Fall 2023 Magazine

THE KNOX STUDENT

Cover taken by Red Engel “Corners”

Exhibit in Borzello Gallery

Steuart Pittman

Keenan Wells

Ellen Miller Garrett ‘24 Eleanor Lindenmayer ‘25 Co Editors-in-Chief

Welcome to the first TKS print news magazine, and the first printed TKS edition since 2020. It’s been a long time coming, and the TKS staff has put in so much work to make this happen. Inside you will find five in-depth stories that reporters have been working on all quarter. As well as some other fun extras, like comics and a horoscope. In this news magazine you will find pieces that are longer, more in depth, and took our journalists several weeks to complete. There’s a profile of a new staff member, an investigation into the staffing changes in the Knox administration, and an exploration of the impact college voters have on American democracy.

Print media is changing, and TKS is changing with it. The daily or weekly paper is no longer how people consume news. Professional journalists update the news constantly online, and this term TKS has strived to do the same. All our stories about events, people, and other happenings on campus can be found on our website. But with this magazine we hope to deliver more in-depth reporting for campus to enjoy! If you like what you read here, visit our website for more journalism centered on the Knox Community.

Abolition Lab Manifests Itself Through Lectures

Knox Students Learn about the US-Dakota War

Yuchen Wang Staff Writer

Knox College is a school of less than eleven hundred students. Yet its history goes back more than one hundred years, and the founder, as well as the first several presidents and trustees were involved in the underground railroad during times of slavery. Knox also contributed significantly to progressive changes during the 19th century. One of the first Black students in Illinois: Barnabas Root, and the first Black senator in the United States: Hiram Revels both graduated from Knox. This year, an opportunity to commemorate these historical events was awarded to Knox by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the form of a $1.2 million grant. This grant is funding research and learning opportunities related to historical justice, in the form of the Abolition Lab. The projects funded will focus on the theme of Abolition – a core value of the college since it was founded.

“Our goal is to get students to think differently about the humanities disciplines, make classes more hands-on and immersed in the community, as well as making learning more accessible through new tools and technologies,” Post Doctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities Dr. Jennifer Andrella said.

Dr. Andrella is in charge of this project, along with seven faculty members headed by Associate Dean Danielle Fatkin. Departments such as the Knox Library, Vovis Center, and Kleine Center will all have involvement with the project as well.

Two key parts of the project will be exploring abolition with a strong focus on the college’s founding and encouraging students to develop skills relating to researching archives, as well as learning about abolition in the 21st century to raise awareness of social justice issues to students.

Phot0 by Yuchen Wang

Hiring at Knox

Is the shortage of teachers nationwide affecting Knox?

Jenna Schweikert Section Editor

The ‘nationwide teacher shortage’ often topped headlines in the past two years. Why? What’s being done to fix it? How is this teacher shortage affecting higher education, specifically smaller liberal arts institutions like Knox College? The data is clear for K-12 schools, but not necessarily for higher education institutions.

In March 2022, 44% of public schools reported full or part-time teaching vacancies, according to data recorded by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and reported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Of public schools with at least one vacancy, 61% identified the COVID-19 pandemic as one cause of increased staff vacancies.

Shortage data for higher education institutions is scarce and inconclusive, but there has been some recent fluctuation at Knox. In the 2021-2022 school year, Dr. MarQuita Baker started as the new Vice President for Student Development and Monica Keith started as the new Vice President for Advancement. Despite some change among faculty positions, Dean of the College Mike Schneider isn’t concerned.

“I think we have been very successful filling our positions. I’m very excited by all the faculty we hired this past year, we hired more than we normally do,” Schneider said. “There was very

little hiring going on across academia during the two main years of the pandemic, so there are a lot of very qualified candidates out there.”

Over the summer, Mary Crawford took over as Dean of Students from Tim Foster. These dean positions—the Dean of Students, Dean of Faculty Affairs, and Dean of Curriculum and Assessment— rotate among faculty members on a 4-5 year cycle.

