November 17, 2017

Football seniors reflect on final season Sports, p.3

themacweekly.com

Holding Macalester Accountable: #MeToo

Features, p. 5

Fall Dance Concert preview Arts, p. 6

Macalester’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1914

Culture around sports, abuse must change Opinion, p. 7

Vol. 121, No. 9 Nov. 17, 2017

Bangori Beauty Brush wins sixth annual Macathon challenge

By REBECCA EDWARDS Staff Writer Last Friday, over 100 Macalester students gathered in Olin-Rice Science Center for one sleepless night of innovation and entrepreneurship – as well as the chance to compete for awards of up to $1,000.

The college’s sixth annual Macathon challenged 20 teams of students to design an original service or product to solve a real-world problem in 24 hours. Teams were asked to develop a feasible business plan for their product and present their idea to a panel of alumni judges.

Kate Ryan Reiling, Macalaster’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence,was chiefly responsible for organizing the event.

“We really think entrepreneurship can help students who have either an idea they want to work on, an opportunity they see, a problem they’re exploring in their classes or one they have maybe experienced in their own life,” Reiling said.

“I think Macathon is a framework and a format to get students to think about the complexity of those issues

– and certainly there’s a ton of limitations. It’s within 24 hours, so this is not the only or sufficient look, but it’s the beginning of getting students looking at these problems and spending more time on [them].”

Although 20 teams participated, only the top three projects won financial awards.

The winning project was developed by six students under the team name “Bangori Beauty Brush.” Their invention, a pocket that could be attached to the inside of a person’s clothes in order to easily carry medical devices like an insulin pump, won the team a total of $1,000.

“We call it ‘Fuse,’” said Ben Sydell ’18, one of the members of Bangori Beauty Brush. “One member of our team has Type 1 diabetes, and carries an insulin pump wherever she goes.

When she was younger, her mom used to sew pockets on the inside of her clothes to make it easier for her to carry, because there’s a huge stigma there… we realized we could maybe solve the problem.”

Sydell, a Macathon participant for the past two years, said that his history with the competition served both

20 teams competed in the sixth annual 24-hour Macathon entreprenurial challenge. Photo by Jaime Hasama ’18

as an advantage and a disadvantage.

“I think I had an idea of what the competition was gonna be like,” Sydell said. “Last year I was on a team with a bunch of people who participated in it before, and we

knew exactly what we wanted to do – every Macathon participant knew exnot in terms of the idea, but in terms actly what to expect when they signed of what people were looking for. This up. year, we just focused on making a really cool idea.”

Macathon, cont. on page 3 While Sydell felt prepared, not

First names vs. titles: Professors weigh merits of college’s naming conventions

By ABE ASHER & REBECCA EDWARDS Associate News Editor & Staff Writer Last spring, while on sabbatical and preparing to teach a first-year course this semester, political science professor Wendy Weber encountered an article in the New York Times’ Sunday Review.

The article was written by a history professor at the University of North Carolina, and criticized the increasing informality American colleges – especially the trend of students referring their professors by their first names.

It posited that such behavior “undermined … esteem for learning,” and argued that “formal titles and etiquette can be tools to protect disempowered minorities and ensure that the modern university belongs to all of us.”

Weber was intrigued. “It dawned on me that when I was a very young faculty member, the culture was more formal, and this wasn’t an issue that I faced,” Weber said. “But now that I’m getting older, it’s sort of my responsibility to also think about how the culture affects younger faculty – young women and young faculty of color in particular.”

Over the summer, Weber brought the issue of first-name calling and the college’s informal culture up in a political science department meeting. One of her colleagues, Professor Adrienne Christiansen, picked up the baton.

Christiansen, in addition to her teaching role in the political science department, directs the college’s Jan

Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching.

The Serie Center hosts a number of programs for Macalester faculty, including Talking About Teaching – a weekly forum for professors to present on their journies and different aspects of their profession. Christiansen thought that the issues Weber raised would make a worthy topic.

“I got the idea [for] the program from listening to several of my female colleagues in Political Science this summer and decided there was enough ‘there’ there to warrant a larger discussion among the faculty,” Christiansen wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly.

The discussion, titled “Does ‘First Name Calling’ Undermine Female Faculty Members’ Professional Credibility?”, took place on Sept. 29.

According to Christiansen, it drew the series’ biggest crowd of the year.

“One of the things that struck us all as interesting was there were tons of people there,” Weber said. “It was clear that a lot of people were interested in the issue.”

Weber introduced the discussion, which featured commentary from professors across discipline, age, gender and race. Unsurprisingly, those who spoke represented a range of opinions on the importance – or lack thereof – in addressing professors formally. Christiansen called it a “fabulous” conversation.

For a number of the professors who spoke, especially young female professors and professors of color, the title of professor is about establishing authority in their classrooms.

“When I step in front of a class of students, I already have three strikes

against me: I’m a woman, I’m relatively young, and I’m a minority,” history professor Katie Phillips said.

“I would bet a lot of money that none of my students have ever seen someone like me in a position of authority.”

“Even now that I’m an assistant professor on the tenure-track,” she continued. “I’m incredibly mindful about how I look when I’m on campus, making sure I look and act like I deserve to have the job I do.”

“There are a lot of studies that have been done on the ways in which students evaluate male versus female professors,” Weber said.

“And that you can have male and female professors teaching the same things in the same ways, and female professors get rated lower on course evaluations.”

The question for female professors is whether it really matters how their students address them.

“There have been times when certain students feel like they need to explain economics to me,” professor Amy Damon said. “And I feel like that is unnecessary. Specifically basic concepts. Now whether they call me Amy or Professor Damon, I’m not sure if it matters.

“I feel like students have been just as respectful calling me Amy.” Some professors, on the other hand, feel that the name does make an impact. When several of her colleagues suggested to her early in her Macalester career that she have students call her by her title, political science professor Lesley Lavery felt that she was being asked to adhere to a double standard.

“It seemed to me that my elder

colleagues could dive into the culture of Macalester and say call me by my first name without any consequences,” Lavery said. “Whereas I had to be more assertive and aggressive in asking that students call me by my title. I couldn’t be the cool professor.”

But Lavery’s position has changed.

“As I’ve been here longer and I have started to require that, my views have shifted,” Lavery said. “I have started to associate it with respect and professionalism.”

For many professors, however, the importance of being called by their title dwindles as they gain in experience and seniority.

When Damon arrived at Macalester, she asked that students call her by her title. “Because I was a young woman,” she said, “I thought that it would help establish boundaries or respect.” But over time, that changed.

“Maybe because I’m more and more confident in teaching [now], I can say, you can not respect me, but that’s your choice,” Damon said.

Christiansen, who gives students the choice of what to call her, echoed those thoughts. “I would say I’m comfortable with myself now in a way that I was not when I was starting my teaching career,” she said. “I think I’m not nearly as intimidating because I’m not defensive as I used to be.”

More broadly, Macalester’s culture of informality is, for some, a point of pride – implying a strong sense of community that comes when students and professors have close, collegial relationships.

“I think it makes it easier to connect with one of your professors,” Nick Velikonja ’21 said.

“You wouldn’t call your friend or someone you know outside of some organized system by any title, you would just call them their name. And so your ability to call your teacher by that name kind of makes them more accessible. It doesn’t change everything, but it seems like kind of a sign of their willingness to work with you.”

“On the upside, it makes professors more approachable,” Alex Cooke ’19 said. “If you’re on a first name basis, that can be less intimidating… it can help cultivate relationships, which can be really important.”

However, students also recognize potential downsides to Macalester’s casual learning environment.

“I do think it’s important to have boundaries, because when you go out into the real world it’s important to be able to distinguish when you need to act professional and when you can joke around,” Cooke said. “I think we should maybe start leaning towards professionalism in the classroom.”

But the informal culture implies a certain educational philosophy as well. In many of Macalester’s small and frequently discussion-based classes, professors want to engage students as equals in the learning process.

