The Breeze 8.17.23

Editorial Staff

thebreezeweb@gmail.com

SPORTS EDITORS KAIDEN BRIDGES & JACKSON

SHAW & LIZZIE STONE breezenews@gmail.com

COPY EDITORS EMMA JOHNSON & WILLIAM MORAN breezecopy@gmail.com

The Breeze, the student-run newspaper of James Madison University, serves student, faculty and staff readership by reporting news involving the campus and local community. The Breeze strives to be impartial and fair in its reporting and firmly believes in First Amendment rights. Published on Thursday mornings, The Breeze is distributed throughout James Madison University and the local Harrisonburg community. Single copies of The Breeze are distributed free of charge. Additional copies are available for 50 cents by contacting our business office. Comments and complaints should be addressed to Grant Johnson, editor.

Union, Festival highlight revamped study spaces during Carrier renovation

By ASHLEE THOMPSON The Breeze

Walking across main campus, students will notice a change in scenery — Carrier Library is under construction.

Carrier Library has been a popular study spot since its opening in 1939, with space to house hundreds of studying students every day. Now that Carrier is projected to undergo construction until 2026, students will have to study in alternative spaces.

Along with popular existing study spaces such as Rose Library, the Student Success Center (SSC) and The Union, JMU Libraries is working to “identify, enhance, and promote” them, as well as new spots.

Director of Library Communications & Outreach Kristen Shuyler said via email that JMU Libraries is “enhancing” these previous study spaces with furniture from Carrier Library, along with creating brand new study spaces on campus.

Warren 502 — which was formerly a restaurant across from The Union Ballroom — and JMU Libraries Express in K-lot are the newest study spaces on campus. Warren 502 has 78 seats and Libraries Express about 20. Additionally, 44 seats were added in the

Festival Conference and Student Center, and 48 more seats are now in The Union.

To supplement seating in common spaces, some classrooms will be transformed into study rooms. JMU has added more functional study furniture to them, including tables, chairs, soft seating and study carrels, Shuyler said.

Carrier Library had approximately 600 seats in use during “peak weekday times,” which were Monday through Thursday in the afternoon, according to data provided by Shuyler. Hot times also included late Sunday afternoons, which saw 360 seats used on average.

To help students locate and track new and old study spaces on campus, JMU Libraries created a map that will be updated regularly. The map, which showcases 23 available studying buildings, will help students find a space to meet their needs based on where their classes are, Shuyler said.

Alternatively, student affairs created a website that lists study options on campus with detailed descriptions of the spaces in The Union, SSC and on East Campus. JMU Libraries also ranked their top places to study in the libraries on campus.

“We care about students finding great places to do their solo studying or group work,” Shuyler said in an email. “We in the Libraries hope to continue our involvement in these

cross-campus study space efforts.”

Even with new study spaces being added and highlighted across campus, students have expressed concern about Carrier being unavailable for the next three years, as well as their concern for study-space availability.

“I think it will ultimately be a cool, new library,” sophomore Reagan Vale said. “But I am sad that I will never get to see it or utilize it.”

Vale, who often frequented Carrier Library throughout her freshman year, foresees its absence causing problems on campus, especially when final exam weeks arrive at the end of the fall and spring semesters.

“Carrier housed so many students during finals week … They are going to have to go somewhere,” Vale said. “I think SSC and The Union will be overcrowded.”

Senior Sophia Libonate called Carrier an “integral” part of her sophomore and junior years on campus, as COVID-19 limited her freshman year. She particularly loved running into everyone she knew at Carrier, as well as “the stacks,” desks on the top floor of Carrier where she said she would lock in and “force” herself to study.

“It didn’t matter that most of my classes were on East Campus,” Libonate said. “I had my group project meetings, and routinely morning Starbucks [at Carrier].”

Shuyler said she doesn’t want students to be wary of Carrier Library’s absence but instead be excited and hopeful. The new Carrier will feature a 24/7 study space, a student kitchenette, universal restrooms on every floor and two entrances that Shuyler says will be more accessible and feel more welcoming.

Shuyler said she wants to remind students that, even though it will be closed, Carrier’s services will continue. Students can still request and pick up books, ask questions, browse collections and much more throughout the renovation period.

Vale predicts she will use the study spaces in Hartman and Showker halls — the buildings that hold many College of Business classes near Newman Lake — as well as the airport lounge in the Union. Libonate said she plans to study in Rose Library if the space allows it.

“I really am glad to see this school grow and make improvements for its students,” Libonate said. “It’s become a bittersweet subject to think about.”

CONTACT Ashlee Thompson at thomp6ab@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

With Carrier Library off limits during its three-year renovation, many students are without their go-to study spot. To accomodate, JMU is adding 48 more seats to The Union and 44 to the Festival Conference and Student Center, among other locations. Photos by Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

Honors College to start the year with new minor requirements

By JASMINE MOORE The Breeze

As the new school year begins, the Honors College will be using an adjusted Honors minor curriculum. The new program removes barriers to completing the minor in an effort to ease student stress and encourage retention in the Honors College program, Bethany Blackstone, dean of the Honors College, said.

The Honors College officially changed its requirements on March 27 in an email was sent to students completing the college’s minor.

Blackstone said these changes are one of many made to the Honors College since its inception as the Honors Program in 1961. Its last curriculum update was about two years ago, Blackstone said.

Previously, the Honors minor was 25 credit hours and required a capstone project. The project is a summation of the student’s college experience. New changes include a 19-credit requirement and optional capstone. Further, Blackstone said, Honors students are now able to choose between two routes. One option is the “Minor only” route, in which a student completes just the 19 required credit hours.

The other option is the “Minor and Honors Scholar” pathway, which Blackstone said will involve the completion of a thesis or a senior ePortfolio project. The thesis would have students have certain approved classes within their major or minor, complete a project, and presentation requirements. The senior ePortfolio project requires the completion of HON 401, Introduction to Honors ePortfolio, and HON 402, Honors ePortfolio. Classes are found in the undergraduate catalog for the Honors Interdisciplinary Studies Minor.

Blackstone said the curriculum changes are designed to create more flexibility for Honors College students. As Honors students first work toward their minor, Blackstone said freshman students would take first-year experience classes, which is an introduction class, while transfer students would take Honors 101.

All JMU students need 12 credit hours of general education courses or interdisciplinary honors seminars, Blackstone said. Once the general education curriculum is completed, all JMU students have completed 13 credit hours.

To fulfill the remaining six credit hours, Blackstone suggested students enroll in experiential learning courses worth three credit hours. These courses include required diversity courses. There are 42 diversity classes listed on the undergraduate catalog for the Honors

Interdisciplinary Studies Minor.

The second option, Blackstone said, is the “Minor and Honors Scholar” route, which involves the completion of 19 credit hours of the Honors curriculum, a mix of introduction, honors, diversity, and experiential learning courses, plus a capstone. Blackstone said the completion of these guidelines won’t only provide students with the Honors Interdisciplinary Studies Minor but will award the Honors Scholars designation and a capstone distinction in their subject of the capstone’s field.

Blackstone said many Honors students wait until their senior year to complete their capstone project. As a consequence, many students could not complete their projects because of the accumulated workload. Making the capstone optional allows students to change their path and allow them to have more pathways, she said.

When the JMU Honors College was called the Honors Program, it was only accessible to students in their later college years. After the program was changed into the Honors College in 2017, a new focus was made on establishing a network of Honors students who were connected from the beginning of their time at JMU.

“We draw students from all majors, from all colleges,” Blackstone said. “The thing that really sort of defines the honor student is that they are a student who thought this type of curricular and co-curricular experience would enrich their day and their experience.”

Junior Taylor Long, a justice studies major in the Honors College, said she likes the honors capstone but appreciates the freedom of the new requirements.

