because it strove to reach the top. So must we all. Emory students, like the school that houses us, are, at our best, relentless strivers. We strive for the best. The true Emory student strives for prestige at the expense of all else. That is not all of us, but that is the best of us. The truest Emory students among us will cut anything that keeps him or her from the top, just like our University. We are Emory. We cut. We bulldoze. We strive. I dedicate this final column to College Dean Robin Forman. They made of you a sacrificial lamb. Your vision is clear. I admire and respect you and your judgement. History will vindicate you. I love and cherish my parents. Thank you, Mother and Father. Thank you for everything. — Contact A.J. Artis at ajartis@emory.edu
By Chloe Olewitz I spent a lot of time dreaming up Insighters for the final weeks of my final year of academia, forever. I didn’t realize how few weeks were left. I waver between terrible excitement for the ceremony of graduation — the culmination of four years worth of what I have to acknowledge as accomplishments — and the terrible impatience of enough is enough! Time to go! Emory is beautiful now. Finally settled between the cold too long and the summer too soon. We have a few weeks of pollen-free (pollen-low) blossoms and blooms. Breezes on the patios and Cox bridge, the chill of mornings under the trees of the Quad now overrun with the construction for a celebration of our graduating seniors. God bless us all. I leave Emory with sweetness where I can. I leave Emory with good memories where I can find them and lessons learned where I am sour. Making choices and making moves for a new phase of the same old life, I remind myself that this same old life is pretty nice, isn’t it. That we are lucky, and we are blessed, and wherever we go, things have a habit of working out, don’t they. So as an official goodbye to my school and the city that has welcomed me for four long years, I offer thanks. Thank you to everyone here and there who has made this experience the wildest ride of, if not the best time of, my life, certainly a time from which I have learned and grew. Students and professors. Dooley. I may walk on May 13, and I may go my way in the world with Emory far behind me, but college lives on forever.
College freshman
Students Share Stories to Raise Awareness of Mental Illness Continued from Page 13
dents who commit suicide each year. The main aim of the events they hold, Spitz said, is to increase awareness in an engaging and fun way. Through these and future events, Spitz hopes to make the Emory community more supportive and aware, thereby allowing those suffering with mental illnesses to feel comfortable sharing their troubles. She feels that Active Minds is particularly effective because it comes from the students’ voice — the impact of hearing stories from people who are your age and just like you can be irreplaceable. “Students sharing their stories seems to be the most powerful way to impact other people and get them to care about the message,” Spitz said. Spitz hopes to expand both the membership and scope of Active Minds. This includes hosting more events and also reaching out to the student population to find out what they want. Future events will further increase awareness about mental health. In particular, Spitz looks to create a student panel with four to five members who will share their stories relating to their own, their family members’ or their friends’ mental health. Spitz wants this panel to speak at multiple events and even psychology classes. In addition, Spitz plans to have various speakers come to campus, such as mental health professionals who will discuss stigma and disorders or a survivor of mental illness. With these events, Spitz hopes to educate Emory’s population by embodying the goals of Active Minds. “We all have the same goals. We all want to succeed here,” she said. “Mental health plays a key role in student success, academics, making friends — everything.”
— Contact Tanvi Lal at tlal@emory.edu
Mad Lib:
Club Libz By Celia Greenlaw
As finals week approaches, I have decided to spend more time at the most ____________ (adjective) club on Emory’s campus, “Club Libz.” This semi-exclusive group of devoted Emory _________ (plural noun) meets all day, every day. The only way to fit in is to spend hours ____________ (verb ending in “-ing”) in the stacks and to hope nobody catches you ____________ (verb ending in “-ing”) the Internet. How do you get in, you may ask? Easy. Forget everything you know about sleep,and start drinking ____________ (liquid) for every meal. There are a few rules you should know before ____________ (verb ending in “-ing”) the club. First, the silent reading room is for ____________ (plural noun) that are NOT trying to ____________ (verb), and you should only go if the quiet makes you feel ____________ (adjective). Next, everybody knows that the ____________ (a number first through ninth) floor stacks is the best one, so if you want to be ____________ (adjective), that’s the place to be. Lastly, any real “Club Libz” member knows how to appreciate the ____________ (noun) at Jazzman’s Café, so go on down to the first floor and raise your ____________ (body part) in the air as you sip on a hot cup of ____________ (liquid). Whether you decide to ____________ (verb) “Club Libz” or not, best of luck on your finals Emory ____________ (plural noun), and have a very ____________ (adjective) summer!
