[The Stute] November 18, 2022 (Issue 11, Volume CXX)

President of SGA: Paulina Georgoutsos

Vice President of Operations: Alex Stanczak

Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino-Based Fraternity established at Stevens

BY OZ AGUINAGA, NEWS EDITOR

Campus is welcoming a new fraternity to campus. The 81st chapter of Lamb da Sigma Upsilon (LSU) was recently established on Oct 26, 2022. The new Lati no-orientated Greek organi zation was founded by Ste vens students David Rocha ’24 from Roselle Park, NJ, Juan David Valencia Aya la ’24 from Union City, NJ, and Steven Aponte ’24 from Paterson, NJ.

Lambda Sigma Upsilon was built around four main virtues. These goals are ac ademic excellence, cultural awareness and diversity, being role models to the community, and brother hood. Additionally, the LSU national philanthropy is to fundraise for HIV and AIDS research and awareness.

The process to get the chapter started was no easy task. Representatives of LSU’s expansion pro gram aided the students in their endeavor to establish a chapter on campus. The founders also received a lot of local support from the lo cal chapters at New Jersey City University and Seton Hall University.

Much like their LSU pre decessors, these students felt that the campus had under represented ethnic minority groups that were not get ting the support or services necessary to promote their academic achievement at school and personal growth. They established Lambda Sigma Upsilon to serve as a family away from home and as a support network for minorities. One of the founders, Valencia, never intended to join a fraternity let alone create one. But, as a Latino in a predominate ly white institution, he felt there weren’t enough choic es of groups to bond and share interests with.

The members of the new chapter just a week after their creation held their frst community service event. The members are commit ted to upholding their val ues and increasing their presence on campus. The members are diving right into things with a weeklong series of events called “Upsilon Week” from No vember 28 to December 2., our week of events is called “Upsilon Week”. Here are the events that will be held for that week: Monday will be a round-table discussion

SCIENCE

We write Stevens history GEORGOUTSOS AND STANCZAK ELECTED SGA PRESIDENT AND VPO

BUILT ON COMMUNITY OUTREACH, SUSTAINABILITY, MENTAL HEALTH, AND STEVENS PRIDE

BY ANNA DABROWSKI, CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

A new Student Govern ment Association (SGA) President and Vice Presi dent of Operations (VPO) have been elected. Paulina Georgoutsos, who will be serving as President, and Alex Stanczak, who will be serving as VPO, have stepped up to the podi um of facilitating the SGA throughout the next year.

Georgoutsos and Stanczak felt that their cam paign “went swimmingly.” Both candidates publicized their campaign through the Instagram account @pauli naandalexsga2023, where they acquainted themselves with the student body. The account conveyed important information about nomina tions, voting, and the duo’s goals for the SGA. Geor goutsos and Stanczak also held a town hall where they answered questions about their upcoming plans for the year and received valuable feedback regarding the SGA from students and current

EC seeking grad and undergrad involvement in Winter Wonderland

BY BENJAMIN KNOBLOCH, STAFF WRITER

The annual Winter Wonderland, a Stevens holiday-season tradition featuring food and drinks, performances, giveaways, and a variety of win ter-themed activities, will be taking place on Wednes day, November 30, from 7 to 10 p.m. In preparation for the event, which was known in previous years as the Stevens Tree Lighting, the Entertainment Committee (EC) is looking for involve ment from undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of capacities.

One perennial feature of the Wonderland is the Winter Village, which in vites Stevens’ cultural and religious organizations to exchange traditions, share food, and present giveaways to the student body. EC will allocate a table at the Village and $175 to $200 in funding

Quae’s newest release: daily polls

BY CLAIRE HANNAN, NEWS EDITOR

Recently, Quae, the vot ing app used to give Stevens students a way to vote on campus issues, released a statement announcing their new feature: Daily Polls! This new addition gives the public a new way to interact with their leaders and hopes to eventually give leaders a better insight into their community. A press release from Quae says the daily polls will potentially cover “current events, ask specifc questions, or inquire about demographic information,” and this will “help adminis trators build a sample set for Quae’s soon-to-be-released analytics engine.”

The daily polls will func tion similarly to most daily features commonly seen on mobile apps, with new vari ations released each day and a streak that gets extended every time you come back. The press release also hint ed at a reward system being implemented to give users more incentive to come back each day. Co-founder Sam

SGA members alike.

The SGA has four over arching goals for the year: “community outreach, sus tainability, mental health, and Stevens’ pride.” Their goals are further explained by Georgoutsos below.

Community Outreach: “In the past year, we have successfully co-hosted events with many organiza tions around campus. We plan to expand this efort by continuing to collaborate with these organizations but also take it a step further by integrating ourselves into the Hoboken community. By getting more involved with the overall Hoboken community, we can start to create a stronger network and a more unifed cam pus-city relationship.”

Sustainability: “In terms of sustainability, as the world shifts to a more sus tainable lifestyle through EVs, carbon emission re duction, clean up cam paigns, and more, it is im portant that Stevens follows suit. Over the next year, we plan to heavily promote sustainability from an edu cational and demonstrative standpoint with the hopes of

creating a more aware, and sustainable student body and campus.”

Mental Health: “Con tinuing the trend from this past year, we plan to pro mote mental health ini tiatives through events, campaigns and resources available on campus. It is critical that students know they are not alone in what can sometimes be a stressful environment. In our term, we want to ensure that stu dents have easy access to re sources as well as a support system for student men tal-well-being.”

Stevens Pride: “Finally, our last goal, Steven’s Pride, aims to promote a stron ger campus community to allow for students to have the opportunity to feel part of a larger group. As advo cates for the student body, it is important to us that all Stevens students are able to thoroughly enjoy their time here.”

Georgoutsos and Stanczak also have various internal goals such as flling all of the senate seats and hosting a New Jersey Stu dent Government Confer ence.

Improving access to restrooms for women at Stevens

BY KATIE BLOOMER, OUTREACH CHAIR

After members of the Stevens community re peatedly voiced concerns regarding the lack of wom en’s restrooms in academic buildings, new women’s re strooms were added to the third, ffth, and sixth foors of Burchard. Additionally, the Student Government Association (SGA) added free menstrual products to all women’s and gender-in clusive restrooms. Both of these restroom-related changes are intended to beneft the Stevens commu

nity by making the specifc improvements that have been sought after, primarily by the student body.

According to Stevens, original facilities were even ly balanced between men’s, women’s, and gender-inclu sive restrooms. However, an ordinance passed by the City of Hoboken required all sin gle-occupancy restrooms to be gender-inclusive. This led to a noticeable shortage of women’s restrooms in mul tiple academic buildings, such as Burchard.

Although this is a step

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for interested organizations wish ing to share their heritages with Stevens students and participate in a demonstration of cross-cul tural harmony.

EC Festivities Director Corey Batchelder ofered his own de scription of the event. “The Win ter Village will take place on MPK Lawn and will be an opportunity for students to travel from table to table and learn about diferent holiday and seasonal traditions from Stevens cultural and reli gious organizations,” Batchelder told The Stute in an email inter view. “We are encouraging orgs and providing allocations to order food, giveaways, or any education al tools to help them share any tra ditions!”

pating organizations will select a representative to compete in the games.

“To me, the Santa Competition asks the bold question: ‘What if you merged a holiday pageant and a minute-to-win-it game show into a battle of the orgs!?’” said Batchelder. “The Santa Competi tion is a very fun and lighthearted competition that is great for bond ing, whether it’s a sports team, or Greek organization or club here at Stevens,” added Gregory.

The winning representative will be crowned this year’s “Stevens Santa,” bestowing one Stevens or ganization with holiday prestige and festive bragging rights. The event will last from 7:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., and the winning orga nization will be rewarded with an Entertainment Committee-funded pizza party at their next general body meeting.

1) Music to My Ears column title “Can I still listen to Kanye?” was printed incorrectly as “Example title” in the 11/11 issue.

2) North Jersey and South Jersey in graphic should be switched in “New bill hopes to codify Central Jersey.” in the 11/11 issue.

All opinions and editorials refect the views of their respective au thor(s). No Part of The Stute may be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Cited refer ences of The Stute are permitted.

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All members of the Stevens community are able to submit a Letter to the Editor to be published in The Stute. Letters must refer either to a piece published in The Stute or to The Stute in general and must be be tween 400 – 800 words in length. Submit letters to editor@thestute.com with your name and title (when applicable) or using our Google form. For writers who wish to write a Letter to the Editor anonymously, please see our policy on anonymity.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to choose whether or not to pub lish a submitted Letter to the Editor based on a majority rule vote, and additionally reserves the right to edit letters for clarity or request authors to revise. Provided that the author approves the fnal version, The Stute reserves the right to edit letters according to our copy editing procedures, defned in our policies.

All members of the Stevens community are able to submit a stand alone opinion piece (otherwise known as an Op-Ed) to be published in The Stute. Op-Eds must be between 400 – 800 words, but longer sub missions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. To submit an OpEd please email eboard@thestute.com with your name and title (when applicable) or using our Google form (tinyurl.com/submit-t0-stute). For writers who wish to write an Op-Ed anonymously, please see our policy on anonymity.

The Editorial Board reserves the right to choose whether or not to pub lish a submitted Op-Ed based on a majority rule vote, and additionally reserves the right to edit Op-Eds for clarity or request authors to revise. Provided that the author approves the fnal version, The Stute reserves the right to edit Op-Eds according to our copy editing procedures, de fned in our policies.

Kayli Gregory, Holiday Event Coordinator for the EC, noted the mutual benefts for attendees and participating organizations. “The Winter Village is a great oppor tunity to promote cultural orgs here at Stevens. Many new frstyears or even upperclassmen may not know about the organization, and they may get new interested members. It is a good way to teach students the diferent ways to cel ebrate holidays and bring new tra ditions into our Winter Wonder land.”

