First wave of Club Crawl begins
gather to network, share club experiences
FRED
managing editor collegian.editor@tccd.edu
South art faculty members are stepping into the shoes of their old mentors by showcasing their works to students at the fall Faculty & Staff Exhibition, on display through Oct. 2 on South Campus.
Assistant professor of art Humna Raza, who is also a former TCC student, said displaying her work at the faculty exhibit is an important moment for her. She remembered how her instructors on NW Campus would show their work.
“Being able to see their work when we had the faculty shows over there was always just an important moment like, ‘this is the work of my teachers, you know, the professionals in the field that I want to rise into,’” Raza said. “It feels like a full-circle moment for me to now kind of be in their shoes.”
The exhibit featured 26 pieces of art created in varying mediums like painting, drawings, prints and hair.
The exhibit does not feature any specific themes, and the 13 participating faculty members were invited to share their newest works.
Joshua Goode, the chair of the fine arts department on South Campus, said the exhibit is put on every few years to give students the opportunity to see what art the faculty were making.
HOPE SMITH campus editor hope.smith393@tccd.edu
Club Crawl kicked off at NW, NE and TR Campuses last week to showcase what they have to offer for new and returning students, beckoning bustling students through the halls.
Alex Carter, a TR student and attendee of TR’s three-day club event explained that joining the campus’ Voices in Action club as a new student last year gave him a chance to come out of his shell.
“I’ve learned how to not just walk and talk, but to have real conversations and hold eye contact,” he said. Voices in Action club presi -
dent Kayla Medina said she founded the club with her friends as a way to uplift student voices and share a community experience.
“Not a lot of students are being heard from what they want and what they like to see, so this is what we do,” she said. Carter was not the only student at the event to feel like they had found a community, however, as TR Philosophy Club member Levi Johnson said that growing up, he felt like he had questions that he felt people around him could not answer. It wasn’t until he had joined Philosophy Club that he was able to converse and connect with other club members that he was able to explore the topics on his mind.
Grads fuel growing local film industry
Program allows students to work on hit TV shows
NANDA ACHARYA campus editor nanda.acharya@my.tccd.edu
The Fort Worth Film Collaborative, a program that provides a direct pipeline for students to find a job in the film industry, had its first graduation celebration Sept. 2.
Nineteen students were honored as graduates from their four to six-month program.
Gerbils huddle together inside their enclosure.
Gerbils get wild, double population over summer
See South Art, Page 2 See Feature, Page 6
The celebration started by handing the graduates their certificates, then moved to the event room where they could network with prominent figures in the industry. Chad Jones, the interim program coordinator for the Fort Worth Film Collaborative, said that the collaborative serves the purpose of making students ready to get on set as quickly as possible.
“The reason the Fort Worth Film Collaborative exists is because there is a shortage of production talent for people to work on movie sets in the DFW area,” he said.
Senate Bill 22, which invested $1.5 billion in Texas film incentives, went into effect Sept. 1. Jones said that in order to receive the incentive of $1.5 billion, producers have to have a certain number of Texans actually on set.
“Production companies were having a hard time filling all the roles they needed to receive the incentive funds,” Jones said. “So, the industry came to TCC and said, ‘We need a training program. We need to get people on set as quickly as possible.’”
The Fort Worth Film Collaborative is a certificate program creating a partnership between the Fort Worth Film Commission and Tarrant County College. Fort Worth Film Commis -
sioner Taylor Hardy said the commission is a nonprofit promoting more business in the city through helping graduates from the collaborative’s program enter the film industry.
“It was nice to have our first official graduation celebration tonight,” Hardy said. “We’ve had several students placed on set, working on Lioness and Landman.” Hardy said the commission wanted to make sure that instead of productions having to bring crews from out of state, they could instead hire local.
“We reached out to several different higher education institutions, and TCC just really stepped up,” Hardy said.
The program was created nearly two years ago and since then it has gradually grown. In addition to the three departments, students now have camera, sound, art and costume technology departments.
“What our goal is, is to be the pipeline straight to the industry.
Give us six months of your time, and we’ll ensure that you have the skill set to get right on set,” said Courtney Graham, NE director of academic affairs. After discovering the program through a friend of a friend, graduate Dakota Blanton said they had been awaiting a break into the industry.
“I feel like I’ve received a lot of opportunities through [the program],” Blanton said. “It’s been really enriching to meet other people who also want to gain experience in this field. I’ve made a good friend from the program, and we’re actually working on filming a music video together.”
