Muslim communities have been bustling with activity throughout the month of Ramadan. On and off Saint Louis University’s campus, some people volunteered at mosques, cooking for worshippers or neatly setting tables for their fast-breaking meals. Others hosted communal events, welcoming Muslims and non-Muslims to share in their celebrations. Many were deep in reflection, trying to improve and grow in faith.
Ramadan, which will end around March 30 this year, is the 9th month in the lunar calendar in Islam and is considered the holiest month of the year for Muslims. Throughout this month, 2 billion Muslims around the world fast from sunrise to sunset, engage in spiritual reflection and connect with their communities to achieve the ultimate goal of Ramadan: getting closer to and becoming more conscious of Allah (God). Muslim and non-Muslim SLU students, faculty and surrounding communities were among those who participated in the festivities.
During Ramadan, multiple mosques in the St. Louis area prepare daily iftar – the meal to break the fast – open to the community, including the Masjid Bilal Islamic Center. Founded in 1965 as one of the first established mosques in St. Louis. Masjid Bilal sits adjacent to SLU’s campus, only a few feet from DeMattias Hall. Students, especially SLU’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) members, helped prepare iftar at Masjid Bilal alongside community volunteers.
From chopping fragrant herbs to filling and sealing homemade samosas, the volunteers pulled off daily Ramadan dinners for approximately 150-200 people a night, everyone playing a key part.
Ansam Ayesh, the MSA’s secretary and a senior studying accounting at SLU, said volunteering at Masjid Bilal reminded her of how close people across the
By Students, For Students. Since 1921
Public apology to descendants of people enslaved by SLU cancelled after descendants withdraw support
Noa Vacek, Staff Writer
formal apology from Saint Louis University for enslaving people was delayed after Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved (DSLUE) pulled their participation hours before the scheduled event on March 26.
DSLUE founder and executive director Robin
Proudie said they postponed the prayer service in which the public apology was scheduled to take place due to last-minute changes made by the university that did not honor previously agreed-upon details.
“We have been willing to engage and talk about everything, but what we will not do is become a photo op so they can go and parade us around and act like we are in alignment with what they are doing,” Proudie said at a press conference on the steps of St. Francis Xavier College Church where the service was set to happen.
Proudie was a part of a working group of students, faculty, staff and descendants who met five times to plan the public apology. Before the program, she noticed
changes to the event schedule and asked for clarification.
“We didn’t want to be aligned with certain people who they decided to put on the agenda,” Proudie said.
One of these people was the Fr. Tim Kesicki, who was set to lead a prayer of “Reconciliation and Hope,” according to a copy of the event program obtained by The University News.
Proudie said that the descendants never got the opportunity to engage with Kesicki or the foundation he chairs, The Descendants of Truth and Reconciliation.
The organization, established by Georgetown University to “address and heal the wounds of [slavery],” does not entirely align with the wishes of the descendants.
“We explicitly told them that DSLUE is not interested in being affiliated with that foundation,” Proudie said.
In an email to the SLU community sent less than two hours before the scheduled event, President Fred
Pestello said he is saddened by the postponement, but the university remains committed to reconciliation efforts.
“In a number of forthright and challenging conversations this week, it became clear that we need to continue the work of building relationships with descendants before we are ready to proceed with a formal event,” Pestello said.
Rochelle Smith, vice president for diversity, also said the university will continue that work.
“We were saddened, but we respect their decision,” Smith said in a statement to The University News.
On Feb. 27, descendants and SLU held a historic candlelight vigil meant to advance the reconciliation process that had stalled for years.
In April 2024, SLU’s Student Government Association unanimously passed a 10-point plan,
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pinion
PresidentTrump’sWhiteHousepostshavegonetoofar.
Lauren Hutchens, Editor-in-Chief
The recent White House Instagram posts have sent me into a state of denial, checking to see if the post is real. Lo and behold, it is – a seemingly AI-generated Donald Trump, waxed and oily with a sneer smile stretched across his face.
“LONG
Propaganda is “the spreading of ideas, information or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause or a person,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Some may argue that one post stating this is not enough to incite political change or label as propaganda. I disagree. With the
The equally satisfying and concerning downfall of Elon Musk
Kaia Monaco, OpinionEditor
Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” and Charli XCX’s “BRAT” dominated the charts in 2024, breathing new life into pop music. These influential albums and a new wave of pop artists combined to accomplish a goal previously thought unachievable: the revival of “recession pop.”
“Recession pop” is the buzzword used to describe the music released during and soon after the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 to June 2009. This music was upbeat, with an electronic influence and plenty of bass, encouraging listeners to get up and dance.
Artists like Kesha, Timbaland, Nelly Furtado, David Guetta and Pitbull were wildly popular during this time.
Albums such as Britney Spears’ “Blackout,” Lady Gaga’s “The Fame Monster” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “THE E.N.D.” defined the era.
This music is so closely intertwined with the Great Recession thanks to its shared theme — not worrying about paying bills and, instead, dancing the stress away. The housing market was crashing, and unemployment was rising, so, as LMFAO put it in their song “Party Rock Anthem,” people had one goal: “Everybody just have a good time.”
Interestingly, this is not the first time this phenomenon has happened. Dance music has typically gained popularity during economic recessions; in fact, two of the genres most influential to recession pop — disco and house — came about during recessions of
their own.
Disco is often synonymous with the ‘70s, a time when Diana Ross’s popularity was soaring and the economy was not. In 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed a total oil embargo against any country supporting the Israeli army at the time, including the United States. This caused oil and gas prices to surge, with inflation and unemployment following soon after, sending the country into a recession from November 1973 to March 1975.
People sought a way to escape this discouraging economic landscape, so they ran from their problems to the disco. The genre is known for its up-tempo blend of funk, jazz and soul music. Similar to the recession pop of the early 2010s, disco lyrics center around dancing stress away, often featuring terms like “let loose” or “groove.” House music was born from the disco club scene, with a stronger electronic influence. It gained popularity in the early ‘80s when the United States was sent into another recession due to tight economic policy and an oil crisis. Once again, dance music was an escape. This history lesson begs the question: Why do people believe recession pop is back in pop music today? Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has been a constant point of concern. The cost of living keeps rising, the job and housing markets are nearly impossible to break into, and President Donald Trump’s
posting on ReadmoreonB3,ElonMusk
Nejla Hodzic, DesignEditor
brought forward by the descendants, to push SLU to reconcile its history of slavery. The first step of the plan was a formal apology.
The resolution was well received by the student body, but Proudie said that SLU dismissed their call for financial reparations, including scholarships for the descendants, and a research center for historical archives, without negotiating with DSLUE. The university only agreed to a formal apology, publishing a report and creating a monument to honor the descendants, she said.
Aylah Hopper, a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar and a freshman majoring in exercise science, had planned to attend the prayer service, though she said the event was not well advertised to students on campus. Pestello announced the event via email five days before it was scheduled.
When the service was cancelled, Hopper said she was not surprised.
“Truthfully, I do not believe that the university as an institution is apologetic,” Hopper said. “If SLU truly was sincere in their efforts to apologize, this apology would have happened way before 2025.”
Hopper said she hopes SLU will still apologize for its participation in slavery and follow up with action, including renaming buildings after enslaved people who built the campus in their honor and ensuring the university is safe for African American students and staff.
The descendants hoped the prayer service could go on as planned, Proudie said. DSLUE had conversations with the university the morning of the postponed event to find a compromise.
“DSLUE made every possible effort so that this historic event could move forward,” Areva Martin, DSLUE’s attorney, said.
Several descendants flew in from out of state for the service, Proudie said.
“The descendants are ready to do the work. They’ve been doing the work,” Proudie said. “We’re calling on the board of trustees, we’re calling on the university’s leadership, its current president and its new president, to come to the table in good faith.”
The University News’Ulaa Kuziez contributed to this report.
Lessons from the 3/14 tornadoes and a guide to weather preparedness in Missouri
Evelyn
Maruszak, Staff Writer
On Friday, March 14, a tornado outbreak left a trail of destruction in Missouri, including the St. Louis area. This string of tornadic events and severe thunderstorms disrupted communities, killed 10 people in the state and raised concerns about severe weather preparedness.
The intense low-pressure system responsible for the tornado outbreak also generated straight-line and nonconvective winds and an influx of warm, dry air across the region throughout the day.
As a result, sporadic wind damage occurred even before the line of storms arrived. These winds also sparked numerous wildfires across Missouri and Illinois.
After surveying damage, the National Weather Service (NWS) announced that 12 tornadoes touched down in the St. Louis County Warning Area.
Closer to the city, the area was littered with EF1s and EF2s, classifications on the Enhanced Fujita scale that measure tornado intensity based on wind speed and damage. One tornado touched down in Chesterfield, Mo, at 9:16 p.m. and was on the ground for 37 minutes when it dissipated in Alton, Ill., after traveling about 40 miles. This EF2 had peak winds at 122 mph, and was three-fourths of a mile wide at its largest.
Maryland Heights, Florissant, and Old Jamestown were also in the storm’s path and sustained damage and power outages.
St. Louis Muslim community are to one another.
“I really enjoy it… Once you see the community and you see how everybody’s there, willing to help, it really just de-stresses you, in a sense, because there’s so many helping hands during Ramadan, like there’s not just one singular person doing it, it’s everybody,” Ayesh said.
The daily cooking is led by dedicated community members, including two women who have each spent around 20 years feeding their community every Ramadan. One of them described the volunteers as a family.
Mamoun Benmamoun, an associate professor of international business at SLU’s Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, regularly leads prayers and attends iftars at Masjid Bilal. As a Muslim professor, Benmamoun said he is fortunate to witness the strong bond between SLU and neighboring Muslim communities.
“SLU has proven to be a supportive neighbor, offering generosity and support in numerous ways, such as supplying much-needed parking for mosque events,” Benmamoun said. “Beyond logistical assistance, SLU students have contributed to uplifting the wider community. They have volunteered at Masjid Bilal’s free clinic, tutored minority children, and have been actively involved in the House of Goods (Baitulmal), a nonprofit initiative that provides free essential items to families in need, refugees, and the homeless.”
The MSA at SLU is also especially active during Ramadan, hosting multiple events that invite Muslims and non-Muslims to experience the blessed month.
Larger events like a collab iftar with the Middle Eastern Student Association, Pakistani Student Association and Turkish-American Student Association and the annual MSA Fastathon attracted hundreds of attendees for evenings of community building and a free dinner.
During the Fastathon on March 25, around 300 SLU community members broke their fasts and reflected on the meaning of Islam together, said Fatema Rehmani, the MSA sister’s president and a senior studying public
health at SLU.
“Ramadan is always my favorite time of year. At Fastathon, when we have people who are fasting as Muslims, and individuals trying it for the first time, collectively breaking our fast and sharing a meal – it’s a really beautiful, unifying moment,” Rehmani said. “It reminds us of the importance of empathy for those in need, the importance of gratitude, generosity, humility and compassion.”
Alanna-Paige Pinkney, a freshman pursuing a bachelor’s in entrepreneurship and a minor in service leadership, said she came to the Fastathon event to learn more about Islam from Muslims.
“Having MSA events like this, or in general, where people can just congregate like this and feel very proud of their culture, and then to be able to share it with others…is just very powerful,” Pinkney said. “[When it feels] like the world is on fire all the time, it’s really nice to just be in community.”
