The Nevarmore, February 2016

Nevarmore

Ravenscroft School

Ravenscroft School

7409 Falls of Neuse Road, Raleigh, NC 27615

February 2016

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER, RIGHT? Ravenscroft to offer summer courses for a second time

Chandler Hammersla STAFF WRITER

S

tudents, do you want to reach a certain academic level but feel as though you can’t because graduation requirement courses are taking up too much time in your schedule?

Here is the solution: Ravenscroft will be offering select academic classes for Upper School students to take over the summer.

Last summer, Ravenscroft held a geometry class with 15 students (12 Ravenscroft).

Evan Sherman ‘18 says the course “was pretty intense but fun.

[I] wouldn’t recommend it if you’re not willing to put work into it.”

During the summer of 2016, Ravenscroft will be offering Geom-

etry again, as well as Composition, Economics, and Government.

Peter Bogue, Head of Upper School, says that the additional Geometry course is being implemented “to allow for students in Algebra 1 as freshman to be able to take Calculus senior year without having to double up in math” Currently students find it difficult to fit in graduation requirements such as Economics, Government, and Composition with courses like AP World History, AP European History, and AP Human Geography as sophomores, and AP Sciences junior and senior year which take up two periods. The new summer courses will provide students with greater opportunity to take the classes they really want to take before college.

“These courses are also ones

that the department chairs felt could be replicated in full over the summer,” Bogue adds.

Since these classes are not being held in a regular school setting, the scheduling is quite different.

Over a six week period for Geometry and a three week period for Composition, Economics, and Government and 4 hours dedicated to one subject each week day, students will take tests and quizzes as well as a final exam just as any student would in a school year course.

The grades do count towards students’ GPAs and will show up on their transcripts.

If students take summer classes anywhere other than Ravenscroft, then the decisions as to whether those will count as Ravenscroft credits will be handled on a case by case basis.

Summer School Info American Government

Geometry

Dates: June 17-July 8 Final Exam or Project: July 8 Instructors: Mark Laskowski and

Dates: June17-July 29 Final Exam: July 8 & July 29 Instructor: Aaron Sundstrom Cost: $1800

Jennifer McElvany Cost: $900

Economics

Dates: July 11-July 29 Final Exam or Project: July 29 Instructor: Jessica Yonzon Cost: $900

Composition

Dates: Session #1: June 17-July 8 Session #2: July 11-July 29

Final Exam or Project: July 8 or July 29

Instructors: Carol Arant and Shelley Torres

Cost: $900

*How to sign up*

Students will be able to register and pay for all summer courses online through Ravenscroft Summer Programs. Online registration will open on Monday, February 8th.

Ravenscroft’s Head of Security Offers Safety Advice DOs and DON’Ts of a Code Raven RED Code Raven Red is an incident in which there is a gunman/serious threat on campus or another threat here at school. Ravenscroft conducts drills to practice safety procedures in case this situation becomes a reality - to save lives.

DO close all

blinds, lock the door, and sit on the floor/hide.

DO go into the

nearest building if you are walking outside.

DO follow the

instructions your teacher gives to you.

DON’T text, Snapchat,

Instagram, or Tweet.

If you send a message out, parents and others will flood the campus, making it more difficult for police and Dennis Lane to get through campus and locate the gunman/ serious threat.

DON’T talk or laugh. If you are loud enough, it is easier for the gunman to find you.

DON’T horseplay.

Winter Sports Recap - Page 8

Chloe Mikles, ‘16 Career Totals: 16 Individual State Titles & 4 State Championships

Chandler Hammersla

STAFF WRITER

Due to recent safety concerns on the Ravenscroft campus and around the world, The Nevarmore decided to interview Dennis Lane, Director of Protective Services, to provide important safety information and advice on how to act during specific situations to the Ravenscroft community.

Q&A With Dennis Lane What should students do if they feel unsafe on campus?

“Dr. Perry is somebody you can go to - or Mr. Bogue, Mr. Billerman. Actually, any faculty member on campus. I also welcome anyone who has a concern to speak with me directly.

Please remember, teachers and/ or administrators need to be made aware of dangerous situations immediately.”

What are the roles of the police officers who students often see walking around campus?

“Their jobs are just like they are when they are on duty anywhere else: to keep everyone safe. They patrol the campus and check things out if they see someone/something they don’t recognize on campus.”

What is Dennis Lane’s role when the fire department came to school this year?

