SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 VOL. 103 | NO. 4 It’s time to BeReal! TECHNICIAN SEE PAGE 10
SOURCE: WRAL
On Sunday, Sept. 4, students reported being shot at with paintball guns around 2 a.m. on Hillsborough Street near North Hall. The suspects drove by in two separate trucks, one a red full-sized truck with an extended cab. According to local residents, similar incidents occur frequently.
SOURCE: FOX8
Free Technician (USPS 455-050) is the largest student newspaper of NC State University and is published every Thursday throughout the academic year from August through May except during holidays and examination periods. Opinions expressed in the columns, cartoons, photo illustrations and letters that appear on the Technician’s pages are the views of the individual writers and cartoonists. As a public forum for student expression, the students determine the content of the publication without prior review. To receive permission for reproduction, please write the editor. Subscription cost is $100 per year. A single copy is free to all students, faculty, staff and visitors to campus. Additional copies are $0.25 each. Printed by Triangle Web Printing, Durham, NC, Copyright 2022 by North Carolina State Student Media. All rights reserved. 323 Witherspoon Student Center, NCSU Campus Box 7318, Raleigh, NC 27695 Editorial 919-515-5017 Advertising 919-515-2411 Fax 919-515-5133 Online technicianonline.com
Juul must pay $438.5 million in settlements after an investigation found they marketed their products to underaged nicotine users. Marketing schemes in cluded using young models in their advertisements and carrying fruity flavors, such as mango and fruit.
Assistant News Editor EmilyHeidiVespaReid Culture Editor Myra Bari technician-features@ncsu.edu Assistant Culture Editor Jameson Wolf Design Editor Ellie Bruno technician-design@ncsu.edu Opinion Editor Mariana Fabian technician-opinion@ncsu.edu
Assistant Sports Editors Ben Ellis Ethan Bakogiannis Photo Editor Mollie Mitchell technician-photo@ncsu.edu Assistant Photo Editor Ethan Rimolt
SOURCE: UPI Students shot at with paintball guns
Baby alligators on the coast
Video Editor Chloe Allen technician-video@ncsu.edu Assistant Video Editor Ankith Krishna Brand Manager Cameron Rhinehardt technician-marketing@ncsu.edu
General Manager Tim Werner media-sales@ncsu.edu
Alligators can be found along the North Carolina coasts in fresh waterways, mostly in the southern coastal plains. Mid-August and early September is around the time alligator eggs begin to hatch after a two month in cubation period. If you see a baby alligator, it is suggested to stay at least 15 feet away from them.
Sam Overton Wade Bowman technician-managingeditor@ncsu.edu Copy Desk Chief Allie Remhof technician-copydesk@ncsu.edu Assistant Copy Desk Chief Mary Kate Giuffrida News Editor Abigail Ali technician-news@ncsu.edu
INTERNATIONAL TEA TIME Grab some snacks or a cup of tea and check out International Tea Time, a collaboration between Prevention Services and the Counseling Center. Open to everyone, this is a chance to meet with new students and learn about diverse cultures. Thursday, Sept. 8, 3-4 p.m.
Assistant Opinion Editor Elyse Boldizar Sports Editor Bryan Pyrtle technician-sports@ncsu.edu
The FDA forced Juul to stop selling their product in June, but a court blocked the order and products are still available in the United States
Looking for a reprieve from the hot weather? Head to Harris Field on Friday for some cooling water play, music and refreshments. Friday, Sept. 9, 5-7 p.m.
TALLEY STUDENT UNION
COVER BY ELLIE BRUNO Editor-in-Chief Shilpa Giri technician-editor@ncsu.edu
SOURCE: CNN Chimp taken back to Ukrainian Zoo on bicycle
A chimpanzee escaped the Kharkiv Zoo in Ukraine Tuesday morning and was wheeled back on a zoo keeper’s bicycle. The chimp wandered to a nearby park and approached a zookeeper when it started raining, who proceeded to give him her raincoat and take him back to the zoo.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM 2 TECHNICIAN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 Contents IN THIS ISSUE: 11page SPORTS NC State women’s soccer team finds perfect fit as Strickland transfers home 10page CULTURE Social media trend BeReal hits campus 05page NEWS Campus experts debunk monkypox virus misconceptions WHAT YOU MISSED: A quick look at the headlines in and outside of NC State 06page Starbucks unionization is necessary for change
CAMPUS HEALTH Free CONSENT COMMUNICATIONAND Led by the Movement Peer Educators, Consent and Communication is the perfect opportunity to learn more about consent and work through real-life examples. Spots are limited, so sign up early! Tuesday, Sept. 13, 6-7 p.m.
OPINION
TOWER HALL Free WAVE CHECK
Managing Editors
Juul to pay $438.5 million to multiple states
Events to keep an eye on for the week of September 8
THE RADAR
HARRIS FIELD Free FLOURISH: HOUSE PLANT CARE 101 Join Prevention Services and the Department of Horticulture Science next Monday at Campus Health for some groovy plant therapy. Monday, Sept. 12, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Pridgen said she transferred to NC State from Nash County Community College in fall 2020 and fell in love with the school’s English Honors program. She took a variety of creative classes from poetry to fiction and joined the English Club. “Before attending State I already had two books under my belt, but that class just gave me the motivation to keep pushing forward,” PridgenDuringsaid.her time at NC State, Pridgen en rolled in ENG 510, a literature class which involved reading middle English poetry. Dr. James Knowles, associate teaching professor in English, was her professor for the class. He explained that the medieval texts inspired Pridgen and helped her in choosing her genre. She said she sourced her inspiration from the medieval romance and modern fantasy tropes and conventions to produce work both modern and archaic in nature. “Ada was very confident and versed as a fic tion writer in modern genres,” Knowles said. “I think that the challenging medieval texts that we read in this class pushed her in some different directions that she hadn’t explored before. She was really excited about it.” Pridgen said her third book has been an enjoyable challenge. “By the time I started writing ‘Zero Grav ity’ about a year ago, I definitely felt as if I found my own voice,” Pridgen said. “I felt not only challenged, but also comfortable enough to the point where I wanted to main tain such a tone.”
One of the club’s regular forms of service is participating in volunteer workdays at NC State’s Agroecology Education Farm which
Jameson Wolf Assistant Culture Editor
COURTESY OF ADRIAN EVANSAGROECOLOGY continued page 5
The agroecology club is a student organiza tion focused on service, community building and promoting sustainable agriculture. According to president of the club Adrian Evans, a fourth-year studying agroecology with a concentration in research and produc tion, agroecology involves examining agri culture through three pillars: environmental soundness, economic viability and social justice. It looks at agriculture as a system that positions science as one part of a larger social, economic and environmental context.
At NC State, students studying agroecology look at everything from the details of plant biology and horticulture to the broad scope of food systems.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM TECHNICIAN 3 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 News NC State student publishes third book at 21
The agroecology club seeks to take these tenets beyond the classroom by providing additional hands-on experience and oppor tunities to connect with professionals work ing in relevant fields. “As a club in the past we’re really just serv ing as a place for students within agroecology to meet one another and make relationships that may last,” Evans said. “Doing profes sional development and also just having fun, trying to enjoy it. And just loving that we have this shared interest in this subject.”
Ada Pridgen, a fourth-year studying Eng lish, is a three-time published author. This year, the young author released her third novel, “Zero Gravity,” at 21 years old. Pridgen has been writing for almost 10 years and began publishing when she was 18 under the name Elizabeth Pridgen with her first book “The Life of David Earl Penning” in 2018 followed by “Neverafter” in 2019. Pridgen said she didn’t expect to get pub lished at all, let alone being able to publish three“I’vebooks.always had the ambition to be a pub lished author, like other great writers such as Rick Riordan, who was my biggest inspira tion,” Pridgen said. “I honestly did not think that I would get published initially, now be ing in my early 20s it just feels so surreal.” Pridgen was homeschooled up until col lege and developed a strong passion for read ing. She was mainly inspired by her mother who was born in the Philippines and learned English by reading every page in an old dic tionary. Her mother’s enthusiasm for words and reading sparked Pridgen’s love for sto ries and literature, leading her to read books such as “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak and putting her own words and thoughts onPridgenpaper. said her scenic upbringing in Castalia, North Carolina provided daily adventures she was able to transform into ideas for stories. “I was very energetic, always playing out side with my cousin and younger brother, ei ther in the woods or corn field,” Pridgen said. At 17 years old, Pridgen said she had her doubts about completing her first novel “The Life of David Earl Penning.” As a senior in high school, she wrote the western-style novel for her great-uncle, with whom she was very close. The first draft took her three months to write and about six months to revise.“Since I didn’t have a writer’s group, I turned to some of my relatives for feedback,” Pridgen said. “They all liked it, even though it was different.” It was later published by Outlaws Pub lishing LLC in 2018 who also published her second book a year later.
