The Towerlight (March 14, 2017) by The Towerlight

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March 14, 2017

Photo Illustration by Cody Boteler & Jordan Stephenson, Photos By Cody Boteler /The Towerlight

March 14, 2017

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March 14, 2017

Week of 3/14-3/18

WEEKLY

Editor-in-Chief Cody Boteler Senior Editor Sam Shelton

CALENDAR

News Editor Sarah Rowan Asst. News Editors Marcus Dieterle Bailey Hendricks Assoc. Arts Editors Taylor DeVille Kristin Helf Asst. Arts Editor McKenna Graham Sports Editor Jordan Cope Asst. Sports Editor Karuga Koinange Staff Writers Desmond Boyle Jesse L. Baird Amanda Carrol

March

Lauren Cosca Sydney Douglas Mary-Ellen Davis Sydney Engelhardt Jill Gattens Rohan Mattu Billy Owens Jessica Ricks

Noontime Jazz Cook Library 3 floor lobby, noon to 1 p.m.

Celebrate Woman’s History Month listening to jazz made by female composers and musicians, preformed by Towson students.

Nicole Shakhnazarova Sierra Underdue Muhammad Waheed Sarah Van Wie Photo Editor Alex Best Staff Photographers Matthew Awoyera

March

Cody Boteler Jordan Cope Mark Dragon Simon Enagonio Maggie Friedman Brooke Glenn

Cup of Positivitea Freedom Square, noon to 2 p.m.

Negative thoughts got you feeling down this week? Stop by Freedom Square to have some tea, write a positive message on your cup, and leave a nice message to brighten someone’s day.

Joseph Hockey Joseph Noyes Stephanie Ranque Sam Shelton William Strang-Moya Brittany Whitham Video Producer Stacey Coles

March

Proofreaders Kayla Baines Stephanie Ranque General Manager Mike Raymond

#ProtectYourPeace Center for Student Diversity, 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Join Dr. Alex Storrs for his presentation on light. If the weather is nice enough, get a chance to look at the night sky via telescope after the show.

Exhibition: Joyce J. Scott and Peter Williams | Dark Humor

March

View art exhibits by two groundbreaking artists who address several social issues in their work such as racism and violence.

Join fellow Black student community members in a discussion on social justice and mental health. This months theme is “We are Not a Monolith.”

TOWSON

Webmaster Lola Akinleye

TRENDING

Circulation Staff Shawn Halerz Nilo Exar Abubakary Kaba Alicia DePasquale

Incoming Snow Stor m. . .

8000 York Road University Union Room 309 Towson, MD 21252 (410) 704-5153 editor@thetowerlight.com thetowerlight.com

Please Recycle!

Smith Hall 521, 8 p.m.

Center for the Arts Gallery, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Art Director Jordan Stephenson

The Towerlight print edition is published by students of Towson University on Tuesdays. The Towerlight is owned by nonprofit Baltimore Student Media Inc., BaltimoreStudentMedia.com. The Towerlight’s advertising deadlines are firm: Wednesday noon for space; Friday noon for art. Classifieds appear online and in print and are self-service at TheTowerlight.com/classifieds. We encourage letters to the editor and online feedback. Commentaries, letters to the editor, editorial cartoons and other editorials express the opinions of their authors and not necessarily the views of the newspaper. The Towerlight does not discriminate based on age, color, condition of handicap, marital status, national origin, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. ©2017 by The Towerlight, 8000 York Rd, Towson, MD 21252. All rights reserved.

March

Light - Planetarium Show

Some motivation for you this lovely Monday morning. Be safe tonight as the snow starts to fall!

I need Towson to give out their snow decision now so I can know how much work I’m not doing

@AnttDawgggg

@TowsonDPhiE

Enjoy your extra hour of sunshine today, Tigers... before the snow. #dumdumdum

@TowsonU

The Towson area supposed to be getting 6-9 inches of snow between Tuesday & Wednesday.. the week of midterms. I like that

@r8cchh

Opinion

March 14, 2017

If it’s not a clear yes

Consider it a resounding no @MeganFemmily

As Spring Break shimmers right around the corner, I thought it’d be a good time to discuss consent and bystander intervention once again. When we talk about consent, the majority of the weight is placed on the person giving or not giving their consent, and I don’t find that to be entirely fair. This way of thinking feeds into our society’s pastime of blaming the survivor of sexual violence for being assaulted. It leads to questions like: “Were you watching your drink?” “Haven’t you had sex before?” “Well, did you actually, literally say the word ‘no’?” As a woman in the world, I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been reminded to watch my drink. And yes, it’s not a bad idea. But if someone slips something into my drink, I refuse to take blame for that. I mean, just thinking about it logically, who is in the wrong? The person who took their eyes off of their drink for 0.2 seconds to check their phone, or the person waiting for a 0.2 second window to drug and incapacitate another human being? You’d think that answer would be clear by now. In terms of sexuality, consent isn’t a one-time all-clear. You don’t just stand on a mountain and shout, “I give my consent!” while the dull rumble of willing partners coming toward you shakes the hillside. You could give your consent 99 times, and on the 100th you could choose not to. If someone ignores that lack of consent that one time, the other 99 don’t make it any less of a serious f*cking problem.

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Sam Shelton/ The Towerlight

Have fun this Spring Break, but remember to take care of each other. Sexual violence is sexual violence, and it holds the same weight whether the survivor has been with zero or 60 partners. Lastly, there are other ways to deny consent other than the word “no.” For example, being too inebriated or scared to say anything at all -- or saying anything even remotely along the lines of “I don’t want to do this, I am not comfortable, I want to stop.” If it’s not a clear, definite “yes,” we need to assume it’s a “no.” So, here’s how we take some of the stress off of individuals: we work as a group to help each other out of situations that don’t feel right. It’s on us as bystanders to prevent sexual violence. Be aware of what’s happening around you. If you go to a bar or a party, keep an eye on people. If you see a situation in which someone seems to be making another person uncomfortable, don’t hesitate to step in. When I say “step in,” however, I don’t mean start yelling and drawing

The responsibility is on all of us to be aware of what happens around us and to step in when something doesn’t seem right.

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attention. You can simply go up to the person who seems uncomfortable and either strike up a conversation with them or ask them to help you with something as a means to remove them from the situation. Once the person who was making them uncomfortable is gone, ask them if everything is okay. They’ll either say yes, everything’s fine, or they’ll tell you no, and you can help them do what they need to be comfortable. This could mean talking to bar management, helping them get home, or potentially calling the police. The responsibility should not fall on one individual to not be assaulted. It’s illogical, and it allows perpetrators of sexual violence to go free while leaving survivors feeling shamed. The responsibility is on all of us to be aware of what happens around us and to step in when something doesn’t seem right. Keep an eye on the people around you this Spring Break, whether they’re your friends or total strangers. If you want further information regarding red flags to look out for or ways to intervene, visit your Sexual Assault Peer Educators (SAPEs) when they table around campus. They’d love to talk to you. One more person informed is one step closer to ending sexual violence.