“I had a multi-faceted role.

When the fire alarm first sounded, I headed over with members of the maintenance department and located the source that had triggered the alarm. Then, I relayed information to the fire department about what was happening. The fire department still must come to the school if an unscheduled alarm goes off.”

Did you know that Two-Way radios are located in the Main Offices of all buildings on campus and are used as an immediate way to contact Dennis Lane?

Inside Face Off: Safe Spaces on University Campuses - Pages 4 & 5

Ravens Share Their Favorite Athletes - Page 8

Nevarmore

2 Table of Contents Page 2 Donald Trump Mackin Boylan

News

Nevarmore Ravens monkey around on Chinese New Year B S Survey Looks at Support A for Donald Trump en

STAFF WRITER

Mackin Boylan STAFF WRITER

Page 2 Chinese New Year Ben Schwartz

Page 3 Editorial

Adam Jordan and Brett Haensel

Page 4 & 5 Face-Off: SafeSpaces

Payne Lubbers and Maddy Ringenbach

Page 6 Twitter Update Adam Jordan

Page 7 You know You Go to Ravenscroft If...

Makhi Crawford

Page 8 Favorite Athletes Chris Little

Page 8 Winter Sports

chwarz

D

onald Trump, the billionaire real estate mogul and reality television personality evolved into a popular presidential hopeful this year and held an event in Raleigh in December with several Ravens in attendance.

In the last debate, Trump talked 40% percent more than Ted Cruz.

According to Real Clear Politics, Trump has a +16 vote spread as of January 11, 2016. Trump’s strongest supporter group is described as “men who did not go to college.”

The Nevarmore conducted a survey in December of 2015 and the results are now in. The survey garnered 101 student responses and 10 of the respondents attended the above mentioned event in Raleigh experience Trump first hand. The majority of Ravens in attendance claimed not to support Trump as a candidate but said they were interested in the experience of a presidential candidate’s rally.

The comments received offered a wide range of opinions. It appears that Trump’s effect on our community is a polarizing one based on the overwhelming supportive comments to the extremely negative ones.

Trump’s on-campus supporters like the idea of “acting now and not sitting back and waiting until our country is torn apart by these terrorist attacks.”

A Chinese Lion parades with Lower School students to celebrate Chinese New Year. Photo by Debbie Ragusa

Chinese Zodiac

lthough the celebration of the Calendar New year of 2016 is long gone, China is celebrating the Lunar New Year for 2 weeks (February 8-22).

On February 11, Ravenscroft joined in by celebrating with festivities and observing traditions of this holiday. The Lower schoolers paraded around campus, sporting festive lanterns and fans, lead by the traditional 2-manned lion costume.

During lunch, the dining hall served a festive meal of chicken lo mein, egg rolls and fortune cookies.

In the high school, students were encouraged to wear red and dress down in support and celebration of the New Year. Why wear red? Wearing and displaying red, one of the luckiest colors according to Chinese culture, is just one of the many historic superstitious traditions practiced in China during this exciting holiday. People wear red to bring good luck, prosperity, wealth and happiness, as well as to ward off evil spirits and keep bad luck away. This stems from the history of the Chinese New Year as well as the ancient legends surrounding the festival.

According to Chinese Legend, a huge dragon, called the nian, or year, terrorized the people of villages and towns, returning annually to strike terror into the innocent citizens.

In response, the villagers lit fireworks, candles and displayed red across their towns to scare the dragon away with the bright colors and sound. Traditionally, the new year has been a holiday to prepare for a new year of farming and harvest.

Eventually that has shifted to a focus on a new business year. Nonetheless, to the Chinese, this holiday is a time to be with family, as well as to eat and to celebrate. Families consume a number of traditional foods, throughout the holiday, each representing and bringing good luck and fortune. In anticipation of the upcoming spring season, red couplets or poems about spring are displayed on buildings and houses. On the last day of the New Year, there is a beautiful Lantern festival held in China.

Chris Little

S

The Nevarmore Reveals a Few Upper School “Monkeys”

o

Nevarm re nline

o what does 2016 the Year of the Fire Monkey hold for all you monkeys out there? According to years of Chinese Astrology and Tradition and your Zodiac Experts here at The Nevermore, 2016 will prove to be an energetic year, full of individual progress and achievement. Monkey years mark years full of energy, motivation and humor. In addition, the Monkey’s key to success and secret power is innovation and finding new solutions, so this would be a good year to explore new boundaries and pursue ambitions.

