Old Gold&Black
VOL 109, NO. 13
WA K E F O R E S T ’ S S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R S I N C E 1 9 1 6
MARCH 2, 2023
On-campus housing costs, explained Residence Life and Housing details pricing structure amid student concern MADDIE STOPYRA & CLAIRE O'BRIEN News Editor & Staff Writer
N
ot all residence halls are created equal — just ask a resident of Collins Residence Hall who has a friend in Angelou. And yet — given both students are in a single or double room — those students pay the same rate for on-campus housing. “The discrepancies in freshman housing are very clear, and I think that it is very unjust that I am paying the same amount as other people,” Gabrielle Becka, a freshman living in Collins Residence Hall, said. Despite recent renovations in Bostwick, Johnson and Luter Residence Halls, some freshmen feel that there is a drastic difference in quality between residential spaces. Becka, who lives in a double, explains the inconveniences she and her roommate face in their room. “There isn’t enough space for both my roommate and me,” Becka said. “Whenever one of us has to get to another part of the room, one of us usually has to move out of the way.” In contrast, freshman Molly Steur describes the spacious room she and her roommate share in Angelou Residence Hall. “We both have two full-size closets that are honestly bigger than the closet that I have back at home,” Steur said. “We are able to have our own space very easily because there is just so much of it. It’s phenomenal. It’s a very large room, and we defi-
nitely have our own corners. We don’t have to encroach on each other’s space at all.” On-campus housing costs increase across the board every year because of increased expenses — which include utilities, labor costs and finished goods such as furniture and other amenities — some of which are due to inflationary pressures, which have increased in recent years. “We're in a whole different world, at least in the past 18 months or so, in terms of inflation,” Dean of Residence Life and Housing (RLH) Matt Clifford said. For the 2022-2023 academic year, single rooms cost $6,163 per semester, and double rooms cost $5,224 per semester, regardless of the dorm in which you live — other than rooms in Deacon Place, which cost $6,403. Next year, 2023-2024, the rates will increase by around three percent. Clifford explained that prices are determined by RLH and approved by the Board of Trustees. How much a student will pay per semester also depends on the privacy and utilities available in a student’s primary living space, as well as amenities such as kitchens. “We really have three room rates,” Clifford said. “Generally speaking, a standard double room is the lowest priced. The notion there is that you’re sharing your primary living space. Then we have another pricing for
a single room or an apartment-style space. In terms of that element, we're looking certainly at the primary living space, which is private. This rate structure also allows [us to offer] variability with some amenities.” In previous years, RLH followed a more complex model that listed six different housing options. Students were able to choose between a single room, double room (not including Polo Hall), a back double on the quad, a triple room, an apartment single and an apartment double. Alongside following the institutional standard for cost distribution, RLH simplified its rate structure during the 2008-2009 academic year to help students plan ahead financially. “We had some consultants come through and help us look at our rate structure and simplify it for students with really a couple of goals,” Clifford said. “One is just to help simplify the rate structure, making it easier for students as they're going through making their decisions and helping students be able to navigate the process much more easily. And probably the primary reason was to make it a lot easier for students to be able to estimate and plan financially for their cost of attendance.” See Housing, Page 4
Old Gold & Black This column represents the views of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Committee
“
Bryan Stevenson is right: we need to get 'proximate' Bryan Stevenson had a message for students this past Thursday: if you want to be a force for justice, you need to get proximate to those who are suffering. Stevenson, a capital litigator and founderdirector of the Equal Justice Initiative, did not just aim his advice at would-be lawyers in the crowd, but at all students. This university, and all who comprise its community, would do well to heed his message. In many ways, Wake Forest exists in a bubble — fenced off (literally) from the wider Winston-Salem community. It can be tempting to live in this bubble and not engage with the city that surrounds our campus, but it is not just. There are many organizations on campus that do great work getting students involved beyond the bubble. Campus Kitchen, for one, distributes hot food to organizations that work in food-insecure areas of Win-
ston-Salem. The Student Association for the Advancement of Refugees works to lift up Winston-Salem’s refugee population and to form meaningful connections between students and community members. Multiple Wake Forest students are currently part of a program through AmeriCorps to promote public health in the Winston-Salem community. And, at Wake Forest, many of these initiatives are funded through the Office of Civic and Community Engagement. These are just some of the ways Wake Forest students can and do “get proximate” to the Winston-Salem community, and we applaud the work that students, faculty and staff put into these initiatives. As a university community, however, we can do more. There are many more organizations that are doing important work across a variety of issues. One such organization is Housing Justice Now, which is seeking volunteers for
their tenant organizing initiative and their campaign to make access to eviction counsel a civil right. We encourage those in this university community to also remain humble as they plug into the struggle for justice and to listen for where they are needed. Sometimes, the best way to fight for justice is to help an organization with its paperwork or data entry. We also encourage Wake Forest and its community to name and reckon with the adverse impacts the university has had on the Winston-Salem community, such as its contribution to gentrification. The Old Gold & Black reported last year that some Winston-Salem residents do not trust Wake Forest and believe that the university only advances the interests of the wealthy and powerful. The Old Gold & Black’s magazine, The Magnolia, will be illustrating this
This university, and all who comprise its community, would do well to heed [Bryan Stevenson's] message." history in its Spring 2023 edition. We cannot ignore the mistakes of the past when we strive to fight for justice in Winston-Salem; we as a university community must actively atone and fight to do and be better. We thank Bryan Stevenson for his work and his wisdom, and we commend Wake Forest for bringing him here to speak as part of the Face-to-Face forum. Now, it is time to follow his call and get proximate.
Old Gold&Black THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY SINCE 1916
CHRISTA DUTTON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF duttcd20@wfu.edu
BREANNA LAWS
AINE PIERRE
MARYAM KHANUM
SOFIA SCORDLEY
PRINT MANAGING EDITOR
ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR
MULTIMEDIA MANAGING EDITOR
BUSINESS MANAGER
lawsbn21@wfu.edu
pierav20@wfu.edu
khanmg20@wfu.edu
scorse20@wfu.edu
>> NEWS Daniel Parolini, parodj20@wfu.edu
>> LIFE Adam Coil, coilat21@wfu.edu
Maddie Stopyra, stopmf21@wfu.edu
James Watson, watsjc22@wfu.edu
>> FEATURES Chase Bagnall-Koger, bagncm21@wfu.edu
>> PHOTO Virginia Noone, noonvc21@wfu.edu
Isabella Romine, romiie21@wfu.edu
Evan Harris, harres22@wfu.edu
>> ENVIRONMENT Addison Schmidt, schmac21@wfu.edu
>> VIDEO Asheton Ayotte, ayotag20@wfu.edu
Bella Ortley-Guthrie, ortlbs21@wfu.edu
>> COPY CHIEF Josie Scratchard, scraja20@wfu.edu
>> OPINION Shaila Prasad, prassp21@wfu.edu
>> EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Chair: Aine Pierre, pierav20@wfu.edu
Lauren Carpenter, carple21@wfu.edu
Members: Sophie Guymon, guymsm20@wfu.edu
>> SPORTS ,DQ 6WHIIHQVHQ VWHI¿S #ZIX HGX
Shaila Prasad, prassp21@wfu.edu
Aaron Nataline, nataae21@wfu.edu Asst. Sean Kennedy, kennsm21@wfu.edu
Lauren Carpenter, carple21@wfu.edu Ashlyn Segler, seglal20@wfu.edu Hope Zhu, zhuq21@wfu.edu
>> ADVISER Ivan Weiss, weissij@wfu.edu
Want to write for us? Email wfuogb@gmail.com
>> POLICIES Our job as a newspaper is to be a platform for all voices, not just the ones we agree with. However, we reserve the right to reject advertisements that are vulgar, inaccurate, obscene or violate Wake Forest’s policies on nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, and inclusion as they pertain to student organizations. We will also reject any advertisements that promote illegal activities according to the state of North Carolina. Not only do we hold our newspaper and its contents to a high standard, but we also expect that those who choose to use us as an outlet for their ideas, opinions and skill hold themselves and their content to a high ethical standard. The Old Gold & Black is published Thursdays during the school year, except during examinations, summer and holiday periods, by Triangle Web Printing of Durham. The views expressed in all opinion pieces and advertisements contained within this publication do QRW QHFHVVDULO\ UHÀHFW WKH RSLQLRQV RI WKH 2OG *ROG %ODFN $V SDUW RI RXU FRPPLWPHQW WR reporting news fairly and accurately, we will not remove any previously published content online unless it is retracted. If an error in either our online or print content is brought to our attention, we will revise the originally published article with an appended correction. In RUGHU WR IDFLOLWDWH WKRXJKWIXO DQG DSSURSULDWH GHEDWH SURIDQH YXOJDU RU LQÀDPPDWRU\ FRPments on our website are not allowed and will be deleted. Comments which incite violence, target individuals in a form of cyber bullying, or which promote ideas which vilify marginDOL]HG FRPPXQLWLHV ZLOO EH GHOHWHG DQG SURSHU DXWKRULWLHV PD\ EH QRWL¿HG DQG LQYROYHG >> SUBMISSIONS The OGB welcomes submissions in the form of story tips, columns and letters to the editor. Letters to the editor should be fewer than 500 words, and columns should be around 500 words. Send yours via e-mail to duttcd20@wfu.edu the Monday before publication. We reserve the right to edit all letters for length and clarity. No anonymous letters will be printed. >> ONLINE MEDIA Web: wfuogb.com Facebook: facebook.com/ogb1916 Twitter: @wfuogb Instagram: @wfuogb TikTok: @wfuogb Sports Twitter: @wfuogbsports
News | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 2, 2023 | Page 3
%U\DQ 6WHYHQVRQ XUJHV VWXGHQWV WR ¿JKW IRU MXVWLFH The author and social justice activist shares the importance of proximity ELI LEADHAM Staff Writer
Proximity is a core tenant of social justice activist Bryan Stevenson’s work — one he shared with members of the Wake Forest community in Wait Chapel on Feb. 23 in the third installment of the Face to Face Speaker Forum. “We have to get proximate to people in need, wrap our arms around them and affirm their humanity and dignity,” Stevenson said. Stevenson, the prolific author of The New York Times bestseller “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption,” is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been falsely convicted, unfairly sentenced or abused by the prison-industrial complex. He participated in two events, a student-only event at 5 p.m. and a community-wide event at 7:30 p.m. EJI also provides reentry services to formerly incarcerated people and is openly opposed to the death penalty — which became a topic of national discussion earlier this month. During the forum, Stevenson shared how he found his sense of purpose during his time at Harvard Law School. He was required to spend a Evan Harris/Old Gold & Black month serving a human rights organization and providing legal services to individuals on death row Wake Forest University School of Medicine, School of Business, School of Law in Jackson, Georgia. There he met an incarcerated and the Program for Leadership and Character host a student-only event Feb. 23. man who, while being led back to his prison cell, the hall but you could also hear this man singing by trauma, broken by addiction. But I do what I began to sing. “This man closed his eyes, threw his head back … when I heard that man singing, that’s when I do because I am broken, too. The truth is that I am and started to sing a hymn on reaching higher knew I wanted to help condemned people reach not just trying to save my clients, I am trying to save myself as well.” ground,” Stevenson said. “You would hear the higher ground.” chains clanging as the guards pushed him down He continued: “It is the broken people who can He continued: “If I’ve had any impact as a lawyer, it’s not because I’m smart but because I got teach us what grace is about — what it means to be proximate to a condemned man and heard his put back together.” Alongside discussing the injustices many incarcersong. I think people are singing all over the world and if we get close enough to hear their songs, we ated individuals face, Stevenson explained how the legal system must reckon with its history. can become a part of that song.” “When mobs were forming and terrorizing and Proximity is not just for lawyers, or even prolynching thousands of Black people, prosecutors chose fessionals. Stevenson gave advice to Wake Forest students on getting proximate. He shared that not to hold accountable the perpetrators of that viothrough proximity, one can develop a sense of lence,” Stevenson said. “For the first half of the 20th century, prosecutors were complicit in racial terror.” clarity and purpose. Stevenson offered advice to individuals who aspire “Clarity is hard to come to on your own. You’ve to become prosocuters. Law student Dareus Chen, got to get proximate to the people you care about. who got to ask Stevenson two questions during the You’ve got to get to proximate to the communities 5 p.m. event, connected with Stevenson through a you want to serve,” Stevenson said. “For me, getshared passion for justice. ting proximate to the condemned brought me an “Stevenson’s work is interwoven with my academimmense sense of clarity.” ic and social direction because I plan on going into Sophomore Hannah Elluru was particularly prosecution after graduating from law school,” Chen struck by Stevenson’s message. said. “I believe that this kind of work is a never-ending “The injustices of the criminal justice system battle that has to be maintained.” and Stevenson’s commitment to his work moved Many students described the impact Stevenson’s me,” Elluru said. “Because of him, I feel like I have talk had on their academic career and the Wake Forfound my purpose. I want to help those whom the est student body. Junior Emily Oh explained how Stelaw has been unkind and unfair to and use Ste- venson’s emphasis on proximity challenges students to venson as my example. It sounds so cliché, but he use their academic and professional careers to become truly has changed my life for the better.” advocates for others. Stevenson explained that the connections he has At Wake Forest, proximity is “very relevant to Pro made with incarcerated individuals have revealed Humanitate,” Oh said. “Most of us are very privileged areas in his life he describes as “broken.” He dis- students, and we can all learn how to use our future cussed how his work has impacted his view on careers to advocate for others in corporate, legal and Evan Harris/Old Gold & Black grace and healing. professional settings.” “I work in a broken system,” Stevenson said. Attendees gather in Wait Chapel to hear from bestselling author Bryan Stevenson. “My clients have been broken by poverty, broken Contact Eli Leadham at leadey22@wfu.edu
POLICE BEAT • • • • •
Unknown subject(s) took a scooter from Johnson Hall. The scooter was later found and returned to the owner. The report was filed at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 21. Unknown subject(s) damaged a victim’s vehicle by scratching the door. The report was filed at 4:20 p.m. on Feb. 22. Students were involved in a verbal disturbance at Dogwood Residence Hall. A residential advisor was called after a resident notified her. The subject was uncooperative and officers observed alcohol in the presence of the subject. The report was filed at 12:00 a.m. on Feb. 23. Unknown subject(s) removed a victim’s unsecured scooter. There are no suspects. The report was filed at 5:01 p.m. on Feb. 24. An individual stated that their vehicle was broken into on Feb. 11. The plastic window of their Jeep was cut with a sharp cutting tool. Nothing was taken, and the vehicle has been repaired. The report was filed at 9:00 p.m. on Feb. 24.
