The Sunflower v. 125 i. 25

NEWS | 2

SPORTS | 4

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT | 8

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University Provost gives an update on the new infrastructure fee proposal.

Freshman Addison Barnard breaks the single season home run record.

Wichita State’s Green Group celebrates earth day.

WICHITA STATE’S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1896 MONDAY

Volume 125

www.thesunflower.com

April 26, 2021

Issue 25

BELONGING PLAZA

PHOTO BY MONIQUE GAINES / THE SUNFLOWER

Armando Minjares, coordinator of student diversity program at Wichita State, is speaking at the launch of Belonging Plaza on April 24, 2021 east of Wiedemann Hall. The Belonging Plaza— a collaboration between the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Strategic Communications— is designed to move around campus and be a resource for student groups to use.

The university unveils new plaza aimed to highlight underserved populations

BY LINDSAY SMITH editor@thesunflower.com / @Lindsay_KSmith

Wichita State unveiled a new outdoor pop-up memorial Saturday that is aimed to highlight members of underrepresented populations.

The Belonging Plaza— a collaboration between the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and Strategic Communications— is designed to move around campus and be a resource for student groups to use.

“Our idea is for it to be a tool for programming and memorialize underrepresented trail blazers and we want student groups to really utilize it,” Armando Minjarez,

student diversity programs coordinator, said in an interview with The Sunflower.

The conversations to create the Belonging Plaza began in April when Minjarez and Kristen Beale, StratComm coordinator of creative placemaking, decided they wanted the goal of diversity and inclusion on campus to go further.

“We started with Gaypril, the month of april we programmed a lot of lgbt related programs and we wanted to do something around that,” Minjarez said.

When they decided to use the memorial to highlight a member of the LGBTQ community, they reached out to campus sources to decide who should be highlighted.

“We reached out to the special collections library, we reached out to Jay Price, to see if they had any information they could share or any people,” Minjarez said. “That’s how we ended up with Kristi Parker.”

Wichita State alumni Kristi Parker is the founder and publisher of Liberty Press, the only LGBT focused newspaper in Kansas. Minjarez said her story was what made them decide to recognize her.

“Her contributions were really transformative to the queer community in the state,” Minjarez said.

When they had a person in mind to memorialize, they started having discussions about how

“Our idea is for it to be a tool for programming and memorialize underrepresented trail blazers and we want student groups to utilize it.”

ARMANDO MINJAREZ Student diversity programs coordinator

exactly they wanted the memorial to look like. That’s when they decided to create a memorial that could highlight different people at different times, not just one person.

“What are other groups that could be a part of this conversation, around belonging? And how can this pop up tool help the larger community of WSU … to feel welcome?” Minjarez said.

After asking these questions, they decided to represent all different underrepresented populations, not just one. This is why they could properly allow everyone on campus to feel welcome.

Campus members who are interested in using the plaza can access a kit that will provide them everything they need. It has information on where the plaza is stored, how it can be moved, what locations the plaza can be on.

SGA senator sworn in wearing ‘white lives matter’ mask was arrested in 2015 for threatening to attack courthouse

BY LINDSAY SMITH editor@thesunflower.com / @Lindsay_KSmith

A Student Government Association senator who sparked controversy yesterday for wearing a “white lives matter” mask at the SGA inauguration ceremony has a history of gun charges and criminal threats, including a 2015 arrest for planning to storm a courthouse to disrupt a trial.

Samuel McCrory, a junior in electrical engineering, was sworn in yesterday as a returning adult senator. When The Sunflower posted photos from the swearing-in event, students responded on social media with concerns regarding the mask. Student government would not immediately identify the senator. McCrory confirmed in a telephone interview with The Sunflower that he was

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the senator in the mask.

“There shouldn’t be anything wrong with advocating for white lives,” McCrory said. “It’s ridiculous that I have to justify that.”

“The very fact that people had an issue with it says something about them. That they have no interest in racial equality or anything like that despite their claims.”

Earlier this month, McCrory was elected to the position as a write-in candidate with only one vote.

McCrory said one reason he decided to run for office was because the senate seats are disproportionate to the student body. The senate is made up of college-specific, at-large, and special constituency senator seats.

/ The Sunflower

SEE SENATOR PAGE 2

@sunflowernews

PHOTO BY LINDSAY SMITH / THE SUNFLOWER

Samuel McCrory gets sworn in at the SGA Inauguration Ceremony on Thursday. McCrory recieved backlash for wearing a “white lives matter” mask at the event.

@thesunflowernews

2 | MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

NEWS

This week’s news in brief

This week’s weather in brief

BY ELENA KUCKELMAN

STUDENT HEALTH SERVICES TO OPENING COVID VACCINES TO FAMILY WSU Student Health plans to offer vaccinations to immediate family members starting May 1.

This includes children, stepchildren, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, stepparents, spouses, siblings, mother-in-laws, father-in-laws, son-in-laws, daughter-in-laws, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, and any adoptive relationships.

The family member must be at least 18 years old and a resident of Sedgwick County.

EXHIBITIONS OPENING AT THE LOWELL D. HOLMES MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY Exhibitions from the spring 2020 and 2021 Museum Exhibition classes will be opening on Monday, April 26.

ILLUSTRATION BY THY VO

Source: iPhone weather app

New coordinator aims to provide student athletes a safe space to discuss mental health When she went to the University of Iowa for her PhD, she had the opportunity to do a practicum in the athletics department.

Through this, she was able to work with individuals on all spectrums of the sports field.

“I was like, ‘this is what I want to do, I feel that I fit in well here, I feel like I can understand the culture and dynamics of the athletic department,’ which is so important being a sports psychologist,” Ward said.

Ward said while her position as an individual therapist is extremely important to her, she wants students to know that they can come to her outside of scheduled appointments.

“Sometimes it’s nice to have that touchpoint to kind of get to know your counselor a little bit more, it seems a little bit less scary to dive into therapy with someone,” Ward said. “Therapy is really when you are most vulnerable, and you’re sharing a whole bunch of things you might not necessarily share with other people.”

Coaches and athletic staff can come to office hours as well, to consult on different situations that might come up with the team. This might include being

concerned about an athletes performance, an issue within the team, or they might be having difficult conversations such as scholarships being decreased due to budget cuts during COVID-19.

“Sometimes coaches come in to talk to me about how to navigate some of those difficult conversations to make sure that they are supporting their athlete while maybe delivering some pretty tough news,” Ward said.

Ward said understanding the culture of athletics is important because there is so much that goes into being a student athlete and creating that experience for a student athlete from a staff standpoint. On top of the normal struggles of adjusting to college life, athletes also have to adjust to a new practice load, different coaches, and new workouts.

“It’s really important to have someone to navigate that understands those experiences and have someone specialized in student athletes,” Ward said.

“Similarly, the pressure of being a student athlete can be a lot.

Constantly being under scrutiny, essentially and being televised” Read the rest of the story at www.thesunflower.com

FROM SENATOR PAGE 2 In the post, he asked if it was “out

plea out.”

McCrory also had a misdemeanor battery in 2004 and 2005 when he was 11 and 12. At 15, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in December 2005.

His mother was the victim, according to the Eagle. In January and March of 2008 he was charged for assaults against his mother at 14. He had a juvenile felony conviction from Rice County in 2008.

In 2014, he was seen multiple times toting a rifle, handgun, and an ax tucked into his waistband at protests and other events around Wichita.