“I put out a call for faculty asking who wants to take a crack at this and serve your colleagues, and then you rotate back in the faculty,” Schneider said.

As the new Dean of Students, Crawford worked with Foster in a transitional period over the summer.

“I’ve been approached a couple of times over the years for different things. My main focus, no matter what’s been going on, is that I really like to interact with students. I really like undergraduate education because I really like to see students get to grow. That is really why I do what I do,” Crawford said.

The main purpose of this rotation, according to Schneider, is to ensure that faculty don’t become too removed from the classroom experience. Every year, as seniors graduate and first-years enroll, the student population shifts.

“There’s a belief that to be successful at these jobs,

Photos by Jenna Schweikert

you need to be very close to the faculty experience. When you’ve been out of the classroom for three or four years, you begin to forget very quickly, and you don’t know this current group of students as well,” Schneider said. “The rotation allows each one of those individual faculty to bring their unique perspective to a job and apply it in this administrative context.”

Schneider also added that serving as administration gives faculty members more insight into the inner workings of the college.

Schneider himself worked as Dean of Students about 10 years ago, after which he returned to faculty before taking his current position as Dean of the College. Although Schneider believes Knox is not understaffed in faculty, some positions still remain unfilled, like in the journalism and business departments. These fields are challenging to hire in, according to Schneider. Despite hardships in these fields, Schneider says Knox has been successful in hiring for difficult positions like clinical psychology.

The process of hiring faculty begins with a small search committee consisting of members inside the hiring department and members outside the department. The search committee reads the applications, conducts interviews, and organizes candidates’ tours of campus.

“Every faculty search has to have public events, so there’s a teaching demonstration, or a public lecture, or creative work presentation. We try to invite students, faculty, and staff who would work in that area to attend these public events and provide feedback,” Schneider said.

As to hiring at Knox, Crawford said she hadn’t been in the position long enough to develop an understanding yet, but isn’t overly concerned.

“Around the country, people have been looking at their lives and reprioritizing what they think is important. That’s affected a lot of different aspects, and I don’t think academia is really any different from that,” Crawford said.

Schneider agrees, but thinks that ‘the great resignation’ may in fact be beneficial for Knox.

“I know that we sometimes think about Galesburg as a quiet country place out of the way and I think there’s some truth to that, but I also think that the pandemic has given people a lot of time to reflect on how they want to live their lives,” Schneider said. “Right now, I think a residential liberal arts college is a great place to work. I feel calm, confident or comfortable to just say who we are and what we are.”

Schneider not only feels comfortable with what Knox College is as a school, but is also excited for the prospects new faculty bring.

“I’m always very enthusiastic about people we do hire. They bring a lot of skills and talents and they mesh well with what this environment is,” Schneider said.

“A More Robust Democracy”

Exploring Impact of Student Voting on American Democracy

Eleanor Lindenmayer Co Editor-in-Chief

Are you planning on voting in the midterm elections?

“Yes,”; “Maybe,”; “When is that again?,”; “Absolutely,”; “No,”; “Of course,”; “Oh yeah that is coming up, isn’t it?”; “What is that?” ; These are just some of the responses to a lunchtime poll performed by The Knox Student (TKS). 79 students were surveyed outside The Hard Knox Café, and asked that one simple question, “Are you planning on voting?”. If the answer was no, there was a follow up: “Why?”

“I don’t know how,”; “I’m not sure if I should vote here or at home,”; “I don’t know how to get an absentee ballot,” ; “I’m not a US citizen,”; “I forgot to request my ballot,” ; Knox College currently enrolls 1,053 students, and excluding the approximately 200 international students, that leaves 853 who are able to vote – sans a few first-years that may not be 18 yet.

So, are they voting? And are other students around the country? And most importantly, why does this matter?

Are Students Voting?

