Spring 2020: Issue 3 (Vol. 106, Iss. 3) by The Campanil

The

Campanil Student-run newspaper serving Mills College since 1917

03.03.20

// Volume 106 // Issue 3 //

News

A&E

Opinions

Health

Earlier this month, a student found small bugs in the broccoli at Founders Commons.

Graduate student Taeylor White taught this past Dollar Dance series with a ‘heels’ class.

Read our staff editorial on how to create a death plan.

The husband stitch is an extra surgical stitch given to women after childbirth.

Dining hall >> pg 2

Dollar Dance Days >> pg 5

Staff editorial >> pg 7

Sexual harrasment at Mills

UCSC students striking for COLA and wider system reform Dana Culpepper Copy Chief University of Santa Cruz students continue their strike for a movement began by graduate students for a cost of living adjustment (COLA). On Friday, the school administration’s threats became reality as graduate student workers were fired from their jobs. Strike actions have been ongoing since Nov. 2019, including withholding fall quarter grades, taking over dining halls to allow students to eat without cost, and more recently refusal to hold classes, daily picketing and the blocking off of campus entrances. At 12:30 p.m. this past Friday, Feb. 28, an email from Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer informed the UCSC community that 54 graduate teaching assistants who have withheld grade information for the fall quarter “will be dismissed from their spring quarter appointments.” According to the website payusmoreucsc.com, the demands presented to UCSC administration are “a Cost of Living Adjustment for every graduate student, regardless of residence, visa, documentation, employment or funding status to bring us: 1. Out of rent burden 2. Without raising tuition or campus fees 3. With a guarantee of non- retaliation At current rates, this amounts to an additional monthly payment of $1,412.” Lachlan Summers is a thirdyear PhD student in anthropology at UCSC. Via email, he said, “We’re at a university where most graduate students make $2000 per month, for nine months of the year, seeing us pay at least 50% of our income in rent. I personally pay 64% of my yearly income in rent. Administration employees, especially the bigwigs like Lori Kletzer and Cynthia Larive, are payed $300,000 and $400,000 a year.

The Husband Stitch >> pg 8

could

really

use

some feminism right now Ariadne Wolf Contributing Writer

DANA CULPEPPER

“Students, both grads and undergrads, and service workers are regularly forced into homelessness, they sleep in their cars, they commute for over two hours from other areas,” Summers continued. “We, as the people who make this university function, think we should be paid enough to live here. We’re fighting against the idea that higher education and research should only be available for the people wealthy enough and U.S.-American enough—white enough—to access it.” The United Automobile Workers local 2865 union represents student workers across all schools in the University of California system. UC graduate students are all paid the same rate despite the differences in cost of living in the schools’ different locations. The union has not authorized the action taken by UCSC students, making it what is known as a “wildcat strike.” UCSC administration has stated the wildcat status as reason for their unwillingness to negotiate with the strikers, with UCSC President

Janet Napolitano writing in a Feb. 14 open letter that it would “undercut the very foundation of an agreement negotiated in good faith by the UAW and ratified by thousands of members across the system.” Students from many of the other UCs have publicly stated their solidarity for the UCSC strikers. According to the updates on the Pay Us More UCSC website, on Thursday, Feb. 27, UC Davis graduate students began their own grading strike and those at UC Santa Barbara enacted a full teaching strike. “This is affecting everything,” student Trevor Davies said. Like many of his fellow undergraduates, he fully supports the strikes and withholding of grades. “It’s a way to make them listen, it’s a way to make them pay attention, and it’s a way to disrupt things,” he said. “Protest without disruption is just talking into the void.” see STRIKE page 2

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The class was Critical Theory. The professor was Tom Strychacz, otherwise charismatic and compelling, one of my favorite instructors until he inadvertently exiled me from his class. The time was Fall semester, autumn, too soon for the weather to be anything less than brilliant. The month was October, or possibly early November; the details are hazy in my mind, and unimportant anyway. As I walked to class that day, late as usual, I told my male friend, “I really don’t want to sit next to Tom.” I don’t know what brought the words to my mouth. I don’t know why I knew this was a bad idea, but I did. My male friend said, “You made me sit next to Tom last time. This time, it’s your turn.” It’s different for girls, I tried to tell him; but the words stuck in my throat, and I did not say them out loud. We walked in. I sat next to Tom. My friend sat on my other side. Halfway through the class, Tom was demonstrating something, I don’t remember what. Some concept about how different kinds of greetings signify different cultural meanings, how touch can indicate symbolic and emotional significance while outwardly meaning different things. He chose to demonstrate with some other student, using some other student’s body. He shook her hand, then grabbed her shoulder, then executed a complex series of palmto-palm greetings. I remember seeing her face pale, this girl who had consented briefly to being

used as an example. This girl who was still standing at the front of the class, ten minutes later, as her body was manipulated in a series of increasingly intimate gestures. I remember thinking, I’m glad that’s not me. Finally, after what felt like hours, Tom sat down. Next to me, you remember? Tom turned to me and said, “sometimes touch conveys something entirely different.” Tom grabbed my hand, without asking permission, in case you’re wondering. He grabbed my hand, and rested our now clasped hands on my thigh. As I recall, my thigh was bare. I wear skirts, sometimes short skirts. Perhaps I was wearing tights. I do not think my choice to wear tights or not to wear tights should determine whether it is appropriate for a professor to touch my thigh, for any reason, particularly in class, unless perhaps I am bleeding from a mortal stab wound.

see ENGLISH page 6

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03.03.20 from

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Editorial Editor-in-Chief Angel Fabre eic@thecampanil.com

