9/22/22 Full Edition

Old Gold&Black Wake

of which are hosted by Wake Forest’s fraternities. Adams noted that she met with all chapter presidents earlier this year to provide them with educational resources.

“We need to have conversations on what it means to be living in a neighborhood,” Adams said. “[We need to talk about] how we [can build] better relationships and recogniz[e] that perhaps blaring music with a bunch of curse words when kids are walking by with their parents and dogs is something that needs to be thought through a bit more.”

Cli ord advised neighbors with immediate concerns regarding a student or student behavior at a particular property to get Winston-Salem police involved.

Bella Ortley-Guthrie and Aine Pierre Staff Writer and Online Managing Editor

Community members in neighborhoods around Wake Forest University have become frustrated with what they view as inconsiderate behavior from some o -campus Wake Forest students. According to Wake Forest’s As sociate Dean of Student Conduct, Dr. Jim Settle, there’s been ongoing and increasing reports of o -campus student behavior.

“ e neighbors who live in areas where there is a mix of students and non-students report ongoing, and increasing, concerns with the behav iors and actions of students,” Settle said.

“Large social events, trash from guests, parking issues (blocked driveways, blocked roads, parking on lawns), and other disturbances caused by students are being noticed and reported more frequently by neighbors.”

Residence Life and Housing policies allow students to live o -campus their senior year — or earlier if a student successfully petitions for an exemption. However, students must still follow most university conduct policies. Neigh borhoods around Wake Forest however feel frustrated by some o -campus students' conduct and behavior. is frustration has spurred action. Over the summer, multiple signs popped up on Polo Road, reading “no new student housing in Oak Crest”, the historic neighborhood that surrounds Wake Forest’s campus to the north. e Winston-Salem Journal, in an Aug. 30 article, reported that those who live in the neighborhood are concerned about further outsourcing and development by Wake Forest. e article noted that among residents’ concerns is the frequency of disruptive parties. Among those quoted was Dave Stith, president of the Oak Crest Neighborhood Association.

“If you drive around the other end of Polo Road across University, you’ll see what we mean,” Stith told the Journal. “Wake Forest has been responsive helping with concerns about students and partying. But the city so far has been telling us there’s not much that can be done.” e city has seemed to take some action in the form of police enforcement of noise violations. According to As sistant Dean of Fraternity and Sorority Life Betsy Adams, Winston-Salem Police are, in some cases, skipping noise complaint warnings and going straight to citations.

“ e conversations I've been having with [Associate Dean of Student Conduct Dr.] Jim Settle is that there's a lot of frustration in the neighborhoods about noise, trash and just feeling like our students are not doing a good

job of living in community with their Winston-Salem neighbors,” Adams said.

e Journal also reported that “earlier this year, [the Winston-Salem City] Council, with an eye toward adding a ordable housing, approved an ordinance that allows property owners to build ‘accessory dwelling units’ on any residential property as long as they meet certain guide lines.” is ADU (accessory dwelling unit) ordinance concerns Oak Crest citizens regarding which additional accessory dwelling units (some for student housing) might further impact their neighborhoods, life and property value.

Matthew Cli ord, dean of Residence Life and Housing at Wake Forest, said that Wake Forest’s policies would not change as a result of the Journal’s reporting. He did, how ever, note that Wake Forest’s o -campus students must undergo education to “be a good neighbor” and live in community with non-student neighbors. Per Cli ord, in the early 2000s, Wake Forest initiated a partnership with multiple community stakeholders, including residents, Winston-Salem police and university o cials called the University Area Community (UAC).

“Frequently, we will hear the concerns that are brought up and help to mitigate those in many ways, but one of those ways is through education,” Cli ord said. “So if a concern is brought to us about trash, then we try to put some educational e ort into reminding our o -campus students what it's like to be a good neighbor. And living in a community with our permanent residents…. part of being a good neighbor might be that you put your trash in the proper container, putting it up by the street when it's trash day and then bringing it back when the trash is collected.”

O -campus parties remain a major contention between students and non-student community members, some

“We certainly encourage mutuality between neighbors or permanent residents and students so much in the same way that you know, if you live on campus, we encour age students to resolve any concerns between each other,” Cli ord said. “But if they or a student need additional intervention…a great resource for our neighbors and stu dents alike is the Winston-Salem police.”

e university is noti ed of any WSPD interaction between students o -campus. If the behavior arises to a conduct violation, then it is handled within the conduct process. Conduct processes are the same for o -campus and on-campus students and are based on Wake Forest’s Honor Code System which includes that “we willingly accept responsibility for our own conduct and activities.”

Settle provided the Old Gold & Black with a brief over view of the conduct process.

“We resolve nearly all of our conduct allegations through informal resolution — an agreement-based process where the Conduct O cer and the student come to an agree ment on responsibility and outcomes (if there are any),” Settle said.

Settle continued: “In situations where the Conduct Of cer and student cannot reach an agreement, the formal resolution process occurs, where the Conduct O cer may make a decision or may facilitate a conduct meeting with a panel of faculty, sta and student members to review the allegations, determine ndings and propose outcomes (if necessary). In either instance, the student alleged to have violated parts of the Code of Conduct can work closely with a Student Conduct Advisor.”

Additionally, Residence Life and Housing maintains a record of all o -campus students, including the names of landlords. Under Winston-Salem's RS-9 (Residential Single Family) ordinance, only four students may occupy a rental property. If a neighbor complains about a student or speci c property, then Residence Life reaches out to the students on the speci c lease in which the instance or complaint took place.

“If a complaint comes to us, then we would typically reach out to the student and the students on the lease and express the complaint and really work with them on di erent strategies to mitigate that and prevent a similar complaint from emerging in the future,” Cli ord said.

Ultimately, though, the administration’s desire is not to punish students, but to help them learn to live alongside their neighbors.

“Our desire is to help our students be good neighbors,” Cli ord said. “Really, we just want our students who live on campus to be good neighbors with each other if they live in Magnolia, or Bostwick or Deacon Place, we want our students to be good neighbors, when they are living on Polo Road or Charlton Farms or so on and so forth.”

“Covers

Residents of Oak Crest placed these signs along Polo Road.

Cooper Sullivan / Old Gold & Black

Old Gold & Black

is column represents the views of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board

Contract workers deserve a living wage

is weekend, the Old Gold & Black published an article detail ing the e orts of Wake Forward, a progressive-minded faculty group, to ensure fairer and better working con ditions for contract-based employees on this campus. Our Editorial Board now writes to lend our voice to this important issue.

As the only paid student newspaper in the Atlantic Coast Conference, we at the Old Gold & Black understand how crucial it is to compensate peo ple for the labor they provide — to an organization, to a community, to a campus as a whole. e contract employees that work in our residence halls, our dining establishments and our academic buildings are integral to

the day-to-day operations of this uni versity, and they deserve to be paid as such. In a single-income home with more than two children, what the Budd Group pays its employees is a poverty wage, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator.

Assuming the $10.50 wage cited in Wake Forward’s letter is universal (though some Budd Group listings are as low as $10 or as high as $16 in Winston-Salem), contract workers at Wake Forest would make $21,840 a year (calculated based o a 40-hour workweek for 52 weeks with no bo nuses or paid time o ). is yearly in come is below the federal poverty line regardless of family size, though for a single-income family of three, it is be

low the poverty line by over $20,000.

As Wake Forward’s letter also points out, issues of equity are at play here. A Bloomberg Law article written during the height of COVID-19 pointed out that university employees who work in the most high-risk jobs for virus spread (and also the positions Wake Forest generally outsources to con tracting rms) are disproportionately people of color. Especially given Wake Forest’s history, it is imperative that the university not further contribute to racial wealth gaps by refusing to pay contract workers a living wage.

Wake Forest is not the wealthiest school in the nation, but it does still have considerable nancial power. A 2021 nancial disclosure report re

“

As the only paid student newspaper in the Atlantic Coast Conference, we at the Old Gold & Black un derstand how crucial it is to compensate people for the labor they provide."

vealed that the university has about $4 million in assets. Wake Forest, per its motto, has a responsibility to use that money to be “Pro Humanitate”. at starts with making sure no one on this campus — no student, no contract worker, no faculty member and no sta member — has to live in poverty.

Old Gold&Black

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY SINCE 1916

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>> NEWS

Christa Dutton, duttcd20@wfu.edu

Emily Toro, toroer20@wfu.edu

Asst.

Maddie Stopyra, stopmf21@wfu.edu

>> FEATURES

Meredith Prince, prinmc21@wfu.edu

Chase Bagnall-Koger, bagncm21@wfu.edu

Asst.

Una Wilson, wilsui21@wfu.edu

>> OPINION

Sophie Guymon, guymsm20@wfu.edu

Maryam Khanum, khanmg20@wfu.edu

>> SPORTS

Ian Steffensen, steffp21@wfu.edu

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>> LIFE

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>> PHOTO

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>> ADVISER

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AINE PIERRE

ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR pierav20@wfu.edu

>> POLICIES

The Old Gold & Black is published every other Thursday during the school year, except during examinations, summer and holiday peri ods, by Triangle Printing of Durham. © 2022 WFU Media Board. All rights reserved. The views expressed in all editorials and advertise ments contained within this publication do not necessarily refect the opinions of the OGB. As part of our commitment to reporting news fairly and accurately, we will not remove any previously published content. If an error in either our online or print content is brought to our attention, we will revise the originally pub lished article with an appended correction. In order to facilitate thoughtful and appropriate debate, profane, vulgar, or infammatory com ments on our website are not allowed and will be deleted. For more information on our comment ing policy, please see our website. We reserve the right to reject advertisements deemed inap propriate. Our full policy, and how to advertise with the OGB, can be found on our website.

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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 mcnecb19@ wfu.edu the Monday before publication. We reserve the right to edit all letters for length and clarity. No anonymous letters will be printed.

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George Bush speaks at Face-to-Face Speaker Forum

Addison Berry Staff Writer

On Sept. 14, George W. Bush, the 43rd Presi dent of the United States, re ected on his life and presidency at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, kicking o the second season of Face-toFace Speaker Forum at Wake Forest University.

Bush took the stage with American historian and Pulitzer-prize-winning author, Jon Meachem. e event took place immediately following Jon Meachem’s student-led forum in Wait Chapel ear lier that day.

Students were excited by the rare opportunity to see a former president speak.

“I knew it was an opportunity that I probably won’t get that many times in my life — to see a for mer or current president speaking. So I wanted to take advantage of it while I could,” freshman Nick Stiltner said.

During the conversation, Bush and Meacham discussed the major events of his presidency, par ticularly his work in national security and foreign relations.

e former president recounted his visit to Ground Zero 21 years ago this week. Bush recalled speaking in front of a grieving nation, saying, “God is good. God will hear our prayers, and we’re going to kick their ass.”