Laci and the left Why this YouTube sex ed star is so problematic DYLAN BRENNAN Columnist

Seeing Laci Green’s face on the cover of last week’s paper has shown me the right time to deploy an article against her. Laci Green was and continues to be one of the most lambasted people on the internet -- and for good reason. The many people who inspired me to join The Towerlight have all shone spotlights on her not-so-hidden negatives, which span from politics, to legal issues and her taste in friends. Let’s start off with her politics. It should come as no surprise that Green, a UC Berkeley alum, is avidly anti-Trump. However, she veils her politics (and pretty much everything else) under a guise of optimism and charity. Around 8 p.m. on election night, she tweeted that, no matter the election’s outcome, we should all unite as one nation under our new president. “Regardless of the outcome, we are clearly a *deeply* divided nation and broken country. So much work ahead to mend, heal, and restore the U in the USA,” she tweeted. Of course, I’m sure she was under the impression that Hillary Clinton would win. After Clinton’s loss, she then went on to tweet, “We are now under total Republican rule. Textbook fascism. F**k you, white America. F**k you, you racist, misogynistic pieces of s**t. G’night.” How about the time that Green reported some small-time YouTuber for using her face in the thumbnail of a video criticizing her? She haughtily defended that action by saying her face, which she claims was used to boost views, is protected by copyright law. To one Twitter critic, Green said that those who don’t understand federal law and YouTube guidelines “aren’t the sharpest lot.” So, apparently she isn’t the sharpest lot either, since she uses images of people in her videos. I highly

doubt she asked Justin Bieber to use his picture in her “Why Bieber’s Penis Matters” video, among other videos. But hey, if you think you can take out smaller critics and nobody will notice your misuse of terms of service, be my guest. I’ll make sure everyone notices. And lastly, and this isn’t really a criticism of her directly, but a criticism of the people she works and befriends. The entire MTV News network has become the most degenerate slop since BuzzFeed. She has rubbed elbows with people like Franchesca Ramsey far too often, who pretty much blames every problem on white people. After MTV New’s “2017 New Year’s Resolutions for White Guys” was immediately and rigorously downvoted by viewers for its hip-and-cool racism, the organization removed and reuploaded the video, although the downvotes caught up fast yet again. Then they permanently removed the video and started out 2017 with, perhaps, their own resolutions. New episodes of Green’s show “Braless” and Ramsey’s “Decoded” have not debuted since late 2016. Now this is simply just to make you aware of who Laci Green is, and why she is so hated. I specifically left out her opinions on sex and whatnot, because that is probably the only thing she does to help people, although even that can get disputable in the nitty gritty. I’m not going to decry The Towerlight for putting her face on the cover (which I hope they got permission for or else she might report them) or say she shouldn’t be allowed on campus. Radical leftists can burn down any campus that hosts a rightist guest speaker, Berkeley with Milo Yiannopoulos being the most recent example, but I’m glad to see Towson’s right-of-center people didn’t do the same with a leftist guest speaker. Hopefully an article in a free school newspaper is good enough to get out our angst.

Opinion

March 14, 2017

The ever-changing view from up here loading dock and parking lot area if you were careful. Man, I feel old.) It’s interesting to think about what else you won’t be able to see/ access from here in the near future. I’m in a new spot this week. The Burdick expansion will wrap up Instead of looking out from my soon, sure. But then other renovawindow seat in The Towerlight tions inevitably start. office, I’m mingling. Well, I’m minIn the fall, The Towerlight ran a gling if you count sitting in a room cover story called “Unpacking the full of people ignoring each other as plan,” written by lovely friend/ a social interaction. memelord/news editor Sarah Rowan, There’s a girl in front of me drinking that outlined what’s next for TU in apple juice and (presumably) watching terms of construction. In it, we reportsomething on the iPad she taps from ed that the Union was built in 1972 time to time, while a bearded fellow at for a student population of 9,000 to my four o’clock angle looks analytically 11,000 students (depending on which at his laptop screen. A mousy-haired University resource/administrator you woman with count ‘em 1-2-3 (three!) consult), and that the building is slatbackpacks gets up to vacate her seat by ed for an extensive renovation. a column, while a blonde hunches over Per the 2015 master plan (updated a piece of paper at a table by herself. I every five years), “A complete renovanotice I’m the only one who stops to tion of the existing building is planned look out the window. to address the building’s aging infraI like looking out at campus from structure and an 80,000 GSF addihigh up, in this case from the third tion is planned to provide additional floor of the Liberal Arts Building, student spaces. The University Union facing Burdick Hall (or at least the renovation and addition project will giant heap of iron and glass and provide much needed dining, retail, construction annoyances that used student service, and student group to be Burdick Hall). From here, you spaces to serve the current and future can see the perhaps least-congestuniversity needs.” ed area of central campus, if you According to the ignore the choke plan, this addition point that is the will extend into the Union, that is. loading dock parkMost of the time, I’m going to come ing lot and butt up there aren’t many back one day and against Burdick Hall, people on Burdick need a map to get changing my view for Field, and on (presumably) ever. today’s rainy day, around, despite This sounds there isn’t anyone. having walked up and great. I’d be all for Past there, you can down this hilly SOB this, were I sticksee all the little ing around past the ants -- er, students hundreds of times spring, but I just -- make their way these past four years. don’t see how it is across the street logistically feasible. to Millennium Everyone uses the Hall and Towson Union, even though Run, which peeks it’s small-ish and dated. It’s like the out from a behind a bunch of bare big, ugly smelly pet you’ve had since trees against a graying sky. you were little. Or the comfy sweater It’s a dreary day, to be sure. that’s supposed to be just for home, You can’t see the Osler Drive pedesbut you wear it (and its miscellaneous trian bridge from here, which is fitting, wine and ketchup and what is that?) since it hasn’t been convenient to use stains out when you’re feeling lazy. since last year. That’s right, freshmen, Yeah, it has its flaws, but I’ll be that big brick thing used to be usable -damned if you take it away from me. dare I say helpful? -- when commuting Meanwhile, the University is also to and from West Village. planning a new Enrollment Services (I even remember a time when Building, a new science building you could cut across the Union SAM SHELTON Senior Editor @sam_tweets_now

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and a new health sciences building. The look of campus is going to be entirely different in the next five years. I’m going to come back one day and need a map to get around, despite having walked up and down this hilly SOB hundreds of times over the past four years. Or maybe campus will be so cluttered, so congested that I won’t be able to see an inch of green within

core campus. One of the things I love about Towson is that, while some of our buildings are ugly, grassy areas like The Beach and The Glen make campus feel homey, comfortable and alive. How long do we have until our grassy areas are bulldozed to make room for facilities to accommodate our ever-growing student population? How do we manage having so many buildings in such a

small, contained space? We’ve already expanded over toward West Village, but there are neighborhoods and families and other institutions on the land surrounding us. How to we perfect our community without overtaking the surrounding community? I’m about to be late to class, but I’ve got good news. It looks like the sun is finally starting to come out. That’ll help the view.

