Through the looking glass
#17 - Aphex Twin
Time - Arca
True Blue Interlude - Magdalena Bay
Heavy Water/ I’d Rather Be Sleeping - Grouper
Heavy Water - feeble little horse
Driving Alone Past Roadwork at Night - Ricky Eat Acid
Chromakey Dreamcoat - Boards of Canada
Whole New World (Remix) - SOPHIE, Doss
Please, Let’s Go Away - Trementina
Big Day Coming - Yo La Tengo
Embryonic Journey - Jefferson Airplane
Rutti - Slowdive
Heera - Peter Cat Recording Co.
Fly - J.K. & Co.
Backwards - LSD and the Search for God
Lost in The Dream - The War on Drugs
Scan Spotify Code for full playlist
Letters
WRITTEN BY
Sofía Cortés
from the
Ever since I was little, I have loved all things Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll’s novel, the films, I even dressed up as her for Halloween when I was 6 years old. When creating this journal, we wanted to highlight the future of art and fashion in Milwaukee. John Tenniel’s original artwork for Carroll’s novel also heavily inspired some of the written and creative choices for this journal, because this journal truly meshes moments of fantasy with the tangible.
Before working on “Through the Looking Glass,” I hadn’t had much experience with long-form journalism because I was always working on shorter news stories. When I began to familiarize myself with longer works of journalism, I fell in love with the idea of curating this Journal and telling stories in a different way than reporting for news. Since I came to Marquette, I had dreamed of leading the journal. Sometimes, even now, I still can’t believe that I’m standing in these shoes. I want to extend my gratitude to Clara Lebrón, an amazing co-director and friend; the design team, who brought these ideas to life visually; and all of the reporters, who wrote incredible stories. As well as our leadership, the board and student media director Juan Carlos Ampie, who through the ups and downs helped me and Clara bring this publication to life.
WRITTEN BY Clara Lebrón
People have always considered me artistically inclined. I like to wear colorful clothes and put stickers on most of my possessions and I could happily doodle or scrapbook forever if given the opportunity. I was even art club president back in high school. However, as my passion for service and law grew, so did the preconceptions of professionalism that I would encounter in tandem with them; these habits were ones that I feared I would have to abandon.
Even as I worked in journalism, a field where you need to innovate and use creativity to create content that connects with people, I still made sure my writing style and I were perceived as uncontroversial. That is, until I found myself in the position of Co-Journal Director alongside my long-time friend Sofia Cortes.
Throughout these stories, we tried to keep a common theme of looking inward at Milwaukee and Marquette, showcasing the issues that affect those around us as well as celebrating the talent and successes of our communities.
Thank you to everyone who made this publication happen, from the leadership that provided much-needed guidance to the reporters, photographers and editors who developed the content in itself, to the design team that put their all into putting this magazine together, and everyone in between. This has been an arduous project, and being able to show the fruits of this labor is the best way I could think of closing my career at the Marquette Wire.
Contributors
Leadership
DIRECTOR OF STUDENT MEDIA - Juan Carlos Ampie
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR- Izzy Fonfara-Drewel
MANAGING DIRECTORS OF THE MARQUETTE JOURNAL - Sofía Cortés and Clara Lebrón
PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER - Clara Lebrón
DESIGN CHIEF - Ally Broaddus
Editorial
EXECUTIVE EDITORS
Joseph Schamber, Sophie Goldstein, Matthew Baltz, Mia Thurow
ASSISTANT EDITORS
Sophia Tiege, Ruby Mulvaney, Kaylynn Wright, MaryKate Stepchuck, Rachel Lopera
CONTRIBUTING REPORTERS
Mia Thurow, Sofía Cortés, Clara Lebrón, Joseph Schaumberg, Ben Hanson, Lily Peacock, Jack Albright, Ruby Mulvaney, Mimi Sinotte, Gabriel Mannion, John O’Shea, Alison McMillon, Ellie Golko, Sahil Gupta
COPY CHIEF - Emma Fishback
COPY EDITORS
Eliza Belmont, Marin Rooney, Shea Lancaster
Digital
GENERAL MANAGER OF MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
RADIO - Shannyn Donohue
RADIO/AUDIO TEAM - Tom Oeffling, Pat Swanson, Maggie O’Brien, Matthew Poulton, Ellie Nelsen-Freund, Sofía Cortés, RJ Siano
Creative DESIGNERS
Amery Thompson, Grace Schnieder, Amelia McGreal, Adriana Vazquez-Herrero
PHOTOGRAPHY CHIEF - Jack Belmont
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Lily Wooten, Amelia Halverson, Shannyn Donohue
Standing Up for Science: The Stats
Photos and commentary by Clara Lebrón
Inspired by the 2017 March for Science catalyzed by Trump’s first administration, Stand Up for Science organizers are looking to advance several policy goals through collective action, with 32 rallies that took place throughout several countries on March 7th. The closest rally to Milwaukee took place at Madison’s capitol building.
Stand Up for Science is a movement started by five young scientists. Then, it was only a reaction by doctoral candidate Colette Delawalla. Now, the movement is bringing scientists, students, and other sovereign citizens together to defend what many see as an attack on science.
These are some ways that Wisconsinites will feel the effects of the lack of divesment in science.
“Alice in Wonderland” has stood the test of time as one of the most popular children’s fairytales. Iterations of the story have continued to be created decades after its original publication.
While each version of the story creates a fresh conception of the narrative, it is important to look back on the cultural context of the original text written by Lewis Carrol. Analyzing it from this context, allows us to understand the beliefs, fears and attitudes of the era in which it was written.
“Alice in Wonderland,” follows the story of a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole into an imaginary world inhabited by a host of whimsical characters. Everything about this world is not as it should be and she embarks on an adventure where she must answer the question “Who in the world am I?”
The story was originally published in 1865, at the end of England’s Victorian Era. While this era was marked by its repressive gender roles and attitudes towards childrearing, the fairytales of this time were highly empathetic to the imaginations of children.
James Holt McGraven writes in his book, “Romanticism and Children’s Literature in Nineteenth-Century England,” that children’s stories began to deviate from the stern moral tales of past centuries, and began to appeal to the creativity of young children and the anxieties of adults.
Alice is a headstrong and creative young girl, and instead of these attributes being punished throughout the story, she
learns to use them to her advantage. Through her journey’s Alice is encouraged to develop a degree of emotional maturity, but she does not have to do so at the expense of her imagination or self-assuredness.
Stories like “Alice in Wonderland” were countercultural, as they encouraged young children to be creative and individualistic rather than repressed and obedient.
Children at the time were expected to emotionally mature quite quickly and forego their childish imaginations. However, Alice comes of age while embracing her imagination.
While stories of the past were created with the intention of shaping a child into a more emotionally mature adolescent, the purpose of “Alice in Wonderland” was to simply appeal to a child’s tastes and attitudes.
Public perception of the story was mostly favorable, with many adults writing it off as a piece of fun childish nonsense.
