Annabel Adams, Janai Berrocal, Sophia Brownsword, Michael Bryan, Caroline (CeCe) Erskine, Jaymee Hinz, Mams (MJ) Jagha, Anne Kosanke, Laura Lemgruber, Kaitlyn Paige, Jack Pasquale, Hannah Peters, Juliet Seith, Sarah Wells
DIGITAL
Megan Radakovich
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS: Kylie Adedeji & Emma Novy
DIGITAL WRITERS: Nickaylia Anderson, Tori Baker, Janai Berrocal, Caroline Erskine, Yasmina Gall, Samayee Gupte, Alexis Landrini, Maria Masek, Gray Reed, Emily Refici, Tessa Reiner, Juliet Seith
DIGITAL DESIGNERS: Kate Batista, Jay Cronkite, Maria Masek
VIDEO DIRECTOR: Evan Blenko
VIDEO TEAM: Brenna Desmond, Beckett Painchaud, Maddie Fox, Jaymee Hinz
SOCIAL DIRECTOR: Lizzy Calvo
SOCIAL TEAM: Bailey Chapin, Christian Slowinski, Christina Stathatos, Madison Wasai, Logan Rae Wilbanks-Davidson
CREATIVE
ILLUSTRATION HEAD: Christina Mastellone
DESIGNERS: Abigail Aggarwara, Eva Aurnhammer, Emma Coyer, Emily Saraidarian, Ailani Wong
ILLUSTRATORS: Marina Lee, Ita Kim, Emmet Kobasa, Hannah Peters, Kate Tang
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTORS: Abby Johnson & Maya Lockwood
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Brenna Desmond, Alicia Hoppes, Zobayer Joti, Ion McDonald, Alexandra Rice, Owen Sellers, Jenna Sents, Collin Snyder, Ailani Wong, Ike Wood, Claire Zhang
Harriet Brown ADVISOR
Through its content, Jerk is dedicated to enhancing insight through communication by providing an informal platform for the freedom of expression. The writing contained within this publication expresses the opinions of the individual writers. The opinions expressed herein are not those of Syracuse University, the Office of Student Activities, the Student Association, or the student body. Additionally, the ideas presented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Jerk Editorial Board. Furthermore, Jerk will not be held responsible for the individual opinions expressed within. Submissions, suggestions, and opinions are welcomed and may be printed without contacting the writer. Jerk reserves the right to edit or refuse submissions at the discretion of its editors. Jerk Magazine is published monthly during the Syracuse University academic year. All contents of the publication are copyright 2025 by their respective creators. No content may be reproduced without the expressed written consent of the Jerk Editorial Board.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
While picking up this new, fresh copy of Jerk , you might have noticed a slight, itty-bitty change on our cover. On the top left corner, we have replaced the regular “Your Student Fee” label with a new label: “Special Edition.” Maybe this caught your eye because you are incredibly detail-oriented, or maybe, like most readers, you missed it cause you were just too damn excited to flip through this new issue. Either way, this small change is, in fact, not small at all.
Earlier this year, we were one of the many student organizations on campus to receive significantly less funding from the university due to the exhaustion of Student Association (SA) funds. Jerk Magazine has proudly been a student organization for over 20 years and has always been supported by the SA. But this year, we were asked to reduce the number of copies we print for three of our issues. And then, we were completely denied any printing budget for the fourth issue.
If you have been a loyal reader for a while, you know that one of our proudest bragging rights is that we work our booties off to produce two issues per semester—and we are one of the few publications on campus that do so. But this year, the May issue (yes, the one you’re holding right now!) was not supposed to happen.
But, Jerks, we weren’t going to give up—duh.
Instead, we asked you, our loyal and VERY generous readers, to help us out, and you completely wowed us. In less than two days, we had reached our fundraising goal AND doubled it, all thanks to you. You reminded us just how loved and valued our student print journalism is, and so this issue is dedicated to you.
In doing so, you also helped us reach one of our biggest organizational goals: to publish independently from the university. This is our first-ever independent issue—hence the “Special Edition” label! So sit
back, relax and flip through our mag, made possible because of you.
On page 35, we take you through our archives in a photoessay celebrating Jerk ’s 20-year-old history. We introduce you to a brand new, independent publication on campus called Sapphic Magazine on page 53, as we continue to applaud student print journalism. We also tackle some contemporary problems affecting our university community, like the potential presence of ICE on college campuses on page 27, and the increasing amounts of food waste in the dining halls on page 57.
It’s been an honor to guide this little mag (with a big legacy) for the past year. Thank you for making my last issue possible.
Signing off,
Karla Perez Editor In Chief (she/her/hers)
Joelle
Daisy
Caroline
Madeleine
Juliet Seith
Closet
Miguel
JERK ON THE INTERNET
Jerk Magazine is exploring new ways to compliment our print mag. Find additional content on social media and our website jerkmagazine.net.
HIT
What we love
LITTLE SIMZ, LOTUS
JUNE 6
Between Doechii, Backxwash and Rapsody, female rappers have proven themselves as more thought-provoking and engaging than many of their male counterparts (duh). We expect Little Simz to make another album we’ll be obsessed with, continuing her run of fantastic albums that she kicked off with 2019’s GREY Area.
TIM ROBINSON’S FRIENDSHIP
MAY 23
Friendship will be the I Think You Should Leave feature-length sketch fans of the show have been waiting for. But, honestly, we were already hooked by the premise of “Tim Robinson meets Paul Rudd.”
LANA DEL REY, THE RIGHT PERSON WILL STAY
MAY 21
Lana Del Rey’s artistic friendship with Jack Antonoff has been the reason her work has been almost perfect for nearly a decade straight. Her new pivot into alternative pop coming in late May will provide great relief for anyone worried about feeling summertime sadness.
CELINE SONG’S MATERIALISTS
JUNE 13
When the poster dropped for Celine Song’s follow-up to the excellent Past Lives , many users online had some reservations. Thankfully, their minds were immediately changed when the trailer came and we saw Pedro Pascal, Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans go at it in real time. Emotionally confused love triangles are Hollywood’s new favorite plot cliché, but we’re not exactly complaining about that.
Words by Jaymee Hinz
THE WEEKND, HURRY UP
TOMORROW FILM
MAY 14
Between his album trilogy's underwhelming conclusion and the disaster that was The Idol, The Weeknd has officially lost a lot of his audience, leaving his fans worried about what he’s going to do next. Even without Sam Levinson’s grimy hands involved, Abel’s amateurish acting and (probably) offensive vision will have Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan regretting the day they co-signed this mess.
LILO AND STITCH, LIVE ACTION REMAKE
MAY 23
Disney defiles the corpse of a timeless classic by releasing a live-action remake filled with terrible effects, questionable casting decisions and no soul to speak of. This was initially a review of Snow White, but it applies just as well here. They couldn’t even give us the cross-dressing alien, instead leaving us with another whitewashing controversy, plenty reason to avoid this at all costs.
GINNY AND GEORGIA , SEASON THREE
JUNE 5
Netflix continues its business practice of canceling unique young-adult programs like Inside Job and I Am Not Okay With This in favor of milking the most mediocre dramas imaginable. Get ready for a season so tonally mismatched and directionless that it won’t even be worth the hate-watch.
MORGAN WALLEN, I'M THE PROBLEM
MAY 16
Always great for an artist to recognize they’re an overprivileged hack in their art. Morgan Wallen’s open bigotry and public outbursts often disguise how downright atrocious the actual music is. After his latest bitchfest post-SNL appearance, there’s no excuse for country radio to still platform this disgrace to the genre.
Alexa, play “Rich Girl” by Gwen Stefani. Your money is going to be UP this month, Aries. Look forward to some financial stability. Maybe even buy a lottery ticket, you never know when it could be your lucky day. Our predictions, however, don’t account for your impulse spending.
TAURUS
Hey there, people pleaser. We know you worry about what people think, but it’s time to keep it real. Let people see the real you. The right people will never judge you for your quirks. After all, real recognizes real.
ARIES GEMINI
May 21 - Jun. 20
Your fear of change won’t get you very far during this seasonal transition, Gemini. It’s time to leave behind old routines that simply aren’t serving you. Enjoy the unknown and be open to new opportunities this month. We PROMISE this is the start of something great, so get excited.
CANCER LEO
Someone is a social butterfly, Cancer! This month is all about your social life. It’s time to follow through with all of those plans you keep pushing back. Flaking on plans is SO last year. Make that effort, spend time with your besties and let loose!
Have no fear, Leo. Your frantic internship search or post-grad unemployment despair may be worries of the past. Things are looking up for you! New opportunities are on the horizon, and you’ve got the moxie to get there. Here’s to your employment era!
VIRGO
Aug. 23 - Sep. 22
Get ready to buy a plane ticket, Virgo. A road trip or a cheap flight might be exactly what you need. Get out of town and do some self-reflection. We hear it’s good for your health.
LIBRA
This month is all about balance for you, Libra. Take a moment to evaluate your relationships. We know you love to give your all to people, but make sure your needs are met, too. You deserve to feel the joy you put into the world!
SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS
Feeling a bit of spring fever, Scorpio? We can sense your restlessness from a mile away. You may be feeling a bit confined right now, but this month you will get back some much-needed independence. Take this month to focus on yourself, maybe take a walk outside.
Nov. 22 - Dec. 21
Overworking yourself again, Sagittarius? Remember to loosen up once in a while. A healthy balance of work and play is the key to success. Plus, if you don’t give yourself a break, you might miss out on what’s right in front of you.
Is it getting hot in here, Capricorn? Not to get your hopes up, but we heard this month will bring a bangin’ love life (take that as you will). Enjoy the attention you’ve been waiting for and have some fun. We’re totally not jealous!
- Feb. 18
Hey, Aquarius. We know times are tough, so we’ll go easy on you. This month might be the perfect time to embrace that homebody attitude. Take time to stay in and reset. Whatever home means to you, spend time with the people you love in the places you love. Maybe sleep in and make a home-cooked meal.
CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES
Feb. 19 - Mar. 20
Oh, the places you’ll go, Pisces! You’ve been keeping busy, haven’t you? New hobbies continue to be in your future. Join a book club. Buy a coloring book. Maybe you recently told yourself you’d take up running ... again? But, hey, maybe this time it’ll stick!
TRANS GIRL SEX
A personal relationship with intimacy, body image and autonomy as a young trans woman
Words by Brenne Sheehan
Art by Ita Kim | Designed by Emily Saraidarian
When I first started dating my current partner, I kept feeding myself the idea that he was constantly unsatisfied with my body and our sex.
He never told me that I wasn’t good enough—in fact, he constantly reassured me. Still, I convinced myself that he secretly craved a vagina, hated the fact I didn’t have one and would one day ditch “settling” for my anatomy to be with something truly satisfying to him.
Not only was this premonition disrespectful of my boyfriend's constant effort to make me feel satisfied and loved, it was also a grave disservice to myself as a trans woman. But when the model of heteronormativity and the gender binary constantly reinforce the “norms” of heterosexual sex, who could blame me for getting in my own head?
Every time I’ve ventured on a sexual quest with a straight man, the experience pressures me to fulfill an expectation of the ideal “shemale,” a concept plastered across Pornhub thumbnails with DDDs and a “monster girl cock,” paired with an interrogation about my gender and body—questions about how the hormones I take, when my boobs will get bigger, what my name “actually is.”
When heterosexual men can only express their attraction to us in the private sphere of sexual deviance, we’ve developed the need to meet their sexual expectations instead of valuing our own. We either feel the need to satisfy the fetish of “shemale” porn stars, or hate ourselves for not having a vagina, softer skin and bigger boobs.
We also maintain an oppressive stereotype of perversion and innate sexuality due to our systemic cramming into the criminal margins of our society. It’s important to not only say we understand, but to allow trans women to be more than just sex workers, gogo dancers, porn stars and drag queens. We are artists, professionals, caregivers and service workers.
It’s true that powerful, important trans women and activists have historically worked in the “deviant” sphere of sex work and the criminal underground. But that’s only because we’ve had to in a world where we weren’t, and still aren’t always, taken seriously.
As an academically and professionally successful woman, I’ve still found myself making those around me uncomfortable when any part of my “transness” is revealed—from wearing a cocktail dress with a modest amount of cleavage, to feeling confident in a new bikini.
Often I feel the need to hide myself to make those around me feel more comfortable. In a world where misinformation about “predatory” trans women in women’s locker rooms and restrooms runs rampant, I’ve found myself working hard to separate myself from my own sexuality to protect my reputation and livelihood.
There is a perception that a trans woman’s relationship with her body is inherently sexual, a concept derivative from this confounding narrative that trans women only exist in the realm of sexual deviance and crime.
While trans women are constantly sexualized, rarely are we able to feel sexy.
It’s time for trans women to own our sexuality—we need to assert our ability to control our sexual image.
If you find yourself courting a beautiful trans girl, remember to enter with no expectations. Like cis women and men alike, trans women have their own set of boundaries when it comes to the world of sex, and it can differ from person to person.
While some girls may be comfortable dropping the tuck and showing off that thang, some may prefer to keep their undergarments on the entire time. What’s important is that you respect her for all of her body and enter with no assumptions of what the experience will look like.
And when the girls aren’t in the bedroom, treat them with a level of respect you’d show anyone else. It is not our job to educate you on our reproductive and sexual makeup or explain our identities to you—we are separate from our physical existence.
For all my dolls out there, remember to embrace your body for all that it is—both as an earthly vessel and as a sexual being. You do not owe the world anything, you only owe yourself the joy of intimacy, love and confidence.
PARFAIT NSUBAYI
Words by Joelle de Poto and Maddy Brousseau
Community, expression, jaguars. These words provide a glimpse into the creative mind of Parfait Nsubayi, a third-year arts education major at Syracuse University, who synthesizes his studio work and teaching experience in his artistic practice. Nsubayi’s work is aimed towards creating and uplifting accessible artworks representing the Black community and other marginalized groups. It is through combining his two disciplines with his interest in culture that he finds his creative rhythm.
As a painter, Nsubayi is meticulous. He considers how each element of a painting can impact its outcome. “Creating work at a larger scale allows for a lot more freedom in my movements and in my strokes, and there’s just more space to expand,” Nsubayi said. “There’s a lot of fun to be had there.”
Another crucial element of Nsubayi’s paintings is the visual metaphor of the jaguar that is present in most of his art. He links the jaguar to “pain and fear, and the feeling of being watched, targeted or under scrutiny,” which is an idea that fuels his creativity. “I’ve been using [jaguars] as vessels to communicate thoughts and feelings about myself in the context of the world,” Nsubayi said.
In addition to his studio arts major, Nsubayi is also pursuing a degree in education. He wants to synthesize the two disciplines to be a stronger, more experienced teacher.
“It’s really important for me to build my craft and ways to use art [in studio arts] while learning about fundamentals [in education classes] so I can implement the things I’m learning about art to better serve my students,” Nsubayi said.
Nsubayi continues to prioritize representation for the Black community through his art. As a Black art student in a predominantly white major, every aspect of representation is important to vocalize. He wants to give his students the proper tools to express themselves and their experiences.
“My concepts are centered around the Black experience, and the students I feel called to work with and educate are Black students who grew up in cities like mine,” Nsyubayi said. Ultimately, Nsubayi wants to create an accessible space where he and his students can be honest through visual art. For Nsubayi, art is a way to put his feelings into a tangible place. He hopes one day his art will resonate
Photos by Jenna Sents | Designed by Abigail Aggarwala
THE MILANO MULE
Words by Michael Bryan
Photo by Ion McDonald | Designed by Abigail Aggarwala
Not many drinks can hold a candle to this classic cocktail—mint, ginger beer, lime and good vodka in a copper mug. It’s a drink built on the principles of high-quality ingredients and careful measurements. Classic. Elegant. Posh.
So, why try to change it? Why rock the boat? When mixology purists and ginger beer nerds (yes, they exist) inevitably stick their nose up at you, offer them a Milano Mule. This drink is the old man wearing Reebok Club C 85s and a fedora. It’s the professor who swears. The daredevil without a helmet. Respect conventions, but rules are meant to be broken. The traditional Mule is already a classic summer drink with its refreshing flavor and cup that keeps everybody nice and cold, but that does not mean you can’t mix things up every now and then. Sometimes, Limoncello is exactly what you need to make the perfect summer drink.
INGREDIENTS
• Mint leaves
• Limoncello
• Ginger Beer (the best ginger beer is crucial—we recommend either Fever Tree or Barritt’s)
• Lemon wedge
• Cubed ice
• A copper mug
PROCEDURE
1. Put a handful of cubed ice directly into your copper mug
2. Add three ounces of Limoncello
3. Stir
4. Top with three ounces of ginger beer
5. Garnish with a sprig of mint and lemon wedge
THE INVISIBLE BURDEN
How women are paying the price for toxic masculinity
Words by Laura Lemgruber
Art by Marina Lee | Designed by Ailani Wong
Dear men, stop treating the women in your life as personal therapists.
Yes, it is only natural to turn to those you feel comfortable with for support during times of need. But it seems like many men fall into the habit of exclusively opening up to their female friends or family members without realizing the weight of their emotional baggage.
Being an unpaid, part-time therapist is quite draining. In a world where women are already held to a higher standard in multiple areas, whether it is in parenthood, the workspace or appearance, being the default source of emotional support for men adds another invisible burden to women’s lives.
Toxic masculinity is to blame.
Beginning in childhood, men are discouraged from opening up. Many subscribe to the idea that sharing their feelings is “unmanly.” Because of their conformity to masculinity, a large portion of men never learned how to process or express their emotions.
Men feel pressured to be self-reliant and strong, which often leads them to construe showing any sign of emotion as weak. Opening up can quickly result in being the butt of the joke in their friend groups.
A 2016 study by the American Psychological Association found that “conformity to masculine norms was also significantly and inversely related to psychological help-seeking.”
Fewer men develop the ability to cope with their emotions, let alone how to open up to their male friends. The boundaries around other men are clear: steer conversations away from any emotional subjects. And if it does slip out, it better be when they’re drinking so they can pretend they don’t remember it the next day. Let’s move on as
if nothing happened—it was just the beer talking.
Lucy Flemer, a freshman at Syracuse University, noticed this pattern amongst her male friends.
“I don't see them talk to other guy friends about anything emotional, a lot of sports, a lot of just joking around,” Flemer said.
But vulnerability is an essential component to forming close friendships. This lack of emotional connection leaves many men feeling emotionally isolated and unsatisfied with their friendships.
In fact, a 2021 survey by the Survey Center on American Life found that 28% of men under 30 reported having no close social connections.
Too often, girlfriends and female friends “fill the gap” in supporting men through their troubles.
Flemer has become an outlet for many of her guy friends, both at home and in school.
“A lot of times, guy friends will kind of shut them down,” Flemer said. “I just feel like we're women, [we] tend to be more emotionally mature and open to talking about their feelings.”
Women understand that a crucial element of any relationship is being there for each other. Listening to your friends’ problems is just a part of any healthy friendship, right?
The real problem begins when—blind to the toll it can take on their friends—men begin to habitually turn to their female counterparts for emotional support and validation.
Once men build a comfortable relationship with a woman, many feel compelled to unleash every hardship they’ve ever experienced.
When women feel a shared obligation to be nurturing and sympathetic, it's no wonder that men feel comfortable sobbing in their female friends’ arms.
Melanie Hamlett, a journalist for Harper’s Bazaar, says that the cultural messaging young girls receive reinforces a duty to listen and comfort.
“The female savior trope continues to be romanticized on the silver screen, making it seem totally normal—even ideal—to find the man within the beast.”
But this gentle and understanding front can be misinterpreted as an invitation to unload emotional baggage.
Eventually, women become trapped in a dynamic where they are the entire support system for another person.
Along with the mental strain it creates, this responsibility can sometimes make it harder to leave unsatisfying, overwhelming or even violent relationships because women feel accountable for men’s emotions.