The submission deadline for receiving a place at the Village has been extended to November 18, with table sitting and the purchas ing of items subject to approval by the Ofce of Student Life. The Winter Village will take place on MPK Lawn from 8:45 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

This year will see the 3rd An nual Stevens Santa Competition. Described by the Entertainment Committee as a competition to see which Stevens organization “has the most holiday spirit,” partici

Another principal component of every Winter Wonderland in the past has been student performanc es. The Entertainment Committee is seeking sign-ups for graduates or undergraduates to show of their skills with singing, dancing, or other forms of performance.

Batchelder outlined the range of oferings students can already look forward to. “We have perfor mances slated that range from our Stevens acapella groups, TECH nique dance ensembles, student bands, solo acts, and more. Check out EC’s socials for a more detailed lineup of when you can catch your friends’ performances!” Spots are frst-come frst-serve for interest ed students, with stage and equip ment needs provided by the orga nizers.

Batchelder and other organiz ers in the Entertainment Com mittee ofered more details on the planning process this year for the Winter Wonderland. Batchelder said that one signifcant change this year is the event’s new name and rebranding from the old Holi

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about navigating through a pre dominately white institution and the experiences people of difer ent cultures have lived throughout their time at Stevens.Tuesday, will be a co-op panel of students giving their insight on the program and other tips that students may fnd useful. Wednesday will be a com munity service held at the Hobo ken Shelter to serve dinner to the homeless. Thursday is World AIDS Day so in honor of LSU’s nation al philanthropy, this event will go over the history of the philanthro py and why it is so important.

Like Valencia said, they are go ing to show “what LSU is about— really establish LSU—we need to put in that heart that we’ve already shown”.

day Tree Lighting. “EC felt [the old name] could use an update. EC has the responsibility to engage the entire student body in our largescale events, so we decided to ad just the branding and vision of the event to make sure that all winter holidays and seasonal traditions can be shared and celebrated to gether as a campus community.”

Batchelder went on to say, “This is also the frst year we have grad uate students involved in the plan ning of the event. We are hoping to create better engagement with graduate students in the planning and attendance of our large-scale campus tradition events such as Winter Wonderland and Techfest. The committee has opened up festivities meetings to the entire grad and undergrad community on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. to get involved in the planning process.”

When asked what part of the Winter Wonderland they were most looking forward to, Gregory pointed to the Winter Wonder land Holiday Duck Market, which will allow small business owners to get involved with the Winter Wonderland by signing up to sell goods. “I’m interested to see what side hustles students have created and run while still being in school. It’s nice to support small business es, especially college students, be cause I think we all know how dif fcult it is to make an income while being a full time student.”

EC Operations Director Vic toria Giumenta had a diferent answer. “I’m always excited for the food, but I’m also excited to see how STEM students express their creativity during the perfor mances in Walker Gym. Especially TECHnique—shameless plug!”

Stevens students interested in going to the Winter Wonderland, whether undergraduate or gradu ate, won’t need to spend any meal swipes for food and hot cocoa, and only need to swipe their Student IDs to take part in the festivities.

QUAE

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Schmitt explains, “at Quae we be lieve people are owners of their data and that they should be re warded for sharing it, that’s why we want to pay people for participating in analytics.” Chief Marketing Of cer, Cris Sosa adds, “it’s a win-win for the people, they get rewarded for participating and their repre sentatives learn more about what their community wants.” Any data that you give to Quae through the polls stays anonymous with the platform’s guarantee to never re veal your identity or sell personal information.

The Quae team hopes this new feature will have a positive impact on groups that use it such as the Stevens SGA, Hoboken City Coun cil, and Hudson Dorms. Hudson Dorms, a non-Stevens housing op

tion for students, specifcally hopes to use this tool to better understand student needs and wants when looking for housing.

While many apps and social me dia platforms have started collect ing analytics from users in order to better market products and increase profts, Quae has moved away from this trend by taking a more ethical approach, making data acquisition voluntary and using results to help community leaders instead of mar keting agencies. One can only hope that more companies will follow suit and use data analysis and de mographic information to improve the communities they serve instead of proft from them.

Members of the Stevens com munity are encouraged to down load the Quae app and sign up with your Stevens email address so you can experience this new feature as well as participate in polls from The Stute that get published every week.

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in the right direction, Stevens ac knowledges that there is more that can be done to improve restroom availability for the community. They have committed to having the facilities team begin assess ments for restroom distribution across campus in an efort to in crease the number of women’s re strooms when possible.

Information regarding the improved access to women’s re strooms and free menstrual prod ucts was provided in an email sent out to the Stevens community in early November. Stevens fnished the email by stating that they “look forward to making continued en hancements to our campus facili ties to improve the experience for all members of the Stevens com munity.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVENS LSU

Why your Thanksgiving turkey may be smaller this year

BY QUENTIN JIMENEZ, SCIENCE WRITER

At the pump and in the kitch en, infation is testing the limits of American wallets. Prices of every day food products are continuing to increase, with grocery infation outpacing the overall infation rate of 7.7% compared to 12.4%.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the price of turkey is 23% more than it was last year. These sharp increases have Amer icans left wondering, why are gro cery prices so high and how much longer until prices go back to nor mal?

While there are many com pounding factors driving infation at the dinner table, the main cause of turkey-related price hikes is due to an outbreak of avian fu. Over 50 million birds in 46 states have been afected by the disease, sig nifcantly decreasing the supply available to grocery stores. This

has caused turkey prices to shoot up in the past few weeks compared to the year before, and grocery stores have begun to sell smaller and younger turkeys to meet the demand.

It’s not just turkeys who are afected by the virus, however. Chicken prices are also seeing sim ilar fuctuations, with the price of eggs being impacted the most out of any grocery product, up 40% from the previous year.

Even though the avian fu is a signifcant driving force of Thanksgiving infation, it isn’t the only reason your grocery bill is so high. The economy is still feeling the impacts of the pandemic-re lated disruption, labor turnover rates and increasing gas prices in the transportation industry are pushing up the price of food. Cli mate change-driven droughts have lowered the supply of corn and to matoes. While having more of an impact internationally, the war in

Stevens CRAFT program hosts industry conference

BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, STAFF WRITER

At Stevens, research is a quint essential aspect of the institution. Undergraduates, master’s students, doctoral candidates, and professors have access to laboratories and fa cilities to research topics across many disciplines. Over the past year, a new project to bolster re search began under the School of Business; The Center for Research Toward Advancing Financial Tech nologies (CRAFT) is the frst f nancial technology research center supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Starting in the summer of 2021, CRAFT has grown into a hub of technical investments, portfolio management, market stress-test ing, and probing of societal issues like equity and fairness. Earlier this year, CRAFT hired its frst Chief Research Ofcer and began to fund and research an initial suite of f nancial technology. As the capstone for the organization, CRAFT host ed its Fall 2022 Industry Advisory Board Meeting here in Hoboken on the Stevens campus. Two projects featured at the conference involve a collaboration of Stevens students and faculty and are working on developments to further fnancial technology.

One of these projects is investi gating emerging quantum technol ogies and their ability to aid fnan cial investors, portfolio managers, and industry professionals in their decision-making processes and im prove automated systems. Associ ate Professor of Business, Zhenyu Cui, here at Stevens is the lead in vestigator on the project. He says, “There are strong industry needs for faster computing, stronger secu rity, and better scalability in big-da ta fnance [...] Quantum processes may help provide that.” One of the

most benefcial factors of this proj ect, says Nadine van Son, a senior consultant at CapGemini, is that it combines the research and academ ic backgrounds of those at Stevens with the industry experience of feld professionals. Van Son em phasizes that “this synchronization of academic research and industry knowledge is very important.”

The other CRAFT project that features cooperation between in dustry professionals and individu als at Stevens focuses on a more so cial aspect of fnancial technology.

In particular, Assistant Professor of Business and leader on the project Jia Xu at Stevens says, “AI-driven systems are not yet very good at explaining the ‘why’ of their predic tions and decisions [...] Most AI is not very transparent at all. It’s often mostly a ‘black box.’” Xu and her team want to fnd the computation al biases involved in the automa tion and AI systems of the fnancial world. Specifcally, they are looking into the subconscious judgments made due to computational ambi guity and their impacts on personal loan extension or denial decisions from automated systems. Like Cui’s team, Xu’s team will be working with industry data in partnership with academic research techniques to fnd the patterns in fnancial computations with the hopes of pre venting minority groups from being denied access to loans because of the lack of system transparency.

Since its creation in the summer of 2021, CRAFT has been helping follow and drive the revolutioniz ing of the business industry with new technologies. With some of the Stevens-centric projects seen above, CRAFT is making the best of the academic success of Stevens and the experience of industry ex perts to better prepare the world and Stevens for the business world of tomorrow.

Ukraine is driving up the prices of grain and fertilizer, which afects the cost of both meat and vegeta ble products. When compared to the previous year, almost every Thanksgiving food product has in creased in price for one reason or another.

While many Americans are feeling the pain of increased pric es, the same can’t be said for large corporations. In a time of soaring prices, some food suppliers have used infation as an excuse to pad their proft margins, extracting ev ery penny possible from consum ers. Tyson Foods, one of America’s largest meat suppliers, increased the price of their food by 30% while paying their farmers 40% less and doubling their profts to over a bil lion dollars, and they aren’t alone with many other food companies seeing record profts this year.

At the other end of the econom ic spectrum, many economists are worried that ballooning credit

card interest rates combined with increased prices and spending during the holiday season could leave many in a far worse posi tion than in previous years. In stead of increased interest rates slowing spending, credit card debt increased by 13% in the past few months, which may compound economic issues going into the new year.