“I thought that it was a cool opportunity to allow students to be able to work alongside professors and create a thesis,” Long said. “I liked the idea of giving that option to students that are up for the challenge.”

Long said she believes these adjusted requirements will help ease these problems and provide students with “more freedom to have the experience they want.”

“I know the seniors that I have talked to said this was making their lives overall stressful, as it should be,” Long said. “I just think having the choice of picking whether you want to complete it or not is best for the student.”

A student with an Honors minor no longer has to complete a capstone project, per new requirements released in March. Breeze file photo.

CONTACT Jasmine Moore at moore5ja@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

MIX & MATCH

By GRANT JOHNSON, LIZZIE STONE & MORGAN BLAIR The Breeze

Between the Supreme Court’s ruling in late June that made race-conscious programs virtually impossible to justify and recent decisions at some universities to limit their preference of legacy students in admissions, the student makeup at a sizable chunk of schools across the country will probably look different for years to come.

But with its current practices, those changes won’t impact JMU.

In an interview with The Breeze in July, JMU President Jonathan Alger said the university already does not use race as a criterion when admitting students, and, in an Aug. 10 email, JMU spokesperson Mary-Hope Vass said legacy status likewise “is not a criteria for admissions.”

So, how is JMU, a school where 74.3% of the student body identified as white in fall 2022 — 14.5% higher than the state’s population — increasing diversity?

The answer, Alger said, may hinge on upping JMU’s socioeconomic diversity by making its financial aid packages and scholarships available to more first-generation students, veterans and students from a wider array of geographical areas — partly similar to what’s been in place in states that moved away from race-conscious admissions long ago, such as California Univerisity and Michigan University.

What remains JMU’s biggest obstacle in becoming more diverse?

Alger said it multiple times in the roughly 30-minute interview: To compete for prospective students against universities that have deeper pockets than JMU, it needs to continue to ramp up financial aid offerings.

“That is the single biggest need that we have, in my mind, here at JMU,” Alger said. “Financial aid is really where we sometimes struggle because we have a pretty modest endowment compared to a lot of other universities that have been around a lot longer and that have had a culture of philanthropy for a lot longer.”

The value of JMU’s “true and quasi endowments” as of June 2022 was $123 million, a far cry from other large public universities in the Commonwealth such as U.Va. ($13.6 billion), Virginia Tech ($2.6 billion) and VCU ($2.4 billion).

To increase its endowment, JMU has launched initiatives such as Dukes Pay it Forward endowed scholarships — five-year awards of $5,000 or more given in the donor’s name — as well as by participating in the American Talent Initiative, which works with colleges nationally to attract Pell Grant-eligible and first-generation students who otherwise might not be able to afford college.

The Warden Scholarship Match, which raised more than $3 million in 2022, is another initiative to bring Pell-eligible students to JMU, which, Alger said, is “going to be a major focus certainly for us, and nationally, going forward.”

Pell Grants are awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to students displaying an exceptional financial need for college — grants that do not have to be repaid. Pell Grants were given to 15% of JMU students in 2021

according to State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), lagging behind the 27% median at four-year Virginia colleges.

As The Breeze reported in 2021, JMU faces a steep climb to receive more funding from the state, one reason being its student body consists of more students from wealthier backgrounds than, for example, VCU and George Mason — schools that get more money to support its larger population of lower-income students. Brad Barnett, director of the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, said at the time that 60% of JMU’s student body receives some form of financial aid, either through federal, state or institutional grant and scholarship funding, or through student loans.

“My dream for JMU would be to get to the point where anybody who wants to come to JMU and is qualified and able to do the work is able to get an access to a JMU education,” Alger said. “And that’s where, particularly, with scholarships and financial aid, we’re not there yet. We still have a significant ways to go.”

Why hasn’t JMU

used race as a factor in admissions?

The seeds were planted long before Alger arrived in Harrisonburg.

Prior to becoming JMU’s president in 2012, Alger worked as assistant general counsel in the early 2000s at the University of Michigan, where he helped develop the school’s arguments in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, two Supreme Court cases in which students looking to be admitted into Michigan’s law and undergraduate programs, respectively, challenged its race-conscious admissions policies.

In both cases, Alger said in a follow-up email to The Breeze on Aug. 9, the consideration of race “as a compelling interest” in admissions was upheld. However, consideration of race under constitutional standards must meet “strict scrutiny,” which the Gratz case did not.

So, Michigan, with the help of Alger, won the Grutter case — race could be used as a factor in admissions, albeit not a major factor — but lost to Gratz.

In Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s opinion in the 2003 Grutter case, she read, “It has been 25 years since Justice [Lewis] Powell first approved the use of race to further an interest in student body diversity in the context of public higher education [in the 1978 California v. Bakke case] … We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”

That opinion, Alger said, led universities across the country to start focusing heavily on “raceneutral” alternatives to achieve the educational benefits of diversity — foreshadowing the ruling two decades in the making regarding Harvard and North Carolina.

“It was not a particular surprise,” Alger said, adding that he read all of the roughly 250 pages of opinions in the late-June ruling and has been “thinking about and working on” diversity-related cases for 30 years, dating back to his time working for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in the 1990s. “It reflects the changing composition of the Supreme Court, so it was the kind of decision many of us had anticipated.”

Alger: Financial aid is ‘single biggest need’ to diversify JMU further

After the Supreme Court’s ruling on race-conscious admissions policies, JMU President Alger discussed the future of JMU’s diversity initiatives. Breeze file photo

All of the amicus briefs — “friends of the court” providing third-party testimonies — that Alger worked on during the Michigan cases led him to consider alternative ways to increase access and opportunity to higher education: that intervention needs to start earlier than right before college, rather, at the K-12 level. He said organizations came together harping on how important diversity is in the military, corporate America and education of all levels.

“If you wait until students are seniors in high school, it’s in some ways too late to make much of an impact,” Alger said. “They’ve already taken the courses that they’re going to take, and they’re either prepared or not for admissions to different schools.”

After leaving Michigan, he became Rutgers University’s senior vice president of general counsel and worked on the Rutgers Future Scholars program — a similar model to JMU’s Valley Scholars program — to increase access to higher education earlier in students’ careers before it’s too late.

“Very much in my mind was, ‘How do you build sort of pipeline programs that create opportunities for students of all backgrounds?’” Alger said. “Especially students that might not otherwise be expected to go to college.”

What has JMU been doing to diversify its student body?

JMU’s Valley Scholars program, the early-intervention model to get students on a college track early in their academic careers,just turned nine years old this past academic year. The first cohort of 19 students, 17 at JMU, graduated in May.

It works like this: Guidance counselors and middle school teacher help JMU find students in its backyard who have the academic potential to get to college but

might be not able to because of financial or social situations. If Valley Scholar students maintain acceptable grades through high school and get admitted to JMU, they have a full-ride scholarship waiting for them.

But, Alger cautioned, these kinds of programs take a while “to really bear fruit” because of the the long-term support and funding they need.

Nevertheless, with more national dialogue about how to adjust to many colleges’ changing student demographics, it’s “an example of the kind of model I think that we have to be thinking about going forward.”

“It’s the kind of relationship or partnership, collaboration, working across institutional lines, that I think is so important,” said Alger, who was asked by the Department of Education to speak at a late-July summit

by Ben Moulse /TheBreeze

about Valley Scholars. “To me, long-term solutions are going to require that kind of thinking, that kind of partnership and collaboration, because we can’t expect higher ed to solve these issues on its own, and we can’t expect K-to-12 necessarily to do it on its own either.”

Valley Scholars’ success is hard to measure after just one graduating class passing through, though JMU’s changing diversity numbers — as it pertains to race — since 2013 seem to reflect at least a marginal improvement. The percentage of JMU students who identify as Black (4% to 4.8%), Asian (4% to 5.7%) and Hispanic (4.6% to 7.4%) have all gone up over the last 10 years, while white-identifying students have dipped from 78.8% in 2013 to 74.3% this past fall.