THE EMORY WHEEL
SPORTS
Friday, April 26, 2013
Men Make Second Round, Women Advance to Sweet 16 Continued from The Back Page
Christine Hines/STAFF
The women’s team earned 26 All-American certificates at the National Championship, and the men earned 10. Five senior swimmers also earned the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Eagles Excel Both In and Out of the Pool Continued from The Back Page remarkable community they have created that serves as a network of support for the swimmers both inside and outside of the pool. “This has been a unique characteristic of Emory swimming and is a reason people are drawn to us,” Howell said. “Your swims are more than just your individual swims. You swim for something bigger than yourself, and it brings out the best in people and makes it more fun.” For Dobben, two moments define the nature of the Emory swimming community. The first is the 400-yard freestyle relay at the UAA championships. Dobben was in the pool competing, and she remembers all her teammates, even members of the men’s team, outside of the pool cheering on her and the rest of her relay team. The second was outside of the pool, when the Emory women’s basketball team hosted the NCAA Tournament and the entire swim team went out to support them. “Emory swimming means so much more to so many people than we realize while we are here,” Dobben said. “We are not here just to swim. We are here to make oth-
ers people’s lives better, and we are here to make our lives better. When I became a part of Emory Swimming, my life changed for the better, and it has been an amazing experience.” For Coach Howell, people such as Douglas and Dobben, who as seniors provided an example to the underclassmen as athletes, teammates and people, exemplify everything that is remarkable about the Emory swimmer. “Miller is the ideal teammate,” Howell said. “He has a lot of enthusiasm and a great work ethic. He loves his sport and he loves Emory. Anna has been the spirit behind our team — a great organizer, enthusiastic, a hard worker and she had a wonderful end to her. She has been a great leader and a great performer for us.” The accomplishments of Emory swimmers outside of the pool are perhaps best exemplified by the five seniors who were awarded the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship — Mia Michalak and Ann Wobler for the women, and Douglas, O’Brien and Justin Beegle for the men. “It is a huge honor,” O’Brien said. “What is remarkable is that we all intend to genuinely enjoy our studies. It is not about achieving the mark. We have great conversations in the locker
room about all sorts of things that we have learned from class. We have a great mix of athletics and academics on the team.” Student-athletes must be nominated by their athletic department, and the award is given based on athletic accomplishments, academic success and service to the community. The NCAA awarded just 30 of these scholarships to student athletes from winter sports across all levels of NCAA competition. “To have five seniors win the award shows you that they are taking this experience to an extremely high level,” Howell said. “I think that these accomplishments tell you the most about our program. The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship is a testament to excellence. These awards speak volumes to their work ethic and to them performing at high levels as students and as athletes.” The Eagles have set a high standard for next year. With 10 women and nine men graduating, a number of underclassmen will have to step up. “I feel good about next year, but if we want to be in the hunt, we have to get better,” Howell said. “We look forward to that challenge.” — Contact Bennett Ostdiek at bostdie@emory.edu
respectively. Friedberg led with 6.9 rebounds per game, while sophomore success did not come out of nowhere. guard Michael Florin was tops in “It was a six-year process,” assists with 5.8 per game. Zimmerman said. “It started when I It was a happy ending for Greven got here.” and Friedberg, who alongside fellow The women’s team caught fire seniors Ollie Carleton and Nash Oh as well after the Wash. U loss. The qualified for the NCAA Tournament Eagles relied on stingy defensive play for the first time in their Eagles and won seven straight games, not careers. allowing more than 64 points in any Zimmeran spoke highly of the of them. A four-game winning streak success of his senior class, citing their to close the season gave the team sole 74-28 record in their Eagles careers. possession of first place in the UAA “I was really excited for those and a final conference record of 12-2. guys,” he said. “It was a special jourThe Eagles breezed by Whitworth ney. To be able to put up a banner in and Huntingdon College (Ala.) in the gym, that’s something that no one the first two rounds of the NCAA can take away from them.” Tournament to The women’s team reach the Sweet relied more on their Sixteen for the first “It was a special journey. defense, averaging time since 1997 and 71.2 points per game To be able to put