Humans are inherently flawed. We are full of contradictions. Often, our actions do not match our words and we change our minds continuously. It is a unique and challenging experience to be a human, especially in our increasingly polarizing yet interconnected world. In part, we are to blame. We created the internet, a global network of interconnected computers and devices, which has forever changed our world. The internet allows us to have instant access to information, connect with others thousands of miles away and share ideas that we would not have elsewise. It in itself is the modern human experience, but it is also the very thing that polarizes us. It makes us feel lonely and disconnected, it forces us to be dependent on tools like Google and ChatGPT and it allows criminals access to more victims. I have spent the last three years studying the internet and how to identify and mitigate threats online at Wright State University. One thing I have learned is that the internet is a space in our society that has both chaos and order. It is regulated and uncensored; it is controlled and it is the Wild West. It is helpful and it is harmful. It is a duality.
In this magazine, you will find themes of duality in nature, in politics, on the internet, in fictional worlds and at our University. It is all around us. It is in the things we create, in the beliefs we have and in our identities. But I believe dualities bring people together. Our individual and unique strengths and weaknesses balance each other. Humans need each other, and we need duality to create groups of leaders that are truly representative
EDITOR’S NOTE
of all voices. Dualities bring control and order to a society designed to separate us. However, in this same manner, dualities also bring chaos and conflict to our society. It can divide us racially, economically, politically and socially. It can break the closest alliances and punish us all. We can either celebrate our differences or we can let it tear us apart.
One thing is for certain, there will always be dualities. A yin and a yang. A push or a pull. Left and Right. Love and hate. There is also the in-between: not totally love but not totally hate, and in these grey areas is where I believe humans live. In these areas we can live together and we can build communities. We can celebrate each other’s wins and comfort each other in losses. We can be proud of our identities and we can embrace our flaws without fear.
I have seen both sides at WSU. I have witnessed a community come together to celebrate love, individuality and ingenuity. I have also witnessed a community divided, buckling under pressure from all sides. However, in choosing this theme, it is our goal at The Wright State Guardian not to divide us further, but instead to find commonalities in our emotions, opinions and experiences.
It is with great pleasure and a heavy heart to be able to say thank you to all of the wonderful writers, editors, photographers and designers who worked on this project. This is my third and final time working on Flight Magazine, and I am so honored to have been a part of its creation. Thank you to my roommates, Julie and Ren, for listening to me talk about work non-stop. Thank you to my parents, my sister Rachel and my best friend Christina for being my biggest fans and supporting me from the other side of the state. In life, I believe no matter how divided we are, we can find common ground.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Disability Dichotomies: Accessibility, Accommodations and Ableism
Britin Frazey
Hannah Ferrell 6 12 14 18
The Monster
Ashley Hainzer
The Duality of Addiction and Recovery: We Do Recover
Erosion
Miranda Burke
Social Disruption: The Mirror of Social Media
Ashley Hainzer
To Be Cherished and Destroyed
Aaron Cline
The Line Between Helpful and Harmful: the Benefits and Dangers of AI
Julia Kirk
Silver Palace, Golden Door
Britin Frazey
Liberal School, Conservative Country: The Influence of Attending a Blue College in a Red State
Aaron Cline
Disability Dichotomies: Accessibility, Accommodations and Ableism
Britin Frazey
Wright State University is ranked third in the country for most accessible universities. This is used in advertising and is a point of pride for campus. Students with disabilities are a crucial part of the WSU community, and it is essential to ask about their experiences and to listen to their answers.
Four individuals with disabilities were asked crucial questions about their experiences on campus in an attempt to gauge whether WSU is truly as accessible as we like to believe. Their experiences vary, but all of them are valuable, valid and deserving of being known.
Building a Community
At the Office of Disability Services, students can register any known or suspected disability and utilize their services. Making an appointment is simple through WSU’s website, and students can meet with a case manager to explain their needs and receive reasonable accommodations.
Charlotte Mountz is currently a psychology major, though as a
freshman, she is still undecided on what she wants to do for a career. She loves animals, traveling and sports, specifically baseball and hockey.
ODS of WSU attended the Abilities Expo in Chicago, Illinois. When Mountz, local to Chicago, attended the Expo, she met ODS and found out about WSU for the first time.
“I was really excited that they were trying to actually seek out potential students with disabilities and diversify their population and show that we want these people on campus,” Mountz said.
Mountz is involved in Miracle Makers and has been getting involved with Abilities recently, too. She can often be found hanging out in the Student Union’s Cultural Identity Centers, specifically the Disability and Neurodivergence Cultural Center.
The DNCC is a hub for all students with disabilities, particularly those who identify heavily with the disabled community. Often based out of the DNCC, the
Abilities club welcomes people of all ability levels to come out and do fun activities together. They love to do crafts and play games of all kinds.
Lily Berkow is the President of Abilities. She is also a social work major who plans to do work to advocate for the disability community and their rights. Berkow is already an activist for her community, and encourages others to join her club, as well as her fight.
“I’m very passionate about this group,” Berkow said.
Abilities and the DNCC have created a tight-knit disability community at WSU for those who engage with it.
Exploring Disability Identities
Able-bodied people often have little understanding of disability experiences or how a disability can impact a person’s daily life. As a result, their perception can be skewed, and they may make assumptions about another
just as you cannot look at a book’s cover and say you read it, you cannot know a person’s true abilities or identity by simply looking at them.
Mountz has spina bifida and sensory processing disorder, as well as autism. A lot of people with spina bifida are also wheelchair users, but for Mountz, it is an invisible disability. Spina bifida is considered a “snowflake condition,” according to Mountz, because every individual is different.
“I had my own invisible issues, but it was more just [that,] I had health issues. I didn’t think about the fact that I had a disability until I started getting involved in the spina bifida community,” Mountz said. “Now I’m heavily involved and trying to think of myself as disabled more, although
the disability label.”
She described how having an invisible disability sometimes makes her feel excluded from certain aspects of the disabled community, but that it is still her community. Because of this, Mountz tends to openly tell people that she identifies as disabled.
“My disability is valid, even if I don’t have physical accessibility needs, [or] mobility accessibility needs,” Mountz said.
While it is crucial to consider the identities of those with invisible disabilities, it is equally necessary to keep in mind those with visible ones as well.
Berkow was born with cerebral palsy and has always used a wheelchair. She said that her disability is a big part of what
proud of who she is and proud to advocate for her community.
Some visible disabilities, such as Berkow’s, are with a person from the time they are born. However, there are others who have a longer, more complicated path to adapting to their visible disabilities, and finding identity within their community.
Olivia Hurley is a psychology major with a public health minor. She is actively involved in Abilities and Miracle Makers. She enjoys art, volunteering and advocacy. In the future, Hurley plans to work as a child life specialist, meaning she would provide therapy and age-appropriate explanations of medical procedures and conditions for kids.
“It started out with me having invisible disabilities, and then
PHOTO BY: Bethany Althauser
when I lost my ability to walk, that’s when I had more visible disabilities,” Hurley said.
Hurley shared that she was nine when she was first diagnosed with a disability. When she was ten, she acquired nerve damage from two ankle surgeries and developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, the most painful disease known to humans.
Hurley now knows she has functional neurological disorder and autism. She also has severe orthostatic intolerance, meaning her body will not allow her to stand upright due to blood flow. It takes her about half an hour to physically sit up in the mornings, or she will pass out.
