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Breaking the Silence IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT COLLEGE AGE SUICIDE PROJECTS PAGE 30
Arts & Entertainment
MilwaukeeHome: How the brand continues to make its mark on the city. Page 42 PHOTO BY ANDREW HIMMELBERG
SPORTS
PAGEExpansion: 36 Club Hockey’s How the sport has surpassed its humble roots on campus. Page 52
OPINIONS
Looking Back on Four Years: Opinions desk seniors reflect on their time at Marquette. Page 64
NOVEMBER 2016 APRIL 2017
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CONTENTS 4 EDITOR’S NOTE 5 MASTHEAD 6 TOP 5 PHOTOS 17 INSIDER A MARQUETTE CONNECTION BEAUTY BEYOND THE BROOM DINING WITH THE STARS A COACH ON AND OFF COURT TEXT A TOASTIE
37 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT LOCATIONS OF LAUGHTER RENAISSANCE MAN DEFINING HOME OFF DUTY DAILY WEAR
50 SPORTS
CLUB HOCKEY’S HUMBLE ROOTS WHEN FALL SPORTS END
56 OPINIONS IN CASE YOU MISSED IT “HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A PROBLEM?” FOUR YEARS LATER: WHAT IT ALL MEANT
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PROJECTS INTO THE BOARD ROOM SWINGING INTO MKE DANCE BREAKING THE SILENCE A STRONG LINE OF FIGHTERS
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Suicide is a leading cause of death among college and university students in the United States and the second leading cause of death for people ages 15-24. So why are we not talking about it? Jenny Fischer said it best in her perspective piece on page 36, “not everything worth talking about is easy or enjoyable.” “Breaking the Silence” is a student media-wide project that has been in the works since last semester. Jenny and Marie Crowe (“Breaking the Silence” page 30) were brave enough to share their personal stories in this Journal. I greatly admire their willingness to fully disclose what they have been through in hopes to help start a conversation. The next three issues of the Marquette Tribune will dive more into the topic with informative pieces on suicide. MURadio will be airing a series of PSAs in the coming weeks and MUTV will be hosting a public forum with experts on the subject. Along with the suicide project, the seniors on the opinions desk reflected on their time at Marquette, sports looked into the history of Marquette club hockey and arts and entertainment explored Milwaukee’s open mic scene. I owe a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to this magazine. I have learned so much through every editor, reporter, designer and photographer and I know they all have extremely bright futures ahead of them. This issue also couldn’t be possible without Design Chief Anabelle McDonald. Not only did she spend countless hours designing this issue, but always did so with a smile on her face. Another big thanks to Executive Director Patrick Thomas. His dedication to every branch of student media is incredible and I know he will continue to bring the Wire to even greater heights as he continues in his role next year. I also can’t thank Devi Shastri enough for taking on our cover story “Breaking the Silence.” Although she faced many obstacles, I never doubted her ability to take on such a complex story. In case you don’t take my word for her being a fantastic writer, she has several Society of Professional Journalist and Milwaukee Press Club awards to prove it. The Marquette Wire staff has also been blessed with the addition of our new Director of Student Media Mark Zoromski. Mark brings nearly 40 years of journalism experience to the table and has been a great mentor to us all. His positive energy and passion for student media is also quite contagious. I promise this is the last thank you, but I feel exceptionally grateful for Delzer Lithograph Co., who generously offered to print the Journal for us as a donation. It has been an honor serving as Journal editor and I hope you enjoy reading this magazine as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Best of luck to McKenna Oxenden as she calls the shots next year as Journal editor. I can’t wait to see all her fantastic ideas come into play.
- Stephanie Harte 4
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The Marquette Journal EDITORIAL Executive Director of Marquette Wire Patrick Thomas Managing Editor of Marquette Journal Stephanie Harte Online Editor of Marquette Wire Casey DiNicola NEWS News Editor McKenna Oxenden Projects Editor Devi Shastri Assistant Editors Ryan Patterson, Maggie Cannon Reporters Alex Groth, Abby Ng, Camille Paul, Clara Janzen, Matthew Martinez, Leah Harris, Madison Marx, Maredithe Meyer, Eliana Reed MARQUEE Marquee Editor Jennifer Walter Assistant Editors Rachek Kubik, Kaitlin Majeski Reporters Hailey Richards, Kelsey McCarthy, Brendan Attey, Mac Vogel, Katie Hauger OPINIONS Opinions Editor Elizabeth Baker Assistant Editor Mike Cummings Columnists Morgan Hughes, Ryan McCarthy, Caroline Kaufman SPORTS Sports Editor Jack Goods Assistant Editors Grant Becker, Matt Unger Reporters Brian Boyle, John Hand, Brendan Ploen, Thomas Salinas, John Steppe, Nathan Desutter COPY Copy Chief Emma Nitschke Copy Editors Sydney Czyzon, Sabrina Norton, Gina Richard, Kaelyn Gray, Emma Brauer VISUAL CONTENT Design Chief Anabelle McDonald Photo Editor Austin Anderson Opinions Designer Chelsea Johanning Marquee Designer Hannah Feist Sports Designer Molly Mclaughlin Photographers Yue Yin, Andrew Himmelberg, Matthew Serafin, Stacy Mellantine APRIL 2017
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TOP FIVE Occupy Milwaukee leads a post-election protest downtown on Nov. 10.
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE University President Michael Lovell makes his professional theater debut in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s “A Christmas Carol.”
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE Students gather around St. Joan of Arc during March for Life, an event that protests legalized abortion.
PHOTO BY ANDREW HIMMELBERG
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE Students and faculty members link arms during a silent protest outside the Alumni Memorial Union post-election.
PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
TOP FIVE Senior Luke Fischer proposes to girlfriend Payton Brock following a 91-83 win over Creighton in his last home game. PHOTO BY ANDREW HIMMELBERG
Submit your photos of Milwaukee and Marquette to editor@marquettejournal.org
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PROJECTS INSIDER
A Marquette Connection BY CLARA JANZEN At age 13, Thomas (Tom) Andrew Bronikowski was diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes and suffered the effects for his entire life. At the age of 47, he permanently lost his eyesight. Tom was a
Marquette mathematics professor for 25 years. He won many teaching awards, including the university Te a c h i n g
Two weeks in, I approached him and Excellence Award in 1983. tentatively asked, “Did you work here A year later, in the spring of 1984, at the same time as Tom Bronikowsfreshman biochemistry and molecuki?” even though I knew he did. lar biology major Anne Bronikowski “Yes, I did,” he responded, and I watched her father write on the board informed him I was his granddaughagain. He was only able to do so after ter. “You’re kidding!” he proclaimed. undergoing occupational therapy. I saw in his eyes a flashback to a “He was a funny teacher,” she said. younger G.G., a big smile spreading “I studied extra hard for his tests.” across his face. Tom died June 30, 1989 My grandmother pulled out a bunch at the age of 56. of old papers for me one afternoon, Twenty-seven years later, I, his including copies of my grandfather’s granddaughter, would attend Marteaching awards and Tribune clipquette, and sign up for Math 1700, pings, the same paper I started workElementary Statistics, one of the ing for this year. I was taken aback to courses that counts toward a comlearn about these connections I never mon core requirement. knew I had. When looking at my schedThroughout the rest of the semesule, Anne gasped when she ter, I learned things about my grandsaw who was teaching the class. father who I never knew, making “He’s still teaching?” she said. me feel closer to him. Hamedani Professor G. Hossein G. Hamedani paused class one day to give a short has been teaching at Marquette for speech about my grandfather and his 36 years and was a colleague and achievements, and concluded with, close friend of Tom’s. “He had a good life. It was short, but I walked into Math 1700 unsure if I he was content.” should tell him. He had a weird teaching style, and I couldn’t believe how PHOTO COURTESY OF CLARA JANZEN long he’d been here.
Beauty beyond the broom BY CLARA JANZEN Phyllis Walden, better known as “Scottie,” is a daily source of light and inspiration for the sleep-deprived students who enter McCormick Hall’s bathrooms each morning. Scottie has been working on Marquette’s custodial staff for almost ten years, mostly in McCormick Hall. Scottie and her husband raised five children, four boys and one girl, and have eight grandchildren. She loves kids, which is why she can’t envision working anywhere else. Scottie is a member of the community just as much as those who live in McCormick, and is known for leaving cute drawings and nice PHOTO BY STACY MELLANTINE
messages on the mirrors. The messages are a topic of conversation among residents, who regularly snap pictures back and forth when new ones go up. “I hope that they cheer you up, or make you feel good about yourself, or at least let you know how wonderful I think you are,” Scottie said. When Scottie was sick for a week, students grew concerned. “It was noticeable when she wasn’t writing notes, the bathrooms were still getting cleaned but that was missing,” said Alana Pettus, a freshman in the College of Nursing. “It was worrisome.” She describes her job as perfect, despite the vomit and other
messes that come along with a freshman dorm bathroom. “I never dread coming to work,” she said. Scottie believes it’s important for the students to have fun since these four years will be ones they hold onto forever.
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dining with the stars H BY STEPHANIE HARTE
aving the secret service pay a visit to his restaurant is not that out of the ordinary for Peter Pitch, owner of Miss Katie’s Diner. In Pitch’s 31 years as owner, he has seen Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and President Donald Trump walk through the diner’s doors. Surprisingly, Pitch didn’t receive any official warning before these special patrons showed up. “The secret service was here before each visit, but they have you brainwashed into thinking they won’t come,” Pitch said. “It’s still weird though. They have a way of dealing with people to convince you that it’s not going to happen, saying they (the politicians) probably won’t have time, that there are a lot of other restaurants on the list or something along those lines.” The largest security staff was for Bill Clinton and Chancellor Kohl’s visit. Guards were positioned
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inside and outside the building, on the roof and in the kitchen and cooler. Pitch chuckled as he recalled mistakenly thinking there was a fire during this visit, when in reality 12 of the German secret security guards were just smoking in the corner of the restaurant. “After they visit, you are busy forever,” Pitch said. “But while they are here it is mass confusion, especially if they bring the media with them.” From a security standpoint, Miss Katie’s is easy to secure because a helicopter could easily land in the middle of the street if an emergency were to happen. Pitch believes Miss Katie’s old-fashioned atmosphere has helped attract so many big-name celebrities. “They like the diner atmosphere where they are able to blend in with real Milwaukeeans,” Pitch said. “If they want to get a pulse on the general public, this is the place to come.”
Want to eat like a big shot at Miss Katie’s? Here is what the politicians ordered: Hillary Clinton: Corned Beef Hash
Michelle Obama: Cheeseburger
President Donald Trump: Bacon, eggs over easy, wheat toast and hash
Bill Clinton and Chancellor Helmut Kohl:
Sampled nearly everything on the menu
INSIDER
A COACH ON AND OFF COURT BY MATTHEW MARTINEZ
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here is an old, simple basketball court next to O’Donnell Hall. Much like the residence hall itself, the court is basic. But what it lacks in flair, it makes up for in character. The hoops have nylon nets that are one size too small for the ball to pass through, which means that every time you make a basket, you have to swat the ball to get it back out. Fences surround the entire court with barbed wire on the left side, giving it sort of a prison-yard aesthetic. At this court, two worlds collide. The students in O’Donnell Hall and the residents at the Milwaukee Rescue Mission are separated by just a crosswalk, but the lives they lead are vastly different. “It’s crazy to think how different these two buildings are,” said O’Donnell resident Mathieu Stafford, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. “When you mix the two groups, you might think there would be a turmoil-type thing, but we’ve intermingled and we get along really well.” Differences are set aside on the court. The only divisions you will find among the players are the teams that captains pick. My friends and I met “Coach,” from the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, in September when the weather was crisp and perfect to play. Coach’s first name is Earl, but he prefers not to share his last name. We initially started calling him Coach because he coached several basketball teams throughout his life. It was something we could tell when we played with him. “He was about 60, although for his age he sure out-shot anybody
out there,” said O’Donnell resident Sean Roberts, a freshman in the College of Engineering. “He was one of the best players, and he was giving pointers the whole time. He was never really cocky about anything, but he had that coach mentality where we’re all just having fun. He was having a good time.” When Coach takes the court, he dribbles at the top of the key, licks his palms and stares down the defense. He is figuring out how he is going to score.