BY JULIA NIGHTENGALE copyeditor@thesunflower.com / @JuliaNightengale

Being a student athlete involves many hours of hard work and dedication. Just like many students on campus— student athletes are struggling with mental health due to the pressure and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is why the position of Athlete Mental Health Coordinator was introduced.

Brianna Ward began in this position in August of 2020. She said that it has been challenging to begin a brand new role while being in the middle of a pandemic.

“I feel in my perfect dream world of me imagining my dream position starting, I wanted to be able to go to practices and events a little bit more, I didn’t really have the opportunity to do that in the fall,” Ward said. “It’s weird being a psychologist and people not knowing me … Hopefully, I will be able to do that a little bit more next year.”

Ward has a long history of working with athletes. She started doing research projects centering around sports psychology when she was getting her master’s.

“There’s also seats that go to underserved, which basically means you have to be some kind of protected class to run for those, but you can be a member of that protected class and still run for the college seats,” McCrory said.

“So you have equal opportunity.”

McCrory has a history of controversy.

According to an article published by the Wichita Eagle, McCrory was arrested in 2015 for suggesting an attack on the Sedgwick County courthouse in a Facebook post and pleaded guilty.

of line to storm the courthouse” and said that the “only way to defend yourself from a cop is to kill a cop.”

McCrory said he had no terroristic intent behind the Facebook post, but that the law in Kansas is broad.

“It was something from Facebook that was probably unwise,” McCrory said. “It was taken out of context. It was reported by people who had political motivations against me for a very long time. I saw the law was backed against me with the way it was written and I chose to

The Sunflower, founded in 1896, is the student-run newspaper covering Wichita State University. The print edition is published Monday during the fall and spring semesters. The staff publishes daily online at www.thesunflower.com.

MISSION The Sunflower — both in print and online — will be a timely resource of information about the Wichita State University community. It will report on news, issues, activities, academics and athletics, in addition to offering a forum for discussion, reviews and commentary. It will also be an effective learning experience for students, who will have the final authority over what is published.

LEGAL One free copy of The Sunflower is available to members of the WSU community. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 in the newsroom, Elliott Hall 019. The Sunflower is private property and unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable. The Sunflower is funded by a combination of print and online advertisment sales and student fees allocated by the Student Government Association.

The Sunflower is a member of Kansas Collegiate Media, the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association.

Copyright © 2021 The Sunflower. This newspaper, its design and its contents are copyrighted.

The reception is come and go and will take place in the Holmes Museum on the first floor of Neff Hall.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS WICHITA-METRO TO HOST PANEL TO DISCUSS POLICE REFORM APRIL 27 A discussion panel led by WSU criminal justice professor Michael Birzer will address some of the changes sought within the police department.

The panel will be held on April 27 at noon over zoom.

To register for the event, call 316-261-8500 or visit wichitalibrary. org/events.

University moves ahead with new infrastructure fee proposal

BY LINDSAY SMITH

“The proposal to replace the online fee with the increase in the infrastructure fee is intended to generate the same dollar amount.”

editor@thesunflower.com / @Lindsay_KSmith

Wichita State is moving forward with its new infrastructure fee proposal, Interim Provost Shirley Lefever said during the Student Government Association meeting Wednesday.

Lefever first spoke to SGA in March and brought up two possible proposals that would replace the online fee.

The first model would increase the infrastructure fee the same amount, no matter what college.

The second model increases the infrastructure fee by $13.00 and gives colleges flexibility to tailor their own fees dependent on what that college needs. Lefever said after hearing feedback from students, they decided to go forward with the second option.

“Students really wanted a fee that would allow them to better predict what their bills would be from semester to semester,” Lefever said.

The new infrastructure fee is intended to replace the current $97.25 online fee.

Lefever said that the proposals came about after hearing complaints from students about the burden of the extra cost.

The university has seen a rise in students taking online classes. This rise was not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lefever said.

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SHIRLEY LEFEVER Interim University Provost

“While we often think this was the result of the pandemic, this rise actually started in the fall of 2019,” Lefever said.

In the fall of 2015, 36.2% of students were enrolled in an online course. In 2019, the university saw a raise of 14.8% to 51%. In the fall of 2020, 52.7% of WSU students are enrolled in one or more online courses.

The new fee structure would generate the same amount of revenue that is collected currently through online fees.

“The proposal to replace the online fee with the increase in the infrastructure fee is intended to generate the same dollar amount,” Lefever said.

The proposal has to be approved by the Kansas Board of Regents in order to go into effect.

Lefever said they plan to take the proposal to KBOR during the board’s May meeting.

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Corrections

The Sunflower is committed to accuracy in its publications. If you find an error in any of its publications, please email the editor at editor@thesunflower.com immediately.

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Sports

HAVE A STORY IDEA? contact The Sunflower’s sports editor, Sean Marty sports@thesunflower.com

FILE PHOTO BY SELENA FAVELA / THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State designated hitter Willie Schwanke rounds third base before scoring during the first game against Illinois State at Eck Stadium on April 28, 2017.

FILE PHOTO BY SELENA FAVELA / THE SUNFLOWER

Redshirt Senior Willie Schwanke pitches against Texas Tech on March 24, 2017 at Eck Stadium.

Former Shocker standout discovers new passion for videography

BY JOE BAKER joebakerwsu@gmail.com / @JoeBakerWSU

From the baseball diamond to behind the camera, it has become quite the journey for former Shocker baseball standout Willie Schwanke.

Growing up, baseball played an important role for Schwanke.

From 1990 to 2000, Willie’s father, Jim served as a baseball coach at Oklahoma State and Louisiana State University. Jim helped lead LSU to back-to-back College World Series titles in 1996 and 1997.

He currently serves as a sports agent in baseball.

Willie’s mother Stephanie, trains dogs for a living and according to Schwanke, she deeply enjoys her career.

Schwanke was a highly coveted baseball recruit out of Wakeland High School in Frisco, Texas. Over his high school career, he posted a .424 batting average, hitting 54 doubles, 23 home runs with 148 runs scored and 152 runs batted in.

Schwanke was just as dominant on the mound, posting a 28-2 career record with a 1.79 earned run average and 226 strikeouts in 175 ⅔ innings.

Schwanke’s dominant high school career garnered attention from many Division-I schools.

Ultimately, he decided to take his talents to the University of Arkansas and his decision came down to his relationship with the coaching staff.

Willie played one season at Arkansas and then elected to transfer to Grayson College, a junior college in Denison, Texas and spent one season there in 2014. Schwanke then transferred to Wichita State before the 2015 season.

Willie says he has many memories from his time as a Shocker baseball player, but his start on the mound against UC Santa Barbara is what stands out the most from his playing days.

“When we played Santa Barbara at home, I got to pitch against Dillon Tate, who went

fourth overall that year in the draft,” Schwanke said. “When I got to pitch against that guy, that high of a caliber, I have never seen so many scouts in one stadium.”

In 2015, Willie was drafted in the 22nd round in Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft.

Schwanke was stunned to hear the news and wasn’t expecting to get drafted. He believes that his performance against Santa Barbara elevated his draft stock.

“I didn’t think it was coming. I think that game against Dillon Tate got me noticed,” Schwanke said. “I got a couple of texts from my buddies saying ‘congratulations’ and I am like ‘what are you guys talking about’ and sure enough about ten minutes later I get a call from the area scout. I really didn’t know what to say. I was speechless.”

Willie’s playing days are behind him, but Schwanke has a newfound passion in videography and photography. Schwanke’s start in videography and photography began while he was a member of

the Shocker baseball team.

