The
C a m p u s
– FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 2018 – WWW.ALLEGHENYCAMPUS.COMVOLUME 142, ISSUE 17
1876 2018
Allegheny Student Gov-
ernment held its weekly meet-
ing in Grounds for Change to 
provide a new venue more 
visible to constituents on 
Tuesday, Feb. 27. Allegheny 
College President James Mul-
len visited the meeting to dis-
cuss the college’s search for a 
new dean of students. 
Mullen said the adminis-
tration is currently looking 
for a new dean, though the 
search was initially delayed 
because of Mullen’s plan to re-
tire in the spring of 2019. 
“This is too important a 
decision to put off,” Mullen 
said. “To make sure we’re 
getting the strongest pool [of 
candidates] possible, we are 
using a respected search firm.”
The firm Allegheny is us-
ing is Koya Leadership Part-
ners, a firm that specializes 
in finding talented leadership 
in institutions of higher edu-
cation, according to its web-
site. The lead consultant from 
Koya will be on campus Tues-
day, March 6, and Wednesday, 
March 7, to begin the formal 
process, Mullen said. Since he 
will be working with the firm, 
Mullen elaborated on what he 
deemed were necessary quali-
ties for the new dean.  
“We want the search to be 
inclusive, since the dean has 
an impact on everyone on 
campus,” Mullen said. “[The 
dean] has to care about the 
students. It can’t be someone 
who is in the job simply be-
cause it’s a good spot. [They] 
also have to understand the 
complexity of issues students 
are facing today.”
Because students are fac-
ing new sets of problems on 
college campuses today, the 
new dean must be a good 
listener and must be able to 
work with large groups of 
people, according to Mullen.
“First and foremost, you 
have to care about students,” 
Mullen said. “You have to 
have empathy. You have to be 
ready to work long days into 
long nights. You have to love 
it. It’s a very worthwhile job.” 
The firm will narrow down 
candidates based on the qual-
ities Allegheny says it is look-
ing for. After that, the pool of 
By LAUREN TRIMBER
News Editor
trimberl@allegheny.edu
LAUREN TRIMBER/THE CAMPUS
Allegheny Student Government Vice President Valerie Hurst, ’18, takes attendance 
during ASG’s weekly meeting in Grounds for Change Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.
Allegheny Student Government receives update from 
administration, learns possible changes to school policy
See ASG   page 2
Carrie Booth Walling, as-
sociate professor of political 
science at Albion College, 
gave a presentation on Tues-
day, Feb. 27, titled “The UN 
Security Council, the Justice 
Norm and the Politics of In-
ternational Criminal Justice.” 
The talk was held in conjunc-
tion with Allegheny College’s 
Law and Policy short course.
The lecture focused on 
the functioning of the United 
Nations International Court 
of Justice, as well as problems 
facing the court. 
Walling said the court re-
cently expanded its legitima-
cy after it decided to pursue 
justice for atrocities commit-
ted in South Sudan, which  is 
not officially a member of the 
court. While no member of 
the court is required to coop-
erate, non-member nations 
choosing to cooperate can be 
seen as an encouraging sign. 
However, Walling warned, 
the court’s actions should be 
interpreted with caution, as 
the referral resolution grant-
ed immunity to non-Suda-
nese actors. This exemption is 
thought to cover internation-
al peacekeepers, especially 
from the United States.
“A closer look at the lan-
guage of the referral resolu-
tion raises questions about 
the council’s serious commit-
ment to justice and account-
ability,” Walling said. 
Walling said there was 
strong international sup-
port for the idea of prose-
cuting human rights abuses 
in a court of law. In reality, 
however, the five permanent 
United Nations Security 
Council members hold inor-
By STEVEN HEINE
News Editor
heines@allegheny.edu
See WALLING   page 3
ASG presidential, vice presidential candidates 
go head-to-head in general election debate
Passion and experience went 
head to head on Wednesday, 
Feb. 28, as the final candidates 
for the 2018 Allegheny Student 
Government presidential and 
vice presidential election partic-
ipated in the General Election 
Debate. The debate was held 
between ASG Chief of Staff and 
presidential candidate Camila 
Gomez, ’19, and her running 
mate, ASG Director of Finance 
Gillian Greene, ’20, and Class 
of 2020 President and presiden-
tial candidate Jason Ferrante 
and vice presidential candidate 
Zach Rohan, ’20. 
The debate allowed the can-
didates to discuss their plat-
forms and answer any questions 
asked by those who moderated 
the debate and students in the 
audience. Topics such as Title 
IX, off-campus housing, effec-
tive communication between 
administration and the student 
body and why they decided to 
run for office were discussed 
between the four candidates.
Gomez and Greene focused 
on the experience they bring 
to the table which they claim 
separates them from their op-
ponents.
“What really distinguishes 
us from Jason [Ferrante] and 
Zach [Rohan] is one simple 
word: experience,” Gomez said. 
“We have five years of experi-
ence combined [and] we defi-
nitely aren’t strangers to bring-
ing our experiences outside of 
student government into the 
ASG room.”
Gomez joined ASG her 
freshman year as an ex-officio 
member of the Communica-
tions and Press Committee. 
Since then, she has served as a 
member of the Public Events 
Committee and the College 
Committees Council, become 
a senator for the Class of 2019 
and served as the Class of 2019 
president. Her running mate, 
Greene, has also been a part of 
ASG since she was a freshman 
when she sat on the Finance 
Committee and a sophomore 
when she was appointed to di-
rector of finance. 
While Gomez and Greene 
discussed their experience, Fer-
rante and Rohan said they see 
not only their combined experi-
ence inside and outside of ASG 
as an asset, but the passion they 
lead with.
“If there is one statement 
that will set us aside, it’s our 
passion,” Ferrante said. “A pas-
sion to make change, a passion 
for advocacy and a passion for 
transparency.”
Ferrante has also been a part 
of ASG since he was a freshman 
and served as both the president 
and vice president for the Class 
of 2020. His running mate, Ro-
han, has no ASG experience, 
but is actively involved on cam-
pus and said he plans to use this 
to bridge the gap between the 
student body and ASG.
Both parties said they 
thought the debate went well 
and the event had been more of 
a civil conversation, rather than 
debating opposing ideas.
“It felt like a conversation 
among friends,” Gomez said.
Greene also saw the debate 
as a friendly conversation and 
mentioned how similar both 
candidates platforms are.
“Our platforms do align in a 
lot of areas,” Greene said. “Re-
gardless of how the election car-
ries out, Allegheny is going to 
gain a more transparent student 
government advocating for its 
students, which is the job.”
Ferrante, agreeing with the 
friendliness of the debate, ex-
plained the different ways he 
and Rohan would lead the cam-
pus in student government. 
“Each person brings some-
thing a little different to the ta-
ble, and I think that’s what we 
hoped voters saw on the stage 
tonight,” Ferrante said. “We 
agree on issues. We agree that 
Title IX needs to be reformed. 
We agree that mental health 
needs to be a concern we care 
about on campus, but we have 
different ways of approaching it 
and different things that we can 
bring to the table like outside 
experience for us on diverse is-
sues.”
The most difficult part for 
the candidates was not the in-
tensity of the debate, but the 
lack of student attendance. An 
audience member brought to 
attention that only 25 students 
were in the Henderson Cam-
pus Center watching the debate 
which makes up about 0.013 
percent of Allegheny’s student 
population.
“It was difficult knowing 
that there’s a lot of people out 
there that weren’t watching or 
weren’t paying attention. We 
want to make sure those peo-
ple are informed when they go 
to the polls, reading bios, plat-
forms, asking questions,” Fer-
rante said.
The gap between ASG and 
the student body was very no-
ticeable as the night progressed 
and the audience began to 
dwindle even further as time 
went on. The candidates still 
brought their A game and are 
planning on being as transpar-
ent and available as possible for 
any students who have ques-
tions, according to Greene.
“Ultimately we want the 
same thing,” Gomez said. “And 
that’s an effective student gov-
ernment that pays attention to 
the students and gives you guys 
what you want.”
By DAKOTAH MANSON
News Editor
mansond@allegheny.edu
Mullen visits ASG, discusses college’s search for new dean of  students
DAKOTAH MANSON/THE CAMPUS
Presidential candidate Jason Ferrante, ‘20, and vice presidential candidate Zachary Rohan, ‘20, prepare for their next answer while presidential 
candidate Camila Gomez, ‘19, and vice presidential candidate Gillian Greene, ‘20, respond to a question during the debate in the Henderson 
Campus Center on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018.
Visiting 
speaker 
delivers
UN talk 
on court 
legitimacy
March 2, 2018 AlleghenyCampus.com2 The Campus [News]
Why Not Us sponsored 
three self-defense classes for 
the Allegheny community. 
John Guthrie, part-time in-
structor of Dance and Move-
ment Studies, taught the 
courses, which were offered 
on February 12, 19 and 25 in 
the Montgomery Gymnasi-
um.
Guthrie teaches Tang Soo 
Do, a style of martial arts 
from the Korean Peninsula. In 
addition to being a professor 
at Allegheny, Guthrie is the 
president of Morco, a com-
pany based in Cochranton, 
Pennsylvania. 
Guthrie said every se-
mester, he is asked to teach a 
self-defense session.
“Some group, some orga-
nization, sororities, different 
groups on campus [ask me 
to teach a session], and I try 
to accommodate everyone,” 
Guthrie said.
Guthrie said though he 
will regularly get requests to 
teach a session, the interest 
does not always translate into 
action.
“It’s not unusual for me to 
agree to do self-defense sem-
inars and one or two people 
show up,” Guthrie said. “Peo-
ple do not take a serious inter-
est in self-defense, and they 
should.”
Guthrie said he taught the 
sessions in order to fill a need 
and encourage others to take 
up martial arts training.
“A good, traditional mar-
tial arts training goes far be-
yond kicking and punching,” 
Guthrie said. “It has to do with 
improving the individual, the 
individual analyzing them-
selves periodically, and trying 
to achieve greater things and 
sharing that knowledge with 
others, which is what I do 
here.”
Guthrie said it is import-
ant for people to realize there 
may not always be someone 
else who can help them out of 
a difficult situation, and they 
should to know how to help 
themselves.
“People ask me to help 
them, and I see the need, 
and in today’s society, there’s 
more of a need than ever for 
self-defense training,” Guthrie 
said. “And everyone thinks, as 
we mentioned in class, some-
body’s going to come rescue 
them, that’s not going to hap-
pen.”