Bush remained true to this promise by declaring war on terrorism shortly after and deploying troops to Afghanistan. Facing signi cant pushback for this decision, Bush justi ed his work, saying, “presidents shouldn’t make decisions based on politics, but what’s best for the country.”

Bush’s decision to go to war was based on his belief that “the condition elsewhere matters to our own security.” Bush expressed how this same mind set was evident in his humanitarian e orts as well.

Not every student was thrilled with Bush’s mes sage though. Junior Hasan Pyarali voiced his dis pleasure with Bush’s invitation to campus.

“I think bringing him to Wake Forest and [Bush] justifying the war in Iraq was an attack on every stu dent at Wake Forest, especially Muslim students,” Pyarali said. “ e Leadership and Character o ce bringing him here showed us exactly what character is not. Whoever organized this event should resign.”

Executive Director of Face to Face Sue Hender son, however, noted the program’s mission is to bring in in uential speakers.

“Our primary mission is to bring world-class

speakers to Wake Forest and to the greater Win ston-Salem community on an annual basis,” Sue said. “Bringing President Bush in conversation with Jon Meacham far exceeds expectations.”

Meacham and Bush also discussed PEPFAR, Bush’s initiative to provide increased access to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention methods. He shared about a trip to Rwanda with his wife that served as the inspiration for the initiative that saved 20 million lives.

Bush communicated the importance of his faith during his presidency. He credited Billy Graham for his conversion to Christianity and shared that he continues to read his Bible every morning. How ever, he does not believe a president should be “preacher-in-chief,” so he made an e ort to respect and value all religious beliefs during his presidency and the forum, especially after the 9/11 terrorist at tacks sparked bigotry against Muslims. Bush closed with a message to our nation’s future presidents.

“ e o ce of president is more than you,” Bush said. “ e job of the president is not only to make tough decisions but to bring honor and dignity to the o ce so that the institution survives future presidents.”

Sophomore Jacquelinne Marroquin arrived at the event with a neutral opinion of Bush but was eager to hear him speak.

“I think it was very moving,” Marroquin said. “I feel like he put a lot of his personal life out there and things that I just didn’t know, and I feel like other people didn’t know.”

POLICE BEAT

• WSPD o cers found a student intoxicated on the north-bound side of U.S. 421. e report was led at on 11 a.m. on Sept. 5.

• Unknown student(s) took victim’s bike from the bike rack in front of Angelou Hall. e report was led at 11 a.m. on Sept. 7.

• Unknown student(s) took victims unsecured cactus plant that was sitting outside Luter Hall. e report was led at 4:23 p.m. on Sept. 8.

• Student was seen urinating on the trees outside of Luter Hall. e report was led at 11:34 p.m. on Sept. 9.

• Student removed the smoke detector in a room in Babcock Hall and left it hanging from the ceiling. e report was led at 4:41 a.m. on Sept. 10.

• An R.A. reported a bong in a Deacon Place room. e student threw the bong away and denied that it belonged to them. e report was led at 2:04 a.m. on Sept. 11.

Contact Addison Berry at berraf20@wfu.edu

Photo courtesy of the Face to Face Speaker Forum

Evan Harris / Old Gold & Black

Former president George W. Bush shares stories from his presidency in conversation with historian and presidential biographer Jon Meachem.

Here’s what you need to know about registering to vote

With midterm elections quickly approaching, students are encouraged to educate themselves on the various ways to register to vote

Breanna Laws Staff Writer

Midterm elections are coming up on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and there are multiple ways Wake Forest students can cast their ballot.

Deacs Decide, a nonpartisan or ganization on campus, as well as the O ce of Civic and Community Engagement will be hosting a registra tion event on Sept. 20. is event will take place in Tribble Courtyard from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will allow students to register, change their registration in formation and ask questions about this election cycle.

information on their state’s registra tion process if they choose to vote in their home state.

Students can also register using their on-campus address and com plete their ballots as Forsyth Coun ty voters.

Information on registering to vote in Forsyth County can be found at

North Carolina, includes a student election guide and gives informa tion about registering online or in person.

Important deadlines for North Carolina midterm elections are:

-Request absentee ballots by Nov. 1

A list of polling locations in For syth county can be found at www. forsyth.cc/Elections/precincts.aspx. Deadlines may vary by state and it is important to check your state’s deadlines if you choose to participate in the midterm elections through your home state.

-Postmark ir return absentee ballots by Nov. 1

-Register to vote via mail, online or at an inperson office by Oct. 14

-Register to vote during early voting by Nov. 5

-Vote in-person through Nov. 8

Registration information can also be found online at vote.gov. Here, students can check speci cally for

www.forsyth.cc/Elections/registra tion.aspx. is page lists the quali cations to be a registered voter in

ough not a presidential election year, midterm elec tions still hold great impor tance. Midterm elections occur two years into a presi dent’s time in o ce. ese elections determine the ma jority party in the House of Representatives and have a large say in Senate seats. According to Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan nonpro t, all 435 voting seats in the House of Representatives , 36 states will elect

governors and 34 states will elect senators. Several local and state of ces may run their elections this year.

Deacs Decide will also be holding discussion-based events before the midterm elections to give students more insight into the voting world. A discussion on detecting election misinformation will be held on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m. A discussion on registration and voting regulations will be held on Oct. 3 at 5 p.m.

For additional involvement, stu dents may become election o cials and assist in running the polls on election day. Information on this is made available at www.ncsbe.gov/ about-elections/get-involved-elec tions.

For any questions on voting regis tration or ballot entry, please contact the O ce of Civic and Community Engagement at communityengage ment@wfu.edu.

Contact Breanna Laws at lawsbn21@wfu.edu

Wake Forest University ranks 29th among national universities

For the 26th year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranks Wake Forest one of the top 30 universities nationwide

Hope Zhu Staff Writer

U.S. News & World Report released their 2022-2023 Best National Uni versity Rankings on Sept. 11, and Wake Forest ranked 29th, placing them in the top 30 national universi ties for the 26th year in a row.

e ranking also lists Wake Forest as 21st in best undergraduate teach ing and 23rd in best value school, a combination of academic quality and a ordability.

“Rankings can serve as a starting point for many students and their families as they consider their options for college,” said Tony Marsh, interim dean of the college. “Wake Forest’s performance over time has been re markable and is in part, a testament to its nationally recognized reputation in undergraduate teaching and student engagement.”

Marsh is especially proud of the Wake Forest faculty’s dedication to undergraduate education and worldclass research.

“While the liberal arts are at the core of our curriculum, students also have opportunities to engage in experien tial learning where knowledge gained in the classroom is applied in a wide variety of real-world settings from the lab to the community,” Marsh said.

U.S. News & World Report Best National University Rankings evalu

ate more than 1500 U.S. bachelor’s de gree-granting institutions according to 17 indicators. e ranking factors include outcomes (40%), faculty re sources (20%), expert opinion (20%), nancial resources (10%), student ex cellence (7%) and alumni giving (3%).

Wake Forest’s faculty resources con tribute to its persistent status in rank ing. 56.8% of classes at Wake Forest have fewer than 20 students and the 11:1 student-faculty ratio is one of the lowest among all top 30 schools.

ose indicators underscore a highly interactive learning environment and a student-focused classroom.

Students appreciate how the ranking re ects the faculty’s passion and car ing for teaching.

“For the past four weeks, I’ve gotten the idea that education is critical here and held to very high standards,” said freshman Kate Wanzenberg, who in tends to major in psychology.

Freshman Anne Jones shares her sen timent.

“Especially with all the professors, I feel like they make the college [rank ing] higher because they always push students to be better,” Jones said.

While ranking can be a convenient reference for navigating through hun dreds of universities for high school students, measuring the academic excellence of an institution based on voluntarily submitted data can be problematic. Many qualitative com

ponents that make up a good college cannot translate into numbers, which are exposed to fraud and maneuver ing. Columbia University, for exam ple, dropped from 2nd to 18th place this year, due to the inaccurate data it reported to US News.

“I feel like Wake Forest is underrated on the rankings because its liberal arts education, small class size, and pas sionate professors should play a big ger part,” said freshman Jane Bostick, who intends to major in accounting.

Freshman Atlantis Green agrees that ranking sometimes provides a narrow view of the value of higher education.

“I don’t think rankings are e ec tive because there are so many dif ferent factors that go into it,” Green said. “For example, if you look at the top schools, there is barely any eco nomic diversity, like someone from a low-income household. Even in Wake Forest, there is almost no economic diversity.”

Green also identi es the mental health concern for students pursuing high-ranking schools.

“ e ranking can be damaging to one’s dignity if you don’t feel like you end up where you supposed to be,” Green said. “Maybe we should try to cater towards actual ts instead of ranking.”

Aware of the controversies around university ranking, Jed Macosko, pro fessor of physics, is currently working

on an alternative ranking system at AcademicIn uence.com that is based on a more straightforward formula and counts up the in uence of alum ni, professors and administrators.

“I was interested in creating an alter native school ranking system as an ap plication of big data,” Macosko said. “It is based on the factor that is at the very heart of what makes a university great — the people.”

Macosko believes that having more rankings available creates a better en vironment for high school students and their parents since consulting various lists will help them learn new information about the schools they are considering and will ultimately help them nd a good t.

Marsh also recommends that stu dents value factors outside of metrics provided by rankings like the one published by the U.S. News & World Report.

“Investing time to visit the campus, talking to people that can help you make an informed choice and nding the place that makes you feel com fortable and aligns with your values is critical to nding a university where you can be successful,” Marsh said. “I hope prospective students and their families take the time to visit campus and nd out for themselves why Wake Forest is a great university.”

Contact Hope Zhu zhuq2121@wfu.eduat

Chase Bagnall-Koger, bagncm21@wfu.edu

Meredith Prince, prinmc21@wfu.edu

Asst: Una Wilson, wilsui20@wfu.edu

Pollen, pollinators & people:

ADDISON SCHMIDT Staff Writer

It’s a tale that many of us rst heard in elemen tary school science: a bee ies onto a ower, sucks nectar from the ower’s center, collects pollen on its body and quickly moves on to the next plant, where the pollen is transferred into the stigma. In a perfect exhibit of mutualism, a dependency among species in which all those involved ben e t, pollination simultaneously ensures that the pollinator species sustains the energy to survive and that the pollinated species produces seeds that will grow into the next generation of plant.

As many of us know, though, bees aren’t the only pollinator species. Among the ranks of pol linators there exist bees, small mammals, bats, birds, moths, butter ies and countless other spe cies which bene t from this mutualistic relation ship. According to the USDA, this process alone is at the base of nearly $18 billion in annual crop production revenue in the United States.