“A couple of my teammates at the time, Trey Vickers and Travis Young, they started their own Instagram page for their hunting and they told me since I fish all the time that I should do the same thing,” Schwanke said. “Eventually I did it and it kind of blew up really really fast, I used nothing but a GoPro and it got up to the point where the most followers I had was 36,000 followers for my fishing page.”

Schwanke’s burning passion for videography and photography heightened when he shot the wedding of Wichita State Baseball Graduate Manager Nate Brisco.

“He asked me to film his wedding and instead of a payment for the wedding itself, he went in and paid half of my first camera,” Schwanke said. “So we did that, filmed his wedding and kind of realized that I enjoy that and that is kind of when all the passion came from.”

Schwanke said his favorite part

about videography and photography is capturing life-changing moments.

“We capture moments and videos that don’t go away, we capture forever moments,” Schwanke said. “You take a huge sense of pride to capture anything and everything, especially those bigger moments for those athletes, because whenever their day comes, when they’re done playing, they can have those times and those pictures and videos to look back on and that’s pretty cool and surreal to me.”

Eric Wedge is in his second season as head coach for the Wichita State baseball program.

Schwanke said he believes that Wedge and the rest of the coaching staff can lead the Shockers to great success in the upcoming years.

“100% think it’s going the right way,” Schwanke said. “I think the energy is different, I think the culture is different and you’re starting to see the fan base buy in as well.”

Wichita State student-athletes journeys through mental health struggles

BY SEAN MARTY

Just like many athletes across the country, men’s tennis player Marius Frosa struggled in adjusting to the collegiate level.

Frosa, a Galati, Romania native, has played the last five seasons with the Shockers. Wichita State men’s tennis coach Danny Bryan said Frosa had a difficult transition to WSU as he struggled with a negative mindset during matches on top of adjusting to a new country.

“He would get really down on himself, he’d be really tough on himself. We definitely went through some tough times with him,” Bryan said.

“A couple years ago he started to see things differently. I think the stuff at the beginning was the pressure he was putting on himself and he didn’t know how to handle it yet. He was willing to make those changes with his mentality.”

Frosa isn’t the only one who has been open with his struggles.

Murkel Dellien, Frosa’s teammate is also adjusting to a new country and culture. Dellien said that a mindset change has paid dividends this season after having to quarantine on top of everything he was dealing with.

“I couldn’t find my game on the court and I was really struggling mentally,” Dellien said. “After that, I came back stronger to practice and with the right mentality.

Everything started with the first match in Texas against Texas Tech. It was the start of building my confidence then, it was really important for me. Now, that match against Pepperdine was special but at the same time was an extra push for me to believe that I can be that

kind of player.”

With student-athletes, their mental health has been especially affected after the COVID-19 pandemic took away sports. Many athletes relied on sports as an escape but the pandemic took that away from them.

For volleyball junior Megan Taflinger, the sports cancellations especially played a factor as the team had to slowly adjust to just playing against their teammates in practice with the lack of games.

“I think the ability to play against other teams is to test to see how good of a team you are,” Taflinger said. “Our team has stayed motivated during this whole thing as well as our coaches. But it would be nice to play someone else to see where we’re at. We don’t really have any perception on that scale. We’re only playing against each other.”

For cross country head coach Kirk Hunter, he felt that missing out on those during the fall played a greater factor, especially since many of his athletes missed out on practice after the Track and Field season was prematurely canceled last year.

“Right now, the only things these kids have to hold on to is practice,” Hunter said. “Last spring, when they took away the competition and the practices, it just destroyed my kids. My concern would be if we lose that. If we lose that too, then I’m going to be very worried about my student-athletes.

Right now, I think we can maintain as long as we at least have our practices, for now.”

In one of the most mentally grueling sports that there is, junior Marcus Wochner said it has been challenging mentally over the years. On top of having to adjust to a new school, Wochner has to

“He would get really down on himself, he’d be really tough on himself. We definitely went through some tough times with him.”

DANNY BRYAN Men’s Tennis Head Coach

adjust to a new country.

Wochner, a Denmark native, originally arrived in the United States three years ago when he went to play golf at Odessa Community College.

Wochner said the adjustment to a new country has been a difficult one.

“It’s been very different, especially the culture,” Wochner said.

“The most different thing has been mostly everything basically.”

Wochner said his enjoyment of golf has helped his mental health.

“I don’t want to be overfocused on the golf course but I’d rather have fun and just play golf,” Wochner said. “Either you hit a good or a bad shot so why not get it over with quicker instead of thinking about a whole lot. Just hit the shot, it’s either a good one or a bad one. Basically, just have fun with it. That’s the biggest difference I’ve had over the last three weeks.”

Gretchen Torline has served as the Director of Athletic Academic Services for WSU Athletics for the past 30 years. Torline said that she has seen plenty of mental health issues take place during her time at WSU especially with what the student-athletes have to juggle with their workload.

“I’ve seen it all along, I think students in general it’s tough even if they’re working a full-time job

ILLUSTRATION BY KAYLEE STOUT / THE SUNFLOWER

and taking a full load of classes, it’s a lot,” Torline said. “I think some of them put a lot of pressure on themselves. It is like a full-time job with everything that they have to do with practice and conditioning and athletic training. They have a lot of stuff to do.”

Torline said COVID-19 hit student-athletes especially hard at the onset because they had sports taken away from them. But even after they came back, the athletes were constricted to a “bubble” environment, which played an even greater factor on their mental health.

“They had sports taken away but even when they came back, they could practice and compete, they couldn’t go out and see people,” Torline said. “I know I talked with some men’s basketball players when the season was over and especially the new kids felt like they missed out on a lot. They just never got a feeling of the true experience of being in college and competing.”

Torline said that virtual learning hit her athletes especially hard and the chance that next semester will have face-to-face learning has excited many of them.

“That was a huge struggle for a

lot of my student-athletes,” Torline said. “It’s hard. They really didn’t like learning virtually. You can’t connect and you don’t have that interpersonal communication with your professor and other students in the class.”

Torline said that having these athletes become more open about their mental health struggles can further help eliminate the stigma around.

“It’s very important and that’s why we try to do a lot of education with them and let them know that talking about it and letting people know that you’re struggling mentally is not anything of a sign of weakness,” Torline said. “That’s kind of hard for athletes sometimes, they want to be strong and tough and push through and they have some issues that they feel is a sign of weakness. I think the stigma is going away on that and we hope more and more.”

This story was produced by WSU’s Advanced News Reporting class as part of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of seven media companies, including The Sunflower, working together to bring timely and accurate news and information to Kansans.

SPORTS

4 | MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

Softball drops first conference series of the season

BY EMMIE BOESE elboese15@gmail.com / @elboese15

The Wichita State Women’s Softball team went 1-3 in their series against the University of South Florida. This is their first conference series they have lost this season. Their overall record is 33-9-1. Their conference record sits at 15-4-1.

In game one of the series on Friday, the Shockers lost to USF 2-1. The Bulls took the lead early in the game. In the top of the first, they homered to left center field to make it a 1-0 game. USF scored again in the top of the 5th to make it a 2-0 game.

However, the Shockers responded in the bottom of the 6th. Sophomore shortstop Sydney McKinney singled to first base and then freshman right fielder Addison Barnard delivered an RBI triple, leading McKinney to score.

Despite other chances to come back, this would be the Shockers only run scored in game one.

Senior pitcher Bailey Lange got the start in the circle for the Shockers. She allowed five hits and two runs.

On Saturday, April 24 the Shockers split in their double-header with USF. In game two of the series, the Shockers runruled USF. The final score was 14-3.