If the results of this survey are unbiased and representative – unlikely, as it was not taken by trained pollsters – 63.3% of Knox students are planning on voting in the upcoming midterm elections. Though, the question of whether those who declined to answer the lunchtime poll (of which there were far more of than responders) are the same or a similar group to those who are not planning on voting, is important to consider.

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement 66% of registered college students voted in 2020 – 14% more than the number of students who voted in 2016.

This statistic is slightly misleading. It only represents the percentage of registered students who voted. To know what percentage of students voted, they’d need to count unregistered students as well. So it can be assumed that the number of college students voting is below, perhaps significantly below 66%.

This puts the Knox College numbers above the average.

Below is a table created by Ballotpedia showing total voter turnout of all eligible voters over the past twenty years with presidential election years highlighted in green.

Voter turnout fluctuates but increases and decreases pretty reliably depending on whether it is a presidential or midterm election, coming in around 60% normally for presidential contests. If college students voted at the same rates as older adults, their turnout would be expected to be 60% as well, btu it’s not.

A National Election Commissions and Research Agencies study showed that fewer than half of Americans ages 18 to 29 voted in 2016. Another study by Daniela F. Melo of the Department Of Political Science at University of Ottawa found

similar results, indicating that, “younger generations are less likely to vote than their older counterparts,”. Baker Center at Georgetown University found that 58% of all eligible college students voted in 2016, lower than the American average.

College students are voting at lower levels than older adults, there is no consensus on by what proportion, but it is happening. Why?

Charlotte Hill from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that voter suppression may play a role. Voter suppression always impacts those who are less likely to vote more than those who are more likely, including young people, minorities, less educated people, and people of a lowersocioeconomic status.

But Knox Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of Public Policy Andrew Civettini doesn’t believe that to be the main issue.

“The academic research on [voter suppression] says that [it] doesn’t matter,” Civettini said. “They don’t change who participates, and to the extent that they do, they actually decrease it for both parties.”

Basically, those who are going to vote, will, and voter suppression measures won’t stop them. So,

what is stopping college students?

The answer appears to be simple – something called opportunity cost.

“Just like economics, it’s a simple thing,” Civettini said. “When you increase the cost for something, the demand goes down.”

Those costs can be many things: less flexible schedules, inability to take time off, lack of community ties, differing voting registration rules state to state. It’s a common misconception that if it is a federal election the federal government runs it – but that’s not the case. In almost every state a person must register, which adds an additional step before voting. Sometimes this process is complicated. Out of state students need to travel home or request an absentee ballot, which adds another step before voting.

“When you make voting harder by increasing the artificial cost of it, even if it’s nominal. ‘Oh, I have to

travel five minutes instead of two minutes to get to my polling place,’ somebody is going to use that as a reason not to participate,” Civettini said. The exposure a student has to voting and political education before college has a large impact on whether or not students will vote once eligible. “Ultimately, the best predictor about whether or not young people will participate in elections is whether or not their parents did,” Civettini said. “The single biggest predictor of who you’re going to vote for is who your parents vote for.”

Both parental guidance and civics education can be very important. Every state requires some coursework in civics or social studies in order to graduate, but these requirements vary dramatically across the country. And often, according to Civettini, civics is the most neglected department in secondary education. Amending this problem is one of the many solutions posited to increase student voter turnout.

Solutions

Professor of Government at American University Jan Leighley suggests teaching how to register, how a ballot works, how to go to the polls, and anything else students need to know about how to vote in their state, in high school civics class. In some states students can even pre register in class with a civics teacher available to support them through the process. According to University of Chicago Professor Anthony Fowler, this preregistration can increase turnout by 2.1 percentage points. Another option is automatic registration when interacting with another government agency – like getting a driver’s license or passport. Twenty-one states including D.C. currently have automatic registration policies.

But if students make it to college without being registered, colleges can also do a lot to help. Tufts University even argues that, “Preparing college and university students for responsible stewardship of a robust democracy has long been the core mission of American higher education,”.

