P ROFILE
THE HENDRIX COLLEGE
VOLUME 110 ISSUE 1
GROWING PAINS
Cover photo by Rebecca Burks
P ROFILE Let’s Talk it Out 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Haitian Migrants at the US Border New Semester, New Student Senate SoCo Steams Ahead Getting to Know the Caf Staff Art on Campus Academic Professorships? In Awe of Sword Club Photo of Interest The Parking Wars Read to Claim: Hendrix College Affirmations Grand Entrance Digital Athletes, Physical Gains Challenges Facing Student Workers
Editor-in-Chief: Monica Martinez Online Editor: Hannah Diggs Photography Editor: Rebecca Burks Copy Editor: Josiah Vallone Layout Editor: Lauren Allen Layout Editor: Adison Linxwiler Photographer: Paige Guess Photographer: Emma Sampson Green Photographer: Margaret Sampson Green Staff Writer: Sophie O’Reilly Staff Writer: Phillip Powell Staff Writer: Lauren Allen Staff Writer: Maggie Ryan Staff Writer: Charlotte McCombs Staff Writer: Shayne Brannon Staff Writer: Exavier Wells Staff Writer: Owen Edgington
ADVISOR Dr. Felipe Pruneda Sentias
MISSION STATEMENT As a student-run and student-funded newsmagazine, The Profile uncovers the smart edge to campus culture: the people, places, ideas and trends that curious, confident students and faculty want, need and ought to know. By critically examining issues important to the Hendrix community, The Profile aims to act as a catalyst for change, a tool for transparency between the student body and faculty and a source of inspiration for its readers to begin thinking glob-
Gabby Petito Moment of Truth @Hendrixprofile
The Profile At Hendrix
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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Monica Martinez EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Welcome to the first 100% in-person news magazine issue The Profile has published in over a year. By this I mean that all the staff, students, and faculty are finally on campus once again. The past eight weeks on campus have been nothing short of eventful and enlightening. As you will see in the following stories, with an influx of students new and returning also came the realization that we have some work to do. After being virtual or hybrid for the past year, we have to get used to being one community once again. Student organizations are catching up and getting used to hosting in-person events again. Even with all of these challenges and adjustments to keep in mind, I feel nothing but excitement and hope for the academic year ahead. It fills me with so much happiness to see students studying in groups outside, crowds forming in the cafeteria, and events start to fill Communications again. I want to remind readers that The Profile is always open to story suggestions of any kind. All you need to do is email me. After all, this is a studentled publication that is made to reflect and report on student life on campus. I am thrilled to be this year’s editor-in-chief
and I urge you to reflect on this issue’s stories. The issue is called “Growing Pains” not to seem pessimistic about the return of students and student life, but as a way to acknowledge that our job and the college’s job is not done now that we are back, but that new problems are coming to light that we can and must address. The sooner these problems are addressed, the better the rest of this year will go and the better our college’s future will be. There is no better way to express care for something or someone than by striving to make it the best version it can be. All the best,
Have a question, response, or inquiry? You can reach us anytime at thehendrixcollegeprofile@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on the latest stories.
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NEWS
HAITIAN MIGRANTS AT THE U.S. BORDER An overview of the recent events at the US/Mexico Border Owen Edgington | Staff Writer
Many Haitians are fleeing Haiti and heading towards countries in South America as well as the United States. To understand why, it’s important to take a brief look at Haiti’s recent history. In 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. In the wake of this disaster, and with lukewarm humanitarian aid, the country was unable to fully recover. A cholera outbreak further destabilized the situation. More recently in July, Haiti’s president was assassinated, throwing the country into political turmoil. In August, Haiti suffered another massive earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people. All of these factors, combined with a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in many South American countries, have contributed to drive Haitian migrants to the U.S. border to seek asylum. Haitian migrants have gathered in the thousands at a Texas border town called Del Rio. Some migrants have been released into the US, but many have been forcibly flown back to Haiti or sent back to Mexico without being granted asylum. The Biden administration is able to deny asylum far more easily because of a Trump era law in the immigration code known as Title 42. Title 42 is a health measure implemented at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that allowed the Trump administration to quickly deport asylum-seekers in order to preserve public health. However, its continued use by the Biden administration is drawing scrutiny after thousands of Haitian migrants were deported back to Haiti in the past two weeks. There are numerous legal battles circling in the courts surrounding the issue of Title 42, but as of September 30th, a federal appeals court allowed the Biden administration to continue using Title 42 to deport Haitian migrants at the border. The chilling photographs recently released of U.S. border police on horseback, chasing down Haitian asylum-seekers and in some cases whipping them, paint a depressing picture of the state of our country’s reckoning with immigration. There were many who saw the election
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Photo courtsey of Creative Commons
of Biden as a step forward from the xenophobic and racist rhetoric that characterized the Trump administration’s immigration stance. But so far, almost a year into his presidency, Biden’s immigration policies have continued to mimic those of his predecessor. As many Haitians were turned away from the US, they fled back into Mexico, placing enormous pressure on the country’s asylum system. Mexico has seen a 70% increase in asylum requests compared to 2019. It remains to be seen whether the country will be able to handle this surge. If it can’t, the future looks unsteady for many Haitian migrants. However, there are many organizations working to provide relief and support for asylum seekers. In Texas, Houston Haitians United is working to provide resources for refugees in the transition period of entering the US. UNICEF USA is distributing food, water, and other basic necessities to Haitian migrants in Mexico. The World Central Kitchen is working directly in Del Rio to feed the thousands of migrants waiting to cross into the US or be forced back into Mexico. Dozens of other nonprofit organizations have risen admirably to the current crisis, but these are ultimately band-aid solutions to the growing problem of immigration at our southern border. It will take fundamental changes, starting with President Biden, to begin to reverse the anti-immigration policies of the former administration.