Managing Editor Felicia Payomo me@thecampanil.com

Chief News Editor Position open Asst. News Editor Position open

Arts & Entertainment Editor Tyler Mendoza tylermendoza@thecampanil.com

Asst. Arts & Ent. Editor Position open

Health & Wellness Editor Position open

Asst. Health & Well. Editor Alyana Willis

Opinions Editor Jo Moses jmoses@thecampanil.com

Asst. Opinions Editor Ari Fitzgibbon

Online Online Editor Leilani Doneux doneux@thecampanil.com Asst. Online Editor Position open

Copy Copy Chief Dana Culpepper copy@thecampanil.com Copy Editors Kennia Hernandez

Art Design Editor Position open Asst. Design Editor Angelica Navarro

Advising Faculty Adviser Keli Dailey The Campanil welcomes public commentary on subjects of interest to the campus community, as well as feedback on the paper itself. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 150 words. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity only. All submissions must include the author’s name and contact information and may be submitted via e-mail or in typewritten form, accompanied by an electronic copy. No anonymous submissions will be accepted. Submissions must be received one week before the publication date to appear in the next issue. The Campanil reserves the right to upload all content published in print, in addition to original content, on our website, www.thecampanil.com. The Campanil is published every other Tuesday. Students interested in joining the Campanil staff should contact the Editor in Chief at eic@thecampanil.com.

STRIKE page 1

One of the strikers present at the picket line on Monday morning (Feb. 24) was Natalya Jackson, a sixth-year graduate student in the UCSC math department. This was the tenth day of picketing, and she had been present for every single one. In the earlier days, she witnessed as police officers charged into the crowd of protesters with such force that the Santa Cruz City Council would decry it as unnecessarily violent. This forced Jackson to have a difficult conversation about police brutality with her young daughter, who was also present. Jackson said that the school had spent up to $30,000 per day on police presence—money that could have been going towards a COLA. Jackson explained that some students were unable to get treated for the injuries they sustained from police because of the policy of banning students from the campus for two weeks if they are arrested, meaning that they were unable to access the health center. Jackson was set to graduate at the end of this school year, but now her future is uncertain. This is because of her receiving a Student Conduct Violation because of her actions related to the strike, specifically the withholding of grades—a tactic UCSC graduate student teachers are using to leverage with the administration. She argued that she shouldn’t be punished under the student code, as the actions she took were those of an employee of the school rather than a student. Multiple conduct violations can result in expulsion. Jackson is at higher risk for losing her place at UCSC as both a student and worker because she has previous violations. According to what she has seen, not all graduate student workers who have taken action have received conduct violations. She said that she believes UCSC is targeting “vulnerable

populations” specifically—like those with previous violations and international and undocumented students who need their jobs and/ or enrollment to keep their visas— with violations in order to use them to gather information. As a striking international student, this directly and seriously affects Summers. He expects and is planning for his deportation on April 21—despite the fact that, as he explains, “I’m three years into this research, I have presented at conferences and I have publications in the pipeline, and I have taught nearly 200 undergraduate students here. UCSC has been explicit that, despite this, they think I have no place in this country anymore.” Speaking about the administration, Summers said, “I’m stunned by their callousness,” noting that they have placed students who are pregnant, single parents, international, undocumented, or have chronic illness especially at risk. “Numerous bright researchers who have educated hundreds of students [are] just being cast out of the university because they want to be paid enough to live,” he said. As Jackson sees it, graduate students are part-time workers with part-time pay but are expected to do the labor off a full-time job. This means that some are unable to take on a second job despite their need for additional income. Also, there are some who are contractually unable to work second jobs, such as international students or those given childcare reimbursements. “I have several degrees in math, but I don’t need those to see that doesn’t add up,” Jackson said. Jackson has experienced firsthand the difficulty of living on the current pay for graduate students and of finding affordable housing in Santa Cruz. When she and her family were removed from campus housing because of complications with her bipolar son, she was homeless for a period of time. Jackson believes that it is the

DANA CULPEPPER

graduate students who give UCSC classes the value they have today, as she sees that it is them, even more than the professors, who continually work to improve their pedagogy and who are able to reach a diverse community. “It’s hard to see past this picket line,” Jackson said. “[Right now,] nothing is real beyond it.” She feels that she is torn between her desire to not cross the picket line and the need to continue work on her PhD dissertation. Summers emphasized that the grad students have not been alone in their efforts. “It’s important to note that the graduate student strike wouldn’t have happened without the support of the numerous other movements. The most notable of which is COLA4ALL, which is fighting for a cost of living adjustment for everyone at UCSC, not just grad students, and the People’s Coalition, which is a group of marginalized and hypermarginalized undergraduate students who demand, among other things, the complete decolonization of the university. “There are other groups, but these two, in particular, are fantastic, inspiring organizers, who have added truly immense energy to the graduate student actions, and are reimagining the university in profound ways,” he said. Mills students can assist the strike movement by helping to get information and support out by sharing on social media. They can follow and reshare from @cola4all and @payusmoreucsc on Instagram

and Twitter. They can also donate to the “Support Fund for Striking Workers at UCSC!” GoFundMe, which states that “all donated funds are distributed to the collective for food, action supplies, potential legal fees, and docked pay.” As of Feb. 28, the GoFundMe has raised over $153,000. Davies suggested that Mills students come to the physical strikes and picketing to up the number of bodies there in support. Summers added that Mills students can “write to [our] lecturers and professors asking them to refuse to participate in lectures, research clusters, and intellectual networks with UCSC.” “Agitate within your own school and social networks for higher education as a public good, a critical mode of enabling social mobility, and a means of recreating the nation,” Summers said. The toll that the strike has taken on graduate students is visible. Jackson mentioned that she has developed stress hives. Summers has added “PhD Student awaiting firing and deportation” to his email signature. Yet Jackson emphasized that she was out there not just for herself, not just for other graduate students, but the greater cause of UC system reform. “This isn’t about me,” Jackson said. “It’s about being part of the movement… Maybe this is the legacy I leave.” “We demand to be valued,” she said.