Graduate Brandon Soumphonphakdy transitioned from wedding photography to taking classes in the program.
“I wanted to learn the film side because wedding photography is just a whole different thing,” Soumphonphakdy said. He said the curriculum and the classes helped pursue his job even more.
“I found it to be helpful that the classes were put at the time that they were,” Soumphonphakdy said. “I think it was during the weekdays, and I usually would do the weddings on the weekends, so I was able to fit that in.”
Hwiman Chung, NE dean of arts and humanities, said what started out as a microcredential program is now expanding into seven different programs.
“Students who have a different interest in a different area, they might be able to do some basic fundamental skills and then get into the film industry after they graduate,” Chung said.
Nic Clarke, another graduate, said he felt more inspired to keep working with everybody else than he would have felt if he were to try this on his own.
“I think in a way, it helped solidify what I wanted to do, which is writing and directing and editing, but also find people that also want to help me move toward that goal while I help them move toward their goals,” Clarke said.
Diego Santos/The Collegian
Movers Unlimited member Ethan Bui mans the information table with fellow student Anjelinu Santibanez to recruit students into the Dance Club on NE Campus. The club features different styles of dance like contemporary, hip hop and jazz.
Diego Santos/The Collegian
Ash Petrie/The Collegian
Fred Nguyen/The Collegian
Courtney Graham, the director of academic affairs, addresses students who are honored by the Fort Worth Film Collaborative’s certificate program to help the local film industry.
South student Nicole Narvaez looks at collection of prints done by her instructor, Courtney Googe.
NGUYEN
See Club, Page 2
Open mic showcases student, staff talent
Courtesy of Yolanda Wright
Life science professor Craig Burnside reads his short story “The bad river valley” to attendees at the Lawn Lit event outside SE07 on Sept. 2.
South Art
(continued from page 1)
“Often we are the ones who are providing critique and advice and insight into their artwork,” Goode said. “[The exhibit] allows us to turn the tables and let them see what we make and have the opportunity to also critique it.”
Raza has two of her pieces on display, one of which uses some of her own hair.
The piece features a long braid of syn-
thetic hair hanging from the ceiling with a decorated bowl tied to the end with an almost thread-like section of hair. The image on the inside of the bowl is of the top of a woman’s head with many braids dividing the white space. Little braids of Raza’s real hair are attached to where the drawing of the braids ends.
The piece, named “Hepta-Braided Bowl in Tension,” is part of an ongoing series Raza has been working on since her time at the University of Texas at Arlington called “Tangles, Knots and Vines.” Raza said the process of creating the piece and her art series as whole was cathartic for her.
“My body of work and the work I practice in has always been about kind of like the ideas of anxiety and how we deal with it and process it,” Raza said. “It’s just like I get, kind of, to breathe out when I make the work.”
South assistant professor of art Courtney Googe has six art pieces on display. Googe is primarily a printmaker and draws inspiration from history, mythology, jazz music and pop culture for her prints.
One of her prints from “Already Been Chewed: Poster Series” shows two hands intertwined above the words “I chose to eat the pomegranate seeds,” a reference to the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades.
“I’ve been interested in ancient civilization since I was a kid,” Googe said. “Started with Ancient Egypt and then learned more about the Minoans and the ancient Greeks. I liked the stories very much.”
South student Nicole Narvaez attended the opening reception of the exhibit on Sept. 4 after her teacher, Googe, told her students to come before their class. Narvaez said she thought Googe’s prints were nice.
“You can tell she made that with love and passion,” Narvaez said.
Goode said he hopes students would leave the exhibit impressed with the artwork created by the South art faculty and become inspired to take classes with them.
“I’ve seen a lot of students are coming up, and they’re getting excited about artwork, finding out the faculty member who made it, and then wanting to already take their class in the spring,” he said.
Sharing personal stories encourages vulnerability with oneself, each other
AVA REED campus editor ava.reed046@my.tccd.edu
SE Campus hosted an outdoor event on Sept. 2 giving students a creative outlet to share poems and short stories with other students.
The Lawn Lit open mic event was organized by professor of English and integrated reading and writing Yolanda Wright. She said the intention was to let students and faculty express their emotions through literature.