“One point was that we’re all involved in the creation of knowledge in the classroom, and therefore not using titles is a way of kind of emphasizing that,” Weber said.

First names, contimued on page 2

News

Page 2 • Nov. 17, 2017

The Mac Weekly

Professors balance professionalism and informality First names, cont. from page 1 “I think there are some disciplines where formality is more assumed, and some disciplines where that is not the place,” Lavery said. “If you think about critical theory, maybe formality is something we want to tear down.”

Professors have other pedagogical reasons for encouraging students to call them by their first names. “I wish to put my students at ease,” Christiansen said, “because I think students don’t learn well when they feel intimidated.”

Perhaps in part because of student preference, the college’s culture has become increasingly informal over the years. Christiansen said that when she first arrived to teach in the now-defunct communications department, male professors wore suits and ties. She wore dresses. That’s no longer the case.

And yet, the question of titles versus first names persists. Why? “For young scholars, or for scholars who have been told either implicitly or explicitly, you don’t belong in higher education, having that title just tossed off by eighteen year olds…

So this question is so tied up to our unique individual identities,” Christiansen said.

For Phillips, who asks that her students call her by her title, the identity

piece is key.

“I don’t know how much effect a title has on my authority or how my students view me,” Phillips said.

“There’s a decent chance I’m making a mountain out of a molehill… But for those of us who are younger, who are women, who are minorities, that title holds a lot of power.

“It’s also a testament to our survival. I’m a female Native professor in a world where the federal govern-

“It’s about our physiognomy, our appearance, our skin tone, our hair color, our height or weight, or how well or poorly we project our voices,” she continued. “When we’re trying to establish our bona fides, it’s all mixed up in this question.”

Why isn’t the physical component of authority talked about more explicitly?

“In academia, it’s all about the intellectual,” Christiansen said. “We’re

“We’re so uncomfortable with both bodies and emotions – human affect.” – Adrienne Christiansen ment spent years doing everything in its power to annihilate and assimilate my ancestors, and I think of that every time someone calls me Professor Phillips or Dr. Phillips.”

In thinking about and writing the description for the event, Christiansen brought another factor into the equation in addition to age, gender, and race: physical appearance.

“It’s something that I’ve long noticed and wondered about,” Christiansen said. “I think female faculty who are relatively slight in their physical stature sometimes get challenges to their authority by male students in the classroom.

so uncomfortable with both bodies and emotions – human affect.”

One of the takeaways from the Talking About Teaching discussion is that professors, when talking to students, will refer to their colleagues by their title. Another was that professors will be clear about how they want to be addressed.

Statistics professor Lisa Lendway ’03 said: “I remember sort of toiling with myself as a student about whether I should call this professor by their first name, so the other thing I like to do as a professor is make it really clear – I write in my syllabus, I say it on the first day of class.”

“The least we can do as faculty is make that part of our courses, saying what we’d like to be called,” Lendway continued.

But for professors across campus, the discussion will continue. Christiansen said that she and several of her colleagues are trying to organize the professors who spoke at the event to write an article for The Chronicle of Higher Education or a similar journal.

“There’s not one right answer, which is why I think as a debate it was so rich,” Christiansen said. “And it’s not enough to say well I’m going to do what I want to do in my class.

Because what happens in my class, I think, has implications elsewhere.”

“We don’t know what to do,” Damon said. “There’s no good solution to this. It’s so personal – to your positionality, your discipline, and your student[s].”

Christiansen, again alluding to the human aspect of teaching, noted that the struggle for professors in how to carry themselves goes far beyond what they asked to be called. “It includes faculty’s capacity to be vulnerable in the classroom – but not too vulnerable,” she said. “Finding that balance is key.”

• aasher@macalester.edu • redward1@macalester.edu

: MCSG covers class nights, more

By HANNAH CATLIN Staff Writer This week’s MCSG meeting was dominated by discussion of the roles of class representatives.

MCSG President Suveer Daswani ’18 began proceedings by asking the Legislative Body (LB) how the representatives could better serve their respective classes. They discussed how to connect with cultural organizations to ensure open communication between MCSG and the students they represent.

Daswani asked that the LB split

up by class year to discuss.

Some members suggested having representatives attend cultural org meetings, while others proposed a town hall style meeting that is in the early stages of being planned.

The representatives from each class also each shared their ideas for their respective class events, save for the junior class, whose class event was held in October.

The first year reps have a “get to know your representatives” event planned for Dec. 1, while sophomores are planning a cookie-decorating and coloring session for Dec. 3 in the Idea Lab on the second floor

of the library.

Senior class representatives expressed a desire to give their class a chance to answer questions about their experience at Macalester, as well as to assemble a “video yearbook” of students talking about their capstone projects. An event including these activities will take place the second week after Thanksgiving break, although no specific date has been assigned yet. The subject of conversation then turned to the recent Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) meeting. Rachel Stromsta ’19 updated the LB on this year’s Scott Ball event, and

the group briefly discussed better ways to publicize the event.

After that, Molly Flerlage ’18 spoke briefly about an upcoming review of Macalester’s sustainability efforts, and questioned the LB about their experiences with sustainability at Mac. The meeting concluded with several brief updates and reminders for the body.

A full transcript of the meeting is available on MCSG’s website.

• hcatlin@macalester.edu

Ninth swastika found

By JEN KATZ News Editor On Nov. 14, Macalester Campus Security reported a swastika drawn on a poster on the first floor of Neill Hall. The hate symbol was discovered during a routine security patrol on Nov. 12 between 10:10 and 10:30 p.m. according to the Campus Crime and Fire Log. This incident marks the ninth swastika that has been found on campus this semester. On Nov. 2, Campus Security also discovered anti-Arab hate speech written on the door of a custodial closet in a residential building.

The campus was informed of the first of several instances of swastikas through notices in the Mac Daily. In President Brian Rosenberg’s campus-wide email on Nov. 3, he announced that no further notices would be published in the Mac Daily.

“There is no guarantee that this lessening of visibility will stop the incidents,” Rosenberg wrote, “but our current approach does not appear to be working.”

On the same day of the president’s email, another swastika was found drawn on a map on the fourth floor of Neill Hall.

Notices of further swastikas are being posted on Campus Security’s website under “Current Alerts.”

According to Associate Director of Security Bill Collumbien, these notices remain posted for a week before being removed “as a matter of past practices.” Expiration dates are listed under each alert, but did not appear on the website prior to Nov. 6.

After the notices are removed from the website, they remain visible in the online Campus Crime and Fire Log. The Mac Weekly is committed to covering further incidents of hateful vandalism on campus.

•jkatz4@macalester.edu

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The Mac Weekly

News

MCSG bill covers grad school fees

By ISABELLA MOLANO Staff Writer Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) recently passed a bill that will help fund graduate school admission tests for students.

The Graduate School Admission Test (GSAT) Grant Program, which will pilot in the spring semester, will allow juniors and seniors to apply for grants to help defray the costs of graduate school exams such as the Graduate Records Examinations (GRE), the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), and the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).

A total of $5000 will be available through the program each year, which will be distributed in 25 grants of $100 per semester. However, as the bill was passed at the end of the second semester, a full 50 grants will be available in the spring.

The bill, which was introduced

by Student Organizations Committee (SOC) member Shelby Witherby ’18 and Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) member Andy Han ’19, was finalized by the AAC. Witherby said the idea for the project stemmed from her own experiences of applying to graduate schools.

“The idea for the bill originated when I took the GRE, and I realized how crazy expensive it was going to be,” Witherby said. “I was thinking about the other students around campus who are also taking the GRE and who are also probably in need of

some support.”

Witherby, a first generation college student, noticed a parallel in the graduate school application process and the college application process.

“My high school had a program where if you were on free or reduced lunch, you could take the ACT for free and you got reduced application fees for college,” she continued. “I was just surprised that Macalester, being so progressive, wouldn’t have those same support structures in place for grad school considering the percentage of students who go on to grad school.”