Because of their upbringing, many women feel obligated to prioritize others’ needs over their own. Guilt can prevent women from establishing boundaries and voicing their own needs, so it can be harder to speak up when it could make their loved ones feel devalued and unheard.
Learning to actively listen and provide support to others are skills that can take a lifetime to develop. But when you’ve just begun to make sense of your own emotions, it is even harder to help those around you.
So, while women are practically working an unpaid part-time job as personal therapists, that effort is hardly reciprocated by the men in their lives.
Flemer expressed that while she enjoys giving advice to her friends, she doesn’t always feel supported back. Most of her conversations with her
guy friends surround their issues.
“I guess sometimes it can be annoying because I'm like, 'What about me?'” she said.
“They're not doing it because they don't want to hear what I would say,” she said. “It's more just, usually they start a conversation. It's about them.”
It’s time for men to step up. Toxic masculinity and its impacts are an extremely complex problem that cannot be solved by any single individual, but there are things men can do to be better listeners and supportive friends.
First, reflect on the relationships with the women in your own life, and question whether you have fallen into any of these patterns. You can’t solve the issue without first acknowledging the problem.
If there’s that one person who knows the ins and outs of all your problems, consider how much you know about theirs. While you may not always know how to respond, listening and caring is an important first step towards eventually providing mutual support.
Don’t forget to also check in on your guy friends. Sometimes the hardest part is initiating that conversation. This step may be daunting, but it’s crucial to fixing the broader issue.
Silence kills progress. Uncomfortable conversations are necessary, especially for women who struggle to communicate their needs. When you’ve been hard-wired to please those around you, it can be hard to prioritize your own mental health. But looking out for your well-being is not selfish, it’s necessary.
At the end of the day, the only emotions you are responsible for are your own. So stop letting men drain the energy you need to deal with your own life! You deserve to look out for yourself.
ENOUGH DEADNAMING!
SU’s preferred name policy doesn’t do enough to protect its trans students
Words by Brenne Sheehan
Art by Hannah Peters | Designed by Megan Radakovich
For many Syracuse University Newhouse students, posting their dean’s list certificate on LinkedIn is an easy way to share their achievements with other students and potential employers. But for junior Naomi Infeld, getting the certificate in her Outlook inbox is a much more jarring experience.
Every time she’s made the dean’s list, Infeld has to override her first name and modify the text so her first name matches her actual first name, Naomi, the one she chose for herself.
Only after 15 minutes of modulating the image can she share her announcement.
As a trans woman, Infeld used the preferred name field in MySlice to prevent this very issue. After all, the university’s preferred name policy states that “preferred or chosen names should be used where possible in the course of university education and communication.”
But Infeld, like many other trans students at SU, has been let down and disserved by the university’s lax enforcement of the preferred name form. Even in materials such as emails from the study abroad office and ads from contracted dorm moving companies, trans students’ deadnames are plastered everywhere for them to see.
“It’s just really embarrassing,” Infeld said. “Especially in front of people I don’t know, in front of people who have only known me as Naomi.”
To protect trans students on campus, the university needs to strengthen its preferred name policy to properly reflect the gender identities of its trans students and beyond.
In 2016, Syracuse University’s now-defunct Division of Enrollment and the Student Experience introduced a new preferred name policy for its students.
The policy allowed students to fill out a new preferred name field on the university’s MySlice portal, which would display a preferred first name for students on all class and grade rosters. Since then, the policy has grown to allow students’ preferred names to be displayed on students’ Outlook email, residence portals and even their school-issued IDs.
For many trans people, choosing a new name is a way of creating a new identity that separates
them from their previously perceived gender. For Infeld, the preferred name field on MySlice has made it easier for her to express her identity without explanation.
“My name is entitled to me,” Infeld said. “When I see my old name written down, it doesn’t feel like who I am. My chosen name is a signifier of who I am to the world.”
But today, many students’ legal names still show up on university communications, even when it’s not entirely necessary. This has created a hostile environment for many trans students, whose legal names cause them significant distress.
Infeld and other students have seen their legal or deadnames on nonlegal communication such as diplomas, home college dean’s lists, the GET Mobile app, automated emails from the study abroad office, Intercultural Collective, email receipts from SU libraries and emails from contracted businesses like Storage Scholars.
Infeld also said that her deadname appeared on class rosters while she’s been abroad this semester, despite indicating that she goes by a different name when signing up for the abroad program.
Hayden Celentano, a trans man who is also a resident advisor for the LGBTQ+ living learning community at DellPlain Hall, said that accessing a student’s preferred name should be easier when dealing with residential records.
He added that the preferred name policy should also add more fields for students to specify whether or not they want their preferred names displayed in front of their parents.
“Some kids submit their preferred names but aren’t out to their parents,” Celentano said. “So, it’s always tough to figure out if they want their preferred name on their door when moving in, or if they want their birth name on their door until their parents leave.”
The SU Office of the Registrar, the LGBTQ+ Resource Center and the Office of Student Engagement all did not respond to requests for comment on why the university does not consistently use preferred names in distributed materials.
The preferred name policy webpage, however, states that legal names must be
used in “some” university materials to prevent legal misrepresentation or adopting an illegal, unrecognized identity.
While it is fair and acceptable for the university to distribute and keep information about students’ legal names for the purposes of financial aid and legal documentation, there is no reason trans students should be denied the right to their preferred name on university documents where it is unnecessary.
For trans people, changing a legal name isn’t an easy task. In many states, a legal change of first name for citizens over the age of 18 requires legal fees, document replacement charges and other costs that can range from $60 to $500, according to a report by TotalLegal.
For students who can’t afford to change their legal name, the preferred name field offers them comfort in ways the federal government can’t.
How can we adopt a more expansive policy on preferred names?
It’s simple: distribute the information across university institutions. If preferred names are allowed to be printed on SUIDs, there should be no problem displaying them on materials that have nothing to do with student registration.
Someone’s preferred name isn’t always just a nickname—it could be the social and personal marker of their identity as a student, professional and person.
The university has made a considerable effort to provide resources for trans students on campus, from its extensive trans-focused programming with the LGBTQ+ Resource Center to its open and accessible gender-affirming care programs at the Barnes Center that have surpassed the benchmark for universities across the country.
But gender-affirming policies go beyond performative recognition—trans students need to be able to rely on the university to foundationally support their identities. While the importance of language, including names and pronouns, may seem like the sole responsibility of the student to advocate for themselves, the university should do what it can to make trans students more comfortable.
GREEN THUMBS DOWN
Consumers shouldn’t have to pay the price for unsustainable brands
Words by Madeleine Oliveros
Art by Emmet Kobasa | Designed by Megan Radakovich
Imagine this: you walk into CVS searching for a snack and scour the aisles for the perfect treat. With a bag of chips and a bottle of soda in hand, you make your way to the register. The cashier scans the items and hands you the receipt when you notice an extra five-cent charge at the bottom.
This charge is no accident—it’s New York State’s Returnable Container Act (RCA), commonly referred to as the “bottle bill.”
The RCA is an act aimed at promoting consumer recycling of materials such as plastic and glass. At the time of purchase, the consumer receives a fee of five cents added to their total. Once the bottle is empty, the customer can take it to a designated bottle return center to get the money back.
Recycling is great, and this policy is a step in the right direction to promote environmentally conscious decisions. But, like many initiatives to “go green,” it places the responsibility to the environment on the consumer, rather than the corporations making the products, contradicting greater themes of sustainability.
Time and time again, the push for an ecoconscious movement misses the mark. Even an honest attempt to help the environment promotes consumer guilt and deflects the burden of going green onto consumers.
Thomas Perreault, a professor of Latin American geography in the department of geography and the environment at the Maxwell School, said that strategies such as greenwashing contribute to consumer purchasing habits.
Greenwashing, as defined on the United Nations Climate Action website, is when a company misleads consumers with vague or minimal information on their sustainability practices that promote “false solutions to the climate crisis that distract from and delay concrete and credible action.”
The deployment of greenwashing works for
many companies because the economy in the U.S. is very consumer-oriented, according to Perreault. The individualistic mindset of the average consumer normalizes the idea that the responsibility for the environment is ours, thus, wiping corporations of any meaningful accountability for their production practices.
“Addressing climate change, addressing sustainability, addressing pollution is very much functional to sort of a neoliberal, individualized form of environmental governance that emphasizes individual responsibility,” Perreault said.
Rather than companies taking initiative to make actionable changes to the mass production of disposable goods, they opt to save on the extra costs and run on a model that prioritizes profits alone.
“There are major incentives or major pressures against long-term planning or more sustainable planning or more sustainable practices if they're not going to generate short-term financial gain,” Perreault said.
This causes consumers to change their purchasing habits. Some choose to support more eco-friendly products, often with added expenses. But for some, the cost of cage-free, cruelty-free, fair trade, organic and ethically sourced products is a privilege that cannot be afforded.
While purchasing products that contain a slew of sustainable and ethical verbiage can make a minimal difference, it creates the illusion that those changes alone have the capability of saving the environment. Though it may be wishful thinking, that just isn’t enough.
Now, all of this is not being said to deter you from making ethical purchases or supporting small businesses. Nor is it meant to fill you with deep existential dread or despair for the future of the planet. This is simply a call to action.
Activism does not stop with conscious consumerism—that is only the start.
“You have to look at what is possible,” Perreault said. “Organize and engage in protest and engage in collective action. I think it's really important, and that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be an activist. It doesn't mean that you necessarily have to do something radical.”
One example of collective action is boycotting, which is an agreement of a group to refuse to patronize certain businesses, according to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University. Boycotts are protected under the First Amendment (one of our personal favorites here at Jerk) and are an effective way to noticeably affect the flow of profits into larger companies. When significant demographics of consumers remove themselves from a particular market, money—or lack thereof—talks.
Still, some consumers may rely on certain stores or businesses due to proximity or other resource factors. So, for the consumers who can’t boycott, engagement in protests is another way of promoting change. Organized calls for change can garner widespread attention, which helps hold not only companies accountable, but the government agencies that regulate them.