Pridgen said she enjoys writing fantasy due to its nuanced nature and because it can help people.“There’s so many ways you could approach the genre, and it could still be fresh and unique,” Pridgen said. “It’s just something that I don’t think ever necessarily has cli ches. And I strongly agree that the fantasy genre does help people overcome their ev eryday struggle, because it is something that has helped me. I truly believe it’s why the fantasy genre is one of the most popular in literature.”Manyauthors choose to infuse their characters with elements of themselves, but Pridgen built her characters based on traits inspired by her friends at NC State. As for her regimen as a writer, she sets aside at least an hour or two each day for writing and jotting down sentences in addition to penning down ideas that surface when inspiration strikes.
Agroecology club promotes sustainability and service
Pridgen said she advises aspiring writers to read a lot, encouraging them to recognize writing as a challenging yet rewarding jour ney, especially for women writers. “Now for women writers, I would say to be as honest and fearless as you can when it comes to writing your stories,” Pridgen said. Looking ahead, Pridgen plans to return to the NC State Graduate School for the MFA program in creative writing as well as find a literary agent to help strengthen her career as a professional writer. She also said her next novel is already in the making as she brain storms and gathers her fresh ideas on paper.
COURTESY OF ADA PRIDGEN Mai Listokin Staff Writer
Student responds to SG executive order addressing overturning of Roe v. Wade
After its initial statement, Student Govern ment (SG) passed an executive order codifying lists of immediate and long-term actions it plans to take in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, revoking the constitutional right to an abortion. Katie Krawcheck, a third-year studying political science and Arabic studies, gives her thoughts on this response.
Krawcheck said SG’s effort to increase voter education and engagement is really important, especially in the Triangle Area. “One thing I learned when working with vo ter organizations and local campaigns across North Carolina, and the Triangle Area, in particular, it’s pretty apathetic, generally speaking, when it comes to human rights is sues,” Krawcheck said. “There’s a massive gap between them like most people simply don’t care. So, I think trying to, obviously, increase voter education engagement is super impor tant.”The third immediate response is having a town hall meeting on campus. Heavlin said SG intends to come up with a plan to ensure the meeting will run smoothly.
The original response was released Tuesday, June 28. The statement included an acknowle dgement of the Supreme Court decision and links to mental health resources on campus. Krawcheck said SG’s initial statement didn’t provide the support students needed at the time of the overturning.
“A lot of what we can do in immediate res ponse is outlined in section one under ‘Imme diate Response for the 102nd Session,’” Heavlin said. “It’s a lot about engaging with elected of ficials, because unfortunately, I don’t have the power to make a changing decision on this, but there are certain individuals that, because we go to a large institution, that we can inte ract with, and they will listen to students very closely.”Heavlin said SG also aims to increase voter education and engagement.
“The election cycle coming up is really, really important,” Heavlin said. “It was so before this decision was released; it is so more now. And so, we just need students to be aware of everything that is on the line with this election, especially at the local level in North Carolina, and that their vote really does matter.”
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM 4 TECHNICIAN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 News
Executive Order No. 2 was passed Wednes day, Aug. 24. It includes a list of immediate res ponses to take place during SG’s 102nd session and a list of long-term responses to be carried out during the 102nd and future sessions. McKenzy Heavlin, graduate student in elec trical engineering, student body president and chief executive officer for Student Government, said the document will serve as a guide for SG as they move forward. The list of immediate responses includes campus engagement with elected officials, increased voter engagement and a student town hall.
“I think Student Government has an obli gation to support their students in a real, raw, authentic way,” Krawcheck said. “But all I saw in their statement was ambiguity. Yeah, they say it’s non-partisan, but there’s a sense of partisanship that’s like begging to come out of their words… There is that sense of just shrug ging shoulders like everybody’s experiencing different emotions at different times, when in actuality, it’s very obvious that there are certain emotions that we should be prioritizing.”
“It’s important that we have these conver sations and to be able to have a very robust dialogue about it, and it’s not a back and forth screaming match,” Heavlin said. “That’s why we’re committed to hosting a town hall this fall… That’s gonna be a lot of moving parts to make sure that it is a successful one and not a back and forth between groups.” Krawcheck said she worries the town hall won’t address the people less likely to vote and engage with SG, and it may end up being unproductive.“Ifeelalittle bit worried about that,” Krawcheck said. “Only because, again, you don’t address that apathy; you have people showing up that are really passionate one way or the other. And I feel like it might turn out like a debate because people that don’t care, they’re not going to show up.”
“I respect McKenzy [Heavlin], and Timothy [Reid] so much… and I feel as though Student Government is probably doing the very best that they can,” Krawcheck said. “I think that it is very frustrating because they do have these limitations. It’s just important at this time, es pecially as women, people with female genita lia, to lean on each other, to support each other.” Heavlin said the best way to hold SG accoun table in regards to its response to the overtur ning of Roe v. Wade and other matters is to en gage with them by joining SG or participating in the events and meetings they host. “I’ve had a lot of people on my own staff and in the departments who have texted me and been in open communication with us about how this decision has impacted their personal stances on it, and what they would like to see student government do… and that’s the direc tion we go,” Heavlin said. “So, if you don’t like that direction, you can join and be the alterna tive voice to that.”
COURTESY OF NC STATE STUDENT GOVERNMENT INSTAGRAM Abigail Ali News Editor
The last immediate response SG has listed on Executive Order No. 2 is working to offer campus childcare to students, not just faculty and“Thisstaff.was something that a previous session of student government worked with other local area colleges to provide access to after school care at a low cost to graduate students,” Heavlin said. “And we want to build off of that success and work with the current system that NC State has in place for faculty, staff and postgraduates that is currently not available to graduate stu dents and undergraduate students and other NC State students who may not be in a degree program.”Krawcheck said she’s glad SG is working to expand childcare on campus to students, but she wishes they had done it sooner. “I think the childcare for campus is so mething that has needed to be done a while ago, and I’m glad it’s finally happening,” Krawcheck said. “It just is a little frustrating that something drastic has to happen, like a Supreme Court case, in order for that to even be considered.” Heavlin said voting in SG’s fall elections and local elections is important in carrying out these responses long-term and beyond cam pus, especially since SG goes through elections in the “Thespring.team that is currently in place right now is our scope of authority really until about March,” Heavlin said. “After March, someone else could come into these offices and do a com plete 180 on all of this and revert all of it. And so it’s really important, especially for long-term access to resources on campus, that individuals participate in our spring elections. That’s when the student body president and vice president get elected and other high level leaders that have thoughts that go into these documents and really support documents through our constitution.”Krawcheck said she understands SG has certain limitations as an organization within the University, but still thinks students should work together to support each other.
continued from page 3
grows crops year-round to distribute to dining halls and donate to food shuttles.
Campus experts debunk monkeypox virus misconceptions
The monkeypox virus (MPV) is in the family of pox viruses. While it is closely related to small pox, it is not the same. Accord ing to Dr. Julie Swann, professor and department head of the Fitts Industrial and Systems Engineer ing with experience in health systems and infectious disease studies, MPV has been around for decades but in limited loca tions and spread at much slower rates than what has been seen in the past “[MPV]months.islesseasy to transmit or catch than the virus that causes COVID-19 or influenza or cold, those kinds of things,” Swann said. “It can be spread by eating wild animals or working with wild animals that have the virus and historically, it was spread in that way in Africa. It can also be spread in close contact and inti mate settings. This could include sexual activities, but it can also in clude some others: sharing bedsheets or tow els, for example, close skin-to-skin contact, even if there’s no sexual activity and possibly by prolonged kissing.”
“Mothers and children are intimate, there is even a case of a dog now that has the dis ease and slept in the bed with the owners,” Swann said. “There was no sexual activity at all, they just used the same bedding. It is not an STD or an STI, although it can be transmitted in those kinds of environments.”
Following WHO reports which said over 95% of MPV cases were reported among
Casani said it’s difficult to provide infor mation to at-risk groups without people tak ing the information out of context.
In order to protect oneself from MPV, Swann and Casani recommend tak ing the same precautions that one would take with any other infectious disease.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM TECHNICIAN 5 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 News
The focus on service highlights the third tenet of agroecology — agriculture should be socially just. According to Charlotte Yancey, a fourth-year studying agroecology with a concentration in urban horticulture and vice president of the club, the social justice tenet is an often overlooked aspect of the discipline. “I think people understand the environ mentally sound part, maybe even the eco nomically viable part, but people don’t really understand the social justice part,” Yancey said. “And that would be something that I want everyone to recognize, that it’s not just about taking care of the earth, as important as that is. It’s also about making sure every body is fed and has access to the earth in the same way and access to the fruits of the earth in the same way.”
The farm gives students the opportunity to see their conceptual learning in action.
“Ask your partners and take all of those precautions, the same thing that you would do really for any illness,” Casani said.
Having missed in-person education throughout her first several years of her program, Yancey finds this aspect of the club helpful.