Beyond larger events, MSA E-Board, members and faculty made efforts to include curious members of the SLU community in their Ramadan traditions. On one occasion, Rehmani and MSA vice president and biomedical engineering junior Nawal Said hosted several SLU professors at Masjid Bilal.
This visit on March 19 was part of Patrick Cousins’s annual efforts to invite his colleagues to the mosque.
As the director of pastoral formation in SLU’s division of mission and identity and the MSA’s faculty advisor, Cousins said many SLU community members are unaware of the mosque’s proximity and how Ramadan is a chance for them to experience it.
Cousins said SLU is fortunate to have a mosque right next to campus, something most universities do not have. As a believer in fostering friendship and dialogue between different religions, Cousins sees Masjid Bilal and the MSA as resources to do that.
“For me, the real dialogue happens when you’re sitting down with somebody at the table and just hearing what matters to them,” Cousins said.
The group with Rehmani and Said shared laughs and stories over iftar as the two spoke of their Ramadan experiences and favorite traditions from childhood
to college. The professors also asked questions that ranged from basics about Ramadan and fasting to what Muslims believe and the ways they worship.
Against the backdrop of the group’s uplifting discussion were the voices of other worshippers as they ate their meals, volunteers as they hurried to offer food and drinks to people and children as they played in the prayer area.
“I think the average non-Muslim, when you hear, ‘We’re going to fast for a month,’ thinks ‘This sounds terrible,’” Cousins said. “But then when you talk to a Muslim, they’re like, ‘It’s my favorite time of year, I love it,’ and it’s because it’s so family-focused and community-focused. And that’s a side of Islam that I regret to say does not get presented in media, is how much it’s focused on community.”
Cousins first started working with the MSA around 12 years ago and speaks highly of “how wonderful, warm and generous our Muslim student community is.” Some MSA E-Board members have shared positive reflections on their experiences at SLU with Cousins.
“I tell people this all the time, in 17 years here, nothing has been as transformative for me as hanging out with Muslim students as much as I have,” Cousins said. “I try every year to check in with the E-Board and just say, ‘How has your experience been at SLU? What’s it like being Muslim at a majority non-Muslim school, especially a Catholic school?’ And the answer is the same every year. That is, they say ‘We love being here, because this is a place where nobody bats an eyelash when we want to talk about spirituality, faith and values.’”
Ramadan’s impact is evident among Muslim and non-Muslim SLU community members, echoing a deep significance and shared values between those observing this month and the university at large.
“Ramadan holds a deeply special place in my life, both as a Muslim and as a professor at SLU,” Benmamoun said. “It is a time of spiritual renewal, self-discipline, and reflection, but it is also a season of profound communal bonding. Fasting cultivates patience, empathy, and gratitude — principles that resonate with all of us at SLU.”
Joey Heitzler, a junior meteorology student, said he was monitoring this tornado as it came closer to his house in Old Jamestown.
“I saw my neighbor’s tall pine trees bending over so incredibly far, I don’t know how they didn’t break,” Heitzler said. “After that, I ran to the basement, and that is when I lost power.”
Another local EF2 was recorded south of the city traveling from Morse Mill to Mehlville Mo, heavily damaging Arnold, Mo. This storm was on the ground for 21 minutes and travelled 25.33 miles with winds of 115 mph.
Parts of the system traveled along both I-44 and I-70, affecting towns like Rolla and Columbia, Mo.
While Columbia only had strong winds and heavy rain, Rolla was struck by an EF2 tornado. This storm only lasted eight minutes, but in that time, it covered 9 miles
with 120 mph winds and left devastating damage to the community.
Rolla is home to University of Missouri Science and Technology (MS&T). The university is home to 7,155 students.
MS&T sophomore Hayden Davies was in Rolla at the time of the storm. Davies lives just off campus at his fraternity house, which lost power during the event.
“I honestly didn’t realize the severity of the weather until the next day,” Davies said. “In our house we just noticed no power.”
How to prepare for the next storm
For college students – many of whom live in dorms or off-campus housing – being unprepared during different types of weather can be dangerous. Knowing how to stay informed and where to seek shelter is crucial, especially in states prone to severe weather events.
The first step to being a weather-prepared student is to understand the risks. Tornadoes can develop quickly, leaving little room for reaction. Thus, it is important to know the weather terms that meteorologists are using in their reports.
What is the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning? A tornado watch means that conditions are favorable for tornado formation. A warning means that rotation has been detected via radar and/or observed by a trained storm spotter. The second step is to have methods to stay informed. Being aware of potential severe weather is crucial. Always have your emergency alerts on your phone enabled and have multiple alert sources like the NWS and your local broadcast meteorologists.
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Saint Louis University fraternity hosts vintage market on campus
Sigma Tau Gamma (STG), one of the nine chapters of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) at Saint Louis University, hosted three vintage dealers, two local to the St. Louis area, on West Pine to raise money for their philanthropy week. The market was open on March 20 from 11 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The vintage dealers brought clothing from a range of decades, offering a variety of styles. This was the first event of its kind facilitated by a fraternity on SLUs campus.
Jibby Bellante, a student at the market, was impressed with the wide variety of clothing they had available.
“They had t-shirts, jerseys, pants, and also going out tops and skirts and dresses,” Bellante said. Bellante “went all out” and found a pair of green sweatpants, a blue dress, a y2k going-out top, and her favorite, an old housecoat.
Bellante said that the location “was perfect,” accessible and brought people together for a strong philanthropic cause.
“I love it when I see all of campus [life] involved in fraternity and sorority philanthropy events. It can be hard to find something everyone likes, and the vintage market was a fantastic idea!” Bellante said.
Adam Osman, president of STG, shared some insight into what their philanthropy is all about.
“Every semester, we have a philanthropy with different activities each day, one of the events is Tomatoa-Tau, where you pay a little money to get to throw water balloons at brothers; another is the dunk tank where you get to throw a ball to try to dunk one of the brothers,” Osman said.
These events are part of an initiative to raise money for Special Olympics Missouri (SOMO), a nonprofit
Joseph Glaser, Senior Writer
organization that supports community members with cognitive disabilities in the St. Louis area.
The events are “all in good fun, and at the root of it all, it’s an opportunity for us to give a lot of money to a good cause,” Osman said.
The vintage market generated $6,000 in sales and 15% of that went to support SOMO. In total, STG raised $1490.78 from their philanthropy week.
The vintage market was a new event organized by Cody Mendoza, the Standards chair of STG, in collaboration with Mark Lopez and Blake Zager, the coowners of PIMPED Vintage.
“This is something I’ve been wanting to do since I was a freshman. My friend Mark started selling clothes after college and it became a big thing in our area – we always thought a college campus is the perfect spot to sell directly to customers, just never had the reputation on campus to do it,” Mendoza said.
Being part of the Sigma Tau Gamma executive board put Mendoza in a position to support the organization’s philanthropy while making this idea come to life. They said they hope to carry on this new tradition going forward.
“I love the idea of supporting our philanthropy and local St. Louis vendors. We hope to continue this thing going further, see how much money we raise and the opportunities we can create,” Mendoza said.
Two of the vintage vendors, Ghost Soda and Riptide vintage, are local St. Louis vendors that sell in markets across the broader area. The owner of Ghost Soda, Hannah Valentine, has been in the industry since she started selling clothes her sophomore year of high school specializing in 90s and early 2000s women’s clothing. Valentine spoke on how vintage markets support
a more sustainable future in an industry so focused on consumerism.
“Everyone should be buying clothing secondhand, because the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry, right next to oil,” Valentine said.
“It’s absolutely horrible how so much of the clothing we make and produce goes to waste because people want to wear it once and then get rid of it.”
According to the UN Environment Programme, the fast fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions. This is more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. The impacts of fast fashion on the environment are harsh, and consumers are left in a tough spot due to the lack of awareness of the availability of alternative secondhand clothing.
The fast fashion industry is fueled by low-quality clothing made with cheap materials and exploitative labor practices. Vintage clothing markets offer a unique alternative for conscious consumers with clothes that oftentimes are higher quality and produced in a more environmentally friendly fashion.
“It’s so important to help the earth stay healthy and also just keep the good quality clothes in cycle,” Valentine said.
Valentine also organizes the Drop Soda Vintage market, a monthly market in St. Louis at The Garage STL that brings together 50 to 60 vendors of secondhand clothing. She encourages community members interested in changing their consumer habits to support local and sustainable causes to check out the event.
“Not only are you supporting locally owned businesses, it’s also a great place to find the best quality vintage clothing and reinvent your style,” she said. Hayley Fizer, owner of Riptide Vintage, has been
in the industry since high school as well and shared how sustainability is an important part of her business model.
“Where I source my items is the last stop before clothes go away forever. I really love having the chance to rescue these pieces,” Fizer said.
Sustainability is crucial for her, she said, operating with these principles in mind for all parts of her business, such as making sure packaging materials for online orders are compostable.
With younger generations looking to be more environmentally conscious in their consumer habits, Fizer offered her perspective on what people can do.
“I think there are more opportunities to shop sustainability than people think here. Do your due diligence when researching companies and you’ll find there are plenty of local businesses that don’t just sell sustainable clothing, but also make sustainable lifestyle products. If you find a shop you like, go back,” Fizer said. She encourages people to tap into the local vintage community that already exists and is growing in the St. Louis area. She added that she was happy to be part of the opportunity at SLU to increase their presence.
“Having events like this on college campuses is so important for raising awareness of stuff you can get at an affordable price rather than shopping at Shein or companies like that. Events like these are really helpful to raise awareness and tap into the community,” Fizer said. STG and the vendors are looking to host more events like this in the St. Louis area. For more information on the vendors, visit their Instagram pages: Hannah Valentine - @ghostsoda Mark Lopez and Blake Zager - @pimpedvintage Hayley Fizer - @riptidevintage
Nearly three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, war has become an inescapable backdrop to daily life in Ukraine. For Ukrainian citizens, the initial shock of the February 2022 invasion has long since given way to a brutal, exhausting routine of air raids, power outages and uncertainty.
An overnight Russian drone strike on Dec. 2 hit critical infrastructure and left parts of Rivne and Ternopil without power. A drone struck a residential apartment building, and one person died with others receiving injuries.
The next day, life continues. On a cold December morning in Ternopil, Ukraine, a school bell rings just minutes after an air raid siren finishes blaring through the city. Students file into classrooms clutching their backpacks, while teachers ensure their lesson plans are accessible offline, just in case the power cuts out.
Amid the destruction, air raid sirens and power outages, people have adapted, finding ways to work, study and celebrate even as their cities are bombed. These stories of resilience illuminate a truth that is both sobering and inspiring: life will never be the same again, yet life must go on.
Ternopil resident Yaryna Yasinovska is growing up with the war all around her. The 13-year-old attends school and art club, used to the constant air raids and nightly power outages.
“What else are we supposed to do? Life goes on, and we do our best,” said Yaryna’s father, Andriy Yasinovskyy.
In the distance, a bakery owner flips a “We’re Open” sign on her window, knowing a missile strike could shatter it any day. Life here is lived in fragments, yet somehow, it continues.