A study by Professor of Political Science at Indiana University South Bend Elizabeth A. Bennion

and Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University David W. Nickerson, found that emailing students a downloadable voter registration form increased registration rates by 0.6 percentage points, but did not affect turnout. But when students were emailed the link to an online registration portal, registration increased by 1.2 percentage points, and turnout increased by 0.5 percentage points, which is statistically significant. Several studies examined the impact of students or professors giving voting registration presentations in classes. Another study by Bennion and Nickerson found that, “Presentations by both students and professors increased voter registration rates by approximately 6 percentage points. Voter turnout rates increased by 2.6 percentage points,”.

A study published in the journal Political Behavior focused more on voter engagement, finding that discussions about voting with peers increased the likelihood that those already registered would vote, but did not seem to impact how many students were registered.

Civettini says that getting students to that first election is the most important part, because, “the biggest predictor for whether or not you vote in your second election is whether or not you voted in your first election.”

Voting is habitual: the more you do it, the more likely you are to do it again, especially if those around you are doing it as well.

Though voter suppression is not a large part of why college students don’t vote, decreasing voter suppression will increase voter participation for all groups, including college students.

“The conventional wisdom is when you make elections easier to participate in, more people participate – that’s true,” Civettini said. “The conventional wisdom is also when more people participate, democrats do better, and the evidence for that is actually pretty mixed. For the most part research shows that few election outcomes would change if you took turnout from sixty percent to eighty percent.”

Importance and Impact of College Voters

Civettini is right – statistically, one vote doesn’t really matter. This is the opposite of what people are told when they are encouraged to register, but it is true. Elections almost never come down to the line enough that one vote is statistically significant. But the college generation as a voting bloc is significant.

Someday, this generation will be the dominant part of the electorate, and the more they vote now, the more they will vote later – since voting is habitual. While the increase in voters may not dramatically shift the outcomes of any specific elections now, it would impact what issues and policies politicians chose to focus on.

“If you had a large influx of youth voters, both parties would have to do something to try and attract them,” Civettini said.

Parties and candidates react to who is participating in elections, and the younger generation has different priorities than older generations. If all college age voters were mobilized, the politics would start to reflect this.

“Anytime the electorate shifts in some meaningful way, both parties are going to shift strategically because they’re just trying to get one more than the other side,” Civettini said.

Because it’s not about winning the majority, it’s just about having a bit more than the other side, parties could focus their energy on different voting blocs, which could change party priorities accordingly. Voting is linked to other types of political participation as well.

“[Voters] are more likely to write letters to politicians. They’re more likely to participate in rallies. They’re more likely to join organizations that lobby for change in whatever way they see fit,” said Civettini.

In short, the more students vote now, the more will vote in the future, and, as Civettini said, the more voters,“the more robust the democracy” the United States will have and the more the policies will reflect the next generation.

Red Engel

Designer

No More Fried Squirrels in Electrical!

Biggest Danger On Campus

Gotta Pay for it Somehow

Graphic

Discovering Aries Powell

New Campus Lgbtq+ Coordinator Shares Personal History

Ellen Miller Garrett Co Editor-in-Chief

As a student in both undergraduate and graduate programs, Aries Powell, the new campus LGBTQ coordinator, has always had a passion for queer outreach on college campuses. During their own education, Powell worked for their campus LGBT center and worked closely with other queer students to create change. At Knox, they plan to do the same, connecting queer corners of campus that may have never intersected before.

Powell was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. Their family is deeply rooted in the, “tight-knit,” community and despite the city they grew up in being larger than Galesburg, they cannot go home without seeing people they’re related to or who have known them since they were born.

“My mom’s side of the family is huge. My greatgrandma had 12 kids and 56 grandkids and a couple hundred great-grandkids. Basically, they all moved to Delaware when my mom was a kid. So I grew up in this microcosm of West Virginia my entire life. Very country I would say,” Powell said.

