News: Wake Forest holds first 12- Opinion: A conservative responds to Sports: Wake Forest Baseball wins gun violence op-eds two ACC series hour hackathon Page 10 Page 14 Page 5
Life: Dutch filmmaker lectures at Scales Page 16
Old Gold&Black WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916
VOL. 103, NO. 9
T H U R S DAY, M A RC H 2 2 , 2 018 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
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Islam Awareness Week celebrates Muslim community Events sponsored by the Muslim Students Association were created to educate and engage BY MOHAMMAD MALIK Contributing Writer malimj16@wfu.edu
Lizzie Snyder/Ol d Gold & Black
The new executive branch of Student Government of Treasurer Sydney Packard, President Danny Reeves, Speaker of the House Will Hargrove and Secretary Maia Kennedy (left to right), was elected March 20.
Next year’s SG elected Reeves wins the majority for president and executive and senatorial positions announced BY AMANDA WILCOX Digital Media Editor wilcaf16@wfu.edu Following a week of hard campaigning, elections for senatorial and executive positions in the 2018-2019 Wake Forest Student Government came to a close on Wednesday March 20. Junior Danny Reeves was elected president amongst four candidates and sophomore Maia Kennedy was elected secretary amongst two candidates. Junior Sydney Packard was re-elected for a second term as treasurer and junior Will Hargrove was elected speaker of the house. Both Packard and Hargrove ran unopposed. President-elect Reeves ran on a platform that stressed increasing diversity and inclusion on campus and in Student Government, creating a conducive environment
for mental health and wellness and bridging ready, in the next few days,” Reeves said. the gap between the student body and the “Let’s get to work.” administration. His campaign goals and reFinally, he thanked the more than 50 stucord as senator and secretary — in which he dents who were involved in his campaign worked to transition Senate meetings from and his fellow candidates for their contribubi-weekly to weekly and served on the Alco- tions. hol Coalition — resonated with a decisive “I was never interested in solely being majority of the student body and earned elected,” he said. “I love this school and Stuhim more than 59 percent of the vote. dent Government, and I want to create maReeves said that he looks forward to meet- jor reforms in the coming days, weeks and ing with students and administrators and months.” building relationships on campus. “StrucJunior William Morgan, sophomore Mattural change takes time and needs to be stra- thew David and junior David Ajamy, who tegically planned,” he said. “Therefore, I will were Reeves’ fellow presidential candidates, be meeting with multiple administrators shared their hopes for Reeves’ administraand students to ensure that the changes we tion and explained how they planned to want to make, like the demographic survey, continue to advocate for policies included are implemented the right way.” in their own platforms. As he will not take office until the fall, Two of the central policies in David’s Reeves indicated that he will spend the re- platform included organizational medical mainder of the spring semester laying the amnesty and the availability of expanded groundwork for his administration. course descriptions during registration. Da“When we created this campaign, we vid said that he intends to continue to work didn’t want to include things on the plat- to put these into action. form that were not feasible, so the seeds of these ideas will be planted, if they haven’t al- See Student Government, Page 6
The Muslim Students Association at Wake Forest, founded in 2008, is hosting its fifth-annual Islam Awareness Week. The week was started by the current Muslim Life Director, Naijla Faizi, who was the MSA President at the time, in an effort to help educate the Wake Forest community about Islam. Most people assume that the Muslim community is mostly Arab or South Asian, but in actuality the Muslim American community is the most ethnically diverse faith community in America. Part of Islam Awareness Week is to highlight this diversity within the Muslim community. One of the events that shows this element of the Muslim community was the Gallery Walk in Benson, which had posters of notable Muslim people. Each event throughout the week is intended to provide a different educational opportunity for students to engage with aspects of Islam and lived Muslim experiences. The purpose of the event on March 19, Demystifying Islamic Head-Coverings, was to create an environment of empathy for Muslims who wear head coverings. MSA invited non-Muslims to wear hijabs and kufis, which are worn by Muslim women and men, respectively. These participants were invited to return and reflect on their experiences. Junior Alec Jessar commented on his experience. “I felt that I could learn a lot from this event and wanted to take full advantage,” Jessar said. “I felt proud wearing it, even though it was not my religion, to be a part of that for a day,” Another student commented that although she was physically more covered, wearing the hijab actually made her feel more open. By the end of the day she even developed a sense of attachment with the headscarf. The event on March 20, Shorty’s Trivia, provided a fun and competitive way for Wake Forest students to both learn about and test their knowledge of Islam. Students from various academic disci-
See MSA, Page 4
OGB
This column represents the views of the Old Gold & Black Editorial Board.
SG election results leave high hopes for next year Earlier this week the election for the executive board for Student Government took place, with Danny Reeves being elected president, Sydney Packard as treasurer for her second term, Will Hargrove as speaker of the house and Maia Kennedy as secretary. Each candidate had strong platforms and ambitions for the 2018-2019 school year, and we urge each of them to remain committed to these platforms and to enact change and improvements next year. We strongly believe that Student Government needs to be transparent and communicative with the Student Body about its accomplishments and actions. Much of what Student Government does is behind the scenes work that is not always visible to students, leaving many unaware and unsure of what Student Government
actually accomplishes. We urge our newlyelected executive officers to change this next year, to provide more clarity and certainty as to what our representatives are doing. We also push for more communication between the student body, Student Government and the Administration at all levels. We should all be working together to have productive dialogue about issues that Wake Forest students and the community face. The Student Government officials should be the ones to moderate these discussions and be the body that connects the students to the administration. Additionally, we believe that the new executive board has the capability to enact real change, and push each of them to stay motivated to do so. During the campaigns, many candidates brought up the idea of Organizational
Old Gold &Black
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSIT Y SINCE 1916 JULIA HAINES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF hainjm15@wfu.edu
BECKY SWIG PRINT MANAGING EDITOR swigrr15@wfu.edu
>> NEWS Lillian Johnson, johnlg16@wfu.edu Daniel Pachino, pachdb15@wfu.edu Asisstant Editor: Nicole Loffredo, loffn16@wfu.edu
>> SPORTS Lizzie Snyder, snydem15@wfu.edu Ren Schmitt, schmwm16@wfu.edu
>> OPINION Ethan Bahar, bahaea15@wfu.edu Kyle Ferrer, ferrka16@wfu.edu Assistant Editor: Kiley Price, prickj15@wfu.edu
>> LIFE Olivia Field, fielor17@wfu.edu Emily Beauchamp, beauea17@wfu.edu Asisstant Editor: Sarah Boyce, boycse15@wfu.edu
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Medical Amnesty, and we hope that Reeves, having served on the Alcohol Coalition, pushes for this during his tenure as president. This will push students to make the right decisions and get help instead of making situations worse by trying to get as far away from trouble as possible. Students should not be afraid to seek help; it should be their first thought. Throughout the election campaigns, we were also impressed that many platforms included mental health and diversity and inclusion. These are topics that are prevalent on Wake Forest’s campus, and we are intrigued to see where Reeves will take the demographic survey results he included in his platform. Mental health is something that many students deal with on a daily basis, so we
urge the executive board to continue to improve Mental health services on campus. Reeves, during his tenure as secretary, enacted structural change to Student Government, so we believe he can do the same in 2018-2019. Moreover, students should have more platforms for their voices to be heard. One aspect of Kennedy’s campaign that we want to see next year is more of the reverse townhalls she has been a participant in in the past. She held Student Government’s first reverse town hall this year. We would also like to see her implement fellow candidate Thomas Kellogg’s commitment to holding senators accountable. Each of the newly-elected students has proven that they have big ideas and ambition, and we are eager to see the implementation of these ideas next year.
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News | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 3
Deacon Profile: Morgan Briggs
BY JULIA HAINES Editor-in-Chief hainjm15@wfu.edu
Morgan Briggs is a junior double majoring in Business & Enterprise Management and Religion. She is a former member of the Wake Forest women's soccer team who loves singing and is incredibly involved in many aspects on campus. Among numerous other things, Morgan has served as an RA, a President's Aide and a member of the Honor and Ethics council. It seems that almost all of campus knows you for your involvement in one aspect or another. Could you describe all that you're involved in? This question is too kind (definitely not the case) but I try to maintain a balance by being involved in different things that allow me to practice different types of thinking and communication skills, etc. I love being involved with Pro Humanitate Institute (PHI) and Campus Kitchen, along with remaining involved with faith organizations like Athletes in Action (AIA) and Wake Forest Catholic Community (WFCC). Being an RA, a President’s Aide and a member of the Honor and Ethics council are also two very important roles to me. I like to consider myself a fully-operating customer of Campus Grounds in the meantime and a musician, as well. Do you have a favorite club or organization you're involved in? I love all of the variety of ways to get involved at Wake Forest. The organization that is nearest to my heart is Campus Kitchen. Campus Kitchen fully recognizes the food desert that is within a two mile radius of our campus. Rather than simply discussing the severity of the problem, Campus Kitchen truly takes the initiative in creating a place where students, like me, can work diligently and with care to narrow the issue of food insufficiency in Winston-Salem. I have developed so many amazing relationships and skills through this organization. What advice would you give to students trying to find activities outside of classes, or trying to balance a full plate? I think the biggest piece of advice I have learned while being at Wake is that having multiple passions is extremely
Photo courtesy of Morgan Briggs
conducive to developing who you are as a person. There are always calls to narrow down a major or narrow down interests so that it shows consistency, but finding ways in which all your passions intersect across different disciplines is something I have loved to discover. I am able to work on a farm and write a paper about the importance of urban farming, while conducting the researching skills from both of my majors and speaking with others about the importance of the things I research. Liberal arts education ... truly the best. As a student who has succeeded athletically, musically and academically, as well as being someone who interacts with such a wide range of people on campus, do you feel you have a unique perspective on the student experience at Wake Forest? I do not feel as though my perspec-
tive is any more unique than any other student’s. However, I am fortunate to interact with students from all different backgrounds and interests. It has been amazing to see how many times people I meet from one side of campus or one organization are also heavily involved in another organization that I am passionate about. Perhaps the perspective has been being able to see how our campus body is truly one filled with great passion that intersects many different avenues of campus life. How has your experience being in a wheelchair given you a new perspective on the problem of handicap accessibility on campus? Is this still something you're an advocate for? Being in a motorized scooter/crutches for over half of my time at Wake Forest has truly made me develop empathy for those who go everyday in that sort of
situation. I cannot fathom the difficulty they must face, and I wanted to do my part to fight for those who were not as fortunate as me, those who could never walk again. I created a documentary of campus, and have already seen some incredible responses: handicap buttons being fixed and possibly adding ramps in different areas. I have tried to do my best to serve as a liaison to the Disabilty Services Office, and I will return to this role once my new hip Mabel and I get back in the rhythm of things this April. What are your plans for this summer and after graduation? I will be working for Corning Inc, this summer for the Strategy and Market Intelligence Department, and after graduation I hope to pursue a Masters/PhD in data science.
WAKE IN A WEEK Secrest Series: An Evening with Branford Marsalis Time: March 22 from 7:30 p.m. Location: Wait Chapel Saxaphone player extraodinaire Branford Marsalis caps the 2017-2018 season of the Secrest Artists Series with an evening of improvised music by his internationall recognized jazz quartet. One of the world's foremost musicians in both jazz and classical music, Marsalis has been honored with three Grammy Awards and cited as a Jazz Master.
The Harlem Globetrotters Time: March 23 from 7:00 p.m. Location: LJVM Coliseum The Harlem Globetrotters are known for their one-of-akind family entertainment will bring their 2018 World Tour to LJVM coliseum this weekend to take on their long-time adversaries the Washington Generals. The Generals are looking to snap a 47-year losing streak against their world famous rivals, the Globetrotters.
Wake 'N Shake 2018 Time: March 24 from 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Location: Sutton Center and Reynolds Gymnasium This Saturday, March 24 marks the 13th Annual Wake 'N Shake Dance Marathon benefiting the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund. Last year's event raised more than $334,000 for cancer research. Registration for the event costs $20. For any questions, reach out to Brad Shugoll at shugolbd@wfu.edu
Old Gold & Black | News
Page 4 |Thursday, March 22, 2018
MSA: Week shows diversity in Muslim faith
Continued from Page 1
Students from various academic disciplines were able to apply their coursework related to Islam across four trivia themes: “General Questions about Islam,” “History,” “Prophet Muhammad” and the “Qur’an.” The March 21 event, in honor of Women’s History Month, was an effort to show complex representations of Muslim women. Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, who founded MuslimGirl. com, spoke about her activism as a Muslim feminist who uses media to create spaces for the experiences and perspectives of other Muslim women who have often lacked a platform. Amani said that using the label “Muslim feminist” is in fact redundant, as Islam inherently supports women’s rights and equity. However, Amani argued that such labels are still valuable because they allow Muslims to communicate their values and religious interpretations in the language of our current generation. It is a common belief that it is inappropriate or insensitive to ask Muslims questions about their faith. This is why on March 22, the Wake Forest MSA is hosting #AskAMuslim to engage questions people have about Islam and being Muslim. To close the week, there will be two events on March 23. The first is an opportunity for the Wake Forest community to show solidarity with Muslims on campus and to observe Muslims pray, which will be located in the Green Room of Reynolda Hall at 2 p.m. The second event is to create a welcoming and supportive space for the refugees that have moved to, and now reside in and around, Winston-Salem, which will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Wingate. It is also an opportunity for Wake Forest students to learn about refugees personally, instead of solely hearing about them on the news.
Dalia Namak/Old Gold & Black
Naijla Faizi, the Muslim Life Director, and Haris Shehzad, the Vice President of MSA, encouraged non-Muslim students to try hijabs and kufis and then share their experience.