Lack of staff affects student support

Angel Fabre Editor-In-Chief

Earlier this month, students eating dinner at Founders Commons were met with a surprise: the buffet-style cafeteria had left small bugs in the broccoli served that evening. Grady Mahusay, a sophomore at Mills, was the first student to enter the dining hall that evening and brought it to the attention of an employee. The employee referred Mahusay to the attending supervisor who was shocked to find that the broccoli was being served in its contaminated state, resulting in it being promptly removed from the counter. For most students living on-campus, the food available at Founders Commons and the Tea Shop are the only hot, ready-to-eat meals they have access to. Students living in the Orchard Meadow, Warren Onley, Lynn Townsend White, Ethel Moore and Mary Morse Halls are required by Mills to be on a

meal plan. The meal plan includes 10plus, 12-plus and 15-plus options, in addition to Tea Shop points. These options were designed to give students flexibility based on their needs, choosing between the two dining options depending on their schedules. However, food insecurity—the difficulty of accessing adequate and affordable, nutritional meals—is an ongoing issue amongst students at Mills. In the past year, there have been some efforts to tackle this. The Mills Food Pantry opened in fall 2019 after a series of pop-up events in the prior semester, the Tea Shop introduced a value menu of items priced at $1-$3, and Founders Commons now offers discounted meals for commuter students in the last 30 minutes of the dinner session.

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03.03.20

Simplified: Trump appoints Pence to lead response to coronavirus

Felicia Payomo Managing Editor On Wednesday, Feb. 26, President Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to lead the government’s response to the coronavirus (COVID-19). The decision to have Pence lead the response to the coronavirus comes as a counter to criticism that the government’s response to the virus has been slow. Prior to the announcement, budget cuts by President Trump at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have made their way into the conversation, despite the notion that the coronavirus is seen as a growing threat. According to an article for the New York Times, the coronavirus is “a novel virus named for the crownlike spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses, from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.” The first traces of coronavirus were detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, and according to the CDC, it has now spread to 50 locations internationally. The illness’ severity has been described as a range between moderate to severe, and is determined on a case-by-case basis. While the coronavirus was detected in from

FOOD page 2

According to the Dining page on the Mills website, the food “is made with seasonal ingredients from local farms (including our own Mills Community Farm), so our chefs can maximize flavor and nutritional value.” As of recently, however, some students are becoming more concerned about their health. Founders Commons and the Tea Shop are both catered by Bon Appétit, owned by Compass Group. Mahusay, a Resident Assistant (RA) for the Emotional Support

citizens traveling back to the U.S., on Feb. 25 the CDC confirmed the transmission of the virus to a person who had no travel history or exposure. Currently, the number of people affected globally by the coronavirus is 81,000, with the death toll at 3,100. In the face of a health crisis, Trump recently proposed major budget cuts to the CDC. In the most recent budget proposal, the Trump administration proposed a $3 billion cut to global health programs. In an article for the New York Times, “the president’s budget request this month for the fiscal year that begins in October would cut the CDC’s budget by almost 16 percent, and the Department of Health and Human Services’s by almost 10 percent. The proposal’s $3 billion in cuts to global health programs included a 53 percent cut to the World Health Organization and a 75 percent cut to the Pan American Health Organization.” “We’ll spend whatever is appropriate. Hopefully, we won’t have to spend so much because we really think that we’ve done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum,” Trump said in an article for CNN. On Feb. 26, the Trump administration held a news conference in order to address the coronavirus and to reassure the public that the administration has the issue under control. “We’re very, very ready for this, for anything, whether it’s going to

be a breakout of larger proportions or whether or not, we’re, you know, we’re at that very low level,” President Trump said. During this conference, Trump publicly stated that he had assigned Vice President Mike Pence to lead the response to the coronavirus. “Mike will be working with the professionals, doctors and everybody else that is working. The team is brilliant. I spent a lot of time with the team the last couple weeks,” Trump said, “but they are brilliant and we’re doing really

well and Mike is going to be in charge and Mike will report back to me. But he has a certain talent for this.” According to the CNN article, the White House was not going to appoint a representative to oversee the administration’s response. However, due to the public’s acknowledgment of the lack of response towards the coronavirus, President Trump blames media coverage for portraying an “alarmist” perspective of the situation.

While it is difficult to determine the rate of growth for the coronavirus currently, the awareness of the public continues to grow. As the public becomes more concerned for their health in the face of the pandemic, the Trump administration appears to be collected. “We’re testing everybody that we need to test,” President Trump said during the conference, “and we’re finding very little problem, very little problem.”

Animal (ESA) Hall, is financially independent and supports herself through college. Becoming an RA is a great opportunity for students who can strongly benefit from the waived cost of room and board, as well as the meal plan. But for Mahusay, eating at Founders Commons and the Tea Shop is not ideal. In February of last year, Mahusay was diagnosed with diabetes and saw a correlation with how the food she was eating at Mills affected her. Prior to her diagnosis, she was eating most of her meals at Founders Commons

due to its affordability. “I find that there’s not a lot of options at Founders,” Mahusay said, “and if I’m going to eat at the Tea Shop, it’s usually something that’s fried or ... something that’s not good for me.” Her diet is based on high protein like meat and vegetables and avoids bread, sugars and carbohydratebased foods. She began cooking her own meals after her diagnosis and found that her health started to improve. When Mahusay knew she was going to become an RA, she took steps to be removed from the meal plan, as she was not going to

use it, and instead wanted to receive a cash stipend that is given to RAs within the independent housing, such as the Prospect Apartments. This process was complicated, as Mahusay was going to be an RA for Warren Onley, where meal plans are assigned. She got in contact with Residential Life and Student Access and Support Services (SASS) to discuss accommodations with a doctor’s note that supported her needs. Merilee McCormick, the manager of Bon Appétit at Mills, supported Mahusay’s need to be removed from the meal plan, but the administrative process was long and complex. Mahusay was unable to meet with Residential Life and SASS and mostly communicated with the departments through email. With a student body of over 1,000 students, departments at Mills can become overwhelmed with the number of students that need assistance. Currently, there is no director of Residential Life, and Julia Cohen, the director of Accessibility Services, handles much of the student accommodations at SASS. After months of emails, Mahusay was removed from the meal plan but is still waiting on the stipend that will allow her to buy