Luckily, Hurley does not have to face life alone, thanks to her loyal service dog, Clarence. The pair have been together for several years now, and the standard poodle knows many useful tricks, from seizure responses to “crowd control,” where he walks in circles around Hurley’s wheelchair to create space.
Due to all his fur, Hurley has to groom Clarence regularly, and
she also dyes the tip of his tail rainbow because it looks cute and helps people not step on it. It matches the wheels to her chair, which she calls Esmeralda.
Part of being a person with a disability includes facing situations that were not designed with them in mind, as well as interacting with people who are ignorant about them and their community.
The Deaf Experience
Another unique population within the disability community is the Deaf community. The Deaf world is a vast and rich culture, inclusive of many different hearing levels, so long as involved individuals share the culture’s values.
Within the Deaf community, deafness and hearing loss are not viewed as disabilities. Instead, they tend to consider themselves to be more of a language minority group. People who are culturally Deaf in America tend to use American Sign Language, which is a complex visual language. Since Deaf people often need the accommodation of an interpreter, though, they tend to get lumped in with the disabled community.
Heather Emmert is a social work major with a double minor in Deaf studies and healthcare communication. Since she was five years old, she knew she was hard-of-hearing, but at WSU, through her ASL classes, she learned that she identified as Deaf.
“It felt like coming home. There’s a Welsh word, [hiraeth]. And it
talks about how you have been longing for something, longing for home that you didn’t even know you were longing for. But when you find it, you know. That was that experience,” Emmert said.
Emmert is grateful to WSU, specifically the ASL program, for learning this key piece of information about her identity and for finding her community.
Some people falsely believe that ASL is little more than a simple, gestured version of English, but it is its own language entirely. WSU has an entire ASL department, in addition to the Sign Language Interpreting program. Staff and students involved in this program tend to be passionate about it because of all they learn there about ASL and the Deaf community.
“I don’t see it as a hindrance. I don’t see it as a disability or keeps me from community. I think it’s just barriers from the hearing world [that] doesn’t even consider it,” Emmert said.
Barriers can be found everywhere in the hearing and able-bodied world. Emmert recalls a time when she was around eighth grade, and she had been standing in line for “Flight of Fear” at Kings Island for several hours. When she got up close to the ride, she saw a sign that said riders could not wear hearing aids on it. So, Emmert tucked hers into her sock and hoped they would still be there when she got off the ride.
“And so it was always like, oh, okay, a reminder of being different or not always being included,” Emmert said.
While Deaf people often do not view themselves as having a disability, they still share some common experiences with the disability community because they are perceived as disabled by most hearing, able-bodied people.
Shattering Ableist Expectations
When people have little to no understanding of disabilities, they tend to put people who have them into certain boxes. This is an issue for many reasons, as it is limiting and even dehumanizing to simplify a person to a disability they have.
For example, Berkow is very physically active. She loves horseback riding, specifically English style, and finds the feeling to be freeing. Berkow also works out, and wants people to know how fit she is. Due to her using a wheelchair, people assume that Berkow cannot walk or work out, but she actually does both on a regular basis.
This is also the case for invisible disabilities, such as autism. There are many stereotypes about autism, but they do not apply to all people who have it.
“I also like to say, not all of us are good at math, not all of us like trains. It’s a stereotype, and one I wish I had. I wish I was good at math, I am not good at math,” Mountz said.
Hurley has faced many different expectations throughout her life. When she was in high school, she became paralyzed from the neck down, and had to relearn all of the skills that she has again.
“It was challenging, because obviously, you know, you know how to do something, and when you lose the ability to do basic things that you know [how] to do, it’s frustrating and it’s difficult,” Hurley said.
Now, Hurley has learned a lot of skills and she is able to do many things for herself. She is no longer paralyzed, but shared that people still expect her to be confined to her wheelchair, and never sit anywhere else. In reality, she likes to sit on couches sometimes.
“I’m used to just sitting there and doing my own thing. [It’s] always disappointing when you are expecting to go on a trip or do something with them, especially when the program is like University [sponsored] and they just don’t get it, or they can’t tell you if it’s accessible or not,” Hurley said.
“It’s disappointing, but it also makes you feel like less of a person and less valued, but also like you’re missing out and that you’re not getting to have that experience with your peers.”
Hurley combats more situations like this by being a self-advocate, just as every person with a disability has to be to get their needs met in most spaces in the able-bodied world. It is essential that she knows ahead of time whether she will be able to participate or not, and other people often do not care to find out, even though it can be as easy as making one phone call.
Accessibility and Activism at WSU
One of the most important questions was whether or not WSU is as accessible as the institution likes to believe. The four students all have unique experiences and opinions, all of which are valid.
“[My dad and I] did a cross country road trip, and we went to a bunch of different schools, but we were looking at, like accessibility is a big, big, big factor,” Hurley said. “None of the other ones had the tunnel system. None of the other ones had the service dog dog park on campus. So those were big things.”
Hurley expressed that WSU has many features she finds to be helpful, all of which helped her decide to be a Raider. This includes the clicker system for the doors, which allows her to open the door to her dorm with the click of a button.
“Overall, besides communication, it’s met my expectations. I’ve had some problems communicating with professors and professors thinking they can ignore accommodations. But besides that, I’ve also had some really good professors that are okay with, you know, what I need,” Hurley said.
Other students tended to agree that WSU has earned its place as the third most accessible university in the nation, but that does not mean that things are perfect.
ODS and their services, while helpful for many students, are not effective for everyone’s needs. The accommodations that they provide to students with disabilities range, but they do not accommodate hearing loss or Deafness very well, according to a student.
They offer virtual captioning, a system that listens and transcribes audio using artificial intelligence. However, this often reads incorrectly, or does not encapsulate the entire room.
“The biggest thing I deal with [is that] reasonable does not always equal effective, and so trying to get that out there, even to our own ODS, is like, yeah, it’s a reasonable accommodation, but it’s not effective. And so you feel like you’re starting to fall behind. It was very rough. I think it was five or six weeks before I had interpreters,” Emmert said.
Emmert explained that ODS is
barely educated about hearing loss and the Deaf community. She said that when she went to them to ask for accommodations after learning that she was Deaf, she had to educate them on the Deaf experience, despite being new to it herself.
“ODS didn’t offer me an interpreter with English on the lips. They didn’t even offer me an interpreter, I had to fight for it,” Emmert said.
ASL interpreters tend to have a range of skills. Emmert’s reference to “English on the lips” refers to an interpreting style where the interpreter mouths the words in English as they sign the message in ASL in front of them. This is the most effective for bilingual Deaf people like Emmert.
Emmert expressed that most of her professors have been great, and that many individuals at ODS make it clear that they care, even if they have not been properly
educated.
Ableism can look like so many different things, some of which are more subtle than able-bodied people would ever think about unless they asked someone with a disability. Making jokes about diapers is ableist, for example, because some people with disabilities have incontinence.
“It can make you feel like you can’t share part of yourself, and that you’re gonna get babied or criticized about part of yourself that you literally cannot control,” Mountz said.
The same was true about food sensitivity, as Mountz explained that due to her autism, she sometimes has a negative physical reaction to tastes and textures of certain foods. She explained that forcing someone to eat a certain food can be a form of ableism.
Part of accessibility includes social situations, and part of activism includes having crucial
conversations and acting upon them. Knowing which jokes or topics can be harmful for people with disabilities is important, so that they can be avoided at all times.