New Semester, New Student Senate A look into the new student senate’s goals Phillip Powell|Staff Writer As Hendrix enters a new Fall semester, things seem to be looking up for the student body. Activities are coming back in full due to our campus’ extremely high vaccination rate. Students and Faculty are getting back to normal classes after shrugging off two whole semesters of virtual or quasi-virtual education. Everyone is back on campus, and while we are certainly masked up, the campus is teeming with life it hasn’t seen in more than a year. Yet, despite the optimism granted to us by a more normal semester, students are still facing many difficulties and turning to their Student Senate to work on it. The Profile was given an excellent chance to sit down with many of Hendrix’s elected Student Senator’s to get a grasp of many of the issues on campus right now, and what the Student Senate plans to do about it. Fresh off the fall election, newly elected Freshman Class Senator Parker Keener and newly elected Galloway Hall Senator Swalat Issa share many of the same concerns about Hendrix. Parker, a native to Arkansas, has been working hard on chronic internet issues on Campus while Swalat, an international student from Rwanda, is focusing her efforts on chronic water and maintenance issues in Galloway. When The Profile asked Parker why he decided to run to represent the Freshman Class in Senate, he replied, “I want to give the Freshman class an accessible representative who they feel they can come to—who will fight for their common goals and interests.” It is certainly undeniable that student concerns about the internet are widespread on campus— the first Senate meeting of the fall prominently featured students’ concerns on that front. Swalat is no stranger to student government, holding a position similar to the Academic Policy Representative at her school in Rwanda. She told The Profile that she “finds Senate very, very interesting. Students take time to listen to all the concerns around school. It shows teamwork and cooperation. It’s really great that people can speak up if they disagree. Every issue is taken seriously—no matter how big or small—it’s just great.” However, it wasn’t just the two newest Senators expressing a positive outlook towards this school year. Chief of Staff Rebecca Burks, a Junior Biology and Environmental Studies double major, provided the magazine with an extensive overview of the many things Student Senate is trying to accomplish this semester. For one, Student Senate, in an effort led by Huntington Senator Mitch Bandy, managed to pass a petition asking the Conway City Council for a long-desired crosswalk between the P-safe building and Huntington apartments. The City of Conway is committed to installing the crosswalk because of the Senate’s efforts in gathering support for the project. Secondly, Senate Treasurer Tristen Starnes is working to incentivize students to join Senate’s Financial Committee and take a larger role in how Senate allocates the Student Activity Fund by working with Odyssey to grant Financial Committee members an opportunity for Odyssey credit. To top all of this activity off, Student Senate is opening three new taskforces to work on Elections and updating the Senate Constitution, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness, and relations between Public
Photo by Lauren Allen
Safety and Students. Houses Senator Lauren Allen told The Profile that she hopes the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Task Force will work closely with Title IX and ABEPSA to provide support for survivors and put on an event week for sexual assault prevention and awareness. Rebecca is also working closely with Academic Policy Representative, Phineas Chapman, on creating a Student Academic Policy Committee so Senate can address student’s academic concerns better. The Senate Diversity Resolution from 2020 mandated that Senate create a new Student Academic Policy Committee; Phineas and Rebecca are hard at work figuring out how to pragmatically implement the Committee into student life. However, AP Rep. Phineas’ first priority is working with the Faculty led Council on Academic Policy to change the school’s “outdated” credit/nocredit policy that Phineas calls “remarkably restrictive.” Phineas told The Profile that faculty has been very responsive to changing the credit/no credit policy to make it work better for students and that he has a “fair amount of confidence” that changes will get done sometime this Fall semester. Phineas started this crusade to change credit/no credit after hearing from students about how the policy has negatively affected their academic experience. He wanted to make sure The Profile got this quote, “If a student hears about any academic policy—from a professor, friend, whatever—and they think its dumb, or over-restrictive, or frustrating. I encourage them to reach out to me.” Hendrix is entering a new Fall semester, and Student Senate is energetically leading the way.