The Shockers started out in the lead early, when senior catcher Madison Perrigan homered to left center. They added one more run in the inning to make it a 2-0 game.

The Shockers added on three more runs in the bottom of the 2nd. Their biggest scoring stretch came in the bottom of the 3rd with six runs scored. The Shockers hit

back to back home runs in the bottom of the 3rd from Perrigan and Barnard.

In the bottom of the 4th, freshman left fielder Bailey Urban hit her first home run of the season.

Freshman designated hitter Camryn Compton then homered to center field. The Shockers scored a total of three runs in the 4th. In the top of the 5th, USF added on three more runs.

Junior pitcher Caitlin Bingham started in the circle for the Shockers. She pitched 4.0 innings.

She allowed zero runs and two hits, while striking out three batters. Senior pitcher Hailey Martinez finished the game off in the top of the 5th.

In game three of the series the Shockers lost 3-0. The game remained scoreless until the top of the 5th when USF added a pair of runs. USF added one more run in the top of the 6th.

Lange started in the circle for the Shockers. She allowed three runs on four hits.

Perrigan said she was frustrated for her and her team that they did not produce an offensive threat in their second game of their double-header on Saturday.

“It’s hard to score fourteen runs and then you know the next game will come out and you know what your offense can do and whenever it doesn’t produce it is frustrating,” Perrigan said. “It’s all about our offense making the adjustments because we know we can hit any type of pitching, any pitcher that’s in the circle.”

On Sunday, April 25 the Shockers lost to USF 8-1. The Shockers scored in the bottom of the 1st on a triple from McKinney.

USF tied the game up in the top of the 3rd.

After a scoreless 4th inning, USF put up seven runs in the top of the 5th. The rest of the game remained scoreless.

Bingham started for the Shockers and allowed seven runs on nine hits, and one walk. She pitched for 4.2 innings. Junior pitcher Erin McDonald finished the game off. She struck out five batters in the 2.1 innings that she pitched.

Head coach Kristi Bredbenner mentioned the play of USF pitcher Georgina Corrick and her ability to challenge the Shockers at the plate this weekend.

“She’s got great velocity, great command, and then she has a devastating changeup,” Bredbenner said. “You know we’re watching there and she’s throwing hard in on your hands, and you’ve got to get out in front and turn on that pitch but then she throws you in the same exact spot you know something that’s 15 mph slower, and you know that’s tough to hit.”

The Shockers will play Oklahoma State University at home on Tuesday, April 27. They will then play at Tulsa later in the week. Coach Bredbenner said the team’s focus will be to test the defense as their schedule continues to be tough.

“We have a really tough schedule here on the back end,” Bredbenner said. “You know we’ve got to figure out ways to compete.

That’s going to have to be our focus heading into next week is to test the defense and you know make it a little more competitive up at the plate. “

PHOTO BY KAYLEE STOUT / THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State junior, Neleigh Herring throws the ball while warming up during a game against USF at Wilkins Stadium on April 23, 2021.

PHOTO BY MONIQUE GAINES / THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State senior Bailey Lange pitches during the game against South Florida at Wilkins Stadium on April 24, 2021.

Shockers record highest finish at AAC Championships

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com / @TheSeanMarty

The Wichita State men’s golf program recorded their highest ever finish at the American Athletic Conference Championships this weekend with a fourth place finish in Brooksville, Florida.

After day one of the tournament, the Shockers found themselves in last place of the eight-team field at nine over par. WSU made a big climb on Saturday, pushing themselves back into contention with an 18-shot improvement from Friday.

WSU was unable to climb any closer on the final day of the tournament as they dropped down to fourth place. Sunday’s performance helped clinch the first top-five finish at the AAC Championships for WSU since joining the conference in 2016.

The Shockers had finished in 10th place in the two previous tournaments.

“The guys really bounced back yesterday in the second round, that’s probably one of the best rounds in Shocker golf history,” head coach Judd Easterling said.

“To shoot nine under par and get us back in contention. We legit had a chance to win today. They competed really hard again in the final round, playing with the leaders and pretty pleased overall with the fourth place finish.”

Marcus Wochner led the way throughout the week and finished in second place individually. Wochner entered Sunday with a three shot lead but South Florida’s Albin Bergstrom’s final round of 66 was enough to overtake Wochner. Wochner secured his runner-up finish at the tournament with a par on the final hole.

Wochner’s 17 birdies for this weekend were tied for the most among the competition. His 208 across the 54 holes were the best by a Shocker at a conference championship since Connor McHenry won the Missouri Valley Conference title in 2008 with the same score.

“He’s been our leader all

spring, he’s played great,” Easterling said. “He’s got four or five top-five finishes now, especially going up against the AAC guys. It was a really tough field this week and to be the individual runner-up, it’s a testament to how hard he’s worked this semester, how prepared he is for every event and he’s come a long way this spring.”

All five Shockers finished in the top-35 for the tournament with Frank Thomas and Zac Owens earning top-20 finishes.

In Easterling’s second season with the Shockers, WSU collected a title at the Grand Canyon Invitational along with three other top-five finishes.

Easterling said that the spring season helped give the team a lot of confidence moving forward.

“It went by so fast but they’re starting to believe in themselves that we can compete against the SMU and South Florida,” Easterling said. “To be able to finish in fourth and be able to finish in second or third if we get off to a better start. We’re getting better and I think the guys are starting to believe in themselves more and overall, I’m happy with the spring.”

WSU’s future looks bright as they are set to return nine of their ten players for next season.

Easterling said with the improvement of the program over the past couple of years, the next couple of seasons could be special.

“Every year we’re getting better,” Easterling said. “Next year and the year after that are going to be special with the guys coming back and the new guys we’ve got coming in. We took really big strides this spring, a couple of the returners worked really hard over winter break and last summer and last fall. I think next year and the year after that could be special for Shocker golf.”

Although WSU’s team season has come to a close, with Wochner’s strong performance at the championships, he could be in line for an at-large spot for an NCAA regional. The NCAA will announce its regional selections on May 5.

PHOTO BY LENA ALHALLAQ / THE SUNFLOWER

Wichita State freshman Addison Barnard jogs to the dugout during the game against South Florida at Wilkins Stadium on April 25.

Addison Barnard stands out in first season of her college career

BY EMMIE BOESE @elboese15@gmail.com / @elboese15

You have probably heard the name Addison Barnard if you have been following the Wichita State Women’s Softball team.

Barnard recently broke the single season home run record recently at Wichita State. She broke the record with 18 home runs.

Barnard is a freshman from a small town called Beatrice, Nebraska and plays right field for the Shockers. Barnard committed early on to Wichita State in the fall of her sophomore year of high school.

Wichita State was Barnard’s first offer. She said she committed early so she could play stress free during summer ball. Barnard decided to go to a three day camp in the summer during her sophomore year of high school at Wichita State and from there she was sold.

“It just felt kind of like home because Kansas is not far away from Nebraska and I’m always like used to growing up on a farm [and] it’s not very busy so I liked the feel,” Barnard said.”I didn’t want to be in a place where there are so many people. It stuck out to me because the coach was really personable, and really communicated with me, and showed me an interest when I was really young.”

Head Coach Kristi Bredbenner

“The stars aligned for me for somebody that was going to be a good athlete in our program for us.”

KRISTI BREDBENNER Head Coach

said she recognized Barnard’s talent before she got to Wichita State and was excited for what was to come in the future.

“Well she was super fast, that was the first thing we noticed about her,” Bredbenner said. “She ran home to home in 10.2 seconds.