Witherby brought up her concerns at the MCSG retreat, and was able to gain Han’s support.

“I thought it was a great idea, and I thought it was an idea that would be of interest to a lot of people,” Han said. “I set up meetings with the stakeholders that would be interested in this type of project.”

One such stakeholder was Director of Academic Programs and Advising Ann Minnick, who serves as staff advisor to the AAC. “Andy Han, who is a member of AAC, came to see me to talk about the bill and just see what I thought, or if there were any issues that I anticipated,” Minnick said. “We know that students have varying financial abilities and needs, so I thought it was a great initiative.”

According to Han and Witherby, the process of creating and passing the bill was relatively smooth as feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

The only pushback, Han said, might be due to the program’s funding source: the student activities fee.

“The activity fee is almost like a tax students pay, and we [use] that money to providing events, funding orgs,” Han said, “and it goes to Winter Ball, Springfest and a lot of different events.”

“Now we’re using it to fund grad school tests, and some might feel like that’s not an appropriate use of the activity fee,” she continued. “I respect their views, but I feel like it’s still a worthy endeavor. It still falls in line with what the activity fee does, which is to provide services to students.”

Both Han and Witherby hope to see the program grow. “One idea I had, down the road, is every department contributing $100,” Han said.

“Since grad school is something that Macalester prides itself in, everyone should contribute.”

The program is one of several resources available to aid students in the graduate school application process. Others include letters from the financial aid office to waive application fees, and one-on-one tutoring at the MAX center. “We have a list of resources that I don’t think a lot of people know about on campus, not just the grant program but other ways [of] helping students,” Han said.

GSAT program applications will open in the spring and include a Google form and a one page waiver for the financial aid office.

• hcatlin@macalester.edu

Nov. 17, 2017 • Page 3

Macathon draws innovators

Entrepreneur in Residence Kate Reiling at Macathon. Photo by Jaime Hasama ’18

First names, cont. from page 1 “I knew that it would take up my whole day, but I didn’t know how much emotional energy would go into it,” Jennifer DeJong ’21 said of participating in Macathon as a first-year. “I did not understand how hard it would be to stay up all night, have to function with a group, and then present in front of people.”

DeJong’s team, “A Bug’s Life”, was exclusively composed of firstyear students. Among her teammates were Michelle Armstrong-Spielberg ’21 and Giselle Cohen ’21.

“We created an app that’s essentially a virtual punch card,” Armstrong-Spielberg said. “Our app takes a simple, super-addicting game that you would normally have on your phone, and connected that with small businesses.

“The more you play the game, you rack up points that can be used to get discounts at the small business, and the more you frequent that small business, you get currency to make purchases within the game.”

For Cohen, one of the most exciting parts of the event was getting to see the final presentations of the competing teams.

“I was really curious to see what people are capable of in a short amount of time,” Cohen said. “And the answer is everything. If you put a bunch of really smart people in a room for twenty hours, you come out with things that are amazing…

I wanted to help my friends do this, and I wanted to be a part of it myself.”

Whether or not they would get involved with Macathon again, the first-years said, largely depends on the issue of sleep.

“Once the competition was over, I had been up for over 35 hours,” Armstrong-Spielberg said. “I was basically a dead person walking.”

Students with an interest in innovative competitions will have the opportunity to compete in Macathon’s sister contest this spring, Funkathon.

• redward1@macalester.edu

Sports

Record-breaking football seniors reflect on final season

By RACHEL WILSON-KING Associate Sports Editor The Macalester football team wrapped up their 2017 season last weekend with a loss at Illinois College. The Scots finished third in the North region of the Midwest Conference, and 500 overall. Though this season may not have been what the team had hoped for, it has capped off the careers of the 17 members of the senior class in record-breaking fashion. Not only did the senior class have five representatives on the Midwest All-Conference team, but they now are now the winningest class in Macalester history with 25 victories. This group was also a part of the team that earned the most wins in a season (nine) and went to the NCAA tournament in 2014.

“This season definitely could have gone better ... offensively, I think we were the best we’ve been in my four years here, (but) it just didn’t translate to wins. So [we] had some highs and lows there, but hopefully next year they can build on what we were able to this year and best of luck to them.” quarterback Christian Adams ’18 said.

Adams broke four school records of his own this year, topping the charts in single-season passing yards

(2,734), touchdown passes (20), completions (219) and pass attempts (377). Despite being happy about his own accolades and those his class earned, Adams is confident that this is only the beginning, “I think [the program has] been left in good hands with some of the upper classmen next year,” Adams said. “[The class record] has been a long time coming, and I think the class below

us or a couple classes after us has a really good chance to break it. That’s always the goal.”

Phil Wettersten ’18 spoke to the character of the players who will be steering the ship in the future. “The program is in good hands moving forward. They’re all exceptional young men and I’m excited to see what they do down the line,” Wettersten said. “I’m really confident in the

Ben Lewis ’19 and Sean Hayes ’18 deliver a blow against Illinois College. Photo by Alison Harris Hodges.

next generation being able to move the program onward and upward.”

Wettersten emphasized that this future has been something that the program has been working toward for years.

“We really tried to change the culture around Mac Football and move the program in the right direction, and talking with Coach Jennison it has been apparent that some of the recruits they’ve been able to bring in is a direct result of the accomplishments we’ve had in the last four years,” Wettersten said. “A lot of us were here because of the accomplishments of the guys that were here before us.”

However, those still on the team have some big shoes to fill on the field. Punter Matt Glasenapp ’18 averaged a conference-best 40.8 yards per punt, good enough for 19th nationally. All-Conference selections Wettersten, Cash McGregor ’18 and Jack Schultenover ’18 led the defensive campaign for the Scots, with Wettersten leading the team in tackles with 81, Schultenover tied for most interceptions with three, and McGregor holding strong in multiple categories with 60 tackles, three fumble recoveries and four pass breakups. Sean Hayes ’18 was also a pivotal contributor to the Scots’ defense, with 10 tackles for loss and a blocked punt in his final season.

Replacing this senior class is going to be about more than just what they can do on the field. This class has been an example for those under them about what Macalester football is truly about.

“As a freshman, sophomore and even as a junior you have the alumni come back and talk to you about how the wins and losses fade in your memory but what you remember and what you cherish is the ride with the guys you’ve done it with year after year,” Wettersten said.

Adams summarized his feelings concisely. “I love my senior class, I will absolutely cherish these memories for life,” he said.

The Scots return playmaker Alec Beatty ’19 and leading rusher Jeremy Stephan ’19, along with promising underclass talent in Kiante Miles ’20 and Johnny Bice ’20, and strong first year offensive linemen Calvin Thomas ’21, Carter Gale ’21 and Steven Schimanski ’21. With these key returners, strong upper class leadership, and the high-level recruits that Wettersten alluded to, the Macalester football program appears poised to continue their record-breaking play.

• rwilson5@macalester.edu

The Mac Weekly

Nov. 17, 2017 • Page 4

SportS

THIS WEEK IN MAC SPORTS Women’s Swimming and Diving Men’s Cross Country Finishes Season Quietly at Regionals Swims Strong at Home Invite • •

•

•

The team finished third at the Roger Ahlman Invitational, behind St. Ben’s and St. Kate’s.

Ana Thompson ’20 won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:03.04 and Kaia Lund ’18 took the win in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:40.03.

Off the board, Francesca Gillis ’20 scored 203.90 points in the three-meter dive, good for 2nd place.

The Scots travel to Gustavus to participate in the Grace Goblirsch Invitational this Saturday.

Men’s Swimming and Diving Finishes Second •

• •

•

•

•

The Scots fell to Illinois College 32-27 to finish 5-5 on the season.

Alec Beatty ’19 caught six passes for 83 yards and one touchdown. He now ties the school record with career touchdown catches at 17 with one season remaining.