Guthrie said the three ses-
sions built on each other, but 
as attendance was not consis-
tent across all three, there was 
not a strong progression.
“We try to go from the 
simplest to a little more com-
plex, which is difficult to do 
in three classes,” Guthrie said. 
“We start them out on sim-
ple escapes, so that they can 
run away, get away and try 
to move up into control tech-
niques and then into breaking 
techniques, which would be 
necessary to incapacitate the 
attacker. But each night we’ve 
had new people, we’ve only 
had a few that repeated.” 
Guthrie emphasized the 
importance of continued 
practice in self-defense.
“Coming once to any of 
these does not, coming to all 
three times does not fix any-
thing,” Guthrie said. “I don’t 
want them to have a false 
sense of security, ‘gee, I’ve 
taken a couple of self defense 
seminars,’ it doesn’t work that 
way. It takes literally years of 
practice.”
 Guthrie said he incorpo-
rates some Korean language 
instruction into his classes.
“They probably end up 
with a 150-200 word vocab-
ulary in Korean, we’re trying 
to occupy mind and body, 
and it’s actually less clumsy to 
give the commands in Korean 
later on than it is in English,” 
Guthrie said.
Guthrie said while he was 
most familiar with Tang Soo 
Do, he incorporated other 
styles into his instruction.
“In self-defense, if it works, 
and if it’s simple, and if it’s 
something that you can teach 
someone in a relatively short 
period of time, but it has to be 
effective,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie said he wished 
Allegheny required all stu-
dents to take a martial art, as 
it would be beneficial for their 
future success. 
“We also teach a little et-
iquette, a little protocol, I 
think I mentioned during the 
day I am president of a com-
pany, manners in the business 
world, as in most of the rest of 
the world, have all but disap-
peared in so many different 
areas,” Guthrie said. “It always 
pays dividends.” 
Guthrie said students 
could encounter problems 
really close to campus, and it 
would help students to learn 
the values that came with 
learning martial arts.
“If you look at the things 
that happen locally, especial-
ly, people used to think it was 
all Pittsburgh and Cleveland, 
Erie’s like the Wild West,” 
Guthrie said. “I mean, you 
don’t go to Erie on the east 
side, I wouldn’t go to Erie on 
the east side on a Saturday 
night at midnight, and walk 
in the bar with a shirt that 
says ‘fear this,’ you just don’t, 
you know, that comes back to 
common sense. We’re trying 
to teach them a little bit on 
that, but there’s all those ben-
efits, those values that come 
with a traditional martial art.”
Josh Meisegeier, ’21, said 
he took Guthrie’s Tang Soo 
Do class during the day. He 
attended the session to learn 
and help others.
“Well, I take classes with 
Mr. Guthrie, and I love 
self-defense, and it’s fun to 
learn more, and I’m helping 
others out too,” Meisegeier 
said. 
Meisegeier said the most 
important lesson he learned 
from the session was the vul-
nerability of the human wrist.
“You can do a lot to wrists,” 
Meisegeier said.
Mark Myers, ’19, said the 
club got the idea to hold the 
classes from one of its advis-
ers.
“Gilly Ford, the Title IX 
coordinator, has had several 
students reach out to her with 
a desire for self-defense cours-
es, and so, during the winter 
break, we explored a few av-
enues, in which we could find 
an instructor to teach such a 
class,” Myers said.
Why Not Us considered 
finding an instructor from the 
greater Meadville community. 
Eventually, they asked Guth-
rie to teach the classes.
“He was on campus, we 
knew that he was qualified, 
and he was pretty easy to work 
with and free,” Myers said. 
Myers said Why Not Us 
offered the three sessions as a 
proof of concept, and the club 
hoped to offer a more formal 
course starting in the fall of 
2018. 
“For this semester, we’re 
only trying out three to gauge 
what the attendance was,” 
Myers said. “It turned out to 
be pretty well, so we’re hoping 
in the fall to implement one 
that runs a lot longer, and is 
probably going to be off a sig-
nup basis.”
Kiara Perry, ’21, said she 
and her friends attended 
the first session and decided 
to continue. Perry said she 
learned how fundamental the 
moves used truly were.
“The simple things you 
can do can really protect you,” 
Perry said.
By STEVEN HEINE
News Editor
heines@allegheny.edu
STEVEN HEINE/THE CAMPUS
John Guthrie, part-time instructor of Dance and Movement Studies, demonstrates a 
hold on Josh Meisigeier, ‘21, during a self-defense class in Montgomery Gymnasium 
on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018.
Why Not Us sponsors self-defense classes on campus
ASG from page 1
candidates will go to a search 
committee, which will contin-
ue to narrow down the pool 
through an interview process-
es. Once the final candidates 
are chosen, they will be invit-
ed to campus for a presenta-
tion, according to Mullen.  
If Interim Dean of Stu-
dent Jacquie Kondrot chooses 
to retire after this academic 
year, and a candidate still has 
not been chosen, the admin-
istration will try to plan an 
interim arrangement. The ar-
rangement will depend on the 
amount of time the position 
will remain open. 
“If we really have the per-
son we want, but the person 
cannot come until the start of 
second semester, that’s a dif-
ferent conversation,” Mullen 
said. “If it’s a couple of weeks 
or a month, that’s easier to 
manage.”
The administration also 
plans to work with ASG to 
learn what students want in a 
new dean, as the organization 
represents the student body, 
Mullen said.
Next week, ASG will be 
able to list what it sees as the 
most critical needs that must 
be met by the dean and will 
fill out a survey to continue 
narrowing down the desired 
characteristics. Furthermore, 
if members of ASG are still on 
campus in the summer, they 
will continue to be involved 
in the process, while those 
unable to stay on campus will 
be active in other ways that 
have not yet been determined, 
according to Mullen. 
“This will be perhaps the 
last big hire made under my 
administration,” Mullen said. 
“I want it to be a really good 
one, so I promise you I will be 
engaged in this from day one 
as well.”
Following Mullen’s presen-
tation, Co-Director of Stu-
dent Affairs Travis Court, ’18, 
reported on his meeting with 
Campus Life and Commu-
nity Standards to discuss the 
potential changes concerning 
academic and nonacademic 
honor code violations. 
Currently, if a student has 
any sort of nonacademic vi-
olation prior to an academic 
violation, the student must 
automatically go through a 
full hearing process during 
the academic violation rather 
than a fast-track process, ac-
cording to Court. 
“The body of ASG and the 
committee as a whole didn’t 
find that was the most effi-
cient, because it led to a lot of 
hearings,” Court said. 
CLCS approved a prelimi-
nary plan to change the cur-
rent rules and will discuss the 
new plan with Assistant Dean 
of Students Joe Hall and other 
faculty members, according 
to Court. 
 The college may be un-
dergoing further changes that 
will affect faculty and staff, 
according to Chief of Staff 
Camila Gomez, ’19. Gomez 
talked about her meeting with 
College Committees Council 
held during the past week. 
“The college is now con-
sidering outsourcing depart-
ments like Physical Plant,” 
Gomez said. “Bringing in an 
outside contractor would be 
a big shift. A lot of employees 
have been with college for a 
very long time, so it would be 
a big decision.”
The plan is currently only 
in preliminary stages, accord-
ing to Gomez.  
Along with the idea of out-
sourcing certain departments, 
the Printing Service and Col-
lege Post Office may be com-
bined into one area to save 
money, Gomez said. 
“Generally, faculty and 
staff are dealing with transi-
tions having to do with the 
retirement incentive and the 
staffing changes that are going 
to be moving up in the next 
year,” Gomez said. “It’s a lit-
tle bit of a tense moment, but 
we’re hoping to push through 
it.”
LAUREN TRIMBER/THE CAMPUS
Allegheny College President James Mullen visits Allegh-
eny Student Government to discuss the college’s search 
for a new dean of students during the ASG meeting 
Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.
Fulbright recipient visits 
college to discuss award
Fulbright Scholarship 
Award winner Kelly Frantz, 
’16, Skyped into the Hender-
son Campus Center Tuesday, 
Feb. 27, to discuss the process, 
the experience and what hap-
pens after a student applies for 
a Fulbright Scholarship. Susan 
Slote hosted the event “Cup-
cakes and Conversation” in 
order to get current Allegheny 
students interested in applying 
and to know what to expect if 
they were to win the award. 
Frantz began the conver-
sation by informing the par-
ticipants of the event on what 
extracurriculars and classes she 
took while at Allegheny. Her 
interests revolved around edu-
cation and language which has 
since led her to teach English in 
Ecuador and go into a masters 
program at Columbia Univer-
sity Teachers College.
At Allegheny, Frantz was 
the president of the student 
pre-education club, took in a 
teaching internship where she 
learned life-changing teaching 
styles, and taught Spanish to 
fifth graders all the while dou-
ble majoring in international 
studies and Spanish and mi-
noring in educational studies. 
Though education and ex-
tracurriculars are beneficial in 
winning the Fulbright Schol-
arship, the application itself 
takes a lot of time and dedica-
tion. Frantz knew she wanted 
to apply to go to Ecuador soon 
after she arrived back the Unit-
ed States after studying abroad 
there during her junior year. 
During her study abroad, the 
semester was split into two sec-
tions — during the first half, 
students take classes, and in the 
second they must take intern-
ships. Frantz chose teaching. 
“If anyone is thinking about 
applying for the Fulbright, 
start early,” Frantz said. “It’s do-
able, it’s achievable. Put a lot of 
time and a lot of thought into 
your essays.” 
The application for the 
scholarship is due in October 
and is comprised of two one 
page essays. One is about the 
applicant and their accom-
plishments and interests, while 
the other is about the grant’s 
purpose. If the applicant 
plans on traveling to Ger-
many or a Spanish speaking 
country, then they must also 
include a letter of recom-
mendation for the language 
requirement. 
Event participant Emily 
Rice, ’21, asked what oth-
er countries are included 
besides Ecuador in the Ful-
bright. Professor Assistant 
Professor and Director of 
Fellowship Advising Patrick 
Jackson, who helped Frantz 
apply for the scholarship, said 
participants could choose 
from 85 countries. If you look 
it up on Google you can see 
all the countries listed accord-
ing to Jackson. 