Improvements for the Future
“There’s always room for improvement,” Berkow said. While there were no specific areas that she could think of, she acknowledges that WSU is not infallible in terms of accessibility for all students.
Since WSU is not perfect, it follows that there are things that can be changed to make it better and more accessible. Whether these are big changes or little changes, students and staff need to keep these in mind as they navigate the university.
For herself, Berkow wants to let people know that it is okay to ask
her what she said if they do not understand her at first, because she wants people to hear what she has to say.
“I feel everybody needs to be open,” Berkow said. She believes that people at WSU are generally more open than people in a lot of other places, but she still wants to see more of this in the future.
Emmert believes that ODS needs more education on the Deaf experience, but she appreciates the Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities office that exists within ODS, which offers students services. For example, Emmert can get hearing aids through OOD, while her insurance calls them “cosmetic.” OOD offers more services for students with diverse needs, as well.
The Woods community dorms are vastly inaccessible, and so is Raider Mart, which has no buttons to the doors. Hurley
shared that she and Clarence have also faced issues with people being uneducated on service dog etiquette, and even that another dog on campus attacked Clarence, once.
With concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion programs disappearing from WSU, it is more important than ever that students make their voices heard about valuing accessibility at WSU.
“We’re not to be pitied, and we’re not there for you to feel good about yourselves. Yes, you can be part of the advocacy, we welcome you. Your voices are unfortunately heard better, so sometimes we need you, which is unfortunate. But you need to listen to us,” Mountz said.
Activism is important, and allyship comes first. To be an ally, it is crucial to ask questions, listen to answers and help form solutions to the actual problems.
PHOTO BY: Alexander Roberts
I’m in class and there is a small monster at my feet.
The monster lies in wait, ready to pounce.
crunch, crunch, crunch
A classmate eats a small bag of chips; I shift in panic, the monster stirs. The loud smacks had awakened my tiny terror.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH
I beg to myself, “Please end this,” with a silent cry.
It’s making things worse. I'm going to be attacked.
The tiny monster at my feet grows bigger, swelling as the chewing continues.
The buzzing of the lights gets more buzzy and bright.
My throat starts to swell. I look down to see its large red hands wrapped around my neck, like a hug from hell. It burns, I feel like I’m dying, all while the crunching gets louder.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH
It’s loud and intense, like daggers in my ears.
I’m starting to feel light-headed, like I’m being lifted out of the already noted uncomfy plastic chair (already an averted monster meltdown)
It’s overwhelming and sends me in a rage I bite on my lip and start to snap, trying and failing to hypnotise the beast.
I’ve long since forgotten about the lecture and its contents;
I can feel myself struggling for breath, I’m under water, I have to flee–I need to get away.
to hide– fight– FLEE
The monster roars. I weep, then silence.
“See you next Wednesday!”
Class is over and everyone leaves. It's just the three of us.
Professor, Monster, and Me “... you weren’t paying much attention, you need to try harder.”
The professor leaves before I respond. My scaly friend, still mad, still attacking, allows me to pack up.
I slip my headphones on, I’m overwhelmed and overstimulated
In the elevator, there are six: Four students and two monsters.
I look at the other monster, He's big and raging and screaming and hitting, the Owner sat there, an anxious look on their face as they rocked back and forth. The big monster draped over their shoulders. The Owner is making noise, like a scream for help, blood-curdling sounds that fill the elevator. They’ve progressed to hitting their head to make it go away.
One of the students let out a calm shush.
I look down at my small monster, Still hissing and snapping, chomping at me with fury and I sigh, It could be worse.
PHOTO BY: Lizandro Flores
THE DUALITY OF ADDICTION AND RECOVERY: WE DO RECOVER
Hannah Ferrell
Addiction, a condition that strikes at the core of the human experience, is a complex web of both internal and external factors. It rarely discriminates based on age, gender or other aspects, and instead affects all populations in some way. It takes what it wants from whomever, as shown through countless stories of loss and tragedy.
At its heart lies a paradox – the desire for control intertwined with an uncontrollable descent into chaos. Recovery, on the other hand, requires complete surrender, a relinquishing of control that seems counterintuitive to someone deeply rooted and submerged in the disease of addiction.
Yet, it is within this tension between control and surrender, that the path toward healing is carved.
To understand the intricate dance between addiction and recovery, it is essential to explore the perspectives of those who have lived it.
Addiction: The Illusion of Control
Addiction, for many, begins as a seemingly innocuous means of managing life’s challenges. In the early stages, the substance or behavior offers a sense of control, as well as a reprieve from stress, anxiety or trauma.
It is an escape from the world’s harsh realities and provides a sense of comfort that will always be there. This control is fleeting, however, and the individual becomes trapped in a cycle where the addiction itself begins to exert control over them.
Crystal Wiggins, who battled with addiction for many years before finding recovery, explains just how fast addiction can take over your life.
“It consumes your whole day. It’s a full-time job without getting paid. You’re on the hustle from when you wake up to when you go to bed. Even when you’re going to bed, you’re thinking
about how you’ll get enough money to acquire the dope. It’s miserable,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins’ story captures the essence of what many addicts experience – the initial illusion of control that gradually morphs into powerlessness. This conflict, where the addiction feels like both a solution and a problem, is a common thread in the stories of those struggling with substance use.
This sense of control, or the lack thereof, for Kristen Scarberry manifested differently.
“Before addiction, I was a normal kid. I was fifteen and was just a normal teenager. I kept to myself, and I never really reached out for help. I knew what my life could be like because I watched my dad struggle with addiction, and I realized it could either deter me or it wouldn’t. And it didn’t. I followed in his footsteps. I lied and stole from everybody I loved. I was a horrible human being,” Scarberry said.
The loss of control is not just a psychological experience, but also a physical one. The body becomes addicted to the substance and the lifestyle, and the individual’s sense of autonomy is overshadowed by the overwhelming need to consume.
The addiction takes on a life of its own, reinforcing the cycle of dependence and despair.
Dustin Patterson, who has turned his life around, also shares the impact that not only addiction can have on the individual but also how one’s background and life circumstances can be the push towards the lifestyle of addiction.
“Addiction has been a part of my life since my earliest memories. As a kid, I didn’t understand it. I thought it was normal. Both of my parents were addicts, and most of my family. When I turned 18, I got emancipated, but I didn’t have any life skills. So, I got involved in street life behavior, selling drugs and hustling all day long. One thing led to another: I started drinking alcohol, then started smoking weed. The next thing I knew, I was trying heroin. I had low selfesteem, and I got trapped in that life and addiction,” Patterson said.
Addiction is the gradual erosion of self that characterizes addiction’s most insidious nature –convincing people that they are managing their lives when, in
reality, they are being consumed by their dependence.
Recovery: Surrendering Control
If an illusion of control marks addiction, recovery demands a radical shift in mindset –one that often relinquishes control entirely. In recovery, the individual must come to terms with their powerlessness over the addiction and embrace a process of surrender, often through support systems, treatment facilities and a commitment to self-healing.
Wiggins, who has been sober for a decade, shares her perspective of admitting she is powerless over her addiction and how she knew she was ready for recovery.
PHOTO BY: Alexander Roberts
“I was in an active addiction for a long time. One time, my husband and I needed a ride. We knew my mom was co-dependent, and we played on that. We needed a ride, and we needed money. I knew it was time for me [to get sober] when I was doing drugs in the back of my mom’s car while she was driving. I put her at risk and myself, and after that, I found a treatment center in Arizona, and off I went,” Wiggins said.