“State governments are gonna play a much more important role for everything from education to environmental regulation to labor regulation to social services, and things like that,” Perreault said. “So finding out what's happening in New York State and supporting local politicians, I think, will also be helpful.”
Protests can be used to draw attention to local and state lawmakers who have influence over labor and production regulations.
“Putting pressure on companies to make structural changes and, importantly, on state agencies to take very seriously their responsibilities to regulate companies for environmental and labor practices—the state has a huge role to play in this,” Perreault said.
One final method for inspiring change, and perhaps the most important, is education. To understand the scope of environmental and ethical issues in production and consumerism, it is crucial to question practices and conduct your own research on companies and government agencies. Understand the regulatory laws in place and the impact they have in order to support local and state representatives whose values and priorities align with your own.
The only way to make effective change is to first understand what it is that needs to be changed, and who should be doing it.
THE DEATH OF LINKEDIN
Nobody cares that you passed a class everyone in your major needs to take
Words by Kiran Hubbard
Art by Hannah Peters | Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
I’m thrilled to announce that I have accepted a position at Jerk Magazine as an unpaid intern writing LinkedIn’s obitchuary for the spring 2025 season. Special thanks to my professors and peers at Newhouse for helping me get here... I am honored by this opportunity. I can’t wait to embark on this small step toward the rest of my professional journey—the first of many.
If you’re anything like us, you are sick of seeing messages just like that one pop up on your home screen. Every time it’s just another person you barely know, deciding the world just has to know what they’ve been up to in the last week. Seriously, why should we celebrate you completing a COM 117 fiction project you filmed in about two hours in your Day Hall split double?
For those who are blissfully unaware, LinkedIn is a professional social platform designed to help people network with others in their industry and talk about how much better they are at their job than everyone else. It’s probably the favorite social media of the worst person you know.
Keeping up a carefully curated professional persona to a network of people you barely know is exhausting. We’re not saying Severance was inspired by LinkedIn, but we’re also not not saying that. Half the time, it just feels like you’re lying, especially if you aren’t comfortable with the art of the humble brag.
God forbid you protect your peace. When you say, “I don’t have a LinkedIn,” the disbelief and gasp of horror that’s sure to follow is enough to ruin anyone’s day. At that point, you’d be less ostracized telling everyone you don’t own a cell phone.
What’s worse, some people have taken to LinkedIn for the online stalking that used to be sacred to Instagram, despite running the risk of profile view notifications. We’d hate to think of a world where it becomes the norm to wake up and immediately scroll through your LinkedIn feed.
And the app is actively trying to come for The New York Times’ brand with its daily mini-game selection. Why can’t you just stay in your corporate lane, Microsoft? The Pinpoint can’t compare to Strands, so stop trying.
Look, we understand the addiction to doom scrolling. It can feel impossible to tear your eyes away from the endless stream of selfcongratulatory, inspirational reposts, even when the impostor syndrome seems overwhelming. But, just remember, the world has so much more to offer than internship acceptance posts.
SMUT FEATURES
In Smut, we deep-dive into aspects of on and off-campus life that affect you (yes, YOU!).
MARRY ME? LMK
The history behind the “Ring by Spring” phenomenon and its impact on college-aged women everywhere
Addressing the possibility of ICE on campus
Tackling Syracuse’s
MARRY ME? LMK
The history behind the “Ring by Spring” phenomenon and its impact on college-aged women everywhere
Words by Kaitlyn Paige Art by Ita Kim | Designed by Ailani Wong
Second semester of senior year is supposed to be a time filled with several milestones: your last first day of classes, submitting your thesis, applying for jobs, searching for apartments in your dream city and perhaps an engagement?
The last one may not be the norm for most. However, the “Ring by Spring” phenomenon—and the pressure that comes alongside it—reigns true for some, especially students attending schools in the South, religious universities or belonging to communities that have traditional values centered around marriage and family.
Texas native and recent college graduate Reese Greco noticed this trend within her community.
“I was just invited to a friend’s wedding in June,” Greco said. “In my culture, getting engaged or married is sometimes idealized or romanticized.”
Carson Beck, also from Texas, shared a similar sentiment.
“Being in a relationship is sometimes seen as better than being single. You’re often seen as superior, if you will,” Beck said. “There have been lots of people I know that have a goal of getting married pretty young. It’s encouraged by those around you, both family and friends.”
The term “Ring by Spring” has no official definition, and is primarily seen as a phenomenon prominent in Southern and religious cultures. However, the term has become widespread across social media and in pop culture overall, including in a recent Hallmark movie named directly after the term. The phrase refers to the idea of young students, often women, getting engaged or entering a long-term relationship by the time they
graduate from college. Or, in some cases, entering college for the sole purpose of finding a significant other—aka earning their “Mrs. Degree.”
The “Mrs. Degree” phenomenon holds more historical context, but is often discussed hand-inhand with the “Ring by Spring” term. “Mrs. Degree” originates from the 1950s, a time in which being a housewife was seen as the only career aspiration for a young woman or girl to have. Some women attended college to graduate with a husband rather than a degree.
According to Laura Hamilton, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, the term comes from gender complementarity. “[It is] a cultural model of how women should achieve economic security that relies on a co-constructed pairing of traditional femininity and masculinity,” Hamilton said.
Attitudes toward the “Mrs. Degree” and “Ring by Spring” have certainly shifted. Syracuse University sociology professor, Dr. Joseph Adamo observed some of these shifts throughout his life and career.
“The paradigm overall has shifted. What we once thought about nuclear families is no longer— they are a minority. Many women these days are not looking solely for marriage, instead they want a career,” Adamo said. “Research shows us that from the 1920s to early 1980s, women were going to college seeking husbands, which was drilled into them by their parents. Post second-wave feminism, things began to change somewhat to where we are now. Women are prolonging marriage and starting a family with the average age for marriage being late 20s compared to 20 to 30 years ago when it was 21.”
Although to a lesser extent, the “Mrs. Degree” term is still around today, rooted heavily in traditional norms. But it’s now targeted towards women studying disciplines often seen as femalecentered—including social work, the liberal arts, psychology and education—and urging them to use college to find a husband rather than focus on their studies before starting a career.
Madalyn Juliana, an SU childhood education major, was all too familiar with the term even before beginning her undergraduate career.
“I went to a Catholic high school, so many of my peers were also planning to study education but had a different goal in mind—finding a husband,” Juliana said. “I have always found the term offensive. I love working with children, but that doesn’t mean I want to get married and become a housewife right out of college. Why would I spend thousands of dollars on a degree to find a man rather than start my dream career? There’s nothing wrong with marriage being a goal, but why is it deemed more important than my education?”
Another SU childhood education major—who wished to remain anonymous—also expressed discontent with the term.
“I absolutely hate the term—it’s demeaning. I’m in a long-term committed relationship and plan to get engaged soon after graduation, but that's not why I’m in school. I want a career, as well.”
This phenomenon can lead to societal pressure in which students—primarily women—feel as if they have to aspire to an engagement, marriage or meeting their significant other in college, with academics and other priorities coming in second.
Dr. Adamo recommends establishing yourself first, rather than rushing into marriage or moving in with your significant other too fast.
“You should live apart and then together, but I can see the pressure to get married for those in certain religious and cultural groups,” Adamo said. “However, some religions and cultures are against
cohabitation or typical dating culture before marriage so for some, I see the incentive.”
Although the term has religious and cultural roots, people not belonging to those communities aren't immune to the pressure that comes from “Ring by Spring” or the “Mrs. Degree.” Familial pressure remains, but dating culture overall, from when, where and how people meet, has changed immensely. In the 1990s, long before dating apps, college was the second most popular way that people met their significant others, right behind meeting through mutual friends .
Economic pressure is another common reason behind these pressures. Many of the degrees associated with the “Mrs. Degree” are also associated with lower paying salaries and higher unemployment rates. For years, many women were taught to view college as one of the few pathways to financial stability.
“Women today are more likely to go to college, regardless of field, yet are still a minority in leadership and make 77 cents to the dollar of what men make,” Adamo said. “Back then, many women were taught to marry in order to financially succeed.”
While women are not denied jobs based on sex at the same rate, fears of financial insecurity are still prevalent. A single person, on average, spends over $4,600 a month on living, food and other household expenses. Having a partner can help lower the cost of living, groceries and utilities based on a dual income, so for many it might seem like the best option, but it’s not the only one.
Take, for example, SU junior Eleanor Kwacz. Kwacz’s parents met as juniors in college. While she can appreciate the timeline of her parents’ relationship, she would much rather march to the beat of her own drum.
“I want the opportunity to be by myself and grow on my own as a person,” Kwacz said. “Today, we have that choice to choose our own path.”
MELTING ICE
Addressing the possibility of ICE on campus
Words by Sadiya Kherani
Art by
College students across the United States have been facing the impending fear that ICE will come to their campuses and detain them. According to CNN , these detainments have been targeted toward students partaking in pro-Palestinian activism, and have hit many colleges already. The campuses that have already seen detainments include, but are not limited to, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Tufts University and the University of Alabama.
spoken to their students about ICE and potential deportations—similarly to Syracuse University now.
SU has sent students minimal information preparing them for what to do if ICE were to approach them, whether on campus, at dorms or apartments, or around the university neighborhoods.
Students at Yale University are receiving emails from faculty sending “Support and Solidarity” as the possibility of deportation looms. But according to UnHerd, prior to this, Yale had barely
“I think it's important that people know what they can say and what they can't say,” Nancy Keefe Rhodes, an adjunct professor in VPA who took an American Association of University Professors (AAUP) training, said about ICE. “It's not against the law to document what they're doing, as long as you don’t interfere with them. While you don't have to answer them, (...) don't lie to them.”
SU sent out an email on March 6, 2025 saying that they reaffirmed their commitment to being a
“I'm an American citizen,” Rhodes said. “But number one, this means those of us in this position
need to step up. We need to step up. Number two, it means that if ICE gets away with the things they're doing now, they will come for us next.”