Page 4 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | News
Housing: Students discuss freshmen dorm differences Continued from Page 1 He continued: “We want our rates to reflect differentiation between housing styles while also ensuring that all housing options are available to the broadest spectrum of our student population.” Each freshman dorm is randomly assigned to incoming students. In contrast to the current structure, determining housing costs based on the quality of each residence hall may create a financial hardship for some students; for example, a student could be assigned to Angelou but could not afford to pay the higher cost. When asked about the costs of freshman housing, Steur explained how pricing each residence hall based on quality may separate students by economic class if the current model was changed to allow students to choose their residence hall.
“I think that would [separate students] immediately,” Steur said. “I personally — I can’t speak for other people — I don’t think I would live in Angelou if it cost more than Collins. I think I would simply go for the cheaper option.” She continued: “I understand that people have issues with [pricing], because obviously Collins is not as nice as Angelou. I do think that it creates a more economically diverse community within the dorms. I think it’s super important for the college experience to not completely segregate the economic classes. That would be ridiculous.” However, some students disagree with the current pricing structure — they believe a more comprehensive rate structure, despite making housing pricing more complicated, would be fairer than a simplified model. Freshman Ben Danek-
er, who lives in Babcock Residence Hall, expressed the importance of considering the quality of living spaces when determining housing prices. “I think it would be better if it was priced by quality, rather than privacy,” Daneker said. “It’s definitely simpler with a more standardized model, but I feel like a greater variation based on the housing is honestly better. An Angelou room versus a Babcock or Collins room is such a big difference. You really shouldn’t be paying the same amount for that great of a disparity.” When asked about these differences and renovation projects on campus, Clifford explained how RLH and Wake Forest administration prioritize cultivating a residential community when determining future improvements. “We’re asking questions like: what do
we want the community to look like at Wake Forest?” Clifford said. “What is the student when we say things like the student community, their residential community? What does that look like? When we do a renewal project, that would be those things like Collins or Babcock or Polo, or we do a new building, how do we do that work and make sure it is informed by those big questions?” If students want to voice concerns about their residential experience on campus, there are many resources available to them including Student Government, residential advisors and RLH staff. More information about housing costs can be found on RLH’s website at https://rlh.wfu.edu/. Contact writers at stopmf21@wfu.edu and obricc22@wfu.edu
Wake Forest community divided on ChatGPT’s role in academic writing Students and faculty discuss the ethics of using AI technology in classrooms MELINA TRAIFOROS Staff Writer
When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November, it began a conversation about the ethical use of artificial intelligence at Wake Forest. From computer science classrooms to the Writing Center, students and professors are talking about how artificial intelligence impacts learning at Wake Forest. Some STEM students praise the bot as a study tool. However, others who study humanities debate whether ChatGPT will have consequences for academic writing. AJ Aizpurua, Wake Forest senior and president of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Chapter, believes ChatGPT is useful for science and math students. He recommends students use ChatGPT as “extended office hours” to ask the bot questions normally reserved for a professor or teaching assistant. “I use it mainly to learn more about programming languages that I am unfamiliar with,” Aizpurua said. “The AI will give me a lot of information, but it is much more readable than some of the older documentation that’s on the web that can be very non-intuitive for a student who is trying to learn it for the first time.” ChatGPT uses previously entered responses and existing web data to generate human-like feedback — helping users plan a Caribbean vacation, develop business ideas or write academic papers. ChatGPT crossed a record-breaking 1 million users within a week of its launch, and an Intelligent survey of 1,000 college students reported nearly one in three college students have used the bot on written assignments. In fact, this article’s title was generated by ChatGPT. As the first line of defense against AI-generated academic papers, Wake Forest’s Writing Center had to react quickly to the rise of ChatGPT. “By spring break, we do want to have a public-facing policy [for the Writing Center],” Writing Center Director Ryan Shirey said. “This is a place
where people come for help with writing in all different kinds of ways, and if ChatGPT or some other AI tool has become part of their writing process, we want to have a way of speaking to those writers.” Shirey is part of an unofficial group of professors on campus who have a Listserv to discuss AI-related issues on campus. While ChatGPT can be a use-
man activity of writing,” Shirey said. Yi Zhu, a senior computer science student and Writing Center tutor, is less concerned about ChatGPT’s capacity to mimic human writing. “At least for now, AI hasn’t reached the level to fully replace our essay writing in college,” Zhu said. She cited ChatGPT’s use of key phrases, like “on the other hand,” and
Photo courtesy of Young America’s Foundation Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
ful brainstorming tool, Shirey worries it may reduce writing to the production of text. He believes that writing allows students to process knowledge from class, which is not something an AI can do. “I do hold out hope [that] there’s a way of thinking about this technology that neither vilifies it nor sees it as a meaningful replacement for the hu-
its repetition of the same basic essay structure. The process of feeding ideas to the bot can help students refine their thesis, but Zhu explained that if a student doesn’t grasp the basic ideas of an assignment, ChatGPT will not magically write it for you — it can only write as well as the information the user provides. “Based on the algorithm, I don’t
think it can generate any new, creative thoughts,” Zhu said. “At some point, it may reach a level of generating academic essays that are readable and reliable enough, but that is from absorbing the knowledge from essays we already have.” Despite the uncertainty, the Wake Forest community faces regarding technology, Sarra Alqahtani, a Wake Forest computer science professor and AI researcher, remains optimistic. “Math doesn’t have feelings,” Alqahtani said. She also said that AI-operated machines having a conscience is a myth propagated by Hollywood movies. In reality, human engineers train machines using data collected from ordinary people. Alqahtani encourages her research students to use ChatGPT to write formal emails and will even incorporate it into future coding assignments. “ChatGPT is here to stay, so it is better for us as educators to utilize it instead of fighting it,” she said. “I’m personally concerned about replicating our biases in AI machines or models.” We still struggle with racism, sexism and other oppressive institutions, she added, and those issues can infiltrate AI machines via human engineers. The complicated math equations used to build these machines often make it difficult to understand why they make certain decisions. “Explaining AI machines is the first step toward understanding and discovering their biases and unfair components,” Alqahtani said. As the research community looks forward, she says the ethical issues of AI are at the forefront. “We have to actively, as humans, attempt to ethically use [artificial intelligence],” said Writing Center academic coordinator Caroline Livesay. “It’s out there, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Contact Melina Traiforos at traimg21@wfu.edu
FEATURES
Chase Bagnall-Koger, bagncm21@wfu.edu Isabella Romine, romiie21@wfu.edu
OLD GOLD & BLACK
PAGE 5 THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2023
WFU Law Graduates on the NC Supreme Court
Richard Dietz
AINE PIERRE Online Managing Editor Associate Justice Richard Dietz (R), one of two Wake Forest Law School graduates on the seven-member
North Carolina Supreme Court, believes Wake Forest is the “finest law school in the world.” “There’s something about Wake Forest that does more than just train skilled lawyers…,” Dietz said in an address to the Wake Forest Law graduates of 2021. “We’re trained to be lawyers with heart.” In his speech, Dietz goes on to share the story of one of his saddest moments. In the fall of his second year at law school, Dietz received a tearful phone call from his mother who told him that she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She told him to stay at law school, but he refused and went home to Pennsylvania. “She wanted me to stay and focus on law school, and she promised that she’d call me every night,” Dietz said in the speech. “But I thought about it, and I just couldn’t do that. I mean, these were the last few weeks on Earth for my mother, and I was going to go home and be with her.” Dietz believed this would be the end of his law school career — or, at least, that he would need to drop out and reapply. The deans of the law school told him to hold off and see what they could work
out. A couple of days later, a cardboard box arrived at Dietz’s door, filled with VHS tapes of all the classes Dietz had missed, alongside photocopied notes. Boxes like these came every few days, Dietz said. “One thing you’ll find is that law school can be pretty competitive…,” Dietz told me, giving me examples of students at other law schools tearing pages out of casebooks. “I was number one in my class at that time, and so … [at] a lot of law schools, what’s going through the minds of everyone is, ‘Oh, this is awesome. We’re going to take out the guy that’s number one, he’s gonna have to drop out. And then, you know, that’s one less person ahead of me in my class rank when I try to get a job or something.’” Instead, at Wake Forest, “Everybody was like, ‘you know, whatever you need, Rich.’” Dietz told me that he watched the VHS tapes while he was at home with his mother. Dietz graduated first in his class a year and a half later. Dietz went on to clerk for fellow Wake Forest law graduate H. Emory Widener, Jr. Eventually, Widener would become Dietz’s father-in-law. “[Widener] actually introduced us,” Dietz said. “He said, ‘Oh, you know, I love Wake Forest. My daughter actually just graduated there, and she was waiting to go work on the Hill.’” Five years later, Richard and Kelley Dietz walked
out of Wait Chapel as a married couple — and right into a Hearn Plaza “quad roll.” “It was the one year anniversary of [former Wake Forest basketball coach] Skip Prosser’s death, so the students, to honor him, had come out and they were rolling the Quad,” Dietz said. “So Kelley, my wife, went over to roll the Quad… you can’t find any more of a diehard Demon Deacon fan than that.” Dietz says Wake Forest prepared him well to do one thing that many law schools do not teach — connect with clients. “Being a lawyer is more than just… knowing the law and being able to research the law,” Dietz said. “You have to be able to talk to people, you need to get them to confide in you so you can figure out their case, and I think that’s something Wake [Forest] excels at.” In 2014, Dietz was working at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton — an international law firm that handles international property law — when a spot on the North Carolina Court of Appeals opened. “The only thing that I could ever imagine that would be cooler, as far as a profession, than being the person that gets to step up to that podium and argue in an appellate case for clients is to put on the robe and be the person on the other side that gets to ask the questions and decide the case,” Dietz said. “And so, and I think that’s for most appellate lawyers, it is kind of the dream that you can one day become an appellate judge.” Dietz became a justice of the N.C. Supreme Court after defeating Democrat Lucy Inman in last November’s election. He could not talk specifics about cases due to the N.C. Supreme Court’s media policy (which is fairly standard), but said he and Phil Berger were inspired by their time at Wake Forest to create opportunities for high school students and undergraduates to access the law. To accomplish this, Berger and Dietz plan to create similar programs at the N.C. Supreme Court to the ones they did on the Court of Appeals. Those programs began in 2020 — right after the world was shut down by the spread of COVID-19. First, Berger and Dietz helped create an appellate seminar for law students whose internships for that summer were canceled. Then, phones began to ring. “After we did the law student seminar, it got all this media attention,” Dietz said. “And then parents reached out and — because [Berger] was campaigning [for the Supreme Court] at the time, I think they reached out to him and said, ‘Oh, we saw you doing this wonderful thing, but my high schooler is going crazy at home and really needs something like this. Can’t you do something?’” Dietz continued: “Well, you can’t really do an appellate law seminar for you know, kids in high school. It’s too complicated. But, you know, I was like, why don’t we just do a constitutional academy and just give them a little certificate that you put on your resume?” It remains to be seen what impact Dietz will have on the N.C. Supreme Court, but his desire to give back to the Wake Forest community is clear. After all, it was Wake Forest that trained him to be a lawyer with heart. This story is the first in a two-part series featuring WFU Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Law Law graduates who now sit on the N.C. Supreme Court.
Richard Dietz (left) is sworn in as an associate justice of the N.C. Supreme Court in January 2023. There are now two Wake Forest Alums on the Court. Contact Aine Pierre at pierav20@wfu.edu
Page 6 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | Features
ϐ The Body Project at Wake Forest advocates for change in the school’s attitudes surrounding food COLLYN BALLENTINE Contributing Writer “It’s going to be starvation nation tonight!” shouts a tall, thin blonde woman through her door into the common room of a Wake Forest dorm. Her roommate says, “I’m feeling skinny and hungry.” The time is 2 p.m., and the women are already preparing for their sorority semi-formal that night. Part of this preparation includes eating as little as possible to look thin for the event. “Sometimes girls won’t eat as much before special events because they want to look skinnier,” sophomore Katie Salnikoff said. According to a study from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, a study following roughly 500 girls from ages 8 to 20 found that — when accounting for non-specific eating disorder symptoms — 13.2% had suffered from a DSM-5 eating disorder by age 20. The University Counseling Center did not respond with statistics regarding disordered eating at Wake Forest. However, stories from women on campus demonstrate the prevalence of eating disorders. In particular, female students mention that the normalization of insensitive comments and unhealthy behaviors have negatively impacted their relationships with food and body image. Sophomore Tristan Bullock was impacted by this aspect of the school’s culture as she was in remission for anorexia nervosa in summer 2021 before beginning her freshman year at Wake Forest. According to the Mayo Clinic, anorexia nervosa is “an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of weight.” Despite her remission, Bullock relapsed as soon as a few days after getting to campus. New friends and peers made cutting remarks that Bullock found damaging. “My recovery was thrown away as soon as I came to Wake Forest,” Bullock said. “I was surrounded by calories on everything I ate and insensitive comments made by my own friends. I let the comments affect me so much that I ended up extremely sick and was forced to go to an inpatient treatment center before winter break.” When reached for comment about how Wake Forest supports those who suffer from eating disorders,
“There is an expectation [at Wake Forest] that you must be the best. You must have something to make you stand out. You could always be doing something more to be better or closer to perfect.” -Morgan Moser Assistant Vice President for Health and Wellbeing Warrenetta Mann noted that the university’s approach to student health focuses on overall wellbeing and pointed to the Embodied Wake website, which houses the information related to Wake Forest’s approach to health and body image. “We love our students and are committed to supporting them to be well,” Mann said, “The University Counseling Center and the Student Health Service are here to help support students with any eating and/or body image issues they may experience. We take an individualized approach to provide [students struggling with mental health] with the right support for their situation. If you, or someone you know, is struggling we want to hear from you. We want to help everyone be successful here at Wake.” Mann also stated that though Wake Forest has not received results from the 2022 Health Minds Study, which helped the university to understand how the mental health of its students is faring, in 2018, about 8% of students at Wake Forest said they had struggled with eating or body image concerns, which was lower than two-thirds of the schools surveyed. However, those with eating disorders — as well as other mental health issues — struggled during the pandemic, with the National
Eating Disorder Association helpline reporting a 40% increase in call volume. While eating disorders are not a new issue at Wake Forest — and have likely been exacerbated by the pandemic — new efforts are emerging to fight back against these unhealthy and toxic cultures. Last February, an intervention program called The Body Project was introduced to Wake Forest’s campus. The Body Project is a four-week program consisting of weekly, one-hour meetings. Members were split into groups of eight female-identifying students and two student facilitators. Over a catered dinner, members discuss a topic related to the “appearance ideal” and explore how society’s perception of the ideal woman is not a reasonable nor healthy image to strive for. Designed in the 1990s at Stanford University, it is currently the most successful eating disorder reduction plan that has been studied. Sophomore Morgan Moser is one of the femaleidentifying students trained as a discussion facilitator. Moser, who has struggled with two eating disorders, felt compelled to become part of The Body Project and to act as a force of change for the Wake Forest community. “When I got to Wake Forest, it was prevalent that disordered eating was a big issue, whether students restrict food intake to get drunk faster or feel pressure to look a certain way to be accepted by certain groups,” Moser said. “What added to the problem is that it was being normalized in so many ways. There were no student voices speaking out about the eproblem and encouraging happiness over the perfection of health and beauty. So when I heard that the Wellbeing Center was recruiting female-identifying individuals as The Body Project facilitators, I was excited to join.” Moser explained that The Body Project grew out of concern for Wake Forest’s toxic culture around food and body image. Moser noted that one aspect she has observed that students struggle with is perfectionism. “There is an expectation that you must be the best,” Moser said. “You must have something to make you stand out. You could always be doing something more to be better or closer to perfect.” According to various female students, the perfectionist culture creates pressure to look as thin as possible. Junior Camille Murashige shared where she thinks this pressure stems from: “I think Wake Forest’s culture, in its perfectionism, stems from its students generally being high-achieving and above-average students where we come from. And because college is inherently so different from high school in that everything in our lives is centered here, that need to be above-average and high-achieving bleeds into everything — academics, balancing extracurriculars, securing the best internships and even having the ‘best’ or skinniest body because of today’s beauty standards.” While it is clear from testimonials that Wake Forest has a long way to go to provide a healthier environment for students, efforts by students such as Moser and programs such as The Body Project offer hope for a better future. Moser shared the significance of how the The Body Project has helped her during her remission: “It is powerful to hear the stories of women and how strong and resilient we can be in difficult situations. That, in itself, is one of the most impactful parts of working with this program.” Beyond The Body Project, Moser shared some insights on what individual students can do to combat cultures that feed impossible appearance standards. “Instead of comparing ourselves to one another, which I know is so tempting to do, we should empower each other and challenge these norms when we see them on campus,” she said. “Simply speaking up when you hear someone making hurtful comments about themselves can have a big impact.”