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HE WAS ABOUT 60, ALTHOUGH FOR HIS AGE HE SURE OUTSHOT ANYBODY OUT THERE. HE WAS ONE OF THE BEST PLAYERS, AND HE WAS GIVING POINTERS THE WHOLE TIME.
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- SEAN ROBERTS, FRESHMAN IN THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
“It makes me feel young again to play with younger people,” Coach said. He plays the game in an unselfish way. Rather than scoring every play, Coach makes it a point to pass it to his teammates more often than he shoots. A great example of Coach’s desire for inclusion occurred when a group of younger kids came and Coach insisted
we draft them to teams. Coach’s desire for inclusion meshes well with O’Donnell’s sense of community. “Everyone’s door is always open,” said O’Donnell resident Nik Lange, a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. “It’s because of this tight-knit community that we’ve been able to branch out and hang around with the guys from across the street.” We have played with many different residents of the Rescue Mission, but Coach is the one constant. He usually brings great defenders or gifted shooters with him. “It’s a light atmosphere where we just get to talk to these guys,” Roberts said. “You’re not just going to walk over to the Rescue Mission and start talking to people. The average person doesn’t do that. When you bring a basketball court into that, you talk lightly about things, you bond over basketball and you realize there’s a lot of people out there that you really don’t know their story at all.” Coach often tells us about his life, including his job in Kenosha that he commutes to via bus. Roberts, Lange and Stafford all agree that one of the most valuable parts about being able to talk to these people is benefiting from their knowledge and experience. Coach is kind of the bridge between the two worlds, and he is always willing to impart his wisdom. “You know, man, I wish I was your age again,” Coach said. “You guys might not realize now how good you have it. If I could be your guys’ age again … jeez.”
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Five star thrones BY GRANT BECKER
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t can be hard to make college feel like home, even after you’ve made good friends and discovered great new restaurants, but why? Because your toilet isn’t there. If you’re a freshman sharing a bathroom with your whole floor, finding a new toilet as comfortable as the ones at
home can be trickier than anything college throws your way. But don’t fear, Marquette has dozens of porcelain thrones waiting for you to make them yours. For this definitive guide to Marquette’s best, worst and most memorable restrooms, bathrooms will be graded on
a scale of one to five toilets. The grades will be based on a number of qualitative categories: cleanliness, privacy, comfort, traffic and modernity. It’s not a mathematical formula, but when it comes to grading restrooms these are the things that really matter.
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JOHNSTON HALL
If you’re looking for a brand new bathroom with a minuscule amount of traffic and a stall that also has a shower for some reason, then this is the bathroom for you. It’s an upscale shower and there’s a toilet two steps away in case that’s something you need. The restroom only has one urinal, but it’s a pretty low-traffic building so that’s not much of an issue. Unfortunately, it’s not like the family bathroom in the basement of Marquette Hall because you can’t lock it, meaning this is the most public shower on campus. It’s a neat novelty, but this shower just isn’t practical.
Johnston is one of the recently renovated buildings on campus, shooting its bathrooms right to the top of the list. They’re clean, modern and they have full body mirrors — a totally underrated perk. However, there are a number of weaknesses with Johnston’s bathrooms. First, they’re not big. The men’s rooms only have one stall and one urinal and the women’s rooms are just two stalls. Also, they’re cold. The restrooms border the western wall of the building and there’s a window in the bathroom. In the dead of winter, sitting on a toilet in one of these restrooms is a brutal experience.
Toilet Ranking
RAYNOR BASEMENT
Toilet Ranking
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Toilet Ranking
The restrooms in the Raynor side of the library are solid, generally clean restrooms, but the first and second floors have too much foot traffic to be among Marquette’s elite bathrooms. But go to the basement and the story changes. Not only is the basement bathroom twice the size, it gets less than half as much traffic as its upstairs counterparts. The men’s room is essentially two whole rooms. The largest stall in the far-left corner of the restroom is probably the single greatest toilet on Marquette’s campus.
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LALUMIERE
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From the massive window in the women’s restroom on the third floor, one can see everything South Milwaukee has to offer. The bathroom itself is lackluster, as are all the Lalumiere bathrooms, but the window makes it stand out. There’s no better restroom on campus for staring off into Milwaukee’s puzzle of highways, pondering if the gap in work necessary to earn an A instead of a B is worth it. Full disclosure: I’ve only been in this restroom once for approximately seven seconds with a female friend standing outside in the hallway to prevent anyone from coming in.
The bathrooms in Marquette’s Wehr Chemistry, Physics and Life Sciences buildings have the worst bathrooms of any cluster of buildings on campus. It’s a fact. The nicest thing one can say is that some of them are well-lit. If you do have to use a restroom in one of these buildings though, make sure it’s not the men’s room in the basement of Wehr Chemistry. The floor tiles are like an optical illusion and at least one of the four overhead lights is always dead. It’s straight out of a 70s thriller and good things don’t happen in bathrooms from 70s thrillers. So just try to go some”wehr” else.
Toilet Ranking
Toilet Ranking
SECRET JOHNSTON HALL STRAZ HALL 1ST FLOOR Toilet Ranking
In the bowels of Johnston Hall lies perhaps the most private public restroom on campus. Down the hall and towards the radio studio, take a left and an immediate right. There’s a brown door, often left open, that leads to a dingy old lounge used for storage. In the northwest corner of the room there’s private bathroom with just one toilet, no urinal. If you need peace and quiet to do your business, this is the place. But be warned, this can’s flush is loud and long, which could blow your cover.
Toilet Ranking
When it comes to bad bathrooms, most are terrible because they totally fail in two or three of the categories evaluated here. But the first-floor restroom in Straz Business Hall is a special kind of bad – it’s not clean, it’s not private, it’s crazy busy, it’s super cramped and it’s not modern. Small children complain about how tiny the stalls are. New Yorkers note about how busy it is. Don’t go there. Just don’t.
PHOTOS BY YUE YIN APRIL 2017
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PHOTO BY MARYAM TUNIO
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Cooking with a Cause INSIDER
U
By Katie Hauger
pon meeting Josh Green for an interview at the Raynor Bridge, he flashed a friendly smile, giving the impression that he’d be willing to talk about anything. While there to talk about a recent event put on by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, he also went on tangents about scripture and the meaning of God in everyone’s lives. It’s no wonder the event, Text a Toastie, appealed to him. Green, a three-year alumnus from Marquette, is a staff member with InterVarsity, a group focused on worship and faith-based dialogue. He brought up Text a Toastie after hearing about it from chapters on the East Coast. The setup was like this: volunteers made grilled cheese and grilled Nutella sandwiches for an hour in one of the volunteer’s apartments in Campus Town West, then prepared to answer questions from students about faith. The questions
PHOTO VIA HTTPS://COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG
came in via text, along with the student’s location and their sandwich order. The InterVarsity volunteers would then deliver an answer to the student’s question in person, along with a sandwich. “What is the meaning of life?,” “Why do bad things happen to good people?,” “What do Christians believe about marriage?,” “Did Adam and Eve have belly but-
tons?” All kinds of questions from students popped up on the Google Voice account that received the texts. (Questions like “Who do you think will win the Super Bowl?” and “Can you help me with my homework?” were ignored.) Nora Campos, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, volunteered for the event. She described the night as fast-paced once the texts started coming in — it was impossible to answer all of them, especially later in the night as people left and sandwiches started running out. Despite most people sending in a question for the sake of a sandwich, Campos felt the night was a success whenever questioners took a moment to discuss the answers further. “We want to reach a wider net of people who don’t necessarily know a lot about the Christian faith,” Green said. “I find you have better conversations with people who don’t know everything. They tend to be more curious and they help expose us to new perspectives.”
PHOTO VIA WWW.FLICKR.COM APRIL 2017
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INTO THE BOARD ROOM By Abby Ng
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN DORRINGTON
University President Michael Lovell and Chair John Ferraro pose in the board room after the most recent meeting.
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hey are CEOs, federal judges, national correspondents, head coaches of professional basketball teams and presidents of million-dollar companies. They are also Marquette alumni and Jesuits. As University President Michael Lovell said, they are “thought leaders.” They are the Marquette Board of Trustees who are tasked with governing the university. The Board of Trustees is self-perpetuating: every board member is responsible for nominating possible new members who then go through what Lovell calls “an arduous interview process.” Nominees are rated, evaluated and vetted before they are welcomed to the board. The Board is in charge of the longterm decisions affecting the Marquette community, and as stated on the university website, “The board is responsible for preserving and enhancing Marquette’s mission.” In Lovell’s eyes, the board is his boss, and its role is to ask tough questions, like, “How is what we’re doing addressing the problems within higher education?” 24
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“One of the things I talk to the board about a lot is the landscape of higher education,” Lovell said. The topics include student loan debt, online learning and transfer students. Board Corporate Secretary Steven Frieder wants to make the distinction between governance and management. “Sometimes a common misconception is that many or every decision is made by the board and that’s not true,” Frieder said. Frieder said the most important job the board has is hiring the university president, a responsibility that he classifies as one of governance. The board offers strategic guidance and acts as a final check on major decisions, but it does not write proposals and plans. Another key responsibility of the board is fiduciary management. It approves or rejects any large-scale financial decisions, like tuition increases, to ensure that the university remains financially stable and operates on a balanced budget. As a nonprofit board, all of the trustee positions are completely volunteer. The board currently consists of 35
members, following bylaws stating that it must always include between 25 and 40 members. Five to eight Jesuits and the president must also be on the board. Members can serve a maximum of 12 years. Outside of the these parameters, the board purposefully includes members of all different ages, genders, professions, geographical locations and backgrounds. “We are serving lots of different constituents — first and foremost the students — but then also alumni, the business community, Milwaukee,” Lovell said. “Having individuals on the board with experience in those areas is important, which is why you see a diverse group of people on the board.” Board members also have several individual responsibilities. They meet with the entire Board of Trustees four times per year and serve on at least one of five committees: executive, academic and student experience, finance and risk, external engagement and intercollegiate athletics. Part of that time commitment is spent acting as an advocate for the university. They are expected to
PROJECTS
donate to the university as one of their top charities, as well as encourage others to invest. Within their business, political and philanthropic spheres of influence, they build Marquette’s reputation and foster increased interest in the university. Here’s a look at three board members: Meet Steven Frieder Frieder has been the Board of Trustee’s corporate secretary since 2003. He is also an alum, having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1995. As corporate secretary, he works closely with President Lovell and board leadership to coordinate meetings, create agendas and help committees. Although not a voting member of the board, he is there every step of the way. What was your time at Marquette like and how has it influenced how you work with the Board of Trustees? “It was a long time ago that I was a Marquette student, but hopefully that experience helps me keep the perspective of the students at the forefront of my work. I don’t necessarily know what it’s like to be a college student today, but I know what it’s like to be a Marquette student. I try to keep that at the top of my mind to help the people I work with. I try to remind them that the reason we’re here is to provide students with a transformational learning experience. My Marquette education transformed my life and I hope that can be the case for all Marquette students.” Marquette has a lot of big projects in the works as part of the campus master plan. What are you most excited about in Marquette’s future? “Overall, a lot of the different initiatives will make a Marquette education even better for our students. It’s hard to pick one. I think all of them will really be essential to Marquette’s success in the future. One that is particularly exciting is the biodiscovery project because there are so many students across different colleges that take some type of biology. That biodiscovery facility will really have a tremendous positive impact on stu-
dent education for all students that take biology or some biomedical science classes.” Meet Peggy Troy Peggy Troy was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2011. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Marquette University in 1974. She is now the president and CEO of Children’s Hospital Wisconsin. What was your time at Marquette like and how has that influenced you as a board member? “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to give back to Marquette. It’s an institution that gave me an amazing foundation and has allowed me to do what
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I’M VERY GRATEFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE BACK TO MARQUETTE. IT’S AN INSTITUTION THAT GAVE ME AN AMAZING FOUNDATION AND HAS ALLOWED ME TO DO WHAT I’VE DONE IN MY CAREER.