“[Farm volunteer days] are almost al ways going to include weeding,” said Leah Guercio, a third-year studying agroecology and Spanish and secretary of the club. “The manual labor is just a huge part of it, but it depends on the season. You have the option to do as much or as little as you want to, if it’s composting or shoveling mulch or harvest ingFarmtomatoes.”volunteer days are held twice a month and open to all. In addition to farm volunteering, the club seeks to build other community connections through service. In past years the club has worked with the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry, an advocacy group that supports the needs of farm workers and immigrant families in eastern North Carolina. The club worked with the Episcopal Farmworkers women’s group to preserve medicinal knowl edge passed down through family lines. “For my administration we really want to focus on doing more service work,” Evans said. “Getting students out into the commu nity and trying to get them more involved with hands-on projects.”
Swann said MPV would be better classified as an intimately transmitted disease.
“It’s a nice reminder that there are jobs within this field,” Yancey said. “It’s [help ful] to be able to talk to a bunch of different people who all have the same niche focused interest, but everybody wants to do some thing completely different with it. Being able to talk to people and hear their ideas of, ‘you could do that with this degree,’ … and also seeing our friends graduate and go on and do other stuff, too. You’re like, ‘okay, they’re making it work.’” The social aspect of the club is also an important factor Evans hopes to maintain throughout the year. “I want the agroecology club to be infor mal,” Evans said. “Let’s get together and talk and get to know each other. I don’t want it to be like you have to be here. … I think we have more laughs than any other club combined.”
Swann said sometimes viruses hit specific communities first before spreading to others. “For another example, there are currently active polio cases in New York and some of the first cases have been found in the Ortho dox Jewish population,” Swann said. “It’s not that the virus cares who that person is, but they have a lower rate of vaccination against polio so they are at greater risk than some populations are.”
Casani also said students who suspect themselves of having MPV are recommend ed to make an appointment with Campus Health and look into being vaccinated for MPV if they are in an at-risk population. Ac cording to Casani, Campus Health has vac cines available and has already vaccinated over 30 students and staff members.
Matthew Burkhart Correspondent
As with COVID-19, misinformation and misconceptions surrounding monkeypox have become common. Technician has reached out to NC State experts to siphon through some of these misconceptions and provide a clearer picture of what is actually going on with the virus.
GRAPHIC BY KATE WARREN
AGROECOLOGY
Dr. Julie Casani, the director and medical director of Campus Health said MPV can also be spread from surfaces, such as couch es, chairs and other non-porous surfaces. While it can spread through these surfaces, it is a highly unlikely method of transmis sion with 0.2% of cases being contracted this way, according to the World Health Orga nization.“Weknow that you can be close to some body for five minutes and if they have CO VID, especially with some of the omicron variants, you can get it right away,” Casani said. “Monkeypox — not true. You have to be with that person for a period of time, it has to be very close, so me sitting in a room with somebody who has monkeypox, I’m very unlikely to get it.” Although most cases of MPV are con tracted through sexual settings, it is not considered a sexually transmitted disease.
Volunteers have a range of jobs on workdays.
men who have sex with men, rumors began to spread of MPV being a virus only homo sexual people could contract. “This is not a gay virus,” Swann said. “There is no such thing. Viruses don’t know gender or sexuality, they know surfaces and air. There was likely a set of amplifying events where the population of men who have sex with men were attending some of these amplifying events in Europe earlier in the year and there likely had been some levels of the virus already circulating.”
“That layer of communication, scientists sometimes have difficulty communicating because you communicate the science and you miss the human interpretation of that science,” Casani said. “It’s always the hard part because you want to identify that group at risk, it’s really im portant that we get vaccines out to men who have sex with men; that is our drive because that’s the population that’s really at risk. Someone who has an agenda is going to twist that and put it in a weird light. I’m old enough to have grown up during the HIV epidemic; I was in medical school when that broke, and I watched the same thing happen.”
Swann said MPV has proven to be less fatal in the United States than what was reported in Africa. “It can be fatal, but even outside of the risk of death, it can be very painful for two to four weeks that might require a student, staff or faculty to be out of class or out of work,” Swann said. “It is a real danger, but it is not yet to the point of where everyone is at im mediate risk, but the more we let the virus spread, then the greater chance the virus has to mutate.”
Starbucks workers rally and march in Seattle, WA
The company needs to be able to attend to their employees needs, such as providing a healthy work environment and better pay.
CONTRIBUTED BY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Nova the Nightlight Pearl Knight, staff cartoonist A fourth-year studying art and design
“Starbucks is very slow when taking care of its partners. So many different kinds of prob lems get reported that take months to resolve,” said Kaleb Gibbs, a former partner. “Corporate ultimately decides the severity of problems that areStarbucksreported.”is trying to shut down unions. They’re firing or trying to fire union workers with any sort of petty excuse they can find. An example of this is from a shift supervisor from a Starbucks in New York. She was fired for exces sive write-ups for being less than five minutes late to her shifts. The company should listen to their employees and start working on change instead of trying to shut them down unfairly. Not only would change be good for partners, but it would also be beneficial for the company. According to Forbes, there is evidence that environmental, social and governance inves tors are more willing to invest if the company promotes and follows through with positive factors.
Starbucks unionization is necessary for change
Starbucks also needs to offer sustainable jobs and reward employees for their hard work if it wants them to stay and enjoy working there. Another issue is that Starbucks demands top of the line service while simultaneously expect ing super unrealistic drive thru times. Most stores require 50 seconds or less drive-through time. It’s unreasonable to expect baristas to have both fast hand-out times while provid ing the best customer service. Although it’s well known that Starbucks has a fast-paced environment, these types of expectations make employees feel burnt out and exhausted. It’s impossible to manage and keep up with. Personally, I had days where I just wished I could go home because there was so much going on and I wasn’t enjoying my shift. The intense and stressful work environment needs to be Essentially,changed.the major issue that drives the unionization of stores is that employees don’t really feel like “partners,” Starbucks’ word for their workers. They don’t feel like they matter to the company. Employees feel separated from corporate; they now want a voice and want to feel like they’re getting a say. This is because Starbucks partners are left to struggle with their own problems in their vary ing stores. In my own store, I saw a lot of issues that we were forced to deal with ourselves. For example, many things have broken down in our store. Our receipt machines, our espresso bars, and even our monitors where we take orders. These are the kinds of issues that take too long to solve and the individual stores are left to do it themselves. Corporate likes to act like they care about these kinds of issues, but ultimately it’s up to the partners to fix the problems themselves.
I want to clearly state that I am not anti-Star bucks. Just like the unions, I want Starbucks to continue to prosper and grow. I just want them to make some changes to better suit their partners.“Starbucks’ problem isn’t how it wants to treat its partners, it’s the time through which they do it,” Gibbs said. “ They’re committed to getting there. It’s just taken too long.” Because it’s been put off for so long, I believe stores across the nation should continue to join Starbucks Workers United and make a voice forAsthemselves.theanonymous current barista also said, “Creating a union isn’t to go against the com pany, it’s to make the company better. A union would help make partners feel more a part of theThat’scompany.”exactly the reason why all unions are created. I hope Starbucks listens to its partners and really takes the time to make change hap pen quickly and efficiently before it’s too late.
WilbourneCaroline Staff Columnist
Starbucks unions are pop ping up more and more ever since the first one that took place in Buffalo, New York in August 2021. Starbucks partners across the country are fed up with waiting for change. Many have taken matters into their own hands by forming Starbucks Work ers United which is a collection of Starbucks partners across the United States who are or ganizing their workplaces. There are many core issues that need to be addressed and fixed and, as a former Starbucks partner, I believe unionization is the only way to do Oneso.issue for not only Starbucks, but other food service companies out there is staffing shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lot of impact on this. A current Starbucks barista, who asked to remain anonymous for employment reasons, commented on this issue. “Labor is channeled through previous year sales, but due to the pandemic, they’re not going to match up,” they said. “Workers are getting less hours, but yet stores remain understaffed.” I feel like this is one of the biggest things Star bucks should be prioritizing. Their business is always expanding and growing, and staffing plays an important role in that.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM 6 TECHNICIAN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 Opinion
The purpose of taxation, as I see it, is to accumulate, protect and disseminate public goods to the people. The way we, as a people have decided to collect these necessary taxes, is through our representative government.
I know my main priority after graduation will be to tackle this debt, but where does this priority put me when it comes to liv ing expenses and basic needs for survival?
I understand the worries of increased infla tion but insulting those who might receive the funds is unnecessary. These reactions to government spending indicate a lack of understanding regarding the point of taxation. Many Americans, es pecially conservative, wealthy individuals, have become severely antagonistic to the feeling of paying taxes and complain about the freedoms it may hinder individuals from practicing.