Michael Erikson Math Instructor

Cy League

English Instructor

Jason Ramsden Chief Information Officer

Did you know that there are 5 types of “Monkeys?”

According to the Chinese zodiac and Chinese Five Element Theory, each year is associated with one of five elements (Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth) as well as an animal. This means that there are five types of Monkey year, and Monkey years of each element come once in a 60-year cycle with their own characteristics.

2016 is a Fire Monkey Year

Nevarmore

News

3

Student Demands: Rational Discussions Clouded by Irrational Solutions T

he number of minority students enrolled in college is slowly rising. In 2012, according to Pew Research Center, Hispanic, Black, and Asian students accounted for about 40% of 18-24 year-olds enrolled in college.

As the ethnic and cultural diversity of our nation’s universities has grown, so too has recent conflict. The rise in student protests and demands for more culturally inclusive policies and even firings of certain university executives have been more prevalent recently in the national media.

These demands are well-founded in the sense of making campuses places for all to thrive; some simply go too far logistically and, in an age where millennials are consistently criticized for their collective sense of entitlement, are too much for 18-24 year-olds to ask.

The demands, understandably, cover a wide-range of issues, and though there are certainly many issues that students may deem important, certain problems must be prioritized. If too many demands are listed, it can detract for the core argument, distracting people from the most important -- and necessary -- demands. Instead of creating a solution, all that’s created is a hydra.

Depending on the institution, student demands can range anywhere from the elimination of standardized tests, to making campus facilities open to the general public, as well as the addition of centers for specific ethnic groups like South West Asians and North Africans (SWANA).

One group, Black Liberation Collective (BLC), has created a list of demands that “represent collective efforts by Black students to address widespread institutional inequity.” The collective efforts are a good representation of the overall demands by college students across the country. They also list the demands for each individual school.

For example, number two on the list of “National Demands” is “WE DEMAND free tuition for Black and indigenous students.” While most people would agree that our society should have eliminated “institutional inequality” as a problem by 2016, some of the proposed solutions are just not feasible.

The wealth gap has indeed shown a racial divide, but providing free tuition for a significant percentage of college students would be incredibly difficult -- the money to keep universities and their high-quality brand of education running must come from somewhere, and tuition costs are still

Concerned Students 1950 and the student body chant for solidarity and power at Traditions Plaza during a press conference following the Concerned Students 1950 protest on Monday, Nov. 9 2015, in Columbia, Mo. (Michael Cali/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS) one of the highest sources of revenue for colleges, especially private schools that receive no government funding.

For decades, college campuses have been centers for social change.

Richard Hofstadter, a mid-20th century historian and intellectual, in response to a series of protests at the University of Columbia in 1968, said that “a university is firmly committed to certain basic values of freedom, rationality, inquiry, discussion, and to its own internal order... if an attempt is made to politicize completely our primary centers of free argument and inquiry, they will only in the end be forced to lose their character and be reduced to centers of vocational training, nothing more.”

The discussion that Hofstadter believes a university should be committed to is immediately called into question with the listing of these student demands. The very nature of the “WE DEMAND” language that is consistently included with student lists across the country seems to suggest that the students behind the movement are not willing to have an open-discussion, but rather would like their demands put into place with no questions asked. While these groups have faced decades of oppression and their voices have been drowned out for far too long, the aggressive nature of the language puts off many before they even get to the demands themselves. It certainly garners our attention, but it prohibits the necessary discussion that comes with listing a wide-range of demands that would have serious impacts on college campuses and the students that make them up around the country should they be met.

It also is irrational for UNC

Nevarmore

students to demand, in their own published document, “that cameras surveilling students [and] workers... be deactivated and removed.” The removal of cameras raises many questions surrounding the safety of students and property. How will a student find their stolen computer without the video footage showing who took it? How will someone be held accountable for an act of violence, without any witnesses, without cameras? Surely, the police will be able to conduct a thorough investigation, right? Nope, as the list also demands that “no additional funding be provided to the UNC Department of Public Safety,” and “calls for a divestment from policing on our campus.”

Universities not only have a responsibility to provide their students with an education, but also are held accountable for the safety of those attending their institution. With several of these demands, a University would no longer be able to be “committed... to its own internal order” or to provide that very safety for their students, leaving many worried mothers and fathers.

They would most likely agree that these demands are irrational.