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-PEGGY TROY, BOARD OF TRUSTEES
I’ve done in my career. As a Marquette alumna I have a good appreciation for what Marquette means and can mean to students in their lifelong experiences. I find that the board is there to ensure Marquette’s strategy continues to evolve and emerge to meet the goals of educating the best and brightest of the future and helping students be the difference.” The board is very diverse, consisting of different ages, genders, professions, geographical locations and backgrounds. How does this diversity affect the board? “It’s incredibly beneficial. Because the board discusses the strategy and its evolution, the different thoughts
and ideas that come forward by the different members of the board have a positive effect. Our current board chair, John Ferraro, likes to hear from others, and so board members are asked to participate and express their opinions, thoughts and ideas. It’s a participative board, as opposed to one that basically hears reports and isn’t heavily engaged.” Meet Janine Geske Janine Geske was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2015. She graduated from Marquette University Law School in 1975 and later taught there as a distinguished professor. While teaching at Marquette, she founded and directed the Restorative Justice Initiative. She served as a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1994-98. Why did you want to join the board of trustees? “I love Marquette. I loved my years as a student. I’ve been associated with Marquette one way or another ever since I graduated. I think Marquette is a very exciting university and it accomplishes a lot academically but also just as much in transforming students, encouraging them to be all that they can be in terms of leadership and making change in the world. I wanted to be part of the board that is responsible for shepherding the university into the future and making sure we maintain not only our mission but the excellence in all other areas.” What are you most excited about in Marquette’s future? “It’s a combination of maintaining the mission, yet adapting it to where social issues are going, for example with some of these complicated political issues like refugees and immigration. We want to maintain our conscience while working alongside students on these issues. We also are making sure the campus is friendly and welcoming for students. We want to encourage innovation and research, and we are forward-looking in terms of the type of educational opportunities we give our students. All of that put together is a big package.” APRIL 2017
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Swinging into MKE dance
By Jennifer Walter & Alex Groth 26
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PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
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n a typical Thursday night on West Juneau Avenue, the Pabst Brewery comes alive with the sound of shifting snare drums and trumpet blasts. The rhythms sway in the background of a scene from a 1950s dance hall. Partners glide around the dimly lit floor, their steps clapping against the hardwood in pace with the old-time jazz music. It’s lesson night at Cream City Swing, a dance club in Milwaukee. Bridget Sampson, a junior in the College of Health Sciences, looked on as the swing instructors directed about 40 others through a lesson. Across the floor stood her boyfriend, Luiz Gabriel Dias Duarte Machado, also a junior in the College of Health Sciences. It was their first time swing dancing. The two shared sideways glances at each other, smiling uncertainly, excitedly. “It’s really cute,” Sampson said. “I really like it ... (I’m) nervous, very nervous.” The lesson began with participants separating between “lead,” and “follow.” The lead communicates the transition to different steps, and the follow responds. Sampson decided to be the follow and Dias Duarte Machado the lead. Doug Hillman, an instructor at Cream City, stood in the center of a circle of couples that spanned the length of the ballroom teaching the basic six-count step. The count is the fundamental rhythm for all styles of swing dance. Onetwo, one-two, rock-step. After mastering the basics, the class began incorporating spins and turns. Partners began to rotate around the circle to dance with the stranger next to them. When Sampson saw that she would be dancing with nearly everyone in the room, she was
PROJECTS
reluctant to leave her boyfriend’s side. “I wasn’t super crazy about the whole going around in the circle, like rotating partners,” Sampson said. Hillman said he sees this as a bit of “forced interaction” as a tool to expose the dancers to new moves and styles. “You can watch when people come in and see that, yeah, this
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I THINK THAT A LOT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE LOOKING FOR SOCIAL ACTIVITIES THAT THEY CAN GO OUT AND DO … THAT MAYBE DON’T INVOLVE HANGING OUT IN THE DORMS.
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-DOUG HILLMAN, INSTRUCTOR AT CREAM CITY DANCE is probably way outside of their comfort zone,” Hillman said. “(But) I think most people, once you find something you do pretty well, it builds your confidence as a whole.” Sampson made her way around the circle, practicing the six-count step with different partners. It was going well, except for a plethora of sweaty hands and stepping on a few feet. Once open dance started, the men and women flooded out onto
the floor. Dress code is casual at Cream City, with people wearing anything from colorful dresses and eccentric costumes to comfortable jeans and tennis shoes. The floor was peppered with students from schools all around Milwaukee. Age is not often a boundary for dancers, who will dance with partners ranging from young adulthood to the elderly. “I think that a lot of college students are looking for social activities that they can go out and do … that maybe don’t involve hanging out in the dorms,” Hillman said. “They want something to get them out in a way and make real connections with people.” However, skill level and familiarity can actually discourage beginners from getting out of their comfort zone to practice with advanced dancers. “When you come to a dance, you sit with your friends,” Hillman said. “Especially as a beginner, when you come into this scene you are grouped with a whole bunch of other beginners.” It’s the social nature of swing that allows newbies to become comfortable with partner dance. For those looking to branch out, simple dance styles such as swing open the door to competition, such as the Wisconsin State Dancesport Championships that allow couples to showcase their talents in a variety of dance styles. In high school, Zach Pederson, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, learned a number of dance styles. The tougher, more competitive dances, such as foxtrot and Viennese waltz, are harder to pick up than swing. “If you’ve seen a movie like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or something like that when they’re in a really big circle and they’re all spinning around really fast, that’s the Viennese waltz,” Pederson said. “It’s pretty intense … you can get mowed over pretty quickly if APRIL 2017
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you’re not moving along.” Pederson has never participated in a dance competition but said he still likes learning new styles. Viennese waltz tops as the hardest dance he’s tried; swing is the easiest. To convince friends to come along to Cream City when he visits, Pederson shows a few moves to friends who have never danced before. “To people who don’t understand how to dance well, simple moves can look very fancy if you
do them right,” Pederson said. The basic six-count step is what distinguishes swing from any other style of dance, but subcategories of swing evolved over time, incorporating influences from other styles of dance. Besides dancing at the Pabst on Thursdays, Pederson is a member of Marquette’s Ballroom Dance Club. Members take lessons from Michelle Tate, owner of Brew City Ballroom. The club rotates through a
A couple shares a kiss on a night out swing dancing in the city. 28
MARQUETTE JOURNAL
variety of dances, such as foxtrot, tango and salsa. Tate led a swing workshop last semester. “It’s like barbecue, there’s a different flavor in every region,” Tate said. “It’s (also) really easy to start with.” Lindy hop, shag, East Coast and West Coast swing are just a few styles. Ballrooms in the Midwest, including Cream City Swing, stick to the basics with East Coast swing. The simplicity of the steps is what
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
PROJECTS
Partners clasp hands at a Cream City Swing Thursday night dance lesson. brings a lot of new dancers to the floor, said Catey Ott Thompson, a dance lecturer in the College of Communication. “It feels fun and social, and a little bit less pressure,” Ott Thompson said. With such a hopping dance floor, it may be difficult to believe Hillman’s claim that the Milwaukee swing community has decreased in size since its heyday in the ‘90s when it was popularized by commercials and movies. “In ‘98 when I started there were events like this and it was a huge mainstream fad at the time,” Hillman said. “It would be packed where you would have to wait in line.” The laid-back atmosphere even allows for males and females to try nontraditional roles in partner dance. At Cream City, it isn’t unusual to see men dancing as follows and women as leads. “It takes a handful of lessons to even get to the point where you
have the slightest clue,” Hillman said. “For most guys, I think in a patriarchal society as it is, it’s going to be a blow to their ego.” Sampson and Dias Duarte Machado tried both roles before choosing. Sampson preferred being the follow. “It’s nice being the girl because usually the guys know what they’re doing,” Sampson said. Gender roles aside, Dias Duarte Machado was willing to learn to follow. He even drew on his experience with salsa dance. “I started enjoying salsa after I had gotten the hang of it,” Dias Duarte Machado said. “It’s the same here.” Before coming, Sampson said her parents and grandparents tried to teach her how to dance, but she struggled to follow. At Cream City Swing, she said it was easier to pick up the moves. After dancing a few songs, Sampson was starting to get the hang of it. She had to FaceTime
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
her mom about the experience. “I haven’t touched my phone … other than to FaceTime my mom,” Sampson said. “I thought she’d find it funny.” Both Sampson and Dias Duarte Machado noticed that most dancers did not stare at their phones or take selfies to document their experience. “If you’re here, unless somebody that you have an interest in has dragged you, you’ve come here by choice,” Hillman said. That was the case with both Sampson and Dias Duarte Machado. Dias Duarte Machado had some advice for newcomers interested in trying out swing dancing. “If you want to dance well, pretend you have a curly mustache,” Dias Duarte Machado said. “That’s what I would say.” Sampson laughed. She wasn’t so sure about the mustache. However, she did say they’d both be back. APRIL 2017
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Breaking the 30
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PROJECTS
By Devi Shastri To the reader:
e Silence PHOTO BY ANDREW HIMMELBERG
This is the first piece in an ongoing series by the Marquette Wire to increase dialogue about suicide in the college population. Suicide remains a major public health issue in colleges nationwide. For more stories, follow our continued coverage in the Marquette Tribune, MUTV and MURadio.
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PHOTO BY ANDREW HIMMELBERG
Sophomore Marie Crow sought help after suffering from suicidal thoughts.