“The goal was to inspire a little bit of hope, give them a place for a creative outlet.” Wright said. “We do quite a bit here at Southeast with drama and with dance and some of the other arts, but the textual arts there’s not a whole lot of space for, and I was really hoping to kind of spark something there.”
Wright said she was impressed with Lawn Lit’s turnout that included people from all different roles on SE. Life science professor Craig Burnside, one of the event’s speakers, said Lawn Lit allowed him to have a different experience than what he would have in one of his classes.
“It gives me the chance to interact with students and other faculty members and administrators outside of my classroom in a just sort of informal way,” Burnside said.
Burnside read a historical fiction short story he wrote in 2005 for a contest in Georgia called “The Bad River Valley.”
The opportunity to share it meant a lot to
Club (continued from page 1)
him, he said. “It was very emotional,” he said. “I’ve never read it in public before. It’s a topic that’s really kind of near and dear to my heart, and I’ve sent it out to a lot of people to read, but I’ve never actually read it in front of a crowd before.”
Lawn Lit also gave others the opportunity to overcome their fears of public speaking, like SE student Moss Featherston. She read a poem called “The Fox” by Faith Shearin in hopes of receiving extra credit for a speech class but doing so ended up helping her conquer her stage fright.
“I thought it would be a good opportunity because I usually don’t do public stuff, because I really got stage fright, but I’m glad that I did it because it was a little baby step, and it went well,” Featherston said.
SE student Taylor Amolie read a poem she wrote in high school for the open mic.
Amolie said that people don’t always have the option to express their emotions, so they resort to forms of writing such as music, stories, or poems.
Literature can be helpful to college students across all campuses and help them become better writers, Wright said.
The open-mic event allowed students to experience their literature in a new light by reading it in front of their peers.
“Literature matters because it’s more than just stories. It’s more than just poetry,” she said. “Literature matters because it’s a mirror of human experience and a window into lives and perspectives beyond our own.”
“Philosophy Club has kind of been a reason for me to stay at school whenever I wanted to drop,” he said.
TR Gamer Club member Carmen Nelson explained that the purpose of Gamer Club was to give students with interests in gaming somewhere to feel welcomed.
“We just want to engage in community,” Nelson said. “Our gamers can kind of feel comfortable and at home, and we don’t discriminate any game.”
At NE Campus, Phylicia McClure attended the club event as a student looking to browse the club options. She said that she enjoyed the event and appreciated how organized it was.
“I think it’s a nice way to find community, everybody seems open, everybody seems really prepared with what they have to say. It’s nice,” she said.
After making her rounds, she said she was interested in joining the Knitting and Crocheting Club, as she has always wanted to gain the skill to do so.
“I’ve been really into exploring my hobbies and getting into more recreational stuff because in high school I wasn’t really that kind of person to be in a bunch of clubs,” she said.
NE Neurodivergent Club was able to catch eyes with displayed fidget toys and stickers, said club member Azriel Steven, who explained that they are ready to increase numbers in membership.
“We’ve been doing a lot of advertising and a lot of word of mouth,” they said. “Those neurodivergent people that are more extroverted tell their friends to come hang out with us and our circle just grows that way.”
Yazid Marhnez, a member of NW Campus Association of Latin American Students attended the campus club event on Sept. 9 to spread information about the community work they are involved in.
Marhnez said that belonging to ALAS made her feel that she was making an impact
in helping people and encouraged her to express pride in her culture.
“I’ve always been really proud of my culture, who I am, my roots,” she said. “I feel like having a club for students that can come and express who they are on campus is really helpful.”
Along with ALAS, the Christian Student Ministry Club attended to encourage more engagement and membership. Showcased by Valentina Meza, she explained that joining helped her find a foundation in her faith.
“There have been days that I’ve been super stressed or sometimes even sad during the school year or the school day, and talking about the word of God, gaining that encouragement has helped me a lot,” she said.
Ash Petrie/The Collegian
Diego Santos/The Collegian
Diego Santos/The Collegian
Fred Nguyen/The Collegian
South assistant professor of art Humna Raza’s piece “Hepta-Braided Bowl in Tension” is currently on display on South Campus.
Garden Club member Isabella Bartnam (on the right) and Art Club member Gen Freix (on the left) discuss a potential NE club collaboration.
Needle Arts club displays club member projects at NE club crawl.
Courtney Googe, a South assistant professor of art, has several of her prints on display featuring influences from Greek mythology and pop culture.