groceries and continue to cook her own meals. Mahusay feels very passionate about support for staff and student needs. She hopes that in the future, there will be more efforts made towards hiring staff in departments that directly work with student accommodations. “I wish that Mills would put more focus and money into the student support services aspect of school, because there’s such a huge community of people who need it,” she said. “I’m an RA for the emotional support animal residence, so all of my residents fall under SASS accommodations, and most of Prospect falls under SASS accommodations because they’re there for a reason. ... There’s such a large community of people [in SASS].” Understaffing issues also affect the dining options at Mills, as the Tea Shop is no longer open on the weekends, and Founders Commons is open for limited hours. When full-time students, residential and commuting, need to eat, they should not have to worry about the quality of what is being served at their institution.

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03.03.20

Are ‘Millsies’ having fun yet ? arts

Tyler Mendoza & entertainment editor

CECE GARCIA

Ma ny seats were empty at “The Last Black Ma n in Sa n Fra ncisco” screening event in Rothwell Theater at Mills College .

Two weeks ago, Mills College students held a screening of the critically acclaimed film “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” Despite the film winning the U.S. Dramatic award in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and scoring 93% on Rotten Tomato’s ‘tomatometer,’ there wasn’t much of an audience in the Rothwell Theater last Thursday evening. As the film began, the 92 seat theater sat two Mills students. The two happened to find the best seats in the house, of course, front and center. The reoccurrence of the lack of students at club and extracurricular events at Mills has become the expectation amongst student leaders and organizers. Second-year student and Resident Advisor (R.A.) Grady Mahusay commented, “I think many events can have low attendance, and that’s okay because for many of us that has become the norm.” According to the Mills College website, 1,122 students occupy the campus this year. Mahusay later told of her experience when planning events for students. “Within my job we

have to do a lot of events during the semester, it usually works out to 2-3 events a month.” She added, “I’ve had some events in the past where there were not many, or it was just my partner and I there. I have an event on Friday that I’m nervous about the attendance because you never really know.” Mahusay hosted a cooking event last Friday. The event encouraged Mills students to join her in making dessert-like treats while listening to music. Danica Ola, the president of the Mills Filipinx student club, Kapwa, shared, “So in the first semester I put on a ‘study café’ event and that had about 35 people show up and then I also did a ‘childhood throwbacks’ event that had 20 to 25 [students], … which I think are big Mills numbers!” Why is it that a showing of an award-winning film and a pop culture themed party only attracted less than a tenth of Mills students? “Many of us are working constantly and need to study to keep our grades up, or just don’t know about events. I found it hard last year when I was a first-year to go to events because I was working so much, and at the end of the day I didn’t really want to socialize

unless there was something that was really enticing at that event. It’s incredibly hard to be someone who supports themselves and their education because at the end of the day that’s the priority,” Mahusay said. Although many club leaders and students promote events through the Mills classifieds website, the club leader for ASAPP (Active Students Against Prisons and Policing), Jacqueline Valle, suggests promoting on other platforms to help encourage students to attend school events. “We [ASAPP] have our own Instagram so we are always posting. … We made a WhatsApp group chat actually, that seems to work out a little better ... and our club meetings usually get 20-ish people to show up, which is pretty good considering how small Mills is sometimes … and also made our own mailing list,” Valle said. Valle also found that promoting her events using word of mouth helped her event’s success. Both Ola and Valle shared similar thoughts on the struggle of hosting events at Mills due to the funding that their clubs receive. “Student organizations only have $250 of spending budget per

CECE GARCIA

Pictured is a scene

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the “The Last Black Ma n in Sa n Fra ncscio” film.

semester …. If they wanted to do something where they like bring in a speaker or like put on a bigger scale event they would definitely have to go to ASMC for a special funding meeting … [and] put on a whole presentation as to why they should receive special funding, which I think is a lot of work to create bigger scale events for students,” Valle said. “Sometimes it can be really hard,” Jessica Olivares, a member of the Latinx Student Collective (LSC) member, said about addressing the students’ food insecurity and the struggle to provide food to students at Mills events. She explains, “folks have a very limited budget so it can be really hard to fund every single event with food,” adding that food motivates students to attend events. Olivares believes that creating consistent events or what she calls “more intentional” events, such as “wanting to build community” or “wanting to make an event fun,” is what will help change students’ attitudes towards participating and showing up.

TYLER MENDOZA

Club leaders Jessica Oliva res (left) a nd Da nica Ola (right ) encoura ged Mills students to decorate their masks for the upcoming Black a nd White Ball event.

03.03.20

arts

Tyler Mendoza & entertainment editor

The alluring words of Missy Elliott’s song “DripDemeanor”— “Boy you cannot get me locked, you tryna get me, you get blocked, unless you tryna marry me, my ring must be big as a rock”—filled the dance studio as Mills students divinely strutted on the studio floors in high heels. Last Thursday evening, Mills student Taeylor White led fellow students in a ‘heels’ choreography for Dollar Dance Day at Mills College. Dollar Dance Days are a series of dance classes taught by Mills dance graduate students to fundraise for the Mills’ dance department. Each participant is encouraged to donate a dollar. Previous dances taught during the fundraising campaign have been contemporary, modern, jazz, hip-hop and yoga. White explains that the funds collected from Dollar Dance Days will go towards dance programs that benefit her and other graduate dancers. White describes these dance programs as “intensive,” saying, “So they’ll have someone come in and they’ll do drills, skills, things that kind of will help you improve performance, liberty as an individual as well as discipline and things of that nature.”