Despite that, “Alice in Wonderland” is one of the most consequential pieces of children’s literature. It fundamentally reshaped the way authors wrote stories for children, and shifted attitudes away from a repressive approach to childrearing.
The story encouraged children to be like Alice, brave, headstrong and endlessly imaginative. The story has persisted into modern culture, particularly because its message was so revolutionary. “Alice in Wonderland” is much more than a piece of childish nonsense, it is a masterpiece that shaped our culture.
the
From Pages
Written By: Joey Schamber
‘Alice in Wonderland’ is more than childish nonsense
Original artwork by John Tenniel
A H A ggerty e xibition
The international signal of distress, SOS, was transformed into a sign of solidarity and connectedness through the “SOS Color Code” installation in the Haggerty Museum of Art. The piece has been on display since Aug. 31 and will stay up until Dec. 21.
To transform the distress signal, universal languages of Morse code and color theory were combined with a series of printed flags for the SOS Color Code project. The art was a collaborative piece put together by Luftwerk, a Chicago-based artist team of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, and collaborator Renata Graw of Normal Studio.
The installation consisted of an outdoor flag display and an indoor installation that had a painted mural with changing color light projections. Both versions used a combination
of Morse code dots and dashes with various colors.
Luftwerk and Normal Studio have worked together before creating art, but the inspiration for the “SOS Color Code” came during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For 2020 we were all in COVID at home, and we thought how can we signal that we’re in stress,” Graw said. “We had to vote and decide ‘Do we go out; do we wear masks and is it safe?’ We wanted to have a piece of artwork that could represent that distress, so we picked flags.”
Graw said flags have always been used to signify or represent greater messages, pictures or themes.
In medieval times, kings and armies used flags to signify where and who they were. Looking at flags at sea, Graw said they have many interpretations
and meanings.
Jack Belmont
“For instance, ships that put up the yellow flag send a message to other ships that disease or quarantine was taking place on their ship, so others would know not to get close,” Graw said.
About 30 different nautical flags are used to communicate maritime messages. Only one to seven flags are flown at a time by boats or ships.
“I personally am no sailor, so when you look at [flags], I think they’re kind of nice with all these colors, but they have meaning,” Graw said. “Sometimes they spell out the name of the ship or signify something else, but what we thought was interesting is the idea that flags carry meaning.”
Additionally, Graw spoke on the evolution of flags, from the “Jolly Roger” flown by pirates to car racing flags signaling winners. She said the popular flags
PHOTO BY
people recognize come from teams and nations that use flags to represent their values and explore their beliefs.
To make iconic flags, Luftwerk and Normal Studio presented the five principles of designing a good flag from the North American Vexillological Association.
When creating a flag the principles state to keep it simple, use meaningful symbolism, use two or three basic colors, do not use lettering or seals and be distinctive or be related.
“The best principle is [keep it simple] because a child should be able to draw the flag from memory,” Bachmaier said.
Additionally, Bachmaier said that the flag should be able to be drawn at a three-inch stand because from far away that’s how the flag will be seen. She said, if there’s too much going on in the flag it won’t be seen or understood.
Bachmaier also addressed how color changes the perception of a flag.
“Yellow on white is very different than yellow on black,” Bachmaier said. “The same color is so different in a different color relationship. The contrast is stunning, and the message
completely changes.”
Gallero said they took this idea of simplicity and the contrast of color to make “SOS Color Code.”
He said, with simplicity, they settled on Morse code due to it being an universal language. Then, color was used as a system of language and a marker of emotion.
In Morse code, SOS is represented as three dots [S], three dashes [O] and three dots [S].
Gallero said it’s an effective distress signal because it can be read upside down or right side up.
The original project in 2020 consisted of nine colorful flags spaced out to represent SOS. The project then evolved and was condensed to just three flags in 2024. Now, the three flags have the dots and dashes merged together to simplify the message while allowing for more contrast of color with the background, dot and dash colors.
The original display was released to coincide with the 2020 election to stress the importance of voting.
“SOS Color Code” received its update in 2024 because the team shared similar feelings for the 2024 presidential election as
they did in 2020. It was scheduled to coincide with the 2024 election and the International Day of Democracy.
Gallero said simplifying it allowed for a new approach by recreating and slowing it down so that people could take it in and see the fluidity of “SOS.”
In addition to the three flags, an indoor component pairs a painted mural with a display of changing colored lights. The mural keeps the three-flag design of a merged dot, dash and color.
“We used fluorescent paint which is aggressive and leaves a strong presence,” Bachmaier said. “But it’s almost like this optical experience of what is foreground and what is background. It invites you to be with it.”
The mural allows for a more condensed and powerful version of “SOS Color Code,” as it creates a multisensory experience.
The artists took an international symbol of distress and consolidated it to be an experience of solidarity and connectedness to promote the importance of voting so the nation may connect and strengthen its democracy.
Wearable
Written By: Mia Thurow
Photos by Marquette Wire Photo Desk
mediums
Mary Safranski is not your typical college student.
The 39-year-old Cudahy resident is a wife and mother of three who attends Mount Mary University and studies apparel design with a minor in graphic design. Beyond the realm of just making clothing, she also has a passion for sustainability.
After years of working in food service and her husband working in the grocery industry, Safranski saw how many single-use plastics were being used and how much food was being wasted daily.
“Everyone was aware, and it was like we were just following the same playbooks,” Safranski said. “It takes a lot of personal interest and conversations and teamwork for [change] to happen.”
Like Safranski, Kendall Holewinski and Andrew Trester are also local designers who focus on sustainability in their creative work.
Trester is a Sheboygan native who attended UW-Madison as a student in the fashion apparel textile program. He currently works as the designer for men’s lifestyle apparel at Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee after working at Land’s End and Ralph Lauren.
“I started in high school, making my own clothes and being on the environmental club,” Trester said. “Then I started reading Rachel Carson and Edward Abbey and other people that were focused on ecological sustainability in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and that journey for them.”
Holewinski was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and attended Indiana University where she studied sustainable management before moving to Milwaukee shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she used the time of isolation to start sewing and find a community of other creators in Milwaukee.
“The pandemic is really what started my passion for art, or what kind of opened up my lens to textile art in general,” Holewinski said. “I only had some embroidery thread, a couple of pillow sheets and some needles from Dollar Tree, and I was just sewing by hand.”
Inspiration is one of the key elements in fashion design, and both Holewinski and Safranski take inspiration from their grandmothers. Safranski’s was a seamstress, and Holewinski’s simply spent time with her sewing, even before she had a flair for creativity.
“I think about how many things I wish I could’ve asked her now, but I take a lot of inspiration from how much skill she had and the photos I’ve seen of the things she’s created,” Holewinski said.
Style is another element of design, and each of these sustainable creators has their own distinguishing factors. Holewinski works with a myriad of sustainable mediums including textile art, machine sewing, hand mending, embroidery and crochet tapestry.