Powell grew up very involved in the art scene of Wilmington. They started working backstage at shows when they were 12-years-old. As a classically trained singer, dancer, and actor, they have also spent time on the stage. They also play several instruments and write both songs and poetry. Their artistic education began at the Christina Arts Center.

“For black people in Delaware, it is the center of arts education for young black people. That’s where I grew up, that’s my home. In a lot of ways, the people in that space raised me. I learned a lot about art, a lot about culture, a lot about blackness, politics, how to be engaged in your community in meaningful ways,” Powell said.

Until now, Powell has spent their entire adult life in North Carolina. After receiving a scholarship to study at Wake Forest University, they fell in love with the state. They were able to have some cultural comforts of home while being in a new space.

“When people ask me where I’m from it’s complicated because I was born in Delaware and I feel connected to the experience of growing up there but I also feel very country – very ‘West Virginia mountain people’ sometimes,” Powell said. “Then when I moved to North Carolina in college, I felt very at home because that southern way of thinking and doing and being was always familiar to me.”

During their undergrad, Powell majored in Sociology with minors in Gender and Women’s Studies (GWS) and Africana Studies. They then went on to earn a Master’s in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of North Carolina Greensboro in 2021.

“It’s a great major, if you’re looking into grad programs I would definitely do it because it hits, it’s hot, it’s now, it’s for the girls. I loved my GWS education, and one of the things about Wake Forest University that I think really speaks to my experience here is that it’s a small private college but the thing about Wake that I think is a lot less present here is a huge sense of elitism and competition,” Powell said.

Historically, Powell’s family was not able to access the same opportunities as the families of most students at Wake Forest. This made the competitive and elitist nature more apparent when they attended school there. Powell feels that the energy is different at Knox.

“[At Knox] We’re here to be scholars together, we’re here to work together, whereas when I was at Wake Forest I felt like I was always in competition

Aries in their office.

Photo by Red Engle

with people and it sucked. Especially because I’m a first-gen college student and to be in this space where people were third-generation legacies at this specific school, and I was like your grandparents went to college? That was crazy to me. I can’t imagine a world where my grandparents had went to college. Not that they aren’t intelligent people, because everyone in my family is incredibly intelligent, incredibly resourceful,” Powell said. For Powell, the disparity between intelligence and access to college was very evident during their experience as a first generation college student.

“Even further back in my own bloodline if people had had the opportunity they would have gone and taken advantage of that but they didn’t have access. So it just meant a lot to be the first person in my family to have that kind of access to not only education but also wealth and power and it was really intimidating but really eye opening,” Powell said.

Being a community organizer has been an important part of Powell’s life. However, they have temporarily taken that hat off, because they, “feel like you can’t engage equitably with a community that you don’t live in.” Powell has only lived here since the summer and thus feels that they are primarily still getting to know the community and its needs.

However, they have replaced that focus with their deep care for education. Their passion for the non-classroom education of a college campus has brought them here to Knox. According to Powell, a third of the Knox community is queer. This speaks to the importance of the work that queer programming accomplishes on campus.

“I’ve discovered in the process of going through my master’s program and education and such that all of the best education, all of the life-defining moments that I had as an undergraduate student weren’t in the classroom. Most of the time it was in places like intercultural life or sitting with the LGBTQ advisor, or with any of the other magnitude of groups or offices that I was involved with. That student development work is honestly the lifeblood of a college,” Powell said.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to get your degree, move on, and do great things with your life, but sometimes I think that the student development piece outside of the academics will tell you why you want to get this degree. What are you working towards? Who are you looking to serve? What communities are you a part of? What do you care about? So I really want to do that for students.”