March 14, 2017 Advertising

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News

March 14, 2017

Towson is growing, but not without challenges Towson is growing. It’s shedding the label of “Baltimore suburb” and becoming an urban area in its own right. Most students are only in the area for four, maybe five, years, and may not perceive the long term trends. But, to those who have lived and worked in the area longer, it feels like Towson is in a period of renewal. “When I was elected, we had wide stretches of Towson where there was broad decay,” Baltimore County Councilman David Marks, whose district includes Towson, said in an email. “Those areas have been largely redeveloped.” Marks, who has just about always lived in the county, was first elected to the County Council in 2010. He listed areas around Towson – like Towson Circle and Towson Commons – that were starting to fail just a few years ago. “Today, many of these areas are on the rebound,” he said. Additional housing in the urban center of Towson marks one of the most substantial changes residents will see in the coming years. Parts of Towson Circle, for example, where the Trader Joe’s and Barnes &

Noble currently are, will be redeveloped with apartments under current plans. (Don’t worry, the Trader Joe’s is reopening in Kenilworth Friday, March 17. That’s this week!) Newly-built townhomes at Towson Mews are up for sale, and the Flats at 703 will be leasing soon. That’s a lot of room for a lot more people to live in central Towson. “That’s what’s changed us from the suburbs 20 years ago to an urban environment,” Executive Director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce Nancy Hafford said. Hafford added that, not that long ago, Towson was “dead” after 5 p.m. and on weekends – except for much later at night, when students from Towson and other nearby schools would make their way to the bars. But now, “when you go out, you just see a real blend of people, which makes our community interesting,” Hafford said. Towson Commons, at the corner of York and West Pennsylvania, is anchored by an LA Fitness and a CVS. Other retailers have already moved in, and they’ll soon be joined by a Chipotle and Brown Rice, a Korean-style restaurant. The growth and redevelopment doesn’t come without problems, however. Towson residents complaining

Cody Boteler/ The Towerlight

The new Trader Joe’s at Kenilworth opens Friday, March 17.

Cody Boteler/ The Towerlight

Boho Nation, a clothing store, is already open at Towson Commons. Also pictured is the site of a future Chipotle Mexican Grill. about traffic on York Road are just as commonplace as Towson University students complaining about parking. Some worry that more people living in central Towson will bring more cars, and more congestion, with them. “The one thing I’m most concerned about is transportation,” Paul Hartman, former president of the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations said. Hartman is still an active member and co-chair of the GTCCA University Relations Committee. Hartman cited the intersection of York and Bosley as especially egregious. That intersection is designated as “failing” by the Baltimore County Bureau of Traffic Engineering and Transportation. Marks, too, expressed concern about transportation in the core area of Towson. “A Towson circulator is needed to improve mobility, and we can always work to improve bicycle and pedestrian connections,” Marks said. The Maryland Transit Administration services Towson with buses along a few routes. As it’s cur-

rently planned, the new BaltimoreLink bus system will service Towson when it launches this summer. Another growing pain - a lack of greenery. Along the main York Road corridor, there isn’t any green space once you get north of Towson University’s campus. “I’d like to see more open space, and that’s a complaint that a lot of folks have,” Hartman said. “All of these projects that are coming along, there’s no open space, there’s no green space really. We’d like to see more pocket parks.” The County Council voted to buy unused property by Radebaugh Florist with plans to turn the plot of land into a pocket park. The Radebaugh family donated additional land to the future park, according to the Baltimore Sun. Radebaugh sits about a quarter mile from York Road. And Patriot Plaza, the concrete park between the circuit court building and the historic courthouse, will be supplanted with greenery by 2018. At Towson Row, a “site debut” ceremony in 2015 was supposed to mark the start of construction on

the high-density, mixed-use development project between Towsontown Boulevard and Chesapeake Avenue. As planned, the site would bring student housing, luxury apartments, a Whole Foods, a hotel and other retailers. However, ever since the debut, the area has been fenced off and left empty. Buildings were torn down and Hartmann described the site as “a pile of rubble.” A giant rock under the surface interrupted construction, because so much of the plan relied on building an underground parking structure. The latest reports indicate that Caves Valley Partners, the firm behind the site, is reconfiguring the plan to mesh with the geological obstruction. According to Arthur Adler, a partner at CVP, there is “no new information to be released.” “The developer has not provided me with any additional updates,” Marks said. “I am disappointed and frustrate[ed] by the delays in this project and the impact these delays have had on Downtown Towson.”

News

March 14, 2017

Prof links religion SGA commits to Jewish students Resolution pledges resources, support and politics

Alex Best/ The Towerlight

Towson political science professor John McTague talks about the relationship between religion and politics in the U.S. March 9.

Despite growing religious diversification in the United States, data show that the country’s religious and political planes remain tilted in favor of white Christians. In a campus conversation about religion and politics in the U.S. on March 9, Towson University political science professor John McTague presented data demonstrating how changes within religious groups, political parties and age groups have affected political participation. “Religion has always been a central concern in American politics,” McTague said. According to the Pew Research Center, the Christian portion of the U.S. fell 7.8 percent -- from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014 -but remained the dominant religion. In contrast, the unaffiliated population grew 6.7 percent from 16.1 percent in 2007 to 22.8 percent in 2014. Non-Christian faiths – including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other world religions and faiths – grew 1.2 percent from 4.7 percent in 2007 to 5.9 percent in 2014. “Eventually the country is going to get less Christian and less white,” McTague said. According to the PRC, in 2014, 63 percent of Democrats identified as Christian, 8 percent as non-Christian faiths and 28 percent as unaffiliated. 82 percent of Republicans identified as Christian, 3 percent as non-Christian and 14 percent as unaffiliated. The PRC also analyzed exit poll data from the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012