Just worked hard, was very athletic, good arm, hit well you know she was young at that time. The stars aligned for me for somebody that was going to be a good athlete in our program for us.”

Bredbenner and her coaching staff knew that Barnard was a talented player, but in the fall before the season started, they were surprised by how fast she swung the bat.

“Her bat speed is tremendous and that was something that she came in with that I don’t think we necessarily recognized until she got here,” Bredbenner said.“When we saw that in the fall it was like oh this kids good, [and] we are going to have to figure out how to get her

in the lineup consistently.”

It was always Barnard’s dream of moving on to the next level but she felt like it was real when she started high school.

“It started to become a reality when I was like oh, I can actually go on to a higher level when I was a freshman in high school because I started playing at a higher level of club ball, and I started getting into a bigger organization for going to the higher level,” Barnard said.

Barnard said she was caught off guard with getting a lot of playing time this season due to the amount of upperclassmen the Shockers have. She thought at best she would just be a baserunner for her freshman season. However, Barnard proved herself wrong at the beginning of the season. In one of the teams first tournaments, Barnard’s coaches told her to be ready to play.

“I definitely expected to get more playing time when I was older just because we have a lot of seniors coming back, and so I never really expected to play my freshman year,” Barnard said. “The coaches were like just be ready because you are probably going to have to play the first game, and so after the first game I was really nervous but then I got settled in and I did pretty good.”

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021 | 5

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Opinion

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contact The Sunflower’s opinion editor, Audrey Korte opinion@thesunflower.com

Derek Chauvin found guilty: It’s not a celebration —it’s a relief.

Audrey Korte Opinion editor opinion@thesunflower.com

In eight weeks, Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer who murdered George Floyd, will be sentenced.

As just about everyone now knows, George Floyd was killed in 2020 after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by Chauvin’s knee in an episode that was captured on video, touching off nationwide protests.

The murder of George Floyd spoke to a truly alarming trend — one in which Black men and women are killed indiscriminately by police officers. These officers have rarely been held to account for their actions. Until yesterday.

After about a day of deliberations, the jury found Chauvin guilty of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

The verdict was read a little after 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, April 20.

Cities around the country had braced for the worst. The expectation was that if Chauvin were acquitted, protesters would once again take to the streets to raise their voices against racial injustice.

Many of us hoped to see Chauvin held accountable. Still, history has shown us too often that officers aren’t generally held responsible for their actions against Black Americans. But in an astonishing move, Chauvin was found guilty.

Some of us had struggled to process these events, especially in the surreal past year when protests mixed with the pandemic in a truly contentious time in American history. It seemed like everything was debatable; everything was politically charged.

There were times in this past year where I was angry. Angry at fellow citizens for their cruelty and selfishness. I was also angry at our shared history and the inability or unwillingness of many people to take responsibility for a truly broken justice system.

It’s always hard to have conversations about race. It’s hard to admit that our country was built

ILLUSTRATION BY KAYLEE STOUT / THE SUNFLOWER

on the backs of slaves and that discrimination persists. It’s hard to come to terms with reality, particularly when our history books have been whitewashed.

Many of us were taught to avoid these topics growing up. Generations of Caucasian Americans were taught that talking about racism was uncouth; it was to be avoided.

But the Chauvin trial and that heart-wrenching video of Chauvin murdering Floyd have forced some, but not all of us, to face reality. Still, we must do better.

In the last year, I had many conversations with friends in Africa about what was happening in America. It was hard to explain to them what was happening and why because there’s no way to understand the situation without tracing our history, without explaining where we went wrong and how many times we’ve done so.

“Why don’t they like us?” was one question I heard many times

from Black African men in previous months, and I have genuinely struggled to respond. It would have been easy to say, “I don’t know.”

But upon recognizing that this was an opportunity to have difficult conversations, to complicate the narratives if you will, I elected to do my best to answer these questions.

Now I don’t know if I did it right. That’s important to admit.

There are certainly people who would do a better job at explaining racism than I. It’s especially hard to speak to an experience that I can’t claim. As a white American protestant woman from New England, I have never feared for my life when getting pulled over by police. I don’t have to worry about the same safety issues as my Black friends, and that’s painful. It makes you feel guilty by association.

But here is one thing I am sure of — we will not get better, and we won’t heal if we don’t try to understand our collective history. If we don’t think about the experiences

of those who are different than us, we will never improve. Worse still, we will allow ourselves to continue to bury our heads in the sand because the topic of racism is challenging; it hurts. That’s especially dangerous.

I hope that this is a jumping-off point. I hope that teachers take this opportunity to answer student’s questions. I hope that clergy will preach powerful sermons on tolerance and love. I hope that journalists do a better job of sharing real stories of Black and minority populations — that don’t hinge on crime or rely on mugshots. I hope we give each other a helping hand. I hope we come to the table ready to offer each other a seat instead of sitting bullheaded with arms crossed, acting like we have nothing to learn from each other.

I hope that we all do a hefty amount of reading and listening in the coming years and that we can one day admit our system is broken if we’re not able to right now.

Yesterday as I watched the verdict being read in the Chavin case, I started crying. I said to my family, “I never thought I’d live to see the day.” And it’s true. I and millions of others wanted to see Chauvin found guilty not because we delight in someone’s downfall but because accountability is the first step towards justice. If we don’t hold our most powerful and corrupt citizens to account for murder, then what are we doing here? How can we claim to be just?

How can we claim to be civil?

I expected to feel happy at the news, but I didn’t. I felt relief.

Those are two distinct emotions.

Relief is alleviation, ease, or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress or oppression.

That perfectly sums up how I’ve felt since the verdict was read. I am relieved that there is some accountability for a corrupt police officer’s actions. I am relieved that we don’t have to watch cities burn.

I am relieved that police officers everywhere are taking a hard look at their towns, their training, and their practices and procedures. I am relieved that it feels like finally, after centuries, we may be making the kind of progress I expect from this country.

That’s not to say this is over.

Three more officers will go to trial in August. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane, all of whom were fired and arrested days after Floyd died last May, face charges at a trial on August 23 that they aided and abetted second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter of Floyd.

And again, I find no joy in these trials — none whatsoever. My heart goes out to their families. But we must rise above our discomfort.

We must reckon with the past.

We must hold people accountable and seek justice in this case and every other. I envision a world where my friends don’t have to fear the police, where they get treated the same way I do. But like it or not, we have miles to go before that happens.

It’s no time to fall asleep at the wheel. We have to push through the pain and give Black Americans the relief and justice they deserve.

STRETCHING MY LIMITS: MY FIRST TIME EXPERIENCING YOGA Tabitha Barr A&E editor arts@thesunflower.com

I don’t relax often, and when I do, it’s mostly just me time in the dark. But as I’m growing up, I want to try new things and experience life to the fullest. On Friday, April 23, Wichita State University held Shocker Yoga in the Heskett Center. I had never been to a yoga class before so I didn’t know what to expect.

I brought along my friend Taylor Terpstra and we ventured

over to the building. As we walked in, we noticed pretty fast that we might be the only students attending. It made me feel comfortable knowing no one else was around my first time trying something new.

Rex Hafenstine, a student council graduate student, was in charge of the class and told us what we needed to grab and where to set up. We grabbed our mats, rope, blocks and water, and headed to the front to set up. I was nervous to say the least but I felt better that my friend was by my side.

The class was an hour long but it didn’t feel like it. It was a workout, but it was also very relaxing.

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We started with the basics, and went through each pose carefully.

Downward dog, the sitting chair, high lunge, Warrior I and II, child’s pose, cobra pose, cow pose and more.