Photo courtesy of The National Eating Disorders Association
The National Eating Disorders Association trains college-aged women to lead The Body Project on their campuses to combat unrealistic beauty ideals.
Contact Collyn Ballentine at ballcs21@wfu.edu
Thursday, March 2, 2023 | Page 7
Old Gold & Black | Features
Meet the artist behind stArt Gallery’s ‘Hypervisibility’ 6HQLRU =DF &RQWUHUDV¶ LQWURVSHFWLYH H[KLELW LV WKH ¿UVW WR EH GLVSOD\HG DW WKH GRZQWRZQ ORFDWLRQ WKLV \HDU CHASE BAGNALL-KOGER Features Editor
In downtown Winston-Salem, senior Zac Contreras’ eye-catching and distinctive artwork hangs behind glass windows at the stArt Gallery, the ghoulish figures in the frames eyeing passersby. The paintings undoubtedly give you pause, and Contreras deliberately designed them that way. “I want people to be somewhat uncomfortable,” he said, “but in a good way. I want people to think about why certain exaggerated features make them uncomfortable and interpret the exhibit in a way that is personal to them.” The exhibit, titled “Hypervisibility” was inspired by how aspects of one’s identity can warp others’ perceptions of you, creating many “selves” with infinite diversity. The exhibit also drew on the idea of everyday human interactions as performance art — artistic exhibitions that involve human interaction with participants. “There’s no one true version of yourself that exists in the world,” Contreras said. “You only exist as you understand yourself, and that can be so different from the way that you view your body.” As such, much of the work focuses on changing and distorting human figures to mimic how one may be “distorted” when interacting with others on a daily basis, especially when that person belongs to marginalized communities. Contreras found his own experiences as a Mexican-American to be a source of inspiration for the piece. “It’s something that I’ve always thought about — not being within the dominant culture and existing in this space. I’m comfortable, but at the same time, I’m uncomfortable,” Contreras said. “And I think that goes for any person who exists at the intersection of different identities, like whether you’re a woman or a queer person, those identities complicate your relationship to other people.” “Hypervisibility” opened to the public at the Wake Downtown stArt gallery on Jan. 6, but
“You only exisit as you see yourself, and that can be so different from the way you view your body.” -Zac Contreras some of the pieces date back to 2019, when Contreras was a freshman in college. Since he came to Wake Forest, Contreras knew he wanted to take part in stArt gallery’s exhibits. According to the program’s website, its exhibits intend to “provide local college and university students with an opportunity to gain immersive experience and transferable skills in the visual arts market.” The gallery is open to the public at no cost and boasts two locations: one in Reynolda village and another in Wake Downtown, which is where Contreras’ work is displayed. In December 2022, Contreras submitted his proposal for “Hypervisibility” to stArt Gallery with 10 completed works. Though he was approved, the curators of stArt gallery requested that he more than double his existing work within the next month. After a particularly busy winter break, Contreras was ready to hang 22 pieces of art on the walls. During this time, he also drafted an artist statement explaining his inspirations for the exhibition, which ranged from the work of artists Frida Kahlo and David Hammons to his personal experiences. “I am particularly concerned with the concepts of androgyny and body dysmorphia,” his statement reads. “Much like viewers at a museum can look at the same painting and focus on different aspects of the work, each person we interact with perceives us differently.” To promote the show to the public, Riley
Photo courtesy of stArt Gallery
Photo courtesy of stArt Gallery
The titles of the works in this exhibit range from the humorous “Don’t Look at my dz Dz ϐ Ǥdz
Phillips — a Wake Forest alumna and the gallery manager at stArt gallery — created a poster featuring one of Contreras’ drawings and had them hung around Winston-Salem and Wake Forest’s campus. As the exhibition opened, Contreras’ works were also listed for sale. “Somebody bought one of them, which was really exciting,” Contreras said. “It was interesting because the one he bought was actually one I didn’t love. It’s helpful to know that some people like certain [works] that I might not like.” In addition to pursuing art, Contreras is double majoring in sociology and political science. He plans to attend graduate school to earn a master’s degree in public policy, with an emphasis on refugee and immigrant policy. During his time at Wake Forest, he has been involved in the Student Association for the Advancement of Refugees, completed research in Mexico City on 18th century Mexican paintings and studied abroad in Morocco to polish his Arabic language skills. Though the social policy focus of Contreras’ academic interests and his artwork may appear to be distinct disciplines, he explains that, as he has continued his education, the two have become easy to integrate. “Growing up, I always felt like I had to choose between being an artist or doing more academic, serious things,” he said. “But now, because my art is very much commenting on society, I can use things that I learned in sociology and politics.” Subject matter is not the only thing that has evolved in Contreras’ art throughout his years at Wake Forest. Whereas his previous work was often more technical and realistic, he has branched out to developing his personal style and using experimental techniques in art — such as in “Hypervisibility,” where he used the side of his arm, covered in ink, to create the basis for one of the paintings. Though pen drawings remain his favorite, many of the works in “Hypervisibility” integrated different mediums including various paints, pen, ink and sculpting materials. Contreras’ artwork will be on display at stArt Gallery until March 12, 2023, when another temporary exhibition will be installed. “I absolutely would recommend getting involved with stArt gallery, whether it’s by submitting a proposal or applying to be an intern,” Contreras said. “I had a really good experience with everyone there, and the process taught me a lot about myself.”
“Hypervisibility” consists of 22 works that Contreras has been work- &RQWDFW &KDVH %DJQDOO .RJHU DW ing on since 2019 when he was a freshman at Wake Forest. EDJQFP #ZIX HGX
ENVIRONMENT PAGE 8 THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2023
OLD GOLD & BLACK
Addison Schmidt, schmac21@wfu.edu Bella Ortley-Guthrie, ortlbs21@wfu.edu
The good, bad, and ugly truth: the environmental impacts of COVID-19 We’ve come a long way but still have a long journey ahead ROKSANNA KEYVAN Contributing Writer
In March 2020, the world came to a halt. Lives were turned upside down in a matter of days as businesses shut down and schools closed their doors. Two weeks of what initially seemed like vacation turned into months of quarantine and isolation for individuals across the world. What sounds like the prologue to a dystopian novel was actually the onset of a global pandemic known as coronavirus or COVID-19. Prompt and decisive health measures were taken in response to the crisis. However, their consequences sustained a profound impact on both human health and the global economy. This has significantly impacted the environment — for better and for worse. The Good: When the world came to a halt, industry followed suit. Factories closed their doors, employees stashed away their uniforms and global pollution rates began to drop. The decrease in industrial activity during the pandemic led to a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from factories and power plants. In 2020, The Earth Observatory at the National Aeronautics and Space Photo Courtesy of Brian Yurasits via Unsplash Photos Administration (NASA) reported that levels of harmA disposable face mask found on Hampton Beach, New Hampshire durful anthropogenic airborne particles, known as aerosols, ing a beach clean up demonstrates the environmental effects of PPE. had dropped significantly in India since the onset of the pandemic. NASA also reported that the economic slowdown correlated to significant decreases in nitrogen diox- cy of forest fires in the Southeastern United States, espe- centers working overtime. This new imbalance disrupts ide emissions over China, a shift unprecedented in prior cially on federal lands, which house popular tourist spots routine municipal waste management, waste recovery and recycling activities, increasing landfill and environyears. Similar declines in GHG emissions had been ob- such as national parks and wildlife management areas. The Bad: mental pollutants worldwide. served and reported across the world. As the world ceased Although the onset of COVID-19 reduced anthropoThe Ugly Truth: its daily processes, the lessened consumption of fossil fuels genic waste, it fostered an increase in biomedical waste. The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant envislowed the onset of global climate change. Biomedical waste relates to chemicals from disinfectants ronmental impacts, both positive and negative — but we The absence of industrial pollution also led to cleaner and infectious remnants from non-biodegradable personare not in the clear just yet. water sources, specifically in developing countries that al protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves. With almost all lockdowns ending and economic acpreviously dumped domestic and industrial waste into untreated bodies of water. Water bodies that were char- According to Manuel Zambrano-Monserrate of Univer- tivity resuming pre-pandemic normalcy, NASA reported acteristically turbid or discolored, such as the Bay of Ben- sidad Espíritu Santo, Hospitals in Wuhan produced an that levels of air pollutants, such as nitrogen dioxide, have gal and the ports of Venice, were clearer due to decreased average of 240 metric tons of medical waste per day dur- returned to near normal in China. As typical pollutant ing the outbreak — much higher in comparison to their levels rebound worldwide, an imminent return to enviboat activity. While water and air pollution have visible effects, noise previous average of fewer than 50 tons. This waste now ronmental problems awaits us. Global climate change pollution is an invisible threat that has harmful physi- poses a major threat to public health and the environ- has already resumed its course, with NASA reporting that dust storms and other weather phenomena, induced ological and psychological effects on humans, other liv- ment. Professor Ana María Rule of John Hopkins University by high global temperatures, have already begun to offset ing organisms and natural ecosystems. Noise pollution is unnatural sound generated from different human activi- stresses that overuse of PPE has resulted in a surge of plas- reductions in aerosol pollution in China. As a society, it is important to assess our next steps and ties, such as construction, and is considered by the World tic waste that will take hundreds of years to break down. Health Organization to be the third-most hazardous pol- Smaller and smaller microplastics from plastic waste will consider what changes need to be made to improve ouraccumulate throughout the environment — in the soil, selves and our planet. Not all PPE is necessary, and its lution after air and water pollution. Satellite images taken by NASA during lockdown pe- water and air. Invisible and omnipresent, these harmful overuse does more harm than good. COVID-19 spreads riods in the city of Wuhan, China, reveal how decreased microplastics will inevitably be consumed by all organ- via airborne means, not surfaces, as the virus can only exist on surfaces for about three days. Anna María Rule, air travel and road transportation significantly lessened isms — including humans. PPE plastic and medical waste increase the risk of dis- an assistant professor in Environmental Health and Engianthropogenic noise pollution in China. Similar results were recorded in Dublin, Ireland, where noise pollution ease transmission to waste workers and thus require spe- neering at Johns Hopkins recommends that it is more eflevels decreased due to lockdown procedures, according cial disposal methods, like incineration. Although these fective and environmentally efficient to consistently wash to Assistant Lecturer at Munster Technological Univer- disposal methods are designed to prevent contamination your hands with soap and water. sity, Bidroha Basu. These changes were reflected in other and reduce the volume of waste, they still harm the enOther sustainable environmental management stratevironment by emitting heavy metals, particulate mat- gies, major cities across the globe. as recommended by Professor Tanjena Rume of Restrictions in transportation and travel have allowed ter and GHG. Disinfectants and surface cleaners Jahangirnagar University, include sustainable industrialnature to heal itself. With the absence of human activ- also contain particles and chemicals with harmful ization. This strategy focuses on investing in technologies ity, popular tourist sites experienced ecological restoration byproducts. These byproducts, which take many that reduce emissions and utilizing more renewable enerand assimilation with the natural environment. Research years to degrade, are unable to be processed in wagy sources. It also emphasizes the improvement of wastefindings from Eulogio Soto of Universidad de Valparaíso ter treatment plants and will resultantly accumulate in water treatment and waste recycling while finding ways reported that, with the lack of human waste and distur- municipal wastewater across the globe. Furthermore, pandemic conditions have caused people to reuse these resources. Rume also emphasizes ecological bance, urban-coastal ecosystems displayed an ability to restoration and ecotourism, a measure that requires interrecover in terms of biodiversity and system functionality, across the world to turn to online shopping and home national cooperation to ensure a more sustainable future. dropping from high levels of turbidity with many aquatic delivery as a health-friendly, though unfortunately not Finally, on an individual level, we can all work toward environmentally-friendly, alternative. Justine Calma from and local species returning. NASA reported that social distancing and the lack of The Verge claims that this alternative has correlated to an Contact Roksanna Keyvan human disturbance correlated to a decline in the frequen- exponential increase in household waste that has waste keyvr22@wfu.edu