L
ate one night last summer, Marie Crowe found herself standing on a bridge above a highway in her hometown, typing what she expected to be her last words. “My arms are numb,” she wrote to her then-boyfriend. “I can’t text anymore. Goodbye.” Crowe, now a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, felt the urge to jump — to end her life. She hit send, not realizing she accidentally sent the text to her dad. Then, her phone rang. “Where are you?” her father asked. He told her to stay put. He and a friend drove to pick her up. Crowe sat with her father until nearly midnight, crying. “My head was not clear at that time,” she said. “I’m very lucky to have my dad.” A week later, her boyfriend ended the relationship. Crowe deteriorated. She made new plans to kill herself. “That night that he broke up with me, I was just like, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’ and ‘How could I make it stop?’” she recalled. “And the ways I could make it stop were not solutions. It was all suicidal plans.” Then, Crowe made a difficult 32
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decision. She checked herself into a mental health facility. In the adult psychiatric ward, she met others struggling with problems of their own. For three days, she did daylong therapy, colored and talked with her fellow patients. Crowe focused her energy inward. “You learn how to reassemble yourself; basically, how to handle yourself,” she said. “It gives you the strength that you need in regular society.” She recorded details of the visit to remember the experience, despite the days becoming “fuzzy” from her medications. The hospital was not how she expected it to be. She would later write on her blog that it was not like “the movies or on TV.” And while her three days at the Linden Oaks Behavioral Health facility brought her newfound strength, she emerged with new worries as well. “I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to see me as weak, because going in there really changed my look about myself. Because it taught me I’m so strong as a person to get the help that I got ... I don’t want people to look at me like I’m damaged. I don’t want people to treat me differently. I don’t want people to be
scared to be around me because they don’t want to hurt me.” Mostly, though, she learned not to worry about what others thought of her. “If anyone, like even friends, wants to be around me, that’s good,” she said. “If they want to leave, whatever.” She laughed. No. 2 Killer Halfway down the long hallway that is the Marquette University Counseling Center, Nick Jenkins’ office radiates warmth and comfort. In the soft glow of table lamps, the sound of cars whirring down Wisconsin Avenue is the only reminder of the world outside. Tough conversations happen here. As a counselor and the center’s coordinator for mental health advocacy, Jenkins works with at-risk students, trains others to notice warning signs and tests new technology in suicide prevention across campus. Data paints an insidious picture. Across the country, suicide clusters and understaffed counseling centers continue to make headlines. Suicide is a leading cause of death for college students and the
PROJECTS
second-leading cause of death in people ages 15-24. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the only thing that kills more people in this age group is unintentional injury, such as car crashes. A 2012 analysis by the Suicide
“
I WAS JUST LIKE, ‘I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE,’ AND ‘HOW COULD I MAKE IT STOP?’ AND THE WAYS I COULD MAKE IT STOP WERE NOT SOLUTIONS. IT WAS ALL SUICIDAL PLANS.
”
- MARIE CROWE, SOPHOMORE IN THE COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES
Prevention Resource Center found 6.6 to 7.5 percent of college undergrads seriously considered suicide in the 12 months prior to being surveyed. More than two percent made plans and more than one percent attempted to kill themselves. Marquette’s numbers are no better. “The University of Texas at Austin did a study on depression, and Marquette participated and we got to see some of those stats,” Jenkins said. “And, I think, of Marquette students, 17 percent have reported having suicidal thoughts at some point in their life. And six or seven percent have reported having those thoughts in the last 12 months. Which, if you think about it, can be kind of a scary number. Because seven percent of a classroom is probably one or two people.” Last year, 38 Marquette students were hospitalized for suicidal ideation or suicide-related reasons, be-
consistently report concerns with low the university’s annual average anxiety (over 60 percent) and deof 50, according to data provided pression (45-50 percent) as their to the Marquette Wire by the Countop two concerns. While not all of seling Center. Even then, the count these students experience suicidal could be low, Jenkins cautioned. thoughts, the trickle-down impact of The count only includes hospitala mood disorder can be strong. izations if the Marquette University “Based on stats, 90 percent of Police Department, the Counseling people with suicidal thoughts have Center or another arm of the unia mood disorder, with depression versity became involved. The same by far being number one,” Jenkins goes for tracking suicide attempts. said. “And I think that anxiety, as we “The difficult piece is that there’s see, is rising up very quickly.” many people that attempt and we Crowe’s first panic attack hit when don’t know,” Jenkins said. “There’s she visited Marquette as a high also times when we don’t know school senior. It is now her third year about an event until well after living with anxiety and depression. it happened.” “I think going to college was a trigJenkins estimates one Marquette ger for my anxiety, and then that student dies by suicide each year. slowly turned into depression,” she Some years there have been none said. “I would just get really bad the university was aware of. anxiety attacks and I couldn’t sleep On average, 19 percent of students at night. I just couldn’t describe the who had counseling at Marquette pain of an anxiety attack. It’s really reported suicidal thoughts. Barbabad in your stomach and I’ve passed ra Moser, chair of Prevent Suicide out from it a few times.” Greater Milwaukee, explained that This semester, her doctors finally major stressors in a student’s life made an official diagnosis: rapid-cycan sometimes be exacerbated cling bipolar disorder. This is not alby a lack of proper coping mechways the case. anisms. Examples of these major “It doesn’t necessarily have to meet stressors include relationship diffithe criteria of being a disorder,” Jenculties, exposure to drugs and alcokins said. “Some people might have hol, peer pressure and academic or more suicidal thoughts after being financial concerns. in a traumatic event. That doesn’t Moser spent her 30-year career necessarily mean that they meet full working in college health settings. criteria for PTSD, but they can have She worked at the University of suicidal thoughts.” Wisconsin-Milwaukee for 23 years, The timing and environment of coleventually spearheading the unilege also play a major role. versity’s major effort to train nearCollege students are at the age ly 2,000 community members to identify and reach out to students in distress via the Campus Connect program. Mood disorders can also underlie suicidal ideation/ thoughts, Jenkins explained. Intake screening from the last three years at the Counseling A series of projects promoting suicide Center shows Marawareness at Marquette quette students
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At Marquette:
In the 2015-2016 school year,
On average over the last three years,
38
19%
of students in treatment at the counseling center exhibit suicidal ideations
Top 5 concerns Anxiety (60+%)
Marquette students were hospitalized for suicide-related reasons... That is: More than half a Schroeder floor (74)
Depression (45-50%) Self-esteem (30%) Academic concerns (30%) Relationship problems (30%)
More than an average class size at MU (36) The yearly average is 50
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
INFOGRAPHIC BY ANABELLE MCDONALD
when many mental illnesses are diagnosed, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and clinical depression, Moser explained. These disorders are risk factors for suicidal behavior. More universally, college is a major time of transition. “College students are at risk for emotional distress, and there are a lot of reasons for that,” Moser said. “Coming to a college where you really don’t know that many people can be very difficult. ... That lack of connection is one of the biggest factors that causes emotional distress in young adults.” Response to such a widespread, yet deeply personal, struggle is something that universities across the country continue to refine and revisit, some more successfully than others. At Columbia University, parents, students and staff are pushing for more training and discussion in the wake of four confirmed student deaths by suicide this academic year and six undergraduate deaths overall. The losses are shifting attention to the urgency of prevention 34
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Across the nation:
36.7% of college students...
felt so depressed that it was difficult to function
58.4% of college students...
felt overwhelming anxiety
9.8% of college students...
seriously considered suicide
1.5% of college students...
attempted suicide
(in the last 12 months)
SOURCES: MARQUETTE COUNSELING CENTER, AMERICAN COLLEGE HEALTH ASSOCIATION SPRING 2016, MARQUETTE OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
methods, some would say, too late. “I would say whatever we’re doing, even if it were judged by someone as sufficient in some way, is clearly to me not enough,” Columbia College Dean James Valentini told the Columbia Spectator in February. “Even if we have the very best practices in place now, we have to examine what else we can do, what more we can do, because the only acceptable number of student deaths is zero.” Moving target In September 2015, as then-freshman Crowe finished her first weeks in college, a group of about 25 faculty and staff in the College of Engineering gathered for a voluntary training session to identify and help suicidal students. “Question, Persuade, Refer,” or QPR, training is used on campuses across the country to increase the number of community gatekeepers: people who are aware of the signs that a person is suicidal and how to get them help. For some, the experience brought home a
sobering realization. “Honestly, there was a part that was almost heart breaking because my kids are in the age range of college kids,” said Mark Federle, the College of Engineering’s associate dean for academic affairs. “Nevertheless, to know that students occasionally lose hope — there is a heartbreaking part in terms of, ‘Oh my gosh, what if I had one of these students in my class and I didn’t recognize the signs?’” Experts explained this is why widespread gatekeeper training is so important. When it comes to pinpointing risk and the state of a person’s mental health, the truth can be a moving target. As a 2009 University of Texas at Austin study of 70 U.S. colleges and universities (including Marquette) found, the most important gatekeepers are students. Two-thirds of the students who told someone about their suicidal ideation chose to tell a peer. And when it comes to identifying the signs, Moser said, time is of the essence. “Getting peers involved is huge,” she said. “Because really, when it
PROJECTS
comes down to it, people are suicidal for very short periods of time, and people who are really gonna be around and know about suicidal thoughts are friends.” Since August 2015, the Counseling Center gave 1,221 people suicide prevention training, the majority in QPR. Training is mandatory for resident assistants, while other groups, like the College of Engineering faculty, AMU staff and Marquette’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, chose to be trained voluntarily. The Counseling Center also strives to maintain low wait times (maximum two weeks), and a full-time counselor-to-student ratio that allows for optimal care. There is currently one counselor for every 942 students at Marquette, compared to a national average of 1 to 2,454 for other schools of Marquette’s size. The International Association of Counseling Services recommends not going over 1,000 students per counselor. Efforts by student groups like Active Minds and Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity also work to increase awareness. Sig Ep’s work within its own organization addresses another dire statistic: The CDC states that while women are more likely to experience suicidal thoughts, men are four times more likely to die by suicide. “I feel like college guys have to put up this front like they aren’t bothered by things, like emotions are seen as weakness,” said Brian Stumph, a senior in the College of Engineering and president of Sig Ep. “(Depression) obviously isn’t something that you can control. It’s a chemical imbalance that can affect anyone at any time. It’s not something that you can ignore and just let it happen. So that’s kind of what causes that lack of reporting and that lack of diagnosis — because they aren’t seeking the treatment they need.” That’s where another number from the University of Texas at Austin study comes in. Of the students who reported having suicidal thoughts
in the last 12 months, 46 percent of undergraduates and 47 percent of graduates chose not to tell anyone. Healing ‘a surgical scar’ The stigma surrounding mental health continues to present a major challenge. “I’d say that within our culture there is a viewpoint that if you have a mental health issue, it’s perceived as weak, when that’s not the truth and that’s not the case,” Jenkins said. “I think we don’t see the same issues with physical health as we do with medical issues, because when you have the flu, you know you have it. Everyone else sees that you have the flu. But when you have depression, no one might be able to see that. Depression is hard to see. Anxiety is difficult to see. And because it’s mainly in our head ... they perceive that, ‘Since it’s in my head, I should be able to handle it.’” Crowe now dreams of being a mental health researcher. She will spend this summer doing mental health research on campus. Crowe also took up spoken word poetry, and said she is excited to be an upperclassman next year. “People don’t see how strong you have to be to overcome it, and it’s more like you’re damaged,”
she said. Her openness about her experience with suicide and self-harm have been met with hesitant responses. “Whenever I tell someone, they get very quiet and then they’re not really sure what to say,” she said. “But I think of it as a wound, like a scar, and I, like, survived and have gotten better. So it’s kind of like a surgical scar where you had to get something removed. Like, that’s how it is. If a cancer patient told someone, ‘Oh yeah, I went through chemo. Now I’m better,’ they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’ But if you tell them how you were in the hospital because you had suicidal thoughts, then they don’t really know how to reply to that.” She said while sharing her story helps her, she hopes it will tell others that they are not alone. Crowe said she wished she had had a conversation like that. “I wouldn’t have felt so isolated and I wouldn’t have thought that there was something wrong with me,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a normal thing to go through, but it’s not wrong.” Crowe recalled an unseasonably warm January day when she took a walk to the lake. She sat on a large rock watching the waves ebb and flow beneath her.