“I would describe my designs as a mix of sweet and sour, tough but tender accessories,” Holewinski said. “I like mixing two mediums together, especially things that maybe don’t necessarily go together, like camo and a frilly collar.”
One of Trester’s favorite pieces is a blanket stripe shearling jack with plan woven material, sheep shearling and wooden toggles that he designed at Ralph Lauren.
“Using natural materials is always a joy for me,” Trester said. “I do work with lots of synthetics, but I don’t love it.”
Safranski also prefers natural fibers and enjoys making outerwear and jackets. She said she loves the arts of tailoring and patternmaking.
“When you make something, it really is like a work of art,” Safranski said. “It can be on display on you, which is way cool, the coolest ever.”
While the paths Holewinski, Safranski and Trester took to get to where they are now may have looked different and their preferences in fashion are unique to themselves, the sustainable practices these designers incorporate into their work are similar.
“If you have a shirt with a stain on it, you can choose to put a fun patch on it or do some embroidery over it, or make a dress out of a tablecloth,” Holewinski said. “All of that is going to reduce landfill waste, cut down on the energy resources in making the garments and overall reduce greenhouse emissions.”
Regarding sustainability, Trester said working in a corporate environment, as he and Safranski do, means that positive change might come slowly, but it will still happen as long as action is taken.
“I know that my core values are always present with the decisions that I make daily,” Safranski said. “You could look into a corner and see something and be like, ‘Oh, that could be a backpack,’ and it might have a couple holes, but you can patch it.”
Looking to the future, Safranski said she might like to have a business of her own one day.
“My trajectory has taken all these twists and turns that weren’t expected, but there are very exciting things happening in Milwaukee, for sure,” Safranski said.
As for Trester, he’ll continue bringing sustainable practices to Harley-Davidson after already generating a complete switch to non-carcinogenic fabric coatings in his first six months at the company.
“I think it’s important to always not get jaded in this industry and to stick with it and do what’s best for you,” Trester said. “It’s good to always look at it with fresh eyes.”
Holewinski keeps her art and work completely separate from one another. She said for now, she’ll continue to treasure the pure joy she receives from designing a new piece or trading a clothing item with an artist she admires.
“The difference for me is to inspire people to pick up a sewing needle and some thread and mend your own clothes,” Holewinski said. “Anyone can pick up some thread and a needle and create a really creative piece while being sustainable and reducing the amount of waste.”
Students, Art and Mental Health
PHOTO BY Jack Belmont WRITTEN BY Ruby Mulvaney
Mental health has been an increasingly public conversation, specifically in university settings. Researchers have become progressively more engaged in learning about what mental health is and how struggles with it can be addressed. This has led to large conversations about how people can take care of each other in a productive way, backed by science.
Recently, art has gained traction as an avenue to improve mental health. Creative endeavors including singing, painting, dancing, writing poetry and the simple act of creating, have pointed to multiple benefits, including decreased levels of stress.
The interpretation of art can take place in many different forms, analyzing stroke, color, medium and hidden meaning. However, art can also be interpreted beyond the scope of observation, as it holds an opportunity to have an impact on the well-being of those who view it.
“Art is an explicit reminder that there is life that’s worth creating and living,” Melissa Shew, an associate professor of philosophy, said.
Engaging in artistic activity has been shown to
have a direct impact on emotional well-being. Potential effects of those creative efforts include increased serotonin levels and increased blood flow to the part of the brain associated with pleasure.
Beyond biology, art is also believed to inspire those immersed in it to think in new and different ways while imagining a more hopeful future for themselves, according to Mayo Clinic Press.
Emily Drenovsky, a licensed art therapist and professional counselor, works here at Marquette to connect students struggling with mental health to art. Her work focuses on the healing power of art and the positive impacts it can have on a person.
Drenovsky said that art is multifaceted. She describes art as a tool of expression, a way to communicate what we can’t say, a mindfulness tool, a helpful way to process something, a task that activates a different part of your brain and a tactical experience that elicits a physiological response.
The point of art therapy is not who can create the best art, but instead it focuses on the process over the product.
“Just because I can’t draw doesn’t mean that I’m
Art by James Rosenquist (1974)
not creative or expressive or able to find art therapeutic,” Drenvosky said.
Drenovsky presented an example of this philosophy when speaking about her past work with an addiction rehab population, which usually consisted of older male participants. She introduced them to the art of collage and had them look through magazines to see what they liked, because many of them did not consider themselves to be artists.
“Sure enough, they have made something really cool. Or they start to think about the ways they can use metaphor and maybe relate it to something they do know a lot about,” Drenvosky said.
Lynne Shumow, curator for academic engagement at the Haggerty Museum of Art, spoke about how art and mental health work hand-in-hand. She said that the museum gives students a place to be calm and reflect.
“We offer a meditative space. We offer a different kind of looking space, a non-pressure, educational space,” Shumow said.
The Haggerty is filled with paintings, photographs and prints that hold a unique blend of color, style and storytelling. Between each wall of artwork is ample space for visitors to walk and immerse themselves in the artistic experience the museum offers.
Shumow also spoke about what students on campus can benefit from if they come to the Haggerty and observe art, even as coursework. A theology class led by Rev. Ryan Duns, S.J., is required to come to the museum and look at the pieces on display before reflecting on the experience.
“What he’s doing is really helping people become present and become comfortable with things that
may not be comfortable,” Shumow said. “We’ve had students really have some transformative mental health experiences from that.”
The main goal of the space is to serve as a location where students feel understood and welcome, both of which are feelings that help with one’s wellness and mental health.
Beyond observing and experiencing art that has already been made, there is also value found in the creation of art, which has just as much of an opportunity to make a difference concerning mental health.
“It’s a way to get your mind in a different place, and to do something creative, whether it’s a masterpiece or not, there can be a real sense of accomplishment,” Shumow said.
The creative accomplishment of producing a work of art, regardless of the magnitude or skill behind it, is an opportunity to revitalize the artist’s relationship with the outside world.
“Whatever it is that you’re doing, you’re putting something into the world that didn’t exist before, and that is creative,” Shew said. “Because if you want to deal with mental health issues, one way to do that is to put something out into the world and not let the world trample you.”
The relationship between art, the world and mental health is as dynamic as it is enigmatic, but it is one that offers a chance for all people to grow in their well-being.
“Art is not acknowledged enough for the power it has in it to be transformational in people’s lives,” Shew said. “It is explicitly creative and life-giving.”
P I G N K E E ON
Written By: Ben Hanson
Photos By: Keifer Russell
At 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights, more than 20 Marquette rock climbing club members take over the Turner Hall Climbing Gym.
Having been built in 1882, it’s a relatively small gym. Every inch of climbing space is either covered by someone scaling a route or another waiting to take their turn.
“It’s a group of people—a lot of friends—who all have a common interest with rock climbing,” vice president of the club Christopher Dollhopf, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “We hang out every Monday and Wednesday night and it’s a very chill environment. It’s not competitive climbing where you would have scheduled, regimented practices and training. It’s a group of people who really like to rock climb and have a really good time outdoors, too.”