Environment | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 2, 2023 | Page 9
Past and present: moving toward environmental justice How environmental research and injustice is tied to North Carolina and Winston-Salem ANNA BEIM Staff Writer
Day after day in America, pollutants are pumped into the atmosphere, toxic chemicals are poured into water sources and hazardous waste is buried within our soil. Many communities across the nation suffer from the toxic human activities that fuel the destruction of the environment. As research unfolds, a pattern has emerged between those who suffer regularly from environmental hazards and those who are secluded from them. The difference lies in the fundamental structures of American society and policy that are rooted in discrimination and prejudice. Research has found that toxic hazards disproportionately impact Black and low-income communities in the United States, causing an increase in health issues within these communities. This correlation sparked a national movement to combat discriminatory environmental injustices: the environmental justice movement. Today, the fight for environmental justice continues across the country, including within the city of Winston-Salem and at Wake Forest University. Environmental justice is a broad term that can have many meanings. According to Dr. Corey D.B. Walker, the director of the Wake Forest African American Studies Program, “Environmental justice is the idea that regardless of who you are, regardless of your nationality or your identity, regardless of your income, everyone should have the right to a fair and equitable environment that enables them to live to the fullest of their potential and to contribute meaningfully to society.” The Piedmont Environmental Alliance (PEA), an environmental advocacy organization in Winston-Salem, defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. In simpler terms, it means that everyone gets an equal chance at a healthy life and a healthy environment.” The birth of the modern environmental justice movement began in 1982 in Warren County, N.C., where a small, predominately Black and poor town staged large protests against the dumping of toxic chemicals in the area. Despite ultimately losing the battle, these protests demonstrated the collective power of affected communities and sparked the beginning of environmental justice research. In 1987, the United Church of Christ’s (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice published the first study of toxic waste facility sites in relation to racial demographics titled “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States.” Its findings concluded that race is the most significant independent variable correlated with communities chosen as sites for toxic waste facilities and hazardous disposals. Benjamin Chavis, the author of the report and former Executive Director of the UCC’s commission, coined the term “environmental racism” based on the racial disparity found in this research study. While there are many definitions of the term today, Walker defines environmental racism as “Discrimination and disregard for African American communities by choosing them as sites for toxic dumps, choosing them as sites for less adequate infrastructure, sites for highly polluted air, sites close
Photo Courtesy of Getty Images In the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, protesters march against the proposDO RI D 3&% ODQGÀOO LQ D SUHGRPLQDQWO\ %ODFN QHLJKERUKRRG LQ :DUUHQ &RXQW\ 1& LQ
to where interstates are located and sites where adequate housing and ventilation are not available.” As the environmental justice movement seeks to dismantle these inequalities, Walker emphasizes that environmental racism is not a simple issue to solve. America’s history of segregation, redlining, disinvestment and negligence of Black and minority communities embeds this form of racism into the very fabric of urban planning and affects how we conceptualize inequality. “Racism is not just some innate feeling of superiority. Racism is built into the very environment in which we live,” Walker said. “Environmental racism is not a quick fix. Instead of finding the racist in the room, we must look at the very systems that are legitimated, that are authorized, and that are organized, which continue to perpetuate [environmental inequality] in a manner that the lives and life chances of those marginalized communities are deemed less worthy.” City construction in Winston-Salem reveals the ways in which structural racism influences societal design, segregation and subsequent environmental impacts. According to the think tank New America, Winston-Salem has a wide gap of income inequality among its residents, demarcated by its very design. The construction of U.S. Route 52 divides city populations by wealth and race, as “census tracts to the west of the highway are predominately white and wealthy, while the low-income tracts to the east are overwhelmingly Black and Latinx.” Walker points to this city design as a clear demonstration of the disproportionate locations of environmental hazards. “In our contemporary moment, you can look at those targeted areas [of environmental injustice] in Winston-Salem. There’s off-gassing on Martin Luther King Avenue. There are cancer clusters in east Winston-Salem. There are high incidences of particulate matter that flow through Winston- Salem State University because the residence halls are on a major highway,” Walker said. According to Walker, these areas that experience
such environmental effects are predominantly Black and lower-income, as compared to wealthier and predominantly white areas of the city that do not face frequent occurrences of environmental hazards. This racial segregation within the city further fuels environmental injustices that harm Black communities in Winston-Salem. The location of the Winston Weaver Co. fertilizer plant exemplifies this issue, as between 81% and 85% of surrounding residents are people of color. When the fertilizer plant erupted into flames in January 2022, the chemically hazardous threat of the fire and its explosive potential directly impacted these nearby residents, creating a disproportionate threat toward people of color. Organizations within Winston-Salem are expanding these conversations of environmental injustice and racism in an effort to achieve environmental justice and equality throughout the city. The Piedmont Environmental Alliance has hosted community discussions about environmental justice and educates young students in WinstonSalem. The Yadkin Riverkeeper employs advocates for environmental justice in water pollution, and grassroots groups fight for reparations for hazards like the Weaver fertilizer fire. According to Walker, universities such as Wake Forest contribute to the efforts of environmental justice through scholarship. “The university creates certain knowledge,” Walker said. “We’re trying to expand the boundaries of knowledge to say that the environment is not an afterthought; it is at the very core of how we not only live but how we think and respond to others in the world. We are developing humane intellectual structures that then recognize the centrality of our planetary inheritance.” As Wake Forest expands its development of environmental justice seminars and research through the Environmental Justice Mellon Grant, the university will continue to develop and investigate these structures of knowledge necessary for establishing environmental justice within Winston-Salem and throughout the country. Contact Anna Beim at beimal21@wfu.edu
Page 10 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | Environment
A glimpse into Reynolda Gardens Reynolda Gardens offers history, reckoning and rest for the past and present MIA SPRINGER Staff Writer
A 10-minute walk off campus through the Reynolda trails leads to a local oasis — Reynolda Gardens. Filled with rich history, Reynolda Gardens’ staff have preserved its value by establishing an upper vegetable garden and flower gardens across the 134 acres of the Reynolda property. This year, the upper vegetable garden will mirror the work of artist Stephen Towns who is exhibiting at the Reynolda house. Towns’ exhibit, “Declaration & Resistance,” will be featured this spring from Feb. 18 to May 14. His exhibit reflects the stories of African Americans’ declaration and resistance in America. In conversation with Towns’ art, Reynolda Gardens will incorporate the recurring themes of Towns’ work. “In [Towns’] artwork, he does a lot of quilts and always uses halos and butterflies,” said Reynolda Gardens’ lead horticulturist Michelle Hawks. “I decided this year that we are going to duplicate that painting.” Hawks says the garden staff ’s goal is to become more connected with the Reynolda House. Towns’ art will tie the Reynolda House and Gardens together through the representation of recreation in the vegetable garden. Hawks said different colored lettuce and radishes will be some of the vegetables making up the colorful quilt, while yellow violas will represent the halo. This exhibit will be in full bloom in April, and the propagation and planting are currently underway. While the Towns’ garden plot is new, the Reynolda Gardens are more than a century old, stemming from the original R.J. Reynolds family estate, now owned by Wake Forest. R.J. Reynolds was a businessman who founded the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem. His estate in Reynolda Village was built in 1917 and still remains on what is now called Reynolda Gardens. In 1958, the gardens were donated to Wake Forest University, and in 1964, it was established as a non-profit institution. Landscape architect Thomas Sears first designed the Reynolda Gardens in 1917. The lower garden, separate from the vegetable garden, is kept carefully curated year after year. When entering the garden, on
the left is the pink and white floral garden, and on the right is the blue and yellow floral garden — the same landscape design that the Reynolds family once had. In 1913, Reynolda’s greenhouse was made by Lord & Burnham Conservatories and initially acted as a public entrance to the four acres of the formal gardens. Charles Babcock, an investment banker and philanthropist, donated the gardens to Wake Forest in 1958 with the intent for them to be a “haven for contemplation and reflective outdoor leisure,” according to Reynolda’s website. Katharine Reynolds, the wife of R.J. Reynolds, always allowed the gardens to be accessible to the public. Now, Reynolda Gardens remain open from sunrise to sunset with free admission. For Hawks, nature has motivated her to work every day for more than 20 years in the gardens. “It is a good place,” she said. “Whether you are working or coming out to center yourself back to yourself and nature, that is the main thing that keeps me here. I can be in the worst mood, but when I step on this soil, there’s something about it that calms me.” Abby Caudill, a Wake Forest sophomore and intern at Reynolda Gardens, became inspired to pursue a passion for botany while quarantining in 2019. Caudill joined Reynolds Gardens as an intern this past August and has been pursuing her passion for gardening ever since. “Gardening makes people happier,” Caudill said. “Certain biological components of dirt speed up the serotonin process in the brain. Getting your hands dirty can make you happier. In the gardens, you can go create beautiful things with beautiful people.” Year-round, the volunteers and staff prepare the garden for the spring crop. Propagation, the preparation of seeds, is done in the fall and winter. Trimming, planting and propagating are a few examples of these weekly routines. However, every day is a different task. Hawks’ role last week was trimming the bushes, and next week it could be anything else in the garden. When the vegetables are ready for harvest, the food will then be donated to HOPE (Help Our People Eat) of Winston-Salem, a non-profit organization that provides meal delivery and nutrition information for families.
Giving back to the community is something the late Katharine Reynolds valued, as she frequently gave her vegetables to her staff. “Our goal is to grow more vegetables for the community, staff and volunteers,” Hawks said. “We are growing stuff on her land to feed the community, which is exactly what [Katharine] Reynolds wanted. She would be proud.” In addition to donating vegetables, the gardens host various classes to educate locals about the value of gardening through propagation lessons, flower arrangements and potting lessons. What keeps Hawks coming back to Reynolda Gardens is the community. “The community — I love talking to people,” she said. “The work is hard, but I see the outcome from planting something from a seed, and it produces fruit, and we take it to HOPE. To see those faces is why I come back every day.” Hawks always felt connected to the gardens, but her connection fully formed nine years ago, after her father’s passing. One afternoon, Hawks felt a deep connection with nature while grieving the death of her father as she stepped into the Reynolda vegetable garden. “I just got on my knees and cried. I just had to let it go, and when I did, the bluebirds came,” Hawks said. Now, she has implemented bluebird houses throughout the vegetable garden as a reminder of her deeprooted connection with nature and her father. “It made me humble, and I just knew it was okay to be in that moment at that time,” Hawks said. Anyone is welcome to connect with nature through the gardens just as Hawks did. In the vegetable garden, there are numerous benches where people can sit to watch birds and local wildlife. Reynolda Gardens offers no singular way for people to engage with nature. Whether through classes, propagation or artwork, the gardens continue to tie its history with the surrounding Winston-Salem community.
Contact Mia Springer spriml21@wfu.edu
Evan Harris/Old Gold & Black
The greenhouse at Reynolda Gardens overlooks the outdoor garden space. Landscapers also plan to incorporate the artwork of Stephen Towns, whose art is currently on display at the Reynolda House Museum, in the garden’s design.