“It’s all the countries in the 
world with a solid infrastruc-
ture and no civil wars,” said 
Jackson. “If there’s a region 
you want to go to and can’t get 
to a specific country, you can 
get pretty damn close.”
Another student, Elia 
Sherman, ’18, asked what the 
difference between Fulbright 
and the Peace Corps is. Frantz 
thought they two were diffi-
cult to choose between, but 
when it came down to it, the 
Fulbright helps more to pre-
pare for graduate programs 
with the grant that was given 
while the Peace Corps is more 
volunteer based.
Student participant, Ma-
sha Serguievski, ’20, asked if 
applicants need a educational 
background. Slote and Frantz 
agreed that the background 
was not required, yet it was 
highly beneficial when work-
ing with students in other 
countries and certainly gave 
an upper hand when applying 
to many countries.
Currently, Frantz is study-
ing for her masters degree at 
Columbia University Teach-
ers College, as well as work-
ing with Columbia professor, 
Dr. Hoa Nguyen on a research 
project in the field of acquisi-
tion.
Shoshana Robbins, ’19, 
asked why Frantz chose Co-
lumbia. Allegheny’s connec-
tion to the teachers program 
there is incredibly strong, 
making Allegheny students 
take priority in getting into 
the school. The school also 
has three programs: applied 
linguistics and teaching En-
glish to speakers of other 
languages TESOL program 
for both general adult pop-
ulations and kindergarten 
through 12th grade. 
Frantz is working with 
the general TESOL program 
and plans on going back to 
Ecuador to teach for a couple 
years, then do more research 
in the field. 
The scholarship is diffi-
cult to get but not impossi-
ble, and incredibly worth it 
according to professors who 
attended the event. Those 
who attempt to get the award 
should be prepared for how 
competitive it is, according 
to Jackson. 
“It’s competitive, but 
achievable,” Jackson said. 
By CAMERON NEIBLUM
Contributing Writer
neiblumc@allegheny.edu
AlleghenyCampus.com 3The Campus
The Campus is printed every Friday during the 
academic year, except during breaks and exam 
periods.
Advertising: (440) 319-6331
Box 12, Allegheny College 
520 N. Main St., Meadville, PA 16335
March 2, 2018
THE CAMPUS 
WWW.ALLEGHENYCAMPUS.COM
JOSEPH TINGLEY Editor-in-Chief
MARLEY PARISH Editor-in-Chief 
editor@alleghenycampus.com
 
LAUREN TRIMBER News Editor
STEVEN HEINE Junior News Editor
DAKOTAH MANSON Junior News Editor 
news@alleghenycampus.com 
JEN RODRIGUEZ Features Editor
MATTHEW STEINBERG Features Editors 
HANNAH SCHAFFER Junior Features Editor 
features@alleghenycampus.com
JOSH COHEN Sports Editor 
JAKE REIDENBACH Junior Sports Editor 
sports@alleghenycampus.com
ELLIS GIACOMELLI Science/International Editor
OLIVIA BLAKESLEE Junior Science/International Editor
science@alleghenycampus.com
CHRIS BRINDLE Opinion Editor
CY PERRY Junior Opinion Editor 
opinion@alleghenycampus.com
 
JEVON COOPER Photo Editor
KELSEY EVANS Photo Editor
photo@alleghenycampus.com
ALEX WEIDENHOF Copy Editor, Enterprise Editor 
editor@alleghenycampus.com
ROYSE BACHTEL Web Manager
web@alleghenycampus.com
KEEGAN SUMSER Business Manager
business@alleghenycampus.com 
MICHAEL CROWLEY Faculty Adviser  
adviser@alleghenycampus.com
Follow us on Twitter @ACCampus
Follow us on Instagram @ac_campus
Like us on Facebook “The Campus Newspaper”
[News]
CRIME BLOTTER
 
Editor’s Note: The weekly Crime Blotter is compiled using the Daily 
Crime Log available on the Office of Public Safety’s website. Crimes 
reported may still be under investigation. Crimes listed below are 
collected the Thursday before publication.
Feb. 21, 2018
North Main Street near Tippie
Police Assist.
Feb. 24, 2018
Schultz Hall
Alcohol Violation.
dinate sway in determining 
which cases are taken up, a 
system Walling referred to as 
great power politics, according 
to Walling.
“Justice, in contrast, de-
mands equality,” Walling said.
Walling said the situation 
was similar in regards to the 
justice norm, which is defined 
as the idea that states should 
be held responsible for both 
war and mass atrocity crimes. 
While states profess a strong 
commitment justice, actual 
enforcement is lacking.
“While countries demon-
strate a strong rhetorical 
commitment to the justice 
norm, in practice the Security 
Council commitment is irreg-
ular and politically selective,” 
Walling said.
However, Walling said, 
there was reason for opti-
mism. She cited the rhetorical 
strength of the justice norm as 
one reason why. 
Walling said Russia has 
vetoed 14 resolutions focused 
on bringing justice to perpe-
trators of mass casualty vio-
lence in the Syrian civil war. 
The war, which has gone on 
for almost seven years, has 
left at least four million ref-
ugees and six million people 
displaced inside Syria itself.
“We can expect these num-
bers to be very hard to get 
right,” Walling said.
While Russia’s vetoes make 
it harder for the court to bring 
justice to those who commit 
war crimes in Syria, the vetoes 
do not mean that the court is 
useless, according to Walling.
“What is bad for the court is 
not necessarily bad for the jus-
tice norm,” Walling said.
Walling pointed out Russia’s 
explanation for the vetoes. The 
explanation centered on the 
justice norm being improper-
ly applied, and not the con-
tent of the justice norm itself. 
These tests can serve to make 
the norm stronger, giving it 
more international legitimacy 
in future proceedings.
Walling said the United 
Nations General Assembly 
is working to improve the 
fairness of the court. For in-
stance, France and Mexico 
have introduced a resolution, 
backed by 96 member states, 
that calls for the voluntary 
suspension of the Security 
Council veto in cases of mass 
atrocity crimes. Another idea 
would allow the court to di-
rectly petition the General 
Assembly, which sets the bud-
get for the United Nations, for 
the money required to follow 
through on litigation.
Walling said in order to 
reform, the court had to work 
within the context of great 
power politics, instead of try-
ing to fight it.
“It’s easier for a powerful 
state to violate a norm and get 
away with it than a weak state 
to violate a norm and get away 
with it,” Walling said.
Sydney Yahner, ’21, said 
she attended the talk because 
many of her professors rec-
ommended it.
“It was interesting to see 
some of the conversation that 
transpired that incorporated 
a lot of the concepts I learned 
throughout the year,” Yahner 
said.
Yahner also discussed what 
she learned from the talk.
“Probably that the UN Se-
curity Council isn’t doing their 
job, that there’s a lot of room 
for change, but it’s a matter of 
who’s willing to make that first 
step and why.” Yahner said.
For Leah Lewis, ’21, the 
talk was impactful enough to 
change her idea of what she 
wanted to do in the future.
“Before I came, I wanted to 
have a career in international 
law, but now I know that’s not 
something I want to do,” Lew-
is said.
Art history major to be 
removed from curricula
After the 2018 spring se-
mester, the art history major 
will cease to exist at Allegheny 
College. 
In preparation for the de-
crease of high school grad-
uates nationally, the college 
has decided to cut art history 
from the college’s catalogue. 
As the major disappears, the 
college will also be losing 
two professors of art histo-
ry, Amelia Carr and Richard 
Schindler.
“The idea was the college 
should be smaller, and a lot 
was paired down so I’m not 
surprised we’re losing art his-
tory,” Carr said. “The school 
could have decided to replace 
professors and they did not.”
Over the summer, Allegh-
eny hosted a study group that 
created a strategic plan of 
action which explained the 
best path the college should 
set itself on for success in the 
future. Part of the study was 
deciding what majors would 
be useful going forward and 
what would not be, according 
to Carr.  Along with a campus 
wide study, the art history de-
partment did a study of their 
own where they discovered 
that for the past 30 years they 
have consistently had four to 
five majors. 
Not only at Allegheny, but 
nationally, humanities majors 
are being reduced because it 
is not seen as a direct line to 
a job, according to Carr. Why 
the United States no longer 
seems interested in human-
ities is a big issue for her, Carr 
said. Art history helps with 
critical thinking, creates a 
major global awareness and 
helps people understand oth-
er cultures, according to Carr. 
As the U.S. starts to shift to-
wards a more business focus, 
Carr sees the nation missing 
a big opportunity and the loss 
of a common language.
“If you travel in the world, 
what people are proud of is 
what their cultures have done, 
have made, the architectures 
they have built, the beauty of 
their art, the creativity of their 
people,” Carr said. “The liter-
ature, the music, that’s what 
connects you to people and 
that’s what has a common lan-
guage, but somehow that’s not 
seen as important as learning 
how to read a budget sheet so 
you can interact with people 
economically.”
Students at Allegheny have 
never favored the art histo-
ry major and Carr does not 
think they will in the future. 
The art history department 
is incredibly small compared 
to others which has created 
difficulties for the students 
who are interested in it. Art 
history does not cover the va-
riety of topics a student needs 
because the professors have a 
Eurocentric focus, Carr said. 
However, they do lecture 
on African, Indian and Chi-
nese art, according to Carr. 
Professors who specialize in 
non-Western areas were nev-
er brought in.
As small as the major may 
be, all art students are re-
quired to take certain art his-
tory classes in order to grad-
uate, according to Schindler. 
With both professors retiring, 
there will no longer be any art 
history classes offered.
“It’s a ridiculous concept to 
have an art department with-
out an art history major espe-
cially in an art environment,” 
Schindler said. “When I an-
nounced I was going to retire 
two years ago, I thought there 
would be a search for a new 
art historian and that didn’t 
happen.”
Along with Schindler’s 
plan to retire, Professor Carr 
decided to take the retirement 
package offered by the college. 
“I’m taking it as an early 
retirement,” Carr said. “It car-
ries through two years which 
is almost to the date that I was 
planning on retiring.”
Carr saw the loss of the 
art history major as a natural 
time to call it quits. As a re-
tired professor, she still plans 
on helping the juniors who 
have declared art history as 
a major and will be teaching 
Art 110 and 111 next semes-
ter.
Travis Turner, ’19, is one 
of the last art history majors 
at Allegheny and said he feels 
this decision minimizes the 
importance of art history in 
the modern world.