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Andrew Brannon |Staff Writer
SOCO STEAMS AHEAD Social commitee adapts to COVID-19 guidelines in this year’s event planning In the month of September, Hendrix officially hosted two parties – 80s and Darty Daze – with massive success. Both were well attended and well enjoyed by the student body. Although they looked very different from years past, they were half of campus’ first experience with major parties at Hendrix. Many students consider the college’s major annual parties – particularly Shirttails and SoCo 54 – essential parts of campus’ culture and the overall Hendrix experience, but only current seniors have actually had an entire year here and attended these events multiple times. Two parties may seem like a very small number for students who attended Hendrix pre-pandemic, but it’s still two more than we had for the entirety of last semester, and an excellent step towards bringing back this key part of Hendrix culture. I spoke to a number of current seniors about why they believe parties like these are so important, and they all described them as being “a break” from the stress of classes and assignments. One student, Spencer Thompson, went a bit further, saying that they help us “recognize that people are still people.” Given all the added stresses of Covid’s impact on classes and our ability to spend time with each other, that aspect is more important than ever, and the Hendrix Social Committee is dedicated to making the Hendrix experience as genuine as possible while adhering to covid guidelines. When asked about the new challenges presented by Covid guidelines, Rose Johnson, a current senior and the “Director of Music and Dance” for SoCo, said they “altered how we think about space,” but has “not changed how we design events aesthetically.” So, older students can expect major events to maintain the same style and vibe that they had two years ago, and newer students can rest assured they’ll be getting the real deal. In some cases, working with the space and ensuring social distancing takes place at events will mean capping the number of people allowed in them. Rose says that “the hardest part is going to be monitoring capacity,” and some students might have to wait a short while to get in. However, SoCo also has plans in the works to simply increase the space
used during parties to accommodate larger attendance, and in some cases, says, “it’s allowed us to expand and do different things.” This might include new outdoor spaces at traditionally indoor events or some separate areas designed to have less intense atmosphere to make these traditions more accessible to people that might have felt overwhelmed or uncomfortable in the past. All in all, it seems that SoCo is going forward with business as usual – albeit with consideration towards social distancing – to pick up work right where they left off in the spring of 2020, planning and improving Hendrix nightlife. For a last note, Rose said that they “are trying to preserve as much of Hendrix tradition as we can,” and that “in some ways I think it’s gonna be better.”
Photo by Paige Guess 6
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Charlotte McCombs |Staff Writer
GETTING TO KNOW THE CAF STAFF For many of Hendrix’s students, meeting up with friends and walking across campus to eat in the cafeteria is part of our daily ritual. Every day, we scan our student ID’s, pick out our food, sit, eat, and then finally, put our trays up on the conveyor belt as we leave – never a hitch in the routine. Although we might recognize a few of the hardworking individuals in the cafeteria, students rarely get to see those who coordinate the beloved Sundae Thursdays, who wash the lucky Disco Trays, and who comes up with those highly unusual but always delicious pizza combinations. It’s not every day that we as students get to see what truly goes on in the kitchen to make our daily Hendrix Caf habit possible. Sarah Jones and Kelly Hepner are just two of our hardworking, behind-the-scenes cafeteria staff members. They serve as the Front of House Supervisors – Hepner taking on the daytime shift and Jones the afternoon and evening. Although us students might not have the opportunity to see these women every day, they play a big role in keeping the Hendrix Caf clean and running for us to drop by and eat whenever we want. “As the daytime supervisor, in the mornings I check to see if everyone and everything is in place and ready to serve to our Hendrix community,” Hepner says. “Having such a great team in our dining service, everything usually runs very smoothly.” Similarly, Jones describes her role in the evenings, where she ensures that all staff members are present and ready to help serve. In the evenings, she confirms that everything is sanitary and fast-moving – ensuring that the Hendrix Caf is a well-oiled machine. Both Jones and Hepner have had lots of experience in food service – Hepner has worked at Hendrix for four years and Jones for a whole sixteen. When asked about what set Hendrix apart for them, both women agreed -- what initially captured their attention was the beautiful campus and the wonderful community. “My first impression of Hendrix College was of course, its beauty,” Hepner says of the first time she saw Hendrix. “After meeting the people of the Hendrix community, it became a home away from home.” Both Jones and Hepner say that they enjoy their work and have always loved working at Hendrix. “It’s the kind of job that I don’t ever have to show up to begrudgingly, because I genuinely love the people and what I do,” says Jones. For her, working in the Hendrix Caf inspired her to make food service her career. “This job has made me realize that I enjoy food service and can make a career out of it. That realization prompted me to take a three-semester course in Dietary Management over the
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Photo by Paige Guess last year. Last Friday I was able to take my credentialing exam and passed! Now I’m a Certified Dietary Manager.” In addition to working hard to ensure our cafeteria is as good as it can be, Hepner and Jones say that they, along with the rest of the cafeteria staff, like to keep up the many fun (and famous) Hendrix cafeteria traditions. “It’s fun to see new students learning our traditions, such as the ‘disco tray,’” Hepner says. “The glittery ‘disco trays’ have been around since about the 1970’s. These trays are placed randomly in the stack of trays, in our servery. The tradition is whom ever gets the ‘disco tray’ will have a lucky day.” Jones describes a longtime Hendrix favorite -- the birthday experience. “One of our traditions is to sing happy birthday to students and present them with a cake topped with one lit candle. I believe most of you enjoy this tradition. Many of you will tell us when a friend of yours has a birthday so we can sing and celebrate together.” Although many of the campus Caf traditions are now back in full swing due to our first fully in-person semester in almost two years, Jones says that she and the rest of the staff are trying to bring back some of the Caf traditions that had to be placed on hold due to COVID-19. “Another tradition is the Monotony breaker, or as most of us call them, Events. We haven’t been able to have any of our events these last 2 years, but we are truly trying to bring them back. Cafeteria events are fun and something I believe everyone looks forward to. We go all out with decorations and food. We try to make it fun for all.” More than anything, though, both Hepner and Jones say that the reason they do what they do is to ensure that we students get taken care of – so food is one less thing to worry about as we navigate our college lives. “We hope our Hendrix community feels welcomed and cared for; like family,” Hepner says. “We want the cafeteria to be a get-away from any stress one might have from a hectic schedule.” “I hope our students, all of you, have a great experience with the Caf,” Jones adds. “I hope when you come in to eat you feel like you can relax, refresh, and enjoy yourselves. I hope you find your surroundings clean, your food amazing, and your load a little lighter when you come through our door.” So maybe, next time you and your friends all head over to the cafeteria, take a moment to get to know a worker. Like Sarah Jones says, they are more than happy to get to know you. “I hope you find someone you can talk to about your day because we are genuinely interested in YOU!”