Resources
If you or a loved one is exhibiting suicidal behaviors, please use these resources. Marquette Counseling Center - (414) 288-7172 MUPD for on-call counselor - (414) 288-6800 Milwaukee Crisis Line(414) - 257-7222 National Suicide Hotline - 1-800-273-8255 For Life Threatening Emergencies, Call 911 APRIL 2017
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A strong line of fighters By Jenny Fischer Years later, a daughter reflects
I
am tempted to start my story at the climax —the point of drama — in media res. But I am also reminded that before any story is my mother’s story. That’s where it all began. My mother moved over 11 times in her youth and found permanent sanctuary in college in playing basketball at Marquette. When she was my age, 20 years old, she had already met my father. The two basketball players met in Schroeder Hall, where I now live. They married in Gesu. I pass it every day on my way to class. I am one of three Fischer kids: Elise, Charlie and me, Jenny. My mom called me her “groundhog,” due to my odd birthday falling on Feb. 2. When I was a kid, my grandma would come over every morning to help my mom iron and watch me play piano. She was my mom’s best friend, and mine, too. As a 5-year-old, I didn’t acknowledge my grandma’s hair slowly falling out, or her crying to my mom before chemotherapy. I witnessed it all. It just wasn’t real until I watched my grandma pass after eight grueling years of battling ovarian cancer. I come from a strong line of fighters, despite ailments. When my grandma was in her
childbearing years, doctors told her she was infertile. After adopting one child, my grandma became pregnant. My miracle-baby mother came into this world Nov. 4, 1965. My mother’s mental illness worsened when her mother exited this world Dec. 31, 2009. My mother died by suicide Dec. 2, 2010. Her “groundhog” was the one to find her. Welcome to my story. It’s ugly and it’s painful, but I own it and I live it. Since 13 years old, death has lingered in my life. Grief has knocked around my soul. And my mom’s suicide has series of projects promoting suicide affected me more awareness at Marquette than anything else. My mom’s mental
Breaking the Silence A
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The Fischer children stand around their mother, who passed in 2010.
MARQUETTE JOURNAL
Photo courtesy of Jenny Fischer illness worsened further as the anniversary of her mom’s death drew closer. Unaware to me at the time, she had already attempted suicide. The day it happened started like any other. I exchanged the usual “I love you” with her after petting our dog Mollie, named after my grandma, goodbye. After school, I walked into the house to find droplets of blood in the kitchen. I called for my mom a few times – no answer. Her car was in the garage. I spotted her phone on the counter – 12 missed calls. I wandered to my parent’s room, still searching. I could see the light in the bathroom was on from underneath the crack of the door. I jiggled the doorknob – locked. “Mom?” Mind racing, I walked outside so I could see in the bathroom window. And there she was. I screamed.
PERSPECTIVE The rest is a blur. The mind has a way of automatically blocking out bad memories to save you. I remember calling my dad and 911. The police told me to get out of the house immediately. So, my 13-year-old self sat in my driveway on a gloomy Thursday in December with my dog Mollie next to me, my mother already dead for hours inside. I do not tell the gruesome details for the sake of being gruesome. I tell them for the sake of honoring the story for how it happened. Suicide is ugly and real, heartbreaking and world crushing, and a tragedy in all aspects. Not everything worth talking about is easy or enjoyable. I could tell you about having to go into your own home, which the police labeled a crime scene with yellow
“
caution tape, to pick out funeral clothes. I could tell you about standing up at your mother’s funeral at 13 in front of thousands of people. I could tell you about the number of times people automatically assume you have a mother, and having to awkwardly tell them she died — but even more awkwardly having to answer the question, “What happened?” But I could tell you what else happened. I could tell you what came of this on the other side. I could tell you how I’ve refused to give up and found resilience and integrity. I received a card on my 14th birthday, exactly two months after my mom died. It read, “Don’t ask for a lighter load, but a stronger back.” And that’s what I have done. I could tell you about getting into Marquette, fulfilling my parents’ legacy and making them proud, even if one of them can’t
I could tell you about being able to separate the suicide from the subject, and how important that is. My mom is not her death; mental illness was not who she was.”
Photo courtesy of Jenny Fischer
physically tell me. I know she’s beaming. I could tell you about the reigniting of my faith. God has held me in the palm of His hand. I cannot explain or own this strength; it is only the strength of Christ within me. I could tell you about being able to separate the suicide from the subject, and how important that is. My mom is not her death; mental illness was not who she was. People leave, but how they left always stays. I did not get a goodbye. I did not get any explanation. My grandma’s last words to me were this: “It can take years to forget, but it takes just a second to forgive.” I’ll never be able to forget, but I have forgiven without being asked to. Suicide is permanent and pertinent — but also preventable. Be aware. I have learned to never give up the fight. You will come out stronger and better on the other side. I used to think my mom gave up the fight, when in reality, she fought and lost. Giving up is different than losing. I come from a strong line of fighters, despite ailments. My story is ugly. It’s painful. My story is my mother’s and it’s mine. I own it and I live it. And I will not let suicide take anything more away from me.
Resources If you or a loved one are exhibiting suicidal behaviors, please use these resources. MU Counseling Center - (414) 288-7172 MUPD, on-call counselor - (414) 288-6800 Milwaukee Crisis Line(414) - 257-7222
Fischer’s mother was a member of the Marquette women’s basketball team.
National Suicide Hotline - 1-800-273-8255 For Life Threatening Emergencies Call 911 APRIL 2017
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Locations of laughter
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
I
By Mac Vogel & Brendan Attey
t was an opportunity most comics can only dream of. After a school talent show and a handful of open mic nights, Daniel Lattimore got a call from a friend of a friend, asking him to open for big-time comedian Bill Bellamy after someone had dropped out of the show. The then-University of South Florida student still felt good from his initial open mic experiences and couldn’t turn it down. The Bellamy show was no open mic; it was a 300-person theater filled with paying audience members ready to see their headliner. Lattimore was given 10 minutes of stage time. Prepared or not, this was as good a chance as he was ever going to get. And he blew it. “They told me that a light would go off at nine minutes,” Lattimore said. “I was so nervous I didn’t even see the light. I was in the middle of one of my jokes, finally getting some laughs, and they played me off with music.” After a nightmare performance, the immediate follow-up was even worse. “I go backstage and (former NBA superstar) Tracy McGrady is there because he came to see the headliner,” Lattimore recalled. “I go to dap him up and he just looks at me.” But Lattimore didn’t give up. His theater flop discouraged him from standup for a while, but, as he said, “There’s life after death.” After moving to Milwaukee to pursue a master’s degree in counseling in the College of Education, Lattimore got involved in the local open mic scene. He is also a member of the Marquette student improv group the Fugees. Stand-up comedy takes courage, and a little insanity. For those in need of a little practice, Milwaukee has ample opportunities to perform poetry, music, comedy or other talents on stage in front of strangers. To anyone considering going up on stage, Lattimore said, “If you’ve been
wanting to do it, do it when you’re ready. There’s no race to try it. But you’ll never know if you don’t go up there.” Ivana Osmanovic, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences and president of Live Poets Society, also frequents open mics at local coffee shops and other venues. She performs poetry at events on the East Side and in the Riverwest area, as well as at UWM’s Lyrical Sanctuary open mic night held the first Wednesday of each month. “It can be a tad intimidating, but it’s a cool way to hear and see the voices of the people in the community,” Osmanovic said. Laura Litwin, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, also got involved with open mics through Live Poets Society. She said the poetry community is great for providing a judgment free atmosphere.
“Slam poetry often gets the stigma for being too deep and kind of nerdy, but it really just provides a cool way of storytelling,” Litwin said. Osmanovic agreed by describing the tight-knit open mic community as being very supportive, saying that everyone “empathizes with the inevitable stage fright it takes to tell your story on a stage.” Spanning across the city, there are open mic events almost every night of the week at places such as Bremen Cafe, Lucky Chance, Karma Bar & Grill and Var Gallery and Studios. These places are known for good art, food and drinks, but what is not as well-known are their open mic opportunities. In the words of Osmanovic, “If you want to have a good time, go to an open mic.”
OPEN MIC SPOTS WHERE STUDENTS CAN PERFORM IN MKE. INFOGRAPHIC BY HANNAH FEIST
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RENAISSANCE MAN Q&A with John Schneider By Jennifer Walter
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SCHNEIDER
A
ctor, playwright, journalist and professor John Schneider is a man of many talents. He was involved with Theatre X, an experimental theater company that started in the 1960s, where he wrote dozens of plays for the internationally recognized group until its closing in 2004. He is now an assistant Arts & Entertainment editor at the Shepherd Express, a Theatre Arts professor at Marquette and a coordinator for the Milwaukee Fringe Festival and numerous side projects, such as Project Non-Violence, which gives underprivileged inner-city teens the
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opportunity to learn playwriting and acting by creating their own plays and performing them in public. Q. Because you do so many different things, how do you introduce yourself professionally? What do you say to people when they ask what you do? A. Yeah … that’ s hard. I say that I’m a member of the Marquette Theatre faculty, I’m “permanent part-time,” they call me now, because I’ve been here so long and because I have six credits per semester. I am the assistant A&E editor for the Shepherd Express newspaper, which I’ve been
doing for my eighth year. I say I have a summer theater program called Project Non-Violence that I’ve been doing for about as long as I’ve been teaching. Now I mention the Fringe Festival, and I don’t really say Theatre X unless somebody asks about my history, because it closed at the end of 2004 … it almost seems like a different lifetime … like a dream. Q. You were with Theatre X for 35 years. What made the theater relevant for so long? A. It began at the end of the 1960s, when the Vietnam war was so much in the forefront of everyone’s minds,
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
John Schneider performs in a Theatre X play. He was artistic director for the company.
when I faced the draft the instant I graduated college and the likelihood that I would be sent to fight in a war that I considered immoral and even criminal. Even civil rights and LGBT rights and women’s rights … all of these things were really important issues and theater wasn’t really addressing those things. Q. Do you think there’s a call for another theater like this today? A. Yeah. I think everybody’s thinking really hard about this, and really hard about how theater can best contribute to all of these social justice issues and everything that needs to be done. I think we’ll see, in the very near future, more and more theater taking direct stands. In fact, the small theaters, the young theaters … the theaters in which the artists are okay right now with being baristas
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN SCHNEIDER
and waiters during the day and then devoting all the rest of their waking hours to their art, might be in the best position right now to go directly at that. That’s how Theatre X started. Q. You also helped start the Milwaukee Fringe Festival, which kicked off last year. What’s different this August? A. What’s different is that we’re not going to be in the park across the river. It was beautiful, but it was very ambitious. The costs really nearly killed us at the end (of last year’s festival). It will be more concentrated … as a consequence of that, there won’t be as many performers as there were last year, but that’s also (so) that we can organize the timing a little better so that people will be able to see everything. Q. I saw a video of it, an event recap. It was very scattered, but it had
that sense of liveliness; there were tons of people there. A. I’ve never gotten so many hugs and thank-yous in two days as I did in the course of that festival. What I loved about the indoor performances was that they were a combination of mature, experienced, brilliant Milwaukee artists who had been working in their fields for a long time and really were masters of their craft … and then college students, my Project Non-Violence high school kids, side-by-side with them, so you could see this mix of people who were just beginning and people who were all there. And everybody was so glad to be there together and inspired by each other. The Fringe Festival will take place Aug. 26 & 27 in downtown Milwaukee. APRIL 2017
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DEFINING HOME By Stephanie Harte
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PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA THORNTON KUYKENDALL Melissa Thornton Kuykendall says she never imagined MilwaukeeHome becoming so popular.