“Art historians are need-
ed across the U.S. because it’s 
still being run by old heads,” 
Turner said. “A lot of young 
kids are coming in to be mu-
seum curators, but art history 
as a major might die.”
When he graduates, Turn-
er said he wants to be able to 
donate to the areas of the col-
lege that have had an impact 
on him. Without an art histo-
ry major, he does not feel this 
will be possible.
“I want to support Allegh-
eny students, but I feel like I 
lost what would be an ances-
try or a posterity,” Turner said. 
“I won’t have an opportunity 
to donate to the students who 
are walking in my footsteps.”
For his senior project, 
Turner plans on doing pres-
ervation work in Reis Hall to 
talk about, discuss and record 
the building to get a general 
understanding of the spac-
es. There is a history of the 
building and a lot of ways to 
preserve its original state, 
according to Turner. By pre-
serving it, Turner hopes to 
have Reis added on to the Na-
tional Register of Historical 
Places.
A new art curriculum is 
currently being worked out 
by faculty, but they are unsure 
how the curriculum will be 
handled with fewer profes-
sors. Classes offering courses 
concerning art will still be 
available, and students can 
continue to use art as a cre-
ative outlet. Due to the small 
amount of students attend-
ing Allegheny, and the small 
amount who are interested in 
art, Schindler does not see the 
classes lost being replaced. 
“Someone once said to me 
that it’s true, art is the icing on 
the cake, but who eats cake 
without icing and who wants 
to live a life without art in it,” 
Carr said. “Most of my stu-
dents have not gone on to art 
history careers, but they have 
never not used the art histo-
ry. They have to put together 
a life they want, and I’m sor-
ry we can no longer provide 
that.”
By DAKOTAH MANSON
News Editor
mansond@allegheny.edu
Sept. 17, 2017
Reported Feb. 23, 2018
North Village I
Forcible Fondling. 
Sept. 17, 2017
Reported Feb. 23, 2018
Baldwin Hall
Rape. 
Feb. 23, 2018
Baldwin Hall
Alcohol Violation.
Feb. 23, 2018
Baldwin Hall
Marijuana Odor. 
WALLING from page 1
March 2, 2018 AlleghenyCampus.com4 The Campus [opinion]
Gatorz
“I thought/felt seriously about the Parkland shooting for 
about an hour or so. Then I checked basketball scores and then 
went on with life. I too am a part of the problem,” read the Face-
book status of a friend of mine, the day after 17 people were 
killed and another 14 hospitalized at Stoneman Douglas High 
School with a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle, one of the 
deadliest school shootings to date.
My friend’s reaction to the incident is hardly surprising giv-
en the frequency of mass shootings. They have been incorpo-
rated into everyday news like the weather or stock market fluc-
tuations. It is hard to keep up with them, let alone maintain a 
level of outrage and put pressure on representatives to push for 
government intervention. 
Several things can be done to curb school shootings, and the 
first is properly labeling them as terrorism.
Through terror tactics, schools are transformed into danger 
zones where anything can happen anytime. That is how terror-
ism works: it targets a larger population — such as students — 
with a crippling fear that something deadly can happen to them 
at random. The victims of Stoneman Douglas serve as examples 
of this.
However, for some reason, the media does not report these 
shootings as terrorism. This is likely because of the strong asso-
ciation between terrorism and middle-eastern countries, espe-
cially after former President George W. Bush declared war on 
terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, suggesting terror-
ism is something that can only come from the east.
But this reservation of the terrorist label makes domestic gun 
violence appear less of an issue and allows the entire American 
population to remain in an ignorant state: ignorant to the fact 
that there were over 30 times the number of homicide victims 
to firearms compared to terrorist attacks in America between 
2001 and 2014, according to the Center for Disease Control and 
Prevention and Global Terrorism Database.
This demonstrates how labels can frame how events are in-
terpreted and portray what is seen as more alarming or danger-
ous. With the media downplaying the circumstances of the acts 
of violence, instead of following other countries that respond-
ed to mass shootings, usually with gun control laws, people in 
America argue about what the Second Amendment means.
Some have gone so far as argue for arming teachers so they 
can intervene in school shootings, which some cities are al-
ready considering. Footage released from the Parkland shoot-
ing showed the armed school officer standing outside of the 
building and not attempting to intervene in Cruz’s killing spree. 
The officer resigned shortly after. If this incident tells us any-
thing, it is that guns don’t always fight off terrorism.
Perhaps the biggest puzzle to Americans everywhere is what 
drives these acts of violence. As a culture, we’re at least aware of 
the long-standing complexities behind Islamic terrorism, and 
we expect it even if we condemn it. 
But domestic terrorism is something no one confronts head 
on. President Trump and others have suggested that it is a 
mental health issue and incidents could be stopped with better 
mental health institutions. This is likely correct.
These shooters have often simply gone unheard for too long. 
Perhaps they’re outcasts at school, at home and on the on the 
internet as well.  Maybe what pushes them over the edge is an 
awareness of how they are put on the edge of society by every-
one before they eventually snap. If they are bullied, they will be 
defensive and if they are dismissed as “weird” they will be lone-
ly; but what if these people know that they are “weird,” lonely, 
or even sociopath, and are simply ignored because they are that 
way?
If parents, friends, teachers, police and government insti-
tutions all just look the other way when someone needs to be 
heard, is it very surprising that some would get that attention 
using any means necessary? It happens time and time again: 
suicidal gunmen that leave nothing but fear, bodies, and a man-
ifesto of the things that the world needed to listen to sooner. We 
can call these horrid massacres inhumane, but how inhumane 
is it to want to die a martyr when all other options are off the 
table?
The Parkland shooting was a distinct school shooting on 
account of the brave students that survived the massacre and 
campaigned on social media demanding change. Their pow-
erful arguments were accompanied by brutally real, hard-to-
watch footage that was captured on a cell phone during the 
shooting.
Putting all arguments about guns, mental health, and terror-
ism aside, the final point I would like to address is something 
more bleak: specifically, why did it take live footage of a massa-
cre of high school students to strike a chord in some of the poli-
ticians, lobbyists and citizens? Have we become so desensitized 
to violence that we had to watch  young adults get murdered to 
know it was actually happening? Yes.
The proliferation of social media; the senseless arguing in 
comment sections; the validation sought by posting selfies; and 
the commodification of the “like” or “retweet”  all contributes 
to a desensitization. Social media can satisfy our needs for 
human engagement and expression without really engaging 
anyone, and because the content is made to compete for your 
attention, everything is sensationalized, including news media 
that rely on dramatics to pique interests, keep up ratings, and 
make money.
So when the public hears of another school shooting, it 
emphasizes the ways in which the event is “abnormal” to our 
expectations, and this abnormality translates into meaning. 
Whether something in the media is sickening, funny, or just 
celebrity gossip, the media reports the circumstances as a “larg-
er than life” anomaly, making it difficult to actually sympathize 
with the real-world events taking place.
So where do we go from here? First, I believe we need to 
confront the fact that there are larger underlying cultural fac-
tors that contribute to how we register school shootings. Simply 
by altering the ways in which we discuss the matter and con-
front it as the terrorism it is, we can change our understanding 
of it to something more visible to all Americans, regardless of 
political alignment.
And fake news aside, the media’s reliance on sensationalism 
and ratings is hurting our species by making them approach 
news as entertainment, which works to normalize these shoot-
ings in society. And finally, we could attempt to understand 
mental health as a complicated predecessor to violent acts, not 
as an excuse or cause.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver implemented a new format 
for the NBA All-Star Game on Oct. 3, 2017, and despite initial 
skepticism, it has proved to be a good decision.
The 2018 All-Star game was the 67th playing of the annual 
exhibition between players who have had exceptional seasons 
from each of the two conferences at the halfway point of the 
season. 
The format changed included a new system by which players 
were selected to represent their respective conferences. The two 
conferences, the Eastern and Western, voted two captains to 
represent each of them during NBA All-Star weekend. LeBron 
James represented the Cleveland Cavaliers and Eastern con-
ference, while the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry was 
nominated to pilot the Western conference team.
NBA All-Star Weekend consists of five main events. All-Star 
weekend is a three day event and begins with the NBA Rising 
Stars game on Friday. This allows the best first and second year 
players to show off their skills. It’s unlikely a rookie will make 
the All-Star roster, so this is the leagues way of allowing the 
younger guys a chance to prove their worth.
Saturday is usually a bigger day than Sunday during All-Star 
weekend. Three events occur on Saturday night, one of which 
is the Verizon Slam Dunk Contest. This consists of four of the 
most superior athletes around the league coming together and 
competing against one another in one of the more exciting 
events of the NBA season.
Players perform unique slam dunks in front of four judges 
who will give the dunks a score. The Slam Dunk contest is usually 
the anchor of Saturday night and is the final event of the evening.
The second event on Saturday is the JBL Three Point Contest. 
Eight of the best three point shooters from around the league 
compete against one another in a contest that requires them to 
make as many three pointers as they can in a minutes time.
The third event is what is known as the Taco Bell Skills 
Challenge. This contest consists of players doing a variety of 
different obstacles on the court. When these challenges ended 
on Saturday night, the only event left is the All-Star Game itself 
on Sunday.
The new format mirrors the NHL All-Star game format by 
allowing each team captain to draft the players that represent 
each conference. This was drastically different than the previ-
ous format which allowed the fans to vote for the players they 
wanted to represent the conferences.
I was hesitant to say I was pleased with the new format until 
I watched the game for myself. The game was drastically more 
intense. It looked as though the teams were more in sync with 
one another, and it felt like each team was actually playing to 
win.
In previous years, the lackadaisical pace of the game was 
like watching a recreational basketball game at a local YMCA 
— no defense and a tremendous amount of offense. The new 
format added some excitement and tremendous defensive play 
throughout the entire game.  Although the final score was 148-
145, the game itself was drastically more competitive than years 
past.
What makes the new format unique is that each captain is 
allowed to draft players from both conferences. Until the 2018 
All-Star game, the two conferences used the best from both 
conferences to play each opposing conference. This year, each 
captain was allowed to choose whoever they wanted.
LeBron James received the most All-Star votes so he was 
awarded the first draft pick.  Stephen Curry was awarded with 
home team honors and choice of uniforms color. With the first 
draft pick, James added some fireworks to the discussion by 
taking Curry’s teammate Kevin Durant.
The Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors have met three 
consecutive years in the NBA finals, the choice by James to pick 
Durant with the first pick also added a little bit of drama to the 
game as well.
Players who make the All-Star game also receive a bonus. 
The players on the winning side receive $100,000 and the play-
ers on the losing team receive $25,000. This gives the players 
some more motivation to play harder during the game as well.
 In previous years, players received an equal amount of pay, 
which more than likely contributed to the careless effort that 
most of the previous games entailed for the fans. Although it is 
unlikely this amount of money would affect some of the more 
seasoned players who are receiving millions of dollars a season 
on their contracts alone, it seems to have worked.
Allowing the players the freedom to choose their captain 
and then allowing a captain to draft a team is a unique idea. 
It allows for the players to show off their knowledge of the op-
posing players they play day in and day out throughout the 82 
game NBA regular season. The draft process and new format 
will both be televised next year again. I was impressed and 
thought the new format was sufficient in capturing my atten-
tion.  I am actually looking forward to the next televised draft 
as well.
Addressing school shootings
Three things that need to be done to put an end to the violence
By SHANE OSTROM • Contributing Writer • ostroms@allegheny.edu
The NBA All-Star Game is getting better
The new changes the commissioner made and why they worked
By CY PERRY • Junior Opinion Editor • perryc@allegheny.edu
March 2, 2018AlleghenyCampus.com 5The Campus[science]
By OLIVIA BLAKESLEE
Junior Science/International Editor
blakesleeo@allegheny.edu
Scott Hess, professor of En-
glish at Earlham College, drew 
a crowd of faculty and students 
across disciplines at his talk on 
literature and the environment 
at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27 in 
the Quigley Auditorium.
The talk, titled “Walden 
Pond in the Anthropocene: 
Relational Theory, Climate 
Change and the Role of the 
Environmental Humanities,” 
highlighted the ways in which 
popular understanding of lit-
erature changes the way we 
interact with nature.
“Multi-disciplinary con-
versations, that is conversa-
tions that take place across 
multiple academic disciplines, 
are absolutely necessary to 
environmental science, since 
environmental issues by their 
nature require many perspec-
tives to understand and ad-
dress,” Hess said. 
It was this focus on con-
versations across disciplines 
that motivated John Miller, 
assistant professor of English, 
to invite Hess to speak.
“Clearly Scott Hess is a 
mind to be reckoned with, 
one whose work shows us 
how unusual combinations 
can help us think past en-
trenched disciplinary bound-
aries and come to startlingly 
new insights,” Miller said in 
his introduction.
Miller said Hess is forging 
new ways of thinking that 
readers of multiple levels of 
understanding can appreci-
ate. He said Hess’s first book, 
“Authoring the Self: Self-Rep-
resentation, Authorship and 
the Print Market in British 
Poetry from Pope through 
Wordsworth,” first inspired 
him to consider Hess as a vis-
iting lecturer.
“That book is really great 
and sort of accessible and sort 
of why we invited him and 
gave him a blank slate to talk 
about what he wanted,” Miller 
said.
Hess took advantage of 
this blank slate by opening 
his talk with how he came to 
study the environmental hu-
manities and a new way of 
contextualizing famous works 
about nature.
“What matters, I’ve come 
to realize, isn’t so much the 
correct or original meaning of 
the text itself, but what kind 
of effects various performanc-
es or enactments of a text can 
generate,” Hess said.
This explanation of what 
matters tied directly to “Rela-
tional Theory,” a theory which 
forms the basis of Hess’s work. 
The theory is founded upon 
the thinking that all meanings 
are dependent on context and 
can evolve over time.
Hess spent the first half 
of the talk explaining this in 
greater detail and what he 
considered to be the abstract 
concepts upon which his re-
search is built. Formulating 
new theories and concepts is 
valuable, according to Hess, 
because it has a real and vis-
ible effect on the way we act.
Hess then began to explain 
the ways these concepts apply 
to his own work with various 
authors. His current focus, he 
said, is on 19th century au-
thor Henry David Thoreau, 
most famous for his memoir, 
“Walden.”
The memoir is Thoreau’s 
classic account of choosing 
to live apart from society and 
in connection with nature on 
a lake in Concord, Massa-
chusetts. The work has given 
Thoreau almost god-like sta-
tus, according to Hess. 
“It matters intensely to 
many environmentalists to-
day what Thoreau would do 
in response to climate change 
because Thoreau has become 
an overall inspiration for en-
vironmental and ethical liv-
ing,” Hess said. “Asking ‘What 
would Thoreau do?’ for envi-
ronmentalists is a little bit like 
asking ‘What would Jesus do?’ 
for Christians.”
The impressive influence 
of Thoreau was a notable 
takeaway for many students. 
“I was very surprised that 
Thoreau was this, like, very 
big ‘Jesus Christ’ overall when 
it came to environmental sci-
ence and, like, climate change. 
It was really surprising that so 
many people were interest-
ed in him,” Caroline Holguin 
Rosa, ’20, said.
This influence and interest 
is potentially problematic for 
Thoreau’s readers and fans 
however, according to Hess.
“By framing their appeal 
through Thoreau and individ-
ualism, that sort of individual 
lifestyle, they tend to open up 
certain approaches to climate 
change and sort of close down 
others,” Hess said.
Hess explained using Tho-
reau as a path to understand-
ing environmentalism can 
contribute to a widespread 
unwillingness to develop sus-
tainable behaviors.
“Even committed environ-
mentalists rarely change core 
lifestyle habits, such as driv-
ing a car or flying on vacation, 
when those changes would 
mess with habits that are core 
to their personal identities,” 
Hess said. “Nor do appeals 
to personal values fare much 
better.”
This type of inactivity 
brought Hess to the conclusion 
of his hour-long talk, referring 
to the titular concept of his lec-
ture — the Anthropocene.
“The Anthropocene is our 
kind of current ecological sit-
uation,” Hess said. “We have 
to understand humans as a 
fundamental geological force, 
and that’s what Anthropocene 
evokes.”
This modern power of hu-
mans over the planet gives 
his work, and by extension 
our general understanding 
of works like “Walden,” great 
significance and consequence, 
Hess said. He proposed build-
ing new popular associations 
around the novel to combat 
issues like climate change.
In a brief question and 
answer session following the 
talk, Associate Professor of 
Philosophy Steven Farrel-
ly-Jackson questioned what 
these new associations would 
look like.
“I was thinking about the 
way art works — it works 
through the imagination,” 
Farrelly-Jackson said. “So 
even if you had new ideas 
about ‘Walden,’ it’s still just 
going to be working through 
the imagination. What’s going 
to make any change?”
Hess confessed he was not 
sure what form these new 
ideas would take but stressed 
their practical effects.
“It can’t just sound good. 
It’s also got to resonate with 
people,” Hess said. 
In addition to the talk for 
the larger campus communi-
ty, Hess also taught a seminar 
on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
Students from a First-year 
seminar in environmen-
tal science and classes titled 
Environmental Ethics and 
Philosophy, American Envi-
ronmental History and Liter-
ature About the Environment 
all met in the Tippie Alumni 
Center to hear Hess speak in 
more detail about his work.
Interactions with students 
are integral to Hess’s work, ac-
cording to Miller, and he said 
it was love for the classroom 
and his appreciation for Al-
legheny’s “unusual combina-
tions”  that made him an ideal 
fit for a visit to the college.
“I’ve never seen anybody 
who felt their scholarship 
came out of the classroom, 
but that seems to be how he 
feels, and I think that’s part of 
what makes him a good fit for 
Allegheny,” Miller said.
By KYLIE WIREBACH
Contributing Writer
wirebachk@allegheny.edu
The Foundation for Sus-
tainable Forests, in partner-
ship with the French Creek 
Valley Conservancy and Al-
legheny College, hosted its 
first installment of this year’s 
“Our Woods & Waters Film 
Series” at 7 p.m. on Friday, 
Feb. 23 in the Quigley Audi-
torium.
The title, “Look and See: 
A Portrait of Wendell Berry” 
suggests the film is about one 
man, but in reality, it is about 
the movement he spent his 
life building. 
The screening was attend-
ed by Meadville community 
members with several Al-
legheny faculty and students. 
A discussion period followed 
the film.
The film begins with the 
voice of Wendell Berry read-
ing aloud his poem, “The 
Objective.” Artfully overlain 
by footage of  life across the 
globe, the combination is very 
moving, and the message of 
the poem is not lost as im-
ages of a simple, quiet walk 
through the woods replace 
the noisy global bustle.
I encourage anyone read-
ing this to read “The Objec-
tive,” as it has quickly become 
one of my favorites. Berry also 
opens by dedicating the film 
to the memory of his long-
time friend, James Baker Hall, 
whose beautiful photography 
is featured throughout.
The film is divided into six 
chapters and a brief epilogue. 
Chapter One is titled 
“Imagination in Place” and 
features Berry’s daughter 
Mary Dee discussing her 
childhood relationship with 
her father, who on walks 
throughout their farm and 
forest would tell her to con-
stantly “look and see” — and 
remember what is good, bad, 
beautiful and ugly. 
Scenes of farmers harvest-
ing tobacco by hand parallel 
old photographs of Berry’s 
family and friends doing the 
same, and farmers discuss 
why they love farming — the 
beautiful necessity that brings 
people together, a raw ideal-
ism and the reality of accept-
ing less than ideal practices. 
Chapter Two, “The Unset-
tling of America,” dives into 
the issue that inspired Berry’s 
career as an activist and essay-
ist focused on agriculture. 
Farmer Steve Smith de-
scribes the industrialization of 
agriculture as the relinquish-
ing of the artistic elements of 
farming. The industrialization 
that has increased our food 
production so incredibly has 
also caused the consolidation 
of American farms — fewer 
but much larger farms. 
Remaining small farmers 
are in a constant race to just 
stay on top of the debts re-
quired to stay in business.
Berry insists today’s farm-
ing industry is based on a 
false ideal for a false economy 
which works against nature 
and enslaves many people — 
and not just American farm-
ers, but immigrant farmers 
as well, who out of economic 
necessity travel annually from 
Mexico to Kentucky, North 
Carolina, Tennessee and 
Virginia where there is not 
enough local farming labor. 
Through policy, we have 
wiped American farmers 
out. This chapter is one of the 
more dense ones, but it sets 
the stage for the remainder of 
the film. 