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Photo by Margaret Sampson-Green
ART ON CAMPUS
What goes on inside of the Windgate Museum? Maggie Ryan |Staff Writer The Windgate Museum of Art, housed on the first floor of the Miller Creative Quad, is now approaching its second year of operation, and currently showing its 9th and 10th exhibits since opening to the public in November 2020. Windgate’s at-large goal is to become the best teaching museum for art education in Central Arkansas. An integral part of that mission is providing ample opportunities for Hendrix students and community members to get involved with the art by attending a variety of lectures, film screenings, and workshops designed to expand local engagement and familiarity with art museums. Student workers are an essential part of Windgate’s operation; the museum relies on the help of 20 Hendrix students holding various positions such as museum educator, associates in curation, programming, and education. Educators guide tours through the museum, and Associates help schedule community events such as lecturers, workshops, and write materials to be used in exhibitions. A key part of working at the museum is learning how to navigate the worlds of education, curation, and art research. According to Windgate Associate Hannah Samuel, ‘23, “they want students to be involved at the museum so they can get experience while still getting their bachelors, which is highly uncommon.” The current indoor exhibit, titled Southbound: Photographs of and about the New American South, is a traveling exhibit featuring over 200 photographs documenting images of the south from the past two decades—portraits of protestors, oil spills, landscapes, and objects—all working together to create a vibrant depiction of the south through the eyes of 55 different photographers. The outdoor exhibit, Migrantes, features photographs “dually created” by pulitzer-prize winning photographer Adam Ferguson and the subjects of the photos who are people Ferguson met when traveling south of the mexican-american border. The subjects are framed by Ferguson’s camera, holding a clicker that allowed them to pose for and shoot their own photos. On Friday, October 1st, the museum launched the first in a monthly series of “First Friday” celebrations, hosting after-hours exhibit viewing, live music, refreshments, and an open-to-all jewelry-making stand. The museum will continue to host these and similar events, such as visiting lectures, artist workshops, and artist talks to provide the community with ample opportunity to celebrate and enjoy the arts. Windgate also hosts several film series throughout the year, providing weekly screenings and panel discussions showcasing films in the Hundley-Shell Theatre, across the breezeway from the Museum. The current series,
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Cinema and the Changing America South has already featured classic titles such as “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and the 2020 film “Minari;” a story about a Korean family that moves to rural Arkansas. Panel discussions involving local experts and Hendrix faculty and students follow each screening, offering the viewers a structured engagement with these films. The museum itself is open Tuesday-Saturday from 12pm-5pm and is free for Hendrix students and community members alike. Visitors can view the exhibits on their own, or attend a tour led by an educator that is centered around themes such as environmental issues, death, and folk music, to name a few examples. More information can be found at its website: www. windgatemuseum.org.
ACADEMIC PROFESSORSHIPS? Students learn how to engage in new learning activities on campus Sophie O’Reilly |Staff Writer Engaged learning is an essential feature of academic life at Hendrix. Generally, the term “engaged learning” is associated with co-curricular activities, such as Odyssey or Hendrix- Murphy projects. While these activities do contribute to educational opportunities on campus, both students and professors engage in inventive, exploratory scholarship. A lesser-known example of this style of learning are Odyssey Professorships. If you’re scratching your head as to what that term means, don’t worry: you are not alone. Dr. Peter Gess is the Associate Provost for Engaged Learning, as well as the Director of International Programs and an associate professor of politics. He agreed to help clarify some of the goals and organization of professorships on campus. Here’s what he had to say: What is a professorship? “The Odyssey Professorships are endowed grants provided to professors, or teams of professors, on a competitive basis. This means that donors recognize the value of supporting professors’ efforts to innovate new and impactful engaged-learning experiences for students. We currently have 13 endowed Odyssey Professorships, and will welcome new donations for Professorships in the future.” How do professors design what they want to explore in these opportunities? “Hendrix professors do what they do best: creatively innovate. For many, a previous Odyssey project inspires a larger effort. For others, it might be scholarship they were previously working on that leads them in new directions. They often build on their own professional interests, as well as interests of students. I like to think about the Odyssey Professorships as an opportunity to break down the typical restriction of the 50 minute class or the typical laboratory experience to dream bigger in partnership with students. And of course the funding enables all the great
work.” Can students get involved? How so? “When Odyssey Professors have opportunities for students, they will advertise those, either through their classes, to their majors, or on Hendrix Today (I always recommend that students read Hendrix Today every day!). Of course if students hear about a Professorship, and are interested, they should reach out to the professor to learn more. And if students have a great idea for an Odyssey Professorship, they should reach out to a professor they think would be interested! Students and professors together could develop and submit an application, even if the Professorship itself is awarded to the professor.” Maggie Ryan, junior English: Literary Studies and Classics major is currently involved in a professorship alongside Dr. Dorian Stuber of the English department. “Participating in the Peregrin professorship challenged me in many ways,” she says, reflecting on her experience. “I really enjoyed reading, writing, and discussing with a focused group of students and Dr. Stuber outside of a purely academic context. It was hard, it was stressful, and, most of the time it was like really depressing (you know... genocide and human suffering and the like), but it was work that felt important to do, and work that prepared me to have conversations about difficult topics, like the holocaust, without feeling nervous or scared to engage.” Keep your ear to the ground about how to get plugged in to experiences such as these: stay in contact with professors you have a good relationship with and check your Communications emails for chances to apply or learn more about a professorship in your area of interest.