CAMPUS LIFE DISTRICT CRIME LOG
Sept. 2
TR: Credit or debit card fraud was reported in the main building.
TR: Forgery by presenting a false financial document in the amount of $2,500 to $30,000.
Sept. 3
NW: Disorderly conduct by using profane language was reported in NW06.
TR: Property theft valued at less than $750 in Clear Fork.
NW: An assault causing bodily injury was reported in NW01.
NW: Possession of a controlled substance of less than 1 gram at a drug free zone was found.
NW: A report of possessing a controlled substance of less than 28 grams was made.
NE: A terroristic threat of bodily harm was reported.
Sept. 4
TR: Theft of property valued at less than $750 was reported in West Fork.
TR: An assault causing bodily injury to a family member was reported.
TR: A Clery report of domestic violence was made and is being handled by other agency.
NE: Property theft valued at less than $750 was reported in the business and social science building.
South: Property theft valued at less than $750 was reported in the science building.
NW: An unattended vehicle was hit in parking lot 2A, resulting in less than $200 of damage.
NW: An unattended vehicle was hit in parking lot 2A, resulting in less than $200 of damage.
Sept. 5
South: Credit or debit card fraud was reported in the science building.
South: Identity theft to access, read, store or transfer data electronically was reported in the science building.
NW: An unattended vehicle was hit in parking lot 2A, resulting in less than $200 of damage.
South: A Clery report of domestic violence was made and referred to Title IX.
CAMPUS VOICES
Q:“Do you think sharks are misunderstood?”
Leslie Rios
NE Campus
“Most sharks are harmless. Just don’t go up to them. They don’t go up to you most of the time. More people die from vending machines than they do from sharks ... They’re nice. You just don’t go up to them and they’re fine. Now if they come up to you, that’s a whole different problem.”
Rene Casarrubias
NE Campus
“They’re scary. Imagine you’re swimming in the water and all of a sudden you see a fin popping out of the water. They’re still like creatures. I think about them as tigers, you know? They’re the same level as tigers. They’re not really threatened ... But they’ll still kill you.”
Kiara Guarido
TR Campus
“Well when you think of a whale shark — I love whale sharks — but great whites, I don’t know. They’re kind of scary looking, but at the same time if you don’t get near where they are, they’re harmless anyways. I feel like with [the ‘Jaws’ movie] they overexaggerated. A shark isn’t gonna do all of that.”
NW Campus
“Yes, I think sharks are the unsung heroes of the ocean. They get a bad rep for eating people but they don’t. ‘Jaws’ is propaganda.”
“I really do think that they’re misunderstood mainly because of the fact that sharks do not target things just to attack them, they just see something moving... It’s just base instinct. They’re not directly trying to attack anybody. People just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
TR Campus
“I find them misunderstood, but it’s also like, I don’t really like them either. It’s just scary, I guess just watching from the ‘Jaws’ [movie] itself, it made me have a new fear of the ocean.”
“I would say yes, because there’s a lot of things that affect the environment they’re in right now. It’s not safe and not a comfortable environment, so maybe that affects how they interact.”
NW Campus
“Yes, they’re thinking it’s an invasion of privacy and they’re not sure how we’re going to react to them or what we’re there to do. It’s like an uninvited guest.”
Amanda Robinson
Itzel Nava
Matthew Adamson
Kamari Black
Julie Nguien
Hoax calling campus shootings is becoming a common practice, and it is nothing short of dumbfounding.
We just started the semester, let us at least settle into our seats before the death threats start filing in.
That’s what it feels like, anyway. A recent AP News story covering the influx of hoax calls put it quite plainly.
Students are scared and we have no idea of how to protect them. So, we must sit and wait.
And then it actually happens.
Annunciation Catholic Church loses innocent children amid the flood of hoax calls on Aug. 27, and we are expected to accept that one phone call could mean a cruel joke, or someone will die that day.
The result is that no one is shocked anymore. We are already desensitized.
People often talk about younger generations and their lack of human connection and empathy. But, those same people fail to recognize children are surrounded by violence starting in kindergarten.
They are five to six years old and being introduced to the concept that at any time of their school day their survival skills are going to be provoked.
The solution must take guns out of the hands of people who have no business with them in the first place. If we don’t, we are going to lose the meaning of freedom in America.