Jack Schultenover ’18 and Chance Carnahan ’18 each notched an interception in the game in the final game of their college careers.

Defensively, Phil Wettersten ’18 led the way with nine tackles.

Chris Boranian ’19 finished 48th in a time of 26:14 to lead the Scots to an 18th place finish in the 8k race.

After placing 7th at the MIAC Championship meet, Mac finished 9th out of the 11 competing MIAC schools.

Macalester will return all of its top seven runners next year in what looks to be promising season.

•

•

Women’s Cross Country Holds its Own •

Kieran Cuddy ’21 continued his dominance from prior meets with victories in both the one-meter and two-meter diving competition.

Paul Reischmann ’19 secured wins in the 500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle.

A slew of second place finishes from Taylor Durbin ’19, Jayden West ’20 and Sean Cheng ’19 helped the Scots finish just behind St. John’s.

Football Closes Season with Loss •

•

•

For the second year in a row the Macalester Women’s Cross Country team finished in 9th place out of 32 teams, led by two top-50 finishes from Elena Smith ’19 and Marlee YostWolff ’19.

After losing their top runner from the 2016 campaign and only returning one of the seven runners from the regional race, the Scots committed to running in a tight pack, placing all of their top five runners in the top-65.

Women’s Basketball Falls to Luther in Season Opener •

•

•

• •

The Macalester Women’s Basketball team opened their season with an 82-74 loss on the road at Luther College.

The Scots trailed by 21 in the third quarter before pulling back within two scores, but could not complete the comeback.

Regan Fruh ’18 led the Scots in scoring with 27 points while Tyana Loiselle ’20 added 17.

The Scots shot 88.5 percent from the free throw line in the game.

Leah Gray ’18 and Holly Hull ’20 had seven rebounds each.

Numbers of the Week

14th

MIAC finisher was the place of Chris Boranian ’19 in the Regional meet, an improvement from 17th at the MIAC Championships.

2,734

Passing yards for quarterback Christian Adams ’18, a single-season school record.

5

The number of All-MIAC selections for each of the Macalester soccer programs.

13

Receptions for Jack Streibich ’19 for 137 yards, tying the school record for receptions in a game.

Upcoming In Sports: Saturday, November 18: Men’s Basketball @ Beloit (1 p.m.)

Men’s Swimming and Diving @ Gustavus (1:30 p.m.)

Women’s Swimming and Diving @ Gustavus (1:30 p.m.)

Tuesday, November 21: Women’s Basketball @ Crown (7 p.m.)

Men’s Basketball vs. Northwestern (MN) (7 p.m.)

Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving competed at the home Roger Ahlman Invitiational on Nov. 11.

The Men’s team finished second, while the Women’s team finished third. Photo by Ally Kuper ’21.

The Mac Weekly

Features

Nov. 17, 2017 • Page 5

Bringing Sexy Mac: Hollywood, #MeToo and how we can be better

By MOLLY LLOYD & MADI TAYLOR Staff writer & Contributing Writer Content warning: this article discusses sexual violence, both in the world and within the Macalester community.

I was hoping to be able to keep this column fun and not-so-serious, while addressing topics and issues that deserve genuine and serious attention. However, I have gotten to the point where I cannot NOT use my platform to address what has been filling Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds: sexual violence — in Hollywood, the rest of the world and at Macalester.

Writing with me this week is Madi Taylor ’19, a friend and fellow survivor. While we don’t claim to write on behalf of all survivors of sexual violence, we thought it was time to be louder and use the platforms and resources available to us to talk about our experiences and opinions.

We have, as I am sure many of us have, spent the past few weeks reeling about the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations, the growing number of allegations towards a multitude of high profile and powerful men and the #MeToo campaign that took over Facebook for about a week.

As the number of accusations against Weinstein began to grow, more women (and some men) began to expose more powerful men, including Kevin Spacey, Ben Affleck, George H. W.

Bush, Louis C.K. and Elie Wiesel, just to name a few. The list has grown tenfold in the six short weeks since the initial Weinstein allegations. And to tell you the unfortunate truth, we’re not surprised — we don’t think most of us are. We’re angry; we’re anxious; we’re tired of victims and survivors having to be the ones who take the responsibility in situations like these, and we’re tired of so many men staying silent.

Almost as tiring, disheartening and just generally infuriating are the men in Hollywood coming out and saying that they knew what was going on all along but didn’t think to say anything because it didn’t affect them directly. Many men, after giving some genuine and some not-so-genuine apologies, go on to make it about themselves. Quentin Tarantino, after issuing an apology and admitting to some genuine remorse for not speaking out against Weinstein earlier, ended his statement with the New York Times saying that he hoped this wouldn’t affect the way his work was perceived by the people. Woody Allen (because someone thought it was a good idea to ask a man who allegedly sexually abused his adopted daughter for his opinions on sexual violence), told the New York Times that he feels for the women involved and feels sad for Weinstein “because he is a sad, sick man,” but at the same time, warns against creating “a witch hunt atmosphere.” The fact of the matter is that men are often separating them-

Graphic by Maya Rait '18

selves from their past abusive behaviors, as well as separating themselves from violence against women because they might not have technically “done” anything. This creates a cycle of complacency and normalcy around sexual violence that extends into our day-to-day lives. The men who know that they themselves committed acts of sexual violence but deny it and the men who know friends, colleagues, etc. who commit acts of sexual violence but say nothing are equally contributing to the cycle of sexual violence.

We have grown increasingly aware of the idea that sexual violence does not happen here at Macalester: the idea that Macalester and its students are somehow above this normalization and perpetuation of sexual violence. Sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but this is as far from the truth as it gets. And the routine disregard and conscious avoidance of this reality only furthers the cyclical nature of sexual violence. So what can we do?

To bring personal experience into this article, I (Madi) was raped in the late hours of the night of my 19th birthday in my Dupre single by a “friend” of mine. While I went

through all the “necessary” steps to report and document the assault, I found (and still find) myself facing social repercussions for my choice to speak up.

Though I haven’t been public about it until now, I did proceed with the official process to gain justice for what happened that night. In all honesty, I was naive and misguided in my pursuits. I was under the impression, like I’m sure many of our peers are, that Macalester is an institution that “walks the walk” as much as it “talks the talk.” And for some survivors here, that is the case. For some who come forward, they do gain the justice they deserve, but personally, I was confronted with a harsh reality — that despite acknowledging and admitting that what he did was wrong and punishable, my perpetrator was found “not responsible” for his actions. I was then confronted with the unexpected reality that many of my peers not only “took his side,” but also spread rumors that I made it all up. The problem of not believing survivors is a reality here at Macalester and we need to be better.

Macalester students: these things happen here and we need to acknowledge that. And this is what we ask

of you: challenge yourselves, your classmates, your friends, your peers and your teammates to be better humans. Hold each other accountable and believe the testimony of survivors. When one of your friends makes a rape joke or uses “Consent is Mac” as the butt of a joke, call them out and tell them there is no place for “humor” like that, here at Mac or in our lives overall. When a friend of yours is accused of sexual violence, your gut reaction is probably going to be to defend that friend. Temper that reaction.

Take a step back and seriously consider that the person speaking out against your friend is telling the truth, as difficult as it might be to realize that.

Stop being silent. Stop standing aside and letting your friends and peers get away with violent behavior. Stop hiding behind the guise of “community” or “team” to avoid the uncomfortable conversation that one of your friends hurt someone in an unthinkable way.

Use whatever position of privilege you have to elevate the voices of those who are constantly fighting not to be silenced.

The only way things are going to change is if we take action. If we speak up and use our voices to help others and call out injustice. If we have the uncomfortable conversations and disrupt the cycles and systems of violence. Macalester, we need to be better and we can be better.