As students living on or near campus, it’s important to know your rights—particularly in regards to housing. If you live in a dorm, for example, you don’t have the same rights as normal tenants living in apartments because the property is owned by the university. In order to understand your rights in this regard, you can speak to Syracuse housing, your RAs and read the leasing agreements.
In the SU leasing agreement it says the university reserves the right to enter the housing unit, with notice. But notice is not necessary if it is waived for emergency reasons or other conditions such as safety and security. The New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC) also has freedom to enter student housing. There are no specific notes on other agencies, such as ICE.
When asked if they were considering leaving the United States, the international student said it would require a backup plan to their career aspirations.
“[I’m] definitely a little bit shaken. It's happening right now. I don't take a lot of time to consider it, if I really have to stay here to find a job chasing my so-called ‘American dream,’” they said. “[But I’m] definitely feeling if there's a way, I probably have to find a secondary path for my career, probably going back to China to pursue journalism, or doing something in another country.”
These are the realities that international students are facing right now. Students are being pulled from their universities and sent back to their home countries mere months before graduating.
“No American universities are going to be able to avoid this situation completely,” Rhodes said. “So we have to think about it. We have to get ourselves trained. We have to see what we will do to support people so that all of our students are safe.”
COMBATING THE HOUSING CRISIS
Tackling Syracuse’s history of redlining and housing discrimination
Words by Laura Lemgruber
Art by Kate Tang | Designed by Megan Radakovich
Homes infested with cockroaches and rats, rooms filled with dirty mattresses and clutter, people sleeping on street benches—these are only a couple images found in one of ArtRage Gallery’s recent exhibitions, “A Place to Call Home.” Photographers Michelle Gabel and Mike Greenlar collaborated with The Central Current, a non-profit newspaper in Central New York, to shed light on one of Syracuse’s most pressing issues—a rapidly worsening housing crisis. The project gives viewers a window into the lives of thousands of people struggling with housing insecurity in Central New York.
While housing issues like unaffordability and poorly maintained properties are hardly new to the area, the past five years have shown an alarming increase in homelessness and inadequate living conditions. Since 2019, Central New York has seen a 150% increase in homelessness—with the majority centered in Onondaga County. Rising rental costs have also caused the eviction of many families.
It is clear that living conditions for those in poverty are only getting worse, but some groups disproportionately bear the brunt of the crisis. A 2020 report by CNY Fair Housing ranked
Onondaga County seventh for the worst racial income disparity in the nation amongst 70 other older industrial communities. The report also found an income gap of 92% between white and Black households. According to Cimone Jordan, the director of housing and neighborhood development for the City of Syracuse, the problem is not simply a lack of affordable housing.
"It’s a function of the city housing a high number of people that are low income,” Jordan said.
Disadvantaged communities, which are predominantly Black and Hispanic, are hit the hardest.
Syracuse and the larger Onondaga County have a long and complicated history with racial discrimination in the housing market.
During his talk at ArtRage, Todd Goehle, vice president of operations and strategy at Onondaga County’s Community Action Agency, said that “race and class underpinned how our community was planned and how it is inhabited.”
Goehle focused on the legacy of redlining and other discriminatory practices in the city’s housing market, which date back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal following the Great Depression.
Redlining was a federal effort to assess risk in mortgage lending to different neighborhoods and disproportionately target predominantly Black neighborhoods. The ranking system functioned by placing neighborhoods into four categories based on their housing stock and the individuals who
prevalent in affected cities like Syracuse. According to a 2015 report by the Century Foundation, Black and Hispanic people in Syracuse are more likely to live in a high poverty neighborhood than in any other American city. Areas that were formerly redlined also continue to disproportionately face issues like
On an administrative level, it is arguably impossible to fully correct prejudiced attitudes, to amend the impacts of legislation from the past century or to address every social issue connected to poverty. However, many of the projects in place focus on building communities up and helping residents escape a cycle of poverty by investing in social programs and ensuring housing remains up to code.
The East Adams Neighborhood Transformation Plan aims to address the area’s high crime and poverty rates through affordable, safe, mixed-income housing. Along with new housing developments,
voices are excluded today, the current efforts to amplify community voices paints a hopeful picture for the future of housing in CNY.
While discussing Blueprint 15, Jordan said “[it’s] one amazing thing that can be done to not necessarily reverse the impacts but make sure we don't make that same mistake again in the future.”
Now more than ever, these initiatives are paramount. The introduction of Micron Technology’s chip-making plant will draw thousands of workers to the region. According to CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, the company is projected to create 50,000 jobs in
PHOTOESSAY:
JERK THROUGH THE YEARS
The little mag that lived
Words by Karla Perez
Photos by Abby Johnson | Designed by Abigail Aggarwala
Picture this: it's March 2003. U.S. troops have just invaded Iraq and it's all over the news. The new 50 Cent drop "In Da Club" is playing everywhere you go, and you've heard rumors of a new, up-andcoming social platform that might be released later in the year called MySpace. Everyone is wearing low-rise jeans.
It was around this time that a group of five nonconforming magazine majors were getting ready to launch the first issue of Jerk Magazine . What started with a general dissatisfaction with mainstream campus media—like The Daily Orange and short-lived magazines—turned into a full-fledged monthly zine. The group, including Katy Coleman, Jessica Feder, Tasha King, Corey Carson and Jeff Linehan, met in their MAG 205 class (a long-dead course at the Newhouse School) and did what any good Jerk does—ranted about the things they disliked.
On the list was the high level of apathy from students on campus, the lack of an organized alternative media outlet outside of The DO and the general neglect of hard-hitting topics by local publications. Thus, the idea for an unapologetic alternative magazine was born; all that was left
was to find the right name for it. Within those initial discussions were names like Rattle and Hum, Soapbox and Ruckus, but the group happily landed on Jerk , a name hard-hitting enough to raise some eyebrows.
"Our name has two meanings, really. We're definitely jerks. I mean, when you want to make people listen to something they don't want to, you're not going to be the nice guy. And also, jerk. We want to jerk people out of their own apathy. We're going to make them care," King told The DO in 2003.
The original Jerks certainly stuck to their goal, as the first issue covered topics like the trans student experience, the validity of affirmative action and recreational drug use. And that was just the beginning.
For over 20 years, Jerks haven’t shied away from coveringing the topics no one else dares to— the ones that start life-changing conversations and amplify the voices of those less heard. Our journalism has always challenged and transformed how our community understands the world around them. And that is something we like to celebrate. From our archives, we present Jerk Through the Years.
A CONVERSATION WITH TAHIRAH ABDUL-QADIR
How this SU junior is kicking ass as a professional athlete, advocate and student
Words by Maddy Brousseau | Photo provided
From competing on Team USA Women’s Kickboxing team to double-majoring at Syracuse University, Tahirah Abdul-Qadir is a present figure in every community she’s part of. For most, this schedule seems impossible, but Abdul-Qadir is driven by intention. She’s steadfast in her beliefs and the pillars of her identity keep her passionate and driven.
“Balancing the roles of student, athlete and leader can definitely be challenging, but what keeps me motivated is remembering my ‘why,’ and sense of purpose and passion for each commitment,” Abdul-Qadir said. “Balance allows me to show up fully and consistently across my commitments.”
As a sports fellow for Girl Up, a foundation created to empower women and create equity in underrepresented spaces, Abdul-Qadir fights for women in sports on campus and beyond. She joined the organization five years ago and has worn many leadership hats since then.
“One of my initiatives includes a ‘Women in Sports Panel,’ highlighting and sharing the experiences of female athletes at Syracuse University,” she said.
Her time on the Team USA kickboxing team and as a black belt in Shotokan Karate inspired Abdul-Qadir to join Girl Up. As a fierce athlete in male-dominated sports, she isn’t afraid to advocate for equity in spaces where women’s voices can be diminished.
“One piece of advice I’d like to share with aspiring female athletes is to never give up on your goals and dreams, regardless of the obstacles and circumstances,” Abdul-Qadir said.
In addition to her extracurriculars, AbdulQadir works hard to complete her double majors in entrepreneurship and biology. Her studies are geared towards supporting her work in advocacy and sports therapy.
Even though anyone with her resume would seem like they have it all together, Abdul-Qadir has experienced a fair share of challenges attempting to manage her time and make room for herself in her busy schedule.
“There are difficult times when important dates and tasks overlap. For instance, midterm exams, the World Championships and a global campaign may all occur within the same month,” she said. “I try my best to manage my time by planning intentionally, setting clear priorities and staying disciplined, while also making space to recharge and reflect.”
This positive mindset and time to herself motivates Abdul-Qadir to continue to work hard. Her fight for women’s rights in sports is just beginning—whether it’s speaking on a panel advocating for equal pay or competing in the ring, she never loses sight of her purpose: to carve out spaces for female athletes.
SYRACUSE CULTURAL WORKERS
Art inspiring activism since 1982
Words by Daisy Polowetzky
Photo by Claire Zhang
At Syracuse Cultural Workers, T-shirts, books, postcards and other stationery products are not just gifts but—as the store’s front sign declares—tools for change. Located in the city’s Near Northeast neighborhood, Syracuse Cultural Workers is part retail store, part grassroots organization. Founded by late community organizer Dik Cool, Syracuse Cultural Workers has been providing the Syracuse community with art that inspires activism since 1982.
“We very much want to be creating things that are going to help people feel empowered, feel hopeful that we can make a change and have a sense of direction,” said Andy Mager, coordinator and social movements liaison for Syracuse Cultural Workers. “We think of cultural work as work that brings a sort of joy and life through the arts.”
While Mager said the organization’s work may not be the most high-paying, the real reward comes with its local and national impact. Syracuse Cultural Workers shipped products to 35 states during the fall, with most products being sold in New York, California, Massachusetts and Washington.
“We do see our work from around the country, which is appreciated, and we work with artists from all over the country, and, to some degree, all over the world,” Mager said.
In the current Trump Administration, it may come as no surprise that some of Syracuse Cultural Workers’ bestselling items are those
that spread messages of democracy and fighting against fascism.