OPINION OLD GOLD & BLACK
PAGE 11 THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2023
Shaila Prasad, prassp21@wfu.edu
Lauren Carpenter, carple21@wfu.edu
The views expressed in all opinion columns represent those of the article’s author, not the opinions of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board
Fizz’s bad karma
The line between news and entertainment continues to become blurrier VIRGINIA NOONE Photography Editor
In Fall 2021, Yik Yak, an anonymous social media site, had just made a resurgence after it was shut down in 2017 due to financial concerns. After reports circulated that a student with multiple alleged Title IX violations was readmitted to campus, students took to Yik Yak to plan a protest. The protest was put together in the span of a couple of hours and was specifically, and explicitly, directed at one Black man. In the aftermath, a wave of hysteria and misinformation spread across campus, and numerous posts on Yik Yak detailed “sightings” of the readmitted student. Just days after the protest, the Old Gold & Black confirmed that these sightings were all incidents of racial profiling carried out against innocent Black men on campus. This incident shows just some of the serious, reallife threats posed by anonymous, unbacked accusations on social media apps. The newest digital beast on campus is an app called Fizz. A successor of Yik Yak, this app seems to have the same qualities of the hydra in Greek mythology. You can cut off one head, but more will grow in its place. Fizz was created by Stanford dropouts Teddy Solomon and Ashton Cofer in July 2021. The app, which pointedly targets college students, was introduced to Stanford’s student body by “student ambassadors” who were hired to promote and advertise for the app. Before long, 95% of Stanford students had downloaded the app, perhaps comforted by the fact that no one other than their fellow students could join the forum. From there, the app’s creators selected a handful of schools for expansion, such as Rice, Elon, Dartmouth, Chapman, Tulane and, of course, Wake Forest. At each suspiciously similar, elite school, Solomon and Cofer began a marketing cycle in which they sought out students to hire and pay as ambassadors to promote the app via Instagram, flyers and other means of advertisement. Fizz reached out to Luke Altier, a sophomore at Wake Forest, by Fizz via Instagram direct messages and was offered compensation for his time as a potential brand ambassador. Altier, among other students, accepted. “I think Fizz, like all other anonymous platforms, has its strengths and weaknesses,” Altier said. “However, Fizz’s utilization of pictures, memes and polls makes it a much better and more entertaining platform than Yik Yak.” Although it is hard to deny its entertainment value, the ethics behind Fizz and similar apps remain a massive gray area. There is undeniable merit to the platforms. They have been used to spread crucial information regarding a dangerous man on campus, details of last year’s Weaver Fertilizer fire and other important pieces of information relevant to the student body. It can also be a way to voice concern without exposing yourself as a victim and experiencing the potential backlash. However, students also spread false and sometimes harmful information regarding these same events — and others. For instance, multiple reports on Yik Yak last spring indicated that the Weaver Fertilizer Plant had exploded. As noted previously, Yik Yak was also used to racially profile innocent Black men on campus in Fall 2021. Additionally, sightings of “speaker
kid” Austin Torrain were reported on Yik Yak last year; one year later, photos of and posts about him have appeared on Fizz. Although seemingly harmless, this still violates the privacy of the student and the app’s regulations. It also shows that Fizz and Yik Yak have similarly toxic inclinations. Additionally, the ability to make anonymous accusations about individuals and organizations without the threat of being held accountable is dangerous and unethical. Any student who’s been wronged deserves a safe space and platform to hold those who committed an injustice accountable. But the accused deserves an equal opportunity to defend themselves. An app should not be the social judge, jury and executioner when it comes to severe matters that impact one’s character in an indelible way. Wake Forest has systems in place, such as the Title IX and SAFE offices, to report legitimate concerns about the safety on campus. These offices have trained
Virginia Noone/Old Gold & Black
Cartoon depicts how adoration on Fizz can quickly turn into ridicule. professionals who know exactly how to process claims and protect the victims as best as possible. Students holding each other accountable for misbehavior, or even embarrassing moments, is a slippery slope. The power to anonymously make claims or comments is extended to everyone, therefore everyone is armed with a platform. The tragedy of this is that even those who did not sign up for Fizz or Yik Yak may have their names or reputations smeared — one way or another, every person on this campus is at risk of reputational harm. Plus, everyone knows the best way to cover a claim, when you can’t directly address the accuser, is to shift the spotlight to another person or organization. This is where untrue accusations can run wild. Fizz is not strong enough in its development to protect users. Its vague Community Guidelines are not enforced by its “moderators” in an efficient way, or whatsoever, actually. The most egregiously unethical line of the guidelines is when the app notes under its “No Misinformation” section that, “Note: Our mod-
erators are trained to only remove content that is verifiably false.” Fizz needs to develop a better way to only feature verifiably true information, which is inherently difficult —if not almost impossible — if it wants to maintain the concept and allure of anonymity. However, it is substantially more challenging to disprove a false claim and undo the damage caused by falsehoods than it is to verify claims in advance. It would be nonsensical to drag a random person before a jury and ask them to definitively prove that they did not commit a crime while also not requiring the prosecution to submit any evidence whatsoever. Furthermore, each of the guidelines Fizz does have is explicitly violated on a regular basis. For example, the rule that users must have written consent to post photographs or correspondence from other people is routinely and egregiously violated. Beyond this, a user’s anonymity may not be as protected as the user is led to believe. In November 2021, three Stanford students discovered a breach in the app’s Google Firestone-hosted database where anyone could query and access the author’s identity to any post. Additionally, the students found that they could access users’ personal information such as telephone numbers and email addresses. Even further, they found they could edit posts and assign moderator status to anyone. The app is inherently weak and unprotected. When the students reached out to make the founders of the app aware, they were subsequently threatened legally. “Fizz’s lawyer threatened us with criminal, civil and disciplinary charges unless we agreed to keep quiet about the vulnerabilities,” the students told the Stanford Daily. The case was eventually dropped once the students became represented by the Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF)’s lawyers. They accused Fizz’s lawsuit, endangered security research and weakened overall internet security. Cofer responded to public inquiries about Fizz’s security by stating: “Our security practices have significantly evolved, and we remain committed to the security and privacy of our users as Fizz grows. Following this incident, we have ensured that the personal identifiable information (PII) of our users is stored in a separate, secure database, which is only accessible by Fizz administrators. This means that at no point can Fizz users, moderators or launch teams see another user’s PII.” Are there even realistic measures the Wake Forest community can take to prevent and minimize the damage of Fizz and its ilk? Firstly, not everything on the internet is true. It’s good practice to vet and confirm any serious claim to determine its credibility. This seems obvious enough; yet, organizations and individuals will continue to reap the repercussions of false allegations and misinterpreted jokes on these apps unless we hold ourselves personally accountable. The line between news and entertainment continues to become blurrier; the sooner we learn to navigate it ethically, the safer we all will be. Contact Virginia Noone at noonvc21@wfu.edu
Page 12 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | Opinion
Spain leads the way for menstrual rights %XW WKHUH LVQ W D RQH VL]H ¿WV DOO DQVZHU LOURDES LOPEZ
Staff Columnist
Many women endure all of the terrible symptoms associated with a menstrual cycle every month. However, in Spain, women now have the choice to take their monthly menstrual leave for three to five days if their periods are associated with painful and unbearable manifestations. For those who experience incapacitating menstrual symptoms, which can consist of severe cramps, nausea, dizziness and even vomiting, the law grants the right to a three-day "menstrual" leave of absence with the option of extending it to five days. A doctor's note is necessary for the leave, and the public social security system will cover the cost. This kind of aid is being promoted for the first time by a European nation. Sixteen and 17-year-olds may also obtain an abortion without their parents' permission under this legislation. This kind of legislation shows a huge initiative toward women’s menstrual and sexual health that will hopefully prompt other countries to follow their example. Periods can be debilitating and draining, so this law is helping women gain a voice for the pain and struggles they have to face every month. The new law received 154 of the 185 votes in the parliament. The government reported that this legislation had received support
from the majority of voters. However, the Spanish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology disagrees with the law, noting that only about one-third of women experience exceptionally painful periods. However, it is a fact that for 3-5 days each month, many women experience some form of pain during their menstrual cycle, which can affect their personal and professional lives. Spain’s equality minister, Irene Montero, told the legislature that women cannot be full citizens without the right to a leave of absence due to menstrual discomfort. She also believes that this choice is significant for the health of women. According to Montero, "the period will stop being a taboo" and a health issue that has gone unrecognized up until now. But several organizations have expressed objection to this reasoning. The UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores), Spain's largest labor union, has criticized the plan. The group claims that this law may stigmatize women in the workplace. Some feminist organizations have also reacted cautiously, arguing that although it is good that women with painful periods can take days off, limiting themselves to offering a few days off each month without following it up with measures leading to treatment or attention is not going to solve the problem. Other critics find that the amount of time is insufficient for women who suffer
from painful periods and illnesses like endometriosis. The fact that a law has finally been established to address the problem of periods in the workplace is significant. It is obvious that it affects their professional lives and demonstrates that work environments are not designed for women of reproductive age. Although this legislation has positive intentions, numerous undetected conditions affect women, so there isn't a one-size-fitsall answer to this issue. Nonetheless, this is
a momentous step in the right direction for women’s reproductive health and well-being. Hopefully, this new law will cause other countries and organizations to take further action in this area, including increased attempts to educate people about menstruation and the importance of rest for women’s reproductive health. Contact Lourdes Lopez at lopelm22@wfu.edu
Photo courtesy of NBC News
Activists and politicians gather in front of the Spanish Congress in Madrid, Spain, to celebrate together.
The college experience no one asked for School shootings can't become a campus norm ASHLYN SEGLER
Staff Columnist
In the United States, the “college experience” has emerged as an umbrella term that encapsulates a distinct set of rite-of-passage undergraduate experiences. At many U.S. universities, these experiences include sharing meals with your friends at the campus dining hall, celebrating the victories of your university sports team and turning your tassel at graduation as a last symbolic conclusion to your degree. It’s an experience that many, including myself, have come to glorify. The U.S. college experience is unique in its identity of a community. For a brief four-year window, students assume residency on a campus crowded with thousands of other individuals of the same age. The avenues for com-
munity connections are endless. However, in the last few decades, many students have had the coveted “college experience” tainted. Grief and trauma have clouded collegiate life as gun violence pervades campuses in recurring devastating incidents. The glorified community of campus life has been shaken by gun violence time and time again at colleges across the country. This culture of gun violence that our generation has come to recognize as an inevitable reality is unacceptable. Most recently, gun violence rattled Michigan State University when a gunman killed three students and injured five others last Monday, Feb. 13.
Photo courtesy of Reuters
Before that, it was the University of Virginia, where a gunman shot and killed three studentathletes on the university football team last November. And the timeline recedes further still, with incidences of gun violence spanning time zones across the U.S., and a death toll exhausting itself in number. Headlines reported 10 dead at Umpqua Community College in 2015, seven dead at Oikos University in 2012 and 16 dead in an incident as far back as 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin. The largest mass shooting on a college campus took place in 2007 in Blacksburg, Va., when a gunman shot and killed 33 people at Virginia Tech. Then, not even five years later, Virginia Tech witnessed two more fatalities in another incidence of gun violence when a gunman shot and killed two men on campus in 2011. And that laundry list of lives lost is only accounting for college campuses. If we expand our geographic lens beyond universities, the death toll of gun violence inflates itself further still. According to reporting from the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization that tracks gun violence in the U.S., there have been 67 mass shootings in the past year alone in the U.S. That means 67 incidents in which four or more people were killed or injured by an active shooter. For Generation Z, this violence has pervaded their childhood and education. In the postColumbine culture in which current college students grew up, schools have never been synonymous with spaces of safety. Current curriculums include active shooter drills, metal detectors have established themselves as commonplace in some schools and people in positions of power have disguised clear backpacks as solutions. Together, we have grieved the lives of each school shooting and mourned the empty promises of legislative reform that follow.
School names like Columbine, Sandy Hook and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas have come to symbolize the collective trauma of an entire generation. For some students at Michigan State, the shooting Monday marked their second experience with gun violence. Several students on campus had lived through other mass shootings, including the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in 2012 and a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021. Although gun violence has suffused U.S. culture into an accepted frequency, hope for remediation lies in legislative intervention. Confronting gun violence in its entirety requires a comprehensive approach that addresses both legislative shortcomings as well as the mental health crisis facing our nation. While the latter is a multifaceted problem that may take years to adequately address, legislative action has the potential to save lives now. Legislation that requires comprehensive background checks and waiting periods for firearm sales is the first step toward reducing gun violence. The Prevention Institute (PI), a national nonprofit that advocates for health equity, published a summary of recommendations to prevent gun violence. In the list, PI also suggests banning firearms and high-capacity magazines, limiting youth access to guns and establishing adequate oversight of the marketing and sale of firearms. In the wake of the MSU shooting, many are left wondering what the tipping point will be for a legislative response addressing gun control. The question then arises of when congressmen and others in positions of power will trade their “thoughts and prayers” for real, legislative action to minimize bloodshed from gun violence and reinstate safety in our schools and campuses. Contact Ashlyn Segler at seglal20@wfu.edu
Opinion | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 2, 2023 | Page 13
20 years apart isn’t that bad, right? Age gaps in Hollywood need to be recognized for their predatory nature WALKER NEWMAN Contributing Columnist
It might not have seemed that odd when Leonardo DiCaprio was seven years older than his then-girlfriend Gisele Bündchen, or 10 years older than Bar Refaeli, another girlfriend. Age gaps in Hollywood are often overlooked when the older partner in the relationship is a man, but when 48-year-old DiCaprio is dating a 25-year-old, something doesn’t feel right. Considering the type of women that older men in Hollywood go for, the relationships are even more sickening. These women are often young, up-and-coming models and actresses who are subject to the seemingly predatory behavior of older men. DiCaprio isn’t the only example of an actor being involved in an age-gap relationship — he’s simply one of the more dramatic examples. Being in the spotlight in Hollywood as a young woman brings unwarranted attention by older men. Turning 18 years old in the United States grants people a sense of freedom and access to new opportunities that raise them to the status of adulthood. However, 18-year-old brains are not fully formed and most likely unable to recognize predatory and manipulative behaviors due to a lack of dating experience. In college environments, many students would find it odd if a senior in college were still dating a senior in high school. It would be strange for a multitude of reasons, including the difference in life stages and experiences. Well, multiply those feelings by about 10, and that is the scale of Hollywood relationships. However, many of the people have been raised in the industry and are desensitized to such issues because of constant exposure. Age gaps in Hollywood have begun to be recognized for their predatory nature as more young women band together in recognition of their collective mistreatment. Even if partners in a relationship are both consenting and knowledgeable of their situations, people who are far apart in age have their differing life stages and experiences to consider. An older partner in a relationship might be looking to settle down and have a family, whereas the younger partner may be focused on more ambitious prospects within the workplace or travel, to name a few examples. In the early 2000s, Hollywood relationships took a front-page seat in tabloids and magazines that popped up, from grocery store aisles to airports. You had to
Photos courtesy of Getty Images
know who was dating whom, all of the drama that ensued and how old everyone was. This was a time when kids from Disney Channel were being noticed by older male actors and other people in the business, and this predatory recognition set an example for young girls. If Demi Lovato could date Wilmer Valderrama at 17 (when he was 29), anything was possible. These relationships in which the younger partner wasn’t of legal age made an impact on impressionable audiences. What many people seem to overlook, though, is that Hollywood isn’t reality. In the real world, people don’t continue to form relationships with underage models or actresses, again and again. Hollywood might not be a reality, but it’s at the center of the United States’ media sphere. Age-gap relationships in Hollywood primarily stem from one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, the partners in a relationship have worked on a project together, whether that be in making a movie or producing an album, and the subsequent relationship “bloomed” from there. In these incidents, though, there are sometimes clear power imbalances since one
party is in the position of “directing” the project and the other is in a position of being controlled. The incidents mentioned don’t always include a director and performer; they can include two performers, but the partners may still experience a large age gap and corresponding power imbalances. For example, the director Sam Taylor-Johnson and now husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson were apparently aged 18, 19 and 42, respectively, when they worked on the film, “Nowhere Boy.” It only seems appropriate to question the context of their relationship, especially considering Sam Taylor-Johnson is old enough to be Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s mother. Their relationship exemplifies the issue of power imbalances coming to fruition. The second scenario is more manipulative in nature, and it involves a younger up-and-coming star getting involved with a person that they have idolized, who is much older and fully knowledgeable of their actions. Examples of this include Phoebe Bridgers who was 20 years younger than Ryan Adams when they met, or even Taylor Swift and John Mayer, who were 19 and 32, respec-
t i v e l y. Swift and Bridgers never explicitly stated such feelings of idolization, but Swift did release a song titled “Dear John” in which she depicts a relationship where she was too young and treated unfairly. In such scenarios, the younger partner, typically a woman, has just gained attention from the media for their talents and is preyed upon by older men. These men might be trying to stay relevant in the industry or regain some sense of control and power in their lives, but in any case, the relationships often end up abusive, in some form, and damaging. Such was the case with Ryan Adams, who has been accused by multiple women of emotional and verbal abuse after romantic engagements started, according to a 2019 New York Times article. There is a difference in age-gap relationships in which the partners met on a job and formed a relationship equitably and consensually and a situation where one partner has idolized the other. Idolization opens up a world of further exploitation because the younger partner most likely still views the older one as a celebrity and may be willing to be taken advantage of — even unknowingly. Furthermore, there is the problem of grooming. Grooming is a scenario in which an abuser gains the trust of a younger partner and builds a relationship for the sole purpose of exploitation, whether that be sexual in nature or not. With all of that being said, ordinary people have no real idea what celebrities are actually like in person. All we have are our opinions and judgements as fans or critics of people we have seen represented in many nonrealistic scenarios. There is clearly a division between how celebrity relationships are represented online and in the media versus their real-world depictions. It could be argued that as women have begun to unite against mistreatment from men, we have good reason to be concerned. Even though the public eye might not know all of the nitty-gritty details of celebrity relationships, we have a right to our own perspectives. As movements like #MeToo have become more widespread in recent years, it seems as though women are entitled to — and need to — look out for one another. If no one is looking out for such young and impressionable people, who will voice their concerns? A little public criticism of such relationships is good — even necessary. Contact Walker Newman at newmwe22@wfu.edu
SPORTS
PAGE 14 THURSDAY, MARCH 02, 2023
Ian Steffensen stefip21@wfu.edu Aaron Nataline nataae21@wfu.edu Sean Kennedy kennsm21@wfu.edu
Follow us on Twitter @wfuogbsports OLD GOLD & BLACK
Double Trouble: Deacons win Friday doubleheader An arms race between Sullivan and Lowder fuels two victories SEAN KENNEDY Asst. Sports Editor
Another week, another sweep for the Demon Deacons. Superb pitching, a dominant offense and even a few great plays on the defensive end all meshed for an excellent slate of games which saw them defeat their opponents by a 24-2 margin over both Friday games. The Demon Deacons returned back to “The Couch” for a weekend tournament against the Mount Saint Mary’s Mountaineers and the Binghamton Bearcats. The team started the tournament with a doubleheader on Friday, with aces Sean Sullivan and Rhett Lowder each taking the mound. In the first matchup, the Mountaineers would struggle mightily against the red-hot Sullivan, who earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors for the second straight week with his performance. He retired 16 straight batters to start the game, 10 of whom he struck out. Meanwhile, it was like batting practice for the Demon Deacon dugout, with multiple players hitting home runs in the first inning. Brock Wilken would launch a 421-foot bomb to left field to score himself and Pierce Bennett, while Justin Johnson would hit a 345-foot drive to left center to bring both him and Adam Cecere home to put the
Mike Liu / Old Gold & Black
S o p h o m o r e S a m S u l l iv a n s l i n g s a p i t c h a c r o s s t h e p l a t e . S u l l iv a n h a d h i s w ay w i t h T h e Mountaineer batters, whom he held hitless through all six of his innings on the mound.
