March 4, 2026

By Siya KuMar News Editor

The Emory Wheel

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Council Junior Representative Sunny Tian (25Ox, 27B) defeated BBA Council’s Student Government Association (SGA) Representative Kieran Rafferty (25Ox, 27B) in the runoff election for Emory University’s BBA Council president. Tian received 58 (57.43%) of the vote and Rafferty received 43 (42.57%) of the vote.

In the original election, Tian garnered 85 (32.82%) votes, Rafferty garnered 47 (18.15%) votes, Maryam Ahmed (27B) received 39 votes (15.06%) and Oliver Li (27B) received 54 votes (20.85%). Since no candidate received a majority, the election advanced to a runoff between Tian and Rafferty.

Although Li received more votes than Rafferty, the SGA Elections Board disqualified both Li and Ahmed for failing to submit an itemized receipt of their campaign expenditures, which violates Part VI, Article 4 of the SGA Elections Code.

In her platform, Tian shared that she hopes to improve transparency between Goizueta Business School

By inaara LaLani Contributing Writer

Twenty years after its creation, Emory University’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives (OSI) has made significant progress in raising the University’s environmental consciousness by recycling sewage into usable water, investing in electric vehicles and reducing single-use plastic consumption.

In the 2016 Sustainability Vision and Strategic Plan, Emory aimed to reduce the amount of its landfill waste, to conserve energy in its buildings and expand sustainable food practices. Since then, the University has built or renovated over 28 buildings to LEED standards, which is a green building rating system, diverted 95% of its construction waste from landfills and supplied its dining halls with fresh produce from the Oxford College Organic Farm.

By Lauren yee Managing Editor

After two years as Oxford College dean, Badia Ahad assumed her role as Emory University provost and executive vice president for academic affairs last November amid a period of significant leadership changes. Three months into her new role, Ahad sat down with The Emory Wheel to discuss Emory’s changing leadership, her priorities and aspirations for the University and its community.

In an interview with the Wheel last semester, Interim University President Leah Ward Sears (80L) said she appointed Ahad as a provost with a two-year contract rather than appointing her as an interim leader because Sears and the Board of Trustees are hoping to stabilize leadership at Emory.

In her new role, Ahad hopes to support the University’s academics and foster collaborations across schools and departments. She said she is focused on building “bridges” and increasing opportunities for students to engage in interdisciplinary work. Ahad said she aims to ensure that Emory supports students every step of the way, from when students first learn about the University to their careers and further education

OSI Director of Sustainability Cyrus Bhedwar said in an email to The Emory Wheel that the University installed its own on-campus wastewater treatment facility, WaterHub, that can recycle up to 400,000 gallons of water each day. The system sends the recycled water to some residence halls to flush toilets and to Emory’s steam and chiller plants, which provide heat and air conditioning to parts of campus.

“By recycling our own water, we reduce the burden on our county water systems and have reduced potable water use on campus by 40%,” Bhedwar wrote.

In addition to conserving water, the University purchased six allelectric shuttles in December 2025 to reduce vehicle emissions. These shuttles will quiet bus travel while producing fewer emissions. Emory also began installing new electric vehicle charging stations on its

Atlanta and Oxford campuses in 2019.

Later, Emory signed the “Break Free From Plastic” pledge with the Plastic Free Emory Project in June 2021, which was a five-year plan aimed at reducing unnecessary single-use plastics on campus. The pledge included forming a task force, implementing a year-by-year singleuse plastics reduction strategy and finding alternatives for unnecessary plastic products on campus. The pledge also includes a promise to invest in more education, resources and infrastructure to reduce singleuse plastics in the Emory community.

Plastic Free Emory’s co-Presidents Madelyn Hill (26C) and Ashritha Kalakuntla (28C) said the club has created a Break Free from Plastic task force, which is working to foster collaboration between environmen-

By Tori Mooney SGA Desk

With a special election period set to begin March 6, Emory University’s Student Government Association (SGA) Elections Board Chair Elizabeth Brubaker (24Ox, 26C) addressed the unique circumstances that resulted in the Constitutional Council’s ruling to restart the election for SGA president.

Last week, the Elections Board disqualified SGA presidential candidate Vlad Senenko (27C), leaving no eligible candidates in the race for the position. With that announcement, the board also appealed to the Constitutional Council, asking for guidance on how to fill the seat of SGA president.

The council ruled on March 2 that SGA’s existing governing documents do not establish a clear procedure for cases where there are no eligible candidates for president before the certification of the election results.

“The Council determines that a special election is the appropriate remedy to address the unique procedural gap presented by this circumstance and uphold the right of the student body to freely elect its representatives,” the Constitutional Council wrote.

A special election for an SGA position is unprecedented, according to

rent responsibilities compare to your time as Oxford College

Ahad: I had the privilege of being in that provost’s office before, and in a similar way, it’s just far more expansive. When you are a dean, you are mainly concerned with your school or your college. The scope of minded, but you’re really an advocate and the lead administrator for that college. Obviously, when you move into the provost role, you are over the entire academic enterprise. It’s not just about being a fan of Oxford. It’s being a fan of Oxford, [Emory College of Arts and Sciences] and the [Rollins

The Emory Wheel interviewed Emory University Provost and Executive Vice President Badia Ahad, former Oxford College dean, after three months into her tenure in her new position.

so much activity and there are so many different areas to manage that make it overwhelming sometimes, but also very exciting. And I will say, I’m never bored. There’s always a new thing, good and not-so-good, that comes up every day, but that is certainly what I expected. I also expected to have the experience of learning about Emory more broadly, especially having been out at Oxford

im [provost] and he was going to be on leave for that month, so they wanted someone to support her in that month of September. Also, it became clear that he would be retiring at the end of the academic year, and so I was asked by the senior leadership if I would be willing to take on that opportunity.

Wheel: How do your cur -

School of Public Health] and thinking about how you’re supporting the institution more broadly.

Wheel: Emory has had a high turnover in university leadership, particularly presidents, deans and provosts. Is there a way you’re planning to decrease that?

Ahad: One of the things that I'm really looking forward to and actively doing right now is that we’re engaged in the search process for six deanships, including the dean of Campus Life as well. My goal with these searches is to recruit incredibly strong, proven, bold leaders who are ready to take Emory, and certainly their respective schools, to the next level. So that is one way we begin to resolve that, but also thinking about the recruitment process and ensuring that we're bringing people to Emory that are really excited about Emory in particular and want to be here at Emory and [are] invested in students here and faculty here. Those are, I would say, top of mind for me as I think about some of the broader qualities of the deans that we’ll be bringing in the fall.

Wheel: What are you looking for in new Campus Life leadership?

Ahad: I am looking for, similar to the other deanships, really strong leaders. [For] Campus Life in particular, someone who is deeply studentcentered and who is really attentive to the experience of all students at the

Ahad discusses future of Greek life organizations on campus

Continued from Page 1

University, and what that looks like in terms of their social experiences, but also how those non-curricular experiences are integrated more with their personal experiences. I would also say someone who is really good at bringing people together and creating a positive, human-centered, thriving culture within their team, within their interactions with partners in other parts of the University as well. I love someone who has just a passion and energy for this work. Campus Life, and Emory more broadly, has a really good foundation, really incredible, hard-working staff who care a lot about students and they need someone who is really going to motivate them and support them and help them do their best work. And so, above all, someone who can be inspirational in that regard.

Wheel: Why do you think Emory has a high turnover rate?

Ahad: I don’t know if I would limit that conversation to just Emory. And people move around in positions for lots of different reasons. I would say that, broadly speaking, [the] landscape of higher education has changed pretty dramatically in the last 10 years, certainly in the last five years, where these roles are increasingly difficult, and especially postCOVID. I would say many people who survived the COVID years — that led to a lot of burnout. There’s [a] multiplicity of factors why people move in and out of roles, or in and out of organizations, so I wouldn’t necessarily say that there’s anything wrong, if you will, at Emory, but Emory is just an example of a broader issue within higher education.

Wheel: What’s the reasoning behind your two-year contract? And what role do you plan to take on after your term as provost?

Ahad: The two-year term was to allow for some flexibility, both for myself and for whoever will succeed interim president Sears. Since we’ve been talking about transitions, it allows for some stability at the outset, but it also allows an opportunity for whoever will come into the role

as president next to make a decision about how they would want to move forward. My contract allows for some flexibility in that regard as well.

Wheel: What are your priorities and what changes do you hope to make during your term?

Ahad: Well, the number one priority, just given the nature of the role, is to advance academic excellence. Emory has phenomenal academic programs, top-ranked professional schools. My goal is to support the schools and staff, faculty, students. What do you need in order to do your best work and how do we build on what we have from here? I’ve been in lots of conversations with faculty, deans, students, staff, about how they go from where they are to the next level and what can my office do to support that work? Number two: Now I’m really focused on helping to think about how to build more academic bridges between the schools. How can we collaborate across schools and programs to create more opportunities for students, but also more opportunities for our faculty to think beyond their single disciplines and to think across fields? It’s really exciting, so I’d like to actualize that. Then obviously, enhancing the student experience. From the moment students enroll at Emory, even that experience I want to make sure it’s optimized for students. How do pro -

spective students learn about Emory? What do they come to know about Emory? How do they experience the campus when they come on a tour? So starting there and then through their academic program. And then, how are we supporting students when they prepare to leave Emory to venture to their next career, into their career or professional school, or graduate school. What’s that next step? So, making sure that they are supported across the whole lifecycle.

Wheel: What goes into the day-to-day of being the provost at Emory?

Ahad: Every day is different. Every single day is different. You may start with a plan of what you're going to do, and then, depending on what unfolds, that has completely changed. How I’ve been spending a lot of my time right now is being in conversation with faculty and staff and students from across the University. So, as I mentioned earlier, coming from Oxford, that’s a very distinct environment. It’s also 30 miles away from the Atlanta campus and so there aren’t a lot of natural opportunities to meet people from the University more broadly. I’ve spent a lot of time doing what I call road shows, if you will. I’ve gone to Emory College. I’ve gone to [Goizueta Business School] and [Candler School of Theology] and spoken at their faculty meetings and

just shared a little bit about myself. I certainly spent time answering their questions. I’ve been doing a lot of that and also meeting individual faculty and staff and students from across the University, learning about the research, what their challenges are and what some opportunities are. And that’s how you begin to build a sense of what your priorities should be, more specifically, by having those conversations and thinking about where you’re seeing kind of patterns or opportunities more broadly across the University. I’ve been busy by design and a lot of that time has been spent trying to just understand the context in which I’m operating.

Wheel: What role does Greek life play in student life at Emory and do you envision any changes in how the University engages with it?

Ahad: I’m still learning about the nuances of Greek life at Emory. … There are different ways that fraternities and sororities, depending on what they are and who composes those groups’ experience social life at Emory. I will share that I’m not in a sorority but my husband is, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law and my mother-in-law is. I’m very familiar with the Greek [life] culture and the effect that has on student life while you’re in college. I also recognize the positive effect that that

affinity has once you’ve left and the kind of networks that you’ve created beyond the college experience. Even though I’m not a part of it myself, I know that it is valuable. I’ve learned about some of the challenges with Greek life at Emory, and one of the ways that we’ve sought to begin to address those challenges is we’ve created, I like to call it, a working group that’s currently being formed. It’s almost in its final formation right now, to begin to talk through a lot of those issues, many of which have been ongoing for a very long time. I’ve talked to multiple groups within Greek life and they shared that some of the issues they’ve experienced have been for decades. This is an opportunity for us to begin to resolve those, so that there is a productive relationship between Campus Life and Greek life. Because it has an important role to play in terms of just a positive and fun culture for students. But we also want to make sure that that’s done responsibly and legally and with the appropriate accountability. We just have to weigh out that, but make sure that that aspect of student life is a thriving one, but one that is also managed responsibly.