Students react to the reality of school shootings In the aftermath of the January shooting at the Barn, the Wake Forest campus has taken steps to be prepared for an emergency BY REN SCHMITT Sports Editor schmwm16@wfu.edu
Wake Forest students joke frequently about the comforting insularity of the “Wake Forest bubble,” and much of the time, students can indeed live in blissful ignorance if they so choose. On Jan. 20, however, a shooting on Wake Forest’s campus that took the life of Winston-Salem State University student Najee Ali Baker burst this imagined “bubble” and exposed flaws on multiple levels in Wake Forest’s readiness regarding an active shooter. “At first I was in disbelief,” said junior Marian Isdahl who was working as an event resource manager during the shooting at The Barn. “I turned to my friend and said, ‘Was that a gun? That wasn’t a gun. It couldn’t have been a gun.’” The sense of shock that Isdahl felt accurately characterizes the general campus reaction to the tragedy, as Wake Forest students were forced to face the fact that their campus was not immune to gun violence. National interest in the issues of gun violence and gun legislation aligned with the events at Wake Forest, as coverage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, which came shortly after the incident at
Wake Forest, seemingly reinvigorated a previously apathetic nation. In the aftermath of the shooting on Wake Forest’s campus, students expressed frustration regarding the university’s handling of the situation. “I think that the biggest problems were the delay in the Wake Alert system and the lack of information provided to the student body at the time,” said Lins Barwick, a senior at Wake Forest who was working as an EMT at the Jan. 20 shooting. Barwick himself suffered an unrelated gunshot wound that he received while walking at night on Polo Road during the summer of 2016. His suffering led to changes in some of Wake Forest’s preventative practices, as off-duty police officers now patrol around off-campus student housing. Barwick’s story illuminates the WFUPD’s willingness to cater to student needs when gaps in the services they provide are brought to their attention. “The first component is prevention, and at Wake Forest we have the Campus Assessment, Response, and Evaluation (CARE) team, which focuses on troubling, disruptive and threatening behavior, and every year we have lots of cases,” said WFUPD Emergency Services Manager August Vernon. “If we are aware of a faculty member, student or outsider that is making threats or is presenting threatening behavior, the CARE team will address that.” CARE represents one resource students can use to report potential threats to school authorities before violence is imminent, but a more troubling issue revealed during the Jan. 20 shooting
was the lack of active-shooter training among students.“We have no active-shooter training [for ERM], so I did not know what to do,” said Isdahl when describing her confusion on the night of the shooting. Each account of the events that transpired at The Barn on Jan. 20 mentioned a sort of pandemonium once the shot was fired, as the hordes of students fled in various directions without regard for the most practical or efficient routes to safety. According to Barwick, some opted to hide in bushes instead of re-entering The Barn to hide behind locked doors. While many students are aware of the ostensible frequency of mass shootings, very few know the actual procedures for dealing with an active shooter situation in the safest way possible. “From where I’m sitting right now, if someone runs in wherever you are at with a sword, I can’t tell you what do,” said Vernon. “Run, Hide, Fight is a tool that gives everyone some judgment calls on how to personally manage themselves if something like that happens. We want to give people the tools to make those kinds of decisions whether you are on campus or somewhere else.” “Run, Hide, Fight” training is now offered to all students through the Wake Forest police, and organizations can reach out to university police to request a group training session. “We should 100 percent require the training for students,” Isdahl said. “We can debate anything political, but at the end of the day school shootings are a reality. This is not a one-time thing or an isolated event.”
News | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 22, 2018 |Page 5
Half-day hackathon mixes coding and service Students compete to code the best project in Wake Forest’s first 12-hour hackathon, WakeHacks BY JULIA HAINES Editor-in-Chief hainjm15@wfu.edu Wake Forest students of the Department of Computer Science hosted WakeHacks, the university’s first 12-hour hackathon, on Saturday, March 17 in Benson University Center. Over 50 students from Wake Forest, Davidson College, High Point University and NC State University attended the event and coded service-related projects in keeping with the theme, Pro Humanitate. Projects included an online sign language dictionary, a food delivery website similar to that of Meals on Wheels, a Fitbit application designed to keep students awake in class and a typing tool for elementary school students. “The Department of Computer Science needed an event to capture who we are and what we do,” said junior Nick Gerace, hackathon director and co-founder. Wake Forest has now begun to join the stage with other computer science programs across the state, as this event follows the soft launch of WakeHacks Zero last spring, a six-hour hackathon open only to Wake Forest students. UNC-Chapel Hill
and Duke have hosted annual, 24-hour hackathons since 2013, and NCSU will host their fourth-annual hackathon this year. WakeHacks hopes that Major Leagues Hacking, the official student hackathon league, eventually brings them under their reign, but for now, WakeHacks is content operating individually. The event included intermittent events such as Zumba, a student handing out bananas in a gorilla costume and presentations by local companies Inmar and Indeed. At the end, all nine teams were judged for the technical complexity of their project as well as its relation to the service-oriented theme. “I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was impressed,” said Gerard J. Hall, founder and CEO of SportsMEDIA Technology Corporation. “The knowledge that people presented was impressive. The fact that people were able to create such highly-functioning applications in such a short amount of time — equally impressive.” Hall judged the event along with Brian Rogers, the director of software engineering at Inmar. Junior Graham Skeats and sophomore Alex Ross tied for first place and both won Google Echo Dots. Hall noted that if the two worked together to combine their ideas, it could become a product “worth taking to the market.” Skeats developed an app which allowed a user to determine the severity of different medical emergencies through answering a
Becky Hack/Old Gold & Black
Student projects ranged from an online sign language dictionary to a Fitbit application designed to keep students awake in class.
Becky Hack/Old Gold & Black
Students competed in teams to code service-related projects that kept with the appropriate theme, “Pro Humanitate.” series of quick questions, drawing on his experience as an EMT and 911 operator for inspiration. “I was certainly surprised to win since there were several great apps and ideas being presented by other teams and only some components of my app were working,” Skeats said. He plans to continue working on his project and have a complete version by the end of the semester. Ross, who is an Inmar tech scholar, developed a push-notification hardware center which centralizes a user’s calendar information and does not rely on having a tab or computer open, as google calendar currently does. “I came up with this idea to address an ever-growing problem in the tech industry, the fragmentation of information across multiple platforms and services,” Ross said. He plans to continue his project and expand it to more media platforms, as well as to remove the hardware device’s dependence on having an open computer. While many groups came with a project idea in mind, others were inspired by an Ideation Session led by Paul Pauca, a professor in the computer science department, at the beginning of the event, and did not form their team until the day-of. Junior Lawton Manning, who teamed up with junior Gabriella Middleton and freshman Katherine Wang to build the sign language dictionary, came up with the idea in part because of his involvement with the American Sign Language club on
OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE
campus. Manning had only met Middleton and Wang briefly before they formed their team the morning of. Despite this, their makeshift team ended up placing second in the competition, following the tie for first place. “Being placed at second was a mindblowing experience … it really reminded me to never doubt myself nor the skills that I have,” Middleton said. “Once you have the skills and the plan, you just have to believe that you can do it and also have fun and enjoy your time with your team that helped you through the project.” Students without a specific project idea could experiment in a makeshift Raspberry Pi lab run by computer science systems architect Paul Whitener, or could choose to tinker with various mini projects throughout the day. “The initial feedback from our friends across North Carolina has been incredible,” Gerace said. “We may still have our four same classrooms in Manchester, but the shockwaves created by the hackathon stretch campus-wide.” Many appreciated the shorter timeline the event offered students, as the majority of hackathons span 24 hours instead of 12. “It was very organized but informal … I think the theme made everyone a little less cutthroat,” said sophomore Swaran Udhayaswaran. “It was really nice to have multiple schools here because you get to learn about their experience doing computer science elsewhere.”
Mark Zuckerberg comments on Suspect identified in Austin seFacebook’s privacy scandal rial package bombings case
Federal Reserve raises interest rates for sixth time since crisis
On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg broke his silence on the data-collection scandal that Facebook has been embroiled in. The New York Times reported over the weekend that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained data on 50 million Facebook users. Among other things, this has led to a $50 billion decrease in the company’s market cap. Zuckerberg stated that he was working to prevent the harvesting of users’ data, describing several steps the company will take to address the issue.
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and indicated that it was on-track to raise rates two more times in 2018. The increase, from 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent, is the sixth time since the financial crisis that they have raised their rates. Jerome H. Powell, the new chairman of the Fed, was optimistic about the current state of the economy and stated that they were trying to find the balance between raising rates too slowly and too quickly.
Authorities have identified the man they believe to be responsible for the Austin package bombings as Mark Anthony Conditt. Within a period of 10 days, there had been three package explosions at homes in Austin, Texas. One occurred on March 2 and two occured on March 12. Two people died and several were injured. Conditt, a 23-year-old from Pflugerville, Texas, died after detonating an explosive as officers tried to apprehend him early on Wednesday morning. His motive remains unclear to authorities.
Page 6 |Thursday, March 22, 2018
Old Gold & Black | News
Student Government: New officers share visions Continued from Page 1
“Danny has not spoken much about Student Government culture, but I hope that under his administration it is one dedicated to identifying needs and wants and working towards solutions with relentless effort and energy,” David said. Morgan, who intends to remain co-chair of the Public Relations Committee, added, “I hope that our new executive officers establish a clear vision and purpose for our government which can be translated directly to practical reforms, both internal and external. I hope that the new executive board m akes good on its promises to the student body.” Morgan emphasized that he intends to enact every aspect of his platform next year, from putting the Listening Campaign and the Committee for Constituent Concerns in the Student Government Constitution to working with the Parking and Transportation Committee to lower parking ticket fees. Finally, Ajamy expressed support for Reeves but emphasized the role of students in implementing changes on campus and urged them not to solely rely on Student Government. “Student Government doesn’t innately have the power to change campus or Wake Forest culture,” he said. “We all, as students, have that power and we should trust and believe in ourselves more than the candidates want us to trust and believe in Student Government to do so.” Junior Will Hargrove, the incoming speaker of the house, said in his interview with the Old Gold & Black that he was ready to shoulder the often-unrecognized internal work
involved with the role and to be a tough but empathetic leader. He reiterated this message after the election and added: “My platform and campaign were centered around making Student Government a representative entity that works tirelessly for its student body. To see so many of my friends and fellow students believe in the work I have to offer is such a great feeling.” As speaker of the house, Hargrove will be responsible for selecting the incoming cabinet members, who serve as co-chairs of each senatorial committee. “When I take office, my first priority will be to collaborate with the rest of [the executive branch] to … select the individuals who we believe will be the most diligent, hard-working people who will work with us to ensure that Student Government works as hard as possible next year,” he said. “The sooner this selection process takes place, the more quickly we will be able to work together to tackle the many ideas and initiatives that all our executive and cabinet members have to offer. We are more than eager to dive into our workload and show this school that we are here to work for them.” As the incumbent Student Government treasurer, junior Sydney Packard spent her first year in office working to ensure that the student organization budget rules system is fair and understandable and creating how-to guides for tasks such as check reimbursement for club treasurers with different levels of experience. While she said in her interview with the Old Gold & Black that she seeks to continue to minimize stress, confusion and misinformation, she plans to make some slight changes based on her experience this year. “One of the things I want to do differently is to put new guidelines in place that are more in-line with the missions of different
types of groups on campus,” she said. When she resumes office in the fall, one of Packard’s main priorities will be to train representatives to the president, treasurer and Student Budget Advisory Committee (SBAC) in order to ensure a smooth transition. The incoming Student Government secretary, Maia Kennedy, ran on a platform including diversity and inclusion, safety and creating spaces for on-campus dogs. Although she was a younger candidate, she said that she was ready to move on and use her experience as co-chair of the Public Relations Committee and service on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee on the executive branch. “My first priority in taking office will be to come together with my fellow members of Student Government to shape a positive and meaningful group of individuals dedicated to the continual improvement of Wake Forest University,” she said. Junior Thomas Kellogg ran against Kennedy for the position of secretary, and said that he intends to continue his involvement in Student Government by seeking a senatorial appointment. Although he said that many aspects of his platform would require the leverage of the secretarial position to implement, he added that he could contribute some of his ideas to Student Government by serving as the co-chair of the Student Organizations Council (SOC). As a former secretary of SOC and one of the more active students on SBAC, he said that he would be uniquely situated to develop closer communication or possibly a merger between the two entities. In the end, Kellogg offered the incoming administration the following advice: “Strive to optimize. Nobody is perfect and you can always improve on your predecessor’s work.”
POLICE BEAT Larceny/Damage to Property • Tractor-trailer tried to make a turn and caused damage. The report was filed on March 13 at 10:59 a.m. from the Barn Circle. • Possible larceny of a wallet was reported. The report was filed on March 11 at 12:42 p.m. from Angelou. • A custodial member removed a clothes bag belonging to a student from the laundry room in Magnolia. The report was filed on March 14 at 5:55 p.m. • Unknown subject(s) took Apple products from Taylor. The report was filed on March 16 at 9:06 a.m. • Unknown subject(s) took earbuds and money from Pruitt. The report was filed on March 16 at 10:11 a.m. • Unknown subject(s) took victim’s cell phone and credit card. The phone was tracked from Clemmons to Jonestown Rd. The report was filed on March 17 at 11:33 a.m. from Dogwood.
Underage Consumption/Alcohol Abuse • Intoxicated and unresponsive subject was transported to WFUBMC by Forsyth County EMS after they were found unresponsive in the grass. The report was filed on March 16 at 6:14 p.m. from Lot R2. • Intoxicated subject was transported to WFUBMC after they were found unresponsive. The report was filed on March 17 at 11:48 p.m. from Greene. • Offender vomited in an Uber car and assaulted the driver. The report was filed on March 17 at 1:17 a.m from Allen Easley/Student Apt. • Intoxicated female was transported to WFUBMC by Forsyth County EMS. The report was filed on March 18 at 12:11 a.m. from Kitchin. • Intoxicated female was transported to WFUBMC by Forsyth County EMS. The report was filed on March 18 at 12:54 a.m. from Bostwick.