and 2016 general elections. The data showed that in the 2016 election, a majority of Protestants/ other Christians, white born-again/ evangelical Christians and Mormons voted for Donald Trump. A majority of Jews, other faiths and the religiously unaffiliated voted for Hillary Clinton. While most Catholics voted for Trump, the subdivisions of white Catholics and Hispanic Catholics were almost complete opposites of one another: 60 percent of white Catholics voted for Trump, whereas 67 percent of Hispanics voted for Clinton. Acceptance of politicians’ personal indiscretions grew among almost all Americans surveyed in a study by the Professional Relations and Research Institute (PRRI), except for unaffiliated voters whose acceptance of indiscretions decreased marginally. White evangelical Protestants experienced the largest growth in this category, with 30 percent in 2001 rising to 72 percent in 2016. McTague attributed this to white evangelical voters’ need to justify their vote for Trump to get an anti-abortion rights justice appointed to the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court is very important to them because the abortion issue is important to them,” he said. Excluding white evangelical Protestants and Mormons, the majority of each religious group opposed allowing small business owners to refuse providing products or services to gay or lesbian people if doing so violated the owner’s religious beliefs. -To read the rest of this article online, visit thetowerlight.com.

Towson’s Student Government Association unanimously voted in favor of a resolution reaffirming the body’s dedication to fighting anti-Semitism last week, amid recent threats against Jewish communities in the United States. Resolution 41 was introduced by Sen. Jodi Teitelman and Director of Diversity Outreach Breya Johnson at the SGA’s March 7 General Assembly meeting. The resolution concerns “the need to recognize and reaffirm the fight against anti-Semitism and provide support and resources to the greater Towson University Jewish community.” For Teitelman, the local Jewish community was a major reason she chose to attend TU. She said that she loves being Jewish, but the recent threats have made her uncomfortable. “We need to know that we’re sup-

ported here,” Teitelman said. “We want to let you guys know what we’ve struggled with.” As of March 10, Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) and Jewish day schools have been the targets of at least 152 bomb threats in 37 states and two Canadian provinces this year, according to the AntiDefamation League. At least two Jewish cemeteries, located in Philadelphia and St. Louis, have also been desecrated, and bomb threats were made against the Park Heights and the Owings Mills JCCs in Baltimore County. Towson University was the target of anti-Semitism in October 2015 when an unknown person(s) wrote anti-Semitic messages on a chalkboard in Freedom Square. Per the resolution, the SGA and the Towson Jewish community will release a joint statement condemning anti-Semitic acts. The SGA also urges University administrators to release a statement of their own. “I am actively concerned with mov-

ing forward and bridging the gap between all student organizations,” Johnson said. Noam Bentov, executive director of Towson Hillel, wants Towson to be safe and inclusive for all communities and asked the Towson community to think about how they can achieve that vision. “How do we honestly include a radical inclusive campus so we can support anybody who needs help on campus?” Bentov asked. The SGA plans to educate future SGA administrations and the greater Towson community about anti-Semitism through the #NotAtTU initiative, according to the resolution. “I don’t know what you have gone through, but as a Muslim-American … I empathize with you,” SGA Solicitor General Omnia Shedid said. Teitelman welcomed Shedid’s words, saying that the threats are not just about the Jewish community, but reflect the concerns of other minority and marginalized groups as well. -To read the rest of this article online, visit thetowerlight.com.

Lecture explores white privilege To Penn State University philosophy professor Eduardo Mendieta, the abolishment of slavery did not include the abolishment of white privilege. Using Herman Melville’s pre-civil war era novella “Benito Cereno,” Mendieta explored this concept of white privilege and ignorance as part of an annual lecture series honoring a deceased student. As someone with ranging academic interests and several published works, Mendieta said that he was excited by the lecture series because its goal is to “bring philosophy in conversation with the humanities.” In his March 8 lecture, titled “Severed Heads and White Ignorance,” Mendieta said that “Benito Cereno” is “profoundly relevant to what is happening to our country.” The story follows a revolt on a slave ship that acts as a chronotope of slavery by exploring the spatial and temporal context of the practice. In the story, the American merchant ship “Bachelor’s Delight” visits

another ship in distress, the “San Dominick.” The ship’s captain, Benito Cereno, informs the merchant ship captain, Amasa Delano, that a storm has destroyed many of its provisions and killed many crewmembers. When Delano offers to assist, he notices that Cereno has been acting passive, while he feels that the slaves have been displaying inappropriate behavior. He does not act on his suspicions; however, when he leaves the ship, he learns that the slaves had taken control of the ship and had forced the remaining crew to perform their normal duties. Mendieta acknowledged that scholars have often read the story as Melville coming to terms with evil, with evil being represented by the slave revolt and its leader, Babo. However, he argues that the story itself is Melville’s way of exploring “willful white blindness.” In terms of the severed heads of the lecture title, Mendita questions whose head was severed in the end. While Babo’s is physically severed, Delano, the captain in the story, loses his position and control thanks to white ignorance.

“I challenge philosophers that we ought to think through the slave ship as philosophically challenging as the allegory of the cave,” Mendieta said. Melville utilizes the silence of slaves and one-dimensional portrayal of black characters in the story to demonstrate how slaves were perceived as inhuman, a mass figure in comparison to the interiority allowed to the white characters. “To abolish slavery, we need to abolish white privilege,” Mendieta said. He argues that the latter never happened. Privilege, he says, perpetuates in a “certain kind of social system” in which “we are benefitting one way or another.” “Ignorance is useful, that’s why it’s produced,” Mendieta said. When asked what the next generation could do to dismantle white ignorance, Mendieta offered that “we need to develop new epistemic habits.” “Election 2016 is a form of chronotope,” he assessed, and we can go back to classic works to contextualize the present. “You can decide to be an epistemic rebel” as the slaves were in Melville’s tale, he said.

News

March 14, 2017

Fisher College hosts Women in Science forum While women make up half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, they only make up 29 percent of total workers in the science and engineering workforce, according to 2016 data from the National Science Foundation. At Towson University, women make up 1,520 of the 3,378 undergraduate students enrolled in the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics -- that’s approximately 45 percent -- according to the University’s 2016 enrollment data. “The fact that the Fisher College is now [almost] 50 percent women, suggests that we are really moving in the right direction,” Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Tim Chandler said as part of an introduction to the University’s 2017 Women in Science Forum, hosted by the Fisher College. University President Kim Schatzel shared her experience as being a woman in the workforce. In 1974,

she was an electrical engineering and biology major - the NSF reports that in 2013, the percentage of female workers in science was the lowest within engineering, at 15 percent. “A lot has changed, but there’s a lot more change that actually has to come,” Schatzel said. “I’m so thrilled [Towson is] able to provide a forum where women can come together and they can not only explore careers in science, but they can celebrate those that do have careers [in science], and those who are aspiring for careers in science as well.” The forum welcomed three female STEM professionals to campus and allowed attendees to network with each other. Katherine Denniston, the now-retired deputy director of undergraduate education at the NSF, spoke to the audience about her experiences over 50 years, about how she ended up at the NSF and about how she is now contributing with other scientists to write a textbook. Denniston told the audience that when she was 16 years old, she applied for the Westinghouse Science Talent Search award, known

Courtesy of Subrata Acharya Retired deputy director of undergraduate education at the NSF Katherine Denniston speaks at the 2017 Women in Science forum. The Fisher College of Science and Mathematics hosted the forum March 11. as the Intel Science Talent Search until 2016, when it was renamed the Regeneron Science Talent Search award. Denniston was one of the 40 finalists selected across the nation. She traveled to Washington D.C.

for this talent search - the first time she had ever left her home state of Pennsylvania. The winner of the top award, the late biochemist Roger Tsien, won a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2008.