• mlloyd@macalester.edu • mtaylor1@macalester.edu

Way Back at Mac: I think I found myself a cheerleader

By KATRIN O’GRADY Staff Writer

Macalester cheerleading had a sporadic existence before eventually sputtering out. There were golden years of a well-supported, committed squad intermittent with years of absence due to lack of funding, support and interest. The cheerleading faucet, if you will, was turned on and off so many times that it was difficult to ascertain exactly when we had a squad and when we didn’t; I did my best to sift through it all, but I apologize for any slightly inconsistencies. Now, onward (backward?) into the history of pom-poms, flips, human pyramids and plaid skirts!

The precursor to the Macalester cheerleading squad was the “rooting king.” Our first rooting king ascended the illustrious throne of the Scots in 1914. The Sept. 29th 1914 issue of The Mac Weekly issued an advertisement titled “Wanted, a Yell Master.”

Student Homer Lindgren '17, wrote, “[A rooter king] is the thing we must have if Mac is to uphold its reputation in athletics and college spirit.” The rooter king was generally male-identifying, as the title suggests, and led students in “yells” (a.k.a. cheers) during athletic events. The hierarchy of a single leader eventually expanded to rooter squads as mentioned in the Nov. 3rd, 1915 edition of The Mac Weekly: “The Mac rooters organized for the first time into rooting squads led by the Mac band marched down Summit to the cadet field.”

The rooter squads led by the

Photo of past cheerleaders at Macalester College. Photo taken from The Mac Weekly archives.

rooter king appear to have morphed into an actual cheerleading ensemble in 1921; at least, that is the first mention of such an organization in the archives. It’s unclear how different the cheerleading squad and the rooter squad were from each other, minus the obvious disparity in nomenclature. Nonetheless, come 1921, Macalester was home to cheerleaders. In the fledgling program, there were often only one or two cheerleaders elected by the student body.

The early years in cheerleading were a far cry from a walk in the park. A blurb in The Mac Weekly on Sept. 29, 1922 reported, “This job is not the easiest one in college, as any victim of the rooting squad can testify. A good cheerleader is a rara avis, and should be carefully nurtured until fully grown.” However, even the presence of a good cheerleader

seemingly wasn’t good enough. On Dec. 8, 1932, The Mac Weekly noted, “To produce a [unified Mac Spirit] it was at first thought that more and better cheerleaders would be the magic cure-all. This [was] not entirely successful [as] on all occasions came the feeling that without an enthusiastic student backing even cheerleaders could do little.” Perhaps on account of the lack of student enthusiasm, the program was briefly discontinued.

The cheerleading squad was reinstated at Macalester in 1935 by students Mortimer Dittenhofer ’37, Harriet Pankhurst ’39, and Arthur Crawford ’38. At the time, it was completely commonplace for people of any gender to cheer. In fact, in 1940, the majority of the cheerleaders were male. The gender split gradually began to shift to almost entirely female over the course of the following

decade.

One of the squad’s most interesting escapades included leading crowds at a campaign rally for Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower spoke in Northfield, Minnesota in September 1952. Cheerleaders from Macalester, St. Olaf and Carleton led the over 10,000 audience members in welcoming the presidential candidate.

Cheerleading garb changed numerous times throughout the team’s existence. In 1958, the team received uniforms with a Scottish flair, the brainchild of Mr. and Mrs. Dewitt Wallace. The Mac Weekly reported in the July 11, 1958 edition, “The uniforms are made from the Macalester clan red tartan plaid and are designed by one of the world’s outstanding designers, Main Bocher, who has establishments in both New York City and Paris.”

Despite having a rocky start, the squad became well-liked as they improved and became more established. The 1972-1973 squad was called “the magnificent 7” on account of their enthusiasm and dedication to Macalester teams. According to Ross Huelster '79 in the Nov. 14, 1975 Mac Weekly edition, “The Mac cheerleaders were so good this year that other MIAC schools ‘borrowed’ a few original Mac cheers and God did they butcher them.”

In 1980, the team had to fold once again, but this time from lack of funds, not enthusiasm. Additionally, that year, Macalester Community Council President Doug Tilton and Paul Berg ran an investigation on the team because they found an ad that

encouraged female cheerleaders to cheer for the men’s basketball team, and they were concerned it might be discriminatory, as reported by the Dec. 12, 1980 issue of The Mac Weekly. Instead of uncovering discrimination, they found the customary cheers to be too ‘competitive.’ They offered alternative catchy cheers such as “Stop that game! Don’t compete!

It’s no fun to get beat!” and “Don’t keep score! Play for fun! That’s coopera-’sheun!’ Okay, just one more: “We got pride! Yessirreee! Our pride’s in our faculty!”

A year later in 1981, five women resurrected the squad once again.

However, the existence of cheerleading became heated towards the later half of the 20th century. Some students argued that cheerleading made Macalester retreat backwards, while others argued it isn’t anymore backward than any other sport.

Somewhere in the ’80s or early ’90s, the team faded out once again only to surface once again in 1998 at yet another attempt at reinvigoration.

The new group suggested changes such as making the group coed once again and cheering equally for men’s and women’s sports. Despite such well-meaning renovations, the group sputtered out once again and has not resurfaced since. Although I don’t suggest recycling any of the cheers from 1980, the spirit of cheerleading, in that it increases campus-wide enthusiasm for all sports teams, is certainly something we should hold onto.

• kogrady@macalester.edu

Arts

Nov. 17, 2017 • Page 6

The Mac Weekly

Amy Thielen’s homecoming memoir Give a Girl a Knife

By JULIA FRITZ-ENDRES Arts Editor During her time at Macalester, Amy Thielen ’97 always felt like there was something missing. Late at night, you were more likely to find her pureeing soup in her living room than writing papers. She visited the specialty grocery stores on University Ave on a weekly basis, making multi-course meals for her friends. She was an English major, but writing never held her focus the way that cooking did.

Having built an extensive cooking career, appeared as a host on Heartland Table (Food Network) and won a James Beard Award for her book The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes, Thielen has already earned a memoir of quite some length. This year, she decided to publish that memoir, called Give a Girl a Knife. On Thursday, Nov. 8, she presented the book in Macalester’s Weyerhaeuser Ballroom.

English Department Chair and Professor Andrew Kaston Tange introduced Thielen before her talk, naming the cook’s numerous accomplishments. Tange also voiced her own views about the memoir.

Her review was nothing less than glowing. “As you read,” Tange

said, “you’ll find yourself writing your own food memoirs in your head.”

Thielen beamed in response to this introduction. Clutching her memoir in hand, she took the podium. For an audience of a few dozen students, members of the community and faculty in the audience, Thielen began describing the winding path her life has taken, from rural Minnesota to New York City and back again.

Give a Girl a Knife traces the path of Thielen’s wanderlust lifestyle, following from the butter-infused casserole dishes of Park Rapids, MN, to the brightly colored sauces that trademarked fine dining at New York City’s Danube restaurant. Perhaps more importantly, the memoir shows the long path of her migration back to Midwestern cooking.

Before she could return to life in Minnesota, she first wanted to explore the outside world. After her college days spent in the kitchen, and a few years spent living off garden vegetables with her boyfriend in their rural Minnesota cabin, she was fully obsessed with food. Cooking granted her a satisfaction unlike any she’d experienced in academics, and she wanted to build her life around that feeling.

“I had this fearlessness of youth,” she said. She packed up her knives and flew to New York City. There, she walked into Danube, one of the most celebrated restaurants in the city, and simply asked for a job. Her friends from Macalester had some doubts about her plan, but she was determined.

She waltzed into the kitchen and got the job.

While the contrast between Park Rapids and New York was striking, Thielen recognized elements of Eastern European cooking from her upbringing in the Danube kitchen. “The flavors were the same,” she said.

“The poppy seeds my grandmother would make, [they were] rolling them out of this grinder, right in the restaurant, and it had that same smell: kind of fruity and dank,” she said. The flavors made her feel at home and ache for home all at once.