Soaring prices are also afect ing those who need food the most. Price increases have left many food banks low on donations at a time when food insecurity is increas ing. Combined with a shortage of turkeys this season, many food banks are worried they won’t have enough food to feed families look ing for a meal during the holiday season. Low-income families are left balancing their necessities and crunching their spending down to the penny, with some forced to de cide between gas to drive to work, or food for their children.

An end to daylight savings?

BY TASHA KHOSLA, FEATURES EDITOR

Daylight savings is defned as “the practice of moving the clocks forward one hour from Standard Time during the summer months and changing them back again in the fall.” The purpose of this is to maximize the amount of daylight we see. In winter, we get more daylight in the morning, and in summer, we get more daylight in the evenings. However, there have been arguments over how to bet ter utilize daylight, and many have called for an end to the practice of daylight savings.

Back in March, the Senate vot ed to make daylight savings more permanent, meaning putting a stop to the changing of the clocks. After changing the clocks in the spring, there would no longer be a change in the fall. Daylight savings would become the new permanent standard time. The proposed bill is called the Sunshine Protection Ac tion. Still, the U.S. Congress is split on the issue.

Supporters of stopping daylight savings say it will “lead to bright er afternoons and more economic activity.” Frank Pallone, Chair of

the Energy and Commerce Com mittee commented, “We haven’t been able to fnd consensus in the House on this yet. There are a broad variety of opinions about whether to keep the status quo, to move to a permanent time and if so, what time that should be.”

Critics of making daylight savings permanent are concerned that not changing the clocks will cause chil dren to have to walk to school in the dark during winter. Moreover, school buses and school times would be delayed in the winter as it would take longer for icy roads to melt.

Another argument against per manent daylight savings is the ef fect on our health and wellness. Studies have shown that losing an hour of sleep in the spring caus es “social jet lag” which then “in creases the risk of metabolic dis orders such as diabetes, raises the risk of heart disease and stroke, worsens mood disorders such as depression, afects the digestive and endocrine systems and short ens our sleep duration.”

Rather than setting daylight savings as the permanent time, some health experts are in favor of using Standard Time as the perma

Infation is impacting every day Americans in almost every way, and experts suggest it won’t be going away anytime soon. The economic factors driving price in creases will take time to subside, and federal interest rate hikes will slowly permeate through the econ omy. Some predict that we have already gone through the highest rate of infation, but that it will likely take until the end of 2023 to fully dissipate.

Although infation may be the main force in decreasing the size of your Thanksgiving plate this year, it isn’t the only one. International confict, a bird fu, climate change, the pandemic, and corporate greed are all contributing to the high in fation we are experiencing, and it may leave some with an empty plate this Thanksgiving. If you can, consider donating to a local food bank to help ensure everyone has something to eat on their plate this Thursday.

nent time instead. American Acad emy of Sleep Medicine’s (AASM) spokesperson Shalini Paruthi notes, “Permanent standard time is better aligned to human circa dian biology because the natural, daily cycle of light and darkness is a powerful timing cue that synchro nizes with your internal body clock [...] Daylight saving time increas es morning exposure to darkness and evening exposure to sunlight, therefore disrupting the timing of our bodies’ circadian rhythm, causing negative impacts on health and safety.” Circadian rhythms are important because they “prepare your body for expected changes in the environment and, for example, the time for activity, time for sleep, and times to eat.”

The states that are currently an ticipating the passage of the Sun shine Protection Act are Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisi ana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississip pi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wash ington, and Wyoming. Right now, the bill is stalled in Congress but 2022 could be the very last time we turn the clocks back in the fall.

Check out our poll on Quae!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

How to celebrate Thanksgiving if you’re staying on campus

BY ADVAIT DANTULURI, STAFF WRITER

Thanksgiving is a time to cele brate with your family and friends back home in numerous ways such as eating delicious food, watching football, and maybe even seeing a parade. There’s just one prob lem: you’re stuck at college and for some reason, you don’t have the time to come back home. What can you do? According to this website, here are some fun tips on how to celebrate Thanksgiving on cam pus.

Getting Together

So, you can’t get together with your family for the holidays for some reason. Bummer. Luckily,

you can gather your friends on campus and do a little “Friendsgiv ing,” where you can gather a bunch of your friends on campus and host Thanksgiving that way! If you’re still feeling homesick, call your family on Zoom or Skype them. You can catch up with them, and maybe even play a couple of games over Zoom!

Chow Time

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is the food, from a nice delicious turkey with stufng and cranberry sauce to a sweet pumpkin pie dolloped in whipped cream. If you want, maybe you can do some Thanksgiving shop ping at your local grocery store near campus, and maybe whip up

Tips for this year’s Black Friday shopping

BY TANYA AVADIA, STAFF WRITER

As we enter the holiday sea son, the next two months will likely incur a lot of expenses. However, the deals of Black Fri day will surely allow us all to buy all that we need without breaking the bank. An entire day dedicated to shopping and saving through good deals sounds wondrous, and online bargains have already started on many e-commerce platforms. However, while Black Friday is increasingly shifting towards online shopping, in part because of the pandemic, there are still things to look out for to ensure you have a safe shopping experience.

As predictions would have it, the volume of Black Friday shop ping done online is going to expe rience an increase. Unfortunately, this also means an increase in on line scams and frauds. Cyberse curity expert and GoldPhish CEO Dan Thornton stated, “We have to be on the lookout for dodgy deals and be smart when it comes to prices that seem ‘too good to be true.’ Unfortunately, more online shopping activity means more opportunities for cybercrimes to take place.” While this may be scary, don’t let it hinder you from taking advantage of the good hol iday-time savings. There are ways

you can protect yourself and still get the good bargain.

If the deal seems too good to be true, it is probably a scam.

While Black Friday deals can allow you to save a lot, it is good practice to verify a deal before you purchase. You should check the online retailer’s ofcial website to see if the deal appears there be fore you buy something as it could possibly be a scam.

Don’t give out any of your personal information.

While this is common internet etiquette, many people could fall into the trap of giving out their personal information to complete a transaction. CEO Thornton said, “If they’re an online retailer, they will be aware of the preva lence of scams and will confdent ly provide you with proof of their legitimacy.” For this reason, nev er share your bank information or passwords for any reason while shopping online.

Proceed with caution when it comes to social me dia marketplaces.

When it comes to buying things from businesses on social media, it is best to do a little re search to see if the business is le gitimate. Check information such as how long the business has been around, how many followers it

Thanksgiving break in NYC

BY TASHA KHOSLA, FEATURES EDITOR

If you’re spending your Thanksgiving on campus, you may feel that you’re missing out on all the exciting festivities you would be experiencing at home. But worry not; since Stevens is very close to New York City, there are plenty of events you can participate in this Thanks giving break.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

We’ve all grown up seeing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcasted across our televi sion screens. If you make the quick trip to NYC, you can see it in person! The parade begins at 9 a.m. (but definitely arrive ear lier) and the route starts at West 77th Street & Central Park West. Some of the performers who will be there include Big Time Rush, Paula Abdul, Fitz and the Tan trums, Jordin Sparks, and Sean Paul.

As for the balloons, some new ones being added to this year’s lineup include Bluey and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There will also be plenty of floats featured in the parade and seeing them in-per son will definitely be fun. You can also shop for limited-time merchandise from the Parade Shop, which includes clothing, gifts, toys, and more.

on Fifth Avenue

Fifth Avenue is known as “the Big Apple’s most famous street,” as it features expensive shops and extravagant window displays. A few of the notewor thy stores found on Fifth Avenue include Gucci, Cartier, Macy’s, Banana Republic, Saks, and so many more. If you’re planning on making the trip to the city, window shopping during the approaching holiday season is a great way to spend your time.

Union Square Holiday Market

While this market is closed on Thanksgiving Day, you can check it out on any other day during Thanksgiving break. It is open seven days a week from November 17 to December 24.

The Union Square Holiday Mar ket is known as “one of the best holiday markets in the United States” and has “unique gifts, treasures, and treats created by local makers and artists” from over 150 vendors available for purchase. Additionally, the mar ket has live music, performanc es, attractions, and food and drinks for marketgoers to enjoy.

Thanksgiving Dinner Food, specifically a feast, is the main component of every Thanksgiving celebration. New York City is known for its exten sive variety of cuisine. Before you go out into the city, definite ly make a reservation for what

a nice dinner you can share with your friends! Or if you’re too tired to cook, head to the dining hall on campus, where they’re sure to cook some nice food! If your dining hall food is way too bland (wink, wink), maybe you can order some takeout to eat while you watch football.

Other Events

There are multiple other fun things to do on Thanksgiving! If you like running, maybe you can jog in your local Turkey Trot; 5k races are guaranteed to burn some calories before dinner. Or maybe you can take a look at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since you’re extra close to New York, you can hop over to the other side of the Hudson to see dancers, musi

cians, and balloons of iconic char acters. After Thanksgiving, you can go shopping at your local mall on Black Friday. Or, in the spirit of giving, you can help out your com munity by volunteering at an ani mal shelter or a food bank!

What Not To Do

A common practice that some people do in celebrating Thanks giving is romanticizing the history of the frst Thanksgiving, where the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags got together to celebrate. When cele brating Thanksgiving, you should not do this as it ignores how the Pil grims later murdered the Wampa noags for their land shortly after. Ignoring this history contributes to the injustices that the Wampanoag

and other Native American tribes face today. Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate being grateful for each other, but it should not be a time to glorify our history and contrib ute to the ways Native Americans are hurt by our society. It is worth noting that November is Native American Heritage Month and the day after Thanksgiving is Native American Heritage Day.

To conclude, there are many ways to celebrate Thanksgiving while staying on campus, and even though it may not be the fun, fam ily get-together you would rather celebrate, it still will give you a unique experience that is guaran teed to leave you with a lot of nice memories.

has, its customer reviews, and if they come from real accounts.