A troubling trend is emerging however. In July, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), declared the Danaus plexippus plexippus species of butter ies, also known as the migratory monarch butter y, to be endangered. Almonds, thirsty crops that also rely heavily on pollination, have struggled in recent years as a re sult of intense droughts in California, a state that produces nearly 80% of the world’s almonds. To mato plants, which don’t require pollinators but do bene t from them, are notoriously heat sensi tive. In California, where a quarter of the world’s tomatoes are grown, yield dropped nearly 23% from 2015 to 2021.

Dr. Gloria K. Muday, the Charles M. Allen Professor of Biology at Wake Forest, researches tomato plants speci cally. Muday’s research on tomatoes initially centered around plant hor mones but has evolved into attempting to un derstand how antioxidants known as avonols could potentially increase a tomato’s resilience to increasingly high temperatures.

“We started out thinking much more about hormones that control plant growth and devel opment, as well as the molecular mechanisms by which they do that,” Muday said. “We acciden tally got involved in climate change.”

As lab assistants began cutting open one par ticular mutant variety of tomato Muday’s lab was growing in the Campus Garden, they noticed something surprising: there were far fewer seeds than a typical, nonmutant tomato plant contains. Muday and other lab members noticed that seed counts were particularly low when the weather was warmest.

“ e reason that they had no seeds was that the pollen produced by the mutant plant was not very good and it was exquisitely sensitive to el evated temperatures,” Muday says.

Mu day explains that her lab has

come to the conclusion that the lack of seeds is directly related to the mutant tomatoes’ lack of avonols, a speci c type of chemical compound found in many plants, which acts as an antioxi dant.

“Plants produce these compounds as sunscreens to protect them from the oxidation that happens when light hits them,” Muday said.

Without avonols, tomatoes are much more prone to heat stress and their reproductive capac ities in particular are compromised. Ultimately, this means that avonols may be a key compo nent in combating climate-induced heat stress in not only tomatoes but other core crops like rice and corn as well. If scientists like Muday can bioengineer a variety of tomato that produces more avonols, it is likely that those varieties will be less susceptible to heat-induced reproductive damage.

On the pollinator side, Wake Foresters are searching for solutions as well. As ZSR Library Specialist and avid beekeeper David Link ex plains, rising temperatures are largely concerning because it alters honey bees’ strategies for weath ering the cold, a fact he says will lead to the ne cessity for more human-managed hives.

“Honey bees store nectar/honey in the hive to survive during the cold winter months when there is no nectar/carbs to harvest,” said Link. “With warmer temperatures, honey bees are y ing for longer periods when there is no nectar to harvest. Bees will leave the hive pumped on carbs to go searching for nectar and return emp ty, so they have to eat again upon return. eir stored carbs are depleted quicker and many hives die of starvation before the rst blooms provid ing nectar arrive in the spring.”

Link maintains 10 hives between Campus Gar dens and Reynolda Gardens, 12 more hives with in half a mile of campus and numerous others in the greater Winston-Salem area. He expresses concern about the e ects of pesticide use as well, an area that Dr. Susan Fahrbach’s lab is investi gating.Fahrbach, who is the Reynolds Professor of Developmental Neuroscience in the Wake For est Biology Department, says that the biggest threat to bees is not a rise in temperatures alone; bees aren’t native to North America and live in a variety of di erent climates around the world. Fahrbach believes that this makes bees uniquely suited to adapt to rising temperatures.

Her lab is studying the neurological and gas troenterological e ects of pesticide use on honey bees.

“Honey bee populations have in credible genetic diversity, so I’m not so worried about their capac ity to adapt,” Fahr bach said with regard to the life of the honey “[Howevbee.

er], the honey bee’s ability to regulate the temperature [of the hive] assumes everything else (besides temperature) will be equal. If the plants they depend upon are not owering at traditional times or in traditional abundance…that could be a problem [for honey bees].”

Alternatively, Fahrbach’s primary concern when it comes to human impacts on bees lies mainly in the realm of pesticide use. While certain levels of pesticides are non lethal to bees, Fahrbach and her team be lieve that bee behavior is being a ected by sublethal doses, something that could alter a bee’s productivity when it comes to pollina tion.

“Modern pesticides that spread throughout [the entirety] of the plant are called systemic insecticides. ey are designed to be very safe for humans and mammals…but widespread use of neuroactive pesticides results in a lot of sub-lethal exposures [of insects to pesticides],” Fahrbach says. “Exposure to a sublethal dose [of pesticide] reliably causes a change in the brain [of honey bees, but] we have [yet] to link that to something that the bee does.”

While Muday and Fahrbach’s research may seem only distantly connected from a bio logical standpoint, the thread that connects them lies in the relationship between pollen and pollinators. If plants like tomatoes can’t produce ample amounts of vi able pollen, pollinators like honey bees can’t spread pollen. If the be havior of honey bees and other pol linators is threatened by pesticide use, they will put not only themselves but also plants at risk.

Scientists say that one of the biggest challenges in the ght against climate change will be maintaining ample food sup plies. As populations of pollinator spe cies like the monarch butter y dwindle, we may become increasingly reliant on the adaptability of bees in order to pol linate crops. With this in mind, are we, as Susan Fahrbach is examining, putting bees at risk through our use of pesticides? Will Muday’s ndings about the sunscreen- like e ect of avonols be a key factor in reducing heat stress among core crops?

Time will only tell what humanity’s re sponse to pollen and pollinators in peril will be, but in the meantime, Wake Foresters continue to exhibit Pro Humanitate in action. Whether it’s through in-depth scienti c research on bees and tomatoes or beekeeping in gardens on cam pus, members of the Wake Forest community are com bating the issue of pollination head-on.

Contact Addison Schmidt at schmac21@wfu.edu

How Wake Foresters are uniting in the fght to save food supplies and biodiversity

How a mother’s choice saved her child

CHRISTA DUTTON News Editor

BACKGROUND

Lydia’s case and others like it are grounded on the legal debate regard ing compelled medical treatment of pregnant patients. Common and con stitutional law grants every American — including pregnant ones — the right to refuse medical treatment. However, pregnant patients can be forced by court order to receive medi cal treatment or be found criminally or civilly liable for any injury or death to a fetus caused by the refusal of medi cal treatment. Swortzel’s doctor was likely referring to exceptions like these that limit a pregnant patient’s options.

TWINS

When Lydia Swortzel and her husband Stevien Reece found out they were hav ing twins, they were shocked.

ey were shocked not only because carrying two babies at one time is daunt ing but shocked all the more because they had only one embryo implanted through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

“Did we transfer two embryos?” the specialist at her local Winston-Salem fer tility clinic asked Swortzel as she lay on the examination table.

“Uh, no,” Swortzel replied.

“Well, there’s two in there. Twins.” e one embryo they had implanted had naturally split into two, resulting in identical twins.

Swortzel said the rest of the visit was a blur. ey walked out of the o ce, got into the car and then started — laugh ing. It was ironic; from the moment they found out they were pregnant, Swortzel and her husband joked that they would be alright — as long as they didn’t have twins.

“ en after [the laughter], we were just terri ed,” Swortzel said.

As a self-described type-A planner, Swortzel began calculating all the dou bled costs of having twins — double the clothes, double the diapers, double the attention. She even thought as far ahead as when they would be paying double the college tuition.

Swortzel was in the middle of Wake Forest University’s MBA program at the time. She wouldn’t nish her degree until after she delivered the twins.

Despite her apprehension about nances and still being a student, Swortzel was happy about being pregnant. e longer she carried her babies, the more excited she felt. She delayed buying any thing baby-related, however, because she knew the chances of miscarriage were

Wake Forest alumna Lydia Swortzel recounts a heartbreaking medical decision she made while pregnant, which resulted in the loss of one son and the life of another.

“Swortzel looked at her husband and told him she didn’t want to die .”

THE CHOICE

After a few sleepless nights, many tears and prayers, the Swortzels de cided to go with the latter option — to wait until 24 weeks, knowing that Winston would die shortly after birth, but Oliver would have a much higher chance of surviving.

On a Wednesday, Swortzel hit 24 weeks. Less than 48 hours later, her babies were born.

Oliver was rushed to the NICU, and he was administered the Apgar test, which measures how much life

never experience.

ey slept that night at the hospital with Winston in a crib beside them. e nurse told them to call when they were ready for the nurses to take him. “Ready?” Swortzel thought. “How can anyone ever be ready for that?”

Crying, Swortzel called the nurse and watched her take him away.

e Swortzels describe Winston as “his brother’s savior” and “their little hero.” ey think about him ever day and desperately wish he were with them. Still, they are thankful for the choice they had. Swortzel says her

PROTEST

Since Swortzel was able to make an autonomous decision regarding her reproductive care, she worried when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in June.

“When Roe v. Wade was over turned, I knew the implications it would have for people who wanted abortion access just to have abortion access, but also [I knew the implica tions] for people like me who had to make an unthinkable medical deci

long as the fetus was not yet viable,” Boone said.

In the case in New Jersey, Roe v. Wade did not protect VM because the fetus was far past the point of vi ability.

“The sun illumi nating a world he’d never expe rience .”

OPINION

Sophie Guymon, guymsm20@wfu.edu

Maryam Khanum, khanmg20@wfu.edu

International Politics

Gorbachev’s death generates controversy

Hope Zhu Staff Columnist

The famous 1998 commercial for Pizza Hut fea turing Mikhail Gorbachev — the last leader of the Soviet Union — went viral after he died at 91 on Aug. 30, 2022.

At the start of the video, Gorbachev sliced the pizza for his granddaughter — like any normal grandfather would do — while people around him argued, “because of him, we have political instabil ity!” and “because of him, we have more opportu nity!”

It is hard to describe the subtle weirdness of piz za — something that is so modern, western and American — and the former president of the Soviet Union, a supposedly grave and solemn figure, be ing in the same frame. But such peculiarity is the most salient feature of Gorbachev, and it is also the reason for his controversial reputation.

For many members of Generation Z, the Soviet Union and its leadership seem to be buried in the dust of history. However, the international response to Gorbachev’s death reflects the long-lasting re percussions of his leadership. Eastern and western perceptions of Gorbachev still vary tremendously, which is somewhat reminiscent of the Cold War tension.

Gorbachev is widely praised in the west as an ide alistic reformer, an advocate of peace and alliance throughout Eastern Europe and a hero credited with the relatively conflict-free dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In the westerner’s eyes, Gorbachev is not com pletely responsible for the collapse of the USSR, despite the failure of his major reforms including economic shock therapy and the transition to a free-market economy. At worst, he is seen as a mediocre leader who could not save the Soviet Union from corrupted bureaucracy and eco nomic stagnation.

In the comment sections of opinion pieces from “The New York Times” discussing Gor bachev’s death, many contend that he de serves “global appreciation and recognition” and an open-minded diploma that enables the West to see a completely different Soviet Union.