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Photo by Rebecca Burks
IN AWE OF SWORD CLUB Owen Edgington| Staff Writer
The swords flicker back and forth like twin snakes, their owners slowly circling each other. A feint, a hasty parry, and then she lunges, her sword sliding through her opponent’s defenses. This is the Hendrix Sword Club. Every Friday from 3:30-5:00pm, on the lawn behind Couch Hall, a special gathering takes place. Students drop their backpacks and school related worries and pick up swords and shields instead. What comes next is a raw display of pent up rage, excitement, and pure energy. Swords stab anything that moves and battle cries are bellowed. But Sword Club is about so much more than the swords. As Rachel Petelle explains, “It’s fun to just run around with friends and not think about studying for a little bit. It’s good exercise too!” It’s important to find spaces and communities that allow you to destress and unwind after a long week of working and studying. College is a rigorous experience, a time to challenge yourself academically. But it’s also a time to let loose, and meet amazing people that don’t mind running around together with medieval weaponry. Gabrielle Skerpan, the former President of the club, is excited to see so many new faces joining the club. “Last year, we pretty much just had one person from every class, so we’re really happy that so many people are interested in Sword Club this year. It just makes me so happy that there are this many people that care about the club and want to help shape its future. It makes me proud.” Skerpan oversaw the club during the pandemic and worked hard to ensure that the club would remain open once the college opened its doors once again. The future of Sword Club is bright, explains Elizabeth Yang, the current President; “I want to make Gladiators big again. I fell in love with Sword Club by watching Gladiators: the goofy, theatrical production of fighting with your friends in front of an audience.” Sword Club has traditionally hosted this event on campus, but due to a decline in membership as a result of the pandemic, was unable to host the event last year. “My goal is just to bring back Gladiators and keep it running after I’m gone,” Yang stated. And with a massive boost in membership this year, Sword Club looks like it’s on the right track to reclaiming its former glory.
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Photo by Margaret Sampson Green
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CULTURE
Photo by Margaret Sampson Green
THE PARKING WARS
As students, faculty and staff return to campus, everyone struggles to find a parking spot Maggie Ryan| Staff Writer
With community numbers on the rise, students, faculty, and staff have a common plight: finding the perfect spot to keep their vehicles while attending work, classes, and the multitude of events returning to campus this fall. “There’s a dramatic difference between parking this fall and last spring,” said Dr. Daniel Whelan, a professor in the Political Science department who teaches and holds office hours in the Mills building. “I never had any trouble finding parking last spring.” Whelan, like many professors, lives in Little Rock and drives to Conway during the week. He usually gets to campus between the hours of 8 and 9AM to prepare for class and hold office hours. But even with his midmorning arrival, Whelan rarely finds a free parking space in the lots behind Bailey and Mills. “Often, I have to carry books and other materials, so if I have to park in the gravel lot or by Communications, I have to lug all this stuff with me,” the professor said. According to Whelan, the parking issue is the worst its’ been for at least the past few years. “If I think back to Fall 2019, parking was occasionally tight, but then there was that gravel lot across the street,” he said, referring to a small gravel driveway across the street, the former location of Hendrix’s bike shop. Since the relocation of the bike shop, however, the lot has been blocked off for parking, forcing professors to seek out other parking spaces. Whelan also expressed frustration with the number of cars with expired or no parking decals in the lots. “[students] have to pay for a parking decal every year...if you don’t pay, you don’t get a decal. Today I had to park over by Communications and I walked
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through the library lot. I counted 10 cars with expired tags or nothing.” In addition to the aforementioned problems, there are currently a number of renovation and improvement projects on campus buildings that require parking spaces to be blocked off in certain areas. In the traditional womens’ dorm circle, the Veasey renovation work has blocked off the southside section of the lot, making spaces in the alreadycrowded circle an even rarer commodity. A row of spaces in the Martin/Couch circle are also blocked off by the Martin construction, and current roof restoration on the Trieschmann building make an additional ten spots in that lot unusable. During a Student Senate meeting on September 28th, Dean Wiltgen responded to concerns about the apparent lack of parking on campus. The Dean noted that there is ample parking at the Front Street apartments and the Village for faculty and students alike, it just requires a little more time to walk to the main buildings on campus. However, most of these larger parking lots on campus (in between the Village and the WAC, Front Street, and the overflow lot across Markham street) aren’t shaded, which means that the long trek across campus or over the bridge often ends with a sweltering-hot car, courtesy of Arkansas’ high temperatures. As enrollment rises, this may only be the beginning of the parking wars. Returning students may remember the 202021 academic year fondly, when free parking spaces were abundant and last-minute walks across campus were rare indeed. But with the return to a more normal campus life, and our ever-increasing campus population, perhaps the long walks from overflow lots to the DW Reynolds are a price we must be willing to pay in this new, ‘normal’ year.