“I was a painfully nostalgic kid,” Thielen said. While practiced in the art of many culinary traditions, Thielen had always gravitated to the pickles, bacon and butter of childhood. She missed the pot roasts her mother used to make, the sauerkraut and homemade fries.

Her childhood memories of these foods, so closely tied to the women in her family and the long culinary

Amy Thielen ’97 discusses her memoir Give a Girl a Knife. Photo by Kori Suzuki ’21.

history of Midwestern housewives, were rich material for a story. “I followed a long line of fearless Midwestern women cooks who were possessed of sharp knives, sprawling cut-flower gardens and big opinions about food,” Thielen writes in Give a Girl a Knife.

In cooking, she found the crux between two worlds: the fastpaced, high end cooking in New York, and the calm, thrifty cooking of the Midwest. She writes: “I knew I’d found my people. Crossing the lines, jumping the boundaries between rural and urban, high flung and low down, garbage juice and black truffle juice, felt right to me.”

Give a Girl a Knife grew organically out of these experiences, and from her continuing intimate connection with the Midwest despite her time in the Big Apple.

“This book was really about going home,” she said.

At the end of her talk, Thielen answered a few questions from the audience. She stayed behind to speak to members of the audience one-on-one and sign copies of Give a Girl a Knife (for sale at the event). The memoir is available on Amazon, and in bookstores around the country.

• jfritzen@macalester.edu

Fall Dance Concert: Ghost Light lights Mixed Blood’s latest show up Mainstage one last time

By MARGARET STRAW Contributing Writer On Nov. 17, Macalester dancers will perform their last performance on the Theater Building Mainstage.

Ghost Light features pieces by student choreographers Midori Hasegawa ’19, Shaylene McCue ’18, Yuri Smith ’18, Arnold Sanginga ’19 and Meghan Johnson ’18.

“Dance is something I’ve held with me my whole life; I love it,” McCue said. “I haven’t gotten to actually be on the creating end of it until I arrived at Macalester.”

McCue is one of six student choreographers setting pieces for the Fall Dance Concert. She is choreographing a contemporary ballet for six women that was inspired by her capstone project last year on dance and the brain.

“As someone who has been a performer and who has learned choreography for a very long time, it’s almost a completion of the circle to be on the creative end of things,” McCue said.

Trina Hofrenning ’21, who was cast in McCue’s piece, is glad to be a part of the creative process alongside McCue. “[McCue’s] choreography is based on her scientific study about the role of dance training in aesthetic preference and attention,” Hofrenning said. “The movement

has been so fulfilling to be a part of. I like that the movement flows and is balletic—because I trained in ballet growing up—but at the same time [it] has a modern quality of movement.”

Hofrenning said the experience she has had participating in a Mac dance concert has convinced her to participate again in the future.

“I think that performance experience and the process of perfecting a work is so important in one’s growth as a dancer,” said Hofrenning. “I also am enjoying the opportunity to learn from my peers.”

In the casting process, some Macalester dancers were chosen for student-choreographed pieces. Those dancers worked closely with their peers throughout the semester in preparation for Ghost Light. Those cast in one of the four faculty-choreographed pieces had the opportunity to work with faculty members Patricia Brown, Krista Langberg, Brian Evans or Wynn Fricke.

Mary Mailand ’19, a student at Macalester and St. Thomas through the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities program, was cast in director Wynn Fricke’s modern piece.

“I was surprised about the amount of improvisation that was required on our part, which is really cool,” Mailand said. “[Fricke] has an overall vision, but we get to participate in the creation

of the dance.”

From Fricke’s piece, Mailand has learned to let go of her longing for perfection, which she believes other dancers struggle with as well. “I have found that, in dance, you have to be patient and forgiving with yourself because all improvements take time to be cultivated,” she said.

Jill Lile, Senior Instructor of Dance at Macalester, believes the dance concerts are a unifying force of creativity that provide opportunities for growth in every dancer. Lile choreographs for the fall dance concert every other year. She is not choreographing this semester because she teaches an extra academic class, but she is still excited to see these dancers’ final product. “I’m really proud of the students,” Lile said. “They’ve worked hard, and I love to see the innovation that they come up with … all of [the] different ways of moving their bodies.”

“You probably know somebody in it,” McCue said. “It’s just going to be a really fun night.” The fall dance concert opens on Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. and there are performances on Nov. 18 at 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

• mstraw@macalester.edu

By SYED HASAN Staff Writer

Macalester alum Jack Reuler ’75, founder and artistic director of the Mixed Blood Theatre, is incredibly passionate about the local Twin Cities community, and he works hard to represent that community in theater.

“At the Mixed Blood,” Reuler said, “we’ve been working with marginalized communities for a long time, but a few years ago, we realized we’ve been remiss in not focusing enough on the disabled community.” Responding to this realization, Mixed Blood chose their current production, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

A wildly successful theatrical adaptation of Mark Haddon’s award-winning novel, Curious Incident is an exploration of social disability; the main character, Christopher (MacGregor Arney), is a highly gifted, autistic 15-year-old boy.

The plot, told as a detective story, follows Christopher as he tries to solve the murder of his neighbor’s dog. Reuler describes the play as “the intersection of virtuosity and authenticity,” and “predictably unpredictable.”

“We play to the smartest person in the house,” he says, explaining that authenticity is critical to his creative process. In preparation for this play, the cast and crew spent several days working with child autism specialists, as well as other experts and academics who were brought on to consult for the show.

This attention to detail in all aspects of the production bears fruit: the show is an astonishing achievement. The

staging is highly modern and technical, involving the use of multiple projectors, LED lights, and a colossal sound system. It is very tastefully done, and never feels like a distraction.

The musical score is excellent, and all performances are top-notch, especially Arney’s. The play is an emotional roller coaster, and very difficult to watch. However, it is also hopeful, empowering and often hilarious.

Reuler founded the Mixed Blood after graduating from Macalester to “explore differences, bring communities together, revolutionize access, and create a utopian ideal.” Finding programming to fit this mission is no easy task, and usually requires casting a broad net, or even commissioning their own writers.

However, Reuler’s experiences at Macalester have helped him to cover a wide range of productions. His family has lived in the area for five generations, and his father was born six blocks from Macalester, where Reuler received a degree in zoology. He refers to himself as a “poster-child for the liberal arts,” because his career in theater is so vastly different from his major in college.

“Mac really prepared me for everything by exposing me to a broad cross-section of extremes,” he says, continuing to extol the virtues of a liberal arts education throughout our conversation.

Curious Incident represents how Reuler breaks new ground with Mixed Blood, exploring those extremes. The play runs until Dec. 3, and rush tickets are free.

• shasan@macalester.edu

The Mac Weekly

Opinion

Nov. 17, 2017 • Page 7

The culture around sports and abuse must change

By MORGAN DOHERTY Contributing writer On Thursday, Nov. 9, I️ was at the gym around 10:00 p.m, spinning away on the stationary bike and passively watching Sports Center when a story about Ezekiel Elliott caught my eye. As a born and bred New York Giants fan, I tend to stay away from all things Dallas Cowboys, and so I hadn’t heard the news about the running back’s suspension.

Curious, I decided to pause my workout and pursue a quick Google investigation. It took me less than 30 seconds to find out why Elliot had been suspended for six games and why ESPN was showing footage of him leaving a courthouse on loop: Elliot has been accused by a former girlfriend of domestic violence.

Some background for those who are as unfamiliar with the story as I was: it took the National Football League more than a year from the time Elliott was initially accused of abuse to suspend him for six games. Following that, the facts in the case become more confusing. According to the sports site SBNation, the woman involved in the case was determined by the police to have made one false statement regarding one instance of violence, but an investigation conducted by the NFL itself corroborated three other claims of physical violence.

On Aug. 11, 2017 the NFL suspended Elliot for six games, after the year long investigation.