“If you don’t try something, if you don’t apply for opportunities, they are not going to happen to you,” Denniston said. -To read the rest of this article online, visit thetowerlight.com.

Change starts in the classroom. Apply by March 27. urbanteachers.org

12 March 14, 2017

Arts & Life

Coming of age in “Darling” KRISTIN HELF

Associate Arts & Life Editor @kristinelise_

Senior electronic media and film major Amanda Ferrarese’s upcoming original production, “Darling,” is based largely on her own coming-of-age story, but fiction easily finds its way in. “”Darling” tells the story of a young woman, Evie Darling, who, upon finishing her first year of college and learning of her parents’ recent separation, decides that she can’t return home,” Ferrarese said. “It’s too heavy.” After discovering her mother’s journal and learning of her father’s infidelity, Evie takes shelter at her Aunt Dawn’s house in Woodstock, Maryland. “So it’s while she’s in this town that she has came to, she realizes that nothing was ever as rosy as it seemed with her parents’ relationship and she can’t just run away from her problems,” Ferrarese said. Ferrarese said the story is based largely on her personal experiences, although a previous directed study was her “emotional healing process,” and “Darling,” her Film III project, relies more on fiction. “I did find my mother’s journal and I did learn more about my parents,

who loved each other very much but, you know—stuff happens. My way of working through those feelings was to write them into this character of Evie, who I feel is very much inspired by a lot of the young, strong, resilient women that I know,” Ferrarese said. “It’s just about a girl trying to figure things out.” Ferrarese originally wrote “Darling” as a short story over winter break after reading Emma Cline’s book “The Girls” -- about a 14-year-old who joins a cult in 1960s California -- which inspired her to write her own story. Shooting will take place in Woodstock from April 20 – 26, where Ferrarese will work alongside co-director Mark Bessler and producer Senay Fisseha, who are both senior EMF students. Fisseha says he was drawn to “Darling” by the well-written script and Ferrarese’s passion for her story. “We had an opportunity to hear everyone’s pitches for the films they wanted to get produced, and I remember speaking to Amanda about it and it seemed like a project she was really excited about, which made me want to join the crew, because of her energy about it,” he said. Bessler already knew Ferrarese from hanging out in Charm City Art Space, but he was also a fan of the script. “I’m a sucker mainly for rights of

Courtesy of Amanda Ferrarese

From left to right, senior EMF students Senay Fisseha, Amanda Ferrarese and Mark Bessler appear in a promotional video for their film, “Darling.” passage stories,” he said. Because Ferrarese, Fisseha and Bessler are upperclassmen and have previous experience working on student films, they’re not naïve about the filmmaking process. When it comes to production, anything can happen, and the “Darling” crew hopes to be prepared for it all. “My computer has a really funny way of knowing when it’s like, finals time, or when I have a big paper due, and it’ll just cut out, for any god damn reason,” Ferrarese said. She advises “planning, planning, planning.” “And then if you get to set and throw all of the plans out the window,

Neuvel awakens sci-fi genre MCKENNA GRAHAM Assistant Arts & Life Editor

Title: “Sleeping Giants” Author: Sylvain Neuvel Genre: Sci-fi, political drama, suspense/thriller Rating: Five stars Warnings: N/A Broadly speaking, I am not the biggest fan of politics or thrillers. Maybe that’s what made this book even better for me—it’s unique to me. I’ve never read anything like it -- and maybe that can be attributed

to my lack of preference for these genres -- but even then, I think the science fiction elements put this story on a whole other level. The premise of the story is this: a girl is riding her bike one night when she falls into a sort of ditch, blacking out in the process, and finds herself in the palm of a giant metal hand. The fire department is called in to fish her out, and the military gets involved because of the mysterious appearance of a large, unnatural metal hand about which no one can explain anything. Seventeen years later, she has become a physicist, the hand has been moved to a giant under-

ground laboratory, and she is hired to find out how and by whom the hand was made, from where it came, and its original purpose. That’s all I want to tell you now, because as is usually the case with thrillers, anything more than the premise is a spoiler. The premise for me, though, really caught my attention, and because of the ideas that push this book from beginning to end, I read it in a single day. I devoured this book and enjoyed every moment. Now, I don’t have any experience with the inner workings of the military or government, so I can’t attest to the accuracy of the

at least you did it, at least you have something to fall back on,” she said. She and Fisseha both agreed that it’s also important to allow plenty of time for post-production, when it comes time to put all of the footage together. Bessler said that, when shooting, he’s most concerned with getting enough coverage. “Coverage in terms of a variety of shots, not just getting wides,” he said. “When I was talking to [EMF professor Joseph] Kraemer about my film two, that was the only thing I thought—I wish I’d had more time to get more coverage. More close-ups, different kinds of shots just so I could have a variety

of things to choose, instead of just like, two.” Although the film is still in pre-production, auditions are currently being held and the crew members are already anticipating their journey to shooting “Darling.” “It’s going to be really weird, I think, this time around, because I’ll have the added responsibility of kind of directing, but I think that Mark is going to focus on a lot of the directing with the actors, so I can focus on the camera,” Ferrarese said. More information about the film, and how to donate to the production, can be found at indiegogo.com/campaigns/darling-a-short-film.

processes depicted in the novel, but it was real enough for me that I was convinced. I didn’t have to question the plausibility of any political intricacies or military procedures because, even if they weren’t actually real, they were believable enough to keep me from reevaluating the validity of the plot. In other words, I wasn’t constantly stopping to ask myself, “But would this really happen?” It had strong writing and strong concepts that were really well-executed. The story is told almost entirely through one-on-one interviews between different people involved in the project and one man, who is never named, who is apparently orchestrating everything. You get the story through these interviews, as the scientists explain developments and discoveries and, sometimes, the disasters that happen during experimentation. Occasionally there’s a journal entry from one of the characters to give the reader insight into his

or her thoughts and feelings on certain things, and once or twice there’s even a news report on current events happening at the same time. I can really only think of one flaw I found with the story, and even that was just maybe due to my inattention: it was hard for me to keep track of the timeline. I loved that there are no timestamps on things, and there are no real mentions of everyday technology, so it’s hard to frame these events by time—the book could take place in the 1950s, or the 2050s, and it would really make no difference. But in terms of the time that passes between in-book events occurring, they only ever mention it in passing: “it’s been four months since” or “(that event) happened eight months ago” and by the end of the book I realized I should’ve been writing down, keeping track, maybe even drawing a timeline for reference. -To read the rest of this column online, visit thetowerlight.com.