With fingers and muscles aching, members of the team rest while they watch others climb and talk to friends with smiles and laughs. In these conversations, questions of “Are you going on the fall trip?” and “Have you signed up yet?” echoed against the bumpy, high walls. Since 2016, only one year after the club was founded, the group has been taking annual trips during fall and spring break to rock climb at outdoor locations.
During fall break in 2024, they travelled to Red River Gorge in Kentucky.
“It was so much fun. It’s just a great group of people and everyone gets along, and it was very positive,” first-time trip-goer Auggie Coleman, a
junior in the college of health sciences said. “Kentucky was great. I didn’t have an appreciation for how sick it was because I never heard about it before, but so pretty.”
President of the club, Gavin Tacke, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, was tasked with planning the logistics of the trip — which includes the cars, where to climb, the cost per person and the food.
During the eight-hour drive there, they shared conversations of “Would You Rather” and listened to a playlist the group had created together. This energy continues well on into the campground they share and the location where they climb.
“It’s very communal,” Tacke said. “During the day, when we’re not climbing, we’ll have campfires. We all hang out with each other, we play games and everyone’s included in that.”
They all share their food and personal camping equipment. Dollhopf said he even brought his own camp stove and cooked burgers for a group of people.
After dinner, one of the games that they play around the campfire is called “Pizza Box.” They take a box from Miguel’s Pizza, a “Gorge visitor hotspot,” and flip a coin onto the cardboard. Wherever the coin lands, you write a rule in that spot and pass it on to the next person. If you land on an existing rule, you must do what it says.
One that always gets the group laughing is “Swap Pants.”
Waking up to the cold, their tents covered in morning dew, the group heads out to their climbing spot for the day. A far cry from what they’re used to at Turners.
“It’s very different than indoors,” second year member Erin Kuhl, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “The rocks are bright orange, and you have to grab them in a certain way. You’re scrambling when you’re outside, so you have really slabby routes where you have to try and discover the feed. It’s a lot of fun. The problem solving is way different, so that was really exciting.”
Coleman said that he wasn’t fully prepared for the differences between indoor and outdoor climbing.
“It was more of a challenge because when you’re in the gym, all the holds are shown out for you, but outside you have to search for them,” Coleman said. “I was a little frustrated at first, but then it became a lot more fun. It’s more of a challenge, but at the same time it’s a lot more rewarding because it’s more of a puzzle than just getting the route and going up.”
Climbers spend up to 15-20 minutes on the route and since it’s only a three-day trip, they’re climbing for three days in a row. Though, one spot they climbed on day two of the trip included a prize for getting to the top of the rock: a view of the gorge covered with all shades of red, yellow and orange trees for miles.
Kuhl said she had such a great experience on the trip that she plans on going back to Kentucky with her friends during the summer.
When the team is back in Wisconsin, they climb at Devils Lake if it’s warm enough, but if not, they return to Turners.
After Red River Gorge, Coleman said he knew a lot more faces every Monday and Wednesday night.
“I was only close with a few people before the trip, but it was nice getting to meet a lot of new people in the group and getting close with everyone,” Coleman said. “Then when you go to climbing practice, you know everybody and it makes it more of a collective group. It’s nice meeting more people, making new friends and bonding with everybody.”
For spring break, the club’s destination changes every year. This season, the team went to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arizona. Dollhopf, Tacke and Kuhl all went.
Last year’s spring break, the club went to Bend Park near Austin, Texas.
“The spring break trip is definitely a lot more work to plan because there were so many
unknowns,” Dollhopf said. “We had no help from alumni and it was all on our own with camping, where we were gonna camp the whole time while we were there and how we were gonna do food for everyone.”
On that 19-hour drive, they stopped at 2 a.m. to camp overnight at a farm in Missouri and left at 6 a.m. Though Tacke says it’s all worth it.
“Being in the area and not having any obligations other than climbing is such a nice feeling to have. It’s very calming,” Tacke said. “Even people that aren’t as strong climbers, they still love coming on the trips because of the experience you get from it.”
After a day of stone scaling in Bend Park, a lot of members had scrapes, bruises, cuts, aching muscles and taped fingers, something Kuhl said comes with the territory.
“It’s the same reason that
anybody does anything hard or why people work out,” Kuhl said. “It’s not fun to feel fatigued and hungry all the time. Nobody likes to do it in the moment, but after, you feel happy with yourself, and the moment is awesome.”
With the marks of a full day of climbing, the team was promised showers on their Austin campgrounds. When they realized there weren’t any, they improvised and all dove into the freezing cold Colorado River to wash off. They were armed with a lone bottle of biodegradable shampoo to share between the lot.
On either side of them, trees lining the river turned into limestone cliffs which rose into the air to meet the orange and pink sky painted by a setting sun.
Despite the hours of outdoor climbing earlier in the day, the purpose of the trip, Tacke and Dollhopf share this as their fondest memory of the journey.
“It’s mainly,” Tacke said, “the people and the personalities that keep the club going.”
If interested in joining Marquette’sFIrstAscenders,contact @muclimbingonInstagram.
Field Trip
Marquette University does not offer art-related majors and minors such as graphic design or studio art, but fortunately for students who are looking to pursue an artistic academic study, there is another option: to dual enroll and take courses at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
Every semester, dozens of students dual enroll in Marquette and MIAD. They take a variety of classes to fulfill their majors and minors. They take classes at both institutions and commute back and forth. This small but mighty cohort of students takes a unique approach to the college experience, and their days look different than many of their peers.
Claire Ruschak, a sophomore in the College of Communication, is a dual enrollment student at MIAD. Every Monday and Wednesday, she starts at Marquette, with classes on campus until 11:50 a.m. At that point, her day takes a unique turn.
“At around noon, I hop on the bus. It can take anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes, including walking,” Ruschak said. Ruschak rides the bus to the Historic Third Ward, home of MIAD. There, she takes part in a class called Visual Language, an introductory class required for all MIAD students.
“We learn how to apply the principles of art and design in our projects, and we use many different mediums,”
WRITTEN
BY
Ellie Golko and Sahil Gupta
Ruschak said.
Some of the projects that she has taken on include printmaking and more advanced creations that are done in a group setting.
Ruschak talked about how she has always had a passion for art and how she wanted art to be part of her college experience in some way, shape or form, so the MIAD offering was very appealing.
“I always knew that I was going to implement art into college somehow, whether that was through taking a class or doing it on my own. But when I found out that Marquette has the [MIAD dual enrollment], I decided to do it,” Ruschak said. Ruschak enjoys her art class, however she said traveling to and from MIAD can prove at times to be quite difficult.
Additionally, Ruschak talked about how each project needs to be done within a certain time frame, which can at times prove to be challenging.
Marquette has a small visual arts program on campus. A creative design toolbox course is offered, which teaches students the basics of digital tools such as Adobe and Photoshop, however, there are no additional visual arts classes on campus.