Wheel: Do you have anything else you would like to add or share?

Ahad: Sometimes it’s easy to look at your experience at the institution and think a lot about how things could be better, which we want. We want to be aspirational. We don’t want to hide our challenges, because when they’re known to us, then that means that we can fix them. We can start moving in the right direction. But I also firmly believe that Emory has a foundation that most universities would envy and I want our community to appreciate that as well. While there’s some challenges, there are some really, really great things happening here. We have dedicated individuals who wake up every day working toward a better Emory and that gives me a lot of hope for the future for Emory and it also gives me a great sense of pride to be leading the academic enterprise in this moment.

— Contact Lauren Yee at lauren.yee@emory.edu

Special election for president to be held after spring break

Continued from Page 1

Brubaker. In 2024, the Elections Board disqualified Elisabet Ortiz (24C) from the SGA presidential race because she was taking a gap year from Emory.

Unlike Senenko, Ortiz’s disqualification happened before the voting period. Following Ortiz’s disqualification, no confidence won the majority of votes in the runoff election. SGA leadership invoked the line of succession to fill the seat, elevating Noah Marchuck (24C), who was SGA executive vice president-elect, to the presidency.

The Constitutional Council ruling stated that since Executive Vice President-elect Naomi Nelson (29C) has not yet assumed office, the line of succession does not apply in this case.

SGA Elections Board Chair Elizabeth Brubaker (24Ox, 26C) explained that the current circumstances are different from the 2024 election because, after Ortiz’s disqualification, no confidence won the majority of votes. In this year’s election, Senenko won the majority of votes but was disqualified, leaving no viable

candidates to become president.

The Board of Elections disqualified Senenko for failing to file receipts detailing campaign expenditures, a requirement for eligibility. The board eliminated several other candidates for SGA positions for this reason, including Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Council presidential candidates Oliver Li (27B) and Maryam Ahmed (27B) and vice-presidential candidate Donsou Lee (28C).

Brubaker said candidates for SGA have often been disqualified for not submitting receipts in previous election cycles.

“Every year, we do have to disqualify a lot of people, which is why when you go to a candidate information session, I emphasize filing receipts so much, and it’s also why you get the reminder email,” Brubaker said.

Brubaker said the Elections Board holds a campaign information session and a meeting with candidates to communicate requirements. She added that candidates receive a reminder email to file receipts.

According to the Constitutional Council ruling, the special election will follow standard general election procedures as outlined in the SGA Code of Elections. However, the Code of Elections states that any election which is not a general election must have a shorter voting period of 24 hours. Brubaker also said the Elections Board decided to shorten the campaign cycle to meet scheduling constraints.

“We passed a regulation as the Elections Board to shrink the campaign cycle from 10 days to six days so that we could follow other organizational deadlines,” Brubaker said.

In the special election, any student who meets the eligibility requirements can run for SGA president, according to the SGA Code of Elections. Those requirements include ensuring candidates are registered Emory undergraduate students during the term they wish to run and throughout their potential tenure. Brubaker said candidates must maintain a sufficient grade point average based on requirements set by the specific college they are

enrolled in.

Outgoing SGA President Tyler Martinez (26C) said the special election provides an opportunity for more students to be involved with SGA.

“This is a great opportunity for anybody that was interested in running for president but didn’t, or those who maybe weren’t afforded the opportunity to fully campaign as much as they wanted to,” Martinez said.

Martinez added that, in the interim, the SGA will continue working on current projects and goals.

“With respect to the Elections Board and the Constitutional Council, my concern right now as the SGA president is just maintaining our consistent advocacy, ensuring that the initiatives that we have going on currently are still able to progress,” Martinez said.

Martinez said that while it is a “possibility” that the special election might affect the time available to train newly elected members, SGA leadership will ensure the president and executive vice president receive sufficient time and support while transitioning into their new roles.

Brubaker said the Elections Board hopes to update SGA’s Election Code based on the circumstances of the special election.

“That sets new precedent, every election cycle we have, it’s why that they’re living documents,” Brubaker said. “We discover new things. So we’ve discovered new problems or new holes that we can fill to remove ambiguity.”

Brubaker said the next Elections Board chair and vice chair, in consultation with the attorney general, will be developing Election Code revisions. She added SGA will aim to continue this work into the next administration if need be. In addition, Brubaker noted this year’s election cycle may impact future student government elections.

“From the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that we’ve had to have a special election, so that sets new precedent,” Brubaker said.

— Contact Tori Mooney at tori.mooney@emory.edu

BBA vice-presidential candidate disqualified from election

Continued from Page 1

students and the BBA Council. She plans to increase mental health resources and create more group activities for BBA students. Tian also hopes to establish a feedback form for students to share their concerns with BBA Council.

In the runoff race to become the next BBA Council Executive Vice President, BBA Council Vice President of Programming Antonia Arze Sumar (27B) defeated BBA Council Co-Vice President of Career Initiatives JT Rattigan (27B). Rattigan garnered 57 (56.44%) of the vote, while Sumar received 44 (43.56%) of the vote.

Despite receiving more votes than Sumar and a majority in the run-off election, the Election Boards dis -

qualified Rattigan for failing to submit campaign expenditure receipts. In the original election, Rattigan garnered 94 (37.75%) votes and Sumar garnered 70 (28.11%) votes. Since no candidate received a majority, the election moved to a runoff.

In her platform, Sumar shared her plans to improve communication between the BBA Council and students through feedback mechanisms and regular check-ins with student organizations.She also hopes to streamline the transition from Oxford College to the business school and strengthen the community through more events.

— Contact Siya Kumar at siya.kumar2@emory.edu

Emory’s green

Continued from Page 1

tal groups across campus.

“We’ve been able to unite stakeholders across campus, from auxiliary services to people who work in procurement, to Emory Dining and housing,” Kalakuntla said. “We’ve been able to gather all of them and put them in one room and actually try to come up with a plastic reduction strategy for the next couple of years.”

Professor of Environmental Sciences and Director of the Emory Climate Hub Eri Saikawa said it was exciting that students took the lead on reducing the University’s use of single-use plastics.

“If we can focus more on not using [single-use plastics] to begin with, and so, understanding: Where are they used the most? And is it something we can stop using?” Saikawa said. “That’s the most easy step.”

The

reforms

continue 20 years since OSI opening

Volume 107, Issue 4 © 2026 The Emory Wheel

Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322 Business (404) 727-6178

Beyond its pledge to reduce single-use plastic consumption, Emory tied for fifth in the 2025 Sustainable Campus Index for food and dining, which recognizes environmentally friendly colleges. The University has implemented reusable stainlesssteel containers at Dobbs Common Table (DCT) and partnered with Farms Fund to purchase more locally grown food. Bhedwar said student-run organizations helped the University reach these sustainability milestones.

Editors-in-Chief Spencer Friedland and Ellie Fivas spencer.friedland@emory.edu ellie.fivas@emory.edu

Founded in 1919, The Emory Wheel is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University in Atlanta. The Wheel is a member publication of Media Council, Emory’s organization of student publications. The Wheel reserves the rights to all content as it appears in these pages, and permission to reproduce material must be granted by the editor-in-chief.

The statements and opinions expressed in the Wheel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Wheel Editorial Board or of Emory University, its faculty, staff or administration.

The Wheel is also available online at www.emorywheel.com.

“It was student leadership that brought the USEFULL reusable to go container system to DCT and then later expanded it to the Oxford campus,” Bhedwar wrote.

He added that student organization Slow Food Emory, a campus chapter of the Slow Food Movement that promotes sustainable food policy, worked with Emory Dining to pack leftover meals and deliver them to students at the Robert W. Woodruff Library.

Kalakuntla said the University supported their club’s efforts to advance sustainable initiatives.

“There’s always room for improvement, but what was honestly refreshing for me as someone who just cares about sustainability as a student like anyone else, was going into spaces that I was leading, and realizing how passionate they are about actually furthering sustainability on campus,” Kalakuntla said.

Associate Teaching Professor of Environmental Sciences Carolyn Keogh (07C) said she advocated for more environmental education at Emory, specifically around composting and waste sorting.

“If the students in the Emory community aren’t active participants in [composting], and they’re not being conscientious about what goes in the composting bins, the whole system doesn’t work,” Keogh said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of effort Emory has

put in and what kind of resources it’s spent.”

Keogh said the University deprioritized sustainability efforts under former Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Ravi Bellamkonda.

“Provost Bellamkonda said, ‘Maybe it’s okay if Emory is 15th in the rankings for sustainability instead of 7th,’” Keogh said. “That was a communication from the top that perhaps sustainability isn’t as important.”

Keogh also said collaboration among students, faculty and other departments is crucial to improving sustainability. She mentioned Sunrise Emory, a campus chapter of a national movement advocating for climate regulation, and its engagement with Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) hearings. The PSC negotiates with utility companies on rates and standards regarding electricity and natural gas service.

Currently, utility company Georgia Power dominates the state’s electricity market, providing service to customers in 155 of the state’s 159 counties. Sunrise Emory attends PSC hearings, provides public comment on fossil fuel expansion and advocates for renewable energy, according to Keough.

While students’ voices have been instrumental in making Emory more sustainable, Saikawa emphasized that the University cannot make these changes on its own.

“Individual effort is definitely important,” Saikawa said. “But collectively, there is a lot that they can do.”

— Contact Inaara Lalani at inaara.lalani@emory.edu

Crime Report: Burglary, theft by taking, criminal trespass

By GeorGe SeGaLL Crime Desk

The Emory Wheel regularly meets with Emory Police Department (EPD) Records Manager Ed Shoemaker (87G, 90G) and Director of Campus Safety Communications Morieka Johnson (94C, 24L) and uses EPD’s public crime log to inform the Emory University community about recent crime on and around Emory’s campuses.

To report a crime, contact EPD at 404-727-6111 or police@emory.edu.

Burglary, second degree, non-forcible entry at Emory Clinic at 1525 Clifton Road

An Emory School of Medicine faculty member who practices in the Emory Clinic at 1525 Clifton Road reported a stolen laptop to EPD at

about 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 26.

The faculty member told EPD that they left their office on the first floor of the building at about 1:00 p.m. on Feb. 26 and left a universityissued MacBook Pro laptop behind. According to the faculty member, the office door was closed but not locked.

When the faculty member returned to the office around 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 26, they discovered that an unknown individual had taken the laptop.

The faculty member said their wallet and jacket were still in the office and the office door was closed, without any visible sign of forced entry.

EPD notified Emory’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) about the missing laptop. OIT is working with EPD to list the laptop as a stolen item in the National Crime Information Center database.

EPD said the laptop is worth about

$3,700, but contains $450 worth of software, making the total value greater than $4,000. EPD will attempt to track and reobtain the computer.

Theft by taking from Emory Student Center (ESC)

A student filed a complaint with EPD at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 regarding a missing pair of headphones last seen at the ESC.

The student entered the Dobbs Common Table (DCT) on the first floor of the ESC on Feb. 23 at about 10:30 a.m. and placed their belongings, including a book bag, water bottle, laptop, headphones and cell phone on a table. The student then left the table to get food.