It was a lot of movement and opening up of the body. I enjoyed letting my body move freely throughout the whole class because I don’t stretch as often as I should. So having a class where your body is stretched in new ways makes the body a little sore. I am indeed feeling it the days after and so did my friend.

It was an enlightening experience because it was an hour

of fully understanding my body.

Opening up certain areas in my body made me feel more connected to myself. I know I sound a little ‘hippie-dippie’ but it truly made me feel more comfortable with myself.

Yoga or any exercise you like, whatever that may be, is important for the soul. Even if you just happen to go on a walk or stretch out your muscles for 15 minutes, it does the body good.

If I have the opportunity to join another class, I definitely will. Even though my body is sore as heck, I enjoyed the time of relaxation and focus.

SUNFLOWER HOT TAKES The Sunflower editorial staff gives their one-sentence opinions.

Lindsay Smith: I cry.

Tabitha Barr: Dress codes are stupid.

Julia Nightengale: Bizarre is a bizarre word.

Kaylee Stout: Nice weather boosts your mood.

Sean Marty: I have an addiction to buying white shoes.

Yoga is close in proximity to meditation, which is not my forte.

However, I commend people who do it daily. Maybe one day I’ll find my way into it, but for now, I’ll stick to other things.

We ended the class with a 10 minute relaxation period in the reclining bound angle pose.

Hafenstine turned off the lights and had candles lit to give off soft light. He played peaceful music and we relaxed in the space. It was a lovely way to end the class and it made me feel so relaxed.

6 | MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021

OPINION

Would I go to graduate school again? That’s the big question.

Audrey Korte Opinion editor opinion@thesunflower.com

Graduate school has been challenging. I expected it to be.

But graduate school in a pandemic? Well, it’s not exactly what I signed up for. Regardless, I’ve learned a lot. And I’d do it again.

I think.

Let’s just say I am almost convinced it was worth it. I’ll let you know for sure when I finish this summer.

I’ve given this subject a lot of thought lately. I’ve been asked this question several times — ‘why did you go to grad school?’

Some people do it because they want a future in academia.

Some people want to investigate things; they like research. Some people believe it will increase their pay or advance their careers.

For me, it was pretty simple. I wanted to do more, and I hadn’t gained all the skills in my undergraduate years that I thought journalism required. I had just started to learn how to produce audio. I had just started to find my reporting voice and figure out what got me excited and what I was good at.

The biggest thing was that I didn’t feel like I could walk into any newsroom in any city and make my case for why I should get a job there. And that bothered me. I had done some work I was proud of. But I hadn’t really figured out how to incorporate history, research, the local community, and reporting on solutions to systemic problems in one article or project. And I wanted the chance to do that.

I knew that I could probably get a job in a small town newspaper somewhere, and that’s good. It’s far ahead of where I was when I arrived in Wichita in 2016, but it’s not where I wanted to be.

So I stayed.

Education has always been vital in my family. I’ve lived on various school campuses, watched both parents get Master’s degrees, and one get her

Doctorate. I was surrounded by people at a young age who were doggedly pursuing advanced degrees or trying to get studies published and funded. So this world isn’t new to me.

While some would assume that this made things easier, I actually think it’s made things harder. For one thing, I’ve never felt good enough. Another issue is that I have been painfully aware of the flaws of academia and institutions for decades.

I’ve seen things go sideways, repeatedly.

Then there’s the teaching. Not every graduate student teaches.

But I do. It’s been an incredible opportunity to get my degree paid for. But it’s a ton of responsibility and hard work, and I struggled substantially to balance everything.

Being a graduate teaching assistant has been challenging.

The people in my group have had the added pressure of re-learning how to teach online during the pandemic with only one year of teaching experience under our belts. Everything we did in year one was turned on its head in year two. We even had to learn to teach a new book in addition to learning how to teach online.

There isn’t an educator out there who had an easy year, but we are paid far less than a faculty member for our teaching. My criticisms of GTA programs, in general, have grown throughout the year. But WSU’s Elliott School of Communication doesn’t do anything wrong here as far as I can see. I want to be clear about that.

I’ve felt incredibly supported throughout my graduate education and graduate teaching career. Still, GTA programs across the nation need an overhaul, especially when it comes to pay and support for those who are struggling. People at WSU bent over backward to accommodate me and help me, especially when I contracted COVID-19. I have no complaints here.

However, all the GTA’s have other jobs, and to be honest, it’s too much. The number of all-nighters I pulled last year hit a fever pitch as I received a

fellowship to Africa and was planning that journey and diplomatic “mission” while producing The Sunflower News Podcast and teaching and going to school full time.

It was brutal. It still is, but as I inch towards the finish line, at least I know it’s almost over.

In addition, I am very excited about the graduate project I am working on. It is the perfect opportunity to showcase what I’ve learned, use the connections I started building as an undergrad, to use multiple mediums, and do a combination of hefty research on local history and current events. It’s not easy, of course. This project has no blueprint, so I’ve been creating one throughout the year. It’s meant participating in many journalism and research trainings all over the country to make sure I can pull this off. But it’s precisely what I want to be doing.

That’s one place where graduate school shines. You actually get to go deep into the areas in which you are interested.

For some, it’s overwhelming. For me, it’s been a joy. The hardest thing is reigning myself in and remembering -- it’s not a dissertation. Literally, it’s an M.A., so not everything has to be 10,000 words with 900 sources.

I like puzzles. I don’t shy away from hard things. I like finding answers and asking thought-provoking questions. I like putting something out into the world that might help people and make them think. And I am good at thinking on my feet.

So if you feel you have these skills, I’d recommend thinking about graduate school.

The people in my program have done everything but stand on their heads to get me this far. I haven’t had to stand on my head either, but you never know. I don’t finish until August — there’s still time. It wouldn’t surprise me if they asked me to.

As for whether or not I’d do it again, though?

I’d say I’m 91.7% sure I would.

Dress Codes are unfair and outdated Tabitha Barr A&E editor arts@thesunflower.com

As a woman, I have been fighting dress codes my entire life.

No spaghetti straps, no booty shorts, nothing that goes above your fingertips, no leggings, no crop tops, no tattoos, no piercings, no colored hair, no this, no that, no to being an individual.

Why are we so caught up in what people wear and what they look like instead of how they act?

School dress codes are absolutely ridiculous, but workplace dress codes are almost worse. Why is my wardrobe part of anyone’s concern?

Clothes fit people differently and it shouldn’t be so restrictive.

I personally am a bigger gal and clothes fit me differently than someone who is petite. If that same person wore my outfit, they wouldn’t get in trouble, but because I’m bigger, the dress code is already against me.

I understand that there needs to be some sort of regulations, but it shouldn’t be discriminatory against those who don’t have society’s ideal body. I have never had the ideal body type and have always struggled with getting dress coded.

In a workplace, the biggest concern most likely is customer service. The way I treat people has nothing to do with how I look or how I dress. You should not be looking at me and think, “that shirt is too low cut.”

You know who should care? Not you.

I don’t care what your opinion is about the way I dress, that has nothing to do with you. Just

because my clothes fit differently on my body, it should not make me a violation of the dress code.

I understand I work for a company, but companies that have outdated and uncultured dress codes need to go. We aren’t in the 1800s, why are we still acting like it?

My hair, my piercings, my tattoos, my wardrobe, should never affect my job. My personality doesn’t change just because I have a tattoo.

Dress codes are biased against women, transgender, religious, etc. and it’s old school to think that they should still exist. If what a person is wearing is part of their culture, let it be. If a person feels comfortable in their body and is wearing something to compliment it, let it be. Just let us live.