Powell has had their own share of life-defining moments related to the work they are doing at Knox. While at Wake Forest, they worked for Freedom School, a reading camp for young students, during the summer between their junior and senior year. Because they were on campus during the summer, they ended up living with athletes who were there for summer programs as well. Usually, Powell never had an opportunity to interact with that group of people on campus. However, that summer, they were talking to three people on the women’s basketball team. A few minutes into talking, they realized that they were all gay. Neither Powell nor the other students had realized there were other lesbians on campus. This opened Powell’s eyes to the widespread queerness that can be hidden on even a small campus.

“I’m thinking that I’m the gayest person on campus, like I hang out in the LGBTQ center, I’m an LGBTQ center change agent, I pilot queer programs on campus, I’m a GWS minor, there’s no way I don’t know every gay person on campus. But no, we were stuck in our own little bubble. Somewhere across campus on the basketball court talking about, ‘you gotta get your head in the game,’ whatever, was this other group of lesbians. As I got a little bit older and as I started thinking about this as a career I thought about that moment,” Powell said.

Powell feels that it is important to bring together groups of queer people across campus, who may have never interacted otherwise.

“What about all these queer people we never see because they aren’t involved in the gay club or the gay stuff? What would it have meant at my college if the LGBTQ center had sponsored a tailgate at the women’s basketball games? What would it have meant if the LGBTQ change agents had sponsored a queer art gallery?” Powell said. “So yeah, basketball lesbians are why I got into this.”

With the Knox students themselves, Powell has felt an energy that does not necessarily exist on campuses typically. They feel that the students are driven with the work that they do, they come with a plan and just need a platform, which Powell can provide.

“One of the things that I really loved while interviewing and seems to not be all talk is that the students are really dope… I’m the only dedicated LGBTQ staff member and at any other college that would be a huge problem, like, ‘oh my god why don’t you have a staff of like 12 people?’,” Powell said. “But here the student groups really pull the load. They do a lot. I absolutely love to see it, I love to see student leadership, because mentorship, student leadership development has always been my big push. I’ve noticed here, students come to me with their ideas. I don’t have to come up with a whole bunch of things and be like, ‘oh I have to put my ear to the ground and try to hear what the students want,’. The students come and tell me what they want.”

Powell’s partner Kayla moved with them from North Carolina. Together, they spent the time before students were on campus, “eating [their] way through the city,”. They were told from friends in Indianapolis that midwestern food was bad compared to the south, but they have been pleasantly surprised, saying they’ve been to Iron Spike, “maybe five or twelve times.”

In their position, Powell splits their time 6040 between LGBTQ-specific programming and supporting Tiana, the Associate Dean of Intercultural Life. Powell is not only here to support students, but also works with faculty and staff in a plethora of ways.

“I’m also here to support the training and diversity needs of our faculty and staff on an administrative level. I do trainings and sessions on LGBTQIA+ things for diversity and inclusion at the college. I am also charged with making sure that LGBTQ faculty and staff feel included and served and like they are being supported well. That I’m trying to branch into more as I’m getting into this. I feel like I see a lot of students and talk to a lot of students and I really want to get out there and talk to more faculty and staff,” Powell said.

a queer art gallery?” Powell said. “So yeah, basketball lesbians are why I got into this.”

Outside of programming, Powell is available to help queer students in whatever way they can.

“I help people do the name change process, not only on this campus but legally. I’m ready to help folks deal with housing issues and moderate real discussions about gender and sexuality between students. Not only to make LGBTQ students feel safe but also to catch everyone else up so we can all make LGBTQ students feel safe on this campus,” Powell said.

Powell hosts office hours from 9 am to 4 pm at the Gender and Sexuality Center (located next to Williston) every Friday. They keep the entire day open for students to come and talk to them about programming ideas, concerns, and just how they’re feeling in general.

“Please come talk to me, I’m not a scary person. I’m down to talk about everything. I want to hear your programming ideas and things that you want to do on campus and I want to make them happen; if they’re reasonable,” Powell said. “We should all feel like we have a home here. We should all feel like we have a real sense of belonging on this campus.”