Dancing ‘heels’ with Taeylor White

dance participants in White’s heels dance class. When asked what she thought of the class, Davis said, “I really like the teaching. I enjoyed [it] because the counts were different. Like, you know, a lot of dances, the counts can get predictable with the one, two, three and four,” she continued. “Like it can get really predictable! But I like that Taey [White] challenged us with like hitting different beats in that song, in different counts and different sounds. ... It’s nice to see everybody coming out like, you know, come into the dollar class, supporting a good cause,” Davis said. White later shared how her education at Mills has shaped her as a dancer. “I feel like coming to Mills and it being such an open-minded community has really helped me kind of get more confident in showing what I have and what I want to share to the community. So, I’m excited to see where things go from here,” White said. This Thursday, Feb. 5, White MILLS CONTRIBUTOR will be teaching a “twerking” class Da nce instructor a nd g rad student at Mills College , for Dollar Dance Day in the Haas Taeylor White . Pavilion at Mills College. White adds that attending when you stop dancing after a while, these intensive dance programs you lose majority of it… so it’s just allows for dancers to stay up on something to keep it consistent, keep it going,” White urges. “And their skills. “Just keep it going… I mean, sometimes it’s better to like hear or I guess a lot of people know, but teach or learn from someone else other than what you’re already into. Someone that you admire, or [it] could be a company that you might want to get into,” White said. When asked if she saw the effects of the dance departments downsizing, White replied, “The financial situation that we have in the program currently hasn’t affected us in a way where it’s been traumatic. Yes, we do raise money a lot. And I honestly don’t know where it truly goes to because I haven’t used any of that money personally. But I do like helping the community and bringing, you know, as much money as I can.” Tyanna Davis was one of the

TYLER MENDOZA

Mills students da nce choreog ra phy during Taeylor Whites’ ‘heels’ da nce for Dolla r Da nce Days.

Signal Flow Festival March 5- 7 Signal Flow is a studentrun festival at Mills College that takes place every spring. This year, 12 graduate students will present their thesis pieces. Check signal-flow.org for locations and times. Admission is free.

Career Conversations: Public Service March 5 6 - 7:30 p.m. Mills Hall Living Room Join the Career Connections & Community Engagement office in a panel about careers in public service. RSVP via Handshake. For more information:

Upcoming Events Black & White Ball March 11 9 p.m. - Midnight Chabot Space and Science Center This year’s theme is masquerade! There will be a pre-party from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. at the Art Museum Courtyard for mocktail and mask-making! There will be a shuttle provided to the center. For more information: the center@mills.edu

Spring Fling March 18 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. Holmgren Meadow

Learn about majors and minors and mingle with faculty at this Mardi-Gras themed event! For more information: thecenter@mills.edu

Dollar Dance Day: Hip-hop March 6 1 - 2:30 p.m. Haas Pavillion The Mills Dance Departments is holding a series of dance classes to fundraise. Join Joey Hernandez in a hip-hop class with a suggested donation of a dollar. For more information: dance@mills.edu

03.03.20

Sexual harassment at Mills

We could really use some feminism right now (cont.) from ENGLISH page 1

Tom let go of my hand, then grabbed it again. Then a third time. By this time, I was looking around like a trapped animal. I met the eyes of another girl in class, who raised her eyebrows and looked alarmed. I met the eyes of my male friend, whose eyes went wide with panic and confusion. There we all sat, looking at each other. As soon as Tom got up out of his seat to return to the whiteboard, I sent off a desperate email to my advisor. My professor just touched my thigh, in class. Should I be okay with this? Break came a few minutes later. My male friend and I walked together to the end of the hallway, where he immediately turned to me and said, “I am so sorry.” I told him it was okay. I told him, more importantly, that what happened was not his fault. Because what happened? Was not his fault. What happened was not my fault either. Not my fault for wearing a skirt. Not my fault for wearing low-cut shirts, or having big tits, or having a big ass, or having all these things and still having the gall— how indecent of me—to show up to class every day and raise my hand and say intelligent things. Not my fault for writing about sex or desire or violent men. Not my fault for taking up space, for taking up too much space, or taking up space in a way that is troublesome or disturbing or upsetting to the maledominated status quo. My advisor arrived at school early that day. I stepped into her office instead of returning to class. I told her, “My professor just touched my thigh in class.” She told me, “I have to report this.” My advisor was kind. The administrative representative for the department, Stephanie, was kind, though she failed to see my point when I came to her office and told her what Tom did was not disconnected from a previous professor in the English department allowing two of her students to strip naked in class as part of a class project. This English department, which sometimes seems to view boundaries as a thing other people, less enlightened people, ought to concern themselves with, but certainly not something we have to worry about. Not here. Two of my friends were in class with me. Both served as Title IX witnesses. Another person came up to me months later to express

support. I would submit that this professor’s actions impacted more than just me. I would submit that everyone who understands sexual violence as intimately as I do knows how to read a room, knows how to determine if a professor is safe or not, knows how to recognize their own vulnerability. And let me tell you about what happened to me afterwards. My department, meaning the women in my department, did the best they could for me. I believe they did everything right. My advisor stood up for me and insisted it was a big deal, big enough to report, big enough for the entire incident to be labeled, in bright red pen, with the words Not Okay. The staff member in my department, though not traditionally a fan of mine, met with me separately to make sure I was doing okay. I thought I was doing okay. Then. Still, I did not go to any of my graduation events, because he would be there too. I did not go to my final celebratory reading, because I did not want to feel vulnerable in front of someone I had learned not to trust. And before all this, during fall semester when it had just happened, I had to drop a class I loved, a class I was excelling in. Another professor stepped in to meet with me one-on-one, and she was kind and patient and excellent, and I feel lucky to have had her in my corner. Still, I paid full price for a class, a discussion-based critical works class, and what I got was an hour long meeting once a week at most, and nothing to be done about it. Still, I spent two weeks over winter break haggling with Student Accounts to convince them to enter any iteration of the class on my transcript at all, to leave any trace I had been there. What happened was not so egregious, in the sense that it is not the sort of thing, apparently, that a professor is fired or even loses his standing for. The usual rules apply: don’t touch your students, don’t touch your students in class, don’t touch your students without their consent, don’t touch your students’ legs. Do not demonstrate a concept by touching your students. Do not press the point by doing it again and again. In fact, unless your student is graduating and you are consensually hugging them, there is no good reason to be touching your students. Especially in class.