For many Americans, war is an abstract concept, confined to history books or fleeting headlines. But for millions of Ukrainians, it has become a relentless backdrop to ordinary life. As international focus shifts and political dynamics evolve, Ukrainians suffer, adapting to a reality where the future remains uncertain and the world’s commitment to their cause appears increasingly tenuous.
In a significant geopolitical shift, the United States, under President Donald Trump, has altered its stance on the war, shifting support away from Ukraine and breaking away from years of American sanctions on Russia.
Recent actions include voting alongside Russia against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine and engaging in bilateral negotiations with Russia, sidelining European allies. These developments have left many Ukrainians questioning whether their struggle for sovereignty remains a priority for Western powers.
For regular people in Ukraine, life has been forever altered by a war they did not ask for.
Civilians, who often have no involvement in the conflict, face disproportionate consequences such as displacement, loss of livelihood and psychological trauma. According to the United Nations, over six million Ukrainians have been displaced within the country, while another six million have sought refuge abroad. This staggering figure represents nearly 30% of Ukraine’s pre-war population, underscoring the immense human toll of the conflict. Children account for nearly half of these refugees, with many growing up in unfamiliar environments or without access to proper education.
Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the war’s ripple effects. A report by the World Health Organization highlights how maternal and child health services have been disrupted in conflict zones, leaving many without critical care.
Psychological trauma is also widespread, with over
Life interrupted: Resilience in a war-torn Ukraine
Mariya Yasinovska, OpinionEditor
80% of displaced Ukrainians reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression, as documented by a recent survey from the International Organization for Migration. In communities directly affected by the war, civilians are finding ways to survive despite immense challenges. Many neighborhoods have organized volunteer networks to distribute food, clothing and medical supplies. Local schools have set up underground classrooms to continue teaching children during air raids. Despite these efforts, the long-term effects of the war, including economic devastation and intergenerational trauma, will be felt for decades to come.
Their lives may never return to what they once were, but they press on in the face of relentless adversity. Because for them, there is no other choice.
Olena Hudz, a journalist who now spends her days as a war hospital volunteer, described the profound toll the war has taken on ordinary Ukrainians.
“Basic everyday necessities have been stripped away,” Hudz said. “No electricity for eight hours is common. Outside of the rapes, stealing — everything the Russian soldiers are doing — how do we explain this?”
Although she knew war was inevitable, she never imagined it would be this devastating.
“We never sleep,” Hudz adds, explaining how Ukrainians rely on Telegram channels for updates on incoming threats like rockets, ballistic missiles and Shahed drones. The warning systems, she notes, are loud and located close enough to be effective, but they have become a constant, relentless backdrop to daily life.
Despite the danger, Hudz and her neighbors no longer go to shelters when the sirens sound.
“We don’t have good bomb shelters around here,” Hudz said. Instead, they sleep in hallways, adapting to the circumstances each new day brings.
“It’s terrifying that we are used to it, that we have adapted,” Hudz said. Like many Ukrainian parents, she wrestles with the choices she has made for her family.
“Of course, I ask myself all the time if this was the right choice, if I should have stayed and kept my kids here to be kids of war.”
Yet, she continues to face each day with resilience, embodying the unyielding spirit of those determined to endure.
In Ukraine, civilians like Hudz have organized resistance efforts, fought to defend their communities and supported each other despite immense challenges.
This kind of civic resistance underscores the dual role civilians play as both victims and active participants in shaping their futures.
There have been large changes in Ukraine’s social fabric. Families gather in candlelit rooms during blackouts, finding solace in shared moments. These acts of normalcy are not merely survival tactics — they are declarations of humanity.
Ternopil Yasinovskyy lives in Ternopil, Ukraine, with his wife and two children. At the end of 2021, they bought a house out in the country, hoping to finish renovations on it within the year and move in. The war has stalled those efforts almost completely, Yasinovskyy explained, with many contractors enlisting, leaving the country, or taking on significantly fewer jobs because of a worker shortage and how stretched-thin resources are.
In addition to the struggle to find workers, the financial burden of the war weighs heavily on families like the Yasinovskyys. A significant portion of many Ukrainians’ income goes toward donations, usually not to large humanitarian funds but directly to volunteers they know.
Fundraising efforts for drones, Starlinks, charging stations, vehicles and repairs are constant, and often, the people collecting are raising money for brigades where their own relatives serve. Financial contributions are a way to protect loved ones and support those on the front lines.
Yasinovskyy showed The University News pictures of the house, as well as the renovation plans, explaining how they are trying to be patient even though the process has been frustrating.
“We had planned everything out for that house, had a complete design mock-up, knew where we wanted to put the plants in the living room. But of course, none of that happened. Two years later, the house still had no stairs connecting the main and second floors,” Yasinovskyy said.
This stagnation is happening all over the country. Businesses are being forced to close. Volunteer efforts that boomed in support in 2022 are finding it hard to garner support. Fundraising is getting harder and harder, whether overseas or from their own countrymen.
In February 2022, there were long lines at enlistment offices as the number of people willing to join the army exceeded the military’s needs, but those numbers have fallen, with many casualties in the last three years
and a general large drop in passion for the war effort. Throughout the last three years, the military has been carrying out constant mobilization measures to replace those who have died or been seriously wounded.
Artur Dron, a young Ukrainian poet who joined the front lines in 2022, said it is sad to see global attention diminish and support wane around the war, even as the situation worsens.
“I always want to emphasize that abroad, the saturation of information about the war in Ukraine is becoming less and less, but in our country, the war is a daily reality. An American in 2022 heard much more about the war than now, so it may seem to him that it is winding down and ending. But it is not so. Nothing has ended, people die in our country all the same,” Dron said. The diminishing media coverage frustrates many Ukrainians, who fear that their suffering will be forgotten. Dron’s poetry captures the heartbreak of living through a war that the world seems eager to move past, even as bombs continue to fall.
“To me, describing pain should never be the goal. The goal should be to outline light—something that stands in contrast to war’s horrors, which will inevitably be present in the poem anyway,” Dron said.
He writes poetry from the front lines, but his poetry is “not about war.” The poems describe events and people he has encountered. Dron’s book, “We Were Here,” was originally published in Ukraine in 2023, and an official English version is available for preorder on Amazon.
“[Poetry] can tell the readers a little more about the purely human aspects of our experiences. Without comments about any political, global things,” Dron said. People’s motivation lies in community, with young people who are vocal about their beliefs and willing to fight for them, like Dron. In the efforts of local volunteers like Hudz, working to rally their communities and get support for wounded soldiers who often feel forgotten. In children like Yaryna, who go to school and art class despite the daily bomb threats, knowing that soldiers are fighting to protect their rights.
Hudz said that it is hard to rely on politicians or the outside world when you live in a country that has been at war for three years. Aid packages can be deferred, slowed and even revoked. Promises are not always kept, both by foreign leaders and the country’s own.
“You need to be your own hope,” Hudz said. “When everything feels hopeless, I have to believe in myself.”
Student Government Association saw major decrease in voter turnout during 2025 election
Voter turnout for Student Government Association elections last month was the lowest it has been in nearly ten years.
Just 880 students out of the eligible 13,381 voted, according to SGA data. This means during the two-day voting period on Feb. 19 and 20, only 6.58% of eligible students cast a ballot.
In 2016, 750 students cast ballots, which was approximately 5.79% of eligible voters that year. Since then at least over 1,000 students have voted in every election, except for this year.
One factor that could explain the low turnout is a lack of contested races, said SGA Election Commissioner and senior student Micheal Poirier.
This year, only three positions had more than one candidate in the running, including just one candidate, Grace LoPiccolo, for president. Many positions had no candidates at all and seats were filled through write-ins.
“When more races are competitive, students may feel a stronger incentive to vote for the candidates they believe best fit the roles,” Poirier said.
Jack Johnston, a SLU alumnus who served as SGA’s election commissioner in 2022, agrees that turnout is directly related to how many candidates are on the ballot.
“When there are multiple well-known presidential candidates with well-operated campaigns, that will drive turnout,” Johnston said. “In 2022 for example, we had lower turnout, but we also had an uncontested presidential race and all the other executive positions except one were uncontested as well.”
Since this election directly followed a presidential election, students might also just have been drained of participating in the voting process. In many cities and counties, including St. Louis, local elections are starting back up.
“Another potential reason is voter fatigue,” Poirier said. “Especially following recent elections, which can lead to general disengagement from voting processes at any level.”
Other years with low turnout on campus coincided with national elections. The only other two years with voter turnout of less than 20% are 2016 and 2024. While this year’s SGA election came months after a polarizing election, the 2016 and 2024 SGA elections happened during presidential elections as well.
In addition to post-national election fatigue, this year’s SGA elections took place during midterms week when many students were likely too distracted by their studies to vote.
Marisa McGill, a freshman studying accounting at SLU, said she didn’t vote due to midterm stress.
Carlee Smith, Senior Writer
(The University News Ulaa Kuziez) A graph depicts SGA election turnout by comparing the number of students eligible to vote versus the number of students who voted between 2016-2025.
“During midterm week my main priority was studying and working on assignments, I wasn’t as focused on other activities as I normally would be,” McGill said. “I was so focused on my exams I don’t think I really noticed the emails and posts about the election until after.”
Many candidates did start campaigning weeks before midterms, however McGill said it would be helpful to get more information about the election itself in advance.
“I noticed a couple posters of candidates before midterms but I didn’t think too much of it,” McGill said.
“I didn’t realize when to vote until after the election had already passed because I was more focused on my midterms.”
To encourage voting during the busy week, SGA members tabled in the Busch Student Center and offered
“I voted” stickers and Dunkin Donuts gift cards.
Voting takes place online via SLUGroups and typically takes a few minutes to complete. Though no technical glitches occurred this year, in 2022, issues with the voting platform prevented some students from voting, Johnston said.
“We fixed the problem and extended voting times,
but without a big race for students to feel passionate about, many students did not seek out the corrected ballot once it was available,” Johnston.
Besides incentives, Poirier said there are several other best practices for increasing voter turnout, including frequent communication about the election, showing students the importance of the election and making voting accessible.
“I wanted to make sure that students knew about the election, made it easy to vote, featured candidates via social media and other internet communication, and provide an incentive for students engaging with SGA and doing their civic duty at SLU,” Poirier said. “There is always more that we can do, and hindsight is 20/20, but overall I felt positive about how we engaged with the student population this year.”
Some candidates also put up their own posters and Instagram posts, and sent emails promoting their campaign.
Still, some students did not engage with or did not know about the campaigns leading up to the election.
Freshman Elly Mitchell, a public health major, said she did not vote because did not know enough about who was running. Though there were extensive bios about
the candidates published by SGA, Mitchell said shorter summaries would have been more helpful for her.
“I needed more easily accessible information about each candidate so I could be an informed voter,” Mitchell said. “It would be really helpful if SGA could send out an email about all the candidates with a couple bullet points about each of them.”
SGA compiles and publishes candidate bios, but candidates should also reach out to students and campaign on their own, Johnston said.
Mason Bader, a freshman who ran for Vice President of Communications and International Affairs as well as a senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, ultimately won his seat as a senator. Bader said being on the ballot motivated him to vote.
As a first time voter, Bader said accessing the online ballot was easy and the selection process was quick, so he was surprised not more students voted.