The process of surrendering control, however, does not equate to passivity. It requires active engagement and trust – trust in the recovery process, programs and more. For many, this is a profound shift, as it questions their identity and everything they have thought to be true.
For others, choosing recovery can stem from the darkest parts of their life or finally deciding that
ILLUSTRATED BY: Clara Barlage
they deserve better. Patterson echoes this sentiment as his recovery journey started with that same feeling.
“When I was 28, I was on my way to prison. I always felt I deserved and wanted better; I never knew how to obtain it. Individuals died in my life that didn’t deserve to. My 4-month-old nephew drowned in a bathtub because my sister and my family were doing drugs and nodded [off]. I turned my back on God and grew a hatred for the world. I couldn’t understand. I prayed a final prayer, asking God if he was real and if he could help. That next day, my lawyer showed up, I opted out of prison for treatment, and my recovery dream took off from there,” Patterson said.
The process is as much about personal growth and resilience as it is about abstinence from
substances. The work of recovery is not just about “stopping,” but about reshaping one’s life and finding a new equilibrium.
The Role of Support Systems
One of the key elements in the recovery process is the presence of a support system. Developing these systems and forming relationships with these supporters is necessary but difficult. Many addicts attempt to control their healing, convinced they can manage their recovery on their own. However, true healing can begin through acknowledging their limitations and leaning on others.
Scarberry discusses the critical role of support networks in her recovery.
“My mom was my resource. She was everything. I knew I could go to her, and she fought for me,” Scarberry said.
This notion of interconnectedness –of giving up control in favor of embracing recovery and support –is a cornerstone of many recovery programs, including 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
These programs encourage individuals to admit powerlessness, seek guidance and connect with a higher power, whether a spiritual concept or a more profound sense of purpose.
With this, individuals often regain a sense of agency and direction in their lives.
The Weight of Stigma: Overcoming Judgement in Addiction and Recovery
One of the significant challenges in addiction and recovery, aside from addiction itself, is confronting the stigma that surrounds both. Society often views addicts as morally weak or as people who have simply made bad decisions and choices, ignoring the complex web of factors that contribute to addiction. This stigma can make recovery feel even more isolating, as individuals may fear judgment and rejection from others.
Wiggins shares her experience with these barriers while she was seeking help. “Getting treatment was difficult. There would be a
waitlist of up to 8 months. They would tell people just to tough it out. It’s so hard because seeking help is a window when you’re still in an active addiction. If that window is gone, and they tell you to come back, you just go back to the streets and might not return. Without those resources and help, it’s hard to stay alive,” Wiggins said.
Breaking the stigma around addiction begins with an open mind and dialogue. By sharing the harsh realities of addiction and the empowering stories of recovery, society can start to shift its perspective.
Scarberry shares how society can help break those barriers.
“Recovery has made me a better person. I have a more positive outlook on life. I just wish more people understood recovery. We are people, too. We are not our addictions,” Scarberry said.
By having an open mind and empathy, society can begin to shift from a negative outlook on addicts and recovery to a more positive and helpful perspective.
Wiggins also shares how society can change.
“I wish people were more open-minded. The biggest misconception is that we don’t change or do not deserve help or love,” Wiggins said.
Recovery is not a linear path; individuals should be empowered to embrace their journey without fear of judgment. Supportive
communities, understanding from loved ones and media representation can all play a pivotal role in reducing the shame and silence that often surrounds addiction.
Embracing Duality: The Path to Healing
Addiction and recovery are not simply opposite states but are two sides of the same coin, each defined by the interplay of control and surrender. While addiction promises control but delivers chaos and destruction, recovery requires a relinquishing of control, but promises potential for profound healing and a renewed sense of purpose.
Now at almost ten years sober, Patterson shares that recovery is possible.
“I’ve worked in the recovery field for almost 9 years. I’m now a Regional Director for one of the largest recovery companies in Ohio. I came from nothing. I lacked a work ethic, and I thought I would be trapped in addiction forever. If I can work to change and want better for myself, anyone can. They just have to want it,” Patterson said.
As those like Wiggins, Scarberry and Patterson have shown, the path to recovery is not about eliminating the dualities of life but learning to navigate them.
In embracing both the struggle and surrender, individuals can begin to reclaim their lives – not through control, but through connection and acceptance.
Waves crash against the shores filtering through the cracks of rocks, boulders, who’ve formed and cemented themselves through centuries of tides.
Sediment builds itself up proud, until the next rain comes to wash it away. Then, only a few pebbles are left, finding whatever means to gain superiority.
For the boulders won’t move —although they could— —if they wished— yet selfishness is all they know.
Maybe in another millennium, the boulders will be but rocks at the mercy of the tide, but by then will pebbles be less than grains of sand?
SOCIAL DISRUPTION: THE MIRROR OF SOCIAL MEDIA Ashley Hainzer
The History of Social Media
It is impossible to get away from social media. It seems like everyday, everyone is posting their perfectly curated photos on Instagram, or making up the next dance challenge on TikTok. Social media is an intrinsic part of our society, and it is hard to picture how different society would be without it.
In the not-so-distant past, however, social media was nothing like it is now, but the concept spans back to the introduction of personal computers into households.
According to Digital Trends, the history of social media dates back to the 1980s and ‘90s with chat rooms like America Online (AOL) and CompuServe. The most popular one of these is AOL online’s Instant Messaging Services (AIM).
AIM was originally a paid service when you subscribe to AOL online. It allowed users to connect and talk about movies, books and much more. Users would be able to create their own personal usernames and talk to thousands of people around the world.
This evolved into a website called Friendster, which is known for being one of the first social media websites. Friendster worked very similarly to how early Facebook did: you could have friends, play online games with them, upload photos and videos and chat online.
From there, the idea of communicating online became a huge thing for anyone who had a computer, and similar websites began to pop up.
A notable thing during this time that also happened was the use of blogs. Blogs had very similar attributes to social media. Most of them were handmade websites where people would talk about their day and get to know people. They were mostly made to build communities around the various topics, or just share day-to-day activities.
In 2003, the absolute mammoth that was MySpace was launched. Many users of MySpace say that it changed how people communicated online. They also loved the customizability of MySpace, as it allowed for you to customize your profile in any way you would want.
“It taught me how to code at the age of 12 just to have a different background from everyone else,” Olivia King, an avid Myspace user at the time, said. “You could even add a song to your profile that played every time someone looked at it.”
MySpace was known for changing the game as far as social media goes. It allowed people to gain online followings which were larger than ever seen before, and connected many artists to their fans.
With MySpace’s proclivity to make ordinary people famous, it expanded circles of influence and popularity. Gone were the days that you were just popular around town, Myspace gave the possibilities to be popular
globally, which contributed to how social media is portrayed today. “You displayed up to 10 friends on your profile,” King explained. “If they were taken out of it, that friendship was done.”
Myspace contributed to the first generation of what is now considered an “influencer.” Big accounts like Jeffree Star, Tila Tequila and Kiki Kannibal were considered the first major influencers and were given larger opportunities.
From there, social media continued to evolve. Websites like Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube and many more shaped the landscape for social media today. Each social media network brings a new feature to the playing field.