Therefore, in order to maintain public goods, things we all need for our survival and prog ress, we need a government with the ability to tax the people they represent. We already recognize some forms of educa
A second-year studying business administration
I found a lot of Republican complaints tended to be based not necessarily on fiscal concerns (although those have been men tioned too). Instead, their rebukes devolved into ad hominem attacks on higher education, especially on liberal arts. As Rep. Jim Jordan so eloquently put it, “Why should a machinist in Ohio pay for the student loans of a jobless philosophy ma jor in Los Angeles?” Much in the same vein, Sen. Ted Cruz, in his podcast, spoke of the “slacker barista who wasted seven years in college studying completely useless things.”
Emma
The mere fact that students back in the day could work an entire summer and ba sically pay off their education each year is the prime example of why it’s so distressing to hear the backlash against student loan forgiveness. Students in the past are not go ing through the same educational system we are going through today. They aren’t ex periencing the same hardship, whether or not it’s a situation like mine, worse or even slightly better. The situation still stands as being more difficult and costly than ever before, and it doesn’t seem to be changing in the right direction. Maybe, just maybe, the student loan for giveness creates a domino effect which may lead to lower costs for students in the near future. Lower tuition costs foreshadow a better educated society, giving everyone a chance to better themselves, achieve their goals and then some. Students today are hard workers. I am surrounded by it every day and I am en tirely impressed. The critics of student loan forgiveness should stop dwelling on the past since they could afford college easier with a markdown. Students today can’t work the summers and pay off their tuition — life isn’t that simple anymore.
Looking at the discussion surrounding President Joe Biden’s recent executive ac tion to enact loan forgive ness for student borrowers, I noticed a severely harsh display of heartlessness. No matter your side of the debate over whether tuition should be paid by the state, we should never wish upon anyone severe pain and strife, physical or fiscal.
Just because you paid off your student debt doesn’t mean all students can
I’ll be able to afford surviving in this world and even contribute to the economy instead of wallowing in mountains of unpaid debt, hurting the system. This goes for everyone in similar or exact situations.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM TECHNICIAN 7 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 Opinion
I speak for my fellow students when say ing, I do not want to be in debt. I believe everyone would love to be debt free and live life to its fullest. Due to debt, priorities seem out of balance. It would be imprudent to say our generation is privileged, lazy, deadbeat and whatever else may flow out of the op posing party’s mouth.
Americans need a philosophical rethinking of taxation
College has become one of the most ex pensive necessities to the point where some believe it is the largest scam the United States has to offer. In the past, a simple as sociate degree could land you a nice cushy job, allowing you to live comfortably. Fast forward, and getting a decently paying job requires at least a bachelor’s degree. Back in 1972, the UNC system wanted maturing adults to have the opportunity to receive an education at a low cost, giv ing students a great chance to better them selves while also bettering the workforce and economy. Tuition in 1972 for NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill and Appalachian State was at the low, low price of around $500, or even less. Compared to present tuition of al most $10,000 annually, it really slaps you in the face. I understand the cost of living rises over time along with educational costs, but I honestly feel like someone is yanking our chain here. It’s downright ridiculous.
Nowhere. I can make small payments all I want, but the interest rates will counteract my efforts. To really gnaw off large por tions of debt, I would need to drop a big chunk of change that ultimately impedes my monthly expenses.
LinzeyAshley Staff Columnist
RodabaughKoen Correspondent
Hotel Freebies Reid, staff cartoonist
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It’s a push and pull between, “Should I go to college and get into major debt so I can barely make ends meet?” Or, “Should I save my money and work the best job I’m qualified for?” Decisions are hard. As a nontraditional student, I left college after obtaining an associate degree and be gan working. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I had some ideas but I felt my life wasn’t seasoned enough to make such a leap. Coming from a family of zero finan cial support, it all fell on my lap. At a young age I started out with college debt and, in all honesty, I haven’t paid it off and I am slowly and surely accumulating more. Mov ing forward several years, I finally realized I wanted to better myself and seek out a bach elor’s degree. However, I wasn’t prepared for how much it costs to live near campus or to even attend NC State. It seemed reasonable on paper, but not at hand. Obviously, I am here, alive and thriving — kind of. Even taking out additional stu dent loans along with receiving financial aid, I still need to work as much as pos sible to survive. I try not to think about it as much, but the thought of graduating with the amount of debt I am raking in, how much I will actually be getting paid on entry-level wages, how much it is go ing to cost me to find a place of my own, are things which make me toss and turn at night. I might as well have roommates for the rest of my life. My point being, before I drown everyone in my problems, student loan forgiveness is a push and shove in the right direction.
The average cost of tuition for public fouryear colleges nowadays is around $11,000 and $40,000 for private institutions, while the average student loan debt is $30,000 give or take. These numbers are frankly quite large and outweigh the graduallyincreasing cost of living people have been facing for the past 40 years. Working to pay off these debts in a timely manner has become a part of the average student’s dayto-day life.
All the negative talk regarding student loan forgiveness is truly dis heartening. Students who graduated college recently, and who are currently at tending college, have and are entering an economy where the cost of living doesn’t even come close to the amount earned. Oh, and not to mention how much it costs to attend college these days.
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I have a lot of friends who have taken up Dashing because they need the addi tional income. DoorDash is aware of this and uses it to their advantage to keep their wagesTake,low.for example, one of my friends who recently signed up to deliver for Door Dash. She had a car payment coming up and didn’t have enough money to cover it. She ended up having to sign up for Uber Eats and other delivery platforms because she wasn’t getting enough money through DoorDash.DashBridges at The Rideshare Guy, who has Dashed for several years, suggests sign ing up for multiple delivery platforms to make the most money, despite his over all enthusiasm about being a Dasher. It shouldn’t be this way.
With the popularity of delivery plat forms growing because of COVID-19, you would think that these companies could afford to pay their drivers better. The de livery market in the U.S. has more than doubled to over $150 billion during the pandemic.Whileprofits were hurting early in the pandemic, cases have been down and ser vices like DoorDash have been thriving. Therefore, the fees that DoorDash charg es their customers should not be the sole source of payment to drivers. DoorDash needs to dig in their own pocket to pay their drivers better, espe cially considering the demographic of their drivers is mainly young adults looking to scrape by. College students generally aren’t aware of the ways DoorDash and other de livery platforms are preying on their needs. This is not to say that you can’t make any money working for DoorDash or other delivery platforms. Clearly there are people who have found it profitable for themselves and encourage others to take it up. It has the potential to be a good job on the side if you’re in a pinch. However, Dashing is not a good source of income in the long run, and over an extended period of time, it costs more than it’s worth. tional knowledge as public goods. The mate rial we learn in K-12 education is funded by the taxpayer at all levels. The entire existence of NC State was through the Land Grant Act of 1862 which provided education to farmers to enhance their agricultural quality. In more modern times, areas of expertise such as engineering, mathematics and com munications have become crucial for modern professions. This information can only serve to benefit North Carolina and the country more generally. Universities are the means by which the government disseminates that knowledge to the public, and that knowledge is crucial to an equitable and progressive econ omy and workforce. An educated workforce is a powerful workforce. Why then, do we have a system where all taxpayers are providing funds for public uni versities, but those who want that education must pay to access it? In order to simply afford to live near or in universities, many students need full-time or well-paying part-time jobs. Then, after paying out of pocket to physically go to university, students are expected to pay thousands more for education, a public good they’ve already been paying for through their taxes. Many view taxation today under the in famous adage made famous by Benjamin Franklin, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” While Franklin is not incorrect in saying this, he inadvertently established a harshly pessimistic approach to taxation that undermines democratic gover nance.Theidea of democracy in the American tra dition is heavily inspired by Greek thought. Formed by the Athenians, democracy was supposed to be not just a means of policy making but a heavily involved cultural val ue. To the Athenians, their trade was just as important as their participation in the public political discourse of the day. American governance in comparison has long had a sectarian divide as to the nature of democracy. Our entire governmental system is devised as a means of pitting oligarchical elites against the democratic commons. As many note, we are after all not a full democ racy but rather a constitutional republic. But, American governance has continually democratized since its inception. For example, the Senate used to be a body of legislators ap pointed by state governments instead of by popular vote as it is now. The problem of our modern age is the difficulties of institution alized cultural individualism based on our oligarchical roots and the immense political infusion required by increasingly democratic institutions.Understanding this background of de mocracy is important to remember as we talk about the role of taxes in the modern day. Democracy, as I’ve said before, is not for the passive culture. It requires that we all ac tively participate. That we all stay informed about our communities and actively remain involved, voicing our opinions and conversing with each other. We need to collectively shift our perspec tives on taxes. The idea of taxation as a chore has become toxic, leading to the refusal of many policies that would otherwise be wide ly beneficial. We should instead see taxes as a civil duty, an act of honor and service to provide for the common welfare of not only yourself but every American.