Sign of only on secure payments.

When completing transac tions online, it is crucial to note the padlock symbol near the ad dress bar and that the website’s URL starts with https:// and not http://. This is because https:// evokes encryption on the data you are trying to send out and protects it.

Complete purchases with credit cards only.

Transferring money using credit cards is better than using your bank account or debit card because in the case of a scam, it’ll make it easier for you to retrieve your money.

Contact your bank im mediately if you have been scammed.

In case of a scam, you do not know what information of yours has been compromised. For this reason, you should immediately reset all passwords and change your bank account’s security set tings. Contact your bank in regard to any purchases made using your account that you did not autho rize.

With all these measures, you should be able to have a safe yet exciting time shopping online this Black Friday.

ever place(s) you want to visit. Also, keep in mind that many restaurants offer Thanksgiving meals “prix fixe,” meaning a meal with several courses served at a fixed price. These meals tend to be around $100 since they are so extensive. Check out this blog listing places in NYC to eat for Thanksgiving. A few no table eateries include Tavern on the Green, Loring Place, and The Elgin. Also, if traditional, Amer ican Thanksgiving food is not to your taste, there are plenty of other restaurants that will be open on Thanksgiving Day. Just remember to do your research beforehand.

Things To Be Mindful Of

As we all know, the holiday season is upon us, meaning that a famous city such as NYC will be packed full of holiday shoppers and tourists, even on Thanksgiving Day. When plan ning a trip to the city, be aware that lines may be long. Dress ap propriately for the weather and try to plan ahead to make sure the attractions you want to visit are not sold out or closed.

Even if staying on campus was not your original plan for this Thanksgiving break, be sure to make the most out of it. Tak ing a trip to New York City is just one of the many ways you can spend your break.

Moon and planets viewing event with the physics department

BY ERIN MCGEE, SCIENCE WRITER

With Stevens being so close to New York City, skywatching is not often a popular (or possible) out door activity. Nighttime light pol lution, lack of open space, and a general lack of opportunity to take some time and look up at the stars make sure of that. But despite all of the challenges, city skywatching is not at all impossible, in fact, it is a great chance to get outside and appreciate the universe.

Stevens students did exactly that on November 9 at Pier C Park. With daylight savings, the sky in the evenings is now dark enough

to see Jupiter and Saturn at the same time. This month also had a full moon very early, enabling skywatchers to view that as well. The event, run by professor Ting Lu, used telescopes from the Phys ics Department and the Society of Physics Students. The goal was to give students in astronomy class es a chance to see the objects they study out of the textbook and in the night sky, as well as to grow an interest in space in the general community, outside of the phys ics department. The opportunity to see the stars is often inspiring, with Professor Lu saying: “No matter how many times you’ve seen the rings of Saturn or the

The benefts of gratitude

BY RAYNA INDELICATO, SCIENCE EDITOR

While we often are reminded to be grateful this time of year, prac ticing gratitude can be extremely benefcial year round. There are many easy ways to incorporate gratitude into our daily lives. Fur thermore, these practices have physical, mental, and emotional health benefts including lowering rates of depression and anxiety, chronic pain, and risk of disease.

A 2017 study done at Berkeley proves just how powerful prac ticing gratitude can be. A group of participants (most college stu dents) was divided into three groups. The frst group was asked to write a letter of gratitude each week for three weeks to a person in their lives. The second group was

asked to refect on recent negative experiences they had faced. The third group did not participate in any writing activity. Participants who participated in gratitude let ter writing self-reported better mental health for up to twelve weeks after the study was com pleted.

Other similar studies have even found that those who participated in gratitude journaling or practic es exercised more frequently and had fewer doctor visits than those who did not participate. Further more, according to a 2011 study, practicing gratitude can help im prove sleep, especially if it is done right before bed.

Gratitude is not only benefcial intrapersonally but in group pro fessional settings. Researchers at Wharton School at the University

colored bands of Jupiter and its moons, you’ll be amazed all over again every time you peek through the eyepiece. That sense of being in awe motivates people to learn more about the subject.”

Outside of our campus commu nity, there are many other ways to get involved with star watching. The frst is simply with the naked eye. Lunar eclipses are a great chance for this. This past week, on November 8th, at around 5 a.m., a total lunar eclipse was visible on the East Coast, dazzling sky watchers. This will be the last full lunar eclipse until March 2025, al though partial eclipses will be vis ible before then. This month also

features the Leonid Meteor show er, named after Leo, the constella tion from which the meteors will appear to come from. Both of these are visible to the naked eye, all one needs to view them is a clear night and a bit of time.

To get more involved with as tronomy, the New York area has great resources for beginners. The Amateur Astronomers Associa tion of New York hosts observing events and even free planetary sci ence classes throughout the year that are open to the public, many of which are at parks and observa tories in the city. They also publish ‘Skylights’ of moon phases and constellations to watch out for this

month.

Whether you have an avid in terest in astronomy and physics or just enjoy getting outside, there is defnitely something to be gained from looking up at the sky, even when living in a city. Professor Lu went on to say: “I think people are drawn to astronomy because of the vastness of space and all the fascinating objects out there. Even within our solar system, there are objects with strikingly diferent properties, not to mention that our solar system is just one of the bil lions of star systems in our galaxy and there are so many other galax ies in the Universe!”

of Pennsylvania studied this by randomly dividing a group of stu dent fundraisers into two groups. The frst group was asked to call and ask for donations from alum ni as normal. The second group was given a pep talk from the di rector before calling alumni. The director reminded the students how grateful they were for their time and efort. The study found that the second group was more motivated to make these calls and received more donations than the group that did not receive positive afrmation for their work.

With the many positive ben efts, it is difcult to understand why more people are not practic ing gratitude more regularly, in stead of the annual discussion at Thanksgiving dinner. However, many of us do not know what prac

Astronomers fnd the closest black hole to Earth yet

BY EVAN PAPAGEORGE, STAFF WRITER

At Stevens, science is a pinna cle of study, research, and inter est. One discipline in the scientifc realm that is often of the utmost fascination is space. With that, it must have been enthralling for as tronomy enthusiasts after a recent announcement from the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomi cal Society (RAS). On November 4, astrophysicist Kareem El-Bad ry and the team that operates and monitors the Gaia spacecraft, which precisely maps the positions of billions of stars, released an ar ticle in RAS proclaiming the dis covery of the closest black hole to Earth discovered two times nearer than previously found.

A black hole is a section of the universe where gravity is so strong that no light can escape. The pre vailing theory is that a signifcant ly large object of mass compressed to a smaller area of space-time creates a black hole. Black holes have a single point where the center of the gravitational waves meet, called the singularity, and an event horizon where light can no longer escape. However, black

holes are some of the most myste rious bodies of the cosmos, simply because it is an immense challenge to see and detect them. Scientists only developed the frst image of a black hole in 2019. Despite the difculty in detecting them, black holes remain one of the most im portant devices to study the na ture of the universe: Einstein’s theories of relativity to Hawking Radiation and beyond. Since black holes create situations that test the limits of space-time, gravity, and other astrophysical fundamentals, research and furthering humani ty’s understanding of them are of the utmost importance.

Given the importance of black holes, the astrological world be came ecstatic when Kareem El-Badry Institute for Theory and Computation in the Harvard/ Smithsonian Center for Astro physics and Harvard Society of Fellows Junior Fellow along with his team published an article in the RAS proclaiming the discovery of a black hole only 1,560 light-years from Earth. Before its discovery, the closest known black hole was around 3,200 light-years away.

The new black hole, aptly named Gaia BH1 after the craft that aided

in its discovery, is approximate ly 10-times the size of our sun. It orbits a sun-like star but at a safe enough distance to keep the gravi ty of the black hole from engulfng the star.

While most well-known black holes are dark dots at the center of bright x-ray and other radiation from their local star lunch, most black holes are not like that. Many black holes in the Milky Way are tranquil black holes; they exist simply in harmony with the na ture of the universe. However, by tracing minute oscillations in the orbits of the stars near them, sci entists can detect them. Although there have been claims of discov eries of these black holes in the past, Gaia BH1 is the frst to stand the test of peer review.

The next release of data from Gaia should be in 2025. El-Badry predicts that more tranquil black holes will appear in the data then. He proposes, “We think there are probably a lot that are closer [...] Just fnding one […] suggests there are a bunch more to be found.” As humanity continues its explora tion of the universe, these discov eries are only expected, and astro physics cannot wait!

ticing gratitude more regularly can look like. Below are some practical ways to begin incorporating grati tude into your life.

An easy way to practice grat itude is to write three things you are grateful for every day. This simple task allows you to focus on the parts of your day that brought you joy, whether or not you real ized it in the moment. Another way is to try writing gratitude let ters once a week. This is a less fre quent but more intensive and per sonal way of practicing gratitude that can beneft yourself as well as the person you are grateful for. These tasks strengthen our posi tive recall, teaching our brain to remember the positive moments rather than the negative ones. It is important to remember that prac ticing gratitude is not attempting

to suppress negative thoughts or emotions. Instead, these practic es magnify positive emotions to eventually outweigh the negative thoughts. Gratitude also teaches mental resilience, especially for those who face more serious anx iety, depression, or other mental health struggles. Studies have found that gratitude was a signif cant factor in helping people, such as Vietnam War Veterans and 9/11 frst responders, cope with their trauma.

As the holidays (and fnals sea son) approach us, remind yourself to take a break and practice being grateful. While gratitude is not the magic cure to anxiety and depres sion that comes with this season, it is a powerful practice that can be benefcial to all.