Men claim not to know these rules. Claim to forget them in the heat of the moment. I no longer believe this sort of self-justifying retroactive amnesia. I have been a teacher myself for four years, and I can tell you one of the first things you are told is don’t touch your students. The only way to forget that rule is if you are under the impression that rules do not apply to you. Rules are uneven things. This professor is the only white man teaching in my department, and he remains its lead member. After the Title IX investigation and interviews with myself and two of my friends who were present in the

class when this happened. After the Title IX office was as kind to me and as supportive as I could have hoped for, but at the end of the day, the balance of power had not changed. It never seems to. I understand. I was there for two years, and known to be difficult, unpopular among the leaders of the department, who prefer things remain as they are. This professor is very popular, and charismatic, and he will be there long after I am gone. No amount of ambition or prizes or finished work has made my feminism the right kind of feminism for Mills, it would seem. Because regardless of what any authority

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espoused to me personally, at the end of the day, this professor is Mills, is the literal face of the department, is the one with the PhD and the admirers and the trust of my department. At the end of the day, he stands in the very center of what my department chooses to offer the campus, and I am not present in the graduation celebrations ostensibly held in my own honor. Like I said, I believe in the women who run my department. I simply doubt that they believe in me.

Editor’s note: With the exception of staff editorials, the views expressed in columns and the Opinions section do not necessarily reflect the views of the Campanil and are solely those of the author.

03.03.20

Death at the Campanil

Staff Editorial: How to create your death plan Jo Moses Opinions Editor

Even in our bureaucracy, where the government controls where you live, go to school, when you can work and how you can dress, there is one area in which ordinary citizens do have an incredible amount of control: in death. Even an authoritarian government like ours generally does not violate the sanctity of a legal will. You’re going to die, and you should take as much care as you can to avoid the indignity of a death unplanned. After death, your corpse has influence—and you should be prepared to wield it. Death-positive author and mortician Caitlin Doughty, whose mortuary Clarity Funerals and Cremations offers a preemptive funeral planning service, has a video series called Iconic Corpse. It focuses on the ways that various individuals’ death plans—or lack thereof—made them an iconic figure postmortem. For instance, Jeremy Betham, born in 1748, was a fierce utilitarian who wrote in his last will and testament that he still be useful after death. He asked that his body be preserved and displayed in the halls of University College London for study and companionship. The parts of his body that have been successfully preserved, combined with wax sculpture, remain there today. Another figure from the series is Japanese Empress Tachibana

no Kachiko, a Buddhist who was frustrated by the public’s focus on her beauty as opposed to her teachings. She stipulated in her last will and testament that her body be thrown into the street after her death for wild dogs to eat, showing the brevity of corporeal existence. More famous, however, are the many individuals whose wishes for their own deaths were swiftly ignored by the state. Among these was James Barry, a successful doctor and transgender man who was misgendered and whose male identity was otherwise denigrated after his death. Many other figures did not have their death wishes respected, among them Charles Byrne the Irish Giant, Saartjie Baartman and Eva Peron; it is worth noting that these individuals received the fates they did, not only because of their lack of a legal will, but in large part due to their subjugated status. Nevertheless, their fates are a chilling reminder of the need to use the law to the best of your ability to defend yourself against the state that would so willingly desecrate your corpse in the name of science, religion or shock value. So how on earth do you even make a death plan? A comprehensive death plan includes writing your last will and testament and getting it notarized, outlining your wishes for the funeral and memorial services, designating power of attorney, preparing an advance health care directive, and organizing your finances and passwords. It’s a lot

of complicated stuff, but if you are reading this, you are likely a college student. So it probably isn’t necessary for you to complete every step of your death plan right now, although there are a few things you should be thinking about. As Arts and Entertainment Editor Tyler Mendoza said when asked about her death plan, “Being young, broke and single made this ‘death plan’ thing pretty easy.” For starters, think about what you want done with your body—there are plenty of other options besides burial. Burial wreaks havoc on the environment, using on average “30 million board feet of casket wood (some of which comes from tropical hardwoods), 90,000 tons of steel, 1.6 million tons of concrete for burial vaults, and 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid” per year, according to Doughty. The toxic substances used to embalm a body eventually leak into the water table of wherever the body is buried. Doughty also points out that the most popular alternative to burial, cremation, “is an environmental horror story, with the incineration process emitting many a noxious substance, including dioxin, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide and climate-changing carbon dioxide.” Alternatives are in development, such as aquamation (water-based cremation), recomposition and mushroom-growing burial shrouds, but at the moment, the most easily accessible and environmentally friendly option is a natural burial. Natural burial is what “for most of

human history … was just called ‘burial.’ A simple, shallow hole dug into the earth, and the shrouded dead body placed into the hole.” Natural burial is safe, easy, legal and inexpensive. It also provides more opportunity for intimacy with loved ones; families can be directly involved in laying a body to rest. Another option is conservation burial, which Doughty refers to as “chaining yourself to a tree, post-mortem.” A conservation burial commits potential burial fees to a conservation easement, which protects the land from development and ensures that native plants are planted there. During the Campanil staff’s discussion about our respective death plans, assistant Opinions editor Ari FitzGibbon voiced support for the natural burial method: “I would like to be disposed of via natural burial so that my death has as little negative environmental impact as possible.” Another important thing to keep in mind is assets; as someone without siblings or dependents, FitzGibbon emphasizes the importance of charity, instructing that if “I die without any legal dependents, I would like all of my money to be donated to the GoFundMes/Kickstarters of queer and trans people of color. If I die with a legal dependent, they should still have to donate at least 25% of my earthly funds to said GoFundMes/Kickstarters.” As a college student, you are unlikely to have many assets. As Mendoza puts so succinctly: “I don’t