“We need inspiration, and at this political moment, that’s particularly important because things can feel very frightening and dark,” Mager said. “And that’s part of what the Trump regime is trying to do—they’re trying to overwhelm us with attacks and misinformation—and it’s not going to work.”
Out of the hundreds of inspirational products sold in-store and online, the most memorable is a longtime favorite of customers: a hand-lettered accordion poster that hangs from one of the walls of the store, honoring gratitude and the traditional Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address. Each watercolor-illustrated panel creates a visual reminder that we, as humans, should remember to give thanks—not just to each other, but to the planet we share.
Photos by Ike Wood
Assisted by Joelle de Poto
Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
CANADIAN TUXEDOS
The denim-on-denim craze
Words by Daisy Polowetzky
Art by Marina Lee | Designed by Ailani Wong
Denim has been a symbol of Americana ever since Levi’s founder Levi Strauss invented the first pair of jeans in 1870. Denim garments were originally marketed towards cowboys and laborers in the West due to the textile’s durability and versatility, according to Levi Strauss & Co.
Denim has since had numerous moments in the spotlight, from the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. to the opening line of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” to Lupita Nyong’o’s 2021 denim Met Gala dress. While both the jean jacket and jeans are staple pieces of clothing on their own, when worn together they are an all-American
According to InStyle, in 1951, “White Christmas” singer Bing Crosby was rejected from staying at a Canadian hotel because he and a friend were wearing entirely denim outfits. Thus, the term “Canadian tuxedo” was born, and so was an unwritten fashion faux pas. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s and ‘80s that full denim became popularized by stars like Blondie’s Debbie Harry and hip-hop group RUN-DMC. These days, instead of being worn by 1930s crooners and 1980s pop stars, Syracuse University students have been rocking denim-on-denim from the Quad to Marshall Street. Whether light wash or dark wash, baggy or fitted, SU’s campus has been overtaken by Canadian tuxedos for the start of spring.
“The ‘boho’ and ‘coastal cowgirl’ look are coming into the 2025 fashion industry, and I think we should embrace it with open arms,” said sophomore Audrey Haselby, whose most prized denim piece is a Levi’s jacket she stole from her brother.
The “coastal cowgirl” aesthetic is certainly bringing denim to the forefront of today’s fashion. The trend, which has made its way to TikTok feeds and sorority bid day themes, consists of light, flowy garments one might wear to the beach and traditionally Western clothing like denim jackets or skirts—think Sex and the City ’s Carrie
Bradshaw when she goes to the Hamptons in season two.
One of the most iconic versions of the Canadian tuxedo was worn by ‘90s pop music superstars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. In 2001, the then it-couple stepped onto the American Music Awards red carpet in custom Levi’s outfits. Spears wore a floor-length denim dress with a denim purse to match and Timberlake wore a 1970s leisure suit-esque denim outfit paired with a denim cowboy hat. While Spears’ and Timberlake’s denim getup should perhaps stay in the early 2000s, their red carpet look has definitely been cemented into fashion history.
Not all double-denim looks have to be as overthe-top as theirs. For Haselby’s everyday denim attire, she opts for a black bodysuit, a loose jacket, loose jeans and a belt. Playing with different fits and textures of clothing like Haselby, is an easy way to tone down the otherwise loudness of a Canadian tuxedo.
Sophomore Lila Ferrucci, whose favorite denim piece is her oversized GAP jean jacket, says that the key to a good denim-on-denim outfit is not so much what denim you’re wearing, but how you style it.
“I think it really depends on who’s wearing [the outfit] and how they styled it. I think the big, oversized jacket looks kind of cute, but if it’s a little
tight [it] looks weird,” Ferrucci said.
And while most SU students who rock the Canadian tuxedo tend to go for the classic jean jacket and jeans combination, the Canadian tuxedo has more than one variation.
After the debut of the mini skirt in the 1960s, came the jean skirt in the ‘70s. According to Marie Claire, jean skirts were designed as a way to recycle worn-out jeans, but, by 1975, the high fashion world had adopted the skirt as well. Denim skirts make for a great Canadian tuxedo bottom during the warmer months and can be paired with a denim vest or jacket.
There are still endless ways to mix and match the Canadian tuxedo. Grammy winning singersongwriter, Billie Eilish, posed for photos at a Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibit in 2022 in a light wash denim puffer vest, and denim cargo pants. Actress Dakota Johnson sported denimon-denim-on-denim for the Sundance Institute Opening Night carpet in 2023. Johnson wore a denim corset, high-waisted denim pants and a denim trench coat over top. If one thing’s for sure, it’s that today’s A-listers are proving that the Canadian tuxedo can be red carpet ready.
While the denim-on-denim trend may not be as long-lasting as the textile, denim, in some form, is sure to always be present in American style.
FORM AND FUNCTION: How to dress like...
AN OFFICE (WARNING) SIREN
Everything you need to secure a meeting with HR
Words by Juliet Seith
Photo by Alicia Hoppes
Internship season is approaching quickly, and our TikTok has been flooded with college students wondering what they’ll wear. It’s hard to find a way to style suits and pantyhose in a way that makes you feel confident, so we’ve put together a guide to make sure the only curves your fellow data analysts are noticing are the ones accentuated by your sexy fit. It is summer, after all. Let’s show some skin!
“MESSY” UPDO: You may spend more time in the bathroom fixing your hair every time it falls out of its bun, but there’s something so intoxicating about a hairdo that looks like it was just pulled together, because your priorities do NOT fall here.
TALL HEELS OR BOOTS:
The taller the better. Like the kind you would wear to a club, but with closed toes. This is an office, after all.
SKINNY GLASSES: THE STAPLE! Every office siren wears them, whether the prescription is real or not. If you don’t have something that clarifies you are obviously a professional, someone might mistake you for some common whore.
BUTTON-UP BLOUSE: Size down, if possible, to ensure that the top few buttons could never close over your spilling cleavage. It’s not your fault—your body just happens to look that way!
MINI SKIRT: Try to imagine that you get a 10% bonus for every inch between your knee and the skirt hem. You obviously can’t have booty cheeks hanging out, but make everyone in the office wish you did.
DESIGNER WORK BAG: Can it fit all your supplies? Bonus if so, but no worries if not! Really, it’s just another accessory to let everyone know you have money to fall back on if this job doesn’t work out.
INKED UP & UNASHAMED
Words by Miguel Rodriguez
Photos by Ailani Wong
Whether it be personal meaning, aesthetic motivations or a spur-of-the-moment “pinger” fueled commemoration of your spring break trip to Sydney, we here at Jerk believe that the wide variety of tattoos students choose to get inked are beautiful things worth showcasing.
In celebration of the spring and summer months’ quick approach—the most prolific tattoo-acquiring times of the year—Jerk went around campus to find three unique cases of tattoos that show off just how creative and endless the possibilities of body art and their meanings can be.
Felipe Ferraz de Souza Miranda, a Syracuse University sophomore, got his first tattoo at 17 to remind himself that everything will work itself out. To him, each tattoo means a lot, as they all carry some significant tie or attachment to his life.
“I want to be able to show off the things I love, care for and believe in,” Ferraz de Souza Miranda said. “To be able to do so in a form I find quite beautiful is a really fun process for me.”
For Adeline Hume, a junior art photography
major, her tattoos are comforting and serve as daily reminders of important memories and values. More specifically, one of her favorite tattoos is dedicated to memories of her grandfather.
"I have a little guy on my arm and then another little guy that's on the inside of my arm and they are from a book that my grandfather used to read to me," Hume said. "That's probably my favorite one because it's definitely the most meaningful, and it's cute."
Aya Mouakkil, a junior forest health major at ESF, not only has over 40 tattoos but also works as a tattoo artist. Mouakkil began practicing on fake skin and orange peels before eventually tattooing themselves. A year later, they began tattooing others.
“I view it as not only a hobby, but my passion; I don't go into the studio dreading to do a tattoo,” Mouakkil said. “I do it to see the happy smiles on people's faces once they see my art on their body forever, that is still such a crazy thing to me,” said Mouakkil.
NOT GAY BUT SAPPHIC
Sapphic Magazine provides an inclusive and welcoming community on campus
Words by Caroline Erskine
Photos by Collin Snyder | Designed by Megan Radakovich
In a world where sapphic voices are often sidelined or glossed over in mainstream LGBTQ+ spaces, Syracuse University student-run Sapphic Magazine is reclaiming that space. Their mission is to amplify the voices of women and nonbinary people who love women—all while building their own community at SU.
“We wanted to create a space where women’s voices can be uplifted,” co-editor Jenna Sents said. “But we are trying to be as inclusionary as we can.”
The mag was founded by Maya Devi Dupuis, a third-year SU student looking for a community of people like her. When she came to campus, she liked the LGBTQ+ Resource Center but felt like it was a very masculine space and she was looking for a softer one—she knew she wasn’t alone.
“There wasn’t a publication that catered to sapphic voices specifically, and we wanted to fill that gap,” Sents said.
As an architecture major, Dupuis wasn’t looking to start a magazine. After coming out, she looked for an inclusive space with other people like her but didn’t find one.
“I was like, ‘Fuck it, why not just create it?’” Dupuis said.
So, Sapphic Magazine was born.
The magazine began as a grassroots effort—a few people in a room with the common goal of creating something that felt personal, real and unapologetically sapphic.
The first official meeting was just a small group of five sitting on the Newhouse steps last semester, talking about community and pitching ideas.
Now in its second semester, the magazine has seen an explosion of growth in both readership and contributors. What started with just a handful of members is now a robust community of 25 to 30 active contributors writing, designing, photographing and web designing for the magazine.
The larger group meets on the third floor of Schine Student Center every Friday, talking and building friendships as well as working on the magazine. All the departments of the organization come together to brainstorm, collaborate and check in with one another. These weekly meetings are about more than just logistics—they’re about building a sense of community and shared purpose.
“It’s really beautiful, though it does create a weird feeling of wanting to get more done, but we don’t, because we are just enjoying being with each other and talking,” Dupuis said.
Despite this, last semester, they managed to put out two editions as well as one “baby zine.” The group is not an official RSO, so they rely on financial contributions from Dupuis and Sents to create the copies.