Other diversity and outreach efforts, Alger

said, include on-campus summer camps that host K-12 students, professor-in-residence programs — faculty members embedded in different schools across the Commonwealth — and the opening of the Reddix Center for First-Generation Students in the Student Success Center, meant to create a “sense of belonging” for the roughly 12% of JMU’s student body who are first-gen.

“It’s got to be a number of approaches that you’re working on simultaneously,” Alger said about upping diversity. “I think what you’re going to see here is there’s going to be a lot of conversation about what’s worked so far, what lessons can be learned from schools that have been doing this, what are things that are good models but now should be scaled up?”

According to a recent JMU campus climate survey — which was open to students, faculty members and staff in fall 2021 and drew 4,450 respondents — 69% of students said they were “comfortable” on campus. Emil Cunningham, vice president of external relations for Rankin & Associates Consulting and presenter of the results in April 2022, said people who identify as a marginalized group, such as women, transgender people and Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) are significantly less comfortable on campus.

For Alger, a diverse, comforting environment is what will take JMU’s campus climate up a notch.

“Diversity and excellence go hand in hand,” Alger said. “They’re not competing concepts.”

CONTACT Contact Grant Johnson at breezeeditor@gmail.com, Lizzie Stone at breezenews@gmail.com and Morgan Blair at thebreezeculture@gmail. com. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

HEY DUKES

WHAT TIME IS IT?

New SGA leadership emphasizes accountability, transparency

By ASHLEE THOMPSON The Breeze

The new leadership of JMU’s Student Government Association (SGA) — student body president and vice president, executive treasurer and student representative to the Board of Visitors — are planning for the year based on their goals and experience of past leadership.

Senior Nate Hazen, the 2023-24 student

vice president, said she values events and eventplanning and hopes to increase attendance at traditional JMU events in her new gig.

One such event is the Ring Premiere, an SGAsponsored event when sophomores can see the unveiling of their class ring. She plans to bring more attention to JMU traditions, Forman said.

“I really think the traditions at JMU are super important, and because of [COVID-19], they haven’t been as prominent,” Forman said in March. “I’m really hoping the student body can get more involved with traditional events at JMU.”

While Forman will focus on bringing back and increasing attendance at traditional events, the previous vice president, Carlin Bumgarner, a senior psychology major, used her role to increase mental health awareness after COVID-19 isolated students.

Bumgarner said in March 2022 that she planned to advocate for more mental health resources on campus and to have more inclusive dining options on campus. Bumgarner decided to implant her mental health goals into the events on campus, such as Purple Out, Madison Majesties and the Madison Vision Teaching Awards.

SGA spent all of the funding money they had available, he said before his election.

Market’s finance team supported more than 17 different on-campus organizations through program grants and contingency funds, the latter of which emptied out in late March. Market and his team banded together and kept giving out funds to organizations on campus by pulling money out of a reserve fund.

Haynicz said he sees the SGA running out of contingency funds as a “good problem to have” because it shows that clubs want to do things for their organizations.

In March, Abigail Cannella, 2023-24 student

representative to the Board of Visitors (BoV), committed to increase communication between students and the BoV to ensure the student body knows what’s going on with the university’s governing bodies.

To adhere to this goal, Cannella, a senior, said she’s working on a bill of opinion to petition the BoV to add a student seat to it, with the hope of eventually bringing the change to other schools in Virginia. She said she wants to continue bringing the community together like her predecessor Xaiver Williams did, stating after the election that his work was “admirable.”

During his time as student representative, Williams attended open BoV meetings and was the point of contact between students and the Board.

In a 2022 interview, Williams called himself a “bridge-builder” due to his two-year-long stint as the BoV’s student representative and the “honest conversations” he held with many students over the years said. “They’re not competing concepts.”

body president, said in a May interview that he was “counting down the days” until he assumed his position — something he has always wanted and is “honored and humbled” to hold. The most exciting part of the job is simultaneously being a student and holding a role to serve the student body, Hazen said.

Hazen focused his election campaign on experience, accountability and transparency. He was class president and an academic senator, roles he said have helped him gain the experience and intelligence needed to be student body president.

“No matter if it's the White House or a club on JMU’s campus, the word ‘president’ is seen to be serious,” Hazen said. “A very important part of leadership is finding that balance between professionalism and fun.”

Shawdee Bakhtiari (’23), former student body president, has advised Hazen as he steps into her former role, Hazen said.

“I've spoken about the importance of having personal connections and friendships and how it benefits the workplace environment,” Hazen said. “I have said those things — Shawdee has done those things.”

Both Hazen and Bakhtiari share the belief that student advocacy and personal connections should be at the forefront of any leadership position. Before she was elected last year, Bakhtiari pledged to bridge the gap between the JMU and Harrisonburg communities during her term. She also said she’d use her position to advocate for underrepresented students.

Hazen called Bakhtiari the “perfect example of what a leader is supposed to do,” saying that his administration has already benefited because of her actions.

Junior Faith Forman, the 2023-24 student body

Bumgarner said Forman has already “stepped into the role” by picking the new leadership team with the help of the other major position-holders of SGA.

Bumgarner was recently elected as the new Speaker of the Senate, a position she said she’s “so honored” to be chosen for.

Due to her experience as student body vice president, Bumgarner said she “knows the ins and outs” of the SGA and will make it her mission to ensure transparency throughout the organization and to inform the student body about what the SGA can do for them.

“During my time as student body vice president, I grew so much. I learned more than I thought I would, and I feel that I have a valuable skill set because of it,” Bumgarner said. “I truly couldn’t be more excited [to be Speaker of the Senate]. I’m still giddy about it, to tell you the truth.”

After serving as a finance committee member

during the 2022-23 school year, senior Matt Haynicz said in March he’s confident and passionate about his new role as the executive treasurer.

He said he wants to focus on supporting students by informing them of on-campus resources and minimize the strain finances can cause students. During his tenure, Haynicz said he’d like the SGA to use a “fresh perspective” when approving or rejecting fund requests and hopes that all funds will be given out.

Haynicz’s predecessor, Brandon Market, had a similar plan for his term. He wanted to support JMU’s student organizations on campus through funding and to make sure the

CONTACT Ashlee Thompson at thomp6ab@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more coverage of JMU and Harrisonburg news, follow the news desk on Twitter @BreezeNewsJMU.

Senior Nate Hazen: Student body president Photos by Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

Senior Matt Haynicz: Executive treasurer

Senior Abigail Cannella: Student representative to the Board of Visitors (BoV)

Junior Faith Forman: Student body vice president

Live music series continues to Draw numbers

By EVAN MOODY The Breeze

In May 2021, the Levitt Foundation researched the effects of commissioning an outdoor music venue in Denver’s Ruby Hill neighborhood — “a residential, predominantly lowincome Hispanic/ Latinx community.” The study found that the Levitt Pavilion both “helped create a stronger, more equitable community of music lovers” and fostered “long-term investment in the local community.”

Last year, the Levitt Foundation took on a similar project by selecting Harrisonburg as one of the 33 Levitt AMP Music Series locations from across the country. With this selection, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance receives a $30,000 grant from the Levitt Foundation each year from 2023-26, to which HDR will match. The grant provides live music performances at Turner Pavilion from critically acclaimed artists at no expense of the audience.

According to the Levitt Foundation’s website, the foundation believes “access to the arts and open green space are fundamental human rights.”

Performances, which take place at 6 p.m. every Wednesday, run through late September. Since they began in the middle of July, attendance sizes of the concerts have doubled from 600 to 1,300, said Jennifer Bayes, events and special projects manager of HDR.