Furthermore, with demands like making ‘University cafeterias, gym memberships, libraries, and free class registration [open] to all residents of North Carolina regardless of admittance into the institution,” (from UNC Chapel-Hill’s list) Hofstadter’s vision would come closer to being true. The institution would simply be “reduced to its centers of vocational training,” as its indentity and culture would be stripped away.

It is necessary to remember that universities are our nation’s centers for higher learning. Being so rigor-

ous, a thorough admissions process is required to ensure that our colleges remain homes for our best and brightest students to continue their education. Regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, our country’s higher learning institutions should be reserved for those who have shown the academic prowess and potential to thrive at their campuses.

While not all of the demands are flawed, the activists must be held accountable for everything they choose to include, even the most farfetched and irrational ideas. These outlandish demands, such as guaranteed admission to an elite university and the removal of key aspects of campus security, marginalize some of the more reasonable demands listed, drawing attention away from them towards lofty wishes that can’t be met because they are simply irrational.

There are certainly demands more worthy of discussion, including several from students on Brown University’s campus. According to the Brown Daily Herald, campus activists called for “all concentrations ­— particularly those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — [to] require at least one course that engages with class, gender, sexuality and ability.” One of the core philosophies for which Brown is known is the student’s freedom to choose his or her own curriculum. In fact, Brown University’s official website prides itself on an “open curriculum [that] offers students enormous freedom to shape their own course of study.” The only course related requirement Brown students must meet in order to graduate is to “complete an approved writing course at Brown in their first two years of study.”

Requiring all students to take a specific class not necessarily relevant to their concentration would be undoing the tenant that makes this very university unique. Many students attend Brown because of the freedom of course selection. This addition could lead down a slippery slope, as it raises a potentially controversial question: Why are these courses more important than others?

What makes a given diversity course, such as one on gender studies, more important than course studying the cultural genocide of Native Americans? If the university makes an exception for these courses, soon every interest group will be calling for its own required course, and what is to say they don’t have an equal claim?

The Brown student has a responsibility to determine his or her own course load, to find his or her own past, and to fill his or her schedule with the courses he or she sees fit. There is simply not enough room in a student’s schedule to meet all of these potential demands, especially when the student chose to attend Brown expecting to have to meet just one course requirement.

Also coming from Brown University students is the following demand: “Because of significant racial disparities in incarceration rates by race, students said the University should eliminate the section of applications requiring prospective employees and students to indicate whether they have been convicted of or charged with crimes. President Obama directed federal agencies to “ban the box” on federal government job applications in November.”

Certainly, admissions officers should not immediately dismiss a candidate because this box is checked, but this information is listed on the application for an important reason. A university intends to admit students it deems worthy of meeting its academic and character standards, and because of this, the information that comes with a student checking the box or leaving it unmarked speaks to the overall character and resumé of the applicant. It should be factored into the applicant’s admission process along with GPA and SAT scores, as it speaks to the overall quality of the student. The admissions office should have a right to know this information, though it must appropriately factor it in along with the rest of the application. “Banning the box” may open the door to other irrational actions such as removing important factors like a student’s suspension or expulsion record from the application.

This paper serves as a communication link within Ravenscroft School and between the school and the local community.

The Nevarmore staff strives to produce a professional-quality publication that follows the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Our overall objective is to print the news for and about our students and other members of our school and community in a fair and objective way with the utmost regard for integrity.

Editorial Content:

Editorial Team: I DEMAND

that teachers give nothing less than an A-

I DEMAND

that Senior Lot be given to juniors

Brett Haensel

1) The students on The Nevarmore staff will print articles which have been researched to the best of their ability to obtain the most complete information.

Associate Editor

2) The information will be presented in an objective, truthful and fair manner.

3) When personal commentary is given it will be in good taste on issues that have been researched, analyzed and where expert opinion has been sought, and then presented to the best ability of the writer.

4) No material which is obscene, libel or anything that will cause a “material and substantial disruption” of the school day, according to accepted legal definitions, will be printed.

The unsigned editorials in this issue are a reflection of the combined opinions of the editorial team. Responses in the form of a letter are welcomed and will be considered for publication.

Wire Service The Nevarmore subscribes to MCT Campus, which provides photographs, national news & entertainment services to high school newspapers.