When the student returned about five minutes later, the headphones were no longer on the table. According to the student, the surrounding indi-

viduals said they did not know what happened to the headphones.

The student then checked the ESC and DCT’s lost-and-found, but she could not find her headphones.

The complainant found a post on Fizz, an online social platform where community members can post anonymously, on Feb. 26 that included a photograph of her headphones with the caption “Found at dct, [direct message] if yours.”

The complainant immediately messaged the anonymous user claiming that the headphones belonged to her. The student also offered a small reward for returning the headphones.

The anonymous user responded by replying, “I think I’m [going to] keep them. Thanks.”

One of the complainant’s friends then messaged the anonymous user offering a larger reward for the return of the headphones. The anonymous

user did not provide information to arrange a meeting to retrieve the headphones.

The complainant posted on Fizz, tagging the anonymous user with the caption, “people who steal others things in the dct should be ashamed.”

The complainant said that the anonymous user and other anonymous individuals have commented on the post, but she has not gotten her headphones back. EPD will continue to investigate the situation.

Criminal trespass, entry with unlawful purpose at

Chappell Park

On Feb. 28, an individual reported a subject, unaffiliated with Emory, unlawfully entering the Chappell Park baseball field during the week of Feb. 20.

The individual reported that the subject was captured on surveillance cameras on the baseball field on Feb. 20 at about 6 p.m. The subject was in the field in areas reserved for players and wearing the players’ gear.

The subject was also rummaging through the players’ belongings and taking players’ cleats without permission.

Previously, the subject entered the field without permission and stole Emory athletic gear, clothing and equipment. The individual also posted videos of himself on a personal Instagram account, wearing the stolen gear, and on the field.

EPD identified the individual with the social media account information they obtained, and they are currently waiting for surveillance camera footage from the baseball fields.

— Contact George Segall at george.segall@emory.edu

Council on American-Islamic Relations names Emory ‘Hostile Campus’

By eiLeen Zhu Assistant News Editor

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a national organization focused on defending Muslims and protecting civil rights, rated Emory University a “Hostile Campus” in a December 2025 report. According to CAIR, a “hostile” campus is one where “institutional actions or campus climate make students feel unsafe, targeted, or discriminated against.”

Out of CAIR’s 100-point system, Emory scored 20 points. The University lost 15 points in the Student Experience and Campus Climate Indicator, 20 points in the Institutional Policies Indicator, 25 points in the Civil Rights and Legal Action Indicator and 20 points in the Free Speech and Political Expressions Indicator, out of the possible 100.

According to CAIR Strategic Campaign Specialist Maryam Hasan, the report considered incidents from late 2023 to December 2025. Hasan said “police brutality” toward students at the April 2024 pro-Palestine protests and a Title VI complaint contributed to the University’s low rating. Additionally, the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations Georgia chapter (CAIR-Georgia)’s filed a lawsuit against Emory on behalf of Umaymah Mohammad, a medical school student. Mohammad engaged in pro-Palestine activism on campus and was suspended for allegedly violating the Emory School of Medicine’s conduct code, which also informed the national organization’s ranking.

“Police brutality for the students who were protesting was horrific, to say the least,” Hasan said. “Students were dragged to the floor. There were definitely hostile activities going on from the police to the students, and this is definitely an indicator that we had to provide for the hostile ratings for Emory.”

Hasan said he believes that Emory infringed on students' rights to free speech and protest.

“It’s an environment where students are being restricted, and policy changes are going on and students are complaining about how their voices — about the Gaza genocide, particularly — are being repressed,” Hasan said.

In April 2024, CAIR-Georgia and Palestine Legal filed a Title VI complaint with the U.S. Department of

Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on behalf of Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP). Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits institutions that receive federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin. In the complaint, CAIR-Georgia and Palestine Legal cited incidents of students discriminating against ESJP and other students who wished to associate with Palestinians and complaints of biased, one-sided public statements from Emory administrators and faculty.

Emory settled the complaint with the OCR in January 2025 by agreeing to corrective measures for the alleged discrimination, including revising its nondiscrimination policies and assessing its response to the April 2024 pro-

tests, where police officers arrested 20 Emory community members.

Oxford College’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) co-President Neneh Bah (27Ox) said she believed “CAIR’s 2025 Hostile Campus Ratings Report” accurately reflected student experiences regarding anti-Muslim discrimination on campus.

“It does reflect experiences of people wanting to talk about things that bother them, concerns regarding the Muslim community and around the world and things going on, like genocides or protests,” Bah said. “It affects us by making us fearful to speak out, and just it’s almost fearmongering in a way.”

Oxford MSA co-President Abdul Saidi (26Ox) said he does not believe the rating reflects his experience at

Oxford.

“I wouldn’t consider it a hostile environment as a Muslim American,” Saidi said. “I did come [to Emory] after the controversy that was going on. I was a senior in high school, but since then, I’ve been really comfortable. I’ve been able to practice freely. ”

In March 2025, almost a year after the April 2024 protests, Emory announced a revised Open Expression Policy with clarified guidelines relating to student demonstrations on campus.

“Some of the major points in [the revised policy] are to allow students to have dialogue with administrators and to allow students to be protected when they’re protesting,” Hasan said.

While Saidi said he feels comfortable practicing his religion, he also believes there are repercussions for speaking on polarizing topics at Oxford.

“There’s been a lot of times where I wanted to speak on certain subjects, but have held my tongue because of repercussions that might be faced,” Saidi said. “I wouldn’t say I feel completely free to speak about what I want to speak about, or say the things I want to say, especially social media.”

With the “hostile” campus designation, Bah said it is essential to protect Muslim voices on campus.

“A lot of things get lost in translation because of our background,” Bah said. “We’re just coming from a place of concern, not aggression, and I feel like a lot of our concerns can be misconstrued as aggression.”

— Contact Eileen Zhu at eileen.zhu@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel Opinion

Reject anti-American rhetoric peddled by a xenophobic president

By Hope H a Bia

C ontributing Writer

As the United States celebrates its 250th birthday this year, I remember our country’s origin: an enduring tug of war between the progressive ideals of the budding nation and the conservatism of its dominant class.

The Founding Fathers proclaimed “that all men are created equal” when they signed the Declaration of Independence, but still returned home to the labor of enslaved people. This widely accepted brand of hypocrisy that was customary at the time set a precedent for how the United States would operate for centuries to come.

When there is an opportunity to uphold the nation’s foundational principles, the U.S. government often reaches for the least American option.

Immigration has continuously stood as a testament to what the United States could be, according to the ideals penned in the Declaration of Independence — a refuge where anyone, regardless of skin tone, language or faith, would be guaranteed abundant opportunity and protected civil liberties.

When there is an opportunity to uphold the nation’s foundational principles, the U.S. government often reaches for the least American option.

The story of the United States is one of a populace that, despite the best efforts at times of conservative state legislatures and a restrictive federal government, has relentlessly advocated for the embrace of all people.

To be American is to value human

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dignity above all else. As statesponsored brutality and xenophobia runs rampant today, it is crucial to remember that a commitment to multiculturalism lies at the heart of the United States’ greatness.

Principles of plural ism and acceptance are seldom a product of sweeping governmen tal action — rather, the people have historical ly upheld them. In times of hostility toward immigrants, all who would call themselves “American,” regardless of their proximity to newcomers or per sonal appetite for activism, must champion a culture that safeguards the pluralism mass migration enables.

Our government is no stranger to discriminatory immigration pol icy. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States. Yet, the spirit of multiculturalism persisted. One year after the establishment of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Statue of Liberty arrived from France, cel ebrating the United States’ geopoliti cal role as a beacon of equality and freedom.

Poet Emma Lazarus wrote a son net that appears at the monument’s pedestal. As I contemplate what a compassionate U.S. stance on immigration looks like, her words echo in my mind: “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

working-class citizens have favored the former attitude that prioritizes human dignity for all. Even when faced with discriminatory labor practices and state-sanctioned vio

States from political persecution in Togo. One month later, 9/11 occurred, killing nearly 3,000 Americans. In the months after 9/11, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, dramatically increasing surveillance on people they deemed potential terrorists, who were overwhelmingly

Further, former U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act into law, creating the Department of Homeland Security and later, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The aftermath of 9/11, both tragic and foreboding, contributed to rising xenophobia and ethnic tension in the United States — chiefly the demonization of Muslims.

thy and acceptance have taken a back seat to reactionary politics and ignorance.

The present may seem bleak, but do not despair for our nation’s original ideals just yet. Beneath the vitriol, there are still Americans fighting to realize the blessings of liberty promised by our forefathers.

They faced the same political repression they sought to flee, only now dressed in red, white and blue.

This poem expresses an empathetic rhetoric that stands in direct contradiction to the bigotry underpinning the Chinese Exclusion Act.

These two events reflect the sharp tension between the U.S. ethos of equality and freedom championed by our founding documents and the self-serving agendas advanced at the highest levels of our democracy.

Since our nation’s founding,

Similarly, when the government excluded Jewish Americans from the democratic process and denied them the ability to hold office by way of faith-based tests, they seized their rights by evoking the Constitution, declaring that the United States belongs to all citizens regardless of religion or ethnicity.

It is in the steadfast dedication to the ideals of our nation, from those the government has continuously neglected and excluded, that the essence of the United States burns brightest.

In August 2001, my parents landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport seeking refuge in the United

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More than two decades later, what the government proposed as efforts to protect Americans from foreign threats inevitably morphed into the trappings of a surveillance state that targets minorities. So, as my parents suffered under the exhaustion of low-paying jobs to afford rent and feed their children in a country that was openly hostile toward newcomers, they faced the same political repression they sought to flee, only now dressed in red, white and blue. Xenophobic sentiments have surged in the United States since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second campaign and into his second term in office. The administration deems anything not explicitly white or Christian as anti-American and deserving of violence, bigotry or discrimination.

Over the past several months, Vice President JD Vance and conservative influencers have propagated disparaging narratives about Somali immigrants in Minnesota.

Far-right citizens boycotted Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show solely because of his music’s Latin American roots. Since Trump took office in January 2025, empa-

I am particularly inspired by the efforts of brave students at Emory University and in metro Atlanta who still believe in the notion of liberty and justice for all. With powerful anti-ICE walkouts that rally students, reading groups that contextualize the current moment in broader history and workshops that convert knowledge into meaningful action, our peers act as exemplars for what American citizenship ought to look like.

True patriotism manifests as resistance to ideologies that threaten our country’s core values. It is the unshaken spirit of Chinese laborers, the unrelenting effort of Jewish immigrants, the resilient faith of Muslim citizens and the determination of Black and brown Americans that truly show what it means to belong in this nation.

Now, more than ever, we must stand in solidarity with those the federal government unjustly targets, support the work of activists endeavoring to protect the vulnerable and reject notions of division that negate the nation’s foundational spirit. As fellow Americans, it is our duty to support those who make our country great — for we would not be here without them.

— Contact Hope Habia at hope.habia@emory.edu

More

time in school does not mean falling behind

By aLexanDra BronFMan Contributing Writer

Whenever my classmates at Emory University ask me why I am a year older than everyone else in my cohort, as a Montrealer, I say, “I just did International Baccalaureate (IB).” While it may be a convenient explanation, it is completely inaccurate, as I never did IB. In reality, I oversimplify my entire educational experience, as most of my peers from the U.S. have never heard of it.

The Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) is a post-secondary education system unique to Quebec. CEGEP programs, which generally last two years, serve to bridge the gap between high school and college by ensuring students have the chance to explore different subjects before attending college.