A Texas Tribune story explained that a recently deleted YouTube video assumed to be initially posted
by Minneapolis gunman Robin Westman filmed a collection of weapons, expressing support in Brandon Herrera, the YouTube “AK Guy.” He will be going for a second attempt at running for Texas’ 23rd Congressional seat in 2026, and the only reason he’s not in that seat currently is because of one missing vote. Herrera is an open supporter of gun rights and specifically training teachers on firearm use, “ensuring our children are better protected,” as
is said in his Congressional seat campaign page.
The fact that this is happening in high schools must mean we are in some messed up episode of “The Twilight Zone.”
Was that the best solution that those in charge could come up with?
Adding gasoline to a bonfire issue?
It’s as close to Tarrant County as Keller High School, which has had the “Guardian Program” for arming teachers since it’s approval in 2022.
You see, regulating guns doesn’t steal your rights. It gives you, your family and friends the opportunity to exercise the rest of every other right you have in a much longer lifespan.
Here is what is happening because the issue at root is not being addressed: desensitized children are growing up to accept the outcome. No one is shocked, parents lose their children and news organizations will be pulling themselves every which way trying to cover the national
issue. But it will be another day.
This is not politics. Does that have to be said? This is quality of life. To some threatened by the idea of doing more to mitigate the issue, apparently it does have to be said. Students, K-12 and college alike are facing the same issue. Consider the fact that since the first instance of school terrorism because of unregulated weapon use has created an entire generation of people who will not have at least experienced a threat, or God forbid actual emergency just sitting in class. While evacuation drills are taking place on TCC campuses, we can only hope the administration is thinking about what is happening around the country right now.
To put it into perspective, that’s more than nine hoax calls since Monday, Aug. 25.
Unfortunately, this happens every year. It’s just another day to practice an emergency drill.
A majority of the Collegian’s staff have their own story. We are lucky in that there is a variety of ages among us, so our experiences spread across years of education levels. If just a room of college newspaper staff can erupt in stories about their experiences, imagine an entire campus. Imagine six.
In almost 50,000 students, just try picturing how many also have a story to tell at TCC. It’s time to get a grip and not the kind holding onto the hilt of the gun they so avidly prefer over the safety of human lives.
Consumers have been hired as self-checkout cashiers without any pay, benefits or training, but we receive repercussions for our errors.
These do-it-yourself machines are an innovative way for companies to reduce staffing expenses, but they lose a lot of money by forcing inexperienced shoppers to check themself out.
As a consumer, I despise selfcheckout.
I worked at Trader Joe’s for three years and know how common it is for even a trained employee to miss one or two items during busy days because of it being a highstress environment.
When the goal is to get a customer out quickly and safely, even the best employee is bound to make a few mistakes. However, in self-checkout, I feel even more stressed scanning my own groceries than I ever did as an employee scanning $500 cart after $500 cart on a Sunday rush during the holidays.
A common complaint from
Corporate advertising using provocative visuals to sell their jeans has added to the problem of women being sexualized.
Over the summer American Eagle came out with a new commercial. The popular “Euphoria” actress, Sydney Sweeney, is shown laying down in jeans and a long sleeve shirt as she is zipping up her pants while in a seductive position.
She mentions how jeans are passed down through offspring determining hair and eye color.
“My jeans are blue,” she said. Right after she finishes her line, American Eagle has subtitles saying, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
I find this disturbing as American Eagle is using a white, blonde and blue-eyed woman to say these lines while in a sexual position fully clothed.
She is setting impossible
customers at Trader Joe’s was there wasn’t a checkout lane for people with 20 items or less, and I agreed with them.
Even as an employee trying to buy items for lunch while on break, it felt almost impossible to get through the sea of people quickly.
However, almost none of the customers asked for it to be a selfcheckout.
While I was working register many people expressed how they valued the traditional checkout experience because they had a trained employee scanning and bagging in-
beauty standards by saying in the commercial “I have great jeans,” while suggesting she has great “genes.”
Most men are drawn to her ditzy tone and the way she makes eye contact with the camera. She’s giving men what they want, which is an intimate moment.
Jean Kilbourne is an expert on advertisements sexualizing women and has a book about how advertis-
stead of the job being forced on them.
Now, after leaving the job, I realize how much easier, faster and more efficient it was getting in and out of the store when every line had an employee doing the checkout.
When I enter a grocery store as a customer, I spend more of my time waiting in the claustrophobic self-checkout line than I do navigating the store shopping.
I would use traditional registers but there are typically only two open with an even longer line of overwhelmingly full carts.