Adam Jordan Editor-In-Chief

(And Senior Study Hall)

Staff: Mackin Boylan Makhi Crawford Chandler Hammersla Kelawni Hansquine Chris Little Payne Lubbers Maddy Ringenbach Ben Schwarz Faculty Advisor: Helen Velk

Bubbles, Coloring Books and Cultural Fascism: The Regressive War on Free Expression Payne Lubbers

STAFF WRITER

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS OFFENSIVE MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, A VEHEMENT DEFENSE OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

I

n recent months, mainstream media outlets have latched on to the academic phenomenon known as “safe spaces.” Typically, a safe space is a location where students who feel marginalized or alienated can go to recuperate from some form of triggered trauma; however, the movement is still in its incipient days, and the term has been applied in varying contexts. Since the definition is still in the works, the best way to analyze safe space ideology is to look at instances where students have declared some form of safe space.

As first mentioned by Judith Shulevitz in a New York Times op-ed, one particularly telling instance of this philosophy in practice occurred at Brown University, where students, in protest to a student-sponsored debate between two speakers about sexual assault on campus, set up a room nearby the lecture hall for students who were potentially “triggered” by comments made during the debate relating to rape statistics.

Of course, the debate by no means mandatory (although it was well attended), yet many students were so appalled the debate was even taking place on campus they deemed it was no longer a safe learning environment.

So, the room was equipped, according to Shulevitz, with “cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets, and a video of frolicking puppies;” all of the tools necessary for embattled students to combat the ideas of those who dissent from their strongly held convictions.

Safe space organizer and student Emma Hall, who briefly listened to the debate but had to return to the safe room because the conversation was too troubling, remarked “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs.” When dealing with a sensitive topic such as rape, obviously one needs to be considerate of people who have experienced that sort of trauma, but it is ridiculous to coddle students with children’s toys and hide these so-called adults from speakers, students or professors who disagree with them and are willing to respectfully back their opinion with evidence and research.

At Yale University this fall, Professor Erika Christakis and later her husband Nicholas, the headmaster of one of the school’s residential communities, came under fire for their defense of racially provocative Halloween costumes, arguing that students should either ignore these types of costumes or instead use their intellectual ability to demonstrate why the costume is inappropriate, as opposed to curtailing other students’ right to free expression. The professors were met with enormous backlash from the student body, with one student’s rant directed towards Mr. Christakis going viral. The student angrily responded to Mr. Christakis’ suggestion that Yale is an intellectual environment where uncomfortable discussions are bound to occur by shouting over him that: “It’s not about creating an intellectual space....

It’s about creating a home here.”

This is an obviously ridiculous and fundamentally childish understanding of academics. The idea that students should be only exposed to their nascenctly

University of Missouri students circle tents on the Carnahan Quadrangle, locking arms to prevent media from entering the space following the resignation of President Timothy W. Wolfe on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/TNS)

formed, shallow opinions defeats the purpose of higher education entirely; college is a place where young adults go to experience a variety of world views, unpleasant as they may be, as they prepare to enter the real world. If these narcissists who are so sure of their own beliefs want to run away from scary, differing opinions and people who disagree with them, great, but A) the school should by no means ever sponsor or condone this preposterous behavior as Yale’s President Peter Salovey did in a meeting with student activists, and B) the triggered student probably should not be enrolled at a place of higher education to begin with if they cannot cope with the fact others will actively challenge their beliefs.

Additionally, the entire premise of the safe space is, frankly, a rather insulting notion, that somehow our society has become more prejudiced over the years, so much so that we can no longer have discussions about difficult issues, unless everyone involved is in some degree of consensus. At the recent University of Mis- Student activist Payne Lubbers reads a souri debacle, where students protested against censored, trigger free edition of “Cultural what they perceived as a lack of initiative by Fascism for Dummies” while cuddling his the administration to handle reported racist insafety blanket. Photo by cidents on campus, protesters created a so-called “safe-space” for disgruntled African-American students. This safe space was essentially a protest camp in the quad where people of dissenting opinion were completely forbidden, and, more shockingly, the protesters prevented the press from covering the situation as documented in a viral video by Mark Schierbecker.

In the video, protesters forcibly removed ESPN photojournalist and student Tim Tai, who was trying to document the uprising, with one protester remarking, “We are calling the police because you aren’t respecting us,” along with Communications professor Melissa Click calling for “muscle” to remove all journalists.

All of this nonsense took place on the grounds of a public university which any citizen has access to, at an event where there was no reasonable expectation of privacy. Is there racism at the University of Missouri?