• Intoxicated and unresponsive subject was transported to Student Health by ERTs. The file was reported on March 18 at 1:31 a.m. from Poteat.
Miscellaneous • Victim sent silent witness stating that they were assaulted in Angelou on Dec. 2, 2017. Title IX was notified. The report was filed on March 13 at 3:15 p.m. • Offender exposed himself to a female jogger on the Village Trail. Victim identified offender in a lineup and the offender was arrested. The report was filed on March 14 at 6:58 p.m.
Traffic Stop • An overcrowded vehicle was topped in Lot W. The report was filed on March 17 at 12:01 a.m.
SG GENERAL ASSEMBLY BY WILLIAM MORGAN Student Government Beat Reporter morgwb15@wfu.edu I. Executive Reports President Spencer Schiller met with Dean Buchanan about Student Learning Objectives, specifically civic knowledge and engagement. Speaker of the House Kiya Khalil is planning end-ofyear events and working on a study-spot video. Treasurer Sydney Packard reported that interviews for SBAC are next week and a budget bill will be on the agenda next week. Secretary Shelby Devine is going to meet with Dean Wilkinson about campus safety ideas. She went to Digital Wellness Day events with Spencer last week. Senators need to attend extracurricular events. Chief of Staff Parth Vaidya is working on a case project for SG to practice writing bills.
II. Committee Reports Academic Committee finalized meeting about Major Declaration Week with the Office of Academic Advising. It met with Jessica Wallace to finalize Faculty Appreciation Day on April 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Autumn Room. Senators can sign up to write thank-you cards for professors in Benson. Campus Life reported that this is Mental Health Week. There will be a WNBA superstar speaker in Pugh at 7 p.m. on March 22. Diversity and Inclusion is meeting with the Director of Muslim Life about getting prayer time in the class schedule. It met with the Event Planning and Protocol Committee and discussed Barn protocols and event management planning procedures for social events. Judiciary Committee met with Dean Clifford about HEC applications and bringing the judicial branch together. Physical Planning reported that Deacon Dining Commission is March 28 at 6 p.m. in the Magnolia Room. It
MARCH 20 is finalizing the cost and place of the outdoor classroom. It wants to co-sponsor Green Week. Public Relations reminded Senators to pay for SG tshirts. There will be an SG internal social event after elections. The SG board outside the office is finished. The Student Organizations Council spoke with Kathy Arnett about getting the co-chairs of SOC chosen earlier for a smoother transition. It talked to Leigh Myers about group guidelines. III. New Business Senate Bill 17: Establishing the Diversity and Inclusion Committee as a full-standing committee of the Senate — passed. Senate Bill 18: Adding Procedures for Executive Succession to the Constitution — having defined period for Executive Officers to assume office — passed unanimously. Senate Resolution 5: Co-sponsorship with the Office of Sustainability for Earth Week — passed unanimously. Senate Resolution 6: Co-sponsorship for March for Our Lives — passed unanimously.
News | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 7
Reynolda House hosts professor for lecture To further contextualize Frederic Church’s artwork, History Professor Charles Wilkins gave a lecture on 19th century Palestine BY OLIVIA FIELD Life Editor fielor17@wfu.edu
In tandem with the newest exhibition at Reynolda House Museum of American Art, History Professor Charles Wilkins gave a lecture entitled “Saints, Soap, and Second Thoughts: Palestine in the Era of Frederic Edwin Church.” With an active audience and new perspective, Wilkins worked to contextualize the paintings of Frederic Church within the time period of his artwork. Termed “A Painter’s Pilgrimage,” the collection includes an array of works Church created during his time living in modern day Palestine with protestant missionary Daniel Bliss. His pieces depict vast mountain ranges, olive orchards and local individuals, among other pleasing landscapes. To better understand the art, Wilkins started his lecture by stating that most individuals have an understanding of the Middle East today, but many do not know what Church experienced while exploring the region. By just viewing his work, one would receive an extremely “romanticized” and stereotypical view of the area. “Well, I think any painter is a product of his or her environment, of his cultural formation and education and his interaction with other people,” Wilkins said. “So, I think to take into account the painter’s outlook and history is absolutely necessary. I think painters paint with great intention and great economy in general. But, that intentionality means that they are drawing on their own observations of the world. So, I think that history plays an essential role and the art historians I know are as much historians as they are people who look at art.” One of Wilkins’ main points discussed the idea that many individuals were not as religiously divided as Church portrays them to be. In fact, he discussed how Jewish, Muslim and Christian sects all shared
Olivia Field/Old Gold & Black
History Professor Charles Wilkins delivered a lecture titled “Saints, Soap, and Second Thoughts: Palestine in he Era of Frederic Edwin Church at Reynolda House. “local saints” who they appealed to for blessings and protection. According to Wilkins, this regional religion was spread through the oral culture of the society. While discussing this topic, he projected sideby-side images with Church’s art to point out clear misinterpretations and exaggerations in the artwork. The second argument of the lecture was that Palestine did, in fact, have a productive economy. Church’s art continuously portrays a lackadaisical economy, such as a camel resting on the ground. Wilkins contradicted this by discussing the bustling economy of soap-making, agriculture and trade that defined the 19th century. With this idea, Wilkins solidified the argument that Church approached his
paintings with a predisposed idea of how the Middle East functioned, both culturally and economically. At the end of his lecture, Wilkins opened up the floor to questions about everything from tourism to a discussion of orientalism. He stated that his lecture should be viewed as “a compliment to the cultural baggage Americans take with them” to foreign places. “I think that Reynolda House is a wonderful resource and the things that I can’t show [students] in the classroom, they can see in living color, in the texture, in the presentation and in the captioning,” Wilkins said. “It’s a much richer approach to the visual aspects of history.”
Student activism spikes over national gun law issues With the conversation about gun violence heating up, Wake Forest students from both sides try to have their voices heard BY WALLIS HERZOG Contributing Writer herzwr1616@wfu.edu
In the aftermath of 19 campus shootings since the start of 2018, students at Wake Forest and around the country are gathering together to voice their opinions on how to prevent gun violence. The week of Feb. 25, two events were held on campus to discuss gun violence. One was a planning meeting on Feb. 27 for the Winston-Salem March for Our Lives. The other was a reading discussion hosted by the Wake Forest Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) on March 1. Additionally, the first college chapter of The Brady Campaign started at Wake Forest this semester. “This school keeps everyone busy and that discourages people from getting as involved in politics and activism as much as they may want to,” said Rance Orrell, the sophomore vice president of YDSA. “Generally speaking, students at Wake and across the country want to see an end to gun violence, it’s just a matter of actually showing up and demanding change.” On Feb. 14, Nikolas Cruz, 19, killed 17 people and injured others with an AR-15 assault rifle at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Many survivors refuse to be just another statistic: the 17th campus shoot-
ing in 2018. Their activism in the weeks since the shooting has re-sparked the contentious gun debate nationally. No legislation has been passed, but many politicians and private companies, including WalMart and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have publicly changed positions on the policies these students are protesting. This statistic is one that the Wake Forest community is also familiar with, as the killing of Najee Ali Baker on campus Jan. 20 marked the sixth campus shooting in 2018. However, the Parkland shooting sparked a larger conversation about gun violence at Wake Forest. About 10 Wake Forest students came to the March for Our Lives meeting Tuesday, which will happen in conjunction with other gun violence prevention marches around the country on Saturday, March 24. Although a small number, they came with a strong voice. “Whenever there’s an opportunity to be a part of the planning stages of a movement organizing, I like to be a part of it because I don’t really see it often,” Ja’el Knott, a senior from Morrisville, NC who attended the meeting Tuesday and the YDSA discussion Thursday, said. President Hatch published the university’s position on activism in a statement directed at prospective students who wish to participate walkouts on Feb. 24. “We applaud your courage and dedication in trying to seek a civil dialogue aimed at bringing a reasonable solution to one of our nation’s most divisive issues,” Hatch said. Wake Forest is home to students from all different backgrounds, so varying student experiences and opinions surrounding the gun debate are prevalent. Kiya Khalil, this past year’s speaker of the House for
Wake Forest Student Government, grew up hunting with her family. She got her concealed carry license this past weekend for protection and professional reasons. “I just kept thinking, if I’m going to be in a situation where I could protect not only myself, but others, then let’s do this if it’s going to be a continued trend, especially since having 18 [shootings] in the past two months,” Khalil said. Junior Anna Quinn has experienced this variation a lot while working to implement a chapter of the The Brady Campaign, a national gun violence prevention campaign, on campus. Since the Parkland shooting, she has seen an uptick in membership interest, citing 15 friends who contacted her to join that day. “A few of my friends that have more conservative views and have owned guns their entire lives agree there need to be more sensible gun laws, so they’ve joined the campaign and I really like having that more diverse outlook on it,” Quinn said. “But there are others who say, ‘No, it’s just the people,’ and don’t understand [that] the reason these people have access [to guns] is because of policy issues.” The spectrum of views about gun violence prevention on campus is representative of the lack of consensus apparent nationally on the issue. “I grew up around guns, but over the past few years I’ve come to realize how many preventable deaths have come from the barrels of guns in this country,” Orrell said. “The [planning] meeting made it clear that we have a lot of organizing to do in a very short time but that there’s also a lot of energy being directed at this issue, particularly from young people.”
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“ the malaise of the waiting room Grappling with Philosophy
Waiting rooms are oddly intriguing places that prod the imagination and stoke anxieties
Kyle Ferrer
Staff Columnist ferrka16@wfu.edu Over the break, I spent a few hours in waiting rooms for a toothache that turned into a root canal. During my time in abeyance, I thought about waiting rooms as a phenomenon, as a mental manipulator used to tool with the human mind. A waiting room is an antechamber, a precursory holding pen that prefigures an unpleasant experience, whether it be a root canal or some sort of other drilling, scoping, etc. What makes up a waiting room? Music, perhaps, Jazz, an irony that attempts to calm one with music based on improvisation and things purposely leapt from convention. A waiting
They are the Other, the sweating horde of insecurities and infirmities being ferried along the River Styx..." room assumes a naivety on the part of the waiter, a certain unthinking capitulation to the proffered harmlessness of waiting room décor. But if you stop and think about the psychological transparency of the things peopling a waiting room, it is a hilarious placement of balms and tricks. What else is in a waiting room? Indubitably magazines, specifically ones that eschew celebrity, invention and all manners of facile perfection. Let’s run down the list: Sports Illustrated (bodily aspirations and athletic jealousies to make you feel vulnerable and ready for the procedure), People (a compilation of humans more beautiful than you, whose family planning next to their salacious stories ground your life in the satisfyingly quotidian: “This is what admirable, normal people do, they wait in waiting rooms.” National Geographic (the at once gritty exploration and awe-inspiring portrait of
the sublime landscapes, perhaps your post-operational destiny) and maybe even Time (the illusion you are reading premier content in order to stoke pseudo-intellectual pride before you are laid bare for the roving tool of your doctor). What next? Ah, the tranquil watercolor, perhaps the most easily deciphered. A square of blurred, cool colors, thinly conjoined to portray a vague scene of relaxation. Children playing on a beach? Waves gently crashing to shore? All of these things are meant to a) calm anxiety about the failures of your body (and, by proxy, your personal upkeep), and b) to project the possibility of a blissful future, hampered by nothing but briny air and the gentle surf. It is kind of nauseating to think anyone would buy into this quixotism, but that dripping watercolor is banking on our own ability to convince ourselves of such a wishful vision. Monet never imagined Impression, Sunrise as an attempt to allay a fifty-year-old man’s fear of a colonoscopy. Lastly, in this room of mystic healing, there are other people. They are the Other, the sweating horde of in-
securities and infirmities being ferried along the River Styx to their similarly dehumanizing destination. What are they here for, you wonder, as you weave a more depressing tale than your own, detailed with hyperbolic attributions, deteriorations of vital orifices or organs. In reference to other’s wild imaginations raging out of our control, Jean-Paul Sartre said in his most misappropriated quote: “Hell is other people.” In a waiting room, the other occupants are yet another attempt to assuage the worry that courses through your soon-to-be-bequeathed body. They are the degrees of separation between you and a real health issue. Their maladies have downed nations, their complex diseases erupt out of a science-fiction universe of contagion. Your speck of a visit is nothing but a happy triviality in the face of bubonic implications. What happens next, after you’ve convinced yourself things aren’t as bad as everyone else's, after your wait has turned into the space between heroic deeds and knightly acknowledgement? You hear your name called, and the light is snuffed out into darkness.
cinctly, Hawking showed us that black holes, like almost every other object in our universe, can shrink and die. "Black holes ain't as black as they are painted,” he once said. “They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly, to another universe. So, if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out." But in addition to Hawking’s universeshaking theoretical work, many who knew him have remarked on his plucky wit and light-hearted outlook on life. When he appeared on John Oliver’s late-night comedy show Last Week Tonight, Oliver commented on Hawking’s belief that there exist an infinite number of parallel universes. “Does that mean that there’s a universe out there where I’m smarter than you?” Oliver asked. “Yes, and also a universe where you’re funny,” Hawking replied. He also had a mischievous way of getting back at people he didn’t especially like: deliberately running over their toes with his wheelchair. Hawking once said that one of his regrets in life was never having the chance to run over former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s toes. He was also said to have a remarkable way of relating to others. For example, his daughter Lucy recalled that at her son’s ninth birthday party, a child
asked Hawking what would happen if he fell into a black hole. “You would turn into spaghetti,” Hawking said, and all the children immediately understood. He also wanted his book, A Brief History of Time, to be so understandable and accessible by the general public that it would be sold in airports. The world has lost one of the smartest and most notable intellectuals that we’ve ever had and ever will. As we remember his life and extraordinary work, I urge us all to be careful not to express well-meaning but strikingly ableist sentiments, especially remarking how he is now “free” of his wheelchair and disability. The fact of the matter is that Hawking did all of his amazing work with his disability, not in spite of it. To forget that is to erase a part of who he was, simply because it was something that couldn’t be easily understood. Indeed, he did not need to be freed from his disability to change the way we think about our universe forever, so why must we think he needs to be freed from it in death? Hawking once said that he accepted that there were some things he couldn’t do. “But they are mostly things I don’t particularly want to do anyway,” he continued. “I seem to manage to do anything that I really want.”
