February 26, 2020

Page 1

The Emory Wheel 100 Years of

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Volume 101, Issue 6

Printed Every Wednesday

Wednesday, february 26, 2020

Bobby Jones Scholars Named

NIKKI GIOVANNI VISITS EMORY, ATTRACTS FULL HOUSE

By Anjali Huynh Contributing Writer The Robert T. Jones, Jr. Scholarship program selected four College seniors as award recipients of the Bobby Jones Scholarship from a pool of 13 finalists. Winners Sarah Hunter, David Kulp, Samah Meghjee and Adesola Thomas will receive a paid year of study at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland as recognition for their achievements. The program began in 1976 in honor of Emory alumnus and amateur golfer Robert T. Jones (29L) and has since recognized more than 300 scholars from Emory and St. Andrews. The scholarship is awarded to those who “exemplify the legacy of Bobby Jones through intellectual excellence, significant leadership, exemplary character, integrity and citizenship.”The primary application involved submitting a resume, two essays, three letters of recommendation and transcripts. According to scholarship eligibility criteria, recipients must have an “outstanding academic record,” “significant leadership in the life of the Emory community,” “excellent speaking and writing abilities,” “strong interpersonal skills” and “academic

See SCHOLARSHIP, Page 2

Jackson Schneider/A sst. Photo Editor

Poet Nikki Giovanni garnered a crowd of 1,500 community members for a free reading on Saturday. Known for her award-winning poetry and social activism, Giovanni also met with students for an Q&A session and was featured during Emory Libraries’ 20th annual Twelfth Night Revel. See LITERARY, Page 8

38 Track and Field Members Leave Team Amid Culture Shift By Madison Bober and Jessica Solomon Managing Editor and Asst. Sports Editor “The coaches threaten and give ultimatums,” said former junior jumper Natalie Natole (21C), one of 38 students who have left Emory’s cross country track and field (XC/TF) team within the last year. “We have no right to a balance. It’s an obligation that’s no longer fun anymore.” Natole detailed an environment of compounding pressure, isolation and insensitivity when asked about why she decided to quit after two and a

half years on the team. Her reasoning paralleled the motivations of eight other former members who spoke to the Wheel, all of whom said that new rules regulating student athlete behavior has created a toxic team culture. However, Head Coach Linh Nguyen and current XC/TF members contest this narrative, arguing that a focus on athletic and competitive excellence is laying the groundwork for future success. Such conflict has called into question the expectations that Division III athletes should have regarding the balance between focus on their sport and academic or social priorities.

The largest differences between Division I and Division III schools exist in the administering of athletic scholarships and the admissions process. Division III schools are barred from offering athletic scholarships, and students interested in applying must be admitted through the standard academic process. A majority of athletes at Division I schools receive some form of athletically related aid, and students’ athletic history is a major consideration for admission. All eight former members, who have quit the team within the last year, attributed an unprecedented level of coach turnover as the primary reason

for the team’s deteriorating morale. Within the last four years, XC/TF members have operated under eight different coaches and have witnessed the exit of five. Among these changes, there have been four head coaches: John Curtin, Derek Nelson, Jordan Schilit and current Head Coach Linh Nguyen. Curtin was the team’s head coach from 1985 until 2018, when Nelson and Schilit assumed their roles of interim head coaches. They only held the position for one season, an eight-month period. In June 2019, Nguyen was hired as head coach.

See FORMER, Page 15

Black Boy Joy Highlights ‘Black Kings’ of Emory By Thomas Kreutz and Gustavo Borjas Senior Staff Writer and Contributing Writer

Grace Shen/Contributing

Jared Diamond, author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” emphasizes the need to solve global political and environmental crises during a lecture on Feb. 20.

Jared Diamond Warns of Global Crises By Anjali Huynh Contributing Writer

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and acclaimed geographer Jared Diamond discussed issues ranging from tensions within the United States to inequality abroad during a lecture at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center

NEWS

Coronavirus Treatment on Path to FDA Approval ... PAGE 4 P

Administration Building on Thursday. Diamond, an esteemed geographer, anthropologist and historian, garnered global success after publishing his award-winning book “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” in which he details how geographic differences around the world influenced modernization in various societies.

The Center for Ethics brought the University of California, Los Angeles professor to Emory to discuss his new book, “Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis,” which explains how and why particular crises sculpt nations. In particular, Diamond indi-

See EMORY, Page 2

A 12-year-old Dominic Lal (21C) and his uncle were outside a Cincinnati Reds game when a homeless man approached them and attempted to sell them a bag of popcorn. Lal’s uncle reached into his pocket and offered the man a $20 bill and told him to keep the popcorn. After a couple minutes of deliberation and a successful exchange, the man asked Lal’s uncle why he gave him so much money. “You’re actually helping me,” Lal recalled his uncle saying. “It’s a give and take.” Lal echoed these words nearly seven years later when he received the Community Commitment Award at the second annual Black Boy Joy Award Ceremony on Feb. 22. The award honors a student whose “dedication to service demonstrates a fundamental value of the NAACP,” Zakiya Collier (21C) said at the event. The Black Boy Joy Award Ceremony

is a manifestation of the #BlackBoyJoy 2016 Twitter trend, an ongoing movement within the black community. The awards are presented by the Emory NAACP chapter in partnership with the Emory Black Male Initiative. For Lal, dedication to service involves being the president of Student Obtaining Atlanta Research (SOAR), a Volunteer Emory leader, a founding member of the Emory Science Olympiad and an intern at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, among many other extracurriculars. An only child raised by a single mother, Lal said in an interview with the Wheel that his childhood circumstances spurred him to serve his community. “I feel like I had to grow up very fast — I always had to be at the top of the class … so it was one less thing [my mother] had to worry about,” Lal said. “From there, it snowballed into me challenging myself to do better, for my mom and for others.” Lal’s academic success and contin-

See CEREMONY, Page 4

EDITORIAL An Open A&E Literary Legend EMORY LIFE Lim SPORTS Lone Senior on Nikki Giovanni Electrifies Shares Asian American Letter to Heather Mac Basketball Team Reflects on Donald ... PAGE 8 Path in YouTube ... PAGE 11 Time at Emory ... Back Page PAGE 6 Emory ...


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