Obviously, there are race-related problems on campuses across the country among a plethora of other issues, but it is absolutely absurd to say the social climate is so volatile now that difficult discussions regarding these issues do more harm than good.

The belief that suppressing dissenting opinions because they threaten the validity of a student’s personal experience is somehow an acceptable way to combat prejudice is a dangerous practice that many safe space advocates are unwilling to consider the implications of. The philosophy relies on the assumption that there is only one correct narrative (theirs) within very complex and difficult issues, and anyone w h o dissents is a threat to the campus milieu as a whole.

All of this ridiculous safe-space thought stems from a hyperprogressive sect of liberalism British liberal activist Maajid Nawaz has deemed the “regressive left.” Originally applied to progressives who were hesitant to criticize any form of Islam in the wake of recent terrorist attacks out of fear of offending minority groups, the term has been expanded to encompass a coalition of mostly academics and student activists bent on eliminating any aspect of culture and politics that has the potential to offend a minority in any capacity.

The extent to which those who embody regressive viewpoints have become so pervasive in our society and so ready to attack anyone who does n o t support their hyper-tolerant world view has even led many liberals to criticize their traditional political allies. Liberal figures such as Nawaz, Bill Maher, Dave Rubin and Peter Boghossian have all criticized the regressive left, and have found an unusual common ground with their conservative counterparts in the fight against political correctness. All of this sensitivityoriented rhetoric perpetuated by the above mentioned regressives is an unbridled attack on free speech and expression rights, and if this line of logic continues to permeate into our educational system, we will be putting a damper on the artistic and philosophical creativity that has made American culture what it is.

While a cohesive vocabulary for the movement is still pending, I believe we already have a word that perfectly comprises the entirety of this ideology: FASCISM.

STOP

THINK

ACT

Checking Your Privilege: Safe Spaces are Needed Within College Campuses Maddy Ringenbach

STAFF WRITER

P

rivilege. Many people with the most “privilege” tend to not be able to comprehend the concept and can be heard telling others to “just deal with it” or “suck it up,” minimizing the very real existence of psychological issues that affect people from all walks of life. No matter who you are, you likely have someone within your inner squad who suffers daily in silence.

Safe spaces are necessary on college campuses and should not be viewed as a place to be coddled. They are a place to regroup so that one can move forward with confidence while not feeling alone. While the issues that safe spaces address are most certainly prevalent in high schools, college is the perfect place to learn about and exercise your independence; safe spaces foster this process for young adults.

College educators themselves should be teaching students exactly what a safe space means while also providing them to students if they need to calm down from anxiety or panic attacks, if they feel as though there are problems within the school, or if they experience a trigger. These safe spaces provide students an opportunity to feel that they are understood by others who have lived through or are dealing with similar issues themselves.

Perhaps the reason they are seen in such a negative light is that many of the people covering these stories do not feel the need to be in a safe space personally. So, they compare them to a day care that turns future leaders into adult infants. The lack of empathy for these groups that are calling for the schools to use politically correct terms in order to avoid the tolerance of micro racial attitudes comes right back to the issue at the heart of the matter - Privilege.

This tie into privilege means that many of these students who think that these safe spaces are pointless or invalid are oblivious to the struggles of those around them because they, personally, have never had an experience that would shed light on the very real need for a safe space.

Many of these types of students are a part of the Ravenscroft community and don’t realize that they are invalidating the largest safe space that this school offers by poking fun at an amazing, annual opportunity - The Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC). Not only does this event allow for certain students to feel valid in their identity, but it also provides participants with leadership training and sound ideas on how to make the independent schools around the country more inclusive and diverse.

This year, SDLC united 1,600 incredibly diverse students and set them in motion towards one common goal - turning their respective schools into a more inclusive and diverse environment.

The main core identifiers that this conference focused on were age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, family status, and ability. Students were broken into large “family-like” groups and went through three days of discussing these different cultural core identifiers as well as learning more vocabulary to help understand the complexity behind the seemingly simple identifiers.

For college students, the ability to understand these core identifiers and how they impact each person allows for them to understand why political correctness is a major concern for the marginalized groups on campus. Instead of seeing it as a demand for an “adult day care,” students should understand that political correctness is a simple demand to be put on the same platform that many privileged students were set upon at birth.

The few incidents that have appeared recently in the news are isolated incidents that show that some students may not understand what a safe space really means. For ex-

ample, the MU incident described in Payne Lubbers’ article illustrated that the problem lies on both ends of the argument. These students were using slight forms of violence to push the press and student media out of the safe space that they had created on the lawn. In turn the media covered the incident poorly and simply showed the students and faculty becoming increasingly more violent.