Every time I open a social media app, I see advertisements promot ing DoorDash. “Do you know how much money you could make deliver ing food for DoorDash?” the posts will ask. What they don’t tell you is how much of that money will actually make it into your pocket if you do sign up. I drove for DoorDash last summer dur ing my time at home because I was travel ing a lot, and it provided the flexibility I needed from a job. I wasn’t able to ask for consecutive days off every other week, so being able to take time off when I needed was nice. However, it’s a good thing that I wasn’t desperate to make a ton of money because I would have been severely disap pointed.While DoorDash likes to highlight the possibility of making $20-25 per hour, the reality is that most people don’t make that much. Additional costs like fuel (which is hard to be compensated for through Door Dash), insurance, maintenance and depre ciation of the car’s value are all things that make a driver’s actual earnings amount to near minimum wage. Even for people that are able to make $20-25 per hour, that number is unreliable and inconsistent.
On top of these earnings, DoorDash also charges their merchant stores 20% of restaurant earnings for connecting the customer with the seller. DoorDash has enough money trickling into their pockets in order for them to pay Dashers well, yet they don’t.
Like many college students who take up Dashing, the flexibility of the job and the quick pay are the primary benefits. How ever, negative aspects of being a Dasher can’t be overlooked. In order to make the most money, propo nents of DoorDash advise working at peak times — lunch, dinner rushes and on the weekends — frequently. However, at busy times there may be too many Dashers on the road so you aren’t allowed to work or it may take you an excessive amount of time to complete just one order. You can’t expect to make enough money by simply working when it’s busy. DoorDash provides a base pay that is cal culated based on the time it should take to complete, the distance it takes and desir ability of the delivery. While technically this number can range anywhere from two to ten dollars, the base pay is often on the cheaper side. Most, if not all, of my own orders were two or three dollars before customerOccasionallytips. I would receive a nice tip, but most of the time, customers are already paying so much in extra fees that they don’t want to spend the money on an optional tip. DoorDash charges anywhere from $1.99-5.99 for a delivery charge, usually leaning on the higher end and they also charge 10-11% service fee.
Doordash is exploiting college students for work
CrawfordSkye Correspondent
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The club plans to make all the paths at least three feet wide and will provide fruit pickers to reach fruit in the trees.
Most of the food grown in the food forest will be given to Feed the Pack food pantry.
The #bereal hashtag has accumulated 1.4 billion views on TikTok, and on Twitter, tweets depicting BeReal posts amass hun dreds of thousands of likes.
Olivia Winston Staff Writer Visit technicianonline.com to view the entire article.
NC State garden champions sustainability
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“I like it because it’s simple,” Upadhyaya said. “It’s not overwhelming. I feel like Snap chat is so judgemental; you have to send chats and post pictures and stuff. BeReal is so Grantsimple.”Bollmer, an associate professor in communication, said BeReal presents a sense of unity that appeals to users. “Even though we’re supposedly connected through social media, the actual experience of being together isn’t really there,” Bollmer said. “So you could say the fact that BeReal goes, ‘You only have two minutes to actu ally take this picture right now, and it has to be at this moment or everybody’s going to know,’ there’s a synchronicity there. It’s of course technologically managed, but it’s about in some ways desiring the use of tech nology to say, ‘We are here together at the same moment, we’re doing the same thing, even if we’re separated by distance.’” Additionally, Bollmer said the spontane ous nature of BeReal prevents users from curating their posts and can feel more au thentic than other platforms. “Instagram feels so incredibly heavily ed ited and polished that the specific images on Instagram are all selected and chosen,” Bollmer said. “Facebook, nobody really uses [it] anymore except for crazy political commentary by your parents. Even TikTok, the whole thing of TikTok is about creating entertaining content, is going viral, is some thing that’s soundtracked, is something that’s clever. It’s not truly spontaneous, it’s very produced. … So BeReal you could say goes back to that early internet in which ev erything’s really rough, everything was not necessarily done for likes or money, which is the case increasingly now. It’s a space in which you can’t be an influencer.” Meghan Riddick, a second-year study ing biological and agricultural engineer ing technology, said while some people post the mundane aspects of their life on BeReal, others aim to post the exciting parts of their day. “I think it’s just fun to be able to see what people are doing when they’re doing it,” Riddick said. “I know everyone gets upset when BeReal is after when they’ve done something, like when you’ve done this big, big thing that would have been perfect and then BeReal is a couple hours later like, ‘Hi.’”Upadhyaya said she will occasionally post a BeReal late because she likes to post pho tos with her Accordingfriends.toBollmer, although BeReal is popular, the app will not continue to be successful without developing a financial strategy to make money, like including advertisements. Additionally, Instagram may adopt a feature similar to the design of BeReal, which prompts users to take a can did photo using the front-facing and backfacing cameras, and this could threaten BeReal’sRiddicklongevity.saidshethinks BeReal is a unique concept, but she isn’t sure if it will remain popular or if it’s just a trend. “I think it’s a pretty cool idea, honestly,” Riddick said. “I wish the timing was better, though. I don’t know, it would defeat the purpose if you could choose when to do it. But I do think it’s a neat idea. I think people have had fun with it.”
BeReal is the latest social media app to rapidly gain traction, boasting 10 million downloads on Apple devices in August. The app compels users to share an unfiltered glimpse into their everyday activities and is especially popular among Generation Z — according to Time, 55% of BeReal users are between the ages of 16-25.
Every day at a random time, BeReal sends a notification to all users simultaneously with the directive “Time to BeReal.” Users have two minutes to capture a photo, which includes two images from both the frontfacing and back-facing cameras, before their post is marked as late.
SOL Garden is planning to add a food forest, which will include persimmons, pawpaws and figs. “A food forest is when you take the lay ers and form of a natural forest ecosystem,” Mager said. “You mimic it as much as pos sible while also growing food plants and productive plants.”
Aarya Upadhyaya, a fourth-year study ing biology, said she noticed BeReal grew in popularity among her peers upon their return to campus. She said part of the app’s growth can be attributed to word-of-mouth promotion.“Iguesspeople just keep talking about it,” Upadhyaya said. “They’ll be with a group of friends and it’ll pop up on their phone, and people are like, ‘Oh, what’s that?,’ like, ‘Let’s take a BeReal.’”
Social media trend BeReal hits campus
“For any beds that aren’t rented out to faculty, or student organizations or indi vidual students — those we use as a garden to plant food for garden members and we plant food to donate to Feed the Pack food pantry,” Mullis said. Other groups on campus that have been involved with SOL Garden include PRT 203:
The SOL Garden community is also con stantly looking for ways to be inclusive. “If anybody goes past the garden … and they are like ‘OK, that makes it impossible for X community to use the garden,’ I would love for them to contact the club and just be like, ‘You could be doing better in this way, for these people,’” Mager said.
Nestled between Fountain Dining Hall and Doak Field, SOL Garden is NC State’s only student-led, sustainable garden on campus. The members of the club use or ganic gardening principles as a guiding practice.“That’s what SOL actually stands for — students for organic living,” said Debra Mullis, a fourth-year studying political science and treasurer of SOL Garden. “We are a group of people who love plants and really enjoy getting out to form community and make NC State a greener place.” To get involved, people can donate money or time, become a member and help care for the garden or rent raised beds to grow plants for personal use. The campus community is also invited to pick and eat food from certain sections of the garden.
Humans and the Environment, Omega Phi Alpha, the psychology department and Eco Village.“This is where students can be a little bit creative, be independent and get in touch with their green thumbs on campus, which I think is a really big stress reliever when you are doing classes,” Mullis said.
Morgan Moran, a fourth-year studying horticulture science, said people post inter esting, funny content on the app, which has generated discussion on other platforms.
ERICA WALLACE/TECHNICIAN
Emily Vespa Assistant News Editor
Upadhyaya said she thinks BeReal is more low maintenance than other social media platforms because she only posts once a day.
Debra Mullis is also an employee at NC State Student Media.
“I want it to be educational for anybody who comes through this space,” said Paige Mager, a fifth-year studying horticultural science and president of SOL Garden. “I want everybody across campus to be able to enjoy this space, whether they are work ing in it, whether they are renting a raised bed, whether they are just walking through and picking fruit off the trees.”
GRAPHIC BY EZEKIEL SNYDER
Most bands formed in high school almost always dissolve by the time the members reach college, but not Weston Estate. Featu ring two NC State students, Weston Estate is a rising Triangle-based five-member indie band currently signed under a Sony record label, attracting big names like Pharrell Wil liams and thousands of TikTok followers.
One experience Manhass values immen sely is when the band discovered a model had shared Weston Estate’s music with Pharrell Williams, one of Manhass’s fa vorite producers, in a podcast. It was later discovered that Williams added their music to his podcast’s playlist. Over the summer, the band released their single, “So Good,” which has now amassed 1,951,000 listens on Spotify, and Weston Estate now stands at over 939,000 monthly listeners. The band also filmed a music video for the single and recently performed at a Duke University function.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really feel like work when we’re together, it’s more like we’re hanging out and making music for fun.