“What about all these queer people we never see because they aren’t involved in the gay club or the gay stuff? What would it have meant at my college if the LGBTQ center had sponsored a tailgate at the women’s basketball games? What would it have meant if the LGBTQ change agents had sponsored

Drugs, Alcohol, Bike Theft:

Campus Crime Update

Savannah Butcher Volunteer Writer

The 2022-23 school year is nearing the end of its fall term, and opportunities for reflection are everywhere. Knox College Students are checking their grades and goals, making adjustments as they see fit. While students are reflecting, so is Knox Campus Safety.

On Sept. 30, Director of Campus Safety Nathan Kemp sent the Annual 2022 Security and Fire Safety Report in an email to Knox College students and staff. The 45 page report contains reported crime data from 2019 through 2021 on the Knox College campus, excluding the college’s property Green Oaks in Truro.

One of the most striking statistics over the course of the pandemic are the Alcohol Violation Disciplinary Referrals. By the end of 2019, the number of these referrals reached 45. In 2020 that number dropped to 18, and in 2021 it rose to 51.

“In 2020 the number of disciplinary referrals for alcohol violations took a big dip and then popped back up on the other side of 2020, but that would extensively be because no one was here,” Kemp said.

Although there is not enough data to tell if there is a larger connection between the COVID-19 pandemic and alcohol use, time will tell. There have been 3 alcohol violations on campus in the 2022-23 school year.

So far this year there have been 5 bicycles stolen on campus.

“We always work as closely as we can with the Galesburg Police Department, if a student reports to us a stolen bicycle we tend to ask them what their preference is regarding reporting to the police,” said Kemp. “If they wish to make a police report we’ll do everything we can to help facilitate that, if they wish not to make a police report, then we won’t make one on their behalf [or] overstep their 14

wishes to do so. If it is a Knox College owned bike, we will always make a police report.”

One out of the five bikes stolen on campus was later recovered on campus.

“Always make sure your bike is securely locked to a bike rack by the frame and tire… with a hardened U-Lock. We have had a couple of instances of cable locks being cut loose. Keeping an eye on [your bike] is always a good thing, so you can narrow down the time frames of when you last saw the bike is always a plus,” said Kemp.

The Knox Bike Shop currently offers bike lock rentals, and posted instructions for how to properly lock bikes on their Facebook account in Oct. of 2020.

Reported Crime on Knox College Campus During the Fall Term of 2022-23 School Year

Various Reported Law Violations on Knox College Campus

Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

In one case, first-year Megan Schafar took multiple precautions, but her bike was still stolen.

“I noticed my bike’s front wheel was mostly taken off on one of the first days of orientation. At that point it was still locked to the rack, but my guess is that someone tried to steal it,” Schafar said.

Schafar went to the bike shop for repairs, and asked if there was anything else she could do to prevent it from being stolen. Schafar planned to register her bike, and was advised to move it to a more public rack in the meantime.

“I moved my bike to the rack in front of the library and planned to go back to campus safety as soon as I could, but that weekend, walking past the library, I saw my bike was gone. It was frustrating,” Schafar said.

According to Kemp, Campus Safety is investigating different ways of securing bikes on campus.

“The other thing we are tentatively exploring is possible locations for additional secure storage of bicycles [indoors].” Kemp said.

Campus Safety is currently working on upgrading existing

bike racks, along with a multitude of other important safety features on campus.

“We’re looking at some of the more old fashioned bike racks that are less secure, and working on getting those replaced with better ones. We’re looking at lighting needs, and reinstituting the safety walk this year at the request of the Student Senate, and that will help us address lighting needs especially around areas that have traditionally seen more theft,” said Kemp. “We’re doing an overview of our entire camera system, and starting to upgrade older, and out-of-date cameras and add additional cameras to the network to help cover some of those areas that we’re currently missing.”