I chose to attend CEGEP after 11th grade because it gave me time to decide where I wanted to go to college. The program taught me how to be independent and helped build my self-confidence.

In contrast, by speaking with my peers at Emory, I observed that U.S. students at test-driven high schools often discover themselves only after they step foot on a college campus. Students from the U.S. must make important academic and career decisions before having time to explore what truly interests them.

Programs like CEGEP deserve more attention in the United States, not as a model to replace U.S. education, but as an example of how early academic exploration can improve students’ experiences before they arrive on college campuses.

The program taught me how to be independent and helped build my selfconfidence.

On my first day at my CEGEP, Marianopolis College in Montreal, I was extremely nervous. I had come from a girls-only high school with 35 people in each grade and had to transition to a co-educational institution with more than 1,000 people in my cohort. However, the care of the school’s advisors brought me comfort and allowed me to take academic risks without the fear of falling behind.

Many first-year college students, including those arriving at Emory, likely have experienced being overwhelmed from new faces and unfamiliar spaces when they arrive. Having already navigated that kind of daunting transition once, I adjusted more quickly at Emory than I would have without CEGEP.

The CEGEP program also showed me how to take initiative and be responsible for my own success. With the larger class sizes at Marianopolis, teachers often forgot our names and could not pay individualized attention to students — something entirely unfamiliar to me.

I had to learn to take a more active role in my education, going to office hours and building one-on-one relationships with my teachers. When I came to college, Emory’s large class sizes felt less like a shock because of CEGEP.

Perhaps most importantly, Marianopolis helped me explore my interests and discover what I was really passionate about. Before beginning the program, every student chooses a major and builds their own schedule, a concept similar to college in the U.S., but with far fewer longterm consequences.

The classes I took helped me decide to double major in philosophy, politics and law and psychology at Emory. Without this time to explore different interests, I would have found my academic direction at Emory far later.

Having already navigated that kind of daunting transition once, I adjusted more quickly at Emory than I would have without CEGEP.

When I speak to some of my U.S. friends about their high school experiences, many tell me that their schools’ structures helped them prepare for standardized tests.

Advanced Placement courses and College Board exams play a significant role in the U.S. curriculum, encouraging students to move quickly through material to keep up with standardized timelines.

Academic exploration becomes secondary, mostly limited to the occasional elective or core class that happens to spark curiosity. That kind of personal exploration should not wait until college — waiting that long to explore academic interests makes curiosity easier to ignore.

My time in CEGEP taught me that exploration does not have to compete with preparation for a successful career. From what I’ve seen at Emory, especially among peers in pre-professional tracks, it’s easy to move from requirement to requirement without stepping outside of them.

Being successful in the future requires us to draw from different experiences, and being solely focused on one track may actually disadvantage students in the long-term, limiting the skills they can acquire.

Emory offers a wide variety of experiences, including different fellowships, clubs and opportunities beyond campus. Some of the most meaningful experiences come from intellectual interests, even when they do not align with an intended career.

At an institution like Emory, students should not take the endless opportunities to explore their curiosity for granted.

Emory students should actively build exploration into their college experience, even when doing so feels inefficient. The clarity and independence I gained from CEGEP came from having the space to rethink my academic direction and from learning how to navigate uncertainty on my own.

I hope that students can feel comfortable and empowered to join communities that may seem novel at first, trusting that growth often begins outside of what seems familiar.

— Contact Alexandra Bronfman at alexandra.bronfman@emory.edu

Gun violence must not be forgotten

By JorDan aBDo Contributing Writer

Content Warning: This article contains references to gun violence.

I was sitting with friends on Dec. 13, 2025, at the Dobbs Common Table discussing our plans for winter break when the conversation abruptly stopped.

One of my friends looked down at her phone, and her calm expression changed into distress as she came across an alert: Outlets reported an active shooter at Brown University (R.I.).

We all picked up our phones and saw the same alert. Within minutes, it felt like the whole dining hall was murmuring about the news.

In the days that followed, my friends were constantly talking about the shooting, national angerfilled conversations sparked and my social media pages flooded with posts emphasizing gun violence as an ongoing concern that the nation must address.

A month into the spring semester following the shooting at Brown, the social media posts and conversations about school shootings have mostly stopped.

This silence was, and still is, frustrating. We cannot allow ourselves to feel outraged only in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, just to forget about it a few days later.

Real change with school shootings in the United States requires preventive action. If we continue this short-lived cycle of outrage and apathy before moving on, it is only a matter of time before the next shooting happens.

A shooter killed four people and injured nine others at Apalachee High School in Georgia in 2024 — only 40 miles away from Emory University. In 2023, a shooter opened fire at Michigan State University, killing three students and wounding five.

On April 17, 2025, a 20-year-old shot and killed two faculty members and wounded five students at Florida State University.

These are only a few examples of many school shootings in recent years. The Brown shooting drew significant media attention, especially because of the multi-day manhunt for the shooter which followed.

However, despite this nationwide attention and the countless other school shootings in prior years that have permanently changed many lives, the young adults and students who have the greatest ability to change

this devastating trend and improve our future have taken little promising gun violence prevention action.

In addition to the rise in U.S. school shootings since 2020, gun violence in domestic and other contexts continues to plague young people across the nation.

Every year, more than 4,400 teens and children die from gun violence, and gunfire shoots and wounds over 17,000. As recently as 2024, in America there were 229 incidents of shooting on school grounds, causing 60 deaths and 169 injuries.

In addition, many of these school shootings have occurred in the South, with Georgia experiencing 44 school shootings since 2008. These rising numbers make it clear that gun violence is a persistent and escalating threat to people’s safety, demanding immediate community action and policies.

Emory has recently taken action to improve security by requiring EmoryCards to enter all campus buildings.

However, in conversations I have had with other students about this new safety measure, many have expressed, including myself, that they would rather see increased security presence and surveillance cameras than required keycard access.

On a campus that centers openness and courtesy, students often hold doors for one another out of politeness — it would only take one person posing as a student or faculty member for this new security system to fail.

We cannot allow ourselves to feel outraged only in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, just to forget about it a few days later.

Without physical security measures in place like an increase in security cameras or campus police, the risk of violence on campus remains high and dangerous.

As Emory students, we cannot remain silent on the topic of gun violence. Waiting to voice our concerns until after another shooting occurs is already too late.

As young adults, people constantly tell us that our voices matter and that we have the most power to shape what our future looks like.

Instead of simply posting messages

of support on social media, it is time to prove our anger, frustration and concern for the safety of our campus, other schools and future generations when it comes to feeling safe at school.

Our generation has the most power, so we must use it now by supporting organizations, demanding change through actions, and refusing to let gun violence take any more young lives.

Gun violence is a heavy and complicated issue in U.S. politics, and it often involves never-ending debate. But, instead of remaining on the defensive — as in, reacting only after tragedy strikes — we must take an active role in addressing the problem by doing what we can now to protect ourselves and other communities.

I have contributed to my community in Chicago by supporting Chicago CRED, a nonprofit that fights gun violence in Chicago. In Georgia we can take action by contributing in gun violence prevention programs like Georgia Majority for Gun Safety and Georgia Coalition for Safe Communities.

Every dollar you invest into organizations like these help people who are most at risk of being involved in gun violence by reducing healthcare, criminal and legal costs. We should contribute to these organizations throughout the year, even after the media attention regarding another school shooting has quieted.

Even small acts, like constantly checking up on my friends who were impacted by gun violence at their schools, is very important. Students should contact the Emory Police Department to make sure their policies address concerns about gun violence and the need for a more visible security presence on campus. We should support organizations like Safe Havens International and Sandy Hook Promise that are dedicated to enhancing campus security around the world, as well as take action in Georgia.

Emory students, act now before another tragedy becomes a headline that we will eventually forget.

— Contact Jordan Abdo at jordan.abdo@emory.edu

If you or someone you know is struggling in the aftermath of gun violence, you can reach Emory’s Counseling and Psychological Services at (404) 727-7450 or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Disaster Distress hotline 24/7 at +1 (800) 985-5990.

Emory Wheel Demographic Report | Spring 2026

By Dei task ForCe

The Emory Wheel’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) task force distributed its sixth annual demographic survey to gain a deeper understanding of the inclusivity and representation in the paper’s coverage and the newsroom.

The task force asked contributors about their identities and experiences in the Wheel’s work environment to develop and implement initiatives that address inequalities within the organization.

Methodology

The task force emailed the survey to the 179 current students who contributed to the Wheel during the 2025 calendar year. This marked the largest number of annual contributors since the Wheel published its first demographic report in Spring 2021. Of the 179 students, 93 responded, yielding a 52% response rate.

This was 0.3 percentage points lower than 2025’s 52.3% response rate. The data’s main limitation is 48% of the eligible contributors who were qualified to take the survey did not complete it. All responses were kept anonymous.

This marked the largest number of annual contributors since the Wheel published its first demographic report in Spring 2021.

The Wheel’s editors and contributors equally constituted the largest proportion of respondents at 32.3%. Staff members — writers who produced five or more articles, photographs or illustrations in one semester — constituted 9.7% of the respondents.

Lastly, members of the Editorial Board, students who represent the paper’s official views through collaborative pieces followed at 8.6%.

Race breakdown

Among the 93 respondents to the 2026 survey, 54.8% identified as

white and 31.2% identified as Asian. Yet, only 5.4% of students identify as Black, 3.2% as Latinx, 1.1% as American Indian or Alaska Native and 1.1% as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

When given the option to elaborate, most students specified parts of Europe or Asia. Other responses included Cameroonian and Colombian.

Furthermore, 5.4% of students identified as multiracial, with the races and ethnicities of these respondents including Middle Eastern, Asian and South African.

These results reflect an increase in the proportion of white students, Black students, multiracial students, and those who marked “other” relative to 2025.

The greatest increase occurred among white students, where percentages grew from 44.1% to 54.8%. Furthermore, the percentage of Latinx students and Asian students decreased, with those identifying as Latinx changing from 4.41% to 3.2%, and those identifying as Asian changing from 44.1% to 31.2%.

Black an Latinx communities remain disproportionately underrepresented among the Wheel’s contributors.

The Black community at Emory University makes up 10.29% of the undergraduate student population, but only 5.4% of the student newspaper. These discrepancies highlight wider concerns over fair coverage in the newsroom.

Gender identity

The majority of respondents were cisgender women, with 65.6% of respondents identifying as such.

This marks an increase from 61.8% in 2025, but a decrease from 69.7% in 2024. 26.9% of respondents identified as cisgender men, marking an increase from 26.5% and 22.5% in 2025 and 2024, respectively. 1.1% of respondents identified as nonbinary, marking a continuous decrease from 2.9% in 2025 and 4.5% in 2024.

Additionally, 2.2% of respondents identified as trans men. According to the Office of Planning and Administration, 60% of enrolled students identified as female and 40% identified as male.

However, the University’s gender breakdown does not include non-

binary and other gender identities.

Sexual orientation

In the 2025 Demographic Report, the Wheel allowed respondents to select multiple sexualities. The current task force used the same methodology.

This year, 64.5% of contributors identified as heterosexual. Compared to last year’s demographic report, this statistic indicated a 13% increase in heterosexual contributors from 2025. The second most common identity was bisexual, at 18.3%. Respondents who identified as gay was 2.2%, other sexual orientations made up 5.4% and

Black an Latinx communities remain disproportionately underrepresented among the Wheel’s contributors.

multiple sexualities was 5.4%.