Women’s Volleyball season comes to a close in NCAA Tournament

BY RUTHIE MULLISKY, STAFF WRITER

The women’s volleyball team secured their spot in the NCAA Tournament after winning the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship against Ar cadia University on Saturday, No vember 5 at Canavan Arena. This marks the program’s third con secutive MAC Freedom Title and the program’s thirteenth appear ance in the NCAA Tournament as well as the program’s ffth ap pearance in the last six seasons, excluding the 2021 season.

The MAC Championship match brought about many impres sive performances. Head Coach Brianna Jones commented that the game was one of her favorite games of the season and that the team fought well and with heart in a very competitive matchup. The game started out with a lot

of back-and-forth play, and Ar cadia ultimately won the opening set. However, the Ducks came back and rallied to win the next three sets. Additionally, sopho more Cleo Shannon was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after she tallied 22 kills on 50 swings (rounding out to a 0.380 hitting percentage), four blocks, two assists, and two digs.

The team held Arcadia to a 0.106 hitting percentage for the game, which marked the 26th match in which an opponent was held un der a 0.200 hitting percentage.

The Ducks increased their attack percentage each set. The game ended with a 0.483 percentage in the fnal set, and the overall at tack percentage for the game was 0.333, the second-best of the sea son. Additionally, junior Bailey Axelrad fnished the game with a record 27 digs.

Among other top performanc

es against Arcadia was senior Ava Smithing with a career-high nine blocks, frst-year Vivian Lisboa with nine kills and seven blocks, and sophomore Parker Adkins and junior Elle Maggio each with eight kills.

This MAC championship win secured the Ducks’ spot in the NCAA tournament held at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. Concerning their NCAA Division III Champion ship appearance, Head Coach Jones added, “We are extremely excited to be able to travel down to Virginia and play in the NCAA Tournament! This is an amazing opportunity to replay some teams we have faced before and show case the hard work we have put in throughout the season!”

On November 10, they faced Manhattanville College, champi ons of the Skyline Conference in the frst round of the NCAA tour

nament, and won at a margin of 3-0. The last time the two teams met on September 22, the Ducks defeated Manhattanville as well, with Shannon adding 16 kills and junior Meg Dion adding a ca reer-high 10 blocks. As this was the program’s thirteenth appear ance, they entered with a strong 29-9 record and a perfect 8-0 conference record. However, on November 11, the Ducks lost their matchup 0-3 against Johns Hop kins, thereby ending their season. However, throughout the season, Women’s Volleyball maintained a strong team record, and there are many individual accolades that should be recognized. Dion cur rently ranks 15th in the nation in Division III with 113 blocks, and Axelrad ranks 12th nationally with 610 digs. Axelrad is also only the sixth person in program his tory to reach 600 digs in a single season.

WOMEN’S FENCING

Columbia Invitational New York, NY Time TBD

MEN’S FENCING

Columbia Invitational New York, NY Time TBD

BY KAI WONG, STAFF WRITER

Since the season has begun for the Ducks, No. 7 Wrestling has been on a roll on the mat. On No vember 11, Stevens topped Ithaca College 30-9 in a non-conference dual meet, and on November 12 the Ducks fnished sixth at the Roger Williams University Invita tional in Bristol, Rhode Island.

In their dual against Ithaca Col lege, sophomore Harrison Hinojo sa had his fourth pin of the year to lead Stevens to victory in the non-conference dual meet. Other notable performances came from Junior Luke Hoerle, the reigning D3Wrestle.com Wrestler of the Week, with his second major of the season. Nico Diaz helped push the Ducks to a 7-0 lead with a decision victory, and Senior Kyle Slendorn secured his frst major of the sea

son, and by doing so pushed the lead to double-digits. The Ducks improved to 1-0 after their victory, as they won eight of the ten bouts, including four with bonus points. This win also pushes the team to have won seven consecutive duals including last season. The Ducks also snapped Ithaca’s fve-dual winning streak that extended back to last season in early February.

The next day, the Ducks rallied to a sixth place fnish at the Roger Williams University Invitational.

To highlight some of the notable performances from the individual wrestlers, First-year Jason Smith fnished third at 157 to lead the Ducks, and Senior Pasquale Viz zoni fnished second at 149. Sopho more Max Ruiz earned his frst vic tory of the year with a frst-period pin of Southern Maine’s Tyler Cox.

Junior Andrew Finateri picked up his second bonus-point victory of

the year with a major decision win, and sophomore Chris Stathopou los added three bonus-point wins. Next up, No. 7 Wrestling heads west for a pair of important events in the Midwest. The Ducks have a dual at No. 5 University of Wis consin-La Crosse on November 17.

The No. 5 Eagles are coming of a 43-3 win against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on November 10. The Ducks look to bring victo ry home to Hoboken and move up further in the Division III rank ings.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

vs Montclair State University Montcalir, NJ 2pm

MEN’S BASKETBALL

vs University of Scranton Hoboken, NJ 2pm

MEN’S SOCCER

vs SUNY Cortland Hoboken, NJ 1pm

Wrestling

RWU Invitational

Men's Cross Country Metro Region Championship

Women's Cross Country Metro Region Championship

Women's Basketball

SUN, NOV 13 Men's Fencing

Catholic University

Vassar Invitational

Women's Fencing Vassar Invitational

Women's Basketball Moravian University

Men's Soccer Rowan University

vs Johns Hopkins Hoboken, NJ 3:30pm

SUN, NOV 20

MEN’S FENCING

vs TBD Madison, NJ Time TBD

MEN’S SOCCER

MEN’S SOCCER vs TBD Hoboken, NJ 3pm

TUE, NOV 22

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

vs Hunter College Hoboken, NJ Time 6pm

MEN’S BASKETBALL

vs Baruch College New York, NY 7pm

(51-53)

AWAY 6TH OF 12

AWAY 7TH OF 25

AWAY 11TH OF 24

AWAY L (58-66)

AWAY 6W, 1L

AWAY 2W, 5L

AWAY W (87-84)

HOME W (1-1; PKs 4-1)

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVENSDUCKS.COM (SHOT BY KELLY SHEA)

PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVENSDUCKS.COM (SHOT BY CARLISLE STOCKTON)

THE STUTE EDITORIAL

A weekend (overwhelmingly) positive perspectives on Stevens

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Stevens Awards Gala. This was 100% the fanciest event I’ve ever attended (perhaps the fanciest one I may ever attend). The night was flled with evening gowns and tuxedos, fancy meals and cocktails, elo quent acceptance speeches, fancy footwork, and just plain glamor.

The honorees included Hermes González-Bello ’89 M.S. ’95, who won the International Achieve ment Award; Sheila Xuan Sun ’06 M.S. ’06, who won the Young Alumni Achievement Award; Thomas J. Moschello ’63 M.S. ’65 who won the Lifetime Service Award, The Ansary Family, who won the Friend of Stevens Award, Aimiende I. Negbenebor Sela ’04, who won the Distinguished Alum ni Award in Arts and Humanities; Frank J. Efenberger ’88, who won the Distinguished Alumni Award in Engineering; and Henry J. Morton, who received a place in the Stevens Hall of Achievement. Remarks were also made by Presi dent Farvardin, and the event was emceed by Chris Cimino, PIX 11 Meteorologist and New York Liv

ing Host. I learned a lot about Stevens during the Gala. The honorees gave heartfelt speeches, many of them refecting on their time at Stevens and specifc instances during their careers that brought them success. González-Bello, for example, refected on his experi ence with the Stevens Technical Enrichment Program (STEP), and how it positively impacted his ca reer and access to resources at Stevens. Many other honorees also refected on their personal development during their under graduate and graduate studies, their extracurricular involvement at Stevens, and even how they met their signifcant others at Stevens.

In a way, I felt like an outsider looking at Stevens. It was a whole new perspective of Stevens that I hadn’t seen before, and I quickly realized that this newfound per spective would be the one I car ried with me after graduation. It was very easy to overlook the daily problems we face as students, and admire the magic and excitement of the event. But regardless of this, it was nice to see how a Stevens

MIND OF A FRESHMAN Bonsee, the

bonsai plant

education had shaped the lives of alumni and their desire to give back to their alma mater. I also got the chance to talk to some alum ni, who talked about how their Stevens education allowed them to excel in their careers and rem inisced about the fond memories they made from their time here.

Following this elegant Saturday night, I had the chance to attend Pancakes with the President the next morning. We got the oppor tunity to talk about a variety of is sues faced by students at Stevens, and hypothesize what the future of Stevens can look like.

The president took questions from all the students in attendance and responded to our concerns to show how Stevens was responding to our inquiries. One question was regarding the increase in enroll ment in undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students on campus. Farvardin responded to this, stat ing that Stevens plans to have very slight increases in the number of undergraduate students admitted, dramatic decreases in the number of in-person graduate students admitted, signifcant increases in

the number of online graduate stu dents admitted, and will monitor Ph.D. students based on the de mand for research.

The President also responded to concerns about the difculty with directing questions to the right staf members. Faculty and staf are now being asked to help students to fnd the right people to answer queries, which downsizes the long journey it can take to get an important question answered. Farvardin also talked about what Stevens’ campus can look like in the future, stating that there are plans to refurbish Burchard’s ex terior, renovate the interior of the library, rebuild Davis and Castle Point Hall into larger dorms, and redo the lawn next to Walker Gym.

It’s clear that the next decade will bring huge changes for the Stevens community. As students, it’s easy to see the negatives, and there’s a power that comes with being critical of our surroundings. So stay critical, pick out the things that bother you, and let them be known. But every once in a while, it’s nice to look at the positives.