up a just the third time and holding oppobanner in the gym, that’s nents to just 55.1. in program history. The run ended something that no one can Junior guard take away.” there, as they lost Hannah Lilly led the to Whitman College team in scoring with (Wash.) in a close — Jason Zimmerman, 13 points per game, 67-62 contest to Head Coach while junior guard close the season Savannah Morgan with a record of and senior forward 24-4 and a national ranking of 14th. Misha Jackson contributed 11.9 and “It was a game we thought we 11.1, respectively. Jackson led the should win,” Thomaskutty said. “It Eagles in rebounds with 9.0 per game. was a disappointment. It took me Along with Jackson, the team will a few weeks to get past that one, be losing seniors Danielle Landry and because this is such a great group Katie Dickerson, but Thomaskutty of girls.” believes the future is bright. Both teams’ tournament losses “Anytime you’re relying on freshdo nothing to take away from their man, you’re cautiously optimistic,” record-breaking seasons that were as she said. “It’s going to hinge on one thrilling as they were successful. thing, and that’s leadership.” “It’s hard for any coach to say it The men, too, will look to build off was a great season when it ends with their success this season. a loss,” Thomaskutty said. “But it “I think we can be better,” was one of the program’s best seasons Zimmerman said. “That’s the coach ever.” in me talking. We have to replace The men’s team relied heavily on some great players and great leaders.” its one-two punch of junior forward If there’s one lesson that this seaJake Davis and senior guard Alex son taught us, it’s to never count Greven. Davis led the Eagles with 18 out the Emory basketball teams. The points per game, while Greven was Eagles will be back and hungry to not far behind at 16.5. build off their success in 2013 — but The two stars led a powerful no matter what, there’s no taking Emory offense that averaged 82 away from just how big of a season points per game and on average out- this was for both squads. scored opponents by more than 15 “The bar has been set really high,” points. Zimmerman said. “It’s exciting to see Junior guard McPherson Moore how high we can raise that bar.” and senior forward Michael Friedberg — Contact Ryan Smith at added 12.0 and 11.7 points per game, ryan.smith@emory.edu
15
On Fire
It’s been real, it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun. Peace. 1. Reflections It has been a memorable year here at On Fire. We have seen LeBron James warn the federal government about a natural disaster, Kobe Bryant live-tweet from the sidelines of a Lakers’ game and people from Chicago celebrate in a singularly strange manner. We have discussed the merits of hot wings versus Swedish models, determined exactly what is so weird about Europe and soccer and ranked our favorite athletes/rappers. We have opened an internship program which will possibly give participants four course credits and a HAPW requirement, and though we have not yet had any applicants, we are optimistic for its future. We have considered hosting an open forum, and ultimately decided that we had better things to do. We have successfully avoided any and all constructive dialogues on issues of race, class, social justice, the environment, gender, drugs or any other important topic you could name. All in all, it has been a banner year for On Fire. 2. A Hero Goes Dark In light of the ongoing NBA playoffs, LeBron James has turned off his cell phone. Our first instinct is to praise him for this. After all, he is displaying supreme focus and absolute determination is pursuit of a noble and lofty goal – that is, an NBA Championship. But then, we thought about all the natural disasters LeBron has warned the government about this year. In truth, he has only warned the government about one disaster. But that is one more than your On Fire correspondent has warned the government about, and that is probably one more than any of my readers have warned the government about. (If you have warned the government about a natural disaster this year, please consider applying to On Fire’s internship program this summer. We could really use skills like yours.) For those of you who are unaware (all our loyal readers of On Fire should be aware, but we will repeat ourselves for the sake of the parents who have come to town for graduation and do not follow us on our blog), LeBron was driving around Dayton County and saw signs of flooding the other week. He took pictures of the flooding, uploaded them to Instagram and tweeted them. Through this, the National Weather Service discovered the natural disaster. In light of LeBron’s decision, we at On Fire feel compelled to warn all the residents of the greater Miami area to extra alert for possible natural disasters. Your greatest protector has gone dark. 3. Creative Names
Christine Hines/Staff
Sophomore forward Charlotte Butker chases down a ball during a match at the Woodruff P.E. Center. The Eagles fell in the NCAA Division III National Championship.