A tribute to “public intellectual Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking
Scientist's discoveries about black holes gave us remarkable insights on physics and life Amanda Wilcox Staff Columist wilcaf16@wfu.edu
Stephen Hawking, the brilliant Cambridge University theoretical physicist and cosmologist, liked to note that he was born 300 years to the day after the death of Galileo. It seems a fitting bookend that he passed away on the 139th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s birth — Pi Day. Although Hawking lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for a remarkable half century, his death came as a shock to several of my peers and me. One could hardly help feeling that a brilliant and extraordinary mind like Hawking, who inspired people all over the world to look beyond our little blue and green marble, would always be around as an inexhaustible life force. But it’s undeniable that his ideas will be around as long as there are sci-
The world has lost one of the smartest and most notable intellectuals that we've ever had and ever will have." entists, and assuming that Hawking was right about the lifespan of the universe, his legacy will live for another twenty billion years. It’s difficult for the 99.9 percent of us who aren’t theoretical physicists to wrap our minds around Hawking’s discoveries, but it’s fair to say that they upended previously-unquestioned assumptions of the scientific community. As with many of the best scientific discoveries, they resulted in many more big questions about the universe and how it works. Based on Einstein’s theory of relativity alone, black holes were once thought of as places in which things are irretrievably sucked in. But by integrating Einstein’s theory with quantum mechanics — which describes nature at the energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles — Hawking discovered that black holes are not completely black. They are, in fact, wellsprings of energy, slowly leaking particles and radiation. Over eons they eventually explode, returning to the cosmos all the mass and energy that had once disappeared. Suc-
Opinion | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 9
“ with presidential politics New film aligns Politics
Spielberg's film espouses a similar white, male hero mantra to President Trump Chris Verrill
Staff Columnist verrcd16@wfu.edu
Film, famously, is a mirror. Fundamental truths are reflected through “what-if ” scenarios, fantasy epics and reimagined stories; Gandalf does not tangibly exist, but it does not follow that his character does not mean anything. Arrival (a science-fiction movie about contact with aliens) has much to say about language, national boundaries and the human condition. The Harry Potter franchise, a cultural flashpoint for teen fantasy, is about adolescence and characters struggling with their moral center in a time of war. This is to say that most movies are about something. Even when the point is “fun,” meaning can still be present; the Captain America trilogy, while full of fun ac-
Ready Player One mirrors a corporate pop culture, hypersaturated without deliberate interest in meaning." tion sequences, also reflects a vision of patriotism and moral goodness. When I say that Ready Player One is, on a fundamental level, about nothing, some may feel I am attacking them on the level of who they are. (For the uninitiated, Ready Player One is set in a dystopian future, starring an underdog who is really good at playing in an online virtual reality; you advance further wherein the more you know about '80s culture. It contains references to almost every pop culture phenomenon from the '80s onward.) It is no secret that what we read and what we watch can solidify as part of our identity — I am (somewhat childishly) stubborn about my status as a Ravenclaw. What is wrong, some may cry, with a celebration of that identity? I cannot stop you from giving money to Steven Spielberg for the pleasure of being explicitly and shamelessly catered to. I can argue that this movie
reveals something fundamental about the way we think about ourselves — and our politics — in modern America. Take, for example, the current president. Over a year into Trump’s presidency, the statements of the president have become empty. Take, for example, the controversy around Trump’s (alleged) affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. The official White House position is, simultaneously, that Stormy Daniels has no dirt on Trump and also that Donald Trump is suing Stormy Daniels for $20 million to keep her silent. For any other president, this would be legacy-defining, occupying years of American politics. Trump has prevented this by shifting expectations and profiting off of media hyper-saturation. This is not to say Trump is a Nixonian mastermind; the opposite is true. He is a president of nullity. When he makes a policy proclamation on guns or DACA or taxes or health care and then backtracks, he is not lying; he just does not have a center. He does not have a deeply-held moral vision. He is the president of vain entertainment, catering to audiences without
caring about them. It is drama without stakes, egoism in its most pure form. It is not that the center will not hold; there was never a center. Steven Spielberg is not Donald Trump. Ready Player One, however, echoes that Trumpian void. The Iron Giant is in this movie, only to serve as a “reference,” an Easter egg that moviegoers are instructed to enjoy (Ready Player One takes no issue with abandoning the pacifism that was central to the 1999 movie and the Iron Giant himself ). The film stars a white male who thinks himself the underdog in a society that he dominates. Predictably, the film also has a girl problem (which is to say the female characters, at best, lack complexity). Ready Player One mirrors a corporate pop culture, hypersaturated without deliberate interest in meaning. The film and Donald Trump are not the same, but they are not coincidental. They are examples of each other. The film, ultimately, is a Gamergate-esque attempt to return to our white-male-hero-serving roots disguised as pure entertainment, and like the president, ultimately just is not anything.
Abolishing ICE“could solve many of the nation's issues Politics
ICE has become an obsolete agency protecting us from non-existent threats Nolan Dahm
Contributing Writer dahmnd15@wfu.edu
As the government heads toward another possible shutdown, immigration remains one of the most polarizing issues in Congress. Before the last shutdown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke for eight straight hours in a filibuster to “defend DACA,” yet the same debate is still occurring more than a month later and there is no solution in sight. Although DACA is certainly critical for protecting young immigrants in the U.S., it is a shortsighted and temporary fix to a much larger problem in the U.S. — the criminalization of immigrants and the existence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE was created in 2003 as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to the 9-11 attacks. Its primary mission, according to their website, is to “promote homeland security and public safety,” but ICE has in fact wreaked havoc on communities across the U.S.
ICE was created in 2003 as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to the 911 attacks." As deportations soared to record levels during former President Obama’s first term, many began to question the efficacy and humanity of ICE’s deportation and incarceration programs. Only then was DACA signed into law as an assurance to activists and immigrants that their children would be protected. Regardless of those protections, ICE’s goal remains the same: the “100 percent removal of all removable aliens” in the United States. In other words, their mission is not complete until every person without proper paperwork is hunted down and forced out of the country. Those who defend ICE typically do so on the grounds that “illegal immigrants” pose a legitimate threat to the security of the U.S. Those arguments ignore a substantial amount of research which concludes the opposite is true. For starters, many studies have shown immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than those born in the U.S. In addition, studies from the UCSD and the Center for American Progress found that cities where local authorities refuse to share data with ICE about undocumented immigrants — known as “sanctuary cities” — are safer
than cities who do share data, and they have stronger economies as well. Unfortunately, the data means nothing to President Trump, who has consistently insinuated that the U.S.-Mexico border is a pipeline for gangsters, rapists, murderers and terrorists. The DHS has already undergone a significant expansion, and even explored ways to operate without congressional oversight. To make matters worse, Trump recently announced a plan to pay a private firm for each new officer it helps ICE hire, with the goal of adding 16,000 new agents. ICE is becoming more brutal as well. Numerous stories have gone viral describing ICE arrests without warrants or probable cause. In Washington, a man called 911 to report a trespasser, but when authorities showed up they arrested him instead on the suspicion that he was undocumented. Although total deportations are actually down compared to Obama’s time in office, arrest rates are increasing, which suggests that immigrants are spending more time in “detention centers.” One estimate found that over 35 thousand immigrants were detained on an average day in 2017, including children. If you follow the money, the motive for the rapid expansion of ICE becomes much clearer. One look at the stocks of CEO Group — the biggest private prison company in the U.S. — reveals that Trump’s immigration agenda is a gold mine for companies who profit from in-
carceration. The President of CoreCivic, another private prison giant, explicitly stated that increasing arrests and decreasing deportations is good for business. Perhaps as a thank you gift, both CEO Group and CoreCivic gave $250 thousand to Trump’s inaugural celebrations. In the search for profits, private prison corporations have an incentive to cut corners, which often means that immigrants are housed in conditions ranging from uncomfortable to downright unsafe. CEO group is currently facing allegations that immigrants were forced to do labor for one dollar per day. Since detainees are not citizens, there are no standards for living conditions, healthcare or legal services. That is a recipe for the exploitation of vulnerable people who have no legal redress. It is time to radically rethink how we approach immigration in the U.S. From day one, ICE has been an institution that tears apart immigrant families in the name of security, despite a lack of data which suggests they are a threat. Trump has proposed a series of bold immigration policies from the Muslim ban to the border wall, and those who resist his agenda need a similarly audacious idea. DACA can provide a temporary fix, but the past months show the limitations of band-aid solutions. Only abolishing ICE could immediately defang the right’s radical agenda and send a signal that immigrants will
Page 10 | Thursday, March 22, 2018
Old Gold & Black | Opinion
“ does not beget gun violence Hypermasculinity Gun Violence
Previous articles in the OGB misrepresent the American debate on gun ownership Owen Pickard
Guest Contributer pickom15@wfu.edu The March 15 edition of The Old Gold and Black published several articles on gun control that were filled with blatantly false claims surrounding guns and gun violence. In the article “Hyper masculinity leads to gun violence,” the first inaccurate statement refers to the firearm used in Parkland as an assault rifle. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, “an assault rifle is fully automatic.” While the definition of an assault rifle has generally expanded to include rifles with select-fire capabilities — meaning that the firearm can switch between single, burst and/or fully automatic modes — a semi-automatic rifle, by definition, cannot be an assault rifle. True assault rifles are heavily regulated by the ATF and are illegal to Dissent own without a special Restaurant permit. Following this mistake, the author said the Parkland shooter used “large capacity magazines.” According to National Review, the Parkland shooter used magazines that had a maximum capacity of 10 rounds, which is far below the standard 30 rounds for the 5.56mm AR-15 that the shooter used. The term “large capacity” is a convenient buzz-word for liberals calling for gun control, but this phrase has little-to-no real meaning. For example, a 30-round magazine is standard for an AR-15 style rifle, but for most handguns, such a number would be considered tremendously “large.” Going into handguns, however, makes the issue of “large capacity magazines” even murkier because some smaller handguns typically hold six to eight rounds in a standard magazine, while other, full-sized handguns can hold 15 rounds. One thing that is correct in this piece is that the violence issue in America “is a problem exacerbated by American men.” The root issue, however, is not “hyper” or “toxic” masculinity. It is a complete and utter lack of what true masculinity should look like.
The root issue, however, is not ‘hyper’ or ‘toxic’ masculinity. It is a comple and utter lack of what true masculinity should look like.” In a piece for the Federalist, Peter Hasson referenced a list of “27 Deadliest Mass Shootings In U.S. History,” compiled by CNN, in which “seven of those shootings were committed by young (under 30) males since 2005. Of the seven, only one … was raised by his biological father throughout childhood.” Furthermore, the Daily Wire referenced a study conducted by Brad Wilcox, a University of Virginia professor, of Wikipedia’s “list of U.S. school attacks.” He found that “nearly every shooting over the last year” on this list “involved a young man whose parents divorced or never married in the first place.” The higher frequency of men dying due to guns, this author suggests, is due to “a corrupted culture of hyper-masculinity in America [sic].” Masculinity is becoming corrupted in America, but this corruption is not due to hypermasculinity. The corruption flows from a culture that disregards personal responsibility and attempts to undermine the familial unit that used to be so foundational to life in America. The last thing America needs is more emasculated men. In mentioning the disparity between men and women who die due to the use of guns, the author fails to mention that almost twothirds of gun deaths in America are suicides. The author repeatedly uses the phrase “killed by guns,” seemingly in an attempt to take responsibility away from the people who pull the trigger and to be able to include suicides in his statistics through the use of this incredibly broad phrase. Additionally, according to fivethirtyeight, 85 percent of the people in America who commit suicide by using a firearm are male. The disparity mentioned in the article narrows dramatically when you take into account who actually pulls the trigger. The author goes on to say that he “had long thought it curious that feminists have never embraced guns en masse.” Glossing over the litany of issues with the modern feminist
movement, many women do use firearms (particularly in the form of a concealed-carry handgun when not on their property) to protect themselves. If the self-appointed leaders of the modern feminist movement in America are attempting to discourage women from defending themselves with guns, they are failing. For example, eight states that gathered data from 2012 to 2016 showed that there has been “a 326-percent faster increase in permits among women than among men.” Tremendous numbers of women are in fact working to better protect themselves with firearms. A fundamental mistake in the argument presented in this piece for women to not carry firearms is that “we should expect our citizens to never commit such heinous crimes.” People do not expect tragedy. However, those who want to be prepared for any horrible experience they may face, whether gun violence or any other form of tragedy, take the necessary steps to be ready if they must act during a disaster. Furthermore, the piece says “fighting to quell the proliferation of guns is an assertion by the movement that male gun violence is unacceptable and will be eradicated.” It is dangerously naive to believe that turning your nose to any form of violence will somehow completely “eradicate” such violence. The piece goes on to discuss how the author does not have an extensive background with firearms, but some of his friends do. Many of these friends are male, and while they did grow up using and learning about firearms, the author writes that “most of their sisters” did not. The first thing to consider is that girls may be less drawn to guns as firearms are stereotypically considered masculine (ie. the piece I am currently referencing). Could this be due to the inherent differences between the sexes? I would ask your biology professor about this, not your Women’s Gender Studies professor. (One of these things is not like the other.) When given the opportunity, many women do take to using firearms, whether out of enjoyment, sport, self-defense or any combination of these or other factors. I grew up shooting with my sister, who has an Expert Marksman Badge that she earned at Basic Training for the United States Army. Maybe she can teach you about this hypermasculine “gun culture” you admit that you do not know much about? Another piece published in the OGB is worth mentioning, as it simply spews many incorrect, leftist talking points on firearms.