team up 4-0 at the end of the first. The scoring continued for the Demon Deacons in the next few innings, including when Bennett scored Marek Houston on an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the second. The next inning would feature multiple runs for the squad as well, as Houston, Tommy Hawke and Gio Cueto each knocked in a run. After Johnson and Chris Katz knocked in a pair of the runs in the fourth, the Demon Deacons led, 10-0. It wasn’t until the top of the fifth inning that Sullivan would lose his perfect game bid, after he hit a batter with a pitch. Still, he carried a no-hit bid all the way through six innings, and he would finish the day with 11 strikeouts on just 77 pitches. Behind a pair of doubles from Cecere and Johnson and a home run from Corona in the sixth, the Demon Deacons went into the latter half of the game with 16 runs in hand. With the large margin, Head Coach Tom Walter sought out a few substitutions and field position changes, including pinch hitting Kyle Joye for Bennett and Jack Winnay in for Wilken, while Andrew Noland came in for Cecere in the next half-inning. In one of the few flaws for the Demon Deacons on the day, reliever Ben Shenosky let up a first-pitch homer to the Mountaineers' Brayden Foster in the top of the seventh inning, ending the chance of a combined no-hitter. He would battle back from his rough start, however, striking out two batters before a groundout got him out of the inning with two men left on base. The onslaught of runs from the Demon Deacon dugout did not stop at 16. In the bottom of the seventh, Corona added another homer to the board, a 427-footer that just eked to the left of the right field pole to add an additional two runs to the board. The 18-1 lead would be as comfortable as the bats let it be, however, as the Demon Deacons stopped scoring after that. In the bottom of the ninth, the Demon Deacons saw Mike Liu / Old Gold & Black a single run go against them from the Mountaineers, who S o p h o m o re To m my H awke c o n n e c t s o n a p i tc h would end up losing on the day, 18-2. In the next outing, the Demon Deacon bats were not that earned him his 14th RBI of the season.
nearly as hot, but starter Lowder kept his arm aflame. Lowder, who had only let up a single run in his first outing of the season, has given Sullivan a run for his money in ACC Pitcher of the Week honors in recent weeks. He would also post an equally impressive scoreline from the mound on the day. He would allow his only walk on the day in the first inning, moving Binghamton batter Mike Gunning to first on a full count. After the rare mistake, Lowder would turn his arm up even more, as he too retired 16-straight Bearcat batters. Although they wouldn’t score as often, the Demon Deacons would still get points on the board, including a first inning 357-foot homer in the bottom of the first for Wilken, gaining him an extra two RBIs on the day. Johnson would get in on the festivities, too, knocking home Cecere on an RBI single in the first. While Lowder was striking out everyone in existence, the bats scored again, when Cecere doubled to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring Hawke and Bennett. The Demon Deacons would score their last run in the bottom of the sixth, when Joye hit an RBI single to left field, scoring Johnson. That would bring the game to 6-0, Demon Deacons. The Bearcats continued to struggle at the plate, yet Lowder lost a no-hit bid himself in the top of the sixth when Gunning struck a ball to left field. He would remain in for an additional inning before coming out with a statline of seven innings pitched, one hit and eight strikeouts — all on 87 pitches. From there, the game settled down, and the score remained at 6-0 until the end, making Friday a single-day sweep for the Demon Deacons. The Demon Deacons play this coming Friday at David F. Couch Ballpark, facing Purdue-Fort Wayne. The coverage starts at 6 p.m. on ACCNX. Contact Sean Kennedy at kennsm21@wfu.edu
Sports | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 2, 2023 | Page 15
Women's basketball looks ahead to postseason 7KH 'HPRQ 'HDFRQV ZLOO IDFH 9LUJLQLD LQ WKH ¿UVW URXQG RI $&& 7RXUQDPHQW IAN STEFFENSEN 6SRUWV (GLWRU
Wake Forest women’s basketball closed out the regular season by facing off against ACC foes No. 23 Florida State and Boston College at home. The Demon Deacons nearly grabbed their first-ranked win of the season Thursday night, falling by just one point to the Seminoles. Then on Sunday, Wake Forest lost to the Eagles to bring its losing streak to five. On Thursday night, the Demon Deacons were looking to find momentum against the Seminoles as the postseason inches closer. Florida State got off to a quick start, going on a 5-0 run before senior Olivia Summiel nailed a deep 2-pointer to get Wake Forest on the board. On the next possession, junior Demeara Hinds grabbed the offensive rebound and finished strong at the rim to cut the deficit to just two. The Demon Deacons capitalized on the break this time around, and backto-back layups from senior Alexandra Scruggs tied the contest at eight. The two sides continued to trade baskets, but junior Jewel Spear got going with a nice floater to take the lead. However, after one quarter of play, Wake Forest trailed 14-15. The Seminoles quickly capitalized on the fast break to extend their lead to three in the opening minute of the second quarter. The Demon Deacons have found themselves on the wrong end of scoring runs this season, but they were able to flip the script by going on an 8-0 run. Sophomore Elise Williams nailed back-to-back 3-pointers during the run. Florida State wouldn’t go away though and quickly regained the lead until sophomore Raegyn Conley hit a triple from the left sideline to put Wake Forest up 28-27. The Demon Deacons continued to stay in it with senior Niyah Becker hitting a reverse Isabella Parolini/Old Gold & Black layup to maintain the lead. The Seminoles quickly scored on The Demon Deacons face off against Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of ACC Tournament the other end and held the lead 31-30 going into the locker Wednesday. The team dropped its last five games and will be looking to make a postseason run. room. Florida State opened the second half with an 8-0 run, Williams opened the scoring in the fourth with a nice level with the Demon Deacons halfway through the quarter. capitalizing off Wake Forest’s lackadaisical turnovers and weak interior defense. Spear ended the run with a triple from the floater, with this basket she completed her first career double- Sophomore Alyssa Andrews ended the run with a contested corner to cut the deficit to six. Becker cut the deficit to four, double. On the next possession, Williams made a nice move jumper. Spear hit another triple to give Wake Forest a 32-30 finishing hard at the basket and converting on the and-one to the basket, euro-stepping her defender and finishing at the lead. The Eagles nailed a triple and led 33-32 going into the opportunity. The Seminoles continued to attack the paint as rim to cut the deficit to four with seven minutes remaining. locker room. the sides traded baskets. Going into the fourth the Demon Williams caught fire and hit a pull-up triple off the fastbreak With the shot clock winding down, Williams got her first to cut the deficit to two with four minutes remaining. Becker points on the board with a stepback jumper to retake the lead. Deacons trailed 42-47. continued to attack the paint and finished off a nice reverse Boston College was able to finish strong at the rim, and conlayup to move into double digits. Becker hauled in yet an- vert on and-one opportunities to stay in it. Spear knocked other offensive rebound and finished the putback, to net 12 down another triple off the fastbreak to give Wake Forest a points on the night. With 30 seconds remaining, the Demon two-point lead. The two sides traded baskets throughout the Deacons trailed 61-58. Becker hit Summiel for a wide-open remainder of the third quarter. Entering the final frame, the three, but she couldn’t capitalize. However a loose ball foul on Demon Deacons trailed 51-49. Florida State sent Spear to the line for two. Trailing by one, the Spear found Hinds on a nice backdoor cut to the basket, Demon Deacons defense held strong and had three seconds to trail only 52-53 in the opening minutes of the fourth. On left to win the game. Off the inbound, Williams was tied up the next possession, Scruggs came up big defensively, stealing and kicked it out to senior Kaia Harrison for the wide-open the ball and Williams converted the jumper on the other end three and the win, but she came up just short. “We were right there. This is the most heart we have played in transition to give Wake Forest a 54-53 lead. Back-to-back with all year,” said Head Coach Megan Gebbia. “They gave us and-one finishes from the Eagles created some separation as absolutely everything, but this has to be a part of the process they now led by four halfway through the final frame. Spear to take the next step as a team. That effort can take us a long finished a nice layup to bring Wake Forest within three (6158) with three minutes remaining. way especially at this time of the year.” However, the Eagles continued to capitalize off secondOn Senior Day, Wake Forest looked to close its season with chance points and go on a 7-0 run in the paint. Trailing by a win over Boston College. The Demon Deacons scored on their first possession, with Harrison driving to the basket and 10, Williams crossed up her defender and nailed the stepback finding Becker who finished strong at the rim. Senior Mack triple to trail by seven. As time continued to tick down, BosMaier was left wide open in the corner and nailed the three ton College was able to keep Wake Forest at bay and won the ball, for just her second basket of the season. Becker continued contest 73-63. her momentum, driving hard to the basket on the fast break “This is a tough one for me,” added Gebbia. “The good and finishing the layup to give the Demon Deacons a 7-3 lead. thing for us is we go into a whole new season with the postWith time winding down on the shot clock, Spear knocked season starting on Wednesday. I still believe in this group, and down a stepback three to extend the lead to seven. The Eagles I know we are capable of taking it to another level. We need were able to capitalize on Wake Forest’s weak interior defense to come together as a team and find a way to fix some of these and find wide open gaps to stay in the game. Harrison caught issues.” fire, nailing a deep triple and then scoring off a fadeaway The Demon Deacons will open the postseason Wednesday jumper on the next possession to stretch the lead to 11. Spear facing off against the Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of hit a pull-up three off a fast break to maintain the lead. At the the ACC Tournament at 1:30 p.m. Lucius You/Old Gold & Black end of one, the Demon Deacons led 26-13. Junior guard Jewel Spear drives to the Boston College opened the second quarter with a 13-0 Contact Ian Steffensen at basket against the Boston College defender. run. The Eagles were able to easily attack the paint and drew VWH¿S #ZIX HGX
Page 16 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | Sports
̵ ϐ ϐ The Demon Deacons claimed their second title in four years CHRISTINA DENOVIO Staff Writer
After a dominant weekend performance, the Wake Forest women’s tennis team has shown strength against three out-of-conference teams. At the 75th annual Blue Gray National Tennis Classic in Montgomery, Ala., the Demon Deacons picked up wins against Tulsa, No. 32 Illinois and No. 47 Texas Tech. The wins provided the team with a morale boost after suffering back-to-back losses to No. 10 NC State and South Carolina on Feb. 17 and 19, respectively. The women started the tournament strong on Feb. 24 with a 4-0 defeat over Tulsa in Lagoon Park. After an hour and a half weather delay that canceled the doubles matches, four Demon Deacons picked up decisive wins against their singles opponents before Tulsa had a chance to respond. Freshmen Nevena Carton and Whitney Pate along with graduate student Anna Brylin and senior Maddie Lynch defeated their opponents in straight sets. Juniors Casie Wooten and Brooke Killingsworth’s matches were both left unfinished. Wake Forest then faced off against Illinois and experienced similar success. While once again slowed down by a rain delay, the Demon Deacons finally got their chance to play doubles matches. Doubles pairing junior Mia Ahmad and Wooten, along with Carton and Pate, took down their opponents to earn the first point of the match. Moving to singles, senior Maddie Lynch
Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics
Juniors Casie Wooten and Mia Ahmad celebrate their point during a match versus Texas Tech. ǦͶ ϐ Ǥ could not pull out the first two sets of the duel. Brylin, Killingsworth and Pate defeated their opponents in straight sets to win the match for Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons won the match against Illinois by a score of 4-1. The final match of the tournament was the following day on Feb. 25. The Demon Deacons defeated Texas Tech, the only other team with a spotless tournament record
this time by a score of 4-2. Doubles teams Brylin and Killingsworth, along with Ahmad and Wooten defeated their opponents to win the first point for the Demon Deacons. Texas Tech was able to knot it up when Carton and Pate were defeated. Though Lynch was toppled in her match, Wooten, Bryling and Carton then went on to defeat their singles opponents in three
hard-fought matches to win the tournament. These wins allowed Wake Forest to claim its second Blue Gray Classic championship in four years. The team is now preparing for a home match-up against ACC opponent Clemson on Friday, March 3. Contact Christina Denovio at denoca20@wfu.edu
Eagles prey on Wake Forest’s senior night Williamson and Appleby combine for 43 in their last stand at the Joel ing pattern. Wake Forest would explode with energy and take a convincing lead, only for that lead to dissipate during uninspiring stretches of defense. The second half followed this structure in the most extreme form possible with the Eagles going on a 19-3 run. After coming out of halftime with a six-point lead, the Demon Deacons were decimated by Boston College’s Quinten Post (19 PTS) and his outmuscling in, well, the post. His 13 secondhalf points largely turned the momentum in the Eagles’ favor.