Gorodetsky Racks Up Postseason Awards Continued from The Back Page Emory’s final win of the season came in the NCAA semifinals match against Wheaton College (Ill.). The Eagles breezed to a 2-0 victory off of goals from sophomore forward Emily Feldman and junior defender Lauren Gorodetsky. The match was played in San Antonio, Texas. In the NCAA-title match, the Eagles fell behind by a goal early to No.1-ranked Messiah College (Penn.). Emory was never able to answer back. The team went on to lose by a final score of 1-0. Emory’s historic season did not go unnoticed as the Eagles’ players and coaches were showered with numerous postseason accolades. Head coach Sue Patberg was awarded the NCAA Division III Coach of the Year award by D3Soccer.com. Patberg received the award based on the strength of the team’s success. On the players side, Gorodetsky led all award-getters. During the season, the UAA compiled a list of the top 25 UAA players of all time in its UAA 25-Year Anniversary Team. Gorodetsky was the only active UAA player on the list. Based on her success in the tour-
nament, Gorodetsky received the most Outstanding Defensive Player of the NCAA Championships award from D3Soccer.com. The accolades kept coming for Gorodetsky in the postseason. She was named the Defender of the Year by D3Soccer.com at the close of the season. The junior also found herself on the D3Soccer.com and National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-America First Teams. It did not stop there for Gorodetsky. Gorodetsky was also named the UAA co-MVP, an honor she shared with Anna Zambricki of Washington University in St. Louis. This is her second consecutive season winning the award. Gorodetsky was also named to the UAA first team. “This year I really set higher goals for myself,” Gorodetsky said. “As a junior, I had to find new ways to push myself to be better for my team and never stopped trying to improve.” Gorodetsky was not the only Eagle to win postseason accolades. For their NCAA tournament success, junior outside back Lauren Drosick and sophomore outside back/midfielder
Kaelyn Lucas were each named to the all-tournament team. Kellu Costopoulos was named to the NSCAA all-tournament team along with Gorodetsky. Veronica Romero was named to the third team. Romero also joined Gorodetsky on the first team all-UAA, while Costopoulos, Feldman, and junior midfielder Greta Jochmann were all named to the second team. Lauren Drosick and senior goalkeeper Kaele Leonard were both honorable mentions. The Eagles will look to build on their success next season. The Eagles will add five new freshman to replace the losses of seniors Lee Bachouros, Merrill Bachouros, Katy Kruse, Ashley Kaiser, Erica Stein and Kaele Leonard. “The graduating seniors left a legacy of perseverance,” Gorodetsky said. “From their freshmen to senior years, they went from the worst to the best seasons in program history. From not qualifying to the NCAA tournament to a national runner-up finish. Our seniors showed us how great things can come from rising above.” — Contact Nathaniel Ludewig at nludewi@emory.edu
The Bowl Champion Series (BCS) unveiled the name of the new college football playoff this week. It will be called “College Football Playoff.” In a follow-up question, a reporter asked the Executive Director of the BCS, Bill Hancock, if the name of his dog is “Dog.” Hancock replied that he does not own a dog. But joking aside, this name is brilliant for many reasons. First of all, the acronym: CFP. Does that not just roll of the tongue? It sounds sweet and silky smooth, like Dove chocolate. Second, it leaves in just enough room to add in a title sponsor. College Football Playoff, brought to you by Skittles: Taste the Rainbow. Say it a few times – there is a nice ring to it. The words NCAA or FCS or Division I-A are nowhere in sight. If and when major college football goes rogue and ditches all other institutional connections in favor of a loose confederation of SEC schools, Texas and Ohio State, the name will not have to be changed. The words “National,” “Championship” or “Title” are nowhere in sight. This way, no one can legally challenge the College Football Playoff on the grounds that it is unfairly excluding someone. This is not the end all and be all of football games. This is just some college football teams holding a playoff. There are no numbers involved like college basketball’s Final Four, meaning that it can be expanded to whatever size the non-national and non-championship-bestowing group of college football teams wants it to be expanded to – in short, it can be expanded as long as the powers-thatbe can still make money off it. All in all, this name is brilliant.