-Srikar Nanduri
credits Weston Estate’s longevity to the band’s origins as childhood friends. “Now that things are going well, it’s gone to the point where we don’t even have to try to keep the bond going,” Nanduri said. “I could honestly not talk to any of them for a month and then just come back and it would be like we talked yesterday. A lot of it is also because of just the nature of the band, we have to call each other a lot just to do work.
Abhishek Manhass, a fourth-year studying applied mathematics, is the band’s bass guitarist and producer. According to Manhass, the band was formed in 2017 when Manhass’ parents were on vacation in“LongIndia. story short, one day my parents went to India and left me all alone at home and I asked our other singer, Tanmay to come over and we made our first song,” Manhass said. “There’s a lot of mischief in volved — the first song we released will ne ver be heard but it got a good reaction from our community, we put it on Soundcloud, and then after that, we released another song and started adding more members. All of them were close friends.” Srikar Nanduri, a fourth-year studying biological sciences, is the band’s guitarist. Nanduri said the band’s name is attributed to a nearby neighborhood next to his band member’s house. “[It’s] called ‘Weston Estates,’” Nanduri said. “We used to go there all the time and hang out. We wanted it to sound regal, ex travagant.”Fromthe band’s transition from middle school to high school, they began releasing music on popular streaming platforms like Spotify and performing in public. Their first concert was at Space Jam in 2018, Enloe High School’s annual charity concert, and it was there they claimed they realized there was potential for Weston Estate. “At that point we knew that people had heard our music, we didn’t realize people were listening to it like that,” Nanduri said. “They would sing the words back.” Another landmark experience for the band was their first addition to a Spotify Editorial playlist in 2019 with their single, “Cotton Candy.” They also made the cover of another playlist called “Chill Vibes.”
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“We have three singers — it gives us a lot of leverage to do whatever we want,” Man hass said. “There’s no album out where we’ve developed a sound. We did an EP and I would call it ‘lo-fi indie pop.’” In terms of their upcoming single, “Drown,” Manhass said it encapsulates the feelings the band felt this summer and its style can be described as “space cowboy,” to which Nanduri laughed. “It’s a combination of all of our feelings,” Nanduri said. “We all went through some very similar experiences throughout this summer, so figuring that out and dealing withWiththat.”Weston Estate’s exponential success and big plans for the rest of the year, it is clear the band is heading toward a bright future.
“It’s definitely hard, a lot of people think you can go through life thinking that you can have one thing that you’re 100% dedi cated to,” Nanduri said. “Right now, the things that are happening with Weston are really exciting and really cool and we want to take it as far as it can and keep it going. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really feel like work when we’re together, it’s more like we’re hanging out and making music forNandurifun.”
But when we’re doing work calls, after we’ve finished talking about whatever we need to talk about, we end up staying on the phone for another 30 minutes, just talking about random stuff that’s going on in life.” The next few months will be very impor tant for the band with the release of their new single, “Drown,” and its music video on Sept. 9, along with their performance at Firefly Music Festival in Delaware at the end of September.
“The biggest thing coming up for us is Firefly,” Nanduri said. “That’s a huge festi val where there’s a bunch of artists that we all look up to, they’re all going to be there and playing. This is the first music festival that any of us have been to and it’s one that we’re actually playing at.” In anticipation of a busy few months, the members of Weston Estate have decided to take a gap semester in order to focus on their music and hone in on a sound and style, along with potentially writing their first“Wealbum.allwant to graduate still obviously, we’re at the point where we’re all seniors, it makes sense for us to finish school but this semester especially is going to be important for us because of the festival,” Nanduri said. “After that, we’re going to move to LA for a month and a half and make music together and just hang out with people and make connections.”Manhasssaid the visual aesthetic of the band is something they all value. Their time in Los Angeles will also be spent solidifying their image along with their musical style, as it’s currently difficult to pin the band down to a specific genre of music.
Triangle-based band Weston Estate captures evolving sound
“When we got there, we realized that eve ryone was going to be sitting in lawn chairs and picnic blankets and stuff like that, and usually at our shows, it’s a lively kind of vibe,” Nanduri said. “People are always ju mping up and down, dancing and freaking out. When we saw that, we were like ‘oh no, maybe this is not the vibe.’ But we talked to one of the guys that was there and he said to tell them to stand up. After a few songs, we were like ‘alright, everyone get up’ and the vibe changed completely.”
Being a band where all of its members are attending separate colleges apart from Manhass and Nanduri, Weston Estate faces a set of unique challenges.
CONTRIBUTED BY WESTON ESTATE Matthew Burkhart Correspondent
New vintage shop promotes self-expression
CONTRIBUTED
“Beethoven didn’t work on his sympho nies with an entire symphony, you know, he sat down at a piano and worked it out on the piano and paper before it was ap plied and seen by a full orchestra,” Reaves said. “That’s kind of what our approach to WRIGHT Way is, essentially taking those Creative Artist Award winners and show ing them the right way of how to create and develop these works.”
CAMERON RHINEHARDT/TECHNICIAN
Unorthodox Vintage is a newly opened second-hand clothing store in downtown Raleigh featuring unique statement pieces and quality streetwear. Co-owners Julian Jacobs and Alexandria Taylor opened the store together in June after supporting each other through operating their own individ ual vintage shops. “We are an unorthodox pairing, but it works,” Taylor said. “It’s something you wouldn’t expect, but once you get it, it makes so much sense.” After a year of friendship, Jacobs and Tay lor came upon the space that would later become Unorthodox Vintage. They decided to become partners and create a shop that embraced self-expression and bold fashion choices.“Webalance each other out,” Taylor said. “[Jacobs] likes marketing and administra tion and I like aesthetics and looks. We both have our strong suits and we don’t step on each other’s toes, so it’s a perfect business marriage.”Jacobsand Taylor share a love for fashion and second-hand shopping through thrift stores, vintage stores and markets. “I cared about fashion, but I didn’t really have enough money to buy what I wanted,” Jacobs said. “When I started thrifting, I re alized I could buy fun pieces or sell things to be able to buy fun clothes.” The co-owners advise students looking to start their own business to pay attention to a specific audience and remember that you don’t have to take all the advice others give
The WRIGHT Way Series program helps the winners of the Creative Artist Award fully develop their plays in the fall and pro duce them in the spring. Each year, students submit their original work to either the mu sic, theater or dance category for the chance to win the Winnersaward.receive $500, recognition in the following year’s Arts NC State magazine and extensive writing and production assis tance. Additionally, a $1,000 grant is given to the appropriate program or department to assist in the production of the selected work by the Music Department, Dance Pro gram or University Theater. The selected winners’ work will then be performed the following academic year.
Visit technicianonline.com to view the entire article. BY UNIVERSITY THEATRE
Students of all majors and any experience level with theater or playwriting are encour aged to participate in the WRIGHT Way Series. This year’s play, titled “Muse,” writ ten by 2022 Creative Artist Award-winner Gaven Bell, is in full action with the pro gram now that operations are a lot closer to normal since the program launched in 2020.
Cameron Rhinehardt Brand Manager
Joshua Reaves, Director of University The ater at NC State, said the program started back in 2020 in order to help provide stu dent playwright winners with the proper pre-production work as one would have in the professional world of theater. The pro gram also incorporates cast and stage crew positions open to all students.
“Manyyou. people will tell you how to run things, but just remember that it’s your busi ness,” Jacobs said. “Know which advice to take and which advice not to. It’s not their business that is on the line; it’s your’s.” They also urge everyone to use fashion as an outlet to be independent and confident in“Pickthemself.thething up in the store that you’re scared of,” Taylor said. “If there’s something that you think you can’t pull off, buy it. It will be a challenge, but you’ll surprise your self.”Taylor said the store caters to a younger audience who wants to stand out and have clothing that attracts attention and has flair. “I’ve never been the person that wears what everyone else is wearing, so when I tried to follow the trends, I realized that my customer base wanted something dif ferent,” Taylor said. “I started shopping for what I would wear and what I would have in my closet.” In the coming weeks, Unorthodox Vin tage will be taking part in a new pop-up market, The Burrow. The market will reflect a more intimate version of the State Farmers Market, with several vendors and a variety of items to shop from. “We want it to be like the farmers market, but if someone lives downtown, they don’t have to drive all the way to the farmers mar ket,” Jacobs said. The co-owners also hope to reach out to local schools and educate young audiences about secondhand shopping and what sus tainability with fashion looks like. “Learning about sustainability and the recirculation of clothing is extremely im portant to teach,” Taylor said. “Our genera tion is the one that cares, so being able to use that knowledge to create a sustainable business is important.”
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Bell, a fourth-year studying biology, first got involved with the WRIGHT Way program by attending a reading of Static, the play written by 2020 Creative Artist Award Winner Aysia Slade. After working as a stage manager for the production, she decided she wanted to continue with the program and submit her own work. She received the 2021 Creative Artist award for her play “A Case of Salt,” which premiered this spring in March. This year, her 2022 award-winning play is a contempo rary rendition of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that explores the relationship between art and science. The readings of the play are open and free to all students who can regis ter online, and the finished production will premiere from March 31 to April 2.