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M
elissa Thornton Kuykendall didn’t intend to start a national trend — it happened by accident. After living in Orlando, Florida, for five years and working as a creative consultant for a company called Cult Branding, Kuykendall came home to a completely different Milwaukee. Kuykendall hails from Mukwonago and graduated from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2002. “Not a lot existed in Milwaukee awhile ago,” Kuykendall said. “Most people didn’t know where it was. I came home to a much bigger nightlife and arts scene. I think this can be credited to bright youthful people taking pride in the city and wanting to build it up.” After discovering this newfound excitement, Kuykendall designed a sweatshirt for a friend on zazzle.com as a Christmas present in
2011. The sweatshirt said “MilwaukeeHome” with the two words stacked vertically in all capital letters: MIL-WAU-KEE-HOME. The simple design stuck and is still the template Kuykendall uses for her designs. When her friend wore the sweatshirt around town, people came up to him and asked where he got it. Kuykendall decided to design more apparel and sell the items out of the trunk of her car at local bars and coffee shops. To spread the word even more, she started giving shirts away to local DJs, who got questions after shows about where they got the shirt. “Soon my apartment was filled with hundreds of boxes of MilwaukeeHome apparel,” Kuykendall said. “I took that as a sign that it was time to get a store.” Kuykendall rented out a
storefront at 159 N. Jackson St. in 2012, which is still the store’s location. At the time she lived in half of the space and used the other half as her store. While initially trying to launch MilwaukeeHome, Kuykendall still worked for Cult Branding from her home in Florida. After the company had to make cuts, she was laid off and began dedicating all her time to further develop the brand. Kuykendall’s mother Chris Thornton serves as the store manager for MilwaukeeHome. Thornton said it is amazing to watch the brand grow over the years. Kuykendall only has one other part-time employee to help maintain the shop. “If you asked her father in the beginning, he would say it was just a T-shirt,” Thornton said. “It really means so much more to people.” Over the past five years,
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PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA THORNTON KUYKENDALL
MilwaukeeHome expanded through numerous partnerships. In 2013 the Milwaukee Bucks reached out to Kuykendall and other T-shirt designers to help create the Milwaukee Originals T-shirt line. “The idea was to help bring a local aspect to the Milwaukee Bucks,” Kuykendall said. “It was amazing to see something I created on such a large scale as the NBA.” This will be Kuykendall’s fourth year working with the Bucks. Each 44
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year she gets new colors and logos to work with and create fresh, new designs. Kuykendall also partners with Name of the Game, a series of shops dedicated to Wisconsin sports. For the store she creates custom shirts for Marquette, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Madison. “As a local business owner I have to be involved in the community,” Kuykendall said. “If you’re not supporting the community, they won’t
support you.” Nonprofits have not been left out of MilwaukeeHome collaborations. For September 2015, suicide awareness month, Kuykendall worked with Prevent Suicide Greater Milwaukee to launch a purple MilwaukeeHome T-shirt. Each shirt included a tag that explained the organization’s mission and how the community could get involved. For World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept. 10, Kuykendall offered a buy one, give one deal so customers could give the free shirt to a friend and help start the conversation. Nathan Gerred, the public relations and marketing head for Prevent Suicide Milwaukee, said he wanted to work with MilwaukeeHome because the brand is so ingrained in the community. Prevent Suicide didn’t ask for any profits, although Kuykendall offered. The shirts sold out within two weeks. “When I first approached Melissa it was a little bit of a long shot,” Gerred said. “Her brand is so huge that really everyone and anyone is asking her do collaborations. Some organizations are also wanting to piggyback off of her popularity and I didn’t want to be that organization. I really wanted to drive home the fact that it was just for awareness and not for making a profit.” The Prevent Suicide MilwaukeeHome collaboration didn’t happen in 2016 due to the organization’s busy schedule, but Gerred said he would like to try and collaborate with Kuykendall again this year. Although Brew City will always be the heart of Kuykendall’s brand, the label went national in 2015 when the graphic designer launched Our Home City to help other cities show off their hometown pride. Each shirt includes a printed tag that reads “Established in Milwaukee,” reminding customers that the Home brand started in Milwaukee, while still enabling others to celebrate their homes.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
PHOTO COURTESY OF MELISSA THORNTON KUYKENDALL
Some cities represented by the brand include St. Louis, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Austin, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago. Kuykendall’s goal for the first half of this year is to put more merchandise online before it goes in the store. This will allow people around the world to have access to new designs if they can’t make it to the physical location. “A customer once told me that while on vacation in Tampa he was wearing a MilwaukeeHome shirt and was stopped by a local to say he was also from Milwaukee,” Kuykendall said. “Turned out he
knew the (local’s) cousin, but they never would have made the connection if someone wasn’t wearing a MilwaukeeHome shirt.” Thornton often sees people with MilwaukeeHome shirts when her and her family are on vacation, which makes them feel like they are still at home. “I’ve lived in many different states, but the people and history is what makes Milwaukee feel like home,” Thornton said. Kuykendall said she loves Milwaukee for its tight-knit community. She said Milwaukeeans are always coming together to help
improve the city. Mercedes Meza, a Marquette 2015 graduate from the College of Nursing, still wears her MilwaukeeHome shirt with pride in New York City, where she works as a nurse. “When you go off to college, that is your opportunity to make your own home, not the home your parents chose for you,” Meza said. “I always found Milwaukee very welcoming. I just moved to New York and I already miss Milwaukee.”
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OFF DUTY DAILY WEAR By Debbie Aderinkomi
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PHOTO47BY YUE YIN
Model off-duty is all about the way a model is dressed when he or she is off the clock. The whole idea of student off-duty comes from that term. The “off-duty� phenomenon probably started back in the 90s in the era of supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Linda Evan48
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gelista, Christy Turlington and Kate Moss. Taking note of what a model was wearing off the runway was not the norm; Moss arguably paved the way for models in the fashion industry today. Now street style photographers and fashion industry influencers are looking at what models are wear-
ing when they are not working. This relates to student off duty because there is often a difference between what a person wears to class versus what a person will wear on their day off. Student off-duty (or model off-duty) does not equate to dressing down. It can be interpreted that way but, it is PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
simply identifying the difference between the way fashion-forward students dress to lectures and the way they dress outside of class. All three of the student models demonstrate this concept perfectly. What a person wear surprising involves a lot of psychology. The way
someone is dressed can say a lot about her mood, the way she wants people to perceive her and the way she thinks about herself. Fashion and style is a form of art that shows self-expression and self-perception. Clothes can often be seen as a reflection of the person wearing them. That is why
sometimes people in the same group dress similarly. Dressing similar establishes a feeling of sameness which results in comfort within the group. Its builds the group’s identity. Keeping this in mind when thinking
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about the way people dress to go to class, it is easy to see why some students may not want to dress to the full extent of their personal desire. People want people to feel part of a the group. They will go as far as conforming, in order to not stand out. Walking into class in an avant-garde outfit takes guts and a carefree attitude. On a college campus avant-garde can
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mean simply wearing heels to class since leggings and a Northface jacket are considered the standard. Setting psychology theories aside, there are more transparent reasons why stylish students dress differently for class. For instance maybe they just didn’t have enough time in the morning or they were thinking about practicality and what a whole school
day in that outfit would mean. Comfort trumps appearance sometimes, just ask any self-proclaimed fashionista about her relationship with Uggs. Weekends are when run-ins with classmates and professors are unlikely. Those days can show how people really want to dress, they are free from the clutches of judgemental looks from classmates and professors. Off
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
days are spent with friends so it is easier for people to experiment and express themselves. During the week, Myra opts for a put-together city look. She achieves this look by wearing a chic tan long vest, a black turtleneck and knee high boots with a silver choker accent. This look has a professional vibe to it due to its limited color palette. Tyler goes for a more playful look with her outfit. She perfectly pairs a skater dress and embroidered bomber jack-
et. Finishing the look with sneakers makes her outfit comfortable enough to spend the whole school day in. I achieve a laid-back bookworm look by wearing a knit mock neck, button up skirt and an oversized men’s shirt. The lenses, button-up skirt and knit top combined together really give off an academic feeling. When class isn’t in session all three go for more eccentric looks. Myra has a slightly polished look with her white top and neck tie, but then counters it
with a distressed jean jacket, shorts and heels. The jean jacket and tights/ knee high socks/heels makes her outfit seem rebellious while staying fashion forward. Wearing a cropped baseball-style T-shirt with a faux leather skirt and shiny forest green Jeffrey Campbell heels, Tyler keeps her look simple while paying attention to key details. I opt for a more eclectic ensemble by wearing a mustard yellow mock neck top, a faux fur vest and an overall dress.
2017 51 PHOTO BY AUSTINAPRIL ANDERSON
Club hockey’s humble roots How Al McGuire, an academic advisor and some determined students have kept Marquette hockey on campus nearly 50 years after its start
By Thomas Salinas
I
t was the fall semester of 1969, and sophomore Dennis Butler had an idea of creating a hockey team at Marquette. An ice rink at Wilson Park was set to open in January 1970, the first rink in the Milwaukee area. Having played hockey in high school, Butler saw it as a great opportunity and spoke with academic administrator Bob Deroche about the possibility of creating a student-run hockey team. Deroche said he would help Butler and the others interested as much as he could. Soon after, Butler and fellow students hung flyers around male dorms. Before they knew it, Marquette had a team. “Our first semester we had around 30 to 35 guys, most of them with little experience playing hockey,” Butler said. “Most of our experience came from guys from the East Coast, because Milwaukee at that time did not have
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PHOTO COURTESY OF MARQUETTE ARCHIVES a lot of hockey to offer.” “If we didn’t have a hockey rink, I don’t think there wouldhave been a team,” Deroche said. “The first year we had nothing, all we did was scrimmage against ourselves.” Butler said at first it was difficult to find any teams to play against, and they only played six games during their first season. The major struggle was finding enough money for the team. Butler described that year as a “payas-you-go” season, with most of those funds going toward ice time, which cost $105 an hour. The team paid for almost everything themselves and were forced to borrow club football’s uniforms for their first games. “During the first couple seasons, we had to fight for our money,” Butler said. “We were lucky if we got a couple thousand from the university.”