Photo by Margaret Sampson-Green
Sophie O’Reilly|Staff Writer
READ TO CLAIM:
Hendrix College Affirmations
Photo by Margaret Sampson Green
Fear not; you no longer need to be afraid of using the wok station in the caf or miss the Panera in the Hendrix Village. @hendrix_affirmations on Instagram has got you covered. The social media page garnered more than 600 followers in just a month. It is fresh off the heels of an internet trend poking fun at affirmational quotes. However, this page gets personal. Instead of using your run-of-the-mill Pinterest quotes, @hendrix_affirmations take inspiration from Hendrix’s campus. They’ve covered dorm life, campus kitties, and campus buildings and facilities. While the page is anonymous, they did agree to a short interview about their page and their experiences at Hendrix. “I’m a freshman and a couchie,” they said. “I like the [posts] that people respond to, like “women” or the one about [Dr. Dow’s] band.” The page is somewhat collaborative in structure; followers can send in suggestions, and the account owner decides if and how the idea is interpreted. “I’ve had a list [of ideas] since day one and add the contributions people DM or suggest to me. I’ll pick whichever [ones] I think are relatable in some sense and I can write a caption for easily, or the ones I just find especially funny.” Keep the ideas coming! The page wants to get a bit more niche and are still taking suggestions. “I want to give smaller groups on campus like clubs or apartment residents some content of their own,” they said. Now is the time to highlight that questionable component of your residence hall or your favorite
oddball campus spot. The account’s ability to target these parts of campus comes from the owner’s ability to meet new people and hear about their experiences with ease. “I enjoy being able to recognize and socialize with as many people as I do on a daily basis. That is, I enjoy being at a small school.” Perhaps the small-campus atmosphere of Hendrix contributed to the page’s success and social reception. Following a new @hendrix_affirmations post, Instagram stories of Hendrix students are flooded with shares and personal commentary about the affirmation. The highly personalized nature of the account means that most students can relate to or understand the posts. Paige Fuhrman, sophomore English: Literary Studies major, agreed to answer some questions about how she views the Instagram page and was quickly able to pick up on some specialized details about the account owner. “… to me it seems obvious they live in [Couch].” She thinks that there’s a bit of a bias towards Couch Hall content and thinks that including the other dorms would “expand their comedic horizons.” “I’d like to see one about tripping in the brick pit, I’d like one about jumping in the fountain, the labyrinth has some potential. But nothing will ever top ‘CLANG’.” Paige has clearly forgotten “I DO NOT SMELL THE SLTC STENCH,” but we’ll let it slide. Tag us (@ hendrixprofile) in your favorite affirmations to claim.
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GRAND ENTRANCE
Hendrix welcomes virtual students to campus after over a year of virtual learning Charlotte McCombs|Staff Writer Photo by Paige Guess Corissa Ross has had an unusual college experience so far, to say the least. In March of 2020, Corissa’s high school in Little Rock sent her home from her senior year due to the rise of the COVID-19 virus for what she originally thought was only going to be a couple of weeks; “at first, I was excited to have a break from school, but quickly realized that the last time I would ever be in class at my high school was the day we left early because of COVID concerns. I was devastated.” Little did she know that this past August would be the first time she would set foot on Hendrix campus — as a sophomore who had already decided on a politics major. “Coming onto the Hendrix campus as a sophomore was weird because freshmen expected that I knew more about the school than I actually did!” Corissa says. “It was also kind of fun to see people in real life that I had [only] seen on [Microsoft] Teams.” In the spring of 2021, Hendrix opted for a hybrid learning model — meaning, students could choose whether to live on campus and have some semblance of a normal college experience, or to continue the online classes that were provided in the fall of 2020. The majority of freshmen came to campus — the allure of a normal college life was almost too good to pass up after a year of isolation. However, Corissa and many others were faced with a tough choice — was it worth travelling across the state, or even the country, to get only a downscaled version of college life? Or, even more so — is the college experience worth possibly contracting an unknown disease? Corissa, along with many others, didn’t think so, saying “I was too scared of COVID to come live at Hendrix. My dad is a doctor, and I didn’t want to put him at risk ... it was isolating to be virtual with the majority of my classmates in person, [but] I’m glad that I had the option and accommodations to keep myself and my family safe from COVID.” Thankfully, Corissa wasn’t alone in this highly unusual experience. Lauren Seckington, a sophomore religious studies major, also entered the
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Hendrix campus for the first time after having successfully completed an entire year of school. “I decided to stay virtual [because] I was scared that if I were to come ... I wouldn’t be able to meet anyone,” she said, “I didn’t know very many people coming to Hendrix, so I was worried that the COVID regulations would make me feel isolated. It seemed safer to stay home.” While many of their peers were on campus going to in-person classes, Corissa and Lauren tuned in to class via a Microsoft Teams call. “Classes were pretty bizarre,” Corissa says of the experience. “It was weird being on my computer and seeing my face on the screen in the classroom!” Although neither of these women say they regretted their decision to opt for a virtual spring semester, they said they struggled to stay connected in a socially distanced world. They described their experience as isolating, and overall, just “unlucky.” Corissa Ross, however, says we all could try to think of the positive of this experience rather than focusing on the negative. “I think it would benefit us all to remember that no group of people had a ‘better pandemic’ than another,” Corissa says. “Everyone lost out on opportunities and experiences.” Lauren Seckington agrees with this assessment, saying that it’s best to accept that there is no one to blame for the tremendous loss everyone suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I don’t feel cheated [out of my freshman year]” she says. “In some way, I think that I’ve accepted how the state of the world has changed… I made the best out of a bad situation. I don’t regret staying home… being online worked really well for me.” Both Lauren and Corissa agree that their unprecedented freshman year will have an effect on their future lives and careers — but they don’t think it will be entirely a negative one. “I think my biggest takeaway [from my virtual freshman year] is that [the class of 2024 is] really resilient,” Ross says. “We are able to navigate through really tough situations … Hendrix students were in it together!”