have much to be accounted for except the debt I’ve accumulated here at Mills. My dog can [live] with my mom and visit my dad on the weekends. And my dad can have what’s left of my groceries in the fridge.” While they are not a material asset, you’ll also want to think about what you’d like done with your passwords, for social media and otherwise. Do you want your accounts to be shut down after your death, or memorialized? It is important to keep all your passwords in a safe place not only for security during your life, but so your next of kin can access them and execute your wishes regarding them after your death. While less practical as a college student, thinking about your funeral or memorial service is something you can do as well. By envisioning how you want to be remembered after your passing, it can help you become more comfortable with death. For example, our Chief Copy Editor Dana Culpepper mentioned her desire for “a celebration of life instead of funeral, and I’ve always had the idea to have everyone wear my favorite color turquoise instead of black.” You can have some level of control over your funeral—the choices you make in life will have consequences long after your passing. While planning for your own death is daunting, it allows us to familiarize ourselves with death while we are alive, as well as making things easier on our loved ones.

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Making death less grave: The death positivity movement Ari FitzGibbon Assistant Opinions Editor Death, and the fact that we will all one day experience it, has long been one of the skeletons in our collective cultural closet. In today’s America, death is largely construed as something for professionals to handle behind closed doors; something that children must be protected from and adults try their hardest to ignore; something inherently tragic, terrifying and devoid of meaning. But is this the best or the only kind of relationship to have with mortality? A dedicated group of people are working to change these ideals by advocating for a more open and honest relationship with death. These individuals, who support candidly engaging with the inevitability of mortality and combating modern cultural anxieties around dying, refer to their movement as “death positivity.” The impetus of the death positive movement is generally credited

to mortician Caitlin Doughty, the creator of the “Ask a Mortician” series on YouTube and the writer of multiple bestselling books concerning mortality, including “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory” and “Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals about Death.” Doughty reports that she was inspired to seek death positivity by the rise of the sexpositive movement, in particular the unabashed interest of sex-positivity advocates in human sexuality and their own relationship to it. Given the commonalities she saw between sex and death—both topics which are commonly labeled as taboo and yet are generally deeply intrinsic to the human experience— Doughty was surprised to find a dearth of online content commenting on personal relationships to death, and tweeted out an inquiry in April of 2013: “Why are there a zillion websites and references to being sex-positive and nothing for being death positive?” This tweet, and the support that it received, would become the birthplace of the death

positive movement. Doughty is also the founder of an organization called the Order of the Good Death, which describes themselves as “a group of funeral industry professionals, academics, and artists exploring ways to prepare a death phobic culture for their inevitable mortality.” The death positive movement has become an integral part of the Order’s mission. Members and aspiring members of the Order can find eight key tenets of death positivity on the Order’s website, all starting with “I believe.” The first three of these tenets state: “I believe that by hiding death and dying behind closed doors we do more harm than good to our society,” “I believe that the culture of silence around death should be broken through discussion, gatherings, art, innovation, and scholarship,” and “I believe that talking about and engaging with my inevitable death is not morbid, but displays a natural curiosity about the human condition.” One of the sections of the Order’s website is devoted to dismantling commonly held misconceptions

about the mission of death positivity, such as the assumption that death positivity is a primarily aesthetic movement lacking in more serious, real-world implications. The site notes that death positivity advocates work to help institute better legislation surrounding the will of the dead and dying, such as legal protection of the right of terminally ill people to end their own lives in the manner of their own choosing. The Order also wants to deconstruct the idea that their movement unreasonably glorifies death while glossing over “bad deaths” where the deceased was not able to pass on in their preferred manner. “We encourage discussion on how to achieve the good death,” Doughty writes. “But a huge part of that discussion is the structural inequality that makes it more difficult for certain groups to obtain the death or funeral they might desire. … We should be allowing communities to define what a ‘good death’ means to them, the very real barriers that exist to realizing a good death, and

examining and dismantling those barriers.” Concerns that the Order aims to tackle include the negative environmental impacts of traditional methods of burial and the legal and financial hurdles surrounding funerals and death for immigrants and lower-income families. Those interested in learning more about death positivity can check out Doughty’s YouTube channel or her books, read blog entries from the Order at orderofthegooddeath. com/blog, and listen to or read the transcripts for the Order’s podcast “Death in the Afternoon,” available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, and other podcast platforms. Officially, joining the Order of the Good Death is as simple as typing your name into a box on their website and clicking “enter” to pledge your support for the movement. In practice, getting behind their mission requires an introspective interest in mortality; a commitment to the right of others to have a good death; and a desire to fight for those rights, and in fighting for them, pursue a better life.

03.03.20

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Time to hit the hay: Getting a good night’s rest Alyana Willis Assistant health & wellness editor We have all done it—the infamous all-nighter. Staying up for a full 24 hours, maybe to get that essay in on time or finish the assigned reading. College work is timeconsuming, so it’s no surprise that 20% of college students pull an allnighter at least once a month, with only about 30% of college-level students reporting getting more than a recommended eight hours of sleep, according to Medical News Today. So if we are all losing sleep, what can be done to fix it? A study from the University of Georgia recommends that college students receive six to ten hours of

sleep. Their study also found that most students were barely reaching the minimum amount of sleep by getting and average of six to six and a half hours of sleep per night. We have all woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but sleep loss makes you more than cranky and in need of an extra shot of espresso. Lack of a full nights rest can lead to: • More illness, such as colds and flu, due to a lowered immune system. • Feeling more stressed out and loss of control. • Increase in weight gain. • Decreased academic performance, due to lack of concentration. • Increased automobile accidents due to fatigue caused by “drowsy driving.”