In eastern countries such as Russia and China, however, Gorbachev was often portrayed as a traitor and, at best, a naive follower of Western ideology that proved to be incompatible with the old Soviet Union. National leaders from Russia are ambivalent, if not opposed, to Gor bachev’s legacy. Russian President Vladi mir Putin famously dubbed the dissolu tion of the Soviet Union, as “the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century”.

Public opinion from China and Russia, while acknowledging the impact of Gor bachev on the Cold War trajectory, consid ers the misfires in his political career to out weigh his success. A 2017 survey shows that a majority of the Russian public (58%) be lieved that Stalin played a very or mostly positive role in Russia while very few

people (22%) felt the same way about Gorbachev, and the majority (65%) believed that Gorbachev played a negative role. In China, it is widely ac cepted that Gorbachev’s privatization efforts lacked flexibility and feasibility and his political reform deviated from scientific socialism, which is one of the essential parts of Marxism.

It is not difficult to trace the origin of this dis parity, but the divergence between opinions reveals common biases when evaluating controversial his torical figures.

For the countries that still uphold communist ideals, Gorbachev’s pro-western policies, along with increasingly negative portrayals of the USSR in the decades after its dissolution, have engendered bit terness.

Gorbachev indeed responded to the peaceful proposal by withdrawing a significant amount of Soviet tactical nuclear weapons from Eastern Eu rope and establishing diplomatic relationships with countries including the United States, contrib uting to the fall of the Berlin Wall, among other events. However, turning a vast and rigid nation from extremely conservative to liberal comes at an enormous cost. While the Western world applauds Gorbachev for his glasnost and perestroika, it turns its head away when the Gorbachevian Soviet Union society is haunted by revisionism, conspiracy and social unrest.

For the westerners, especially Americans, though, the Soviet Union was a mysterious but powerful sealed society. For this reason, the media and press are not entirely to blame for fabricating the Soviet Union’s image. By contrast, Gorbachev, who was young, energetic and willing to talk and smile to people on the street, is undeniably an attractive fig ure. He is a more westernized, more familiar repre sentation of freedom and democracy, which is the golden rule of politics in Post Cold-War Europe and America. Many arguments praising Gor bachev for opening up the country to western ideas failed to recognize that the over-radicaliza tion of a once rigid nation could also accelerate its collapse.

The stark contrast between the media representations of Gorbachev from the East and the West indicates that misinforma tion did not die with the last Soviet Union leader, nor is it likely to die in the future.

In a contemporary world interconnected by globalization and multiculturalism, largescale warfare like the current conflict in Ukraine has rarely occurred. Instead, me dia representation and maneuvering public opinions have become major battlefields.

There is already a plethora of incisive articles analyzing the historical resonance of Gorbachev that do a better job than I could. Yet, it is important to identify the challenge of objectively assessing a po litical figure during an extremely messy and turbulent time. For Gorbachev, nei ther “reformist of peace and vision” nor “gravedigger of communism” could cap ture his legacy.

Contact Hope Zhu at zhuq21@wfu.edu

The death of the last leader of the Soviet Union has highlighted disparities between eastern and western opinion

Politics

George Bush should not have come to Wake Forest

Maryam Khanum Opinion Editor

Most people have never seen a U.S. president, current or former, in the esh. So, when the Face to Face Speaker Forum Series announced that it would be hosting a con versation be

planning on attending. Because it was held so close to the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, even students on the pre-med track were leaving their dorm rooms for the rst time in months to watch President Bush graciously impart his wis dom upon the Wake Forest student body.

Except, I’m not sure how much of what he said was actual wisdom.

As a political science major myself, I was excited to attend the forum. Bush started o with a few anecdotes about his time in the White House and experiences with his family. I laughed as he told us about how his mother, Barbara Bush, had called him her “favorite son over the phone”. I stopped laughing, however, when he brought up First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Bush talked about how sorry he felt for President Abraham Lincoln because his wife was simply depressed all the time instead of supporting her glorious husband through the tri als and tribulations of the presidency. Mary Todd Lincoln, who lost a child in infancy, another in adolescence, and a third in his teenage years. Mary Todd Lincoln, witness to her own husband’s ho micide. How dare she be depressed? ank good ness Laura Bush never complained.

ere are a lot of ways to avoid having to place blame upon yourself or others for actions you know were wrong. One such method is to place the blame on some kind of divine entity, like saying that God told you to end the tyranny in Iraq. Another method is by conveniently replacing the word “riot” with “stu ”. During the talk, Bush went into an inordinately long monologue about how the Jan.

6th “stu ” was wholly unjusti able and a blatant attack on American democracy. However, he pointed out that in the face of such terror, “Ameri can political institutions held”. He is, of course, talking about the same political institutions that provided a reality TV show host with power and in uence so unbridled that he found himself ca pable of inciting such a riot in the rst place.

Bush then went on to talk about his personal experiences while in o ce. He started o by an nouncing to the crowd before him that he had handled the most di cult presidency since Lin coln, at which point I swear I heard Roosevelt and Hoover turn over in their graves. He discussed his PEPFAR emergency plan, which was aimed at addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, and ultimately provided treatment for 21 million people. is conversation topic that came up su per organically, with the former President asking the crowd if they knew what PEPFAR was, saying “no one ever talks about PEPFAR'' and proceed ing to explain what it was as if parading around this one good initiative would wipe away the 269 war crimes his administration was found liable for.

Bush also talked about his parents, with a special focus on his father, George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. He even went as far as to read out a letter his dad sent him in which Bush Sr. basically said that he was proud of his son for making the “right decision” by invading Iraq. e same war that killed roughly 200,000 Iraqi civilians as the United States searched for weap ons of mass destruction which we now know Iraq did not actually have. But hey, hindsight is 20/20 right? Besides, why shouldn’t the only nation to

National Football League

ever deploy a nuclear weapon against a civilian population get to decide who gets nukes?

It is surprising to me that, after all was said and done, there were still people who walked away from that keynote address impressed at the 43rd president’s magnetism and agreeable nature. Good old Southern charm can only get you so far. e reality is, the former president is not only completely aware of all the o enses committed by him or under his administration, but he continues to deny that they are o enses at all. He does not regret the wars he started, the people they killed and the horri c global impact their legacy con tinues to have today. And he traveled all the way to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to tell us just that.

I tried to give the former president the bene t of the doubt, hoping that he had come to educate students on his unique experiences in o ce and not further some heinous political agenda. I will politely admit that I was wrong. But what I think I have learned is that there is something to be said about inviting a war criminal to a well-established educational institution in order to say his piece, and not something incredibly positive. To clarify, I do not think a former president, irrespective of who it may be, has no knowledge to impart upon the future of America. However, I do think that someone like former Bush should not have been given an avenue through which he could attempt to absolve himself of his numerous transgressions in front of a bunch of college students.

Contact Maryam Khanum at khanmg20@wfu.edu

Watson trial outcome signifies NFL's shortcomings

Deshaun Watson's punishment was met with outrage due to its lenience

Lucy Roberts Staff Writer

19 months after taking his last snap in a Hous ton Texans jersey, Deshaun Watson took to the eld again on Aug. 12 to face the Jaguars in Jacksonville, FL. He was met with a chorus of taunts and chants, including one that rang out: “No means no.” is hostile greeting does not come as a sur prise, as Watson has spent the last year and a half involved in a series of legal battles surrounding ac cusations of his sexual misconduct towards numer ous massage therapists.

After over two dozen women came forward al leging that Watson had behaved in a sexually co ercive and inappropriate manner during massage appointments, the N.F.L. and N.F.L. Player’s As sociation agreed on a former U.S. District Court Judge, Sue L. Robinson, to act as an impartial arbi trator in his hearing.

Upon nding that Watson had violated the league’s personal conduct policy, Robinson’s ruling consisted of a six game suspension without pay and the condition that he only use his team’s massage therapists. Despite calling Watson’s actions “egre gious” and “predatory,” Robinson stated that the league’s recommended inde nite suspension was too strict for his “nonviolent” conduct.

e N.F.L. has long failed to protect women, especially when it comes at the expense of one of

their most talented players, such as Watson. While this outcome was disappointing, it was not at all surprising. Once it became clear that Watson would not be facing criminal charges, multiple teams jumped at the chance to begin trading talks.

As many as four teams entered into these discus sions, but eventually the Cleveland Browns signed Watson to a ve-year, fully guaranteed $230 mil lion contract. e ability for Watson to sign a deal that set a new record for the largest guaranteed con tract in league history, while his punishment, and therefore, eligibility for the upcoming season was still in question, re ects the priorities of the teams and owners across the league.

After Robinson’s ruling and an outcry of back lash at the lenient punishment, the N.F.L. appealed the decision and came to a nal verdict that sus pended Watson for 11 games, ned him $5 million and required evaluation by behavioral experts and a treatment program.

According to N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, “Deshaun has committed to doing the hard work on himself that is necessary for his re turn to the N.F.L.”

But has he really?

Since the rst lawsuit was led against Watson in March 2021, his statements about the situation have consistently lacked any show of remorse or understanding of his actions.

Watson’s rst apology came right before playing in the preseason game in Jacksonville.

“I want to say that I am truly sorry to all the women that I have impacted in this situation,” he said. “I want to continue to move forward and grow and learn and show that I am a true person

of character.”

In his rst steps towards proving his character once the settlement was released not even a week later, Watson returned to denying all wrongdoing and doubled down on his innocence.

When asked if he would trade for Watson again, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam responded with a resounding “Absolutely”.

“Is he never supposed to play again?” Haslam said. “Is he never supposed to be a part of society? I think it’s important to remember that Deshaun is 26 years old, and is a valuable N.F.L. quar terback, and we’re planning on him being our quarterback for a long time.”

e sentiment is blatant — Watson is simply too talented to be punished. It sends a message to the players that is loud and clear: if you perform, you can misbehave. But it also sends a message to the female fanbase and women in general.

e mistreatment of wom en in the N.F.L. will continue because even the most “egre gious” and “predatory” behavior cannot prevent one from making his way back to the locker room. Or the eld. Or the team-issued massage table.

e toxic culture of the league is displayed through

their commitment to ratings and ticket sales, rather than the safety and wellbeing of women. Deshaun Watson can barely scrounge up a speck of sympathy for the dozens of women he has nega tively impacted, but he is a star quarterback. Come Week 12 he will be back on the eld in orange and brown, and there will surely be fans in the stands, young and old, little boys and little girls, watch ing him play as if nothing ever happened.