Don’t even get me started when companies pull people away from their jobs or education just because they aren’t “dressed correctly”. You are taking them away from something important and needed. Stop treating people like their bodies are all that matter.

It’s a sickening way to traumatize growing minds and adults too. My body and what I chose to do with it should never be your concern. I am not you Barbie Doll, stop trying to keep me in the box.

A company’s clientele also should not define the dress code.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have a customer who is nice to me, rather than someone who complains about my shoulders showing.

Mind your own business and wear what you wanna wear. Just let people be themselves and do whatever they want. This world has too much going on for you to be worried about how I dress.

Skinny jeans and side parts are out the door and so is a relationship between generations Mykaela Gardner Columnist

Fashion, an ever-changing industry that tries to convince the average person that your entire wardrobe must be able to change at a drop of a hat. Unfortunately, your favorite pair of shoes that you wear all the time may become hideous and out of date at any time.

Some such unfortunate examples of dearly departed fashion trends are the mullet of the eighties, the bell-bottoms of the sixties, and the dreaded whale tail of the early two-thousands.

Fashion trends come and go. This is a part of pop culture.

However, these fashion trends have never caused any severe backlash, until now, that is.

Skinny jeans, a once dominating staple of the average teenager’s closet, and side parts, a classic and once-popular hairstyle, face the end of their trendiness life span, but not without a fight.

Through the popular social media app TikTok, Generation Z has painted a detailed picture of the stereotypical millennial over the past year. This stereotype includes the excessive use

of the crying laughing emoji and the word “doggo” and an almost unhealthy obsession with franchises such as Disney and Harry Potter, as well as, of course, wine, lots of wine.

However, the most crucial image that a typical millennial exudes is that of an individual who loves their skinny jeans and side parts. This particular portrait of a stereotypical millennial has stuck around for a while and was actually perceived as “correct” from the generation, particularly during the summer of 2020 when an anti-millennial tweet of a TikToker’s comment went viral.

The comment included such statements as, “They’re worried about their Harry Potter house, but they live in a one bedroom apartment... y’all worried about the wrong houses,” which is a painfully accurate statement.

A good-humored response to the millennial depiction was not to last. An article in The Walrus

by Silja Rizvic titled “Everybody Hates Millennials: Gen Z and the TikTok Generation Wars” completely changed the conversation.

Millennials started taking the stereotype personally, particularly regarding the concept that their skinny jeans and side parts were considered hopelessly uncool.

“Generation Z may not be perfect, but it is important to remember that gen Z has fought some hard battles.”

The original tweets associated with the attack were lighthearted and clearly meant to be taken as jokes. One such tweet by Twitter user Maya Kosoff was, “parted my hair down the middle due to my recent understanding that this is a gen z trait and had the horrible realization that it just makes me look like rick from Degrassi.”

Unfortunately, some responses were not as lighthearted. Becky Vieira tweeted her response, “Hey Gen Z. I’ve faced infertility, PPD and suicidal thoughts, had my abdomen sliced open during childbirth & peed in a diaper. I pay a mortgage, work, and school my kid in a pandemic. It’s cute that you think I have time or f*cks to give about what you think of my hair and jeans.”

The difference in severity in both responses went from 0 to 100 real quickly. The thing is that the later tweet was most likely written by an exhausted person who has been hit relatively hard

by the current state of the world.

However, they are not the only one who has problems. They are taking this way too seriously.

No one is attacking you, and it’s not that personal.

The original TikTok videos and comments that started this controversy were by a bunch of kids who were simply having fun teasing older people, you know, like kids do. Fashion and popular culture are some of the only things that younger generations, like gen Z, have a major influence over, so they’re going to exploit it. Of course, skinny jeans would not be seen as “fashion-forward.”

Also, it’s not like the entire generation is anti-millennial. The generation has been shown to support millennial celebrities and public figures hard.

Generational divides have existed for as long as there have been older and younger people.

Old people have always been seen as being stuck in their ways and behind the times, while younger people are seen as rude and spoiled because “back in my day…”.

Not only has this been going on since the dawn of time, but this controversy is barely even controversial. Does no one remember how older generations have

insulted millennials by calling them self-centered and narcissistic? Or that they were described as having “Peter Pan syndrome,” meaning they didn’t want to grow up?

Countless times they were blamed for failing industries because, as a whole, they didn’t want to buy certain products. Kate Taylor’s 2018 article “18 Industries which are being killed by Millenials” shows that Millennials have been attacked so much that they think everyone is against them.

Generation Z may not be perfect, but it is important to remember that gen Z has fought some hard battles. They’ve tried to defend themselves and millennials through movements such as “Ok Boomer,” which was a way of fighting back against the boomer generation as they often dismissed the thoughts and ideas of younger people, It is so easy to dismiss other generations. Still, it is essential to remember that we are all fighting the same fight and that we all want to be respected. So wear your skinny jeans and rock your side parts, it’s not that deep.

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2020 | 7

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Arts & Entertainment

HAVE A STORY IDEA? contact The Sunflower’s A&E editor, Tabitha Barr arts@thesunflower.com

Laura Lapp discusses sustainability efforts in colleges across the country

BY JULIA NIGHTENGALE copyeditor@thesunflower.com

Laura Lapp is the vice president of sustainability and culinary services at Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services. She is a registered dietitian and has been working for Chartwells for 15 years, and for the last five years has been leading the culinary and sustainability initiatives in the organization.

“We’ve really come full circle, now our culinary teams are thinking about all of these components and pieces of how a meal comes together and what’s represented on that plate,” Lapp said.

Chartwells culinary commitment is to serve functional foods with religious accommodation and that is also allergen friendly. They source responsibly and locally, with small batch cooking, authentic flavors and ethnic cuisine.

“It’s a really great time for them to learn a lot of habits that they can take with them into adulthood,” Lapp said. “What we have found is that students are seeking out these functional types of ingredients within their meal choices because they want to perform well in school and perform well in sports and activities.”

Lapp said that food insecurity plays a critical role on graduation and retention rates on campus and influences how well a student does in classes, and Chartwells wants to be part of the solution. They provide economic support directly

to campuses and increase access to food. They set up a notification app to notify students who signed up when there is leftover food that they can pick up for dinner or lunch.

As an organization, Lapp said they are trying to reduce single use plastics. With leftover food, they use the ‘waste not’ tool in kitchens to record what exactly is being wasted and retrain associates if needed to reduce food waste.

“Every time we send food waste directly to landfill, it has an increasingly negative effect on carbon emissions . . . everytime we put food in the garbage we are throwing away our money as much as we are throwing away the resources that went into producing that food,” Lapp said.

While recycling correctly is confusing and challenging, Chartwells is looking for alternatives to single use plastics in their to-go containers. They eliminated foam, and the plastic that they do use contains some type of post-consumer recycled content, while still promoting recycling programs. They are also using products from molded fiber and reusable container solutions that can be returned after the students use them in easy access return bins.

“One of the biggest things that is misunderstood is to lean toward compostable disposables even if you’re not composting,” Lapp said.

“It acts just like any product in landfill because those are closed air systems and compostable

“It’s amazing how we can completely flip an entire dining hall and make it all plantbased, and the really cool thing is kids are absolutely loving it.”

Laura Lapp Chartwells Vice President of Sustainability and Culinary Services

products need air, circulation, and heat to help it decompose.”

Lapp said that 27% of college students consider themselves flexitarian and 20% consider themselves vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian.