The ultimate goal of Unorthodox Vintage is to bring distinctive pieces to Raleigh so artists and fashion enthusiasts can thrive, and younger audiences can find their indi viduality through fashion. “I don’t see many [people] like us, so we want to share this business with the com munity,” Taylor said. “I feel like it can be the start of breaking through and help ing students to be sustainable and express themselves through clothing.”
The WRIGHT Way Series supports student playwrights the right way
The program arranges readings open to all students who are interested in not only hearing the play but also participating in real time feedback and collaboration with the playwright to improve the work. “What’s most exciting (about the read ings) is the engagement and they’re seeing the process of theater making and not just production; an actual finished, polished piece of work,’’ Reaves said.
Emily Cooney Staff Writer
COURTESY OF JERMAINE HUDSON
For senior forward Alexis Strickland, Raleigh has always been home, but unfor tunately, it wasn’t always where she played soccer. Until Strickland,now.who previously played for UNC-Chapel Hill and Oklahoma, is now one of the newest and most valuable addi tions for the NC State women’s soccer team. After initially being recruited by NC State out of high school, Strickland has finally returned home via the transfer portal, and Strickland, head coach Tim Santoro and the rest of the Wolfpack couldn’t be happier. “Out of high school, I was choosing be tween UNC and NC State,” Strickland said. “So when I entered the portal, Tim, the head coach, just said, ‘If you want to come home, you’re always welcome.’ I was born and raised in Raleigh, so it was just the right fit. With the style of soccer, the way that we play, the girls here, the school academics — it’s just an overall great fit for me.” Now that she’s back home and repre senting the Wolfpack for her fourth year of college soccer, Strickland’s depth of experiences at other universities and with the NC Courage is just one of her many as sets she brings to the table, even if Santoro thinks it took a few too many years to add her to the squad. “I tell her all the time, I’m pissed it took this long to get her here,” Santoro said. “She had all the intangibles coming out of high school and now with these experiences, she’s that much better of a player. So it took longer than I wanted to, but I’m happy we get her for two seasons.” Now that she’s returned to Raleigh, Strick land’s finally found where she’s meant to be. The senior’s been able to connect with the rest of the team instantly, like she’s been here the entire time. “She just fit in from a personality perspec tive with our players,” Santoro said. “And being from Raleigh, she knows what NC State is and she knows a few of the kids, so it wasn’t going to be hard. It was a really, really seamless transition for the players, for the coaches and for her.” That seamless transition has been evident from the second Strickland stepped on the pitch for the Wolfpack. In the season opener against Rhode Island, she scored the Pack’s first goal of the season and secured her first brace with NC State minutes later. Strickland’s instant impact for the Wolf pack couldn’t have been accomplished with out her teammates, however. She’s specifi cally been able to connect with her fellow senior forwards, Leyah Hall-Robinson and Jameese Joseph, who make up the other two-thirds of NC State’s fearsome attack ing“Thosetrio. two specifically, they’re my girls from the start,” Strickland said. “When I came in the spring, those two were so wel coming. I’ve just connected with them on and off the field.” That off-the-field connection with HallRobinson and Joseph has paid dividends on the field. Hall-Robinson provided beautiful assists on both of the transfer’s goals ver sus Rhode Island, while Strickland assisted Joseph on her 86th minute game-winning goal against VCU in the second match of theButseason.shedoesn’t just net goals and assist her teammates. Strickland is willing to put in the hard work it takes to control the mid field. She’s scrappy, agile and tough, making her a difficult presence for opposing teams to deal with when starting their attacks. “She’s really fit and covers a lot of ground,” Santoro said. “Even when she makes mis takes, within five seconds, she’s finding the ball and trying to win it back and slide tackling. She’s a tough kid and that’s a big part of her game too.” Strickland has helped NC State get off to a strong start this year, but winning in the regular season is expected for the NC State women’s soccer team. The real challenge for the Pack has been progressing past the second or third round of the NCAA tourna ment. But with Strickland’s wide variety of experience in college soccer, she knows what it takes to win in the postseason.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM TECHNICIAN 13 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 Sports NC State women’s soccer team finds perfect fit as Strickland transfers home
Old DominionEast Carolina Old DominionEast CarolinaEast Carolina East Carolina East CarolinaOld Dominion East CarolinaOld Dominion No. 10 USCNo. 10 USC No. 10 USCNo. 10 USCNo. 10 USC No. 10 USC No. 10 USCNo. 10 USC No. 10 USC No. 9 BaylorNo. 9 Baylor No. 9 BaylorNo. 9 BaylorNo. 21 BYU No. 9 Baylor No. 9 BaylorNo. 9 Baylor No. 9 BaylorNo. 9 Baylor Abigail Ali News Record:Editor5-5Rank:12 Wade Bowman Managing Editor Record: 5-5 Rank: 10 Mari Fabian OpinionRecord:Editor7-3Rank:4 Sam Overton Managing Editor Record: 5-5 Rank: 11 Bryan Pyrtle SportsRecord:Editor6-4Rank:6 Chloe Allen Video Record:Editor6-4Rank:8 Ben Ellis Asst. Sports Editor Record: 6-4 Rank: 7
Mollie Mitchell Photo Record:Editor7-3Rank:5 Ethan Rimolt Asst. Photo Editor Record: 6-4 Rank: 9 Shilpa Giri Editor-in-ChiefRecord:7-3Rank:1 Duke at Northwestern No. 23 Wake Forest at CharlestonVanderbilt Southern at No. 18 NC State Appalachian State at No. 6 Texas A&M Iowa State at Iowa Old Dominion at East No.Carolina10USC at Stanford No. 9 Baylor at No. 21 at TennesseeTexas at No. 17 Pitt No. 10 USC
Senior forward Alexis Strickland kicks the ball during the match against VCU on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022 at Dail Soccer Field. NC State beat VCU 2-0.
Ethan Bakogiannis Assistant Sports Editor Visit technicianonline.com to view the entire article. NorthwesternNorthwestern NorthwesternDukeNorthwestern Duke NorthwesternDuke DukeNorthwestern No. 1 AlabamaNo. 1 Alabama No. 1 AlabamaNo. 1 AlabamaNo. 1 Alabama No. 1 Alabama No. 1 AlabamaNo. 1 Alabama TexasNo. 1 Alabama No. 23 ForestWakeNo. 23 ForestWake No. 23 ForestWakeNo. 23 ForestWakeNo. 23 ForestWake No. 23 ForestWake No. 23 ForestWakeNo. 23 ForestWake No. 23 ForestWakeNo. 23 ForestWake No. 18 StateNCNo. 18 StateNC No. 18 StateNCNo. 18 StateNC No. 18 StateNC No. 18 StateNCNo. 18 StateNC No. 18 StateNCNo. 18 StateNCNo. 18 StateNC TennesseeTennessee No. 17 PittNo. 17 Pitt No. 17 PittTennessee TennesseeTennessee No. 17 PittTennessee No. 6 A&MTexasNo. 6 A&MTexas No. 6 A&MTexasNo. 6 A&MTexasNo. 6 A&MTexas No. 6 A&MTexas No. 6 A&MTexasAppalachianState No. 6 A&MTexasNo. 6 A&MTexas Iowa StateIowa State IowaIowa StateIowa Iowa State Iowa StateIowa State Iowa StateIowa State
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Saturday, Sept. 10’s matchup is slated for a 12:30 p.m. kickoff at Carter-Finley Sta dium in Raleigh. Plans for the broadcast are currently scheduled for a regional sports network, but live coverage of the game can be found on @TechSports on Twitter.
Coming off a nail-biter in Greenville, North Carolina in week one, No. 18 NC State football looks to regroup and address some concerns in its week two home opener against Charleston Southern. Things got ugly quickly for the Pack in its first game of the season, relying on a miracle to walk out of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium with a win against an unranked ECU unit. Issues with the passing game, stalling drives and pass coverage between the numbers were almost NC State’s downfall. Heading into a matchup against an FCS opponent, the Wolfpack will have every opportunity to get these areas tuned up for the rest of the year.
One area of offense that Charleston Southern has far more figured out is the receiving corps, with their guys proving reliable early in the year. Seth Anderson led the way for the Buccaneers pass catch ers, reeling in eight receptions for 131 yards and two touchdowns. Ruff didn’t fall too far behind him, racking up 99 yards on nine catches and a touchdown of his own out of theThatbackfield.reliability is nowhere to be found in NC State’s offense, with the only target seeming capable of stepping up into a No. 1 wideout role being graduate receiver Thayer Thomas. Thomas paced all Wolfpack pass catchers with four receptions for 58 yards and caught the lone Leary touchdown.