Contact Lucy Roberts at robels20@wfu. edu

The decision to host the former president as a Face to Face speaker was made in poor taste

Religion

Texas S.B. 797 threatens U.S. democracy

Dillon Clark Contributing Columnist

In 2022, the Supreme Court revisited the cen turies-old issue of religious freedom in the United States. In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the government may not suppress an individual from engaging in personal religious observance in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. In the case, Christian football coach Joseph Kennedy sued the Bremerton School District for suspend ing him after he led numerous post- game prayers on the 50-yard line. In a majority opinion support ing Kennedy, Justice Neil Gorsuch asserted that

historical legal precedent, such an overt Christian symbol is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and a gross representa tion of Christian nationalism in public schools. The Establishment Clause, which applies to individual states under the 14th Amendment, prohibits the government from making any law respecting an establishment of religion. Such pro hibition of government endorsements of religion extends to beginning school days with prayers or moments of silence [as decided in Engel v. Vitale (1962) and Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)], hanging the Ten Commandments in classrooms [Stone v. Graham (1980)] and daily classroom exercises involving readings from the Bible (School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp (1963)).

The motto “In God We Trust'' can be traced back to the Civil War, where clergyman M.R. Watkins used this motto to rally support amongst soldiers, promoting the idea that the United States was under divine protection. Since the Civil War, however, this motto has been used to promote Christian nationalism — the belief that Christian ity should enjoy a privileged position in the pub lic square. Though the majority of U.S. residents are Christians, the United States is made up of a diversity of religions and is a country of cultural pluralism. Giving Christianity a privileged posi tion opens the door to the intervention of Chris tianity in the law and its use to suppress other religions. The problem with S.B. 797 lies within the idea that it promotes Christianity, while sup pressing other religions. According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2021, a staggering 77% of Texans are Christian. The Texas mandate for signs reading “In God We Trust” is not meant to represent Muslim or Jewish or Hindu faiths — this belief and trust in a sovereign and divine God is not an American belief, but rather a Christian one. S.B. 797 is an explicit representation of the Christian faith sponsored by the government that isolates and suppresses minority religions within of Christian beliefs in threat to American and cultural plu ralism.

The United States and state governments have a duty to protect the ex istence of all religions and not promote one over another regardless of its dominance or popu larity. This fundamental principle has, argu ably, made America a beacon of light in the world, representing freedom and respect for all.

However, in Christian-dominated states such as Texas, religious minorities experience discrimina tion and oppression more often. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 48% of Muslim students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are bullied due to their faith — significantly high er than the national average of 22 percent. While “In God We Trust'' signs do not explicitly pro mote this type of bullying, they have been wea ponized as a tool of religious discrimination. As the Senate law states, if a school is donated a sign reading “In God We Trust,” it must be hung in the classroom. Most signs in North Texas were donated by Christian phone company Patriot Mo

Other donations from parents included a sign with the motto written in Arabic, as well as a sign displaying the motto in rainbow colors as a symbol of support for the LGBTQ+ community. However, these signs were not hung, in spite of the mandate’s requirements. S.B. 797 is not an ef fort to have divine protection over the classroom. If it were, signs respecting Islam or the LGBTQ+ community would be hung — all signs regard ing divine protection would be hung. But it is an exclusive right for Christianity. It is an exclusive privilege for English written, Christian “In God We Trust '' signs to be hung in the public sphere rather than those of other religions. It is an en dorsement of Christian nationalism by the Texas government. It is an endorsement to isolate and suppress minority religions. It is a threat to our

torical roots.

recent legal precedent and

The bill purports to assert collective trust in God but really promotes Christian nationalism

S.B. 797 ... isolates and suppresses minority reli gions within schools. [This] promotion of Christian beliefs in government is a threat to American diversity and cultur al pluralism."

SophieGuymon/OldGold&Black

Ian Ste ensen ste p21@wfu.edu Aaron Nataline nataae21@wfu.edu

Records break, Wake Forest doesn't versus Liberty

IAN STEFFENSEN Sports Editor

Wake Forest got the job done against Liberty, but it was not pretty. e Demon Deacon de fense made a game-saving stop on a last-minute, two-point conversion attempt.

It was a night of milestones though as QB Sam Hartman broke the school record for pass ing yards, and Wake Forest edged out Liberty 37-36 to continue their winning streak.

Hartman and the o ense put points on the board during their rst series but were forced to settle for the eld goal after coming up short in the red zone. Penalties continued to be a prob lem for the Demon Deacons, as they extended drives for Liberty and ended drives for their own o ense.

Taylor Morin redeemed himself from his mu ed punt last week, returning a punt 38 yards to set the o ense up perfectly for their of fensive drive at the 30-yard line. Jahmal Banks hauled in the touchdown pass from Hartman, making a great play on the ball and mossing his opponent.

As the saying goes “Defense wins champion ships”, and Wake Forest certainly looks to be ful lling that saying: the defense came up big in the turnover battle. In the second quarter, lineman Rondell Bothroyd made his presence known, sacking the quarterback, and then mak ing a tackle for a loss on back-to-back plays. e defense got their big play when Isaiah Wing eld came up with the interception. Yet, instead of capitalizing on this, Hartman threw a pick on the very next play, his rst of the season, to give Liberty the ball back. Liberty was able to capitalize on the error and put their rst points on the board thanks to a eld goal. As the game progressed,

Hartman began to nd his groove; he found Ke’shawn Williams across the middle of the eld for a 46-yard gain. But despite the big play, the o ense once again came up short in the red zone and could not get the job done and had to settle for a eld goal yet again.

Wake Forest’s defense came up big yet again with another interception, this time it was Chel en Garnes who made an excellent catch along the right sideline. Despite the turnover, the o ense was pinned back towards their own endzone at the 5 yd line. Hartman looked really uncomfort able in this series and couldn’t get anything go ing as the o ense went three and out. On 4th Down, Ivan Mora lined up in the endzone to punt the ball away, only to be blocked by Lib erty towards the back of the end zone resulting in a safety, a special teams nightmare for the De mon Deacons.

Liberty regained possession after the safety and turned the ball over yet again Chase Jones came up with the tipped pass. Donavon Greene got involved on the next o ensive series, haul ing in a 41-yard pass from Hartman to set up the o ense inside the ten. Hartman found tight end Blake Whiteheart for an eight-yard score as Wake Forest found their footing after a wacky se ries of o ensive and defensive stints. e defense was sluggish in the dying embers of the rst half, as Liberty QB Kaidon Salter made a play with his legs to set up an easy chip shot. Wake Forest led 20-8 going into the locker room.

Sam Hartman entered the history books with his rst completion of the second half, as he be came the school leader in career passing yards. Despite the celebration, Liberty would not go away easily. Salter scrambled out of the pocket and ran 47 yards for a touchdown to put Liberty right back into the game. e o ense came out

at in the second half, and stalled on its rst two drives, opening the door for Liberty. Lib erty running back Dae Dae Hunter made quick work of the Wake Forest defense, running 43 yards up the middle for the score to give Liberty their rst lead of the game.

Hartman and the o ense could not get any thing going, and the run game was lacking throughout much of the game. Late in the third quarter, Quinton Cooley started the ground game, only to have his gain called back for hold ing. On the very next play, Wake Forest had a false start, and after back-to-back penalties, Hartman overthrew Whiteheart and was picked o for the second time that night.

e story of the second half was extremely sloppy play, and with Liberty capitalizing on turnovers, Wake Forest was on the ropes. e o ense made a push late in the third but once again a holding penalty backed them up. Hart man found A.T. Perry on the left sideline inside the 10-yard line, only for the play to be called back because Perry stepped out of bounds. e Demon Deacons had to yet again settle for a eld goal, but kicker Matthew Dennis bailed them out drilling a 46-yard eld goal to tie the game up at 23.

e Wake Forest defense came up big again to open the fourth quarter. Malik Mustapha sacked Salter who fumbled the ball, it was then recovered by Ryan Smenda who almost convert ed the scoop and score before getting stopped at the three-yard line. Banks scored his second touchdown of the day, which breathed some life back into the homecoming crowd as Wake For est retook the lead, but Liberty would not go away that easy. On 4th and 7, Salter scrambled out of the pocket and found his receiver Doug las for a 38-yard touchdown to tie the game.

Hartman made strong throws on the next drive to answer. Ke’Shawn Williams had 75 yards receiving on this drive alone, and running back Justice Ellison punched it in the endzone with a 1-yard touchdown run. With a chance to answer, Liberty scored on one of the wacki est plays from the weekend of college football.

Salter heaved the ball into the endzone on 4th down, and it looked like it would be another easy interception for Wake Forest —- only Lib erty receiver Demario Douglas ripped the ball out and stole the pick to score the touchdown.

Truist Field fell silent as Liberty’s o ense re mained on the eld to go for the two-point try with a minute left.

Liberty went with the double reverse trick play and were stopped by the Wake Forest de fense in their nal stand. Wake Forest came out with the win, but there are de nitely things to iron out come next week.

“It’s hard to win. It’s very hard to win. at was a gritty, four-quarter team win. ere’s about four-or- ve plays today that if we don’t make one of them, we don’t win the game,” said Head Coach Dave Clawson. “I’m glad we won. I think we get a lot more from this than if we won 40-20. You have to have games like this to develop as a team.”

e defense was a silver lining in this game and Ryan Smenda had this to add during the post-game presser:

“A team with some hype got humbled.”

While Wake Forest narrowly escaped with the win, many things will need to be improved upon before next week. Wake Forest hosts No. 4. Clemson in its ACC opener at 12 p.m. on Saturday.

Contact Ian Steffensen at stefp21@wfu.edu

Photo Courtesy of Evan Harris

The push for destigmitization of mental health support for athletes

Athletic Department unveals new mental health screening measures

Addison Berry Staff Writer

As the concern for NCAA athlete mental health issues sparks conversation across the nation, the Wake Forest Sports’ Psychology department and athletes refect on new mental health related initiatives to support Wake Forest ath letes.

On Sept. 6, sports psychologist Dr. Rachel Conway an nounced the addition of new mental health screening mea sures to the injury and rehabilitation process within sports medicine. The new initiative aims to reach athletes whose mental health may be at higher risk due to serious, chronic, or repeated injuries, according to Conway.

“We hope that we can help destigmatize mental health even further, make it more part of our rehab process and understand that our mental health is just as important as our physical health when it comes to returning to play,” Conway said.

No one understands the importance of mental health ini tiatives like this more than senior student-athletes Donavon Greene and Lyndon Wood, who both suffered severe injuries last year.

Starting wide-receiver on the football team, Donavon Greene, tore his ACL during optional summer workout the summer before the 2021 football season. He underwent a re construction surgery and almost a year of rehab before being cleared for play on Aug. 1 of this year.

“It’s one of those injuries where you see it happen, obvi ously in football a lot,” Greene said. “And, you’ll have sym pathy for those guys, but you’ll be like, ‘it’s something that’s never gonna happen to you until it happens.’”

Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SACC) President and midfelder on the women’s soccer team, Lyndon Wood, played with severe hip pain during the 2021 soccer season until a postseason doctor’s appointment revealed a full la brum tear, a few torn ligaments, and deteriorated cartilage. An invasive hip surgery left her off the feld for ten months of recovery and rehab.

“It sucks,” Wood shared. “And, it’s really hard to think about until you’re actually in that place.”