SENIORITIS

Sanjana Madhu ‘23 Editor-in-Chief

BY TANISHKA KAPOOR ‘26

The branch leads up straight into the air and then sharply turns to the right as if it’s deflect ing its head from the ex posed sun. Right when one might think that the branch will continue its motion, it sharply twists to the left and moves itself upward. The bonsai plant (which I very creatively named Bonsee) sat on my windowsill next to my two other succulent plants. When I first saw the plant, different branch es jutted out of the main branch, making it feel crowded and bushy. As I snipped the little parts of the plant to shape it, I never thought it would yield the shape that it did. There is beauty to the way Bonsee twists and turns, seemingly leading its own life at its own will. There is nothing stopping the plant from doing what it wanted to or suddenly

completely changing di rections. While the turns are sharp, there is also a delicacy in the way it moves. When the sun hits the side of the plant, causing the shadow to fall perfectly on the edge of the pot, there is a sense of peace I feel in my mind. It’s a great view to wake up to.

Ever since I came to college, I think I have become a little more like the bonsai plant. I used to be someone who always needed a detailed plan before I embarked on any journey. Of course, that is still true to an extent, but I have learned to be come more spontaneous as the days go on. There is an element of excitement to doing something that steers away from my dai ly routine. Going out on random walks during the night or taking the Path to the city makes me think of the sharp turns of my bonsai plant.

Before, I lived under the supervision of my par ents and under their com forting shadows. At col lege, however, I’ve come to realize that I am in con trol of my own life. While this may seem obvious, for some reason, it took me a while to understand the true meaning of living on my own. There is no

We made a movie

BY OFF CENTER

—SATIRE—

In our ongoing conquest to be the premier producer and distributor of all forms of media, Of the Press has decided to create our frst full feature flm, but we ran into some obstacles. A lot of these defnitely had to do with the fact that we thought a week was plenty of time to make a two hour movie (there are like 364 hours in a week) but that resulted in a lot of things being rushed.

We thought we were of to a great start when we found a famed lead actor Devon de Von, but then we found out his real name was Devin and he wasn’t from France, and he would only

act if the movie was called “Devon.” But we had to work with what we got.

Things got worse when what was supposed to be a Western movie suddenly had a bunch of aliens in it.

Our director Spiel, (not to be confused with Steven Spiel berg which unfortunately we were), did not like the aliens and did his best to get them written out by telling the actors to “think alien, say people” whenever aliens came up in the script. This led to a lot of awkward paus es in suspenseful moments in the flm as actors had to carefully not only make the modifcation to the line but continue to think about the old line in their heads.

Despite having to com

one to make the schedule for you or to restrict your daily schedule. While I appreciated the little con fusion I had in life be cause of a clear schedule defined by my parents, I also wished I could go on spontaneous trips. In my household, everything had to be clearly planned a couple of days in ad vance. I always had to ask permission to hang out with friends and wasn’t allowed to go out for more than two or three hours. That completely changed in college. Living on my own means that I could define my own restric tions and limits.

While I’m still not com pletely comfortable with sudden turns, the bonsai plant reminds me that it is okay to welcome chang es in life. No matter how the change affects your life, it always will work out in the end. Sometimes sudden changes are nec essary to take away from the monotony of life. Now, whenever I wake up in the morning to see my bonsai plant, I am a lit tle inspired to change up my daily routine and be a little more spontaneous. I have learned to not be scared of it, but instead to embrace it because what is life without a bit more excitement?

BY CHARLES BEALL ‘22

The middle of October to the middle of November has always been the busiest time of the fall semester for me. This year, I had hoped to manage my time a little better so I could spend more of it getting a good start on my senior research project. But as of now, I really hav en’t found much time at all to work on it, and feel a bit as if I’m scrambling to get something not entirely in signifcant done by the mid dle of December.

I’ve tried not to be too hard on myself for this. For one, I’ve had to balance lots of other commitments. Since the Stevens Dramatic Society’s Fall play and the Student Government Asso ciations Big Budget Meeting are in early November, and I played important roles in both, it was reasonable for those to take precedence. Additionally, I wanted to

do well in my midterms, so I spent more time studying for those, which paid of with good grades, so that is something to be proud of!

And moreover, research is very hard. The subject area of my senior project is still fairly new to me, and it’s been difcult to thoroughly learn the necessary back ground information with those other commitments I just mentioned. There’s still a lot of work I need to do to fully understand what’s been done in this research feld, let alone make new contributions to it. Research is something I’m incredibly passionate about, but this task has been extremely daunting to me.

I do have the rest of se nior year to work on this project, but this won’t actu ally be too much more time. Earlier in the past week, I got very stressed about when to fnd the time to make prog ress on my project. I kept asking myself: “will I ever have enough time to commit to this, or will it all end in a disappointing fnal result?”

What has helped me get over this stress is a balance of making time to do the work, and talking about these stressful feelings a bit more with close friends and loved ones. When I sit down and actually put some time

towards the research and solely the research, I feel re ally fulflled. It’s a hard proj ect, but also an enjoyable one, and as long as I am put ting in the efort, I can show at the end of the year that I, at the very least, gave it the old college try. Further more, my research advisor has been incredibly helpful in so many ways, and so I feel this support from her in getting through the difcult work.

And getting to vent a bit about the stress has proba bly been annoying to those I’ve vented to, but it does help a lot. I’ve tried to relax a bit more, in general, this week, and spending time with the people who care about me has made me feel refreshed and excited for future work on the research and on other life tasks in general. I also must express my sincere gratitude to these people.

Now, I think I’ll be able to fnd the time for my proj ect going forward, and I feel confdent in the quality of my fnal product. In projects that you are working on, I wish you all the best in put ting in your best efort when you have the time and bal ancing work with well-de served breaks.

promise on some of the actors, we refused to com promise on flm locations. We insisted on flming ev erything on location, and by on location, we mean on the location of a set that was all green screen. The whole thing was set up inside someone’s old warehouse in LA and there were still a few ladders in the back. We don’t know how green screens work, but the high schooler said he could put cool west ern-looking backgrounds behind us. Unfortunately, our less famous actors were so excited to be flming in Hollywood that they kept trying to mention it in pass ing which led to a lot of takes that had to be redone.

We were so close to be

ing done flming. So close. But then Devon decided he didn’t want to do the movie anymore and Franklin the security guard had to step in and fnish that role. Then, one of the interns whose only job was getting cofee for Devon who now had a bunch of extra time some how ended up as a main ro mantic interest for Devon’s character. Then, one of our writers who had a crush on that intern decided to sneak in an extra role for himself so he could confess his love for her in the climax which was supposed to be an epic battle between the sherif and the main cowboy. They ended up having a really poignant moment in the middle of a gunfght which

looked really weird because they didn’t seem to be aware of all the gunshots that were going of around them. Greenscreens and sound ef fects in post were at it again. We were thankful though, for the opportu nity to make it. We won’t do it again, as we like live shows better. And you can catch Of Center’s fnal live show of the semester after Thanksgiving at 9 p.m. on 12/2 and 3 p.m. on 12/3 in BC122. We’ll bring all our leftover Thanksgiving food because we already made too much. Some of it might even be left over from the movie set.

When will I fnd time for my senior project?

BY KATIE BLOOMER ‘25

What is recyclable, biodegradable, and com postable all at once? Liter ally nothing!

The true meanings of these three words are of ten misunderstood and they are all labeled as be ing eco-friendly alterna tives that are equivalent to each other. In reality, each has its own pros and cons. Understanding the re quirements for each cate gory is important to make sure these processes are used for the correct items.

In fact, mistakenly recy cling or composting some thing that is not meant to be broken down in that way is actually worse than just sending it straight to a landfill because instead it can disrupt the entire facility and lead to con tamination of products that otherwise would have been properly recycled or composted.

Recycling is the most commonly talked about process out of the three. However, it is also the least sustainable. Unfortunate ly, recycling is taught to be the end-all solution to the climate crisis which leads people to rely heavily on it without thinking of the consequences. In my arti cle “Why I hate recycling,” I explain how the process of recycling a bottle re quires staffing to collect and sort the bottles, ener gy to melt them down, and machines to reform them

into something new. This does total up to be less resource intensive than creating a new bottle, but nevertheless, it still uses resources that could have been conserved by using a reusable bottle. The same goes for paper, glass, and practically anything else that we mindlessly throw into those green or blue bins.

Biodegradable is a vague term that gets too much credit. It is often as sumed that anything bio degradable is environmen tally friendly and doesn’t leave any waste behind at the end of its life. In reali ty, the term simply means that it can break down into smaller pieces. There are no requirements as to how fast the breakdown must occur or what envi ronment must be present in order for the process to take place. Therefore, something that is labeled as biodegradable might take thousands of years to break down, which is not something to celebrate. All compostable materi als are biodegradable, but not all biodegradable ma terials are compostable. Sometimes products will be labeled as both biode gradable and compostable, which means they are completely safe to com post and will break down to create a natural prod uct rather than simply be coming somewhat smaller pieces.

Lastly is composting, the least understood, but most impactful option. Composting is general ly divided into home and industrial levels. Indus trial composting requires incredibly particular conditions which are of ten unnatural and need to take place in a facility. This type of composting is not as accessible since

it requires the consum er to locate an industrial composting facility, com pany, or drop off location. Things labeled for indus trial composting should not be placed in a home compost because they will not break down. Pur chasing industrial com postable items and throw ing them in the trash to be sent to the landfill will not result in any less waste being produced than pur chasing an item that is not compostable at all since it won’t break down in the landfill. Home composting is another option and it re quires very little. Home compost options vary from a hole in the ground to complex systems which require special worms and careful care. My article “I keep rotten fruit in my cabinet” further explains composting and the way that I participate as a col lege student living in a dorm.

Overall, it is ideal to avoid unnecessary pur chases in order to not cre ate any sort of waste from products at the end of their lives. When something is necessary, purchasing re usable or refillable items is preferred since there is no packaging being disposed of. Compostable is the next best option since it doesn’t use as much energy as re cycling and results in use ful soil as a final product. Products that heavily em phasize the fact that they are biodegradable or re cyclable are often a sign of greenwashing, which means that the company is misleading consumers about its environmental efforts. Although it is im possible to be the perfect consumer, making the ef fort to recycle and com post properly can make a big difference!