SPORTS THE EMORY WHEEL
Friday, April , Sports Editor: Nathaniel Ludewig (nludewi@emory.edu)
Emory Sports: Year in Review SWIMMING & DIVING
Men’s Soccer The men’s soccer team made it to the second round of the NCAA Championships, defeating Roanoke College (N.C.), 4-1 before falling to Messiah College (Penn.), 3-0. The Eagles finished 11-7-2 on the season. Women’s Soccer The women’s soccer team qualified for the NCAA Championships and made it all the way to the NCAA title game before losing to Messiah College. The team finished with a record of 15-2-7 and a No. 2 national ranking. Men’s Cross Country The men’s cross country team placed fifth at the NCAA Regional Championships. Freshman Lukas Mees was the top performer for the Eagles, placing 14th overall. Women’s Cross Country The women’s cross country team placed second at the NCAA Regional Championships. Sophomore Marissa Gogniat was the Eagles’ top finisher at 18th place overall. Volleyball The volleyball team qualified for the NCAA Tournament and won their first two rounds before falling in the Sweet Sixteen. They finished with a record of 33-6 and a national ranking of fourth. Baseball The baseball team has one three-game series left in their regular season against Piedmont College. They currently stand at 21-15 with a 4-4 record in University Athletic Association (UAA) play. Softball The softball team finished their regular season with a record of 39-3, with an 8-0 mark in UAA play, and is currently ranked third in the nation. They will find out their opponent for the NCAA tournament on May 6. Men’s Tennis The men’s tennis team will travel to Orlando for the UAA Championships before heading to national competition. Their first match will be on Friday against the University of Rochester (N.Y.). The team is currently ranked third in the nation.
Another Banner Season For the Eagles By Bennett Ostdiek Asst. Sports Editor
Over winter break, while the rest of Emory was at home, the swimming and diving team traveled to Sarasota to train for the season. The week of training concluded with a meet, which was held in what until recently had been a hotel pool. Everyone was exhausted from the week of hard training, and it was so cold outside that you could see your breath. The team could easily have decided that the meet was too insignificant and that they were too cold and tired to swim their hardest. “But our team took a different approach,” senior captain Anna Dobben said. “We saw this meet as a chance to race, and that was when I knew that we would do big things this year.” Emory Swimming and Diving did do big things this year. The women’s team won the National Championship for the fourth consecutive year, and the men finished fifth in the nation. Additionally, each squad won the University Athletic Association (UAA) championship for the fifteenth year in a row. “Everyone really made a commitment to improve as individuals and to come closer as a team this season,” Head Coach Jon Howell said. “You have to do something special to be successful at this level.” The women’s squad was led by the relay team of senior Renee Rosenkranz, sophomore Nancy Larson, senior captain Ann Wolber and Dobben, who won National Championships in the 200- and 400yard freestyle relays. The 400-yard freestyle relay was the final event of the NCAA Division III National Championships, and the women had already clinched the team title. Yet that did not prevent Rosenkranz, Larson, Wobler and Dobben from winning the National Championship in a NCAA Division III-record time of 3:21.28, an incredible .71 seconds better than the previous record. “It was pretty cool to know that we swam faster than anyone else in Division III ever had,” Dobben said. “It was a Hallmark-like way to end
Christine Hines/Staff
In a banner season, the women’s swimming and diving team won the National Championship, while the men finished fifth in the nation. The women won the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays at the meet, and Miller Douglas won the 200-yard butterfly for the men. my swimming career — it was a fairytale ending.” This is just one of a staggering number of team and individual accomplishments the Eagles compiled this year. Senior captains Miller Douglas and Peter O’Brien led the men’s team. Douglas, who transferred to Emory after his sophomore year, won the National Championship in the 200yard butterfly, and also earned AllAmerican honors in the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys. “He has been one of our top performers across the board,” Howell said. “He will graduate as one of the best we ever had, and he was only here for two years.”
O’Brien earned All-American honors in the 200-yard individual medley and the 200- and 400-yard medley relay at the NCAA Championships, setting school records in each event in the process. Along with Douglas, he set the tone for the men’s swimming team both in and out of the pool. “Douglas and I were able to take charge and think about where we wanted the team to go and rally the men about that goal and vision,” O’Brien said. “If you start at the top and all the seniors are doing it right, it naturally falls to the others to adopt that in some way.” Though it started at the top for both the men’s and women’s teams,
Club Sports The lacrosse team won their division en route to making the playoffs, just a year after a winless season. Two members of the men’s ultimate team qualified for the U-23 National team that will compete this summer.
See EAGLES, Page 15
Historic Success For Men, Women By Ryan Smith Asst. Sports Editor
Men’s Track and Field The men’s track and field team has four meets before the NCAA Outdoor Championships in La Crosse, Wis. They are currently ranked ninth in the region.
Golf The golf team recently participated in their final regular season invitational before the NCAA D-III Championships on May 14 in Sandestin, Fla.