First generation

This year, 6.5% of contributors identified as first-generation college students. This percentage is lower than both the 7.4% of respondents who identified as first-generation in 2025 and the 6.7% of respondents

who did so in 2024. According to the Office of Planning and Administration, 14.0% of undergraduate students identified as firstgeneration in fall 2025.

Therefore, this year’s survey shows a consistent lack of representation of first-generation students at the Wheel, as the percentages for the demographic reports have remained under 10%.

Low income

This year, 5.4% of respondents identified themselves as low-income. This is a substantial decrease from 13.2% of respondents who identified as low-income in 2025 and 13.5% in 2024. Additionally, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admission, 52% of undergraduates receive grants and scholarships.

Disability status

This year, 12.9% of respondents identified as disabled or are registered with the Department of Accessibility Services. This is a small increase from the 8.8% of respondents who identified as disabled in 2025 and the 9% who did so in 2024.

Religion

The majority of respondents, 31.2%, were atheist or agnostic. 22.6% of respondents identified themselves as Christian and 19.4% as Jewish. The DEI task force added religious backgrounds as a category in 2025, and in 2025, 35.3% of respondents identified as either atheist or agnostic, 22.1% as Christian and 14.7% as Jewish.

Wheel culture

Echoing the themes from prior years, respondents in the 2025 survey described the Wheel as “welcoming,” “inclusive” and “supportive.” Others praised the Wheel’s professionalism as a strength, some describing the culture as “hardworking” and “busy.”

Contributors also noted that groups form within the Wheel, making the culture “cliquey” or “insular.”

Other contributors also noted that Wheel’s culture may be too serious, making it difficult for them to maintain a work-life balance. Compared to the 2025

Demographic Report, there were fewer mentions of the Wheel being “bureaucratic.”

DEI efforts

The Wheel’s task force is a section of the newspaper dedicated to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in coverage and improving the demographics across the contributing body.

On Sept. 3, 2025, Emory Interim President Leah Ward Sears released a statement that the university would, in compliance with federal laws, dismantle its DEI offices and programs. Furthermore, the Emory Writing Center website promptly removed information about DEI language and programming.

Despite this administrative action, The Wheel, operated independently by students, continues to prioritize and expand the task force, which currently consists of five students.

Compared to the 2025 Demographic Report, there were fewer mentions of the Wheel being “bureaucratic.”

The task force communicates via Slack, a digital workspace, and meets weekly to discuss assignments and future initiatives. Each print cycle, which occurs every two weeks, these students are responsible for submitting content reviews of every article in a chosen section, noting aspects ranging from mentions of certain ethnicities to coverage of student extracurricular communities. All reporters at the Wheel are encouraged to include a variety of perspectives when writing articles.

Each year, the task force creates a demographic report to increase transparency and document existing underrepresentation.

The task force continues to promote equity in the newsroom to achieve an honest and accurate dissemination of information to the student body.

Emory community members may contact emorywheeldei@gmail.com with any further questions or comments regarding this report or the task force as a whole.

The Emory Wheel Arts Life

Embracing experimentation: Lina Andonovska creates unheard sounds

By AmeliA Bush Arts & Life editor

Standing before a full orchestra at the 2008 ABC Young Performers Awards in Australia, Emory University Assistant Professor of Music Lina Andonovska was terrified. She had never performed with a professional orchestra before, but her mom bought her an elegant red dress for the special occasion. Donning the gown and positioned center stage, the soloist found her fear fading.

“I can’t remember what exactly happened, but it felt timeless,” Andonovska said.

Andonovska could only describe this feeling as “duende,” a concept in the flamenco tradition of art that refers to a heightened state of emotion.

“There’s an equilibrium that takes place between all the performers on stage,” Andonovska said. “That was an example where I was completely lost in the moment.”

Throughout this monumental performance during her last year of university study, Andonovska realized she wanted to pursue music professionally.

Born in Skopje, the capital city of North Macedonia, Andonovska spent her life surrounded by music. Andonovska’s mother, Lena Trajkovska, was an Eastern European pop star and made frequent television appearances. A young Andonovska would melancholically watch her mother on television, wishing she were with her instead. However, when Andonovska and her mother fled the Yugoslav Wars to Australia, the duo did not have much.

After moving to Australia, Trajkovska taught local Yugoslavian children singing and piano lessons. At 5 years old, Andonovska tagged along to each of her mother’s ses-

sions, learning to read music through observing. Her mother’s second instrument, after the piano, was the flute. Just as Andonovska learned to read music, she learned the flute by imitating the actions her mother described. Eventually, she stopped simply watching her mother’s lessons and began demonstrating for the other children.

“I just loved making sound with other people, and then just getting better at doing it myself.”

Lina Andonovska

With only two flute books, a study book and sheet music for Mozart’s Andante in C, Andonovska played the same pieces over and over, year after year.

In high school, she joined her school’s wind ensemble, but could not afford additional lessons.

Nevertheless, Andonovska’s persistence did not falter, and she pursued a music scholarship at a performing arts high school to acquire proper flute training. During her application audition, Andonovska played the same piece she had been for years: Mozart’s Andante in C, along with another contrasting piece. Andonovska secured the scholarship, and her flute teacher, with whom she is still in touch today, told her that while her technique was “terrible,” she had something unteachable: musicality. Andonovska never missed a lesson.

“I would never forget my music,”

Andonovska said. “I just loved making sound with other people, and then just getting better at doing it myself.”

Building off her love for performance and collaboration, Andonovska auditioned and joined Eighth Blackbird, a Grammy Awardwinning group renowned for its innovative musical compositions and artistic advocacy.

While members of the group are based in different locations — with three members in Chicago, one in New York City, another in New Haven, Conn. and Andonovska in Atlanta — during the season the members come together for around a week at a time to work on various projects before dispersing.

After a few weeks, the group meets again to do the same thing. Despite the short time members see each other, Andonovska described the group as a family, one that inspires her and exists within the larger music community.

“What I learned from them is the joy of really understanding the music that you’re performing and understanding it intimately, where it kind of becomes like a living, breathing organism,” Andonovska said.

After making music in such an intense manner, Andonovska said she occasionally enjoys silence. Other times, she indulges in live music from various outlets, most recently by attending the Monday Night Creative Music Series at eyedrum on Abernathy.

Andonovska commissions work for all flutes, however, she prefers the bass flute, a larger instrument that allows Andonovska to make “lessheard,” more experimental sounds that push her as an artist. Although Andonovska dedicated time to classical music in her early 20s, she fell in love with contemporary music while freelancing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

“I really enjoyed the process of bringing something that had never been heard before to life,” Andonovska said.

On her debut solo album, “A Way a Lone a Last” (2020), she does just that. But for Andonovska, recording and performing music are very distinct experiences. When one records, they strive for perfection. Performances, however, are more “spontaneous,” and just as things can go right, they can also go wrong.

“In performance, I like that there’s the element of chance and risk there,” Andonovska said.

To Andonovska, performing’s unpredictable nature makes it that much more exciting, which is precisely what Andonovska hopes to illuminate to the students of Emory Sound Collective, a performance ensemble created in September 2025. While the group centers around music, Andonovska works to foster their other life skills, such as communication and leadership.

“I’m really interested in embracing what a student brings to a classroom, and then meeting the student where they’re at and seeing how your experience can maybe contribute to their experience,” Andonovska said.

The ensemble is open by audition to students in the University’s music program.

The first iteration included a strong quartet, flutist, clarinetists, percussionist and pianist. The second iteration, the current collective, is a mixed sextet like Andonovska’s Eighth Blackbird.

The group is ever-evolving, as it varies each semester with every musician that joins.

Given the ensemble’s changing nature, Andonovska said the students must be open to anything, including uncharted musical territory.

For the group’s current performance cycle, Andonovska selected a never-before-recorded work by one of her ongoing collaborators, Judith Ring, who commissioned a piece for Andonovska’s “Parallel Play” album. Mentorship plays a large role in Andonovska’s teaching practice. Andonovska, who began teaching at 18, takes pleasure in guiding students to find joy in the peculiarity of the divergence of “unusual music.” With the Sound Collective, Andonovska challenges her Emory students to champion musical inventiveness and oddities.

“Life in music is hard work,” Andonovska said. “It’s not for the faint hearted, you can’t be a passenger.”

Much like the girl in the red dress, Andonovska still embraces learning. Be it from practice, peers or her students, Andonovska reaches for invention and originality in music while teaching others to follow suit.

– Contact Amelia Bush at amelia.bush@emory.edu

Moving forward with ambition — Esther Abraham talks passion, authenticity

By sAmArA GoyAl Contributing Writer

Meet Me at Kaldi’s is a recurring column in The Emory Wheel. Every other week, an Arts & Life staff member selects a random Emory University student and invites them to Kaldi’s Coffee at the Depot for a casual conversation.

Whether working at an archaeological site or creating a docent tour at a museum, Esther Abraham (26C) constantly seeks new experiences, a pursuit she attributes to how her family raised her.Born to Nigerian immigrants and raised in Miami, Abraham is grateful to have grown up in a diverse environment, which shaped her. According to Abraham, people of color often have to adopt a “white-centric role,” and are not always allowed to be themselves. But in her home, this was not the case. Abraham credits her self-assuredness to her varied upbringing.

“I’ve been lucky enough to live in a space that was diverse and filled with people who did look like me,” Abraham said. “I always felt comfortable being myself.”

Abraham described her family as a “typical Nigerian” one that values learning, family and faith. Her mother is a psychiatrist, her father, Lawrence, a professor and her sister, Rebecca Abraham (26PH), wants to

attend medical school after her time at the Rollins School of Public Health. Growing up, this environment — one that equated higher education with success — was “rigid,” but not always restrictive. With time, Abraham’s parents have become “more open-minded,” understanding how success has multiple paths.

“As I’ve grown up and gone to college … my family’s much more open to me exploring what makes me happy,” Abraham said.

Abraham always imagined herself pursuing corporate law, blending economics and business with the justice system. Nevertheless, Abraham does not want to box herself into a single category, so she treats her undergraduate years as an opportunity to explore other educational realms. Initially, Abraham came to Emory planning to pursue a double major in English and finance, inspired by her dual passions. However, her plan shifted after enrolling in an art history course to fulfill her General Education Requirements. After learning under a graduate student discussion leader, who helped her discover her passion for art history, she decided to pursue it instead. Further exploring her interest in art history, Abraham went on an archaeological excavation with the American Excavations Samothrace program at Emory under Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Art History Bonna Daix Wescoat,

during the summer of her sophomore year. A typical day during the excavation entailed waking up early, eating breakfast and heading to the field, routinely interacting with ancient Hellenistic materials. These included pieces as old as 323 B.C., developed after the death of Alexander the Great. In her role working as an archaeological and conservation research assistant, Abraham cataloged ancient materials while reshelving and reorganizing warehouses.

“It made me think that this is an experience I would not have had, had I gone to another school,” Abraham said.

Back at Emory, Abraham is developing an exhibition for the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library that features Black art activism from the 1970s. The exhibition will offer works in different mediums and explore how Black artists cultivated their compositions as in response to modern times. In addition to art history, Abraham fosters another interest: American Sign Language (ASL). Through Emory’s American Sign Language Organization, Abraham works on her ASL and advocates for hard of hearing individuals in the United States.