“But the second, and likely more important reason [I voted] is that I feel it is my duty as a student of SLU to participate in the democratic process,” Bader said.
SGA has a major impact on the SLU community, though some students don’t realize the full scope of what it does. The elected body regularly meets with administrators, charters student organizations and allocates thousands of dollars to them.
“SLU is in a unique situation where the student leaders actually have the opportunity to induce change and work to make our school a better place for all,” Bader said. “To ensure that positive change can occur, it’s important for all students to use their voice and vote for who they believe is a better candidate.”
If students want to see change on campus, SGA members say they should vote and engage with the student government.
“The relationship between the student body and SGA is important because SGA is the main way for the student body to foster institutional change at SLU,” Johnston said. “It’s probably too bureaucratic for some students, but if you look at SLU’s past, SGA has been a part of some historic moments at SLU.”
Just like in local and national politics, it is important to build relationships between students and the government that represents them, Poirier said. That was one of his big goals for the SGA election this year.
“I feel very confident that the newly elected executive board will continue to advertise how SGA impacts the student experience,” Poirier said. “If this relationship between SGA and students continues to be strengthened like it has been this year, I believe we will see increased voter engagement.”
(Courtesy of Helen Hudz) Volunteer Helen Hudz sits in a pile of handmade pillows before sending them off to the front line.
A-10 Tournament Recap: Men’s and women’s teams both fall
conference, is consistently a highly anticipated event in men’s and women’s collegiate basketball. The winner of the tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, commonly known as “March Madness.” Neither the men or womens Billikens were able to claim a bid to the NCAA tournament this year.
The following is a recap of both the men’s and women’s A-10 Tournament play and its results. Men’s Tournament
The SLU men’s basketball team has been in an A-10 championship drought for the past six years, having not won the tournament since 2019. This, along with it being Josh Schertz’s first season as head coach of the Billikens, means fans were eager to see SLU come out on top this year.
The men entered this year’s tournament as the number five seed in the Atlantic 10 conference, which was good enough to earn them a first-round bye. SLU played its first game against the number 12-ranked Davidson Wildcats, whom the Billikens were able to top during regular season play this year. The game ended with a score of 57-56.
The Billikens earned themselves a win once again against the Wildcats in their first game of the tournament, ending the first half up 3631 and finishing with a final score of 83-75.
The top scorers for this game included Isaiah Swope with 26 points, Gibson Jimerson with 25 points, who also broke SLU’s record for single-season three-pointers during the game, and Amari McCottry
Emma Browka, AssistantSportsEditor
with 15 points. This win against Davidson meant SLU advanced to the quarterfinals to play against the number four-ranked Loyola Chicago Ramblers.
Due to their seed within the conference, Loyola Chicago had a double bye and played their first tournament game against SLU. Earlier this year, during the regular season, the Billikens fell to the Ramblers with a score of 78-69, but then claimed a win in early March, outscoring the Ramblers 98-67.
In the recent A-10 quarterfinal game, SLU was unable to overcome Loyola Chicago, finishing the first half down eight points with a score of 38-8.
Swope put up an impressive 30 points throughout the game, but the Billikens were unable to capitalize on Swope’s individual scoring to pull ahead. The Ramblers secured the win with a score of 72-64, ending SLU’s run for the NCAA Tournament.
Even though Schertz’s team did not come out on top, the coach applauded his team during the post game press conference for how far they have come this season.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had a team improve more in the middle of the season to the end than this group. I’m incredibly proud of them,” Schertz said.
Although the men’s basketball team will not be making an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, fans were still able to watch the team compete in the postseason.
The Billikens earned a spot in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and began gameplay on Tuesday, March 18, where they ultimately lost to Arkansas State. Women’s Tournament
The SLU women’s basketball team entered the A-10 Tournament as the number 10 seed after ending the regular season with a record of 13-18 and a conference record of 7-11. The Billikens faced the number 15 seeded St. Bonaventure Bonnies in the first round of gameplay after losing to them earlier in the season, 68-66. These two teams have not played each other in the A-10 tournament since 2010, when the Bonnies claimed the victory. This time, the SLU women were able to turn it around. Top scorers for the Billikens in this matchup included Kennedy Calhoun with 20, who also exceeded 1,000 career points during the game, Peyton Kennedy with 13, and Shun’teria Anumele with 10. SLU rounded out the first half with a score of 38-27 before finishing the game with a final score of 60-50. This win allowed them to advance to the second round, where they competed against the number seven7 seeded UMass Minutewomen.
Softball Statistics
The Saint Louis University Billikens won their softball series against the Fordham Rams this weekend, 2-1. The Billikens moved to a 2-4 Atlantic 10 record for sixth in the standings.
The weekend started strong on Friday evening March 21, with the Billikens routing the Rams 10-2 in six innings. Saturday afternoon featured a doubleheader, with the teams splitting the day. SLU took the first game in a six-run shutout while Fordham gathered a consolation win, achieving a 6-1 victory later in the day.
The series win comes a week after SLU was swept at Dayton, all losses by 4 runs or more, including a shutout.
Junior shortstop Chloe Rhine commented on how the series win improved the team’s mood going forward.
“We definitely took a sucker punch getting swept by Dayton, but I think the team did a really nice job just coming back. A lot of conference games left. Definitely on the up,” Rhine said. Rhine held a 1.000 fielding percentage through the series. She has a .962 on the season, up from .935 last season. Over the series, she had 10 catches, 5 putouts and 5 assists.
Junior catcher Abby Mallo, one of the A-10’s best hitters, saw 9 at-bats over the series. Mallo delivered 3 RBIs and was struck out twice. She is tenth in the conference in batting average and second in the conference in home runs, RBIs, and slugging percentage.
“Abby’s a great teammate, great bat all along. Playing alongside her is just awesome, since she is one of the girls from my class. Definitely a really big impact on the lineup,” Rhine said of Mallo after the third game.
Junior Taylor Hochman pitched all 7 innings of Saturday’s first game, where the Rams failed to score a single run. Hochman had five strikeouts that game. She is fourth in the A-10 in earned run average (ERA) and the only member of the top 20 with more than 80 innings pitched.
“I definitely think having a big senior leader
on the mound this year is just really awesome. She is one of the faces [of] the A-10,” Rhine said on what it’s like to share the infield with Hochman.
The Billikens’ next series will be against the Saint Joseph’s Hawks in Philadelphia on March 29- 30.
For the first time since 2019, every single member of the Sweet 16 is a member of a “power” conference. Six teams are a four seed or higher, meaning only four teams in the Sweet 16 have gotten there through an upset.
The Sweet 16 is currently made up of seven schools from the Southeastern Conference, four from the Big Ten and Big 12, and one from the Atlantic Coast Conference. After the 2023 realignment, these four conferences, along with the Big East, have settled as the new Power Five conferences in college basketball.
Some wonder if this sudden change is due to the implementation of Name Image and Likeness (NIL) deals in college sports. NIL has become a recruiting tactic nationwide to attract talented players (and some managers) to schools. Oftentimes, bigger programs, such as those in the power conferences, can offer better deals to players than low or mid-major schools.
The following statistics have been calculated by the University News.
A look at each Sweet 16 team’s starting five shows that the majority of players started their college careers at a different school, and what’s more, 32.5% of them started their careers at a school currently outside of the Power Five. 29 out of the 80 starters started their
The UNews needs your help! The team would play right on campus at Chaifetz
Rhine after the final game of the series.
Saint Louis University
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‘Severance’
Season 2 is a masterclass in sci-fi
and cult mystery storytelling
Aditya Gunturu, Senior Writer
In a decade of stellar television, “Severance” was a true golden goose. Released in 2022 by Apple TV+, the show was produced by Ben Stiller and new writer Dan Erickson. When originally made, it focused on two questions: “What if you had no memories of work at home?” and “What if you had no memories of home at work?” This simple idea transformed into one of the greatest shows of the 2020s.
“Severance” focuses on the lives of “severed” workers at the fictional company of Lumon; regular people who have chosen to keep their work and outside lives separate by undergoing surgery to add a mindsplitting device in their brains. This essentially creates two different people within one, a person who works in Lumon, fittingly called an “innie”, and the regular person out of work, called an “outie.” This means neither person crosses memories with the other, due to the mysterious and important nature of the work being done at this extremely secretive company.
The show primarily centers on the life of Mark Scout (Adam Scott), who became a severed worker to cope with the death of his wife. The series begins as he starts to question the work that is being done inside Lumon, especially after his innie co-worker on the outside reveals strangely personal details about Mark –things even he doesn’t know himself.
Scott is joined by a loaded cast of experienced actors like John Turturro, Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken alongside many lesser-known standouts such as Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillman and Dichen Lachman. The series masterfully balances Mark’s innie and outie lives by fleshing out both sides of Mark’s life with their own developed plot lines and serious dilemmas that both Marks need to face in their own unique ways.
Season 1 was a bit of a surprise hit, receiving raving reviews from critics in the very beginning but taking a year for audience viewership to pick up. Since then, the “Severance” train has shown no signs of stopping. With Season 1 focusing on building out the world of Lumon and the lives of those around it, Season 2 was able to further develop beautifully. The show spreads its metaphorical wings this season by focusing on several different genres and incorporating new and exciting cinematography, providing some of the best television of the past decade.
While it was already a critically acclaimed show, it managed to become even better and more complex in its second season, primarily thanks to more complex
world-building. The show’s world was rather mysterious in Season 1, with very few clues spread throughout the offices of Lumon. Viewers learned mainly through the conversations of the innies and outies, which proceed to become even more complex in the latest season.
Picking directly up from a massive cliffhanger in the first season, Season 2 begins with the innies recuperating from a major operation, intending to implement changes in their treatment within Lumon. Season 2 continues by following the group going through changes and fighting towards the ultimate goal of finding out what Lumon is really using severed workers for.
Both the outies and innies go through strenuous trials and tribulations, each focusing on different parts of life, helping establish these characters and their motivations. Audiences learn about Mark’s past, focusing on his life before his wife died. Viewers see how Dylan George (Zach Cherry) found himself at Lumon and his family outside. More information is developed about the severance procedure and what Lumon is truly using the workers for.
While every actor in this show truly pulls their weight, Tramell Tillman had a surprising stand-out performance in Season 2. Tillman’s Seth Milchick perfectly personified the true difficulties of people of color working in white-majority office spaces, dealing with countless microaggressions and constant belittlement from his superiors. His arc throughout the season focuses on his struggles to understand his place at this strange company and his future with an employer that doesn’t respect him. This comes at odds with his innate loyalty and positive characteristics, a side that was not really explored in the first season.
Finally, it is impossible to praise this show without discussing its opening. While the theme, written and produced by Theodore Shapiro, remained the same, the animation was further developed, providing more easter eggs to the coming season and giving audiences even more intriguing things to learn about.
“Severance” truly is the show that has no haters, with the only drawback of the show being that it is on a subscription service nobody uses. It falls into that category of television that cannot truly be binged, but rather digested, over time, to properly understand and reel in the sheer grandeur of the show’s world. It is a show that requires thinking, but understanding the show in all its entirety provides an experience worth seeing, even if just once.
Recession
Continued from A1 economic policies have people stressed out.
Another recession pop era is on the rise as people seek an escape from reality. Yet, is today’s music up to the challenge?