In the piece titled “Gun control intransigence is difficult to overcome,” the author regurgitates the common line that when the constitution was written, the founding fathers could never “conceive the technological advances” that dramatically enhanced the power of firearms. While few on the left apply such reasoning to the first or other amendments, this line is popular with the ban-guns crowd. It is completely false. Early precursors to the Gatling gun had emerged by the early 18th century, but, as in the case of James Puckle’s patented “Puckle gun,” such attempts were hampered by the flintlock technology of the day. This patent was issued in 1718 while the gun ultimately failed to be widely used, claiming that the Founding Fathers, some half-century later, could not “conceive” the idea of a technology leading to semi-automatic or even potentially automatic firearms is simply not true. The author continues to write that “the gun lobby has conned Americans into believing that they have a God-given right to own an unlimited number of any type of firearm without any restriction.” While (I hope) this part may be hyperbole for effect, it is important to mention. This just regurgitates the stereotype that Americans who own guns are Bible-thumping, gun-clutching rednecks. (Believe it or not, I do not drive a Ford or a Chevy.) The “gun lobby” does not try to convince anyone that their right to own firearms is a restriction-free right. This is certainly not the message of the NRA. The NRA sometimes even advocates for certain restrictions on guns. For example, the NRA has recently released a video calling for Gun Violence Restraining Orders, a measure I examined in my last piece for The Wake Forest Review. Both articles mention “toxic masculinity” or “hyper masculinity” as a contributing problem to gun violence. I would like to invite either author to go up to anyone outside of an isolated academic institution and tell a normal Joe that the problem in America is too much masculinity. You will get laughed out of the room. Or try Fort Bragg. I’m sure the 82nd Airborne soldiers will get a nice kick out of you telling them that they’re too masculine and that toxic masculinity is hurting America. America needs more masculinity, not less. Long live hypermasculinity.
Word on the Quad
Who do you want to win March Madness?
“Alabama” Kedi Zang (‘18)
“UNC Chapel Hill” Olivia Bond (‘21)
“Michigan” Liz Dicus (‘20)
“Villanova” Alex Rogini (‘20)
SPORTS
T H U R S D AY, M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 8
PAG E 11
Online at: www.wfuogb.com Twitter: @sports_ogb Editors: Lizzie Snyder, snydem15@wfu.edu; Ren Schmitt, schmwm16@wfu.edu
OLD GOLD & BLACK
First rounds show big bracket busters The first week of the NCAA tournament held shocking victories by smaller programs BY DANIEL PACHINO News Editor pachdb15@wfu.edu There is no denying that the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has lived up to its name of "March Madness." After two rounds, only four of the top eight overall seeds remain and a number of higher_seeded teams appear poised for deep runs this March. The 2018 tournament’s opening weekend will forever be defined as the year of shocking upsets over the nation’s top teams. The first major upset came on Thursday night when 13-seed Buffalo embarrassed four-seed Arizona. The highly-talented Arizona team was a popular pick to make a deep run in the tournament. Buffalo, however, had something to say about that and dominated the heavily-favored Wildcats 89-68, exposing the defensive limitations of DeAndre Ayton, the likely first pick in the NBA Draft, along the way. Then on Friday night came what may go down as the greatest upset in the
history of college basketball. The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) defeated the tournament’s top-ranked overall team, the University of Virginia (UVA). Not only did the UMBC Retrievers defeat the Cavaliers, but they dominated them to the tune of a 74-54 victory en route to becoming the first-ever 16-seed to defeat a one-seed. This was easily the most shocking outcome of the weekend and will be remembered for decades to come. UMBC was lucky just to reach the tournament this year after earning a remarkable comeback victory over Vermont on the road in the American East Conference Championship a week prior. Virginia, meanwhile, had been the nation’s most consistently dominant team all season long, entering the game with a 31-2 record having earned both the ACC regular season and tournament titles. The game, however, went slightly differently than expected. After a lowscoring first half which saw the game tied 21-21 at the break, the Retrievers cracked UVA’s famed pack-line defense and dismantled the Cavaliers. Led by Jairus Bird’s 28 points, UMBC outscored UVA 53-33 in the second half, scoring the same number of points in the half as UVA averaged
surrendering to its opponents over the course of its season (53.8). Remarkably, this was the first game all season in which Virginia gave up more than 70 points. Virginia gravely missed DeAndre Hunter, arguably the team’s best offensive player, who was unavailable to play due to a fractured wrist he suffered in
the ACC Tournament. The most impressive aspect of the game was the attitude UMBC possessed entering the game. They walked into the game knowing they were good enough to hang with the nation’s best team and showcased
See March Madness Page 15
Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/TNS
No. 13 Buffalo's Montell McRae makes a defensive move against No. 5 Arizona guard Allanzo Trier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament West Regional.
Demon Deacons earn ninth place in Evans Derby The womens' golf program is on the rise leading up to the NCAA Tournament BY ABBY MCMULLEN Staff Writer mcmauj17@wfu.edu
The Wake Forest women’s golf team finished ninth in the Evans Derby Experience tournament in Auburn, Alabama above Ole Miss, Mississippi St. and the University of Michigan. Coming in first for the Deacs was junior Jennifer Kupcho from Westminister, Colo. with a three-day combined score of 213, landing her twelfth in the tournament. The Deacs' ninth-place finish came after two days of being tied for eighth place with Louisville. Finishing first in the tournament was junior Maria Fassi of the Arkansas Razorbacks, with a three-day combined score of 202.
Prior to this, the Wake Forest finished third in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate tournament in Hilton Head Island, SC, only placing behind Alabama and Arkansas in a pool of contestants described as a pretty competitive field. Heading the scoreboards for the Demon Deacons was Emilia Migliaccio, shooting 70-71-72 in each of the three rounds to finish third overall with a score of 213. Migliaccio, a freshman from Cary, NC, attended Athens Drive High School and is a three-time Rolex Junior All-American. She was also the recipient of a first-team selection in 2016. The Deacs now look forward to the Bryan National Collegiate tournament in Browns Summit, NC before preparing for the ACC Championship which will be held in Greensboro, NC. The team hopes the momentum established in the success of these last two tournaments will push them for-
ward towards even greater achieve- Carolina in first place followed by ment in both regionals and nation- Duke in second. als. Currently leading the conference standings is The University of North See Golf Page 15
Photo Courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Junior Jennifer Kupcho had a combined score of 213 and a twelfth-place finish in the Evans Derby Experience tournament in Ole Miss, MS last week.
Page 12 | Thursday, March 22, 2018
Old Gold & Black | Sports
Teams emerge in both divisions before playoffs Several teams are in contention for the Stanley Cup Final before the 2018 playoff season begins BY SAMANTHA WEXLER Contributing Writer wexlsn17@wfu.edu Everyone seems to be getting into summer sports mode, with spring training games, college pro days and the NFL draft coming soon. It seems ironic that when all this swings into high gear, so does the National Hockey League. It seems a little weird, especially from the perspective of a Chicago Blackhawks fan, that teams are hoisting a trophy they won in a winter sport at a parade in June. Regardless, this year will be another great year of games leading to the Stanley Cup final series. There’s been a bit of shifting in the past few years, with the Penguins taking the reins from the alternation of the Blackhawks and Kings for the title. Where will the title end up this year? Let’s take a look. Eastern Conference For five of the original six teams, the Eastern conference has always had a strong fan base. This year, the competition among top teams in the Metropolitan division has been a feisty one. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and
the Washington Capitals are head-to-head to clinch the division title, and the competition seems it will ride out to the last few games of the season. The Flyers are hanging around too, and with a strong finish could challenge for that title. In the Atlantic Division, barring unforeseen circumstances, the Tampa Bay Lightning look to be on track to clinch the title. If their strong play continues, it is likely that they will be the number one seed overall in the Eastern Conference as well. Contenders in the playoffs from the Atlantic Division are the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs. They are a little ways from the Lightning at the top of the standings but are in a position where they will be in the playoffs regardless, so they can play without that pressure weighing on them. Teams on the bubble who could all end up clinching a wild card spot are the New Jersey Devils, the Columbus Blue Jackets and maybe Wake Forest’s hometown team, the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes currently only have about a 10 percent chance of making the playoffs, but crazier things have happened. Western Conference In the Western Conference, the new man on campus is very much the Nashville Predators. After winning the conference and losing in the Stanley Cup Final, the team is
Anthony Souffle/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS
Nashville Predators’ Craig Smith jumps over Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk after teammate P.K. Stubban makes a goal to win a regular season game.
obviously all-in as seen through bold trades to get stars to build this year’s roster. Their probability to win the Central Division is continually going as the season progresses, with their only real challenger being the Winnipeg Jets. A surprising team making a run this year is the Las Vegas Golden Knights in their first year of existence. Given the opportunity to grab unrestricted players from every team, their scouts did a great job in bringing together an all-around impressive team that is currently at the top of the Pacific Division. They’ll be a team to watch simply due to a Las Vegas fanbase and their historic first season that no one saw coming. The wild-card spots this year are going to be a tough race, as always, in the Western Conference. Ana-
heim, San Jose, Dallas, Los Angeles, Colorado, Calgary, St. Louis and Minnesota are within about five points in the standings, give or take, so those spots could really go to any of them. Minnesota, San Jose, Colorado and Los Angeles are looking the best at the moment, but in the Western Conference there is really no telling until the last game has been played. All in all, this looks to be an interesting year in the playoffs with very strong teams leading the field on both sides. There’s also some great stories this year like the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ historic first season and the apparent reign of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Will they accomplish the historic feat of a three-peat, or will someone beat them to it?
March Madness: half of top-seeded teams are eliminated Continued from Page 11
After a dramatic opening round to the tournament, it seemed the second round could not possibly be as crazy, but that was the opposite of the case. Many of Saturday’s games went as expected, with Villanova, Duke and Kentucky all putting their opponents away easily. Many of the other games, however, were quite exciting. The Houston-Michigan game was the day’s especially thrilling matchup. The game was tied at 28 at the half and continued to go back-and-forth throughout the second half. Much like in Houston’s prior game, Rob Gray led the way with 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Michigan got a balanced offensive attack. The game came down to the wire and after Houston’s Devin Davis missed two potential game-icing free throws with four seconds remaining, Michigan had an opportunity to tie or win the game down 63-61. Michigan inbounded the ball to Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, who dribbled and passed to freshman Jordan Poole, miraculously drilling a highlycontested desperation heave from thirty feet to win the game for Michigan and send them on to the Sweet 16. It may be hard to believe, considering all the madness of the opening weekend, but Sunday was arguably the tourna-
ment’s most exciting day. In the early After Macura fouled out, Trevon Blui- With four of the top eight-seeded teams part of the day, No. 11 Syracuse defeated ett surrendered a couple of costly shots already out, it is truly anyone’s tournaNo. 3 Michigan State in easily the ug- that allowed Florida State back into the ment moving forward. Fans can only liest game of the tournament. Syracuse game to retake the lead and eventually hope the final two weekends are half as was outrebounded 51-30, made just one win the game. exciting as the opening weekend. three-pointer and only had three assists but still managed to defeat the Spartans 55-53 thanks to Michigan State’s 25.8 percent overall shooting percentage for the game. No. 7 Texas A&M shockingly routed No. 2 North Carolina in a practical home game for the Tar Heels in Charlotte, NC. Thanks to dominant play from its big men and great three-point shooting, the Aggies got up 20 early in the second half and never looked back from that point. Sunday’s madness truly started during the Cincinnati-Nevada game. No. 2 Cincinnati was up 22 points with 11 minutes left and then somehow forgot how to score the basketball and protect a lead. Cincinnati did not connect on a field goal in the game’s final six minutes and blew a massive lead, allowing Nevada to pull off the unbelievable upset 75-73. The other shocking upset of the night was between No. 1 Xavier and No. 9 Florida State. Xavier was in control most of the second half but got into serious foul trouble late. The turning point of the game came with about three minutes David T. Foster III/Charlotte Observer/TNS left when Xavier star J.P. Macura fouled Texas A&M guard T.J. Starks spins toward the basket during the second out on a questionable charge call. round of the NCAA tournament. The No. 7 Aggies beat No.2 North Carolina.