Chapter Three, “Nowhere,” 
shows us empty towns where 
farming communities used 
to thrive, and Mary Dee talks 
about negative attitudes to-
wards poor rural commu-
nities — that if their people 
were smarter, they would do 
something else besides farm. 
Berry discusses what it 
means to be part of a “no-
where” place — an honest 
place mistaken for “nowhere” 
suffers in that it is designated 
as a sacrifice, and it faces soil 
erosion, toxic air, poisoned 
water and destroyed commu-
nity. 
As someone who grew up 
surrounded by rural commu-
nities, this and the previous 
chapter hurt my heart deep-
ly. But Chapter Four, “It All 
Turns on Affection,” lightens 
up with touching insights 
by Berry’s wife Tanya about 
making somewhere a home 
by just being there. 
Wendell, meanwhile, 
shares his thoughts on fixing 
broken things — you don’t 
have to put everything back 
together, just put two things 
back together. 
Chapter Five, “A Home 
Coming,” begins to address 
deeper resolutions for agri-
cultural industrialization.
Berry describes the main 
purposes of industrialization 
— to replace people with ma-
chinery and to concentrate 
wealth into fewer and fewer 
hands. 
Berry and Tanya both 
point to a different kind of 
life, in which people love do-
ing their work out of pure 
enjoyment and live an hon-
est life on a farm. This gentle 
chapter bridges into Six, “The 
Handing Down,” in which 
Mary Dee outlines the solu-
tion for which Berry has been 
advocating for many years.
Mary Dee explains the im-
portance of local food move-
ments and their role in in-
spiring cultural changes. She 
argues movements cannot 
stop at farmers’ markets and 
must also address land use 
and the economies of food 
producing places. 
Berry affirms the need for 
a healthy farm culture “based 
on familiarity, on people 
soundly established upon the 
land,” a culture that “nourish-
es and protects that human 
intelligence of the land which 
no amount of technology can 
replace.” 
Berry finishes by saying 
that if we do not ensure this 
happens for subsequent gen-
erations, we not only invite 
calamity, but we also deserve 
it.
The Epilogue, called “A Vi-
sion,” features Berry reading a 
poem of the same title, which 
describes his hopeful view of 
the future.
“The abundance of this 
place, the songs of its people 
and its birds, will be health 
and wisdom and indwelling 
light,” Berry said. “This is no 
paradisal dream. Its hardship 
is its possibilities.” 
After asking some of my 
peers for their thoughts on 
the film, the most common 
responses were the pacing 
was tough to follow and the 
film was surprisingly barren 
in material about Berry’s own 
life. 
In fact, the film never 
showed current footage or 
photographs of Berry — only 
historical photographs from 
media outlets or older pictures 
taken by Hall. This may be ex-
plained by a remark made by 
Berry in the film itself — he 
does not get involved in film, 
as he prefers writing, because 
of how limiting a film lens can 
be. 
This may have also been 
an artistic choice on the part 
of the directors, since the film 
was definitely framed more 
around the movement to re-
turn to artistic agriculture 
rather than the man behind it. 
Berry’s way of speaking is 
deep and soothing, and his 
poems flow, so it is easy to 
feel tired and even bored af-
ter a while. However, the slow 
pacing of the film parallels the 
gentle, idyllic farming life to 
which Berry hopes the agri-
cultural industry will return. 
I cannot help but mirror his 
musing after watching “Look 
and See.”
Guest scholar blends science, literature in lecture
PABLO SANCHEZ/Flickr.com
Walden Pond, pictured here on Oct. 4, 2008, was designated a National Historic Land-
mark in 1962 as a result of Thoreau’s memoir, “Walden; or, Life in the Woods,” which 
he wrote after spending two years living on its shores.
OLIVIA BLAKESLEE/THE CAMPUS
Scott Hess, professor of English at Earlham College 
in Richmond, Indiana, speaks to a crowded Quigley 
Auditorium on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.
FESTIVAL OF FAITHS/Flickr.com
Wendell Berry reads poetry at the 2014 Festival of Faiths 
in Louisville, Kentucky. The theme of the 2014 festival 
was “Sacred Earth Sacred Self.”
Berry film poetically documents industrialization of agriculture
March 2, 2018 AlleghenyCampus.com6 The Campus [Features]
 Underneath the umbrellas 
of “love” and “information” are 
a variety of social situations, 
from basic everyday interac-
tions to serious or tragic ones. 
Love can be displayed by hold-
ing hands in the park or taking 
care of a significant other. 
It is conveyed in the form 
of information, either through 
speech, physical interaction or 
some means of passing along a 
message. Yet information can 
be about any emotion or fact 
and is instrumental in guiding 
human decision making. 
The play “Love and Infor-
mation” by Caryl Churchill 
explored these two puzzling 
concepts through a collec-
tion of short skits to create a 
speculative plot that audience 
members can interpret in var-
ious ways. Professor of theatre 
Dan Crozier directed the piece 
in the Gladys Mullenix Black 
Theatre from Friday, Feb. 22 to 
Sunday, Feb. 25.  
“The play itself is really 
about the way we’re kind of 
inundated with information 
and what it does to us,” Cro-
zier said. 
The storyline revolved 
around love and informa-
tion, and it did so in a rather 
non-traditional sense.
“It’s really different than 
probably anything you will see, 
probably, anywhere around 
here,” Crozier said. “There isn’t 
a single plot. It’s 67 individual 
little playlets, some are two or 
three minutes long, some are 
20 seconds. It’s this collage of 
very quick changes from one 
thing to the next.”
The “playlets” were acted 
out on an almost empty stage, 
apart from a tall structure in 
the background that contained 
a few doors, tables and chairs. 
On top of the formation, a sin-
gle word was projected in each 
scene that gave context to the 
interaction. In one episode, 
the entire cast flooded the 
platform to dance, as the word 
“dance” was displayed in the 
background. 
At the same time, each of 
the 16-member cast played 
multiple characters through-
out the performance. The nar-
rative did not concentrate on 
character development, but 
rather on what each character 
did or said in the individual 
scene, and what happened as 
a result. 
“There’s a scene with two 
students, and the one student 
comes in and says ‘well, mom’s 
out. I have to tell you some-
thing. Mom’s not your mom. 
I’m your mom. Mom’s your 
grandmother.’ The scene is 
really about ‘well, do we have 
to tell mom that I told you?’’’ 
Crozier said. “It’s this piece of 
information which changes 
someone’s whole world, and 
then whether or not they’re 
going to share it with some-
body else.”
Even though each of the 
scenes were different, they all 
contained an element of love, 
information or a combination 
of the two. Crozier’s previous 
example prompted the au-
dience to ask “what will the 
characters do with that infor-
mation?” The teen just dis-
covered two people she loved 
have different roles in her life 
than she thought, so what 
should she do in response?
The length of scenes did 
not change how thought-pro-
voking they were. Cast mem-
ber, Simon Brown, ’19, walked 
out from stage right as the 
word “Zen” accompanied him 
on the background structure. 
He said “What’s the sound of 
one hand clapping? I’ve heard 
that one,” in a drawn out and 
slow manner and then strolled 
out to stage left. 
Brown presented a calming 
technique used in the Zen tra-
dition for meditation. It is not 
possible for one hand to clap, 
so it could be pictured numer-
ous ways. 
“I always interpreted the 
scene as a way to, kind of, di-
rect the audience’s attention 
away from everything else 
that’s going on and give them 
a break,” Brown said. “The way 
the play is designed is that you 
have all these scenes and you 
can arrange them in whatever 
order you want.”
However, the goal of the 
play was not to be random, 
but rather to allow individuals 
to create their own interpre-
tations of the plot. The scenes 
were divided into seven sec-
tions that must go in order, 
but within those sections were 
episodes that the director had 
a great deal of creative freedom 
with in terms of order and re-
structuring.  
“I was in New York when it 
was playing but I didn’t see it, 
so I’ve never seen a production 
of it,” Crozier said. “It’s just me 
and the play and the actors, 
and the technicians and the 
designers working around 
what we think the ideas are in 
the play and how to best pres-
ent them.”
“The author left in a back 
part of the script that said ‘ran-
dom scenes,’” said stage manag-
er Cayla Brandon, ’20. “You can 
put the random scenes wherev-
er you want in the show, and 
you can mix up the segments as 
much as you want, but you can 
not move a scene outside of a 
segment and the last scene has 
to be the last scene.”
Just like the audience was 
supposed to, the actors had 
varying interpretations of this 
specific production of the 
piece as well.  
“Even within the cast there 
were a lot of conspiracy theo-
ries about how the scenes are 
connected and how each of 
the seven acts plays into one 
another,” Brown said. “It’s real-
ly interesting to hear how dif-
ferent people view the scenes 
and how they connect, because 
there’s so many different ways 
you can look at it through so 
many different lenses.”
The work was extremely 
unique, especially in terms of 
theatre productions, but cer-
tain television shows have been 
produced in a similar style to 
“Love and Information.” 
“I want to say that it’s like 
Black Mirror or the Twilight 
Zone, where as not every scene 
is connected but, innately, ev-
erything in the world is con-
nected,” Brandon said. “Each 
scene is a snippet of life, and I 
suppose the author of the show 
is assuming that everything in 
life is love and information.”
“There’s some bizarre plays 
out there, definitely, but this 
one is very unique [since] it is 
so real in some parts, and in 
some parts, it’s kind of bizarre-
ly not real but also real at the 
same time,” Brandon said. “It’s 
snippets of life, and it’s very 
real and raw.”
February has finally come 
to a close, and music-lovers 
have filled their libraries with 
new content. At the same 
time, the stomachs of movie-
goers are equally as full with 
popcorn, candy and soda 
from repeated visits to the 
theatre after “Black Panther” 
crushed box offices. 
While March is looking a 
tad empty for the music in-
dustry, I am not going to be 
pessimistic, especially since 
hip-hop legend Snoop Dogg 
will be releasing his album “Bi-
ble of Love” on March 16. Not 
only will he continue an icon-
ic music career that has lasted 
more than 25 years, but he will 
be experimenting with gospel 
music on the track for the first 
time. 
While the announcement 
is a shock to many critics 
and listeners, this is not the 
first time the rap artist has 
branched off from his original 
genre. Snoop has been known 
to follow his heart, as he took 
time off to produce a reggae 
inspired album in 2013 ti-
tled “Reincarnated,” and even 
released it under the name 
“Snoop Lion.” 