“It’s about execution,” Wake Forest Head Coach Steve Forbes said of his team’s inconsistency. “We got up 12-2, they came back. We had a nice little sixTuesday night’s contest displayed why point lead at half, we came out for the secteams honor their seniors before their last ond half and got it up to 10. And then we home game commences. After celebrating quit guarding…we gave up three-straight senior Grant van Beveren and graduates three-point plays.” Tyree Appleby and Daivien Williamson’s Boston College had been scoring at will final performances in the Joel Veterans from the first media timeout of the second Memorial Coliseum, the Demon Deacons half (68.97 FG%) until the nine-minute (18-12, 10-9) fell to Boston College (15mark. 15, 9-10) 71-69 The first half differed in that Wake The game repeated a strict and deflatForest was able to win back their point advantage by the buzzer — the Demon Deacons led for 19 minutes. Appleby (23 PTS) sparked the offense by hitting backto-back 3-pointers with Bobi Klintman, whose shot the graduate guard also assisted on. Appleby followed up that dime by jumping a passing lane and finishing hard at the rim on a fastbreak. “I felt like we only had two guys really show up to play tonight — the two seniors, [Williamson] and [Appleby],” Forbes said. “[They] were 9-for-11 from two and the rest of the team was 4-14. Our offense was really poor.” Appleby and Williamson were also the catalysts in bringing the Demon DeaMike Liu / Old Gold & Black cons back in the second half. After hitting Graduate Daivien Willliamson turns the corner on a Eagle defender. William- back-to-back threes, Appleby converted son turned in his second-highest scoring game of the season with 20 points. a defensive rebound — generated from
AARON NATALINE Sports Editor
sophomore Matthew Marsh glassing an Eagle’s shot — into another fastbreak layup. In the last six minutes of the game, Williamson (20 PTS) piled on 11 points to bring his team within one. Two of Appleby’s six assists resulted in a pair of three balls from Williamson, and the WinstonSalem native hit a third from the corner with 45 seconds remaining. With the game knotted at 69, the last possession of the Wake Forest defense was anything but nice. Makai Ashton-Langford managed to knock down the gameclinching shot for the Eagles with two seconds left off of a funky step-through floater that went uncontested by help defense. The loss ends the Demon Deacons’ record from home at 13-3. Either Wake Forest, Boston College, or Syracuse (1614, 9-10), will earn the highest seed in the first day of ACC tournament play. To avoid this and play during the second day, Wake Forest must beat Syracuse on March 4 and see Boston College lose to Georgia Tech (13-17, 5-14) on the same day. If both the Demon Deacons and Eagles win their final games, tiebreakers will come into play since they drew in their face-to-face regular season games.
Contact Aaron Nataline at nataae21@wfu.edu
PAGE 17 THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2023
LIFE OLD GOLD & BLACK
Adam Coil, coilat21@wfu.edu James Watson, watsjc22@wfu.edu
ReÀecting on the worst satire I've ever read At least Patrick Bateman made me laugh MARTA ZACH Contributing Writer
Reading Ottessa Moshfegh’s "My Year of Rest and Relaxation," I was reminded of Amy Dunne from "Gone Girl" trying to become Patrick Bateman from "American Psycho" — and being unsuccessful in pulling off either persona. I typically enjoy unlikable and irredeemable characters, but only as long as they are intelligent and cunning, unlike the vapid and idiotic narrator who remains nameless. This is allegedly a satire, but I fail to see how it could be, as any satirical notes are either the narrator excessively criticizing her "best friend" Reva or directly addressing the pseudo-intellectualism of postmodern art. Furthermore, her year of sleeping while on a concoction of pharmaceuticals is just as banal and stupid — if not more so. Satire doesn't work when it is criticizing empathy and silly human folly — which is exactly what the narrator does as she drones upon Reva — for how can one construct any argument of value when it antagonizes only what is well-intentioned and innocent? Any time the narrator criticized modern art, she did it so directly and outwardly that it was jarring, and she merely delivered regurgitated takes. It was difficult to deem her credible when she was just as vacuous as the condemned art, expecting something from the world while failing to contribute anything to it. The ending — supposedly intended to comment on the
beauty and marvel of life — was entirely far-fetched, and I don't see how the narrator came to the conclusions she did after a year of rotting in her bedroom. It is ironic because so many descriptions of trite and meaningless modern art pieces are provided, yet this book is the literary equivalent. Granted, I do think the story has value in providing insight into the removed nature of Western medicine and how it can promote excessive drug use as a band-aid to problems that sometimes aren't even there or only exist on a small scale. Perhaps the dopey psychiatrist — who prescribes the narrator a sedating series of drugs with a flick of the wrist at the merest demand — is part of the intended satire, which is valid. I do not doubt the need for certain individuals to be medicated — it can often be a matter of sanity or loss of control; functioning or collapse; life or death — but one of the few strengths of this narrative is its ability to shed light on the neglectful abuses that may be prevalent in the industry. However, all of this does little to redeem the rest of the book. Perhaps I am excessively critical, as I use reading as a form of escapism and have been spoiled by Bret Easton Ellis in the past, but reading about gross main characters whose vulgarity serves as an attempt to be noteworthy is tiring and dreary. I also do not like to read about postmodernist artists in New York who create ridiculous, stupid art — it is a hackneyed take, and perhaps I am narrow-minded, but books about follies in one artistic
realm tend to be just as stale as the material they are describing. I loved "American Psycho," and I can't help but see this as a cheap knock-off, even though its premise is different (or intends to be). I noticed long descriptions of material things, a concept that worked magnificently in "American Psycho" but was cringeworthy in "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" — the former well-done and artful, the latter a snide observation of one singular character, Reba, who was neither a valid caricature nor someone deserving of vilification. The narrator represented nothing of substance and neither did anything else depicted in the book — a satire ought to be well-constructed and thought out, and this is not. I still am unsure of what it is meant to be satirizing, and perhaps the author does not know either, instead demanding readers to make sense of something that is inherently scattered and asinine. It seems that we exist at a place in time where every valid thought and idea has been spoken and claimed already, in light of which I've noticed the following phenomenon — a lot of today's content tries to distinguish itself by virtue of obscenity and strangeness and lewdness. "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" does not do this tastefully, and it ultimately lacks purpose altogether. Between descriptions of someone peeing every ten pages, a fixation on Whoopi Goldberg and her "magenta vagina” (really?) and an irrational idea to be sedated for a year in order to...? There
Photo courtesy of National Gallery of Art
"Portrait of a Young Woman in White" is the cover of Moshfegh's breakout novel.
isn't much of value to this. The ending was hasty and senseless, leaving what could have been a powerful and shocking finale to crash miserably. I will admit that I read this in one day, but that is because I am not a masochist, and I wanted to get it over with. Contact Marta Zach at zachm20@wfu.edu
Yes, I did spend my own money to see 'Cocaine Bear' 'Cocaine Bear' is the perfect pick for a fun, easy watch a great outlet for any student who needs a silly getaway. Staff Writer Starring Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Alden A based-on-a-true-story film Ehrenreich, Christian Convery, Jesse about a bear that goes on a killing Tyler Ferguson, Margo Martindale, spree after ingesting an incredible Brooklynn Prince and the late Ray amount of cocaine? There could not Liotta, “Cocaine Bear” is filled to the be such a thing! Well, I have news brim with household names. Everyfor you. “Cocaine Bear” is a real, one in the cast brings a difnewly released Photo courtesy of BBC Culture ferent spice to the kitchen, one-hour and where some are great, 35-minute film and others are directed by Elizasadly bland. beth Banks about The tastejust that — a ful perbear on coformances caine. This of O’Shea purposefully Jackson Jr. goofy and and Alden gory comedy Ehrenis just what reich add I needed to wonderful escape this silliness stressful, and some exam-ridheart to den week, this othand I erwise think it h o t could be ALLY WERSTLER
and-cold lineup. These portrayals work not only because of the actors’ natural chemistry, but also their idiotic dialogue. “Cocaine Bear” is a self-aware movie, meaning that the script takes advantage of the plot’s silliness by creating a relaxed yet intense (there is a cocaine bear on the loose, after all) environment that is perfectly built for zany humor. The rest of the cast was fine, with the young Convery getting a few laughs out of me but not nearly as many as Jackson and Ehrenreich. The true star of the show is the cocaine bear itself, which is surprisingly not in the film for nearly as long as I imagined given the film’s title. Although its appearances are disappointingly cut short, the hideous CGI bear is a figure that must be seen to be believed. Without getting too much into spoiler territory, there is a notably gnarly scene towards the middle of the film involving an ambulance, some not-so-fortunate EMS workers and a stupid park ranger. “Cocaine Bear” is one of the goriest pieces of media I have ever seen,
and that is saying something considering my favorite show is the Amazon Prime hit “The Boys.” I have never seen so many people walk out of a movie before, especially during this aforementioned ambulance scene. As such, this film is not for the faint of heart, as you must be prepared to witness things you can never unsee. The thing I love most about “Cocaine Bear” is how it was made in the first place. When was the last time you have seen a commercial for a purposefully bad movie, let alone a big-budget one? I certainly cannot recall, but “Cocaine Bear” rises to the challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I love complex and emotionally gut-wrenching films, but every once in a while, it is nice just to sit down and turn off my brain for an hour and a half. If you and your friends are looking for a gory, silly and entertaining film, I encourage you to see the incredibly unique “Cocaine Bear.” Film Score: 7/10 Contact Ally Werstler at wersaj21@wfu.edu
Page 18 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | Life
Traversing treacherous terrain: watch out for these stairwells 5DQNLQJ WKH PRVW SUHFDULRXV ÀLJKWV RI VWDLUV RQ 5H\QROGD FDPSXV MARYAM KHANUM Multimedia Managing Editor Most people would stipulate that I am simply a clumsy person, but I would rather refer to myself as having weak equilibrioception. I can almost hear my mother’s voice in my head, chiding me to pick up my feet when I walk every time I trip over a flat surface. I have perfected the art of quickly scanning my surroundings to ensure that no one saw me bump into the stationary object I had been walking toward for long enough that I should have both noticed and avoided it. Every day, I find a new bruise on my body. I don’t question where they come from — I know I must have done something to merit their existence even if I can't remember what it was. Before you roll your eyes at me, please understand that I am not trying to get you to relate to me nor think of me as one of those quirky main characters from movies whose clumsiness and lack of general balance makes them unwittingly charming in a humble, down-to-earth sort of way. As a non-athlete who has suffered four concussions over the course of her lifetime, I’ve come to realize that this ineptitude is a genuine problem that impacts many people every day. If you ask any clumsy person, they will admit to having developed a perpetual wariness of certain objects or structural features on which they have hurt themselves before. Some examples include doors, curbs, fire hydrants or even stop signs. However, there is one structural menace by which every clumsy person has been hurt at least once before — a construct so necessary, yet one that continues to act as the ultimate antagonist to the klutz community. And on a campus like Wake Forest, they are everywhere. As someone who has fallen down my fair share of stairs, I’ve taken it upon myself to rank the stairwells of Wake Forest University and present to you the top-five most unpleasant stairwells to fall down on campus. (Disclaimer: I am speaking from actual experience. I have personally fallen down all of the staircases on this list.) Number 5: The Benson University Center Fire Exit Stairs Surprisingly, many people don’t know this stairwell even exists. It links all five floors of the Benson University Center and serves as the only staircase connecting the fourth and fifth floors. It
also seems to be made out of the hardest concrete and tiled with the most rigid marble-but-not-marble material that is practically guaranteed to leave a bruise if you have the misfortune of falling. The black grip strips that line each separate step don’t serve the purpose for which they were designed. They are so worn down that, at this point, they make it more difficult to travel up and down these stairs without taking a tumble. However, to give this stairwell its due credit, it is secluded to save you the embarrassment of witnesses if you do fall. Furthermore, the actual sequence of stairs is broken every 10 steps by a landing, so you can’t actually fall more than 10 steps at a time. Number 4: Efird Lot to Hearn Plaza Stairs These stairs are lethal because you never expect to stumble on such a short staircase. You’re always convinced you can make it past them without falling, and they always sneak up on you. Generally, these stairs are okay to travel down. The issue is traveling up. This is one of the rare staircases on campus on which I have fallen upward more than downward — at least four times over the course of my time at Wake Forest. I don’t know if it has an average step height that is slightly taller than other stairwells on campus, but I am all too familiar with the feeling of my foot making contact with the concrete right before I hit the ground. These stairs also exhibit corrugated surfaces that are incredibly painful when skinning your knee because they will draw blood every time. They’ll rip through any fabric. They are ruthless. But at the end of the day, it’s a shorter staircase, so you spend less time on it anyway, giving you less opportunity. Number 3: Stairs Down to the Atrium, Farrell Hall There are many reasons why these stairs are some of the worst to fall down at Wake Forest. They’re long and continuous, so if you happen to trip, you could be tumbling for a hot second. Furthermore, they're incredibly slippery, and the carpeting on them does not add any friction whatsoever. Lastly, and most significantly, falling down these stairs breeds an emotion almost worse than the physical pain that accompanies the plummet — embarrassment. Pure and utter shame. Because if you
Maryam Khanum / Old Gold & Black
fall, not only will the entire population of the Farrell Hall atrium watch it happen, but people studying on the second and third-floor balconies will also observe your idiocy. It’s a free comedy show for the whole business school. If they laugh, the central open space and circular internal structure will cause their laughter to echo throughout the whole building. That sound will haunt your dreams — even if the staircase is wooden and carpeted, softening the fall to make it one of the more painless staircases to fall down. Number 2: Stairs up to the North Pit This stairwell is unlike any other on campus simply due to its sheer size. Not only is it one of the longer stairwells on campus, but it is wide, and each individual step is abnormally large. Its giant surface area just doubles as prime real estate for injury. If you were ever to trip, you would feel every single step on your descent, all of which are incredibly painful and will leave numerous injuries. In addition, if you happen to have something in your hands that you inadvertently drop when you fall down these stairs, you would be deluded into thinking that landing in the middle of the staircase would save your possessions. I have twice watched my phone plummet as I sat helpless — freshly injured and waiting for it to hit the base of the stairs, so I could pick it up and walk away in shame. Number 1: Davis Courtyard to Benson Circle Stairs I truly believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that these stairs deserve the No. 1 spot. They are holistically awful and have no redeeming qualities that might make up for the fact that you fell down. They are right by two of the busiest build-ings on campus — Benson and Reynolda— so there is always someone (if not multiple people) around to watch you embarrass yourself. The stairwell itself consists of continuous steps, one after the other, to ensure that any slip means you'll be plummeting until you reach the base of the stairs. Lastly, the brick and concrete of which these stairs are made are by far the most unforgiving of all the stairs on campus. You are guaranteed to be left bloody, battered and bruised. To some level, this placement may be motivated by personal biases. I lived in Davis Residence Hall during my sophomore year, and I have been burned by these stairs more times than I can count. They always did the most damage of all the stairwells on campus, and I have always taken it personally. I was incredibly surprised to find out that there are people at Wake Forest who have not fallen down a staircase during their time here. If you’re one of those people, I am genuinely happy for you, and I hope you keep your record and continue to impress us all with your superior balance. However, if you have fallen down a stairwell or two — or several — I hope you find this article helpful, and that you are extra cautious when you encounter any of these five stairwells.