Instead, there should have been an easy, simple discussion between the two parties. The students trying to cover the gathering might have then understood why these student activits did not want to be photographed or interviewed.

Also, the activists would have had the opportunity to understand that covering this event was part of some of their fellow students’ jobs.

In addition, they should have chosen a site that was not considered public property.

The tension became palatable as viewed from this “human wall.”

However, it was not simply radiating from the photographer trying to get into their space but was also a bit of misplaced aggression that was directed towards the administration that they are attempting to fix. The reporter simply stepped in at the wrong time and hit a wrong button.

There was still a safe space for these students to speak their minds.

Another understanding as to why these students may have not wanted a photographer in there is that the school, and the nation, knew that they were calling for a “free speech zone” and may have been worried that if their faces were seen in this area of protest and standing up to what was happening on campus, there may be repercussions. Admittedly, the term “free speech zone” alone is cause for misunderstanding in this particular incident.

Though the definition for a safe

Cartoon by Maddy Ringenbach ‘16

space is still pending, LGBT activist Moira Kenney explains that the word “safe space” was stemming out of the name for the gay and lesbian bars in the area during the 60s. She said that safe spaces are places “where people could find practical resistance to political and social repression.”

The understanding of this was that many marginalized groups, such as the LGBT community, were sim-

ply looking for a place to get away from the repression that they had to live as part of their daily lives. This is what a safe space is supposed to be.

A place to finally get away from the problems and be able to talk and discuss with people who are facing the same struggles.

Colleges need to educate students about these safe spaces and allow for students to call for them as needed. Students are attempting to make college feel like “home” not out of the need of being coddled or turned into infants but instead to find a way to feel free from oppression while they obtain a higher education.

Safe spaces will always be needed if there is still oppression and the use of oppressive language, whether it be intentional or not.

Nevarmore Twitter 10k?

Adam Jordan

Editor

“D

escribe yourself in 140 characters or less.” It’s now a must for many college applications and even some job applications. Everybody knows that this number is not random. Since its founding in 2006, Twitter has redefined the meaning of the number 140. However, the social media giant is reported to be changing this number to 10,000. Everyone, Twitter-user or not, knows the significance of the number 140. It’s a limit, and meeting it has become a must for anyone who has an opinion, professional or not. For the future though, it seems that tweeters will have to adjust to a new limit.

According to the early January report from Re/code, in Twitter’s tests of the new character limit, user timelines are in fact not drastically

altered. One’s feed looks just like how it does now, except with a “click to expand” option if a user wants to keep reading.

The reason for the change is apparently part of the ongoing effort to attract more users, as well as simply allowing people to interact with more text on their site.

A tweet from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (@jack) with an example as to why the new character count is a good thing. He tweeted a picture with a long explanation for the change with the text part of the tweet reading “This tweet is an example of why we’re thinking about expanding the character count.”

Dorsey believes that because people often post screenshots of text, users should be able to interact with that text. Since the current character count is so limited and it’s impossible to interact with text within a posted photo, Twitter’s CEO thinks that it will make Twitter more interactive for more people.

“Brevity is the soul of wit,” wrote William Shakespeare.

With the cesspool of opinions on Twitter, many have cited this quote as a perfect description for the site.

For many, it is what makes Twitter, Twitter. With the change

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Ravens react to a new Twitter character limit

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to a 10,000 character limit, users are split as to whether or not enhancing content quantity will lead to enhanced quality.

In the Ravenscroft Upper School however, the response is mostly negative, with 73.6% of those polled saying that the change will have a “strongly negative” or “negative” effect on the social media site.

Senior Connor Ramsden is in this majority, saying “140 characters was twitter’s thing, its niche. Changing it now...is a terrible idea. Tweets make sense because they are a short way to get across your ideas.”

On the other hand, with 18.4% saying that the change will have a “strongly positive” effect, a fairly substantial group believes that the in-

crease is a good idea.

A member of this group, freshman Hannah Pangborn, thinks that it could help people explain the true meaning behind a potentially-controversial tweet, saying “it seems that it would allow people to clear up what they are trying to say and leave less room for misinterpretation.”

You Know You Go to Ravenscroft If... “...you complain about an A-.”

- Emanuel Baende, ‘17

“...you go to Europe for the weekend.”