Websites like Facebook were about human connections and broadened how people communicated online, whereas websites like Tumblr were meant specifically to bring people of different fandoms together to celebrate their nerdiness. Websites like Vine and TikTok revolutionized how videos were shown on social media, and apps like Snapchat changed how people interact with others on media.
Lingo and certain slang gained traction, people were able to connect with other cultures globally and because of this, these cultures would spread. Snapchat in particular changed the game
with communication because it was one of the first apps to be made specifically to take pictures and send them to a specific person as communication.
With the evolution of social media, it is safe to say that this medium of communication will forever be evolving. While social media has connected people from far away places, it is also a contributor to a lot of teens and young adults’ poor self esteem.
The “Bad” in Social Media
There are early signs of social media having negative effects on people. With the way our social media is currently set up, it is very easy for people to not represent
themselves authentically. Early social media networks like MySpace prided themselves on allowing individuality and realism.
“MySpace let you get closer to important people. I was friends with the band Blood on the Dance Floor. I don’t like them now, but back then I was just friends and chilling with an internationally known band at the time,” King said.
The more popular apps like Instagram and TikTok do not allow for this much anymore. If you scroll through anyone’s Instagram page or Pinterest profile, you will come to realize that it is incredibly curated.
The appeal of aesthetics has taken over, and simple Instagram pages have become works of arts. No longer is the Myspace and Tumblr HTML messiness: a new, clean aesthetic that celebrates high class has taken over.
For some, it can be crushing to try to keep up with. Influencers have made it a sport to prove wealth. People and companies advertise services and goods that are way out of their demographic’s price range.
According to the study “Social Media Influencers and Their Impact on Society in Performing Cosmetic Procedures Among AlAhsa Community” by Latifah A. Albash, of the participants that
PHOTO BY: Chris Yang
were 25 years old or less, over 90% of them said that they wanted some kind of plastic surgery because they saw an influencer promote it. The study links this to a phenomenon called “Snapchat dysmorphia.”
According to Albash, Snapchat dysmorphia is when a user goes and gets plastic surgery to look like Snapchat beauty filters or Snapchat influencers. The study was conducted in Al-Ahsaa, which is a province in Eastern Saudi Arabia. They found that most participants cited that they would want some kind of cosmetic
Edited vs. Unedited
augmentation due to their social media use. Participants also claim that they would like to fit the aesthetics of their favorite influencers and look better.
While this study was done in Saudi Arabia, the US feels very similar effects. In the study “Self-esteem only goes so far: the moderating effect of social media screen time on self-esteem and depressive symptoms,” Dr. Samantha Rosenthal and Dr. Abigail Tobina found that 91% of young American adults ages 18-25 have depression that is directly correlated to social media.
The study is unique because it highlights screen time in relation to social media depression. They found that significantly higher amounts of depression occur when young adults are actively on social media for more than two hours at a time. The results correlated based on age, race, sexuality and gender, though was also a large part of the study. Most participants that identified as lower class reported higher levels of depression linking to social media.
This makes sense, because as social media evolves, the modern
Photo of Kaylee Burke
day influencers show off displays of wealth that are unreachable to the everyday person. For example, in 2016, social media went through the “flexing stage.”
Many influencers capitalized on this trend, including Jeffree Star, Tana Mongeau, Jake and Logan Paul and more. During this period of time, it was nothing for influencers to flex their Gucci, show off their large houses, show all of their fancy cars and produce other obnoxious displays of wealth.
This has a striking effect on our youth who are addicted to the content influencers produce. Almost a decade later, while influencers have been significantly less obnoxious, there are still displays of wealth all over the internet.
Back then it was more material, everyone shows the most expensive items they own. Now it is more sneaky, influencers peddling things like Drunk Elephant to children and Stanley Cup restocking videos flooding the market.
But they do not call influencers “influencers” for nothing, as there has always been a history of following trends. One of those trends that directly affected the youth was the aforementioned
Drunk Elephant incident and the birth of “Sephora kids.”
Effect on Kids: The Pushing of Consumerism
In 2024, the skincare brand Drunk Elephant became a large
brand on TikTok. Many people posted about how good the brand was. A lot of the influencers that promoted this brand had audiences of younger children.
These younger children saw that their favorite creators were using the skincare brand, so they began to go out to Sephora. This created the phenomenon called “Sephora kids.” It was not a good time for many workers who worked at Sephora during the trend.
“It was not a fun experience to work there,” Veronica Westaby, a former Sephora employee, said. “We would have kids with their parents come in looking for the skin care that at that point we just didn’t have and they would get angry at us and take it out on us.”
TikTok-ers who recommended these products to their young demographics faced scrutiny and backlash, as many Drunk Elephant products are not made for younger faces. These products were made with adults in mind, and the kids who were using the products began to have issues with their skin.
According to Connecticut’s Children’s Hospital, a lot of these products are filled with chemicals like retinol and salicylic acid. These two chemicals can irritate a child’s skin due to the way their skin is made up in developing.
“These products are made for adults, there’s no way around it. They can be extremely harmful to children. An active ingredient in a lot of these products is retinoids. Excessive use of retinoids in children can cause
things like irritation of the skin and potential bone problems. It’s highly irresponsible to recommend retinoids to children,” Dr. James Lawter, a certified dermatologist, said.
In recent years following the trend, certain skin care brands have decided to cater to this demographic and create similar skin care brands for young children that contain less chemicals than adult skin care.
“I usually tell my daughters that a simple sensitive skin cleanser and sunscreen is enough for skincare. With that being said, I know stores like Five Below have begun carrying their own brand of skin care, designed specifically for that demographic. I personally cannot speak to its merits, but it’s an option to try,” Lawter said.
Lawter recommends that you speak with a dermatologist before you start any skin care routine.
Additionally, expensive items like Stanley Cups have also begun to get popular within this young demographic. They have Stanley Cup hauls and “restock my Stanley Cup” videos littering their social media feed.
But this type of consumerism does not just stand to the youth of today, because older generations were also incredibly influenced. Makeup influencers like MannyMUA, Lauralee and Nikkietutorials would create daily videos advertising the latest palettes and other makeup products to their demographics, mostly being young adult women.
Another big trend in our generation was the “visco girl trend” in 2019. Visco is another social media app that is very similar to Pinterest and Instagram that allows people to showcase their lives. At the time, there was a meme that went around of a girl with a Hydro Flask water bottle pretending to be the average user of one of the apps.
This meme exploded into a phenomenon, and for the longest time it was really hard to find some of the key items that were highlighted in the meme. Products like Hydroflasks, scrunchy hair ties and lip balm were difficult to find in stores.
It is really easy to villainize these influencers and to claim that they do not care about their following. The truth of the matter is that a lot of these influencers are also young adults, or were young adults when they started. This is an important distinction, because it highlights the idea of “cancel culture” and how it affects our generation.
The Double-Edged Sword
Cancel culture is when a large group of people decide to massunfollow and boycott something or someone because they do not align with their values. This can be considered in some ways a very effective way of protesting against an individual or company. Cancel culture has always been around, but has not necessarily had a name to it until recently. “It wasn’t necessarily a thing that people actively tried to do. But if your friend posted something you
didn’t agree with, or you didn’t like an artist anymore, it would be expected that you unfriended them. It was always a big drama if you unfriended somebody,” King said about cancel culture on MySpace.
The act of public shaming has been around for years, but the term “cancel culture” is a modern term. According to the University of Central Florida, there are many historically racial connotations to the terms “canceling” and “canceled.”