DIGITAL ATHLETES, PHYSICAL GAINS
SPORTS
Esports athletes share their routines and experiences on the team
Andrew Brannon | Staff Writer Hendrix has several hundred student athletes, and every single one of them has a workout routine designed for their sport, including esports. That’s right, even the esports athletes focus on their physical ability. The two most muscular people on campus that I know, in fact, are esports athletes, so I sat down with them to talk about the physical requirements of what they do. Jack Ratcliff and John Kerrigan, both juniors, spoke very positively about esports and their fellow athletes. Jack plays on the Overwatch team, and John plays Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, although they say that their first choices for athletics at Hendrix would have been “powerlifting or wrestling,” if the college offered either. The two of them tend to focus on their own routines in the gym, but tell me that each of the different esports teams has its own scheduled workout in the WAC three times per week, which is three more times per week than I go. The routines that they do are very much “geared toward beginners,” said John, but he added that he thinks it great to give people “a reason to get in the gym.” A lot of the esports players either actively participate in other collegiate sports or were athletes in high school, and now compete in esports for fun, as a way to keep their minds and bodies sharp, and to get PACT credits. Between getting in the gym three times per week and the effort they put into their matches, every esports athlete certainly earns it.
Esports really are treated just like traditional sports, even to the point of requiring athletes to get a physical exam in order to participate. This may seem a bit silly at first, but John assured me of the importance of it, as a lot of the games they compete in do put them under a lot of stress. There are risks associated with this level of intensity, so cardio-pulmonary health is incredibly important, and part of the physical is to “make sure you don’t have heart palpitations.” For example, games such as League of Legends can have matches that last for several hours, and players have to stay focused and able the entire time. John remarked, “If your heart’s beating that hard for hours, it’s not good for you,” whether the stress comes from a video game or football game. Because of the intensity of esports and the physical requirements they come with, many of the students involved actually get athletic insurance, although its not required. While they may not involve the same kind of physical exertion as traditional athletics, esports are incredibly difficult and have both physical requirements and physical risks. The many students at Hendrix who compete in them have to train both in and out of them to stay in shape for their matches. Jack even remarked that a number of the esports athletes could rival many other sports teams in strength and ability.
Photo by Paige Guess
SEPTEMBER 2021
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OPINION
CHALLENGES FACING STUDENT WORKERS Exavier Wells| Staff Writer
In the past few months, the condition of the student worker pay system has been widely considered by the student population as “subpar at best.” The primary concerns that have been expressed by current student workers are the (1) pay rate, (2) frequency of pay, and (3) amount of available hours. Here at Hendrix College, the base pay rate for an entry-level student worker is $9.35 per hour while the state minimum wage was recently raised at the start of this year to $11 an hour. A common justification given for this low rate of pay is that income tax is not taken out of student worker earnings, but even with this taken into consideration, the hourly earnings still would fall below what a student would make at a standard minimum wage job with the 10% in taxes taken out at that tax bracket . With an average work week of 6 hours for a Hendrix student, this difference shortchanges them by $52.8 per paycheck, not even taking into consideration the issue of raising the base Hendrix wage itself; which is a proposition I have heard rather universally called for. In the U.S., 54% of people are living paycheck-topaycheck and while the stakes are certainly not as high while we are at Hendrix, as our room & board is provided; there is something to be said about how our monthly paycheck system negatively affects student workers when the standard bi-weekly schedule used at most places of employment is quite flawed, to begin with. Complications arise in this system most evidently in the forms of any emergency funds that are needed (especially from transportation-related expenses) and the purchasing of food outside of the cafeteria and the burrow. It leads to students having to wait weeks for their funds to replenish so that they can purchase anything beyond the essentials, and even then they might not have enough in their account to do even that.
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The typical full-time college student at a national level that also holds down a job on average works a total of 24.8 hours per week while school is in session. While some Hendrix students go beyond the 11-12 hour per week student employment model, the number of hours that are offered through our various employment programs does not come close to the national average. It is important to take into consideration that many colleges (including Hendrix) mandate that students not exceed a certain number of hours during the workweek so that they can focus on their studies (as is recommended by the department of labor), but this does not take into account the financial needs of students; especially those who are not actively receiving financial aid from their parents. Our college expects quite a lot from its students, so they should not be surprised when we expect more from them.