- Gabrielle Reiter, ‘17

“...you see Macbooks laying all around the school unattended.”

“...you park between a Lexus and Mercedes in the student lot.”

- Cole Kennedy, ‘16

“...you know people who leave their expensive junk around school and claim that it won’t get stolen because it has their monogram on it.”

- Michelle Powell, ‘16

- Andrew Ejiofor, ‘16

“...you ask, can you hang or do you have LAX practice?”

- Ethan Dillo, ‘19

N Winter Production: Our Town

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Cast

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Briana DeStaffan, Douglas Dillon, Lyon Dorafshar, Ethan Fisk, Martina Frederick, Julia Jessel, Ben Kasierski, Oscar Lefevbre, Haley Murdoch, Alexandria Murphy, Gabrielle Phillips, Erin Pugh, Sammy Rivas, Elle Schantz, Matt Sheaffer, Katie Shearin, Michael Sisson, Kristin Zillmann, Madeline Zucker

Nevarmore

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SPorts

Ravens Share Their Favorite Athletes of All-Time Melissa Franklin

Chris Little

“Missy Franklin, she is an inspiration to everyone.

She went to the Olympics while still in high school and won 5 medals, 4 of which were gold. She holds many world and other records in swimming. Instead of skipping college and just being a professional athlete (which she very well could have) she decided to go and swim in college.”

- Kendall Sliva, ‘19 Melissa Jeanette Franklin, 20, is an American competitive swimmer and four-time Olympic gold medalist. She currently holds the world record in the 200-meter backstroke and American records in both the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke. As a member of the U.S. national swim team, she also holds the world record in the 4×100-meter medley relay.

Kobe Bryant staff writer

“Kobe Bryant because he is the best basketball player and he has the drive to be the best and pushes his team to be the best.”

Ssteps eems you can’t take more than two into the halls of Ravenscroft without hearing a discussion revolving around something sports related.

From Nate Cohen praising the greatness of the Patriots franchise to Jonathan Marlowe defending N.C. State’s basketball team, sports talk is a major part of Ravenscroft life.

Recently a survey was sent to Ravenscroft students and faculty about who their favorite athletes were and why.

There were many great responses and these are a few of our favorite.

- Jadeon Williams, ‘18 Kobe Bryant is a 2-time Olympic gold medalist, 5-time NBA Champion, 2-time Championship MVP, 17-time NBA All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and 12-time member of the All-Defensive team and has once been honored as MVP of the NBA. He also is third all-time in NBA Scoring and second in single game scoring.

Bryant decided to embark on his dream to be a professional athlete at age 18 and declared for the NBA draft as a high schooler. In high school he was named Naismith High School Player of the Year, Gatorade Men’s National Basketball Player of the Year, a McDonald’s All-American, and a USA Today All-USA First Team player.

Jesse Owens

Tom Brady “Tom Brady. I’m a huge Patriots fan already and he makes it better. He’s the absolute GOAT and one of the best NFL players of all time. He’s a classy guy and an absolute winner.”

- Will Bird, ‘16 Tom Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft. In Brady’s fifteen years with the Patriots the organization have earned six trips to the Super Bowl, winning four. Brady has won three Super Bowl MVP awards, two league MVP awards (2007, 2010), has been selected to eleven Pro Bowls, and has led the Patriots to 13 division titles, the most by any quarterback in NFL history.

“Jesse Owens because he set 3 world records and tied another in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, MI. This accomplishment is known as the greatest 45 minutes He’s a 4x Olympic gold medalist at the 1936 Olympics, defying Hitler’s myth of Aryan supremacy.”

- Nichole

Moore, English Instructor

Ravenscroft Varsity Winter Sports Recap Girls Swimming

Wrestling

The Ravens girls swimming team won its fourth consecutive state championship. Senior Chloe Mikles won her 16th State Championship while junior Madeline High broke a state record and earned All-American Honors

Ravenscroft wrestling finished second in the state.

This was the team’s best finish since the reinstaement of the program in 2006.

Boys Swimming

Ravenscroft boys swimming led by Daniel Strong and Matthew Youngbar finished fifth in the state.

Girls Basketball

Cheerleading

Boys Basketball

Girls basketball had an impressive season, finishing second in the state and winning the TISAC conference championship.

The cheerleading squad competed for the first time this year and finished an impressive 3rd in the state.

Boys basketball won the TISAC conference championship for the 10th year in a row.