Sports | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 13
Spotlight: Jessie Bates III BY LEO KONE Contributing Writer konell15@wfu.edu Jessie Bates III came to Wake Forest in 2015 as a three-star recruit with few offers from power five schools. After redshirting for a season, the Fort Wayne, Indiana native made himself known the following season and was recognized as a Freshman All-American. In his short career at Wake Forest, Jessie Bates III recorded 177 tackles, forced two fumbles and caught six interceptions. After two impressive seasons the redshirt sophomore decided to leave Wake Forest for the NFL. He is now projected to be drafted as early as the first round. He would be the first Deacon since Kevin Johnson in 2015 to be drafted in the first round. Leo Kone: For someone who has never seen you play, who would you compare yourself to in the NFL? Jessie Bates III: I would compare myself to a couple of different players in the NFL. The first is Tyrann Mathieu because of his ball-hawking ability and ability to return the ball for scores. I would also compare myself to Micah Hyde; he’s not the most talented player, but his preparation leads him to the success that he has on Sunday’s. That’s what I take pride in as well. LK: You have a lot of highlights in your career as a Demon Deacon, what would you say is your favorite moment playing for Wake Forest? JB3: I would say my favorite moment came when I was a redshirt freshman. We were playing Virginia and I caught an interception that I took to the house. That was probably the most exciting moment and it was our sixth win that season, which sent us to a bowl game for the first time in a while. LK: What has it been like being a part of a program that has gone from 3-9 to 8-5 and back-to-back bowl wins? JB3: Clawson has done a great job building the program through recruiting the right guys who love football. Just seeing the program transition from a losing team to a winning team has been amazing. The guys on the team just keep raising the bar and that’s why we continue to win games. LK: Is there a coach that had an impact on you during your time here at Wake Forest?
me improve my game. Also, Coach Hourigan, the strength coach. I came in at 170 as a redshirt freshman and I gained 20 to 25 pounds. So I think he has had a huge impact on me as a football player and as a man. LK: When you decided to enter the draft, there were a lot of things that NFL scouts and coaches wanted you to improve. What was that like, preparing for the draft knowing you had your work cut out for you? JB3: When I was preparing for the draft I knew that I had to gain a little bit more weight, especially because I was losing weight during the season. As I was training in Tampa, FL I gained about 11 pounds. I was weighing 203 in Florida and I ended up weighing 201 at the combine. I definitely knew what I had to do and I did it. That helped my draft stock. LK: You were a three-star recruit coming out of high school and a lot of people questioned your decision to leave school for the NFL. What would you say to those who doubted you and does that motivate you? JB3: I think that what motivates me is just being able to put on for my city — Fort Wayne, IN. Just knowing that it’s such a small town and a lot of guys don’t get recruited. Being able to be a role model for the kids there is amazing. I just want to show them that they can follow in my footsteps and believe in themselves, which is a motto that I go by. To the doubters, I mean this is just the beginning and I hope they keep doubting me because it pushes me ten times harder. LK: What was the original grade that NFL scouts were giving you and what was your motivation to leave for the draft?
LK: Mike Tomlin, the Steelers head coach, was at your pro day. What was that like, to have such a respected coach come to watch you? JB3: That was an awesome experience just because you grow up watching Mike Tomlin on TV with the Steelers and they’ve been a powerhouse in the NFL. He was also a great guy to meet and talk to; he just seemed like a regular dude. And the fact that he’s watching my film now is awesome as well. LK: People have compared you to Kevin Johnson, who went in the first round in 2015 and was also a three-star recruit out of high school. Has he given you any advice through this process? JB3: Yes. I talked to Kevin before I decided to declare. I asked him if I should leave or not, and he told me that you just have to believe in yourself and trust your gut. Now that I have declared, we still talk and he has just been telling me that it’s time to go and get it. Kevin has been there for me through this process and I thank him for that.
Personal Profile Hometown: Fort Wayne, IN Position: Defensive Back Height: 6-2 Weight: 205 lb. Accolades: -Entering the 2018 NFL Draft -177 career tackles at Wake Forest -2 career forced fumbles and 6 career interceptions -Freshman All-American in 2016
LK: How do you want to be remembered at Wake Forest? JB3: I want to be remembered as more than just an athlete. I think I created a great network here and built relationships that are going to last me a lifetime. I think I have taken advantage of getting to know everyone, even the parking lady. I think I’ll leave the legacy of Jessie Bates being a great guy and a great football player.
JB3: Obviously the decision to leave was very difficult. The main grade that I was getting from
JB3: I would definitely say Mike Elko, but he’s gone. He left for Notre Dame and now he’s at Texas A&M. I think that the relationship that we built definitely helped
Deac Notes
scouts was third round, so I kind of took a leap of faith. Like I said earlier, I knew what I had to do to raise my draft stock and that was to run a good 40 and put a little bit more weight on. Now I feel like a lot of teams are liking what I can do. Coming out I knew what I was capable of and I always believed in myself.
Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Wake Forest men’s tennis team tops Duke to remain undefeated
Men’s basketball player Keyshawn Woods announces that he is leaving the team
The Wake Forest men’s tennis team, which is ranked No. 1 nationally, topped No. 18 Duke 6-1 on Wednesday, March 21, to improve to 13-0 this season. The doubles team of junior Petros Chrysochos and freshman Bar Botzer won a tight match to seal a doubles victory, and the singles matches were dominated by Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons will travel south to play Miami and Florida State this weekend.
Redshirt junior Keyshawn Woods, who was named to the ACC All-Academic Team this season, announced Wednesday, March 21, that he will not be returning to the men’s basketball team next season. Woods will graduate in May, and he will then decide if he wants to pursue a career at the professional level or transfer to another institution for his final year of eligibility. Woods was an integral part of the Demon Deacon offense in 2017-18.
Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Old Gold & Black | Sports
Page 14 | Thursday, March 22, 2018
Baseball defeats top ACC opponents Demon Deacons earn series victories over Florida State and Louisville BY REN SCHMITT Sports Editor schmwm16@wfu.edu After a somewhat rocky start against non-conference opponents, the Wake Forest baseball team managed series victories against two formidable ACC opponents — Florida State and Louisville — and the team now appears poised to make a run as a sleeper in the ACC. Florida State traveled to Winston-Salem for a three-game series against the Demon Deacons on March 10, and after dropping game one, they battled back to sweep the remainder of the series. The turning point of the series was likely freshman outfielder DJ Poteet’s walk-off three-run homer in game two, which gave Wake Forest a 4-3 win. Game three went smoothly, as the Demon Deacons cruised to an 8-1 victory in the rubber match to secure the series win. Sophomore Morgan McSweeney continued his success on the mound, cruising through 6.1 innings and allowing just three hits and a run. The series victory sent an important message to the rest of the ACC, as the
young team proved themselves capable of matching up against top competition. At the time of the series, the Seminoles were the No. 3-ranked team in the nation. The team again solidified its reputation within the ACC against the No. 11 Louisville Cardinals, as the Demon Deacons once again came through in game three to earn a 2-1 series victory. Junior Griffin Roberts started game one for the Demon Deacons, and his performance further verified that his transition into a starting pitching role has been successful. Roberts allowed just one run across 8.1 dominant innings and struck out 13 Cardinals. Roberts currently possesses a K/9 of 13.62, a remarkable figure for a starting pitcher. His dominance earned him an ACC Pitcher of the Week award on Monday, March 19. Poteet turned in another heroic performance against Louisville, as he hit his second walk-off home run of the week in game one to lift Wake Forest to a 2-1 victory. Poteet’s transition from high school into college baseball has been nearly seamless. The switch-hitting outfielder from Johns Creek, Georgia has compiled a .261/.402/.507 slash line and has started in every game this season.
His expeditious adjustment to the college level kickstarted the Wake Forest offense and has been an integral part of the team’s ability to develop into a contender in 2018. The Demon Deacons blew a 6-2 lead in game two of the series, allowing the Cardinals to plate nine unanswered runs, setting Wake Forest up for an important game three. Junior third baseman Johnny Aiello came out swinging in the series cap, launching a grand slam in the first inning of the game to give Wake Forest an early cushion. Aiello has recovered from
his early season slump, raising his batting average to .259 and his home run total to five. The Demon Deacons never gave back the lead and eventually managed a decisive 6-3 victory. Junior second baseman Jake Mueller continues to set the table at the top of the lineup with a .341 average and a .471 OBP. His consistency in the leadoff spot has also been an essential part of Wake Forest’s turnaround. The improved Demon Deacons will travel to Notre Dame over the weekend for another ACC series beginning on Friday March, 23.
Photo Courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Freshman outfielder DJ Poteet mashed two walk-off home runs this week against both Florida State and Louisville. He has started every game this season.
BNP Parabis Open at Indian Wells is a spectacle Juan Martin Del Potro beats Roger Federer after a 6-6 tiebreaker BY KYLE FERRER Opinion Editor ferrka16@wfu.edu The sun, like a quivering organ, brings the flimsy desert air to convulsion. To breathe in the dry heat of the desert is to drink up California’s oft referenced part. In Indian Wells, CA, the desiccant climate is whetted every year by the cool, shiny talent of the world’s best tennis players. John Fante captures both the desolation and the bursts of life of such a climate in his seminal L.A. novel Ask The Dust: “The desert was always there, a patient white animal, waiting for men to die, for civilizations to flicker and pass into the darkness. Then men seemed brave to me, and I was proud to be numbered among them. All the evil of the world seemed not evil at all, but inevitable and good and part of that endless struggle to keep the desert down.” This endless struggle to “keep the desert down,” is epitomized by the tournament at Indian Wells, where the struggle suspends into a wondrous fortnight of competition. A contestation of spirits hovered above center court at the BNP Paribas Open on
Sunday, as Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro competed for the Masters 1000 title. The match, while expected to be a violent clash of power and grace, heightened into an existential arm-wrestle. It became an unstable substance, that precious and precarious spectacle that fans both dream and have nightmares about. The outcome was all but impossible to predict, the level of tennis so stratospheric, that one almost saw victory as Pyrrhic, as a sad comedown from genuine greatness. En route to the final, both Federer and Del Potro had to recover from a few stumbles. Del Potro catalogued two three-set wins, Federer just one, and each craved the California crown. Federer entered the tournament as the number one ranked men’s player in the world, a feat, at age thirty-six, deserving nothing short of deification. Federer was also 17-0 in 2018, another notch in a belt that has run out of notches. Del Potro, on the other hand, continues on his trajectory entitled “The Long Way Back.” Ever since his 2009 U.S. Open victory (over Federer), Del Potro has been continually decimated by injuries, and has been ascending with the deliberate pace of tortoise. But do not let Del Potro’s crawl a detract from his consummate skill; he is now “back,” and a force to be reckoned with.
The final match positioned itself from the start to be anthologized. It was quintessential play, but quintessential for Federer and Del Portro means the rest of us should seek cover. Del Potro captured the first set, 6-4, and seemed to be a click ahead of Federer, serving with crushing pace and hitting forehands that seemed to de-felt their objects of affection. In the second set, Federer looked sharper, and the whip of his swing comported itself with aplomb. He took the second set 7-6, winning the tiebreak 10-8 in nail-gnawing fashion. To the third we went, with love and with fear, not wishing the match to end, but loving the grace shown by extension. It seemed like a timeless rivalry (much akin to the old Federer-Nadal battles), that in reality hasn’t existed, but now in our dreams is firmly planted. Federer stepped ahead at 4-4, breaking Del Potro to go up 5-4 and serve for the championship. In a game whose brilliance could serve as a precis for the entire match, Del Potro fought off two championship points and somehow broke Federer in a flash of forehands and determination. The two wrestled all the way to a tiebreaker at 6-6, which Del Potro dominated in aberrant fashion, 7-2, winning the set, the match and the tournament. The outing on Sunday at Indian Wells proved these two men in opposition cre-
ate a synergistic spectacle it would be a sin to miss. To quote The New Yorker headline: “Is It Too Late For a Rivalry Between Roger Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro?” God I hope not.
John Cordes/Icon SMI/Zuma Press/
Swizerland’s Roger Federer serves at the BNP Parabis Open last week.
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 15
Sports | Old Gold & Black
Golf: Kupcho and Migliaccio make Palmer Cup Team Continued from Page 11
The Demon Deacons currently stand seventh in the conference. Particularly notable to the tale of the women’s golf team is the story of golfer Monica Schumacher. Schumacher is a junior from Orlando, FL, and up until April of her sophomore year was only a member of the university’s club team. It was when the team suffered from multiple injuries that she was asked to join the program just in time to make her debut in the ACC Championship, where she finished 60th as the team finished in 12th place, dead last. Moving forward from the discouraging finish of the 2017 spring season, Schumacher is much more optimistic of where the team is now and is proud of their improved performance. Junior Mai Dechathipat and sophomore Siyun Liu are largely responsible for this change in per-
spective, having just transferred in for the 2017-2018 season at Wake Forest after spending time on the golf teams at Auburn University and University of Illinois, respectively. Schumacher describes their presence as being very helpful to team performance and atmosphere. With the ACC Championships and NCAA Tournament quickly approaching, Schumacher is excited to see what’s to come of the program as incoming recruits appear promising and the comradery of the team continues to grow under the direction of Head Coach Dianna Dailey and Assistant Coach Ryan Potter. Perhaps foreshadowing the future success of the team in seasons to come is the recent announcement that team members Migliaccio and Kupcho have been named to the 2018 United States Palmer Cup Team. This honor will allow them to compete alongside other top collegiate
golfers from the U.S. as they face the best collegiate golfers from all over
Europe at the Evian Resort Gold Club in France this summer.
Photo Courtesy of Wake Forest Athletic Communications
Emilia Migliaccio (above) and Jennifer Kupcho have been selected to represent Wake Forest Womens’ Golf on the 2018 Palmer Cup Team.