Photo by Margaret Sampson-Green
GABBY PETITO:
How the nationwide search for a white woman highlights a persistent problem in our culture Lauren Allen| Layout Editor/Staff Writer
It seems like anyone who has access to social media has heard about Gabby Petito – the tragic story of an Instagram blogger killed by her fiancé after traveling cross-country in a van. The story consumed users on every platform, including TikTok and Instagram. When the news first broke of Petito’s disappearance, social media users turned into detectives in order to try and solve the mystery. People were quick to point fingers at Petito’s boyfriend, who has been missing since Petito’s body was found. Gabby’s disappearance received widespread attention in the news, likely contributing to the quick recovery of her body. While Gabby Petito’s death is tragic, the media attention that surrounded it is one we have seen before. A white woman goes missing, a huge media storm erupts surrounding her disappearance, and she is (usually) found soon after. The amount of news coverage that Gabby has received has caused many to point out “Missing White Women Syndrome,” which is defined by the heavier media attention White women and girls receive when they go missing compared to anyone outside of those demographics, according to a study published by the Northwestern University School of Law in 2016. In the United States, Black people account for a third of active missing cases in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, despite only being 13 percent of the population. Native Americans also appear on the list disproportionately. And yet the news rarely covers these cases and families are often forced to take matters of search and rescue into their own hands. According to CBS, “In Wyoming, where Petito’s body was found, 710 Indigenous people have disappeared from 2011 to September 2020. According to a report by the University of Wyoming, 12 of those cases were covered by local media, which covered 35 of 3,837 cases of missing White people during that period.”
White women do not have their identities picked apart during investigations. Meanwhile, when doing research for this article, I found that police and investigators were much more likely to include unnecessary information – including one’s history of drug use, sexuality, and criminal background – when investigating the death or disappearance of a Person of Color. White women go missing and we are shown the edited photos that they post on their Instagram. A person of color goes missing and, if it is even covered in the news, it’s an old yearbook photo or a mugshot from the single time they were arrested in 2004. Not only does Gabby Petito’s case highlight how people of color go unnoticed by media coverage, but it also shows how law enforcement need to have trained domestic abuse staff. In bodycam footage from a domestic dispute between Petito and her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, it is clear that Gabby Is in an unsafe situation. She repeatedly invalidates herself and justifies Brian’s treatment of her, all common signs of abuse. Rather than telling the police the full extent of Laundrie’s violence towards her, she blames herself for his abuse and offers up excuses for her abuser. Though the cop in the video was trying to get Gabby to tell him the whole story, he did not have the proper training or knowledge that someone like a social worker might have to handle the situation. While this problem is widespread and persistent, there are small things that everyone can do to help. For one, share the names and stories of people involved in under reported cases. If you see information about any missing person in your area, share it with friends and family. And finally, we are constantly learning and unlearning the subtle ways that racism penetrates our everyday life. Do not let yourself fall into a comfortable position of ignorance.
SEPTEMBER 2021
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MOMENT OF TRUTH: RA’s are quitting over unfavorable conditions
Exavier Wells | Staff Writer On Wednesday, September 22nd at 8:30 p.m I sat down with veteran RA, the following article is heavily based on that interview. A few days before scheduling an interview with an RA source, I was tipped off by a fellow student worker that a group of our RA’s have a particular set of grievances with the administration and are up in arms about the atlas-like weight that has been placed on their shoulders. As I was completely unaware of such drama taking place I immediately focused my sights on what was going on because of the importance of the concerns at hand. Upon sitting down with the RA I was rather nervous I will admit, I wanted to lend an open ear to their concerns without interjecting my own opinions, and in the spirit of that concern I will keep up such a sentiment through the rest of the article. I am a student worker, but not an RA and as such, I am not as privy to their hardships as I would need to be in order to write a first-hand account, so I will let them speak for themselves. My source did not mince words when they said that “the administration, the bosses, residence life, and the coordinators, are generally not treating us well. It is all demands all the time and no respect. They like to talk about teamwork, but in reality, it is them telling us what they want us to do at all times without regarding our needs.” Now, these words on their own might seem inflammatory and exaggeratory, but from what I have gathered they are anything but. In fact, I do believe that they are being rather forgiving. For context, it is important to understand the specific complaints that the RA’s have rather than just discussing them in the abstract. They are upset that: “They are understaffed, people are quitting,” and they are not being compensated with extra pay for the extra slack that they have to pick up. They believe that “if they are not going to hire another RA, they should be paying us the RA’s salary.” The shortage has led them to have to work four days straight on duty, which lasts until 2 am on the weekends.
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They are given a base salary of $300 per month for the work that they carry out which “would not be adequate for a normal student work schedule, let alone the kind that an RA has to carry out.” Unlike most student workers, RA’s are effectively never off duty as the expectations placed on them by the college require them to be attentive to their residents at all hours of the day and night regardless of what they are doing. They are made to be the face of the college’s pandemic policy as it relates to masking as they are in charge of enforcing said policy in the residence halls. It is no secret that there is a subset of students on campus who not only do not follow pandemic policy but belligerently defy it any chance that they get, and the RA’s are the primary victims of their ire. Both the backlash and non-compliance have led to disillusionment amongst the RA’s and is draining them. They are burnt out and on the verge of quitting. It is important to understand that “more compensation [for the work of being an RA] does not mean more money all the time, if they can’t pay us more on stipend then they can give us a discounted room price, or discounted/free board,” and the fact that they are doing next to nothing is rather telling. As of now, there are posters that are going up around the residency halls for those who would be interested in becoming an RA, and they have most likely been put up in an effort to address the staffing shortage. But if they do not address all of the other core issues that are found within the system itself the new RA’s will feel just as burnt out and used as those who came before. “The RA’s are at the end of their ropes, they are stressed out, they are unhappy, they are treated unfairly by the administration and res life, it is not any one person’s fault, it is the system, and they need to start prioritizing the people who consistently prioritize this campus.”
Photo by Margaret Sampson-Green
SEPTEMBER 2021
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