Both recalled how their injuries took a toll on their mental health:

“I just felt personally like I was on the outside of the team for a long period of time,” Greene said. “Because obviously, you can’t practice and you can’t do lifts with the travel guys.”

Wood’s experience was fairly similar.

“It really sucks to just have to sit there and watch your team train fve days a week,” she said. “It’s very easy to brush injured athletes to the side.”

Because sports medicine regulations require post-oper ation athletes to meet with one of the psychologists, Wood and Greene both met with someone in the department during their rehabilitation process. However, neither found meeting with someone they did not know to be the form of support they needed.

“I know that it does help so many people, but l, just for me as a person, I just didn’t have the foundational relationships with the sports psychiatrists to help me,” Wood said.

One of fve injured girls on her team, Wood sought sup port in her teammates and those closest to her during her recovery process. Although she did not fnd meeting with a professional psychologist helpful, she acknowledged that all athletes are different and the additional screening for injured athletes may prove useful to check in on athletes who may not seek help by themselves.

“Some people might fnd it comforting to not have to say [their mental health struggles] face to face to somebody,” Wood said. “I think that [the additional screening] defnitely opens new doors that weren’t there before, and it could prob ably have a positive success rate. I just don’t think it’ll enable everybody to talk because everybody’s so different.”

Conway hopes to reach the athletes Wood is referring to.

“Our hope is that it catches any student athletes that might be struggling, that maybe wouldn’t have been noticed be fore,” Conway said. “Because sometimes we could struggle in silence or you know, put on a mask and a face so that others can’t see that we’re struggling.”

An NCAA Student-Athlete well-being study conducted in the fall of 2021 revealed that mental health concerns among student-athletes remain high. The report stated mental ex haustion, anxiety, and depression as specifc areas of elevated concern. Concern was highest among women, racial minori ties and those idenitfying on the queer-spectrum.

The fast-paced and performance-driven lifestyle of stu dent-athletes brings many stressors and mental health strug gles without the addition of a serious or even minor injury. This environment often results in athletes whose identities, self-esteem, and confdence fuctuates depending on their athletic performance and playing time.

“The value of oneself is derived so much from being an athlete in college,” Wood said. “And I think that it’s taken me

going through a major injury to like, separate basing my selfvalue as a whole off of my performance and my playing time.”

The new health-screening initiative is just one way the sports psychology department is responding to the increased concern for the mental health of collegiate athletes reported in this study.

Since Conway was brought on as the frst full-time sports psychologist in the Wake Forest Athletic Department in 2018, her department has implemented an annual PPE behavioral health screening, pushed for every athlete to attend suicide prevention training, and begun multiple athlete mental health groups. Her offce also looks for unique ways to support ath letes by bringing therapy dogs on campus and hosting month ly events to discuss various topics in mental health.

Contact Ian Steffensen at stefp21@wfu.edu

Midfielder Lyndon Wood waves at the crowd during an away game.

Wide Receiver Donovan Green dusts the competiton while returing a kick off against Campbell University at home in Truist Field in the 2020 season.

Photo courtesy of WFU Athletics

Photo courtesy of WFU Athletics

Demon Deacons sit atop national rankings

A pair of wins for Wake Forest Men’s Soccer extends their record to an undefeated 7-0 on the season

AARON NATALINE Sports Editor

e Demon Deacons collected another pair of wins this past weekend to go along with the United Soccer Coaches Poll ranking Wake Forest at No. 1. In other words, the team dominated competition as its impressive nationwide ranking implies it should. e squad now carries a 7-0-0 record on the season, the second in ve years to rack up seven wins to start the season.

I whimsically concluded the last recap wondering if Wake Forest could extend the home eld winning streak to 12 against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights. I now whimsi cally report that the Demon Deacons did just that in a true back-and-forth match on Tuesday, Sept. 13 in which they won 3-2. e next game on Sept. 16 against Virginia Tech had nothing in common with the former besides Wake Forest securing a win. e away game proved defensive and scrappy, with Wake Forest earning a 1-0 victory in the end.

In the matchup between the Deacons and the Knights, neither team scored consecutive goals. Wake Forest treaded through the intense trading of scores on the safer side; they spent zero minutes down, while the Knights found them selves playing catch-up.

Momentum favored Wake Forest to begin the rst 45 re garding time of possession. e Demon Deacons brought energy early, as displayed by the rst on goal coming just six minutes into the match. Junior Jahlene Forbes rocketed the shot from just outside the 18-yard box with the taste ful curve necessary to sink the ball into the top corner of the same side the ball started on. e Fairleigh Dickinson goalkeeper managed to successfully de ect it, but the quick and on-target shot hinted at the pressure that would follow from Wake Forest’s o ense.

at pressure came with style in the 18th minute. De fender Vlad Walent, a freshman who seems to involved in all of Wake Forest’s most energy-ramping moments, kick started the play by booming an upline pass to mid elder Ryan Fessler. Fessler then delivered a beautiful crosser into the box, where the average collegiate soccer player might receive the pass and complete the score with a foot on the

ground. But sophomore Roald Mitchell was there, so he opted to y into the air and send the ball over the goal keeper’s head with a mind-warping scissor kick. It was quite ridiculous, ridiculous enough to be featured as the No. 2 play in SportCenter’s Top 10 that weekend.

I credit the Knights with not being shell-shocked by this superhuman moment, since they were able to tie the match up 1-1 just six minutes later on a breakaway. is score stood untouched at the end of the half with both teams closing out the rst 45 with solid defense.

e trading of goals resumed in the second half, featuring Wake Forest’s Colin omas the spark. In the 64th minute, the junior from Canton, Georgia, convinced one defender for the Knights to go in one direction as omas juked in another, from which he split another two defenders with a through ball to forward Roald Mitchell. Naturally, two scissor kick scores would be a bit over the top, so Mithcell cut a simple shot across the six-yard box for his second goal of the night.

Once again, Fairleigh Dickinson refused to trail for long. ey earned a corner kick in the 68th minute that Knights defender Hugo Bacharach headed into the goal, evening the match out at 2-2.

So, which Demon Deacon brought home the victory with the nal, game-winning goal? It was your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Cooper Flax.

e last score of the night found its start with junior Os car Sears feeding the ball into the penalty box after the De mon Deacons neutralized a counter from Fairleigh Dickin son. Defender Jahlene Forbes was there to collect the pass, and he spread the love by sending a crosser to freshman Cooper Flax cutting into the 6-yard box. Flax chipped the ball into the top right corner of the webbing to bring the game to 3-2 in the 75th minute. From there the last goal scorer of the match ran along the goal line pretending to shoot Peter Parter like webs from his wrists.

While the win versus the knights featured obvious he roes, the 1-0 match against Virginia Tech relied on disci plined defense.

e Demon Deacons played at ompson Field in Blacksburg, Virginia for their rst ACC game on the road, making the clean sheet that much more impressive. Juniors Prince Amponsah and Garrison Tubbs were constantly dis rupting the opposing squad’s rst half breakways, which were limited by the rest of the team’s tenacity in transition.

e Hokies also defended their home pitch well. Neither team found the opportunity for a shot through the rst 20 minutes. e rst one notched came from Virginia Tech as

well, but goalkeeper Trace Alphin easily snatched it down.

Wake Forest immediately responded with a shot of their own in the 22nd minute after defender Cristian Escriba no generated a turnover. Mid elder Colin omas sliced through the 18-yard box with a pass to junior Jahlene Forbes. Forbes faked the goalkeeper to his knees, but his shot was ultimately headed away from the goal by a de fender on the recovery.

e Deacons closed out the half with defense that re fused to even bend from there as they led the shot count 6-1.

Opportunity met execution in the 54th minute for Wake Forest. Freshman Vlad Walent collected a cleared ball before sending a behind the back pass to mid elder Cooper Flax. e freshman tipped the ball onto Colin omas, and the junior secured his rst goal of the season by launching one into the bottom right corner.

Up 1-0, the Deacons began feeling more pressure from the trailing Hokies. Virginia Tech counters were nding their way deeper and deeper into Wake Forest’s side of the green. Fatigue from a conference game deadlocked for so long had the Demon Deacon defense bending but not breaking.

Goalkeeper Trace Alphin fought to keep the clean sheet on his end. When a patient Hokies possession culminated with a shot on goal in the 54th minute, Alphin dove in a ash to keep a speeding ball from ripping the bottom right corner of the goal.

e resilience of Wake Forest’s defense persisted throughout the second 45, and the match ended in a solid road win that brings the Deacons’ ACC record to 2-0. With this successful trip, head coach Bobby Muus is now 6-0-1 in his career against Virginia Tech.

Spry Stadium welcomed its next opponent, George Ma son, on Tuesday, Sept. 20 in a match where the Deacons displayed no mercy. ough the game saw Wake Forest lead a modest 2-1 through the rst 45, the team piled on four more goals to win 6-1. Each score came wrapped and gifted by a di erent player, but captain Garrison Tubbs’s stood out as it was his rst of the season.

Next, the No. 1 team in the country will travel to Clemson for its third ACC match on Sept. 24. e Tigers slipped from the top ranking that the Deacons now hold after falling to Syrcause this past Friday. Wake Forest will thus have the

Contact Aaron Nataline at nataae21@wfu.edu

chance to defend their premiere ranking in South Carolina in the most anticipated match to date.

Forward Omar Hernandez presses the Demon Deacon’s attack in a match against NC State

Photo Courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics

The Wake Forest Men’s Soccer Team high-five the Spry crowd after a home victory. The Demon Deacons have been ranked top five nationally in attendance each year since 2015

Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics

Adam Coil, coilat21@wfu.edu

Josie Scratchard, scraja20@wfu.edu

Reflecting on the genius of 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'

Charlie Kaufman's sci-f romance blend remains enenthralling

SOFIA BAZANT Staff Writer

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) is single-handedly the most strikingly beautiful and creative lm I have ever seen.

I would like to preface this by saying that I can not do this lm justice after only one viewing and with only a few hundred words — or even with one million. Its timeless complexities are worth in nitely more.

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Director Michael Gondry compile mind-bending glimpses into love and nostalgia while grappling with the paradox of ex isting separate ly from one’s memory.

The primary storyline of “Eter nal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' follows Clementine Kruczynski and her part ner Joel Barish in a series of deconstructed and non-linear memories.

When Barish (Jim Carrey) discovers that Kruczynski (Kate Winslet) has had him professionally erased from her memory, he is heartbroken and unable to cope. He re sorts to having her erased as well, causing him to relive the entirety of their relation ship through the erasing memories.

e non-chronological order and stun ningly detailed sound and visual editing immerse the viewer in the disorienting dreamscape of Barish’s subconscious.