Maryam Khanum / Old Gold & Black
Contact Maryam Khanum at khanmg20@wfu.edu
Old Gold & Black | Life
Page 19 | Thursday, March 2, 2022
Black Country, New Road remain friends forever The post-rock band discovers new territory with latest release ADAM COIL Life Editor
When the news broke in February 2022 that Black Country, New Road’s frontman Isaac Wood would be stepping away from the band indefinitely, an entire community — ranging from casual fans to heart-broken aficionados — felt something like a shockwave. Black Country, New Road had just released what I confidently claim to be the best album of the year, but the only thing that could be palpably and immediately felt was the immense loss of musical ingenuity and personality that Wood brought to the band. It was a disheartening time and all the more tumultuous for the remaining members of the group, given that they had an entire summer of tour dates waiting around the corner. Instead of attempting to revive something which was now irrefutably of the past, Black Country, New Road forged ahead and scraped together an entirely new set of songs, which is how we arrived at “Live at Bush Hall.” Released on Feb. 20, “Live at Bush Hall” occupies a unique, hard-to-pindown space in the lexicon of artistic pursuits. Is it a musical or a film? Could it be a legitimate studio album or only a compilation of unreleased tracks? All of the above, yet so much more? For the sake of convenience, I’ll just call it an album.
More than that, “Live From Bush Hall” is a pinnacle achievement, taking the idea of a concept album and absolutely running with it. “Live From Bush Hall” is an album about Black Country, New Road itself. It is about how different members of the band are processing Wood’s absence and how the band plans to move forward, both as a collection of people and a collection of artists. With “Live From Bush Hall,” we get a taste of what we might have been hitherto missing. Tyler Hyde — who plays bass but also began singing after Wood’s departure — said, in reference to the band, “Right now, we’re the most liberated we’ve ever been.” Indeed, as a fan, I have been able to witness some glimmering moments of brilliance that would likely have gone unrealized if Wood was still around. I am thinking particularly about Lewis Evans’ emphatic vocals on “Across The Pond Friend” — a song that is practically begging to accompany the best “Frog and Toad” edit that you have ever seen. Or May Kershaw’s stunning performances on “Turbines” and “The Boy” — two songs that make me excited about what we’re going to see in the future from the band. In these three songs, we get to witness the group’s same preternatural genius for building and releasing tension to create a feeling of catharsis. However, we also get to see the group experiment with fun ideas that didn’t seem
Photo courtesy of The Upcoming
Black Country, New Road performed their latest collection of songs over the span of three nights at Bush Hall in London, England.
New Road and progressive music in to make it into their previous work. While Black Country, New Road general. The amount of time, dedicawas clearly a collective effort from the tion and emotional vulnerability that jump, it can only mean good things were infused into this project make to see that other members of the band me optimistic in the extreme, given are now contributing lyrically and vo- that “Live From Bush Hall” isn’t even cally to each song. One of the most technically considered an album. Tyendearing aspects of “Live From Bush ler Hyde, Lewis Evans, May Kershaw, Hall” is that each song is performed Charlie Wayne, Georgia Ellery and by the member who wrote it, and you Luke Mark are only getting started. can really feel that dynamic with each Who knows what they will be able to create at the height of their powers? performance. By any measure, it is a rewarding Contact Adam Coil at time to be a fan of Black Country, coilat21@wfu.edu
Ice Spice and the art of creating new slang to munch on The hottest rapper in music just can’t stop winning TABITHA CAHAN Contributing Writer
“Big boobs, and the butt stay plump,” a voice asserts over the choppy 808s. Curlyhaired, 23-year-old, Bronx-based rapper Ice Spice has endlessly quotable lyrics. Aptly dubbed this generation’s Princess Diana, the trendsetter embodies teens’ hunger for ‘90s nostalgia. For those not chronically online, Ice Spice is a drill rapper — a subgenre of hip hop that originated in Chicago in the 2010s — most famous for her song “Munch (Feelin’ U).” Ice Spice is new to the scene, but her rise to fame has skyrocketed (albeit primarily due to TikTok). Ice Spice’s online presence is ubiquitous. What is most interesting about Ice Spice is her uncanny ability to change our colloquial language, thanks to her fanbase of teen girls. Teen girls are on the cutting edge of vocal trends and responsible for about 90 percent of linguistic changes today. Linguists can’t pinpoint the exact reason for this; however, I would argue that it is because women are acutely socially aware and pick up on subtle changes in the vernacular. As a teenage girl, I can, like, totally sympathize with the need to fit in. I find myself constantly adjusting how I talk. I pick up words such as “slay” and “purr,” Coined
during queer ball culture during the ‘70s and ‘80s, the term “slay” refers to an outfit, hair, makeup, dance moves and flawless attitude. These words spread like wildfire across teens everywhere, and suddenly one can’t imagine a world without them. Considering how words such as “slay” and “purr” have been adopted into everyday speech, it is strange that most don’t know the etymology. Slang terms similar to those above are taken from marginalized communities and are often appropriated by mainstream white audiences. I am a participant in perpetuating this issue, considering I was unaware of these words until TikTok. So is it appropriate to use these terms as a non-queer-identifying person? There is no easy answer to the ethics of using slang. There is a thin line between naturally adopting the language and cultural appropriation. The first step is acknowledging the origins of what you’re saying. Ice Spice plays into many of these trends, often using the valley girl filler: “like.” Identified by researchers as the most annoying filler word in the English language, Ice Spice uses “like” as more of an ad-lib: “How can I lose if I’m already chose? Like. / If she feeling hot, then I make that bitch froze.” She delivers these lines with a sense of effortlessness, playing into the trope of apathetic teens. There is also a layer of sassiness in the lyrics, a sense of knowing her own worth and being unafraid to flaunt it.
Today, our lexicon has been streamlined by TikTok, and artists such as Ice Spice are our fierce leaders. Her most notable trend is munch. And no, I’m not talking about snacks. Peppered with sexual innuendos, Ice Spice’s song “Munch (Feelin’ U)” insinuates that a “munch” is a desperate, subservient male. “Munch (Feelin’ U)” is a feminist anthem. Ice Spice is a baddie, and she gets what she wants. “Baddie” is an antiphrasis — a rhetorical device used to call something the opposite of what it is. “Baddie” most likely stems from using the word “bad.” “Bad” is also an antiphrasis — used to describe someone attractive. “Bad” was mostly used throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, so it seems only natural that the word should adapt to our new generation. In her song “Actin A Smoochie,” Ice Spice adds another word to our cultural canon. A “smoochie,” according to the princess of drill herself, has many casual sexual partners. But, rather than using it in a derogatory fashion, Ice Spice repurposes the sentiment into something powerful.
Photo courtesy of Interview Magazine
Male rappers often cite female promiscuity as something undesirable, but Ice Spice allows women to reclaim their sexuality and celebrate it. In the chorus, she describes herself as someone who takes men’s hearts and breaks them while dancing and dressing how she wants. She’s got no time for munches. Ice Spice is in her “trendsetting era,” as some may say. I am excited to see what Ice Spice puts out in the future. Contact Tabitha Cahan at cahata21@wfu.edu
Page 20 | Thursday, March 2, 2023
Old Gold & Black | Life
Believing in the dragon An ode to the person I used to be and an album I have played 228 times JAMES WATSON Life Editor
I remember where I was when the first missiles came screaming down at Kyiv, Ukraine. The days and weeks leading up to Feb. 24, 2022 were strange — uneven. Russia had amassed a sizable military presence along the border of Ukraine, and common speculation suggested war was knocking on their door. Thanks to a robust western intelligence apparatus, the apparent occupation force was thoroughly documented by satellite photography. The satellites captured the pre-war buildup as a series of maps and grids, full of tiny black squares and little green men. For months, the world could only interpret the world through lines and dots — for a lot of people, it probably didn’t feel real. Nevertheless, the prospect of a European land war was deeply frightening to the world. I’m deeply haunted by this time in ways I don’t fully understand yet. A particularly vivid memory is a dinner between my friend Max and me. We discussed the intelligence community assessments and the prospect of a new European land war. Neither of us was the expert we would like to have been — at least not yet — but it was our understanding that this conflict was arriving within the next week. A violent, inescapable change was swirling, and we could sense it. Adding to this anxiety and tumult was the social upheaval I would soon confront as a high school senior three months out from graduation. The simple, domestic notion of graduation is nothing compared to the brutal and illegal occupation of a peaceful country, but this is simply to say that everything felt weird and generally bad. Then, American indie rock outfit Big Thief’s 2022 album “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” arrived just a little more than a week before the tanks rolled across the border. A year later, the Ukraninans have put up a surprising counteroffensive. I am now a reasonably well-adjusted freshman at Wake Forest, and I confidently say the album was one of the most life changing and life-affirming pieces of art I’ve ever known — it found me when I most needed it.
The American folk-rock group Big Thief has been a big name in indie music for the last five years. A particular favorite among both critics and festival goers alike, the Brooklyn musicians carved out a near-perfect four-album run prior to 2022’s double album. Bandmates Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia have a tight, familial dynamic that radiates through their music. It’s rare that a band sounds so interpersonally harmonious. Their music is the music of warm smiles, hugs, friendsgivings, self-love and intricately-curated playlists. But it’s also heartbreak, trauma and reconciliation. Their sonic and thematic versatility is a weapon, and they know how to use it. Songs like “Mythological Beauty” off their excellent 2017 LP “Capacity” emphasize their emotional resonance and melodic, moody excellence. Their reinvention of the folk-rock tradition has established them as one of the most important, preeminent American music groups of the late 2010s. Music critic Steven Hyden famously employs a five-album test to measure the greatness of a band. That is, if the band is able to produce five great albums consecutively, they prove themselves to be in a whole new tier of greatness. While not a perfect test — notably Bob Dylan does not pass the Hyden test despite his on-record love for Dylan’s work — it is particularly helpful in analyzing modern output in (relative) real-time. For Big Thief, who put out five, full-length albums in six years (not to mention lead singer Adrianne Lenker’s own solo efforts) this test is especially revealing. The arrival of “Dragon,” album number five, was a big deal. Pitchfork awarded it a coveted “Best New Music” stamp alongside a sweet, sweet 9.0. Hyden gave it a gushing review in which he gave it the five-album stamp of approval. Big Thief was already great, but now they were unquestionably and cosmically great. The singles fell into my lap sometime in January. But as someone who treasures the “album experience,” I was weary to give them my full attention until the full sprawl was available. As soon as the first words floated out of Adrianne Lenker — “Change, like the wind, like the water, like skin” — I knew I had been seen. As the tracklist slowly opened up and let me in,
the full tapestry of noise and poetry came into focus. Then there was the cacophonic jangle of “Flower of Blood” — a song that ended up being the most played of the year. The ominous electronic crunch of “Blurred View,” the earnest twang of “Spud Infinity,” the anthemic buzz of “Little Things,” the lo-fi, compressed drone of “Wake Me Up to Drive,” it was all there — a grand canonization of genre, sound and tradition. Every song was just as idiosyncratic and affecting as the next. In creating this project, Big Thief had recalled echoes of great double albums of the past: Pavement’s quirky sonic smorgasbord “Wowee Zowee” or The Beatles’ colloquially titled “White Album,” for instance. Just as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had done in 1968 — stretching the “album” into a self-reflexive, postmodern sandbox with which to experiment and play — Big Thief had done it again 54 years later. I was in love with music in a way I hadn’t felt since letting the needle drop for the first time on my worn-out copy of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks.” Or perhaps not since hearing “The Lion King” soundtrack when I was four. Just as the critical response had suggested, they were indeed unquestionably and cosmically great. This music was tender and evocative. It felt passed down — like I had inherited a sacred text. Emotionally, something latched onto me. To me, the title track “Change” serves as the thesis for the rest of the text. While not a clearly thematically cohesive work, “Change” underscored both the message of the entire record and the very thing I needed to hear — it was going to be okay. I gravitated toward a particular line on the seemingly outof-place hoedown “Spud Infinity.” Lenker proclaims, “When I say infinity I mean now, kiss the one you are right now, kiss your body up and down except your elbows…” The message of recognizing the person you currently are and loving yourself for it resounded deeply. It echoed a profound, elemental love. Love for yourself, the warmth of others’ love and a love for life itself. Indeed, that spring brought many changes both at home and abroad. The war swirled in Europe and the death toll mounted in Ukraine. Additionally, one of my best friends lost her dad, a compassionate bastion of the community who was loved by all who knew him. Exactly a month later, I graduated high school — formally closing that chapter of my life. I spent my final weeks and months at home spending time with many people who wouldn’t follow me into this current chapter of my life — we were saying goodbye and I didn’t even know it. I’m still grieving and working through this. When I consider the emotional cost of this transition, I find myself turning back to “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” for comfort and wisdom like it’s scripture. It recenters me, assuring me that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I’m not often comfortable doing this type of heart-on-sleeve writing, and perhaps I should work on that given I’m partly responsible for the section that publishes essays like this. But as the title of the album suggests, I find more and more that I need to believe in the dragon. I need to be content with how life’s river flows and how love fluctuates and bends. How it hurts and how it triumphs — all of it. And above all, being content with sharing and embracing it. I’m proud of the person I have become only in the nine months since graduation. I’m a better person for believing in the dragon.
“I believe in you Even when you need to Recoil When the topsoil Is kicking up into the storm And the dust goes dancing And a billion planets are born I believe in you”
Selinna Tran / Old Gold & Black
Contact James Watson at watsjc22@wfu.edu