Yankees’ Aaron Judge may be undervalued A breakdown of the MLB’s most over and underrated players BY JONATHAN BELL Staff Writer belljjh15@wfu.edu
Everywhere from the Northeast to right here in Winston-Salem, it seems that spring can’t come fast enough. While waiting for the inevitable warm weather to get here, we’ve had to deal with all sorts of weather, from the wind and rain to snow. The one constant that keeps us happy as we patiently wait inside for the weather to turn is the rapidly-approaching start of the baseball season. We have new players to look forward to watching on our favorite teams as the result of the wild MLB off-season (especially if you’re a fan of a team in the AL East). But have you ever wondered if that player you traded for or signed to a massive contract is worth it? I aim to solve this question. I first took every player on a team that appeared in 20 or more games over the MLB season from 2017 for each team. I then added up the total WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of all the players on said team to get the total team WAR. I decided to use WAR because it is, in my opinion, the best blanket statistic to determine a player’s value. I then added up each of these players’ salaries to get total team salary. After collecting this basic data, I
made four calculations to ultimately come to my conclusion. First, I calculated the percent of the salary cap that the player took up by dividing their salary by the total. I then did the same for WAR by dividing their individual WAR by the total WAR. Third, I calculated the players’ estimated dollar value by multiplying the percent of WAR that they accounted for by the salary cap, effectively determining what their actual dollar value was to the team in question. Finally, to look for players that were over or undervalued, I divided their percentage of total WAR by their percentage of the salary cap taken up. So, who is the most undervalued player in all of baseball? Well, as much as it pains this Bostonian to say, it’s Aaron Judge by an incredibly wide margin. Judge’s 8.1 WAR accounted for nearly 27 percent of his teams’ total production, an incredible margin that is top in the league. This fact, combined with his measly salary the league minimum of $535,500, means he accounted for 0.02 percent of his teams’ salary cap. Judge’s WAR-to-salary ratio of 96 means that he accounted for 96 times the amount of production for his team than salary. The model projects him to be worth around $52 million rather than the $535 thousand he actually is paid. Another interesting question is: which player is the least valuable in baseball? This answer is slightly more saddening to baseball fans as the answer comes into one of the
games’ most successful players of all time, Albert Pujols. The three-time National League MVP signed a gigantic contract in 2012 for 10 years and $240 million with the Angels that was doomed from the beginning, but it’s unclear if anyone could have predicted just how bad Pujols would regress to become. Pujols was worth a ghastly
-1.8 WAR this year but took up a shocking 17 percent of his teams’ total salary. My model projects Pujols to be worth an unspeakable -$10.6 million. Pujols’ season was so bad that it prompted such articles as one on SBnation, “Albert Pujols is having the worst season for a 37-year-old in MLB history.”
Christian K. Lee/Los Angeles Times/TNS
Albert Pujols takes a swing during a game against the Lost Angeles Angels on June 28. He has won the National League MVP three times in his career.
LIFE
T H U R S D AY, M A R C H 2 2 , 2 0 1 8
PA G E 1 6
O n l i n e at : w w w. w f u o g b. co m e d i t o r s : Emily Beauchamp, beauea17@wfu.edu Olivia Field, fielor17@wfu.edu A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R : S a r a h B o y c e , b o y c s e 1 5 @ w f u . e d u
OLD GOLD & BLACK
Filmmaker brings unique vision During a lecture at Scales Fine Arts Center, Michel Van der Aa shared his cinematic and musical work with engrossed Wake Forest students. BY WILLIAM MAY Contributing Writer mayws16@wfu.edu A woman ascends a ladder through a hole, reaching a barren desert. An old man covers his left eye while a variety of urban stills flash behind him. An elderly woman gazes at a mirror while her movements are mimicked by a cellist opposite her. What do these series of images have in common, other than their consistently turbulent classical background scores? They all originate from the works of Dutch artist, Michel van der Aa, whose projects have a worldwide impact, even within our own Wake Forest bubble. Van der Aa is truly a jack-of-all-trades — a filmmaker who combines music and imagery in a unique and expressive way, creating intriguing art films that greatly stimulate the senses. His films are usually quite lacking in dialogue and tend to provide very little context regarding the images onscreen, and thus tend to feature a great amount of symbolism in the rich and sometimes frightening imagery. He has written and created numerous multimedia works for the screen and stage, including films and operas that are still often revived. He is currently working on the premiere for his fourth opera, Sunken Garden. The artist has received numerous awards for powerful work, including the International Gaudeamus Prize in 1999. Some of our very own Deacs saw the man in the flesh on the night of Thursday March 15, when Wake Forest’s Interdisciplinary Performance and the Liberal Arts Center, also known as IPLACe, presented “An Evening with Michel van der Aa.” This was a talk in which the eponymous direc
Photo Courtesy of Emanuele Torquati
While Van de Aa’s film Transit is projected onto the wall, a pianist accompanies the dramatic black and white images. With complex ideas and themes at play, Van der Aa’s perplex work is often hard to grasp.
tor screened one of his films, Transit, featuring accompaniment from live pianist Louis Goldstein in Brendle Recital Hall in the Scales Fine Arts Center. Following the performance, Van der Aa gave a lecture during which he described his creative methods and his own personal history. A lively questionand-answer session followed the talk. The presentation of Transit was a powerful introduction to the talk, especially for the uninitiated. The film was shot with a stark black and white palette, and displayed footage of an old man in his home, featuring frequent cuts of doors and urban images spliced throughout. The film was accompanied by a meticulously constructed modernist piano soundtrack, played by Louis Goldstein with power and precision. The imagery was rich and heavy, and combining it with the eerie soundtrack created a truly unique and surreal mood. Following the performance of his work, Van der Aa began the lecture portion of his visit. He began by discussing his own personal history, from his beginnings in studying sound engineering to his moving on to the study of film. He played clips from several of his other works, detailing the vast range of Photo Courtesy of Jean Trowbridge
methods that he uses to bring his art to life. A particularly impressive work of his, “Book of Sand,” was constructed as an interactive three-level website that featured the same piece, played in three different styles for each level. Van der Aa even said he had a virtual reality installation in the works. However, the extravagant style of the artworks was not universally loved by all. “This is nice, I guess,” said sophomore David Bumsted. “But I don’t think I really get it.” This expression of perplexity could be a natural reaction to the composer’s creative and expressionistic choices, as the mood generated by his work may seem fairly alien to those who are unfamiliar with the genre. Not every Wake Forest student felt the same way, however, as shown by piano student Andrew Murphy who attended a lunch with Van der Aa earlier on Thursday. “We talked primarily about the intersections of music and the other arts,” Murphy said. “Mr. Van der Aa is very interested in combining the arts, including technology. He said this is natural; Wagner, he said, would have used film were he alive today.” While Van der Aa’s work is clearly not for everyone, his synthesis of music and technology is a powerful one, suggesting that classical music has indeed adapted to the 2018 internet era. His work is undoubtedly complex and potent, even for those who are largely uninitiated into the world of art films. For those interested in his innovative vision, many of his works are available on his website.
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 17
Life | Old Gold & Black
Food Review | Vegan Options
Plant-based eating can be simple Wake Forest allows for students to live a plant-based lifestyle with ease
Top Ten Places to Live on Campus
In light of housing selection this week, here are the best places to live on campus.
BY OLIVIA FIELD Life Editor fielor17@wfu.edu Whenever I tell people that I’ve been vegan for almost five years, I often receive one of two responses: “Wow, I can’t even go one day without meat,” or “Oh, so do you only eat grass or something?” For those considering pursuing a plant-based lifestyle, Wake Forest actually offers a myriad of tasty options that make it truly easy to avoid meat and other animal products. In an effort to advocate for a vegan diet, here are my go-to options for on-campus dining. When eating in the Benson Food Court, I usually opt for Moe’s Southwest Grill or Forest Greens for a sustaining, balanced meal. At Moe’s, for instance, I will get a burrito with a base of black beans, mushrooms and onions for flavor, as well as a good source of protein. When I am feeling a lot less hungry, I will grab a sandwich from Forest Greens instead. There, I pile pita bread with hummus, another source of protein, and as many veggies as possible. The P.O.D. and 336 Market also offer a large variety of snacks and food products for vegans. In the refrigerated section, they have plant-based cheese and butter products.
By Lillian Johnson
1.
Taylor Kitchin
Olivia Field/Old Gold & Black
At the Fresh Food Co., the vegan station has varied options for both lunch and dinner, while almost always including a delicious dessert. Although slightly hidden near the dish drop off, the vegan section of the Fresh Food Co. is, of course, the best choice on campus for those experimenting with the diet. The healthiest and most varied dishes are served here, changing for lunch and dinner every day. Almost always including a grain, vegetable and source of protein, this station is a reliable staple for all college vegans. On top of the variety, they almost always serve desserts made without eggs and dairy. While
at school, it can be hard for vegans to enjoy sweet treats, but with everything from brownies to fruit cakes up for grabs, sugar cravings can be fixed with ease. Wake Forest is continuing to expand their vegan options for students, and these efforts are paying off. With options like the “Impossible Burger” at Shorty’s and Meatless Tuna poke bowls featured at Fresh Food Co, it is becoming even easier to live a plantbased lifestyle on campus.
Event Review | Wake the People Laugh
Comedy flourishes at open mic night This bimonthly event allows students to take the stage and share their jokes BY LILLIAN JOHNSON News Editor johnlg16@wfu.edu Late on Monday evening, Campus Grounds wasn’t filled with light chatter or the sounds of students studying. Instead, the front room was filled with roaring laughter as students performed stand-up comedy as a part of Wake the People Laugh open mic nights. Sophomore Lucy Porter, along with seniors Ellie King and Sam Ederle, started the open mic nights at Campus Grounds after realizing there was a need for stand-up comedy on campus. Wake the People Laugh open mic nights occur every two weeks and are open to anyone interested. Porter performed an individual stand-up show last semester, called Lucy Porter Is: Trying Her Best. It was the response to this event that inspired her to begin open mic nights. “[Wake the People Laugh] consistently sees a diverse group of people from all pockets of Wake Forest both supporting and performing; there’s a lot of potential to grow a vibrant comedy community here,” Porter said. “That’s my main goal for Wake the People Laugh: to generate an open and creative space for everyone to feel comfortable to explore the world of comedy.” On Monday night, eight people performed, including Porter and King, who hosted the event. The student comedians, many of
THE HOT LIST
Photo courtesy of Lucy Porter
Senior Ellie King helped start comedy open mic night at Campus Grounds. whom were doing stand-up for the first time, had the audience laughing the entire time. The stories and jokes they told were relatable to our campus, like how the sororities are all over Instagram right now claiming that they love Machi the most. Freshman Rawson Clough told a story about the mishaps of group projects (moral of the story: don’t be the slacker in the group). Junior David VanEenenaam talked about the stupidity of the Tide Pod Challenge, joking that if you put “challenge” at the end of anything, it will be bound to go viral. Keeping in mind that Easter falls on April Fool’s Day this year, junior Maggie Powell named Jesus’ resurrection the best April Fool’s prank of all time. Several of the first-time performers agreed that this nerve-wracking experience allowed them to step outside of their comfort zones. For freshman Davis Jack, who has now performed twice, those nerves have given way to an appreciation of comedy.
“After my first open mic performance, I quickly fell in love with the showmanship of stand-up and, more importantly, the joy it gave to the people watching,” Jack said. VanEenenaam said he wasn’t sure about his material until moments before he arrived at Campus Grounds, but pointed out that he would immediately know if it was funny or not. King, a member of the Lilting Banshees and Editor-in-Chief of Fake Worest, echoed these sentiments. “It’s always nerve-racking getting on stage and trying to make people laugh, particularly when you are performing original content,” King said. “It’s a really vulnerable thing to present creative work in front of an audience, especially under the expectation that it’s supposed to be funny. You get immediate feedback from the audience on whether you were successful, and that can sometimes feel daunting.” Even if the audience could tell that the performers were nervous, they didn’t show it. The atmosphere of the evening was relaxed and the audience was very accepting of the performers. Both Powell and VanEenenaam noted that they had friends in the audience, so they would have people to support them no matter what. Even if your friends aren’t laughing at your jokes, they can (allowably) laugh at you. Porter offered some advice for those thinking about breaking into stand-up comedy. “Keep in mind that every single person, from first-timers to Jerry Seinfeld, have bombed at some point, so you can’t take it personally” she said. To find out more information about future open mic nights, visit the Wake Forest Comedy Facebook page.
3. 5.
Magnolia Davis Polo Dogwood
7.
Poteat Huffman
9.
NCA Luter (not as a freshman)
DRINK OF THE WEEK
• • • • • •
1 cup coconut milk 1 cup water 1 cup frozen strawberries 1 tablespoon raw honey 1 tbsp. cocoa butter 1 tsp. vanilla
Add all ingredients into a small sauce pan over medium heat. Warm until cocoa butter is melted, strawberries are thawed and coconut milk it warm. Add mix to blender and enjoy!