Then, during the self-checkout process, I’m stopped almost five times because an AI camera assumed I was stealing while three employees breathe down my neck to ensure I am doing everything correctly.
If staffing is the problem, how is there a difference between three cashiers and three cashier security guards?
Also, with the innovative technology tracking my every move, I
ing changes the way we think and feel.
“The first is that sex is the only thing that matters, and the second is that sexuality belongs only to the young and beautiful,” she said.
Brooke Shields, a model who started at 11 years old, was approached by Calvin Klein’s team when she was 15 and asked if she wanted to model in jeans for the Calvin Klein ads.
In the ads she was dressed in jeans and a top that showed her whole torso while sexually suggesting, “You want to know what comes between me and my jeans? Nothing.”
The 15-year-old was advertising Calvin Klein jeans through sexual innuendos by the words she said and the physical position she was placed in.
Shields said how naive she was at the time and didn’t think any -
feel I can’t shop anywhere without fearing an AI camera is going to flag me down because it saw me grab an apple but thinks I didn’t pay for it.
Grabango, a failed self-checkout technology company, gathered data in 2023 by using AI surveillance cameras throughout stores. By using facial recognition, they tracked what products customers grabbed and compared it to what was actually purchased.
The study showed companies that used self-checkout experienced an average 3.5% loss in profit, 16 times more than the traditional checkout. Their data suggested these losses were caused by customer error or theft during the self-checkout process.
Now, instead of using this information to confirm self-checkout is a problem and should be replaced, some corporations are investing in more innovative technology to catch people in the act and hiring employees to stand guard.
thing of it. The adults behind the Calvin Klein commercial knew exactly what they were doing.
American Apparel is another example of big corporations sexualizing women. In the early 2000s, they showed their models partly clothed and in sexual positions.
In fact, the original founder of American Apparel, Dov Charney, was fired for allegations of sexual harassment by his employees.
The sexualization of women has always been around, but it has become more difficult as the ads add to the normalization of objectifying women. Women should have the right to walk down the street without the risk of being sexualized or objectified.
I could be in Sundance Square walking around having a good time and still feel unsafe if a man were to look at me in an odd way.
Some people say it’s because
Stores like Walmart, Target and Kroger have teamed up with technology companies to develop and deploy next-generation video surveillance systems. Their plan is to implement facial-recognition cameras, license-plate and vehicle readers and predictive analytic software into their stores to surveil customers as they shop, according to a 2023 CNBC article.
If I grab an organic zucchini misplaced in the non-organic zucchini section and I ring it up as nonorganic, will I be reprimanded for another person’s mistake?
Even as a Trader Joe’s employee, this was a common problem.
The difference when having an actual person as your cashier?
I could tell the customer there was a mistake, ask if they’d want the non-organic instead and have a co-worker switch out the product within seconds.
Investing in people may not help a company’s revenue, but it would lead to fewer errors and benefit the customer experience.
of how women are dressing these days, and that they’re the ones asking for attention. But it has always been like this since 1765, when women were legally owned by their husbands.
Dr. Squatch is a bar soap for men and is another example of ads sexualizing women. Once again Sweeney is in this commercial and created a scented bar soap made from her bathtub water.
Women like Sweeney need to truly understand the consequences when people make advertisements like the ones she has done. It encourages men to feel as though they have a right to look at women a certain way. Advertisements like this play a role in the sexualization of women and they need to be more aware of what it is they’re implying and selling, because it should only be about the jeans.
Izzie Webb/The Collegian
JawsReturns
Film comes back to theaters for 50th anniversary
FRED NGUYEN managing editor collegian.editor@tccd.edu
Fifty years later, Steven Spielberg’s summer blockbuster “Jaws” is still terrifying audienc es with its man-eating great white shark.
With its recent re-release to theaters, au diences get the opportunity to see the crea ture-feature classic on the big screen in high er resolution. I remember watching it when I was 11 or 12, and while I have always been an avid fan and defender of sharks, “Jaws” still managed to get a few flinches out of me.
The film is set in the small island town of Amity Island, which is preparing for its Fourth of July celebration that draws in plenty of tourists to keep the businesses there afloat till next summer.
The film starts with the iconic sequence of a young woman going on a swim in the ocean at nighttime. Soundtracked by a men acing staccato of strings that everyone now associates with sharks, the woman is vio lently yanked down under the waves by an unknown thing while screaming.