Deroche, who served as a faculty advisor for the club until 1975, said he went into then-men’s basketball coach Al MCGuire’s office and asked for help. According to Deroche, McGuire said the school’s “M” club, an alumni organization, had helped them out with funding before. “I walked into Al’s office and said, ‘Look, these guys want to play hockey, but they have nothing,’” Deroche said. “At the end of our meeting, McGuire told me not to worry about anything, and we would get what we wanted.” Not long after, the team had uniforms and were receiving more support from Marquette’s student government. Deroche handled the scheduling, and although the club was not a member of any league, they still found plenty of opponents like Milwaukee Institute of Technology, Milwaukee School of Engineering,
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UW-Parkside and Northern Illinois University. The club saw success on the ice as well. In their first season competing against other schools in 1970, the club defeated MSOE and declared themselves the “Milwaukee City Champions.” Many of the players said they could compete at a varsity level, and Butler said he even met with Marquette’s athletic director about the possibility. “I asked our athletic director to consider us moving, but he was not interested at all,” Butler said while laughing. “Sure, we talked about it all the time amongst ourselves,” Deroche said. “But I don’t think anyone was really listening.” Throughout the years, the club had many ups and downs, but none as low as the early 2000s when the club fell apart. Peter Brian Pollack highfives a teammate in 1985.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARQUETTE ARCHIVES
OPINIONS PROJECTS
Marquette players celebrate after a goal during the 2016 season.
Shutt, who played from 2005 to 2010 and has served as an assistant coach since, said when he got to the club, they had just begun playing again a couple years earlier. He credited the senior class his freshman year for re-establishing the program. “Those guys were pretty passionate about the team,” Shutt said. “They are a big reason why we are still here.” In 2011, the team dropped to Division III. When Shutt graduated in 2010, he was the president of the club and said the culture was nothing like it is today. “We didn’t have as much player involvement,” Shutt said. “We never made any cuts and were always looking for guys. I never would have thought we’d be where we are today.” Current head coach Will Jurgensen, who played from 2009 to 2013, said his class set a new tone. “My freshman year, a lot of the guys on the roster played just for fun,” Jurgensen said. “Then sophomore year we looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, let’s
WIRE STOCK PHOTO actually go out and play some good hockey.’” With that mentality, the club took tremendous strides, and Jurgensen’s senior year the team reached nationals. Since then, the Golden Eagles have competed at a high level in their conference and are consistently knocking on the national tournament’s door. This year, the club returned to nationals and finished 1-2 in the tournament. Marquette feels confident enough with its level of play that the club decided to make the move back up to Division II for next year. “It’s another step in showing the team is once again growing,” Shutt said. “We’ve showed great success in recent years, and this is positive for our program.” Jurgensen hopes the winning culture his team has created will have a lasting effect on the club. “You give up so much playing hockey here, so you might as well make it worth your while,” he said.
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PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
PHOTO COURTESY OF MA
When fall sport T
he student athlete lifestyle at Marquette is rigorous, constant and rewarding. With few days off and a brutal BIG EAST travel schedule, student athletes’ experiences are an extreme departure from typical student life. “It feels like 20 hours a week including film and practice sessions,” women’s soccer player Lisa Roman said. “Then game days are about seven hours, maybe six hours. It takes up a lot of time.” That’s before factoring in away games.
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“If you have a Thursday night game you leave Wednesday morning so you can get there and practice Wednesday,” Roman said. “You don’t come back until Friday morning. Then you usually play Sunday on the road. So it’s usually Thursday through Sunday on the road. … You miss a lot of school.” However, for athletes of Marquette’s three fall sports teams, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball, senior student athletes spend one semester on campus away from the sport which dominated their lives.
“I have so much free time. It’s amazing,” Roman said. “It’s fun to be a normal student,” Roman continued. “You have time to work out on your own. I don’t have to worry about waking up super early so I can stay up later and be more social with other people.” For college seniors, one final semester isn’t just a chance to socialize and catch up on sleep. It’s an opportunity to do things they could never do when they were student athletes. Former men’s soccer player Mac Wheeler had a redshirt season,
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AGGIE BEAN/MARQUETTE ATHLETICS
ts end meaning his senior season was his fifth year. Wheeler graduated in time to free up one semester before he returns to Marquette for physical therapy school. The former Golden Eagle goalkeeper saw this time as a unique opportunity to do something he could never do while playing a Division I sport: volunteer in Costa Rica. “I had a free semester, so I was like, ‘Alright, well, I kind of speak Spanish,’ but I wanted to work on it more. I wanted to go to Latin America,” Wheeler said. “So I came to Costa Rica, and I’m
PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGGIE BEAN/MARQUETTE ATHLETICS
By Grant Becker
volunteering here during the week and then the weekends I get time off to travel.” Wheeler will be doing free physical therapy for local residents living in a retirement home alongside students from a Costa Rican university until May. “The university will send over their physical therapy students,” Wheeler said. “The students take it as a class. So, they basically do physical therapy for free for all the old people. I kind of just help out with that.” Wheeler had nine semesters at Marquette to dream of what he
might do when he finally had four months without a commitment. “It’s always something I really wanted to do,” Wheeler said. “With the soccer team, it was always really tough. There never really was any free time to go out and leave for a couple months at a time.” For Wheeler, this semester signaled a shift in a new direction for his life and a period of transition. “It’s a new chapter of life,” he said. “Those pro aspirations didn’t really shake out. So, it’s kind of just time to close this chapter and move onto a new one. It’s sad APRIL 2017
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PHOTO COURTESY OF MAC WHEELER
to stop doing something you’ve been doing for so long. Especially at Marquette, it was just a huge part of my life. I enjoyed every minute of it. I took advantage of everything that I could and I’m excited for what’s to come.” Roman enjoyed her student athlete experience as well, but this semester has given her an opportunity to earn her first internship experience. A journalism major, Roman is trying to break into sports media, so this semester she’s interning with Fox Sports Wisconsin. “It’s nice because I have class during the day so I can work 5 (p.m.) to 10 at night,” Roman said. It was tricky with her soccer schedule to gain on-air experience. When she tried to volunteer with MUTV, Marquette’s student television station, it was no small task. “I would have class all day, then we would have practice from 3 to 5, but practice never ended at 5,” she said. “It usually went until 5:30 and we had to be here at six 56
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and I’d be sweaty from practice and I’d want to go on air.” But those were the steps she had to take to prepare herself for the professional world. “Otherwise it’s like, ‘Oh you’re trying to be an on-air talent, and when have you ever done this?’ Well, never,” Roman said. Gaining professional experience has been one perk of her final semester, but Roman has taken advantage of her free time in other ways too. “I’m from Philadelphia and people always wanted to visit me and it’s like, well, I have practice for three hours, so you can hang out in my apartment or explore Milwaukee by yourself, and they’d be like, ‘Okay well that stinks,’” she said. “If friends would visit and we have a game on Sunday, I don’t see them. We have breakfast at 9, then we have to be there at 1:30, and then our game is usually at 3 and we don’t get done until 5, then we have to eat after and then I see them.” Former volleyball player Lauren
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I FEEL LIKE I’M TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHO I AM WITHOUT VOLLEYBALL. IT SOUNDS CLICHE BUT IT’S TRUE.
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Mac Wheeler (yellow jersey) poses after playing a soccer match in Costa Rice.
Houg is using her semester to gain professional experience as well. As an education major she’s required to do a semester of student teaching before she graduates, something she couldn’t do in the fall or the spring while she was playing. In order to finish the classes for her majors in education and communication studies, Houg had to take multiple 18-credit semesters, and on two occasions, summer classes. Despite all that, she was still taking some of her most important courses during her final semester of play. “Last semester was my busiest semester,” Houg said. “I really had to start balancing that professional versus student athlete mindset during the middle of the season while I was competing for the Marquette volleyball team, knowing that in a few short months I would be in charge of a classroom.” Like Wheeler, Houg is navigating a new path as her student athlete chapter ends.
-LAUREN HOUG FORMER MARQUETTE VOLLEYBALL PLAYER
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARQUETTE WOMEN’S SOCCER PROJECTS SPORTS
“It’s been a very weird, different transition into that (professional) aspect,” Houg said. “I feel like I’m trying to figure out who I am without volleyball. It sounds cliche but it’s true. … Not only do I have more free time, I have more of myself to show other people and talk about. I’m not just a volleyball player. I’m a teacher, an older sister, a friend. It’s just funny how much more time you can devote to other parts of who you are. But it’s fun to fill that free time with new thing.” Her new passions aren’t all scholastic. Houg recently discovered an interest for cooking. “I’m just learning how to do new things, like learning how to cook new things,” she said. “Doing adult things, like more adult activities during your free time that you might not think is fun when you’re a freshman in college, but I think figuring out new recipes and how to cook them is fun now.” Though she said it’s not necessarily easy to feel your identity changing. “It’s kind of scary because you’re so used to walking in and being like, ‘Yeah I’m a Division I athlete, I’m great at something.’ Now it’s like, I don’t have that anymore,” Houg said. “I’m not a great teacher yet. I have to relearn about how to be a great learner.” For all three, it’s an exciting new time as they exit their lives as student athletes and head toward the workforce, but even as they grow into their new identities, they remain the same people who came to Marquette as athletes. “One of my buddies I met at the elderly home, he plays with a third-division team here in Costa Rica and invited me to come train with the team,” Wheeler said. “It was really cool. It was nuts. A little different facility-wise than what we had at Marquette, but it was still a lot of fun.”
Lisa Roman interviews fellow Marquette women’s soccer player Morgan Proffitt in the Al McGuire Center.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MAC WHEELER
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Mac Wheeler (left) with other physical therapy students in Costa Rica.
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In Case You Disrespect on National Marquette Day This year’s National Marquette Day was arguably the best one any current student has experienced. The unseasonably warm weather gave the festivities a block party vibe, with hundreds of students taking to the streets to celebrate. To top it off, Marquette scored a convincing win over Xavier. However, this also led to issues. Students left behind smashed bottles in the streets, tilted over trash cans and vomit in the bushes. People booed and flipped off Marquette University Police Department, who weren’t even acting on the literally hundreds of open container violations in front of them. Our neighborhood, where other adults and families — not just students — live and work, was disrespected. A few days later, Vice President for Student Affairs Xavier Cole, Athletic Director Bill Scholl and
Student Government President Adam Kouhel sent an email to the student body addressing “profane chants” from the student section at the game.
On a day that aims to celebrate Marquette, its tradition and its values, students could have been more responsible in how we represented ourselves and our school.
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON
Students cheer on the men’s basketball team on National Marquette Day.
Tobacco-free campus legislation passes This February, Marquette University Student Government unanimously approved a tobacco-free campus policy that has been in the works the past few years. Some feel the policy insults and oversteps, as it bans students, faculty, staff, contractors, vendors and visitors from using any tobacco product on campus, in its buildings, at outdoor athletic events and in university vehicles. 58
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Furthermore, the policy does not clarify how the legislation will be enforced, and any real enforcement at all seems impractical. Will Marquette University Police Department issue citations to students and employees on a smoke break? Will faculty and staff members be in jeopardy of losing their jobs if caught smoking? The policy simply makes smoking less convenient, relocating individuals on smoke breaks
from outside campus buildings to city sidewalks. While efforts to educate Marquette community members of the harmful effects of smoking would be both reasonable and more practical, a ban on all tobacco doesn’t necessarily promise a decrease in tobacco use or promote a healthier campus for all.
Missed It
The opinions desk is committed to remaining up to date on Marquette news in order to inform our thoughts on the topics. In Case You Missed It, here are our views on the semester’s hot issues.
campus because he “has built a career around perpetuating racism and xenophobia.” His presence would undermine Marquette values and Black History Month, the group said. Despite this, the event went as planned. Shapiro spoke about the idea of victimhood in American society, then took audience questions. After the event, many had opinions to share. On behalf of YAF, one student argued all of campus grows in “intellectual diversity” when speakers like Shapiro come. University Provost Dan Myers pleaded that students think critically about some claims Shapiro made, and another student called the event “legitimization of hate as political discourse.”