Four days later, Elliot filed an appeal against the suspension. Over the next four months the NFL, Elliot and the NFL Players association went back and forth in various lawsuits and ap-

peals, until November 9, when his final motion to appeal the suspension was denied.

While certain aspects of Elliot’s case are still unclear, it is perhaps the effect that a story like his has on sports that is more important.

As I was doing a quick read of a Sports Illustrated article on his situation, I realized that the Sports Center hosts were having a discussion not about the consequences of Elliot’s actions, but about how the suspension of such a talented player would affect fantasy football leagues.

My lack of surprise at their topic choice was what surprised me the most. As a lifelong female sports fan, I am disappointed that I’m no longer shocked by this kind of coverage of an abusive athlete.

The NFL has a well documented and heavily criticized track record when it comes to domestic abuse. The league has a history of covering up instances of both domestic, child and sexual abuse, while also not properly punishing those players whose stories had come to light. Names like Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Ben Roethlisberger come to mind. However, the NFL is not the only party responsible for the problematic culture surrounding women’s issues in sports.

As an enormous hockey fan, I can also acknowledge that the National Hockey League often does not take responsibility for punishing the actions of its players. While the league has suspended abusers like Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov while those players are under investigation, there is currently no league-wide policy regarding domestic violence charges. In addition, multiple NHL players have been accused of sexual violence,

and their accusers have been disrespected by both the media and fans. The league administration across the five major sports, including the NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA and MLS has a social responsibility to do more to protect women who have been violated by their athletes. The NCAA, an administrative body with a multitude of its own issues, should also be included in this directive.

Leagues like the NFL and the NHL have programs that center around women’s engagement, as well as domestic abuse training. The NFL even has a website for their women’s engagement initiative, which includes features like “NFL Wife Spotlight.” According to the website, “Women’s Resource Initiative is where we at NFL Player Engagement want to engage the women of football to share their stories, voice their opinions, find resources, and participate in broader discussions on social and community issues.” Mission statements like this are, to put it kindly, bogus, if the culture and conversation in sports surrounding abuse does not change. Nearly five million women in the United States experience physical assault by an intimate partner every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, per the National Sexual Violence Resource center, one in five women in the United States will be raped in their lifetime.

And these are just women whose abuses have been documented. If major leagues in the US are serious about fostering a community in professional athletics that is inclusive of women, then they need to handle the issue of domestic and sexual violence more seriously. Commercials with the tagline, “Football is Family,” and

initiatives to spotlight the mothers and wives of players are simply not enough.

And this need for change does not just include the leagues. It includes the media coverage, especially by popular programs like Sports Center. Per Statista, ESPN averaged 61.9 million viewers in a seven day period in the spring quarter of 2017 in the United States alone. This kind of reach is incredible. When it comes to sports news, there is no network that stands even close to as tall as this industry giant owned by Disney. A substantive conversation about the epidemic of abuse not only in this country but in sports in particular would go a long way in changing the attitude towards victims and abusers in the major leagues in this country. Conversations or panels about the accountability of players and the responsibility of leagues in situations of abuse would certainly contribute much more to changing the culture in professional athletics than a conversation about fantasy football.

The NFL can market more feminine cut jerseys; the NHL can tweet support for efforts of the US Women’s Hockey team; and the MLB can start a fellowship program for women and people of color, but until both professional leagues and the media outlets that cover them start - and don’t stop - having serious conversations about abuse and its effect on women, efforts like these will never be enough to include women in the community of professional athletics.

• mdoherty@macalester.edu

The Village Idiot

By EMMET HOLLINGSHEAD Staff Writer Over the past few weeks, Macalester security has found swastikas and anti-Arab hate speech around campus. These were found in residence halls as well as in an academic building, leading to the belief that the person or persons who wrote and drew these things are not from outside our community, but are members of the Macalester community themselves.

As a famously left-leaning institution, the fact that this happened in the first place might be shocking. Macalester’s reputation for liberal politics is so salient that it is something of a joke even for those of us who perpetuate that reputation.

The response to the drawings has been both predictable and commendable: a com-

munity discussion, a letter from the president of the college as well as an open letter signed by hundreds of students and staff, a well-researched and well-written op-ed on the racist legacy of Edward Neill and who knows how many classroom and personal discussions on the matter. Macalester is nothing if not involved, and for that we should be proud.

Yet as we show our support for our community members in the face of these acts, we must not make the drawer into the supervillain of the day which they seem to want to be.

I see two possible motives for the drawings. First, we might have an honest-to-God neo-Nazi within our student body. This person clearly hasn’t taken Comparative Social Movements with Paul Dosh yet, and somehow believes that these drawings count as organizing.

However, I find this highly unlikely. A swastika drawing is certainly political speech, but it is

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rather absurd to imagine it as a serious effort to start a Nazi or other far-right movement at Macalester. The second, much more likely possibility is that the perpetrator wants to play a weird version of poke-the-bear with our famously liberal community. The fact that the number of drawings increased as they gained campus-wide attention further suggests this conclusion.

These drawings are echoes of an ugly and despicable history, but they are less about resurfacing that history than they are about getting a reaction out of the student body.

This puts us in a difficult situation.

While an unequivocal denunciation of the drawings is appropriate given what they were, we must consider that grand responses were probably exactly the intent behind the swastikas in the first place. After all, what would the drawings be if they were never seen and responded to? It is the response that brings them into the mainstream and makes them part of a campus-wide discussion.

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fascism and racism, but one supremely lame person making a poor attempt at criticizing campus culture.

The swastikas themselves are not the audacious commentary on outrage politics which the drawer most likely imagines them as, nor are they the coming flood of alt-right politics that a strong response might inadvertently imply.

They are the result of someone who has managed to combine the bone-crushingly sad isolation of Richard Spencer with the complete intellectual vacuity of Milo Yiannopoulos and put it into the laziest, most underdeveloped attempt at political speech since someone first chanted, “Build that wall.” It is a student with neither the bravery to voice controversial opinions in public nor the social intelligence to realize that being edgy by drawing swastikas doesn’t make you cool.

If that is the case, we must of course first come together to unequivocally voice our support for people who are threatened by the ideas that the swastikas represent. But we should keep in mind that whoever is doing this is by no means a serious political agitator. They are simply one more in a long line of idiot trolls who get off on being annoying. They are foolish, immature and just plain dumb.

• ehollin1@macalester.edu

Write for the Opinion Section!

Send your opinions to Sam Dembling (sdemblin@macalester.edu) or Matt Steele (msteele1@macalester.edu).

The Mac Weekly

Nov. 17, 2017 • Page 8

Spotlight

The Vatican: Macalester’s not-so-pure intramural soccer champions

By MEG BRITTONMEHLISCH Editor-in-Chief The Mac Weekly sat down with 10 of the 19 Vatican intramural soccer players. The scholars and athletes were still glowing from their win against their longtime rivals, The Mambas, and happy to share some secrets to their success.

TMW: Okay take me back to the beginning. How did the team start, who’s idea was it?

Kabir Sandrolini: You can trace the beginning back four years ago when some of us were just entering our careers here.

Johannes Davies: I would suggest that you could trace it back to probably the early first or second century of the Vatican state if we’re really pushing this.

Greg Zacharia: I think it began in the pleistocene age.

Haroon Malik: Are you sure that it didn’t exist this entire time?

KS: It was probably around the time…

Ahren Lahvis: Have you seen The Land Before Time?

KS: Around the time that Roosevelt said “ask not what you can do for your…What your country can do for you but what you can do for your…”

Leah Meisel: That’s definitely not Roosevelt.

Darian von Finckenstein: That’s Kennedy man!

KS: Okay that was my second guess.

DF: I’m not even a U.S. citizen and I know that.

Rohit Kamath: Let’s just finish this.

TMW: So who wants to explain the name?

KS: A source of great controversy.

DF: The Vatican.

RK [to KS]: Well I mean it is yours.

KS: Is it? No it’s yours.

RK: No, it’s yours.