Guided by her passion for deaf and hard of hearing activism, Abraham now works at the High Museum of Art with Associate Director of Lifelong Learning and Accessibility Laurel

Humble and Executive Director of the Georgia Center of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Jimmy Peterson to create a docent-led tour at the High Museum for the community. She is eagerly awaiting the first tour, which she hopes will take place in Spring 2027. Despite her busy schedule, Abraham still makes time for recreational pleasures, like writing poetry or doing yoga. Since choosing the latter for her freshman year physical education class, the activity has become an important aspect of her life. While abroad in Paris during her fall semester of junior year, Abraham found respite in yoga while between host families.

“It was funny, because my boyfriend was telling me that, ‘you were practically homeless, but you still found a yoga studio,’” Abraham said.

Whether it be through her commitment to her favorite workout, dedication to activism or passion for art history, Abraham advocates for authenticity. Her work exemplifies her outlook on life: When you see something that needs to be changed, change it, and when you find something you love, do it.

– Contact Samara Goyal at samara.goyal@emory.edu

‘Thank You for the Music’: 5 tracks to say goodbye to The Emory Wheel

By CAtherine GoodmAn m A n A ging e ditor

In freshman year, it is hard to know anything for certain. Early friend groups fall like dominoes with a single forceful blow, pre-professional pressure comes barrelling through the barely cracked door and the person staring back at you in the mirror looks different with every passing day. At least, that was my experience.

Nevertheless, amid this tidal wave of change, I remained sure of one thing: I wanted to be a part of The Emory Wheel. When I attended an interest meeting in September 2022, I thought I would join the Sports section — convinced I would become the next ESPN courtside reporter. Thirty minutes later, I walked out with the time and date for the Arts & Entertainment and Emory Life meetings. The two sections merged a year later, which was pretty convenient for me.

Writing and editing at the Wheel has been the most transformative experience of my early career and college life. I would not be the woman I am today without late nights in the offices, breakdowns over InDesign or inextricable bonds with my fellow editors.

I do not believe any article could do justice to my appreciation and admiration for this organization, but I will try anyway. So, for the final time, I invite you to read this Cat’s Collection in which I offer five songs to say goodbye.

‘One Last Time’ by Christopher Jackson, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton (2015)

I published my first Cat’s Collection on Jan. 24, 2024. What began as an honest attempt at cultural criticism soon slipped into what felt like intimate conversations with friends — sharing my own inter -

ests, anxieties and losses with readers through music. For two years, I have been able to discuss some of my most treasured tracks — such as “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus (2009) or “I Feel Pretty / Unpretty” by Glee Cast (2011) — but somehow, I have not yet discussed a song from my most-played album of 2025, the soundtrack to the Broadway musical “Hamilton” (2015). I cannot think of a better time to right my wrong.

It is almost too easy to call upon “One Last Time” for my final column, but I am not above taking the road well-traveled from time to time. In the stage production, this track follows an exchange between George Washington (Christopher Jackson) and Alexander Hamilton (LinManuel Miranda), during which the former declares that he will not run for another presidential term.

“One Last Time,” irrespective of its perfect applicability to my present situation, is one of my favorite numbers from the show.

Miranda’s lyrics portray not only a pivotal moment in American history but a timeless message of dedication and selflessness. In the verses, Jackson and Miranda quip at one another as the hip-hop beat barrels on. “Why do you have to say goodbye?” Miranda sings — “If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on,” Jackson responds.

The track culminates in a dramatic bridge, during which Jackson relays his desire to relish in the enjoyments of the nation he helped create.

As the upbeat instrumentation gives way to orchestral arrangements, his tone reflects his passion, excitement and exhaustion. “The people will hear from me / One last time,” Jackson promises. With this Cat’s Collection, I endeavor to promise the same. Like Washington, I too know when to take my leave.

‘Chains of Love’ by Charli xcx (2025)

In one of my classes abroad last spring, my art history professor handed out slips of paper and colored pencils, prompting students to draw their “flow state” — a place of absolute peace. With a green colored pencil, I drew a little stick figure sitting in front of a large computer monitor and a quaint little window to the outside world.

I drew, for those incapable of identifying this brilliant artistic composition, the digital den — the closet attached to the newsroom where the

Arts & Life section makes all our magic.

For years, that little room has been my home away from home. Claustrophobia be gone — the world is expansive inside those four eggshell-colored walls.

However, I must admit, at times that room felt more akin to a golden cage than a magical realm. There is absolutely nothing beautiful about 3 a.m. in the Alumni Memorial University Center. “Chains of Love,” a striking industrial-pop track from Charli xcx’s “Wuthering Heights” record, best illustrates this oscillation between love and hate.

The track builds and fractures as Charli reckons with a fatal fascination. Even as the music churns and her voice strains, she remains tethered to her love. “I’d rather watch my skin bleed / In the eye of your storm / (I can’t let go),” she sings atop blistering production. At the feet of her captor, Charli lays bare her helpless state. Luckily, my interest in the Wheel is not so intense, nor dramatic. Nevertheless, “Chains of Love” captures the intensity of human devotion.

In the revelatory refrain, Charli repeats, “I know the chains of love won’t break / I know the chains of love won’t break.” On this track, Charli touches on a perilous reality: Love, in any capacity, can drive you a little mad. It can take strength to say goodbye.

‘Long Live’ by Taylor Swift (2010)

In my beloved digital den, a fourby-six photo hangs on the cork bulletin board. A group of four people stand together, smiling for the camera flash. Over the years, I have built many stories in my head about this unidentified group: They were editors, writers, friends.

As I face my final night in the digital den, this photo has acquired a new meaning. Someday, if I ever get around to printing a photo of our current staff, a young editor will look upon our photo, crafting stories of their own.

“Long Live” by Taylor Swift captures this future nostalgia. The song begins with a searing electric guitar riff and bouncy drums, establishing a tone of both desperation and positivity. “I said, ‘Remember this moment’ / In the back of my mind,” Swift sings.

Throughout the track, Swift includes fantastical imagery to craft a compelling narrative of companionship and eventual triumph, chronicling her friends like fictional heroes. The song swells with hyperbole as the singer-songwriter’s optimism overflows. Her wishes for eter-

nal connection slip into every line. However, Swift remains aware of the passage of time. She laments the fragility of memory and adamantly rebels, repeating, “we will be remembered.” She employs photography as a motif, citing images as an antidote to oblivion. Time prevails, as it always does, serving as a much greater villain than the “dragons” to fight or “mountains” to move.

Ultimately, Swift concedes, asking for just one consolation: “If you have children some day / When they point to the pictures / Please, tell ‘em my name.” Perhaps the strangers in the pictures requested the same.

‘Thank You for the Music’ by ABBA (1977)

I would be remiss to present my final Cat’s Collection without including an ABBA track. Not only is the Swedish disco-pop quartet one of my favorite bands, but their music recalls a quite complicated time in my life.

When I studied abroad in my junior year, I was still the managing editor of the Wheel. Six hours ahead, I spent many late nights and many early mornings on Zoom calls or panicked FaceTimes. I did not mind the sleep deprivation, at least not as much as I hated not being able to write. Before leaving for Sweden, I promised a hiatus from Cat’s Collection to lighten my workload. However, what was meant to be a reprieve soon felt like torture. I felt disconnected from my own mind and body.

When I write, I swear I can feel the blood coursing through my veins, I can taste the words on my tongue, I can see the scenes unravel before my eyes like a feature film. Suddenly, everything was too still.

Last April, I finally could not take it anymore and wrote a Cat’s Collection of my favorite ABBA songs. Of the five selected tracks, “Thank You for the Music” proves compatible with the present theme: saying goodbye.

On the disco-pop ballad, the musical group acknowledges their debt to their devoted fans, without whom the four stars would never get to shine. Although the group was not bidding farewell, the track nonetheless exudes finality. It is as if the band anticipated an abrupt end to their success and felt inclined to revel in what remained.

Unlike ABBA, I really must say goodbye. But before I do, I must say thank you. I want to express my gratitude for the editors who have challenged me and trusted me, and the readers who have indulged my ever more chaotic creative whims. As ABBA lead vocalist Agnetha Fältskog

sings, “Without a song or a dance, what are we? / So I say thank you for the music, for giving it to me.”

‘Scott Street’ by Phoebe Bridgers (2017)

As with all good things, my time at the Wheel has officially come to an end. Facing my final moments here, I am inclined to look back at my first — specifically my first ever published work.

When I joined this newsroom in early September of 2022, the Arts & Entertainment staff was sourcing stories for their sentimental album essay series.

As a tentative freshman, I was scared of submitting 800 words for criticism and public consumption. To avoid diving straight into the deep end, I opted to contribute a poem.

My work, published on Sept. 28, 2022, was a free-verse love letter to one of my favorite records, “Stranger in the Alps” (2017) by Phoebe Bridgers. As such, it is only fitting that the final track of my final work be the beautiful ballad, “Scott Street.”

“Scott Street” begins with gentle strumming on an acoustic guitar — the kind where the fingertips just kiss the taut strings.

Bridgers’ soft voice soon enters to sing, “Walking Scott Street, feeling like a stranger / With an open heart, open container.” In the opening verse, Bridgers finds herself under fading streetlights, walking familiar roads but facing unfamiliar discomfort. The track, with its hyper-specific lyricism and poignant unease, captures the lingering resentment of a fleeting romance — one that unraveled the very fabric Bridgers wove into her world.

Everything is the same, yet everything has changed. Bridgers employs a quick exchange between two ex-lovers to capture this dissonance. “Do you feel ashamed / When you hear my name?” she muses. “Scott Street” surpasses its singular narrative to encompass a quite recognizable sentiment: discovering one’s irreversible emotional departure from a once all-encompassing relationship.

In this way, “Scott Street” captures the tender estrangement I feel when walking through the Wheel’s offices today, at once at home and yet so far removed.

Although disquieting, I feel blessed to know such sadness, for it signals my gratitude for my first newsroom — and my excitement to seek the next. As I move on, I have just one request, borrowed from Bridgers’ track: “Don’t be a stranger.”

– Contact Catherine Goodman at catherine.goodman@emory.edu

‘The Romantic’ proves Bruno Mars has not grown up

By AmeliA Bush

rts & L ife e ditor

A

Short kings unite, the boss is back. After a decade without releasing a solo studio album, Bruno Mars finally returns to the scene with “The Romantic,” a project that, while initially engaging, falters on the back-half of the venture. Spanning a short and cohesive 32 minutes with nine tracks, the bite-sized album could have allowed Mars to dive into the theme laid out in the title, but instead falters in its sonic and thematic repetition.

The album opens with a bang — the singular strum of a guitar — before a trumpet-filled mariachi band ushers in, filling the first track, “Risk It All,” with an upbeat, infectious energy. Initially, the backing track creates an overwhelming atmosphere, but it slows to silence before Mars’ voice enters, exposing and grounding his voice.

While the lively band offers an interesting listen, the basic and familiar lyrics lessen the song’s impact: “Say you want the moon / Watch me learn to fly / Ain’t no mountain you could point to / I wouldn’t climb,” Mars sings, the lines riddled with romantic clichés. While his lyrics may lack originality, this song nevertheless succeeds due to Mars’ infectious energy — a common theme throughout the project.

“Cha Cha Cha” begins with a similar instrumentation. But while the music sounds the same, his voice is unrecognizable, tapping into a much lower register. As with the related instrumentals, the tracks’ problems parallel one another.

Just as Mars does not know how to act in the face of his love, the listener does not know how to respond when he sings “Little mama, you turn me on.” Lines like these land awkwardly, evoking more discomfort than charm. But perhaps this

CROSSWORD

track is not made to be listened to while sitting down, as the title insinuates — it is engineered for movement rather than contemplation. With steady rhythm and clapping layered into the post-bridge, Mars constructs an immersive track — one that puts the listener next to him on the dance floor.