“Every artist brings different people and different ages, different backgrounds,” Bayes said. “It’s just cool to see that what we hoped is actually working.”

According to the latest census data, 25% of Harrisonburg residents, or roughly 12,800 people, identify as impoverished. As access to art performances are often restricted by high premiums, free concerts such as those provided by the Levitt AMP series ensure marginalized groups reap the benefits of experiencing art.

Said benefits are known by Christine Elise, one half of a newage, soul duo formed with Kuf Knotz that performed at the Turner Pavilion on Aug. 2. The classically trained harpist is also a former student of community music therapy, which takes into account cultural and social context of music therapy. Elise said she can relate her past study material to the live music series.

“It is playing out where this ripple effect, where all ages of people gathered together in an experience does create a ripple, whether they would like to see a live show again or talk about one of the lyrics that they heard, or just have the memory of sharing a space on a nice afternoon or evening together,” Elise said. “Those feelings and those memories continue to create ripples. And that’s really what community therapy is all about.”

The two are no strangers to the community benefit of music.

They even first watched each other perform at a previous fundraiser. Elise’s musical counterpart, Knotz, is cited on his Spotify as having a passion for supporting the community through food and clothing drives, among other initiatives, and is a member of WXPN Musicians on Call — a free program that brings volunteer musicians to the bedsides of hospital patients.

Artists are chosen for the Levitt AMP series through a selection process after applying. According to the Levitt Foundation website, acts represented throughout the series offer a broad cultural and genre range while representing the selected location’s area. Cinémathèque, a cinema music-oriented band, was formed out of Roanoke in 2011, and its Aug. 9 set featured JMU junior and saxophonist Evan Bertoglio.

For Cinémathèque, playing a live show in Harrisonburg was a major draw for the all instrumental group. While some members have attended concerts in the Forbes Center for the Performing Arts and commented on the large music program at JMU, the group as a whole had not played a show in town.

“It’s really exciting,” said Jonathan Falls, a member of the collective. “I’ve always wanted to do a Harrisonburg show.”

In tune with the community benefit theme, Cinémathèque has also performed at charity concerts at the art museum of Roanoke

and participated in Relay for Life, a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society, at Virginia Tech. Also in accordance with the Levitt Foundation’s commitment to broad genres, the group’s sound is influenced by exotica, spaghetti Westerns, Afrobeat and Ethiopian Jazz.

“It’s great to see that people are like, ‘I don’t really care who it is or what the genre is. I just want to see live music,’” Bayes said. “It’s expanding people’s horizons, and also it’s bringing in artists and bands that are from other parts of the country. So, it’s also putting Harrisonburg on the map.”

Calls to turn the Turner Pavilion into a permanent stage for live music have been circulating, Bayes said. While most events for HDR occur on S. Main, Liberty and Mason streets, the space had become unactivated other than for the weekly farmers market and a past skeleton festival.

While the venue itself hasn’t made considerable changes, the community began to see the area as usable, and there’s hope that city officials have also taken notice, Bayes said. This is in part with the Levitt Foundation’s mission, committed to “injecting joy into underused public spaces and fostering more equitable, healthy and thriving communities.”

Part of the equitable growth noticed in the Harrisonburg music series has come from the project’s sponsors — local businesses including Kline’s Dairy Bar, Matchbox Realty & Management Services, Pale Fire Brewing and more.

For HDR to match the $30,000-per-year grant, it sought former and new sponsors, and the foundation was able to expand its reach. Along with this support, vendors have also been represented at the Wednesday concerts. Located next to Kline’s downtown, El Paisano has received exposure by vending tacos and quesadillas.

“We’re meeting our mission of helping downtown businesses grow and thrive,” Bayes said.

As students return for the fall semester, the audience for the free, live concerts is expected to continually grow. Moving forward, 10 more artists will return to Harrisonburg next summer and the summer thereafter to continue the project.

For now, however, it appears the Levitt Foundation remains in good standing for completing their mission in Harrisonburg.

“Every week that we have it, people come and they’re like, ‘Oh, I was having dinner downtown last week and I heard music and I looked it up, and so, then I came,” Bayes said. “We hear that every week, and so it’s just going to keep growing in numbers. Who knows how many people we’ll have in that grassy lot?”

CONTACT Evan Moody at thebreezeculture@gmail.com

For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.

EDITORS

Cinémathèque, a cinema music-oriented band from Roanoke, performed their first ever Harrisonburg show with the series.

Photos by Abi Middleton / The Breeze

Attendance sizes of the concerts have doubled from 600 in July to 1,300 in August.

Honors College adviser drawn to action and beauty of stunt and stage combat

By MALLORY EVANS contributing writer

The intricacies of a violent, choreographed sword-fighting scene in a college production of “Hamlet” led Sara Hodges to pursue an extensive career and passion for stunt and stage combat.

A 2005 theatre graduate from JMU, Hodges harbored interests in performance and martial arts early in her undergraduate career. Since returning to her alma mater in 2007 as an academic adviser in the Honors College, she’s continued to foster an appreciation for stunt and combat work, propelling her to attend and present at conventions and workshops.

Most recently, she helped coordinate the “A-Town Throw Down” at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, an annual stage combat and stunt conference. This year’s event assembled instructors, performers and various professionals to participate in three days of classes, lectures and demonstrations from May 26-28. Activities included exercises for film, theatre, self defense and mock auditions. Since 2007, Hodges said she’s been a staple at workshops such as A-Town Throw Down, which she’s helped coordinate for several years.

“At this point in my life,” Hodges said, “my involvement is primarily with the ones I helped to coordinate, or otherwise run.”

These action-packed nationwide conferences occur frequently throughout the year. Although there were periods when Hodges questioned her availability and commitment for events due to responsibilities at JMU, her continued enjoyment prompted her to take on a more managerial role.

“The more that I was involved, the more I thought I could be good at this and I might enjoy that. I just got really, really interested in helping to run these things smoothly,” Hodges said.

Even though these programs are overarchingly designed to teach people about stage combat techniques and enhance physical awareness, each conference is distinct.

For the particular May conference, Hodges said, it was nice how “Atlanta is really a hotbed of filming, so we also have a bunch of stunt work.” The A-Town Throw Down has more flexibility to bring a variety of unusual performers, she said, because the conference is three days instead of a more-typical two.

Martial arts and professional stunt work, two areas the conference highlights, are classified as authorized combat sports, as detailed in the U.S. Legal Combative Sports Law. So too, however, is wrestling, a sport Hodges initially questioned as to its validity and intrigue.

“Professional wrestling, not a lot of people realize, is the most prominent example of stage combat out there,” Hodges said. “I grew up in a home where professional wrestling was very lowbrow. And then I realized, getting into stage combat, I can watch this all the time. I very much enjoy picking out the techniques and kind of seeing what they’re doing.”

Aside from her involvement with stunt and combat around the country, she has also shared her skillset closer to home at JMU.

She even collaborates with Harrisonburg High School when she’s requested to help choreograph a show.

“I’ve been very fortunate to do some productions with The School of Theatre and Dance over the years,” Hodges said. “The last one I did with JMU was in 2018 — a production of a show called ‘She Kills Monsters,’ which is very ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ themed.”

As an area of study, most universities do not offer extensive options in the stunt and combat field.

Related curriculum has been implemented at JMU, however, with the occasional class for students interested in learning about stage combat — when JMU has had instructors for it, such as Hodges.

“[Combat] is not something that has really taken off at JMU at this point, but I’d be very, very excited to see something like that start to happen,” Hodges said. “I’ve seen that the people at JMU’s School of Theatre and Dance have shown a great commitment to taking this work seriously.”