PHOTO BY BRIAN GEORGESON
Ben Shapiro talk spurs controversy It was not without controversy that campus welcomed conservative lawyer, editor and author Ben Shapiro to speak to students and other community members. The February event was hosted by the Marquette Young Americans for Freedom. About a week before Shapiro’s visit, it was reported that a Marquette staff member commented on Facebook she would attempt to prevent students from attending by registering for a spot online and then not showing up. Marquette Empowerment, a gender equality student organization, addressed a letter to University President Michael Lovell arguing Shapiro should not be allowed to speak on
PROJECTS OPINIONS
‘Wild Hall,’ ‘Grocery Challenge’ announced at Lovell’s presidential address in January
At his third presidential address, University President Michael Lovell had two major announcements. The highlight of the address was the news that the residence hall being built on 17th and Wells streets will be named after former university president the Rev. Robert Wild. Wild has been a major part of Marquette for years, serving as university president from 1996 to 2011 and fall 2013 to July 2014, as well as bringing in millions of dollars for student scholarships and development projects at Marquette. Lovell praised Wild for all of his work, calling him a “beloved figure” at Marquette, and thanked Ray and Kay Eckstein for their $10
million donation to what will likely be dubbed Wild Hall. Addressing the issue of bringing a fresh food source to campus, Lovell announced the Grocery Challenge initiative. He expressed hopefulness in the new program, citing “pilot programs” aimed at finding new solutions. Unfortunately, this announcement left students asking the same questions we have had for years and offered no concrete answers. Our campus neighborhood has not had a grocery store for 25 years, and students, staff members and the greater community are all eager to find a solution to this “challenge.”
PHOTO BY ANDREW HIMMELBERG APRIL 2017
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PROJECTS OPINIONS
“ How does it feel
to be a problem?
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Inspired by other authors dedicated to social activism, columnist Morgan Hughes looks at the danger of declaring war on things like drugs, crime and terrorism. More often than not, policies aimed at combatting these issues disproportionately affect minorities.
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“Governments like it that way. They want their people to see war as a drama of opposites, good and evil, ‘them’ and ‘us,’ victory or defeat. But war is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.” -Robert Fisk, “The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East”
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merica’s “War on Drugs” began in predominantly African-American communities as an assault on the crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged the 1980s. The government considered crack cocaine more dangerous than powder cocaine — a drug more often used in predominantly white communities — and so the consequences for its use were exponentially higher than for the use of its predecessor. What was really going on was a thinly veiled attack on low-income, minority neighborhoods. This was not the first time a minority population living in the U.S. was brutalized and isolated, but it was the first time the government called it what it was — a war. Serving in this new social war would be the FBI and local police departments across the nation. Members of the new militia would approach criminal offenses such as illicit drug use with a level of force that was once unjustifiable outside of a war zone. Radley Balko writes in “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,” “No one made a decision to militarize the police in America. The change has come slowly, the result of a generation of politicians and public officials fanning and exploiting public fears by declaring war on abstractions
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like crime, drug use and terrorism. The resulting policies have made those war metaphors increasingly real.” The enduring theme is that police officer is synonymous with soldier. Proof of this militarized approach to addressing societal problems came aggressively out of the mouth of President Donald Trump when he suggested the National Guard be sent to
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When as a society we look upon our most segregated communities and draw our nation’s problems from these pools, we are making the people in those neighborhoods the problem.”
Chicago as a means of reducing the city’s violent crime. Even before this, Milwaukee’s very own County Sheriff David Clarke asked state legislatures to do the same thing in response to the unrest that took place in Sherman Park last summer. It is necessary and good to to curb violent crime in metropolitan areas. Efforts to do so become sinister, however, when expressly violent, militaristic
methods of curtailing the crime are employed solely against minority neighborhoods. Moreover, these neighborhoods did not originate out of violence, but became violent as a result of governmental apathy. In “Between the World and Me,” Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, “… a society that protects some people through a safety net of schools, government-backed home loans and ancestral wealth but can only protect you with the club of criminal justice has either failed at enforcing its good intentions or has succeeded at something much darker.” W.E.B. Du Bois, for whose work this article is named, wrote about being black in America as well, saying, “Instead of saying directly, ‘How does it feel to be a problem?’ they say, ‘I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, ‘I fought at Mechanicsville’; or, ‘Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil?’” When as a society we look upon our most segregated communities and draw our nation’s problems from those pools, we are making the people in those neighborhoods the problem. The trend continues out of minority neighborhoods and into the prison system, where the racial disparity between white and black inmates is staggering. African-Americans make up 14 percent of the United States population, but almost 40 percent of the U.S. prison inmate population. A black man in America has a 30 percent chance of spending his life in prison, while a white man has a 5 percent chance. Wisconsin is particularly guilty, having the highest percentage of jailed black men. In Milwaukee, 50 percent of African-American males will have spent a portion of their lives behind bars.
PROJECTS OPINIONS
We can pretend mass incarceration has nothing to do with race because the people in the prison system are criminals. But as Michelle Alexander writes in “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” “The notion that a vast gulf exists between ‘criminals’ and those of us who have never served time in prison is a fiction created by the racial ideology that birthed mass incarceration, namely that there is some thing fundamentally wrong and morally inferior about ‘them.’” America has always been a land of others, a land of “them” and “us,” and as such, a land of fear. Our national history is decorated with anti-Catholic sentiments, “No Irish Need Apply” signage and of course, racial segregation. But the lack of outright othering in our present system has led people to the idea that we live in a “post-racial” society. Alexander writes that what makes America’s current caste system so undetectable is that it appears voluntary. People choose to commit crimes. People choose to send their children to underfunded schools. Once we acknowledge there is very little choice involved at all, the social hierarchy becomes all too evident.
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But even if our society had evolved into something “post-racial,” we would still see racial casting. The institutions we have built up to this point favor white people. Even if we ourselves are not prejudiced, our institutions are. We can talk about institutional racism and learned prejudice and convenient ignorance, but while we’re discussing the academic history of racial violence in America, people are dying. We cannot champion ourselves as the land of the free if the only ones who are free are white people. We need to stop living fearfully behind our g o v e r n m e n t ’s promises to create a crime-free utopia and address problems with pragmatism free from emotive rhetoric and scare tactics. If we are hesitant to support wars abroad, we should be equally as reluctant to accept domestic wars against our own population. Coates writes, “But all our phrasing — race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, even white supremacy — serve to obscure that racism is a visceral experience, that it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscles, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth.”
We need to stop living fearfully behind our Comedy government’s is supposed promises to provide to create levity, so a crimewhy all the free utopia, drama?“ and address problems with pragmatism free from emotive rhetoric and scare tactics.”
Recommended Reading The only way to fight ignorance is through knowledge. Help yourselves “The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East” Robert Fisk “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces” Radley Balko “The Souls of Black Folk” W.E.B. Du Bois “Between the World and Me” Ta-Nehisi Coates
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” Michelle Alexander “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace” Jeff Hobbs Photos via books.google.com APRIL 2017
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Four years later: By graduation, routine activities of the average MU student really add up.
588 Dining hall meals eaten
1,680
(70 days)
Hours spent in class
168
Marquette Tribunes printed
70
Brew coffees drank 64
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84
Trips to Murphy’s and Caffrey’s
56
Home basketball games attended $152,000
Tuition dollars spent
1,008 Hours spent in the library
What it all meant
OPINIONS
Beyond the numbers: Opinions desk seniors reflect RYAN MCCARTHY Marquette was barely on the radar during my college search. If you had asked high school junior me which state Milwaukee was in, I might have said Nebraska. The only thing I really knew was that the school played basketball in the BIG EAST. Obviously, as I came to know the university beyond its athletic accomplishments, I was hooked. After being accepted, I flew to Milwaukee for a weekend visit and was greeted with my first (but unfortunately not last) subzero temperatures. That weekend gave me my first taste of the Marquette commu-
nity I would grow to love over the next four years. Under the pretense of father-son bonding (but likely an effort to steer my college decision), my dad bought tickets to Marquette’s Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games in Washington, D.C. I watched the win over Miami and a tough loss to Syracuse. On the ride home, it wasn’t the big loss that I remembered, but the atmosphere. I was impressed that so many students traveled halfway across the country to watch their team. It was this electric atmosphere, this palpable sense of community that really solidified my decision to come to Marquette.
ELIZABETH BAKER Growing up in Wauwatosa, I always said I could not and would not go to Marquette. It was too close to home, and I wanted to discover a new city. I toured universities all around the Midwest and finally Marquette in April of senior year. Despite an ugly Milwaukee spring day — 40 degrees and rainy — I couldn’t deny I loved the campus. I knew I wanted it to be my home for the next four years, even if only 10 miles from my other home. The positive energy I felt on the tour was something I hadn’t experienced at any other school. Students were excited
to be at Marquette. They stopped to talk to friends on the way to class, held doors for each other and visited with professors in hallways. I was surprised by the spirited and welcoming community inside these buildings along Wisconsin Avenue I had driven by so many times. Marquette’s strong spirit, pride and tradition are what attracts most of us here, and that energy bleeds out into the city. Four years after my amazing tour on that miserable April day, I realize Marquette would not be the place it is if it weren’t for Milwaukee. Most of us don’t choose Marquette because Milwaukee is our destination city; rather, we choose Marquette
MIKE CUMMINGS With spring break over, we seniors have only the final weeks of Thursday night bowling and graduation to look forward to. With just a few weeks left, we are realizing that it’s more than just nosy
aunts and uncles asking, “What’s your plan after graduation?” As daunting as it is to set my eyes on “the real world,” I find solace in the fact that Marquette has provided me with the tools I need to find a job. To begin, I interned sophomore year in Washington, D.C. with the Les Aspin Center for Government. At 19, I wasn’t old enough to walk into a bar but was able to gain invaluable experience on Capitol Hill. Junior year, I studied abroad in Madrid. I learned Spanish in a very practical sense, taking classes in the language and living with a host family. Just a few weeks ago I experienced the incredible network of Marquette
WIRE STOCK PHOTO
So, when I tell people basketball is critical to Marquette’s identity, I’m not joking. It’s not the wins and losses. It’s not the NCAA Tournament appearances. It’s the community. And nothing showcases the sense of community I think makes this school so unique better than basketball.
PHOTO BY AUSTIN ANDERSON first and end up loving Milwaukee, too. I don’t know if I’ll live in Milwaukee forever, but I love that my roots here run so deep. Calling this city my home comes with a lot of pride now more than ever before, and for that I have Marquette to thank. alumni all across the country. I’ve always heard about the “Marquette Mafia” and their willingness to help young professionals with jobs, but never truly understood until the Tribune’s 100th anniversary celebration. Journalists, editors and CEOs — all Marquette grads — came back to Johnston Hall to reminisce on their time with student media. They handed out business cards to us nervous kids about to graduate. Stories were told and connections were made, easing a lot of anxiety and, in some cases, leading to interviews and potential jobs. So, thank you Marquette. I got this. APRIL 2017
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The Marquette Wire would like to thank MU Law Alum Mike Delzer and Delzer Lithograph Company for generously printing the Marquette Journal.
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