“It’s always been on my 
heart. I just never got around 
to it because I always be doing 
gangsta business or doing this 
or doing that. I just felt like it’s 
been on my heart too long. 
I need to do it now,” Snoop 
Dogg said in an interview 
with XXL Magazine. 
On the same day, the rock 
band Stone Temple Pilots 
will release its new LP album 
“Stone Temple Pilots” after two 
singles “Meadow” and “Roll 
Me Under” have left fans on 
the edge of their seats. How-
ever, the anticipation starts to-
day as they embark on a tour 
across the United States until 
July 24, hitting over 30 cities, 
according to an article pub-
lished in Rolling Stone. 
This is not only the first 
time the pilots will be releasing 
a studio album since 2010, but 
also since their original lead 
singer, Scott Weiland, died of 
an accidental drug overdose in 
2015.
Ok, so we should not hate 
on the music industry in the 
month of March, but how 
about we encourage a stron-
ger work ethic for the future? 
I suppose Hollywood can pick 
up their slack, just this once. 
To kick off the month, Jen-
nifer Lawrence plays Domini-
ka Egorova in the high-action 
film “Red Sparrow.” Egoro-
va transforms from a prima 
ballerina to government spy, 
not only stay alive, but also 
help her sick mother obtain 
necessary medical treatment. 
While it may seem odd for a 
dancer to engage in high risk 
missions for the state, it is 
important to remember the 
title of “prima” has only been 
given to 12 ballerinas in his-
tory. The amount of physical 
and emotional training a pri-
ma ballerina must undergo is 
symbolic of the grueling con-
ditioning that Egorova must 
complete to take on her new 
role as a Red Sparrow.
In Sparrow school, Egor-
ova and other sparrows are 
taught to “use their bodies 
and minds as weapons,” in 
their state endeavors, accord-
ing to Movie Insider. The new 
recruit is forced to be seduc-
tive, manipulative and badass 
in her pursuit to take out an 
American CIA agent who she 
later befriends. 
Watching the trailer of 
“Red Sparrow” alone makes 
me want to run on a treadmill 
as I am writing this review at 
10:40 p.m. Thank goodness 
Oprah Winfrey will be here 
to calm me down on March 9 
when she stars as Mrs. Witch 
in Disney’s newest movie “A 
Wrinkle In Time.” 
This film follows a young 
girl named Meg Murry as 
she travels through time to 
find her lost father. Murry, 
her brother and a school-
mate bounce from world to 
world, dodging obstacles 
with the help of Mrs. Witch, 
Mrs. Whatsit played by Re-
ese Witherspoon and Mrs. 
Who played by Mindy Kaling. 
The movie appears to be sus-
penseful and potentially heart 
wrenching, as Murry and her 
brother have been without 
their father for five years. 
I am going to assume that 
Murry finds her father in “A 
Wrinkle in Time,” and the 
movie ends happily ever af-
ter, because, remember, we 
are trying to be optimistic 
this March. Either way, if 
the Disney film ends badly, 
then the animated “Sherlock 
Gnomes” will be there to 
cheer us up on March 23. 
As college students know, 
life can be pretty difficult at 
times. Apparently, garden 
gnomes can face a crisis too, 
as they do in the new movie 
made by Paramount Pictures. 
When a group of the dwarf-
like statues get their home de-
stroyed by one of those pitiful 
and ferocious human beings, 
Sherlock Gnomes is called in 
to investigate. 
Gnomes discovers the un-
thinkable; all the gnomes will 
be smashed within the next 
day. It is up to the handsome 
and quick thinking garden 
accessory played by Johnny 
Depp to take the group on 
an adventure and save them 
from their doom. 
The film itself looks enter-
taining, but if all else fails, I 
feel clever lines such as “what 
the fertilizer” and “no ship 
sherlock” will be remembered 
by many moviegoers. 
Also, be on the lookout for 
“Gringo,” “Love, Simon” and 
“Tomb Raider” that will be hit-
ting theaters this month as well. 
Music fanatics, the time 
will come later in 2018 for 
some major releases. Until 
then, explore the unhealthy 
and expensive lifestyle of the 
moviegoer in March. 
Film industry maintains momentum as winter ends and spring begins
By MATTHEW STEINBERG
Features Editor
steinbergm@allegheny.edu
March is weak on music but exciting for box office  
By MATTHEW STEINBERG
Features Editor
steinbergm@allegheny.edu
MATTHEW STEINBERG/THE CAMPUS
Cast members rehearse a dance scene from the play, “Love and Information,” on 
Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.
	 	 	 										Contributed	by	www.flickr.com      				 				Contributed	by	www.wikipediacommons.org
I want to say that 
it’s like Black Mirror 
or the Twilight Zone, 
where as not every 
scene is connected 
but, innately, 
everything in the 
world is connected. 
“
“
Cayla Brandon
Class of 2020
Ok, so we should not 
hate on the music in-
dustry in the month 
of March, but how 
about we encourage 
a stronger work ethic 
for the future? I sup-
pose Hollywood can 
pick up their slack, 
just this once.
“
“
Matthew Steinberg
Class of 2020
Allegheny students present 
collection of short skits in 
play on information and love 
March 2, 2018AlleghenyCampus.com 7The Campus[Features]
Headlined by a Grammy 
nominated artist, BJ the Chi-
cago Kid, Allegheny hosted 
its biennial major concert on 
Feb. 24 in Shafer Auditorium. 
The major concert is managed 
by Allegheny Student Gov-
ernment and Gator Activities 
Programming. 
The original lineup fea-
tured SMINO and the main 
act, BJ the Chicago Kid. BJ the 
Chicago Kid is a singer and 
songwriter who has worked 
with Kendrick Lamar, Chance 
the Rapper and Schoolboy 
Q. Despite working with big 
name artists, many Alleghe-
ny students did not recognize 
the artist and did not buy 
tickets for the concert. Akeem 
Adesiji, ’20, a volunteer for 
the concert, was selling tickets 
before the concert and com-
mented on the lack of sales. 
“A lot of people who didn’t 
know that we were having a 
concert, didn’t know who it 
was that was performing, but 
when I started explaining it or 
when we had music playing, 
people started taking interest 
and said they would maybe 
buy a ticket later,” Adesiji said. 
However, the concert on 
Saturday included a new line 
up. SMINO, one of the open-
ing acts, was taken off the 
concert line-up due to missing 
his flights to make the con-
cert. SMINO was replaced by 
Aaron Carter, who was one of 
the backup artists in case of 
cancellations. Carter is a pop 
and hip-hop artist, who also 
starred in the Disney Channel 
show “Lizzie McGuire.” Once 
Carter replaced SMINO as an 
opener for BJ the Chicago Kid, 
Allegheny Student Govern-
ment saw a rise in ticket sales.
“I would say hundreds of 
people bought tickets after 
the fact Aaron Carter was an-
nounced,” Valerie Hurst, ’18, 
said. 
Hurst is the vice presi-
dent of ASG and both she 
and Mark MacStudy, ’18, the 
president of ASG, saw a rise 
in ticket sales with the confir-
mation of Aaron Carter in the 
lineup. 
“When we got Aaron Car-
ter we saw a spike in ticket 
sales again. It was a decent 
crowd for the opening act 
scene and Aaron Carter,” 
MacStudy said. 
Despite the announcement 
of a new and familiar artist in 
the concert lineup, Hurst and 
MacStudy thought the crowd 
was lower than previous con-
certs. 
“I think it’s been lower this 
year then in previous years. 
And that can be due to the 
fact,  artist choice, people just 
not feeling like they want to 
come to the concert, time of 
the year. It was a little bit low-
er than expected,” Hurst said.
Expectations for the concert 
were not high with ASG mem-
bers. Volunteers for the concert 
had similar expectations as well. 
“There were about as many 
people as I expected there. My 
expectations for the concert 
weren’t huge,” Adesiji said. 
The concert, after the line-
up change, also encountered 
an unexpected hiatus in be-
tween the sets of Aaron Car-
ter and BJ the Chicago Kid. 
There was a 40 minute time 
lapse as BJ the Chicago Kid 
went on errand and returned 
late for his performance. 
In spite of some minor set-
backs, Hurst and MacStudy 
thought the concert was suc-
cessful.   
“I think it went well. I saw 
grown men screaming at the 
sight of Aaron Carter. I saw ev-
eryone from every class. I saw 
a lot of upperclassmen having 
a really, really good time and 
that’s really what we want to 
see, to take away from a con-
cert, people from fraterni-
ties, sororities, non-greek life, 
sports and every single class 
mixing and coming together 
for the concert and having a 
good night,” Hurst said. 
ASG and GAP are the two 
groups who handle the plan-
ning behind the major event 
concert. The two organizations 
collaborate together to organize 
and fund the major concert. 
They met weekly to discuss and 
go over the details to run the 
concert, along with Gretchen 
Beck, associate dean and direc-
tor of student leadership and 
involvement and Brittany Mar-
tin, associate director of student 
leadership and involvement. 
“[We were] basically going 
over what the artists have in 
their contracts, what do the art-
ists need in terms of hospitali-
ties, what are the extra things, 
what of the [issues] that come 
along with hiring this artist, do 
they have a difficult personality, 
are they going to be able to work 
with other artists that we’re hir-
ing,” Hurst said. “There’s a lot 
of different variables that come 
into why it took so long this 
year to get the contracts set up.” 
The meetings between 
ASG and GAP discussed 
plans on how to manage the 
concert but also the ways to 
go about the concert. 
“It was a lot of brainstorm-
ing ideas, who to probably 
get, what kind of things we 
should be doing on concert 
day and how best to go about 
that stuff,” MacStudy said. 
For this year, ASG handled 
the volunteer portion for the 
concert while GAP handled 
the artist management. GAP 
was also in charge of the ad-
vertising for the event, which 
included posters and the cre-
ation of the Facebook event. 
Hurst was co-volunteer 
coordinator with MacStudy 
and handled sign-up. Volun-
teers received a free ticket and 
T-shirt if they worked the con-
cert, which consisted of load-
ing equipment, set up for the 
artists and ticket scanning. 
“We did a lot. All of us 
pulled an 18 hour day the day 
of the concert,” Hurst said.
Regardless of the long 
hours required to put on a 
successful show, the concert 
had multiple volunteers. 
“We had about 15 people 
help in the morning and we 
had about 55 total throughout 
the day,” MacStudy said. 