Hannah Viederman: Know what, take it away Kabir.

KS: Well I don’t want this to be all about me.

AL: Why stop now?

DF: Isn’t it named after your house?

RK: Okay not his house.

DF: Your guys’ house?

Johannes D: A lot of the team happens to live in the same house. And the house is sometimes referred to by that name.

RK: Which we do not recommend calling it that.

KS: No I recommend it.

DF: Because of the purity you guys spark?

KS: Yeah, we’re seen as a very spiritual people, very upright, and, some might say, chaste in the community. So we…

RK: Take that name off there.

KS:...chose a name to embody those ideals.

TMW: Okay….

HV: Hahaha, zoinks.

TMW: So obviously you guys won...

DF: Obviously.

TMW:... how does it feel to win?

AL: I think it was expected. I don’t think adversity is really in our lexicon.

KS: I think for about six weeks we were playing the best football in the country, some might say the world.

RK: I mean definitely better than Italy.

KS: So that’s why it’s really tough to see the USA not make the World Cup given the talent we had at our disposal. But we chose academics above all.

RK: We are mostly international students.

KS: That’s true. Our scouting department is very strong. We have talents from Germany, Pakistan, India, Denmark and Uganda. Italian high school students. Talent from all over the place.

DF: Um, I have a question. Why did you win this year and not last year?

GZ: We did win last year.

KS: Make sure that gets in there.

Group laughter.

DF: Oh really?

Joshua Doyle: Not in the fall yet.

This was the first in the fall.

GZ: Diversifying our trophy collection.

DF: I feel very welcome here because I’m only an exchange student so this team was like family to me.

RK: Darian get the fuck out.

KS: That’s true we did have a cross scouting program with the University of Leiden. We sent them some of our best talents and we recruited Darian on loan for the season.

TMW: Nice. So who wants to walk me through that last game? That final, winning game.

DF: So… we were …. Laughs….

Favorites.

HV: Okay moving on.

DF: No actually, I wasn’t there. I was in Miami at the time.

HV: Yes Darian. Walk us through your weekend in Miami.

DF: But people were very nervous because the star player wasn’t there and that took away from the favorites position. And it was actually very sad because me and Joshua were level as goal scorers. We both had eight goals. And that was like the maximum anyone had. And then I wasn’t there and then he had 10 goals.

KS: We were playing against our longtime rivals the Mambas. It’s a rivalry that dates back millenia.

There’s not love lost between us.

We see them on campus and we don’t acknowledge them.

RK: For you maybe.

KS: You know off the record, we don’t like… no I’m just kidding. Anyone else want to take us through?

Johannes D: Sure, I can take us through part of the game….

Joshua D: Well first of all, Captain Sandrolini you know, tells us to come 20 minutes early to the game.

The game starts 6 p.m., 5 p.m.

KS: 4 p.m. Yeah it was pretty early.

Joshua D: Kabir Sandrolini nowhere to be found. He’s running 10 minutes late. Bag in hand, trips. Finally makes it to the field.

KS: I had a bucket hat too.

Members of The Vatican soccer team gather for a team conference in the Campus Center. Back row, left to right: Johannes Davies ’18, Ahren Lahvis ’18, Darian von Finckenstein, Jongwon “Hans” Han ’19, Greg Zacharia ’18. Middle row, left to right: Kabir Sandrolini ’18, Hannah Viederman ’18, Leah Meisel ’20, Rohit Kamath ’18. Front row: Haroon Malik ’19.

HV: Which you drop.

Johannes D: So then, first minute of the game. Who takes the shot?

Group: Elo. Johannes D: Elo! Elo takes the shot from halfway and it just sort of bounces over the ground. And then, funnily enough…

KS: And that went in.

Joshua D: It goes in, it goes in.

HV: Wait, we scored on the first one?

RK: That wasn’t the final, that was the semi-final.

Johannes D: That was the final.

KS: No, let’s just talk about the final. Elo scored the first goal.

AL: Elo scored the first goal.

Johannes D: And then that was the only shot we had on goal for the first part.

RK: For the first half.

KS: A very defensively solid approach. As player manager I take pride in that.

Johannes D: And then also the attackers were just refusing to shoot.

DF: I wasn’t there. It wasn’t me.

AL: And the Gus Walsh scored our second….

HV: How do you guys remember this?

AL: After we conceded first.

KS: We conceded the equalizer to Kofi of The Mambas.

Joshua D: Yeah when Gus lost the ball…Ugh...

KS: Don’t put Gus in there.

AL: Yeah. I think it was Gus. KS: Well let’s throw Gus under the bus. Because then Gus redeemed himself, by scoring the 2-1.

GZ: Beautiful shorts flapping in the wind.

AL: And then final goal in the last minute, by Joshua Doyle to seal the win.

DF: And the goal scorer.

Joshua D: The golden goose.

RK: Well he already had that.

DF: Shhhhhhh.

KS: Joshua Doyle, a real testament to our program. We groomed him since our first year. And you know

he still hasn’t owned a pair of cleats in his life. He’s perfected that sneaker toe pass.

Joshua D: Couldn’t agree more.

TMW: So there was mention of strongest player earlier, so who is the strongest player on the team?

RK: Wait strongest player as in best?

TMW: Yes best player on the team.

HV: Meg, the egos in this room are too big already. I don’t think they need to answer that question.

KS: I would have to disagree.

RK: No, no, no, but it’s either Ahren or Greg.

KS: I would think our strongest player is our team. Our collective.

RK: Okay, fine, fine, fine.

KS: We are truly greater than the sum of our parts.

DF: The spirit of the team is the strongest player. Like we all run for each other. Like if one person makes a mistake the other person has his or her back.

KS: We’ve just worked to instill that culture for an early, early age.

So you know our training session, 6 a.m. some of us didn’t know we’d make it….

RK: Shut up. Can we just get this done.

HV: Rohit you can leave. You have agency.

KS: Our season is over. This is our only way to relive our past glory.

TMW: So what is the winning regimine? How do you guys train?

KS: I think this is a question for Hannah Viederman.

HV: Um, I make heavy drinking on Saturday night inspiration for our Sunday games.

AL: Of water.

KS: Should that be redacted for the final?

TMW: It’s on the record.

KS: There you go. Full disclosure.

Johannes D: I think attendance was really key. Just showing up.

KS: To our credit, we never forfeit-

ed a match for lack of players.

TMW: Is that a common problem?

GZ: You could say that.

KS: Which kind of speaks to our grassroots approach to recruiting across the campus.

TMW: Okay so last question, what is the future of The Vatican since so many of you are graduating?

GZ: That is a hard question. I’m going to hand that one off to Leah.

LM: Well I’m going to be abroad next fall so….

Johannes D: So I think one thing we can really take from that is that this team is so successful and so utterly dominant, that every single player has been approached for a loan, you know, going abroad or we’re simply just leaving and going to other clubs in other places where we got scouted.

AL: Can we go around and name the clubs we’re going to?

KS: A lot of D1 schools have approached us and for confidentiality reasons we can’t name them because it would compromise the agreement, but we are looking into an endowed scholarship, as they’ve been saying, in our name.

LM: We’ll rebuild The Vatican.

AL: There’ll be a renaissance.

TMW: Any final thoughts?

DF: There was blood…There was tears, there was blood, there was…

HV: Sweat is the other one you were thinking of.

Johannes D: But mostly there was joy.

DF: Joy…..and hangovers.

KS: We really enjoyed sharing the season with everyone on the Mac campus. We’re glad everyone could make it to our games.

HV: Shoutout to Mara Short.

KS: And yeah, let’s not forget our teammates in absentia: Maya…

Rait? Maya Rait. Um who else is on the team? Sarah Aldama, Ayusha Modi, Tejas Singh, Gus Walsh, Gabriella Lim, Elo Wittig. Yeah.

Strong team. What a legacy.

• mbritto1@macalester.edu