SCIENTIFIC

BY JOSEPH AMES

Despite the global downturn in crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried still be gan his week as a billion aire. By the end, both he and his empire have fallen from grace to the depths of bankruptcy. How did this seemingly untouchable king of crypto fall from his throne?

While the crypto mar kets as a whole have been stalling, it was initially un clear exactly where FTX’s bankruptcy stemmed from according to its Chapter XI filing. Multiple devel opments have contribut ed, however, with the first being that sister compa ny and affiliated trading firm, Alameda, owes FTX $10 Billion. These loans from FTX—which repre sent over 60 percent of FTX’s $16 Billion in cus tomer assets—were used to fund what are being dubbed “risky bets.”

As the days progressed, however, it is speculated that FTX’s currency, FTT, is partially responsible for the demise. The coins were issued to users as incen tives to use the platform - eventually being bought by Alameda and subse quently being pledged as collateral on the afore mentioned loans. This in and of itself would be a problem, as collateral is ideally meant to be either stable or separated from the entity at hand (e.g. another company’s stock), but circumstances magni fied these missteps. Rival and potential acquirer, Bi nance, had sold $500 mil lion worth of FTT earlier this month.

The situation escalates from there, with sources estimating that between $1 and $2 billion are missing from transferred funds. In an exchange with Reuters, Bankman-Fried stated that the funds “were not secretly transferred” and instead “had confusing internal labeling” causing them to be misread.

Earlier this week, Bi nance was engaged in a deal to acquire FTX but backed out during the due diligence stage while in specting FTX’s internal books. The move has car ried sweeping consequenc

es from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commis sion (SEC) and U.S. De partment of Justice (DOJ) investigating FTX for po tential securities viola tions all to the sports and celebrity sphere, with the Miami Heat ending their naming partnership with FTX.

The biggest question here: is Bankman-Fried a fraud? A man who claims to pledge his wealth to philanthropy becomes immersed in a scandal of historical proportions. For reference, the infamous Jordan Belfort defrauded about 1,500 investors out of an estimated $200 mil lion. For Bankman-Fried, that figure could range anywhere from 5 to 10 times that. It seems high ly unlikely that there is any scenario that Bank man-Fried avoids prison times. In one of the most historical events of the de cade, it appears that the crypto wave is suffering from dying tides.

The US House of Rep resentative Financial Ser vices Committee is plan ning on holding a hearing in December to further discuss the collapse of FTX.

BY JOHN HORGAN CAL PROFESSOR

The approach of Thanks giving, that quintessential American holiday, has me brooding once again over scientists’ slanderous por trayals of Native Americans as bellicose brutes.

Thanksgiving, tradition ally, presents Native Amer icans in a positive light. In grade school I learned about the “frst Thanks giving,” in which Native Americans joined Pilgrims for a fall feast of turkey, venison, squash and corn. This story supports the view—often (apparently er roneously) attributed to the 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau—of Native Americans and other pre-state people as peaceful “noble savages.”

Prominent scientists now deride depictions of prestate people as peaceful. “Contra leftist anthropolo gists who celebrate the noble savage,” psychologist Steven Pinker has written, “quanti tative body counts… suggest that pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.” According to Pinker, the 17th-century philoso pher Thomas Hobbes “got it right” when he called pre-state life a “war of all against all.” The Hobbesian thesis has been advanced in many infuential books, including The Social Con quest of Earth, by biologist Edward Wilson; The World Until Yesterday, by geogra pher Jared Diamond; and Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature.

Yes, Native Americans waged war before Europe ans showed up, but Pink er and other Hobbesians have exaggerated warfare among early humans. These scientists have replaced the myth of the noble savage with the myth of the savage savage. In two momentous early encounters, Native Americans greeted Euro peans with kindness. Here is how Christopher Colum bus described the Arawak, tribal people living in the Bahamas when he landed there in 1492: “They will ingly traded everything they owned…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance…. With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

How that passage, which I found in Howard Zinn’s A Peoples’ History of the United States, captures the whole sordid history of co lonialism! Columbus was as good as his word. Within decades the Spaniards had slaughtered almost all the Arawak and other natives of the New Indies and enslaved the few survivors.

A similar pattern unfold ed in New England in the early 17th century. After the Pilgrims arrived in Plym outh in 1620 on the May fower, they almost starved to death. Members of a local tribe, the Wampano ag, helped the newcomers, showing them how to plant corn and other local foods. In the fall of 1621, the Pil grims celebrated their frst successful harvest with the Wampanoag in a three-day feast. The event my class mates and I learned about in grade school really hap pened!

The friendliness of the Wampanoag was extraor dinary, because they had recently been ravaged by

diseases caught from pre vious European explorers. Europeans had also killed, kidnapped and enslaved Native Americans in the region. The Plymouth set tlers, during their desperate frst year, had even stolen grain and other goods from the Wampanoag, accord ing to Wikipedia’s entry on Plymouth Colony.

The good vibes of that 1621 feast soon dissipated. As more English settlers ar rived in New England, they seized more and more land from the Wampanoag and other tribes, who eventual ly resisted with violence—in vain. We all know how this story ended. “The Indian population of 10 million that lived north of Mexico when Columbus came would ul timately be reduced to less than a million,” Howard Zinn writes.

In “Indians, Slaves, and Mass Murder: The Hid den History,” an essay in The New York Review of Books, anthropologist Peter Nabokov notes that colonizers reduced Califor nia’s native population from 350,000 at frst contact to under 17,000 by 1900. State laws allowed and even en couraged the slaughter of Native Americans. “Exter mination,” Nabokov com ments, was “considered no great tragedy for an entire people who were uniformly and irredeemably defned as savage and inhuman.”

Centuries earlier, the Arawak and Wampanoag were kind to us—and by us I mean white people of Eu ropean descent. We showed our thanks by sickening, subjugating and slaughter ing them and other indige nous people. And we have the gall to call them more savage than us.

Please ponder this dark irony as you celebrate Thanksgiving.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT Artist Spotlight: Giovanni Paolo Panini

What would happen if you chose a top-down view or skewed perspective?

BY ITAI GELLER ‘26

The most difcult as pects of landscape painting to master are the use of per spective and color. It is eas ier to draw a landscape on a level plane because objects remain unchanged regard less of our distance from them or the angle at which we look at them. To better illustrate this, take a look up from this newspaper right now at the scene around you. Now pretend you are a free-foating camera that is currently at your eye level. If the camera sees whatever you see, what would happen if you were to lower the cam era to the level of your feet?

The way things look both near and far would be drastically diferent. Some objects may shrink, others may grow very large, and certain objects may disap pear entirely. The most basic method for creating these kinds of landscapes is by es tablishing a “one point per spective.” However, when drawing in tighter spaces like the interior of buildings this can become incredibly difcult. If you are painting, you are also at a disadvan tage if your skills aren’t on par with the greats. Paint ing in incredible detail takes patience and mastery. This week’s artist manages to hit both of these nails on the head. Giovanni Paolo Pani ni was an 18th century Ba roque painter who achieved fame from his portrayal of popular Roman antiquities.

Panini was born in 1691 in the Italian city of Piacen za, where he would study perspective and architectur

al painting in his youth. He would eventually move to Rome, where he would ini tially take up a profession as a fresco decorator for the in terior of aristocratic palac es. He would go on to serve as a president and teacher at two respective art acade mies, all the while working on architectural drawings and paintings. However, his claim to fame lay in his abil ity to reproduce “veduta,” or view paintings. Although it is true that Panini was the frst artist that came up on WikiArt when I was search ing for artists for this piece, I was too impressed to pass him up. In his paintings, it almost always seems as though he’s trying to make his job more difcult. Rath er than choosing the most zoomed-in perspective pos sible, he chooses to make his views expansive so that even when he’s painting the inte rior of a building, he cap tures as much of the scene as possible. I believe that this is best illustrated in his rendition of the interior of

St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

In this painting, the frst and most noticeable aspect is just how much ground is covered. It seems as though Panini chose this expansive perspective to not only por tray how grand the Basilica is but also how happening it seems to be. Scattered around the basilica are both onlookers and churchgoers, seemingly covering its en tire length, as we can see fgures in the distance. This is only natural for such an important and iconic land mark religious site, so this contributes to the realism of the scene. Intensifying the realism is Panini’s incredi ble attention to detail, incor porating everything from the Corinthian-style pillars, the statues of religious fg ures adorning the walls, and the golden patterns on the ceilings and arches. Also, Panini’s ability to clearly portray the natural light fushing in through the win dows contributes warmth to the painting which makes the scene more inviting, re

gardless of how overbearing the immense architecture seems to be. In addition, the intensity of the foreground contrasts well with the background, enhancing the depth of the painting.

Overall, it’s truly an out standing piece, far grander than many of the ones fea tured in this column before. If I could encourage read ers to take away anything from it, it would be to take time and master your craft.

Novice artists make the mistake of buying the big gest canvases and trying to reproduce difcult ref erences without having an understanding of the basics. Panini was a master of his craft because he spent an incredible amount of time studying and perfecting his style. Beginners can achieve this same growth as long as they realize that improving their art can take time, ded ication, and practice.

BY COLE GARDELLA ‘24

I fgured it’s about time I reviewed a current movie for this column, as all the previous movies I’ve re viewed to this point have been movies that have been out for at least a few years. The main reason I haven’t reviewed anything super recent yet is that I actually wasn’t interested in many releases since the semester started. That is, until now, with the release of the highly anticipated MCU flm Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Now I’ll be upfront and say I was not madly in love with the frst Black Panther from

2018. Don’t get me wrong, it is not a bad movie by any means, but a Best Picture nomination seemed a lit tle excessive in my opinion, especially when Avengers: Infnity War, which is com monly regarded as a better movie, came out a few short months after. However, I must say that I was pleas antly surprised by this se quel.