The starting sequence was especially shocking for its time and set the tone for the rest of the film. It instilled tension so ef fectively without even showing the culprit itself.
When the girl’s body is found badly mutilated, Police Chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider, tries to convince the mayor to close the beach to no avail.
With the help of shark specialist Matt Hooper, played by Richard Dreyfuss, and veteran shark hunter Quint, played by Rob ert Shaw, the team sets out to hunt down the threat to the resort town.
The film has everything going for it: a killer animatronic shark, an iconic soundtrack recognizable within seconds, a great cast and the novelty of being one of the first major features to be filmed on the open ocean. Spielberg insisted on the latter to create a sense of realism that adds to the distinct tone of “Jaws.”
However, the production of the film was marked with many setbacks and was ironically nicknamed “Flaws” by some crew members.
The casting wasn’t even completed nine days before shooting, the script had to be rewritten several times, the three ani
matronic sharks made for the film at great expense kept malfunctioning and the budget almost doubled throughout production.
Spielberg even said he feared no one would ever hire him after making “Jaws” due to its disastrous production history.
Despite all the issues, “Jaws” went on to make almost $500 million in box office and became the highest grossing film ever until “ Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” was released two years later. It made Spielberg a household name and gave him the chance to make classics for decades.
“Jaws” was more than just a moneymaker. It’s still critically acclaimed for Spielberg’s direction, John Williams’ soundtrack and its performances.
The reactions “Jaws” got in theater were comparable to what happened with “The Exorcist” and “Psycho.” The film was so scary for its time that there was even a report of an audience member developing neurosis from watching the film that caused them to scream “Shark! Shark!” and convulse.
Another highlight of the film is its characters. The contrast between the abrasive Quint and college-boy Hooper is especially delightful to watch as they bicker and pick at each other throughout the film. Shaw and Dreyfuss’ characters reflected their on-set dynamic as they were known to be antagonistic to each other.
What made “Jaws” so successful was that it preyed on the fears of the audience. But the film also caused the public to have a negative perception of sharks.
Similar to how “Psycho” made the shower a scary place, “Jaws” made many people become afraid of going swimming in the ocean.
Spielberg and the author of the book “Jaws” was based on, Peter Benchley, have both expressed their regret in how their work has affected sharks.
There was an uptick in the hunting and culling of sharks across the world by sport fishermen that affected the shark population. According to a study published in Nature, the global population of sharks and rays has declined by 71% since 1970 due to fishing.
Despite its twisting of the reality of sharks, “Jaws” remains a beloved classic. It’s the blueprint for summer flicks, and its impact on cinema is still talked about today.
Watching it in a theater with its re-release is the best way to experience the film, both for long-time fans and new viewers.
Jaws (1975)/Photo courtesy of IMDB
Illustrations by Izzie Webb/The Collegian
A young woman, played by Susan Backlinie, is seen from the perspective of a shark as she swims at the surface of the sea in “Jaws.”
Lucky’s adventure causes mini zoo boom
A spontaneous summer romance between the gerbils housed on South Campus led their population to double, overwhelming the biology lab.
“The males and females are supposed to be separate, but then we discovered the babies,” said South associate biology professor Paul Luyster. “There was one male, and he was having a great time.”
Sitting in the hallway outside Luyster’s office is a huge case with bright yellow letters spelling out “La Maison de Rodentia,” which translates to The House of Rodent.
This mansion, Luyster said, is where the gerbils live, go to gerbil school, attend gerbil discos and play in the gerbil pit, but mostly they just huddle together in the corner of their gerbil dorm.
Student workers for the biology lab care for the small creatures, and one of their tasks is to thoroughly clean their decorated enclosure. To do this, they must remove the colony and ensure they’re separated by sex when going back in, which can be difficult.
“Sometimes students accidentally put the wrong gerbil in the wrong section,” Luyster said. “We did name them all, but it is hard to tell some of them apart.”
Over the course of summer break, one misplaced male gerbil named Lucky got lucky with at least two females. Luyster said they know one mother is Blinky, but the other could be either Guanine or Cysteine, sister gerbils named after two of the four nitrogen bases of DNA.
“We were trying to keep our population limited,” Luyster said. “We pulled him out and put him back with the other males, and he’s fine, but we do have a large population now because of that little mistake.”
Edgar Rodriguez Perez, a student worker in the lab, cares for the gerbils. He said the tunnelling experts construct networks all throughout the encloser with chewed-up bits of recycled cardboard.