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Decreased performance in athletics and other activities that require coordination. A study from John Hopkins Medicine found that an extreme lack of sleep can lead the brain to age by three to five years. It doesn’t mean you’ll be getting wiser, but when you approach an older age your brain will be more vulnerable to memory loss. “When we sleep well, we wake up feeling refreshed and alert for our daily activities. Sleep affects how we look, feel and perform on a daily basis, and can have a major impact on our overall quality of life,” reports the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). “To get the most out of our sleep, both quantity and quality are important. ... [A] night of uninterrupted sleep leaves bodies and minds rejuvenated for the

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next day. If sleep is cut short, the body doesn’t have time to complete all of the phases needed for muscle repair, memory consolidation and release of hormones regulating growth and appetite. Then we wake up less prepared to concentrate, make decisions, or engage fully in school and social activities.” In response to why people should get more sleep, Charles Czeisler, MD, Ph.D., the chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation and chief of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital writes, “The one-third of our lives that we spend sleeping, far from being ‘unproductive,’ plays a direct role in how full, energetic and successful the other two-thirds of our lives can be.” To achieve more sleep, the NSF recommends: • Sticking to a sleep schedule, even on weekends. • Practicing a relaxing bedtime ritual such as meditation.

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Exercising daily. It will help you fall asleep faster. • Evaluate your bedroom to ensure the ideal temperature, sound and light for you to get comfy. • Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows. • Beware of hidden sleep stealers, like alcohol and caffeine. • Turn off electronics before bed. For guidance to a good night’s rest, there are free sleep apps and meditation apps on both Apple and Android app stores, which can help users fall asleep by telling them a bedtime story or playing white noise. All things considered, it’s not necessarily life-or-death if you miss a night of sleep, but you should try to get a full night of sleep to ensure that your body and mind are in sync leading up to midterms.

The Husband Stitch: Derogatory joke or painful reality? Felicia Payomo Managing Editor According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on average, an estimated 3,791,712 babies are born each year. While much of the joy of childbirth is shared with the world, many aspects of pain and recovery are left out of the conversation. Mothers often experience both emotional and physical postnatal pain. While there are methods and treatments, both surgical and medicinal, that are intended to help provide a steady recovery, some of these methods remain controversial. One of these methods is the husband stitch. The husband stitch, also referred to as the “daddy knot,” is the name given to an extra surgical stitch that is applied to women after childbirth for a “tighter” vagina. This stitch is often done without the patient’s consent. While the start of this practice remains unidentified, it was first defined in text through Sheila Kitzinger’s book “The Year After Childbirth’’ in 1994. Kizinger referred to the husband stitch as the “unnecessary suture.” The topic of the husband stitch was reintroduced

through Carmen Maria Machado’s short story “The Husband Stitch” in 2014. The name itself suggests that while this procedure is applied to a new mother, its end result is intended for the father. The term “husband stitch” is suggestive and derogatory. It positions women as sexual objects who need to be sexually stimulating for men even after childbirth, instead of as people with bodies that need healing and recovery. “There is a rise of surgery being done on a woman’s genitals with the sole purpose of enhancing sexual pleasure that seems to be drawing very much from the concept that the tighter we are, the better it is for men,” Dr. Brenda Kelly said, a consultant obstetrician from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, in an article by Refinery29. Surgical stitching is not an uncommon procedure after childbirth; it is often utilized to repair tears made during an episiotomy. Stanford Children’s Health defines an episiotomy as “an incision through the vaginal wall and the perineum (the area between the thighs, extending from the vaginal opening to the anus) to enlarge the vaginal opening and facilitate childbirth.” “Sometimes the damage is great, there can be a lot of bleeding and it can be more challenging to realign it exactly; some women, unfortu-

nately, do experience soreness or a tightness that wasn’t there beforehand,” said Dr. Kelly. In some cases, the vaginal opening does not stretch enough to allow the fetus to exit the womb. In these situations, doctors conduct an episiotomy in order to provide a safe delivery for the mother and child. However, an episiotomy is not without its own set of complications. “A lot of good data has come out recently showing that episiotomies lead to more damage (more tearing into the rectum) than allowing for natural tearing along tissue planes,” California OB-GYN Dr. Janna Doherty said in an article for Vice. While the suturing that follows an episiotomy is necessary, complications lie with how the stitches are executed and if the skin between the vaginal wall and the perineum is aligned correctly. Sutures are used after an episiotomy to align the incision back to its original state, but the husband stitch is applied for more cosmetic purposes. Practitioners often believe that the idea of the husband stitch is simply a derogatory joke that does not actually occur in medical practice. “I have probably had [the] request 10 to 15 times over the course of 18 years,” said Doherty on the topic of whether or not she receives

requests from men to perform the husband stitch. “Typically, it is said in a ‘joking’ manner, and ... responses from the laboring women range from dirty looks at the partner to laughing.” While there is some inconsistent information surrounding whether or not the husband stitch is still utilized in the present day, many women report suffering from postnatal pain due to being stitched too tight. “I said I had had an experience where I was stitched up really tight last time by a man, and I didn’t want to go through that again,” said a mother for an article for Refinery29, whose name and identity is protected. “The midwife sort of nodded. They didn’t seem surprised, like it was actually quite normal that something like that would have happened.” The use of the husband stitch is considered to be female genital mutilation, which is illegal in the U.S. as well as 30 other countries and punishable by law. While it is not completely clear whether or not the husband stitch is purposefully applied in current medical practice, the discussion around it has raised questions and sparked conversation surrounding women’s bodily autonomy during childbirth.

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