“We don’t have any funding, so making the mags is just me and Jenna using our printer money and cutting the copies together by hand,” Dupuis said.
To create the content of the zines, writers pitch two to three story ideas and the editorial team selects the pieces they want to develop. This method gives writers creative freedom while ensuring that the content aligns with the overall theme and vision for the issue. The process is collaborative
and fluid, where every member of the team is encouraged to share ideas and feedback.
“I like to let people do their own thing, but I want to make sure we’re all on the same page,” Sents said.
This semester, the content is more editorial-heavy and writing-focused, which has been a conscious choice to give the publication a more distinctive voice. But no matter the specific content, each new issue is celebrated as an achievement for the team that put it together.
“Having a finished product and seeing all the photos at the end and being able to put the mag together is just so exciting,” Sents said.
The theme for this semester, “Girls Will Be Boys,” is both provocative and necessary. It touches on gender nonconformity, the fluidity of identity and the subversion of traditional gender roles. It’s a direct challenge to society’s limited understanding of gender and sexuality. For many contributors like writer Kaiva Yanoski, the theme has been an invitation to explore their own experiences with gender expression, sexuality and the pressure to conform.
“I want to be able to write to make other people feel seen,” Yanoski said. “It’s really important to amplify queer voices, because queer loneliness, sapphic loneliness, lesbian loneliness and feeling just out of place is a really depressing experience.”
For Yanoski, writing for the magazine has been a form of both self-exploration and advocacy.
“I felt very safe and seen,” they said. “My identity was very validated being around a bunch of other people who have similar experiences. It felt nice to be appreciated, and to know that this magazine wants to amplify my voice in a time where queer people are trying to be silenced.”
This theme of visibility runs through every aspect of the publication. The magazine is not just about telling stories—it’s about creating a space where readers can see themselves reflected and understood. It’s about fighting against the isolation that many queer people, particularly sapphic people, feel in a world that often feels hostile or indifferent to their existence.
“I just sort of challenged myself,” Yanoski said. “I let myself be okay with having really vulnerable work
be published. It was a leap, but it felt necessary.”
This vulnerability is not only encouraged, but amplified. The magazine actively seeks out personal narratives, poetry and deep dives into queer community history—stories that might be ignored or forgotten in mainstream media.
Despite the excitement around print, the magazine is shifting its focus toward the web. The team recognizes that digital platforms offer an unparalleled opportunity for reaching new audiences and expanding the conversation beyond campus.
“Our end goal is for others to be able to look up a question or something to do with sapphic things and have one of our articles pop up,” Dupuis said.
She also said that after some fundraising efforts, the mag looks forward to being able to host events and activities for the community they cater to.
Though their reach may be limited for now, the organization is still making a significant difference on campus. For Yanoski, writing for the magazine is an act of both self-care and activism.
“It’s about being seen, being heard,” they said. “It’s about creating a world where people like me don’t have to feel invisible or alone.”
And the work is far from over. With each new issue, the magazine brings another theme—and message—to its audience.
As a new publication, they are still figuring out how to get funding and how often they will be publishing per semester. But no matter where the magazine goes next, it will always be rooted in the desire to create a space where sapphic voices are not just heard, but praised.
“There’s just so many kinds of people here that it's hard to find your place. I just really wanted to create that pocket,” Dupuis said.
BEYOND THE PLATE
Behind the scenes of dining hall food waste
Words by Madeleine Oliveros
Art by Emmet Kobasa | Designed by Megan Radakovich
The smell of food is in the air. Large silver trays loaded with food sit under heat lamps as students fill their plates. Piles of dishes and mounds of halfeaten meals accumulate on tables. At the end of the night, garbage bins sit filled to the top with food scraps. This is the life cycle of dining hall food.
But what happens to the food that never makes it to students’ plates?
Every day, Syracuse University’s campus dining halls amass large amounts of food waste. In recent years, the university has begun to implement procedures to help minimize overall waste.
According to the SU campus dining webpage, the dining centers utilize composting methods and partnerships with agencies like Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) to create compost used to fertilize areas of SU’s campus.
Another waste mitigation technique is a collaboration with Food Recovery Network (FRN), a student-run organization that collects leftover food and donates it to a number of agencies across the City of Syracuse.
Laura Jayne, FRN president and SU senior, said that as a student at a very privileged university, it’s important to share resources with the surrounding community.
Jayne is majoring in food studies and environmental sustainability and policy, which helps her understand the processes of food production and how different political and environmental factors, such as food access, contribute to the ways we consume food. For her senior capstone project, Jayne has been using a technology called Leanpath to look into food waste data across the campus dining halls. The system logs the types of food provided in the dining centers as well as the pounds of waste per type of food. This project, in addition to her work with FRN, made her aware of the scope of food waste at SU and some of the issues she has encountered in the process.
“The biggest challenge is when it comes to food safety regulations,” Jayne said. “Syracuse, being an institution, has to be very careful about the food that they do serve and save for donations.”
Due to food safety concerns, such as the “temperature danger zone,” in which food goes below or above safe serving temperatures for a prolonged period of time, some food cannot be donated at all.
However, according to the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act—an act made to encourage food donations across the United
States—there are protections from any liability due to food safety issues when food is donated to a non-profit in “good faith.”
Beyond safety concerns, dining halls also struggle with overproduction of food and the capacity of their staff on a given day.
“When it comes to managing the donations, it’s more work for dining halls to weigh the food, pack the food, save the food, than it is to just throw it away,” Jayne said.
More direct communication and involvement between the dining center staff and members of organizations such as FRN could be a helpful step in producing more donations and preventing excess food waste, according to Jayne.
In addition to collaborations with local nonprofits, the dining centers have implemented more sustainability initiatives in recent years. At the beginning of the fall 2024 semester, SU partnered with Leanpath—the same software company used by Jayne for her project—because it gives food service providers around the world the ability to track and measure food production and waste.
According to the SU Campus Dining Sustainability webpage, “Leanpath's AI-enabled solutions identify root causes of food waste and change behaviors that lead to that waste.” With this software, campus dining halls are able to log the type and amount of food produced on a given day, and at the end of the day, weigh food-specific trash bins and excess food trays. The logged data can provide insight into trends like overproduction so that the dining centers can adjust production habits in the future to minimize waste.
Partnerships such as these show the university’s steps toward more conscious consumption and production, and with the continued efforts of SU and food security organizations, there is a path to more mindful and equitable food consumption.
CHEF IT UP!
A look into student kitchens
Words by Miguel Rodriguez
Art by Christina Mastellone | Designed by Emily Saraidarian
All first-year students at Syracuse University are required to live in dorms that don’t have kitchens, while also paying thousands of dollars for meal plans that restrict them to eating mainly at dining halls around campus. Don’t get us wrong, our dining halls are nicer than average, and we here at Jerk hold a special place for them in our hearts, but it’s hard to beat home-cooked meals.
Kitchens are beautiful things, and in the hopes of showcasing all the varieties amongst students, Jerk spoke with three campus chefs who call three different kitchens their culinary homes.
Washington Arms, a dorm hall located on Walnut Ave., provides communal kitchens for students to use. In defense of our earlier denouncement of first-year dining situations, Washington Arms is a dorm reserved for sophomores and above.
Christian Figuereo, a sophomore public relations major, loves to cook in these communal kitchens, sometimes alongside his floormates. Figuereo uses the kitchen to cook all sorts of meals, including the “decompression meals” he makes for his friends.
“I've done a few family dinners, we call it that, or Sunday dinners, where I make something that everyone will like,” Figuereo said. “A very big thing for us is just kind of making sure that we spend time with each other, and I think cooking is a great way to do that.”
Honk honk, hop on the Centro bus because our next stop will be on South Campus. Annie Knobloch grew up honing her cooking abilities by watching and helping her mother in the kitchen,
a skill she likes to utilize in her South Campus apartment’s kitchen whenever she gets the time.
“If I know I have a week where I don't have a lot going on, then I'll find a recipe that I'm excited about and get all the ingredients to make it,” Knobloch said. “But normally my roommate and I just go into the air fryer and maybe make some pasta or salad, something easy.”
Her love for cooking aside, Knobloch does wish one thing were different about her kitchen: like most apartments on South Campus, Knobloch’s kitchen has an electric stove.
“I wish we had a gas stove. It's just a lot easier for temperature control,” Knobloch said. “We've had some problems with burning food on the coils and then having to scrub them, but it doesn't end up coming off all the way, so it smokes when you turn on the coil, but it's manageable.”
On the higher-end side of student cooking experiences are the kitchens found in off-campus housing. Ain Jun, a junior architecture student and experienced sushi restaurant chef, cooks in his off-campus, rented student home. Jun’s kitchen screams “former chef” as it is spacious, tidy and very well organized, making the chef-ing up process easier.
As for cooking knowledge, Jun has some to impart on soon-to-be student chefs.
“If you haven't cooked that much in your life before, and you need to fend for yourself, learn like five recipes that you don't need to look at a recipe book for and just know those off the top of your head,” Jun said. “Just like, make sure they're maybe healthy and then you can put them in rotation.”
BRINGING WATER TO THE DESERT
Local organizations work to combat food insecurity around Central
New York
Words by Kiran Hubbard
Art by Kate Tang | Designed by Abigail Aggarwala
Beyond the bubble of Syracuse University, various neighborhoods face a longstanding problem: it’s hard to find quality food.
The Onondaga County Health Department (OCHD) describes a food desert as an area where the poverty rate is higher than 20% and at least a third of the population lives more than 0.5 miles away from the closest supermarket. According to a 2017 OCHD report, around half of the geographical area of Syracuse falls under this designation.
The United States Department of Agriculture more broadly refers to census tracts categorized as both low-income and low-access as food deserts. This lack of access to fresh ingredients can negatively impact residents’ diets and correlates with higher rates of health problems like obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Syracuse-Onondaga Food Systems Alliance (SOFSA) is a local food council dedicated to reducing food insecurity in Central New York. Micah Orieta, the food systems and networkbuilding organizer at SOFSA, explained the biggest issues in Syracuse’s food system. They listed the factors of geographical access, revenue to purchase and ability and time to prepare nutritious meals—all of which are compounded by structural racism in the form of redlining and disinvestment in neighborhoods.