“I used to call the gerbils beavers,” Perez said. “They chew everything apart like how beavers chew up wood.”
The department has a donation box next to the lab for students and faculty to donate their old paper towel and toilet paper rolls to the gerbils.
“I’ve watched these two make four toilet paper rolls into mulch in less than one hour,” Perez said while pointing to Adenine and Thymine, male gerbils named after the other two nitrogen bases of DNA.
Student Carmen Gomez said she has visited the gerbils for a while now and routinely walks through the biology building to see them.
“I have a math class across from the architecture building, and it’s just really cute to pass by them because they’re really adorable,” Gomez said.
by Ash Petrie
She is an avid toilet paper donator, too.
“Since I have a huge family, we always go through that. So we’ll bring some for them,” Gomez said. “It’s really nice and they’re my little serotonin boost throughout the day.”
While the gerbils are well known to those on campus, they’re just one of the many species living in the biology lab.
What started out as a small student donation of two gerbils, some fish and a frog a few years ago has turned into an exhibit.
“Recently, we got a chinchilla, so now we now have quite a zoo,” Luyster said.
Once other people realized they could donate animals to the lab, they were given two guinea pigs named Peanut Butter and Jelly, a bearded dragon named Rango and a turtle named Captain.
“These were all given to us by people who needed a home for them, and so we’ve taken them in, and we give them really good care,” Luyster said.
While they’ve been donated many animals, the biology department has more than just four-legged creatures calling their lab home. Along the back wall of the classroom are shelves storing plastic bins with Madagascar hissing cockroaches and dermestid beetles inside.
Luyster teaches an undergraduate research program for biology, allowing students to pick a project to work on during the semester. A few years ago, one student wanted to study the cockroaches’ behavior.
“We’ve kept the population going ever since,” Luyster said. “I’ve written a lab that uses them, and now students observe their behavior and their mating rituals because they have their own little dances they do. So we use them for lab. We don’t kill them. We just observe them.”
There was one male, and he was having a great time.
Paul Luyster Associate biology professor
The dermestid beetles were added for a student wanting to study taxidermy. They’re flesh-eating insects she wanted to use to clean bones. The lab has kept their population going as well and now has a freezer set at -80 degrees Celsius to house any roadkill or any carcasses donated to their program.
“We have a lot of birds that run into windows on our campus,” Luyster said. “Whenever faculty see that, they tend to call me up and say, ‘Hey, you want the bird?’ and I’ll send my student workers over to collect the bird and bring it back and give it to our beetles.”
Perez said he works on many projects with the dermestid beetles and is currently having them decompose a shark’s jaw donated to use for a shadow box.
“Luyster said he is going to make me a shirt with a bug on it,” Perez said while allowing cockroaches to crawl across his hands.
Luyster said he incorporates the animals and insects into his biology classes by
either creating labs specific to the species or by just having them around for students to observe their personalities.
“They’re actually very vocal, particularly the guinea pigs. If you come in and make a noise that sounds like you’re opening a package of food, they’ll start squealing at you,” Luyster said. “And you would not expect a turtle to be fast, but he is the most likely of all our animals to disappear running down the hall.”
Petra, their bearded dragon, is the most temperamental of all the animals in the lab, according to Perez.
“We call it ‘being Petra’ because she’s so sassy,” Perez said. “She’ll only drink water when we give her a bath, and she only eats when you hold food up to her
mouth.”
Many students tell Luyster they look forward to their biology class, and he said he’s seen how the animal’s presence curates a positive and engaging environment for them to learn.
“I think for the students, it gives them something to get excited about,” he said. “A lot of them are enthusiastic about seeing the animals, and they want to hold them and pet them.”
For Luyster, he said he just loves spending time there.
“That’s my Zen space. I tell people, when you get depressed or stressed out, come hang out with our animals,” he said. “There are therapy dogs, but here you can have a therapy guinea pig.”
Photos by Ash Petrie/The Collegian
Illustrations by Rena Aquino/The Collegian
South student Carmen Gomez walks through the science building to visit the biology department’s gerbils while on her way to class.
Student worker Edgar Rodriguez Perez holds a male and female Madagascar hissing cockroach.
Petra, a bearded dragon, relaxes under a heat lamp inside the biology lab.
Adenine, the oldest gerbil of the colony, chewing on a donated roll of toilet paper.