Spatially distant voices make it di cult to di erentiate between Joel’s memory and reality. In many brilliant jump cuts, Barish walks seamlessly from the darkening aisles of a bookstore, where book titles gradually erase with his memory, into the stairwell of his own home in a new time frame.

e reality of Barish losing himself to his memories becomes frighteningly real as the people in his memories become face less and incomplete under the sound of Jon Brion's soundtracks and Barish’s own racing heart.

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” inspires both empathy and thoughtful consideration of human psychology and philosophy.

Kruczynski reveals herself as a gment of the Barish’s imagination throughout the

erasure. In heartbreaking lines that deviate from the original events, the viewer is left contemplating the expectations and vices that eroded Barish’s romanticized version of Kruczynski in their rst relationship.

Regret characterizes the erasure as Bar ish tries to outrun his decision. He brie y evades the erasing memories of his rela tionship by escaping to those of his child hood. ese reinvented memories of trau matic experiences give viewers insight into Barish’s past and thus the void Kruczynski may have once lled.

Eventually, the reworked memories lead to a nal farewell in which Barish’s sub conscious transposes onto Krucsynski while the world falls apart around them. Her last words, or those of Barish’s imagi nation, form an impulse that leads him back to the place where they rst meet, unveiling the chronology of the rst scene in the lm within their love story.

e erasure aspect of the storyline con cludes with a montage of joyful memories that simulate a eeting rewind of Barish and Kruzynski’s lifetime together.

e montage allows viewers to plunge into the masterpiece nale of the lm where the beginning and end of the rela tionship exist simultaneously.

e soul-shattering declaration of love at the end of the lm is contestably op timistic:

Barish: “I can’t see anything I don’t like about you right now.”

Kruczynski: “But you will. But you will. You will think of things. And I’ll get bored with you and feel trapped because that’s what happens with me.”

Barish: “Okay.”

Kruczynski: “Okay.”

In the absence of memory and under the pull of fate, a tumultuous emotional journey leads back to an acceptance square one, bringing the story full circle once again.

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is a commentary on both love and destiny and a testament to the value of memory. We are the ensemble of our experiences and we need the knowledge gained from our pasts in order to move forward.

If one lesson is taken from watching Kruczynski and Barish pick up the pieces they left behind, it would be that eternal sunshine does not await within the spot less mind.

Contact Sofa Bazant at bazasb20@wfu.edu

MELINA TRAIFOROS Staff Writer

During her recent acceptance speech at the 2022 VMAs, Taylor Swift announced a new album. e singer received three rec ognitions—Video of the Year, Best Long form Video and best direction—for her groundbreaking “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” music video.

“I had sort of made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this,” Swift said on Sunday night, hold ing up her trophy, “I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out Oct. 21.” Her voice was overtaken by cheering from the crowd.

“Midnights” — a title Swift released on Instagram later that night — is set to in clude 13 tracks, divided into sides A and B, with lyrics written during sleepless nights throughout her life. Fans know 13 is the artist’s lucky number and have speculated on other easter eggs, namely track names hidden in her announcement post and “midnight” being a recurring lyric in her latest releases. Swifties leave no stone un turned.

Perhaps the most heavily discussed topic is the album cover. Swift is an artist who, like superhuman Madonna before her, re leases music in di erent artistic eras. Early albums track her evolution from country sweetheart to popstar, “Reputation” charac terizes her vengeful, ask-no-questions phase and the romance of “Lover” arrived after

dating her partner Joe Alwyn for several years. Swift’s psyche is rarely a mystery.

eorists have put forth several ideas for Swift’s next epoch, from rock to soft grunge to mid century — the latter may be clos est to the truth, considering the unnamed tracks listed on the mid-century style cover, which was a popular design choice at the time. Her recent red carpet looks chan nel old Hollywood glamor and the “Mid nights” photoshoot features sixties furniture on set. e album cover shares stylistic el ements with Olivia Newton-John’s iconic closeups and e Cars’ 1978 debut. Her glittery purple eye makeup is a distinctly 90s look.

Could Swift release odes to these bygone musical ages? e artist’s announcement is clear that “Midnights” forgoes the present nature of her eras, which track her growth in real time, to dig into her past. Lyrics won’t represent how she is feeling now — heartbroken, bitter or in love — but will instead reveal how she has felt. us, I sus pect Swift will also nod to the past with the chosen music genre(s).

Swift will remain the wordsmith fans adore, despite stylistic changes. “Folklore” and “Evermore”, her indie, quarantine-era brainchildren, illuminate the artist’s poetic potential and knack for storytelling. Read up on the teenage love triangle trilogy of “Folklore” — the execution is masterful. Swift’s lyrical genius has matured with her, earning her a place among emerging crafts women of profound music like in her col

laboration with Phoebe Bridgers on the song “Nothing New”.

“Midnights” will harness poetry to pro duce her most dynamic and vulnerable release yet. An honest look at how Swift dealt with her life’s biggest moments — good and bad — will further divorce the star-studded celebrity façade and make her feel like a friend of listeners. Nighttime tempts thoughts toward many places, and I think the album will re of possibilities; sides A and B could easily represent dreams and nightmares. Expect motifs centering around light — the an nouncement pictures a lighter and men tions a lantern.

“We lie awake in love and in turmoil and in tears,” Swift nar in a released "Midnights" excerpt. stare at walls and drink until they back. We twist in our self-made and pray that we aren’t — right minute — about to make some life-altering mistake.”

What could be more gut-wrenching and universally felt? Only midnight will tell.

Contact Melina Traiforos at traimg21@wfu.edu

Laura Grohl / Old Gold

JAMES WATSON Contributing Writer

The long copper spire interrupts a vacant, autumnal sky. The chapel — a beaming sym bol of pious religious devotion — now repre sents a kind of religious devotion to the liberal arts. Wait Chapel looms large over the Reyn olda campus, acting as the bridge between the northern and southern campuses. It’s the cen terpiece for all things Wake Forest. It’s hard to imagine Wake Forest being Wake Forest with out the chapel and the magnifcent Reynolda hall standing across from it. Architecture is so central to our identity and yet this rich artform goes unnoticed.

Architecture, like any art, consists of draw ing order from chaos: combining raw, dis parate parts to form a new, cohesive whole.

Limestone. Virginian brick. Granite. Mature Magnolia trees. These materials form the vi sual identity of Mother so Dear. When the university moved from Wake Forest, North Carolina to its current home in Winston Salem, the plan was to maintain the original campus’s colonial revival style while expanding its foot print. To lead the construction was architect Jens Frederick Larson who previously worked on the campuses of Colby College and Dart mouth. The seeds of Wake Forest’s neo-Geor gian palette can very clearly be traced back to those two institutions as well.

Wake Forest’s campus is one of the more thoughtfully designed university campuses out there —- so long as you don't count Tribble

Hall. The campus is incredibly walkable and logically laid out. One of the more obvious ex amples of this smart design has to be freshman housing. South campus is especially clever given that the freshman dorms are not more than fve minutes from any of Wake Forest’s main academic buildings. First-year students who are likely either going out too much and/ or lack a consistent sleep schedule are grant ed some clemency through effcient campus planning. But despite such grand design, Wake Forest suffers from a truly reprehensible ac cessibility problem. Though not impossible, it is extremely inconvenient to move between South and North campus without using stairs. Wake Forest has to be commended on its architectural consistency. Almost every ad dition to the school since its construction in the 1950s has remained in lock-step and key with the original Georgian architecture design. Surprisingly, Benson University Center wasn’t constructed until the 1990s, and yet one would never know this due to how well its inclusion is integrated into the Tribble courtyard. This seamless architectural integration extends to the modern parts of campus as well. While the North campus residence halls are unmistak ably new, the architects used them to create further visual symmetry on campus. Between Dogwood and Magnolia residence halls re sides a striking view of Wait Chapel which is positioned in the middle of the two halls. This consistent artistry is pervasive in the Reynolda Campus. While Wake continues to expand and change, the intimate collegiate feel of the cam pus remains constant.

Architecture is so obvious and central to day-to-day life that most of the time it seems inconsequential. But in college, architecture takes on new meaning. In higher education, ar chitecture serves a role in creating institutional iconography. For instance, when someone mentions Duke, the mental association that comes to mind is likely their gorgeous, tow ering, gothic chapel. It's tantamount to a logo. Consider, for instance, the University of North

Carolina’s old well, the University of Virgin ia’s rotunda and Berkeley’s clock tower. These architectural features generate an instant sense of place and often create an aura of prestige that mirrors that of the institution.

Campus architecture serves a more obvi ous, functional purpose. UNC-Chapel Hill freshman Max Nelson, a close friend of mine, once said: “College is the last place in your life where everything around you is designed for you to make friends and meet people.” Taking a moment to refect on this profound sentiment reveals its legitimacy. Especially at schools like Wake Forest and UNC-Chapel Hill, where prominent green spaces are com munal incubators, designed for students to engage and socialize. While “effective urban planning and adequate green areas” is typi cally a lower-tier consideration — if it is even a consideration at all — when choosing col leges, maybe we ought to put more emphasis on it. Does Georgetown, with its Jesuit verti cality, have the same social capacity as another school with a primary quad space? Are New York University kids more isolated because of a lack of a centralized campus? These ques tions speak to the heart of urban planning and invite us to think harder about the environment around us. It’s not often that we consciously stop and think about how the spaces we in habit infuence our social behavior. For this reason alone, college campuses are some of the most remarkably designed spaces in which we will partake in our lifetime. They are meant to not only foster academic studiousness but also create social lives and interpersonal re lationships among the student body. As such, the thoughtfulness of a college’s design has a measurable impact on the life and interactions of students. We are lucky to have a beautiful and thoughtfully designed campus. One that celebrates natural beauty and collegiate tra dition. And above all else, one with beautiful wide-open quads.

Contact James Watson at watsjc22@wfu.edu@wfu.edu

ABBY KOMISKE Staff Writer

You may not care and could think that they are both equally good co ee shops that sell caf feinated drinks and baked goods. If this is true, we are not the same, so just stop reading now. But if you think I’m about to present a very valid and important argument for which is superior, stay put.

First — to think about this logically — let’s start at the foundation. Although Camino and Starbucks are both co ee shops, they sell very di erent things. Camino bagels and other baked goods are arguably the stars of the show, while Starbucks is a tried and true option that gives you what you need whenever you need it. Since they provide di erent products, they invariably have di erent purposes.

Personally, I go to Camino to purchase a cin namon scone and green peace iced tea before I sit down and do schoolwork for hours. I don’t socialize with my scone and tea — I get to work and use an Old Gold to keep me going. I go to Starbucks typically when I’m exhausted or just submitted a big assignment. If I need to be re vived, I buy a bacon gouda sandwich and a cold brew with oat milk and caramel. If I need to re lieve stress, I get an iced chai latte and call it a day.