Arts & Life

March 14, 2017

Snapshots of homeless youth

“Polaroid Stories” show combines myth and truth TAYLOR DEVILLE Associate Arts & Life Editor @artvandelady

What do you get when you combine Greek mythology with drug abuse and homeless teen anguish? Some pretty dark stuff. Last weekend, audience members journeyed to “the edge of the underworld” during “Polaroid Stories,” directed by David White. Written by Naomi Iizuka in 1997 after interviewing runaway teenagers in Minneapolis, the show presents vignettes in a nonlinear fashion to tell the stories of various characters, whose names you might recognize from Greek myths—Persephone (Dani Liggens), a cocaine addict; Narcissus (Liam Watkins), a gay prostitute and Echo (Tanya Orellana Arguedas), his ever-present companion; and D (Aaron Hancock), short for Dionysus, the “creator of chaos in the underworld,” Hancock said. In White’s adaptation, this underworld takes on the appearance of a chamber somewhere dark and deep, like a sewer, complete with piles of garbage, graffiti, tunnels and hidden passageways. A chain link fence separates it from the world of the living. Combined with creepy ambient sound, scenic designer Bridget Lindsay and sound designers Jay Herzog and White easily draw in the audience and allow them to be absorbed into this dark, gritty world. The small cast of 10 had only five weeks of rehearsing fast-paced dialogue and character-building before opening night. In what senior acting major Liggens described as a “collaborative effort,” the cast researched their roles and were given autonomy to develop their characters. “[White] was the captain of the ship, if we’re using that analogy, but he allowed us to point to where it’s going,” senior acting major Hancock said. Although the show is adapted in part from Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” it’s not necessary for the viewer to be familiar with the text. Without some background knowledge on

Greek mythology, however, the audience is likely to quickly get lost in the mythos of the show. “It was definitely not like anything I’ve seen before,” freshman pre-EMF major Marissa Davies said. “I love Greek mythology. There were some [stories] I knew, some I didn’t, so now I want to look them up and read more.” Being a completely character-driven show without one singular protagonist, White worked with the actors to help them create individual character arcs. “[White] had a lot of input with [the show], but he let us take it and grow with it,” Liggens said. “He did have a vision, […] but it was really up to us to create the world.” The world they created was, as one might guess, not a very happy one—except for D, perhaps, the mirthful and magnetic drug-dealer who delights in seducing lost souls like Oklahoma Boy (Matthew Iannone) with drugs. Iannone’s performance as the speed-addicted Oklahoma Boy (known in other adaptations as “Skinhead Boy”) stands out amidst some of the cast’s wooden acting. His mania is almost infectious, his desperation and emptiness palpable. “It was this really intense shot through peoples’ lives,” sophomore art major Jacob Watkins said. “[It was] an intense blur seeing the rise and fall of all these people trying to live life, and it all just unraveling in front of them. I thought it was really interesting.” In perhaps the most compelling story arc of the show, the audience watches as Orpheus (Jake Zeranko) tries to break through the fence to rescue the woman he loves, Eurydice (Michelle Payton). As the myth goes, Orpheus was a divinely talented musician who attempts to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld. By playing his beautiful, mournful music, Orpheus softens the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who allow Eurydice to follow Orpheus to the upper world so she may live again, the condition being that

Photos courtesy of Jay Herzog

Running until Thursday, “Polaroid Stories” intertwines tales from runaway teens with Greek mythology. Orpheus does not look back at her until they reach earth. Orpheus, of course, glances back at Eurydice as he crosses the threshold to the upper world. She disappears forever. Payton delivers powerful monologues as Eurydice, who, after crossing “the river of forgetting” into the underworld, is haunted by the voice of her abusive partner, although she does not remember him. Zeranko also plays Tereus, a mythological king (and the son of Ares) who rapes and mutilates his wife’s sister, Philomel (Michaela Howell). Tereus and Orpheus seem to be almost

fused in “Polaroid Stories.” Although Iizuka sought to illuminate audiences on the turbulent lives of the homeless kids she interviewed, “Polaroid Stories” doesn’t do much to inspire empathy for them—by combining the stories she heard (some true, some not) with Greek mythos in a series of erratic, non-linear scenes, the audience has to really work to connect with, and feel for, the characters. Even so, it’s difficult to not find yourself falling into a kind of nihilistic depression while watching the “thieves, perverts and junkies” of the underworld, as Oklahoma Boy

puts it. Overall, the performances from the cast worked well to create a richly dark world that enveloped the viewer. For some audience members (like myself), the urge to dissect the characters and their motivations isn’t easily suppressed. But with “Polaroid Stories,” that approach isn’t going to work. “Don’t try to analyze every little thing,” Liggens said. “Just embrace the characters and live with [them] in their world.” “Polaroid Stories” runs Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Center for the Arts. Tickets can be purchased online or at the box office.

Arts & Life

March 14, 2017

Theatre troupe tackles hot topics KRISTIN HELF Associate Arts & Life Editor @kristinelise_

The Oven, in addition to being a Baltimore-based theatre troupe made up of Towson alums, is a social action group whose performances take on one of the world’s highest-grossing criminal enterprises. The Oven’s goal is to take an issue as big as sex trafficking and show audiences the human side of the multi-billion-dollar illegal industry. The Oven was created by Jackson Phippin, a former theatre professor at Towson. He’d always been involved in theatre, but he started taking more of a “backseat” when his twin daughters were born, according to theatre arts alum Chelsea Blackwell, who graduated from Towson in 2013. Once Phippin’s twins went to college, he was like, “all right, time to get back in the saddle,”