The lead single, “I Just Might,” falls victim to a similar villain: overdone musical motifs. The band begins the track with a cliché, clinking drumsticks and saying, “One, two, three, four” before the funky beat begins. From the start, Mars plays with his voice, peppering the track with runs and playful “doo-doo”s. By the final lines, Mars’ voice swells with passion, as though his vocal cords are on the verge of snapping.

“I Just Might” is symptomatic of the album’s problems, dominated by impactful lyrical moments. For example, Mars sings, “It would break my heart, break my heart, break my heart / If I find out you can’t move,” a line reminiscent of Ed Sheeran’s “When your legs don’t work like they used to before” from “Thinking Out Loud” (2014).

Other lines undercut his romance entirely, such as “But what good is bеauty if your booty can’t find the beat?”, something so unserious and unnecessary it gives the listener the ick.

After all, the alliteration is clever enough without the incorporation of “booty” — the word choice renders it juvenile. Still, the album’s thematic consistency remains undeniable — while the individual lyrics fail miserably, the band and Mars’ enthusiasm carry the album, and his commitment to performance makes it difficult not to be swept up in it.

“Something Serious,” however, fully leans into the ironic. While the track depicts Mars’ want for “Something serious,” the lyrics are shockingly unserious. “You should

8. ___ of Sandwich

9. French summers 10. Inc. kind

11. Pokemon professor named for a tree

12. Great Basin people

13. ___x (recent Emory event)

19. Grunts

21. Paid player

24. Theater section

25. Boom’s opposite

26. Honest pres.

27. ___-mo

28. Rooster’s partner

31. Type of estate

32. Paddle

34. DEA agent

36. Dead center?

37. Chinese steamed bun

38. Colorful cheese

39. Network absorbed by The CW

40. Not post-

41. Use a 32-down

42. Go off script

43. Jimmy Donaldson, on YouTube

44. One buying time

45. “You’ll never go in the water again!” for Jaws

47. Groups of eight

48. Vinegary

49. Surprised cries

52. Genetic attribute

53. Lawyers: Abbr.

54. Branch of Islam

56. Canyon’s edge

57. World Cup cheer

58. Cape ___

59. Owls of Conf. USA

60. Have debts

be my boo thang, my boo thang” is cringy, almost nauseating, and “Don’t you want some pretty, brown Bruno babies?” is disturbing coming from the mouth of a 40-yearold man. While playful sensuality defined his earlier hits such as “That’s What I Like” (2017), here it borders on stagnation. His lyrics on this current project reveal a problem: Mars has not grown up.

The album closes with “Dance With Me,” another track that adds much-needed variability to the record. With plenty of backing vocals, Mars creates a conversational song. As Mars sings, “Will you dance with me, darling? (Dance with me, darling, dance with me just one more time) / Please, please, please,” he abandons the yearning he began the project with, pleading instead.

In this sense, the album changes: We see the deterioration of Mars’ hope that the relationship will succeed. “And I don’t wanna dance with nobody, nobody, nobody but you (Dance with me, darling, dance with me just one more time),” Mars sings, with the backing vocals layering atop a high note.

This continues, fading out until the song ends, curating a peaceful, satisfying end to the track and album. However, Mars made a fatal mistake by including “Dance With Me” and “Nothing Left,” two tracks that offer a different listening experience from the rest, back-to-back and at the end of the record.

Despite its faults, “The Romantic” succeeds in crafting an album built for the stage. However, Mars’s passion for his work can only carry the project so far, especially through a recording. Due to his lack of innovation and shocking immaturity, the record is not bad, but it is certainly boring.

– Contact Amelia Bush at amelia.bush@emory.edu

Date Event Location

Cycle

March 6, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

At Sea

Diving in head first: Solly Berkenwald’s sophomore surge

Continued from Back Page

“There is more of a team feeling here at Emory,” Berkenwald said. “I score points for the swim team, so I have that responsibility to other teammates.”

While diving and swimming are technically the same team, Berkenwald said they operate very differently.

“Sometimes it’s hard to feel that connection with swimmers, just because the sports are so different,” Berkenwald said. “But it’s nice being a part of that team.”

Since coming to Emory, Berkenwald has quickly turned potential into production. His freshman season in 2024-25 was nothing short of dominant. He earned All-America First Team honors with his sixthplace finish in the 1-meter dive at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships and earned All-America Second Team honors by placing eleventh in the 3-meter dive. He was also the University Athletic Association (UAA) champion in both events and was the UAA Diver of the Year.

He repeated his success at the conference level this season, sweeping both boards at the UAA Championships and earning Diver of

the Year for the second consecutive year.

Head Coach of Men’s Swim and Dive Jon Howell said he believes these accolades reflect the diver’s quick growth. With more than a year of college diving under his belt, Howell thinks Berkenwald better understands his strengths and how to perform at his best.

“He’s definitely matured and developed during the first two years, and he has tremendous potential to be a leader for us as an upperclassman,”

Howell said.

That growth was evident at this year’s UAA Championship, where one dive specifically stood out to Berkenwald as an example of how far he’s come.

“My best dive by far in that competition was my reverse two-and-a-half pike,” Berkenwald said. “Normally, I don’t do that dive very well, I just had a miracle dive during the competition.”

The meet was not just about points — it was also about confidence. After a challenging nationals performance the previous year, Berkenwald entered this season committed to resetting rather than dwelling on the past. According to Howell, Berkenwald embraced that mindset, returning this year determined to use the setback as

Doubles teams go undefeated at weekend

Continued from Back Page

championship

very fortunate to have our chances.

[Head coach Bridget Disher] and I were really proud of the way the team battled and worked together.”

In terms of their standing within Division III, Chen said that, despite not getting the results they wanted in this tournament, she is not worried about their chances because the top teams are neck and neck.

“We have the players to really compete at a very high level.”

- Erika Olson

“There’s such a small margin between the teams at the top of Division III, and we’re right there,” Chen said. “Coming [in] sixth during this competition doesn’t tell me a thing. We’re right there with the top teams and even the team that won this tournament.”

While the weekend did not exactly

end as the Eagles had hoped, Olson said that with a little bit of time and focus, the team will be ready for a strong run for the rest of the season.

“We have the talent,” Olson said. “We have the players to really compete at a very high level. We’re having to put the pieces together and once we’re able to do that we can be a very competitive team, a very hard team to beat.”

Chen echoed that confidence and said they had more takeaways from the tournament other than just the final scores.

“We learned a lot this weekend,”

Chen said. “We needed those tough moments in order to succeed later on.

Even though the scoreboard didn’t show it, we got everything we needed in those matches and a lot more.”

The Eagles will head to South Carolina and Savannah, Ga., during spring break, opening with a matchup against No. 1 Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) on March 11

— Contact Aliyah Aftin at aliyah.aftin@emory.edu

a motivation.

“He had a particularly hard nationals last year,” Howell said. “He’s really bounced back from that and is committed to doing better there.”

For Berkenwald, the responsibility of showing up for his team manifests in quieter ways and in the smaller details. Sophomore swimmer Michael Kaiser described him as someone who approaches everything with a purpose.

“He always has a lot of intent behind what he does,” Kaiser said. “He doesn’t just go through the motions, which is one thing that sets him apart.”

That consistency has positioned Berkenwald to be a leader by example for the two new freshmen divers who joined the men’s team this year. Howell said their addition has allowed Berkenwald to have more responsibility earlier than he otherwise would have.

“They look up to Solly,” Howell said. “He has an opportunity to really be a leader with them.”

As a teammate, Berkenwald embodies what it means to be a role model, balancing dedication with a personality that energizes those around him both in and out of the pool. Kaiser said his teammates view him as a competitor who can shift between liveliness and focus at any moment.

“Outside of meets, he’s a really funloving person,” Kaiser said. “In meets he looks very locked in, but I know underneath, what he’s putting out, that’s just how he has fun. He wants to focus as much as he can on what he’s doing so he gets the best result.”

As the team sets up to compete at this year’s NCAA Championships, Berkenwald will have plenty of momentum. On Feb. 28, he claimed his first regional crown after placing first in the 1-meter and second in

the 3-meter at the NCAA Region 2 Championships.

For a diver who once simply wanted something thrilling, the journey has become something deeper. If his sophomore season continues on the trajectory of his freshman year, Berkenwald will not just be collecting awards but will be shaping the entire culture of Emory diving along the way.

— Contact Gabby Sanders at gabby.sanders@emory.edu

Men’s golf begins season with high expectations

By Max ShiMBo Contributing Writer

Following two straight years of finishing in third at the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships, the Emory University men’s golf team is looking to maintain their momentum this spring. The squad currently sit at No. 2 in the Golf Coaches Association of America rankings, and are poised for another successful season. With the right preparation, the Eagles could make the 2026 season their third consecutive top-three national finish.

The Eagles began their spring season at the Savannah Invitational from March 2 to 3 in Savannah, Ga. where the team placed 4th. Junior Kevin Mu and junior Brady Lagendyk were the team’s two highest finishers, each shooting even par to tie for 16th. As the Eagles head into the spring, head coach John Sjoberg emphasized that consistency is central to the team’s success. He said each setback provides an opportunity to evaluate what went well, and address their shortcomings.

“Golf’s a game where you’re not going to play great every day,” Sjoberg said. “You just have to figure out how to manage yourself and your game and still shoot a score good enough to help us, even when you’re not playing at your best.”

“You just have to figure out how to manage yourself and your game and still shoot a score good enough to help us ”

- John Sjoberg

Before beginning their spring season, the Eagles won three tournaments, including this year’s University Athletic Association Championship on Sept. 9, 2025, in Batavia, Ohio. After some early season wins, the team’s momentum slowed through the end of the fall season. Sjoberg said the team had

an overall successful fall season and hopes they will be motivated to come back strong for the spring.

“We did a lot of things well, didn’t play great in our last event at Laurel Valley,” Sjoberg said. “Hopefully that leaves a little bit of a sour taste in our mouths, and we come out ready to play to start the spring here and can get right back to the level that we were at.”

The following week at the Chickfil-A Invitational from Oct. 20 to 21 in Rome, Ga., the Eagles finished in 13th place with a total team score of 923. Mu noted that throughout the fall the team played on a few “quirky” courses. When the Eagles encountered these courses, Mu said the team tried to focus on making par on each hole rather than taking unnecessary risks.

“You need to know what you’re able to do, what you’re able to perform, and then you just look at the shot,” Mu said. “I break it down into the most simple terms, and that way I can understand it, and it doesn’t all hit you at once.”

For this spring, the Eagles are focusing on making sure their technique is consistent from tournament to tournament. Mu said that their coaches have utilized drills in practice to improve consistency. He said one of the ways they do this is by playing putting games like “21,” where players are rewarded for making putts or landing their shots closer to the hole than their opponents.

“It teaches you consistency over two shots,” Mu said. “One good shot only means so much, and then you have to follow it up and hopefully beat your opponent even more.”

To help the players hone their skills, coaches help them identify holes in their game. Freshman Dru Devata said it has been helpful this season to have someone else catch mistakes in his game.

“As golfers, sometimes we overlook what actually needs to be worked on,” Devata said. “Having someone there like the coaches to reinforce that, coming from an outside perspective, … it’s super helpful in structuring practices.”