“It’s one of the easiest things that all of us can do to reduce our own carbon footprint,” Lapp said.

Every single year, Lapp said they are evolving their plant-based recipes, adding 150 new recipes in the past semester. They introduced the vegetable butcher, which is whole vegetables being baked, seasoned, and treated like meat.

They have also done some vegan takeovers that will expand to locations all across the country.

“It’s amazing how we can completely flip an entire dining hall and make it all plant-based, and the really cool thing is kids are absolutely loving it. They are spending more time in the facility,

Wednesday’s Wellness Week: Create your space

they are trying more of the foods.

The feedback that we are getting from their experience is that it tasted better than what they had for lunch yesterday,” Lapp said.

In terms of sourcing responsibly, Chartwells has multiple initiatives they have introduced.

Chartwells offers only Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) certified humane, cage free shell eggs nationwide. They are hoping to have a 100% transition at all locations this summer.

In terms of seafood, they follow guidelines set by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program and only consider seafood that is rated ‘Best Choice’ (green) or ‘Good Alternative’ (yellow).

“Bycatch is when other animals get caught in nets when fishermen are fishing. Dolphins, sea turtles, can get caught in there and oftentimes those animals don’t survive through the process, so it’s really important how it is actually caught,” Lapp said.

Milk and yogurt is from cows that have been certified free of artificial growth hormones, because studies have linked these hormones to accelerated puberty in children and Chartwells does provide K-12 feeding at one of their locations.

“We consume those animals and the antibiotics that we need to take to clear up an illness are not as effective as they should be because we are exposed to the antibiotics in these animals,” Lapp

said.

Chartwells definition of local foods is food sourced within 250 miles of campus.

“We can partner directly with local farmers, we can go to them and say, ‘what are you planting and what are you willing to sell us’ and we can guarantee we are going to purchase certain amounts of food from farmers,” Lapp said. “It gives those farmers the opportunity to sell as much as that produce as possible and reduce food waste and increases income opportunities.”

Chartwells also has a supplier accelerator program that offers one-on-one mentoring and process guidance with vendors who are minorities to ensure that they are successful.

“Even in the United States, many of our farmworkers are not getting fair wages. The Fair Food program does ensure that. It makes sure they have access to healthcare, have clean and sanitary working conditions, all of these things that we really take for granted on a dayto-day basis that so many people have to advocate for,” Lapp said.

Another initiative that Chartwells is currently focused on is regenerative agriculture, which includes cover crops that helps maintain topsoil and increases the nutrient value of that soil.

“They help keep the health of that soil intact and reduce erosion and put carbon from the air back into that dirt,” Lapp said.

Audience Panel held for “A Walk With Wu”

BY TABITHA BARR arts@thesunflower.com / @TabbyJanelle

On Wednesday, April 21, Students had the opportunity to create their own potted succulents and decorate the planter.

Wednesday’s Wellness Week event, Create Your Space was staffed by Care Team Coordinators Ashlyn Riley and Tara Hanna with assistance from our student worker Caitlin Nolan.

Students could stay design at the event or take the materials as a grab-and-go. 36 students participated, with 24 choosing the grab-and-go option. It was a self care activity to create serenity in a commonly used space.

COURTESY PHOTOS

BY EMMIE BOESE @Elboese15

Wichita State University hosted a virtual discussion panel for the Graphic Novel called “A Walk with WU” on Thursday, April 22 from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. There were seventeen participants.

“A Walk with WU” is a graphic novel that was put together by Wichita State University faculty and staff. The graphic novel is about the history of Wichita State.

Three contributors of the novel were at the event. The event also had two moderators.

The moderators were Instruction and Outreach Librarian Angela Paul and Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian Ethan Lindsay.

Participants included students, faculty, staff, and community members.

Paul said she hoped people took away the hard work that was put into the novel and the use of the University Archives.

“Wichita State has a varied and interesting history!,” Paul said.

“The graphic novel did a great job of conveying this, and I hope people came away from the event understanding better how much love the authors had for creating this book, how creating it was a collaborative effort, and how valuable the University Archives were for this project and will continue to be in the future.”

Paul and Lindsay planned to ask most of the questions during the discussion as moderators.

However, she said that they let their plan subside so the audience could engage more with the panel.

“The audience had great questions,” Paul said. “And the panelists were very engaged with the audience. I’m glad Ethan and I decided to not ask all the questions we had prepared and just let the audience and panelists engage with each other.”

The event will be transcribed and posted on the Shocker Open Access Repository most likely in early May. In order to find it in SOAR you should search “A Walk With WU.”

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021 | 8

PHOTO BY SEAN MARTY / THE SUNFLOWER

Alice Fitzgerald, president of the Green Group, digs at the WSU Community Garden on Wednesday during their Earth Day Event.

BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com /@TheSeanMarty

The Wichita State University Green Group held their Earth Day Event on Wednesday at the WSU Community Garden. Those who attended helped plant at the garden and could make a t-shirt outside of the Rhatigan Student Center.

Alice Fitzgerald, the group’s new president, said that it was important to still have an event take place on Earth Day even with some COVID-19 restrictions in place.

“Green Group is all about sustainability, so of course we have to do something for Earth Day,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s the perfect time to start our garden and get everything planted. We had wanted to do something bigger and we do have online events as well but especially with all the restrictions lifted up, we wanted to be as safe as we could and do the most that we could at the same time.”

Fitzgerald said that Earth Day is like Christmas for the group, so it was important to put on an event.

“It’s kind of our biggest event,” Fitzgerald said. “We wanted to do a big celebration and plant your own succulents, watch a documentary outside. We’re definitely going to keep celebrating it every year. Especially because it’s Earth Day, people are more likely to listen to us about all the things we want to change on campus and all the things we want to change in general.”

Jaden Wood, a freshman member of the Green Group, took part in the event held on Wednesday.

Wood said that it was important for her to be involved with nature on Earth Day. “I wouldn’t say Earth Day holds any special, special meaning but I care about the planet,” Wood said.

“I think we need to do some things

“I wouldn’t say Earth Day holds any special, special meaning but I care about the planet.

I think we need to do some things to disconnect from technology every now and again.”

Green Group holds Earth Day Event to bring awareness to campus initiatives

Jaden Wood

to disconnect from technology every now and again.”

The event, which took place at the Community Garden is located on the northeast corner of Ahlberg Hall. The garden was built in 2020 which gives the opportunity for the campus to grow and harvest crops.

Fitzgerald said that the garden is an important part of the Green Group’s initiative.

“I think it’s a really good opportunity for students,” Fitzgerald said. “I know I moved three hours to go to school and not having a garden or not having anywhere to put my outside energy has been a culture shock for me when I first came to school. I think this gives people not only the opportunity to garden but also people that need food.”

The Green Group is free to join for anyone interested. Fitzgerald said that they are preparing some events for the summer for those looking to get involved.

“We are definitely going to have stuff ready for summer,” Fitzgerald said. “One of our members is a yoga instructor on campus so we’re definitely going to do that. We have our meetings, which we have every other Monday at 5 p.m. Anyone’s welcome, you don’t have to come to every meeting or even every other meeting.”

PHOTOS BY LENA ALHALLAQ / THE SUNFLOWER PHOTO BY SEAN MARTY / THE SUNFLOWER

A goose watches members of the Green Group plant at the WSU Community Garden of Wednesday during their Earth Day Event.

Top: Jaden Wood talks to members of WSU’s Green Group during their Earth Day Event on April 21.

Bottom: Madi Laughlin, the founder of WSU’s Green Group, makes a t-shirt during their Earth Day Event on April 21.