Now that you know my strategy, I think it’s

fair to say that I prefer Starbucks. is is not necessarily because I think the quality of the in gredients or type of items are better – I actually like Camino more because it’s a smaller business with fresher products – but because Starbucks is a reward compared to Camino, which I save for the grind.

However, I will not stop there — I’m not the only one who has a preference. I don’t know many people who have identical Camino and Starbucks orders or anyone who goes to each for the same reason. Using my Statistics 111 skills, I interviewed some of my friends to verify what I believe is a universal truth for Wake Forest’s student population — that you have to pick one to be your reward and one to retain your sanity (possibly while doing work). Just keep in mind some people’s answers depend on where they live on campus, how much they like to do work at the library, and how much they need co ee.

Alex Guernsey, sophomore, my rst subject, buys a green peace iced tea and an everything croissant – she emphasized an obsession with the Camino croissants, take that as you will – and at Starbucks, an iced vanilla latte and chocolate croissant.

“Camino has really good Old Gold options, which makes my tea and croissant an easy choice, but Starbucks is pretty limited so I just get my typical order at any co ee shop,” Guern sey said. In her mind, Camino is the true winner.

Amy Taliaferro, junior, orders a “magical”

latte and blueberry mu n from Camino but a cold brew and pumpkin scone from Starbucks. ese are two very di erent orders, with no true winner. Her choices simply rest in the seasonal options of the co ee shops. Starbucks does take the fall season to its maximum, though, which is something to consider.

Sophomore Alexandra Ensrud’s go-to at Camino is an iced co ee with oat milk and an everything swiss croissant but a mocha iced cof fee with sweet cream and a bacon gouda sand wich at Starbucks. Starbucks’ sweet cream is unbeatable in her mind, as is the breakfast sand wich, while Camino is always good for a run-ofthe-mill oat milk co ee, also tying other co ee shops in her mind. She does, however, live near Starbucks, which often makes it an easier option.

My fourth subject, Emma Chang, doesn’t fre quent Camino —or the library — but orders a passion tango iced tea – or a passion tango iced lemonade if she’s feeling risky – with the egg white feta wraps.

“Camino’s is a bit overrated and often too crowded to make the wait worth it, and Star bucks just o ers things I like more,” Chang said while we discussed pros and cons.

Her reasoning holds some common truth among students, as my other interviews also mentioned that the wait time, as well as Star bucks’ greater variety, a ects which they are willing to go to.

Sophomore Mckenzie Murphy’s Camino or

der is an iced co ee with whole milk and vanilla, as well as a fruit danish, but just a vanilla sweet cream cold brew with two shots of caramel at Starbucks. She didn’t have a real reason for why her orders di er, other than that the sweet cream at Starbucks elevates her co ee choice, while the bakery selection at Camino is always a safe bet as long as they don’t run out.

While discussing each subject’s reasoning, I found some other common denominators. e blueberry mu n at Camino is far superior to Starbucks, but the tea is better at Starbucks. Fur ther, an egg-based breakfast sandwich from Star bucks hits the spot where a bagel often doesn’t, especially if Camino is out of cream cheese.

“ e bacon gouda sandwich at Starbucks can single handedly save the rest of my day,” Ensrud said, and I certainly agree. Lastly, Camino is better to grab if you’re in the middle of working in the library for hours on end, but Starbucks is better for taking to go — especially on the week ends when you have more time.

Everyone can have their opinion on the best co ee spot on campus. You may even prefer the Pit’s co ee – just kidding. But it is at least fair to say that you have to pick one way or another at some point, unless you can drive to Dunkin’, which is another story entirely.

Photo courtesy of OurState

I CAN’T STOP PERFORMING

ADAM COIL Life Editor

Sometimes I get up earlier than I need to so I can already be do ing pushups and situps by the time my roommate wakes up. I know of no real difference between the cheap, male-marketed shampoos and conditioners I see on super market shelves and the ones I use, but I have been told through social media that Head & Shoulders and Old Spice 3-in-1 aren’t particularly appealing to bystanders. When I walk to class, I opt to use my wired headphones instead of my techno logically superior AirPods, hoping someone will appreciate my dedi cation to the aesthetic which is it self now bordering on mainstream and played out. It might be time to invest in a walkman.

When I sit down for breakfast at the Pit, I begin to play a relatively obscure black-and-white film from post-war era Japan. I’m not partic ularly enthralled by the film, but I keep watching it in case someone chances to gaze over my shoulder and observe me. Today, it is “Late Spring” by Yasujiro Ozu. I try to avoid the more entertaining alter native of watching video games or YouTube’s equivalent of trashy re ality TV. Simply listening to mu sic, for some reason, doesn’t quite seem provocative enough. After all, they don’t know what I’m listening to.

I go to class. I take comfort in the fact that it’s no longer syllabus week — I can strive for the aca demic validation I crave without automatically being subconscious ly labeled as a total nerd or loser by all of my classmates. The chal lenge now is to make my answers seem witty and deep without mak ing it look like I’m invested in the discussion. Maybe I begin my re sponse to this week’s reading with, “This is sort of a banal observation, but…” or maybe I instead ask the professor what they think about it — this is always a fool-proof way to appease professors while simul taneously conveying to everyone in the room that I don’t take my own thoughts too seriously.

There is also the question of how to sit in the Pit, or anywhere, re ally. What facial expression should I wear? What, I might ask myself, is the optimal way to look noncha lant and earnest while displaying good lumbar health? I do not want to look stern or angry, yet there is also the unfortunate chance that someone might mistake my un founded smile as a sign of vacuity.

What if my current visage is un becoming? Have I missed out on a potential romantic opportunity because of one minor oversight in my projection to the world?

I am now terribly afraid to ven ture into the terrain of social me dia. I am brutally aware of my attempts to keep a low-profile persona on social media as being equally performative as those who flatter themselves with misnomers such as “casual Instagram” and be ing “real”. My goal is not to have a truly entertaining or unique so cial media persona, instead, I only hope that I am better at deceiving others than the rest are. Suspend your disbelief, I beg. I want to be cool.

The more we know about some one, the less they tend to be a hero. This is a side effect of watching movies, probably. Writers pare, pare and pare, making sure every detail has meaning, tricking you into believing the character they built out of words is living and breathing. How would we feel if we watched our favorite protago nist scroll mindlessly through Tik Tok for an hour while she should be doing homework? What if they woke up and stared at the ceiling for 15 minutes instead of cutting to the mourning routine montage that we’re accustomed to as view ers? In my experience, trying to be as aloof and imperceptible as pos sible is a self-reinforcing loop for precisely the fact that it actually makes me more performative than I would have been otherwise. In visibility is still a demonstration, it’s just seen in a different way.

I wouldn’t know where to start to fix myself even if I wanted to do so. I don’t trust my own views of the world, so I must constantly refresh what I believe to be the world’s evaluations. An unavoidable obsta cle in this process is the fact that people have a hard time agreeing on what is right and wrong, cool and uncool. Does writing an article about this internal struggle merit some kind of forgiveness, or does the pitiful meta quality of it all dis credit any sincerity that it intends to put forth?

And would it be unfair, I some times wonder, to posit the idea that all of our vices and addictions — from reality television and con sumerism to narcotics and lottery scratch-offs — are in some way designed to help us forget about ourselves?

Contact Adam Coil at coilat21@wfu.edu

HOW TO TEXT

Making sense of the unspoken iMessage rulebook

BRODY LEO Staff Writer

As a college student in 2022, I felt a moral duty to move away from Snap chat and rely on texting for pursuing romantic interests. I no longer wanted to be that guy sending red, annotated S’s for streaks or that guy trying to spark a conversation with just a picture of his face.

The switch to text should’ve been somewhat relieving. After all, the un spoken conventions of Snapchat are exhausting; knowing how long to leave someone on delivered; the strict. antidouble-snap rules and, of course, the dreadful fear of a Bitmoji staring contest in a message chain. Truthfully, iMes sage has been no less stressful. What should be frivolous conversations with romantic interests have become mine fields of syntax, diction and style; often requiring teams of expert analysts (such as my suitemates Adam and Ishan) to navigate. In these conversations, I want sprezzatura: to look like I’m not trying, but even more importantly, I want to look like I’m not trying to look like I’m not trying. Through the many conver sations I’ve had with women (at least two, but no more than four), I’ve as sembled some basic rules of thumb for texting. By the end of reading this, you’ll have no problem bagging that ac counting baddie you’ve been trying to talk to all semester.

Greetings

The opening text is perhaps the most crucial text of all. A fumble here could set the completely wrong tone for the rest of the conversation, or it could even lead to a long-term, ego-crushing “de livered”. For the first text, I like to fol low...

The Rule of Twos:

If you plan on using “hi” or “hey”, it is encouraged to send it with two i’s or y’s, leaving you with “Hii” or “Heyy”. One “i” or “y” is also acceptable, but it feigns powerlessness. Three is far too sugges tive for the first greeting.

If you plan on using exclamation marks, it is encouraged that you use two. One exclamation mark seems like an email from a young professor trying too hard, three exclamation marks is just plain psychopathic.

However, the most important part of the Rule of Twos is that the above claus es DO NOT OVERLAP. “Hii !!” is un acceptable. Opt for “Heyy !” or “Hey !!” instead. Keep it enthusiastic with out seeming crazy. After all, you need

to seem like you have a whole roster of backups ready to go in your contacts, even if you don’t.

Upper Case or Lower Case?

I recommend sticking to the more grammatically correct upper-case. All lower-case is dangerously submissive, and it breaks the most important rule of them all: it looks like you’re des perately trying to look like you’re not trying. However, texting is an art, and rules are meant to be broken in art. For example, after careful deliberation, I may send the following text:

“Hey!!

you going to the game later?”

In this case, the usage of grammati cally incorrect lower-case seems like a casual mistake made out of thought lessness, as if this conversation isn’t re ally that important to me. God forbid that the recipient feels like they matter to you too much!

The Dreaded Gap Between Mes sages

In iMessage, if messages are sent more than a minute apart, it creates a small gap between the two messages to sig nify the time difference between the texts. This gap needs to be avoided at all costs. It shows that you’re taking too much time and too much care with your individual texts. Again, the name of the game is casual thoughtlessness. Also, this gap creates a visual rupture in what should be the flow of a wellbalanced conversation.

To avoid this, plan every message in advance, so you aren’t left with a oneminute countdown to craft a text once your first is sent.

The Importance of Mirroring

If you take anything away from this article, make sure you take home the lesson of mirroring. After your greeting text is sent, pay close attention to the way that your romantic interest texts — their word choice, their punctua tion style and if they’re prone to send multiple bubbles or just one large para graph. Whatever they do, follow it to a “t”. Even if it means breaking the rules I’ve set out, the conventions that you’ve followed for years or even your own deepest moral boundaries, you cannot just be yourself. You must abandon your own identity for the sake of the harmony of the conversation.

Contact Brody Leo at leomb21@wfu.edu