The next workshop Hodges will attend is in Philadelphia in late October or early November. Oliver Donahue, who will be the workshop’s coordinator, was also a guest instructor at A-Town Throw Down. He viewed May’s conference as a great success and is hopeful for similar turnouts for future stunt and combat events.

“There was a wide swath of folks from many different backgrounds and from all skill levels,” Donahue said. “As at many regional workshops, there are always folks we would think of as ‘regulars,’ but we are always gratified to see people coming in for the first time to just get their feet wet and start seeing if stage combat is something they’d like to pursue.”

Donahue said many Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD)-sanctioned regional workshops occur throughout the year. The A-Town Throw Down is one of these, and the conference is fortunate to draw teachers, fight directors and trainees from across the country, he said.

“We’d of course love to see attendance continue to grow, but just as importantly, we want access to continue to broaden,” Donahue said. “Many of us in the stage combat world are extremely passionate about what we do, and when you’re passionate about something, you want to share it with as many folks as you can.”

In regard to future workshops after Philadelphia, Hodges said she’s eager to expand her involvement and also take up more project manager positions.

“There’s a certification workshop for the safe handling of blank-firing weapons, which I’d really like to be more involved in,” Hodges said. “I’m always keeping an ear to the ground for more training.”

Much preparation and training are required for stage combat, and its execution channels both safety and entertainment for a wide audience. Hodges highlighted the art’s crucial addition to productions as a communication method and form of entertainment.

“I think a thing a lot of people miss about stage combat is how important it is to storytelling and supporting actors,” Hodges said. “Stage combat is something that will often get cut due to budget.” Creating a comfortable environment where participants can collaborate with peers and become confident with techniques is of utmost importance, Hodges said, adding that she’s excited for the future of stunt and combat in conferences and at universities, as their prominence continues to grow.

“Being able to give actors that confidence and that ability to keep each other safe while they’re telling the story is one of my favorite things about it,” Hodges said. “I hope that more and more people continue to realize that this is a vital part of a production.”

CONTACT Mallory Evans at evans4mr@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.

Hodges has also assisted with stage combat and stunts in productions at Harrisonburg High School and JMU. She said she’d also like to explore blank-firing weapons workshops.

“A-Town Throw Down,” located in Atlanta, is an annual stage combat and stunt conference that Sara Hodges helped coordinate in May. Photos courtesy of Sara Hodges

How the cookie crumbl es Dessert spot offers 6 new treats per week

By K. MAUSER The Breeze

This summer, the doors of Harrisonburg’s newest dessert spot opened to the public, engulfing each of its customers in its delicious aroma of warm cookies.

Crumbl Cookies, located in between the Walmart and Home Depot on Burgess Road, brought to the Friendly City by three brothers: Paul, Preston and Larry Howell. Both Preston and Paul own the store while Larry manages.

This business is the latest addition to Harrisonburg’s cookie scene, adding to latenight hotspots such as Insomnia Cookies and Campus Cookies. These stores not only provide after-class employment for college students but also longer store hours for customers who savor a 9:30 p.m. treat.

“What we bring, besides employment and delicious cookies, is just a fun vibe,” Preston said, adding that the community would benefit from the long hours the store is open: 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday,

and 8 a.m.-midnight. on Fridays and Saturdays. The store’s closed on Sundays.

Store manager Madison Earnst said every Monday the store has six new cookies on its menu, so the selection is different each week. She said each week they typically have a milk chocolate chip or semi-sweet chocolate chunk cookie.

Earnst also said if customers happen to come in on a Monday, the store has some of last week’s cookies along with that week’s cookies, so their menu variety is a little more robust on Mondays.

“It’s a corporate franchise, so every Crumbl has the same cookies in every store each week, with one exception,” Preston said. “Once a month, we have a mystery cookie, and we get to decide what cookie that is.”

This week’s mystery cookie is a Classic Peanut Butter cookie, which the company’s YouTube video about the cookie describes as “bursting with peanut butter flavor and decorated with a vintage cross-hatch pattern.”

Crumbl Cookies brings not only a new spot for dessert in Harrisonburg, but also job opportunities for students and city residents. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

K’s Corner

After trying four of Crumbl Cookies’ different flavors over the course of two weeks, I can honestly say I was taken aback by the richness of the flavors and soft consistency of the cookie. I was especially amazed by the Strawberry Ice Cream Bar cookie, which Crumbl’s YouTube video on the cookie describes as a “strawberry-and-vanilla cookie layered with whipped vanilla buttercream and a sweet sprinkle of vanilla strawberry streusel.” I was surprised by how much this cookie actually reminded me of a strawberry ice cream bar.

I was also impressed by the Sugar Shark cookie because of its timely allusion to Shark Week. The cookie itself was extremely tasty for just being a sugar cookie, and the gummy shark on the top was a nice addition.

Crumbl Cookies’ long hours, as well as the deliciousness of the cookies, could make this store Harrisonburg’s next dessert craze — due in part to the fact that each cookie is made from scratch.

Larry said he often takes into account customer requests when deciding the flavor of Harrisonburg’s mystery cookie, and Preston said he’d love to see community members coming in and giving them suggestions for this cookie.

“Everything here is homemade,” Earnst said. “We have something that we call a dough team, which consists of about eight different people, and they come in every morning and make all of our cookie dough, all of our frostings, everything, from scratch.”

Preston said a typical batch of warm cookies takes a little over an hour to make from start to finish, but their weekly chilled cookies can take up to four hours to make due to the extra time it takes to both bake and chill the cookies.

Earnst said many of the cookies not sold by the end of the day at Harrisonburg’s location are donated to various local organizations such as homeless shelters. Larry said Harrisonburg’s Crumbl Cookies has also donated to other nonprofits in the past, such as organizations raising money for people with Down syndrome or leukemia.

Earnst said another thing Crumbl Cookies will bring to the Harrisonburg community is new employment opportunities.

“We [always have] jobs, especially for the younger people,” Earnst said. “We are open till late, and we also open so early.”

Larry said he’s looking forward to JMU students returning to town and engaging with them.

“We’re a little anxious and excited,” Preston said. “It’s time to see what the student reaction is to Crumbl.”

CONTACT K. Mauser at mauserkk@dukes.jmu.edu. For more on the culture, arts and lifestyle of the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the culture desk on Twitter and Instagram @Breeze_Culture.

Kaiden Bridges & Jackson Hephner EMAIL breezesports@gmail.com

JMU football ticket scammers are loose. Here’s how to avoid them.

ones with the tickets.

By JACKSON HEPHNER The Breeze

JMU football is less than a month away from opening its season at home against Bucknell on Sept. 2. But while fans search for tickets, scammers spread their social media posts in hopes of profiting off the increased demand.

Single-game tickets were put on sale for the public July 5, while Duke Club members have been able to purchase them since June 28. Despite tickets being available directly through JMU Athletics, many fans turned to secondhand sources instead. While some have gone to apps such as SeatGeek and StubHub, others have mulled social media sites, particularly JMUrelated Facebook groups, to find buyers and sellers — where scammers are active.

Carol Benassi is the admin of JMU Nation, a Facebook group with almost 28,000 members, as well as JMU Nation Ticket Exchange, a Facebook group of over 4,100 that allows fans to sell and purchase tickets as well as report common scammers. also a member of another group that contains admins from various other college groups who inform each other on signs to look out for when dealing with scammers.

Here are some common signs of ticket scams: Selling season tickets individually: Benassi said in a series of messages sent to The Breeze that scammers have been known to claim that they bought season tickets but are selling each game individually. While this is a common sign, it is possible for seasonticket holders to transfer their individual game tickets, JMU Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Kevin Warner said in a July 24 email.

If a seller claims that they already have tickets or parking passes in their possession, they’re lying. Warner told The Breeze in a text message Aug. 16 that the department is working on deployment, and official information on accessing tickets will be communicated “within 24 hours.”