Early signs pointed to redshirt junior wideout Devin Carter making the jump to fill Emeka Emzie’s high-volume role, but he looked far from ready for that pressure against the Pirates. Defensive Comparison Sumo-Karngbaye may have been the lone bright spot on offense, but the Wolfpack de fense showed plenty to get excited about in week one. Defensive backs were swarming to break up passes, the first two levels ex celled at creating pressure in the opposing backfield, and a pair of interceptions created turnovers that could have been the deciding factor in the game. Junior linebacker Jaylon Scott recorded the best day as a tackler, leading the team with eight total tackles, while familiar faces at linebacker in junior Drake Thomas and graduate student Isaiah Moore followed right behind him with seven and six total tackles, respectively. The latter pair also re corded one tackle for loss each. Despite week two’s matchup shaping up as a true warm-up for NC State, Leary and the rest of the offense will have to manage the pressure from a number of Buccaneer defenders that showed up to play against Western Carolina. Safety Hombre Kennedy and linebacker Garret Sayegh each record ed seven total tackles to lead the defense, with Kennedy forcing a fumble that Sayegh would recover and the latter recording a tackle for loss himself. Leary will have to be especially mindful of a pair of ball hawks in the secondary that made Catamounts quarterback Carlos Da vis pay for his mistakes, cornerback Geor dan Livingston and safety Lawson Cook.
Redshirt junior quarterback Devin Leary faced a similar struggle with pocket secu rity but was far less successful in the face of adversity. In one of his worst outings as a starter at NC State, Leary completed 17 of 33 attempts for 211 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The Wolfpack’s signal caller looked much different than the player fans got used to seeing deliver in big moments a season ago, especially in the second half. Despite the game script calling on Malmgren to move his team downfield, Charleston Southern’s running back tan dem of TJ Ruff and JD Moore made the most out of their respective opportunities against the Catamounts. Ruff was the lead ing rusher on the day, totaling 60 yards on nine attempts, while Moore finished just behind him in the box score with six at tempts for 58 yards.
TECHNICIANONLINE.COM 14 TECHNICIAN THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 Sports No. 18 NC State football to regroup against
All-in-all, week two shouldn’t pose much of a challenge for the Pack. Charleston Southern enters the matchup 0-23 against FBS programs, and NC State has all the tangibles to not be the first member of the Buccaneers’ win column in that category.
Charleston Southern in week two matchup
One of the few bright spots in the Pack’s near-disaster was the breakout of sopho more back Demie Sumo-Karngbaye, who served as the muscle to junior Jordan Hous ton’s finesse in the backfield. Sumo-Karng baye ended the contest as NC State’s No. 1 option at running back, netting 79 yards on 14 attempts with a touchdown. With all the uncertainties surrounding this pair of backs heading into the season, Sumo-Karngbaye showed more promise than anyone else on the offense to move the chains consistently.
GRIFFIN BRYANT/TECHNICIAN Redshirt junior Devin Leary drops back to pass during the Wolfpack’s football game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. The Wolfpack beat the Pirates 21-20.
Wade Bowman Managing Editor
The Buccaneers faced issues of their own in week one, opening their season with a 5238 loss against Western Carolina at home. While the final scoreline suggests defense was hard to come by for this Charleston Southern squad, an offense capable of scor ing 38 points is not something NC State can claim to have itself. Offensive Comparison Buccaneers quarterback Ross Malmgren stepped up to the plate in the aforemen tioned season opener, completing 30 of 45 attempts through the air for 392 yards, five touchdowns and an interception. The highvolume stat line is made even more impres sive by the fact that Malmgren was working out of a consistently collapsing pocket where he was sacked five times on the afternoon.
Oct. 13 vs. University of Mary at Invis align Arena This one has revenge game written all over it. Back in the 2020-21 season, the Icepack traveled to Bismarck, North Dakota to compete in the ACHA National Tourna ment. The University of Mary Marauders were the team that sent NC State on the long plane ride home. After a 5-1 rout without a trophy, UMary would go on to become national champions not only that season, but last season as well.
No one can argue that the team is rising to be one of the most dominant college hockey squads in the South east, but it is going to have much more competition as divisions have been realigned within the ACCHL to help bolster more exciting matchups this upcomingThird-yearseason.head
Highlight Games
The Icepack’s schedule is stacked this year with many exciting matchups. Three games in particular stand out as ones you should mark on your calendars and purchase tick ets for at icepackhockey.com.
Joey Biancone
The Icepack look to win their first Wagon Wheel trophy at home, as game two will be played at Invisalign Arena.
One guy that quickly comes to mind is senior forward Matt Miller. He is a gritty player, never scared to throw down the gloves and give the crowd at Invisalign Arena a show. He will fill in nicely as the first line center this year, finishing third in points on the team last year with 37. He will be one of the focal points of the Icepack’s offensive scheme.
The NC State Icepack has been nothing less than successful over the past few sea sons. The team has won four straight Atlan tic Coast Collegiate Hockey League (AC CHL) Championships, highlighted by advancing to the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Nation al Tournament in 2019 and 2021.
The Carolina Hurricanes announced back in April that the Wake Competition Center would be rebranded into Invisalign Arena due to the team’s partnership with the Invisalign brand for its 2022 Stanley Cup Playoff run. The arena has already gone through its cosmetic makeover and will be ready with the new branding for the Icepack to drop the puck on Sept. 23 versus the Drexel Dragons.
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Sports Icepack hockey season preview: lots of change, same winning culture in realigned division
coach Tim Healy and new team president Victor Hugo have made sure to challenge them selves this season as well, building a schedule that brings in many top-tier opponents to the newly rebranded home barn, Invisalign Arena. The old offensive core from last season, including Chris Soloman, Parker Szarek and Riley Johnson, will not be returning to the program for the 2022-23 season, so there is a lot of room for the youth to shine and take over massive roles for the team. With Icepack tryouts completed and the final roster determined, several players look to have a breakout cam paign this year.
NC State is now in the most prestigious di vision the ACCHL has to offer, the Premier Division. The league took the existing Caro lina East Division, consisting of NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Wilmington and added Virginia Tech from the former Virginia division.
NC State and Liberty split the series last year, but Liberty ended up winning in an “unofficial shootout” at the end of game two.
Nov. 21 vs. UNC-Chapel Hill at PNC Arena
COURTESY OF KAYDEE GAWLIK
The NC State Icepack poses with its fourth straight Admiral’s Cup after defeating rival UNC-Chapel Hill 3-0 at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds in February 2022.
Correspondent
The ACCHL added new teams and re aligned their divisions to create a more com petitive atmosphere for the 2022-23 season.
ACCHL Division Realignment
The back-to-back defending ACHA cham pions make the trip to North Carolina for a late-night Thursday brawl at the barn in arguably NC State’s biggest must-win game of the season.
Penn State and Rowan are newcomers to the ACCHL this year. They both come from the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey (MACH) league and made the ACHA Southeast Regional tournament, along with NC State, last year. These six teams will now compete against each other atop of ACC Division Two Hock ey. NC State will have more of a challenge than ever before to achieve its fifth-straight ACCHL Championship. The remaining 15 ACCHL teams will play in three separate lower tier divisions and compete for a separate title.
A new tradition was born last year be tween ACHA D2 rivals Liberty and NC State. Each year, the teams compete in a two-game series (one home, one away) for the Wagon Wheel trophy.
A tradition in Icepack culture is for rookie skaters to wear yellow laces until they score their first goal. The rookies tend to shed their yellow laces sooner rather than later. This year will be no different. With 12 new faces on the team, there will be a lot of new skate laces going around for the first few weeks, but that can’t happen without the veteran leadership from the past few years of successful ACCHL title runs.
Nov. 12 vs. Liberty University at Invis align Arena
Please note, this date is preliminary and subject to change based on the Carolina Hurricanes schedule next season, but that still doesn’t dwarf the importance of this game.This will be the tenth meeting between the NC State and UNC hockey clubs at PNC. Also, this will be the fifth annual Governor’s Cup. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is an avid hockey fan and comes out each year to drop the puck and present the trophy for theNCmatchup.Statehas claimed the cup each of the five times since its creation, but expect a much closer matchup this time around. Young Core and Senior Leadership: We saw how valuable the youth could be for the Icepack last year. Look no further than the top scoring freshman forward Zack Robinson (19G, 7A, 26P), or top overall scoring defenseman Alex James (5G, 17A, 22P). The goalie with the highest save per centage on the team last year was freshman Isaac Tawyer (95.8%).
A surprise return by fifth-year senior for ward Alex Robinson will help bolster the Icepack’s offense even more. He has been seen to handle both offensive and defen sive responsibilities throughout his college career, but expect to see his shiftiness put to work to lead the line rush. Senior forward Garrett Auriene finished last year’s campaign tied for third on the team in assists with 22. Expect no regression this year as he is one of the fastest players that can draw defenders to him and open up the ice for his teammates. Auriene should also be one of the team’s top forecheckers and a valuable asset on power plays and penalty kills.
New Name, Same Barn For the past few years, Icepack fans are used to “packing” the Wake Competition Center. The location is staying the same, but the barn is getting a name upgrade.
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