While the pop music of the 2020s is not creating a new genre like disco or house, it is adding a new element to recession pop’s theme of having fun despite how bad things may be. Pop artists today are unapologetically embracing themselves and begging their listeners to do the same.
“BRAT” centers around embracing your fun and
crazy side, with Charli XCX crowning herself as the “365, party girl.” Chappell Roan proudly embraces her sexuality, saying “Good luck, babe!” to anyone who refuses to do so.
Rising pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae and Addison Rae are establishing themselves as the next big names in music. Big names from the early
Combining the vamp-industrial rage-trap aesthetics of “Whole Lotta Red,” with the minimalist, baby-voiced and psychedelic world imagined in “Die Lit,” Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC” is the latest and greatest summer anthem for a new generation of Hip Hop listeners. Carti’s album is detailed, disjointed and slightly bloated, creating something that is inherently flawed but impressive nevertheless.
Despite being held back by a few uninteresting and out-of-place features and production choices, “MUSIC” features some of Carti’s most exciting and attentioncapturing vocal performances to date, on a set of beats perfectly representative of his influence on the genre.
The album comes to fans after over 5 years of snippet leaks, feature performances, album announcements, title changes and much more. The original rollout for the album that became “MUSIC” began in early 2024 with the release of “Different Day” and “2024” on Instagram.
The project includes 30 songs, with a total run time of just over one hour, featuring other modern titans of hip-hop, trap and R&B like The Weeknd, Future, Travis Scott, Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert.
“MUSIC,” is not another exercise in creative subgenre crafting. It is, rather, a celebration of the many sounds and styles owing their origin to Carti’s detailed history and the various influences that enabled such history. The always entertaining and often deceptively detailed production, coupled with the Gen-Z coded “SWAMP IZZO” announcements and sound effects, cement Playboi Carti as one of the most eclectic and indemand artists today. Despite the size of the project and the disjointed nature of the track list, the LP has plenty more hits than misses.
The album begins with the screeching, raspy, and in-your-face “POP OUT,” over which Carti finds an offthe-wall but remarkably catchy flow. Expanding on the industrial punk influences of “Whole Lotta Red,” the track is certainly attention-grabbing and has proven to be polarizing among fans and mainstream listeners alike.
“RADAR” finds a similarly disorienting vibe. Featuring a ghostly, horn-laden piece of production from Metro Boomin, the track sees some of Carti’s most interesting vocal variations, uniting the various tones and vibes crafted over his career in the same track.
Much later in the track list, “OPM BABI” brings quite possibly the most obscure and experimental sound, both the production and vocals, in Carti’s entire discography. On its surface, the combination of laughable sing-songy vocalizations, rapid snares, buzzy synth leads and video game gunshot sound effects should never work. Somehow, though, it does, and the
track is already becoming a cult-classic among Carti’s most devoted fans.
The irony-draped “FINE SH*T” brings a sobering yet humorous tone lyrically, with Carti exploring themes of loyalty and commitment, directly commenting on the trials and tribulations of having an attractive girlfriend. With his characteristic baby voice from “Die Lit,” and a repetitive, and vocal-snippet-heavy beat from Cash Cobain and Keanu Beats, the track is a fun, summer-y banger that does not overstay its welcome.
Featuring a similarly cheerful beat, “LIKE WEEZY” is an instantly infectious – short-and-sweet – rage-trap ballad with an amazing Rich Kidz sample. The song’s energy is almost joyous, over which Carti unseriously flexes his status in the music industry at large.
Similarly braggadocious is the track “OLYMPIAN.”
The track’s cycling, low-pitched, and synth-heavy production from Clif Shayne and DJ Moon, coupled with Carti’s lyrics detailing his drug-laden, luxurious lifestyle, is again, reminiscent of the “Die Lit” days.
The album is not without its weak points, however. The record is certainly bloated, with various tracks overlapping thematically. The back half of the record
is also noticeably more interesting than the front half. Most of the singles that were teased on social media in the months leading up to “MUSIC’s” release land towards the front of the album, if they were included in the project all together.
Given their much earlier release, tracks like “K POP” and “EVILJORDAN” lack the novelty and originality characteristic of the album’s brightest spots.
Furthermore, the features on “MUSIC” are somewhat disappointing, often distracting from or negating the overall vibe of the project. “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES,” featuring guest performances from Young Thug and Ty Dolla $ign, is a painfully mediocre attempt at a pop-rap anthem. Even a smooth and confidently sung hook from Young Thug can’t help the track blend in stylistically with the rest of the album.
“MOJO JOJO” finds a similar fate. With ad lib inclusions from Kendrick Lamar, the track features an extremely stripped-back, skeletal instrumental, over which Carti raps rather incoherently. Carti has never been the most lyrical and intellectual of rappers, but the mixing of the track makes it difficult to follow his flow when compared to other tracks.
Playboi Carti broke onto the trap scene during its SoundCloud era from 2014 to 2017, finding both mainstream and underground success with popularity from records like the 2016 self-titled project and 2018’s “Die Lit.”
Carti originally struck gold with a simple, strippedbacked and repetitive style of trap, over which he rapped in his signature “baby-voice” vocals. The album draws on a variety of influences – Young Thug’s nasally and wild delivery, Future’s buttery smooth flow and A$AP Rocky’s druggy, colorful vibe – and over bright and synth-led production from Pierre Borne. Carti’s releases greatly influenced the contemporary Hip Hop subgenres of psychedelic trap and rage in this era.
Carti’s infamous and continually polarizing 2020 release, “Whole Lotta Red,” saw the rapper forego many of the previous elements that fans loved about his music in favor of a novel and rather experimental style of trap draped in vampiric, punk aesthetics. Carti ditched his simple, hypnotic and high-pitched sound for a heavily distorted, hyper-aggressive, almost smokey combination of production and vocals, splitting his fan base in the process.
Despite the variety of opinions and perspectives on “Whole Lotta Red,” the album’s influence is unquestionable. Carti’s work here birthed an entire field of new underground artists, emulating the same aggressive, distorted and disorienting sound he introduced.
Playboi Carti’s “MUSIC” is an exciting and, at times, puzzling celebration of the aesthetics that made him so beloved and popular in the first place. The album’s long tracklist affords it song-clustering that are representative of some of the most notable ideas of Carti’s career but also lends to somewhat of an inconsistent overall listening experience. Despite this and the general lack of notable features, “MUSIC” features some of Carti’s most catchy vocal performances, with some of the best and most diverse production he has ever worked over, all in one, not-so-small package.
FAVORITE TRACKS: POP OUT, CRUSH, RADAR, FINE SH*T, I SEEEEEE YOU BABY BOI, TRIM, OLYMPIAN, OPM BABI, LIKE WEEZY, HBA, OVERLY, SOUTH ATLANTA BABY, FOMDJ
LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS: K POP, MOJO JOJO, JUMPIN, WE NEED ALL DA VIBES
RATING: Light to Decent 7
(Genius)
Adam Scott as Mark Scout, the principal character in “Severance.”
In 2012 the multi-instrumentalist, electronic savant and indie production legend, Sufjan Stevens, lost his mother. Three years later, and nearly exactly ten years ago today, Stevens released “Carrie and Lowell,” an emotionally devastating yet cathartic expression of grief, named after his mother Carrie and stepfather Lowell.
Stevens’ relationship with Carrie was complex, as avid listeners of his knew before the record even released. In a standout track “Romulus” off his record “Michigan” in 2003, Stevens describes a childhood where he felt immense shame for and from his mother. Carrie struggled to juggle parenting while battling alcohol and drug addiction combined with schizoaffective disorder.
In “Romulus,” Stevens poignantly sings “We saw her once last fall / Our grandpa died in a hospital gown / She didn’t seem to care / She smoked in her room and colored her hair.”
As such, fans knew a project centered on Stevens’ mother would be emotionally tough to hear. However, Stevens, as always, found exactly the right sound for the record that, combined with the deeply personal and somber lyrics, created a piece of work that feels as much like a looking glass as it does a mirror.
“Carrie and Lowell” proves that deeply personal and specific works can be some of the most relatable, undoubtedly because the authenticity is impossible to make up. In the opening track, “Death with Dignity,” Stevens establishes over luscious guitar and piano that he has grown away from ill-will toward his mom, singing “I forgive you, mother, I can hear you / and I long to be near you / but
every road leads to an end.”
The record continues with this stripped back sound, a return to more acoustic sounds the artist largely had not touched for over a decade back to 2004’s “Seven Swans.”
In doing so, Stevens proved he still has as much touch at somber acoustic folk as he does with the fantastical and abrasive electronic multi instrumental epic “Age of Adz,” his most recent record at the time.
The focus of the record is without question Stevens’ poetic and gorgeous writing. The artist’s lyrics continue to overwhelm the listener with emotion ten years later, especially when closely reading the lyrics.
On standout track “Eugene,” Stevens calls back to the descriptive recounting of a connection with his mother and cigarettes, dating back to his previous song, “Romulus.” Stevens mentions dropping an ashtray as a child, doing so merely out of desire for closeness to his mother. Later Stevens sings “Some part of me was lost in your sleeve / Where you hid your cigarettes.”
On “The Only Thing,” Sufjans details thoughts of suicide and asks himself “Do I care if I survive this?” in a gut-punch of a song that ends with the beautifully sung, but devastatingly written bridge, “Should I tear my eyes out now? Everything I see, returns to you somehow/ Should I tear my heart out now? Everything I feel, returns to you somehow / I want to save you from your sorrow.”
“Carrie and Lowell” achieved a level of intimacy paired with artistic writing that has rarely been touched outside of 2017’s “A Crow Looked at Me.” Ten years on, and Stevens’ record maintains its role as one of the most important expressions of grief ever made.
I’ve always taken pride in discovering artists before they became mainstream – whether it was Rex Orange County before “Sunflower,” Sun Room before their “Outer Banks” tik-tok campaign, $uicideboy$ during their 2015 release of “Kill Yourself part IX: The Soul Seek Saga,” or Wallows in 2018 upon the release of the “Spring” EP. Some might find this kind of music snobbery annoying, but I think that actively seeking out up-and-coming artists and sharing their work is something we should all do more often. So, whether you are looking for a fresh sound to add to your rotation or just want the satisfaction of saying, “I knew them before they were popular,” here are a few up-and-coming artists you won’t want to miss.
Mustard Service
Instagram: @mustardservice
Monthly listeners: 300K
For the past two years, Mustard Service has held the top spot as my most-listened-to artist, and for good reason. Having seen them live three times, I walked away from every show convinced it was the best live performance I’d ever experienced. Their infectious stage presence electrifies the room, creating an atmosphere that pulls the crowd in.
Hailing from Miami, Mustard Service debuted in 2017 with “Zest Pop,” an album that fuses surf rock and indie pop into a genre by the same name. While “Zest Pop” doesn’t follow a strict lyrical story, its dreamy guitar work, led by lead singer Marco Rivero makes for an effortlessly enjoyable listen. Tracks like “Oh, Honey Baby,” “Taking Up Space,” and “Homie” practically demand you to get up and dance. Their 2020 follow-up album, “C’est La Vie,” hits just as hard, proving to be another no-skip album. While carrying the signature “Zest Pop” sound, this record introduces even more depth. “Need” kicks things off with stunning harmonies and groovy bass lines, easily securing its spot as one of the best on the album. “Daddy Dookie Brown” adds a playful touch while still showcasing tight compositions, and “Hijo de Papa” nods to their Hispanic roots, making you want to dance whether you understand the lyrics or not. “Pleasantries (With Your Lover)” is a standout, capturing the tension
of a struggling relationship with emotional depth.