“A lot of the neighborhoods that have the lowest income, which also happen to be neighborhoods that have higher populations of Hispanic and Black people, and New Americans or migrants, don’t have full-service grocery stores,” Orieta said. “Often supermarkets are like two or more miles away, and they don’t really have personal vehicles a lot of the time to get to grocery stores.”
Groups throughout Syracuse are working toward mitigating the effects of inequitable food access. One such organization, the Food Bank of Central New York, operates a mobile food pantry program designed specifically to bring fresh foods to underserved communities.
According to the food bank, more than 850,000 pounds of fresh food were distributed across 28 mobile pantry sites in the last fiscal year. Michael Watrous, the director of community impact at the food bank, explained that the mobile pantry is less expensive and more flexible than a fixed location.
“The community has been very receptive of the mobile food pantries. We get requests for them all the time across our region,” Watrous said. “We want to make sure everybody has access to food.”
The food bank only has one mobile pantry in operation, limiting the scope of its effect. Though an effective response to the issue of food deserts, the program is not sufficient to solve the deeper problem.
“I think we could certainly replicate the mobile food pantry component in more communities, on more days, with more products, with continued community support,” Watrous said. “It really is
gonna take a lot of collaboration amongst different organizations and community groups to make sure food access is stabilized.”
Orieta emphasized a similar message of cooperation in order to further the organization’s goals for Syracuse.
“We win these things by coming together and coordinating our efforts and energies, and building relationships and taking the time to figure out how to do things in a way where we’re listening and co-creating,” Orieta said. “It’s so beautiful and really, really powerful when that is able to happen.”
BALLIN’ ON A BUDGET
Jerk’s shopping guide for the nutrient (and fund) deficient college
student
Words by Julia Reedy
Art by Kate Tang | Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re a college student. We’ll also be so bold as to say that you’re underfed, over-caffeinated and that bottle of Vitamin D supplements your doctor prescribed you months ago is collecting dust.
But that’s not necessarily your fault—we’re inundated with this image of the perpetually exhausted and malnourished college student from the time we’re kids. The ramen jokes have gotten stale, and your bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos has, too.
So, whether or not you subscribe to this tired stereotype, we know that finding nutritious food options can seem like a Sisyphean task, especially when you’ve exhausted the last of your funds.
But don’t fret—we’ve got you covered. Syracuse University nutrition professor Jane Burrell shared some tips on how to eat your way through college on a budget. According to Burrell, the secret lies in preparation.
“Whatever your schedule is, food should be part of your planning for the day or week so that it’s not an afterthought and just whatever is available,” Burrell said.
With that in mind, let’s start at one of our tried and true favorites: Trader Joe’s, the mecca of affordable and aesthetically pleasing groceries. Located just under four miles from campus, TJ’s offers plenty of food options that can be enjoyed whether you’re living in an apartment or dorm, and many of them are frozen. (And no, frozen does not mean unhealthy.) When it comes to these frozen meals, Burrell is a proponent.
“They have an interesting variety [of frozen meals],” Burrell said. “You can get different foods that might expose you to different cultures or be in line with different cultural interests. And they’re cheap, just the way Trader Joe’s works.”
And for our vegetarian readers: Vegetable steamed dumplings ($3.49/ounce), Impossible chicken nuggets ($6.99/13.5 ounces), Quinoa Cowboy Veggie Burgers ($3.99/12 ounces).
It comes as no surprise that fruits and vegetables are what college students tend to be most deficient in. Burrell recommends going the frozen route for those, too.
“They’re cheap, they’re very nutritious, equally as good [as fresh fruits and vegetables] and there’s no waste because you only use what you want at that time,” Burrell said.
While you can purchase these at Trader Joe’s for a one-stop shop, you might also want to consider its sister store, Aldi, which, according to Burrell, is steadfast in its food quality rule.
“You can feel confident that these don’t have as many additives, or not using GMOs,” Burrell said.
Jerk’s picks for quality fruits at Aldi for the best bargain: Season’s Choice frozen blueberries ($4.65/24 ounces), Season’s Choice strawberries ($4.39/ 24 ounces), Season’s Choice Berry Medley ($7.49/32 ounces).
Make yourself a decadent bowl of rich, healing goodness—you deserve it
Words by Brenne Sheehan
Art by Hannah Peters | Designed by Eva Aurnhammer
It’s a scary Sunday morning at the wee hour of 3 p.m.
You’re doom scrolling on Instagram Reels in your bed with only a 400 mg dose of ibuprofen, a mason jar filled with water and a packet of Liquid I.V. settling in your empty stomach. When you finally pry yourself out of your bed, soaked in cold sweat, you remember you have a readymade batch of our hangover soup in your fridge. Complete with a decadent assortment of thick gnocchi, rich, creamy chicken bone broth and healing herbs, this soup immediately brings you back to Earth. This finals season, take the time to make yourself a pot of sustenance! It’ll get you through your long weeknights of studying alongside your three-day weekend benders.
Ingredients:
• 1 large chicken breast, shredded
• 48 ounces (6 cups) of chicken bone broth or vegetable stock
• 1 pound of gnocchi (Trader Joe’s brand is preferred)
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 2 cups of baby spinach
• 1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 shallots, diced
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 2 ounces of ginger root, peeled
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of crushed pepper
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
Herbs, to taste:
• Paprika
• Thyme
• Tarragon
• Basil
• Powdered turmeric
• Oregano
Directions:
1. Dice a large chicken breast and season with dried oregano, salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder.
2. In a large saucepan, add the olive oil and sauté the chicken over medium heat until slightly dry and tender. Separate the chicken in a bowl and shred with a fork. Set aside.
3. In the same saucepan, add the butter, shallots and flour. Once combined into a paste, add chicken broth and mix until combined. Once the broth reaches a steady boil, add the carrots, celery, peppers, spinach, garlic, onions, whole ginger root, salt, pepper, thyme, tarragon, basil and turmeric. Cook for 7-10 minutes, or until carrots are soft and easily pierced with a fork.
4. Add the heavy whipping cream, shredded chicken and gnocchi. Cook for two minutes.
5. Remove from heat and let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve in a bowl and keep the rest in a Tupperware container to reheat on all of your scary Sundays!
JUST KEEP ON THUMBING
SU student band The Accountant and All-Thumbs brings “controlled chaos” to their music
Words by Caroline Erskine
Art by Surya Vaidy
The Accountant and All-Thumbs is a Syracuse University student band recognized by their distinctive alternative rap and indie rock sound. Their frontman, Eric Timlin, mixes, produces and records all of the songs himself before sharing them with the band and figuring out how to play them live. This task is easier said than done.
“I'm a big believer in maximalist composition. It's just me in the studio, so I can add as many layers as I want—like having three keyboard tracks at the same time,” Timlin said. “The real struggle is how the hell my band's gonna play it.”
The band says their maximalist composition, and how they manage to make that come through while playing live, is a big reason to come and see the band in person. Their songs sound different from the versions on Spotify and they are never played the same way twice.
“The beauty of it is that the music slightly changes from show to show. There's room for improvisation, there's room for doing things on the fly,” Abigail Wood, the band’s keyboardist, said.
Adding to the band’s unique nature, a regular instrument both in recordings and live shows is
the cello, played by sophomore Ethan Coburn. Sometimes, Coburn plugs the cello in and adds distortion to make it sound almost like another bass. Other times, he uses it in a more traditional way. No matter how the instrument is played, it makes the music stand out.
“It adds a smooth texture in the background. It's definitely unique for any kind of modern-style rock fan,” Coburn said.
The band has multiple singles, two EPs and one album out on Spotify, and Timlin says that he is working on a second album to be released before the end of the semester. He describes his first album, Pastel Sunrise, as his happy album and the one he is working on as a more introspective, sad one.
Timlin writes all of the lyrics himself, mainly utilizing object and location writing exercises, a practice of purposefully writing about a specific object or location. To hone his skills, Timlin has written a song a night for the past few years.
“The more ideas you can say no to, the better the ideas that you do continue writing with are,” Timlin said.
REWIND:
THE FRAT PACK
Now that we’re grown ups, we’re
reconsidering Grown Ups
Words by Sarah Wells
Art by Marina Lee
Picture this: four middle-aged men, sitting in lawn chairs, collectively staring at a nineteen-year-old woman bent over fixing a car in tiny shorts. It sounds like something from a “what not to do” workplace harassment video, but it’s just a scene from the 2010 comedy Grown Ups, starring Adam Sandler. A movie that frequently objectifies young women, makes fun of elderly people and insults people of all ages!
If you grew up in the last few decades, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen (and loved) at least one film starring a member of the internet-dubbed “Frat Pack.” The Frat Pack includes stars like Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and other actors who have been called out at least once or twice online for their past misogynistic and racist behavior in films. Even though many remember Frat Pack films as hilarious and even nostalgic, there is rampant political incorrectness, especially in the ways that the straight, male main characters interact with women, POC and LGBTQ+ communities.
Anyone who has seen one of these raunchy comedies from the 2000/2010s knows exactly what kind of content we’re talking about. From the gross homophobic jokes in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry to the fat-shaming jokes in
Dodgeball, we were not only laughing at these jokes as children, but also taking them to heart as societal law. Especially young girls watching and being told that women are only seen as attractive to men if we’re sexy and funny—but not funnier than them.
The problem doesn’t just occur within the universe of the films, either. Apparently the casting process was equally disgusting. Actress Rose McGowan tweeted a casting call for one of the films, the audition reportedly calling for a “Wardrobe Note: Black (or dark) form-fitting tank that shows off cleavage (push-up bras encouraged). And form-fitting leggings or jeans. Nothing white.”
On behalf of all of us at Jerk , let us be the first to say: ew. It’s disappointing to grow up and realize that the media you consider nostalgic actually is demeaning to women, but let’s hope that Happy Gilmore 2 is a little less misogynistic than its predecessor.