One of the very first instances in pop culture history of the term “cancel” referring to a person was in the 1991 movie starring Wesley Snipes called “New Jack City.”
In the movie, Wesley Snipes’ character says the phrase, “Cancel that bitch, or I’ll buy another one.”
In the movie, this is an inherently violent connotation as he is going to kill his love interest because she disagrees with him. The next most popular time that the term “canceled” has been used is in the show “Love & Hip Hop New York.”
On the show, cast member Cisco Rosado tells his pregnant partner, “You’re cancelled,,” shortly after finding out that she is having a girl.
This specific instance caused 2014 Twitter to explode. At the time it was considered a meme, but as time has gone on, it has been used as a tool of public shaming. But what happens if somebody gets canceled for the wrong reasons?
There have been many
influencers on social media who have been canceled for what are considered really good reasons. The aforementioned Jeffree Star was canceled due to his racist language and past actions.
Cosplay influencer
SnowtheSaltQueen has been canceled for several problematic reasons including the sexualization of minors and racism. This person was also canceled for accidentally killing their underaged friend back in 2020.
The act of canceling does not necessarily remove people from their platforms. Where you have SnowtheSaltQueen’s failed attempts to garner back their audience, people like Jeffree Star are able to keep their fans and garner new ones.
The thing about online culture is there is no one collective. When you are online interacting with people, you can join communities of like-minded people. There is always a community for everything, whether that be sports, anime, books or makeup. There is always a community with its own set of rules.
Sometimes, things fluctuate about what is and is not okay in certain groups.
For example, Ace Sedlacek was a very popular fanfiction writer in the Soul Eater community on Tumblr in 2013. Ace mainly wrote on the pairing of the two main protagonists Maka Albarn and Soul “Eater” Evans and at the time grossed almost 10k followers on Tumblr, and their stories averaged
thousands of views across fanfiction platforms.
“It was the most popular tag at the time. That was the ship everyone had,” Sedlacek said. “ I didn’t necessarily think I was doing anything wrong. It’s not like I was writing smut or anything, I was just writing fluffy romance.”
Over the years of writing fanfiction, Sedlacek said that they had noticed that the fandom began to gear more towards different ships. At the time, they said that they began to get some negative comments but had paid them no mind.
“I generally have thick skin. I don’t get offended too easily,” Sedlacek explained.
Sedlacek claims that one day, they went to get on their Tumblr, and it was pretty much inaccessible. They say that their notifications were flooded with hate to the point where it almost made their account unusable. What had happened was another large fanfiction creator had called them out because they believed that a recent story that Sedlacek wrote was problematic.
“About a week before I had written a fanfiction where they were in an alternative reality and Maka just left an abusive relationship. That was not a liked storyline. Honestly, looking back I probably had no business writing it because I was barely a teenager and I didn’t really know what I was talking about,” Sedlacek said.
Sedlacek was only 13 at the time, and the other creator was in their twenties. They claim that their age
was not a secret and was clearly posted on their profile. Following that, Sedlacek lost almost half of their Tumblr followers before their account was banned due to mass reporting. Since then, they have not posted any fanfiction and now are very private on social media.
“Here’s the thing, I don’t disagree with people being upset. I should not have been 13 writing about something I have not experienced and know nothing about. Looking back, I have to apologize for how it was written because my only frame of reference were things like Lifetime movies my mom would watch and that was it,” Sedlacek said.
“With that being said, I am now very careful about what I put on social media. I don’t post fanfiction anymore, that’s for sure. At this point in my adult life, I am content to sit with my Instagram, to sit with my new Tumblr, to sit on TikTok and just enjoy. The entire experience has turned me off from creating.”
Cancellation
is not the only thing that these influencers have to worry about. Online bullying has existed for as long as online social spaces have. For example, the Myspace influencer Kiki Kannibal was brutally bullied for her looks. She left social media and has been MIA since.
It is a double-edged sword when it comes to social media, because on one hand you have influencers who are causing harm to their audience, and on the other hand you have the audience causing harm to the influencer.
Overall, social media is a tool. It is how people meet each other, regardless of how far away they live. With the power of social media, the smallest publications can advertise and gain more followers, small businesses have the opportunity to grow, and people can share their art and passion.
As a society, it is important that we use social media for the tool that it is. There will always be economic reasons to use social media. Influencers will always have a following because there always has to be someone to look up to, but it is important that we put the “social” in social media and reconnect as a society.
PHOTO BY: Terrillo Walls
Dandelions drift through the air, the soft breeze kissing our faces as it passes us by. The sun, with all of its warmth, graces us with life and joy as it coaxes the flowers to bloom and insects to settle upon the leaves, plucking pollen from their innards to be spread throughout the forests and fields, yellow droplets sparkling all throughout.
Wind chimes sing with the tune of summer evenings, and rain pitter-patters against windows. Within can be found human comfort, as we breathe in the scent of freshly cut grass and sweet rainwater.
Hammocks and branches snap and break under the brutal force of the wind, its destructive path carving a way through towns and neighborhoods. We hold each other close, fear pounding through our veins as we watch the storm tear our lives apart.
The water rises, rises above our heads; we breathe in the water and cough up bile and floodwater.
Some of us die; some of us drift below the water.
But some of us grasp onto the hands of others, those who want to save us; they rest a hand on our weary shoulders as the boat drifts away from flooded fields and homes. The warmth of our tears stands out in stark contrast to the cold, cold water the boat rocks on now.
We recover. We continue. We save who we can and what we can, and we comfort one another. We hold pets close, drying their soaked fur and kissing those we love as we reunite.
Soon, the water will dissipate, and we will rebuild. The grass will grow green once again, the flowers poking up from the muddy ground to open their petals to the sun. Life will continue on as it always has.
This is the beauty of the earth, Our gorgeous Mother Nature and everything she gives and takes.
PHOTO BY: Monica Brutto
Carol Morgan, a Professor of Communication at Wright State University, shared her thoughts on the use of AI in school. “Artificial intelligence can be very beneficial, for example in the healthcare field. It can be very useful for things like diagnosing illnesses. The issue is, it depends on who is using it and what they’re using it for,” Morgan said.
A major benefit of AI, with popular websites such as ChatGPT, is that you can expand your knowledge. When using a regular search engine, such as Google or Safari, answers are not always clear.
When using an AI-ran website, like ChatGTP, you can ask any question and be met with a personalized answer. AI has been trained to respond kindly and work with the user to problem solve.
Chris Syeh, the Donor Relations Coordinator at the University of Dayton, has implemented the use of AI in one of his projects, finding it helpful to get an outside input when he hits a roadblock.
“Using AI helps me generate ideas. The same way you can use Google and look at articles and information, ChatGPT is a more efficient way of doing that. It’s the closest thing to having a conversation with another person because they give you a, somewhat, humanized response,” Syeh
Schools are very cautious when it comes to the use of AI because there is a fear that students will use it to do their work for them. However, there are ways for students to use AI to help with their work without taking over. Emily Wuellner, a nursing student at Sinclair University, shared how AI has helped her with her education. “There are some people who use ChatGPT to do their work for them, and that’s not good. For me, AI helps give me broader ideas and expands my knowledge on topics I already knew about. It’s a collaboration,” Wuellner said.
What Are the Dangers of AI?