“I do sometimes wish that Marquette offered more things in the fine arts field,” Ruschak said.
While there are challenges that come with being a dual enrolled student, Ruschak says
PHOTO
BY
Jack Belmont
the benefits outweigh the challenges.
“It is really nice to step outside of campus and meet new people that aren’t from Marquette,” Ruschak said. “Also to be able to do things that I wouldn’t have been able to do [at Marquette] is really cool.”
Sheena Carey, administrative staff in the College of Communications, oversees students like Ruschak who apply for various programs and classes at MIAD and is in charge of the application process.
Carey said that currently there are three potential minors that students can get at MIAD.
“Right now, we have studio art and graphic design, there’s no more motion narrative or photography but we this year have added a games and interactive media minor. So, I’m really excited about that,” Carey said.
Carey said the new games and interactive media minor combines communication, digital media and engineering classes. Anyone can apply for a minor at MIAD, no matter what their interests are or what college they are in.
“All students need to do is just declare their minor and then I take them through the selection process,” Carey said. “We encourage them to apply their freshman or sophomore year.”
Carey said that students should apply by their sophomore year at the latest so they can give themselves two years to complete the minor.
Requirements for the application are a personal statement, a letter of recommendation and up to 10 samples of artistic work. Carey said she then looks at this work and if she finds students to be a good fit, she sends them a MIAD and MU cross-registration form that they fill out with course selections for the rest of their college career.
Carey said that students who dual enroll have different schedules than the typical Marquette student because of the different class structures at MIAD and commuting.
“The MIAD classes are a little smaller, the time frames are
longer. They may be two to two and a half hours long,” Carey said. “They do have some evening classes as well that students can take advantage of.”
Carey said that although the most popular pairing is a Marquette advertising major and MIAD graphic design minor, students of all different colleges, majors and personalities apply for the program and there is no stereotype, is for everyone.
“In terms of personality types, they run the gamut. The quiet person who just kind of wants to paint over in the corner or the outgoing avant-garde person with purple hair who wants
to be a creative director somewhere or vice versa,” Carey said.
Carey said that the only thing these students have in common is their talent and passion.
“I would emphasize that if they are looking to pursue a minor, especially at MIAD to think about that and make some decisions sooner rather than later,” Carey said.
Students are able to register for up to 6 MIAD dual enrollment credits per semester.
Fashion shoot
Down the
Written By Clara Lebrón
When I was in elementary school, I remember the first time my class was taken to our school’s library. It wasn’t my first time within the colorfully decorated rooms, as the library was a refuge I ran to while others went to the park during recess, but it was the first time we had gotten to take our ‘Library Class’. A weekly endeavor, it gave us an opportunity to learn about the space and how to use it.
To me, this was a magical experience. Everytime I had a question, it was as if I got to explore a new world, slowly drifting down a rabbit hole of synonyms, related works and interesting facts that would all lead me to whatever question I had formulated an hour or two beforehand.
Collectively, we learned how to look for books
Rabbit Hole
we needed for class, research on the wall of slightly outdated computers they could provide us and, most importantly for many of us, we were taught that the library and librarians are an invaluable resource. Ms. Jasmine was my favorite librarian. She taught me that words and sentiments are essential, the government is not treating them as such.
Between book bans and lack of funds, many libraries find themselves less and less able to assist those who might need it the most.
In Philadelphia’s school district, for example, there are only 4 certified librarians to serve 113,440 students. Many have been replaced with ‘media specialists,’ as many libraries around the country are converted into media centers where students can use electronic resources to do their
homework and research (usually to cut spending).
However, this focus on digital information and the quickest way to find information is removing one of the most important aspects of learning: the process of finding the answer you need. While it may be much more convenient to quickly Google any question you might have for a class or your job, the answer you are getting is usually neither the most accurate nor the most complete.
As information be-
comes easier for everyone to access, it becomes harder for us to decipher what is legitimate and relevant from what is misleading and misinterpreted. According to the Pew Research Center, 64% of Americans state that “fake news” causes confusion on basic facts and 23% related that they had (knowingly and unknowingly) shared misinformation at some point. The Internet creates information silos, little bubbles of space where people feel comfortable and enjoy the content, and therefore they continue to be fed particular content creators, themes and even alternative versions of definitive facts and events. This reality, compounded with the understandable inability of everyday people to fact check every piece of media they interact with, are proving extremely dangerous to politics not only in America, but in the whole world.
While in the United States we have political candidates posting clearly fabricated pictures of themselves and endorsing racist news articles that have been debunked, AI deep fakes are reeking havoc on elections throughout Europe and Asia. An opposition lawmaker in Bangladesh, for example, was edited into a bikini in posts that were seen all over Facebook. In a Muslim majority country, this seriously impacted not only her campaign but her image in society. As technological advances continue to be made, these images will only begin getting more and more detailed. This means that people around the world should not only be aware of this when they interact with media, but that they should also become accustomed to finding their own systems from
which they can get reliable information. Libraries are the best places to exercise the function of information gathering while also interacting with others and corroborating your facts. While it is impossible to check everything you see or read for inaccuracies, those issues that are especially impactful or interesting to you should be analyzed from the most accurate point of view possible. It might be easier to just look it up on your phone and call it a day, but once in a while you need to go down that rabbit hole to find what you’re really looking for.
Wisconsin produces over 600 varieties of cheese (more than any other U.S. state) thanks largely to scientific innovation in enzymes, bacterial cultures, and aging techniques.
According to a report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on-farm activities alone generated $30.5 billion in revenue and provided 143,690 jobs in 2024. Food processing contributed $107 billion in revenue and 298,400 jobs. Dairy farming and processing, especially cheese production, accounted for $52.8 billion in revenue and 120,700 jobs.
A lack of divestment in food science could endanger the livelihood and craft of those who define the economy of the state.
When I walked into the Klatte home, I was greeted by a glass case filled with figurines, trophies and mementos from Owen and his wife Angie’s animation careers.
Inside the case, you can find anything from Jack Skellington statues, an original seagull from “James and the Giant Peach” and a set of Gumby figurines.
Owen Klatte is an animator, filmmaker and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching animation classes through the university’s film department.
Klatte has been a character animator in various films throughout his career including the “Gumby Advetures” television series, “A Nightmare Before Christmas,”(1993)“James and the Giant Peach,” (1996)“Anomalisa,” (2015)“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1” (2010) and more.
After spending most of his career working on films, Klatte decided to write, direct and animate his own short film, inventing his own technique/animation style for it as well.
The award-winning short film “Of Wood” (2022) is a story of time and consumerism, a stop-motion film told through the carving of a 19″ wood round.
Before his career kicked off, Klatte studied architecture in college because he enjoyed the combination of art and science, but said that he always felt somewhere in between.
In his early 20s, frustrated with what to do next with
his career, he began visiting the Oriental Theatre once a year and would watch collections of animated shorts. Klatte said that after he fell in love with animation, he took a job at a local studio in Milwaukee.