O’Brien said. “There is something special about that team bond which enhances athletic performance. We are very committed, and we breed that atmosphere. When you come in, you conform to that.” That team culture extends beyond athletic championships and honors to academic and personal success and a strong team identity. “A lot of times people look at our program and focus on our success at nationals, but for us, it is a much more holistic approach,” Howell said. “For us, it is about supporting our swimmers in all aspects of life.” The Eagles do this through the
BASKETBALL
WOMEN’S SOCCER
Women’s Tennis The women’s tennis team is currently in Altamonte Springs, Fla. for the UAA Championships. They cruised past New York University, 9-0, in their opening match. The Eagles are currently ranked third in the nation.
Women’s Track and Field The women’s track and field team will take part in four meets before the NCAA Outdoor Championships. They placed ninth nationally at the indoor championships last season.
the list of individual accomplishments for Emory swimmers goes on and on. The women delivered a total of 26 individual All-American performances, five relay All-American performances and 15 individual All-American honorable mention performances. The men earned eight individual All-American honors, four AllAmerican relays, seven individual All-American honorable mentions and one honorable mention relay. O’Brien explained that the incredible breadth and depth of the team comes from the culture that the seniors have created. “There is an atmosphere that we have to set as leaders on the team,”
Christine Hines/Staff
Junior defender Lauren Gorodetsky battles for a header against UAA-rival Unversity of Chicago (Ill.). Gorodetsky was named the Defensive Player of the Year by D3Soccer.com.
Eagles NCAA Runner-Up By Nathaniel Ludewig Sports Editor The fall 2012 season was a historic one for the Emory women’s soccer team. Anchored by their defense, the Eagles were the NCAA Division III runner-up, logging an impressive 15-2-7 overall record. The team finished third in the University Athletic Association (UAA) conference stand-
ings with a 3-1-3 record. Emory had a long run in the NCAA tournament, which ended in the finals. The Eagles breezed through the first two rounds of the tournament with 2-0 wins against Depauw University (Ind.) and No.7ranked Centre College (Ky.). In the third, “Sweet 16” round, Emory slipped past Loras College (Iowa.) by a score of 2-1, in a match played in
Pittsburg, Penn. In the elite eight, the Eagles saw a familiar foe. The team defeated the No. 17-ranked, Carnegie Mellon University Tartans. The game initially ended in a 0-0 tie before going into a shootout, which the Eagles won by an 11-10 score. The Tartans also play in the UAA.
See GORODETSKY, Page 15
January 11 was not a good day for Emory basketball. The men’s team was mired in a two-game losing streak. After dropping their University Athletic Association (UAA) opener to the University of Rochester on the road, they fell to rival Washington University in St. Louis in a heartbreaker at home, 86-84. Their record stood at 8-4, 0-2 in conference, and their Division III NCAA Tournament chances looked slim. “We didn’t play poorly either game,” Head Coach Jason Zimmerman said. “We knew there was a lot of basketball left but still had to get better.” Zimmerman met with his star guard, junior Alex Greven, and the two discussed what the team had to do to improve. “They were upset they weren’t discouraged,” Zimmerman said of his Eagles. The women’s team, too, had just dropped a close game to Wash. U, a 56-53 overtime game. The loss evened their UAA record at 1-1 and knocked them out of the conference driver’s seat. Flash to March, when both teams finished first in the UAA and earned NCAA Tournament bids. Women’s Head Coach Christy
Thomaskutty credits her team’s attitude as the key part of their title run. “It came down to the Rochester game [a double-overtime, 73-67 win],” Thomaskutty said. “That’s when I knew our team was legit. At no point was there any sense of panic.” The men’s team strung together five straight wins, each by double digits, putting themselves right back in the midst of the conference race. Perhaps even more impressive was the team’s five-game winning streak to close the season a clinch a share of the title, capped with a regular-season ending blowout of the Rochester squad that beat them in their conference opener. “There’s no better feeling than accomplishing a goal,” Zimmerman said. “It wasn’t just one year. We’ve been close for the last couple years. It was as good a feeling as you can have as a coach.” From there, the men qualified for the NCAA Tournament, where they trounced Randolph College (Va.) in the opening round before falling to Whitworth University (Wash.). Still, it was a record-breaking season for a team that had not been to the tournament since 1990 and, with a record of 20-7, earned its second-highest win total of all time. However, this
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