AI eliminates the risk of human error, making it a very efficient tool. Although this can initially be seen as a good thing, it also poses a threat to eliminate the need for humans in specific jobs.
White worked with a team to create an operating system run by AI. His job was essentially training AI to respond to people with empathy and to make sure the websites do not show graphic images or videos.
However, once he and his team finished their assignment, they were fired. The company took the system they created and used it to replace them, leaving them without a job.
According to USA Today, the job market has been slowing over the past few years, with hiring rates lower than they were before Covid. This makes it harder for people to get jobs. With new programs, there is only more fear of AI taking people’s jobs.
Bethany Crank, an American Sign Language student at Sinclair University shared her concern for the current trend of replacing people’s jobs with AI.
“There is a very high possibility AI ‘interpreting’ would be inaccurate. Also, sign language is not simply signed English, it can be but there is also a deep grammar system for ASL sign, such as PSE (Pidgin Signed English) and SEE (Signed Exact English),” Crank said.
Although AI has been trained to have a more personal touch, it still is not the same as having an actual human do the job. Removing people from job positions, such as translators, can lead to issues for people who rely on them.
“If AI would come into the picture and wipe out the interpreting profession, not only are you putting interpreters’ jobs at risk, but also not providing equal accessibility for Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or other sign language users,” Crank said.
Another main concern when it comes to AI is that people fear what they do not understand. Since AI is constantly advancing, it can be hard to keep up with all the new information. This can lead people to use it incorrectly.
Dewey Darden, a former employee of the Dayton VA and a current WSU student, shared why he is weary of AI.
“I’ve been warned off using AI from my professors. I’m kind of scared to use it, there’s lots of unknowns about it. The more people use AI, the less they’re going to learn,” Darden said.
Humans have been constantly evolving and trying to find better and more efficient ways to live life. In this search, people do not always realize the lines they are crossing.
“The constant further development of AI is very risky. People take things too far, and there are some things that we don’t need to know or explore. There is no way to know what consequences this could have in the future. Will it do more harm than good?” White said.
When it comes to education, the biggest concern is that students will no longer learn. Since there are ways for students to find answers to all their assignments, this kills motivation.
“People have stopped using their brains. From a human standpoint, it’s scary. People are finding companionship with computers and AI generated conversations instead of one another. Technology is separating us as a society,” Morgan said.
As with many things in this world, there are pros and cons to artificial intelligence. The biggest issue
is not knowing what all people can do with it. AI is a very useful tool, but in the wrong hands it can lead to our destruction. People need to be able to draw the line between receiving help from a technological tool and becoming dependent on it, to the point they lose themselves.
Walls of sharp silver flowers–I was forever trapped within.
Loving dull petals smooth on my skin.
But one day, as I strode through the palace, its familiar halls shattered.
Shards of glass, like daggers, hit my flesh. I fell to my knees, but soon, a hand came to my shoulder.
“When a door slams or path crumbles, a window is to open!”
The wise older sister declared.
I tried to hide my urge To roll my crying eyes. “They shut it right in my face!”
The words felt false or foreign.
“Yes, but–” she began–“No,” I cut in, “I see no windows–just pieces– what about you?”
So she grabbed my bloody hand and led me through the rubble. There:
A giant golden door–bursting with light– my new favorite sight!
She held me as I knocked, then away my sister walked.
I pushed it open, and what did I see? Well– the future, the world, the heart
of it all, the true reason I’d entered that palace– even if it took me
Away from the still-intact walls.
So I crossed the threshold, into the secret palace room. Stepped into the light, and Found these open, emerald meadows with rolling hills and a babbling creek from which I’ll forever drink–making my home-camp beneath the cherry blossom trees. When my sister came to visit, she said “I told you! We always find better things!”
I smile as we watch the sunset–behind the harem of wild horses which I’d tamed and ridden, and a fleeing quelea flock–“Is it wrong that it sometimes still stings? All the scars from that day in that palace?
For– when they took out those girders, they didn’t know the gold door would appear. Yet, in the end, I’d have chosen no differently. So tell me, sister– can both things be true?”
Now, she smiles too, as she looks at all I’ve gained and built, and all I left behind. Then she says, “That, my dear, is up to you.”
LIBERAL SCHOOL, CONSERVATIVE COUNTRY: THE INFLUENCE OF ATTENDING A BLUE COLLEGE IN A RED STATE
Aaron Cline
Ohio’s Political Environment
Ohio has been under Republican party control since 2019 when Governor Mike DeWine was elected, and the state government has gone after policies such as abortion, marijuana, genderneutral bathrooms and more for years.
The hard-red state, as shown from its Republican lean during the past three elections, is known for its harsh policies towards LGBTQ+, women’s and immigrant’s rights. For example, during the 2024 election President Donald Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants were eating the pets of local residents in Springfield, Ohio.
While many in the Springfield area gathered to show their support in fighting back against outrageous claims like the
one Trump made, others were quick to degrade immigrants and believe his words, despite a complete lack of proof, causing distress to the community.
On top of this, however, is a variety of recent and old policies that target minorities within the state. The Movement Advancement Project, an online project dedicated to mapping the laws of every U.S. state in terms of whether they are transgenderfriendly or friendly to differing sexual and romantic orientations, has given Ohio one of the lowest possible ratings: a 1.25 out of possible 40 points.
“As of June 1, 2024, MAP tracks over 50 LGBTQ-related laws and policies [and] assigns a score or point value, and then adds these scores to create a ‘policy tally’ for each state. The policy tally is also divided into simple categories (negative, low, fair, medium and high) to be able
to quickly and easily compare the overall LGBTQ policy climate across the country,” The Movement Advancement Project said.
MAP currently focuses on policies regarding relationship and parental recognition, nondiscrimination, religious exemptions, LGBTQ+ youth, health care, criminal justice and identity documents.
It is entirely possible for a category to receive a negative ranking if a state has laws and policies that actively work against LGBTQ+ existence; in Ohio’s case, its gender identity policy received a -2.75 out of 26 possible points, due to many laws. For example, the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which could ban educators from discussing LGBTQ+ people or issues in the classroom.
Another example is how transgender individuals are not
allowed to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. This has been a large topic of debate over the past few years, especially in women’s sports.
In fact, the U.S. recently passed a similar law that bans the participation of transgender athletes in The National Collegiate Athletic Association sports. NCAA President Charlie Baker claims that, as of last year, he was only aware of 10 transgender athletes being a part of the NCAA.
An anonymous student at WSU has kept up-to-date on these recent laws and finds themself disappointed by the current state of Ohio’s laws.
“How productive for our country,” the student said. “Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?”
Another student, Abby Boyd, takes note on how against diverse life the right seems to be.
“... In the past 20 years I’ve been alive, the Right has shown itself to be actively against the interests of me and the people I care about. From the right to reproductive care, the safety of queer and trans friends, the continuous wars our nation wages overseas and climate change actively being ignored, it’s hard not to be left-leaning,” Boyd said.
Fortunately for students, there is some respite to be found at WSU,
a more liberal school compared to the state itself.
WSU Political Activities
As a public university, WSU has to abide by many of the laws that Ohio has been putting into place in recent times. As its own independent organization, however, many see it as a leftleaning university due to its progressive efforts and some of its rules on-campus.
Grazier Bolha, a communications major on-campus, sees WSU as having left-leaning views thanks to the people that make up our campus.