Their latest album, “Variety Pack,” keeps their signature energy but introduces fresh elements.
Pianist Leo “Big Guy” Cattani gets his time to shine on tracks like “Backburn” and “Your Cat Don’t Stand a Chance,” the latter a disco-groove inspired by Marco’s cat, Smokey. The album’s biggest hit, “The Dominos,” leans into their signature crisp guitar tones with slight reverb that is clean, groovy and completely immersive. True to its name, “Variety Pack” wouldn’t be complete without “Night in Tulum,” which pairs suggestive lyrics with mesmerizing guitar solos, transporting you straight to the Mexican coast. The true gem of the album is its closing track, “Bupkis.” A departure from their usual high-energy sound, this song slows things down, telling the heart-wrenching story of letting go of a lover for their own good. Marco’s smooth yet emotionally raw vocals make it a must-listen.
With new music set to drop in 2025, I can’t wait to see what Mustard Service produces next.
Thoughts on Bowling
Instagram: @thoughtsonbowling
Monthly listeners: 71,336
The rise and fall of Midwest emo is a phenomenon worth studying. Over the past decade, bands like Mom Jeans, American Football, Hot Mulligan and The Front Bottoms have ridden waves of popularity, with the genre often finding renewed interest in the fall and winter months. Now, a new name is emerging On the scene: Thoughts on Bowling.
Despite their short time in the spotlight, this Northwest Arkansas band has quickly carved out a niche, delivering the iconic Midwest emo sound. Their breakout track, “Cavcity,” has already surpassed 1 million streams, an impressive feat for a song released in late 2024. Their three-track single, “tripping over the foul line,” is a tight and cohesive introduction to
Lollapalooza 2025 is having an indie-alt takeover
Bignamesofthefour-dayfestivalthataren’theadliners
Reegan Johnson, CopyEditor
The 2025 Lollapalooza lineup has been released, and it’s no surprise that in the wake of an indie revival, the over-20-year-old festival is filled with up-and-coming artists paving their way in the music scene. With this year’s headliners mostly hailing from the mainstream scene, the rest of the lineup is a mixed bag of the best indie acts to see at the four-day festival.
Royel Otis, an Australian duo composed of Royel Madden and Otis Pavlovic, are riding high after their viral cover of Sophie Ellis-Baxter’s “Murder On The Dancefloor” in early 2024. Their effervescent energy is channeled into the anthems of their latest album, “PRATTS & PAINS,” which blends surf rock sensibilities with Tame Impala-esque psychedelics. The album’s third track, “Foam,” is a prime example, setting the stage for a day of trekking across Grant Park in the summer heat. With their irresistible tunes and captivating live presence, Royal Otis is sure to be one of the standout performers at this year’s Lollapalooza.
Still riding the high acclaim and praise of his debut album, “Two Star & The Dream Police,” Mk.gee is taking the stage on his first major round of festival tour dates. His ever-evolving sound is marked by a textured vocal and gritty production that unveils the DIY nature of his work. When performed live, the tracks further showcase the uncompromising quality that has made him a must-see act on the Lollapalooza schedule. With lush instrumentation and emotive delivery, his performance is sure to cement his status as one of indie music’s most compelling performers.
Gigi Perez took the internet by storm with the release of “Sailor Song,” a song that holds strong emotional
their style, packed with a feeling of nostalgia, angst and raw emotion that is essential to Midwest emo.
In true Midwest emo fashion, “dude, benson is going to be so pissed!” featured a voice-over sample from “Regular Show,” embracing the self-aware humor that defines the genre. Meanwhile, “The Spirit of Jack Daniels” kicks off the single with a striking intensity, helping to set the tone for the other tracks.
If you’re looking for a band to get ahead of a trend, Thoughts on Bowling is a band to add to your playlist now, before they inevitably blow up.
Debuting in 2018, Novacane quickly proved themselves to be able to encapsulate the ambiance of a rainy day in the Pacific Northwest in their music. Novacane started to gain traction with the release of their self-titled debut. Songs like “Radio Song,” “Bad Breath” and “WhiskeyTown” take on this 90s nostalgia rock feel with a touch of indie. Although their discography isn’t big, the songs they have released appeal to a plethora of listeners.
Greer made a lasting impression on my Spotify
Wrapped in 2021, landing the number three spot with just the songs from their debut EP, “Lullaby For You.”
The band’s seamless blend of alternative rock and acoustic-driven melodies created a no-skip project. Released in 2020, “Lullaby For You” showcased Greer’s ability to craft emotionally resonant tracks with dynamic instrumentation. The EP opens with “Aeroplane,” starting with soft acoustic strumming before morphing into a rich electric sound, complemented by smooth harmonies. “Bye Bye Baby” follows with heavier guitar riffs and driving percussion, while “Paper Birds” slows things down, standing out for its lyrical depth and acoustic work. Closing out the EP, “Understand” and “Stay Clear” fully embrace the alternative rock sound, with clean guitar tones and powerful vocal delivery.
After a four-year hiatus (2021-2025), Greer is finally back, after releasing their newest album “Big Smile” on March 21, 2025. Their latest singles, “Franken” and “Had Enough,” call back to their signature alternative rock sound that made “Lullaby For You” such a standout debut.
With their return, Greer is proving they haven’t lost their touch, but only time will tell if “Big Smile” lives up to the high bar they’ve already set.
depth and resonates with themes of repetition and the sense of a deep love. “Sailor Song” fits right along with the mellow composition of “Please Be Rude” and the most recent release of “Chemistry.” These being added to the setlist, makes for an enchanting blend of indie with deep roots in folk. Perez’s work carries an atmospheric guitar sound that will be perfectly amplified through the Lollapalooza speaker systems.
Although Dominic Fike has had a complicated history with Lollapalooza, joining the lineup three times in the past but never actually preforming, this might be the year he will finally take the stage. He’ll get the chance to perform tracks from his latest summer projects, “Sunburn” and “14 Minutes.” Songs like “Pasture Child” and “coast2coast,” which have somewhat become staple summer songs, promise to be perfect additions to the festival schedule.
Del Water Gap blends the charm of indie pop with the relatability of hyper-specific lyrics, creating a sound inspired by “romantic encounters and dimly lit rooms.” Since the release of his breakout “Ode to Conversations Stuck In Your Throat,” the artist has captured widespread attention with his impudent vulnerability. His production-heavy performances land somewhere between indie rock and pop, making him an act worth seeing at this year’s festival.
This year’s Lollapalooza lineup promises a diverse and captivating showcase of indie talent. Whether you’re a longtime festival-goer or a newcomer to the scene, these acts are sure to provide the perfect soundtrack to your summer in Chicago. \
Charlie Gamache Instagram: @charliegamachemusic @autumndrive band Monthly listeners: 2,427
If you are a fan of East Coast surf rock, Charlie Gamache is an artist who is worth adding to your playlist. Hailing from Massachusetts, Gamache made his debut in 2020 with his first EP, “Lemon Grass,” a collection of tracks blending indie guitar chords, funky bass lines and dreamy, ambient interludes. As a guitarist myself, I’m drawn to the simplicity yet intrigue of Gamache’s riffs, which weave effortlessly through his music. “Lemon Grass” moves through a range of styles, opening with the atmospheric “The First Song” and featuring the ambient “Interlude” near the middle. The record then shifts into bedroom rock with “Feed Your Mind” and “Hold on for Me,” and closes with a shoegaze-infused note with “Train” and “Evanescence.” I first discovered Gamache’s music at the height of COVID-19 pandemic when he connected with fans (17 of us) through Instagram Live, taking real-time feedback while recording his single, “Finest Hour.” After a brief hiatus between 2020 and 2022, Gamache has returned to music, now focusing primarily on his band, Autumn Drive, while still releasing solo work. For those looking to dive into his discography, start with “Hold on for Me,” “Alone Together” and “Feed Your Mind.”
You can listen to my playlist spotlighting small artists, including the ones listed in this article here:
Content under the opinion section is not a direct reflection of The University News, but expresses the opinion of the writer, not necessarily the organization as a whole.
Elon Musk
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X, breaking more common social norms of the time by interacting directly with people online and being lauded as this “nerd turned tech superhero,” thanks to his programs that focused on reducing the world’s carbon footprint and his more liberal stances on global issues. He was seen by many, including myself, as a so-called “good billionaire.”
His persona didn’t become tainted until his controversial acquisition of Twitter. In 2022, Musk began to post more about his opposition to current government practices, including his issues with the pandemic. He began sharing more far-right conspiracies, even propping up prominent, controversial figures such as Alex Jones and Jordan Peterson. He began to speak more on topics that he was far less educated on, such as foreign immigration and politics in the U.K., even endorsing a German anti-immigration party in the last election.
The power he holds is concerning due to his account being engineered to send out a notification to the millions of users on X, putting him in the perfect position to bring about catastrophic change to U.S. politics.
Beginning in early 2024, Musk focused a lot more on U.S. politics, discussing the upcoming election but remaining fairly bipartisan. He would even host “open discussions,” where he would use open channels called “Twitter Spaces” on X to post from multiple politicians, usually both conservatives and liberals, and act as a “moderator.” It did not take long for his views to begin spiraling towards somewhere dangerous, however.
He began to see the Democratic Party, the one he had voted for several times in the past, including in 2020, as a party of “division and hate” and proclaimed that he would become a Republican. He began to urge others online to switch parties.
While he had spoken originally about not donating to either party, the Wall Street Journal reported him donating $50 million to “Citizens for Sanity” in October 2024, a PAC – Political Action Committee – that focuses on targeting Democrats on topics of medicine and transgender rights, a very sad sentiment given the existence of his own trans daughter. He began to endorse several different Republican career politicians, including Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and eventually Donald Trump himself.
Along with this, Musk began to subscribe to several of the hot-button political dogmas of the current Republican Party, bonding him further with them. He began to tout online and at conventions several messages about illegal immigrants stealing money and jobs from the U.S., how transgender and transition therapies should be banned, and even denying the usefulness of several important governmental bodies, such as the FAA and CDC.
In the past few months, Musk has slowly made himself more and more connected within the U.S. government. In his current position, he oversees several committees and groups, the largest and most
Propaganda
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The post was made to celebrate his administration’s move to kill New York City’s congestion pricing program. “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” he wrote on X. “LONG LIVE THE KING!”
Which, as of late March, is still untrue. The program still lives, but has been put on hold, despite its early success to tackle cleaner air, safer streets and better transit. The website itself also says it is still in effect.
This is yet another spewing of Trump’s misinformation, but this time accompanied by the proclamation that he is king. Why is this bad?
The president, utilizing such strong verbiage and claiming he is king, is misleading to the public. This could embolden people who support him and his agenda to push for more terms, a king-like leadership and an abuse of power. Imagery such as this is often used to unite the dissatisfied, a tenet of fascism that my peer also commented on.