Mu said that this season, he hopes to be among the experienced

upperclassmen to lead the team. After he placed third in the individual standings at last year’s NCAA Championships, Mu said he has taken on more responsibility and is using his experience to help improve his teammates’ skills.

“I’m helping plan out some of the practices, because I’ve had so much experience,” Mu said. “I’m giving the coach the drills that worked on me, and I’m just asking my coach to help implement these. … We talk it out, we figure out things that we can help each other on and we’ll just go on from there.”

Although the Eagles have a strong foundation, they have a tough schedule ahead. However, Sjoberg said he takes the challenge of a tough road in stride.

“Our goal, week in and week out, is to play in the last group of every tournament we play in.”

- John Sjoberg

“Our part of the country has a lot of really good teams, and we’re fortunate enough to go play some national events where all the best teams in the country are coming,” Sjoberg said. “Year in and year out, we’re playing as good a schedule as you can ask for.”

Sjoberg said he hopes the team can stay competitive as they set out to claim the NCAA title for the first time in program history. He said the team is aiming to finish strong in each tournament they play.

“We just want to be competitive at the national championship,” Sjoberg said. “Ideally, our goal, week in and week out, is to play in the last group of every tournament we play in. And if you’re playing in the last group, in the last round, then you know you’ve got a chance to win.”

— Contact Max Shimbo at max.shimbo@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Sports

Men’s track and field takes second place at UAA Championship, women’s finishes third

By alex Waryn Staff Writer

The Emory University men’s and women’s track and field teams delivered strong performances at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Indoor Championships this weekend, with the men’s team finishing second overall and the women’s team placing third. Across two days of competition, the Eagles scored steadily in a tightly contested meet, reinforcing their momentum as the outdoor season approaches.

Men’s team proves itself with runner-up finish

After graduating a large senior class last season, the men’s team entered the UAA competition with a young roster and plenty to prove. However, by the end of the weekend, the Eagles had silenced any uncertainty about their readiness, scoring 142 points to secure a second-place finish behind the University of Chicago (UChicago) and establish themselves as a legitimate national contender.

Senior sprinter and jumper Henry Brandstadter said the team had some doubts prior to the championship due to the team’s young roster, but he felt the team demonstrated its abilities throughout the weekend.

“Going in, we were … uncertain. … We only had three seniors at conference on the men’s side,” Brandstadter said. “There’s 25 people that came, so it’s a lot of younger folks. The team was young, so we were unsure, losing all the graduating seniors last year, but we proved ourselves a lot this weekend.”

The proof came through steady point accumulation across events, with the Eagles recording 14 podium finishes and three UAA titles across the different events.

Junior mid-distance runner John Urciuoli led the way on the track, capturing the title in the men’s mile, securing the team’s lone individual conference championship win of the

weekend. Brandstadter earned his fourth consecutive All-UAA outdoor title in the long jump and finished as the runner-up in the high jump. He also placed third in a tightly contested 60-meter dash final.

In the hurdles, sophomores Ben Olvey and Ethan Lu delivered strong performances, placing second and third, respectively, in the 60-meter hurdles. Freshman sprinter Lucas Mersky also earned All-UAA honors in the 400-meter dash with a thirdplace finish.

Meanwhile, sophomore thrower Ari Klasky anchored crucial points in the field events. Klasky earned All-UAA honors in both the shot put and weight throw this weekend, placing third in the weight throw on Saturday, adding six points to the team total, before securing second place in shot put on Sunday.

Klasky said he did not feel like he performed his best during the weight throw on Saturday, but ended up rebounding to secure his second-place spot in shot put on Sunday and help the team earn the overall second place.

“It wasn’t my best meet ever,” Klasky said. “On Sunday, when it came time to throw shot, I was very determined to get second or first. … We ended up pulling out a really good comeback in the fifth and sixth rounds, securing a nice second place.”

This comeback mentality seemed to define the weekend for the men’s team, who fed off of one another’s energy and strong sideline presence. Klasky emphasized how important camaraderie is on the team and how supportive they were of one another throughout the weekend, keeping energy and confidence high.

“We do the best job just showing out and supporting our teammates,” Klasky said. “We were super loud. We make it a really electric atmosphere.”

Klasky also said the team entered the competition as “underdogs,” with projections placing them behind perennial contender UChicago. However, the Eagles remained within

Making a splash: Solly

Berkenwald

emerges as Emory’s top diver

By GaBBy SanderS Contributing Writer

While many athletes enter college competition trying to find their footing, sophomore diver Solly Berkenwald hit the ground running, making an immediate impact on the Emory University men’s swim and dive team. His explosive power and fast, highdifficulty flips make his presence on the board impossible to ignore.

Before bringing that intensity to the collegiate level, Berkenwald made a name for himself at Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., finishing fourth at the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships and winning the West Catholic Athletic League diving championship as a senior. But for Berkenwald, diving has never been about medals.

Berkenwald was formerly a gymnast, but when his favorite coach quit, he said he began searching for something that could offer the same rush.

“I told my mom that I wanted to do something that was just as thrilling as gymnastics,” Berkenwald said.

striking distance of their competitors throughout the meet and several athletes had personal-best performances, which helped the team close what had been projected as a sizable gap entering the weekend.

Klasky said it felt good to take second and that it would not have been possible without all of his teammates who showed up and gave the meet their full effort.

“We came in as pretty big underdogs and so to get second … it felt really good,” Klasky said. “But everyone came in with a great attitude. Everyone supported each other really well, and a lot of people stepped up to the plate.”

Although the indoor season is nearing its conclusion with the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships taking place from March 13 to 14, the outdoor season is on the horizon, and the Eagles left the UAA competition with clarity about what they are capable of achieving. Brandstadter said that as they approach the outdoor season, the team’s strongest performances are still ahead.

“We’ve always considered ourselves a more outdoor-oriented team than indoor-oriented,” Brandstadter said. “That proved it last year when we came out absolutely demolished the championship last year outdoor, so I think

we are headed in the same direction this year.”

Women’s team builds momentum with third-place finish

The Eagles delivered a statement performance at the UAA Championships, finishing third overall with 110.25 points across two days of competition.

Freshman sprinter and hurdler Kelsey Coley clinched the conference title in the 60-meter hurdles, clocking an 8.91-second performance on Sunday. Sophomore jumper Anna Jennings claimed an individual title on Saturday, winning the long jump with a 5.64-meter mark, the 25th-best jump in Division III this season.

In the throws, freshman Caroline Henry earned two All-UAA selections, placing second in both the weight throw and shot put. Sophomore Jeanette Hydukovich also finished on the podium in the shot put, securing third place with a 12.05-meter effort.

Hydukovich said the throws group’s younger members played a major role in the team’s performance.

“We have a lot of young throwers,” Hydukovich said. “Everybody performed really well. For weight, we had two people PR. … We had people podium and a lot of people score, which

was awesome.”

The 4x400-meter relay team capped off the meet with a runner-up finish and a time of 3:53.15, earning All-UAA honors in one of the week’s most exciting events of the weekend.

Junior sprinter and jumper Hannah Riley, who competed in the relay, said racing in those championship events requires a foundation built on intentional preparation and a belief that it will pay off.

“Competing in those races really means grounding yourself in your preparation and really believing in yourself that you deserve to be there and that you can do it,” Riley said.

In addition to the various performances across the weekend that contributed to their strong finish, Hydukovich said the team’s chemistry was a defining factor in their success.

“Everyone’s … making sure that everybody knows that people saw their performance if they did a great job, or if they didn’t have their best meet, making sure that they feel okay, and checking in with them,” Hydukovich said.

Riley echoed that sentiment and said the championship environment felt collective, even in events where the members of the team competed against one another.

“It really changes everything, having your teammates by your side,” Riley said. “You feel like a team. You don’t feel like you’re going against each other. You feel like you’re helping each other out.”

Hydukovich framed the weekend as a launching point for the outdoor season and said she hopes her teammates look back on their performance as a glimpse of what the team is capable of.

“I hope they remember it as a sign of what we can do,” Hydukovich said. “A lot of people had great performances, but I know that as we get more practices and more meets under our belt, those will even improve.”

— Contact Alex Waryn at alex.waryn@emory.edu

Women’s tennis finishes sixth at ITA Indoor Championships

By aliyah aftin Contributing Writer

Diving was a natural fit, as it runs in the family. Berkenwald’s mother, Dana, was a diver at Brandeis University (Mass.) and continues to compete in masters diving competitions. He said their shared experience has shaped his journey in unexpected ways.

“She’s training, and she wants to go to some masters diving competition over the summer,” Berkenwald said.

“That’s pretty cool because we’re both sharing that. She’ll text me about a dive practice, which is pretty funny. ... My mom’s always explaining in the stands to parents how diving works, she loves to do that.”

The transition from high school to collegiate diving required an adjustment. When he was competing in high school and at the club level, diving often felt more independent and his competitors spanned a wider age range. Competing in college, on the other hand, presented a different dynamic. Instead of only focusing on his personal placement, Berkenwald said he recognizes the impact his performances have on team standings.

The No. 3 Emory University women’s tennis team finished sixth at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor National Championships in Nashville, Tenn. this past weekend.

The Eagles competed against No. 5-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) (Calif.), No. 27 Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.) and No. 6 Wesleyan University (Conn.) across the three days of competition.

The Eagles lost their openinground matchup to CMS before rebounding with a 7-0 shutout of Sewanee in the consolation bracket.

The Eagles’ weekend ended with a hard-fought 4-3 loss to Wesleyan in the fifth-place match on Sunday. Despite the two losses, one of the tournament’s top storylines for the Eagles was their undefeated doubles play across all three matches.

In the match against Wesleyan, seniors Emily Kantrovitz and Iris Berman defeated their opponents 6-3 before senior Izzy Antanavicius and junior Yanire Marte clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 win. Wesleyan responded with three consecutive singles wins to take

a 3-1 lead, but Kantrovitz and Antanavicius each rallied from losing their first sets to keep the Eagles alive. Freshman Holyn Karp took the first set 6-4 in her singles match but lost the final two to give Wesleyan the narrow victory.

Assistant coach Megan Kurey said the team’s efforts in indoor training led to their solid performance overall. She said the team’s dominant doubles performance has given the team confidence as they move into the outdoor season.

“We’ve been training indoors up until now, just to get prepared for it, and the girls were really prepared,” Kurey said. “We had a great showing there at the tournament, learned a lot of things, went undefeated in doubles and battled every single match. It really just gave our team confidence moving into the outdoor season.”

That preparation showed not just in the results, but in the team’s resilience and energy throughout the weekend. Freshman Jessy Chen said traveling over the weekend was demanding, but the team’s energy never wavered. She said that, in spite of their losses, their consistently high energy provided hope for the rest of the season.

“Everyone competed so well, everyone fought until the last point,” Chen said. “We were just supporting each other, cheering each other on, every single match. Our energy is better than the other teams we competed against. Even if it didn’t pay off this weekend, it is going to pay off later on in the season.”

Freshman Erika Olson, who has been sidelined with an ACL tear, brought that energy as cheered on her teammates throughout the weekend. She said the team tried to match their volume levels with the volume of their opponents.

“We played Wesleyan, and they’re known to be very loud and very vocal, so we wanted to compete against them in that way,” Olson said. “We worked really hard to be as loud as we can.”

Kurey praised the team for their refusal to give up in their tough game against CMS, noting how the flow of a match can change instantly.

“In the quarters, when we were playing CMS, it came down to the very end,” Kurey said. “We were riding that momentum wave, and we’re