Blackwell said. “He’s always done politically-geared work,” she said. “I think he kind of just wanted to kick that back up again, and there were a lot of promising young students and graduates at Towson that he saw potential in.” The first version of The Oven’s performance piece was called “Gone,” a full-length production they put on in January at the Baltimore Theatre Project. Towson Class of 2015 alumnus Clifford Doby majored in criminal justice and minored in theatre arts. Doby said that several criminal justice professors saw the show and were immediately interested in bringing it to Towson, because it brought a more human and emotional side to the issue of sex trafficking. “They thought the criminal justice students would really benefit from seeing something like that—every-

one’s so interested in theory and making things rational and forgetting the humans behind the crime, the issues of justice,” he said. Of course, when it came time to bring the show to Towson last May, they were faced with presenting a full-scale theatrical production in a lecture room of the CLA. That’s how “Commodities” was born — as a bare-bones, minimalistic version of “Gone,” without all the trappings of a full-scale production, allowing them to take the piece anywhere. “[Phippin] said, we can just strip it down and have five different people on tables, almost as specimens on display, and tell these stories and not worry about it being theatrical and having those very highly artistic overtones to it,” Doby said. “We found when we did it that way, it was much more impactful, much more authentic. I’ve never seen college students

INVITE YOU TO AN ADVANCE SCREENING OF

Courtesy of The Oven

The Oven troupe performs “Commodities,” about sex trafficking. more quiet in a lecture hall in my life.” In the performance, the actors use monologue to tell a story, “getting into the pathos of the work,” he said, in order to “touch the human spirit.” While no one in the troupe themselves is a survivor of human trafficking, he said that they, and everyone, can still relate to dealing with trauma. By talking about what trauma is, and how humans viscerally react to traumatic events, the troupe was able to create a piece that is as authentic as it is relatable to audiences. “What we do is take an issue and our goal is to frame it in a way that touches your heart,” Blackwell said. “What we really want to do is show the face behind the statistics.” The Oven’s actors acknowledge that the work is often tough, since they put so much of their personal experiences into their performances to make them authentic and

real. However, Doby says, working in theatre that raises awareness of important social issues is ultimately worth it. “One of my favorite parts with doing “Gone” and “Commodities”… we met survivors themselves who came and saw the show and appreciated us and the company for putting that work on display. They said, ‘The most painful thing is that people ignore us and people ignore this issue.’” Kat Kaplan, who graduated in 2013 with a degree in theatre arts, agreed. “There’s so many people that we’ve been in contact with, just civilians who came to the show, and people have just been stepping up and trying to get involved with the organizations and I think that’s really great, that it’s able to work like that,” she said. -To read the rest of this article online, visit thetowerlight.com.

For your chance to win a complimentary pass, log on to: www. lionsgatescreenings.com and enter the following code: PR22TL3 The screening will be held on Wednesday, March 22 at a Baltimore-Area theater

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No purchase necessary. Supplies are limited. Two passes per winner. Each pass admits one. Seating is NOT guaranteed and on a first-come, first-served basis. Employees of all promotional partners, Lionsgate and The Towerlight are not eligible. All decisions are final. This film is rated PG-13. No one under 13 will be admitted without a parent or a legal guardian.

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March 2017 16March 16 14,14, 2017

Puzzles Puzzles

Crossword Sudoku

Puzzles

9-7-16

● Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily

outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.

● Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

Please support independent student journalism @ TU

See page 17 for answers to today’s

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To make a donation, please go to TheTowerlight.com/youcanhelp/ Or mail a check to Baltimore Student Media, 8000 York Rd., Towson, MD 21252. We are a non-profit corporation, so your donation is tax-deductible. And we will gladly provide a receipt. Thank you for your support!

Sports

March 14, 2017

towson splits series Tigers, Spartans walk away with one loss, one win each

t n e v E s i h T

d e l e Canc

Brittany Whitham/ The Towerlight

Redshirt sophomore pitcher Alex Cuas pitches for Towson in its series against Norfolk State this weekend. JILL GATTENS Staff Writer @JillGattens

Towson split a doubleheader with Norfolk State Sunday at John B. Schuerholz Park. The team lost the first decision 8-0 but won the second 5-0. The series was originally slated to be three games, but Saturday's game was canceled due to cold temperatures in the area, leaving the doubleheader for Sunday. The Tigers failed to collect a hit in the first seven innings of game one of the doubleheader. "We didn't hit well," Head Coach Mike Gottlieb said. "We didn’t play good defense." Freshman outfielder Andrew Cassard singled in the bottom of the

eighth inning to give the Tigers their first hit of the game, breaking up Devin Hemmerich's no-hitter. Cassard collected the only hit for the team as Towson struggled to find its groove at the plate. The team’s defense also struggled as they committed seven errors between the two games. "We didn't play good overall," Gottlieb said. "A mix of the weather, field conditions and poor defense. It was sloppy and needs to be improved upon." Starting pitcher Kevin Ross went five innings, giving up three runs on six hits. However, the Tigers fell to the Spartans, 8-0. Towson bounced back in game two of the doubleheader. The second game began with a three-run home run in the first inning, thanks to

w o n S o Due t

junior infielder Logan Burke. Starting pitcher Michael Adams collected his second win of the season. Adams went six innings, giving up only four hits, striking out seven batters and giving up no runs. The Tigers added two more insurance runs, courtesy of Burke and sophomore infielder Richard Miller, to blank the Spartans 5-0. Burke went 1-for-4 with a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored. Miller went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a base on balls. Towson travels to Pennsylvania for the Big Five Baseball Bash, where they will face La Salle, Villanova and St. Joseph's. The team will open up with La Salle on Friday at 3 p.m. "We need guys to have quality at-bats," Gottlieb said. "We're having too many poor at-bats."

Solutions

MIKE GOTTLIEB

contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily

9-8-16

outlined boxes, called cages, mu combine using the given operatio (in any order) to produce the targ numbers in the top-left corners.

● Freebies: Fill in single-box cages

the number in the top-left corner. KenKen® is a registered trademark of

We didn’t hit well. We didn’t play good defense. We need guys to have quality at-bats. We’re having too many poor at-bats.

for Puzzles on page 16

● Each row and each column must

18 March 14, 2017

Sports

towson steamrolls stetson

File photos by Stephanie Ranque/ The Towerlight

Senior defender Kelly McQuilkin looks up the field at Johnny Unitas Stadium against Florida. Towson fell to Florida at Unitas 13-6 despite having two, two-goal scorers (Above). Junior midfielder Kaitlyn Montalbano drives hard to the goal in the Tigers loss to the Gators. Montalbano scored the final goal of the game at the 1:01 mark (Below).