Involving a third party: Scammers might also direct you to contact someone else who didn’t make the post, claiming they’re the

Grammar mistakes: Warning signs can be found sometimes just in how the message is typed out. Bad grammar, clunky wording or statements such as “trust me” can all be warning.

In one exchange, for example, a scammer

told her about how crowded JMU’s game against U.Va. on Sept. 9 would be, she turned to the JMU Nation Ticket Exchange group.

There, she found an account who seemed to be a legitimate seller. The scammer alleged to be selling her season tickets as individual games, a common red flag. The

on jmusports.evenue.com. But this time, the scammer wanted to send the ticket through her email. Parts of the victim’s conversation with the scammer were deleted, she said, but The Breeze was able to obtain screenshots of these messages as well as others sent later in the conversation.

The scammer also tried to negotiate the price, a detail that the scamming victim admitted should have tipped her off because “anybody selling their ticket would have a set price because she knows how much the tickets are worth.”

The Breeze didn’t obtain screenshots that verified these messages.

Once the price was agreed upon, the scamming victim sent her email address and JMU tickets account number. The scammer then asked for the money up front and sent the scamming victim the email address for a Zelle account that she claimed belonged to her daughter.

At this point, the victim says that the scammer asked her repeatedly if she had made the payment, ignoring the scamming victim’s questions when she tried to ask clarification questions about the transaction.

Once the payment was made and the scamming victim sent a screenshot of the confirmation, the scammer went silent.

The Breeze wasn’t able to obtain screenshots to verify these While waiting, the scamming victim began to email the address linked to the Zelle account. After an hour, the scamming victim went back to Facebook and asked the scammer for an update.

of anonymity to prevent her son, a JMU student, from knowing about the scam.

She said she bought tickets from Facebook the previous season, so when a friend of hers

During the scamming victim’s previous experiences successfully buying second-hand tickets, she said, the tickets had been transferred directly to her account

According to the scamming victim, the scammer claimed their daughter was in class, despite it being late May, adding that the victim should stop sending emails to the address registered to the Zelle account provided by the scammer. Screenshots obtained by The Breeze verified these messages.

The victim soon found out why — the Zelle account belonged to a third party who had received the money and sent the scammer Bitcoins in exchange.

The Breeze spoke to another scamming victim whose story was eerily similar, who, again, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to embarrassment of the situation and the chance of retaliation from the scammer. The Breeze reviewed screenshots of $120 of

EDITORS

BenMoulse/TheBreeze

“It was a painful experience because I felt so vulnerable, too.”

Venmo purchases sent by the scamming victim that corroborated her story; however, The Breeze couldn’t review every message from the scammer because some messages were deleted, the scamming victim said.

She said she saw a similar post back in May from a supposed season-ticket holder on the “James Madison University Class of 2027Parents” Facebook group.

“It was a painful experience because I felt so vulnerable, too,” the scamming victim said.

The admin of this group is an account called “Humans of University — Parents and Families.” This account is also an admin in dozens of identical groups that are intended for different universities, including “Old Dominion University Class of 2027 — Parents,” “Virginia Tech — Parents & Families” and “University of Virginia Class of 2025 — Parents.”

The Breeze emailed Humans of University for a statement about the ticket scams, and the respondent did not provide their full name, despite multiple requests, in correspondence with our publication deadline. The story will be updated online should The Breeze receive a statement with a first and last name.

In the JMU group, a scammer made a post claiming to be a season-ticket holder who was selling tickets for each individual game, even including parking passes to some of them. Hoping to get tickets to the popular Family Weekend game against South Alabama, which is already sold out, the scamming victim messaged the scammer,

who proceeded to give her fake seat numbers and asked for half of the money upfront. There was no price listed on the post itself, but the scammer claimed she was “flexible” and offered the scamming victim $60 each for four tickets, plus one parking pass.

Like in the first story, the scammer asked the scamming victim to Venmo the scammer’s daughter. The Breeze reviewed this message.

According to the scamming victim, the scammer tried to gain the sympathy of the scamming victim after the money was sent, saying that they’ve been burned by buyers before, calling themselves a “God-loving woman” and insisting that the scamming victim send them the rest of the money.

She refused, and when she tried to warn others in the group about the scam, she said the scammer’s post was taken down. She found another post in the group with the same format as the first.

Why buy tickets on Facebook?

There were plenty of red flags in both scamming victims’ stories, but it begs the question why second-hand tickets were sought in the first place. Both scamming victims cited a few reasons — notably, the expected scarcity of tickets for the U.Va. and South Alabama games.

The first scamming victim also cited the desire to help out a fellow fan by unloading their unwanted tickets, not wanting to purchase season tickets, and also a lack of information on when tickets would be

available and when fans would receive the tickets they purchased. She said the last reason may have stemmed from the fact that she didn’t pay as much attention to announcements from JMU about when tickets would be available.

Warner, the JMU Athletics spokesperson, said the ticketing office recommends that fans buy their tickets from the JMU Ticket Office, SeatGeek — JMU’s authorized secondary ticket marketplace — or from someone they know. Any other option involves risk, and the office can’t verify the authenticity of the tickets. However, season-ticket holders can transfer singlegame tickets because of the department’s new partnership with SeatGeek.

Despite her difficulties in the past, the first scamming victim said from now on she will purchase tickets directly from JMU, and if they aren’t available from the school, then she simply won’t go to the game.

The second victim bought tickets directly from JMU to the South Alabama game when they went on sale and added that she’s still willing to buy tickets from trustworthy sources on Facebook.

“I’m going to be very cautious,” the second scamming victim said.

Where to buy JMU tickets legitimately

So far this season, tickets to some games

already seem to be scarce. On July 7, JMU Athletics announced that season and single-game tickets for the South Alabama game were sold out, but singlegame tickets for the other five games are still available as of Aug. 15. Tickets can be purchased directly from JMU at jmusports. evenue.net. This is also the same site used to sell men’s and women’s basketball tickets.

All student tickets will be made available 14 days before each home game. Like regular admission tickets, they can be reserved at jmusports.evenue.net. Each one is free, but are only available in singlegame options. If you wish to purchase a student guest ticket, you can do so when reserving your free ticket.

Free student tickets must be used by the student who reserved their ticket. They cannot be resold or transferred, and doing so may lead to your ticket being canceled. Students can also have their free ticket privileges revoked if they reserve their student tickets but do not show up to the game twice.

This is a developing story. The Breeze will update it at breezejmu.org as it receives new information. You can also find our anonymity policy at www. breezejmu.org/volunteer/policies.html

CONTACT Jackson Hephner at breezesports@gmail.com. For more football coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter at @TheBreezeSports.

JMU Athletics sold a record 8,718 season tickets for the upcoming football season and announced July 7 that the Family Weekend game against South Alabama is sold out. Breeze file photo

Women’s tennis welcomes new head coach

Tyson Thomas blends psychology with coaching

By ELEANOR SHAW The Breeze

With a background in psychology, a love of the state of Virginia and a passion for tennis, Tyson Thomas is gearing up to make a racket as the new JMU women’s tennis head coach.

Joined by assistant coach Grace Hashiguchi, Thomas debuted as JMU’s sixth women’s tennis coach in school history on July 6, while Hashiguchi’s position was announced July 28.

Thomas succeeds Shelley Jaudon after she resigned in May. Jaudon left JMU to pursue the same position at Kentucky. During her time with the Dukes, Jaudon led the team during its first Sun Belt Championship where they lost to ODU 4-0, as well as the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship in 2019 and 2021.

Thomas said the team’s been competing at high levels “the right way” — something he said excites him.

During the summer, Thomas said he began to build a relationship with his team through Zoom, individual calls and texting.

“Really, the heart of the matter is getting to know the people involved,” Thomas said. “So that's the main focus of the summer, and it will continue to be going into the fall.”