“I would say that WSU is a left-
PHOTO BY: Alexander Roberts
PHOTO BY: Alexander Roberts
leaning University, they have many inclusive programs and policies, such as gender neutral bathrooms, and their faculty and staff are very diverse with many different perspectives and ideas,” Bolha said.
Besides this, WSU had been host to a few events with political agendas, whether intentionally or not. A group of pro-life protesters, often called “The Quad Gods” by students, due to where they usually host their protests, visit campus semi-regularly to promote their political and religious views. Due to the university’s status as a public university, it must allow peaceful protests from anyone oncampus.
Students have also held protests before. The most recent protest was against recent Ohio policy that enforces the designation of bathrooms into two specific genders: male or female. Titled “The Bathroom Protests,” students were originally meant to sit in the Millett Hall bathrooms for five hours. The location was changed
and the timeframe was reduced to prevent risk to protestors.
Drew Weitzman was a primary participant in these protests. He gave a speech and also expressed his personal opinions during the event.
“Peaceful protest is supposedly the background of American movements for change, and being denied this opportunity to [instead] ensure the safety of human life in a university that announces itself constantly as accepting and acceptable is foul, and an insult to every student that attended here for that accessibility,” Weitzman said.
Some larger-scale political events have been held in the Nutter Center. According to its website, the building has hosted a few political events from both parties during its time.
“[The] Nutter Center also has some high profile political history. It has played host to two major political events. Barack Obama
held his ‘Keeping America’s Promise’ rally on [Feb.] 25, 2008, at Wright State’s Nutter Center. Then on [Aug.] 29, 2008, John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate in the presidential race,” the website explains.
Many students and faculty oncampus can proudly say that they are a part of a progressive university, though some claim that WSU is farther to the right than it may appear.
With policies that continue to pass each day, and WSU’s willingness to comply without complaint, students have spoken about this shift to the right.
“Your unwillingness to stand with us does not put you on the right side of history, and that will be proven one day. We have been here forever… my gender identity is spoken of in a 6,000 year old legal system, and it will be there 6,000 years from now. We are everywhere, and we have been living our lives peacefully
and not-so peacefully for the entirety of human existence,” Weitzman said.
Aside from state-wide occurrences, there have been internal events that have rocked WSU as well, such as the appointment of Tom Gunlock at the request of Gov. DeWine as the WSU Chair of the Board of Trustees. Prior to this position, he was on the board of directors for Richard Allen Schools in Dayton. The Akron Beacon Journal published a piece a few years after his time as part of the board of directors.
“The privately run Richard Allen management organization operated four publicly funded schools at that time. During his tenure, the state auditor cited all four schools for failure to comply with regulations that they receive a federal nonprofit status and failure to adequately monitor finances. He said he didn’t recall the findings, but knew there were some after he resigned [from] the charter school board to join the
state board,” the Akron Beacon Journal said.
Gunlock is also a Republican and his family has made plenty of donations to Republican campaigns, with over $350,000 donated, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Another member of WSU faculty that may be interesting to note is Greg Sample, WSU’s current COO and prior member of Double Bowler Properties.
Double Bowler Properties was an affiliated entity of WSU that was under fire from the Ohio Inspector General for years; an investigation into the agency concluded in 2019, and revealed that it violated state law and improperly paid former Congressman Steve Austria (R-Beavercreek) for lobbying. This information can be found on WSU’s own website under the Retirees Association, as well as public records from the Ohio Inspector General.
“Investigators concluded that
Wright State University, through its agent Double Bowler, improperly acquired various properties for Wright State University’s use in a manner to avoid public scrutiny and transparency,” the report stated.
WSU has had many controversies as its time as a public university. On top of this, Ohio as a state has proven to be more and more difficult for residents to reside in peacefully as policies continue popping up.
How the Students Continue to Thrive
For those of diverse backgrounds, it may sound difficult to continue living in Ohio. Indeed it can be hard to live in an environment that seems to dislike your very existence– but students and many faculty at WSU are hard at work to guarantee that there is a safe space for students of all identities and backgrounds, even as the country makes an effort to remove these spaces entirely.
In the Culture and Identity centers, located in Student Union 019, there are a series of rooms dedicated to diverse clubs oncampus. Some of these clubs include Rainbow Alliance, Amigos Latinos Student Association, the Women’s Center and more. The student leaders in these clubs, as well as faculty advisors like Bobbie Szabo and Nicolyn Woodcock, are dedicated to hosting inclusive events and informative talks to keep students in the loop on Ohio’s political climate, how it affects all of us and what we can do despite it.
If you check WSU’s Engage page for upcoming events, you are guaranteed to stumble upon some sort of event going on that promotes diversity on our campus, like weekly meetings from CIC-based clubs or celebrations of cultural holidays, like Lunar New Year.
Some may not realize just how intrinsic the cultures of groups we are not a part of are in our daily lives. It can be as simple as liking cultural foods, or making friends on-campus who are International students or who identify as something you do not; either way, these experiences all contribute to your perception of others.
It is also important to not keep yourself in a bubble: for example, many students on-campus do not realize how students in other departments and organizations, or even the university itself, treats diverse groups.
Getting involved politically both on-and off-campus is very important. Two prominent political clubs that can be found on-campus are Left-of-Center and the Progressive Students Coalition.
Left-of-Center and Progressive Students Coalition
Amana Koeller, a political science major, is the vice president of Left-of-Center, but she focuses primarily on outreach with people. She was born and raised in Ohio, and is involved with politics around the county.
“A lot of what I do is I focus on outreach, so I try to reach out to local politicians and political organizations. I also try to keep in contact with other leaders oncampus to help [LOC] integrate more into campus life,” Koeller said.
One event that Koeller and many LOC members helped with was a grassroots campaign for Rose Lounsbury, who tried for one of the most competitive House of Representative spots, District 36.Koeller has also helped the Greene County Democratic Party and general elections for Ohio.
Daniel Wasniewski, a graduate student in the Public Administration program, is President of the Progressive Students Coalition, a club with similar activities as LOC. He was born in California but has spent a majority of his life in Ohio.
“I was actually born in California, near San Jose, but I’ve lived most of my life in Cincinnati. [I moved to Cincinnati] in August 2003, I was 4 years old. So it’s like 21, 22 years this year that I’ve lived in Ohio,” Wasniewski said.
His club works on protests, informational events and more
to keep students in the loop on national and international happenings, ranging from policies on-campus to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Both clubs are an excellent place to start for students who want to learn more about the current political climate, and what they can do about it.
Times are Fearful, but Students Persevere
Things may seem fearful, but despite the negativity that politics have brought for many diverse groups around the country, many fight against it in hopes of creating a country that is not divided between peace and harm.
Getting involved is an important first step, and a good way to get involved is to get educated. Of course, there are other ways as well.
“All you really need to do to get politically involved is take action, and that can take many forms. From holding a sign on campus, to distributing leaflets to something as benign as dressing in a manner that is counter to the norm,” Bolha said.
In times like these, where the desires of the people vary greatly from the desires of those in power, it is important to continue to fight for a better version of our country. Getting involved politically and culturally onand off-campus are essential to expanding your views and
understanding the diverse world we are a part of.
As Weitzman said: “None of us should be hiding; one day, we won’t have to. You can force us into closets and jail cells and graves, but we will always emerge, powerful and unstoppable.”
*The Wright State Guardian is an independent student-led media group. Political affiliations and opinions are of the author only. The Guardian is not affiliated with a political party. *