KARUGA KOINANGE Assistant Sports Editor

No. 15/20 Towson put forth a strong offensive performance in its 22-5 victory over Stetson Sunday afternoon at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Junior midfielder Kaitlyn Montalbano scored an early first half goal to spark a 12-0 run by the Tigers. Sophomore attacker Natalie Sulmonte scored twice during that run, and junior midfielder Emily Gillingham also put in a goal. A Stetson free-position goal ended Towson’s run, but Gillingham and Montalbano each found the back of the net to give the team a 14-1 lead going into the locker room. The two teams traded goals to start the second half until the Tigers scored three straight goals to gain a 19-3 lead. The Tigers scored the final three goals of the game to secure a 22-5 win. Head Coach Sonia LaMonica was pleased with the play of Sulmonte and senior attacker Samantha Brookhart in the win.

“Nat has a huge impact on the draws and she really showed her dominance today and was able to allow us to have a lot of offensive opportunities,” LaMonica said. “Sam played a great role behind the crease, and she’s always got her vision up.” Sulmonte and Brookhart combined for seven goals and eight assists to lead the scoring effort. Along with her seven points, Sulmonte tied the school record for single-game draw controls with 11. Brookhart also tied a school record for single-game assists in the process. “Our girls played hard from the opening draw and were able to generate lots of looks,” LaMonica said. “Overall, I’m glad with how they played today.” Towson had 10 different goal scorers in the game. This was the most since the team had 10 players score against Old Dominion in the NCAA Tournament last year. A strong defensive performance also helped the Tigers finish with a season-high 14 caused turnovers. Ten Tigers recorded at least one caused turnover.

“We had our players and our middies in the elbows pressing out, getting out on the ball and applying that pressure which makes it difficult offensively to move the ball quickly,” LaMonica said.

Towson returns to the field Wednesday, March 15, when the team hosts No. 8/9 Notre Dame at 4 p.m. Following its match against Notre Dame, Towson will take on

Monmouth in West Long Branch, New Jersey, before returning back home to take on Oregon at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Opening draws are set for 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., respectively.

Sports

March 14, 2017

bonding on the beams Club gymnastics balances competition, comradery

Natalie Sulmonte Women’s Lacrosse Sophomore attacker Natalie Sulmonte recorded five goals on five shots, added two assists, collected 11 draws and recorded seven points in Towson’s 22-5 thrashing of Stetson Sunday at Johnny Unitas Stadium. Jordan Cope/ The Towerlight

Towson club gymnastics practices its conditioning at Rebounders Gymnastics in Timonium, Maryland. JORDAN COPE Sports Editor @jordancope26

When freshman Amanda Roberts tore her ACL (a ligament in her knee) during her junior year of high school, she thought she’d never be able to compete in her favorite sport again. Then she came to Towson, and found the club gymnastics team. “It’s been bothering me lately that I haven’t been able to do the sport I love,” Roberts said. “As soon as I heard about the club, I knew I wanted to start doing it again, but just for fun and not as competitive as it used to be.” The Towson club gymnastics team has been practicing hard at Rebounders Gymnastics, an off-campus facility in Timonium, in preparation for its first ever tournament

March 18 — but without a coach to guide the way, Club President Da’el Clapperton has had to take charge both on and off the mats. “She takes it upon herself to make up not only warm-ups for each event, but conditioning and cool-downs,” club member Rachael Jette said. “She has her phone out so we can go back and look at it on our own time. It encourages us to do those things and get better.” Clapperton, who founded the club team, said that she did gymnastics in high school but wasn’t ready to give up the sport after graduation. “I wanted to keep doing it throughout college,” Clapperton said. “If you’re not at the NCAA level then there really isn’t a space for you, so I figured that I would create an atmosphere for people in my similar situation.” The team practices twice a week and works on performances for the

main events in addition to warmups, cool-downs and conditioning. While the gymnasts take practice seriously and want to perform to the best of their ability, they strive to find the balance between having fun and competing. For the tournament on Saturday, the team plans to carpool down to North Carolina and share one hotel room in order to bond and make memories. While the competition, hosted by the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnasts, is important to them, the relationships they form are equally meaningful. “I’m willing to bet, based on the relationships that I have with everyone, that the road trip and the nights are going to be better than the competition itself,” Clapperton said. “We’ve all done meets before, they’re all pretty similar. I’m more looking forward to getting closer with everyone else.”

It’s been bothering me lately that I haven’t been able to do the sport I love. As soon as I heard about the club, I knew I wanted to start doing it again, but just for fun and not as competitive as it used to be. AMANDA ROBERTS

20 March 14, 2017

Sports

one and done in caa tournament File photos by Mark Dragon/ The Towerlight

Towson breaks the huddlie before its contest with Drexel at SECU Arena. Towson fell to Drexel 80-65 despite having three scorers in double-figures in the game (Above). Redshirt junior freshman Jordyn Smith takes a shot at the line against the Dragons. She finished the game with five points, one block and one steal in the team’s loss (Below). JORDAN COPE Sports Editor @jordancope26

The wheels fell off Towson’s wagon in the opening round of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament Wednesday in a 77-66 loss to Hofstra. The Tigers (12-18, 5-13 CAA) started their season off hot, but they fell apart down the stretch, losing 11 of their last 12 games. “We started strong and fast and had a program best for the month of November,” Head Coach Niki Reid Geckeler said. “We remained competitive throughout the season against our CAA opponents and battled to the end.” In the opening quarter of Wednesday’s contest, the Tigers fell behind the Pride (13-18, 5-13 CAA) by 12 points. Despite Hofstra’s early lead, Towson clawed its way back into the game and went into the second

quarter down by just six points. At the start of the second quarter, the Pride came out firing and took a nine point lead. The Tigers got as close as six in the second, but Hofstra took an 11-point lead into halftime. Towson senior guard Raven Bankston led all scorers in the first half with 14 points. However, the team shot 27 percent from the field and just 25 percent from beyond the arc. In the second half, things didn’t get much better for the Tigers. While the Tigers scored the first two points of the half, the Pride extended their lead to 16 points with 4:32 left in the third. In the fourth quarter, Hofstra extended its lead to 24 points enroute to an 11-point victory in the tournament’s opening round. Bankston finished the game with 30 points, leading all scorers. Redshirt junior guard Raine Bankston added 17 points to the mix.

“We went into this season with high expectations and although we did not exceed those expectations tremendous growth took place,” Geckeler said. “Raven Bankston achieved four 30 plus point games this season and the program set a lot of single season bests.” Next season, Towson will return 13 of its 15 athletes. However, the team will have to find a replacement for graduating senior Raven Bankston. Bankston played in 30 games for Towson and averaged 17.3 points per game while shooting 40 percent from the field. “The conference was very senior heavy this past season and we are returning a lot of experienced juniors and seniors next season,” Geckeler said. “I am excited to get back to work during the postseason by developing personal and team improvement plans, hitting our reset button and getting back to work.”