Thomas praised Hashiguchi’s commitment, during this process of team building — he emphasized his confidence in Hashiguchi’s ability to help realize his vision for JMU’s women’s tennis team. This vision includes his own approach to tennis: integrating psychology to help players achieve “a sense of freedom when they're competing.”

Thomas said this involves helping athletes manage “their inner voice” while they’re under pressure to compete — a pressure that’s elevated when tennis players compete by themselves in singles. Thomas said he plans to elevate the program with this approach, attracting eager and committed players with a “strong-growth mindset.”

These goals’ roots are planted in his time playing tennis and studying psychology at, Nebraska-Kearney University from 2001-05.

“While I was simply intrigued with … all areas of psychology in college and studying all different aspects, to being able to combine that with my love for tennis was just this perfect fit,” Thomas said. “I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to be … not only just a tennis coach but a college tennis coach and help players grow all in all.”

When reflecting on his time at Nebraska-Kearney, Thomas recalled getting into the sport late but undergoing an “exciting transformation” alongside his peers with the Lopers.

That excitement initiated improvement, Thomas said, and the team attracted other strong recruits. During his time at Nebraska-Kearney, Thomas watched and helped “one of the worst teams in conference” win the conference during his last two years.

“Seeing that evolution of a team growing together really … planted the seed for me to become a coach down the road,” Thomas said.

After graduating from Nebraska-Kearney in 2005 with his bachelor’s degree in comprehensive psychology, Thomas worked as an assistant coach for women’s and men’s tennis at the University of Nebraska at Omaha from 2013-14 — then became the men’s head coach at the same university until 2019.

Afterward, Thomas volunteered as U.Va.’s assistant women’s tennis coach from 2019-22, then moved to Philadelphia to be the assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania. While at U.Va., Thomas said he fell for Virginia’s natural beauty and appreciated the proximity to his extended family in Charlottesville.

During his stint at Penn, Thomas felt “an itch” to return to coaching. His wish was fulfilled by St. Joseph’s University's offer to be its women’s tennis head coach. Shortly after he accepted the position, Tyson said, JMU’s job became available, and he decided to do what his family needed.

“All things considered with JMU and what they're capable of doing and coming back to Virginia, it was just really an opportunity we couldn't pass up,” Thomas said.

After accepting JMU’s offer, Thomas faced a difficult task: making the interstate move with his wife and two children — a transition Thomas said was eased by JMU’s “accommodating” and “empowering” athletics department.

Thomas said he was especially impressed by the department’s emphasis on work-life balance — something he credits with helping him become a better, more successful coach.

“It’s just an incredible fit for us,” Thomas said. “To be able to bring our family back to Virginia, to be near family and to be in an environment that we love … all of that comes together and makes everything very fulfilling and very exciting.”

CONTACT Eleanor Shaw at breezenews@gmail.com. For more women's tennis coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.

JMU women’s tennis head coach Tyson Thomas was an assistant coach for U.Va. from 2019-22. Photos courtesy of U.Va. Athletics

Thomas said coming back to the commonwealth to coach JMU was an opportunity he couldn't pass up, in that he’s excited to bring his family back to the state.

OPINION

Evan Weaver EDITOR EMAIL

The media wrongly prioritized Titan submersible coverage over an immigrant shipwreck tragedy

The Titan submersible was the talk of the summer.

Conversations about the missing submarine fluttered around as every media outlet raced to report the latest updates. In the title of its story, WIRED called the wreck a “tragedy.” The real tragedy the media failed to report on was the ship full of over 700 immigrants that sank in the Mediterranean.

How did the media manage to, in large part, ignore this many people drowning?

In comparison with the submersible accident, this seemed just as much, if not more, of a prominent news topic.

While there were articles published on it, the vanished submarine with five rich people on board is what captured everyone’s attention. It’s incredibly important for students and aspiring journalists to recognize this and stray away from the “popular” narratives. The media play an important role in deciding for the audience what needs light shed on.

The Titan submersible was an OceanGate excursion to observe the remains of the infamous Titanic ship. OceanGate was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush, one of the passengers on the Titan, which began its sea trials in 2018, making 10 dives in 2022. On June 18, the Titan deployed for its final journey 12,500 feet underwater.

On this submersible were four passengers who each paid $250,000 for the trip. Along with Rush, Hamish Harding, PaulHenri Nargeolet, and Shahzada and Suleman Dawood crammed into this small submersible. Not long after their departure, headlines such as “Missing Titanic sub took on extreme danger, while ‘breaking the rules’” swarmed our feeds.

The submersible lost contact about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its journey. For several days, media outlets covered every detail of the disappearance, largely ignoring other important news topics in the process.

What’s interesting is that the wreck was preventable. According to the New York Times, leaders of the submersible industry in 2018 sent a letter to OceanGate explaining their concerns, warning of “catastrophic” problems if the trips proceeded. Though more than three-dozen experts signed this letter, Rush ignored the warnings and proceeded on the calamitous journey.

On the other hand, devastating news of a boat that sank in the Mediterranean, drowning as many as 700 immigrants, was practically ignored. This fishing boat set sail

with immigrants from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt, according to the New York Times. As they were on course to arrive in Italy, the boat suspiciously went down near Greece, with various allegations as to what caused the devastation.

Some survivors chalked it up to an unlucky captain. Others said there were problems with the boat’s engine. Some even claimed the Greek Coast Guard had sunk the ship by tying ropes onto the boat. Greek officials, however, said the suspected smugglers on board refused water to the immigrants, leaving them thirsty and submissive — some were already dead before the ship wrecked.

As of Aug. 17, the cause of the ship’s sinking is still under investigation.

This was a massive tragedy, with many possible causes as to what actually happened to the migrants. Though, when compared to the media coverage of the Titan, the migrant shipwreck couldn't compete. Responses to a Breeze Instagram poll supported this, with 86% of 111 respondents saying they heard about the Titan submarine “very often,” while only 12% had heard of the migrant boat.

As these events occurred nearly simultaneously, media outlets raced to cover the missing submarine, leaving the mass drowning high and dry. CNN noticed this

discrepancy, questioning if the news outlets had gone overboard. Alex Shephard, a staff writer at the New Republic, said this was a sad demonstration on how the world works.

“The sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of migrants should be treated this way, but it isn’t and hasn’t been,” Shephard wrote in June. “It is undoubtedly a new story and an unspeakably tragic one—it’s also, unlike the Titanic tourists story, one that says a great deal about the way the world works.”

Journalism has always been about reporting the truth. It’s about finding the hard stories and bringing them to the people. Though, in this case, the purpose of journalism was ignored for the flashy headline.

While the implosion of the Titan was appalling and deserved coverage, the headlines that swarmed the internet were excessive in comparison to the tragedy of immigrants near Greece. Just because five people have obtained great wealth doesn’t make their lives any more valuable than the impoverished.

CONTACT Oriana Lukas at lukasok@dukes. jmu.edu. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on Instagram and Twitter @Breeze_Opinion.

ORIANA LUKAS Breeze columnist

The Titan submersible disaster, which resulted in the death of five people, coincided with the sinking of a ship with over 700 immigrants in the Mediterranean Sea; however, the Titan incident received more media coverage. Tribune News Service

PATRICK HANOVER contributing columnist

With the best opening-week sales of 2023, the “Barbie” movie shattered the box office. On Aug. 15, it also became the highest earning film domestically by Warner Bros. with over $537 million. Recently, women across the country have even been using it as a new barometer to see if their boyfriends are “kenough” or, more specifically, to see if they respond positively to the feminist messaging of the movie.

Indeed, like many pieces of art in the 2020s, the “Barbie” movie has been thrust into the anxietyinducing culture war — a ferocious battleground where the cultural left wing duels with the far right, wishing doom to each other to the point of rioting and homicide.