With the unfortunate and untimely death of Chad wick Boseman a few years ago, it’s reasonable to as sume that this movie tackles the issues of both loss and dealing with the grief that the loss of a loved one can bring with it, and you’d be right to assume so. From the opening scene to the fnal shot, those themes are not only prevalent but handled extremely well. The loss of Boseman’s T’Challa is not simply relegated to a quick scene and then never dis cussed again, it is brought up at times that feel appro priate and natural, and you

as a viewer feel the grief that the characters feel because, in a way, it’s a shared grief of the loss of Chadwick Bose man. Although Boseman is not in the flm, his presence is felt throughout its run time.

Due to the untimely passing of Boseman, Le titia Wright steps into the leading role for this movie as Shuri, and boy does she hit the ground running. I was honestly very curious as to how she would be in the leading role, as I thought she was an interesting side character, but not one that could carry a movie on her shoulders. I’m glad to say I was very wrong on that front. Despite the massive shoes to fll, Wright expertly portrays Shuri’s incredibly interesting arc for the dura tion of the flm.

One last quick thing I’d like to touch on is the action. I think since I hadn’t seen the Black Panther on the silver screen since Aveng ers: Endgame back in 2019,

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever BOOK OF THE WEEK The Cabin, by Natasha Preston

knew that Natasha Preston is prominent for her thrill ers, reading the synopsis of the book intrigued me, in the sense that I doubted the ability to make a fun trip into a murder mystery and a chilling story of betrayal.

relax and celebrate the trip is to have a night full of drinking and partying at the cabin. Little does the group know there is a secret mur derer in the group.

I sort of forgot how much I enjoyed the fght choreogra phy in the scenes with that character, and that enjoy ment extends to all the side characters in this flm as well. As a whole, the action

is fast-paced, greatly edited, and well-choreographed.

Overall, Marvel and returning director Ryan Coogler seem to have anoth er smash hit on their hands. The handling of Boseman’s

death, Letitia Wright’s per formance, and the fght cho reography are just a few of the many reasons that I will give Black Panther: Wakan da Forever a defnitive rec ommendation.

BY VICTORIA YASHCHUK ‘26

The frst thing that comes to my mind when I think of going on a trip to a lake with my friends is how much fun we will all have together. Usually, the idea of spending time with close friends after a stressful year of school is an exhilarating one, and the adventurous trip of a group of friends is what I thought I would be reading about when I frst laid my eyes on the book The Cabin by Na tasha Preston. Somehow, I thought this book would steer away from Preston’s usual genre of thrillers and mysteries. Even though I

In The Cabin, Natasha Preston introduces us to a group of teenagers, the main protagonist of the sto ry being Mackenzie. After a much-needed getaway, the group decides to take a trip to a secluded cabin— the cabin of Mackenzie’s best friend’s brother. With Mack enzie having special hate for her friend’s brother, the ten sion starts building up from the start, but the group nev ertheless decides to make things work between every one. While Mackenzie tries to focus on not letting her reluctance and annoyance get the best of her, she meets Blake, a friend of a friend in the group. While Macken zie’s annoyance turns into anger, she and the group decide that the best way to

Waking up with two of their friends dead the morning after the party, Mackenzie and the rest of the group instantly call the police. Without any help from the police, as there is no evidence that proves the friends were killed instead of another source causing the death, the group decides to cope back home. With Mackenzie and Blake com ing closer and developing a close connection, the two decide to stick close together and fnd out who killed their two friends. Simultaneously focusing on their connection and trying to fnd the killer, all clues lead to the killer be ing one of Mackenzie’s clos est friends, who, ultimately, develop some personality issues. Even though the kill er was found, she still runs free, with the lives of Mack

enzie and Blake constantly threatened.

This book is an interest ing read because it’s a clas sic murder mystery, or what you would expect from such a book, anyway. The twist Natasha Preston added to the book was a twist that not even the reader could have predicted, as betrayal in a friendship went hand in hand with murder. Even though developing close connections with the char acters is difcult, the read er gets to observe the situ ation through Mackenzie’s perspective, and develop assumptions on their own. The descriptiveness of the book is what holds its spark, adding the well-deserved creepiness and suspense. The psychological thriller puts an interesting twist on fctional friendships, which makes the reader make con nections to their reality, or serves as fuel to one’s imag ination. With the murder causing such suspense, the reader can’t help but wonder

about those around them, for no one really knows what goes on behind someone’s smile.

SPOILER ALERT

PHOTO COURTESY OF AMAZON.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF IGN.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF NGA.GOV

Q: How do I deal with being sick?

est thing about getting sick away from home is you no longer have anyone to take you to the doctor or bring you cold medicine, but those things are still just as im portant to you feeling better.

BY CLAIRE HANNAN ‘24

Being sick sucks, and getting sick in college only makes it worse. This past week, I got sick and was once again reminded of how horrible it is to go through classes while feeling un der the weather. The hard

LIFESTYLE HACKS

It can be a tricky learning curve, but once you learn how to take care of yourself when you’re sick, every thing will be much easier. First, try to fgure out what your body needs. For small colds, you can try a neti pot, aspirin, a saltwater gargle, and tea. If your symptoms are more serious, you can always stop by the Stevens Wellness Center for free. We can all agree that calling Health Services is the last

thing you want to do when you aren’t feeling your best, but I can guarantee that they will be helpful and can put you in the right direction to feeling better.

In terms of classes, I would recommend trying to go to as many as you can. Right now, with fnals ap proaching and fnal projects closing in, you might regret taking time of and falling behind. However, if you do go to class, make sure you are wearing a mask and us ing plenty of hand sanitizer to avoid getting anyone else sick. You could also request a recording from your pro fessor or notes from one of your classmates.

Trying to avoid burnout

BY ZOE HACK ‘24

We’re at a weird point in the semester. Mid terms are over, but finals still feel kind of far away, so we just feel tired . For me, I feel like I’ve been putting in so much work for so long, and it doesn’t even really feel like there’s an end in sight. When I start to feel this way, I try to look back on all of the hard work I’ve put into things this semester and all of the things I’ve ac complished. I know a lot of times we don’t like giv ing ourselves credit, but we all go to an academi cally challenging school. And we’re doing the damn thing ! Even just for that, you should be incredibly proud of yourself.

For me, the first type of burnout I usually ex perience—and, unfortu nately, probably the most detrimental—is burnout

to follow through with all of my self-care habits. This usually begins with deciding to push off cook ing for a day and ordering takeout. Then pushing it off for another day. Then running out of grocer ies, so instead of going to buy more, just order ing takeout. Not only am I failing to feed my body mainly healthy food, but I’m also starting to burn a hole in my wallet. Taking a look at my bank/credit card statement is usually a wake-up call for me that I need to get back into cooking for myself instead of opting for takeout out of convenience.

It’s at this point in the semester when I also start to experience some social burnout as well. I’m sur rounded by so many su per awesome people, that I am failing to continue to reach out and get to know more people and put my self out there. It seems like such a daunting task to put so much energy into getting to know new people or even strength ening connections with those you know, but once you make an effort to go out and do it, it will quick ly pay off. As contradic tory as it sounds, a lot of

times the way for me to get myself out of a cycle of burnout is to oversched ule myself to make sure that I am hanging out with people and doing things I enjoy in order to get out of the burnout funk.

While most of the for mer is a result of trying to prioritize academics and always putting classes and work first, academic burn out is just as, if not even more, likely to happen. For me, if I fall behind on one homework assign ment, that’s it: I’m behind for the whole week. Then I try to pick up slack over the weekend but just end up feeling unmotivated and then the week starts over again where I am again struggling to finish all of my assignments on time. I’ve found that the best way to combat this is to set a day where I am stopping work at 10 p.m. and going to bed. That way, I can get up earlier that morning and start working right away. By doing this, I have the op tion to start my day and week off by being produc tive and will be more like ly to maintain good time management skills for the rest of the week.

BY ETHAN KLESCHINSKY ‘24

Aw poor baby, you prob ably got sick partying a lit tle too hard with all of your alcoholic friends. If you are wondering how to get bet ter, I am the best person to ask. If we were in the mil itary of sickness, I would

be a four-star general. Af ter years of service, I have been managing different kinds of illnesses and I can be your personal WebMD.

My first question back to you is why you didn’t use WebMD or go to the health center but I am go ing to hope this question was sent preemptively. If the advice column was the first person you went to when facing illness away from home for the first time, I think you need to reevaluate the chain of command. But if you get sick and the problem doesn’t fix itself within the first 3-6 days, you should go to the doctor. So many

people get sick and avoid getting help at any cost, you would think they were trying to get themselves killed with the effort they put into avoiding medical help. So if you are one of those people, I wish you the worst and recommend you stop reading here.

If you are willing to go to the doctor, my advice is to do that. The internet will tell you the same thing and the internet has never lied to me in my times of need.

I hope your illness works itself out and you don’t need medical attention but I would recommend brac ing for the worst. Good luck and get well soon!

ROVING

By Rafael Lee Li

Thomas Bothwell ‘25

Anthony Migliaro ‘25

it’s my family’s ping pong tournament.”

Lily Phelps ‘25

Martyna Zubek ‘25

Mac and Cheese.”

“What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?”

Lilly Brochu ‘25

out a Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. I hate Thanksgiving.”

Shelly Ferina ‘25

mashed potatoes.

Francesca Severino ‘23

around the table and saying what you are thankful for.”

Thomas Wohblruck ‘25

Family.”