This is blatantly unprofessional, insensitive, irregular and unprovoked. Political commentary such as this bolsters hateful narratives, especially when coming from a figure of power.
It is evident in the way the posts are formatted. More often than not, the posts are centralized around Trump’s face rather than the issue he “tackled” itself. This removes the affected people from the issue at hand, centering the focus back onto Trump.
On Valentine’s Day, the official page also posted a rendition of a Valentine’s Day card saying, “Roses are red / Violets are blue / Come here illegally / and we will deport you.”
This is blatantly unprofessional, insensitive, irregular and unprovoked. Political commentary such as this bolsters hateful narratives, especially when coming from a figure of power. Not only is this problematic, but statements like these do not represent what most people in the U.S. want reform to look like.
While policies and reforms on immigration have been a top ballot issue for the American people, this does not necessarily mean that people agree with the methods currently utilized under Trump and previous presidents. According to ABC News, many American people support declaring a national emergency at the border, using the military to secure the border and detaining immigrants accused of crimes.
While these are supported issues, “If you dig deeper into the polling, it turns out that support for mass
concerning of these being the newly created DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. This group was founded by Trump in his second term with the sole focus of “reducing government spending,” which he found to be excessively egregious in the previous administration. This program is entirely focused on cutting funding from crucial government programs, such as US-AID and the Department of Education. It is impossible to discuss this situation without addressing the elephant in the room: Musk is not a natural-born U.S. citizen. Born in South Africa in 1971, he originally emigrated to Canada at the age of 17 to avoid conscription, which was mandatory at the time for all white males under the apartheid government. He gained Canadian citizenship through his mother but did not become a naturalized American until 2002.
There have been a handful of senators who were not birthright U.S. citizens. There have been many representatives and mayors who immigrated to the U.S., but by helping Trump get elected into office, he threw away any semblance of a precedent. He has gone where no one thought he should go. No naturalized citizen has had a governmental position as high-up or as influential as Musk. What makes this even more hypocritical is that Musk is a major contractor for the U.S. government,
deportations varies a lot depending on how the question is asked, making it tricky to assess how Americans really feel about what Trump is doing — and how they will react to it,” ABC News said.
This made me wonder if previous presidents approved social media posts such as these on the White House account. When I looked back, all previous posts were deleted. While I cannot attest to how previous presidents would post exactly, I know for certain this is the first time a president and the White House jointly posted an ASMR video of deportees in chains.
Furthermore, on Feb. 25, Trump posted an AIgenerated video of what his takeover in Gaza would look like alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, “Trump Gaza is finally here.”
It is not irregular for presidents to make controversial statements, but what is irregular is the continual push of highly divisive rhetoric and the unprofessionalism that guides it. Trump has been in office for merely two months now, focusing his presidency on executive orders and control, with 92 executive orders in .08 of his presidency.
The White House’s and Trump’s recent Instagram posts mark a troubling shift in political communication, where image-driven rhetoric and exaggerated claims take center stage over substantive discussion of policies.
As we continue to navigate this era, it is vital that we critically evaluate the impact of these posts, not just on policy but on the broader social fabric, and hold our leaders accountable for their rhetoric, especially in the digital age.
with SpaceX sending several rockets to the ISS and even recently being commissioned to bring back the marooned astronauts aboard the space station. This creates an enormous bias where, in his position, he can give himself massive contracts that he did not previously have and may not have received otherwise. When former President Jimmy Carter was elected, he was forced to sell off his peanut farm to avoid this bias.
But, unfortunately, long gone are the days of Carter.
The power that Musk currently holds over hundreds of millions of Americans is extremely concerning, as he and Trump are actively ignoring precedents set by administrations from past centuries. The rhetoric and messaging he constantly posts on his own social media platform are being pushed out to millions, if not billions, of people who are being tainted.
Not everything has been good for the wannabe ruler, with Tesla’s stock dropping by billions, reaching a point of critical no-return where he could potentially even be ousted by his own board. Everywhere, Cybertrucks are being vandalized and Tesla fanboys are being mocked online. He is not alone in his idiocy, with the Trump administration failing to bring about any lasting or significant savings within the governmental budget.
Trump and Musk’s descent into far-right, extremist politics has begun to set an even more horrifying
precedent: billionaires can do whatever they want in this country and the people cannot do anything about it. We have been seeing in recent months how this duo is overturning programs and laws with shocking speed, all in the hopes of maintaining the most control over one of the largest economies, militaries and general landmasses in the world. In a land that touts its freedoms, we are seeing unprecedented levels of xenophobia, literary suppression and a political divide larger than ever. But what people fail to understand is that the real divide is not Republicans versus Democrats; it is the working people vs. greedy billionaires. Musk was not elected into office. He has no political background. The most interesting thing about him is that he has more money than anyone else in the world. So why is he the one deciding how our lives should work? His impacts on the U.S. government may be massive, but they do not have to last.
Around the country, people are fighting back in any way they can: judges are blocking his DOGE initiatives, journalists are calling out his major hypocrisies and even regular people are trading their Teslas in, understanding the type of man that they are supporting. That is all it takes. Musk may be painful to deal with, but he does not have to be the end; it is possible to rally against him.
Fictitious fascism or frightening reality? WarningsfromGeorgeOrwell’s“AnimalFarm.”
Calla
Truschel Jacobs, Contributor
George Orwell is one of the most prolific writers of all time for a reason; he writes about what matters and writes well. After reading “Animal Farm,” one of Orwell’s well-known books, I was shocked by how many similarities I found between the main villain, Napoleon, a dictatorial pig, and President Donald Trump.
“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself: ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write because there is some lie I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention,” Orwell said.
For those who are not familiar, “Animal Farm” is a less than 100-page book that follows a group of animals who stage a rebellion against humanity in hopes of creating a utopian society based on complete equality. However, the pigs, led by Napoleon, quickly seize power and twist every promise of prosperity into a tool of propagandizing and manipulating oppression.
Though Orwell wrote this classic with the 1917 Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin’s rise to power at the forefront of his mind, its disturbing warning message provides the perfect allegory for concerning political decisions currently being carried out by the Trump Administration.
There are parallels in the contradictory statements, unwarranted self-glorification and the false placement of credit where credit is entirely undue that appears both under Napoleon’s regime and within the Trump administration.
Early in the book, Napoleon argued against the building of a mill for the animals. However, once he chased away his political opponent, he took credit for the idea of the mill and insisted that the animals start building it. Orwell says, “...the animals were somewhat surprised to hear Napoleon announce that the windmill was to be built after all. He did not give any reasons for having changed his mind…”
Similarly, Trump is known to contradict himself often. In his first term, Trump championed police support, yet at the start of his second term, he pardoned the rioters from the insurrection attempt that took place on Jan. 6, 2021 — the same rioters who assaulted, injured and killed multiple Capitol police officers. Furthermore, after the attack, Trump refused to lower flags to honor the police officers who protected the Capitol with their lives.
In “Animal Farm,” Napoleon did none of the work, then took credit for all achievements completed by the farm animals. Trump has often taken credit for policies initiated by former President Barack Obama. Trump repeatedly claimed that “we took care of the vets, 91% approval rating.” This figure was actually from a 2013 survey taken during Obama’s presidency, while a 2019 VFW survey shows that only 82% satisfaction existed for veterans in the VA. Furthermore, Trump stated roughly 217 times that “Our beautiful vets, they were very badly treated before we came along. And, as you know, we get them great service and we pick up the bill, and they can go out and they can see a doctor if they have to wait long periods of time.” This quote references the Veterans Choice and Accountability Act, which was signed into law by Obama. This act allowed veterans to seek cost-covered
private medical care if VA wait times exceed a certain period.
I have often heard Trump supporters echo false claims made by Trump, which reflects a similar mindset held by the uneducated, successfully propagandized farm animals in “Animal Farm.”
“It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, ‘Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days,’” Orwell said. False notions must have a source, and, in our modern world, they often come from the mouth of the president himself.
Trump repeatedly claims credit for achievements that are not his. The Washington Post reported that Trump repeatedly boasted 493 times that “we also built the greatest economy in the history of the world,” despite the fact that there was more economic growth under former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton. He also insisted 296 times that his tax cuts are the largest in U.S. history, even though former President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 tax cuts were 2.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and Trump’s amounted to 0.9%, making his the eighth largest in 100 years.
Often, I find myself alarmed by the bipartisan lines that seem to be drawn through every layer of our current society. I feel a chasm of division open between the political parties. I find it difficult to hold conversations with those who are staunch Trump supporters, for though I have no qualms with the values or ideals of the Republican Party, I am extremely disturbed by the cultish deviation from traditional conservative values that Trump has led the Republican Party through. He has led them to believe and support political decisions that I truly believe would resurrect Reagan from his grave. Reagan, a popular Republican president, was in favor of free trade and hated Russia, meanwhile, Trump Republicans support tariff wars and Trump is friends with controversial Russian president Vladimir Putin.
In “Animal Farm,” Napoleon’s education of the less-than-competent group of sheep on the farm is frightening. The sheep could not memorize the commandments written on the barn wall, but they knew “four legs good, two legs bad,” which they would bleat at random. This simple refrain often said by the sheep drowned out any more nuanced opposition or debate to Napoleon’s rules.
Furthermore, at the end of the book, Napoleon trained the sheep to say “four legs good, two legs better,” for Napoleon learned to walk on two legs and taught the sheep as well. The lack of understanding and education that the sheep possessed made them all too happy to discard their former saying of “four legs good, two legs bad” to “four legs good, two legs better,” simply because that is what their leader told them to do. Similarly, Trump’s direct, crude and to-the-point language often resonates with many of his less educated
Ashlyn Jones, ManagingEditor
One of the most important lessons I have had to learn is that happiness is never just going to float gracefully down and land in my lap, fresh on a silver platter. For as long as I can remember, during my most difficult times, a voice in the back of my mind has promised me that one day, once I meet this goal, accomplish this thing or go to this place, I will finally be free of my severe depression.
As I look around my small, cozy and eclectically decorated apartment, I take in the sight of my partner sitting on the other side of the couch, doing their homework. My sweet dog, Louie, rests atop one of the cushions. These are the physical manifestations of all the hard work I have put in to feel the light of optimism grace me with a ray. My depression is not cured, but my once-dark, black days are now sprinkled with moments of contentment and peace. However, I know that happiness is not, nor should it be, circumstantial. What has truly made me feel happy are the ways I have adjusted my mindset. Mental health struggles can seem like impossible roadblocks on the path to happiness, and although mental illness certainly can impede one’s ability to reach happiness, it is important to remember that there are always factors in our control. As simple as it may seem, our happiness is truly in our own hands.
The habit that heals:
My resolution this year was to journal every day. Like many others, this goal has somewhat slipped through my fingers, but the consistency I have managed has made a difference. When I journal, I give myself the space to be as vulnerable as possible. I make an effort not to lie to myself and to write about what is occupying my mind. If writing does not feel comfortable, doing video diaries or text-to-speech in a notes application works just as well. The goal of this habit is to track emotions, recognize patterns in behavior and reflect on personal growth. As long as those intentions remain, the results will follow.