In a Breeze poll on Instagram, 89% of 141 respondents indicated they liked “Barbie.” When asked why they liked it or not, answers were often about how the movie was empowering to women and eye-opening, whereas dissatisfaction had to do with the quality of the film production itself.

Within the cultural conflict we are witnessing in 21st-century America, gender issues are at the heart of it because of the traditional gender structure being fueled by societal conformity. The right wing oftentimes wants this conformity and therefore is hostile to liberalism while the left feels like the traditional system remains in effect and change is required.

Gender nonconformity and liberation have been prominent goals for the left since the 19th century. As Friedrich Engels said in his book “Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State” published in 1884: “The first class antagonism which appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man

and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression with that of the female sex by the male.” This was connecting class warfare and capitalism to patriarchy — from an intellectual in the 19th century.

To most people, the message of “Barbie” is clear: Women have been short-changed and beaten down by the patriarchy in the past. The opposite of this is matriarchy, where women are the decisive, breadwinning alphas and the men are the submissive ones, obedient in the shadows of the women. This is what was prominently featured in the movie.

In the same Breeze poll, when participants were asked if the movie expressed a feminist message, all responders said “Yes,” indicating their satisfaction with it as well.

When participants were asked if the “Barbie” movie represented the concepts of patriarchy and matriarchy well, most answers said “Yes.” Given the fact that the film industry has glorified patriarchy since its inception, it’s kind of funny to show the reverse. At the same time, this can be confusing and inaccurate considering the lack of knowledge as to what a true matriarchy would look like, as we genuinely don’t have much of an idea in the postimperial global order.

Following “stereotypical” Barbie’s encounter with “weird” Barbie, and the dynamic of the social construct in her own world as well, it became evident that the tables turning in practice isn’t necessarily the endgame for feminism.

The film industry has glorified patriarchy all the time, and the Barbie movie’s defiance of this was creative, but one should be weary of social dominance, as any sort of such is a disservice to both the oppressed and individuals within the oppressor group who don’t conform to the stereotypes of society.

Under patriarchy, men have extreme pressure to be masculine; otherwise, they are seen as defective. What really should be advocated for is freedom — not revenge — and not the reversal of the gender roles but the removal of them entirely. No one is safe in a society influenced by a structure of systematic dominance.

The fact is, in the West, and many other developed societies, patriarchy has been the predominant system of gender dominance. So, obviously, ideologically left-wing thought would take aim against patriarchy, almost exclusively as liberalism and leftism developed.

The director of “Barbie” was right on point with their excoriation of social dominance concepts. The movie suggests that “It’s Barbies dreamhouse, not Kens” and later Ken claims the opposite with his “mojo dojo casa house.” Barbie and Ken’s passive-aggressive assertions of their dominance and superiority in these scenarios appeared as a social custom for the subservient person to bow out in obedience to the ruling member they were addressing.

Picture the 1950s. Often, men asserted their dominance through various passive-aggressive statements, and women were often expected to be naively subservient to this attitude. It doesn’t take much to figure out how this could play out in the reverse, but you must think outside the box of the current world order, since even the Barbie world is bound by Western norms — the only difference is women, in traditional female fashion, are in positions of corporate power that adhere to industrial Western society. Therefore, the idea that the Barbie world would be an accurate matriarchy is based on a flawed principle.

The creators of the film probably wanted to reverse gender roles in the Barbie world to reflect what is happening in the real world. At the end of the

movie, when the Barbies reclaim the Barbie world, they do recognize that men deserve rights, too, but the catch is the women will still be dominating. Isn’t that the exact same thing that happened in the 20th century? Women obtained rights, but unfortunately, the system was still operating under the same apparatus it had always been: Society still favored men, specifically gender conforming men. A way to fix this is to continue encouraging people to be themselves and not be concerned with stereotypes.

In terms of social constructs, it isn’t so easy to deprogram yourself, so you must make yourself aware through research and education. The way I see it, the revenge angle of feminism assumes all men already know about the effects of patriarchy, but the freedom angle of feminism doesn’t assume that and, instead, aims to educate men and women about themselves and different identities.

What I really liked about “Barbie” was the reference to “The Matrix” that used two shoes (red and blue pill). In “The Matrix,” Neo was awoken from a dream world, and in a way, the institutions that any society sets up can give a false sense of the truth, and it can kind of seem like a dream world.

Along with that, people don’t necessarily think about representation as a key factor in change. The movie highlights a common misconception in modern America — the idea that all injustice has been cleared up. In the scene with Will Ferrell’s character, the CEO of Mattel, he goes on a rant about how Mattel was built by women and is full of women, citing that the company has had female CEOs before.

This kind of rhetoric is similar to what’s used as an attempt to cover up the existence of systemic racism. The idea that because there are Black people who have succeeded in America, we have defeated racism entirely. Not true. The key here is that such problems are not entirely obvious. The goal of social justice is education of the masses, not revenge.

At the heart of gender dominance is anxiety of the masses. Everyone is expected to conform or feel like something is wrong with them. For every woman being patronized, being treated like a pet and put in the shadows of their male partner, there were gay people and gender nonconforming people who were denied their very right to exist in society, not to mention people with developmental challenges.

If a boy is not as strong as their peers, they might be subject to extreme torment, especially in adolescence. The left’s advocacy for gay rights among other social issues has been a great equalizer. Feminism has benefited greatly from the LGBTQ+ movement, as gender conformity is at the heart of stereotypes under patriarchy. Equality can then be achieved in the sense that men and women shouldn’t be forced to conform to any stereotypes. The traits of various groups are seen through the lens of society, and social constructs prompt these stereotypes.

The idea that we are living in a society that has subconscious influences that control the way we live without us realizing it seems like a sci-fi concept, which is what is so eye-opening because it’s reality. While we have come a long way in the grand scheme of things, advocates of social progress need to keep the stance of education and positive reform, mental health advocacy and deprogramming of stereotypes.

CONTACT Patrick Hanover at hanovepv@ dukes.jmu.edu. For more editorials regarding the JMU and Harrisonburg communities, follow the opinion desk on Instagram and Twitter @ Breeze_Opinion.

‘Barbie’ blunder

‘Barbie’s’ representation of the patriarchy and contemporary gender dynamics are misleading

“Barbie” has had the highest earning opening weekend domestically in 2023 so far at around $155 million. Tribune News Service

Editorial Board

The Breeze reflects on the time of change at JMU

for the last three — as thoroughly and accurately as we can. We will cover the construction; we will spotlight seniors whose JMU experience were informed by hobbies they picked up during the pandemic; we will cover how JMU’s ever-growing student body is finding space on a more-crowded campus; and so much more.

Our college careers have been marked by constant changes and struggles. Our limits have been tested. But The Breeze has reported on it with sensitivity and persistence, and we’ll continue to do so as both our organization and the university evolve.

JMU’s rising seniors have been through it all. JMU is experiencing rapid change and has a promising future in store — if only the class of 2024 would be around to see it.

Change is scary. Not knowing what’s to come is scary. These feelings are only magnified when you’re embarking on your freshman year of college. Now, add on a disappearing senior year of high school and a never-before-had college freshman year all because of a global pandemic. That is really scary.

But as the Class of 2024 prepares to don the caps and gowns and walk across the stage, we can proudly say, “We made it.” As the seniors are leaving, the rest of JMU is entering another vital period of change with renovated dorms, one less library (and a different Starbucks) and a record-breaking freshman class — a sea of new beginnings and exciting opportunities on the horizon.

While these changes may be accompanied by feelings of uncertainty, we must not forget the beauty within change as well.

Without change, there would be no butterflies. Breeze’s

The three-year renovation of Carrier Library began this summer, and it’s scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2026. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze

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