“I can’t draw so I just found the only animation studio there was in town in the state, I think,” Klatte said. “It was this solo guy and I started picking up some freelance work just painting cells, doing that grunt work on animation.”
This is where Owen and his wife Angie met and soon after that, they decided to move to California.
“We (Owen and Angie) still worked in labs and stuff for several years. And then Gumby came along,” Klatte said. “That was our big break. We had done some little freelance and some volunteer work and animation and everything but Gumby was the big break.”
From there, they both kept landing more jobs within the animation industry.
“So I was always animating a character, trying to bring it to life, early on actually Gumby was an amazingly great place to start working because it was very low tech and relatively low quality,” Klatte said. “So they could put up with beginners basically, animating on it.”
To Klatte, bringing a character to life meant studying storyboards, if there is dialogue, listening to that to get a feel for the character itself.
After moving back to Milwaukee and becoming a
Written By: Sofia Córtes
professor at UWM, Klatte began to work on his film, “Of Wood,” which from the time of conception and its execution, took six years.
“Of Wood” tells a story of time and as the film unfolds you can see this character become overwhelmed and over consumed with different materialistic objects. A simple time, becomes an excessive one.
“I see it as an environmental film. Okay. ’cause the whole basic idea is excessive consumerism, it’s overwhelming us,” Klatte said. “So, I wanted to show this progression of time, sort of the use of wood and life in general and how the use wood over this millennia has gotten more and more developed and eventually excessive.”
“Of Wood” originally began as an experiment, Klatte said he was learning as he was going with this film since he had never delved into wood carving techniques before. The project was done entirely from Klatte’s home and said he worked on it whenever he found the time, aiming to work on it between 10 and 20 hours a week.
“I wanted to do something with wood just ’cause I like trees, I like wood. So it really did start as an experiment in a technique that I thought would be original and, and is,” Klatte said. “And then I thought, okay, well it can’t just throw an experiment up on the screen, you gotta make some kind of a film out of it.”
While sending his film around to different festivals, “Of
Wood” was also accepted into the documentary category at a festival in California as well.
“I thought, oh, that’s weird. I never thought of it. But I sent it to them and it got in and I didn’t realize until they did that, that it actually is a documentary because it’s kind of documenting the use of wood over the centuries. I never even thought of it that way,” Klatte said.
One scene in Klatte’s film highlights “Walden,” by Henry David Thoreau, a novel that unpacks the idea of living a simple life surrounded by nature.
“That’s kind of the general message, is kind of seeing what happened through time and where we are now and how we need to get back to a simpler time,” Klatte said. It’s very 18 or 19th century. So I don’t know, it’s not exactly a page turner, in a way but it’s been very influential in my life because it was all about living a simple life. And I think it’s very powerful, still a good message.”
Klatte said that the narrative and style of this film were discovered through his personal interests.
“I just started pulling together interests in my life, history, architecture, literature, environmentalism, and I guess wood in general. So, I tried to incorporate all those things and just kind of developed the idea of going through time,” Klatte said.
“Of Wood” is available to stream on Vimeo.
theWithin
Self Expression Self Expression
Serena Williams is a great tennis player. But outside of tennis, she’s a resilient woman who has used her platform to advocate for women’s rights and body positivity.
Athletes around the world are defined by their performance, but they have an identity that exists beyond their sport. Self-expression outside their sport is just as significant to their identity as the sport they’re playing. A sound sense of self is crucial to one’s identity, and without it there would be no authenticity.
Looking at an athlete for who they are beyond their sport uplifts their identity, which can fuel confidence and determination. A huge part of the sports environment is its competitive nature, making it easy for someone to begin equating their self-worth with their athletic performance. Trophies and accomplishments don’t define an athlete’s worth.
College athlete Paige Bueckers exemplified this in 2021, when she commended black women and their foundation in women’s sports in her ESPYs speech after winning the award for Best Female College Athlete. She’s also incredibly into fashion and uses it as a way to highlight who she is and what she likes.
Self-expression fosters personal development in areas
such as emotional intelligence and self-awareness, which are both key in an athletic environment. It also contributes to building resilience; by uplifting a piece of their identity that goes beyond their sport, they reinforce the notion that their value extends beyond their performance.
Serena Williams is the face of the tennis world, only accentuated by her advocacy for women’s confidence within sports. Building self-confidence is a process, one that she’s worked through herself. Through her own journey, Williams is able to share what it means to be confident in yourself separate from the sport you play.
When athletes take the time to humanize themselves beyond the games they play, expectations begin to fall and pressure decreases. Mental health can rapidly fall in an environment where there’s always pressure to perform your best, and when this is ignored, passion for something that was previously loved can dissipate.
In 2020, Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her well-being and mental health. While the public had a lot to say about her decision, it ultimately opened up a new conversation surrounding protecting
the mental health of athletes. Since then, Biles has continued to use her experience to express the importance of taking care of yourself and doing what’s best for you.
Athletes’ mental health should absolutely be prioritized, but is oftentimes overlooked. Between pressure to perform well, potential injury, and stress balancing athletics with academics, immense psychological strain can be placed on an individual. There’s no reason mental health should be overlooked in sports, physical strength and emotional strength are not correlated and must be taken care of separately.
The encouragement of self-expression instills confidence in one’s identity that extends beyond how they performed in their last game. Resilience is the foundation of competition, and maintaining self-confidence can only positively impact overall well-being.
It should go without saying that self-expression helps team dynamics, as it ensures authenticity and clear communication. Athletes present in an environment where they’re comfortable expressing themselves can help them get over mental blocks put in place by the expectations they’re held to. Self-expression provides the opportunity to invest in the whole person, not just the athlete.
Written By: Lilly Peacock
Off the Court Off the Court
Photo of Paige Bueckers, courtesy of Reuters Images
Reaching Beyond the
Written By: Jack Albright
Yadhira Anchante blamed her hands.
They were the culprit. The reason she wouldn’t be allowed to hit. Why she needed to hone in on finesse and precision over brute force and raw power. The pretext for her focus on finger over arm strength.
It was 2013, and 10-year-old Anchante had been formally playing volleyball for one year, a time she spent learning it all. She played every position and wholly immersed herself in every aspect of the game. But now it was time for her to be given a set position.
Anchante wanted the same as every other kid — to become a hitter. She wasn’t so lucky, instead being designated a setter. Not by choice, but obligation.
“They just chose five people, but none of us wanted to be a setter, because in the moment, you’re like, ‘Oh, I want to be a hitter!’ With the scoring and all that,” Anchante said. “But then they saw I have really good hands, and they chose me.”
Luckily, it didn’t take long for her to get over any disappointment she felt. After one year playing setter full time, Anchante started to appreciate what it meant, what she could do.
“Being the setter is being the mind of the game. You have basically the power of the
game. You control the game,” she said. “You’re the most important position, I think, on the court because you have to think about the plays and give confidence to your players. And create that connection with all of them.”
Anchante decides which attacker is going to get the ball, with what kind of set and at what tempo, all while reading the opposing teams’ defense and remaining the Golden Eagles’ imperturbable force. She — and her hands — control it all.