Get to know yourself:
As awkward and strange as it may seem, I love to talk to myself. When I sit down at my vanity and look into my mirror, I talk to the girl staring back at me as if she were another person. I say things to her that I would say to my best friend. To quote Hillel the Elder, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”
It has grown all too common for people to indulge
followers, for it is easy to remember and repeat. His supporters – who feel alienated from the language of the college-educated, pretentious elites cling to his catchphrases without question, even when the stances change, much like the blindly loyal sheep on the animal farm. This mirrors the cognitive dissonance, or the discomfort one experiences when they hold contradictory beliefs, occurring in our society. Now, contradictory beliefs are at play at every level of political discourse. Cognitive dissonance is the idea that, to avoid discomfort, we will switch or defend our positions
in self-hatred. Yet, there is no way to be happy with oneself if the thoughts running through one’s mind are nothing but self-deprecating negativity. I believe that the first step to stop hating oneself is to get to know oneself.
I like myself because she likes to read the same books I do. We both cry when dogs die in movies or when we see roadkill on the street. She prides herself on working hard and overcoming hardships, and so do I.
Look in the mirror and say kind things. Get to know the person you never allowed yourself to love.
Find ways to get yourself out of a rut:
Even the happiest people on Earth have bad days. I am nowhere close to the happiest person on Earth, but when I feel really low, I have a mental checklist of things I do in an attempt to make myself feel better, as well as a few things I do when I anticipate that I will have a particularly rough week.
For immediate relief, I like to utilize something called a “dopamine menu,” a working list in my journal that details various activities that can raise my spirits in a pinch. Menu items for me include listening to my current favorite playlist, doing my nails, journaling, doing something creative, reading a chapter from my book or buying myself a coffee. It is important not to include “doomscrolling” on this menu, as it is a shortterm solution that is not actually effective because it will not fulfill the need for dopamine once you stop.
When I know I have a hard week ahead of me, I try to find an activity or event to look forward to. I plan a reward for myself for my hard work that week, like going to see a movie with my partner at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Sometimes, we just need a reason to keep pushing forward. We have the power to create that reason.
If tasks feel overwhelming and the weekend seems too far away, it helps to take things one step at a time.
Whatever I am doing at the moment, I focus only on that. Right now, I am writing this article. The project due tomorrow, the work I have in the morning and the essay I still have not turned in do not, and cannot, matter at this moment. Right now, my only task on Earth is writing this article. Focusing on what is immediately within one’s control can sometimes make all the difference.
Nothing changes if nothing changes. At some point, it is no longer sustainable to live in self-pity and sorrow. Happiness does not have to be a faraway, foreign concept, it is something that can be sought after and achieved if one genuinely allows oneself to do so. Your happiness is in
entirely, even if shown new information that proves them false. We label any new information that dares to change our beliefs as fake or misleading news. In doing so, we isolate ourselves from the chance of absorbing new, important information that could prove to be true because we would rather die on our separate hills than expand our understanding.
In “Animal Farm,” the sheep switch their simple chant because their leader, Napoleon, told them to do so. They switch their entire belief system to align with the changed view of the ladder. Today, we see Trump supporters cheer for policies riddled with contradictions and falsities simply because they fit their partisan worldview. Whether it is the Trump administration’s contradictory policies or the unyielding support of
It has been a common misconception for many years that the Chinese language (Mandarin) is the most difficult language to learn. Although I admit that it is by no means easy to learn, I believe that stigmatizing the Chinese language as the hardest to learn perpetuates xenophobic ideologies rooted in early immigration laws directly targeting Chinese immigrant workers. This misconception also plays into broader American propaganda efforts to seek to vilify Chinese society, ultimately deepening the divide between American and Chinese people by discouraging cultural and linguistic understanding.
When it comes to actually learning Mandarin, common concerns range from the tonality of the language, the character-based writing and the structural differences from English. The language’s four tones can be challenging to those trying to learn Mandarin because it requires them to memorize vocabulary as well as understand and be able to replicate the tones that change the word’s meaning.
Additionally, unlike alphabet-based languages such as English, Mandarin relies on thousands of characters for its writing system. However, despite these challenges, Mandarin has relatively simple grammar that lacks verb conjugations, gendered nouns and any complex present and past tense structures, which differs from many languages.
Compared to languages like Arabic with its highly inflected grammar system, Hungarian with its 18 cases or Japanese with its three systems of writing (Hiragana, Katakana and kanji), Mandarin poses rather simple ways to structure its grammar. Ultimately, the perception that Mandarin is the most difficult language to learn overlooks the comparative challenges that many other world languages pose.
This perception isn’t just a linguistic misunderstanding, it is tied to a long history of antiChinese sentiment in the United States. In the late 19th century, a wave of Chinese laborers migrated to the U.S. and faced extreme discrimination, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This was not only the first major federal law restricting immigration based on nationality, but also a targeted effort to break apart traditional Chinese families under the false belief that Chinese women would spread disease.
Scholar Nayan Shah highlights how Chinese and Japanese immigrants were depicted as “depraved, immoral and racially unassimilable to U.S. society,” fueling laws like the Alien Land Laws that prevented Chinese and other Asian Americans from owning land. Catholic priest Frederic Masters, after visiting Hong Kong in the late 1800s, described Chinese religious practices as “grotesque” and “degrading” — an example of how Western perspectives shaped harmful stereotypes. These early depictions of Chinese immigrants as “uncivilized” contributed to the belief that the Chinese language was incomprehensible, reinforcing the false idea that Chinese people could never fully assimilate into American society.
Our current perceptions of labeling Mandarin as an impossibly difficult language contributes to this narrative by further alienating Chinese communities and reinforcing the idea that they are fundamentally different from our American society. This continued narrative of “otherness” has persisted for decades, influencing major immigration policies and our societal attitudes. This all continues to shape our misconceptions about the Chinese language today.
Modern political narratives only deepen this
Trump’s devoted followers, cognitive dissonance is a recipe for societal division.
We, like the farm animals, live in a society where confirmation bias rules, a society where facts are bent until they resemble the unrecognizable. We live in a society that Orwell cautioned us about almost 80 years ago.
Orwell’s “Animal Farm” is not just a story about farm animals – it is a warning about what happens when the truth is sacrificed and one person is allowed to gain complete power. Napoleon and Trump are certainly not identical. However, there are many parallels. Their underlying tactics are uncomfortably similar and should be cause for concern. With both, we see a leader who manipulates language, takes credit for the work of
divide. As economic competition and political tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated, so has the portrayal of China as a threat, often bleeding into legislative policies. For example, the proposed Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act (Stop CCP VISAs Act) would prevent Chinese students from obtaining visas to study in the U.S. under the vague justification of “security concerns.”
Part of this broader effort to distance the U.S. from China includes portraying Mandarin as an alien and impenetrable language, discouraging Americans from engaging with Chinese language and culture. This artificially limits diplomatic, economic and cultural exchanges, cutting off opportunities for meaningful cross-cultural understanding.
Reframing the narrative around Mandarin starts with recognizing its value in today’s globalized world. Economically, China is one of the largest trading partners of the U.S., as well as most of the world. A proficiency in Mandarin can open doors to new business opportunities, international law and diplomacy.
Culturally, learning the language can provide a deeper understanding of China’s rich and long history, which can help foster a mutual cultural understanding between the U.S. and China. Rather than focusing on the perceived difficulty of Mandarin, we should approach the language just like any other language: with learning strategies, techniques and practices that make the language more accessible. Studying the repetition of character writing, listening modules and conversational practice can all help ease the learning process and accelerate the number of people learning Mandarin. Encouraging curiosity with Mandarin rather than framing it as an impossible challenge can help be a bridge for an overall deeper global connection.
As someone who has studied Mandarin for the past three years here at Saint Louis University, I will not deny that it comes with its challenges. But I can also say from experience that just 30 minutes a day practicing tones and character writing can lead to major progress. I’ve found great success in the Chinese program here at SLU, where our professors, Yun Lee and Joy Shu Curtin, are dedicated to their students and support their learning. As native speakers themselves, they provide valuable insight and good teaching that has helped me, as well as many other students, become conversational in Mandarin just after our first year of learning.
The idea that Mandarin is the hardest language to learn isn’t just misleading — it’s part of a deeper history of misunderstanding and division. Framing Mandarin as impossibly difficult has long been a tool for othering Chinese people, from 19th-century immigration laws to modern political tensions. This misconception discourages people from learning the language, limiting opportunities for cultural exchange and reinforcing unnecessary barriers. But the truth is, Mandarin is just like any other language — it takes effort, but it is entirely learnable. More importantly, it’s worth learning. Whether for economic, diplomatic or personal growth, understanding Mandarin fosters connection rather than division.
I encourage you to reframe your thinking on Mandarin. Instead of letting outdated narratives and fear dictate our approach to the language, we should embrace it with curiosity and an open mind. The more we engage with Mandarin and Chinese culture, the more we break down the artificial walls that have kept us apart for too long.
others and rallies the uneducated masses while fostering fear and division to remain in power.
Orwell writes not to create art but to expose lies. His 1945 masterpiece, “Animal Farm” is a testament to the power of truth – a truth that remains incredibly relevant in today’s world. Comparing Napoleon, a character based on Stalin, to Trump, sheds light on the dangers of unchallenged, unchecked power and the ease with which messaging and language can be used to control the masses.
Through Orwell’s allegory and our modern, political reality, the manipulation of language, constant contradictions and blind repetition of falsities are all part of a dangerous slip-n-slide into fascism that we, as a people, must fight at all costs.
(The University News / Ashlyn Jones)
Two hands cupping around a bright light, representing happiness.
YAP YIK
If you want to go the extra mile, you could get a weather radio that provides real-time weather warnings, even during power outages.
Fun Fact: SLU is StormReady certified by the NWS, meaning that every building has a safe shelter place and a weather radio.
Universities send out alerts to their students once the area is placed under a tornado warning. These alerts serve as the primary source of information for many students.
The third step is to make a safety plan. Storms can strike at any time. Whether you are at home, class or out and about, you should have a plan.
Always identify shelter locations ahead of time. The best places are the lowest level of the structure and away from exterior walls and glass. Basements, bathrooms and closets are your safest places.
“I was out with friends, but made sure to make it back to the house in time,” Davies said. “Our basement is a very safe location.”
If you live on campus, review your dorm/apartment procedures. If you are caught outdoors, find the lowest ground possible like a ditch. Bridges and overpasses are not safe to shelter under.
Lastly, prepare an emergency kit. This is something that is often overlooked or incomplete. A quality
U The Univeristy News
emergency kit has a first aid kit, flashlight, batteries, chargers, bottled water and non-perishable foods.That is something Davies prepared ahead of time.
“We made sure to have plenty of water, food and candles for light,” Davies said.
Bonus points: As you prepare for a weather event, make sure to be wearing closed-toed shoes in case there is damage done to your structure that leaves glass, branches and other debris.
Make sure to also have clothes that will keep you warm. This is one of the most important things to have for several reasons: the temperature drops once severe storms pass through; your home could get damaged, thus exposure to the elements; and power outages mean no heat during the night.
By understanding the risks, staying informed and having a plan, college students can significantly improve their chances of staying safe during a severe weather event.
“If you’re not weather aware, it could significantly impact your life,” Charles Graves,meteorology professor said.
Make sure to listen to these alerts and shelter when alerted by the NWS, broadcast meteorologists and your university.
Pay attention to the warnings instead of having the
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