 Overall, and despite the 
setbacks, ASG and GAP were 
able to collaborate and suc-
cessfully put on the concert, 
according to Hurst.
“[ASG and GAP] have a 
very good, friendly relation-
ship that centers on the hap-
piness of the student body,” 
Hurst said. 
By JEN RODRIGUEZ
Features Editor
rodriguezj@allegheny.edu
LAST MINUTE 
ACT SPARKS 
TICKET SALES
Photos contributed by BRITTANY ADAMS
Above: BJ the Chicago Kid performs during the major concert on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2018, in Shafer Auditorium. 
Below: Aaron Carter does a flip during his performance on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2018, in Shafer Auditorium. 
ADVERTISEMENT
Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey
Watch your inbox for a March 6 email from alleghenycollege@
hedsconsortium.org, authored by co-chairs of Allegheny’s Council on 
Diversity and Equity, Professor Veronica Dantan and Associate Dean 
of Students, justin adkins. Their email will invite you to participate in a 
campus climate survey. 
The online questionnaire will ask about your experience and perceptions 
regarding Allegheny’s climate and support for diversity and equity. 
It should take 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Allegheny wants to hear 
from you whether or not you have experienced discrimination or 
harassment at the College. Questions? Please contact Marian Sherwood, 
Director of Institutional Research, at 814-332-2983, 206 Bentley Hall, or 
msherwoo@allegheny.edu, or write to Allegheny’s Insitutional Review 
Board at irb@allegheny.edu. 
March 2, 2018 AlleghenyCampus.com8 The Campus [SPORTS]
Gator   Updater
Friday,   March   2,    2018
Men’s Track vs. NCAC Indoor 
Championships
Day One
Crawfordsville, Indiana 
Women’s Track vs. NCAC Indoor 
Championships
Day One
Crawfordsvile, Indiana
Saturday,   March  3,    2018
Men’s Track vs. NCAC Indoor 
Championships
Day Two
Crawfordsville, Indiana 
Women’s Track vs. NCAC Indoor 
Championships
Day Two
Crawfordsvile, Indiana
Baseball vs. Case Western Reserve
Washington, Pennsylvania
3 p.m.
Former Allegheny athletes reflect on passion and struggle
By ELLIS GIACOMELLI
Science/International Editor
giacomellie@allegheny.edu
At 6 a.m., you lift five more 
pounds than the week before. 
At 7 a.m., you eat a bagel, and 
at 8 a.m., you click a pen as 
you place your biology note-
book on a desk in Carr Hall. 
You repeat until the season 
changes, and your highly 
regimented schedule changes 
with it.
Most collegiate athletes 
have spent more than half 
their lives training for sports 
they love and are no strangers 
to routine preparation. Such 
preparation can generate ex-
treme focus and can be useful 
for athletes balancing com-
petition and undergraduate 
coursework. 
Even difficult routines be-
come comfortable, and dis-
rupted comfort can cause en-
tire perspectives to shift. One 
devastating game, match or 
meet can awaken overwhelm-
ing gratitude.
“When you’re young and 
you’re growing up, every kid is 
like this — they think they’re 
invincible,” said Logan Cala, 
’18. “To this day, I still — in a 
sense — think I am, and until 
you get that one bad injury, 
you’re going to think like that.”
Cala started playing foot-
ball when he was eight years 
old and eventually dedicated 
his time to the game at Car-
dinal High School in Mid-
dlefield, Ohio. Growing up 
training for and growing in 
the sport, Cala said he de-
veloped a special connection 
to football because of the at-
mosphere of comradery sur-
rounding it.
When he arrived at Allegh-
eny in 2014, Cala played offen-
sive line as a center and guard 
and earned a starting position 
in his junior season in 2016. 
Cala said the same comradery 
he loved in high school was an 
important part of his Alleghe-
ny football experience.   
“It’s competitive. It’s dan-
gerous, but what I like about it 
is it’s not an individual sport. 
Everything has to work to-
gether,” Cala said. “To me, it’s 
like an engine. All the pistons 
have to fire at the same time 
to be a successful team. You’re 
there for your teammates. 
You’re pushing them. They’re 
pushing you.”
During a game in the 
third week of his junior sea-
son, Cala said he was blind-
sided after the Gators threw 
an interception and  suffered 
a concussion. Cala suffered 
a mild concussion and mi-
nor injuries playing football 
in high school, but this 2016 
concussion was severe and 
affected his academic perfor-
mance and motivation, Cala 
explained. 
“At first, it was really tough 
because football had been my 
life for 14 years, and when I 
stopped, I honestly got a little 
depressed,” Cala said. 
While he had more time 
to focus on campus activities 
and academic work, and he 
earned his highest semester 
GPA last spring, Cala said he 
was not permitted to be phys-
ically active in the weeks fol-
lowing the concussion. 
Cala said he gained weight 
after some time away from 
football because of that in-
activity and realized he also 
needed to focus on personal 
nutrition and fitness goals.     
Cala’s decision to step away 
from football has allowed 
him to focus on such goals 
and activities, and he said it 
has not negatively impacted 
his relationships with former 
teammates. Cala said he en-
joyed experiencing Allegheny 
football from the stands in 
the 2017 season and was glad 
to support the Gators as a re-
tired athlete.     
“I hate to say that I quit 
football. I hate quitting,  so I 
always tell people I retired,” 
Cala said. “I wish I could’ve 
finished out my last year, but 
I stand behind my decision. 
What would have happened 
if I would have gone out there 
and gotten another concus-
sion?”
Head Football Coach B.J. 
Hammer said football has 
evolved, and coaches must 
evolve with it to help prevent 
player injury.
“We don’t practice full pads 
We don’t go to the ground and 
we do a lot of what we call 
thud, high-tempo practices, 
so we take care of our players 
in that sense,” Hammer said. 
“It’s football, so it’s going to be 
competitive, but still you’ve 
got to be smart.”
Brian Hill, ’19, also fin-
ished his collegiate football 
career in 2016 during his 
sophomore season at Allegh-
eny. 
Hill said he has suffered 
six concussions from playing 
football, the sixth being the 
most severe during  a game 
against Kenyon College in 
Gambier, Ohio in 2016.
Hill’s decision to retire in-
volved a consultation with a 
neurologist in his hometown, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, speaking to 
his coaches and speaking with 
his mother. 
“It was really devastating 
to my mother,” Hill said. “She 
always hated concussions, 
and she was still traumatized 
from the first one I got in high 
school when I left the field in 
the back of an ambulance.”
Hill estimates the effects of 
the sixth concussion — which 
included sensitivity to lights 
and projectors — lasted at 
least one month and the ef-
fects of the whiplash he also 
endured with that concussion 
lasted nearly six months.
Hill described his concus-
sion experiences as “traumat-
ic” and has avoided watching 
the 2015 film, “Concussion,” 
which details the life and 
work of Bennet Omalu and 
his research on profession-
al American football players 
and head injuries. The film 
was screened by the Neuro-
science Club in Quigley Au-
ditorium on Feb. 25.
“I’m actually terrified to 
see it,” Hill said.
Hill said he worries about 
his friends and former team-
mates each time they step 
onto the field and has found 
himself feeling the way his 
mother felt, watching players 
fall and breathing in relief 
when they finally stand. 
“It’s not something I’d wish 
on anybody,” Hill said. “And 
not just concussions, other 
injuries as well. Sometimes 
it’s hard to watch — you know 
you always worry — I feel like 
a concerned parent on the 
sidelines.”
Hill now supports the team 
behind a camera, using his 
communication arts skills to 
film practices and games. Hill 
said he made a commitment 
to the team when he came to 
Allegheny and although he no 
longer serves the program as a 
player, he wants to contribute 
his other talents. 
“He does a lot of filming 
and different things, but what 
he does more than that is he 
works with a lot of our young, 
incoming freshmen on time 
management skill develop-
ment and how to be a good 
student here — he’s a good 
example for them,” Hammer 
said of Hill. 
Although Hill remains an 
active team member off the 
field, he said losing football 
from an on-field athlete’s per-
spective was especially diffi-
cult.     
“I felt like I had lost a huge 
part of my identity,” Hill said. 
“There’s multiple parts of me, 
and I didn’t realize how much 
of my identity relied on the 
fact that I was an athlete.”
Hill and Cala  said they un-
derstand the decision to con-
tinue playing football with an 
injury or concussion history 
is deeply personal and should 
consider the player’s individu-
al health risks, but no decision 
can completely erase a player’s 
memories and experiences.  
“You gain a lot of really 
unique bonds through the 
shared suffering because it’s 
hard. You’re lifting early in the 
morning, and you grow very 
close to people,” Hill said. 
“Sometimes  — while you’re 
always playing to win — 
sometimes you just look over 
and you feel like ‘I’m playing 
for the guy next to me.’”
Hill also emphasized the 
importance of establishing 
a personal understanding of 
football’s lessons while being 
aware of risks before begin-
ning an athletic journey or 
making a decision based on 
an injury. 
“I’m thankful that it wasn’t 
as severe as it could have 
been, because it could have 
been a lot worse,” Hill said. 
“Don’t get me wrong, it was 
really bad, but it could have 
been a lot worse.”
What’s The Big Idea?
The Zingale Big Idea Competition 
is a funding request presentation contest.
Student teams present concepts in one of four areas: For-profit Business, Not-for-profit Social Venture, 
Research Project, or Community Engagement Initiative. The 10th Annual Competition during the spring 2017 
semester awarded students with a whopping total of $10,000 in prizes and trophies. 
The contest emulates the experiences seen on the popular CNBC broadcast, “Shark Tank.”
What Do You Need To Do?
Entering is easy. To register, email Sarah Holt, Quigley Hall Coordinator,  at sholt@allegheny.edu, or email 
Prof. Chris Allison, Economics Department Entrepreneur in Residence, at callison@allegheny.edu. 
Workshop Dates
March 6 - How To Create A Big Idea 
3:00p.m. - 4:00p.m. in Quigley Hall Room 220
April 3 - How To Pitch A Big Idea
12:30p.m. - 1:15p.m. in Quigley Hall Auditorium
(Lunch will be provided)
The 11th Annual Zingale Big Idea Competition will take place April 26-28, 2018.
2018BigIdea_CampusAd2.indd   1 2/28/18   8:01 AM
ADVERTISEMENT
Logan Cala Brian Hill