Every day of Anchante’s formative years looked the same.
Wake up, drive 40 minutes to the training facility, practice, rest, practice again, drive 40 minutes home.
“It was a long day,” she said. “I got used to it. I’ve been doing that since I’m a child, 9-10 (years old). All my life.”
After high school, Anchante started playing with the Peruvian national team, something she still does in the offseason. Then, at 19 years old, she moved to the United States to play JUCO at Iowa Western Community College.
The first thing she noticed about playing in America was the change in coaching styles. In Peru, mistakes were not allowed. Coaches would chastise any error, no matter how big or small. In the US, the player-coach dynamic operates a little different.
NET
“[US coaches] give you more confidence. If you make a mistake, they say, ‘Okay, move on, and you don’t have to worry about that one.’ So I feel like in Iowa, I learned that mistakes are okay, and everyone makes them. And then here I thought like that,” Anchante said.
“And I feel like everyone is so positive here. They don’t think about mistakes a lot, they’re moving on all the time. And that’s helped me.”
In the United States, it’s the carrot. In Peru, it’s the stick.
The difference allowed Anchante to blossom. In her two years at Iowa Western, she became a two-time National Junior College Athletic Association player of the year. Then in her first season at Marquette, in 2022, she was named the Big East setter of the year.
Her mind was no longer racing, stuck thinking about what happens if something goes awry. Instead, she was just doing her thing, letting the game come to her and using her talent to her advantage.
“They gave me some freedom,” Anchante said, “and that helped me to grow as a player.”
It’s the first set of the first match of Anchante’s final year at Marquette, and the No. 24 Golden Eagles are in Charleston, Illinois facing the Eastern Illinois Panthers.
Marquette has an early 6-2 lead and Eastern Illinois mishandles the serve, bumping the ball over the net directly
to Anchante. She sees the ball floating toward her, her eyes only following its path. In one smooth motion, Anchante cocks her arm back and swings fully through the ball, resulting in a kill.
The next set, Anchante receives a bump from libero Molly Berezowitz. She has outside hitter Jenna Reitsma to her left, middle blocker Hattie Bray to her right and outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton behind her — all of them good options to receive the set. Instead, Anchante dumps the ball over the net, catching the Panthers’ defense by surprise and extending the Golden Eagles’ 4-0 run.
Fast forward a few points, it’s an identical situation. This time, Anchante puts the ball 15 feet straight up and Hamilton blitzes to just behind the 10-foot line, plants her feet and uncorks an unstoppable kill to give Marquette a 9-1 advantage.
Despite being a small sample size, the sequence is a microcosm of what she does best — keep the defense guessing.
“Yadhi’s ability to create stress on the defense is what separates her from most people,” Marquette head coach Ryan Theis said.
And when it’s time to make the set, regardless of who it’s directed to, it’s second nature for her. An afterthought. What some might call intuition. She can rattle off where each of her hitters need their sets and go out on the court and place them perfectly every single time. No hesitation, no mistakes.
She sees Bray, she sets it fast and outside. She sees Reitsma, she sets it fast again. Hamilton
wants the ball both high and fast, so that’s what Anchante does. Middle blocker Carsen Murray also wants it high, so Anchante puts it high. You ask, she’ll deliver.
“All of them have different styles of playing,” Anchante said. “But since I’ve been playing with them for already two years and a half, just getting to know them on the court, I know how to set and how they’re gonna bring the points for us.
“And that’s amazing because I trust them, they trust me.”
It doesn’t matter who the hitter is, Anchante will get the ball to them in the right place at the correct tempo — almost as if each of her sets should come with wrapping paper around it and a little bow on top.
“I don’t know how setters do it to be honest,” Murray said. “It’s just something that we kind of built that connection.
You start to learn people’s ten-
dencies.
“It’s the same thing for me, when I see her set. Like if she’s tight sometimes, I can tell when she’s about to dump it (over the net against an unaware defense) versus when she’s going to try and set like a sneak set to like one of the middles for an easy kill.”
It wasn’t always as seamless a process as it is now, though. This wizardry is a product of countless reps in the gym and painstaking hours spent setting to each of her hitters.
Readthefullstoryonourwebsite: “Yadhira Achante’s hands haveshapedherpast.They’ll keepshapingherfuture.”
Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics
MU Theater
This fall, the Marquette Theatre Arts Department adopted a new production from New York City playwright, Frank Winters.
“In the Cities of Refuge” is the second play by Winters that Marquette has shown and is the first production to kick off the season’s theme of “Truth Be Told.” The season will showcase shows that each reveals their own hidden set of secrets and it is up to each cast to reveal these secrets while simultaneously learning more about themselves.
The show tells the story of a homeless shelter set in the ‘90s and its hidden secrets which are slowly revealed after tragedy strikes.
The opening weekend began Oct. 4 and ran for the following weekend on Oct. 10, 11 and 12.
Winters said he wrote the first play a few years ago, becoming commissioned by New York University, and later made its way to Marquette after reconnecting with Jamie Cheatham, associate professor in the the-
atre arts department and artistic director.
Winters said he and Cheatham started talking in 2018 and after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, everything was put on hold. Until, five years later in the same email thread, Cheatham followed up.
Winters explained how the subject of non-consensual sex work came to be the main theme he and Debra Krajec, associate professor in the theatre arts department and director, wanted to create awareness on.
“The more I did research and the more I learned about Marquette and got to dig in on the broader topic, the more educated I was able to become communicating with people about the misconceptions that exist about that subject. And especially the way it’s dramatized in Hollywood films and action movies,” Winters said.
After deciding on a theme, Winters said when deciding on how large the cast was, he and Krajec created a cast of
21 distinct characters.
“In the spring I got to come out and do a workshop with students. They are so cool, and I got to have these amazing discussions, and I got to really see what moved them as part of those discussions I was then able to go away and workshop it some more,” Winters said.
The script became a collaborative effort between Winters and the Marquette students involved.
“I love working with people and these artists in particular brought a lot of themselves and a lot of passion to this conversation and I was really humbled by that, I was really grateful for that,” Winters said.
Kynkade McLachlan, a junior in the College of Communication majoring in theatre arts, played Amanda, a resident at the homeless shelter.
She said she enjoyed the presence of Winters in rehearsals as he helped to coordinate how the scenes would play out.
WRITTEN BY
Mimi Sinottee
PHOTOS BY
Ben Sherrill
“He came for the first week of rehearsals and we basically did a breakdown of every single thing, every single scene, every single line in the show and we were like [well what does that mean?] because the play constantly jumps back and forth from the past to the present,” McLachlan said.
The creation of the play was unique, as Winters said he was heavily involved in the process as not only a playwright, but also an actor.
“There’s something different about being an actor involved in the process and there are characters and there are roles who would not exist if it weren’t for these performers who have these feelings and opinions. There are elements to the story that after I saw what they responded to in April I was able to dig in more in the summer,” Winters said.