Courtesy of The Organic Dietitian
Page 18 | Thursday, March 22, 2018
Old Gold & Black | Life
Movie Review | Love, Simon
Love, Simon is a story long overdue Love, Simon lives up to the publicity it recieved before being released and has had a significant impact on the LGBTQ community BY LILLIAN JOHNSON News Editor johnlg16@wfu.edu Romantic comedies and coming-of-age movies have long been compared to the cinematic standards set by John Hughes’ 1980’s classics. Last weekend, a majorstudio movie was released that finally lived up to and, in a progressive twist, upended those Hughesian ideals and tropes. Love, Simon is groundbreaking, many critics agree, but it is groundbreaking for its normalcy. Based on the Young Adult novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, the movie tells the story of high school senior Simon Spier. In the opening narration, Simon describes how he is just like everyone else. He has a great group of friends (who, typical of every sleep-deprived teen, drink way too much coffee) and a wonderful, somewhat stereotypical family. Except he’s got one huge secret: he’s gay. Love, Simon, much unlike movies of the past which have relegated the gay character to minor status, treats his sexuality as just another facet of his identity. It’s not his only defining quality. But, it does end up defining his senior year. Simon begins corresponding over email with another closeted student at his high school who goes by “Blue.” Throughout the movie, Simon, who has also gone by a pseudonym, is desperate to decode the identity of his mystery emailer and attempts to insert every possible
guy into his romantic fantasies. Unfortunately, this is all complicated by Martin, a strange and occasionally cruel classmate who finds the emails. Martin threatens to “out” Simon if he does not help Martin date his friend Abby. Nobody wants to be ‘that guy’ in the theater: the one who comments on the movie to his friends, much to the chagrin of the fellow moviegoers. However, everyone in the theater on the opening night of Love, Simon in Winston-Salem was ‘that guy.’ The group of friends I attended the movie with couldn’t help but whisper something to our neighbor, nor could the hoards of people behind us. Soundtracked to the loud eruption of applause by moviegoers, Simon gets his happy ending when it all works out, like it does in all romantic comedies. Leading up to its release, Love, Simon received a lot of hype, with it constantly being promoted on social media. While the movie deserved that publicity, it failed to recognize what would be the importance of a movie like this. Simon’s coming out to his parents is ideal, and it is so for a reason: to serve as a model which all families should strive for. Many members of the LGBTQ community — including ones online and the ones I attended the movie with — have said that they wish they had seen a movie like this when they were younger. Further, members of the LGBTQ community have expressed the validity of another core element of Simon’s story: being unwantedly outed. This still happens on a regular basis. Love, Simon advocates for LGBTQ people to be in control who they come out to, when they come out and how they come out. Director Greg Berlanti grew up in the 1980’s: the era of John Hughes’ classic teen romance movies. Having been a closeted gay teen himself, Berlanti knew the significant impact that Love, Simon would have for the LGBTQ community.
Photo courtesy of imdb.com
The new film, Love, Simon, refreshingly explores the romantic tropes with the story of Simon Spier. “There’s as many different kinds of the LGBTQ experience as there are different kinds of people, as there are different kinds of straight people,” said Berlanti in an interview with NPR. “And so hopefully this film makes it easier for them to tell their story in whatever kind of way they want to tell their story.” Love, Simon at times is predictable, but it is long overdue.
Video Game Review | Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch continues to succeed Nintendo released strong games to accompany the release of the Nintendo Switch, ultimately increasing sales BY MICHAEL LITTRELL Staff Writer littmp16@wfu.edu
The Nintendo Switch has been out for a little over a year now and it has certainly had its ups and downs receiving a lot of praise as well as a lot of criticism. For one, the Switch sold well. Almost too well, in fact. The Nintendo Switch was the fastest-selling console to date, selling even better than the Wii in its first few days in the Americas and Europe. After the disappointing sales from the Wii U, this was a very positive shift for Nintendo, and supply was not prepared to meet the demand, causing the Switch to be fairly difficult to obtain for months after release. Part of the Switch’s success was due to its strong games right out of the gate. The system released alongside that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which received very positive reviews. Within its first year, Nintendo released many mostly well-received games such as Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey and Arms. The company has also shown an interesting shift towards including more third-party content on the con-
: QUESTION TRIVIA
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
The Nintendo Switch has done well in its first year, however, it has had its praises and criticisms.
sole with examples such as the Bethesda ports and an embrace of independent developer content being released and actively promoted on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has also shown their continuous commitment to developing ambitious and unique projects, which they have become known for. This is shown not just by the nature of the Switch being both for the home and on the go, but also by Nintendo Labo, a
Q: Who is the Wake Forest 2018-2019 Speaker of the House?
A: Will Hargrove
gaming experience that has the player build cardboard items allowing game controllers to be used in unique ways. This hasn’t been released yet, so it is too soon to say how this will be received. Since it is a unique project and Nintendo has had very mixed outcomes with their ambitious innovations throughout their entire history, it is difficult to predict how it will turn out. While praised for its early releases and its ability to successfully run games previously thought to be out of Nintendo’s realm (such as the games from Bethesda), the Switch has received criticism from day one about its lack of non-gaming applications like Netflix, YouTube and a web browser. Applications like these have become expected on gaming systems, and their absence from the Switch (with the exception of Hulu) has made many uncomfortable and asking when (or if ) these will become a part of the Nintendo Switch in the future. Overall, the hybrid handheld and home system from Nintendo still seems to be going strong. The recentlyreleased game Kirby Star Allies hit number two on the UK video game sales charts and the recent Super Smash Brothers announcement has excited many fans of the system. Currently, the Switch is at a crossroads as it comes out of a period of uncertainty between major announcements. Nintendo could continue to uphold the standards they have set in this first year and the Switch could continue to develop and thrive, or they could fall back into Wii U-era habits and the Switch could begin to decline.
This question will be featured in the Tuesday Trivia night, taking place on March 27 at Shorty’s
Life | Old Gold & Black
Thursday, March 22, 2018 | Page 19
EX machina director explores death Through the beauty of science fiction, Annihilation does less to instruct than to cast a wide net of possibilities
BY KYLE FERRER Opinion Editor ferrka16@wfu.edu
Cold open. A single shot of a woman, seated, dressed in a white hospital uniform, spans the screen. She is disheveled. Her gaze is worn, battered, scared. Silence; then questions, to which she responds, mostly, “I don’t know.” After this terse tete-a-tete, the man in the hazmat suit says: “well, tell me what you do know.” And we’re off. Director Alex Garland’s new film, Annihilation, sits squarely in a philosophical morass. It may be a host of different things. A colloquy with mortality? Perhaps. A belletristic thesis on our species’ perpetual attempts to evade death’s rattle? Also plausible. The provocations are endless. One can see them as complex triumphs or invidious bemusements. The story centers around Lena (Natalie Portman), an ex-soldier, now in academia, who teaches biology at Johns Hopkins University. Her husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac), has been missing for a year, presumably killed in action. Lena is beleaguered by her loss, but mired in the astringent hope that comes from a door partially cracked. As she paints the couple’s bedroom a new coat of blue, her husband shows up in the doorway, silent and glazed. Lena embraces him, only to be met with awkward aplomb. As she tries to pry information out of her husband about his mission — what happened, where he was sent, even what base he flew into — the camera glides to focus on the image of Kane’s hand resting on the kitchen table, distorted and magnified by the water in his glass. Something has changed. For one, Kane is severely ill, and the two soon find themselves at a secure facility, “Area X.” A psychologist, Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason-Leigh), asks Lena what her husband told her about his operation. Lena replies with the truth, that she knows nothing. Ventress then explains to Lena that her husband went into “The Shimmer,” an undulating, soap-in-sunlight veil that houses a world behind it. This ectoplasmic entity has been blooming outward ever since its source crashed into a lighthouse on the coast. Lena is being
Photo courtesy of imdb.com
Photo courtesy of imdb.com
housed in a quarantine zone just outside the spreading shimmer. Her husband, Kane, went in to try to investigate the potential alien malignance that was spreading, and was the only one of his crew, and of the dozens of other crews, to return. Lena, reflecting on memories of her husband, who now lies near-death in a hospital bed, meets a group of three women (Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson and Tuva Novotny) working at the base. They tell her that they are going to travel into The Shimmer in six days’ time, and Lena decides to join them to try to understand her husband’s source of unraveling. The Shimmer, and the phenomena it contains, injects the film with a quite legitimate and omnipresent fear of annihilation. Similar to the ever-encroaching horror in It Follows, we feel as if always on the brink of total destruction, even as the characters exude a sort of naïve curiosity inside the beautiful and grotesque world of The Shimmer. While its environment may seem to roil with maleficent beasts, The Shimmer’s strangeness comes in its duality; it contains a certain beauty, as well as a certain horror. Lena and co. discover The Shimmer is itself not anathema to humanity, but warps us in a way the human intelligence chafes against. It is merely a prism that refracts everything within it (as is pointed out, radio waves are not destroyed, but scrambled), even human DNA. The Shimmer is not aimed at destroying, but “creating something new,” as Lena tells her hazmat interrogator. As it is stated in the film, those who venture inside The Shimmer either go crazy and kill everyone around them, or are killed by the things inside The Shimmer itself. These two notions converge at what may be the film’s larger didactic point. As humans we resent time. We resent death and the process of becoming older, because it is all out of our control. The Shimmer is an attempt to transcend our earthy options, to find something that makes time mutable. This is our ultimate desire, to somehow repurpose our short clips of life into something eternal. As Lena says during a flashback with Kane: “People think aging is a natural process, but it is actually just a fault in our genes.” What The Shimmer really does is difficult to define. But what
seems to lend it attraction is the Flamelian possibility of immortality in another form. Our desire to obviate age, to revolt against death, is at the very heart of the human experience. The Shimmer takes every cell of our being and incorporates them into its mutated, infant world. It erases our memories and inculcates us into a new environment. We are eluding death, just as we hoped, but we aren’t sure we like how we’re doing it. Forgetting our world and the memories we’ve cathected onto, cut into space and time, is a sad and terrible annihilation. Lena and her squad dive deep into this netherworld they struggle to understand, and their humanities are turned insideout by native creatures and native notions. “Native” to The Shimmer, alien to us. Despite all of these endlessly devolving provocations, the film, on a purely aesthetic level, is a beautiful one. The world created by Garland and cinematographer Rob Hardy is one of visual entrapment. One is swept up by the rolling beauty of the cinemascape. This genre-beast perfectly joins the terrifying and the beautiful to create the sublime. Consequently, the haunting, ominous score, composed by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, undertones the film with an exceptional dread in opposition to the gorgeous landscape. Enigmatic beauty is brought along, wrestling its own sounds of horror. Perhaps, though, the biggest pitfall of Annihilation is its director’s creative wet dream, delivered to us at the end. The final thirty or so minutes (minus the last five) are a confusing, creative embellishment, whipping with visual filigree that leaves the viewer ambivalent and partially aghast. It is a departure from the steadily stunning towards the unsettlingly overstimulated, essentially elaborate nonsense that takes away from all the other virtues of the film. That said, Annihilation is still very much a film worth seeing, if simply for its aesthetic triumphs and philosophical inquiry. We need more of both. In an age of CGI-ed boom-scapes and trifles pretending to be films, Alex Garland’s Annihilation seems to reach for something satisfyingly deeper. As to what the film is definitively saying, my answer is the same as Lena’s: “I don’t know.”
Page 20 | Thursday, March 22, 2018
Old Gold & Black | Life
The best albums of the decade New music comes out so frequently, it’s easy to forget to look back and appreciate the most noteworthy albums of our time. In an effort to memorialize the lyrical and rythmic genius of these artists, here are the most memorable albums of the 2010s. BY DANIEL PACHINO News Editor pachdb15@wfu.edu
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
Frank Ocean (2016)
KANYE WEST (2013)
This is one of the most special and unique albums to be released in recent memory. Frank Ocean strategically blends melancholy, unobtrusive instrumentals to compliment his overpowering vocals and poetic lyrics. The album serves as a very transparent looking glass into who the ever-elusive Frank Ocean truly is. It is filled with intense thought and feeling, provoking thoughts centered around deep and passionate love, the value of loneliness, and a desire to reach new heights.
Yeezus is the most vulnerable we’ve seen Kanye West on a record since 808s & Heartbreak. Yeezus is a dark, lewd and brash record, a complete 180 from its predecessor, the maximalist My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is widely held as Kanye’s perfect album. It is by no means the easiest album to listen to, but sonically, there has never been an album like it. The album is very minimalistic-sounding and screams the idea that less is more through its digitized sounds and lack of cohesion. West continually tells tales of his vulnerability, and his broken-down emotions have hardly ever been more on full display.
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
Bon iver (2016) Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon is most recognizable as a folk artist, but on the band’s third full-length album, he takes an unexpected and welcomed turn towards the experimental. However, many ideas of loneliness and emotions fleeting into darkness seen on For Emma, Forever Ago remain, ever-present on this album, even if many of his songs musical backings replace his soft strumming of the guitar with an avant-garde electronic sensation. Throughout, Vernon poses numerous existential questions, as heard at the album’s onset when he asks, “Where you gonna look for confirmation? / And if it’s ever gonna happen.” Listening to this album provides an unusual combined feeling of both joy and longing despair, making it one of the most memorable in recent memory.
Kendrick Lamar (2015) To Pimp a Butterfly is unequivocally Lamar’s best album and quite possibly the greatest hip-hop album of the past 10 years. Butterfly is a stark contrast from good kid, m.A.A.d city — a quintessential West Coast rap album that put Kendrick on the map by telling Lamar’s story as a “good kid” growing up among gang violence in the “mad city” of Compton, CA. Conversely, this album bleeds with undertones of jazz on every song while highlighting Kendrick’s prowess as a generational storyteller and lyricist. Throughout the record, Lamar refers to a seductress, Lucy, representing a physical manifestation of the devil, Lucifer, and her attempts to pull him from his honest path. This album preaches a message of appreciating the small gains in daily life even through tragedy and adversity — especially with regard to race. The album’s closer and Kendrick’s true masterpiece “Mortal Man,” a phantom conversation with the ghost of 2Pac, brings that message into question when 2Pac says “the ground” — poor people — will emerge and swallow the rich. Lamar debates 2Pac’s idea with his story of the caterpillar — the poor — and the butterfly — the rich — that describes what makes those two “one and the same.”
Photo courtesy of amazon.com
HONOrable Mentions 1. I love you, Honeybear - Father john Misty (2015) 2. Born and Raised - john Mayer (2012) 3. In the mountain in the cloud - Portugal the man (2011)
TAME IMPALA (2015) Currents should go down as the greatest rock album of the decade. The combination of psychedelic and pop sounds used by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker is frighteningly Beatles-esque. This is a drastic change in direction for Parker in that this is the first Tame Impala album with hardly any indication of guitars aside from on the album’s hit “The Less I Know the Better.” The direct and concise lyrics convey a message of loneliness and despair in Parker’s voice that wonderfully compliments the intense yet exciting and beautiful psychedelic rock sounds on the album.