The Campus Safety walk happened on Oct. 20 at 5pm and covered three different areas of campus. The intention was to create an opportunity for students to alert Campus Safety of any issues they see. This open communication is incredibly important to Kemp.

“I would love to have people give me some feedback on what it is they’re looking for from the Department of Campus Safety,” said Kemp. “There’s a whole lot of different groups, interests, and organizations that might have different needs, or see something that I don’t see or know something I don’t know. The more involvement from the Knox community the better.”

Associate Director of Campus Safety

Dan Robinson echoes Kemp’s desire for community participation.

“If someone thinks of something that maybe we haven’t thought of, we’ll certainly entertain it and implement it if we find that it has merit,” said Robinson.

Graphs by Savannah Butcher

1 This graph contains all the reported crimes from July 16 to Oct. 29, 2022. So far, the biggest crime on campus numerically is theft, and of the 11 reports of theft 5 are reports of stolen bikes.

2 These 43 reported law violations made up for all of the crimes on the Knox College campus from 2019-2021 excluding drug and liquor violations (pictured in graph #2). There were no reports of on-campus murder and non-negligent manslaughter, manslaughter by negligence, incest, statutory rape, robbery, aggravated assault, arson, or domestic violence during this time.

3 Out of these 126 violations from 2019-2021, almost all resulted in disciplinary referrals, with only two arrests. These violations far outweigh all other crimes on campus numerically, as is usual with college campuses.

For Aries, this solstice is a time to reflect on your position in important relationships. Aries is the most naturally dominant sign, its time for you to practice letting go of control. What situations have you dominated? How could you approach them differently?

Libra keeps the balance in the zodiac. During this time, this balance may be thrown off. Take things lightly, don’t take yourself too seriously.

Taurus is easily steady in the face of any stellar chaos. Thus, this is a time for reflection. How are you able to find stability in a constantly shifting environment?

Things may be falling apart around you. It is time to focus on coming home to yourself. Look inwards. Everything falls apart before it clicks together.

Unlike Taurus, you are mutable air, which means that you are constantly changing with the shifts of the universe. This is a freeing time for you, take action, live it up, do what feels right. How have you been limiting yourself this season?

This is the perfect time for you to take action on things. You have a decision to make, you will know what’s right when the time comes. Don’t be afraid.

In the face of chaos, you tend to seek comfort. This solstice is the perfect time for you to allow for new growth instead of going back to old ways. What do you need to do to pen yourself up to new experiences?

Although you are an earth sign, this solstice may throw you off of your steady ground – or you may feel off of steady ground already. This is the time to allow yourself to change. How can your current perspective on situations change? How can you become solutionoriented rather than focusing on the problem?

While you are normally able to excel in any situation, this solstice is making it difficult for you. How can you find ways to shine while in an uncomfortable situation?

In the midst of change, it is time for you to evaluate your current situation. What is working and what is not? You must take action to change your own situation.

The placements of this solstice are good for you, Virgo. This is the perfect time to take action on whatever thing you have undoubtedly been overthinking. How can you learn to do things without knowing exactly what the outcome will be?

The solstice is a transformative time for you. What upheavals are you currently experiencing? How will you cope with these and find a new version of yourself?

How will the 2022 Winter Solstice affect your placements?

Check your sun, moon, and rising!

issue playlist

portions for foxes // rilo kiley

gold dust woman // fleetwood mac

kiss you right now // duckwrth

antihero // taylor swift

does he love you // rilo kiley

shotgun // soccer mommy

scenes from an italian restaraunt // billy joel

haea nagelia

midnight rain // taylor swift

samson // regina spektor

1 Spirit Gone, (SP)

2 Glaicer Study, (KW)

3 Dawn, (SP)

4 Finger Paint, (KW)

5 Fog, (SW)

6 Terra Form, (KW)

7 Space Time (triptych), (KW)

Photos by Red Engel

Steuart Pittman

Keenan Wells