Winters explained what it feels like to be a living commissioned playwright.
“The freedom that exists I feel like also came with this really intense responsibility because I remember the plays I did in college and they meant a lot to me and so it felt like this might be the first time or the only time folks get to work with a living playwright,” Winters said.
Winters said he hopes to spark audience conversations surrounding the issues covered in the play.
“I’d be honored if people feel some connection with a situation or a character,” Winters said.
McLachlan said she hopes the audience also reciprocates the play’s message and takes a lesson away from it.
“I want people to understand that everyone is human, and everyone makes mistakes. Everyone is a person and to treat other people with respect and because it could cost people’s lives and people end up dying in the show, it’s wild,” McLachlan said.
Winters said the future of “In the Cities of Refuge,” is still unknown, but he acknowledges how ephemeral the beauty of theatre is.
“This production will only ever exist for those two weekends and that’s good enough for me, I don’t need it to be bigger than that. What everybody’s bringing to it and what I know these folks are going to bring to it I think will be as much as it ever needs to be,” Winters said.
McLachlan said it feels bittersweet to be part of a show with such a tight-knit cast.
“It is really incredible to watch the story unfold to how it was before when we were just doing a workshop versus now where it’s like this actual show. And it’s progressed into something that’s so beautiful and I feel like we all just want it to go so well, and we have all worked together as a team to make this story possible,” McLachlan said
Cast of “Cities of Refuge”
The biomedical research sector in Wisconsin supports over 141,000 jobs and contributes $37.7 billion to the state’s economy. Cuts to NIH funding impede scientific progress and risk significant job losses, particularly affecting early-career researchers and support staff.
UW–Madison currently faces a potential loss of $65 million annually due to proposed NIH funding cuts. These funds are critical for supporting research, including clinical trials and laboratory facilities. Such reductions threaten the continuation of vital research projects, including those focused on Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that affects 120,000 people in the state. Delays or discontinuation of these studies could hinder the development of early diagnostic tools and treatments for patients statewide.
Fast fashion is plaguing the market
Written By Alison McMillan
SHEIN, a Chinese based fashion company, has been a prominent symbol of how fast fashion companies utilize unethical business practices to produce their clothes. For example, the company in 2020 was reported to be selling a necklace with a Nazi symbol attached. This is just one of many scandals the company has gotten involved in. They have also reportedly stolen work from other designers, with people accusing them of theft on social media and copyright lawsuits being filed against them. These bigger fashion brands are able to steal smaller companies’ designs because of the blurry legal protections that can cover broad items of clothes. Yet, people still buy from SHEIN which only adds to their revenue and encourages other online clothing manufacturers like Temu or Cider to continue this unethical cycle of manufacturing fast fashion pieces.
In addition, they violate their workers’ rights. At least four employees were found to have worked 75-hour
shifts with little time off. Even though they work long hours they are paid very little. Their workers are paid approximately 2,400 yuan per month as opposed to 6,512 yuan, the living wage for a family in China. SHEIN must take accountability for how they manage their company. Without workers and customers being satisfied, their reputation as a whole diminishes.
A company’s image can affect their reputation as well. Some members of Gen Z have seen the need for the micro-trends that plague fast fashion fashion brands to align themselves with the sustainable practices and eco-friendly behaviors of the sustainable clothing movement. Instead, they urge corporations take on more corporate social responsibilities. More awareness on this topic has led people to look beyond consumerism. However, people are not buying from these unethical companies entirely. People still result in ordering off Shein, Temu, Forever21 and Amazon for
cheaper clothing alternatives without always investigating what these companies’ values are.
These companies produce a high quantity of clothes for a lower quality product, meaning that after one or two uses, the customer or manufacturer is forced to throw it away. Once the articles of clothing are discarded, they end up piling up in landfills. These landfills end up polluting our planet with greenhouse gases that contribute to the overall issue of global warming.
Instead, people should thrift their clothes, and support local businesses dedicated to sustainability. Thrifting is a way to help recycle clothing. Apps such as Depop have been created for people to sell their clothes online. While also maintaining that exciting customer experience that online shopping pro-
vides such as getting a package in the mail.
Depop might be an expensive option but going to your local Goodwill or Plato’s Closet can be a sustainable way to shop within your budget and pursue a more sustainable lifestyle. Retique, a smaller business downtown, helps bring sustainability to the heart of Milwaukee. All of their proceeds go towards supporting the Goodwill mission. Those that thrift their clothes will be able to cultivate their own style free from micro-trends of fashion. People can also donate clothes to thrift stores that can help clothe those in need. This proves a less wasteful alternative than throwing your clothes away. Supporting these sustainable fashion businesses can ensure fast fashion retailers do not take over the industry entirely.
AI &
Written By John O’Shea
In recent years, AI has seemed to pop up just about everywhere in our daily lives. There is a rising trend of students using ChatGPT to complete writing assignments, and search engines like Google have implemented AI assistants to summarize search queries, often filling them with misinformation.
AI is now practically unavoidable, but it has sparked an interesting conversation in the art world. How much should AI be involved in writing, animating and graphic design?
Many are quick to agree that the rapid growth of AI in the art world is frightening, as tasks one might hire an animator or graphic designer for can now be done easily with AI. Reports claim that by 2032, 52% of all jobs will be significantly
impacted by generative AI, and up to 9% of the US workforce may be displaced because of this industry.
With these statistics, it is understandable why a large number of artists and non-artists alike are not in favor of AI entering their field of work.
However, many professionals in the field are not so quick to be alarmed. Ruth Lingford, an independent animator interviewed by the Harvard Gazette, said she doesn’t feel that AI threatens jobs in her industry, and if anything, it could be a useful assistant in laborious tasks that would otherwise take her longer. Another interviewee, Matt Saunders, who is a mixed media artist agreed with this sentiment, that AI should not be looked at as a threat to one’s industry but rather a
ART
tool that can be harnessed to revolutionize our field of work.
If people were still concerned that AI had the potential to replace artists, the biggest consolation is that many artists agree that AI work is simply too impersonal to completely replace original work. Apart from that, it also will always require input from a skilled worker, as refining AI generation is much more strategic than just entering a few prompts.
Although advancing quickly, AI is still in its infancy. Most perceptible people can look at an AI-generated image and tell it’s AI. Muddled details, poor anatomy and objects connecting where they shouldn’t continue to be challenges AI has yet to overcome.
This is why recent projects that rely too much on AI generation have received flack, such as 2023’s found footage horror, “Late Night with the Devil.” The movie is meant to be emulating a late-night TV program on Halloween night, 1977.
Producers used AI to generate both set prints and title cards for the program’s cuts to commercial breaks. The choices were dubbed lazy and in poor taste by critics and now what this horror movie is shamefully associated with.
Despite blunders like this, it is undeniable that AI has a future in the art industry as a useful tool. The unfortunate truth is that artists who are not open to the idea of using AI in their work are less valuable to future employers than ones who are willing to adapt.
